Chapter 111 - Team Competition (4)

The team competition was already nearing its end.

It had never been intended to last very long. A day or two was considered reasonable. Given the system, in which points were distributed according to territory rankings once every area had been claimed, it really ought to have lasted longer than this.

But thanks to the Pontiff setting the stage for them to kill one another, the number of eliminated contestants had skyrocketed in no time.

"... What I'm saying is!"

Aiden shouted to Mylène from behind cover. With explosions erupting all around them, she clearly wouldn't hear him otherwise.

"Once we deal with those shameless bastards over there, we're pretty much done!"

As he spoke, he pointed toward the people holding their position beyond the ridge.

Alliances weren't particularly uncommon, but he hadn't expected so many specialists in long-range bombardment to band together and build something resembling a fortress up there.

Most people would simply have moved on, disgusted by their tactics, but Aiden had a reason to poke that hornet's nest.

'Alester in first, Mylène just barely in second...'

Julius would probably surge ahead in the events following the team competition, so helping Mylène narrowly hold on to second place here would benefit Aiden as well.

Ultimately, if the succession ceremony was to proceed as closely as possible to the original game, his best option was to keep any one side from pulling too far ahead. It would help eliminate variables, so to speak.

"... Amazing."

"... Pardon?"

"You have time to spend that long thinking in a situation like this?"

She had a point.

Mylène deployed a barrier imbued with black divinity against another incoming arrow that was more like an artillery shell.

The flaming arrow tore through the air with a shriek, then exploded against the barrier.

The arrow burst with a boom, nearly engulfing Mylène in the blast's searing heat, but Aiden quickly grabbed her and flung himself sideways.

Having escaped the backlash thanks to him, she nodded.

"Oh, tha—there's another one."

Before she could finish, another arrow exploded. Aiden, who had been about to reply, bit his tongue.

"Blrgh!" he spluttered, tears springing to his eyes. His reaction was so unguarded that Mylène couldn't help chuckling.

What followed, however, was a display of fury intense enough to briefly fluster even her.

"... Those bastards need some sense knocked into them," Aiden growled.

His eyes, usually either dull or weary, gleamed menacingly. He seemed thoroughly enraged.

He liked ranged projectile weapons himself, but being on the receiving end of this bombardment from so far away, as though they were screaming at the top of their lungs to stay back, was enough to fill him with disgust...

"Your Highness, let's split up. I'll flank them. You stay here and draw their attention."

"Will you be all right? It looks like even my barriers are barely keeping them back."

Indeed, the only reason they could withstand the artillery-level firepower pouring out of the fortress on that ridge was the monstrous strength of Mylène's divinity.

Aiden knew that perfectly well.

"Staying together will only get us both caught in those area attacks. We'd be better off splitting up to distract them and strike back."

"How are you going to do that?"

"I'll go in there alone, subdue the bastards pissing me off, and come back out."

"..."

"Simple, right?"

"... Again, how are you going to—"

"Somehow!"

Mylène fell silent, but Aiden, clearly determined to go through with it, immediately began explaining the plan he'd just devised.

... And though she had initially looked at him as if he were insane, her eyes gradually filled with interest.

'... This man.'

He was a little more interesting than she'd thought.

He'd come up with it on the spot, but the plan was simple, efficient, and, above all, cut straight to the heart of the problem.

'... Wasn't there nothing special in his background?'

According to the background report her personal maid had brought her, there was nothing particularly remarkable about him.

She had heard that he was the husband of the Lionhearted, but aside from that, she'd never heard of anything that made him special.

Yet now he was extraordinarily calm, as though he'd stood on battlefields like this dozens of times.

And saying he would find a way because he was angry was easy enough, but volunteering to step into such murderous bombardment was no small matter.

No ordinary mind could even conceive of taking that risk willingly. It proved he had nerves far beyond the ordinary.

"... All right."

That was probably a large part of why she readily nodded her agreement to his plan.

▣

"... What?"

The remark probably came from someone gleefully constructing bombardment spells at a distance.

They'd been firing like mad at the fools who'd dared wander this close, only for their targets' presence to abruptly vanish.

Everyone participating in the ceremony knew that the eccentric in heavy armor was Mylène, and they'd all been excited by the prospect of bringing down such a major contender with their own hands.

Where had she suddenly gone? What a letdown.

"There!"

