Ali was a very precious existence to Minhyuk. He was the one who never turned his back on Minhyuk, willingly taking the risk of sacrificing everything when everyone else disdained him back in Beas Village.

He had taken on the task of stopping the enemies from retreating.

On the event of Berdk’s successful recapture, the players of Asgan Continent were all tasked to annihilate all of the retreating enemies. Minhyuk had already driven out all of the players from Cairon Continent, and captured Commander Arohan alive inside Berdk Castle. However, despite standing with Mei Wei on the ramparts, Minhyuk was still very restless. This was because he could see that his friend, Ali, was in danger of being logged out.

That was when Mei Wei offered a solution, “I have the ability to fly.”

Just like that, she sent a buff to Minhyuk.

[Archangel’s Wings.]

[The Archangel’s wings will grow on your shoulder blades and allow you to fly in the sky at high speed.]

Flap—

Huge white wings sprout out of Minhyuk’s back, which allowed him to fly! Mei Wei also continued to give him buffs while he was on his way to save Ali.

[God’s Bestowed Abilities]

[Increases all skill levels by +2.]

[God’s Weapons]

[Increased the physical attack power by 20% and the critical hit rate by 40%.]

[God’s Shield]

[Increases the physical and magical defense by 30%.]

Minhyuk flew quickly, while dispelling all of the incoming attacks with the help of his mixer and bowl. Then, he flew up. They were already in a situation where most of their enemies were on the verge of successfully retreating. However, Minhyuk never had intended to keep even a single one of them alive.

“Berserk.”

With his words, the figure of a demon appeared above his head before being sucked inside his body.

[Berserk]

[All abilities will be increased by 16% and all stats would have a +2 increase.]

[Your HP will decrease by 3% per second. By the end of the skill, your HP will fall below 10% while your defense will fall below 20%.]

[Ellie’s Swordsmanship has temporarily reached the Pinnacle.]

[Ellie’s Swordsmanship’s cooldown has decreased by 30%.]

[You can temporarily use the evolved Ellie’s Swordsmanship.]

[Chapter 8. Sword Like Lightning.]

Even though he did not utilize the buff effect from ‘Let’s Have a Meal’, he was still able to temporarily reach the Pinnacle, thanks to Mei Wei’s buff.

[Sword Like Lightning]

[Several sword lights akin to lightning strikes will fall from the sky, dealing 400% damage to your enemies.]

The moment Minhyuk swung his sword down, more than fifty gigantic sword lights were created, shooting towards the enemies that were attacking Ali from below.

Shwaaaaaaaaa!

Spine-chilling and electrifying thunderbolts and lightning sword strikes fell upon the Cairon Continent forces.

Ping, ping, ping, ping, ping—

The lightning sword strikes devoured more than a hundred enemy troops, which either rendered them immobile or killed them.

‘Ho? It feels quite nice to be able to fly in the sky, huh?’

The biggest advantage of flying in the sky was being able to avoid attacks from melee players. However, it also made Minhyuk an easy target for archers and mages.

“Ali! Please make sure to kill the troops that are further away.”

“Alright!” Ali answered, stepping up to support Minhyuk.

Hundreds of energy bolts appeared around Ali. The hundreds of sparking energy bolts looked like raindrops frozen in time as they floated in the air. Then, these energy bolts flew and attacked the archers and mages that were trying to target Minhyuk.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

“Keheok! Wh…what kind of energy bolts are those?!”

“Keuaaaaaack!”

“A…aaaaaaaaaaaack!”

The players that tried to attack Minhyuk all screamed in pain. Then, an oven timer started to ring loudly in the air.

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick—

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

The enemies that stepped foot within a twelve meter radius of Minhyuk were all swept away like autumn leaves on a windy day. However, the number of enemies left were still around two thousand.

Shwaaaaaaaaaa—

Most of the Chinese players who were outside of the range were not even affected by these AOE attack skills. One of them shot a spear that tore through one of Minhyuk’s wings. With one wing torn, Minhyuk naturally lost his balance and fell down to the ground. The enemies took this opportunity to flock to where he was.

