Chaos, Part 5
"Kill that heavily armored knight."
In the midst of the furious battle, Lena received a single order from the Grand Lord. The command, issued through the selection interface, was nothing less than an instruction to personally snipe the hulking knight rampaging across the battlefield.
Even as she watched, one of their own Minions was split nearly in two by the knight’s greatsword, utterly unable to withstand the blow.
Without question, he was stronger than any enemy she had faced so far. She could tell that much without even crossing blades with him.
"For him... I’d do anything."
And so Lena laughed as she yanked a spear free from the body of a fallen soldier, blood spraying from the punctured wound. If the enemy was strong, so much the better. Struggle and crisis were the nourishment of growth and evolution.
Up until now, Lena had always grown by fighting opponents stronger than herself, and by now the truth had been branded into her: growth meant battle against the strong.
Above all else, it was an order from the Grand Lord. Even if it cost her life, Lena would obey.
"Over there! That bitch's over there!"
"That's their leader. Get her!"
But the army wasn’t the only one aiming for the enemy's avatar.
Among the hideous, warped Minions, she stood out with a distinctly human shape, and the soldiers and knights of the subjugation force who spotted her focused their attention on her at once.
"That monster girl fights with a spear. Set up your positions! Surround her!"
"Don't be annoying!"
Three knights were the first to charge her, coordinating their attacks.
As Lena rushed toward the avatar, the knights blocked her path, and she bared her teeth, whirling her spear at them.
"Tch..."
"Hold the line. She’s manageable!"
The knights gritted their teeth and barely parried her savage assault, fighting to keep their footing as they traded blows with her.
Just as they always had, they were relying on experience and discipline to contain her explosive power.
She won’t catch us slipping again.
But this time was different. Lena clenched her jaw and let her fury rise. It was true that she lacked experience, but she had the growth to make up for it—and a new power no one could have predicted.
"Aaaagh!"
In an instant, Lena exploded with inner force. A dark red aura burst from her body, hurling out blood and shockwaves in every direction.
The knights who had been pressing her only moments before were suddenly pierced through their breastplates by the black spear now in both her hands, and they screamed as blood gushed from their mouths.
"You dare!"
One enraged knight, his beard trembling with wrath, charged at her. A blue-white flash lit the edge of his sword. A strike reinforced with mana like that was not something that could be blocked by simple physical means, no matter how thick the carapace.
"...Impossible."
But his attack never touched Lena, who had no free hands to guard herself. A barrier had already wrapped around her entire body, taking the sword strike instead; it cracked, then shattered.
"We don't stop. We don't hesitate. Even if it’s only one small step, we keep moving forward. And anything that stands in our way—people like you—we'll chew it up and swallow it whole."
"Wai—"
Lena’s red eyes flashed from beneath her shadowed face as she dropped the spear and clenched both fists. The startled knight tried to say something and stagger back, but her powerful kick came sweeping in, twisting through the air to sever the arm holding his sword clean off.
Then her next punch landed before he could even understand that his own body was being ripped apart alive, bursting blood and entrails across the battlefield.
"The knights..."
"Doesn't matter. Crush her anyway!"
"Damn it, seriously!"
She had cleared the obstacles and taken one more step forward. But before long Lena was forced to meet another wall.
Those around her had already mistaken her for the leader of the group, and so they threw in more troops, gritting their teeth as they tried desperately to take her down.
...
Some of the mercenaries who had already received their orders watched the situation from within the chaos of battle.
2. Reassign troops for a smoother battle. Deploy Warrior-class units.
And at that moment, the Grand Lord’s new command was issued across all of Ascalas.
"Wha— What are these things?!"
"They’ve got reinforcements!"
The ones approaching Lena froze in shock when they saw the creatures charging in behind her, then hurriedly raised their weapons. Every one of them was a Warrior-class Ascalas, all of them based on human bodies.
Armed with their own weapons, they turned and picked off the ones trying to attack Lena instead. Having evolved to a higher rank and gained combat power far beyond that of the Minions, they drove the confused subjugation force back with ease.
