Ranker’s Return

s?” Hyeonu didn’t explain himself; he just talked nonsense.
It was a waste of time to say everything.

Teika said it was okay, but Hyeonu still needed to show him some consideration.

“Hyung, what is this? Why is your explanation so strange? There is no beginning and no end.” Mason frowned at Hyeonu’s explanation that omitted a lot.

“Just do it.
Now isn’t the time to be doing this.
You should take advantage of this precious time,” Hyeonu said and waved his hand like it was annoying.
Then he turned toward the other Crescent Moon players and advised, “Be prepared.
The spar with Teika is going to start now.
It will probably be quite different from sparring with Seokjung hyung-nim and Junggu hyung-nim.
It will be a good experience.”

After listening to Hyeonu’s words, the Crescent Moon players began to gather together.
Unlike before, they couldn’t fight without thinking now, so they held a meeting to ensure the minimum of cooperation.

“I’ve watched Teika’s videos, and he fights really well.
There is nothing missing,” Lee Hoon stated.

Once the players gathered, he started to talk little by little about what he knew. What was Teika’s fighting style? What were his skills? How powerful was he? Fortunately, Teika’s videos were posted by the arena rankers who encountered him, so they could watch Teika from the perspective of his victims who suffered.

Lee Hoon continued to explain, “I think he is as good as the two Hyung-nims.
Of course, his weapon is a spear, so we have to be more careful.
The range is longer than you think.”

Hearing that, the other players expressed their opinions one by one.

“Then let’s use the undead.
I will summon the death knight while Yuri uses her Shield and blessings.
Why don’t we approach Teika while they stall him?” Sunny mentioned one of the strategies they had practiced against Kim Seokjung and Gang Junggu.

Yuri nodded and agreed with Sunny’s opinion, “That sounds okay.
In any case, we don’t just have one chance at this.
I think it’s fine to use as many things as possible.” 

According to what Hyeonu said earlier, it seemed that Teika wasn’t only here to help for a short time but for hours.
In that amount of time, they could experiment with what they had prepared so far.

“Now, stop talking.
We have to practice!” Hyeonu shouted at the Crescent Moon players who seemed to be talking endlessly.
Then he turned to Teika and said, “Teika, don’t go easy on them.
Understood? If you see a gap, stab in and break it.”

“Is it really necessary? I don’t think they’ll be able to hold on…” Teika’s voice trailed off. He had seen several league videos of the Crescent Moon players. Their cooperation and power were pretty good, but that was it. In his eyes, that seemed too lacking. It was fine in the Korean League, but it wasn’t good enough for the world stage

“Please fight to the extent that you want to show me in our spar.” Hyeonu threw these words at the hesitant Teika.
It was advice that relieved the guilt in Teika’s heart.

“I understand.
I’ll do my best.” Teika gave a light smile as he pulled a spear out of his inventory and walked to the center of the arena.

Gang Junggu approached Hyeonu and wondered, “Is it okay? They will be shocked.
They might be skeptical about all their efforts so far.”

Teika seemed like he would fight sincerely, but Crescent Moon’s players were still too weak to take him on. The odds of success might be higher if they practiced PvP instead of the siege.
Their differences in character growth were overwhelming.

“There is something to be gained even from breaking.
In addition, I believe in them.
They won’t break.
Instead, they will harden.” Hyeonu watched the Crescent Moon players with eyes full of trust.

***

Teika was determined. He had to do his best right now in order to see Hyeonu’s power.

‘The first battle should end quickly,’ Teika decided.
This wasn’t a situation where he should consider others.

Teika held his spear firmly and spoke to the Crescent Moon players, “Then please.”

On the Crescent Moon side, Lee Hoon acted as the representative and answered Teika: “Thank you for helping us practice.”

This concluded the conversation on both sides. Now they were aiming weapons at each other. There was a rattling sound, and four knights on skeleton horses emerged from the soil. They were Sunny’s death knights. Sunny’s proficiency had increased during this period of time, and she could now summon more majestic death knights.

“Go and fight.” At Sunny’s brief command, the death knights moved into action, leading the skeleton horses in different directions. They surrounded Teika and attacked him at the same time. There was a strike from above, a second hit from left to right, and a third one flowing from right to left. Then the last one was a blow from the bottom up.

Four attacks poured toward Teika simultaneously. The death knights’ swords seemed like they would quickly cut him apart. Teika stood quietly and watched the swords come toward him. He seemed to be simply standing still when he suddenly stabbed his spear toward the ground.

The ground split apart, and blood-red energy appeared. The skeleton horses lifted their front legs to avoid the blood-colored energy pouring from the cracked ground. Of course, doing that meant the skeleton horses had to stop midway through their charge.
Under such circumstances, the swords of the death knights couldn’t touch Teika.

“The first blow has been given, so it is my turn now.” Teika pulled out the spear that was embedded in the ground and aimed it at the Crescent Moon players.