Ranker's Return

‘I just need to reduce the number of undead. Edward can’t die.’

Hugo was someone who could actually kill Edward.

‘I wish I could do it one more time, but...’

“I understand. I will back down.” Hugo smacked his lips together with regret, but he already agreed to Hyeonu’s words. He had to endure it, no matter how he desired to fight the bones in front of him.

Hyeonu and Hugo quickly retreated to the city walls. Contrary to the two of them, a blurry figure moved toward the undead.

‘What is that?’ Hyeonu’s head turned automatically to look. It was an instinctive reaction. Hyeonu immediately recognized the identity of the blurry figure. He had to know. This figure had an appearance that was too unique to not recognize.

“Raccoon?”

That’s right. The figure flying through the air was Raccoon, who was currently holding a huge axe above his head.

‘It is dangerous.’

Hyeonu saw this and thought that things were going wrong.

Raccoon…

Edward, who swallowed the fragments of the demon god, was extremely strong, but he wasn’t a match for his approaching opponent. The balance of victory was seriously tilted toward Raccoon.

‘Edward must not die!’ Hyeonu strongly kicked off from the ground. He injected magic power into both feet, which resulted in a pit dug into the ground.

“What is going on all of a sudden?” Hugo uttered. Hugo had been standing still without understanding anything. Now the ground suddenly shook, and he had to balance himself by waving his arms.

‘I have to stop him no matter what.’ Hyeonu was in a hurry.

He was quickly chasing after Raccoon, but there was a great distance between Raccoon, who had been flying in a fast manner to begin with, and Hyeonu, who had only just picked up the pace. Edward might be split apart by Raccoon’s axe if it continued in this way. Hyeonu couldn’t even shout and had to whisper in a quiet voice, “Not the middle, Raccoon. Please.”

He was praying that Raccoon would hear it. It wasn’t known if Hyeonu’s whisper reached Raccoon, but the latter’s body twisted slightly. Although it was in a really subtle manner, this was enough.

Raccoon’s axe flew toward the second bone dragon from the left. The axe grew bigger and bigger as it flew. Pure energy was expressed in the form of an axe. The dragon that was hit by Raccoon’s axe was crushed. It wasn’t split apart; the bones of the dragon’s entire body were crushed. In an instant, the number of bone dragons reduced from five to four.

Raccoon’s body fell to the ground because of gravity, but he succeeded in landing safely. To be precise, there were no skills involved in it at all. He just endured the shock with a body that was hard enough for him to be unaffected. The location where Raccoon landed was deep in the army of the undead. There were undead all around him, but none of the undead could charge at him.

Raccoon stretched his right hand into the air. Then the axe that had crushed the bone dragon was quickly sucked back into Raccoon’s grasp.

“I feel good!” Raccoon burst out laughing as he grabbed the axe. There was a flash of madness in his eyes. This situation felt very satisfying to him.

“Kuhuhuhu!” Raccoon laughed madly. He really seemed to have gone crazy. A red fighting energy flowed from Raccoon’s body and turned into a red mist that started to cover the area surrounding him. However, it was only for a moment. Raccoon strengthened his hand that was holding the axe, and the red fighting energy was absorbed into his body again.

The undead rushed at Raccoon the moment the fog of fighting energy dissipated, attacking simultaneously from all sides. Raccoon swung his axe toward the charging undead and turned them into powder. Yet the sacrifices of these undead gave the other undead the opportunity to attack Raccoon.

A skeleton knight’s sword made contact with Raccoon’s back. There was an unbelievable sound as the bone sword touched the bare flesh. It sounded like metal had collided with metal.

Raccoon turned around casually and struck the head of the skeleton knight with a huge fist. There was a sound similar to a drum exploding, and the skeleton knight turned into tens of thousands of bone fragments that scattered. After that, Raccoon’s axe moved again.

Suddenly, there was a red aura around the axe. Raccoon’s axe didn’t directly target the undead. Instead, it hit the ground. There was an intense explosion, and the ground blew up, forming a huge crater. All the undead within its range were turned to powder and scattered with the wind.

‘That unhelpful monster...’ Hyeonu clicked his tongue when he saw it. Raccoon’s current behavior was an obvious act of misbehavior. The undead that Hugo had killed was enough. The rest could be handled by the players gathered here.

‘It is possible because Edward is sane, but...’

Of course, there were still a lot of undead left, but Edward was sane. Fortunately, he hadn’t been consumed by the fragments of the demon god. He would retreat after losing a reasonable number of undead, just as he had done so far.

‘The moment a gambler like this is inserted into a game of go-stop...’

The problem was Raccoon, who was still fighting and killing dozens of undead at a time with his axe.

‘Ah, I don’t know.’ Hyeonu had now given up. Hugo was someone he could talk to, but Raccoon was different. Hyeonu raised his arm and extended it toward the undead army before folding it again.

“Charge!”

“Fight!”

Some of the players realized what Hyeonu’s actions meant and rushed out the gate toward the undead army. At the forefront were the players of New World. All the monks of New World raised their divine power and fought against the undead army. They pushed in an overwhelming manner. It was the superiority of light over darkness. They used this compatibility efficiently.

