As soon as the designated command was entered, Killer puffed out his chest proudly like a pigeon. Seeing that, Sa-yoon frowned. Was this a joke to him?
If he had spent that time slashing, how much more damage could he have dealt? Thinking that, Sa-yoon shifted his focus to Ares and unleashed an attack skill. Since one party member had caused a DPS loss, they needed to make up for it elsewhere.
Just then, Ares raised his hand high, issuing commands to his subordinates. It was one of the few free DPS windows in the siege battle.
[Combat] Using Encouragement of Kimaris. Allies’ attack speed increases by 100% for 10 seconds.
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: ♡
The moment the skill was activated, the frog flooded the guild chat with hearts. The timing was absurdly precise.
Everyone was too busy dealing damage to respond to GegulGegulFrog’s antics. However, Sa-yoon could almost see Freedeal’s invisible chat message scolding him—What the hell are you doing?
Did he mess up somewhere? Sa-yoon tilted his head but let it go. However, the same thing happened with the next buff.
[Combat] Using Encouragement of Kimaris. Allies’ attack speed increases by 100% for 10 seconds.
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: ♡♡♡
Was he… spamming hearts because the buff was so damn good?
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: Chasa-nim♡♡
[Guild] Freedeal: Why do you keep spamming ♡♡?
By the third time, a thoroughly fed-up Freedeal finally snapped, turning his question into a thinly veiled attack.
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: Yep?
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: Ah
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: Curse—
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: No, wait—
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: It’s hearts, okay?
[Guild] Shokrates: Yeah, no, that was definitely a curse.
[Guild] Freedeal: Can you say everything in one message?
[Guild] Shokrates: Oh, so the chat box is all yours now?
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: Damn
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: Caster classes…
It was clear that combat had something to do with his choppy messages. Ranged DPS had downtime while casting, giving them moments to type. In contrast, melee DPS had to execute skills instantly the moment they hit the keys, leaving little time to chat.
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: Attack speed buff
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: Love is overflowi—
Called out for his short messages, GegulGegulFrog tried to summarize but ended up abruptly cutting off his sentence mid-thought. His skills must have come off cooldown.
If he was that busy dealing damage, couldn’t he just talk when the fight was over?
[Guild] Freedeal: So… you felt love?
[Guild] Shokrates: Someone add a “No Romance in the Guild” clause to the rules, please. ㅇㅅㅠ
[Guild] Shokrates: I OBJECT to this love story.
Clearly, not everyone shared the same sentiment.
To put it simply, the overenthusiastic DPS was just overwhelmed by the attack speed buff from Encouragement of Kimaris and tried to express it… in his own way.
[Guild] Shokrates: Wait, why are only you guys getting the Warlock buff? That thing’s amazing!
Some people believed that casting classes needed casting speed buffs, not attack speed.
Of course, casting speed was the priority. It was their main stat. But if you added attack speed on top of it, the animations for casting skills became slightly faster as well.
In large-scale siege battles like this, even the smallest advantage could determine the rankings. If there was a buff available, it was best to take it, no questions asked. So, it wasn’t entirely unreasonable for Shokrates to react the way he did.
However, Sa-yoon found it amusing how much Shokrates was losing his mind over it.
[Guild] Oath’s Vow: Haha
Oath’s Vow had deliberately left a spot open in the main party of Unit 1 until the very last moment, waiting for Shokrates. That brief laugh summed up everything. After all, when someone was late, the one who suffered the most was always the organizer.
[Guild] Shokrates: My forehead is literally slammed against my desk while DPSing, I can’t see my screen. ㅠ
At least he wasn’t completely oblivious. Shokrates backed down pretty quickly.
For a moment, the chat went silent. Ares had begun his pattern of slamming the ground with his spear. Every impact sent tremors through the battlefield, knocking down or stunning any characters who failed to dodge in time.
Sa-yoon managed to avoid it three times, but on the fourth, he had no dodges left and got stunned. A small star-shaped debuff icon appeared under his status bar, and Chasa’s head drooped in frustration.
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: I was just expressing my feelings. ㅠ
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: It’s all a misunderstanding. ㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜ
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: That’s not what I meant! ㅜㅜㅜㅜ
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: I meant that people who give buffs are good people.
