An 'Empty' House Break-In
"Buy me some time!"
"On it!"
At Raguel's cry, bowstring drawn, Truck Shield's shield swelled to several times its previous size.
A mass of metal big enough to put one in mind of an actual truck.
And like a truck, Truck Shield came barreling forward, slamming it straight into the Unicorn's ankle.
Screeeech…! It was slight, but the Unicorn lost its balance.
In that instant, the barrier surrounding the Unicorn blurred—and the archer's eyes, refusing to let the opening slip by, locked onto the weak point.
Clairvoyance — focused barrage.
Piiing—!
An arrow imbued with the blessing of Sure-Hit pierced the Unicorn's chest.
By all appearances, the shot landed cleanly.
"Dodge!"
But the Unicorn's sheer bulk rivaled that of an average dragon.
No matter how infallible a Sure-Hit arrow might be, to the Unicorn it was nothing more than a toothpick.
There was damage, yes—but nowhere near a critical wound.
Of course, a direct hit to the heart or an eye would be another story entirely, but perched above those vitals was Fracion, shielding them with his own body.
The powerful magic circle circling him stirred to life.
Dark clouds gathered, and the sky briefly lost its light.
Crack.
The judgment of the heavens came down.
"Thunderbolt Formation."
KRA-KOOM!!!
Lightning tore through the storm clouds and crashed down atop the Unicorn.
The devastating strike looked like an attack, but in truth it was a means of empowering the Unicorn itself.
Ultra-reinforced, the Unicorn punted the insufferably persistent Truck Shield away and charged toward the heart of the castle.
The walls shattered, and the castle itself, failing at its one purpose, crumbled into ruin.
If this kept up, the Core would be smashed to pieces along with the fortress.
Raguel calmly lowered her bow and took stock of the situation.
Half the castle in ruins, Choco's team in dire straits.
Their greatest asset had already gone off to fight Lady Lily, and Lady Leo was circling, waiting for exactly this opening.
A single sweep of Clairvoyance over Leo's team revealed their objective at a glance.
Leo's team had decided to finish both teams in one decisive stroke.
Left as it was, this would end in victory for Leo's team—or in victory for Lily's team, conjuring yet another variable into the match.
What would the unnie-oppas have done at a time like this?
Michael, who had competed in the last Mock Siege, had faced Leo head-on before.
The gap between them was, naturally, a crushing defeat for Michael.
And yet, surprisingly, Michael had actually managed to notch two whole wins against Leo.
Meaning: even if Leo took the final victory, Michael had thrown variables into a team match.
The legendary incident of cracking a boulder with an egg—twice.
How do I beat her?
She dredged up the memory.
'Guel, I'll teach you the strategy. First, focus on growth. You have to use your abilities properly, you know.'
'No! You kill the resource-gathering workers first!'
'What is wrong with you people. You cut down the enemy first—when are you going to wait around for all that?'
'Can't you just run at the castle?'
…I honestly have no idea how they ever won.
The Unicorn's foreleg rose toward the Core.
And then—it was severed.
"Sevenfold Cleave."
FWOOSH!!!
The dagger's arc swept down eleven times.
The Unicorn's colossal foreleg was carved apart, spraying blood in motes of light. As space itself rippled and scattered its presence, Yena landed atop the castle's remains.
Black hair streamed on the wind.
"So it's not Sevenfold Cleave anymore, huh. Should I start calling it Elevenfold Cleave?"
Yena scratched her head.
Meanwhile, with Fracion's magic, the Unicorn's flesh was slowly knitting itself back together.
In that instant, lightning struck through Raguel's mind.
What Michael had once said.
'If the situation ever goes completely to shit—'
'Hey! No swearing in front of our cute youngest!'
'The youngest isn't a child.'
Uriel wrapped Raguel in a hug.
'The youngest IS a child!'
'…Anyway. If everything looks like it's falling apart, just think of one thing.'
Run straight at the Core and break it. No matter what.
That's a win.
"…Lady Yena."
"How are we supposed to kill that thi… hm?"
"Can you move right now?"
The bowstring drew taut.
Hundreds of arrows blessed with Sure-Hit buried themselves in the Unicorn's hide.
The Unicorn staggered backward, if only for a moment.
Yena weighed her options briefly, then nodded.
"I can manage. But if we don't stop that thing now, it's cracking the Core straight away? Fracion-nim's up there too—it's only a matter of time before it breaks…"
"And if we take out Fracion-nim only?"
Fracion, buffing from atop the Unicorn's back.
Attacking him up there would be difficult—but the moment he came down to the ground, they'd have a real shot.
"…Then could you hold the line?"
"I'll use my ultimate to strip the Unicorn's defenses. In that window, Lady Yena, you assassinate Fracion-nim and head straight for Leo's team."
The side bleeding the most strength right now was neither Lily's team nor Choco's team.
