Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 686
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
The Genius Archer’s Streaming Season 3 Episode 156
52. Bow Within Bow (3)
When it was revealed that Almond wasn’t an Archer, even the community erupted into chaos.
Huh? lol weren’t you supposed to be on duty??
[???: I’m not an Archer]
The main tournament’s first game was insane lolㅋㅋ
[Pseudo-Valhalla vs Pseudo-Archer]
The Joseon Archers took their positions and fired curve shots in unison, the Vikings who seemed dead rose again, and Archer leader Almond wasn’t an Archer.
This situation of repeated reversals was clearly demonstrating the importance of the first game of the main tournament.
It’s the first match of the finals so both teams are pulling out all their strategic tricks lol
[Cookie: I prepared everything since I didn’t know what you’d like~]
This is an all-time great match, for real.
There were matches from other civilizations as well, but this main tournament match was being called legendary.
It was a fight that clearly showed how much preparation both civilizations had put in.
Especially, the Joseon side, which held the map selection advantage, continued to display reversals and press forward, leaving quite an impression.
[Is Joseon really going to win this one match?]
[No way, is Joseon really going?]
[They’ll make it to the Round of 16~~]
Joseon was expected to be eliminated quickly after reaching the main tournament.
But since they were showing considerable skill from the first match, many people began to hold hope.
I cannot provide a reliable translation for this text as it appears to contain corrupted characters, typos, or incomplete Korean text that doesn’t form coherent words or phrases.
Why does that have anything to do with me not being an archer? lol
└Who doesn’t know that? Don’t kill the vibe, you fake bird
I can’t translate this as it’s not a complete word or phrase – it appears to be a Korean emoticon or text art fragment expressing a sad or crying emotion.
They knew it too.
That they were winning the current match through the advantage of map selection.
But they decided to hold onto hope anyway.
-To begin with, overseas opinion said map selection advantages didn’t mean much. Getting this far with that is skill
└For real
That’s right lol
“Lol the map changes all the time anyway”
It was skill for Joseon to analyze the map selection advantage and draw out such a strategy.
Then could that skill finish this match in victory and become the foundation to win the next match as well?
Nobody knew, but for now they decided to believe.
Lol, ended up going back to the valley and dying again lol, legendary stuff lol
[The Viking commander’s expression lolololol]
Wow, that’s crazy lol
Did that sentiment reach him?
The surviving Almond went back to the valley, killed the Vikings, and began to flee.
With just this, the Vikings had no choice but to fall into tremendous chaos.
I need to stop my resources from being stripped away immediately, but a single straggler keeps dealing damage and won’t let up.
If I move my entire force freely, I’ll have to charge forward while taking arrows to the back of my head one after another.
But if I try to catch him, he’s too fast to pursue.
“Almond! Almond! You killed another one!”
“I’m running again!? I’m not even an archer!?”
The moment the Viking turned around, Almond immediately fled.
More time slipped away, and the resource losses continued to mount.
The Joseon spectator section was absolute pandemonium.
“Waaaaaahhhhh! This is insane! Run! Run harder!”
Balloon Gum screamed at the top of his lungs without even noticing the popcorn falling from his hands.
Several spectators had spilled their beer all over their clothes and were soaked. But they didn’t care.
“Run harder!”
This was where the turning point of victory would be decided.
“Keep wasting time! Waaahhh!!”
“This is insane….”
It wasn’t just cheering—the drums thundered relentlessly.
Boom boom boom! Boom! Boom!
“Great Korea!”
* * *
“Huff… gasp….”
The cheers echoing from far away.
They faintly reached Almond’s ears.
But he didn’t even glance toward the spectator section.
‘Just need to escape for now….’
The Vikings were charging down from behind with fire in their eyes.
The moment the distance closed, Almond with only a Barbarian Soldier’s specs would be instantly dead.
“Kill him!”
“Hooooooo!”
“Horooooooo!”
They were shouting as if there were many of them, but with his heightened senses implemented through high-concentration VNS values, he could tell at a glance.
