Chapter 23: Battlefield

Having completed the raid, the biggest challenge in Deron Online, there wasn’t much else left to do.

I could farm gold by running dungeons or hunting in the field, but my attention was drawn to the battlefield instead.

The battlefield, a 50-vs-50 player mode, only ends when the opposing faction’s commander NPC is defeated.

Along the way, players can occupy strategic points to summon beneficial buffs or NPCs for their faction—or risk the opposite happening.

With 100 players and numerous NPCs participating, the map was understandably vast.

As a result, in the Deron of my former world, many players would go AFK during battles.

I doubted this place would be any different.

However, that didn’t matter to me.

My goal wasn’t winning or losing the game, but rather earning the honor points and reputation scores with specific factions that could be gained on this map.

Most players would use the tokens awarded after a battle to purchase items, but from the perspective of someone running raids, the battlefield items weren’t particularly appealing.

The area in front of the bulletin board for entering the battlefield was already crowded with people.

Even though the gear available wasn’t quite raid-level, the content still offered high-grade equipment, drawing in a large crowd.

Players appeared and disappeared in an instant as I moved past them toward the bulletin board and began navigating the system.

Which faction to fight for?

That was a decision I’d already made, so there was no hesitation in my selection.

[Faction Selected: Frostwolf Clan]

As soon as I selected the faction and entered the matchmaking queue, a loading screen appeared.

[Matching in progress – Frostwolf Valley]

Once the match concluded, I was greeted by a snow-covered, pristine field.

My breath condensed in the cold air, and the crunching sound of my footsteps echoed beneath me.

The distant shouts of NPCs told me I was indeed on the battlefield.

It was a familiar place, yet somehow unfamiliar at the same time.

Before long, other players began to appear around me.

Encased in light, a total of 50 players, including myself, materialized.

I scanned the group to check their classes.

The average level was in the early 20s, with the lowest being a Level 15 archer.

The archer was met with disdainful gazes.

Was the archer class considered that bad?

Observing their reactions, I tilted my head curiously.

At that moment, a man standing next to me let out a startled shout.

“Y-Yeon is here!”

“Yeon?”

“The Yeon?”

“Who’s that?”

“Isn’t she a streamer?”

“The middle school raid leader…”

I frowned.

I had become far too famous.

Of course, it wasn’t as though I disliked the situation entirely.

When I played Deron in my previous world, this was something I secretly wished for.

But things were different here.

Here, it wasn’t a screen, mouse, and keyboard between me and the other players.

I had to face them directly, as though they were standing before me in real life.

Their gazes were suffocating.

10, 9, 8…

As the countdown to the start of the battle began, the female priest standing next to me cautiously spoke.

“Um… could you show me the sword?”

I nodded and drew the sword from its sheath.

With a soft “swish,” the holy sword was pulled out, scattering a gentle sunlight.

“Wow…”

Voices filled with awe echoed from all directions.

I shrugged my shoulders, receiving gazes filled with envy and jealousy.

At that moment, the paladin standing in the front row sighed and muttered in a low voice.

“Ugh… there are too many archers.”

The one who responded to his voice was the priest player standing next to him.

He nodded in agreement with the paladin’s words but kept his gaze on me.

“Well, with him here, it might still be possible, right?”

“Is that so…?”

I frowned at those words.

Could the number of archers determine the outcome of the game?

It was an incomprehensible statement.

As I was about to speak to clear up my confusion, the transparent barrier blocking the front of the battlefield was lifted.

The battle had begun.

As the transparent barrier vanished, everyone rushed out quickly.

Their eyes, full of determination, disappeared rapidly.

Among them, the first to charge forward were, unsurprisingly, the archers.

I followed closely behind.

Using my speed, I ran with excellent agility over the mountainous terrain.

I quickly dashed across the snow-covered mountains and stopped at a high vantage point where I could look down on the battlefield.

Most of the archer players also began to position themselves near me.

As the paladin had said, there were 15 archers on the battlefield.

It was more than I expected, and it didn’t take long to confirm the paladin’s concerns.

The archers climbed to higher ground and began to aim their bows.

I didn’t rush ahead but instead observed them from the side.

Whizz! Bam! Ping!

With so many archers, the number of arrows shot was also immense.

The sight of arrows raining down like a storm was truly impressive, but their accuracy seemed lacking.

However, the archers’ expressions remained unchanged.

They simply drew new arrows as if they were completely used to this situation.

I wore a blank expression. The barrage of arrows continued, but all I could confirm was their miserable accuracy.

It was then that I realized why the archer class had such a poor reputation.

In this world, all attacks were non-targeted.

This world was different. In Deron here, the difficulty of playing an archer had been made abnormally high.

If most archers were like this, it made sense why the class had been looked down upon all this time.

I wiped my dry face.

At that moment, a short scream came from a not-too-distant place.

“Ugh!”

I turned my head to check the location.

A rogue player, gradually becoming clearer in the distance, had plunged a dagger into the neck of one of our archers.

It’s a rogue!

The archer players screamed and began scattering in all directions.

They didn’t even think about fighting and ran away first?

With so many people here?

At that moment, a flash of white light shot toward the rogue player.

The lowest-level archer fired an arrow at the rogue.

But it missed. Showing the dismal accuracy, the archer bit his lip and notched a new arrow.

Thwack!

Of course, no new arrow was shot.