Spearman Everon, the number one player in China’s Spearman Rankings, was the one that shot the spear at Minhyuk earlier. He firmly believed that Minhyuk would be killed by his spear right then and there.

‘Only through that will we be able to relieve some of the public’s dissatisfaction and criticisms.’

The current situation that the Chinese were in was very bad. Minhyuk had prevented them from retreating, which left them with only one choice, to flock towards him. However, it could also be considered to be a potential turnaround for them.

‘How can he kill us by himself…’

Everon did not know how Minhyuk would be able to kill them when they had the advantage with just their numbers. However, he did not care about that. With plenty of enemies, Minhyuk would definitely show a gap, and Everon was targeting that gap. After a moment, Everon finally saw a gap, and he prepared another spear with a powerful force.

[Phoenix’s Spear]

[The Phoenix will devour your enemy’s entire body as your spear pierces through them.]

Shwaaaaaa—

‘Critical hit!’

Everon’s spear flew sharply towards Minhyuk, passing through the gaps between the troops. The part that he was targeting was the pit of Minhyuk’s stomach. Once the Phoenix’s Spear pierced through that part, it would break Minhyuk’s ribs and penetrate deeper. And it would not end there, a huge phoenix would appear and cover his entire body to turn him into ash.

However, Everon finally noticed that there was something strange after he stabbed his spear through.

Clang!

One of the Chinese players slammed his hammer on Minhyuk’s back.

Vwoooooong!

The hammer struck uselessly on the ground. However, Everon believed that his attack should have been successful. He carefully looked at Minhyuk’s location and movement as he stabbed forwards. However, the sound that he expected to hear did not ring in his ears.

Claaaaaaang—

“…?!”

‘That’s impossible.’

Everon’s Phoenix’s Spear would temporarily increase his attack power by four hundred percent. With his insane speed, it was impossible for him not to pierce through Minhyuk’s stomach. There was only one possibility, and that was if Minhyuk’s defense was enormous.

‘H…how high is his defense…?’

Just as the thought crossed Everon’s mind…

[Physical Damage Reflection! Returns triple the damage received.]

“Kuhaaaaaaack!”

Pain suddenly bloomed in Everon’s chest. He felt as if his ribs had been broken and crushed. The worst part was that this damage made his full HP go down to zero in an instant.

‘Wh… what the…!’

This was something that was witnessed by the other Chinese players and commentators.

[H…how high is his defense for him to fail to pierce through his chest?]

[Hundreds of players have been trying to attack Player Minhyuk, but he either avoids or blocks their attacks.]

[The Cairon Continent players continue to send their attacks to the ground.]

[Ho? What in the world is that armor?]

[There are more players being forced to log out than players successfully landing an attack on him!]

The amount of defense would depend on the damage the enemy’s attack dealt. However, if the player’s defense was leagues higher than the enemy’s attack, there would not be any direct damage, instead, it would only shave off some of the player’s armor’s durability.

The Monarch’s Armor was also an armor with a special ability that increased Minhyuk’s evasion rate by three hundred percent. That was on top of various factors, like the enemy’s level and attack, Minhyuk’s own defense, HP volume and level, all added up together. With Minhyuk’s increased evasion rate, normal players would not be able to pierce through his body.

Stab!

“Ugh!”

However, it was also true that Minhyuk could not stop all of the attacks that came his way. An arrow sent by the Chinese rankers, flew over Minhyuk’s shoulders.

Physical damage reflection was a skill that would only be triggered by chance. Besides, having a high defense did not mean that Minhyuk would be invincible, the same way a high evasion rate would not allow him to avoid everything that came his way.

Attacks continued to be unleashed on Minhyuk. Most of them had been avoided, but some still dug into his flesh. Minhyuk did not hesitate to use the Fluttering Sword that he ‘saved’ before.

Shwaaaaaa—

Minhyuk and Ali had successfully eliminated the enemies that blocked them upfront.

‘But, there’s still around 1,800 people left.’

Minhyuk’s vision was slowly turning dark. It seemed like he was getting exhausted. Just then…

[Jeffrit’s Net]

[A red net will penetrate through the ground and drag in everything hostile within an eight meter radius.]