Most of Leo's team isn't in the castle.
To wipe the board clean in one stroke, everyone except Dinosaurs Are Alive had emptied out of the fortress.
A strategy that abandoned defense entirely to take down both teams at once.
Which meant the gap in their armor was ours to strike.
"Fine. There's no other way—let's do it."
"Here we go!"
Raguel's left eye blazed to life.
A cross-shaped sigil etched itself into her iris, and the guild buff, Grace of Light, wreathed her body.
An immensely concentrated weight of power.
Strength piled upon strength until it was nearly unbearable to bear—yet Raguel did not release the bow.
Unwilling to simply stand and watch, Fracion sent lightning lancing toward her—but a massive shield appeared as if from nowhere and drank down every bolt.
THOOM! Truck Shield's legs sank into the earth.
"I'll hold it!"
"…Once you use that, you're going to collapse. Please hold it."
"Huh? I can't stop the Unicorn alone, you know?!"
"Then we lose."
A mountain flew.
Clairvoyance, Taishan.
FWAANG—!!!
An arrow bearing the weight of an entire mountain struck the Unicorn's chest with a colossal roar.
In that instant, the great beast toppled backward—and Fracion, unable to absorb the sudden lurch, was left utterly defenseless, if only for a heartbeat.
A sliver of time, less than a single second.
Yena, once the most feared assassin of her day, did not let that opening slip.
"One Strike, Certain Kill."
The crimson stiletto punched through Fracion's throat.
Dozens of layered shields and hidden pieces guarded him—but his opponent was a legendary assassin.
Yena was more than capable of taking an unguarded mage in a single stroke.
Without so much as a single resistance, Fracion dissolved into motes of blue light and was gone.
Got it!
"Now! G—"
Yena vanished from sight before the word had even left her lips.
Truly an assassin—her speed was no joke.
"Whew… ahh, I should've learned a thing or two from Sandalphon oppa…"
My stamina's completely bottomed out…
CRASH!
"Snap out of it!"
"Truck Shield-nim… please, stop the Unicorn…"
"I TOLD you I can't stop it alone!"
KUGUGUGUNG…!
The Unicorn pulled itself upright.
Aside from the deep blue bruise blooming across its chest, the beast looked untouched.
Angry, perhaps—every step it took made the entire forest shudder.
Like a man standing before a typhoon, Raguel's legs trembled, and cold sweat ran down the hand gripping her bow.
Truck Shield muttered, releasing his killing intent into the open air.
"How the hell am I supposed to block THAT…"
■
Screeeech…!
"Phew… rough, this is rough."
Running flat-out after so long had left her head spinning.
Had she pushed her mana past its limits?
But if she didn't move this fast, Lily's team or Lady Leo would get there first, and things would get ugly.
And judging by what she'd seen, Choco was already dead.
I told her not to run ahead, and what does she do.
Having teamed with her before, Yena knew firsthand: Choco was genuinely skilled.
Talented, with superb technique and excellent reads on her opponents.
There had been noise here and there, but her pro career sailed on without a hitch, and her team's results were consistently strong.
Which is exactly the problem.
She was so good, plain and simple, that she tended to do whatever she pleased.
The only reason it never blew up until now was that every opponent she'd faced had been at her level or below.
No matter what variables cropped up, no matter how badly things spiraled, Choco and her teammates could always cover for it.
But not this time.
Lily. And Leo.
Both were users who strayed far outside the accepted rules—flatly extraordinary.
The kind who, like Sword God, had left the so-called "mortal realm" the community always talked about far behind.
No matter how excellent a player was, at the level of "a really good human, a really good user," you could never beat them.
To face true monsters, you had to avoid a head-on clash if you had to—and strike where they couldn't bring their strength to bear, where they couldn't afford to pay attention.
She's literally a kid… wait, is she actually a kid?
Choco was turning twenty this year, wasn't she.
She'd said she started school a year early.
Yeah. She's a kid all right.
Unable to tell whether it was the sprint or her teammates aching her head, Yena pressed the flat of her dagger against her temple as she closed in on Leo team's castle.
Apart from the summons, no serious threats in sight.
Better to end this in one clean sweep than kick up a fuss.
Every minute, every second counted.
Even now, at this very moment, the game could end at any time.
Using invisibility, Yena slipped between the summoned beasts.
Thankfully, none of them noticed her.
"Gahk!"
Druid's down…
True to his one-trick summoner reputation, Dinosaurs Are Alive had been easy to dispatch.
Most druids fought alongside their summons, but Dinosaurs Are Alive had built his growth and gear entirely around them.
He'd gone down the so-called "summoner route," in other words.
Convenient, having only two mages to worry about.
Weaving past the masterless summons, she climbed straight to the floor where the Core waited.
Just like that, an empty-house job would be—
"Welcome, Yena."
"…Huh?"
Why is Lily of all people here?