Matan’s Shooter

Cardinal Romero knelt beside the Divine Staff, placing his hand upon it. As soon as he began his prayer, a system window appeared before Leeha and the other members of the Order, who were users.

[Cardinal Romero begins his prayer to the Divine Staff.]

[Divine Power is charging in the Divine Staff.]

[Divine Power Charging: 1%]

[During the charging of Divine Power, the Divine Staff must not be touched by demonic energies.]

[If touched by demonic energies, the Divine Power will reset.]

“…This is maddening.”

Leeha couldn’t help but let out a groan.

It wasn’t about breaking the Divine Staff or killing Cardinal Romero…

Isn’t that literally ending with a TOUCH DO…?

The faces of Leeha and the other users darkened rapidly. Leeha vented his fear in a tirade against the game developers of Middle Earth.

“Damn it! They don’t make anything easy!”

However, there was no other way. All the conditions had been revealed. All that remained was to grit our teeth and defend this place!

“Alright, alright! Let’s do it. If there are no other penalties after charging, and if it’s just about maintaining it for 10 minutes, then isn’t that doable?”

Then?

“You fools, the stone walls you raised will become barriers obstructing you! Blaugrunn!”

Leeha quickly turned to shout behind him.

“Ahead, unleash full force of lightning magic at the flying monsters in sight! Kidd, you protect the Cardinal!”

“Understood!”

“Kyarrrr!”

Boom, boom, boom!

In an instant—

A barrage of lightning magic and Leeha’s bullets soared into the sky.

“Huff—”

Through and through———

One breath, one trigger pull.

Leeha was literally, without a moment’s rest, pulling the trigger and emptying the magazine. In the midst of reloading, shifting the gun’s aim, steadying his breath, and firing! Every movement flowed smoothly like water.

In just about 5 seconds, he managed to shoot 8 rounds.

Given that Leeha was hitting targets that were still 500m away and not wielding a mere close-range rifle, the Paladins and Bishop NPCs who witnessed him striking down 8 monsters were involuntarily shaking.

It was akin to rapid-fire!

A 100% hit rate!

The sight of formidable monsters keeling over one by one was truly spectacular.

However… their astonishment wasn’t solely because of Leeha’s skills.

It was because, despite killing them, the number of monsters charging at them was overwhelmingly large.

Leeha felt it too.

Rapidly changing magazines, Leeha tried to assess the situation around him.

Just the ones charging within 500m were in numbers too great for him to handle.

“Blaugrunn! How is it on your end!?”

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“There are so many! I think it might be better to use my breath, what do you think?”

Pssssht—!

Blaugrunn’s lightning magic shot out.

A giant beast, that seemed it could completely shatter the stone wall, trembled and collapsed sideways as it charged.

As the beast fell, it squashed about seven or eight monsters, but that amount was barely noticeable.

“We can’t use that yet! Kidd! You need to take action. Can you run rampant for as long as possible?”

“Kyarrk! Leave it to me!”

Whoosh!

No sooner had Leeha’s words fallen than Koma jumped.

Already levitating next to Leeha and Blaugrunn, Koma dashed past them and immediately charged towards the monsters on landing.

“Damn! Though it doesn’t die, it still feels pain.”

This unreasonable request was something Leeha was not particularly fond of. Koma may possess an outrageous level of power, but that was only when dealing with ordinary monsters. Currently, there was Toon on the other side. The reason Leeha couldn’t concentrate on the giant monster was precisely because of this.

‘The manticore is the more important monster, so taking it down should be the priority! Yes, that’s just it!’

Leeha repeatedly reminded himself of the reason for not engaging with the ground monsters, well aware that it was merely a temporary solution.

The thought of what would happen if Toon came into the scope while he was still aiming at the giant monster was enough to give him a headache. Naturally, it was difficult for him to aim to the ground. This was a frustrating situation for Leeha himself, having to leave the main monster to Koma and Blaugrunn!

“The distance is already 430m, and it’s moving fast. I don’t know who used this stone wall skill… If it can be deactivated at will-“

“Leeha-ssi! The manticore first! We’ll take care of the other flying monsters, so just snipe the manticore!”

“Nara-ssi!”

A refreshing voice hit Leeha’s eardrums!

“Why are you standing idle! You know it will be trouble if you slack off!”

Although surprised by the loud volume, the voice announcing the arrival of Shin Nara and the Sacred Knights gave Leeha a boost of confidence.

“Haha, slacking off? I was just thinking for a bit! As you said-“

Leeha raised his sniper rifle. Fortunately, amongst the swarm of formidable monsters, the number of manticores was not very high.

“Okay!”

Boom!

Leeha blew the head off the leading manticore among about ten.

“I’ll start by taking down the manticores!”

“Yes! Sacred Knights squadron, commence aerial operation. We’ll prevent the flying monsters from approaching!”

The Sacred Knights, flying together, quickly dispersed into groups of three. Leeha matched their efforts, sniping down the manticores. Realizing they were being targeted, the manticores tried to hide behind other flying monsters, but they couldn’t escape Leeha’s sight. Whether piercing through them along with a Harpy or blowing off a wing and then revealing their bodies to score a chest shot, Leeha’s sniping was impeccable.

‘Now, four manticores remain- The fact that there are so few of these important monsters, and most of them are just large regular monsters-‘

Ghibrid certainly hadn’t regained his full power yet. The number he could control just after waking up would only be that much.

