Chapter 4-3

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VOLUME 2

Chapter 4: The Penglai Emperor’s Resurrection
Part 3

Jun watched members of the Illusionary Brigade line up in rows beyond the fences surrounding their camp; his opponents were determined.

In Sky World, spells and archery generally only had an effective range of fifty meters. However, Jun stopped his troops and kept them fairly close to him.
Gesturing with one hand towards the impatient front-line fighters, Jun uttered, “Awaken,” changed into his adventurer armor, and took a solitary step ahead.

“It’s our turn to raid the Phoenix. Next time it spawns, we’ll take control,” he shouted loudly. Those who had shown up all had a history with the Illusionary Brigade’s soldiers. Jun shrugged lightly, and looked behind him. “I shall fight back! Everybody, this is…”

“Jun, hold on a sec.”

Yukaria, pointed ahead, somehow appearing to part their enemies’ lines. A male clad in black armor emerged. “That’s their boss?”

“Daikoku. So it is you. I’ve been waiting for you to come to me begging.”

“I threw your linkstone away a long time ago.”

“That’s too bad. Thanks to you, I was stuck doing such a menial task.”

“Shut your piehole. How dare you make fun of us like this. What guild are you working for? What did they pay you? Gold, silver?”

“I’m unaffiliated. I’m only going to such lengths to help my friend. I’m not taking part in a conflict between guilds. Though, you guys aren’t the only ones in Sky World. Everybody here in this game has the right to enjoy themselves.”

“After the Birthday, could you really still call this a game?” Daikoku readied his scythe. Behind him, his fighters followed.

“I’m having fun in this world. I’m having fun. I’m a gamer by nature.”Jun drew his sword. “So, we are fighting so that everybody can have a good time in this world. Go, Plan C! Let’s sweep ‘em!”

He lifted his great-sword into the air. Plan C’s success was contingent on their enemies being eagar to battle. The strongest fighters were set up in rigid groups of four in the front.

“Assault!”

Just as he swung his sword to the ground, Jun charged forward.

Spells flew back and forth on both sides. His opponent’s buff and debuff icons started to disappear. The same began to occur to his own men. Jun scowled at the guy in black armor.

That guy’s weapons and armor sparkle as if they were new. I’m no match for him.

Jun knew he would have to battle against him. He questioned himself, but… then he thought that it would actually be convenient for him. Jun and the others had to fight the next Phoenix. In order to minimize losses, it made sense to capture the opposing side’s leader.

Jun, understanding this, grinned at Daikoku.

“So you were able to defeat Sakamoto! However, your weapon’s special ability is close-ranged, so it won’t mean anything against me! You won’t be able to use your secret technique here!”

“Whatever. I didn’t even have the time to use it against your well-prepared bandit warrior friend!”

The spells from both sides kept canceling each other out.

Jun and Daikoku. There was very little distance in between them…

“Go!”

Daikoku raised his scythe. Mirroring him, Jun prepared his sword…

Battle cries filled the air as they crossed swords.

With just one hit, his hands went numb with pain. Up until now, he hadn’t seen such a strong scythe. The difference in quality of their equipments was obvious. The most likely outcome would be…

Swinging his blade diagonally across Daikoku’s body, Jun attacked on his opponent’s left side. However, Daikoku took a small step to build some distance and attacked back fiercely.

“Tch…”

Jun reacted quickly and rolled, only narrowly avoiding decapitation. The tip of the scythe grazed his armored shoulder. Jun’s health bar depleted by 5% with just that hit.

“Hey, that wasn’t very funny.”

Jun got up. Daikoku relaxed his scythe, and moved away from Jun.

“Hey magic swordsman, don’t die so fast!”

“Don’t worry, I’m certain I won’t. My body can to handle this.”

He kicked the ground. Their weapons collided violently yet again.

Even though they were surrounded by an all-out close-ranged melee, there was still a considerable amount of space between Jun and Daikoku.

Everybody knew not to interfere in a duel between two people.

I knew it, this guy’s just like me, from his swordsmanship and his agility. He’s even fighting with the next step in mind!

Originally, quick thinking à la Jun wasn’t necessary for raids.

What was necessary in group battles was being able to watch one’s surroundings and react quickly. Superficial motions were not only pointless but even harmful.

When Sakuya explained this to him, she chuckled, looking down on him.

