Dusk (BL Light Novel)

Retaking, who’d been spamming question marks in panic, seemed to have finally calmed down a little.

We stood there, facing each other, like time had frozen. The one to break the silence and launch the first attack—was Retaking.
[Combat] You took 1,036 damage from Retaking’s skill .
[Combat] Retaking took 1,115 damage from .

[Combat] Retaking removed the effect of using .
[Combat] Retaking recovered 1,350 HP with the effect of .
With a throwing motion, he hurled a vial filled with a dark purple liquid to the ground. Purple smoke lightly dispersed, and both he and I were hit with the debuff. Then, he pulled out another small vial containing a clear liquid and shattered it on the floor. It was the skill animation for the medic abilities and .

From that moment on, we started fighting with no holds barred, just like we usually did. Thanks to the nearby chaos created by our party members, no one was paying attention to us.
My status window was riddled with all kinds of viruses. I couldn’t do anything about those debuffs anyway, so I focused entirely on hitting Retaking. By now, it was practically muscle memory to pop an immunity skill whenever I guessed the virus extraction cooldown was ready.
Considering this chaos was all happening mid-mass battle, it would've made sense for someone to screw up out of nerves—but not him. He calmly kept pace, calculating which skill I was casting, its range and reach, and dodged cleanly every time.

He kept slipping out of range—barely, but just enough—and it was infuriating. Shouldn’t his toes have been clipped at least? Why the hell wasn’t he getting hit? It was totally unfair, but a game’s judgment is a game’s judgment.
Of course, dodging with pixel-perfect precision wasn’t his monopoly. I also sidestepped just enough to avoid his attacks when he tried to use his self-defense techniques. He was probably boiling inside too.
With both of us dancing around each other, taunting back and forth, our HP bars had dropped to almost the same level. Retaking was at 14%, and I hovered around 30%. But let’s be clear: just because I had more HP didn’t mean I was /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ winning—Retaking was a healer.

Luckily, I got a good break this time. When he tried to use a virus extraction skill earlier, I landed a stun at the exact right moment and canceled it. Thanks to that, I still had a bit more HP left than him. Even better, for some reason, the viruses hadn’t mutated and quietly disappeared from my status window, which meant Retaking’s DoT damage dropped. A really good sign.
[Combat] Retaking used , gaining increased cast speed.
was a conditional skill usable only when the stress debuff was at 1 stack or below. It temporarily boosted Balance (*resistance to downed, knockback, and other status effects) for 8 seconds and cut casting time by 4 seconds in exchange for being unable to use instant-cast healing skills.

On top of that, it temporarily blocked the stat-reducing effects of the stress debuff—like lower ATK, DEF, and PEN—and stopped stress stacks from building regardless of which skill was used during the duration. An insanely overpowered skill.
There was a penalty, of course. Once it ended, you’d gain 1 stack of stress. But considering you usually got 1 stack every two heals, and this let you heal seven or eight times before a stack hit—it was a total bargain.
Retaking clearly meant to use this to recover HP no matter what. I had to block his healing by using one of my saved-up status-inflicting skills at the right moment.

The problem was… since cast time was reduced by four seconds, most casting skills became effectively instant-cast, which made it really hard to tell what he was casting.
He was obviously planning to mix in damage skills among the healing spells to bait out my stun, make me waste it, and then heal comfortably when I had nothing left.
I had to screw up that plan. So to put it simply, what we were doing now was…
…rock, paper, scissors.

If I landed a stun when he was using a damage skill, I lost.
If I landed a stun when he was using a healing skill, I won.
Rock, paper, scissors.
Not wanting to waste his uptime, he started casting something right away.
[Combat] You dealt 3,021 damage to Retaking with .

[Combat] Retaking recovered 10,900 HP using .
Ah. Went for a heal right off the bat… First attempt: fail.
[Combat] You dealt 3,669 damage to Retaking with .

[Combat] You dealt 4,073 damage to Retaking with .
[Combat] Retaking’s successfully hit you.
Damage skill. No stun. Success.

