Episode 173 [Great Gathering, Giant Slalom – 2]
—————————
The elegant city center of Dresden, Germany, with its baroque architecture, was now empty.
Because that place was chosen as the stage for the second act, ‘The Great Exhibition’ of [Titanomachia].
What filled the city with only a sense of silence was the sound of the earth spreading from the plain in the distance.
Thump 1 Thump 1 Thump 1
On the roof of a building amidst high tremors, a man was standing in front of the camera and raising his voice.
“Yes! I am currently in Dresden, Germany, the site of the second act of [Titanomachia]!”
He turned his head and pointed somewhere.
From this rooftop, you could clearly see beyond downtown Dresden and into green pastures in the distance.
“Dozens of titans have gathered in the plains about 4km away from here and are still gathering! The EPU explains that the number has reached a maximum of 155!”
He shook his head as if he was fed up.
“Until now… the Titans who had been moving in groups of 3 or 4 are now gathering together to form a true army. Accordingly, raid experts….”
at that time-
“Oh!”
The cameraman suddenly screamed and instinctively lifted the camera focus. The reason is
Hung 1
Because something was flying from the sky.
“What is that!”
Then the reporter also reflexively turned his head.
After witnessing it, he muttered quietly.
“Oh, it’s an American missile?”
A huge stick-shaped object fell from the sky… and crashed into the building right next to it.
Kwa-a-ang——!
“Suddenly something flew in!”
Covering his respirator with his jacket, he looked at the building next door through the pale dust and found a huge iron pillar stuck in the center of it.
That was… not a pillar, but a window.
Approximately 20m…
The moment they confirmed this, the reporter and cameraman had no choice but to completely forget about the live news broadcast.
“You crazy! It’s the Titan’s Spear! How did they know we were here and attack us!”
Then, the huge windows flew down like rain and began to destroy all the buildings in the area.
shed–! shed–! bang–!
The entire building collapsed in a single blow.
Without any explosion, a concrete building is dismantled like a sand castle using only mass and acceleration.
It wasn’t a javelin, it was like a bombing.
I don’t know why this suddenly happened, but something seemed to offend the Titan troops.
“Damn it Bill, come this way!”
Still, the reporter was a wizard player, and he immediately threw down the microphone and took out a wand. What he cast was a short-distance teleportation spell.
Ugh one
Their bodies instantly warped to a place about a hundred meters away, and the broadcast connection was cut off for an instant.
“It’s over there! “Hurry and take a picture there!”
“Wait a minute, the connection… ok!”
“Dear viewers, we are safe! And look over there!”
The camera moved violently at his hand gesture and soon focused on the area near the four-lane road to the north.
The road crossed a wide plain, and at the edge of the plain was a hill…
Thump 1 Thump 1 Thump 1
From there, giant heads wearing helmets were rising one by one, soon numbering dozens.
Thump 1 Thump 1 Thump 1
Titan hoplites, all armed with spears, shields, and armor, were advancing, forming a shield wall with their shoulders against each other.
And perhaps because the sunlight was shining toward the west, creating a long shadow, I felt the illusion that the entire medieval castle was moving.
“…Do you see that? They’re all titan hoplites, and for some reason they’re advancing on Dresden!”
And soon I could see what they were throwing their javelins at.
Doo doo one doo one doo——
Large transport helicopters named NH90 appeared in a line from the southern sky.
Hung 1 Hung 1
A 20-meter spear flew towards them, and the first two generations were unable to dodge it.
Tong——!
A large transport helicopter was skewered like a skewer and flew all the way to the southern part of downtown Dresden before landing on the ground.
At that time
Kwaaaaahaah——!!
This time, multiple teleports fell from the sky, and countless players rushed out from them.
There was no need to think deeply about who they were. They were the most famous group of players today.
“Wow! That person…”
At the head of the group, a large man wearing a lion skin sauntered out, carrying a black club on his shoulder.
The reporter shouted while looking at the scene.
“…Everyone, this is Team Omega! They have arrived here in Dresden! That means the largest forces from both the Titans and humanity have gathered in one place!”
