CH 26

Battle on the Plateau

(Bersleid: Last one for the day.)

“… [Paralyze]!”

“You… you damn pretty boy…!”

The enemy PK (player killer) group’s crossbow user cursed foully with displeasure.

Frey’s magic, the wind spirit magic [Paralyze], which paralyzes the opponent, struck the hand of the female elf PK who was firing bolts from behind, hindering her reloading.

“Frey, take care of that elf!”

“Yes, leave it to me!”

In response to the timing of the resounding command, Crim trusted Frey and ignored elf for the time being.

The enemy consists of two human males in front of Crim, a gnome with a crossbow behind them, the female elf that Frey is dealing with, and a Dragonewt dual axe wielder who has taken up a position to cut off their escape route.

The problem lies with the Dragonewt who is near Frey and Freya…

“Hehehe, according to Mother, PKs must die… hehehe…”

“What… who is this guy…!?”

The young girl clad in blue flames relentlessly attacks the male Dragonewt with a reckless momentum that even the PKs were taken aback by.

“Yep, I get it. She’s scary.” (Bersleid: For some reason cute and motherly characters are the scariest in these kinds of stories.)

With her golden eyes lacking their usual light, now gleaming fiercely, the girl who approaches with a smile is nothing short of a walking horror. Though she secretly sympathizes with the male Dragonewt, she quickly gathers himself, realizing it won’t do any good.

Even though the complete skill-based growth system is said to make it difficult for there to be a difference in status between veterans and beginners, there are still limits. With her current inferior status and experience, Hinagiku has virtually no chance of winning if the Dragonewt regains his composure.

“Hinagiku, don’t push yourself. Just keep him under control so he can’t go after the rear guard!”

“Understood, Onee-san!”

As she gives instructions to Hinagiku, she feels a sense of relief from the girl who gave her a proper response. But now is not the time to relax. She must focus on her own assigned task.

(From the beginning of the battle, it has been about fifty seconds. It’s time to strike…!)

With Crim lowering herself, the two male humanoids around her became wary and readied their stance.

… But Crim’s current aim is not them.

“…… There, [Night Curtain]!”

Ignoring the two PKs who retreated in caution of Crim’s attack, she completed the magic and released it towards the gnome who was shooting a crossbow towards them from behind.

“W-What is this darkness!?”

The gnome woman panicked, as the dark magic [Night Curtain] took effect, stealing her vision for a few seconds. At the same time, Crim threw a shadow dagger she had in her hand.

“Kyaa!?”

The unexpectedly cute scream of the PK gnome woman could be heard as the dagger hit her shoulder. However, it wasn’t enough to deplete her life completely.

Looking relieved after seeing the dagger only hitting her shoulder, the gnome woman suddenly had the second dagger thrown by Crim pierce through her forehead. She let out a final scream and disappeared into shards of light.

“Don’t hesitate! The recast time for magic weapons is long, and that guy is unarmed now!”

Shouted a male human.

His judgment was correct. In fact, it took 60 seconds for the recast of the [Shadow Light Weapon]. Since she had just thrown the short sword, she had created earlier, she could not use it for a while.

But… while the opponent was confused, Crim had already completed another chant.

“… [Shadow Heavy Weapon]… a sword!”

As she pulled it out from the shadows, a Japanese sword was revealed.

“… Are you kidding me!?”

“That was from an ultra-difficult quest…!”

As the PKs saw it, they once again became unsettled.

Crim didn’t miss the opportunity. She shouted to encourage her heavy body, which was bound by sunlight, and rushed towards the nearest human PK.

“Gah…!”

The PK screamed in pain. It was natural since Crim had stabbed him in the throat with the sword she held in his reverse hand. However…

“It’s not deep enough!”

The PK man, who was trying to swing his axe towards Crim despite being stabbed in the throat, switched to a sideways cut and tried to behead her- but at that moment.

“Big Sister!!”

Hinagiku’s urgent scream. Sensing a bad feeling, Crim twisted her body by instinct just in time.

“Gu…!?”

She felt heat in his abdomen and let out a groan. Crim’s HP bar visibly shrank.

“Te, you…!”

At the same time as the man’s bitter voice resounds from above, a remnant light indicating the man’s death dances around Crim.

Beyond that… there was the figure of the humanoid PK who had stabbed Crim’s abdomen with a sword, with a nasty smile on his face, the same man who had launched a surprise attack earlier.

It is then that Crim finally realizes that she was stabbed by the humanoid PK in front of her, just like the man she was fighting.

“Heh, stabbing a woman feels good, huh?”

“Ugh… you’re disgusting, you pervert…!”

The man continues to push the sword into her stomach while twisting it, launching a follow-up attack. Crim endures the decreasing HP bar and intense pain in her stomach… even with pain relief on it still hurts.

Enduring it all, Crim kicks the man’s chest and retreats, using the momentum to pull the man’s sword out of her stomach.

“Crim-chan!?”

A scream from behind, followed by the light of a healing magic. In the midst of the receding pain, Crim glares at the man in front of her with even more severity.

“Hah, if it weren’t for you, we would’ve already taken care of the small fry. It’s tough being the leader, huh?”

“You’re even more despicable than I expected!”

“Unfortunately, we’re just a gathering of scumbags!”

“Eek!”

“Freya!!”

Crim turns around abruptly at the sound of a young girl’s scream coming from a different direction. There, another PK, a cat-like Warbeast boy who had been hiding behind them, was trying to drag Freya down.

“Ko… no… [Slave Chain]!!”