Hyeonu enjoyed peace on the fierce battlefield. He didn’t really participate in the battle. Once his magic power fell below a certain level, he just needed to kill one or two undead to regain his magic power.

‘The harvest is definitely good.’

Raccoon’s intrusion meant that things didn’t flow as Hyeonu wanted. Even so, things were going in a good direction for Yeongchan’s species transformation.

“Why does it feel like my experience isn’t rising much?”

“You as well? Me also. It feels less than the previous war...”

The rankers felt that something was strange. Their experience was rising at an oddly slow speed. It wasn’t just an illusion. They spent most of their time in the arena and hunting, so there was no way they could fail to notice this difference.

“Can it be the same as before when that monster is running around like that? Damn.”

“That’s true. It feels like my experience points are rising quickly just passing by.”

“By the way, that power is too strong. What is that orc? He doesn’t fit his species. He is too strong.”

However, the doubts quickly subsided. The monstrous Raccoon that they saw up close. Now he was even less restrained than before, and the undead were exploding at the slightest touch of his energy. When the players saw such a scene, the thought that the supply of experience points couldn’t be the same as before occurred to them. Raccoon was helping Hyeonu in this way.

‘It can’t continue like this.’

Hyeonu made a decision as he was wandering around and sticking a straw into other people’s experience points. Raccoon had gone too far. He was getting rid of the undead like he was an eraser. It seemed that Edward would die too.

He had already endured it once. Now that Raccoon’s gaze had changed, no one could predict how he would behave.

‘I will send him away.’ Hyeonu kicked off from the ground and flew into the air. It was time to send Edward away.

“Oh...!”

“Alley Leader has come out.”

“Is he trying to end the battle?”

The eyes of the players watching the battle from the walls were drawn to Hyeonu. Hyeonu had been deliberately minimizing his presence. So his faint presence was revealed explosively at once when he took action.

Cutting through the air, Hyeonu swiftly narrowed the distance with the bone dragon. To be precise, he was going to Edward, who was riding on top of the bone dragon. The distance between Hyeonu and Edward decreased rapidly. By the time Hyeonu had kicked the air six times, the distance between Hyeonu and the bone dragon became really close.

“Edward, step back if you are sane right now. You might die,” Hyeonu said to Edward at a low volume so that no one else on the battlefield could hear him.

A dark blue aura swept over the body of the bone dragon. Hyeonu discovered it and thought that Edward might’ve gone insane as it was unlike before. Fortunately, Hyeonu’s thoughts were wrong. Edward was still normal.

“Did you find a way?”

A sharp sound rang out from behind the bone dragon. Nevertheless, Hyeonu didn’t let go of his tension. There was a dark blue light burning in the eyes of the bone dragon. It wouldn’t be strange for it to attack at any time.

“I haven’t found a way to get rid of the fragments of the demon god itself. Instead, I have changed to getting rid of the demon god in the demon world entirely. I have decided that there is a possibility since he needs to recover his strength through the fragments,” Hyeonu responded while drawing the Mysterious Sky Sword.

It was in order to respond if Edward were to act unexpectedly, but at the same time, it was to put on a show for others. Standing still in front of the dragon was an act that would arouse people’s suspicions.

“The demon god? Is that possible? Even the fragments are like this...” Edward replied like he couldn’t believe it. His soul was directly bound by the fragments of the demon god, so he knew better than anyone the greatness of the demon god.

“I’ll explain the details in a moment, so step back. Let’s meet at the waterfall in the north.” Hyeonu had to postpone explaining for a while. The most important thing at this point in time was getting Edward to leave. His life could be in danger if the battle were prolonged. If that happened, all of Hyeonu’s work in the demon world, the rewards he would receive in the future, and the work he would do using Edward would become obsolete.

“I understand. I’ll be waiting.” The moment Edward finished speaking, the eyes of the bone dragon carrying him flashed, and it released a dark blue flame.

‘Is this bastard crazy? This...’

Hyeonu swung the Mysterious Sky Sword without being able to hide his bewildered expression at the bone dragon’s sudden attack. The huge pure energy split apart the sphere of blue flames. However, the dragon had already disappeared far away. Hyeonu’s pure energy just smashed the air.

‘Was it natural?’

Hyeonu wasn’t sorry at all that his attack missed. He hadn’t even thought about hitting the bone dragon in the first place. It was all just a show.

The movements of the undead started to change the moment Edward disappeared. Apart from those at the very front, the undead quickly broke away from the front lines. The players and different species gained momentum at this scene and wiped out the undead.

[Energy absorbed 1,784/????]

[Energy absorbed 1,932/????]

[Energy absorbed 2,387/????]

[Energy absorbed 2,570/????]

Hyeonu naturally descended to the ground and started to gather energy on the branch again. It was growing really steadily. He moved even faster at the thought that it was now the end.

Just then, someone put a hand on Hyeonu’s shoulder. Hyeonu quickly turned his head with a panicked expression.

“What are you doing?” The one standing there was Raccoon with an axe on his shoulder.