Ancient Kingdom Territory Siege Battle (6)

Oops.

I should have ended it earlier.

An ominous energy scatters around Camellia’s body.

In an instant, the strength difference widens, and the dagger aiming for her heart is pushed back.

Naturally, my body, which was on top, was also pushed away.

No. At this rate, I’ll end up underneath.

If close combat breaks out, it’ll be hard to endure with an assassin’s weak body.

As I rolled away, Camellia shouted.

“Don’t run away after winning!”

Shut up. Before I tear your mouth.

It’s not like I wanted to run away.

“If it’s just speculation, I have nothing to say, but I’ve watched quite a lot of your matches. Really a lot.”

“So what?”

“I thought you wanted to be a pro.”

“That’s a mental illness. It’s delusion, so go to the hospital. Mental illness meds work well.”

“You’re surprisingly bad at lying. While being good at deception. It’s strange?”

“…”

Come to think of it, Elderin said that too.

That I’m worse at lying than I think.

I had nothing to say when confronted like that.

Should I say it’s natural?

I’ve watched my own match videos too.

Of course, analyzing opponents is important, but reviewing my own matches is crucial too.

Sometimes I had good expressions.

Expressions that seemed both envious of others and joyful.

Was it simply enjoyable to receive attention?

I don’t think that’s it.

I’m an affection-deprived patient craving others’ love, and I strongly feel the desire for recognition, thirsting for victory.

A greedy person dreaming of two things while being unable to do either. That’s me.

So maybe it showed a little.

Perhaps a lot. There are things you learn when crossing blades directly.

“You have everything. You were born with talent incomparable to someone like me. Having everything…”

“Ah, you shouldn’t have said that.”

“At first I thought you were looking down on my dream. But…”

“I can’t do it.”

“You can. You could have gone anywhere.”

“I wish you’d shut up now.”

My head is getting hot.

Rationally, I know I shouldn’t get excited by such words.

Victory will be mine if I just run away until her outburst ends.

But I just can’t hold it in.

Before I know it, my feet are moving forward. I block the incoming spear head-on.

My wrist stings, but the parry itself was perfect.

I kick her side where I had cut earlier – it felt somewhat refreshing.

“Ugh-! Answer…”

“I said I can’t! Don’t spout nonsense when you know nothing! Do you know how many hours, how many years I struggled like an idiot in that damn tank?”

“Tank…?”

“Until my mouth tasted sweet. Until my head felt hot and dizzy! I endured desperately while being told to just give up!”

I shouted as if in a frenzy.

I didn’t know I could shout this loudly.

The time I spent gritting my teeth and moving at the rehab center seemed to be strangling me.

Having everything? What exactly do I have?

I don’t need any of it. I never wanted this damn woman’s body, and I’d be glad if someone took it away right now.

Instead, give me back what I’ve lost.

Our peaceful home. My healthy body. Give them back.

Let me hold a bamboo sword again.

Let me walk on my own legs, not these damn crutches.

Let me wield a sword in reality, not in this stupid game.

Let me look at others without feeling inferior.

─ Give me back my warmth, my dream.

I bit my lip wrong.

I bit too hard, and it bled and hurt.

“Don’t recklessly dig into others’ wounds!”

It stings.

Clearly I have the upper hand.

I’m the one stepping on Camellia’s knee, pushing away the spear shaft, and stabbing a dagger into her nape.

Yet it hurt as if a blade was stabbed into my neck.

But my anger wasn’t fully resolved.

I stomped on Camellia’s fallen head over and over.

Only when her corpse disappeared did I realize her health bar had hit bottom – she had died quite a while ago.

The only place for my lost anger to go was the battlefield.

I turned on the communication I had temporarily shut off.

“Kang Yu-han. Are you there?”

– Yeah, what is it? Are things wrapped up on your end?

“Just tell me where to go now.”

– Still the east gate. But did something happ-

“I’m going.”

* * *

[Title: Ancient Kingdom Territory Siege Battle Broadcast]

[‘Yurang’ is now streaming.]

Yurang thought he had given the wrong title to the broadcast.

It seemed to have become a Gawol broadcast rather than a siege battle broadcast.

It was unavoidable.

The defending side, at a disadvantage, chose a desperately ugly time-stalling strategy, leaving nothing to see on the main battlefield.

The saying “The most anticipated feast has the least to eat” fit perfectly.

