Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri s.h.i.tai to Omoimasu 117
Defense Specialization and the Second Step
While not to the extent of Sally, Kasumi and Chrome were still able to dodge and block attacks. And so the fight ended with a minimal burden placed on Maple.
When the fight was over, they quickly got back on top of Syrup and rode off to get their next orb. After some time, they arrived in the spot just above the guild that they were targeting.
“Ahh…this place doesn’t seem to have an orb.”
Maple looked down to check the pedestal and saw that there was no orb on top of it.
There were also no players nearby, which meant the orb had either been taken, or the guild had been destroyed.
“Yeah, let’s go to the next one then.”
And so they flew through the air and checked three different guilds.
And not once were they able to spot an orb.
Not only that, but since Syrup was not particularly fast, they were spending a lot of time traveling.
Moving without a reward made their fatigue grow faster.
As they traveled, a notification rang to signal that Maple had received a message.
“Hmm… It’s from Sally.”
Maple read through it. It said that Sally’s team were going to return to the guild and that if Maple’s team was having trouble collecting orbs, that they should return as well.
Maple relayed the message to Chrome and Kasumi, and they decided to return to the guild.
There was also only a few hours left before the end of the second day, so it was a good time to return.
Just as Maple and her team landed in front of the guild and were about to go inside, they saw that an unknown player was looking over his shoulder as he ran out of the entrance in a panic.
The relief on his face when he thought he had escaped, turned into despair when he saw the three people in front of him and understood who they were. In a flash, Chrome and Kasumi’s blades cut him at the same time.
“We’re being attacked!”
“Yeah, let’s hurry!”
Kasumi ran on ahead down the path that led to the orb.
She held her sword in front of her as she entered the room, and there was Sally and the others.
Yui and Mai were retrieving the fallen iron b.a.l.l.s, which suggested that they had only just finished beating the enemy back.
“You’re all safe…”
Kasumi sheathed her sword and walked up to the other five.
Chrome and Maple came after her, and now they were all together.
The two who were on defense seemed to have depleted a lot of their energy, and they were now sitting on the floor.
“Ahh, I’m tired… That might have gone really bad without Izu’s items.”
“We used a lot of bombs too… I better make more of them soon.”
Izu was able to use the features of the workshop regardless of where she was.
As long as they had time to prepare, they would not run out of ammunition.
“Hmmm… We didn’t get attacked so much until now. What happened?”
As Maple pointed out, it had become common knowledge that Maple Tree was not to be touched. And so it was strange that they had now been attacked in succession.
“Did you collect any orbs, Maple?”
“Huh? Ohh…not much. A lot of guilds didn’t have any orbs…what about you, Sally?”
“It was the same with us too… We could only get 2 orbs.”
They set the orbs in the room for now, and then Maple asked about the message.
“‘a.s.sembly of Holy Swords’ will definitely attack us at some point, and I think that it will be during the night. Also, things are moving very quickly, and I don’t think we will survive if keep things stay the same…”
Sally opened the screen with the current rankings and scrolled through it.
Guilds that had been annihilated had a mark next to their name, and it wasn’t only small guilds that were displayed there. There was now medium-sized guilds as well.
There were a few guilds who had gone all out during the first day, and then there were guilds who had lost their orbs, and so gone out on the attack in full force. And this had accelerated events.
There were not many guilds who could successfully defend without casualties, and the result was that many guilds had to retire before the end of the second day.
The only guilds that remained now were guilds with lots of members, with a few exceptions.
And so the likelihood of finding an orb was also going down.
In fact, the reason that Maple Tree was starting to get attacked now, was because far away guilds that didn’t know about them were traveling all of the way there.
Now that the rules had changed to necessitate crossing the fields to steal orbs, Yui, Mai, and Maple were at a disadvantage due to their speed.
It didn’t matter how strong they were, as they could not steal orbs that were not there.
“I thought it would last a little longer… But every guild is so driven… I had thought to gain a lot of points in the beginning, but wasn’t able to.”
The environment was turning into one of complete domination by large guilds much faster than Sally had predicted. And it was obvious that things would only get worse.
“And so, while it is much earlier than what we planned. I think we should move to the next step.”
When everyone agreed to this suggestion, they then confirmed their individual roles.
Maple remembered what her role was, and called to Sally.
“So then…”
“Yes.”
Sally knew what Maple was about to say, and so she continued.
“We wait for the ‘a.s.sembly of Holy Swords’…I guess.”
Maple heard this and began to carefully check the remaining skills and weapons that she could use.