Gongon was very strong when transformed, and Kraken knew that. The champion thought it was about to die at any moment, so it spit out the black ink toward Gongon.

The hatchling was not inside the force field. He grinded his teeth in anger after getting hit, but Kraken was already running away to the gate.

Junhyuk was watching Kraken, so he teleported, closing in on the champion. Then, he swung his sword against the octopus’ tentacles.

The sword pierced one and stuck it to the ground. Kraken glared at him and tried to pull the tentacle free. It split in half, but Kraken ignored the pain and continued running.

Sarang kept on shooting electric arrows at Kraken. They weren’t doing much damage, but Kraken was constantly losing health, little by little.

Kraken entered the castle, and Junhyuk launched his sword, but it bounced back.

“Hm. Is it the castle’s force field?”

The gate wasn’t usually covered by a force field, but he looked at Gongon and said, “I’ll deal with the minions. You attack the gate!”

“OK!”

The minions were all lizardmen, and Junhyuk ran toward them. Gongon was attacking the gate, and Sarang still had the force field around her. Junhyuk stabbed a lizardman with his sword and lifted him up, blocking the archers with the body. He kept on swinging his second sword against the lizardmen coming toward him.

Red shockwaves appeared with every strike, and they quickly decreased the number of minions. If no champions stepped in, dealing with the minions would be a simple matter of time.

Junhyuk killed all of them without ever facing an arrow from the castle. Then, he turned to look to see why and saw Sarang attacking the archers with her electric arrows.

The last archer fell and died, and he joined Gongon in pounding on the gate.

The force field surrounding the gate was destroyed, and when Junhyuk entered the castle he saw Kraken standing far away. The other champions hadn’t revived yet, so now was their chance.

“Let’s push forward.”

Gongon was untransformed, but he ran ahead ferociously. Junhyuk followed and said, “I’ll lure the giant golem. Let’s work together to kill it.”

Gongon smiled.

“That’s a nice plan.”

Junhyuk returned the smile and used the Spatial Slash on the golem. The Spatial Slash created a shockwave that swept through Kraken, but it was only collateral damage.

Gongon ran in first, and Sarang followed him. Both of them bad memories of Kraken.

Junhyuk thought the two would get the job done, so he headed toward the giant golem. The golem raised its food, and Junhyuk triggered acceleration to dodge it. As he ran, he quickly dove to the side. It was hard on his body, but it was better than getting stepped on by the golem.

He rolled to diminish the impact of the momentum and slashed the golem with the Frozen Rune Sword, distancing himself from it right after. His own movement speed was originally faster than the golem’s. On top of that, he debuffed the golem.

Junhyuk looked around and saw Gongon and Sarang pushing Kraken around. The octopus might retreat to the castle’s force field, but at that moment, the two were handling it.

Gongon was a balanced half-tank, and Sarang has amazing utility. Their combined attacks were superior to Kraken’s.

Junhyuk turned to the golem. An a.s.sessment of the situation told him that the golem was a type of A-ranked monster, perhaps even a little stronger than that. It wasn’t fast, but it had enormous strength.

Heroes had a hard time fighting golems by themselves, and many had to attack a golem as a group. But he had also seen a hero with a long-range attack kill two giant golems.

“I have experience with A-ranked monster.”

The giant golem was looking away from him, so he ran fast toward it. It would be problematic if the golem went to help out Kraken, so he ran toward it and slashed the golem’s Achilles tendon with the Frozen Rune Sword.

The golem was debuffed again, and it turned, trying to punch him. Junhyuk would have parried the punch, but the golem’s movements were so slow that he simply dodged it.

Then, he thought of something.

I can accelerate on Earth normally, but here there’s only a perceptive effect. But what about enhancement?

Junhyuk focused on his sword. The living spirit went through it quickly, leaving only a trace of force behind before returning. The golem attacked him again, and Junhyuk dodged and frowned.

The spirit’s force was gathering on the sword, but there was no mana attached to it.

“Won’t it work?”

After gathering force like usual, he attacked the golem’s leg with it.

Boom!

The giant golem’s leg was smashed through as if it had been hit by a hammer. The injury wasn’t a slash, but a smash instead. He knew that the damage dealt hadn’t increased, but enhancement effect yield a different type of attack and injury. He could shut down the golem with that.

The Spatial Slash created ring-like shockwaves, but when he used it with his fist, the shockwave was almost spherical. If he could use the single-point explosion with the Spatial Slash, the attack would be completely different.

Artlan could not do what he had done just now, and he smiled at that. The golem attacked him again, and he rolled away while smiling.

As he got up, he looked at the giant golem. He dodged the giant golem’s kick, stepped on the golem’s knee and jumped. Reaching over the golem’s shoulders, he swung his sword at one of them.

Craaack!

Golem’s shoulder was destroyed, and the golem swung its fists at Junhyuk. Junhyuk stepped on the golem’s back and landed on the ground. The giant golem turned, and Junhyuk gathered the force on his sword for the single-point explosion.

Because there was no mana, he couldn’t see it, but when he attacked, his attack was different. After looking at the golem, Junhyuk scoped out the battlefield.