[Combat] SHEDears used and dealt 9,412 damage to Retaking.
[Combat] Retaking recovered 6,232 HP with .
Heal skill. No stun. Fail.

[Combat] Retaking was hit by .
[Combat] Retaking is stunned by the effect of .
[Combat] Retaking’s was canceled due to the stun.

[Combat] Retaking took 3,652 damage from a lingering DoT effect.
Heal skill. Yes stun. Success.
[Combat] Retaking was hit by .

[Combat] Retaking is stunned by the effect of .
[Combat] Retaking’s was canceled due to the stun.
Heal skill. Yes stun. Success. Guess he didn’t think I’d follow up right away.

[Combat] You dealt 4,008 damage to Retaking with .
[Combat] Retaking is stunned by .
[Combat] Retaking’s was canceled.

[General] Retaking: noq';;
Huh. The bluff paid off. Retaking had used healing skills three times in a row and didn’t expect me to throw down three stuns in a row. He typed something in chat—probably a flustered reaction. I couldn’t tell what “noq';;” meant, but it felt like a panic squeak.
I enjoyed the reaction for just a moment—then I saw it.

His HP was barely hanging on. With a high enough damage roll, I could finish it in one hit. If I missed this chance, I wouldn’t have any stun skills left and would be forced to watch him recover again.
Without hesitation, I slammed my fingers down on the hotkey for the highest coefficient skill I had, hard enough that the keyboard clacked. I prayed that even the force of the keystroke would get added to the damage.
Please!

[Combat] You dealt 7,563 damage to Retaking with .
[Combat] You killed Retaking with .
[System] You have defeated Jeopa Supreme Commander Retaking.

[System] You gained 2,910 Fame Points.
“Guh.”
I gasped, covering my mouth with my fist.

[Faction] Bia Supreme Commander Honeybread has defeated Jeopa Supreme Commander Retaking.
[Party] Massacre: Yo boss, mad respect~
[Party] Ceylontea: Whoa, 2.5 mil
[Party] Massacre: ssssss
[Party] Nickjung: Nice work~! hehe
[Party] Seasnail: GG GG~
[Party] PanfryThePancake: trd^^7
My party, who had annihilated all the Jeopa players nearby, lit up chat with their congratulations.

Drunk on victory, I stood confidently over Retaking’s body. Even if he was dead, that glowing bundle was still Retaking. My wings, the sign of our Pair, were glowing beautifully.
[General] Honeybread: Heyyy~
[General] Honeybread: I recorded a Holy Guardian HiddenS vid
[General] Honeybread: Wanna have it?
[General] Honeybread: Gift ><
This was capitalism’s victory.

***
TIP – Players belonging to the Aihtetas faction receive ranks of Soldier / NCO / Officer / Staff / Commander / Supreme Commander.
Players in the Overawhev faction receive ranks of Soldier / NCO / Officer / Division Leader / General / Supreme Commander.
***

Post Title: What the hell; why did Bia Supreme Commanders blow their transformation cooldown after getting 2.5M amber and skip the evening war;;
Posted by: [Bia] CryingWaterbird
I’m so fucking jealous...

(25 Comments)
【Best Comment】 [Bia] Massacre || Yo sorry but 2.5M was just too tasty
└ LMAOOOOOOOOO 2.5M I’m so jealous

└ lol bro seriously? Fine, I forgive you, just gimme a cut
└ [Bia] Massacre || stfu lol └ LOLOLOLOLOL └ Holy shit that was harsh
Wait, who bought the kill?

└ Sounds like Honeybread hired someone to off Retaking
└ Wait huh?? Honeybread? Didn’t do it himself? └ Wait? └ Wait?? └ Wait??? └ Stop with the waiting └ [Bia] Ceylontea || Wait? ㅇㅅㅇ └ Why are YOU like this lol └ Bro it's in the faction chat—Honeybread killed Retaking himself └ That checks out
2.5M amber? I’d respect that…

LMFAO throwing away a transformation for 250 bucks hahahahahaha
… (View more comments) …