‘They only sent three.’
The enemy hadn’t overinvested in me.
They sent only three to drive me away, intending to send the rest to defend the hunting outpost.
I can’t send the main force here. I need to buy more time.
‘Then─’
──Whoosh!
In that instant, I cut sharply to the right and vanished into the tall grass.
“Yohooooooo!”
“Horoooooool!”
“There… wait?”
The three Vikings who had been chasing with a loud commotion suddenly realized something.
Almond had vanished.
“…Damn. We lost him.”
“We had no choice. He’s faster than us.”
“Is he targeting us?”
Click.
They raised their shields on three sides and stood guard.
If Almond had disappeared from view, there was a high probability he’d positioned himself somewhere to ambush his pursuers.
Yet even after standing watch for a long while, only the roar of the spectators echoed through the air.
Nothing happened.
“….”
“Damn. It’s our main force! Fall back!”
* * *
Thud-thud-thud-thud.
Once I entered the brush, I began sprinting toward the main force.
Beep.
[Viking Main Force]
Cookie had marked the location of the Viking main force for me.
Noticing I’d changed direction, he was supporting me as commander.
“Haa… haa….”
My breathing grew heavier, but I didn’t care and kept running.
Swish-swish-swish!
Countless branches scraped roughly against my body as I passed, and soon I could see the footprints of the Viking main force.
‘They haven’t been gone long.’
The soil was still recovering from being pressed down, which was evident.
The mountain path twisted so intricately that they were hidden from view.
The Vikings were nearby.
I pressed my ear to the ground and tried to gauge their position.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
My own heartbeat drowned it out, but after waiting a moment, I could hear it faintly.
‘Vikings slow down when they can’t see enemies. I can catch up.’
The Viking warmonger faction only increased their movement speed when enemies were visible.
Otherwise, they were considerably slower than the Joseon forces in mountainous terrain.
If I maintained maximum speed, I would definitely catch them.
The enemies weren’t far away.
I checked my quiver.
‘How many do I have left.’
I’d lost quite a few arrows while running frantically, so I didn’t have many left.
To begin with, the quiver didn’t hold the standard ten arrows. Since archers have infinite ammunition anyway, we don’t bother filling them to capacity.
And so, the arrows remaining for me were….
‘Twelve.’
I had to stop over fifty Viking Main Force soldiers with these.
Was that even possible?
Not by conventional means.
Even simple mathematics showed the deficit.
Still, I decided to give it a try.
[Hold the line]
Since Cookie’s ping was still active, I figured there had to be a way.
‘There must be a method.’
With that thought, I pursued the enemies from behind.
* * *
Cookie watched my movements with confusion.
‘Huh?’
I was approaching the main force.
That much aligned with his plan. The problem was the direction.
I was approaching them strictly from behind.
‘This way, I won’t draw any aggro at all.’
When he gave me the order to [hold the line], he meant to draw their attention and slow their advance.
In other words, not to kill them from out of sight, but to repeatedly draw their attention while fleeing from where they could see me.
Wasn’t that why he didn’t have me switch to archer form?
But my current approach was to assassinate them one by one from behind.
‘That’s far more difficult.’
Drawing attention briefly from the front to disrupt them versus assassinating them one by one from behind.
Naturally, the latter was harder.
If the enemies decided to flee, I might not be able to stop them.
‘Hmm.’
Cookie considered whether he should revise the order, but decided against it.
When it came to combat, his way was to trust the judgment of those on the battlefield first.
Instead, he began preparing a contingency strategy in the back of his mind for when I failed to hold the line entirely.
* * *
Rustle.
As I brushed aside a layer of vegetation, the Viking forces came into view below.
‘Finally.’
A spark of intensity ignited in my eyes.
After all that running, I’d finally caught up to their main force from behind.
Even better—my position was on higher ground.
Perfect conditions, entirely unintended.
‘No need for curves.’
A straight shot to the back of a Viking’s head.
