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Chapter 218 : Blitz
“Villed...”Elined, wearing a blue armband, quietly repeated the name.
Villed.
For the past two hours since the Mock Battle had begun, there had been no news from him whatsoever.
...It seemed he had been quietly building up his strength.
None of the Schuler participating in this Mock Battle were easy opponents.
And yet, he had defeated five of them in succession.
...As expected of the man she had acknowledged.
Why was that?
Was it because she felt relieved that her judgment had been correct?
Or because she was proud of a comrade who had never given up until the very end?
A warm feeling welled up deep inside her heart.
A smile almost rose to her lips, but Elined desperately suppressed her expression.
'No, don't smile. I'm a proud descendant of the Pinzer Family. Our allies were defeated. Don't be happy. Absolutely don't.'
Elined repeated those words to herself over and over again.
Even if this was only a Mock Battle, she couldn't wish for the defeat of her own allies.
As the attack leader, she had watched them more closely than anyone else.
Everyone here was giving this battle their all.
If she celebrated their defeat under these circumstances, she wouldn't deserve to be their leader.
She would be no different from a traitor trampling on her comrades' feelings.
...At that moment.
Ren and Princess Arlhardt approached.
Seeing Elined's stiff expression, Ren asked,
“Miss Elined, what happened?”
“We've received word that our side has been defeated.”
“What...? Defeated? By whom?”
“...Villed.”
Looking directly into Ren's eyes, Elined continued,
“They said Villed ambushed five members of our defense force and sent all of them back to the Throne.”
Anyone who suffered a fatal attack would be trapped inside a yellow barrier and transported to the Throne.
After waiting near the Throne for several minutes, the barrier would disappear, allowing them to return to the battlefield.
Those were the revival conditions for this Mock Battle.
“...”
Ren was unable to say anything else.
Fortunately...
His expression wasn't one of joy.
He was kind-hearted, but he wasn't thoughtless.
If he had looked happy, she would've slapped some sense into him.
Ren fell silent, seemingly lost in thought.
Arlhardt stepped closer to Elined.
“Elined. If Villed has defeated all five members of the defense force... then there's no one left guarding our watchtower.”
Arlhardt calmly confirmed the current situation.
“That's correct, Your Highness.”
“This is bad. We've literally left our house empty.”
The Red Team and Blue Team had been clashing fiercely for the past two hours.
However, there was only one victory condition in this Mock Battle.
Destroy the opposing team's watchtowers and castle gate.
Then destroy the Throne.
Villed had been targeting nothing but those objectives.
“Elined, how about sending reinforcements to surround him?”
Elined pondered for a brief moment before replying.
“It's not a bad suggestion... but we've only just gained the initiative.”
It was the result they had earned after two full hours of back-and-forth fighting.
They had only just begun pushing the Red Team back.
Breaking that momentum now would be too costly.
“If we split our forces, there's a risk we'll lose our advantage. We also can't ignore the travel time.”
“Hm...”
Arlhardt slowly nodded.
“It seems two members of the defense force will be reviving shortly. For now, it would be best to leave it to them.”
“...Understood.”
“Then let's continue focusing on the attack, Your Highness.”
Once again, Elined led her allies in pressing the Red Team.
Their assault on the third watchtower progressed smoothly.
Before long, it was on the verge of collapse.
Beep—!
It wasn't a sound heard through her ears.
It resonated directly through magical power.
A warning that one of their watchtowers was under attack.
...At the same time, another Magical Communication reached her.
It came from the two defenders who had just revived.
[We're on our way. We'll stop Villed.]
“If you focus on defending around the watchtower, you'll have the advantage. Even if you can't defeat Villed, just hold him off.”
[You don't trust us? We've got our pride too. We won't let our guard down this time.]
...But that confidence didn't last long.
A short while later, another Magical Communication came through.
[E-Elined...]
It sounded like the voice of a defeated soldier.
It hadn't even been long since the previous communication ended.
“What happened?”
[We... lost...]
“...”
Elined was so dumbfounded that she couldn't even laugh.
“...You're Schuler. How did you lose twice? As long as you defended the watchtower, there was no way you should've lost.”
[Sorry...]
The other three defenders, still waiting at the Throne to revive, joined the communication.
[I-It's not because we're weak.]
[Something's wrong with Villed!]
[There's no way someone that weak could beat us.]
[That's right! He must be using some underhanded tricks...!]
Elined's expression turned ice cold.
She could no longer treat them like a saint would.
“Shut your mouths.”
The communication instantly fell silent.
“You were defeated by someone you looked down on, and the first thing you do is make excuses?”
[...]
No one could answer Elined's blunt rebuke.
There was no point continuing the conversation.
Without a second thought, she cut off the communication.
Not long afterward, a piercing warning echoed across the battlefield.
The second watchtower had been destroyed.
Elined felt dizzy.
...She had never expected it to fall so easily.
It had been less than two minutes since the first watchtower was destroyed.
'Villed... What on earth is he doing?'
Elined and the Blue Team had spent two entire hours destroying the enemy's second watchtower.
Meanwhile...
Villed had taken two of theirs in only two minutes.
Was that...
Even possible?
'It's completely absurd.'
