Chapter 8 - The Chosen Children (2)
Chapter 8 - The Chosen Children (2)
Episode 8 - The Chosen Children (2)
[※ Unit is in a state of mental panic]
"Oh, for real! You glass-hearted bastard, seriously!"
There were more than one or two times when I felt my blood boil while playing games, but no matter how many times I tried, there was one annoying element I was forced to face.
[※ Unit is vomiting]
[※ Unit is incapacitated]
[※ Unit's mental strength significantly decreased]
It was managing the units' condition.
And that condition included mental strength.
Unless they had a mental-type trait like [Strong Spirit], the units' mental strength would be chipped away as they repeated battles and suffered injuries.
If their mental strength dropped, they wouldn't follow the player's instructions properly, they would act on their own, and no matter how good their stats were, they couldn't fully utilize them.
Because they were hurt and in pain, because the enemy was too strong and they were scared, because a comrade had died, because there were too many corpses around, and so on.
It wasn't uncommon for the mental breakdown of one comrade to spread like a plague, causing everyone to lose their minds collectively.
The units' mental strength would plummet at the slightest provocation, and users had to get angry and deal with it every single time.
"Ah..."
And now. I, who had become one of those units.
"Aaaargh!!"
I was regretting that past.
"Pull... pull yourself together!"
Covered in hot, fresh blood, we rolled on the ground.
Right next to us, the head of a classmate I had been talking to just moments ago was rolling around, staring at us with wide, blue eyes.
It was a horrific tragedy that couldn't be compared to mere pixelated game graphics.
"If you don't dodge, you die!"
I grabbed Rosaria by the collar, who was screaming incessantly as if she had fallen into a panic, and shouted before throwing my body again.
I could feel the enemy's slash graze the top of my head.
"Ugh..."
I had no choice but to slap her cheek hard.
Only after I hit her hard enough to make her head snap and blood burst did Rosaria's panic subside, even if just a little.
I didn't resent her.
Without any mental-type traits, she was just a teenage girl who still lacked experience.
However, living or dying was a different matter.
'Even if we keep our cool and all jump in together, it's hard to win. We have to stall or lure it away.'
The surging momentum of the enemy made me instinctively realize its strength, even without the information provided by community users.
Leaving Rosaria on the ground, I gripped my sword and ran toward the entrance on the opposite side, drawing the monster's attention.
When a difficult, powerful enemy appears.
It is a legitimate strategy to send a unit with good mobility to lure that enemy and deliver it to a neutral faction, playing them against each other.
The neutral faction I could use right now was the training battalion troops who must be fighting elsewhere.
That thing called a Kabotoros wouldn't be easy for them to handle either, but at least it would be better than right now.
"Kugh?!"
The problem was whether I could actually face that thing alone and play the role of bait.
As I parried the monster's exoskeleton blade with my sword, my entire body lifted and slid backward.
The shock transmitted through my whole body felt like being hit by a car, and my bones creaked.
[Limit Break]
At that moment, power surged into my body.
Like being injected with a stimulant, like taking a narcotic painkiller, the pain vanished and my head cleared.
My mood wasn't excessively elevated. The effect of [Strong Spirit] had blocked even the side effects.
'I have to make sure I hold its attention. Don't let the aggro drop.'
Along with the support magic, instant acceleration, I dodged or parried the enemy's swinging blades.
I couldn't take even a single blow with brute force.
To avoid being crushed by the overwhelming gap in power, I had to deflect it like flowing water.
"---!"
Finally, my blade grazed the monster's chest.
Because of the special power flowing through its entire exoskeleton, I could only leave a scratch, but my goal was to make the thing furious anyway.
Seeing it flash its eyes and let out a screech, I felt a chilling killing intent, so it seemed I had succeeded.
"Come out here!"
Now, all that was left was to draw its attention and slowly escape outside the dormitory.
As I leaped backward and escaped the building, the thing didn't hesitate to chase after me.
'One wrong move and I'm dead for real.'
As the blade, surging with power, grazed right in front of my eyes, I couldn't help but break into a cold sweat.
Forget about being a top-tier talent; by my standards, which aim for a hardcore clear, I was still weak.
"I don't see any more. Was that the last Zeromorph?"
"Wait, what is that?"
The trainees, who had been fighting the enemies trying to infiltrate the dormitory, were catching their breath.
The panic from the sudden raid had lasted only a moment.
The moment they pulled themselves together and cooperated, they were able to gain the upper hand against the Zeromorphs.
"It's Leon...! And what on earth is that monster?!"
However, those who ran to the window on the opposite side of the building, which was attached to the room, could understand how they had been able to fight so safely for the past few minutes.