Boom! Another manticore fell, and at that moment, a change occurred near the “Divine Staff.”

“Damn it… So it could be controlled like this?”

The ground shook again. The stone wall that had encircled the Divine Staff in a complete circle vanished, leaving only a semicircle, turning to dust.

The allies had to go around the wall, while the enemies could charge straight in, creating an environment that was the worst possible situation for defense.

“Ahem, Your Eminence? How much longer will it take?”

[Divine Power Charging: 49.9%] About five more minutes. The silver lining was that another team of reinforcements had arrived.

Swoosh! Accompanied by a purple glow, elite members of Byulcho landed by Leeha’s side.

“Pfff… I can’t do this a second time. If the coordinates had overlapped incorrectly, everyone involved would have died-“

“Hyung!”

“Kijung!”

Kijung, Bobae, Hyein, Tale, Biyemi, Jin Gonggong. Although only six people, they were like an army of a thousand soldiers to Leeha.

“-You wouldn’t listen to me anyway.”

“Hehe, we just have to do our part, right, Jin Gonggong-ssi? What about the transformation?”

While Hyein shook her head, Biyemi gripped his weapon tightly. In his left hand was his beloved sword, and in his right, a water balloon-like pouch.

“Umm, preventing these monsters from reaching the Divine Staff takes priority over me transforming right now!”

“Is there a way?”

At Jin Gonggong’s words, Tale asked. Bobae looked at Jin Gonggong with interested eyes.

Hadn’t everyone grown through repeated growth during the Wave event? Although Jin Gonggong belonged to the lower levels within the Byulcho, his growth rate was unmatched by anyone.

“Druids are not just limited to using the power of animals.”

The Giant Druid, once ridiculed in online communities, was not the same as before. For a moment, thick light green mana was absorbed into his body!

“Tangled Vine!”

In the source of demonic energy, almost barren, foliage began sprouting at an incredible speed.

“Plant-type skill……”

“Phew, I’ve put in so much mana that I can’t use my transformation skills for a while… I’ll take a short break.”

“A short break! Just rest here for now! Jin Gonggong, you are the last line of defense protecting the Archbishop!”

As Jin Gonggong sat down to start recovering his mana, Leeha shouted excitedly.

Although it had less impact compared to the initial stone walls, the defense it provided was by no means weak.

Around the Divine Staff, plants of about 5 meters in thickness and height intertwined in a semi-circle, creating a barrier difficult to step foot in.

“Good, there’s nothing more to say! We have 5 minutes left! That’s enough time for them to arrive and break the Divine Staff! Let’s do whatever it takes to stop them!”

Leeha pulled the trigger once more while screaming at the top of his lungs. Amidst the sounds of gunfire, users’ skills, shouts, and battle cries, only Hyein looked around with a worried expression.

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‘There are 5 minutes left until the Divine Staff is fully charged. But… even if we manage to fill that time, what will change?’

Will it unleash some kind of power that completely repels the monsters and Demons?

If not, the moment Toon arrives, it will be broken even if we risk our lives to protect it.

Hyein had an inseparable worry but didn’t voice it out, knowing it wasn’t the time to demoralize everyone.

[Sacred Power Charging: 61.1%]

230 seconds out of 600 remain.

Despite Leeha’s efforts, feverishly firing the Black Beast until its barrel was hot, the numerical disadvantage was inevitable. The monsters that advanced to intercept began to falter and were pushed back to a distance of 100m.

Except for a few monsters in the front, the distance between Toon and the Divine Staff was only about 140 meters.

‘Damn, there are still almost 4 minutes left. We’ve just barely dealt with the Manticore…’

The Manticore, which Leeha and the Sacred Knights had planned to quickly eliminate, were already wiped out. A significant number of flying monsters that could easily touch the Divine Staff were also dealt with.

‘We’ve managed to extinguish the urgent fire, but there are still many ground monsters left! And on our side…’

The damages on Leeha’s side were not light either.

Koma disappeared when the time was up, and even Blaugrunn, who forcibly gathered mana, was so exhausted that he had to cast paralysis magic and coordinate with the Byulcho.

‘We’ve exerted too much power in a short time!’

“We’re being pushed back! Damn it-“

“Hold on! Keep holding!”

“There’s a limit to holding on! If Toon gets any closer, there’s nothing we can do!”

Bobae’s arrow shot towards Toon, but Toon didn’t even glance in that direction. Bobae’s arrow couldn’t penetrate Toon’s skin. Leeha’s gun barrel cleverly aimed only where Toon was not visible. The act of avoiding the object of fear, between consciousness and sub-consciousness, occurred very naturally. Leeha was aware of his own problem. More so in this situation?

With quite a number of ground monsters remaining, the issue was that we couldn’t keep excluding Toon forever.

If Toon approaches, as Bobae said, we would truly be in a situation where we can’t do anything.

‘How much time is left? Toon… can we stop this bastard? What about the other monsters? The time? The distance?’

The momentum of the monsters charging with Toon was something all experienced users, including Leeha, knew very well.

‘We can’t stop it. Preventing this, as it is… it’s impossible.’

Leeha glanced back, hoping for reinforcements, but still, no response came. Along with that, the agonized screams from the front only grew louder.

Leeha quickly gathered his wits and pulled the trigger three times in succession. The most critical areas got momentarily relieved, but that alone didn’t solve everything.

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