Kraken was trying his best to get inside the castle’s force field, and Gongon was biting the octopus. Sarang was shooting electric arrows at it.

Kraken only had 10 percent of its health left, and the allies would soon use their powers on the champion. Junhyuk was murmuring to himself that it would be over soon when he saw a shadow rushing toward the allies.

“Watch out!” he shouted, but Nid came out fast. Nid had rushed out of the castle’s force field, and after hitting Gongon, he spun toward Sarang.

Gongon had already been damaged, so Junhyuk raised the force field around Sarang.

Clang!

Nid bounced off the force field. Meanwhile, Kraken ran toward the castle’s force field.

Suddenly, the golem kicked Junhyuk. He didn’t have time to escape, but he blocked it with his swords.

Clang!

Junhyuk was bounced back rolling, and that’s when he learned something else. Because his defense had gone up, the attack hurt less than before.

The giant golems at the Champions’ Battlefield were weaker than those at the DImensional Battlefield, so Junhyuk could kill it as long as he remained focused.

He distanced himself from the golem and a.n.a.lyzed the situation. Gongon and Sarang had lost Kraken, but they were now holding on to Nid. The champion felt that it was dangerous to deal with them alone, so he was also trying to get back into the force field.

Nid was avoiding the fight and trying to escape, and Junhyuk sighed while watching him.

“Let him go! Destroy the castle’s force field.”

The allies were protected by Junhyuk’s force field, so they wouldn’t be in danger. Therefore, they should’ve ignored the enemy and pounded to the castle’s force field.

After Junhyuk told them what needed to be done, he turned to face the golem. They had to work fast to win.

He gathered the force on his sword one more time and looked at the golem. His own health was low, but a Spatial Slash would fill it up, so Junhyuk circled the golem until he felt it was off cooldown and used it.

Boom!

The Spatial Slash carried the single-point explosion with it, and it worked like a hammer against the golem. When dealing with champions, slashing and piercing attacks were effective, but blunt attacks worked better against golems. The shockwave from it was also sphere-like.

Partially destroyed, the golem staggered, and Junhyuk ran toward it. The golem swung his remaining left arm at him, but he dodged it easily.

Junhyuk attacked the golem’s left arm, slicing it at the shoulder. As the golem tried to kick him, he gathered the force around his sword again. This time, he used the single-point explosion against the golem’s stomach.

There was a heavy impact, and the golem crumbled to the ground. It had taken a while, but he had dealt with it alone.

He sighed and looked at the allies. They were pounding against the castle’s force field, and his own force field had disappeared.

Inside the the castle’s force field, Junhyuk saw the enemy champions gathered. They were thinking.

Were they going to go out or give up the round?

The enemies felt like they had already lost that round. The giant golem had been destroyed, so one of them would have to stay with the force field to protect it. The castle’s force field was almost entirely gone as well, so victory had been decided.

Should they give up or fight until the end?

Junhyuk was curious about what the enemies were thinking. Kilraden had revived, so he had to protect Sarang against the champion. Her health had increased, but she would still die if she was attacking twice by him.

Kraken came out first and headb.u.t.ted Gongon. After Gongon got pushed back, Kraken followed up by spew black ink over him and Sarang. The two were blinded, so there was no time for Junhyuk to hesitate. He teleported and joined the others.

Kilraden had also come out, but he disappeared as soon as he did. Junhyuk touched the allies and teleported.

He had distanced them from Kilraden, but he was still worried. His own teleportation could cover a longer distance than Kilraden’s, but Kilraden had one more teleportation than him in total.

Thinking, he hugged Gongon and Sarang. He needed more time. Meanwhile, Kilraden showed up and disappeared again, so Junhyuk used his jump skill.

He jumped over their enemies, heading toward the castle’s force field.

He wasn’t interested in fighting. Instead, he wanted to bring the castle down, so he shouted, “Pound the force field!”

Gongon and Sarang started pounding, and Junhyuk watched as their enemies ran toward them.

Kraken, Nid, and Kilraden. The heroes had recognized those champions powers. Considering their powers and equipment, they were certainly most dangerous enemies, but the allies were superior to them.

Junhyuk aimed his sword at his enemies and said, “You lost!”

As he did, the castle’s force field was destroyed. Victory belonged to the allies.

Junhyuk didn’t know what the odds were for the bets, but with Sarang, they had won again. If Artlan’s group had bet on they, they would have earned some gold.

Junhyuk ignored the disappeared enemies and looked at Gongon instead.

“We’ve won.”

Gongon smiled at him.

“See you next time.”

“Right.”

Junhyuk waved, and Gongon faded. Sarang also faded, and he saw bright white lights covering him. He opened his eyes slowly to find himself in the completely white room.

In front of him, there was a square box. He looked at it and exhaled deeply.

[This is the Swamp of Despair’s victory reward. Check it out.]

Thinking about the reward, he put his hand one the box. Square box suddenly opened up and lights shot out of it.

[Victory Reward: Randomized Gold Bag. Touch it.]

His heart was racing, and he reached for the bag.