[Guild] Shokrates: Spilled water can’t be scooped back up. (Too late to take it back.)
[Guild] GegulGegulFrog: Inseong always picks on me. ㅠ
Taking advantage of the brief downtime from being stunned, GegulGegulFrog launched into a one-man show in the chat. His typing speed was insane—the messages just kept flooding in. But what truly surprised Sa-yoon wasn’t the speed.
It was the last message.
Killer is chatting instead of DPSing?
In this phase, the last person who should be slacking off was Killer. Demon Hunters inherently had more evasion skills than other classes. A quick glance at the unit window showed that no other Demon Hunters were stunned.
For melee fighters, if they weren’t using skills, they were literally doing nothing. There was a reason neither Oath’s Vow nor Furple had chimed in with their usual banter—because they were too busy spamming skills nonstop.
Meanwhile, some people were busting their fingers grinding out skills…
Click.
Something in Sa-yoon snapped.
[Whisper] Chasa: Stop messing around and focus on your DPS. ♡♡
[‘Killer’ nods.]
The response came in the form of an emote from somewhere.
Since his attention was split, it was inevitable that small mistakes started piling up. He should’ve applied the Curse Amplification buff first before attacking, but halfway through his damage cycle, he suddenly noticed the buff was still sitting there, unused.
Not that it really mattered at this point. Even if the main DPS of the party hadn’t been slacking, their shot at a top-tier ranking was already long gone.
This siege battle was going straight to hell. His head throbbed. Warlocks already had a hard enough time proving their worth—so many people looked down on them. He had really wanted to perform well this time. But at some point, everything had gone completely off the rails.
[Guild] Oath’s Vow: Entering the final 5% phase.
“I’ll get ready. Please go heavy on the healing support.”
Regardless of Sa-yoon’s crumbling mental state, the siege battle was reaching its climax. Just because his ranking was ruined didn’t mean he could drop out like a university class.
After countless ups and downs, they finally reached the last phase. The Spear of God plunged into the ground, sending pillars of fire erupting all around. This was it—the final stretch, where Ares’ aggro would be permanently locked onto the commander until his death.
The server chat was moving even faster now. A quick glance showed people were placing bets on how long the Warlock would last.
Oath’s Vow had stopped giving commands. Sa-yoon pressed his gear-swap hotkey, and in an instant, his jet-black uniform transformed into a pristine white outfit—armor he had prepared specifically for this moment.
The timing was impeccable. Just as his transformation completed, an attack was directed straight at Chasa.
[Decoy activates.]
[Greater Demon Hagenti returns to the underworld.]
[Combat] Commander-exclusive skill—Barrier activated. All incoming attacks will be nullified for 10 seconds.
The massive spear impaled his summoned demon, which instantly dissipated into smoke. With the barrier now up, Sa-yoon immediately resummoned his demon.
Divine had never buffed Warlocks, but they hadn’t fixed this bug either. Decoy redirected all incoming damage to the summoned demon, and if the demon was dismissed, the skill’s cooldown reset.
As long as he could summon a new demon in time, and his mana held out, he could generate as many extra lives as he needed.
[Decoy activates.]
[Greater Demon Hagenti returns to the underworld.]
[You have taken 10,354 damage.]
[Ronove’s Temptation activates.]
[You have recovered 3,106 HP.]
Of course, he could only pull this off once while holding aggro.
But that one time made all the difference. While Chasa stalled with Barrier and Decoy, the players were unleashing a full-force assault.
The strategy for this phase was simple: endure normal attacks with healing and potions, counter skills with skills.
[You have taken 9,754 damage.]
[Combat] You consume a Golden Apple. Restores 1,084 HP every 2 seconds for 20 seconds.
Not that tanking normal attacks was actually sustainable. Each hit carved away half of Chasa’s HP, only for it to be barely restored before the next attack landed. Every turn, Sa-yoon frantically spammed his damage reduction potions.
[Server] Papyrus: What the hell is that Warlock’s HP bar doing?
Someone watching couldn’t help but blurt it out.
The once-quiet server chat exploded.
