Chapter 270
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 270
Chapter Title: No Qualifications
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It was practically an order to fight to the death.
Yet Barbara and the armed forces under her command formed their battle formation, ready to face the enemy.
They were elites of the Seven Dragon Society.
Even if it wasn't an order from their revered princess, they saw it as a given to fight until their last breath if commanded to die.
Of course, that didn't mean they planned to die.
Li Chingwei had told them to hold out for just five minutes, so they intended to endure somehow until then.
"What, already wiped out? I rushed here ready to kill, but these kids are so damn weak."
The moment they saw their opponent, however.
Barbara understood why Li Chingwei had given such an order.
And why they had to hold out not just for "five minutes," but for a full "five minutes."
"Tree Forest Grand Duke Louise...!"
Seeing the opponent—gaunt to the point where it was hard to tell if they were male or female, with bizarre makeup—Barbara let out a groan.
Grand Dukes were powerhouses comparable to Sovereign-level experts.
She, who was merely a Grand Commander-level, couldn't handle such an opponent alone.
Of course, with thirty-odd armed forces deploying a formation, she was confident they could at least hold their own against most Grand Dukes, even if they couldn't win.
There were two problems, however.
One was that the opponent hadn't come alone.
And the other was that Louise was no ordinary Grand Duke.
"Oh? You know who I am?"
"My eyes aren't so blind that I wouldn't recognize the Vice Guild Master of Forest Guild."
"Is that so? Well, I am pretty famous. Ohohong."
As the number two of Forest Guild—a top-tier combat player whom even the Monster Lord didn't trifle with lightly—Louise laughed at her response.
Then she issued a command to the fifty-odd high-level players she'd brought.
"Kids, as a reward for recognizing me, kill them painlessly."
Whether anticipating reinforcements or simply despising wasted time due to her ruthless nature...
The moment Louise gave the order and the players charged, Barbara bellowed immediately.
"Viper Coiling Punishment Formation, deploy!"
Shhh.
The instant she shouted, a green mist rose around the circular formation of her armed forces.
The psionics of the troops trained in Telepathic Silent Flow resonated, amplified by the formation's flow, producing a deadly poisonous fog.
But the Forest Guild members charged straight through the toxic mist.
Splash!
It was a green fog potent enough to fell even high-level players with a single breath.
Yet as a Forest Guild member swung claws calmly from within, Barbara gritted her teeth, parrying with her twin spears.
'As expected, poison doesn't work...!'
It wasn't anything new.
They'd known since the Amazon ambush that all of them were equipped with poison resistance items.
But the amplified psionics from the formation were still effective.
Moreover, compared to the Forest Guild members charging in disorganized fashion, they had trained specifically for group battles.
If these were the only opponents, they could hold out for 50 minutes, not just 5.
There was one problem, though.
"Dragging this out? That's why low-level kids are useless."
Krunch!
The moment the irritated voice rang out.
Suddenly, massive tree roots assaulted Barbara and her forces.
Louise's arm had turned to wood, extending branches and roots like a living entity with a will of its own to attack them.
Barbara and her forces resisted desperately.
But they couldn't withstand the roots enveloping every direction alongside the players' combined assault.
Boom!
"Cough!"
Thus, when a pillar-thick root crashed down with mountain-crushing force.
The Viper Coiling Punishment Formation shattered, and Barbara, who had blocked the root head-on, was flung back like a toy.
"So damn annoying. I said I'd kill you painlessly, so why struggle?"
Louise vented her irritation.
She was displeased at having to roll around on the front lines herself, as the vice guild master.
Of course, she had no choice, having earned Gula's ire by fleeing first when Maia invaded years ago.
Before extending roots to torment and kill Barbara, who had increased her annoyance.
Louise suddenly paused.
"Why are you smiling?"
"...Heh, heheheh."
Her twin spears were broken, of course.
The formation shattered, and all her forces down.
Even covered head to toe in blood, Barbara twisted her lips into a smirk.
"Five minutes... done."
"What? What does that...?"
Thwack!
As Louise puzzled over the cryptic words.
Suddenly, a figure dropped from the sky, slamming both feet into Louise's head.
As Louise staggered from the impact that would have burst a normal person's skull.
A woman in white landed gracefully with a flip in front of Barbara, sneering at her bloodied sister's state.
"Can't even hold out five minutes and end up like this. Pathetic that you're my little sister."
"Arbella...!"
Seeing her previously unconscious sister's hale form.
Her joyful expression lasted only a moment.
Then Barbara snorted derisively.
"Hmph, I'm the older sister. If I'd known the Black Dragon Princess would send someone like you as reinforcements, I'd have pulled back ages ago."
"Did you just call me 'someone like you'?"
"'Someone like you' is plenty for an idiot who failed to protect the princess and ended up unconscious."
"Is that something you can say, after fleeing and abandoning the princess?!"
Were they sisters or sworn enemies?
Their snarling argument right upon reunion was cut short by a whip-like tree root lash.
Splash!
As if their prior fight had been a lie, Arbella instantly blocked the root with her body, protecting Barbara.
Her flesh tore, bones cracked despite that.
Arbella paid it no mind.