He turned his head to look directly at the camera and added a word.
“I think the great battle will begin now!”
***
But no battle took place.
Until now, ‘Omega Team’ had made a bold preemptive attack as soon as a group of titans was seen, but now they had no choice but to face off from a distance.
This was inevitable because as many as 88 titan hoplites were standing shoulder to shoulder and using a shield wall like a castle wall.
It was called ‘Deus Phalanx’ and could be interpreted as a phalanx of God’s shields.
And even now, from time to time, portals were opened and three or four more people joined in, and their power was growing.
At that time, Team Omega’s operation tent….
“…It would be a barbarian thing to crash in there.”
The person who said this was a man named Brian Thiel from England, the nominal leader of Team Omega.
As an ‘analyst’ type player, he did not directly participate in the battle, but he was the person who devised all the strategies and strategies up to now.
“Hmm… In the first place, breaking the ‘Phalanx’ requires a fairly skilled strategy, but if you refer to the performance of the Roman ‘Legion’ who broke it… The easiest way is to neutralize the shield, aim for the side, or drag it to an area where the terrain is uneven. “It takes money.”
Even with his explanation, the four members of the Omega team looked perplexed.
Since they were all called the strongest players in different countries, they all had such strong pride that they were unable to get along with each other.
Still, like veterans, it was fortunate that we got along well without any communication.
“Hey, don’t mumble things that seem like they’re from Wikipedia, just come up with a strategy and bring it back.”
The person who made such a complaint was Alexander Chekhov, a man lying on a cot wearing a lion skin.
Jeokjeok 一
He popped one of his chocolate bars into his mouth and chewed it whole.
As he was a large man of 213cm, he ate a huge amount of calories before and after battle, so he was constantly eating something even during strategy meetings.
“Well, we need to be a little more careful this time. It’s a war event.”
“Well, if you worry too long about how to eat it, Steele Lane might suddenly fly in and steal it from you. That bastard specializes in that. Who is he? DS was so distracted that he lost the Black Dragon, right?”
As such, their goal was to conquer [Titanomachia] and at the same time keep Steelaine in check.
“Haha, even if that man comes anyway, there won’t be anything we can do. That ‘Deus Phalanx’ itself has an extremely thick defense shield, so no matter what the man throws at it, it won’t break through. So it’s virtually impossible to attack the side. … Ah, this is only visible to my eyes as an analytics player.”
“…No, that means we also have nothing to do?”
This time, Connor O’Neill, a young white man known as the owner of the sand castle, intervened.
As expected, he seemed bored by repeatedly building sand structures with his hands and then tearing them down.
“Well, I’m a bit bored since yesterday, really…”
For this energetic and rebellious young man who had become one of the best in the world even though he was only 20 years old, these strategy meetings just felt boring.
Brian Till suppressed a sigh as he watched such complacent attitudes.
“So what I’m saying is… you have to be careful. A big event of this scale, even though it’s a war event, can’t be attacked just by rushing in, right? You’re the ones who know that best, right?”
“Wait a minute. Then we don’t have to go to the plains where they are camped and fight them, so we can just lure them to a city like this?”
This time, Nia Wilson, a black woman wearing a baseball cap, asked that question.
She twisted one of her pistols in her grasp.
“So, even if they are giants, there are so many obstacles in the city that they won’t be able to create a defense like that. I have a lot of places to climb and take cover, so it’s easy to shoot.”
India’s S-rank buffer Nisha Kaif, sitting next to her, nodded her head in agreement with her words.
But Brian Thiel shook his head.
“Didn’t we all see the War Quest system message before we came here?”
[War Quest]
– Titanomachy Act 2 ‘The Great Battle’
At this moment, the titans began to gather in one place.
If their shields are piled up in one place, an unstoppable advance will begin.
Completely break their morale before they can fully rally!
1) Secure more than 1 hour of ‘Victory Flag’ within 72 hours (in progress)
2) Defeat the boss monster ‘Crios’ (in progress)
* Compensation: Differential payment depending on war ‘achievements’
– caution! If goal ‘1’ is failed, the morale of the ‘Titans’ soars and their combat power increases significantly.
