Every enemy hero was a variation on an animal.

The cat hero was carrying a small bow. The elephant hero, who was over four meters tall and gray, was wearing a couple of gauntlets.

Junhyuk fixed his eyes on the last hero. The broad-shouldered lion hero had two swords crossed behind his back.

The enemy minions looked like bipedal hyenas. When Elise saw them, she muttered, “The minions are gnolls.”

“Gnolls?”

“Gnolls are hyenas that walk on two legs. Those are carrying maces, so they’ll be difficult for our minions.”

The enemy minions were stronger than the allied minions. They were wielding maces, and although the minions had longswords and shields, the maces looked superior to both. The shields didn’t look strong enough to withstand the impact of the maces. There was also the possibility that the shields would be shattered or pierced through.

On top of that, the gnolls had a longer reach. Just going by minions, the allies had already lost.

Junhyuk smacked his lips and inspected the enemy heroes.

“The heroes are a bigger problem than their minions.”

Victory depended on the heroes’ strength. Minions had little effect on the outcome of battles between heroes. As Junhyuk looked at them, the lion hero stepped forward.

“My name is Ronga. Who among you will face me?”

Junhyuk laughed out loud and stepped forward.

“You want a one-on-one fight?”

“Are you not confident?” Ronga stared at him while asking the question, and the way Ronga spoke made Junhyuk a bit angry.

He looked at the others behind Ronga. Both the cat and the elephant heroes had their arms crossed, meaning that they wanted to watch a good fight.

Junhyuk took a moment to think. If he could kill one first and deal with the other two later, that would be better.

“I’m Junhyuk Lee,” he said, stepping forward some more. Ronga smirked at him.

“Junhyuk Lee? I’ve heard your name before.”

As he said that, Ronga stepped further ahead and pulled out a broadsword. The sword had strange engravings along the blade, and he was holding it with just his left hand. It looked more like a steel plate than a sword. He had only seen one hero with a sword that big.

He immediately thought of a single-horned hero who had become a legend, Keros. Staring at Ronga’s broadsword, Junhyuk scowled.

Ronga simply pulled out his second sword, and Junhyuk said, “That’s Keros’ sword.”

“You know of it?”

At that point, Junhyuk became a little tense as he stared at his opponent. His enemy was wielding a legendary weapon, so his attack would be higher than that of any other enemy he had met that season.

Even if the sword only had basic upgrades, Junhyuk wouldn’t have enough defense to withstand multiple strikes from Ronga.

“So, that’s why you are so arrogant.”

As someone wielding a legendary weapon, that would be the last thing Ronga dropped. Junhyuk had to consider the other items the enemy hero was carrying. His swords were powerful, but were his other items that powerful as well? Junhyuk’s set items allowed him to ignore enemy defense, and his shockwaves worked well in hero battles.

Junhyuk wanted to find out how strong Ronga really was. Even if Ronga had great items, he still had a high piercing stat. On top of that, his defense was higher than most tanks out there.

Although he didn’t have any powers to boost his defense, Junhyuk still wanted to fight the hero.

Junhyuk ran forward and swung Aksha’s Longsword. The sword lengthened, but Ronga paid no attention to it, simply running to meet Junhyuk. The first strike came from Junhyuk, a Spatial Slash.

The slash cut through Ronga’s neck while the hero ran. Junhyuk knew he had delivered a critical hit, but he winced. The critical hit had only damaged the enemy hero by 40 percent of his health.

Those were shockingly high defense and health numbers. He grimaced and slashed again. The sword careened through the air toward Ronga, but the hero swung Keros’ Broadsword to meet it, deflecting the attack with incredible force.

Previously, Junhyuk would have done something different after seeing his own sword bouncing off like that, but he didn’t think he needed to now. He bent his wrist and dashed forward. He felt his swords were more fit for close combat than Keros’ Broadsword.

When Junhyuk closed in, Ronga smiled. Now at close range, Ronga still swung Keros’ Broadsword. The problem was the speed of the swings. Looking at the blade of the sword, Junhyuk realized that Ronga had triggered a power, and to learn what the power did, he had to exchange a flew blows with the enemy hero.

He didn’t want to be hit by a critical hit, so he blocked diligently.

Clang, clang, clang, clang!

After blocking it, he knew things would be tough. Even blocking, Junhyuk received 25 percent in damage. It wasn’t a critical hit, so the damage shocked him even more.

He hadn’t met an enemy like that in a long time. Scowling, Junhyuk retreated. At the same time, Ronga sliced parallel to the ground in front of him. Junhyuk hopped and dodged the attack, but soon, he realized he had made a terrible mistake. Ronga stabbed forward with his other sword, which crossed the air in a flash.

