Your Commander-in-Chief – Chapter 126

“Attack!”

I shouted the moment the dark clouds parted to reveal the muted scales.

Receiving my order, the guild members boosted the griffons’ altitude, soaring into the sky.

Close to 300 of us were flying. The rough wind roared out as the high cries of the griffons echoed widely.

But we weren’t the only ones who had flown up to attack the black dragon.

User after user riding griffons began to appear all at once.

Not hundreds. To my eye, there were clearly over a thousand filling the sky.

I noticed the guild marks floating above the users’ nicknames.

Things I’d dreadfully seen during the faction wars. It was the Human Alliance.

“Everyone, retreat!”

There were just too many to crash into with a single Soft & Chewy Cow.

I shouted while steering my griffon.

“It’s the Malchonk Guild!”

“Kill them all!”

“Blood Demon King! Fight me!”

As much as we recognized the enemies, they recognized us too.

They each drew their weapons and began to accelerate towards us.

Attacking the giant black dragon was pushed to the back burner. Their clear intention was to first remove us, the hostile alliance, from sight.

At this rate, they’d catch up. I shouted to Helena nearby.

“Cast Time Acceleration!”

There was no time to explain what to do. Thankfully, Helena silently cast the [Time Acceleration] buff on me.

Kiiiiiing-!

My body’s speed soared to its limits.

In that moment, the misaligned senses of my mind and body overlapped perfectly.

The feeling of squeezing into ill-fitting clothes vanished.

The sharp pain was followed by the exhilarating speed of my body keeping up with my accelerated mind.

-Here we go.

At that moment, my body was already in motion.

I felt as if I could move freely in a stopped time frame.

Shifting my weight on my griffon, I immediately prepared my skill.

Swoosh-

[Charge]

I pushed off my spot. In that moment, my body was enveloped in blue mana and shot forward in a straight line.

The travel distance and speed of Charge-type skills are affected by the caster’s attack speed.

Boom-!

With a harsh bursting sound, my griffon’s body vanished. But I didn’t stop.

It was as if I tore through space, gaining a significant distance. But it wasn’t over yet.

“Come forth!”

As my voice trailed off, a giant magical formation erupted, and a wolf sprang out.

Sorry, but that guy needed to help me just like before.

My legs landed on the wolf’s back, and it let out a slow howl.

“Ruff…!”

My feet connected. That meant I was grounded.

In that moment, I pulled back my sword and prepared for the next skill.

[Dragon’s Fury]

Boom!

As I struck down onto the wolf’s back, the tip of my sword traced a golden dragon in the air.

The long, stretched golden aura dispersed like the tail of a serpent swimming in water.

It resembled the flickering lightning peeking through the dark clouds.

As all Charge-type skills concluded, my body began to slow down.

The effect of the Time Acceleration buff had worn off.

Both the wolf and my griffon were being returned, and it would take quite some time before I could resummon them.

Instantly, I pulled out the [Guild Summon Order] from my pocket.

“Come here!”

Sparkle-

As I raised the Guild Summon Order high, it emitted brilliant light, and a massive pillar of light descended around me.

Not just one. More than dozens, close to 300 beams of light fell around me.

In that moment, a pure white hand emerged from one of the light pillars, catching my falling body.

It was Helena.

Without a word, she cradled me in front of her.

Thanks to my character’s small size, I could easily fit into Helena’s embrace.

I nodded, checking our guild members.

With the distance widened like this, they shouldn’t be able to chase us anymore.

“Let’s join up with the alliance too!”

The Human Alliance was gathering. If we continued to roam around as a single guild, we’d get attacked and wiped out in no time.

“How did you do that just now?”

As we moved to a coordinate where the alliance members had agreed to meet, Helena asked.

I answered with a confident expression, arms crossed.

“I split the sky.”

“You… split the sky…?”

“Yeah.”

It was an incredibly accurate description.

I had indeed split the sky. The long afterimage of light that stretched in that frozen time could very well be said to have split the sky.

But it seemed Helena didn’t quite understand my words.

This is why wizards are…

I sighed inwardly, shaking my head.

As soon as we arrived at our rendezvous point riding Helena’s Windwalker, the guild leaders who had arrived first greeted me eagerly, waving their hands.

“Lord Umak King has arrived!”

“Long time no see!”

“Are we not wearing the cow suit today?”

“No suit.”

Why were these guys acting like this today?

Just a few days ago, we had gathered for a brawl.

Clearing my throat, I opened my mouth.

“Everyone’s gathered, right?”

“Ah, of course. We brought everyone who could be mobilized without missing a single soul.”

“Is it another World Boss Raid this time? Any more info?”

“Sorry, but none.”

There wouldn’t be any info. It was just newly spawned right after the expansion pack update. I didn’t know if there were specific conditions to respawn, but anyway, it had appeared, so we had to take it down.

“Let’s start moving soon.”

I looked up at the sky.

[Fallen Divine Beast – Black Dragon]

Its health was slowly decreasing.

If we kept dawdling, it was sure to be snatched away.

I jumped up from my spot.

My griffon that had been returned was recovered.

“Yena.”

Helena hugged me as if feeling disappointed, but strategically, it was a loss for us to have such strong forces clustered in one spot.

