Chapter 128 - Argardo Raid (3)

8.

- Retreat!

The order for retreat came from the front line, and Chiroro had heard it through the Voice Talk. Chiroro frowned as he looked to his side. Apollo was standing next to him.  When the Raid started, it sounded as if he was constantly eating something.  This was a first time since the start of the Raid where he wasn't eating anything.  In fact, Apollo threw his food aside as he yelled out.

“I knew this would happen.  This is what you get for putting shitty people in the front.  This is the end result! Hoong!”

Chiroro couldn't help, but let out a bitter laugh as he looked at Apollo.  He had the same feeling as Apollo except it was in regards to Apollo.  On top of it all, Chiroro was thinking about something else.

‘Why was Sinclair-nim interested in a bastard like Apollo?’

The thought of the Big Smiles guild participating in the Argardo Raid was already gone from his mind.

This wasn't happening only with Chiroro.

Most Warlord fans wouldn’t even remember the Big Smiles guild's defeat.  There was no space inside their heart and mind to care about the Big Smiles guild.

9.

After Agardo appeared, there were always a thousand to two thousand Users around the Havanz castle.  Half of them were spectators.  This was obvious, but it was hard to see the action from outside. What one was able to see from outside the Havanz castle was much inferior to what one  could see from purchasing the live ticket.

Despite this fact, people gathered around the Havanz castle.  This was like watching a baseball game from the far bleachers where one could barely see anything.  The Users just wanted to be there. In truth, they wanted to be part of history.

If one wanted to speak more bluntly about this, it was possible to see a live broadcast inside Warlord.  The Users were watching it live after positioning themselves near the Havanz castle.

In others words, the number of people gathered around the Havanz castle was a measure of the interest level, popularity, anticipation and ability of the teams attempting the Raid.

Currently, there were almost 6 thousand Users around Havanz castle, and about 5 thousand of them were spectators.  There were a good number of Users, who hadn't even reached level 100, present here. They had risked their lives to come to the castle.  This Raid had the power to draw them there.

“Did you get familiar with the plan?”

The group was wearing helmets with horns that reminded one of a bull's horns.  The group had a lot of power.

One million seventy nine thousand live tickets were sold.

Seven hundred twelve members were participating in the Raid.

The average level for the Users participating in the Raid was 161.

The Red Bulls were ready for the Argardo Raid, and there were numerous ways they could have decorated themselves.

“I am well-acquainted with it.”

His subordinate didn't speak any further.  When he heard his leader’s words, he didn't give any excuses.  He didn't ask for more time to conduct an inspection.

Their confidence was top notch.

Chev's mouth looked like a crescent moon when he heard the other's answer.

“Battle.”

The crescent moon revealed white chiclets attached to it, and he spoke in a low voice.

“Start!”

10.

It was a massive battle where a large force was going up against a large force.  The most important group in the fighting force was the magicians.  The winner or loser in a large scale battle swung on whether a group had an effective magical power system.

So what did it mean to have an effective magical power system?

First, one had to apply the magic at the right location.  The powerful magical spells exacted an equal price.  It consumed an incredible amount of magical power, and the cool time was long.  It would be a big waste to use a big magic on a small target.

However, the more important aspect was accuracy.  Magic didn't differentiate between allies and enemies.  If one used a magic with low accuracy near a comrade, it was the most effective form of betrayal.

Of course, one needed practice to increase the accuracy of magic. Ballista Hatch from the Stormhunters was able to accurately throw long range magic on the move, yet this wasn't a common skill. Most people couldn't do what Hatch could do.

As the distance increased, the target movement increases and the magician's movement increases, the accuracy of the magic decreased.

The method devised to solve this problem was target designation.

“Monsters are entering the F11 region! Fire!”

“Fire!”

On the stage of a battlefield, target areas were drawn. The magicians practiced throwing magic to target designation beforehand.  After several hours of practice, one could achieve very high accuracy at throwing magic to the target designations.

The only thing left was for the Tankers to lure the monsters to the target designation.

At the same time, the magicians had to control the attribute of the attack magic.  The wrong attribute could damage the Tankers significantly.

F meant Fire.  The Tankers luring the monsters to this target designation had fire resistance setting.

“The Monsters in F11 region is in a critical state!  Strikers!”

