Chapter 103 – The North Cross Alliance – Part Two
(Ricardo’s PoV)
“And that’s the fifth time, isn’t it?” The Genocider said after she hit me with her shortsword so hard, that not only did I get a mortal wound on my neck, but was also thrown into a building and broke its walls… I didn’t expect this battle to be such an unilateral massacre. At least we still have some extra lives in stock though… Or well, some of us have, as a part of my friends already ran out of extra lives.
“I made sure to study you in advance before the battle, but… You’re really a monster, aren’t you?” I told her. To think that watching all video recordings from the Genorers would help this little… We were able to notice that she got faster the more enemies she fought at the very least, so we didn’t take too much of a big team to the battlefield, but we’re still unable to do anything.
Moreover, she seems to be getting faster each time she kills us too… We can’t continue like this, “Everyone, Plan End!” I shouted, and my friends shouted the same in response.
“P-plan?” She seemed to be surprised by the screaming… She’s so cute. I’d appreciate this sight more if I hadn’t been killed so many times already though.
But now, she’ll face our real power, “<Hive Mind: All For One> <Sensorial Connection: All For one>!” With this all our stats and buffs will be shared and equalized to the average between all of us.
And now, each of us will use our own buffs to increase the power of the entire team! “<Unshakable Determination: Necessary Evil>!” “<Dictator’s Telepathy>!” “<Body Enhancement: Dark Knight>!” And then we all shouted together, “All For One!”
And to top it all off… “<Oath: I’m the one who jumps to the depths of hell>!”
“You’re really doing quite a lot, aren’t you?” The Genocider said while attacking and killing some of my friends. We have to continue, please buy me a few more seconds!
“<Oath: I’m the one who cannot condone your path>!” I finished. We should now have a realistic chance with the power of the Oaths. Also, the downside of the HP loss is evenly spread across the entire team, so none of us will die that quickly from it. We may have lost plenty of lives, but now we fight back!
… Or so we thought. But even as we tried perfectly coordinated attacks with the hive mind helping us cooperate, she kept on dodging everything and damaging us over and over again.
“… Seriously?” One of my comrades said in disbelief. It was a perfectly understandable reaction.
Moreover, she disarmed me and started choking me with one hand. However, now that the setup was complete, the damage we took was divided equally between us, so I didn’t die from her choking… At least for now.
“Oh my, you’re not dying?” She commented as she noticed I was lasting longer than expected.
“Stop it!” One of my friends tried to attack her, but she just threw me away at a nearby building, knocked him down, and stepped on his neck… And it seems like she destroyed my Adam’s apple with the choking…
Putting a temporary stop to our battle though, it seems like some civilians were attracted by the noise… I suppose it’s a given since we’re at the ruins of a noble household, so they’d inevitably notice its destruction.
After realizing the situation, one of them exclaimed, “W-when will the knights arrive!?”
“T-there are people there!” Another said.
“Too many nobles were attacked one after the other, the capital is in disarray! We don’t know when the knights might come!” A third one shouted.
“J-just what are the princes doing!? They should be helping each other, not fighting!” A fourth one exclaimed.
“Princess, are you alright?” The Genocider suddenly said. She got no reply, but she continued soon after, “Seems like you’re safe, I’m glad.”
How did she get to that conclusion…? “Wait, coming to think of it, she was carrying some luggage since the battle started…” I commented to myself… So she was not only beating us even with our buffs, but she was doing so while protecting the princess? Just how many CPUs are there in her brain!? This is insane!
“By the way, why did you want to recruit me again?” The Genocider suddenly asked me.
That’s strange, doesn’t she usually enjoy fighting? She seems to be in a bad mood right now though, and is instead talking… I suppose I should answer, “That’s because you’re overdoing it.” I told her. She seemed confused, so I continued, “The philosophy of the North Cross Alliance is that we’re a necessary evil that corrects poor leaders!”
We understand that the basic policy of this game is to let players do whatever they want, but if someone causes constant chaos as they see fit, they’ll start bothering other players to the point they leave, and this might harm the game’s lifespan in the long run. And therefore, “We wanted you in order to have complete control over the Chaos Faction!” I told her.
“… That’s disappointing, you’re more boring than I expected.” She said without a hint of interest in her voice. She also started gripping her shortsword tighter… To think our ambition would just bring her disappointment…!
“Come on, think about it! To sacrifice others’ freedom for the sake of letting us enjoy the game in the way we want, that’s pretty chaotic, alright!?” I tried to make a better impression.
“… Well, that’s slightly better.” She didn’t seem to be convinced, but that’s an improvement, I suppose.
Or rather, she seemed to smile a bit before charging at us again… Seeing that, I somehow started having fun with this.
