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This is something that happened before the battle started.

Crim went over to Hinagiku’s side, deciding to impart some wisdom onto her as her master.

“I told you before how in battle royales, enemy guilds might gang up on us, right?”
“Yes, and my mother laughed about it, but said that it’s also proper strategy.”
“…I can’t help but wonder just who your mother is…but ahem, there’s a chance that other guilds will start cooperating to attack us. How’s the fight going to look in terms of numbers then?”
“Huh… It’d be five versus ten, right?”

Hinagiku sounded slightly confused, not understanding why Crim was asking such an obvious question.

“Nope, it’ll be five versus two groups of five.”
“What..? Isn’t that just the same thing?”

Hinagiku looked even more confused, tilting her head to the side, but Crim just shook her head.

“It’s true that they’re on a truce to take us down, but as soon as we’re out of the picture, they’ll go back to being enemies.”

Only one guild could move up into the actual tournament, so they would have no other choice.

“Okay think of this…what would be the easiest way for them to win once we’re gone?”
“Ah, I see. So while they’re fighting us, they’ll do their best to also get rid of the guild they joined hands with!”

Hinagiku beamed a smile as she finally figured it out.

“Yes, their objective of getting rid of us is the same, which is why they’re doing that together, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re still enemies between them.”

It was hard to imagine all ten of them would be able to perform the best while knowing they could be stabbed in the back at any moment. They would not have time to react to a betrayal if they trusted each other blindly after all.

“So Hinagiku, let me teach you two things to watch for when fighting a more numerous group.” Starting with that, Crim grinned like a mischievous kid and continued talking to Hinagiku…

◇◇◇

Well, I told her all of that, really confident of myself, so I better put it into practice here.

Crim told herself as she looked at the ten players that appeared on one end of the path.

The two guilds heading for them were wearing green and blue clothing, which likely showed who belonged to which team. If they all attacked at the same time, Crim’s guild would have no chance of winning.

“Frey…I’ll be going then.”
“Alright, leave some for the rest of us too though.”

Crim dashed forward, barely listening to Frey’s words.

Don’t let the enemy have the higher ground.

If they let the enemy move as they pleased it could lead to an unfavorable situation. Crim’s group were outnumbered, and if the enemy started using long range attacks, they would have no way of fighting back.

So the best option was to rush in and go wild amongst them.

First, she twisted her body to throw a shadow dagger with all her might, aiming at an enemy magician, a member of the guild with green clothes, who had stepped forward to start the attack with magic.

The knife struck him in the shoulder, something no one had expected, which quickly sent their frontline into disarray. At that distance the knife did not cause a lot of damage, but it was enough to intimidate them, and make them doubt their strategy.

Meanwhile Crim was still running at them, her entire body pushed forward even faster with the Dash system assist. Running at an immense speed, she made a turn to the left to use the cliff as a foothold and jump high into the air.

“…Shadow Light-Weapon!”

A black dagger appeared again in Crim’s hand.

The jump meant that Dash was no longer active, as the system identified Crim as being in combat. But all the momentum she had gathered so far was still present, propelling her further into the air.

That was something Crim had discovered while fighting The Strongest Monster in Schwarzwald, and almost felt like a hidden mechanic. After using it by accident at first, she kept practicing how to get it to work consistently, and now it was one of Crim’s personal skills which did not rely on game systems.

Even if Crim took hold of her weapon while in mid-air, the speed from Dash would only vanish once she touched the ground. So if she chained a high speed attack at the right moment when she was about to land…

“…Divine Strike!” She made the starting movements as soon as she hit the ground, making the system kick in and shoot her body forward in a blur.

The movements from Dash had been coupled with her attack. The added speed of Dash and Divine Strike was almost too much for Crim to handle, crossing the two hundred meters between her and the enemies in the blink of an eye.

“…Huh?”

The magician in front of them let out an idiotic voice, not understanding what he was seeing, even though he was the main target.

Both guilds only realized they were already under attack when that magician shattered into thousands specks of light which remained floating in the air, becoming their first casualty.

Don’t let the enemy have a competent leader.

“H-how! She’s only one enemy, surround her and…gheh?!”

The first person to recover from the shock seemed to be the guild master of the group with green clothes, and just as he tried to give out orders, Crim jumped at him and firmly took hold of his neck with her legs, wrapping around like a constricting snake.

As his throat was pushed closed, he was unable to continue talking…

Just break already!

…and the added weight of a girl on his shoulders threw him off balance. As she held his head against her chest to add more rotation together with the momentum of her previous run, she made his head do a complete turn to the side.

Everyone nearby heard the bloodcurdling sound of something stiff cracking and breaking, and both guilds stood completely still.

“A…a spinning lotus?!”
“That can’t be, why would a girl use something like that?!”
“Th-that sound though…what was it?!”

Everyone was bewildered by what they saw, which had looked like a brutal move out of a certain manga. By then their frontline had fallen apart completely, and there was no rhyme or reason to their movements. And then…

“Way to go, Master. But I’m not going to lose!”
“Huh…woah?!”

There was a second small shadow that ran up the cliff and jumped at them.

As the shadow flew closer, it became clear that it was Hinagiku, who drew her katana at the magician in blue clothes who remained at the back of the enemy group, and was likely their healer. Her attack came like a butcherbird ready to impale its prey.

Slash!

After spinning like a top in midair, Hinagiku swung her blade at the young healer’s right shoulder, slicing his body diagonally down until the blade came out from the left hip, leaving behind the bright light effect of a cut.

“Gha…h-help..!”
“It’s nothing personal, but as Master said, Kill all the priests first!”