On top of it all, the Strikers were tirelessly running around the stage, and they prevented the waste of magic.

The monsters with low HP was called low blood. One needed to do a little more damage to kill it, so magic wouldn’t have to be used again.  These low bloods were the responsibility of the Strikers. This was not an insignificant role.

Moreover, Red Bulls' Strikers were faster and better than any other group of Strikers. They were like ghosts at finding weaknesses of the weakened monsters.  They used a suitable combo skill to kill it in one blow.  They symbolized the Red Bulls.  The Strikers were the horns of a bull.

They moved with indescribably sophisticated movements.

Red Bull's sophisticated non-stop movements gave them a disparate sense of beauty. This was the reason why there were so many Red Bulls fans. If one looked under the hood of the Red Bulls guild, one wouldn't be able to find a more finely tuned machine.  The result that came out of this sophistication was unbelievably rough and harsh.

“The castle wall has fallen!”

It had been 18 minutes since the battle had started, and the Red Bulls had taken down the castle wall that had been barely repaired by the Cement Worms.

When the castle wall fell, elite troops appeared.

It was the Primary Raid team, which consisted of Chev and the best Users of Red Bulls.  They stepped over the fallen wall.

This elite troop was the most important amongst their forces.  They should have felt some burden on their shoulder as they were inserted into face Argardo.  However, none of them felt a sense of burden, since they didn't have a reason to feel such pressure.

“This is only the warm up. Don't over do it.”

“Yes!”

This was the warm up.  No one in this world would feel overwhelmed from doing a warm up.

11.

Hatch was on standby near the Havanz castle. If the Red Bulls guild lost, it would be time for the Stormhunters guild to step forward.  Hatch and the other officers was nearby as they surveyed the current situation.

On the other hand, it would be understandable if Hatch felt offended at doing the grunt work.  However, Hatch loved this assignment.  He was finally alone. Hahui was always tormenting him, so Hatch was thankful of any assignment that guaranteed his separation from her.

‘It does feel a little bit lonely without that endlessly chattering girl.’

Hatch felt an unknown sadness.  However, that sadness disappeared when the Red Bulls' battle started. A sound could be heard as Hatch watched the battle occurring in front of him.  The sound was background noise coming from the Hologram monitor.  He had purchased the live broadcast.

Endless reaction was being written in the chat window below the live footage.

- As expected of the Red Bulls! They are incredibly fast!

‘If they can't do something of this level, they should just fold.’

- Big Smiles can't even hold a candle to them.

‘They deserve to be shut down. How are they still holding out? I think Fighters guilds is better than them.’

- Is it really ok to bring out the primary raid team so fast?  What if they receive damage?

‘They can't be afraid of their elite troop taking damage. Then there’s no point in having an elite troop. In the Corrupted Count Raid, do you guys realize the Hydra guild had held back Sohank, and their raid turned to shit?’

- Do you think they'll be able to catch Agardo?  Truthfully, all the other guilds reached this point.

‘This guy knows how to watch this game.  Argardo is a troublesome opponent. Its small stature is the most troublesome part. Only four Users can attack it at once. However, only two can can attack it during a close battle. One has to attempt an Armor Break, while the other attacks. This is the best method, and there is no way one could get magical support.’

- I think they’ll be able to do the Armor Break.  However, will their attack work after the Armor Break?  It has yet to take any damage.  Maybe we aren’t suppose to catch it.  Maybe there is some other method to clear it.

‘Yes.  An invincible monster sometimes means there is something else going on.  It is a storyline seen often in games.  This guy also knows a little bit about games.’

- Big Smiles guild was able to reach here.  In truth, I don't see what's so special about the Red Bulls.  In my opinion, they aren't that different from the Big Smiles guild.

‘This bitch has no knowledge about this game.’

Hatch was busily critiquing the live reactions.  In a flash, he was having fun watching the Raid.

‘Big K is better than I thought.  He is someone worth paying attention to.’

At some point, Hatch started to eat a snack.

However, when the fight with Agardo was about to start, Hatch's expression changed immediately.

“Huhk!”

Hatch stood up from his seat.  Surprisingly, there were a lot of Users showing a similar reaction.

12.

