Chapter 51: Unit C

The weather was getting hotter by the minute. The sun hung high up in the sky, so it was natural. It rested at its zenith. We were reaching midday. Beating down harshly on us from above, the sun kept us all down, with its sun rays pinning our group to the earth. We were still right on the road, at the sun's mercy. He was casting down our shadows and keeping them right beneath our feet.

But what about these shadows, hm? They all took steps back, slowly and steadily, gulping down their saliva through the driest throats they'd ever had. They even looked in that human's direction. All the eyes were previously set on me, watching out for any occasion of slaying the general enemy... but at present, they were set upon him.

The leader of Unit C was still coming at me. The overly confident demeanor he had boasted only seconds ago was nowhere to be seen now. Still, that wasn't to say he fainted, like the very weak of his group, or stopped walking on, like the average men of his unit. After a second, all of the men whose steps stopped snapped out of their confusion. If their leader still was going forward, so would they.

As the leader, thankfully for him, he had his troops with him. In close ranks, walking behind him, they all calmed down and were now ready to take me on. Sir Paladin was behind all of them, too. He still fought against the orc group, but he was the one who gave the order in the first place.

And the sun still beat down on us. Beads of sweat made our forehead sparkly. On the top of my nose, sweat trickled down, and eventually hit the ground. With an ever so faint Splash sound of that bead of sweat hitting the earth, the leader brought his spear up, declared they now fought and rushed at me. All the men behind him followed in his steps.

The leader decided to kick it off fast. Fast, he darted at me, his spear stabbing at me. He was an active fighter. Gripping his spear with both hands and with a "Hah!" he attacked at last. I had skills too. When he threatened to kill the monster, the monster could do just the same, and even more easily than him.

For now, though, I just decided to evade him. The spear pointed at my chest. With a quick jump to the side, I got away without being pierced. Processing the attack he sent my way, I happened to bump into other enemies. Of course I did. They surrounded me well. So they came at me on both flanks—two swordsmen—and tried an attack too. Evading them too, I processed yet another attack from Unit C.

Then again, I darted back and met with other enemies on my back. Out of a dozen of people attacking me, only eight of them were front fighters. Rushing in close to me with their slashing blades, they were intent on taking my head.

Their number was quite a lot for me, I'll have to say. Taking them on was far from being too difficult, but it was probably the first time I really fought. That fight wasn't just a one-sided massacre. It also wasn't a poisoned man struggling against three thieves at night. It was the real deal.

Evading all blows that came at me, I now was confident enough to block some of them off now. Honestly, something disturbed me, though. Why were all these fools screaming the names of their skills before coming at me. Really, people did that to me in the past, and I thought the same: You guys! What about the surprise effect?!

There was no way they would get me with such slow attacks, and they dared throw away the effect of surprise they could take me down with.

A gigantic human—and my Receptacle was still the tiny boyish princess, so he was really huge—came at me with a huge, two-handed sword. Coming at me, his skin darkened and hardened, and his sword spun my way. That blow I decided not to block. Jumping high up, I landed behind the big man. Now, frustration found its place in our playground. Still, the minds of the fighters were still focused on me. It wouldn't take long before they started to be reckless and lose their cool, however.

The soldiers who had fainted all started to wake up. The shock from a direct impact with my aura had only been a momentary stunt to them. Now that they woke up, they retreated, or rather, ran away.

Overall all, myself evading so easily all the soldiers coming at me was about the bigger picture of this battle. Out of all his fighters, even when some had just left, there were still five or so of them behind. An arrow was shot at me. It didn't quite catch me off-guard as I had expected the rear to also attack, evidently, but it still managed to graze my shoulder.

There were three bowmen. One after the other, other arrows came my way. Finally, this battle could be more of an ordeal. With quick, jerky unrefined movements, I avoided them all. I already started to get the gist of their attacks. Or more like, I evaded the two other arrows, not by a hair's breadth, but more comfortably.

Safely avoiding more attacks, I had to pay attention to the front fighters, too. It was quite simple when I aligned myself with the other fighters, the bowmen couldn't so recklessly shoot their arrows at me. Still, the bowmen could move around in order to find other windows on me. Well, that was a lot of work for both the enemies and me. Coordinating like this must have been trying.

The other adventurers who fought me in close quarters didn't waver one bit. They were still trying to circle me around. Just like this, I had a whole little unit of fighters on me as they all were sweating a lot. The boyish princess, or general enemy, graciously danced around them with a focused, serious gaze. Boy, that was fun.

They were all working together to get me, but they couldn't at all. And I still danced all around them with even lighter steps than before, growing quicker with each passing second. To be quite honest, I was a little worried at first. Seeing how well I fared, though, I was genuinely relieved to know—of that, I was a hundred percent sure—that I wasn't the weak boy who was slain in the restaurant anymore.

Why wasn't I attacking them, then? Well, my evading all their attacks was just the strategy I had come up with in order to a) test my abilities properly, and b) not stupidly die against these foes. I didn't want to reach a Game Over before the System even let me participate in the Game, you know. But anyway, I had gathered enough information on their attack patterns, now. I also was satisfied to see I managed quite well against so many enemies.

Soon, I'd need to fight head-on. Crush my enemies and achieve victory. My strategy reached an end, and now that the enemies' frustration reached its paroxysm, I taunted them. Jumping high up, I landed away from the group, nonchalantly avoiding the arrows who rushed at me, and spoke briefly. "Ha ha ha ha! Just like the swordsman said! Weak! Humans!"

The men rose up in rage. What the hell was this so-called general enemy bragging about, when all they could do was keep avoiding every attack like a damn dancing monkey. That's briefly what some muttered.

Quickly, the front fighters all jumped at me together. Their leader desperately tried to have them not be taunted so easily, but, truth be told, he also wanted to give in and have his men all rush at me together. Maybe that would prove to work effectively, after all. Well, all of us together, in a competitive event, still continued to fight for a while after that. What changed was the fact that I understood how they all worked together. I knew what attack to expect at what moment.

Still shouting their skills names before getting me, the warriors were in fury. Some guy yelled about a <Targeting Stab> skill, but I safely evaded it. Another adventurer, an all big and chubby guy, also threatened me with some <Shoulder Charge> competence. Not daring to be slow, he continued it with a <Finishing Blow> attack. The 'Finishing' bit of the skill's name was a bit audacious, given it didn't finish any enemy or even began anything.

Darting, I avoided that one too. Had I not jumped away, the Receptacle would have become mincemeat.

Phew.

Three arrows tried to take me as one, but I jumped away. The big guy tried me again. "Finishing Blow!" And I now attacked. His huge bastard sword, enveloped in a reddish layer of aura, stabbed at me fiercely. Diving low, I evaded it and closed in on the big guy.

Cutting at him, he blocked me, then backed off. Following with another blow, I targeted the man's legs instead, but I only grazed his knee.