Chapter 175: Ability Showdown (4)

Episode 175

The moment the thought struck him, Juan went into action.

“Whoa…! The dragon’s HP is already down to half! We have to stop them now! Attack!”

He shouted dramatically and charged forward, taking the lead.

– Huh?

– Now?

– Hurry and follow him!

The bewildered Blue Team members instinctively started running after Juan.

They quickly reached the vicinity of the dragon pit.

The distance between the two teams was now less than 10 meters.

– The Blue Team is coming! Should we engage in a team fight?

“Hans, use your Poison Orb to harass them!”

– Yes!

Hans quickly formed a Poison Orb with his hands and fired it at the Blue Team.

**Thud!** The orb exploded, and a wide swamp quickly enveloped the entire Blue Team.

Their movement speed noticeably decreased. However…

– Their HP isn’t going down!

Despite being poisoned, the Blue Team members’ HP bars remained unchanged.

Kim Jinsung replied,

“That sun must have a healing ability for allies.”

In the game, magic that symbolized the sun, or light in general, often healed allies.

Based on his experience, Kim Jinsung guessed that the sun might have a similar ability.

“Focus on their reduced movement speed. Does anyone have a ranged skill besides Hans?”

Kim Jinsung asked, looking at the Blue Team members slowly approaching.

He thought they might be able to gain an advantage before the team fight even started if they focused fire on the enemies stuck in the swamp with ranged attacks.

The Blue Team members also seemed to have roughly grasped the Red Team’s intentions.

– Damn it! Another poison swamp!

– We’re in trouble if we get hit by a ranged attack now…!

The voices of the Team 9 and Team 10 members were filled with anxiety.

Luca finally spoke up after a long silence.

– But we have Sunlight, right? Our HP isn’t going down even in the poison swamp, so wouldn’t it be fine even if we get hit by other ranged skills?

Juan turned and glared at Luca.

He knew exactly what Luca was thinking, just by his tone.

‘He’s desperately trying to avoid revealing his ability!’

But Juan wasn’t going to let him get away with it. He had even come up with a clever plan for this very situation.

He gathered Mana and secretly used a skill on the three members who were focused on the Red Team.

Then,

– …Huh?

– Whoa!

Luca and the other two exclaimed in surprise.

Their running speed suddenly increased dramatically.

They naturally overtook Juan and ran ahead, and that’s when Juan stopped using the skill.

“Oh! So you’ve all decided to use your abilities!”

He exclaimed, pretending to be impressed.

He had shifted the blame for using the skill onto one of the three members, even though it was him who had used it.

“Alright! Let’s give it our all in this team fight! Let’s go!”

– Huh?

– W-wait a minute.

– Who used their ability?

As the three members responded with confusion,

the Red Team came to Juan’s aid.

“Focus on the front! The enemy is about to launch a ranged attack!”

Luca and the other two immediately turned their heads back towards the front.

Their gazes were fixed on Dante, the Team 4 member of the Red Team.

– What’s that…?

The Team 9 member asked nervously, looking at Dante, who had suddenly formed a giant red arrow above his head.

– I don’t know what it is, but it’s definitely his unique ability.

Chano’s ominous premonition came true.

Dante fired the arrow towards the Blue Team with all his might.

The giant red arrow flew straight towards Luca, who was at the forefront.

‘Damn it!’

Luca cursed inwardly, frustrated.

He had become the enemy’s first target because he was at the front.

He raised his sword to defend himself and gathered as much Mana as he could to create a shield.

But,

**Thud!**

‘Ugh!’

The red arrow pierced through his shield and body, making him stagger.

He saw his HP bar drop by half on his helmet screen.

A system notification appeared.

– You have been pierced. All defense is reduced to 0 for 10 seconds due to the impact.

The problem was that the attack wasn’t over.

**Thud! Thud!**

– Argh!

– Ugh…!

The red arrow, after piercing Luca, changed direction and pierced through the Team 9 and Team 10 members behind him.

After striking all three, the arrow changed direction again and flew towards Juan, who was at the back.

“What the hell is this?!”

Juan was bewildered by the red arrow that seemed to be alive, targeting only the Red Team members, but he quickly gathered Mana and prepared to defend himself.

Luca was about to shout, ‘It’s useless!’, when

– Luca! Look out!

Chano’s urgent shout made him instinctively turn his head, and

“……!”

His eyes widened.

He saw countless colorful spheres flying towards him.

The red spheres were definitely fireballs fired by Alopsky, and the green spheres looked exactly like the Poison Orbs Hans had fired earlier.

‘This is bad!’

He felt a sense of crisis.

His reduced HP was a secondary problem. His defense was currently at 0.