Junhyuk blocked the strike with the Blood Rune Sword, but because he was in the air, he couldn’t withstand the force of the attack. He was thrown back rolling, and Ronga dashed toward him, slashing at him with Keros’ Broadsword.

Junhyuk kept rolling, barely dodging the sword strikes, and Keros’ Broadsword pierced the ground.

Boom!

With the loud impact, the ground split. It was an incredible sight. Junhyuk realized that while it was true that Ronga was wielding a legendary weapon, the hero’s swordsmanship was also outstanding. His attacks were really fast, and the force behind them made the hair all over his body stand.

Junhyuk had to showcase his own skills to reenter the duel, so he triggered his acceleration and dashed ahead. Swordsmanship wasn’t everything. Although Ronga’s other powers were still a mystery, his own powers would pull him through.

He had triggered his acceleration, so if anything strange happened, he would be able to respond with his powers right away.

He wanted to see all of Ronga’s powers. Junhyuk was sure he wouldn’t die in the process. Worst case, Sarang could heal him.

When Junhyuk reentered the fight, Ronga smirked and swung Keros’ Broadsword hard at him. Junhyuk was aware of the sword’s path, but dodging it wasn’t easy. His movement speed was faster than Ronga’s, but his attack speed was about the same. Ronga was using the heavy weight of the sword to increase its momentum, also increasing the force behind it.

It shouldn’t be easy to change the direction of the slashes of Keros’ Broadsword, but the war lion was swinging it with extreme ease, almost like paper.

When the swords clashed, Junhyuk was pushed back. The distance didn’t give Aksha’s Longsword the advantage. He could stretch and shorten Aksha’s Longsword, but it took time, and Keros’ Broadsword took advantage of that time.

Junhyuk was losing his ground, and he had no recourse to recompose himself.

Even while accelerating, he barely held on. He winced. Aksha’s Longsword wasn’t working for him in that fight. It hadn’t been that long since he had started training with it.

However, he was stunned that he was facing someone with better swordsmanship than him. Junhyuk knew things weren’t going well. It was possible that, along with the other powers the enemy had, his powers had a shorter cooldown than Junhyuk’s.

Junhyuk’s Spatial Slash had a shorter cooldown now, but it was still a long time.

He thought the lion’s max health was high, but he couldn’t be sure about it being the highest among the heroes. The other two seemed like they could have just as much health.

Why wasn’t Ronga using his other powers? Junhyuk was curious about that.

Suddenly, Ronga slammed his broadsword against the ground.

Boom!

Junhyuk dodged the attack, ready to counter, but Ronga had disappeared into the ground. Junhyuk tried to use his spatial sense, but he couldn’t sense things beneath the ground. He knew Ronga’s power had to have a range, so he teleported away, covering the maximum distance he could with one teleportation: twenty-five meters. The distance had increased.

After Junhyuk retreated, Ronga burst from the ground suddenly, and with him, a ma.s.sive shockwave raced across the ground. Seeing it, Junhyuk teleported again to escape it.

Ronga rushed at him then. Junhyuk had no way of escaping, so he turned his shoulder to the enemy hero.

Boom!

The impact took another 20 percent off of his health. It was a lot of health, which meant that Ronga must also have a high piercing stat.

Junhyuk realized that every one of Ronga’s powers was extremely dangerous.

The hero had shown all three powers, but his ultimate still remained. Junhyuk had also not used his ultimate yet, and he still had his force field.

At that point, Junhyuk decided to finish the fight with a force field-ultimate combo.

“We’ve seen each other’s powers, so it’s time for you to die.”

Junhyuk’s health was lower, but he wanted to finish things. He ran, and Ronga ran to meet him. Some time had already pa.s.sed, so Ronga’s power might have come off cooldown.

Junhyuk raised his force field and swung his sword at full force. The speed of the swords was about the same, but Ronga took more time to start the swing of his broadsword simply due to the difference in size.

For that reason, Junhyuk spotted an opening in Ronga’s strikes and threw himself at the fight. His own wild swordsmanship was inferior to Aksha’s swordsmanship, but it was better suited for dealing with Ronga.

At that moment, he thought he should have pushed to combine the two styles of swordsmanship.

Ronga swung the broadsword incessantly, but Junhyuk had the force field covering him.

Clang!

The broadsword slammed against the force field, and Junhyuk triggered his Spatial Collapse.

Ronga got sucked to the eye of the collapse, but Junhyuk hadn’t landed a critical hit. Ronga only lost 22 percent of his health.

“This isn’t easy.”