...Not long afterward, yet another warning sounded.
The third watchtower was under attack.
'He's alone... so how is he moving that quickly?'
There was no longer any choice.
Even if they lost the initiative and had to split their forces, they had to stop Villed now.
Elined shouted toward her allies.
“Our watchtower is under attack! I'm assigning three people to immediately return to the castle gate for its defense! Ren, and...”
...At that moment.
A sharp warning rang out.
A continuous warning indicated that a watchtower was under attack.
But the short, intense warning like the one that had just sounded...
Signified destruction.
The Blue Team's third watchtower had fallen.
“...What?”
Elined couldn't believe her ears.
It hadn't even been ten seconds since the watchtower came under attack...
“What the hell?! What were the defenders doing?!”
“All three watchtowers were breached in only three minutes!”
The entire Blue Team, including Elined, fell into panic.
...They couldn't lose this pathetically.
A Magical Communication reached Elined's ears.
[Miss Pinzer~ Should I come over?]
“...No, Kaelyn. Stay where you are. That's your highest priority.”
If Kaelyn left...
Kunking, Sia, and Heidel would all be free.
If even one of those three joined Villed...
They might truly lose the battle.
Elined urgently shouted,
“Retreat! Everyone retreat! Return to the castle gate immediately!”
“Yeah... This is the stuff...”
Holding a drill about the size of my forearm, I looked down at the collapsed watchtower.
C-rank - Siege Drill
A giant drill that deals massive damage exclusively to buildings.
Can only be used in extremely close-range combat.
For a C-rank Object, its performance was fairly decent.
Its only drawback was its short range.
Naturally, to use the drill, I had to get right up against the watchtower.
The moment I did that, I'd enter the watchtower's attack range and come under fire.
But...
B-rank - Magic-blocking Spike
Drive it into the ground to forcibly disable nearby building mechanisms within a 12-meter radius for 5 seconds.
Everything changed with this single stake.
The moment I drove it into the ground, the watchtower stopped attacking.
That allowed me to use the drill comfortably without any interference.
'That's already the second watchtower.'
So far, no one had come to interfere with me.
'Or... had they?'
I wasn't entirely sure.
I had ordered the bomb-loaded puppets to self-destruct if an enemy approached them.
Judging by the dozen or so explosions I'd heard, they had carried out those orders.
After that, however, no more explosions followed.
Which meant they'd probably dealt with whoever came.
In other words...
I had eliminated the enemy without ever seeing who they were.
'By process of elimination... Were they those two supply officers I defeated in the forest? Looks like they revived and came looking for revenge.'
...Well, I didn't really care.
I looked around.
I still had roughly one hundred and fifty puppets remaining.
Fifty were stored inside my Subspace.
The other hundred had been scattered throughout the surrounding area.
At first glance, the scenery looked like nothing more than an open plain bordering a forest.
But hidden throughout that landscape were my puppets.
Thanks to their small size, hiding wasn't difficult.
Twenty of them carried bombs.
The remaining eighty were equipped with various Objects and stood guard against approaching enemies.
'I hope I won't have to fight anyone head-on from here on.'
Direct confrontations were always troublesome.
A battle where both sides poured everything they had into each other until one finally collapsed.
That was simply the honest way to fight.
'There's no reason I have to do that.'
Find an opening.
Exploit it.
Then quickly rob the empty house.
That was my style.
“All right, come back.”
The moment I gave the order, the puppet army hidden throughout the area revealed themselves and gathered around me.
After storing them back inside my Subspace one by one, I took out an Object shaped like a pair of shoes with wheels.
B-rank - Roller Skates
Triples movement speed on roads while outside of combat.
Thanks to the high-speed movement provided by the Object, I quickly reached the third watchtower.
'Once I destroy this one, Ren, Elined, or even Kaelyn might come after me.'
My goal was to destroy the Throne before they arrived.
That meant speed was everything.
Opening my Subspace, rabbit puppets emerged one after another.
Each of the thirty rabbit puppets held a Siege Drill in its arms.
After driving the stake into the ground to disable the watchtower's attacks...
“Go.”
Alongside the thirty puppets, I began drilling.
Vrrrrrr!
Craaaack!
Thirty drills roared together loudly enough to make my ears ring.
'Now that's satisfying.'
A single Siege Drill already possessed remarkable destructive power against buildings.
What if there were thirty of them?
The watchtower crumbled at an absurdly unrealistic speed.
Its seemingly sturdy outer wall cracked apart almost instantly before beginning to collapse.
And finally...
Rumble!
Less than ten seconds after the assault began, the watchtower completely collapsed.
Looking at the ruins, I couldn't help but laugh.
'Even I have to admit... this is completely broken.'
If the other Schuler complained about it, I couldn't exactly blame them.
...Still.
There was nothing in the rules against it.
'Anyway, that's the third watchtower taken care of...'
There was no time to relax.
The real battle was only beginning.
Elined and Kaelyn certainly wouldn't sit back and watch any longer.
'Right. Let's finish this before they get here.'
Wearing the Roller Skates, I sped toward the castle gate.
Only the castle gate and the Throne remained.
The end of the Mock Battle was finally in sight.