“If we look at the current situation based on that information….”
He slightly rolled up the operation tent.
Then, beyond the distant horizon, I saw a red ray of light rising from the sky.
It was an unidentified phenomenon that started yesterday when ‘Titanomachia: Giant Slalom’ was held.
“That light shows the location of target number one, Victor Flag.”
In fact, as a result of aerial observation, a flag was planted on the runway of ‘Dresden Airport’, about 7km away from here.
“It is said that if we secure more than 1 hour within 72 hours, we will receive a huge buff limited to this event. Oh, there are now 64 hours left.”
“If it’s the other way around… will they get a buff?”
“Yes, that’s right. That has to be prevented somehow. I think this event was designed that way.”
Alexander Chekhov, who was hearing those words, jumped up from his cot.
“Ha, shit, the situation is really complicated… So what. What are you going to do, huh? “Keep it simple”
It was then.
Pooh one ooh one ooh one!
A trumpet sounded loudly.
However, it was definitely not an ordinary trumpet; it shook the entire city center of Dresden loudly with a sound box much louder than most speakers in a concert hall.
“Oh, what a surprise!”
“What does this mean again?”
“…It looks ominous. Let’s go out there.”
As they came out of the operation tent, an EPU official came running and held out a tablet PC.
“Team Omega, please check this!”
The tablet PC was, as expected, linked to a magic drone, and was displaying a screen observing the Titan troops standing a few kilometers away.
But didn’t two titans break away from the group and start walking towards us?
One of them was dressed very differently from the others, and the red collar on its Corinthian helmet was especially larger and more flashy.
in other words…….
“I think that guy is probably the boss monster Krios… It seems like the intention is for the commanders to meet each other.
Gyeol (會戰) refers to an old-fashioned battle method in which two camps clash with all their might in one area.
And before such battles, meetings between commanders from both sides would take place.
“…Why are you asking me to meet you?”
“Probably not a good story.”
***
After a while, the commanders of both camps faced each other on the plain north of Dresden.
The scene where the 1.8m tall representative of the human side was standing face to face with the 19m tall representative of the titanic side was somewhat unsettling because it felt like they would rush in and trample on them if the conversation did not go well.
And now the world’s attention was focused on this scene.
There were dozens of magic drones floating in the skies above humanity, half of which were from various broadcasting media.
Brian Thiel, who became the representative of humanity, walked forward with the eyes of the whole world on him.
As he was not a combat player, he looked up at the titan who was 10 times bigger than him and his legs shook with instinctive fear, but he took a deep breath and greeted him politely.
“…Hello, my name is Brian Thiel and I am representing the human race.”
However, the golden-bearded titan, Crios, was furious, ready to pounce and trample at any moment.
“…Do bugs have names too?”
He had also expected that a normal conversation would not be possible.
“…If you come out like that, it looks like your friends have been bitten by our bugs quite a bit.”
“You guys have dared to insult the titan race and I want to step on them and kill them right now…”
Crios growled and threatened, baring his teeth, and Brian Till took a step back without realizing it, but he had no intention of backing down.
Because literally all of humanity was watching this scene.
“Well, wasn’t that the one who carried out the invasion? … I’m tired of talking like this with monsters who don’t even know who they are anymore…”
He said the last words softly and shook his head.
“Territory is not granted to an insignificant race like you. “This land will now be ours, and you will be reduced to food for us.”
“Yes, yes, then why did you ask to see us separately?”
“You guys said you were ‘hunting’ us Titans… I’m going to show you how absurd that is and the gap between you and us.”
“Well, that’s…”
“Before the two camps compete, each side will put up one fighter and engage in a one-on-one duel.”
At that moment, a system message appeared before Brian Thiel’s eyes.
– The Titan race ‘Crios Legion’ proposed a 1-on-1 duel. (Y/N)
* caution! When refused, the morale of the Titan unit improves.
‘Ah… is this a sub-event?’
He thought for a moment.
