From atop the eastern bastion, William clenched his jaw as the shimmering blue of the outermost barrier shattered like brittle glass. Alarms flared across the defensive lines, and chaos erupted once again along the ramparts.

  “Barrier breach! I repeat, the barrier is down!” came the shout from the guild’s command channel.

  “Squad Five, fall back to the inner circle! Form layered spell defense!” Zero commanded sharply through the comms, his spit flying from his mouth.

  William’s eyes narrowed. Below, he could already see the enemy elites leaping onto the wall — not just common foot soldiers, but powerful combatants radiating deadly intent. The pressure they exuded was stifling even from this distance. In fact, from the left wall, there was an enemy so strong that he killed any approaching player with a single attack, wearing black-and-silver armor.

  “We’ve got incoming!” Storm shouted, launching a spell of wind projectile to push back one of the enemies, who was a strong Ki-Warrior. “Where’s our frontline reinforcement?!”

  “On their way! But it’ll take at least five minutes!” a voice crackled back.

  “That’s five minutes too long,” William muttered, raising his Elemental Staff of Flame. He planted his feet firmly on the stone and began chanting. “{Prominence Barrage}!”

  A spiral of fire swirled around him before exploding into dozens of crimson bolts that shot across the wall’s surface, halting several of the advancing enemies in their tracks. The heat of the blast was immense, melting snow and scorching stone. Whoa, I’m so powerful! he thought, grinning in spite of the tension.

  His guild’s officers and guild master quickly followed with their own attacks. Mike conjured globes of pressurized water, launching them in rapid bursts to intercept incoming projectiles and dampen the enemy’s spellfire. Storm unleashed precision wind slashes from his vantage point, each gust carving through the charging forces and slowing their advance. Zero stood firmly at the center, his custom magic weapon, which had the shape of a mosquito racket, shining with arcs of lightning as he summoned bolts from above, frying enemies in brilliant flashes of blue.

  But none were as shocking as SuperNova.

  “{Undead Arise}!” SuperNova chanted, raising his undead arm.

  From the corpses of slain enemies and fallen allies alike, zombie warriors and mages clad in cracked armor and torn robes clawed their way back into undeath. Their eyes burned with ghostly blue light, and with guttural screeches, they hurled themselves at the advancing enemy strike units.

  “What the hell?!” one Ki-Warrior exclaimed as he was tackled by an undead with unnatural speed.

  “Ahhh! The zombie’s eating me!” screamed an enemy mage, flailing uselessly as clawing hands and gnashing teeth dragged him down.

  “Don’t let them breach the gate!” William barked while launching another barrage of fire. “Hold the line — reinforcements are almost here!”

  Just as the defenders seemed to regain momentum, a chilling surge of mana flooded the battlefield. Then, an arrogant voice echoed above the chaos. “Hmm? A bunch of third-stage Initiate Attunement acolytes? How quaint.”

  A figure descended from the sky, hovering above the eastern bastion. Clad in a pristine gray Magus robe that billowed unnaturally, a bald man with a black sigil etched across his forehead smiled with amusement. Based on the mana fluctuation he was emitting, William was sure that the newly-arrived enemy was unmistakably an official Magus.

  “Oh, shit! Oh, shit!” Storm clutched his head in disbelief.

  “An official Magus… We’re doomed…” another player muttered in despair.

  William’s jaw tightened as he stared up at the newcomer. The players had trained for this in the simulation… but the difference between theory and reality was a chasm when facing a real Magus. Even in the Virtual Combat Chamber, it had taken dozens of top-ranked players working in tandem — and sacrificing many simulated lives — just to bring down a weak Elemental Adept Magus!

  This one was definitely not weak.

  The enemy Magus grinned as he raised both hands and began chanting, “Perish under my Umbra spell — {Shadow Pit}!”

  Darkness appeared beneath the players’ feet. Black tendrils as thick as a man’s thigh erupted from the snow-covered ground, writhing like living serpents. Screams echoed through the bastion as over a dozen players were snatched mid-casting, mid-run, and mid-battle.

  “Noooo!! I don’t wanna die!”

  “Help, I just advanced to the third stage of Initiate Attunement! Dying here will send me back to the second stage!”

  “Ugh, these tendrils are entering my mouth!!” screamed a female player.

  William didn’t freeze. With years of muscle memory — both as a gamer and now as a battlefield leader — he sidestepped a lunging tendril and aimed his magic staff at the Magus.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “{Prominence Flame}!”

  His staff blazed to life, and from its tip, a vortex of crimson flame howled into the sky. The cyclone spiraled upward, cutting a searing path through the air, and barreled straight at the floating Magus.

  The Magus’ eyes gleamed with curiosity rather than fear. With a casual flick of his wrist, a translucent dark barrier shimmered into existence. It absorbed the cyclone of flame without even a scratch, dispersing the searing heat as if it were nothing more than a breeze. Clearly, William’s attack was little more than an ant’s bite before an official Magus.

  “Not too bad. You must be one of the talents this academy has nurtured,” the Magus said with a grin, his eyes gleaming with elation. “It always thrills me to kill a groomed genius of a Magus academy before they bloom.”

  He raised his hand — Umbra elemental particles began to swirl around his palm like an imploding vortex, coalescing into a compact sphere of absolute darkness. The pressure it radiated was immense, enough to make the players all around feel fear.

  “Die!”

  Shit! Shit! Shit!