In fact, there was no need to.
Crack, pop.
The torn flesh and broken bones.
Before she could even count to ten, they had fully healed. Seeing this, Louise gnashed her teeth.
"Daring to kick my head! You think you'll get off easy after that?"
"That's my line."
Using the Immortality Qi Flow to amplify her bio-manipulation healing, Arbella scoffed as her wounds vanished in an instant.
She glared sharply at Louise and continued.
"You didn't think you'd touch my little sister and get away unscathed, did you?"
"And if I don't? You think you alone can do anything to me?"
"Why assume I came alone?"
"...!"
Only then realizing she'd wasted too much time, Louise flinched.
But that realization came too late.
"Looks like my worthless disciple got herself in trouble."
"...Elder Giselle."
Louise frowned at the white-robed old woman who had appeared behind her unnoticed.
Having opposed them for years, Forest Guild had some intel on the Green Dragon Clan's elders.
Among them, Giselle was one of the top three Sovereign-level experts even in the Green Dragon Clan.
A foe she couldn't ignore.
'Tch, that old hag's a pain...'
Still, Louise wasn't too worried.
If Giselle was a top expert in the Green Dragon Clan, she herself was Forest Guild's number two.
With her reliable subordinates, there was no reason to fear a single Sovereign-level.
...If it had been just Giselle.
"Heh heh, Elder Giselle still has plenty of spirit."
"Indeed. The eldest among us, yet so swift."
"Must be the hardship of taking a disciple in her later years."
One by one, then another.
As wrinkled old folks with green hair appeared in Giselle's wake, Louise's eyes widened.
The four elders of the Green Dragon Clan.
In other words, four Sovereign-level experts each rivaling Grand Duke players stretched their necks or loosened their hands.
They fixed sharp gazes on Louise and spoke.
"You're the one who messed with our kids?"
"As Forest's Vice Guild Master, you bear big responsibility for our princess's disappearance."
"Time to pay the price."
Overflowing psionics.
Eyes gleaming with murderous intent.
Muscles bulging fiercely.
Facing the most stubborn old monsters among the narrow-minded, obsessive Green Dragon Clan, Louise broke into a cold sweat as Giselle asked coldly.
"Ready to die?"
Clack.
"That takes care of the Tree Forest Grand Duke."
"Unexpectedly easy to eliminate the trickiest opponent."
"Not exactly easy. Even mobilizing four Green Dragon Clan elders, we nearly let her slip away."
"Forest Guild members are tenacious with their lives, after all."
"Yes, all the more fortunate."
Li Chingwei smiled faintly as she captured the wooden rook with her jade one.
Louise had been strong, no doubt.
She'd held out for dozens of minutes against the elders including Giselle before going down.
If Louise had struck with ambushes at key moments.
Or just hit-and-ran to sow chaos.
Even mobilizing all Green Dragon Clan forces including the elders, capturing her would've been tough.
No matter that it wasn't their home turf—like how three Liberation Brigade ghosts toppled the Black Dragon Clan.
Grand Duke-level players could single-handedly shift the tide, especially Louise, who fled at the slightest disadvantage.
Plus taking out 50 high-level players alongside her.
This was tantamount to breaking one of Gula's arms.
"Worth using Barbara as bait on purpose."
"Excellent judgment, Princess."
Tzushian marveled briefly.
Forest Guild would know Barbara and Arbella were the Green Dragon Princess's close aides.
Thus, moving Barbara would provoke Gula's Maia grudge into overcommitting—just as Li Chingwei predicted.
Barbara, turned unwitting bait, would lament it as typical Black Dragon Clan if she knew.
That was why Tzushian broached cautiously.
"Princess, may I ask something?"
"If Barbara couldn't hold five minutes, did you really plan to let her die?"
"...Yes."
"Of course not. That's why I sent insurance as backup."
As if it were an amusing joke.
Li Chingwei chuckled, moving the sapphire bishop shaped like a bird next to her jade knight to another spot.
Of course, if it had been an ordinary Grand Commander as bait, she wouldn't have bothered with insurance.
Calculations said they'd hold; if not, oh well.
But Barbara was...
No, those two sisters were different.
"If anything happened to those two, Maia would try to kill me."
At the banquet when Maia slapped Arbella.
Thanks to her psionics handling mental resonance, she'd sensed it momentarily.
Recalling the deep-seated wound hidden beneath Maia's sharp, cynical demeanor, Li Chingwei could only give a wry smile.
"A strict big sister teaching her little sisters..."
So unexpected were the words.
Maia mulled over Rimon's low murmur, then curled her lips in cold scorn.
"Thinking I treat those kids like sisters—your eyes must be seriously clouded."
"Am I wrong?"
"Wrong."
Maia answered curtly.
It was only natural, in fact.
No matter how prestigious their clan, Barbara and Arbella couldn't compare to a princess of dragon descent.
But Maia's following words revealed her answer wasn't that obvious.
"I have no right to."
With her usual cynicism.
Yet sharper, more somber.
Gazing at the bonfire blazing fiercely, burning all it touched, Maia continued softly.
"How could the one who killed their mother play the role of big sister?"