Junhyuk measured the travel time of Gongon’s group and came to the conclusion that the hatchling would get there in the nick of time. After that, he went up the watchtower.

By using the watchtower, he could keep the enemy heroes at bay. The allied heroes were there waiting for Gongon when the enemy heroes showed up.

With Ronga as their leader, every enemy hero appeared, an army of minions behind them. Looking at them, Junhyuk felt extremely tense.

Ronga realized that the allies were in a small group, so he didn’t hesitate. The lion attacked.

Junhyuk thought it was possible for him to kill Ronga by himself, but he needed to focus all of his powers and attention on the enemy hero. While Junhyuk thought about what to do, Ronga approached quickly. Junhyuk knew he couldn’t waste any more time thinking, so he gripped Aksha’s Longsword tightly.

The sword lengthened, and Ronga readied himself. Junhyuk hesitated. The enemy hero started running in zigzag in preparation for the Spatial Slash, and Junhyuk laughed.

Looking at Ronga, Junhyuk triggered his acceleration. When there were fifty meters between them, Junhyuk used his Spatial Slash.

The sword cut through Ronga’s neck, and Ronga screamed suddenly.

“I’ll kill you!” the enemy hero shouted while still dashing toward Junhyuk.

At that moment, Junhyuk decided to kill Ronga.

“Let’s kill him,” he told the others.

Even with the watchtower, Ronga would be a difficult enemy. He knew Ronga had dangerous powers, so he looked at his enemies and extended his hand.

Ronga had lost 41 percent of his health with the Spatial Slash, so Junhyuk thought they could kill him even without Sarang’s help.

His force field trapped Ronga within it, and smiling with satisfaction, Junhyuk shouted, “Attack!”

Layla unsheathed her katana, and Rodrey pulled out his knives. Both ran forward, and Ronga smiled.

The enemy hero was scoffing at the allies, so Junhyuk triggered his Spatial Collapse on Ronga. However, the rhinoceros suddenly took Ronga’s place.

The Spatial Collapse had already been set, so Junhyuk couldn’t move it. The enemy hero lost 50 percent of his health at once. The rhino was a tank, but his defense was lower than Ronga’s.

“That’s kinda like Lucy’s power.”

Junhyuk had wanted to kill Ronga, and now, some other guy was interfering with his plan. However, since he had already attacked, he decided to continue.

Rodrey threw his knives. His attack combined with Layla’s killed the rhino. However, while the rhino died, the others managed to close the gap. Ronga smirked again and shouted, “Ha-ha-ha! DIE!”

The enemies were too close to the allies now. Junhyuk swung Aksha’s Longsword, but Ronga dodged it by going underground. It was his power, and all of the allies were within range of Ronga’s burst.

The bird hero beat his wings, and feathers got shot at the allies. Now that he was under attack, Junhyuk lost 10 percent of his health.

Yagi triggered her speed buff and shot at the allies, and seeing that, Junhyuk touched both Layla and Rodrey and teleported away. They were back on top of the watchtower.

Ronga sprung up from the ground at the spot where the allies had been standing, and as soon as he did, he triggered his ultimate.

That ultimate was a high-tiered power with great damage, but the allies had already escaped it.

Because their heroes were under attack, the watchtower archers became buffed, and they shot down at the enemies. The enemy heroes were hit by the arrows, but they kept advancing.

Gongon hadn’t arrived yet, but Junhyuk had to deal with Ronga immediately.

He turned to Layla.

“We have to kill Ronga!” she said and ran forward. The enemies focused their attacks on her. Junhyuk knew that she was using all of her might in that fight. She launched her sword horizontally, and Ronga dove to dodge.

At the same moment, Rodrey put his arms forward, and suddenly, an uncountable amount of knives flew out from Rodrey’s clothes. That was Rodrey’s ultimate. The knives fell from the sky like rain over a certain area, damaging the enemies.

After escaping Ronga’s rush, Junhyuk swung his sword, easily extending it to twenty meters.

Boom!

All of the allies were suddenly thrown into the air. While floating, Junhyuk looked around. He had used all of his powers already, but he wanted to attack Ronga before he landed.

Ronga blocked his attack with his broadsword and smiled. Junhyuk didn’t know why the enemy hero was smiling until Garu shouted, “Attack me!”

Junhyuk lost his ability to reason, and all of the enemy heroes attacked him.

—

The harrowing void.

Once Junhyuk had recovered himself, he instinctively swung Aksha’s Longsword. The more he learned about the sword, the more he was surprised by it.