No matter how you think about it, a one-on-one fight with a titan was crazy.
It’s about the Omega team that can do that… but the risk was too high because there would be much stronger fighters over there instead of regular titans.
‘Of course, I can refuse this.’
Since it was a side quest, it was okay to ignore it.
‘But it will have an impact on the war situation…’
Even so, I couldn’t watch with my eyes open as the ‘Deus Phalanx’, which was difficult to deal with, was strengthened even further.
That would be a fatal strategic failure…
‘Still, with Alexander Chekhov’s level… you should be able to fight him one-on-one unless the boss monster Krios appears directly.’
Isn’t he the one wearing the [Hercules’ Armor Set]?
In 1v1, it could be considered the best.
‘I guess I’ll have to trust that foul-tempered warrior once…
***
“Well, that sounds fun.”
As expected, Alexander Chekhov readily complied and swallowed another chocolate bar.
“Then… the duel begins in about 18 minutes.”
“Huh? What, you already agreed to the duel without even asking my opinion?”
“I knew you would respond right away like this. I also believe in your victory.”
“You’re being damned. Did you think I’d be impressed if you said that?”
But his mustache was chewing, and he had a very triumphant expression.
And on the rumor that an event called a ‘duel’ had occurred, reporters flocked to ask questions, and Alexander Chekhov personally stood in front of them despite Brian Thiel’s dissuasion.
And this time too….
“…Hey Steele Rain!”
Mentioning his name intensified the rivalry between Team Omega and Steelane.
“I asked that yesterday, but as expected… you didn’t give me any answer?”
He chuckled and shook his head.
“…Tsk tsk I found out that he was just another guy trying to be popular! “I assure you that you are not a real man!”
He then patted his chest.
“Now, on behalf of humanity, I am going to have a one-on-one duel with the Great Warrior of the Titans!”
Then cheers erupted from all directions. His popularity has been sky-high lately.
In the midst of such a catastrophe, the public wanted a leader with strong charisma.
“But where are you and what are you doing now? You’re not showing up at such an important moment… I’m so disappointed. I hope you keep acting like a fake hero!”
With those words, he carried his weapon, ‘Hercules’ olive tree club’, on his shoulder and walked towards the duel location.
***
A moment later… With the eyes of the entire world focused, two beings were glaring at each other on the plains north of Dresden.
On the human side stood Alexander Chekhov, a whopping 213cm tall.
But no matter how much he was, he was only an infinitely small being in front of the Titans.
Thump, thump, thump
At that time, a titan broke away from the group and was coming towards us.
An overwhelming physique of 16.9m… And unlike other titan hoplites, it was wearing black hard leather armor, and judging from the scales sticking out, it seemed to be the leather of a black drake.
And he was holding a mace, which was only about 5 meters long.
“Oh… you look a little different from the guys I’ve dealt with so far? Still, if I give you one good hit, you’ll end up lying on the floor anyway.”
Alexander Chekhov was very courageous.
That’s because no titan has ever been able to withstand the bat he swung.
“Hey! Do you know that the pleasure of breaking the watermelons of lumps like you is quite exhilarating?”
He even went as far as to provoke the Titans’ warlord like that.
「……」
“Oh… I guess you’re quite the quiet type. Then you won’t be able to leave a will.”
He said that and then took a deep breath.
Go one oh one oh——
Then, a huge amount of energy flowed from his entire body and began to focus on his feet.
Kwa-a-ang——!
Soon it hit the floor as if it exploded.
By the way…
Tsk——!
“Tsk!”
His body, which was shooting like a bullet, was caught in the air by something and stopped, and he tilted his head and looked down at his feet.
Then he realized that his feet were tied with purple chains.
– caution! You have suffered from ‘Prisoner of Tartarus’ rage!
* The action radius is limited for a certain period of time (5 minutes).
“Uh, what… are you using magic?”
This was a completely unexpected situation.
He kicked the ground with all his might, but he was still bound by the chains and could not go beyond a certain radius.
And the Titan stood outside that radius and slowly raised the corner of his mouth.
