There's No Stopping That Maniac

Seriously, there's no stopping that lunatic.

The Mock Siege Battle is, at its heart, a simple game: teams are split into opposing sides, and the goal is to smash the Core at the very top of the enemy's castle. You grow stronger little by little by hunting the monsters and gathering the resources scattered across the map, defeat whoever stands guard over the Core, and destroy it to win. You could call it something like an AOS-style game.

"The one difference is that the starting line isn't the same for everyone."

Unlike an AOS, where everyone begins on an equal footing, this game is played inside DeoEn — an MMORPG at its core — and so the starting points are wildly different. Leo, who since Sword God vanished into obscurity has been all but called the strongest player on the server, could take on two ordinary Generals of level 6 or 7 while her own body sat at level 3. Ask how that's even possible, and the answer is, of course, that it is. She is one of the extremely rare beneficiaries of a Race Change — a 3rd-Advancement spirit summoner, level 88, sitting at the very top of the server — the one and only ranker who wields four elemental attributes at once. And on top of all of that, she has the skill to handle every last bit of it brilliantly.

It was precisely because of those traits that so many pro scenes, guilds, and organizations had tried to recruit her. But perhaps because of her infamous Penalty, Leo turned down every single offer. The only proposal she ever accepted was a Marquis title from the Empire.

Before diving into the scrim proper, we took some time to go over the fundamentals of siege warfare and break down each team's lineup. The tutorial, apparently, had been prepared with me in mind, since this was my first time taking part.

"Leo is definitely going to be strong, isn't she."

"Leo is the undisputed number one right now, yes."

Vlack lifted Leo's figure out of the miniature model he'd used back during the Mock Siege team selection — a doll of Leo wreathed in all four of her attributes.

"An ordinary spirit summoner handles one, maybe two attributes at most. That's because the spirits of each element are averse to one another."

"It's less that they're averse and more that the mana sync each spirit carries simply doesn't align. Unless a spirit is a higher-order one, it can't adjust its own sync — so the summoner has to do the tuning for them."

"...I'm sorry, what?"

The room went silent for a moment. Did they really not know? Spirits are rare enough that information like this probably just doesn't circulate. Or maybe, since spirit contracts themselves run through the system, no one had ever had reason to learn it. Still, anyone who actually worked with spirits ought to have picked up on it at some point.

"...Ah. So that's how it works, then?"

Forcing out an awkward laugh, Vlack cleared his throat and gathered himself. He was one of the handful of rankers you could count on two hands, and yet standing in front of Lily made him feel like a total newbie. Lily waved her hands quickly.

"Don't get the wrong idea. Mastering mana doesn't mean you can command every spirit in existence. The mana sync that forms a spirit is structured in an incredibly intricate way, so ordinary mana adjustment simply won't cut it."

And on top of that, the more spirits you added, the more astronomically complex the sync you had to harmonize became. Even the most brilliant spirit summoners in history had topped out at three or four contracts, no matter how many they'd tried to hold.

"Hmm... that's genuinely useful information, but honestly it's a little terrifying too. Leo is already monstrous as is, and you're telling me she can get even stronger?"

Shaking his head, Vlack set Leo's figure back down in its place. Right beside her stood DinosaursAreAlive, hands busy commanding a menagerie of beasts.

"Don't worry. At least until the Mock Siege ends, she absolutely won't be able to add another."

"The real problem is the one even worse than that — DinosaursAreAlive."

One of the best class synergies in the game: spirit summoner and druid. There was a running joke that if those two put their heads together, they could go toe-to-toe with an entire nation, and from the moment the Mock Siege lineups were finalized, this pairing had drawn worried murmurs from every corner.

"The Leo–DinosaursAreAlive pairing really is scary. It's not just a matter of raw power or numbers — it's the fact that positional restrictions simply stop existing."

