“2… 1… Open!”

Keu-keung- Keu-keu-keung-!

The sound of boulders scratching against each other rang out.

As the circuit breaker that was blocking one side of the fortress went up, the battleground began to welcome in a new condition.

“What is that?”

“There’s more towers inside!”

“Damn it! No wonder, I was thinking that there were less defensive towers than what we heard from the DarkRuna Guild members!”

Almost all of the guard towers that were along the first line of defense were already in a state where they were destroyed by the Kaimon Empire’s Allied Forces.

The users, who were thinking of fighting in a more relaxed state now, began to run about in confusion after discovering the newly emerging defensive towers.

“Damn it! On top of that they’re elemental towers! Fall back!”

“The back is blocked off as well! I’m telling you, it’s hard to escape!”

And above the heads of the Kaimon users, who didn’t know what to do, the attack of the elemental towers sprayed out.

Hwa-reu-reuk-!

Ba-ba-ba-bang-!

On top of that, each of the Magicians, who had escaped to the back in advance, began to cast the strongest AoE magic amongst the ones they knew.

Whoong-!

The sound of mana vibrations rang out from here and there.

At the constantly pouring AoE magic baptism, the Kaimon Empire Army that was filling up the southeast area of the fortress to the brim turned into black ashes in an instant and crumbled on the spot.

Za-za-zap- Bang!

In the blink of an eye, a tremendous number of thousands of troops evaporated, and the executive members of the Kaimon Allied Forces, who had escaped to the back, wore dazed expressions.

“Ha… How do we have to attack those now?”

It wasn’t as high as the 1st line of defense, but they still had the 2nd line of defense, which was not low at all, and in between the two, there were elemental towers that were commencing fire…

The executive members of the empire army, who lost too many troops to go in and attack immediately, weren’t able to make a decision right away.

However, just then, Ilahan, who returned from the battleground, suddenly sheathed his sword back into place as he opened his mouth.

“Let’s leave it at here for now.”

“Huh? Are you saying let’s step back just like this?”

Ilahan nodded his head as he continued his words.

“The north and west side still haven’t been able to even get through the 1stline of defense. Let’s support those sides first and then get through the 2ndline of defense.”

“Hmm… Would that be better?”

“Of course, there’s nothing that we wouldn’t be able to do if we were to push them on like this, but the damage would be tremendous. Did you not see the destructive power of the AoE towers, everybody? And in about a quarter of a day, we will have to stop the battle… There’s no guarantee that we will be able to get over those ignorant towers by then.”

Even if it was a virtual reality game, it definitely wasn’t like there wasn’t the fatigues of the real world.

And no matter how much of a game cripple they were, they needed to digest the most minimum of their schedule in the real world.

Starving one meal was not that difficult but proceeding through the siege warfare while making all of these people stay up all night was overdoing it.

“Hmm… Then you’re saying that we should at least end today off at a point where we’ve gotten completely through the 1st defensive wall for now, right?”

“That’s right. I’m saying that there’s no need to rush.”

At Ilahan’s words, everybody slowly nodded their heads.

“Whew, now that you mention it, you do have a point, Ilahan.”

“I thought that with a fighting power of over a hundred thousand, it would be possible enough to reclaim the Pyro Domain within today, but I didn’t know that their resistance would be this violent.”

In the end, the executive members of the Allied Forces accepted Ilahan’s opinion, and they began to move quickly.

* * *

Because they were on private mode, it didn’t show on the outside, but Shyakran’s level was around 162, and Ian’s level was 153.

It was a situation where in reality, there was about a 10-level difference between the two.

A 10-level difference was quite a big difference as well, but the general public thought that the two people’s level difference was much greater.

“This crazy! Does Ian have some sort of cheat key? How is he able to fight against Shyakran on equal terms?”

“Since the highest level range that’s been officially made public is around 160, Shyakran’s level is probably about 160, too… I wonder what level Ian is at about.”

“Loren, who is registered as 1st place on the Summoner ranking list right now, is at lv 134.”

“Hul, so then, no matter how high we consider Ian’s level to be at, it’s only at about 140, no?”

“I guess so? Even 140 is really stretching. I think that no matter how high it is, it will only be at about 136.”

Ian was currently almost 20 levels below Shyakran, and on top of that, he was facing him with the Summoner-class, which was considered the weakest class in man-to-man combat if Priests were excluded.

The two people’s battle that was seen by the normal users was interpreted as what was written above, and that called forth an incredible wavelength.

Since it was to the point that the words that the Summoner-class needed to be reanalyzed.

