Chapter 32: Alliance Battle

After entering the underground labyrinth, I immediately started running toward the center.

At this point, even the oblivious players would have realized it.

That the boss monsters respawn in a clockwise order. And that nothing had spawned in the center yet.

[Malang Chewy Cow] Alliance – [I’m heading to the center. Please update me on the location if you spot any hostile alliances.]

After sending the message to the alliance guild leaders, a reply came quickly.

[Cheonpung] Jihak – [The Ssing Ssing guys are running from 12 o’clock to the center. We’ll stall them, so please take your position.]

[Malang Chewy Cow] Alliance – [Can you hold on?]

[Cheonpung] Jihak – [We can’t hold for long.]

Jihak from the Cheonpung guild, one of the leaders in our alliance, responded.

Cheonpung’s guild had fewer than 100 members.

Even the people they brought along barely made up 70, so their help wouldn’t be significant.

At most, they would delay for a minute?

As we exchanged information, we finally arrived at the altar in the center.

Other guilds had already taken positions there and immediately became wary when they saw us.

We were outnumbered for now. We had to wait and push the enemies back once our alliance arrived.

During that wait, the first guild to show up was [Requiem].

Led by the guild master “Jejeongshin,” who was known for his preference for PvP, Requiem consisted of hardcore killers.

I exchanged glances with Jejeongshin from a distance.

Together, our guild and Requiem had around 300 people. That was more than enough to push the other guilds occupying the center back.

“Let’s attack. Push them out!”

We needed to secure the position inside quickly for better defense.

So, I drew my sword and joined the charge.

As my Sunlight Sword was drawn, it lit up the dark surroundings, and priests’ buffs showered over me.

Immediately, the golden glow from my sword began to stretch out.

Our guild and Requiem’s guild were fighting side by side.

I rushed in and scattered the enemy’s tank line.

The buffs and potions surrounding me kept me alive.

Even when my health dropped, I held on.

With massive healing coming from behind, I would never die.

The white-hot pain in my head began, and numerous diagonal lines flashed across my vision.

Following my instincts, my body began to move, and my rapidly depleting health started to stabilize.

I had shaken the enemy’s tank line significantly.

This opened the path for other melee classes to charge in easily.

As a result, the enemy front line collapsed, and they couldn’t withstand the pressure from Requiem, ultimately being wiped out.

When the last enemy fell, we stopped attacking.

Though we were technically allied, there was no formal alliance system in place, so Requiem members’ names were highlighted in red.

A large-scale skill would result in a catastrophe.

[Jejeongshin]

The guild master of Requiem. He seemed like an older middle-aged man from his tone, but his skills were no joke.

Jejeongshin, dressed in a mage’s signature red robe, chuckled and approached.

“Wow~ It’s my first time seeing you fight in person, and you’re amazing as expected.”

“Nice to meet you. It’s my first time seeing you in person as well.”

When we formed an alliance, we had to avoid direct contact, so we had only exchanged messages up to this point.

Jejeongshin approached, scanned me with a slightly subtle smile, and took a step back.

“You made yourself smaller than I expected.”

“This is the same height as my real-life height.”

“Ah, yes. That was the setting, right? I understand. It’s a role-playing game, after all. We have a few people in our guild who play like you, too.”

His words were honest and sincere, but I didn’t believe him.

I crossed my arms and tilted my head sideways.

“Tsk…”

“Let’s get into position first. But which guild should take the first loot from the central boss?”

The first loot was important. Since I couldn’t guarantee that I’d get the next loot, I also wanted to claim the loot for myself.

Other guild leaders in the alliance, including Jejeongshin, were probably thinking the same.

“Let’s just let those who can land the final blow take the loot.”

“Hmm… alright, I’ll go with that.”

The central altar had four entrances.

I decided to position myself at the 6 o’clock entrance.

Requiem took the 12 o’clock position, seemingly trying to stay out of each other’s attack range.

As we waited at the entrance, our alliance began arriving one by one.

Of course, it wasn’t just alliance guilds. Just like us, other guilds were also heading toward the center.

It was important to secure a spot first. Being in a position where you could look down from above provided a huge advantage in defense.

To reach the altar, you had to climb stairs, but if a tank line with large shields was guarding the entrance, it would be difficult to break through.

We attacked the other guilds to warn them and only allowed our alliance guilds to enter.

Soon, the inner part of the altar was filled with members of our alliance.

“Where are the Ssing Ssing guys?”

I could hear the murmurs of our guild members.

It was true. I couldn’t see any Ssing Ssing guild marks.

