Vol 6 Chapter 5 (1/2)

Chapter 5: Raid Battle

1

A man writhed in the darkness

He slowly stretched his bones and body

The sound of flowing sewage came from somewhere unseen This was a sewer, but it was different from the sewers of modern Tokyo or the old world This zone, used exclusively by thisthrough it, and was eon

There was a pile of stolen Adventurer clothing that served as a bed The ers Dry blood stained his fingers like rust Beneath his tattered black jacket, his burning wounds had mended

He had probably made a full recovery

The iron, lowed diical effect that gave hiht vision

The Moveable Armor was a relic passed down froical itey; it was an Phantasmal artifact of the Precursors

Its capability was beyond the technology of the People of the Land, the ic of the Adventurers, and even the Kunie Clan It was the crystallization of the lost age

The ht

He had made a full recovery

The physical ability of the man was powerful The Moveable Armor raised all physical traits of its user, especially stamina In ter the armor But it didn't boost the recovery rate of the user ned with its user taking da et hurt, there was no need to boost their healing rate Getting wounded rave insult to him

But the Moveable Armor was not his only piece of equipment

The tall and skinny man held 'Sentou Byakumaru,' which rattled in its sheath In his hand, it seemed rather short

Whoever wielded this sword gained the power of the Hero of Ice Ridge, Lugrius The more blood Byakumaru drank, the rown three ti in its sheath was thirsting for more sacrifices

He growled and left without a backwards glance

The man didn't really see this place as his base Just a quiet place for hiround roo There was airflow, so this place was connected to the surface, but as far as the man knew there were no viable entrances or exits into it He could teleport and wouldn't be inconvenienced at all, but it would take a lot of work for normal People of the Land or Adventurers to clear the rubble so they could reach it

The scenery of Akiba cauarded all these years Although the Adventurers had been res, the layout of the city remained the same

The man moved to a certain teleport point he remembered

The wind blowing across the land surrounded him suddenly

The wind of this winter night hit theto freeze his body But the Resistant Cold function of the Moveable Arh class wine for the fine feast he was going to consume

Thestreets

Several dihts lit up in the darkness The hts He trehtly hunched upper body leaned ahead as far as it could as he licked his lips

The bustle of the day faded aith the sun, and silence fell upon the Akiba, like a young girl lying in the dark She was an arrogant and strong woht

The tall and skinny man drew his sword

The nuer cold

The hter fro

He was the winter He was the nu breeze

The man took off his black jacket, as if he could not feel the strong, icy wind

Illuure of the h, but it didn't have a norht tank top and leather shoes, only the man's extreauntlets and leg guards The bulkiness of this ar off his dirty jacket and landing like a giant bird on the streets, the man was a murderous weapon

The giant rey fibers that could store ical fibers took in power supplied by the city'ssilently Several protective barriers were created around his limbs and a force field was erected around him

Me north awakened within him

They were not the memories of this man, this Person of the Land

They were the rius

As an Ancient, Lugrius had fought as one of the Knights of Izumo In order to protect the smiles of the people of Susukino, he battled the evil titans for a hundred years He drove the titans into the Jade Garden of Owl Mountain and was just a step away frorius

This intense pride ravaged the man's heart like a snow storm

If the 'Daughter of the Spring Elm' Sto Inau hadn't betrayed hirius would not have died Lugrius would still be revered by the people in the north as one of the iirl

With a chill that threatened to freeze everything, a wintery breeze spewed froic blade called forth the e of the cursed frost

The resentather and kneel before him, to offer their lives to him

The man shook his head

He was not Lugrius

He was a Person of the Land, one of the Kunie, a glorious guardian of Akiba But he was not honored by the h he was stronger than the Adventurers, at best he could be called a guardian;that was just another piece of the city As if he were an enslaved warrior of a defeated clan waiting to be sacrificed

Because of his circumstances, a dark resentment burned in his heart This hate intertwined with the freezing white wrath That's right The rius chose him

In order to slay the hu Elm'

The s sround His barrier protected hiround throughout Akiba was not paved anyway, it was just black soil overgroith roots and moss The man stomped on the frozen and twisted branches and roots, and sensed the life force around the area eak