“Damn it, I can’t hit you like this!”
Meanwhile, the Titan raised his right hand and stretched it towards the sky, and a blue light began to flow from his grasp.
At first glance, it looked ominous…
– caution! ‘Gaia’s feet’ appear in the area!
With such a system message, something began to appear in the sky above our heads.
“crazy….”
It was… a huge foot, hundreds of meters long.
For an instant, the entire area was covered with shadows, which was an indicator of the extent of the destruction.
Go one oh one oh——
Looking up at this nonsense, Alexander Chekhov momentarily turned his head and looked at Brian Till standing far behind him.
Up until now, the things he kept saying about his strategy were very annoying, but at moments like this, I found myself seeking his wisdom without realizing it.
However… I realized that his expression was also distorted in embarrassment.
“ah….”
Perhaps it originated from a very minor misunderstanding.
All titans are said to be of the ‘warrior’ class….
Because all the Titans I’ve seen so far have been like that…
The moment he turns his head forward again…
A huge foot struck down and trampled him.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
“…….”
Whoa whoa whoa whoa….
“…….”
Immediately after that, there was only terrible silence at the scene. None of the players gathered there could speak, and there was only silence here and there.
And… humanity all over the world, who would be watching through the broadcast, would have also received an indescribable shock and fallen into deep despair once again.
In other words, it was the moment when humanity’s hopes were trampled.
But then someone turned their head and said.
“Oh, Steele Rain!”
The moment they heard that name, everyone turned their heads. And all the cameras rolled together.
“What?”
Only then did they realize that a white airship was approaching their heads.
“Damn it, why are you crawling out now?”
At that time, a player belonging to the Omega team shouted that.
“What have you been doing up until now to come here now? Is it because you want to watch what happens to us?”
Perhaps he was feeling enraged at what had happened to Aleksand Chekhov and was trying to shift the blame.
In addition, cries of criticism came from all over the place.
Until now, Team Omega had fought the Titans head-on, but public opinion had formed that Steelaine was secretly avoiding them.
“Why are you always so self-indulgent!”
But then, someone’s voice was heard from behind the person who shouted that.
“…I am sorry for being late.”
“uh?”
Stillane was standing there.
“I was just trying to build up something…”
He said that and he started walking forward.
Everyone split to two sides at his movement.
And the world began to become strangely excited once again.
If it’s Stillane… maybe…
The place where his steps stopped was in front of Brian Till.
“Brian Till, I heard you’re in charge here.”
“…Yes that’s right.”
“Then let me make one request.”
“yes?”
“Please prepare to advance all troops immediately and wait for my orders.”
Brian Till looked like he couldn’t understand what was said so unexpectedly.
And the Omega Team members standing around him also had crumpled expressions.
That’s because Steelein’s remarks just now were largely giving orders to themselves.
“Now… what are you talking about?”
“I’m explaining the strategy that can win this war.”
“…Are you planning to duel that titan on behalf of Alexander Chekhov?”
But Steele Rain lifted his head and took a step forward.
“Why should I do that?”
“yes?”
“You probably didn’t choose it because you admired the honorable fighting of one-on-one combat. “And against those man-eating monsters.”
“Oh no, of course not. If you don’t approve that sub-quest, the entire Titan unit will be strengthened.”
At those words, Hyunwook Lee nodded his head.
“I will shake up and weaken those titan units properly, so prepare for battle as I tell you.”
“No, what is that…”
He then stepped forward again and slowly raised his left hand.
Everyone couldn’t help but hold their breath at that famous gesture.
“…I’m not going to go out and put on the badge of being the representative of humanity and go out and do some kind of skit where I negotiate with them and set the rules.”
“Oh no, that’s…”
“Instead, I will choose to break the rules and exterminate them, even if it means being more violent.”
At that moment, Brian Thiel saw.
Where Lee Hyun-wook’s left hand is pointing, there is a single light floating near a low altitude in the sky…
And there, a handful of straight lines were drawn vertically, and the moment that line touched the ground.
yes–
The plains where the titans stood were erased from the map.