Blood rushed to Crim’s head as she instinctively cast a spell. The blood flowing from Crim’s abdomen transformed into chains that entangled the ambushers who were attacking Freya from behind. This was the Blood Magic [Slave Chain], a spell that used chains woven from blood to pull in enemies.

“What the…?! Ugh!”

In the instant that he was about to swing the sword he had just grabbed, the man was pulled towards Crim by the chains and she swiftly sliced with her sword. The blade flashed, leaving a red line on the throat of the werewolf man.

“You let your guard down, you idiot!?”

The victorious voice of a human PK (Player Killer). However, Crim remained eerily calm, grabbed the collar of the werewolf man she had just killed and threw him behind her.

“What the…?! What!?”

The two voices sounded panicked as they stumbled and collided with each other. Crim turned towards the two who had become entangled and…

“This is payback, you bastard.”

Crim had completely lost her cool because of the attack on Freya. She spoke with an unexpectedly cold voice and thrust her blade into the backs of the two men, who had just collided.

“Gu…huh…!?”

The werewolf man, whose heart was pierced from behind and whose life had been completely depleted, returned to the afterlife. Only the human man, who had also been stabbed in the chest but had miraculously avoided a direct hit to his heart, remained in front of Crim.

At almost the same time as this, something else happened.

“Ch, you’re such a useless pretty boy!!”

“Gu… It’s you who should leave, woman! Thunderbolt!!”

“Gah… This constant crackling is annoying, isn’t it!?”

Despite receiving a new crossbow bolt in her shoulder, Frey counterattacks with a thunderbolt. In the midst of the messy battle, where their life bars are slowly decreasing, Freya’s covering and healing spells couldn’t keep up with the attacks she was receiving. Nevertheless, Frey calmly kept attacking.

“But it doesn’t work on you, pretty boy! Your attack magic is weak, it’s not a big threat…”

Despite having high magical abilities as a beginner, Frey can’t provide a powerful attack with her current firepower, since she lacks strong spells and has to pause to chant. The female elf PK noticed this during their struggle and, taking out a recovery potion from her bag, tried to heal herself.

But…

“No… It’s over.”

“Huh? Ah…”

The female elf in the rear guard looked up and saw a ball of fire falling straight down from above. It was the attack magic [Stardust], which is learned with Destruction Magic level 50… Its feature is that after a certain amount of time has passed since activation, the attack will rain down in a different attack pattern.

“…Even if its power is high, if I escape outside the effect range before it hits, it’s useless…”

“No, you won’t escape. [Sonic Cage]…!!”

“Ugh…”

He saved the chant in the magic book he held in his hand and activated the spirit magic [Sonic Cage] immediately. The elf PK, trapped by the magic that enclosed the target for a short time but dealt continuous damage, distorted her graceful beauty.

“So that’s it. Can you withstand a triple attack?”

“Pl… Please help me…”

In tatters, Fray fixed his glasses and looked down at the female PK. Realizing that he had no compassion in his eyes, she bowed her head as if giving up everything at that moment.

“…Don’t people often say that you have a bad personality?”

“Yeah, they always do. It’s not what I want, though.”

…With those words as her last, the female elf PK was crushed by the impact that rained down from the sky with a roar and turned into light.

“…It seems like there’s no more rear-guard support coming for us.”

“Damn…ca, can’t…can’t take this monster anymore!?”

The human male held his pierced chest and spat out those words before trying to escape alone. However…

“What are you trying to run for?”

“Huh…what?”

A young girl’s voice lacking in intonation.

At that moment, a blade that was about to pierce through the man’s heart flew out, pointing straight at him. As the man stared dumbfoundedly at the tip of the blade, he realized that it was unmistakably the two-handed sword that Crim had given to Hinagiku.

“Wait, didn’t Hinagiku fight against the Dragonewt over there!?”

Crim frantically looked around, and there was only one remnant of light in an unnaturally distant place. That light was certainly where Hinagiku had been fighting the Dragonewt PK just moments ago.

“Could it be…that Hinagiku defeated him by herself!?”

Hinagiku was still a beginner, and Crim had thought that it would be lucky if she could just hold down one opponent and survive. But…not only that, she overturned the difference in stats and skills and won?

Crim was shocked, but the young girl was now repositioning the sword, which was surrounded by blue flames and had pierced the man’s body, in both hands.

“Only those who are prepared to be cut down have the right to cut…that’s what my mother said…!!” (Bersleid: See, treat others the way they treat or attempt to treat you, an eye for an eye.)

“Stupid, what the hell are you, you brat!? “

A flash of light from a slashing effect runs from the heart to the head. The girl’s blade, which depicts the trajectory of the beautiful, unwarped, blue-shining waxing crescent, is swung down.

Roaring, the last PK man was wrapped in blue flames all over his body, screaming as he was dying, and disappeared into shards light.

The battlefield, where all PKs turned to the afterglow, was now quiet.

“We did it, big sis!”

In the midst of the silence of the battlefield, a girl’s joyful voice echoes. Hinagiku, who had previously had a cold expression, now has a smiling face, like a blooming flower and runs towards Crim.

“Um, yeah… What about the people we were fighting against?”

“Hehehe, we did it!”

The girl happily flashes a V-sign and frolics around. It would be just an adorable sight, but…

(This child is a bundle of talent. She has grown to the point of defeating an opponent who was initially too much to handle in this short time of actual combat with her sword skills.)

(I want to raise them. There is no doubt that this child will become strong.)

Such a desire wells up within Crim.

Right now, with an innocent face, Hinagiku gazes up at Crim and tilts her head.

Crim feels awe, as she is trembling in her heart, towards the girl.

(Bersleid: Here’s the next guild member candidate, now they just need one more. Hope you enjoyed.)
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