“Jun, you don’t know anything. Your thoughts lack depth. You’re getting too complacent. Don’t you think that your brain will start to dissolve?” She thoroughly made fun of him.”You ought to seriously think about the nature of our own power. It’s violence. Pure violence, imbued with recklessness. This isn’t just a comfortable virtual game world. Our power is the pureest kind that exists when even violence clashes with violence,” she instructed. “It’s more important than paying attention. Raid guilds are essentially nasty organizations not very different from gangs or militias. They are formed to rule over others with brute force. Those who join such groups are always captivated by physical power. In order to control them, more brute force is necessary… If you end up fighting against their leaders, be cautious of this. They are always studying the system. Their greed is constantly fed by the prospect of even more power.”

“Have you fought with the Illusionary Brigade’s leaders before?” Jun asked.

“… Feigning innocence, huh? You have a bad personality.”

“Have you ever fought with Daikoku?”

“I still can’t reveal that kind of information. But, okay. New raid guild recruits are often annoyingly bubbly about their guilds. If you don’t use violence, they won’t even be able to perform raids.”

Everything was as she said. While Jun fought Daikoku, he came to understand him.

Daikoku was strong.

His skill was undeniable, and his equipment surpassed Jun’s by leagues. He exceeded Jun even in attack and defense levels. Magic swordsmen and bandit warriors also happened to be each other’s natural counters. Moreover, Daikoku had yet to use a single of his abilities.

However…

“Should you really be acting so carefree?” Jun grinned, still trading hits back and forth.

“Your underlings are quite disappointing. They’re quite the mish-mash of adventurers.”

On the battleground, Jun’s group had the upper hand numerically. Though it appeared that Daikoku’s aide was giving orders from behind in his place, their movements were awfully sloppy.

Though the guild was visibly burdened, up until now, the new recruits had been exclusively fighting battles that they knew they could win, as if they had been playing on low difficulty. They had never experienced real adversity. In addition, their weapons and armor were damaged, so their equipment superiority faded to nothing. Morale was suffering.

As for Jun, he had assigned a few trusted adventurers to the front-most line. They were skilled fighters that did not have to rely on their equipment. In order to live up to Jun’s expectations, they tore deep holes through the Illusionary Brigade’s front lines and dished out large quantities of damage to the defenseless rear fighters.

“Did you only teach them to be full of themselves? What an inconceivably incompetent commander you are.”

“In order to boost dependence on the guild, we cut them off from the outside world.”

Daikoku, unperturbed by Jun’s provocations, calmly swung his sharp scythe downwards. Jun once again narrowly evaded the strike and tried to attack him back with his own great-sword.

However, it was no use. Since his posture hadn’t been perfect, Jun was only able to shave off a sliver of Daikoku’s health as his blade only skimmed his armor.

— He’s strong!

Though Jun kept on attacking and making full use of proper footwork and his body weight, Daikoku avoided each of them with his own defensive martial arts techniques.

Damn, I’m beaten.

Of course attack magic and debuffs like Quick Stun would have little effect on bandit warriors. The advantages of being a magic swordsman were all but meaningless here.

He didn’t even have time to use his secret techniques. Besides, weapon swapping to spam secret techniques would only surprise each opponent once. As Daikoku himself said, once Jun ends up showing him something, it’ll never work again.

If that’s so, then my next move will be… that, right?

Jun waited for the right timing, and then made some distance between them.

Even though Daikoku quickly worked to close up the gap…

“Option E3! I’m counting on you!” As they had planned earlier, when they noticed, some of his team’s light warriors quickly forced their way through.

“Get out of the way! Whirlwind!

The violent gales of wind brought upon by Daikoku’s scythe swept up the light warriors all at once.

This short period of time was exactly what Jun wanted.

“— Change, long-sword mode!”

His large great-sword changed into a long narrow sword that could be used with just one hand.

By nature, magic swordsmen could wield shields, but they rarely used one-handed weapons. One-handed weapons needlessly reduced attack ability, while magic swordsmen’s strong suit was supposed to be in offense.

“What are you thinking of doing?”

Daikoku frowned, moved closer to Jun, and vigorously swung his scythe downwards. When Jun’s long-sword made contact with Daikoku’s scythe, it bounced off. Even though the scythe had an overwhelming amount of destructive power, this was still a game. When it came to parrying, no matter what the difference between the weapons, the weapon used to deflect an attack could never be broken.

“What were you thinking by changing from your great-sword to a one-handed sword and losing attack power?”

Using his free hand, Jun removed a small golf-ball-sized black orb from his pouch.

