Chapter 215 - Two Extremes
“—Well now… you still want to go?”
“I'd like to retreat, but my orders are to stall you completely, you see…”
Two shadows stood in a world of ice, shrouded in a frigid, white mist.
The original waterway was nowhere to be seen. The entire area, right up to the walls, was covered in a layer of frost. The expressions on the faces of the two men confronting each other in the extreme cold were a study in contrasts.
One, though breathing slightly heavily, had a composed face that still radiated confidence.
The other looked visibly exhausted. His avatar, exhaling white breaths due to the hostile cold, wore a bitter smile he couldn't hide.
“You surprised me, Irori-kun. It’s like… did something good happen to you?”
The seventh-ranked member of the Eastern Faction, the [Sword Protector]—his martial prowess, forged under the tutelage of the famed [Sword Saint], was already well-known. But today, he had demonstrated an even sharper edge to his techniques… and before he knew it, [Automata] had seen his partner taken down, leaving him with no choice but to laugh and say, “Give me a break.”
Seeing his state, Irori, who had so effortlessly overturned the numerical disadvantage, simply smiled as if it were nothing and swung the azure blade in his right hand.
“Who knows—let’s just say I can’t afford to lose to my junior.”
“A junior, huh… I'd certainly like to meet him myself.”
“Be my guest. Go see him whenever you like.”
As Irori took a step forward, the icy ground beneath his feet creaked, and pillars of frost rose as if to mark his footprints.
“—After you defeat me.”
“Tch… [Quintet]!”
In response to that slow, single step, Fuji leaped back with all his might and brandished his arms like a conductor. Instantly, five replica dolls materialized from thin air and lunged at the approaching samurai with foreign features.
“[Enka—”
Still in their pouncing posture, the dolls froze solid with a loud crack. The [Sword Protector] walked between them.
“—Senjin].”
With a single sword sweep that cleared his surroundings, he cut down all who opposed him.
“My, my…! This is troublesome…!!”
Retreating while summoning one doll after another—truly, with no other means to resist, Fuji was at his wit's end, yet he earnestly challenged the order given to him by his 'Queen'.
It might look like he was being toyed with, but they were managing to maintain a stalemate at the very edge. The proof was that Irori, despite handling the wave of doll attacks with ease, had yet to come directly for Fuji's head.
However, at the same time, Fuji wished Irori would charge in to take his head. This battle of attrition with a foregone conclusion was not something he welcomed at all.
The most troublesome part was, as expected, his observational eye, which was lauded as approaching that of the [Sword Saint]—no, it was more like an innate 'battle sense', a natural talent for fighting.
He had another trump card, one he hadn't yet revealed to the world, separate from the five-doll simultaneous control that surpassed his previous limit… but unfortunately, it seemed he couldn't fool Irori's instincts.
However, that only meant he couldn't land a decisive blow—
“Ah, honestly… what a bottomless well of stamina he has.”
By forcing the [Sword Protector] to constantly deal with the endlessly spawning dolls, he was without a doubt succeeding in the order to rob him of his 'time'.
Irori had lost his patience and activated [Engage], leading to Orin's defeat, but while that had crushed their chances of victory, it didn't impede the mission itself.
It was melancholic to be endlessly shown how his prized ability, which embodied his bestowed title, could be so completely shut down… but he would not fail in the role he had to play.
With the first-ranked member retired and the second-ranked [Sword Saint] not appearing on the main stage, the man before him was effectively known as the strongest PvP player in the East. Pinning him down here was the greatest contribution he could make to the Southern Faction—and by extension, to their 'Princess'.
—Crack.
One samurai and five samurai dolls. In the world of ice where the sounds of their endless clash echoed, a single noise, jarringly clear, reached their ears and simultaneously halted the movements of the two rankers.
Each took a step back, and without lowering their guard, they turned their heads to look sideways toward the source of the sound—but there was nothing there.
Which meant…
“—Ah, so this is it.”
As if his earlier fierce fighting had been a lie, Fuji lowered his conducting hands in surrender and went limp.
In contrast, Irori lowered his sword and relaxed his stance, a wry smile on his face as he directed a half-lidded gaze toward the empty space.
“—You're late, Tetra.”
“Sorry, Irori-senpai. Our guide, the General, was busy with 'other things'.”
I got lost—the boy who said so with a wry smile appeared in their vision as if he had been there from the start. Not fading into view, but simply dropped into the middle of their perception, suddenly there.
“Well then, I'm leaving the rest to you.”
“Leave it to me. But you should probably hurry.”
The exchange that followed was perfectly natural.
What was strange was the fact that their 'enemy' was also watching this scene unfold before him as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
With the black-clad boy remaining, and the samurai in his hakama swiftly departing, Fuji watched Irori leave without a fuss before turning his gaze to the boy, all fighting spirit gone.
“Aren't you being a bit too passive?”
“Well, everyone watching on screen probably thinks it's 'game set' anyway.”
“…Having a special build is tough. It's all or nothing.”
[Automata] and [Undying]—two players with unique avatar builds that differed greatly from the norm… and thus, they both bore a massive disadvantage when it came to providing an exciting spectacle for the audience. They shared a laugh, their expressions similar.
'All or nothing' meant that due to their specialized natures, in a game of perfect matchups, they were always on one end of a refreshingly one-sided beatdown.
For example, [Automata] against a pure agility avatar.
And for example—[Automata] against [Undying].
“…But well, it has been a while since we last fought—so maybe it'd be fun to aim for an upset?”
“Oh?”
At the boy's uncharacteristic words, Fuji tilted his head with a surprised look.
“How rare to hear you use a taunt, Tetra-shonen.”
“I've told you to stop with the 'Tetra-shonen'.”
When Fuji poked fun at him, it seemed the boy was aware that he'd said something unusual. Tetra scratched his cheek to hide his embarrassment and glanced slightly upward.
What was there… was probably the score count for each faction, displayed on every participating player's user interface during the Four Pillar War.
“It's nothing, really. It's just—”
The boy, who held no weapon, also needed no stance.
All that appeared, signaling the flip of a switch, was a single thing.
“It’s just—even I can get swept up in the excitement sometimes.”
His eyes, aimed straight ahead, swirled with nothing but fighting spirit.
“I see… in that case, perhaps I’ll try getting serious for the first time in a while?”
“I'd be happy to. But still—sorry, it might end up being one-sided after all.”
What escaped him was a charming, boyish smile… but Fuji knew.
He knew of the tremendous monster that this innocent-looking boy kept caged within him.
The feeling of a heavy wind caressing his skin was no illusion. The sight of the shadows writhing and swaying at the boy's feet was no hallucination either.
“It was a prerequisite to avoid encountering you… so it's been a while since I've seen this.”
Though his muttering voice didn't tremble, what seeped into the pit of his stomach was undeniably 'fear'. Even setting aside the fact that he was facing his natural enemy, as long as one was 'human' before being a game player—
There could be few who did not fear the 'darkness'.
“—Dazzling Liberation.”
The key words spoken were the narrator's proof.
And what was written upon the battlefield was the title that marked its chosen one.
“Embrace—[Grimnote, Black Sky Roc Wings].”
From his black-robed body, a waterfall of black feathers overflowed.
Without a chance to flee, the [Automata] was swallowed by the tsunami of darkness, along with the master himself—and without a sound, the 'darkness' covered all equally.
Are you thinking I'm cutting the ranker fights too short? Well, here's a shocking fact for you…
This game is mainly PvE!!