Chapter 415

Chapter 415

Defense Specialization and Determination

After several hours of fighting that boss, Maple, who had completed her final preparations, arrived at the Congregation of Holy Swords’ Guild Home to have a guild master-to-guild master conversation with Payne.

"Alright, let’s join forces. Do you have any preference on which side to pick for the event?”

“Hmm, not really… What about you, Payne?”

“They said that the monsters would remain in the same locations on the field. I think it would be a good idea to see which side has the monsters that are easier for you to defeat, and pick the side opposing that one.”

"I see… well, Velvet and the others will be choosing the Flame side."

“Velvet?… So, ‘Thunder Storm’…?”

"She’s told me that she wanted to stand as a rival to me this time around.”

"I see. Then…"

As the two of them were discussing these matters, Frederica, Drag, and Dred were sitting on a sofa just outside that room as they waited for them to finish.

“So this time we’re fighting alongside Maple, huh?”

“Hey, hey, nothing’s set on stone yet.”

"But it’s not like that’s bad news for us.”

"Right?"

After a short wait, Maple and Payne came out of the room together.

"Payne! How did it go?”

"We’ve agreed to forming an alliance. We’ve also decided which side we’re picking."

After sharing their results to the rest of his guild members, Payne asked them to keep it a secret from everyone else, and dismissed everyone for the rest of the day.

After that, Dred, who had come out of the Guild Home to see Maple off, turned to Payne..

"For the time being, it looks like our fighting power has increased."

"Yeah, I have great expectations from this alliance. Also… those rumored black stains seem to be gone.”

"I’m sure it wasn’t just a rumor, though.”

"There were several different people who claimed to have seen it with their own eyes, so I don’t think they could all be wrong.”

"Yeah. I think she’s finished some kind of event or special quest. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised if she’s gotten even stronger.”

"Well, I’m counting on that. I wouldn’t want it to be too easy should we stand against each other in the future.”

"Hey, hey! I'll show you that you can count on us too! We’re the ‘Gathering of Holy Swords’ after all!”

"Hahaha! I'm really looking forward to this event!"

Payne hadn’t seen any new moves from Maple after her “Machine God” and “Atrocity”. But he believed that hiding your most recent skills until the right time is something that everyone ought to do.

As an ally, he could only hope that those new secret skills would give them the upper hand.

"Let's make our final preparations. Things are going to get pretty hectic once the event starts."

"Aye aye!”

"Okay!"

"Let’s give it our all!”

This would be a PvP event. The “Congregation of Holy Swords” had no intention of losing to anyone. And they would do everything they could to emerge victorious.

Just like “Gathering of Holy Swords” and “Maple Tree” were choosing their side, so were the other guilds.

“Kingdom of the Flame Emperor” was also midway through solidifying its strategy based on the information it had gathered so far in order to pick a side.

"Well, Mii. There's something interesting here…"

"I see. Certainly this is…"

"Hey, I hadn’t noticed that. Are there others like this one?"

“Yes. I’ve found some others. But I don’t think too many others had noticed this… Maybe I’m the only one.”

Marx then went on to show the rest of the guild certain spots on an open map.

"Though it's possible that everyone already knows about this and is just keeping to themselves… But I think it doesn’t hurt to keep these spots in mind.”

"But these are spots you’ve found using your skill, Marx. I haven’t seen anyone else who could use that skill, so you may have the advantage here.”

"You think…?”

“Yeah. Anyway, let's share this among ourselves. I wonder if we should share this info with the rest of our faction as well…?”

"That's right… We may have to."

"Yeah. I think that’ll be for the better."

"Right. Above all, I think it’ll help showing our strengths to others.”

"Everyone seems to be making their guesses already. Once I join one of the factions, I’ll share this info with them. Also, it doesn’t really matter which faction we choose.”

"Yeah, but even then, it seems that we’ve kinda already picked a side.”

"Right."

"Yeah."

"Is that so?"

Apparently, the three of them were planning to join Mii’s side. And so would the guild members. If it doesn't matter which side they’d end up joining, so long as it was the same as Mii’s.

"Then let's do our best to win this!"

"Yeah……!"

"Right!"

"Yeah!"

They had great confidence in their strengths in teamfights. And, naturally, the “Kingdom of the Flame Emperor” would be going for a strategy that best suited their preferred playstyle.

