Chapter 62: Unreasonable Trust

[Party] Sephiroth: Wait.

Sephiroth skidded to a halt mid-run. The others, who were keeping pace with him, stopped as well. I scanned our surroundings, but saw nothing except the maze-like winding corridors and broken statues beyond the railings. However, Sephiroth immediately hurled a Fire Bomb over the railing toward a statue.

BOOM!

With the loud crack of gunpowder, the Fire Bomb exploded, revealing an enemy Ninja who had been using Stealth. The Ninja was frozen stiff; the bomb carried a paralysis effect. Seeing the successful opening strike, the guild members’ excitement spiked.

[Party] Nago-Rang: Oh, wow!

[Party] PpoongPpoongLove: Holy… “How did you know?”

[Party] Sephiroth: Shadow.

While Sephiroth gave his short reply, the chat log zipped upward.

[All] NinjaBuffPls: Oh, a fellow Ninja. Hi hi.

[All] NinjaBuffPls: You clearly know your stuff.

[All] NinjaBuffPls: Here’s a “Bouquet of Welcome” for you.

[Party] Nago-Rang: Every time Ninja does that, he looks like a lunatic…

[Party] PpoongPpoongLove: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Shurikens burst into flames as they flew toward the enemy Ninja. It was the Ninja skill: Flowers That Bloom and Fall in Ten Days. Eleven shurikens scattered like red plum blossoms, targeting the enemy Ninja who was still paralyzed. The enemy, finally breaking free from the stun, moved to dodge, but couldn’t avoid all the fan-shaped projectiles. Moreover, Sephiroth was standing right in front of the path where the Ninja tried to flee.

Hello. With a smirk-infused greeting, Sephiroth’s red axe slammed down with immense force. Even then, the enemy Ninja tried to survive by unleashing Eight Trigrams Phantom Kill. It was a skill that created a whirlwind of blades around the user to deal Area of Effect (AoE) damage, but Sephiroth simply kicked the Ninja upward and swung his axe horizontally. The enemy turned gray and dropped to the floor.

[Party] Sephiroth: I think I’m getting the hang of this.

[Sephiroth has defeated I-Came-Alone.]

“Good shot.”

[Party] NinjaBuffPls: Nice.

[Party] PpoongPpoongLove: Oh, that was good.

[Party] Nago-Rang: Gg.

[All] I-Came-Alone: Fck, seriously.

[All] I-Came-Alone: Why is Sephiroth even here? Dammit;;;;

[All] I-Came-Alone: Ninja’s here too, fck, the matchmaking is trash.

[Party] Nago-Rang: Sephiroth is definitely Sephiroth ㅋㅋㅋㅋ!!!

[Party] Nago-Rang: Sorry for doubting you. I’m a loyal follower now.

With praise and a bit of salt, the kill count went up. The mood of the party brightened instantly with the first kill. We left the Ninja’s corpse behind and kept running.

Judging by the fact that they sent an assassin alone, the enemy team probably didn’t expect all six of us to rush together. They likely thought we’d split 4-2 or 5-1 to defend our Core Castle while attempting an ambush, or split into pairs to guard the three paths. If so, there was a high chance the remaining five were guarding their Core Castle—or three were blocking the path while two ran away with it.

I repeated the 6:6 strategies Sephiroth had taught me in our “crash course” as I moved with my slow steps. Falling behind didn’t feel great. Just as I was wallowing in thoughts of when this trashy debuff would disappear, a chilling sensation ran down the back of my neck.

Danger.

The moment I ducked my head, a figure wielding a spear leaped from the air. I rolled my body to dodge the red-haired warrior trying to pin me down. My “Drunken Roll” (Naryeo-takon) wasn’t far off. Simultaneously, Won-jae hyung cast an AoE buff while Nago-Rang’s Giant charged over. She moved with terrifying momentum, as if intended to tackle him with her whole body. Seong-jin jumped in too, and I could see NinjaBuffPls throwing shurikens from afar.

And Sephiroth… was watching with his arms crossed.

Is he actually insane? Boiling with rage, I scrambled up. The warrior thrust his spear toward my head, but I ducked, used the momentum, and sprang forward. I felt sluggish, but as I moved, it became manageable. I launched a physical attack. Since I couldn’t do damage anyway, I had focused my gear on items with bind or stun options. The warrior, apparently not expecting a low-level like me to act so aggressively, hesitated on his priority and got caught by a stun proc from my items. As soon as he was stunned, Nago-Rang’s Giant slammed into him, and NinjaBuffPls rained down daggers. Seong-jin stood firmly in front of me with his shield.