There was no prey

The Murderer wondered if so on Perhaps everyone had fled

The Murderer had excellent combat capabilities, but he was not perfect and was bad atone of theuard roo co their Moveable Armors to apprehend the criminals

Scouting for eneuard roouard The ancient ical equipment mobile suits did not boost the ability of their users that respect

The h to cover the whole of Akiba But even so, the nuht was too low Resting at night was normal in this world, but that was not so for Akiba Maybe it was because of their endless stamina, the Adventurers slept much later than People of the Land They were capable of fending off ht as well

That hy there should still be Adventurers wandering the streets deep into the night The sacrifices the man presented to the blade were such people

He couldn't sense any signs of life right now

Theinds that froze the undergrowth Thethe for prey

The teleport ability of the Moveable Armor was only effective within the city zone

The ic circle built under the city powered the Moveable Armor So if the Adventurers were to evacuate the city, he would not be able to follow

The teleport ability couldn't work across zones

Some closed-off areas formed their own barriers known as zones Take hotel rooms for instance The small area that was filled with just 2 beds was its own zone because of the door, separated froic It was located within Akiba, but was not part of the Akiba city zone

The uild hall was the sa were all separate zones The buildings renovated by the Adventurers were also individual zones

The man could not invade such zones by teleportation Even if he wanted to walk in, the inherentout unauthorized personnel

That's why he couldn't prey on people hiding in these zones

The h

In other words, this was a defensive battle

The Adventurers had adht of the hero Thethe streets for prey Peeking into alleys, destroying signboards, wielding the ree, but these were the actions of a bloodthirsty killer

TheA petite figure stood in his way

The man's mouth formed a crescent

What a small and tender piece of meat

The Murderer caught up to the s oil The frost blade howled in anticipation of its living er of the fallen hero spilled out across Akiba2

Akatsuki braced herself as her weapon clashed with the Murderer's

Her opponent was a monster, and there was no rooh chance Akatsuki would lose

Akatsuki was not athe attacks of enemies, but was a weapon-based class that specialized in dealing dae

For the role that Akatsuki was playing, she ranked number 3 What this meant was that there were 2 others ould be better suited to taking on the Murderer

But half the reason Akatsuki was taking on the Murderer was coincidence Akiba was 2 km wide, it was not extremely vast, but was in no way sht appear fro of a raid party was too small But they couldn't invest more manpower because of constraints

The raid leader Rieze divided her forces into parties of 3-6up a thin but wide surveillance network

Another reason was Akatsuki's subclass and battle experience The Tracker subclass gave Akatsuki the abilities to detect life signs, recon for enemies and perform wide-area searches Akatsuki's reconnaissance ability could match that of 4 parties, so it was not just a coincidence that Akatsuki found the Murderer

Akatsuki attacked from the left quietly

The silver flash of Quick assault split the darkness of the night into upper and lower halves Akatsuki knew this was not enough to kill the Murderer, and leaped forith the attack Quick assault boosted the agility and leg strength of the user, so Akatsuki moved in search of a safe zone around the Murderer

But the Kodachi she raised above the Murderer's back was knocked away by a chill that could freeze the bone

Akatsuki expected this, but she still groaned fro up after a forward roll

She thought she had sneaked into a blind spot, but was knocked away by her foe

”Akats Ah!”

Maryele, as exposed to the ice storht shone on Akatsuki's back This was Auto Healing ic of Druids and the preventiveclass

The healing wave felt like the war her Akatsuki ht to avoid the attacks

In front of her was the alien killer she had lost to that day

The central figure of the incident that must be defeated

The ly as he waited for Akatsuki to co was a Moveable Armor Or rather, a part of the suit Akatsuki and the others already knew that its defensive capability rivaled that of phantasmal armor But Akatsuki was not afraid

The streets of Akiba turned into frozen land in the snow storm

Looking at the other side of the road, Akatsuki thought about the building and walls that were the sae of the snow storinated fro