If he got hit by all those attacks before the 10 seconds were up, he would definitely die and give the enemy another kill.

The Team 9 and Team 10 members behind him would also die, and that would be the end of the team fight.

‘Damn it, what should I do?’

He agonized until the fireballs were right in front of him.

Should he really reveal his trump card in a meaningless competition like this?

Wouldn’t it be better to just lose the team fight?

– Screw it!

Chano suddenly shouted.

At the same time, a thin, yellow shield appeared above Luca.

It was such a thin shield that it didn’t seem like it could even block a single fireball, but its effect was surprisingly powerful.

**Clank! Clank! Clank!**

‘……!’

Luca’s eyes widened.

All the fireballs that hit the yellow shield bounced off.

The fireballs that fell to the ground exploded with loud booms, but they had bounced far enough away that they didn’t damage any of the Red Team members.

‘What’s this?’

He looked at Chano behind him in surprise.

A yellow shield was surrounding all the Red Team members, including Chano and the Team 9 member next to him.

Chano, meeting Luca’s gaze, said with a sheepish expression,

– …Well, Juan and Gian used their unique abilities, so I thought there was no need for me to keep hiding mine…

Judging by his response, he seemed to have misunderstood Luca’s gaze as ‘Why did you use your ability too?’.

That wasn’t what Luca had meant.

‘Why did you have to use your ability too…!’

As Luca was feeling troubled, he heard the Team 9 member next to him clear his throat.

– Ahem! If even Chano is doing this, there’s no reason for me to keep hiding mine, right?

He raised his palms and started gathering Mana. It was clear that he was about to use his unique ability.

Luca despaired.

‘Damn it…’

If even the Team 9 member revealed his ability, he would be the only one left.

It seemed like he had reached the point where he couldn’t avoid revealing his ability any longer.

But he couldn’t stop the Team 9 member from revealing his ability. He could only watch helplessly.

Meanwhile, on the Red Team’s side…

– What’s this?

– They bounced off?

– Is it some kind of ‘bulletproof’ shield…?

They were all bewildered by the sight of all their ranged attacks bouncing off the shield.

“It seems like Chano created a protective shield with a ‘bulletproof’ trait. The problem is how to break through it…”

Kim Jinsung carefully examined the yellow shield surrounding the Blue Team members and continued,

“It looks quite thin, so should we try breaking it with a powerful attack?”

– I’ll give it another shot.

Dante replied.

He started forming his unique ability, ‘Genocide Arrow’, above his head again.

– This arrow basically ignores the enemy’s defense. Unless their bullet resistance is extremely high, it should be able to break through that thin shield.

“Alright.”

Kim Jinsung decided to wait and see, listening to Dante’s explanation.

‘Judging by its power earlier, it might be able to break through that thin shield in one shot.’

It was a skill that had dealt almost half of Luca’s HP, along with two other enemies.

Considering that their stats were significantly restricted by the suits, it was definitely a powerful unique ability.

– Here we go!

As Dante shouted and was about to fire the arrow,

—

▶ You have been debuffed by an unknown enemy.

▶ You cannot use Mana for 10 seconds.

▶ Movement speed, HP recovery speed, and MP recovery speed are reduced to 1/5 for 1 minute.

▶ All stats are reduced by half for 1 minute.

—

‘…Huh?’

Kim Jinsung was startled by the sudden status window and looked at his body.

He saw translucent chains made of Mana wrapped around him.

– What?!

– What the hell?!

His teammates also exclaimed in surprise.

Dante, who had been about to fire ‘Genocide Arrow’, was the most flustered.

– Why now, of all times…!

The Genocide Arrow above his head was noticeably shrinking as he stood there helplessly, unable to use Mana.

– It seems like the Team 9 member used his ability.

Hans’s words made Kim Jinsung look at the Blue Team.

The Team 9 member was indeed standing there, his palms extended towards the Red Team.

‘He has an ability that restricts Mana, of all things.’

Unless they had a way to dispel the debuff, the Red Team would have to fight the Blue Team with significantly reduced combat power for a whole minute.

‘It’s too dangerous to charge in now…’

“Haaaaaaa!!”

A loud shout came from the Red Team’s side.

It was Luca, who was at the forefront.

‘Is he going to use his ability?’

Kim Jinsung’s guess was correct.

Luca’s body, which had been flickering with Mana, started transforming rapidly.

– …!

– What the?!

– No way…!

His teammates exclaimed in surprise, more shocked than ever before.

Kim Jinsung also stared at Luca with wide eyes.

‘Can humans really grow that big…?’

A player in a full-body suit, almost as large as the dragon.

That was what Luca looked like to Kim Jinsung now.