[NinjaBuffPls has defeated Rei.]

A welcome message popped up, but I barely registered the words. My rage-filled chat filled the window rapidly.

[Party] BlueberryWhiskey: Are you out of your mind?

[Party] BlueberryWhiskey: Why are you just standing there with your arms crossed?

[Party] BlueberryWhiskey: Are you a drill sergeant or something?

Sephiroth, who was still crossing his arms and tapping his elbow with his fingers, replied nonchalantly.

[Party] Sephiroth: I gave you a chance to fight so you could get used to the debuffs. Aren’t you thankful?

Would YOU be thankful, you bstard…*

The sad part was that, as much as it galled me, Sephiroth wasn’t entirely wrong. Through that one battle, I vividly felt the slowed movement, reduced attack and defense, and the inability to use skills. I couldn’t say it was a comfortable experience, but I had a much better sense of how to move this body than when we first started.

As we started running again, I heard Won-jae hyung’s troubled voice.

“Wait, why isn’t the healing working? I’ve been casting heals, but they aren’t going through to Sephiroth-nim.”

Sephiroth’s health had dropped slightly from being grazed by the earlier Ninja’s Eight Trigrams Phantom Kill. Won-jae hyung must have been trying to top him off.

[Party] BlueberryWhiskey: Ah, about that.

[Party] BlueberryWhiskey: Sephiroth and I can’t be healed.

[Party] PpoongPpoongLove: Huh?

[Party] Nago-Rang: What?

[Party] Nago-Rang: I mean, Sephi-nim is one thing, but if Blee-nim can’t be healed either…

[Party] BlueberryWhiskey: Please don’t call me Blee T_T

[Party] Nago-Rang: Won’t Blee-nim die in just a few hits ㅠㅜ?

[Party] Nago-Rang: Ah, sorry;

[Party] Nago-Rang: Blueberry-nim.

[Party] Sephiroth: No worries.

[Party] Sephiroth: Just don’t get hit.

[Party] NinjaBuffPls: Wow, what a strategy.

[Party] PpoongPpoongLove: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

“We’re almost at the enemy altar. Focus.”

As soon as Won-jae hyung spoke, an altar similar to our starting point came into view. The only difference was that red sparks were crackling around their Core Castle. Realizing they couldn’t ambush us, four people met us with faces as stiff as stone. Their composition was a Priest, two Mages, and an Archer. Counting the Warrior and Ninja we’d already met, it was an glass-cannon “extreme damage” comp with only one Priest for healing.

The “welcoming committee” poured their attacks onto me above anyone else.

Even from my appearance alone, anyone could tell I was the weakest in the party. Unlike the others, who were decked out in powerful accessories and raid gear, I was wearing quest items gathered while following the main story. Given the battlefield’s nature where killing the weakest player can lead to victory, our team would lose instantly if I died.

[Party] Nago-Rang: Blueberry-nim, watch out—!

As if I’d just let them hit me.

The barrage of pure damage didn’t scare me. The attack that landed where I had been standing cracked the stone floor. Lightning strikes followed my path as I fled, but dodging wasn’t difficult. The attacks were extremely linear, and the movement patterns the enemies predicted for me were vastly different from my actual path. Usually, “predicted shots” follow a standard logical path. Since all skills in Zelpia are non-targeted (skill shots), as long as I dodged, I was practically invincible. No attack was sharp enough for the 10% movement speed reduction to truly hinder me.

While I was busy dodging, the other five immediately rushed the altar. A team fully invested in attack power was naturally fragile on defense. As NinjaBuffPls scattered shurikens while weaving hand signs, Nago-Rang slammed the ground with her massive fists, and Seong-jin charged forward with his shield, the enemies’ health bars plummeted.

And in the center of it all…

[Sephiroth has defeated Cow-Riding-Car.]

[Sephiroth has defeated 12Shada000.]

[Sephiroth has defeated dhlrnrdls.]

The one wreaking the most havoc was, unsurprisingly, Sephiroth.

It didn’t matter if his attack power was reduced by 20% or if he couldn’t use skills. Sephiroth, who had buffed himself with potions instead of skills, wielded his massive axe and slaughtered four people using only basic attacks. If attack power was low, he simply crushed them with attack speed; if he needed damage, he boosted his crit rate. See? It’s easy. A familiar voice echoed in my head. In the meantime, the resurrected Ninja joined the fray, but the momentum had already shifted completely.