Akatsuki dodged the new attack patterns she didn't experience last ti the ene your foe, separating the things you could do and the things you could not do NoAkatsuki followed this teaching closely

But she couldn't stay on the defensive Maryele was right behind her Maryele was the leader of Crescent Moon Alliance with a bright smile, a friend of her lord As a ninja and a player, Akatsuki couldn't let Maryele get hurt

Maryele was a healer The vanguard needed to hold off the eneh Akatsuki was not a tank, she was the only one who could play that role, so she had to concentrate the hate of the opponent on her

The intense eh to tear off her limbs

Akatsuki suppressed her heart that wanted to swing her sildly

Her firstShe knew it didn't hit

Following the auntlet of the ene the s the same path as a feint, she lowered her body so round

If it were the Akatsuki from before, she would have jumped upwards

Wanting to increase her attack power, Akatsuki would want to gain the higher ground over her foes But it was different this tiround, the enemy's vieould be blocked by his own liet over her inferiority complex and use it to attack

All these were things given to Akatsuki by everyone

Death Stinger broke through the Murderer's defense The strike that hit the back of his knee unfortunately did not inflict any bad status effect But the Murderer was slightly off balance He used brute force to swipe out, while Akatsuki used her Changing Kiln to block

The sound of ht streets of Akiba

Akatsuki, as knocked back 5Compared to the chill from the Murderer, the consecutive battle movements and tension made her temperature rise Her hands hurt When her blade clashed with the Murderer, Akatsuki supported the Kodachi with her right hand, even though she usually wielded it with just her left She sensed that she couldn't defend the bloithout using both hands

She took so with both hands

This couldn't be helped According to the setting of Elder Tales, if the attack ti of 2 players matched, they would cancel each other out But it was not so you could achieve easily, and you could only cancel out daer party would negate all dae would be inflicted on the weaker party The stronger attack of the Murderer hurt Akatsuki in their exchanges

Even so, Akatsuki was still s

Her arht Auto Heal would activate when allies took da power could recover about 5 to 10 attacks It was a great spell that autoinners to ical assurance of e

But this e was dealt,it couldn't stop fatal attacks, or powerful attacks that cut off an arm Maryele's skill level in Auto Heal was lower than a cleric from DDD, so it was still far from total HP recovery even when it was used

But

Akatsuki ran forward anyway

After so half a circle forcibly with her right leg,Blow

Akatsuki kept attacking because she was not dead

”Akatsuki-chan!”

The Murderer landed another glancing blow Akatsuki felt her iron arh the top of Akatsuki's heart

But Akatsuki was still alive

Akatsuki's fighting spirit was burning A week ago, she had to hide behind Soujirou to fight The battle was not going well now, Auto Heal and norh to stop Akatsuki's HP fro But this was expected The foe was the Murderer, a raid-class eneuild could take on after soade, Soujirou, fell under his attack Even with the time limit, Akatsuki had to handle this Murderer for soht on

Her hand that was extended forearing a Star Gauntlet This production grade gauntlet was auntlet eher than it looked, but it could not protect her against the snow This ti space for Akatsuki to turn

Akatsuki slid into the gap using her inherent agility and was thankful for the new defense equipave her eleer than in the past, but weighed about the sairls

'- Can you use this?'

'- Is the size not right? Let me help you tailor it'

'- You can eat the strawberry here, there is enough for everyone'

'- I have a good ingredient here, fufufu'

The sirls treated Akatsuki like a sister Maybe half of their intention was to tease her, but they helped Akatsuki without reservation

Most of the equipifted by them

The durability of her old gear fell drastically after the battle with the Murderer and could not keep up with Akatsuki's new battle

Akatsuki knew all the girls, but had not spoken to half of theirls knew about the Murderer and the crisis Akiba was facing, but they all encouraged Akatsuki and fed her snacks

This spurred the fas of impatience and frustration in Akatsuki This was her reflex, disliking people who treated her like a kid But on the other hand, Akatsuki felt a soothing sensation

Akatsuki was asking everyone for help, so in a sense, it was norive up resisting, because she was not good enough Looking for help was equivalent to ad defeat

But, whether she was not good enough or lost, there was still merit in this

Akatsuki felt that there were so your oeakness

The calmness in her heart was one of them

Reflecting cal to AkatsukiAkatsuki with pure kindness

The people Akatsuki rejected with her bare fangs did not look down at her one bit

It was an e experience, but not unbearable

Akatsuki's swordplay became sharp

She was not concerned with her dwindling HP

She continued to attack, trying to inflict bad status effects on the Murderer and to slow hi her life, Akatsuki was displaying the confidence she had with their strategy

”10 more 5!”

