‘Damn it, how long are you going to take?!’, I shoved my shield into an adventurers stomach and evaded a magic spell that had been sent towards me.
“‘Barrier’”, a barrier appeared behind me, deflecting the rain of arrows aiming towards me as the target. “Thanks.”, I spoke in a low voice, showing at the very least a bit of gratitude.
The team which I had saved were now repaying their debt by helping me, I was still confused as to why. They could’ve just backstabbed me and taken the shield if they wanted to, hell I might’ve done it myself.
‘Why is almost everyone in this kingdom so nice?!’, pointing my finger forward, a couple of white bullets bombarded the battlefield.
The numbers of opponents have scattered, thus making it easier for me to distinguish who is going to approach me.
Everyone here isn’t cooperating with each other, from far away to may seem like everyone is teaming up, but it is quite the contrary.
The moment I’d release this shield off my hands, that’s the moment where the real onslaught will begin. Everyone will try to mow down the team with the shield, thus becoming nothing but a new target, and so the cycle will repeat itself until someone succeeds in escaping this hellhole.
They had no other choice, once all five items have been found, the match is over. They couldn’t spare as little as a moment to try and search for another.
“Now!”, a voice in the distance gave a order, and three people with bows targeted my shield, some of them were hesitant about whether it will pierce the shield.
“Um, are you sure that this is okay?”, one of them asked before letting go off the string. “He does not have the skill ‘Shield Technique’, he won’t be able to deploy shield skills.”
They finally regained their determination, and let go off the strings. Among the three arrows, only one pierced my shield.
I felt something pull my shield forward, they probably tied the arrow to a string and were thinking about taking the shield.
But I would not let that happen.
I pulled the shield to the left, thus in reaction to my movement the archer was thrown forwards towards my location, without time to react, I punched him in the stomach.
“I’m sorry, I know you’re doing this due to the competition. But still, I’m sorry.”, he fell to the ground holding his stomach in pain, but he smiled as if saying ‘no problem’.
I took out the arrow off my shield, and blocked a incoming attack from behind I had sensed with my spell.
“Hello!”, my teammate who’s recklessness knows no bounds appeared with his sword rasping on my shield. “Don’t ‘hello’ me, the hell are you thinking by attacking me?! And why did you leave me!?”
“What’s wrong with greeting a friend? And I left you because I knew you would be able to hold your ground.”, he answered like it was the most natural thing in the world. “Yes I can hold them off, but if you’re my teammate you should at the very least be able to help. And that was no way of greeting a friend!”
In team matches cooperation is very important, even though I myself am not very cooperative, the cooperation of others can make your job much easier. Imagine it like you’re level 10 and your teammates are level 50.
“Anyway, we’re having a little secret cooperation with another team, the ones I saved under the fall of the castle. They’ll be helping us under the scenes, as of right now they’re dealing with ‘that’ guys team.”
He nodded as a sign of his understanding of the situation. “What’s the plan?”, he asked.
‘Oh? So you are a little sane.’, I thought.
“As of right now we’re surrounded. That means that leaving isn’t an option, or at the very least it seems the less likable method.”
If we’d try and make a run for it, we would have to somehow make an opening and be lucky enough to escape.
However, there are some 'A' and ‘B’ class adventurers here, they would be difficult to defeat in the chance that we would have to plow through.
“Understood, what’s your other plan?”
“We would have to stay here and hold out until all the items have been found.”, as of right now it’s been around almost an hour since this competition started, I’m certain that at the very least two of them must’ve been found.
“I’m not sure how long our ‘team’ behind the shadows is going to hold out, but we need to make a decision and quick.”
If we’d make a run for it I’m sure the other teams would inevitably catch up to us, however if we were to stay here and fight on, there’s the chance that we’ll lose.
“Fire!”, from all directions, projectiles were launched in our direction, both magic and arrows, including spears.
I held my shield above me, and absorbed the impact of it all. “At this rate, the shield will break.”, I muttered.
“You don’t have the skill ‘Shield Technique’, yet you fight as if you knew it.”, my teammate who’s smile was deepening to the point of it looking more like bloodlust remarked.
From what I can tell, there’s a skill called ‘Shield Technique’ which is a skill that is gained by people who use shields as both a means of protection and offensive power.
However, I did not own the skill, all I was doing is imitating movements I had seen in shows and animes. They weren’t perfect, all I did was use my high ‘Strength’ stat to swing my shield here and there.
“All I’m doing is amateur movements, we need to think of something and fast.”, another adventurer appeared who was using a spear this time.
He threw his spear and hit my shield, my whole body trembled by the sheer force and impact of the spear upon my shield.
However, his pursuit did not stop there. He picked his spear back up and penetrated my shield, thus breaking off a small chunk of it.
“Would you stop that, it’s annoying.”, I moved the shield out of the way and used ‘Mana Shot’ to shoot him back where he came from.
“‘Attention, there is only one Treasure left to be found.’”, the recognizable voice filled the whole battlefield, this message was probably heard across the whole reality marble no kidding.
The adventurers realized what this meant, and so they became more desperate.
Multiple spells were casted upon us, arrows flew from multiple directions. And they knocked out adventurers started to rise once again to pursuit for the shield once again.