Fortunately, it seemed she hadn't disappeared altogether. Someone spotted the moving suit of heavy armor and immediately shouted.

It was in a completely different direction from before, but no one found that odd.

Which meant it was the perfect moment for someone waiting for an opening to make his entrance.

Aiden promptly took a deep breath and kicked off the ground.

Beneath his feet was a platform made of Aether.

Setting his feet on it, he immediately blasted supernatural power out in the opposite direction.

Naturally, his body shot forward at a terrifying speed, like a rocket.

'So—over there.'

He identified his target while airborne.

One person was clearly in command of the others. As Aiden had already experienced several times, taking down the leader played a crucial role in this competition.

Since most contestants operated in factions, they lost the will to resist surprisingly quickly once their leader was gone.

As he hurtled forward, he squeezed out supernatural power to create a barrier around himself, preparing for the impact on landing.

—!

—!!

His body streaked like a flash of light into the spot he'd marked on the ridge.

He arrived in a headfirst slide.

CRRRUNCH!

The dirt crumpled like ice cream, throwing up debris to either side.

"—What?!"

Aiden swept his gaze over the unknown royal who turned in alarm. Still lying on the ground, he twisted his body and lunged.

The opponent wasn't entirely incompetent, of course, and reacted immediately.

An arrow flew straight for his throat. It was an ordinary spell, not one imbued with anything extraordinary. Apparently, the man had thrown it out to keep Aiden at bay, since anything too destructive would engulf him as well.

Aiming straight for a vital spot rather than making some halfhearted attempt to subdue him was rather offensive. Aiden coated his hand in Aether and smacked the arrow down into the ground.

"That's a bit harsh."

Before he even finished speaking, his opponent kicked off the ground to escape. Aiden rose and closed in.

As someone who held royal status, the man was reasonably skilled in close combat, of course.

But his choice of long-range spells as his primary weapon made it clear that he was no master of it.

Aiden grabbed his airborne ankle and swung him full-force in the opposite direction.

CRUNCH!

Judging by the feel of it, the leg bones had shattered during the swing, and the spine that had slammed into the ground was surely in a precarious state as well.

"You'll probably die if you move."

His target coughed up fresh blood instead of giving a proper answer.

Well, even beaten, he was still no ordinary fighter. He'd led a group of this size, after all, so he wouldn't die.

Though, as Aiden had warned, he really might if he moved.

Unfortunately, the man clearly wasn't taking that warning to heart.

Despite being left near death by a single blow, he was somehow circulating divinity to insert a replacement for his shattered leg bones, assessing the damage from the impact, and checking which parts still worked. It seemed he intended to try moving again.

"—Heave-ho."

Aiden grabbed the unbroken leg this time and swung him full-force in the other direction.

The man suffered the same blow as before, but with what felt like twice the pain, and finally passed out, vomiting blood.

"..."

Hmm.

Well.

Aiden had definitely warned him. It was the man's own fault for not listening...

With that thought, he looked around and found every royal deathly pale, both hands raised. Presumably, they were surrendering.

Fair enough.

Watching someone suddenly fly in and swing a person around like a toy was bound to put all sorts of thoughts into their heads.

'... That takes care of them.'

With that thought, he turned toward Mylène and found her watching him, clapping.

"That was impressive."

... He could hear her say it, too.

He couldn't tell for sure, but he suspected her eyes were sparkling inside that heavy armor...

-System Message

▶ Target 'Mylène''s affection increases.

▶ You may copy 1 skill!

... Apparently, the applause and sparkling-eyed praise hadn't been empty flattery.

With a wry smile, Aiden dismissed the status window that had appeared before him.

'... One from Julius, one from Mylène...'

Their skills had been his intended rewards from the team competition all along, and actually securing them felt pretty good.

It felt as though, even if some enormous new variable appeared, this alone would let him manage somehow.

["—den. Aiden, can you hear me?!"]

And clearly, the saying about speaking things into existence existed for a reason.

Aiden frowned at Noel's voice ringing in his ear and covered one ear.

It came from the communicator he'd smuggled in. Thanks to Ganesha, he'd brought it along without even having to hide it.

"Dame Noel? What's wrong?"

["The sky. Look up!"]

Sure enough, the black energy staining the sky like something viscous was familiar to him as well.

'... A demon-god fragment?'

He couldn't help recalling that horrific thing he'd seen in the capital.