Chapter 57: One Man Versus One City
The Bloodstained Necklace provided 1% Life-Steal based on his maximum HP.
Currently, Liam’s HP exceeded 3.5 million, meaning a single Basic Attack triggered 35,000 Life-Steal.
With his current Attack Speed of 20, he could regenerate over 700,000 HP per second.
The City Guards' attacks were negligible, a mere annoyance, while Liam’s strikes were devastating.
In less than a minute, over a hundred guards lay dead at his feet.
The surrounding players, who had been itching to join the fray, gradually cooled their heels.
They knew fortune favored the bold, but they also knew how to weigh the risks.
From what they could see, if they dared to move against Liam, the outcome was a foregone conclusion: they would die a miserable death.
Inside Blackwind City, Castellan Balthazar’s expression was dark and venomous. He had expected Liam to be strong, but he never imagined the man would be this monstrous.
"Deploy the Priests and Mages! Also, summon Brawler Commander Brulink. Tell him to lead the Brawlers in a direct assault on the Frost Monarch."
"Furthermore, request the presence of the High Priest and the Array Mages. I want a full-scale, zero-blind-spot bombardment. I refuse to believe he’s truly invincible."
Balthazar moved quickly, showing Liam the respect his power demanded. This wasn't a skirmish; it was an all-out effort.
Liam noticed the Priests and Mages taking the field and began to fall back.
The appearance of these classes signaled the arrival of hard crowd control (CC).
While his Purifying Jade Amulet was powerful, if the enemy numbers were high enough, they could still pose a lethal threat.
"So the Frost Monarch knows how to run. I thought he was truly fearless," Balthazar sneered. "Pass down the order: Archers, suppressive fire! Guardians, sortie from the gates and surround him! Support Commander Brulink in taking down the Frost Monarch!"
Liam watched the Guardians rushing out to close the distance, sensing the Brawlers lurking within their ranks. A cold smirk played on his lips.
"Balthazar, you fell for it."
He continued to retreat, putting on a convincing show of being overwhelmed.
Once the Guardians were within the optimal range, he struck without hesitation.
Quintuple Volley.
A hundred arrows per second.
With his Attack Speed and lethality pushed to their absolute limits, Liam’s arrows poured out like a torrential Berserker storm.
Critical Hit!
Chain Lightning!
Slow!
Death Cycle!
Skill effects erupted across the field. Even the tankiest, meat-shield Guardians collapsed instantly under the onslaught.
In truth, the real threat to Liam wasn't the ranged classes, but the melee ones.
He possessed 85% CC resistance.
But so what?
If a hundred Guardians lined up to chain Taunt, Airborne, Savage Charge, and Stun him, that remaining 15% chance would eventually lock him down until he couldn't move.
And beyond the Guardians, the Brawlers were the real headache.
A Brawler’s weakness was obvious: short range and almost no ranged skills.
They were also relatively "squishy," with HP pools only slightly better than Archers or Mages.
On paper, they seemed weak.
However, Brawlers excelled in one terrifying area: chain CC.
Once they got close, they could stun-lock a player into oblivion.
It reminded Liam of his fight with the Elder Mayor back in the Novice Village.
He’d had the Purifying Jade Amulet then too, even if the resistance was only 80% at the time.
Against the Elder Mayor, he hadn't even had the chance to fight back.
Therefore, Liam’s retreat was a ruse.
He needed to bait the Guardians and Brawlers away from the city walls. Once they were dealt with, the rest would be easy.
Between the Slow effect from The Frost Decree and the freezing power of Eira, the Frost Goddess’s Glacial Gaze, these Guardians had no hope of escaping once they committed to the charge.
Liam was about to show them the true meaning of "Target Acquisition."
In large-scale warfare, "Picking Targets" was similar to a modern sniper taking out high-value assets—machine gunners, anti-air crews, or commanders.
In the world of Twilight of the Gods, the concept was the same.
In guild wars, the priority was always the Priests, high-burst Mages, commanders, and key officers.
But Liam’s targets were exclusively the Brawlers.
