Dusk (BL Light Novel)

He used another status-inflicting skill he had saved until the heal went off, knocking Gang Jaegyung down, and during the 2.8 seconds his character was lying on the ground, he unleashed a flurry of high-scaling skills. Once the knockdown state ended completely, he timed his blocks against the staggered incoming defensive skills while continuing to deal damage.
As he landed the final offensive skill, Gang Jaegyung crumpled powerlessly and disintegrated into a lump of light.
Gang Jaegyung stared blankly at his character's death, then let out a deep sigh.
“Fighting with Ko-young's screen side-by-side like this… it feels criminal.”
Who the hell watches the enemy’s screen in real-time and sidesteps attacks like that? I can’t even copy it. Seeing Gang Jaegyung grumble like that filled him with satisfaction.
“Total GG?”
“...Not quite.”
When asked if he was completely surrendering, his pride seemed wounded as he insisted that wasn’t the case.
“Then why not go another round,” he replied casually, shifting the screen. He planned to light a campfire and heal while Gang Jaegyung was on his way back after respawning.
But when he turned the camera, he saw tiny human shapes gathered in clusters on the land across at Atelierna, facing this way. No matter how he looked at it, they were players. A quick count showed more than ten.
Had they been watching our fight all this time? While he was still processing the thought, one of them suddenly sprinted forward and leapt, gliding toward him. The others followed, all dashing in a sprint and then taking off in glide. The sight of those tiny figures swarming through the air was a spectacle—but he knew better than to just stand there and admire it.
With a creeping dread, he checked the mini-map. Red triangles began approaching—marking enemies.
Red triangle markers meant players from the hostile faction, Jeojajok.

In other words, at least two or three full Jeojajok parties were now flying toward this floating island.
“What the fuck… what is this?”
He quickly hit the flight button and unfurled his wings. Even as Commander-in-Chief, he couldn’t take on that many Jeojajok alone. He’d either have to escape and teleport back to base or call reinforcements.
But just as he took flight, a snare came flying in. A Jeojajok Divine Knight who had landed on the floating island had cast a skill on him.
And then, a barrage of other skills began raining down on him. He tried to dodge using evasive moves, but this time a binding skill flew in and rooted his feet.
The floating island, which had felt like his and Gang Jaegyung’s secret hideout, was now swarming with Jeojajok. Where the hell had they come from? How had they found us…? Goddamn it. I was just having a good time with Gang Jaegyung.
He tried his best to dodge the ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) incoming attacks, but homing magic skills aimed at him couldn’t be avoided. His HP dropped fast, and even using potions had its limits. Would he be able to get out of here alive?
...No. No way. After everything I did to get here—what, I’m going to die to small fry, not even Gang Jaegyung?
Gritting his teeth, he used a knockback skill on the casters scattered along the island’s edge. Four Jeojajok players who’d been mindlessly casting spells were hit and thrown off the floating island. They quickly deployed their wings and began gliding, but without the ability to fly, they were essentially doomed—it just prolonged the inevitable.
Alright. One, two, three, four… Thirteen remaining. Counting the four who just fell, that made three full parties. No doubt about it—they’d come deliberately in organized groups. They should’ve just gone to the zerg fight at Base 45 for a ton of fame. What kind of scumbags come all this way just to gang up on a single Commander-in-Chief?
Fine then. Since you came, welcome to the knockback death game, motherfuckers. Let’s see whether I die first or you all fall to your deaths.
He slammed his shield into the ground and provoked the entire Jeojajok party.
had no cooldown but consumed vitality, a stamina-like stat. While blocking, vitality drained quickly, and if you used shield or dodge skills while vitality was depleted, it would consume HP instead.
If you successfully blocked a skill completely, a portion of that spent vitality would be restored—but against this many incoming skills, perfect blocks were practically impossible, even for him.
On top of that, Shield Block had a slight animation delay, so he had to weave in high-cost evasive moves. In other words, managing vitality efficiently was the key.