He was still moving, but it was a target worth attempting.
I steadied my breathing and slowly drew the bowstring.
Creak.
‘Three seconds.’
I waited until the light of concentration blazed at its peak.
‘Eleven arrows left.’
Counting my remaining arrows, I released the string.
Twang—
The arrow sliced through the vegetation with a sharp whistle cutting through the air.
—Thud!
One Viking clutched the back of his neck and collapsed.
The Vikings in the rear ranks froze.
Since the shot came from behind, they reacted from that direction.
“Huh?”
“What!?”
“There’s an ambush here!”
They seemed to conclude there was an ambush.
It made sense.
Who would imagine that Almond alone had followed them and was firing arrows?
‘One more.’
Judging that my position hadn’t been exposed yet, I drew the bowstring again.
Creak.
The string pulled taut, white light blooming forth.
‘Ten arrows left.’
After three seconds of deep breathing.
I released the string.
Whisper—
With a ghostly silent release, another Viking fell.
—Thud!
This time, the arrow buried itself deep within his eye socket.
“There!”
A Viking pointed directly at my position and shouted.
‘Oh.’
My location was exposed in just two steps.
But this was exactly what I wanted.
If I drew their aggression this way, I could buy time.
‘I’ll land one more shot as they come.’
I nocked an arrow onto the bowstring with that thought.
“Wait!”
Someone held back those rushing toward me.
“The outpost defense comes first! Don’t chase──”
──Thunk!
An arrow lodged itself in the jaw of the Viking who was speaking.
Unfortunately, he didn’t fall in one shot.
I hadn’t fired with full focus.
This arrow was simply to silence him.
I wasted an arrow out of necessity to kill him as quickly as possible.
If one shot didn’t kill him, how could I finish him quickly?
Simple—I’d fire twice.
──Thud!
“Gack!”
He collapsed without finishing his words.
He died for making the right judgment call.
The speed of two arrows fired in succession was faster than waiting three seconds.
In fact, it was instantaneous.
“What, what!? Two shots!?”
‘That’s nine arrows.’
Smack.
I clicked my tongue regretfully at my rapidly depleting arrows.
“This, this is an ambush!”
“Deal with it!!”
Click.
The Vikings locked shields together around each other.
Several Vikings rushed toward my position and hurled their axes.
With remarkable accuracy, they struck the ground where I had been standing.
Boom!
Of course, I had already abandoned that spot.
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap!
“Phew.”
Thinking I’d nearly taken an axe to the foot, I was now sprinting toward the enemies’ front line.
‘Mountainous terrain gives the advantage to those pursuing from above.’
The rugged mountain valley map was a mountain itself.
The elevation differences across the map were so extreme that traversing just fifty meters required climbing countless steps, creating a structure of constant ascent and descent.
Currently, the Viking Main Force was descending this mountain.
In other words, if I utilized the terrain properly, I could remain higher up than them and continue firing arrows without descending as far.
‘This might actually work.’
If things played out this way, I might genuinely be able to face fifty of them alone.
‘To think he’d consider even this.’
I found myself marveling anew at Cookie’s flawless strategy. I’d momentarily forgotten that the map’s detailed terrain changed every time.
Regardless, I’d uncannily located a high ground position with excellent visibility of the enemy’s front lines.
‘There.’
Positioned within the brush, I drew back my bowstring.
The Vikings descending ahead either ignored or were unaware of the situation behind them, continuing their rapid descent down the mountain.
Until the sound of an arrow being released reached them.
‘Eight shots.’
Whoosh!
A Viking leading the descent at the front collapsed.
Crash…!
“Gah!?”
The Viking following behind tripped over him and tumbled, causing all those behind to halt their forward momentum.
The Vikings all came to a brief stop.
The notable point here was that Vikings up through the Second Era didn’t typically wear helmets or similar headgear.
Thanks to this, countless exposed scalps were plainly visible to my eyes.
“Oh…”
This was no different than a buffet laid out for an archer.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————