Chapter 434

Chapter 434

Defense Specialization and the Big Battle (4)

The frontline where Mii was at. The place where monsters and humans collided, where monsters had a slight advantage.

“—Damn! There’s no end to them!”

“Can’t you do something—!?”

“I’m doing all I can—!”

The difference in scope due to size difference. The difference between whether or not an attack would be lethal. These worked against the players, worsening things over time.

“Good luck—!”

The root cause—Maple, could be seen cheering on the slithering monsters from behind.

Well, of course. If there were too many large monsters crawling around,[Machine God] and [Ancient Weapon] were unlikely to get through them. [Predator] and Syrup would be recreated soon, while [Poison Dragon] would reduce the future destination into a poisonous swamp.

As a result, Maple could do nothing but rally and command the swarm of monsters she’d created, also known as her vassals.

No matter how much they resisted, the surge of monsters would devour the players in order—starting from the vanguard. When she tried to push through as planned, Maple sighted a phoenix across the sky, flying towards her.

“Mii! …[Deploy All Weapons]! [Commence Attack]!”

While monster attacks couldn’t reach the sky, Maple’s line of fire could.

Accompanying Maple’s gunfire, magic rapidly flew from the surroundings. However, with Mii’s proper instructions, Ignis flew through the barrage and closed the distance between Maple and the others.

“[Ice Wall]!”

“[Puppet Wall]!”

“—Tch! Where are those two!?”

They evaded Ignis. However, just when they thought they’d finally caught it, a wall was deployed to protect Ignis. There was no mistaking it—it was Hinata and Lily.

Mii forcibly broke through the barrage and approached. It was a countdown until the fire that scorched everything subsided. Giving up on shooting down, she deployed a barrier for self-defense.

“[Overfreeze]!”

“Hinata!”

In the next moment, instead of flame, cold, white, air spread, engulfing the surroundings like smoke. Many casted barriers in anticipation of Mii, so they couldn’t intercept Hinata’s skill in time.

Maple tried to point her muzzle at Hinata, only to be overtaken by a stronger chill that emanated from her.

“[Nibelheim: The Land Of Frost]…!”

“W-what?! What is this…!?”

A high-pitched scream. All of the sudden, Maple found that she couldn’t move an inch. At a closer inspection, the area—along with everyone else—were encased in thin ice, ceasing all movements.

A super-wide area freeze that could withstand lightning strikes from Velvet. Although it didn’t inflict any damage, the intense crowd control stopped the march—literally.

From Ignis’ back, Hinata called out to Maple, who was rendered immobile.

“I’m sorry, but you shouldn’t be able to move. Also… if you act too violently, it’ll be troublesome.”

“Uuh… I can’t believe you can do this. Muu— Hinata is so amazing!”

“I think the same of you, Maple…”

As she stared at the now frozen and docile monster, Hinata bowed her head. With that as a farewell greeting, Ignis flew higher and withdrew.

Along with Ignis—fortunately, many players began to retreat in earnest. After all, they never knew when the ice would thaw, causing the monsters to resume their rampage.

“Mii, please hurry back. I’ve earned us some times, but my [Overfreeze] is quite similar to Velvet [Overcharge]. While my skill can stop enemies in their tracks, damage can’t pass through the ice…”

“Got it, everyone else’s also withdrawing. I’ll follow suit.”

“It’s problematic if you can’t deal damage, but it’s certainly the best way to stop them.”

Great skill so far. Of course, it couldn’t be used in a successive manner—and similar to Velvet, the skill had a major disadvantage in which no other cold air skill could be used. With this, the two [thunderstorms]would need to rest for a while to remove their disadvantages.

“I’d like to thank you, Lily. If you don't venture far enough, your allies will freeze, too.”

“No, Mii, you’re simply that good of a rider. I merely created a barrier.”

“We have to hurry. The ice will eventually disappear, but the same can’t be said about the monsters. They’ll soon resume their onslaught.”

The two nodded in agreement with Mii, who suggested that they had to finish the preparations for the interceptions swiftly, before returning to the direction of [Night Castle].

After a while, the ice created by Hinata shattered, and everyone was freed from the ice prison.

“F-f-for the time being, let’s deal with the monsters!”

The ice walls disappeared, and the previously trapped monsters were charging towards them. Maple instructed everyone to deal with them first. By everyone, of course she meant the strange monsters that came out from beneath her feet.

A monster’s opponent was another monster. Since she had some stray monsters at her behest, she commanded them to charge as well.

Since she couldn’t move recklessly and let her allies sink into the darkness beneath her feet, Maple was rooted on the spot as she watched players who brought in weakened monsters to recreate them.

Then, as she tried to avoid the darkness, a white snake—Haku—approached her with the members of Maple Tree on his head.

“Everyone—! Are you alright—!?”

“Yes, but that was kind of close, though…”’

“Thanks to Maple’s skill, we can withdraw.”

Lily’s decision to suspend the battle and choose to retreat after seeing [Darkness of Rebirth]—an unknown phenomenon of a tremendous scale, seemed to be correct.

After all, they got to avoid a life-and-death battle.

“Sally did well, too!”

“That’s right. Thank you, Ark. If not for you, I wouldn’t be able to avoid it.”

Sally copied [Ark] using [Reversal of Lies] and like Maple, teleported with her allies to reduce the damage on the frontline. The strategy itself could be called a success due to Sally’s high [AGI] and her aerial skill.

“We’ll also help those behind us. As expected, those who were out of [Ark]’s range were killed, but the main force of the [Congregation of the Holy Swords] remained. They’d like to proceed while keeping the risks in mind.”

“Okay! Then wait here a bit longer!”

Since the enemy had withdrawn, we couldn’t just stop here. The fleeing enemy that was weak to us should be pursued to gain advantage.

Maple called out to Sally, telling her to tame the wild monsters and throw them into the darkness.

Accompanied by an army of powerful monsters, Maple’s footsteps of destruction marched towards the enemy camp.