Nudra covered himself in the Rising Dragon and released a gust at Aak, who was pushed back by the strong wind, and Diane and Vera attacked the enemy hero.

Halo slashed Aak on the thigh, and blood started spurting out of the wound. In many ways, Halo’s attacks were at the center of the attacks that could kill Aak. Halo’s attacks inflicted a bleed status on the enemy, so against those with high defense, carrying items that forced heavy bleeding was always a good idea.

Junhyuk thought he might have a chance to kill Tuelus again, but the man with one mechanical arm and one demonic arm jumped into no man’s land and shouted, “I, Lujet, order! Come here and help me! Peltra!”

Lujet named himself and gave out a command. Soon, a five-meter tall, demon appeared from the enemy camp. The demon had six arms and two thick legs.

Junhyuk looked at Peltra and murmured, “What is that thing?”

“RROOOAARR!” Peltra screamed and swung at the force field, which was pushed back. The attack’s destructive power was astounding, and in the past, only Minota had had a comparable rush.

Peltra covered the force field and started pounding on it. Peltra was punching at it with two fists, and the allies could no longer see their enemies.

Vera looked at Peltra and said, “It’s a demon summon. This doesn’t make any sense! This is a power of the highest rank!”

“Peltra is a high-ranking demon.”

Everyone was watching Peltra from within the force field. A demon had been summoned, but Peltra had to return at some point. The allies had no means of killing Peltra, so they had to wait for the summoning to end.

Diane readied an arrow and said, “Let’s prepare our ultimates in the meantime.”

Diane, Vera and Halo prepared their ultimates. Meanwhile, Junhyuk shuddered at the enemies’ strength. With Peltra around, there was nothing the allies could do. All they could do was use the force field for protection.

So far, the force field was thought to be without peer, and their enemies hadn’t been able to do much while it was up, but now, there was someone who could counter the force field after a fashion.

Junhyuk hadn’t developed his own ultimate yet, so it was hard to make a comparison, but now there was someone with a power of the highest rank, similar to him.

The force field deploy time was almost over, but Peltra hadn’t returned yet. Peltra was about to pound the force field again, so Junhyuk ran toward the demon.

He couldn’t reach Peltra’s fists. Instead, he touched Peltra’s leg and teleported to the very back of the enemy line. Peltra had been blocking for Tuelus, so he got rid of that.

Halo launched Rain from Above, and Diane shot her arrows at the hero. Tuelus moved to the side, and Aak and Keros stood in front of him to cover him. Keros deflected the arrows with his counterattack, but Rain from Above flew in and penetrated the target.

Tuelus gritted his teeth. It wasn’t a critical hit, but he lost 20 percent of his health. On top of that, Tuelus kept on bleeding, receiving damage over time.

The demon was still there, and Junhyuk had to move dexterously to escape Peltra’s swinging arms. All six arms came down hard like shooting stars. While Junhyuk moved around, the living spirit within him responded little by little. It was running through the arteries in his legs.

He escaped Peltra by a hair’s breadth, but suddenly, he felt pain shot up his ribs and he lost half of his health. Junhyuk turned around to see Lujet, who had summoned Peltra, extending his mechanical arm. Junhyuk knew he’d die if he were hit, but he didn’t want to die, so he dodged by crawling between Peltra’s legs.

Peltra turned around, swinging down its fist. Junhyuk couldn’t dodge it. He held tightly to his swords in front of him, and suddenly, Peltra disappeared.

“What?!”

When he saw Peltra disappear, he rolled away and got up. However, as soon as he got up, Keros swung his ma.s.sive sword at him.

Junhyuk used the momentum and leaned back, sliding forward on his knees. The ma.s.sive sword swung by him, but he felt the pressure through his face tearing at the skin.

Junhyuk straightened up, swinging the Blood Rune Sword and using the Spatial Slash. Tuelus only had 30 percent of his health, so if he was lucky, Junhyuk would be able to kill him.

However, Tuelus had kept a close eye on him, and as the Spatial Slash flashed, Tuelus jumped. Without hitting the neck, the attack wouldn’t be a critical, and as expected, it wasn’t. Junhyuk had only been able to deal 13 percent of damage. However, he’d gotten lucky. The extra attack activated and dealt another 7 percent damage to Tuelus, who now had 10 percent left. Seeing that, Junhyuk teleported.

He thought it was OK for him to die, so he slashed at Tuelus. The machines floating around the hero blocked Junhyuk’s attack, but another 1 percent of damage went in.

That’s when Lujet’s demonic arm grew longer and struck him hard on the ribs.

Boom!

It had obviously been a fist, but an explosion took place on impact, and the last of Junhyuk’s health disappeared.

—

“Ahhhh!”

