| Author: Starving Wind | Original Source: Joara | Word Count: 3858 characters |
| Translator: Anonymouss | English Source: Re:Library | Word Count: 2217 words |
| Editor(s): Silva | ||
“Pizza!”
“Pizza’s here!”
The glorious battlefield which was usually filled with the sounds of battle was now filled with excitement instead. I didn’t think that everyone’s morale would be boosted just knowing that they were getting pizza.
[Amazing. I didn’t think you’d boost their morale so much from just ordering one pizza for them. You really are a sneaky person…]It seemed like Katalina was thinking that it was my plan all along to raise the morale of the troops by making her order the pizzas.
Even if I were to deny that, she probably wouldn’t accept it no matter how hard I try in this situation.
“What’s with you all? Are you all really going crazy over pizza?!”
“I can eat pizza once all of you die! So just die already!”
“Are you crazy?”
“Yeah, I’m crazy!”
It certainly wasn’t a normal situation right now. But not only was this an ambush on them, our troops had high morale so we were definitely at an advantage here.
[My lord, what is happening here?]Lucas asked in clear confusion. Of course, Lucas and his guild wouldn’t understand the situation since they were defending the area and didn’t hear what happened.
[It’s a bit of a long story. Just don’t ask and make sure that we push them back as much as possible for now. Their morale is high so there should be no problems, right?][Well, you’re right…]
Since I answered as if bothered, Lucas didn’t ask me anymore. Before our troops arrived, the battlefield was at a stalemate with it being difficult to tell which side had the upper hand.
Yet our troops came in destroying the enemies zealously and saying something about pizza, so of course they would be confused. But after seeing how the reinforcements were cleaning the enemies for them, they didn’t appear to have any complaints.
[You’re not staying behind and only ordering the troops again, are you?][Fufu. I’m a changed man. Though I was shamefully defeated by you, I’m still ranked 3rd among the top users after all.]
It seemed like he was still upset about being done in by me in the past, since he reminded me of his rank and position.
[Hmm. I don’t believe you though~ Ah! Then let’s do this. Can you see that one Storm guild commander that’s at the frontlines right now?][You mean the user wearing the red cape in the front?]
Lucas correctly assumed the user I was looking at right away.
[That’s right. Apparently, the Storm guild troops are particularly organized in that area since they are spurred by the commander. If we take him down, we can be sure of our victory here.][You may be right about that. He’s Hamington, the guild leader of the Storm guild, ranked at number 5.]
Hamington, huh? I’ve heard he’s quite popular for using powerful two-handed axes, but I didn’t think he could’ve been so proficient in controlling his character as much since all the videos I’ve seen of him in the past where he’s shown off his character skills, or where he went through a raid showed that he always used skills that were crude or easy to activate.
[Then please go ahead and prove it.][Prove it?]
[Yes. Please go ahead and prove to me that the reason why you were defeated by me wasn’t because you were weak, Mr. Lucas.]
[…]
I didn’t hear his answer right away. But if he was a man, and a high ranked user at that, I was sure that he would definitely not back down from the challenge. Yes, he just needs a bit of time.
Even if his level was higher, Hamington was still a high-ranked user and one mistake from Lucas could mean his death, But even knowing that, I was worried about Lucas’ low self-esteem after being put to work under me just after I defeated him.
A high ranking user who lost his self-confidence. That would easily lead them to ruin in an instant. To lose self-confidence means that you would not challenge yourself, and if you do not challenge yourself you would definitely fall behind others.
I have often seen users lose their self-confidence and soon their ranks as well. I wanted to make sure that it didn’t happen in my alliance.
[If you think you can’t handle it, I’ll finish him off myself.]As he kept agonizing over it, I goaded him once more.
[… I’ll do it myself.][A wise choice.]
Just as I thought, he wouldn’t take it lying down and decided to do it himself. Lucas, who had only been cutting the weakling around himself while keeping his distance, changed his course completely and started moving towards Hamington.
“Whoa!”
Watching their commander suddenly turn his direction towards the enemy leader after being still for so long the guild members around him all gasped in surprise.
“I, Lucas, the guild leader of Shining Guild, declare a challenge to the enemy commander. Are you willing to accept the duel?”
Lucas cut down the enemies around him stylishly, then stood in a powerful pose as he shouted out loud. It was quite an amazing sight seeing his blue cape waving in the wind in contrast with his armor suit.
“Well look who it is! You who got completely wrecked by Artoria and now is nothing more than a puppy who had been trembling by her side the entire battle dares say he wants to challenge me to a duel?”
“Pfthahaha!”
Hearing Hamington reply to Lucas’ challenge, the Storm guild member all laughed out loud even though they were in the middle of a battle.
“Oh is that what you think? Well then, how about having a taste of this puppy’s blade!”
It seemed Lucas noticed that Hamington was simply trying to provoke him, as he charged towards Hamington with a scowl on his face.
“You cocky son of a…!”
Reacting quickly, Hamington swung his axe to block Lucas’ sword. It seemed he knew that if he didn’t take Lucas down by himself, there was no way for his troops to win in this battle. Seeing Hamington continuously glance at me with a worried look made me realize that my presence alone pressured him.