The newly appeared rogue, blurred at first, had already plunged a dagger into the neck of the low-level archer.

I sighed. This battlefield would be incredibly difficult to win.

It was the moment I agreed with the paladin’s words.

The rogues’ eyes turned toward me. It seemed odd to them that a melee unit was standing among the archers.

The rogues didn’t approach. They just stared, trying to gauge my intentions.

It seemed like they recognized the holy sword I was holding.

It couldn’t be helped. The effect of the holy sword, glowing with sunlight, was too dazzling to miss.

Step, step, step.

The sound of footsteps carried through the cold wind, getting closer.

The rogue had a stealth skill to hide his appearance, but he couldn’t hide his footsteps.

Step—

Right now.

I swung my sword toward my back.

As the sword swung quickly, a pillar of golden light imbued with divine power shot up.

The golden sword strike tore into the rogue’s chest as he approached.

Since his form was transparent, I couldn’t aim for his head. But now that his stealth had been broken, the situation was different.

I immediately spun my body and swung my sword.

Swish!

The golden trail cutting through the air decapitated the rogue. At that moment, other rogues began jumping into the fray from all directions.

There were too many. It seemed like there were more rogue players than archers on the opposing side.

I quickly started running down toward the valley.

Swoosh!

I slid down the snow-covered valley, almost like skating.

The rogues chasing me behind used stealth again to hide their forms.

But hiding their appearance didn’t make their footsteps disappear.

As I ran down the valley, I steadily reduced the number of rogues.

The light leather-armored rogues were vulnerable to critical hits no matter where I struck.

When I had slain seven rogues while descending the valley, those who had been following me suddenly changed direction and ran off elsewhere.

It seemed like they had decided to deal with the respawned archers rather than me, who was harder to handle.

I began to follow the path.

As I encountered and decapitated a wizard and a warlock, I reached the first guard tower of the enemy’s side.

If I captured this area, the respawn points for my team would be changed.

It meant that we could turn the battle in our favor.

I stopped breathing and surveyed the area.

Apart from myself, I couldn’t see any other players from my side’s faction.

At this time, I should have already arrived here, but where could they have gone?

As I moved cautiously and entered the guard tower, something unexpected happened.

Suddenly, a multitude of players dropped down from above, and an overwhelming number of skills were unleashed.

Just before the first skill hit my body, my field of vision expanded, and I saw the interior of the guard tower with both eyes.

My mind went blank.

It was a trap.

I swung my sword.

As I sliced through a fast-flying ice orb, a massive firestorm following it directly struck my body.

The powerful impact caused my vision to waver, but I didn’t back down and swung my sword again.

A sunlit cloak spread out behind me, enveloping my body, but even so, I couldn’t prevent my rapidly depleting health.

I used the paladin’s healing skill to endure and kept holding on.

However, I had no way to withstand the countless long-range attacks flying at me from all directions.

I couldn’t move forward.

I was being pushed backward endlessly.

Eventually, I slammed the holy sword into the ground and collapsed.

“Wow… how long did you last?”

“About 10 seconds?”

“Did you see him deflecting everything coming at him? Crazy…”

Through the blurry vision, I could hear the voices of the enemy team.

After a short loading time, my vision began to clear.

The respawn point was the same location as before the loading, and many other players were already waiting there, just like me.

It seemed that all the players who had charged ahead earlier had fallen into the trap.

“Ah… what should we do? Should we just defend like this?”

“I think we should charge. All the guard towers ahead must have been captured by now.”

“Since the respawn zone has changed, the enemy’s reinforcements will arrive faster. It might be better to give up this round and start a new one.”

Veteran players of the battlefield were exchanging opinions.

I agreed with their suggestion.

But I didn’t want to lose.

“I’ll block.”

“What?”

“I’ll block everything.”

The hopeless gazes of the other players turned toward me.

With a confident expression, I rested my sword on my shoulder.

“I’ll block the front. You guys just focus on capturing the enemy commander. The respawn point is far, so they won’t be able to get there in time.”

“No, Yeon… even so…”

“Didn’t you want to give up anyway? Just trust me for now.”

Whether we win or lose, it’s going to end the same way.

The players nodded.

I turned my body and spoke to the players trying to leave the respawn area.

“Only three healers stay behind.”

I couldn’t hold out alone.

But with three healers, it would be a different story.

After the players left, I stood on the large bridge with the three healers.

To enter the area where our commander NPC was located, we had to cross this bridge.

“Can you really block… really?”

I nodded at the healers’ question.

Then I took out the shield I hadn’t been using.

Time passed.

At that moment, red usernames began to appear in the distance.

I took a deep breath and drew my sword.

“They’re coming.”

The enemy players flinched when they saw me, but they didn’t stop charging.

The first clash was with a knight holding a massive shield.

The huge shield attempted to shake my body, but the strength stat from the items I wore made a huge difference.

The knight who charged toward me was the one who was pushed back.

I shoved his body off the bridge and swung my sword.

Boom!

A powerful shockwave exploded. The paladin following the knight’s charge couldn’t withstand the impact and was pushed off the bridge.

At the moment when the melee classes that had been charging ahead hesitated, long-range attacks from the enemy side began flying toward us.

I raised my shield and sword.

Behind me, three healers were there to support me.

As long as I could endure, I could keep holding on until the healers’ mana ran out.