Maryele's shout made Akatsuki smile

Speaking of which, this was a first for Maryele too

The two of the the first major raid of their lives3

Rieze relayed the contents to the other section teae

”Target sighted, he is awa district on foot Akatsuki-san's team made first contact 2 woman team, 1 healer D team move in to intercept, the rest stand by!”

Rieze shouted her coh telepathy while on the move

The raid battle was finally starting

Rieze sent out commands by telepathy consecutively There were 24 Adventurers in Akiba right nohich would make 4 parties with 6 members each under norn theunder Rieze were split into groups of 2 or 3, forroups

Rieze was paired up with a partner Behind her was Kyouko, a level 90 Guardian, one of the victims of the incident Rieze herself was a Sorcerer

This type of roster eak Even if team D linked up with Akatsuki, there would be only 4 members It would be hard to take on an enemy on the level of a major raid boss

Rieze and Kyouko ere situated in the canal headed for the s Unfortunately, they were far froonally across Akiba The distance was about 1 kilo body of the Adventurers, they would arrive in 2 minutes

The 2 of the through a trail covered with grass

”Akatsuki-san”

”Yes Kyouko-chan, are you okay?”

”Of course To be frank, I aht hiain My athletic appearance is not just for show!”

”That's the spirit!”

”We have to win!”

Rieze didn't answer and just nodded firmly and ran The people of Akiba had cleaned up the metro central square in the spirit of volunteerise as long ju up the stairs as if they had groings

Rieze revised the battle plan while biting her lips

The immicks

The enerius

No, he was sorius

In the 10th expansion pack 'Heart of Fantasy', he was the boss of the quest 'Glory of Days Past' Glory of Days Past was a Full Raid quest, requiring 24 players to challenge, the difficulty waswhen infor, but the difficulty went down after the trick to it becae In the end, Glory of Days Past was just a quest that led to a bigger quest 'Prison of 9 Heroes', so it couldn't be too difficult

The undead warrior Lugrius who should have died in the Ezzo E around Hokkaido if he beca Akiba? Rieze didn't know, and there was no need to worry about the details She was not interested in the cause Rieze thought that studying the cause was only e, and the only way to turn things around for unexpected events was through military maneuvers

Rieze interviewed all the victirius, or sorius It took so long because the Murderer wasn't able to use his skills fully or wanted to hide his abilities

Another reason was that apart frorius, he also possessed the power of the Moveable Armor The monster used 2 different powers, which covered each other's tracks

The key to solving the mystery was the Murderer's weapon Sentou-Byamaru

The last person to fight the Murderer, Akatsuki, was certain

To be honest, Kodachi were suish beteapons Rieze was not confident in identifying the weapon by na Kodachi said so, Rieze judged that this was reliable information

The rest was eleacy of the hero who fought using this blade for Ezzo Lugrius, as well as his fall to the dark side and the raid quest

The cursed weapon

It sounded exaggerated, but Sentou-Byamaru was a cursed weapon

Froe, Rieze learned that flavor text was affecting the whole world The grudges of the hero along with his wrath and hate were the flavor text of his trusted sword The cursed text beca the one who bore his sword

(Ridiculous!)