There were about fifty Brawlers hidden among the Guardian ranks, but Liam’s arrows seemed to have eyes of their own, bypassing the shields to strike them with surgical precision.
"This is… insane!"
Berserk sucked in a sharp breath. "That archery… he puts world-class champions to shame."
Sky-Piercer was also in the crowd. His own archery was elite, yet seeing Liam maintain that level of precision while firing a Quintuple Shot made his blood run cold.
"If someone told me a god was playing that character, I’d believe them."
Liam’s skills had been forged in the fires of life and death.
After The Cataclysm descended, he had spent every waking moment in high-intensity combat.
No matter how god-tier his Innate Talent was, he never could have honed this level of lethality without those life-or-death struggles.
"We’ve all underestimated the Frost Monarch’s technical skill," Dreamfrost said, her voice trembling. She had seen high-level plays before, but Liam’s performance was beyond comprehension.
This wasn't just "taking the enemy general's head amidst a vast army." This was a hundred arrows a second, every single one finding its mark.
Terror. Absolute terror.
The players who had harbored thoughts of jumping Liam were now paralyzed by fear.
The Frost Monarch was a monster.
Whish! Whish! Whish!
Liam’s arrows continued to pierce the air, and the Brawlers dropped one by one.
Once the Brawlers were wiped out, the remaining Guardians were dead men walking.
Trapped by the Slow from The Frost Decree, they couldn't escape his range, and his damage was simply too high to tank.
Interestingly, because Liam had pulled back the engagement line, the City Guards on the ramparts could no longer reach him.
"Activate the City Defense Array!" Balthazar screamed, his voice tinged with panic.
Less than fifteen minutes into the battle, he was facing a total rout.
Liam’s sheer power had terrified him.
When he saw the surrounding players refusing to move, he knew his chance was gone.
A faint, mocking smile touched Liam’s lips.
He stopped his assault and sent a message to Berserk.
"I need to use your Fiefdom. I’m going to let my friend kill me ten times."
"Sure."
Berserk blinked, stunned for a moment before nodding in agreement.
Liam then messaged Monty, telling him and Barney to head to the Berserker's Domain.
Upon arrival, Liam stripped off all his gear. "Monty, kill me."
Monty was confused for a split second before the realization hit him. "You’re letting me claim the Blackwind City bounty?"
"Exactly," Liam laughed. "Keep the wealth in the family. Kill me ten times. That’s 1,000 AP for you."
"Understood."
Monty hesitated only for a moment before nodding.
Then, he began his assault.
Critical Hit!
-5,847
-5,839
...
Damage numbers popped up over Liam’s head in rapid succession.
Because Liam wasn't resisting, almost every hit was a crit.
However, even without gear, the passive healing from Blood-Thirsty Dragon Scale and Resurgence was still active.
With Verdant Rebirth waiting to trigger at low HP, Monty had his work cut out for him.
But it wasn't "Hard Mode" per se. Monty was Level 20, and with his Innate Talent, he had poured at least five hundred points into Attack Speed.
Combined with his gear, his guild buffs, and the home-field advantage of being in Berserk’s Fiefdom, his Attack Speed exceeded 7.5!
He was dealing over 40,000 damage per second.
Even accounting for Liam’s passive health regen, Monty was shaving off about 30,000 HP a second.
That was 1.8 million damage a minute.
It would take less than two minutes to kill Liam once.
Without the Tears of the Life Goddess equipped, Liam’s total HP had dropped by 20%, falling below 3 million.
Killing him ten times would take less than twenty minutes.
Verdant Rebirth only triggered once per death, adding maybe another minute of work.
People shouldn't think Liam was truly invincible.
If he were ever caught in a CC-chain, there was a very real chance he could be killed.
He only seemed untouchable because he was incredibly cautious, and his positioning and combat instincts were superior to even the highest-level NPCs in The Astral Kingdom.
Of course, there was the main factor: Liam wasn't fighting back. Without Life-Steal, his HP could only go down.
Berserk watched the execution in silence, making no move to intervene.
Monty, meanwhile, was grinning ear to ear.
"I won't forget this, Liam. Your sacrifice won't be in vain!"