Fortunately, there was one thing in his favor: he could fly. In flight mode, double-tapping any directional key (aside from W) triggered a quick-dash evasion in that direction. It used vitality and had a cooldown, but being able to quickly dash out of enemy range was far better than having no options at all.
The longer this dragged on, the worse it would be for him. Ideally, he needed to kill multiple enemies in a single move. That meant finishing them off quickly.
After watching him knock four off with the earlier skill, the Jeojajok had changed their positioning. The four casters and two snipers with bows clustered in the center of the island, close enough that even if knocked back, they wouldn’t fall off. Meanwhile, melee attackers like Sushin and Amhak gathered on the edges, trying to land damage on him.
Melee attacks were mostly non-targeted, so he could dodge them just by staying out of range. But ranged attacks were a different story. Since it was difficult to aim precisely at a small character from afar, most ranged skills used targeted mechanics.
That meant the moment he lowered his shield, those ranged bastards would fire off unavoidable skills. He was already under half HP from fighting Gang Jaegyung—if six ranged players started hammering him, his health would plummet in no time. He had to take them out first.
Estimating during his duel with Gang Jaegyung, the radius of the floating island was about 15 meters. The Divine Knight’s knockback skill shoved enemies 12 meters. So knocking back the ones clustered in the center wouldn’t be enough to throw them off.
So how to get rid of the ones in the center?
Capture was the only answer. Capture had a 22-meter range.
The problem was, the melee guys wouldn’t just watch him cast it. The moment he was vulnerable while casting, they’d hit him with status-inflicting skills. Capture did boost resistance to status effects while in use, but that didn’t mean immunity—so using it recklessly was risky. He’d have to activate a resistance buff first.
He watched the incoming attacks, timed them, and used Shield Block. Holding right-click to maintain the block, he activated the resistance buff right before dropping the shield.
He lowered the shield—but thanks to the resistance skill, all status effects failed to land. In that state, he threw Capture at Pasa, who was casting in the center. Because Pasa was in the middle of casting, he couldn’t dodge in time, got hit by the chain, and was stunned. Immediately, he followed up with , snagging four nearby Jeojajok in the process.
With good instinct, he reeled in all five—including the stunned one. The Jeojajok pulled toward him couldn’t react while stunned, and since they were near the island’s edge, they plunged off. Some quickly spread their wings and glided, but without land beneath them, they were as good as dead.
Among the ranged attackers, only one Ampa had survived, having dodged with quick reflexes. Unless he got into sniping stance, his other skills posed little threat, so there was no urgent need to deal with him yet.
Next, he had to watch for melee players with status effects—especially Sushin. Those guys had Shield Block too, which made them trickier. Even if he used knockback, they could block it and remain in place. If their skill was good enough, they could probably hold out all day.
Among the melee enemies, ranks ranged from sub-officer to officer, with only one unit leader. With that level of rank, they probably weren’t playing with particularly clever tactics. They’d either follow orders or act on instinct. So maybe a simple feint would work…
His knockback skill was still on cooldown, so he had to wait a beat. This time, he didn’t hold his shield up to the end. Instead, he dropped it suddenly while using a resistance buff. The enemies had been waiting for his shield to lower, and they cast skills in haste—but missed their timing again, failing to land status effects.
Before the melee attackers could start dealing damage, he charged in with Vanguard Rush, a skill that stuns. Since he was already in close range and Vanguard Rush gains extra speed while flying or gliding, one Sushin, one Amhak, and the lone unit leader—Sujeon (*Warrior Guardian)—reacted by quickly dodging or blocking. The rest failed to avoid it and were stunned.
As he blocked incoming skills with his shield, he checked the cooldown on his knockback—still over four seconds. His remaining vitality wasn’t great either. Once the knockback skill came back, he’d have to go all-in and pick up the pace.
Once again, he used Shield Block and then abruptly lowered the shield, slamming the melee enemies with a knockdown skill. The quick Sushin who had dodged his earlier charge anticipated the move and blocked it with Shield Block. Sujeon had activated a resistance buff in advance. Those two avoided the knockdown—but the remaining five were hit clean and knocked down.