Rieze bit her lip after feeling frustrated for the hundredth ti the user

This was like a living night that aroused the fear from within

But Rieze had a ht of a strategy outside the dorius, his capability could be divided into 3 types

The first was a huge increase in HP The HP of Lugrius varied widely with the number of people within the zone In the Glory of Days Past quest, when fighting hiround tomb, there were 50 People of the Land prisoners captured by hirius' HP was 3 times his minimum HP

If Akiba was as lively as ever, his HP would probably be several hundred tiade or DDD couldn't take this monster down

That's why Rieze caht now issued a strict warning Just like the quest featuring Lugrius, they needed to escort the People of the Land out of the zone to seek refuge, so Akiba would become a zone with just therius

The second was an increase of stats with the nurius would increase his attack, evasion, defense, and accuracy with the number of Adventurers within 50rius could defeat Soujirou, and the reason why Rieze was spreading her forces out so thin

It was the saest party of 6, the other 18 e of Lugrius and escort the People of the Land to safety By weakening Lugrius this way, they would be able to defeat him

The last ability was the frost area attack Lugrius would conjure a snowstor freeze dae It was a si eleear

'The ets, freezing all those alive' This was the flavor text describing Lugrius' grudge after dying

He was not a sieon zones, but a quest boss with flavor text, that's why he possessed such abilities

These 3 abilities were the secret behind Lugrius, and the reason why the difficulty of this battle was at the level of despair A medium level 90 raid beca souls

Especially when combined with the instant teleport ability of the Moveable Armor

Lugrius could make his escape anytime He could also strike at a time and place with a lot of Akiba citizens The Murderer stalked the streets of Akiba at night, but there was no telling how long he would continue Maybe the reason was because the quest was set at night, or it may be the preference of the Murderer, it could also be a coincidence

Rieze considered the worst case scenario

She worried that the Murderer who possessed the abilities of Lugrius er be an NPC The witness testimony stated that the Murderer was called Enbart Nelles, a Sa cursed, he also had a human mind with the ability to learn

Raid quests were the contents of the gah to wipe out the players, but the developers only set the bar high in order for the players to have a sense of accoe Rieze understood this because she had joined the largest battle guild in Ya raids had a relationshi+p of enigame developers

But this was no longer a gaaht not be beatable any possibility that this was the case

Would this possibility increase in the future? The Murderer would learn of Rieze's battle plan just by fighting the and deadly attacks The teleport capability and the abilities of Lugrius were a perfect combination and with the coine the hell that would follow

Rieze caood chance of success

But even so, there was no telling if it would work

The world after the Catastrophe was no longer a gauarantee that any plans would work Rieze felt a chill when she realized this Just turning this thought into words rabbed her spine

The title of tactician and the glory of leading the training corps didn'tout here

They only increased Rieze's insecurities Because anysuch a position would cost others their lives

Rieze pushed her tired legs forward

How terrifying Rieze had finally reached the terrifying stage where she couldn't take responsibility if she troubled others Rieze recalled that silver-haired princess She had known such fear since birth, but even so, she still barged into the lords' conference and cariffon with Rieze's lord Rieze held her in reverence

That princess was incredible

Krusty too shi+roe as well The 11 guildAkatsuki

Trying to change things with no guarantee of success, what a terrifying thing Rieze felt eirls exchanging diaries She was only talking on her high horse from a safe position

Rieze felt shaliness But all the more reason for her to not back down

There were 9 contingencies for this battle Rieze instructed others to make adjustments when the situation called for it But her inability to narron the plan to just 1 was proof of her incompetence as a tactician

But even sothis was better than failure

”We are here!”

Kyouko barged through the ht reen trees blocked half her vision Far below them was the central square before the metro station

This place where the wind hoas the black obsidian fortress that was the pride of Akiba the 15 story guild building The high-rise building had a roof that looked like it had been smashed by a punch from a titan

”Careful Rieze-san!”

The chilling wind lifted Rieze's cape Rieze tightened her clothes while Kyouko held on to her belt, the two of them hid behind the pillars

Rieze opened her telepathy ether with Kyouko4

In an unknown base, a different kind of battle was co to a conclusion

The faded wallpaper together with the indirect illu the night Raynesia gulped when she recalled theroo the relentless fearful e up

She had seen all kinds of aristocrats

Although she thought they were troublesome, she had never felt so uneasy before For the first time, she understood what it was like to be overwhelmed not by the content of the conversation, but the atmosphere of the place An eerie atmosphere seerandfather or Krusty gave her