The only one providing something to watch was Gawol, carrying out a high-risk operation alone.

“Wow, Player Camellia is still being pushed back. Is this what it means to be Arena Rank 1? The Black Moon buff is still on cooldown, right?”

– Camellia is really good

– They seem to be saying something

– Can’t you turn up the volume?

“No, I can’t. If I broadcast all the sounds during the siege, my channel will be gone. There are many guilds with built-up emotions here.”

He said that, but Yurang felt cold sweat on his forehead.

The conversation flowing between the two was quite deep.

He even felt a strange sense of guilt, as if eavesdropping.

If it weren’t for the broadcast, he would have left them alone.

But turning the camera away from such a fight would kill the channel.

He adjusted so that voices couldn’t be heard and walked a tightrope.

“If Player Reaper or Player Cerberus saw this, they might find it absurd. To have absorbed their specialties to this extent in the meantime.”

Yurang’s specialty was his innate eye for detail.

He could see whose techniques Gawol was imitating.

While there seemed to be quite a bit of arrangement in Cerberus’s specialty, the fact that it formed the foundation was clear.

The fierce battle gradually approached its finale.

Camellia’s desperate struggle. Gawol’s bold re-entry.

And… Gawol’s enraged kicks.

Seeing emotions seep in, he turned the camera away.

Fortunately, it wasn’t too late.

“The expected result… is it right to say this was expected? Player Camellia would be quite prominent in the first division now. Anyway, one-on-one has been proven once again. Shall we look at the east gate for a moment?”

It can’t be helped.

Broadcasting such scenes would make it the center of all kinds of ill omens.

Yurang’s broadcast motto was “slow and steady”. People just didn’t believe it.

Among the four gates, the fiercest battlefield was undoubtedly the east gate.

The place where the alliance’s firepower was concentrated the most.

At the same time, it was the area where the defenders were being pushed back the most.

The gate had long been completely destroyed.

They were barely holding on by pushing in whatever they had prepared, like barricades and such.

“Wow, at this rate they’ll be pushed back? The time now is… There’s not that little time left. Thinking of the main continent’s castle, it seems they’ll be pushed back with about 20 minutes left? Right now, the attacking side’s win rate looks higher.”

Just as Yurang made his cold assessment.

A shadow suddenly poked its head out from behind the east gate.

The shadow flickering at the hem of the clothes was a trace of the Black Moon buff.

A deep black line cut across the battlefield.

There was no hesitation in each movement.

It was understandable. With the enemy’s main force, which had given up on cannons or shaking, pushing in.

The attacking side had essentially admitted defeat in assassin-type battles, and at that point, Gawol had practically completed all his missions.

So even if Gawol died now, it wouldn’t be a big loss.

Rather, at this point, it would be more beneficial to take down even one mage before dying.

‘No. It’s a bit different.’

It’s not a movement based on such calculations.

A rougher and more aggressive appearance than usual was noticeable.

Rather than trying to kill one more, it looked like a nihilist recklessly jumping into the flames.

It wasn’t obvious only because of his skills at their peak.

The movements of riding shadows here and there, using enemy bodies as cover, were rather based on instinctive realms.

As proof, the damage calculations weren’t as clean as usual.

Unlike inflicting precisely the necessary level of damage, sometimes there was excessive firepower.

And sometimes, when the damage was slightly insufficient, unnecessary movements were added.

In other words, to Yurang, it looked more like venting frustration.

Gawol’s venting didn’t stop until the end of the siege battle.

When the defending side won the war by a narrow margin.

Gawol logged out with a blank expression, as if all lingering feelings had disappeared.

* * *

[Author: Anonymous Cross]

[Title: Guild Disbanded]

[Author: ㅇㅇ(810.11)]

[Title: So why hasn’t Gawol been seen lately?]

Has anyone seen him after the siege battle ended?

There used to be people uploading screenshots whenever they saw him

But it’s quiet these days

[Comments]

– Seems he’s just not logging in?

└ How do you know that?

└ Gawol joined our guild as a mercenary before, so we’re friends on the list

└ What the hell, I want to do that too

[Author: Gawol]

[Title: I’ll be taking a break from the game for a while.]

I’ll probably appear as a guest on my sister’s broadcast.

I’m not sure how long I’ll be taking a break.

It’s been fun until now.

[Comments]

– Suddenly?

– ?

– What’s going on

– This isn’t an impersonation