Monty’s Innate Talent provided a 5x AP Multiplier. By killing Liam ten times, he actually gained 5,000 AP.
And because his talent allowed him to balance his stats perfectly, those 5,000 AP points were as effective as 50,000 points on a normal player.
As he dumped the points into his stats, Monty’s attributes underwent a tectonic shift.
His Attack increased by 10,000, HP by 100,000, and Mana by 25,000. His Attack Speed jumped by 19.3, reaching a staggering 26.8!
At this stage of the game, no one—absolutely no one—had an Attack Speed as ridiculous as Monty’s.
It wasn't just speed; his movement, armor, magic resist, and penetrations reached absurd levels.
To get this many points through normal gameplay, he would have had to reach Level 200.
"Liam, I freaking love you!"
Monty rushed forward and gave Liam a massive bear hug.
Berserk asked from the side, "Was that an unlimited Instant Rebirth with a penalty?"
"Yeah," Liam nodded. He had chosen the three-second Instant Rebirth option each time Monty killed him.
"You're a freak," Berserk muttered.
"Great Sage Monty, interested in a deal? How about you sell me that Black Iron Grade set you just earned?"
Monty didn't answer immediately; instead, he looked at Liam.
Liam smiled. "You can keep it for yourself or sell it if you don't need it."
Monty nodded. "Liam, this belongs to you. Whatever I sell, the gold is yours."
Liam waved him off. "I'm not hurting for cash. If that’s all, I’m heading out."
The reason Liam hadn't continued his assault on Blackwind City once the Defense Array went up wasn't just to help Monty.
There were two strategic reasons.
First, he wanted to mislead the authorities of The Astral Kingdom. He wanted them to believe he had no way to break the City Defense Array, lulling them into a false sense of security.
Second, he needed the various factions to start moving.
The attack on Blackwind City was a massive blow to the Kingdom’s prestige; they would be forced to act.
Liam didn't just want one city, and he wasn't just looking to vent his frustration.
He wanted to use this opportunity to reap even greater rewards.
Now, he just had to wait for someone to come looking for him.
After leaving the Berserker's Domain, Liam headed straight for Black-Water Lake to grind the Dragon Turtle dungeon.
The loot from the dungeon was negligible at his level.
He was only there because the mobs had high HP pools, allowing him to stack his own HP even higher.
The Twilight of the Gods forums were currently in a state of absolute meltdown.
The news of Liam taking on Blackwind City single-handedly and forcing them into a total lockdown was everywhere.
Videos of the battle had been uploaded, sending the internet into a frenzy.
Players from The Oryzean Dominion: "Fake. This has to be fake. These guys from the Dragon Empire are just good at bragging. 420,000 damage on a Basic Attack? Impossible. Even with a full set of Gold-Grade Gear, you couldn't hit those numbers."
Players from The K-League: "One man vs. a city. Great hook. But let’s be clear: the Frost Monarch is actually one of ours. He’s just a pro player working in the Dragon Empire temporarily. No other country could produce a player this skilled."
Players from The Sakura Realm: "I’ve seen enough Dragon Empire propaganda movies to know their tricks. 420,000 damage? A hundred arrows a second? Not even our Emperor is that powerful. No player could be this broken."
The "One Man vs. One City" incident had gone global. Every nation had an opinion.
Aside from the K-League trying to claim Liam as their own, most international players dismissed the videos as hoaxes.
To them, 420,000 damage and 100 arrows a second were simply too far outside the realm of possibility.
And who was the most miserable person in the world right now?
Without a doubt, it was The Game Maven.
He had previously trashed Liam's reputation just to chase clout, and now his comment section was being absolutely decimated.
The mockery and insults were relentless, and the worst part was that he had no defense.
He had initially thought that with his 5x AP Multiplier, he would eventually soar to the top and overtake the Frost Monarch.
But lately, the gap between him and Liam felt like an unbridgeable abyss.
Especially after this.
The 420,000 damage, the hundred arrows a second, the surgical targeting...
He was in total despair.
"Frost Monarch... are you even human?!"
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