I shook off her hand and stretched my arms up to the sky.

“Come forth!”

“Squawk!”

As I leapt onto the back of my newly revived griffon, Helena’s sharp gaze followed me.

I couldn’t help it. I averted her gaze and drew my sword.

“Charge!”

Boom!

Over a thousand of us took to the sky and began closing in on the black dragon.

Bang! Thunder rumbled!

As the dark clouds drew closer, the lightning flashing beyond sent tingles down my skin.

The massive muted scales reflected the lightning, flaunting its presence.

It was huge. So big that its head wasn’t even visible.

“We’ll move while attacking!”

Typically, the weak points on such raid monsters are near the head.

In order to accumulate higher damage, we needed to recognize those weak points.

I sped along with my griffon, scanning the surroundings.

Crackling skill effects burst forth from every corner of the sky.

It wasn’t just the Demon Clan Alliance and the Human Alliance. Small to mid-sized guilds not part of any alliance had also joined the raid.

The competition was overwhelming.

“I found the head!”

At that moment, one of the alliance members shouted, stretching out their hand.

Everyone turned their eyes that way, and I was no exception.

Amidst the black clouds, the faintly outlined horn glowed brightly with roaring lightning.

How long those twisting whiskers stretched… I could say it quite clearly.

That the black dragon’s head was indeed over there.

“Everyone, to that side!”

Without needing to be told, we were already moving. I urged my griffon to charge forward.

As I sped towards the head, the users flying ahead began to slow down significantly.

It was due to the users attacking the head.

They weren’t Demons. Neither were they Humans. They were users with shimmering hair and long ears.

Most of them were Archer users wielding guns or bows.

Yes. They were the Elven Union, a newly emerging faction.

Elves had a special racial passive unlike Humans and Demons: the [Blessing of the Wind Spirit].

This skill had a beneficial effect on improving the hit rate of all ranged attacks, elevating the formerly terrible hit rate of trash archer users to near monkey levels.

Once this fact became known, 95% of archer users chose to reincarnate as Elves. Thanks to that, the long-standing restriction on Demon reincarnation was lifted.

Elves were a faction formed by archer users who had suffered oppression, and they harbored hatred towards both the Demon and Human factions.

I knew just how terrifying skilled archers could be through my experiences with Hwarang.

The Demon Clan Alliance observed from their positions.

They couldn’t hastily start fighting.

There was no feeling of being pushed, but if we got into a scuffle with the Elven alliance and the Human faction swooped in from behind, we’d only be the ones to take the fall.

The Elves were also casting wary glances in our direction.

Just as the brief silence dragged on, the Elven users who had been observing us turned their gazes away first.

It was a silent signal that they didn’t intend to fight. However, when that signal would change, it was uncertain, but at the very least, we had to work together with them to whittle down the black dragon’s health.

“Attack!”

Leading the alliance members, I moved up slightly away from the Elves and began to unleash attacks on the black dragon.

With its massive horns, sharp gaze, and mustache that enveloped the entire clouds, it wriggled like a small dragon.

As our Soft & Chewy Demon Alliance struck the head, the black dragon’s health began to plummet at an astonishing rate.

In that moment, familiar guild marks began to appear from a distance.

It was the Human Alliance. They too were flying in to target the black dragon’s head.

Humans, Demons, Elves.

A strange standoff between the three factions ensued. Each side was casting cautious glances at one another as they unleashed skills upon the black dragon.

As the black dragon’s health quickly decreased, nearing 80%, I used the alliance chat to inform all alliance members.

Alliance – [Depending on the situation, we’re going to take out the hostile alliance, so stay on standby!]

Alliance – [Depending on the situation, we’re going to take out the hostile alliance, so stay on standby!]

Alliance – [Depending on the situation, we’re going to take out the hostile alliance, so stay on standby!]

I filled a whole page of the chat window for those who might have missed it.

As the black dragon’s health reached 80%, just as expected, the monster’s pattern appeared.

[The black dragon is taking a deep breath.]

The message spread throughout the server, and at that moment, a massive suction force began to draw everyone nearby towards it.

“Uaaagh!”

“Kyaaaaaah!”

“S-save me!”

It was an unexpected situation. I too panicked and flailed my arms around aimlessly.

There was no escaping. The intangible force that fiercely yanked at us was pulling in all the users fluttering near the black dragon’s head, regardless of whether they were from the Human, Demon, or Elf factions.

Whoosh-!

With over three thousand players combined from the three factions, all tangled up in complete mayhem in the air.

Just as every user was sucked right before the black dragon’s mouth, the powerful force that had gripped us suddenly vanished.

Those who had played Deron even a little would understand what this situation meant.

All dragon-type monsters have this pattern.

Breathe. This black dragon was now preparing its breath attack.

In that moment, my ominous prediction came true, as the black dragon’s mouth opened, unleashing dark flames.

—Kwaaaah!

The space warped, and all users were swept away in the black flames.

I couldn’t escape that attack either.

My health plummeted to 1 in an instant.

At that moment, over three thousand users, unable to evade death, began to fall miserably to the ground.

In a single pattern, every user was annihilated.