Redberry spoke up, watching quietly from the side. Our own team was built around an anti-mage, a spearman, a mage, and a brawler — one ranged combatant, two mid-range, and a single close-range tank. A reasonably well-balanced composition.

"But with Leo and DinosaursAreAlive, just the two of them cover every position on the board."

Every range — long and short — plus, beyond simple attack and defense, special roles like detection and support all become possible at once. It amounted to strapping wings onto a Leo who already had no positional weaknesses to begin with.

"They might be thin on ranged damage, though. With two summoners, they'll likely leave the front line to their pets and pour everything into long-range fire."

Personally, I hoped Yena — the only assassin among the participants — would get to do some actual assassinating. But the enemy we faced wasn't just any ranged fighter; they were tough, brutal in close quarters, and dangerous at a distance. How was anyone supposed to stop that?

"Should I take the ranged position?"

"You, Lily?"

"I can do ranged, sure."

Besides the spear and the hammer, I could throw out magic at roughly the grand-mage level. The only problem was my laughably shallow mana pool...

"No, I think you're actually better suited up close, Lily."

"Agreed. Anyone who's seen you swing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that hammer knows you're not playing around."

Vlack and Redberry weren't the only ones — even the viewers didn't much care for the idea of me at range. Well, if that's what everyone thinks.

"Alright then. I'll take the vanguard."

"Wh-what about me?!"

"You stand up there with me, obviously."

A black-haired boy, roughly my height and build. His torn, lizard-slit eyes brought back memories of the Black Dragon I'd seen long ago. Devil, was it? He's no dragon, though. He had that eighth-grader-syndrome Penalty that made it seem like he'd start summoning a Black Flame Dragon at any moment, but he wasn't a dragonkin, or of dragon blood. Whether it came from a skill or his equipment, I couldn't tell, but he was, at most, borrowing a tiny sliver of a dragon's power. At that level, he was basically just human. If he'd been a real dragonkin, I'd have had something fun to teach him. Like the techniques unique to the Dragon Lord — the ones I'd earned by saving a dying Dragon Lord's life.

After staring at him for a long while, Devil stammered out a question.

"Wh-what?"

"You're cute, that's all."

"HIEE—!"

Keep that up and your face is going to burst.

"...I'm not cute."

"Hm?"

"I'm not cute, I'm cool. So take it back!"

His face gone twice as red, Devil huffed and puffed at me. I stared at him for a beat, then let out a snort of laughter.

"Nope. Won't do it."

"What—?!"

"Because I don't want to."

As he shot to his feet yelling what do you mean, I reached out and ruffled his hair loose. Back in the slums, there had been so, so many kids his age. The way they used to come sprinting at me the moment they spotted me... You didn't have to run like that. I would have treated your wounds and shared my food with you all the same. It truly was a pity.

"Urgh...!"

"And it's not just the two of you, you know. We've still got another mage and a tank to cover."

"That's right — Fracion and Iron."

Fracion, the mage with personal ties to Vlack, and Iron, our tank. Among the participants they were rated a step below the stars, but they were rankers all the same. Give them the right conditions, and they'd more than pull their weight.

"Frankly, I know Fracion well, so there's not much to worry about there. As for Iron — he's at the stage of being a tank with no particular quirks. A perfectly solid, reliable pick."

"You can think of him as the most well-rounded of the tanks in this event. Either way, the real crux of it all is the spirit-summoner-and-druid duo."

"...Relax. I'm going to win this ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠whole thing myself, so there's nothing to worry about."

In any case, today was only a quick rundown of each team's strength — not an attempt to hunt down countermeasures. I nodded along.

"So, we'll leave Leo's team there for now... next up is..."

At the exact opposite end of the model stood a purple flag. The brightest stars of the current pro scene, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠packed onto a single roster — a team stacked with so-called second-tier players that were practically rated as first-tier. Could they actually be the favorites to take the whole thing?

"That's Choco's team, isn't it."

It was the team of Chotachokachuakchip — Choco.