Could they have fled the area? Just as I thought this, a massive vibration began spreading from behind me, and a large magic circle appeared.

The last king of the giants, [Chronos], had respawned.

[KHRAAAAAAAK!]

With Chronos’ roar, the raid began.

Melee characters didn’t approach. Aside from the tanks who would briefly take aggro, all the damage dealers focused on long-range attacks.

Since the alliance system wasn’t fully implemented yet, this was the only choice.

With hundreds of damage dealers focusing their fire, the boss’s health began to drop quickly.

To be honest, I still didn’t know the boss’s patterns. In the world I was from, this boss would die in 10 seconds, so I never had a chance to see his attack patterns.

The only thing I had seen was his wide-area attack where he slammed the ground with his enormous fists.

At that moment, players who had been observing from below the altar began rushing in all at once.

It seemed like they were trying to take advantage of the chaos.

“20 mages, guard the entrance! The rest, take turns planting land mines in front of the stairs!”

Since another alliance guild was handling Chronos’ tanking, we directed all our tanks to block the entrance.

I began setting up mines behind them.

Other guild members were the same. As soon as their skill cooldowns were ready, they began planting mines at the entrance of the stairs.

Just as the boss’s health dropped to 50%, I began to see the signature windmill guild mark of Ssing Ssing from afar.

“Ssing Ssing is coming!”

The Ssing Ssing guild began to gather. However, they were also in an alliance.

Next to Ssing Ssing’s guild mark, there were two more guild marks I hadn’t seen before.

At a glance, it seemed like their numbers exceeded 500. The Ssing Ssing alliance, moving swiftly, started charging toward the stairs.

But the number of people who could climb the stairs was limited.

They quickly split into four groups and began to breach the entrance.

A faint sunlight surrounded everyone here.

Every single person had used the “Taechuk” buff.

It was a broken doping item that reduced damage taken by 30%, and everyone, friend or foe, had used it.

And so, the battle began.

It was a fight between those trying to break through and those trying to stop them. Magic flew from all directions, and healing spells poured down on the tank line holding their ground.

Area spells from the mages fell onto the tanks, but they had to use their survival skills to hold out.

The moment the tanks gave way, the line would collapse, and the damage dealers doing the raid would be exposed.

When the boss’s health dropped to 20%, a simultaneous scream and cheer came from the 3 o’clock direction.

“It’s breached!”

“It’s breached!”

One side of the entrance had been broken through.

I immediately drew my sword and focused on the 3 o’clock entrance.

As news of the breach spread, those who were attacking other directions started to rush out and gather at the 3 o’clock entrance, planning to push in.

The boss’s remaining health was 15%. When the hostile alliance began entering, the speed at which the boss’s health was depleting slowed.

Now was the time to strike.

I drove my holy sword into the ground and shouted.

“Everyone, get your bombs out!”

The special bombs that could be crafted with magical engineering had fixed damage that ignored defense. However, their damage was minimal.

They weren’t extremely helpful, but in this underground maze, the situation was different.

All respawning bosses here had low health but high defense.

That meant bombs could be highly efficient.

The reason the boss in another world, Deron, died in 10 seconds was precisely because of this.

The fixed damage from the bombs was affected by any buffs that increased stats.

So, the [Sun God’s Sanctuary] buff activated by my holy sword also boosted the bomb’s damage.

“Throw them all at the boss!”

The guild members faithfully followed my orders.

They pulled out the magical engineering bombs I had gifted and threw them at the boss.

As nearly 100 people threw their bombs at once, the explosion effects overlapped, creating an enormous sound.

Boom!

The moment the bombs exploded, the boss’s remaining health, about 10%, disappeared in an instant.

When the massive giant’s corpse fell to the ground, a message appeared in the underground maze, visible to all.

[‘Malleable Chewy Cow’ guild has defeated Chronos.]

Looting rights were confirmed.

But there was no time to check it now.

I immediately pulled my holy sword out of the ground, ran, and shouted.

“Let’s go down to the altar and hit Ssing Ssing from behind!”

We had defeated the boss. Now, the only thing left was to push out the hostile alliance that had infiltrated the area.

The front line was being solidly held by the Requiem guild.

I exchanged glances with Jejeongshin, then leapt off the altar with my guild members.

We weren’t the only ones jumping. Other alliance guilds also leapt down and began pushing back the Ssing Ssing alliance.

In an instant, the enemy’s middle line was broken.

Melee characters without support from healers and ranged players began to fall one by one.

With the situation turning that way, the enemy’s main force started to retreat.

I smiled as I hung my holy sword over my shoulder.

It was a great victory.