To him, the absolute worst situation could be that I would suddenly join their battle and attack him from behind, but I never had any plans to do that. Of course, he would have been able to battle at ease if I were to tell him that, but I wasn’t willing to be so kind to my enemy.
On top of that, I wanted Lucas to win in this battle so I was definitely not going to inform Hamington.
I kept my eyes on the battle going on between the two while only cutting down any annoying enemy that dared to aim at me. A battle between the 3rd highest ranked user and the 5th. To see such powerful users battle each other for real was something that’s hard to witness unless it was in a high-scale battle between top guilds.
And that’s probably the reason the soldiers around them seemed distracted and weren’t fighting seriously.
“How dare you let your mind wander like that!”
Someone swung their sword down towards me with an angered expression on their face. Considering that he was able to block my sword attacks twice, it seemed like the user had more skill than I thought.
I meant that he was higher level than I had assumed. But, that was all to it. If he wasn’t in the top 10 ranked users or had some kind of powerful item or equipment at his disposal, there’s a limit to how much he could do against me.
On top of that, the way he controlled his character was quite plain with obvious movements, so there wasn’t even a need for me to mention it.
“Die!”
Even now he’s lost his composure and shouts as if to warn me of the incoming attack while he telegraphed his swing in a way that’s easy to read.
I lightly dodged the sword that was swinging down on me and moved behind his back to deliver a kick. It was a kick containing over one thousand strength stat. Since I have not applied a Pankration attack, it wasn’t a fatal one but it was still powerful enough for him to fall down from the massive damage.
“Ngh…”
He looked up as if angered by me playing around with him. I did feel sorry for toying around with an opponent like this, but I missed a few interesting moments in the fight between Lucas and Hamington because of him so I felt that we were even at this point.
“It looks like you’re quite high level. I’ll let you live if you stop and back away now.”
“Go screw yourself, you cocky woman!”
Why do high-ranked users have such stupid pride about themselves…
“Oh really?”
I gave a cold smile back at him as I swung my Excalibur. As I had used my full power in that swing, his body was sliced completely in two from the force.
Then I stepped back to avoid the fountain of blood that sprayed from the body.
“Deathbell was…”
“Whoa! Our Lord has cut down the enemy general!”
Apparently, everyone was way too used to the gory environment since they didn’t really care how he had died. They only cared about the fact that he died and cheered, which made me sure that his position was quite high in the guild.
It seems that there’s no need to be worried about this battle any longer. So I focused on where Lucas and Hamington were still having their duel again.
At the beginning of the fight it seemed like they were on par, but now I felt the faint but definite feeling that Lucas had the upper hand. While Lucas looked to be filled with confidence, Hamington seemed too worried with things besides the duel to give his all.
‘I guess it’s because they were losing the battle?’
Looking around me, I saw that while the battles between troops around the two were at similar strength with each other, their troops were being massacred everywhere else. As time went on and the situation got worse for Hamington’s side, the pressure to win as fast as possible continued to get heavier.
But his choice of opponent proved itself poor, looking at the battle you could tell not only that Hamington wasn’t capable of finishing Lucas quickly but if things continue as is he would even lose the duel.
“Oh, dear…”
After a long while, Lucas finally made a direct hit. Taking notice of Hamington not being fully focused, Lucas used his irregular sword style to make Hamington fall for a feint while he slashed his thigh leaving a deep wound.
As Hamington showed an expression of frustration and embarrassment, Lucas’ morale shot sky-high as he became much more confident.
“But you still can’t afford to be careless.”
And just as I expected, a high ranking user is still one even if they’re close to death. Hamington used the chance where Lucas was being careless for a moment to land a direct strike on him. But he also received a second attack on himself during that exchange, and there was a huge difference in how much damage either did.
Not long afterward, Hamington dropped his axe and fell to his knees onto the ground with a glum expression.
“Damn it… to think that I would lose to someone like you.”
“Goodbye.”
Hamington looked quite frustrated by this loss, but Lucas didn’t say much in return as he cut off Hamington’s neck right away.
“Wooooo!”
A wave of cheers rang throughout the battlefield. That was the moment the battle in the plains of Bermingham city had finally come to a close.
But Lucas didn’t stay around to enjoy the victory. He simply came towards me with a stern expression.
Though he did achieve victory, would Lucas still have won if the situation was reversed? Or if it was in a fair situation where neither side had an advantage?
As the thought of if I would be able to answer that question to him swam in my mind, Lucas closed the gap between us sooner than I thought and kneeled in front of me.
“My lord. Though it was quite lacking, do you feel that it has somewhat proven my worth?”
Lucas looked with eyes as if he was an inmate on death row determined to say whatever he needed to before his death, wanting recognition of his power and achievement. From an outsider’s perspective, it’s just another fierce battle between high-ranked users. If I were to not recognize his achievement, people may think I am a petty person.
I felt that he certainly was acting like a true guild leader. But I simply cannot just let him do what he wants.
“It certainly was a little lacking. I would love to see you prove yourself for real on the next battlefield.”
Watching his expression which looked as if he knew he fell for it himself, I gave him a victorious grin.