  William braced himself, sweat pouring down his brow. His instincts screamed at him to dodge, but he knew he wouldn’t make it in time. The sphere launched from the Magus’ hand like a meteor, cracking through the air straight toward him.

  Suddenly, a bolt of blue lightning lanced from the right — striking the shadow sphere mid-flight and detonating it before it could reach William. A shield of condensed bubbles protected him from the shockwave and the remaining force of the explosion.

  A familiar voice echoed across the wall. “We’re not done yet!”

  Zero stood before William, his magic weapon crackling in his hand. Behind him, Storm, Mike, SuperNova, and a dozen remaining players gathered around them, eyes burning with fierce determination. Despite the hopeless situation, they stood tall, refusing to bend.

  To begin with, only around two hundred players had been stationed to protect the eastern bastion. The enemy’s ground forces, on the other hand, numbered at least five hundred. Even though the traps, magic cannons, and barrage of spells had decimated their ranks early on, there were still over three hundred enemy units pressing the assault.

  And now, less than a hundred players remained standing.

  Even so, they fought with a kind of desperate resolve that couldn’t be replicated. It was more than just a game.

  It was survival. It was defiance. It was home.

  “Don’t let them open the gates!” Zero yelled. “We must hold this line even if it’s just us!”

  “For the academy!” SuperNova shouted.

  “For Brightmoon House!” someone else cried.

  William gritted his teeth. “Over my dead body.”

  “What’s this? You have not died yet?” The enemy Magus floated slightly higher, his expression darkening with irritation. “Fine. I suppose I should take you seriously.”

  As he said that, the sigil on the Magus’ bald head suddenly flared, and a large amount of infused mana burst forth from it, coalescing rapidly in the air before him. It condensed into a pulsing sphere of darkness, thick with Umbra elemental energy, and far larger than any spell he had cast before.

  William’s eyes widened in recognition. He remembered something from one of the books he had purchased from the virtual shop. Elemental Adept Magi who had progressed beyond a certain threshold could inscribe sigils directly onto their bodies and use them to drastically enhance their spells.

  “Scatter!” William shouted immediately. “That thing can one-shot all of us!”

  Unfortunately, it was far too late for most of them. His guild members were helpless in the face of the Magus’ spell — frozen in place, unable to move under the crushing pressure of the man’s mana.

  Seeing this, the Magus chuckled darkly. “Let’s see you crawl after this — {Umbra Annihilation}!”

  The sphere launched forward like a meteor, trailing wisps of black flame behind it. Its power distorted the air as it flew, vaporizing even the snow around it.

  William and his friends had managed to sprint a few meters from their original positions, trying their hardest to escape the spell’s range. But even if they ran twenty meters away, they would still be caught in the blast. Heavily injured… if not dead.

  Just as the spell was about to crash into the ground, a phalanx of mechanical golems rushed ahead and raised shimmering elemental barrier walls. Inscribed runes on their bodies activated, layering several defensive spells over one another.

  Boom!

  The explosion rocked the bastion, smoke and debris billowing into the sky. Even though some of these golems were destroyed by the impact, the rest held their ground.

  Then, a familiar voice rang out amid the fading roar. “Sorry, I’m late. I had to organize the reinforcements and get the SPARK team ready.”

  William turned toward the sound and saw the figure who brought the reinforcement, and it was none other than NuclearCode. He brought over two dozen golems behind him and a fresh squad of SPARK suicide knights clanking into formation at his heels.

  He cracked his knuckles with a grin. “Let’s show them the consequence of messing with us players.”

  Just then, two figures vaulted over the battlement wall and landed with resounding impact. Both were Ki Masters, clad in full body armor and brimming with immense power. Their eyes scanned the defenders like wolves spotting prey.

  “Let’s kill them and earn rewards from the Merlin family!”

  “Die, magots!

  But NuclearCode and the players in the SPARK suits were unfazed.

  “SPARK team! Target those two and the Magus up top. Engage suicide protocol!” NuclearCode commanded sharply.

  Without hesitation, the players in the SPARK suits rushed forward in unison, their eyes fixed on the targets.

  “What the hell is that?!” one of the Ki Masters shouted, stepping back in alarm.

  But it was too late.

  “Me first! See you on the other side!” yelled the first SPARK unit before colliding with him. The heavily armored player latched onto the man’s waist and detonated in a violent blast of fire and concussive force.

  Boom!

  The explosion tore through the immediate area, sending the second Ki Master flying and forcing the airborne Magus to stumble midair, defensive spells flaring to life in panic. The explosion wasn’t ordinary — the payload within the SPARK suit was packed with C4 and layered with explosive runes that activated on detonation.

  It was brutal but effective.

  The players inside the SPARK suits were mostly new recruits who were at best at the first stage of Initiate Attunement. If one of them could exchange their life to take down enemies far stronger than themselves, it was a worthy exchange.

  “What the fuck happened?!” The bald Magus roared, glaring down at this absurdity.

  Then, another SPARK unit leapt into the air, followed by several more. Though the Magus hovered meters above the battlefield, the SPARK suits had been enchanted for high-leap bursts — a one-time-use propulsion spell built into their cores.

  “Get off me, you piece of junk—!”

  “Hasta la vista, baby!”

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  “Aaaarghh!”

  One exploded. Then another. A chain reaction lit the sky. The last blast pierced through the Magus’ weakened barrier — and ended him.

  Volume 1 and

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