‘This is getting even worse than before.’, the thought filled my mind, when suddenly I felt the ground shake, at first I thought it was an earthquake, but then I realized what it was.
“‘Earth Attribute Magic’!”, the ground shook, and earth lances formed themselves from below.
I used ‘Liquid Manipulation’ to create a water blade and got rid of one side, however the remaining ones pierced the shield instead.
“Hey, can’t you help me out here?”, I asked my teammate, and he just stood there with his hand on his chin, probably pretending to be thinking
‘Are you trying to piss me off?! Because your nailing it!’, multiple adventurers charged towards me at full speed, had it been the same number as before I could have handled it, but this time, their advantage is their numbers.
“Alright I got it!”, he seemed to have come up with an idea, which seemed quite surprising. “Really? What is it?”
At this point I have to rely on him, I cant use my not really human like skills. Like ‘Thread Reeling’ or ‘Possession’, much less ‘Dark Attribute Magic’.
In our situation the best I can do is use 'No-Attribute Magic’, ‘Fire Manipulation’ and ‘Liquid Manipulation’. My ‘Dual Soul Blade Technique’ cannot be uses because I have this shield on me.
Though I could pull out one of my swords, I couldn’t do much. If I were to be overwhelmed by their numbers, I would be restrained and they would take the shield like stealing candy from a child.
I cannot let that happen.
“First off, give me the shield.”, he effortlessly took the shield off my grip, and grabbed me by my waist and held me up.
“What are you doing?”, I asked him in a hopeless voice, at this point nothing he does can surprise me.
“‘Light Speed’, now CHARGE FORWARD!”, he held the shield right in front of him, and charged forward at an incredible speed.
Everyone in his way got either thrown away, or was crushed under his foot.
By the time I noticed, we were no longer inside the destroyed fortress and instead we were within the forest surrounding the fortress.
He let go off me, like a doll who’s lost its purpose. “We made it!”, he cheered like everything that had happened behind us didn’t happen.
I slowly rose up from the floor. “I don’t care at this point, is the shield alr—“, a trace of golden scrap could be seen from where we came from.
The piece of metal that he was holding decimated into particles of light, leaving nothing behind.
“What did you do!?”, I finally lost my cool, I grabbed him by his collar, my blood red eyes were emitting bloodlust to a whole different level, I could even feel something wrong with my gaze. 'Dark Aura' was oozing out of me at an terrifying rate.
‘Wait, don’t lose your cool, he probably tried finding the best way for us to leave the only way he knew how. And I have to stop 'Dark Aura'.’
I unhanded him and turned around, I didn't realize that my fingers were digging into my own flesh out of frustration. ‘I don’t have time to let my feelings get a hold of me, I need to find one of the other items and quick.’
“‘All the treasures have been found, all teams will be teleported shortly.’”, the same tired voice as before spoke, and a magic circle appeaered below our feet's once again.
‘Wha—‘, I fell to my knees right on top of the magic circle.
“No, I cant accept this…”, I looked towards the one whom I thought to be the culprit, I couldn’t tell what his expression was, however there was one thing clear to me, I may have only known him for a couple of hours, but I could tell that he...
…was smiling.
“Welcome back! This challenge was exceptionally heated wasn’t it?!”, the crowd cheered loudly, at a glance one could tell that their excitement was about to increase even further.
Every year, it is known that the last and final challenge is unchanging. It could even be said that the first two challenges were nothing but an appetizer and that the main dish was left for the final.
“The teams holding the treasures please present yourselves!”, a select number of people stepped out of the crowd, of course I was standing within the crowd without moving as little as a muscle.
It seemed like the team I was secretly cooperating with wasn’t found out.
‘There’s nothing I can do anymore about the tournament, I need to find another way to make the money.’, even if the tournament was over, I couldn’t give up. I promised I would get them out of there.
“Hey, Shiro.”, Gray walked over to me, but I ignored him.
‘As much as I’d like to blame everything on ‘him’, I have no reason to. Blaming him would bring nothing, had we stayed their any longer the shield would’ve either been stolen from us or destroyed.’
“Uhm, Shiro.”, Gray annoyed me once again. “What is it? Don’t you see I am—“
Right at the moment I set my eyes on Gray, my gaze instantly moved towards the object he was holding, the golden chalice.
<< The levels of 'Enhanced Agility', 'Intuition', 'Chant Revocation', 'Magic Resistance', 'No-Attribute Magic', 'Mana Manipulation', 'Dark Aura' and 'Fast Thought Processing' have increased. >>
How did he not get Shield Technique after that? Everyone around him seemed to think he was moving as though he had had it, so how was that not enough?
Like Attribute Magic, he needs proficiency towards the usage of a shield in order to get the skill faster. Although, unlike attribute magic, techniques that require training instead of talent or the ability to get set attribute.
Shiro didn't get the skill, mainly due to the fact that he didn't use the shield enough. And, that he doesn't have a proficiency towards it.
I hope that serves as an explanation.
i am confused what did mc's team mate do to the shield for it to disapper
He ran forward really fast with the shield, all of the impacts to the shield reducing it to nothing but scrap.
@Perfect_Insanity oh thanks that makes sense
Thx for the chap.
Gray, man, I want see your luck stat.
6.022 times 10 to the power of 23