And through this unconditional excitement, the people that were fighting around these two people had completely forgotten about their own battles and were watching the two’s battle while gawking.

Ba-ba-bang-!

The red bundle of sword energy that Shyakran shot out hit Bbakbbak’s body as it was absorbed.

“Whew, is it a short-term invincibility skill this time?”

Ian smirked as he replied.

“Well, you could say that’s the case.”

Shyakran frowned as he gripped his twin swords.

“This part about Summoners is quite fussy. Since the skills that each Familiar has is all different, it takes quite a bit of time just trying to adjust to the battle. There’s also a lot of variables.”

“Huhu, that could definitely be the case.”

Ian rubbed his spear as he fixated his eyes on Shyakran’s movements again.

‘The clone that he’s using, I can’t think of them as clones. It has a fighting power with almost no difference in comparison to the main body.’

Because what Shyakran’s hidden class was hadn’t been revealed yet, he couldn’t find out, but judging from his skills, he felt like it would have some sort of name like the ‘Phantom Warrior’.

Including his main body, Shyakran used a total of five clones, and he didn’t know what kind of conditions applied, but he was almost swapping the position of his main body and his clones freely.

‘Does this mean I’ll only be able to kill him unless I end up eliminating the clones in time?’

Around fifteen minutes had now passed by since the two people’s battle had begun.

Within that time, Ian had succeeded in eliminating two of the five clones, and amongst Ian’s Familiars, Shyakran had succeeded in putting Halli in a state where he was incapable of fighting.

From the outside, it looked like it was a situation where they were even or rather Ian was at an advantage, but Ian was well aware that it was slowly becoming more disadvantageous for him.

‘I have no idea how long the cooldown time is for his clone skill… But once that cooldown is over, the two clones that I struggled to eliminate will be restored again.’

On the other hand, in the case of Halli, who was forcefully withdrawn as all of his Vitality was exhausted, he wouldn’t be able to summon him again until the penalty was over.

He wasn’t able to withdraw him just before he died because of the penalty of the ‘Will of the Selamus Warrior’ skill.

‘It looks like I’ll have to hold out a little more and then depending on the situation, I’ll have to fall back.’

Ian, who had made the decision that it was still impossible to catch Shyakran with just his own strength, organized his thoughts and checked the war situation.

‘Since we put up a good fight just even having defended the 1st defensive wall for almost half a day.’

Bang Ba-bang-!

Ian and Shyakran continued to crash into each other.

To be more specific, as Ian and his Familiars as well as Shyakran and his clones entangled with each other, a party battle-like feeling was displayed.

As the battle persisted, Ian and Shyakran admired each other even more.

‘Those clones… They probably have AI to an extent, but it’s probably at the same level as a Familiar. In the end, in order to show that level of control abilities, it means that the user is letting out a combat battle one by one….’

Ian was surprised at Shyakran’s clone control, and Shyakran was surprised at Ian’s Familiar regulating ability.

As they each were controlling with a similar level of difficulty, they understood the combat abilities of their opponent even more precisely.

“Whew, it’s been a while since I’ve had an entertaining battle like this.”

At Shyakran’s words, Ian also nodded his head as he replied.

“Same goes for me.”

After Ian had checked through the cooldown times and the durations, his expression slightly darkened.

‘In about 2 minutes now, it seems the duration of the Will of the Selamus Warrior will be over. It’s a bit disappointing, but it looks like I’ll have to shelter myself.’

As Ian was thinking of slowly falling back, a message arrived from Herz just in time.

• Herz: Jinsung, the defensive walls to the east and the west have been completely broken through, so I’ve put the 2nd defensive wall into operation. You’ll slowly need to fall back. All of the troops that were stationed at this side have all moved to the west. If you’re hemmed in, it’s dangerous.

At the message that had just arrived at the perfect time, Ian momentarily felt dizzy.

‘Whew, now wasn’t the time for this when I should have been continuously checking the general war situation… This personal battle was so fun that I had gotten too absorbed into it.’

After Ian momentarily left Bbakbbak, Ly and Lake with Shyakran, he quickly escaped to the back.

As he did so, Shyakran shot out his sword energy towards Ian as he shouted.

“Where are you running off to! You should at least finish the battle!”

Ian reflexively twisted his waist and dodged the sword energy before he got on top of Pin with nimble movements.

“If we stay like this, we’ll be hemmed in, so I can’t do that.”

Ian, who had gotten on top of Pin, quickly surged up into the air, and just in time, system messages rang out.