Dozens of enemy troops flocking in front of Minhyuk were suddenly trapped inside a red net. When the man that sent over the net leaned back, the enemy troops were dragged back towards where he was. The man was none other than Locke, who had just finished transferring to a High Class. And it was not just him. There was also another man that was flying through the sky.

[Giant’s Consecutive Kicks]

[The Giant’s gigantic feet will continuously attack the enemies. Kicks have an additional 600% attack power.]

Khan’s feet, which became huge, split into dozens of images as he kicked away the enemies surrounding Minhyuk. And there was more. Informant Abel had continued to work as an informant for Let’s Eat Sect, but he still remained an outstanding assassin. He moved like a ghost, reaping the lives of the enemies in front of him, with a swift jab to their vital points.

The guild members of Let’s Eat Sect had quickly organized the situation in Berdk and joined the fray. Even Alicia, Carr and Ruwan also joined them. Of course, Aruvel and Conir were also among them. Aruvel swung his huge spear.

[Demonic Dragon’s Spear Arts Chapter 5]

[Exploding Spear.]

Huge explosions swept away the enemy troops as Conir dashed forward with his sword with a scream. Just when Aruvel was about to cut down the enemy…

“By any chance, are you Aruvel? The author of ‘Why Did the Prince Go Out Tonight’???”

“…?”

Aruvel pulled his spear back for a moment, as he looked at the foreigner that was staring at him with a twinkle in his eyes.

“That’s right?”

“I’m, I’m your fan! Please give me your autograph!”

“Ho?” Aruvel hummed in interest as they briefly stopped their fight to sign the paper that was handed out to him by the excited foreigner.

“I, I’m truly in awe of your ingenuity!”

“Really? Thank you. But…”

Aruvel looked at the man suspiciously. His works had only been distributed in Asgan Continent, so how could this man read them?

“…how did you get your hands on my book?”

“Pirate site…”

Stab!

Aruvel swiftly pierced the man’s neck. He clicked his tongue and said, “I don’t know what pirate site means, but I don’t feel good hearing it.”

Then, he turned around and continued to swing his spear as the members of Let’s Eat Sect and the Korean rankers dashed forward to help! Because of this, the retreating Cairon Continent players went further on the defensive. Furthermore, the gates of Berdk opened as Asgan troops came out in droves to kill the Cairon players and troops.

One of the Chinese commentators sighed and lamented…

[Th… they have been wiped out.]

China, and the Athenae players from all over the world, were left in shock.

***

Sword Emperor Ellie was smiling in satisfaction. She said, “Minhyuk will like this.”

“Yes. He will definitely like it,” Ruth answered as he showed a warm smile, after seeing Ellie’s expression.

Placed in front of Ellie were raw beef ribs, an ingredient that she gathered after asking Ruth to inquire about it. It was the meat of the deep sea cow living ‘deep’ under the sea, a very, very, very precious meat. According to the legends, the texture and juices of the meat were extremely excellent.

“I’ll give it to the rascal once he learns the Pinnacle.”

“You look pleased.”

“Do I look that happy?”

“Yes. Whenever you talk about Minhyuk, you always smile.”

Ellie smiled a bit after hearing his words and said, “I see.”

For some reason, Ellie always felt energized whenever he thought about the rascal, Minhyuk. She was looking forward to the day of his return after learning the Pinnacle.

***

‘Black Dragon Order’ was a group built by dark gamers. They were currently in the middle of a discussion.

“Hu Yitian, that bastard, kept on acting up, but he ended up like that.”

“It seems like Player Minhyuk is much stronger than we thought. We can see it during Berdk’s recapture.”

However, there was a small smile on the member of Black Dragon Order that said those words. Minhyuk might be strong, but for them, he was still considered to be weak.

Plenty of the members of their group had awakened to full Pinnacle, completely different from Hu Yitian, who was like a wriggling worm to them. They were actually hiding in the Continent Cloud to try and find another Pinnacle Skill. In other words, their continent still had not shown their real colors.

Then, Belleck suddenly came inside. Belleck was the man in charge of collecting information for Black Dragon Order. He smiled in delight as he said, “We found where Ellie is hiding!”