He hadn’t learned how to fight with sabers from Artlan. Instead, Artlan had taught him how to tune his body and given him the living spirit. For those reasons, Junhyuk could use mana. However, at that moment, he needed to master Aksha’s swordsmanship more than anything.

Suddenly, light flashed before his eyes, and Junhyuk revived.

He looked at Ariel, and she asked, [Are you OK?]

“Wait.”

Junhyuk checked on his items. He had dropped a rare item, the Gauntlet of Desire.

“Whew!”

He was relieved that he hadn’t lost a set item, but he had died twice already. Scowling, he said, “I should’ve given up the watchtower.”

Junhyuk had protected the watchtower, but really, he should’ve joined the rest of the allies. If he had done that, the allies would’ve been able to deal with the enemies more effectively. He had made a mistake and been killed for it.

Junhyuk sighed. Though he had made a mistake, he wouldn’t lose the round.

He turned to the wall and checked out the amount of gold he had: 1,139,963G.

That was more than a million. On top of that, he had picked up a couple of items and he still had the Red Dragon Boots.

“Maybe I should replace my glove.”

Even at a discount, getting a new item would be expensive, but if he got something from the Vampire Lord set, his overall strength would increase.

Set items had not disappointed him yet, and he wanted more items from the Vampire Lord set.

Junhyuk turned to Ariel and said, “I’ll go.”

[You’ll do fine.]

Junhyuk stood by the exit, and Ariel gathered her hands in front of her mouth and shouted, [Hero Junhyuk Lee deployed!]

After he walked outside, he looked around calmly. Just like he had thought, he was the first to be killed.

He walked through the cl.u.s.ter of minions and waited. Moments later, Layla and Rodrey walked out.

“You two were killed?”

Layla gave him a bitter smile and replied, “Gongon joined us, but we were too injured.”

“Yeah?”

Now, Junhyuk thought that Garu posed a ma.s.sive problem. His taunt left the allies helpless, and they had no way to stop it. Junhyuk had placed too much trust in his force field. He hadn’t expected the rhino to take Ronga’s place.

He thought it was just like Lucy’s power again.

He shouldn’t trust his force field too much in team battles when enemies had unknown powers.

Junhyuk waited a bit more. He wanted to know the result of the battle first. If the allies had lost the watchtower, the group would join him again soon.

After some time waiting, Gongon, Sarang and Elise showed up. They had all been killed.

“All of you?!”

Gongon shook his head in frustration.

“We managed to kill Ronga, but his spin ultimate really took a toll on us.”

“So, what happened?”

Sarang interjected, “When I died, Yagi was the only one left.”

“You guys killed all of the others?”

Elise spoke up then, “Correct, and I killed Yagi.”

“Why did you die then?”

She sighed and replied, “Yagi’s attacks have a damage-over-time effect.”

Yagi had been able to kill Elise with that. Sighing, Junhyuk asked, “What about the watchtower?”

“It’s still standing.”

Junhyuk was relieved to hear that, but the allies had still been killed. Looking at the group, he said, “Let’s climb back up. They should still try to push through the middle.”

“Is there a way to kill them without us dying?”

“It should be possible, but regardless, we still have to kill them.”

“We’ll receive back up from the watchtower,” he said and added surprisingly, “We should ignore Ronga and focus on Garu.”

Shaking his head, Gongon asked, “The elephant? Why?”

“His taunt is our biggest problem.”

When taunted, the allies couldn’t do anything. If the enemies focused their attacks on Junhyuk, he would be killed. He didn’t want to point it out himself, but he could kill Ronga by himself once Garu was gone.

Junhyuk could get lucky, and he had an incredible piercing stat. His attacks would be ferocious.

Looking around, Elise said, “We need to change our strategy.”

Everyone turned to her, so she explained, “Junhyuk has long range attacks, so he should stay back, behind our forces. I’m not sure about Garu’s power, but I can use my nullification power on the hero himself. At that point, the rest of the allies can focus on him.”

Junhyuk had always taken the lead, but Elise was right.

He nodded and said, “I used to think my force field was best used in killing Ronga, but because of that rhino, that was obviously not true. We need to change our tactics, and I’ll use my force field on you guys.”

“I can heal as well,” Sarang said, expressing her own desire to help.

“OK.” After hearing from everyone, Junhyuk concluded, “Then, let’s go.”

He took two hundred minions with them, and the group took the middle path up the mountain.