Barracks. Practice Field.
“What’s happening, what’s going on?!”
“There’s a match going on!”
“Who and who?”
“The Lord’s personal troops and the newbies!”
“Wow, crazy. Any leftover snacks from yesterday?! Bring it here!”
…the surroundings were bustling like a marketplace.
Excited mercenaries were buzzing around this place, where they had come to watch upon hearing the news of a match.
“A match… it’s been a long time since we had a non-real combat.”
“I’m still more used to matches!”
In one corner of the practice field stood Lucas and Evangeline, the duo of SSR-grade knights.
“…”
“Gulp.”
“Can we really do this…”
And on the opposite side, the challengers— a party of five N-grade heroes.
Both parties stood holding their wooden swords and shields.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay without us…?”
“…I think they’ll fight better without us. Yeah.”
Damien and Lilly were watching with tense faces from below the practice field.
Me? I was in the middle of the practice field. For now, I’m the referee.
“The victory condition is the complete suppression of one party.”
I raised my voice after looking around at both sides.
“If you drop your weapon, are pushed out of the practice field resulting in a ring-out, are unable to wield your weapon, raise both hands, or surrender verbally. In these cases, it will be considered suppression.”
The rules of suppression should be good enough for now. The more important issue is safety.
“Use of skills is prohibited. Inflicting serious injuries is also prohibited. Killing is of course prohibited. The fight goes on until one side is suppressed. If it looks to me like the fight has been decided, I will immediately determine the victory or loss. Any objections?”
Both parties nodded their heads.
“Are you ready, miss?”
“It should be you, mister.”
Lucas and Evangeline had no particular strategy meeting.
Both of them had already fought monsters and breathed together. They had even mixed their swords and spears.
Rather than having a detailed meeting before the match, it would be more efficient to respond according to the situation.
On the other hand, for the N-grade party,
“…this is the changed operation.”
They were having a last-minute meeting, whispering something.
“Alright. Do as trained, according to the operation. You got it?”
Upon hearing Dion’s words, the rest of the party members nodded.
“We got it, Dion…!”
“Let’s give it a shot!”
Dion looked at his party members and nodded with determination.
“Alright… let’s go!”
The five N-grade party members walked forward with grim expressions.
“I don’t know what operation they’ve planned.”
On the other hand, Lucas and Evangeline, with relaxed faces, raised their wooden sword and spear.
“Let’s finish this in one go.”
“We’ll go easy on you~!”
Be gentle, guys.
I raised my hand and shouted as I brought it down.
“Alright, get ready… start!”
At the same time,
Ta-at-!
The N-grade party charged forward first.
Their party composition was simple.
Three warriors. Two rogues.
The warrior is an all-round class for all situations.
Most could use a variety of weapons, excelling as both a dealer and a tanker.
This hybrid class did carry the inherent weakness of “being neither here nor there in the late game,” but in the early stages, its versatility made it an exceptionally powerful deal tank.
And then, there were the melee dealers, the rogues.
They could inflict overwhelming burst damage from short to mid-range, given the right conditions. The problem, however, was the game’s unforgiving nature.
You could dodge ten times, but one hit and you were dead.
As a close-range armored dealer, the rogue always had to perform a balancing act, carrying a risk equivalent to their damage-dealing capabilities.
“What kind of fight are they going to put up?”
Curious about their strategy that had led them to boldly challenge the main party, I watched the duel with a small glimmer of expectation.
And the actions of the N-tier party were simple.
Tap, tap, tap!
The party leader, Dion, aimed for Lucas.
The remaining four rushed towards Evangeline.
“I’ve heard tales of your martial prowess, show me what you’ve got, Knight!”
With a shout, Dion brandished his wooden daggers and charged straight towards Lucas. Lucas’ eyebrows twitched.
“I won’t hold back, even if it’s a wooden sword.”
Vroom-!
Lucas’ wooden sword whizzed through the air with a formidable noise.
Swung horizontally, the wooden sword held a monstrous momentum, threatening to split Dion’s waist in two.
Swish!
However, Dion neither blocked nor deflected the strike, but instead, he bent backward dramatically to narrowly evade it.
Continuing his movement, he slid on the ground, rolling behind Lucas.
With a pallid complexion, Dion let out a low chuckle.
“Ha-ha, what’s this? You’re a lot easier to dodge than I thought, knight?”
“Blustering…”
Lucas twirled his wooden sword, regained his stance, and said,
“I’ll end this right away.”
Meanwhile, the other four mercenaries were approaching Evangeline.
Evangeline grinned satisfactorily, adjusting her grip on her wooden spear and shield.
“Hehe, so I looked more dangerous, right? That’s why four of you came at me?”
“…”
“You’ve got good eyes! I’m four times stronger than that old man-”
As Evangeline excitedly jabbered away, the four mercenaries charged at her without hesitation.
Evangeline licked her lips and raised her shield. She adopted a stance ready to block whatever attack they might throw at her.
But.
The mercenaries had no intention of ‘attacking’ from the get-go.
Crash-!
“Huh?”
A bewildered gasp escaped from Evangeline’s mouth.
Of the mercenaries that rushed her, three hadn’t even drawn their weapons. They all held shields, and initiated a tackle charge.
When the shields collided, they produced a dull sound.
