...

"Move! Push these b*st*rds of Central Order to their deaths," shouted by a Captain of a unit from the Undying Guild Camp.

Their forces suffered quite a lot of loss already, so they were going to make sure that they would not let this chance slip away from their hands now that they finally found a weak point on their opponents' defenses.

They pushed the Central Order members while slaughtering the opposing side's frontlines in the process.

Bang!

Not long after, his unit broke through their opponents' defense line after their repeated assault. And when they saw that, every one of them used that broken defense to further advance forward and rush towards the mages and range players who were hiding at the backlines.

But right after the entire unit broke through, they suddenly discovered that there was another defense line waiting for them. And when they saw the open space that they were in, they immediately understood that they had fallen into a deadly trap.

Turning their heads towards their backs, they saw that the 'broken' defense was immediately rebuilt as if nothing happened – now, they were trapped inside an encirclement with no possible way to escape.

"Fire!" commanded by the captain of the opposing unit with a cold tone.

And that was when the Undying Guild members saw a barrage of skills and a large number of spells pouring down at their current position.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

**********

Immortal was currently having one of the most embarrassing times of his life since his defeat against the 'Nameless Swordsman'.

He got a fair share of wins during this strategic war. In fact, he even caused more damage to the opposing army than losses that they had suffered. Though, the only reason for those wins was each of their members had a 'Necromancer Class' aside from their other combat classes.

Regardless, a win was still a win.

But even if that was the case, his side seemed to be sustaining more damage than he originally thought.

Every time his army was pushing their opponents, the opposing side would not only suffer a lot of losses on their forces but their pride was also wounded due to being crushed one-sidedly.

But the strange thing was the other side would immediately strike right after sustaining such a devastating loss.

Immortal managed to fend off most of those attacks, but his forces were going to suffer a lot of losses if ever they failed to defend from those kinds of counterattacks.

Moreover, the opposing side seemed to be gaining a lot of morale every time they won such battles. And whenever such wins occurred, it would slowly snowball towards the Central Order's favor which caused the Undying Guild's forces to be pushed back slowly but surely.

Immortal was tapping his fingers on the table in a successive manner while intensely staring at the projected progress of the war in front of him.

If he was suspicious that his current opponent was a veteran player of «War Tactics» online earlier, then he was now sure that this guy was more than a veteran player from that game. In fact, he even felt that he fought his particular guy before in one of the unofficial tournaments held in that game.

The problem was he couldn't figure out who exactly this person was.

Being a top player of «War Tactics» online, it was very rare for Immortal to suffer these kinds of losses. He was not new to being defeated in a strategic war, but that only happened when he was against two players.

"Is this guy 'Khing?' But that guy quit playing any kind of Virtual Games for a long time already. There is even no news of him after his sudden disappearance during that time, so why is coming back now?" muttered Immortal before replayed all of the movements of the two armies during the war.

And after observing for a little, he immediately added. "What's more, this is not his way of battle."

"That guy specialized at using different kinds of army formations which crushed every opponent that faced. So, it is impossible for him to suffer these kinds of army losses. If ever his armies are going to suffer a loss, it was always related to such formation."

"But this guy is not using any kind of army formations. He is not using any kind of military movements aside from particular traps and schemes that he set up."

Reaching this point, Immortal took a brief pause and squinted his eyes before continuing to talk to himself. "So, is it 'Unnamed Anonymous' then?"

That thought lasted only for a moment before he rejected the idea almost instantly. "No. That is not the case either."

"That guy's signature move has always been with systematic order. Even if it was quite predictable, countering each of his moves has always been hard since there have always been traps hidden behind the flaws that he purposely created."

"Compared to those schemes, this guy's traps are more of an instinctive move than a planned-ahead trap."

Immortal's thoughts lingered on this topic for a moment when he suddenly remembered a certain topic. "Instincts!?"

Given that, he immediately opened a virtual screen and quickly searched for an old forum. And it was about a certain match that happened when he was still playing the «War Tactics» online.

Being a modern chess game, «War Tactics» online became famous to old people. It even attracted the attention of Generals from every army around the world.

With that, those old men played the game to kill some time. But even against the pro players of the game, those old fogeys suffered a fair share of losses. Especially when they were facing the crowned king of the game.

'Khing' was crowned as the king of strategic wars because he never suffered a defeat when he was playing that game even if he was against those old generals. Though, he also admitted that he only got those wins with a very small margin.

Regardless, he was still the undefeated king of that game. But it only lasted until he met a certain player who could be considered a complete rookie compared to him.

During that time, 'Khing' was doing his regular 'match with the fans' event. In this event, he was going to create a special lobby where he could have a match with some random players of the game. And that was when he encountered a certain player who had named 'Second to None'.

With such a bold name, every spectator of that time thought that this guy was a regular player with average skills.

Or so they thought.

Because they couldn't hide their shock when the match started.

It was a very intense match where each side was exchanging their strategic insights left and right. But the most surprising thing about it was 'Khing' seemed to be struggling in this certain matchup.

His army formations seemed to be ineffective against his opponent's 'random attacks'.

This player's attacks were seemingly defying any logic and not following any kind of strategic movements. But those very moves gave a lot of trouble to 'Khing'.

And what was even more surprising in this match was the so-called king of strategic games lost against this random guy.

Everyone was shocked as they couldn't believe what they saw. Even Khing himself was too stunned at that loss. But that was not because of the fact that it was his first defeat, but it was due to him being unable to understand what just happened.

Given that, he challenged the new guy for another match. And when 'Second to None' accepted his challenge, the spectators were finally able to recover themselves and refocus to watch the rematch.

But they became even more stunned the moment they saw the result of the next match. It was still a close battle, but the result was still the same as the previous match – it was Khing's defeat.

Then a few more consecutive matches were held after that second match. But the results were not different from the previous two – a close match with Khing' being defeated.

If the first match was just a fluke, then it was definitely not luck if this new player won with a consecutive number of flukes. Not only did he win successively against the crowned king of the strategic games, but he even did it consistently.

But after that match event, this particular player who had the name of 'Second to None' suddenly disappeared with no apparent reason.

Regardless, he still became a legend in the field of strategic games.

A shadow player, who suddenly appeared out of nowhere and disappeared as if he never existed.

And with his dramatic appearance and disappearance, a lot of people gave him different kinds of titles. The 'Uncrowned King', the 'Unseen Ruler', the 'Shadow Monarch' – these were just a few titles that were given to him by the spectators who witnessed such a legendary matchup between him and Khing.

For them, this legendary player was someone who, just like his name, became second to none.

...

Immortal read the entire article regarding his mysterious player and Khing. He even re-watched their legendary battles and compared them to the current war.

Clenching his hand, Immortal was starting to have a couple of suspicions. So, he immediately opened a specialized channel on his chatbox before summoning all of his apostles.

After that, he looked at the projected progress of the war once again before muttering to himself. "If I can't beat him with my current army, then I need to crush him with absolute strength."

...