• The duration of the ‘Will of the Selamus Warrior’ skill is now over.

• All effects have disappeared.

Immediately after seeing the system messages, Ian withdrew all of his Familiars excluding Pin.

“Withdraw!”

As he did so, Ly, Bbakbbak, and Lake, who were blocking off Shyakran, turned into white lights and disappeared.

Ian, who had risen to the sky of the battleground in an instant, turned on the Dignity of the Commander effect and began to busily let out commands.

• We will invoke the 2nd defensive wall soon now! Everybody, please escape to the back!

The troops of the Lotus Guild followed Ian’s command and moved in perfect order.

The users of other guilds, who had never coordinated with Ian, were a little confused just in the beginning, but they immediately adjusted and began to move.

Shortly after, all of the 1st line of defense of the Pyro Domain completely opened up, and all defensive troops moved to the inside of the 2nd line of defense.

And naturally, the battle became lull.

“Wow, damn, hasn’t 8 hours passed now since we’ve started this battle?”

“This is insane. What kind of siege warfare goes on for 8 hours? On top of that, it’s not even over.”

The users on either camp who were worn out to the max went limp as they began to take a break, and in the end, the Allied Forces of the Kaimon Empire turned the heads of their horses for now and headed to the campsite.

The users of the Kaimon Empire, who each turned back to the village to repair their equipment, respectively shook their heads as they said something.

“I’m appalled right now. With a military power of over a hundred thousand, how are we not able to get through that defensive fortress when they’ve only got one-tenth of our troops?”

“My point exactly. Seriously, why did they invest so much in the defensive fortress like that? I’ve participated in dozens of siege warfares at this point, but this is my first time with a defensive fortress like this.”

As expected, it was a situation where the atmosphere of the executive team was generally flustered, but still, as there was the result that they had broken the 1st defensive wall, they came to the optimistic conclusion that it would be possible to seize them in a day or two now.

Like that, the first day of the Pyro Domain’s siege warfare passed.

* * *

“It’s already the third day. Samuel.”

The Great Domain of the Oaklan Guild, which was at the far east side of the central continent.

And the two people faced each other inside of the castle of the lord as they shared a conversation with serious expressions.

The two people were Samuel Jin, who was the Guild Master of the Oaklan Guild, and Martin, who was the Guild Master of the Splendor Guild.

“Whew, that’s what I’m saying. This is an unexpected situation.”

Martin slightly frowned.

“No, why exactly are the dimwits of the Kaimon Allied Forces struggling like that when they have ten times the military strength…”

Three days had already passed since the Allied Forces had begun their attack on the Pyro Domain.

On the first day they did get through the first defensive fortress, but the second defensive fortress was still going strong.

And the longer the Pyro Domain lasted, the giant guilds that were the establishment of the Luspel Empire grew more nervous.

Since the profit that the Pyro Domain obtained each day they lasted was enormous.

Through the sturdy defensive fortress, the Lotus Guild was continuously putting up a good fight against enemies that were much bigger in size than them, and the already big war reward was increasing even more.

“Hmm… I saw that on the basis of today, the Lotus Guild had entered the top 20 of the guild rankings.”

The guild ranking system was renewed with every midnight as the beginning point.

And on the basis of today, the Lotus Guild was in 19th place.

“No kidding, I told you that we should have stopped Roy Chen when he said he would help them then, tsk.”

Samuel Jin clenched his fist tightly.

‘Who knew that this would be the case?’

Samuel Jin had put his brain to work in his own way.

When Roy Chen said that he would help the Lotus Guild with the fighting power of the Valiant Guild, pretending that he wouldn’t win was part of his strategy that was planned in his head to be honest.

‘A battle that was hopeless anyways, I was hoping for the Valiant Guild to run in and burn up some of their guild’s fighting power…’

The fighting power of the top 3 guilds of the Luspel Empire were similar. That’s why with even a slight difference, the rankings flipped over right away, so Samuel Jin was hoping that the fighting power of the Valiant Guild would be weakened even the least bit.

However, far from weakening, the Valiant Guild, who had participated in the siege warfare, had instead received a lot of profit and had seized the highest ranking amongst the three guilds.

In Samuel Jin and Martin’s case, it had become the worst situation.

Samuel Jin, who had closed his eyes and was submerged in his thoughts, slightly stared at Martin as he opened his mouth slowly.

“I’ll try to work things out.”

At that, Martin’s two eyes slightly shone.

“Do you have some sort of method?”

Instead of a response, Samuel Jin slightly nodded his head as he closed his eyes.

And his mind began to race.