He had revived and was covering his face with his hands. As he checked out his body while in the dark emptiness, he couldn’t feel it. He tried very hard to leave the darkness, and as he struggled, his will and soul grew.

He looked around and realized he was still in the sp.a.w.n room, which meant that the battle was still ongoing, so he ran toward the door.

[Champion Junhyuk Lee deployed.]

He opened the door and sighed. He had already died four times, so he couldn’t die anymore. If he died one more time, it would mean a true death.

“I didn’t think I would ever reach the death limit.”

Junhyuk sighed again and walked out quickly, heading toward Sarang and the other heroes. They all smiled at him.

“You’ve revived.”

“What happened?”

Diane smiled.

“I killed Tuelus,” Halo said.

“Really?”

“Yep. His health was really low from your attacks.”

He had taken 70 percent off of Tuelus’ health just with his multiple Spatial Slashes. The other 30 percent or so were taken by the allies.

“Did you get anything?”

Halo nodded and said, “I attacked Aak with a Flash Attack, pa.s.sing by him, and after that, I slashed Tuelus and picked up an item.”

Halo was holding a bracelet, looking at it.

“I could’ve been killed on the way back, but the others covered for me.”

The enemy heroes had a lot of powers that could inflict paralysis or other restraining effects. Halo was lucky to return to allied camp alive.

Junhyuk smiled and looked out. The enemies were pounding at the castle’s force field. Tuelus wasn’t there, but the others were hardly injured.

“We only killed Tuelus.”

“That’s right.”

They had killed Tuelus three times on this battlefield. The hero was a legend candidate, so his pride must’ve been hurt deeply. More importantly, he had lost three expensive items.

Junhyuk looked at Halo and asked, “Does it buff magic?”

“It has buffs defense, attack speed, and has a fixed damage bonus.”

“That’s good.”

Vera’s eyes sparkled, and she walked over to Junhyuk.

“Your ring buffs magic?”

“Yes. It gives thirty to magic attack and defense and three hundred health.”

As he told her the stats, Vera raised her hand.

“I will buy it!”

“I don’t know how much it costs.”

“Probably…”

They were talking when the castle started falling apart. Junhyuk looked at Vera and smiled.

“I’ll sell it to you for 70 percent of its original price.”

Vera laughed.

“Sure, but first you have to win at the Champion’s Battlefield.”

“I will.”

He would win. He watched the force field coming down and looked at the enemy camp and murmured, “I didn’t kill him.”

He had wanted to kill Keros, but hadn’t been able to, so he had focused on killing Tuelus, but things weren’t over yet. His enemies needed one more victory to become legends.

“Next time, I’ll kill him.”

Looking at the falling castle, he closed his eyes. As he opened them slowly, he appeared back at his own world.

“Whew!”

He exhaled deeply and got up slowly. It was his first defeat, and he smiled bitterly and covered his head with his hands.

“A complete defeat.”

The allies couldn’t have won. Their enemies had been legend candidates, and legends felt different and heavy. Artlan’s team needed more victories and more items to become legends.

Every time a hero died, they dropped an item, so heroes had to stay alive and kill their enemies to keep their items. Artlan’s team had a problem. They didn’t have a tank, and fighting without a tank was getting difficult.

“I can’t tell them to change their items.”

It was not easy to change focus and items. It cost a lot of money.

Junhyuk sighed.

“Legends…”

At first, he had just wanted to stay alive, but the purpose of the battles was to become a legend.

“Does it depend on which team I’m in?”

As a tank, Gongon was the best. He had been born a tank, and if he was equipped correctly, he could fight any hero.

Right now, Gongon wasn’t really a tank. He had powers similar to Artlan’s, so he was balanced with a higher attack stat.

Junhyuk was thinking of the ideal team when his phone rang. He checked to see that it was Sarang’s number and picked it up.

“Big brother!”

“Yes.”

“Are you OK?”

“I’m fine. Why?”

“You were killed four times this time.”

“But I also earned a lot.”

His soul had grown much bigger, and Junhyuk thought of Kaljaques. The troll must’ve died numerous times. How big would his soul be? Kaljaques’ soul had grown so big, he had thought, mistakenly, that he had become a hero before actually doing it.

Junhyuk shook his head and said, “It wasn’t a good experience.”

“Something is strange.”

“What is it?”

“I’ve accepted my teacher’s death.”

Junhyuk sighed.

“That’s probably because your soul has grown after your death.”

“I’m not sure how to feel about it.”

“At least become a champion. You must work harder to become stronger, Sarang.”

“OK.”

“Work harder.”

“Sure.”

He hung up and got up.

“I have to go home.”

Junhyuk wanted to return to his home in Paju. He had to plant the seeds and pull the dimensional tear to hunt some monsters.

“I have a lot of work to do.”