“Kingdom of the Flame Emperor” hadn’t bothered itself with trying to form alliances in advance, but there were obviously guilds other than “Congregation of Holy Swords” who had taken such measures.

Two such guilds were “Thunder Storm” and “Rapid Shot”.

“Oooh, it's very spacious."

“Well, ‘Rapid Shot’ is one of this game’s largest guilds… So I think it suits them very well.”

"This way. Come in, both of you."

Lily took Velvet and Hinata into the room, and they all sat around a table.

There were only four people in this spacious room. The fourth one was Wilbert, who had come along with Lily.

"Shall we begin?"

"Haha, why so formal, though? It feels kind of weird now that I think about it. But at the same time, it might be appropriate for this sort of ‘public relations’.”

After some idle chat, Lily moved on to the main topic.

“At the moment, it seems that some guilds have already picked sides for the event. It seems that there is not that much difference in strength between the two sides, though I’m inclined to doubt that.”

In other words, Lily indicated that being able to bring in the most skilled players –the ones that would make the biggest difference in PvP– to the same side would be very significant.

"What do you think? Have you changed your mind?"

"Velvet."

“Yes, of course. Let’s join forces.”

"That’s something we’d like very much. With the help of ‘Thunder Storm’ we’ll all be one step closer to victory already.”

"Glad to hear that. We were planning to ask you the same thing.”

“Oh, that’s great. Then there’s no more need to prolong this conversation any longer.”

"However… We have one condition."

"…What?"

Although she knew that scheming wasn’t really her forte, Lily turned a bit defensive upon being told that there would be a condition to their arrangement.

Then Velvet smiled as if she couldn't hold it any longer, and put her hands on the table as she excitedly leant forward.

“Let’s pick a side so that we can fight Maple and the others!”

"…Haha, it seems I was scared for nothing. Don’t worry, we’re already doing our research with that intention in mind. That I can promise to you.”

"Alright, great!”

"Well, this went quite smoothly. That’s great.”

"That’s the only thing I care about, so… That’s our only special request.”

Then let's work out the details. We should get the strongest available players on our side. They need to be pretty strong, otherwise they could be destroyed in an instant."

“Yes. I’ll take care of the defense…  So please let me know if you have any questions."

The reason why they preferred to recruit only the strongest players was because they took pride in their ability to hold their own in a one-vs-many situation. Being able to defend against piercing attacks would give them an edge in this event, where the number of surviving players in the end was extremely important.

"So what should I do?"

"Just throw yourself into the enemy line. That’s what you excel at after all, isn’t it?”

"Yeah, but even that has to be done with a plan in mind!”

"Let's think about that too."

It was very important to know when and where to put one’s chips on the table. Velvet, Hinata, and Wilbert could turn the tide of a battle. Wondering what to do next, Lily tried to imagine how the event would unfold.

And so, all the players continued to make their arrangements. The start of the event was approaching day by day, and the day finally arrived. The members of “Maple Tree” gathered a few moments before the event started to make their final confirmations.

"Keep your guard up around here… and then over here. There are troublesome monsters here…"

They went over how they were going to move around with Sally as the center of their formation. Since the GMs hadn’t disclosed which guilds were hostile, it was impossible to go outside feeling completely safe. Still, since everyone had already picked a side, any player that hadn’t been seen in town before could be treated as enemies.

“Looks like ‘Thunder Storm’ is going to be fighting against us this time around. Mai, Yui, you need to be extra careful. You too, Kanade.”

Since all three of them had such low base Defense stats, even a single lightning strike from one of Velvet’s area-of-effect attacks could wipe any of them out in an instant.

After going over the top threats they needed to watch out for one more time, the countdown for the event’s start had finally started.

"Everyone! Let's do our best!"

"Okay!  I’ll defend you all!”

"Yes! We'll do our best!"

"Of course. Let's be very vigilant."

"This time, I’ll make sure to put on a good show with my magic book.”

“Leave the resupply to me. If things go south, make sure to fall back.”

"If you have any questions, ask me and I’ll answer them.”

Everyone nodded at Maple, and finally the teleportation light surrounded them all. The battlefield for the event was an entirely different instanced area.

"Alright! Let's win this thing, Sally!"

"…This time, we’ll win for sure. My mind’s set on that.”

Sally also seemed to be focusing, and Maple followed suit and braced herself.

Immediately after that, the eight of them were teleported to the instanced area for the event. In this Event Field, the skills of those who had become stronger were about to be put to the test against one another.