After the Primary Raid Team was inserted into the castle, the Tankers created space as they lined up as if they were imitating a castle wall.  When this space was made, the other teams entered.  If one looked down at Havanz castle from the sky, one would see something akin to a red inkblot spreading out on a black piece of paper.

Finally, the Red Bulls' full force started to overwhelm the forces of the Corrupted army.

[Argardo has appeared.]

The White-eyed Knight had appeared.

The black spot was constantly moving on its silver armor, and the Crying Sword was letting out an endless cry.  Argardo's appearance was intense.  It had a small body, but it was letting out a more frightening energy than a dragon.

Everyone watching this live on the broadcast gulped.  The chatting window was scrolling up endlessly as words were being typed.

Everyone had their mouths closed, and their hands had stopped moving.

In this silence, Chev opened his mouth.

"To the viewers watching this live broadcast, I want to apologize first."

Everyone tilted their head in confusion.  Question marks started to fill the chatting window.

“The Red Bulls guild took an easy way out in the Argardo Raid.”

There were a lot of questions being asked.

“The Red Bulls guild will give up the battle opportunity to someone else.”

The number of questions being typed were reaching a climax when the question marks started changing into exclamation marks.

“The Hahoe Mask is going to fight 1on1 with Agardo.”

When he saw Sinclair, Hyrkan became conflicted. Was there really a way where he would be able to participate in the Argardo Raid without any interference from Sinclair?

In truth, he didn't really have to rack his brain to come up with a method.  There was one solution available to him.  There were guilds that Sinclair couldn’t interfere with.  These guilds had too much power behind it.  Sinclair wouldn’t even be able to breathe on them.  At the same time, these guilds would treat this Argardo Raid like it was a life and death issue.  He had a choice of working with one of them, and he only had two guilds he could choose from.  He didn’t even need to think about it.  Hyrkan went looking for Chev.   They met in secret as no one else in the world was aware of this meeting.

Hyrkan gave a proposal.

“I want to participate in the Agardo Raid on a condition.”

“What's the price?”

“I won't ask for any rights to the profit gained from the live ticket and the pay per view videos.”

He just wanted to fight Agardo.

Normally, if a normal User had suggested this, Chev wouldn't even acknowledge that User.

However, the one giving this request was the Hahoe Mask.

“I'll make a decision after I hear these conditions.”

There was no reason to give an immediate rejection.

“You have to provide a 1on1 stage for me in the Argardo Raid.”

“So you want us to take care of the Corrupted army for you?”

“Instead, I'll tell you of a way to kill Agardo.  It won't be a sure-fire method, but I'll let you borrow a tool that'll allow you to pull off this method.”

Hyrkan's proposal was an attractive proposal.  In truth, Chev had alrady made a decision to accept Hyrkan’s proposal.

‘It’s a choice between gaining more profit or gaining less profit.’

This was somewhat of a happy dilemma for Chev.

If Hyrkan failed at the Argardo Raid, the next one to fight it was the Red Bulls.  If Hyrkan was able to take down Argardo's HP into the reds, Argardo would be a fish in troubled waters. Even if that wasn't the case, Hyrkan's failure could be a teaching moment. It was a scenario where the Red Bulls would be able to get the most profit.

Even if Hyrkan was able to succeed in the Argardo Raid, it wasn't as if they would lose anything.  The benefit of defeating Argardo would go to Hyrkan, but the title gained from completing the Raid would be shared by everyone in Red Bulls.  Moreover, all the profit gained from the footage of the Argardo Raid would all go to the Red Bulls.  Hyrkan would be in the footage...  It was going to be a massive amount of profit.

Above all, the Red Bulls guild had a debt accrued against Hyrkan.  In truth, the Red Bulls, Stormhunters and the Hydra guild had come together to prepare a very big present.  They had wanted to bribe him.  However, it seemed that present was unnecessary now.

If this was a proposal given by Chev, Chev would have agreed to everything.

However, this was a request made by Hyrkan to the Red Bulls.

“I don't think that'll be enough.”  

“What's your counter proposal?  I'll hear it out.”

“I want full rights to the live broadcast.  I want you to give me the rights to be able to show your battle on our live channel.  Then I'll provide the best stage for a 1on1 battle.”

Instead of an answer, Hyrkan put forth his hand.  Chev grasped Hyrkan's hand.

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