Someone was fighting fiercely at the building's entrance, slowly moving further and further away from the dormitory.
To them, it was a familiar silver-haired boy.
"My god."
When everyone watching that intense and precarious battle was left speechless.
A sigh let out by someone covering their mouth expressed everyone's feelings.
The combat power of a [Legion Elite Kabotoros] was not something a mere trainee could handle.
Wielding 4 blades freely, its scattering dark blue slashes left deep wounds in the ground and sliced through a large roadside tree planted in the garden.
Leon was only just managing to deflect them by using everything he could mobilize, from his swordsmanship to magic.
But everyone knew.
That standing alone against that monster right now was an absurd thing to do.
'We have to help him. He's going to die at this rate.'
'But how can we?'
'We don't have the talent or the traits.'
Everyone had similar thoughts.
Leon's figure, facing an opponent bigger and stronger than himself, looked precarious, as if he would break or shatter at any moment.
However, they couldn't bring themselves to do it. Their feet wouldn't move.
They knew instinctively that the moment they approached clumsily, it would be the end.
"Hermann, could you support me."
"Huh?!"
In the midst of that, there was someone who found the courage.
Seira, who had been frozen with a pale face while watching her classmates die a miserable death and Leon's desperate struggle, finally opened her mouth.
"I have to save Leon. If it's just once, just once, it might be possible."
Seira dragged her sprained, throbbing ankle and tried to approach Leon, who was moving further away.
Her body was still trembling, but she gritted her teeth while holding her staff, as if she had made a decision.
'Did he know something like this would happen in advance?'
In her mind, the words Leon had casually dropped a few days ago were coming back clearly.
That she should sufficiently raise the proficiency of one magic spell she could use in an emergency, as she didn't know what might happen soon.
"W-wait, I'll go too..."
While Hermann, who didn't know what to do, was inadvertently supporting Seira.
Rosaria stood up from her seat, sniffling with a face messed up by tears and blood.
"I'm not going to fight. I'm going to save Leon."
"Yeah, me too."
As Seira bit her lip, Rosaria sniffled again and nodded.
In the end, the three of them approached Leon and the Kabotoros, who were already quite far away.
'This is an incredible level of combat. Just how much did he raise his proficiency?'
Now that the panic that had gripped her had lifted a little, Rosaria could finally face the battle between Leon and the Kabotoros properly.
Clearly, the Kabotoros had the advantage in every stat.
Even so, the reason Leon could face the enemy alone was thanks to the effects of the traits [Martial God] and [Dead Eye], and the proficiency he had raised to the limit by digging only one well—swordsmanship and magic—until now.
His fluid, skilled swordsmanship and the use of magic at the right time and place allowed him to deflect or dodge the enemy's attacks without difficulty.
'So he had a plan for everything...'
Only then did Rosaria realize why Leon insisted on using only swords instead of various weapons.
Even though they had the same [Martial God] trait, the results differed depending on how much one focused on proficiency.
"Leon!"
Then Seira shouted in surprise.
Leon's sword, which had been focusing on smoothly deflecting and retreating, broke in a single blow with a strong impact.
'If I do this right, I might be able to catch it. If the guy only lets its guard down!'
Just before, Leon, who had been fighting desperately, discovered a strange opening in the Kabotoros' movements.
As Leon only ran away, its attacks gradually became more intense, and as a result, the guard it had been maintaining so thoroughly began to crumble.
If it were a game moving according to thorough data, it would have been impossible.
But the Kabotoros in reality was not like that.
'Letting one's guard down' was not a privilege exclusive to units.
'He said I needed both melee and ranged attacks to catch it. I can do both.'
Leon's sword, with his mindset changed, pierced the opening, taking advantage of the enemy's carelessness.
The gap in the thick chest exoskeleton that was revealed little by little every time the Kabotoros moved.
Leon's sword unleashed a slash at once toward the core shining there.
"---!"
With a screech like a scream, a change occurred in the Kabotoros' body.
The force field it had been wearing around its body had disappeared.
In the process, Leon's sword broke, but it didn't matter.
He immediately squeezed out all his remaining magic power and cast the combat magic, [Thunderbolt Spear].
"You crazy..."
However, all of that was close to a trap.
The moment Leon's magic was fired.
As if it had been hit on purpose, the Kabotoros' hooked claw twitched and flew toward Leon's neck.
The moment Leon's eyes widened in shock.
"Gotcha."
Before he knew it, Leon's body was in Seira's arms.
[Position Swap], a support magic that changes the position of the target.
The moment Seira heard Leon's warning, the magic she had been secretly practicing was exactly this.
It was a magic used only to save another unit when they were in crisis.