Chaos in a Time of Upheaval 6
"Crush them. Everyone else, fall back. I’ll handle this one myself."
"Wait! Don’t turn on each other!"
In the thick of that brutal battle, where shockwaves ripped chaotically through the air with every deafening blast, Robinson had just forced the other mercenaries back when the knight commander, Dyke, arrived too late and tried to stop them.
"What are you saying?"
"We’re the ones who have to take down that monster woman. You lot stand down."
Then Dyke issued an utterly absurd order. It was so ridiculous that even Robinson frowned, momentarily unable to grasp what he was hearing.
"That’s nonsense. Not at a time like this."
"Obey your orders, mercenary! This is the lord’s command!"
Robinson argued, but Dyke only barked back. Only then did Robinson realize why Dyke was making such a demand.
The lord had placed the blame squarely on Dyke and ordered him to deal with the source of the crisis personally.
"For now, we should—"
"Robinson."
But just as Robinson clicked his tongue and opened his mouth to salvage the situation, an unignorable command fell from the side locked in fierce combat, delivered in a voice as calm as if nothing in the world were amiss.
"Kill them. Absorb their blood and mana, and strengthen your power."
"Commander?!"
"W-what...!"
The order was tossed out as casually as breathing, even while fighting Lena, who was lunging in with mad-eyed frenzy. Robinson and the other mercenaries, not to mention the knights, all stared wide-eyed in shock.
"You bastard, how dare you!"
"Sorry, but I’ve never once regretted following the commander’s orders."
And with that, Robinson changed his stance, drew his sword, and attacked the knight commander, Dyke. Dyke barely managed to block the blow in alarm, but that was only the beginning.
Across the chaos of the battlefield, the mercenaries clenched their teeth, drove past the enemies they had been holding off, and charged straight at the knights.
"This is madness! Do you really think you’ll be the only ones left alive to wipe out all these monsters?! And even if you do get out of here, do you think you’ll ever leave this land?"
Dyke, parrying Robinson’s sword again and again, was aghast as he looked upon the hellscape of monsters and humans slaughtering one another without end.
His eyes were so wide they seemed ready to split open. His face looked as though he truly could not understand what he was seeing, not for even a moment.
Robinson snorted when he saw that expression.
"Take a good look. Do we really seem like we’re fighting without a plan?"
"N-no..."
"Do we still look like nothing but a mercenary band to you? The world has changed, sir knight."
Robinson pointed toward the madness unfolding all around them. What Dyke saw then was the glow of a single sigil on the back of a mercenary’s hand, brightening as it pierced a knight’s gut.
The sigil that had been shining all this time, continuously strengthening the mercenaries, now absorbed the knight’s blood and amplified the power of its user even further.
"My strength’s boiling over!"
"Kill the monsters too! Kill the knights too!"
The mercenaries, exhilarated by the surging blood in their veins, roared and unleashed all their power at once, beginning to rampage indiscriminately.
"See? We fear nothing."
Dyke, utterly stunned by the sight, staggered at Robinson’s grin. For a native of this world, it was an impossible, rule-breaking spectacle.
"Come on then. Still can’t believe it? The knight commander, a symbol of elite nobility, getting pushed back by a single mercenary!"
Robinson’s grin widened further as he launched himself at Dyke first this time. Perhaps the psychological blow had worked; Dyke blocked the fierce assault only by forcing his trembling arms to move.
"Aaaagh!"
"How dare mercenaries like you... Agh!"
At a glance, it looked like a horrifying slaughter in which allies were butchering one another. In truth, they had been allies only moments ago. But now one side was killing the other and absorbing its strength to grow stronger.
What in the world are these guys?
Lena had not shown it, obeying the order to keep her reaction hidden, but inside she was genuinely startled. The mercenaries led by this suspicious armored man were somehow beyond the bounds of common sense. Seeing them, she found herself thinking that they were much like her own kind.
"Khh!"
But she had no time to think about anything else. With every attack from an enemy whose stats were blatantly superior, her limbs began to shake, the carapace wrapped around her body cracked, and fluid started to seep out.
From the beginning, defeating the opponent one-on-one had been impossible. She had only bought time.
!
The moment the enemy’s greatsword came down, about to split her skull open, a thick, sturdy tentacle erupted from behind.
He’s here.