From that point, the three warrior mercenaries began to push Evangeline back.
“Wait, hold on, seriously?! You’re really doing this?!”
In an unexpectedly rapid pushback, Evangeline was quickly driven to the edge of the dueling arena.
If pushed out of the arena as it is, it’s a ring out. A suppressive judgement.
Startled, Evangeline gritted her teeth and lowered her stance. The feet that were being pushed out came to a slow halt with a grating sound.
Despite three robust adult men exerting all their power to push her out, Evangeline managed to stand her ground, setting up her shield.
“Huff-!”
Not stopping there, Evangeline started to push back the mercenaries.
Confusion washed over the mercenaries’ faces.
“Uh…?!”
“What kind of strength is this…!”
With a force inconceivable from her small stature, Evangeline slowly began to push the mercenaries away.
Just then.
Whoosh!
A mercenary who had been waiting in the wings rushed towards Evangeline’s back.
It was a female rogue, the highlight of their party. She apologized as she fiercely jabbed with her wooden dagger.
“I’m sorry, miss!”
“Huh?!”
The dagger aimed at Evangeline’s foot, but she promptly lifted her foot to dodge the attack.
And that was the end.
“Eh?”
Evangeline, who had been holding her ground, lost her center of gravity.
“Yaaaaaaah!”
“Push her out-!”
The three warrior mercenaries immediately exerted all their strength to push Evangeline back.
“Whoa! Wait a minute, wait-!”
Evangeline, having lost her balance, tried to resist, but it was futile.
Thump!
She ultimately rolled out of the arena…
Having rolled once on the ground, Evangeline quickly got up like a squirrel.
She then screamed at me.
“Wait, that’s cheating! Isn’t it?!”
“Nah~. Ring out. You’ve been suppressed.”
“Where is this kind of thing… Can’t you give me one more chance, please?!”
I shook my head sternly. There’s no such thing in a match.
‘Evangeline does have the [Error-Prone] trait, but even considering that, the N-grade heroes did well.’
Even if it was 2 against 5, the difference in grade and level between the main party and the N-grade party was vast.
They overcame this with a momentary concentration of personnel and a surprise ring-out tactic.
They did well, these friends.
While Evangeline was screaming, tearing at her hair, the four N-grade heroes high-fived each other and turned around.
Now, they were left to suppress Lucas, who was alone.
However.
“Ah~ Sorry, guys.”
The sight unfolding on the other side of the arena was not very hopeful.
Lucas had Dion by the collar, dangling in the air with one arm.
Dion, who had raised both hands in a gesture of surrender, mumbled dejectedly.
“Sir Knight, you’re too strong…”
The next moment, Lucas casually threw the Dion in his hand out of the arena.
Thump!
“Cough!”
Dion, who barely managed to execute a fall technique, struggled to get up.
Thud. Thud.
With each step towards his remaining adversaries, Lucas growled lowly.
“Next.”
The faces of the N-Rank heroes paled in an instant.
***
In the end, the remaining members of the N-Rank party were each taken down by Lucas and thrown out of the arena like rubber balls.
Watching the N-Rank heroes groaning on the ground, I chuckled bitterly.
‘There’s a difference in ranks, but the level difference is greater.’
Lucas was currently at level 37.
On the other hand, the average level of the N-Rank party was in the mid-teens. The competition was uneven from the get-go.
‘Still, the initial strategy was decent.’
Using the fact that Evangeline was more inexperienced than Lucas, they immediately knocked her out. Then, the five of them teamed up against Lucas.
The strategy itself was sound. The problem was that Lucas was strong enough to shatter the framework of that strategy.
“Ha-ha.”
Dejected, Dion, who had collapsed on the ground, laughed emptily.
In the end, the one standing in the middle of the arena was Lucas.
Victory belonged to the main party.
“I suspected as much, but we really didn’t stand a chance.”
“But we didn’t do half bad.”
After shaking the victor, Lucas’s hand, and giving him a high five,
And patting the downcast Evangeline’s shoulder,
I descended next to Dion, wearing a slight smile.
“The strategy tailored to the opponent. And the determination to execute it.”
Dion scratched the back of his head. The young man, resembling a chick, wore a slightly awkward smile.
“Above all… the guts to confront and attack an enemy larger than yourself.”
I glanced around. Both the main party members and the N-Rank heroes were paying close attention to my words.
I nodded gravely.
“That can be said to be the first virtue needed by those who confront monsters.”
For a Giant Killing,
One must be able to fight without retreating from an enemy much larger than oneself.
That alone is a remarkable talent.
“I apologize for underestimating and not utilizing you properly, everyone.”
I helped each of the N-Rank heroes up by offering my hand.
“And I also apologize in advance.”
After helping Dion up last, I wickedly curled up one corner of my mouth.
“Because you’ve proven your worth, you’ll be worked to death from now on.”
“That’s what we were hoping for, Your Highness.”
With his innocent, chick-like face, Dion smiled ambitiously.
“If we wanted to live a thin, long life in hiding, we wouldn’t have become mercenaries in the first place.”
Unexpectedly, the personnel that I had been neglecting became part of my hand.
All of them were N-Rank.
In the game, and here too, it was the weakest party I ever used.
The moment the second sub-party — ‘Dion’s Mercenaries’ were called up to the first team had arrived.
–TL Notes–
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