“I wanted to do this!” He threw the orb onto the ground. It exploded from the impact. Out came intense grey smoke.

Suddenly, Daikoku’s field of vision become covered in smoke.

“Hey… what are you doing? Where did you get such an item? …”

“They’re fireworks that a summoner spawned, but I purposefully moistened it so that only the smoke would come out. It’s like a makeshift smoke ball.”

Jun chopped at Daikoku’s back. Daikoku had lost sight of Jun. He resisted a bit, but Jun managed to slice off more than thirty percent of Daikoku’s HP by continuing his basic combo attacks.

“You’re making this up on the spot!”

Using his intuition to figure out his opponent’s location, Jun steadily attacked Daikoku, who was swinging his scythe mindlessly. The length of his HP bar decreased rapidly.

I knew it. He’s not used to this kind of unconventional fighting.

Jun had wanted to ask Sakuya whether the leaders in raid guilds polished their own fighting skills.

As far as Jun was concerned, he couldn’t ask unimportant questions like the degree to which they brazenly disciplined subordinates that stepped out of line or how competent they were. After all, he could only joke around with close friends.

“Daikoku, why did you join a raid guild?”

“Why are you asking me such a question?!”

“Is doing these kinds of things fun?”

Daikoku remained silent.

“There are dungeon traps that suddenly plunge the area into darkness. A darkness that only magic light can pierce through. When that happens your hearing and intuition need to be reliable.”

The fog cleared. Daikoku’s wrath was written on his face. His teammates began casting spells, healing Daikoku’s HP…

Bullets hit Daikoku’s white magicians, who stiffened, one by one. They had been forcibly put to sleep.

“Let’s not breach etiquette now, shall we? I won’t forgive those who meddle in duels.” Yukaria and the other controllers stun-locked them, continuously shooting spells and bullets.

“ARGHHH. YOU…!!!”

Daikoku grasped his scythe tightly and brandished it, forcing it ahead. This was his Power Attack. However…

His legs trembled.

“Ugh…” Thinking that the ground was just especially tough, before he knew it, tree roots had appeared at his feet. “This can’t be… have these been here for a while?”

“Invisibility works on objects too. But they only work for 10 seconds. I’m sure even you have some invisibility potions somewhere.”

Floods of people ran in towards the incapacitated Daikoku. Jun did not go easy, pushing them away with a single blow each. Daikoku was panicking, having been bested by a battery of unexpected attacks. Jun skillfully made fun of him, continuing to flake off parts of his HP bar.

“Raids. They’re fun. Everybody getting together, joining forces to defeat an ubermonster. And collecting good equipment too. There are even books about it.” Jun knew that feeling well. He, of course, had once run guilds that were the best in their servers. Besides, he understood the feeling of being engrossed in it. “But you know, MMOs aren’t just that. I get really excited about drifting about in the world and exploring new places with my friends. It’s not just about how to defeat a new challenge, or how many people you need to assemble to do so.”

There were many different kinds of people enjoying themselves in many different ways.

Because of that, MMOs were wonderful. Jun subscribed to that belief.

And then, even as Sky World ended up like this, as far as he was concerned, this world was…

“I just want to adventure.”

For however simple it was, that simplicity was all Jun wanted.

He came to this world to go search for his friend, Kai. Nevertheless, he ended up adventuring on the way. And after finding Kai, there would certainly be even more adventures waiting for him. Jun was optimistic like that.

It was the same with quests. He wanted to learn more. He enjoyed it. He wanted to hear all the stories the quests had to tell. After all, it was adventure. The future. What could possibly lie beyond this hill?

“I won’t stop. I won’t let Kasumi-san stop. It’s been decided. We’re continuing forward. And because of that, if you guys are in our way…”

Jun slashed Daikoku diagonally from his shoulder.

His HP bar emptied…

“I will surmount any wall that lies in my way.” The Illusionary Brigade’s commanding officer fell right then and there. “Officer Daikoku, I’ve vanquished you!”

Jun lifted his sword and let out a war cry.

His comrades cheered. High-spirited, they redoubled their attack on the Illusionary Brigade lines. Members of the Illusionary Brigade started to rout, each scrambling for his or her own safety, when at last, they all fled, knowing the battle had been lost.

“Follow them! The remaining ones can’t be allowed to bother us during our fight with the Phoenix!” ordered Isao, acting on behalf of Jun on the front-most line.

The battle was nearing its end.

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