Using the help of those who fought the knights in her stead, Lena surged ahead even faster toward the enemy.
1. Do not speak. Do not reveal emotion.
"Huh?"
Then a somewhat unfamiliar command arrived for her. It was nothing like the tactical orders she had received until now.
...
At the same time, he saw Lena drawing closer to him.
"Commander! That monster girl is coming straight at us on her own!"
Robinson pointed at Lena, his voice shaking. The pressure she gave off in person was anything but ordinary.
Even Robinson felt fear at the sight of that overwhelming strength erupting from such a slight, frail frame as she butchered a veteran knight.
"So we’re going to gang up on her after all?"
"I’ll handle her myself."
At Robinson’s words, he gave a clear refusal. He had changed the plan; he would take on Lena alone. Naturally, it was the result of a choice.
The decision governing his actions judged that unnecessary sacrifices should be avoided and that this should be settled in a one-on-one duel between avatars. At the very least, he was confident he would win a duel of that sort—and he had every reason to believe it.
What the hell...
Robinson couldn’t make sense of it, but he couldn’t argue. His judgment had never been wrong. It had always been that way.
"It looks like the plan to exploit the enemy's misunderstanding and make them take Lena for the avatar worked. He seems ready to get serious."
"He's pretty bold. That means he’s confident in PVP. And he must have a reason for that confidence."
Watching Lena as she continued to face off against the enemy commander on the battlefield, he bit his lip. With an opponent like this, it wasn’t simply a matter of what happened on the screen. He knew that better than anyone, because he was the one standing at the center of it.
The player issuing commands to the avatar had acted confident from the very start, and his mercenaries were indeed holding their own against Ascalas’s Minions, propping up the battlefield in place of the panicked knights and soldiers.
In other words, their plan to have the mercenaries pin down Ascalas’s forces had worked. And in the middle of that, the deciding battle between the avatars was about to begin. He was confident even in that final clash.
"Our strength lies in Devour and essence infusion, in securing nourishment and expanding quickly. Our nature is to swell the ranks into a single massive swarm, not to settle things with some heroic one-on-one duel."
He stared tensely at the enemy avatar. It stood a good two meters tall, clad head to toe in heavy armor, wielding a massive greatsword.
At a glance, it looked like an avatar built for one-on-one combat.
"But... our avatar isn't Lena. In the end, Lena is just a unit."
"I didn't pick a fight for nothing. I just hope the plan works."
He looked at the screen, his eyes trembling. Lena had already entered combat with the enemy avatar, and it wouldn’t take long before the winner was decided.
Unlike usual, Lena suppressed her emotions and kept her expression cold as she dodged the massive greatsword sweeping toward her and lashed out with the spear in her hand.
Duration: Ongoing
The spear, practically an extension of her own body, bent as though its tip were alive and lunged for the enemy’s neck. But it was stopped by the barrier that burst out from his body.
"If that was his first skill, then what comes next?"
He watched Lena’s battle with wide, unblinking eyes. His purpose wasn’t to defeat the enemy here. He wanted to see what the opponent had in reserve and prepare for the future.
-0 HP
Startled by the following heavy strike, Lena leapt into the air just in time to evade the shockwave that exploded outward. The enemy’s second skill was to smash everything in front of him with a powerful blast of force.
...I should have worked harder. Skipped sleep, skipped meals—everything.
He kept watching, his jaw clenched. In reality too, achievements could be turned into help for his units inside Pandemonium. If he’d done whatever it took, he would surely have earned far more experience than he had now.
But all he could think about now was the fact that he hadn’t.
The enemy must be the same as me.
This was a battlefield fought for nothing but one’s own desire.
No one here lacked desperation, though the reasons were all different. But desperation itself was, in the end, relative.
Some people would sell even their souls for their desires, and in a game like this, that was the kind of person who would remain standing as the victor.
"I’ll see this through to the end. I will too."
"An excellent resolve. And while you say that, it seems the moment is drawing near."
Agares, who had been helping him, let out a faint chuckle at his determination.