Lena laughed inwardly. The Great Lord, who had concealed his form, seized the opening in the confusion and revealed his massive body.
The armored man, flailing as if startled and trying desperately to rip off the tentacle winding around his arm, could do no more than struggle; the Great Lord’s tentacle coiled around him like a living snake, and he couldn’t tear it free.
There had been a clear difference in Martial Power from the start. On top of that, Lena quickly seized a spear, clenched her teeth, and thrust it toward the foe.
He blocked it? Doesn’t matter. We’ll win in the end anyway!
Just like that, the enemy was forced into a two-on-one battle against the Great Lord and her. He was holding on, more or less, but Lena was certain of their victory.
"Yes. We can win."
And that was true for him as well, the one who had risen abruptly from his seat the moment he saw what was happening now.
"It looks like the opponent invested some of his stats elsewhere. That leaves him weaker in Martial Power compared to the Great Lord, who is also an avatar. Add Lena’s support on top of that, and this is the perfect time to capitalize while the other enemies are thrown into confusion by fighting among themselves."
"What about the other side?"
Unlike Agares, who looked oddly relaxed, he hurriedly flipped through the screens and checked the other fronts.
The mercenaries had indeed turned on the knights and soldiers who were nominally on the same side as them, then absorbed their strength to enhance themselves.
Even so, they were still outnumbered. While some mercenaries grew stronger one after another, plenty of others were collapsing to the ground.
"The fifty-odd warriors newly joined to the battlefield. Their role is crucial."
In the midst of it all, Agares noticed something on the field and let out a small, satisfied smile. On the screen were human-shaped monsters clad in black carapace.
Aside from Karin, who retained her selfhood, they were all puppets moving according to orders. Still, their power was unmistakable, incomparable to that of mere minions.
In fact, they were the ones restraining the newly empowered mercenaries from going berserk.
One-on-one is still weaker. I admit that much. So we just attack in numbers.
He let out a breath of relief, having confirmed that his choice had worked efficiently. He had never really thought he would lose; he simply figured this would be a bit of a pain.
"But isn’t it a little unfair to just sit here and do nothing?"
That was when Agares abruptly butted in, needling him on.
"Your enemies seem rather adept at absorbing power. Why don’t you show them who the true authority on absorption and Devour is?"
[1. Infuse essence into the enemies]
[2. Use tentacles to Devour nutrients]
...If I have to choose, then obviously number 2.
He nodded grimly.
There was also an intention to punish them, as Agares said. The reason he chose not to infuse the mercenaries with essence and instead turn them into nutrients was because the Great Lord now needed to focus entirely on the battle with the opponent’s avatar.
With the sigil’s buffs and the knights and soldiers sacrificed to maximize their power, the mercenaries were now under the impact of Ascalas’s minions, whose tentacles whipped through the air from all sides, and they began to falter in shock.
"T-this monster woman..."
"You don’t know what a blessing it is just to be able to fight like this."
Karin, now a loyal warrior, was one of them. Her powerful body, newly gifted with mana so she could truly feel her strength, gleamed as she bared her red eyes and smiled.
"Aaaagh...!"
A mercenary who had attempted to attack her found his sword sealed in place when Karin caught his wrist in her hand. He never had the chance to escape her. A tentacle burst from her back, curling like a scorpion’s tail before punching straight through his chest.
The mercenary gave a breathless scream and stared in disbelief at the black tentacle that had shattered his heart. Each time something thick and pulsing surged through the tentacle, the vitality in his body drained away at an alarming rate.
Nutrients... power!
By contrast, Karin trembled with delight and ecstasy.
The power forcibly stripped from another, and her own body growing stronger in real time because of it. For Karin, who had once been a completely ordinary human with no power at all, it was an irresistible pleasure—both the hunger for strength and the fulfillment of her own desire.
"What a pity. If you could feel this too, you might have joined us willingly."
She flung the mercenary’s now-dried corpse to the ground. Though the fierce battle still raged on all sides, Karin had no doubt of their victory.
She was certain that their opponent, who had arrogantly tried to strike first without understanding a thing, would be defeated here today.
"These mad monster bastards... they won't go down!"
And that fact spread through the mercenaries like fear itself. Their leader, the one who had driven them forward with overwhelming violence, was now pinned in place.
Violence had turned to terror—and terror, little by little, was consuming them.