Infinite Realm

"Arggggh"

"Die bastard!"

"MTs, tank the trolls. Long-range players, aim at critical points. Let's go."

"Haha. Bro look. That troll looks like you. Hahaha."

"F**k yo- wait...it does look like me..."

On the main battlefield above, the players fought with their best against the monsters. Initially, they were shocked to see the trolls but this shock didn't last much since they were already informed by the System interface previously.

Rather than fear, the players were actually, rejoicing even, at the appearance of the trolls. After all, killing a single troll awarded more experience and kill points than a goblin.

With such an incentive, the players rushed towards the trolls like moths to a flame and even though some of them lost their lives to the trolls, more still targeted them.

It initially proved to be difficult for the players to be able to beat them but as time went on and more players accepted the challenge, they eventually found a way to handle the gargantuan creatures. Dividing themselves into groups, they each took on a troll and killed it before switching to another.

On a big scale, it looked as if the human forces were prevailing and indeed they were. With time, the humans would be the last ones standing.

"It's over already. Give up." Arman stated after tossing a Space dagger and using [Void Mirroring] to deflect an attack.[1]

"Is that what you think?" The Emissary smirked. "Let me ask you this, why did you think the little brat I left behind revealed himself late into the battle?"

"What do you mean demon?" Bishop Enzo frowned and stopped. Though he looked as if he was interested in finding out the answer behind the Emissary's statement, he was actually planning to take a breather from the tense fight.

"Foolish priest. Let me enlighten you then." The Emissary spoke without of worry of letting them recuperate. "If you plan to defeat an army, what is the most important thing to address?"

"A tactic?" Devas replied, unsure. However the Emissary ignored him.

"The commander." Arman frowned.

"Precisely. Once the commander or rather commanders are dealt with, what else is there to worry about?"

Realising the pattern he was going through, Bishop Enzo replied with a frown "The elites."

"You finally have sense, foolish priest." The Emissary chuckled a bit. "Yes, it's the elites. When they realise the existence of another commander apart from myself, what would they do?"

"They will look for him." Bishop Enzo replied once more.

"So what you're saying is that this is a trap?" Devas grimaced.

"Yes. It's a trap, aimed at your elites. From here on now, you've lost."

. . . . .

Back in the underground chamber...

Scanning the entire hall with his eyes, Kylian asked "Wasn't the boss here awhile ago? Where the hell is he?"

"I don't know..." Griffin replied. "What do we do?"

"... Spread out but don't be too far from each other." Chesces replied.

Fudo faced Sato with a look that seemed to ask whether he should do as Chesces said.

"Hmm." Sato nodded.

As they were about to scatter, they all heard indistinct clamoring, akin to that of a battle, coming from the edge of one of the closer walls. They then decided to check it out.

Heading over there, they listened carefully to the sounds. A few seconds later, Fudo glanced at Sato.

"Don't you find the voices familiar?"

Sato contemplated a bit before whispering back "It seems like it's the sound from earlier."

Previously, before Sato and Fudo had arrived in the boss' chamber, they had both heard a couple of indistinct clamoring similar to that which they were hearing now. They had initially thought it was coming from this hall but now hearing it again, they discovered that they were both wrong.

"They should be other players." Chesces stated.

"The sound is coming closer."

As Sato heard said, the initial low clattering became noisy as it approached closer to them.

"What do we do now?" Kylian asked.

"Long range players hide in the dark. In case they aren't friendly, you could easily take them down." Sato suggested

"Do as he says." Chesces replied. "By the way, I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Chesces of Emperor's Might." Chesces extended how arm towards Sato.

"Ok." Sato shook hands with him.

Chesces looked a bit stunned but not too much after all, it was dumb of him to believe that Sato would reveal his identity if he simply asked. If he did so, then what would be the use of the black cloak. Chesces had asked that with hope that Sato would simply lose his guard and answer straight way, reflexively[2]. Though he didn't have much hope of that happening, he still decided to try.

'This will be a tough nut to crack.'

A few seconds later, a door opened up as three figures jumped out of the entrance with the last one closing the door behind him.

"Ha, ha, ha. We almost died back there. Is this really an event for low level players?!" One of the figures complained while bending down and taking deep breaths.

"Hmm?" One of them eventually lifted his head to the side and saw the opposite group standing close by. "Who are you?" He asked while keeping a hand on his sword's hilt.

Walking forward, Chesces replied "Chesces of Emperor's Might."

Hearing the name of the guild, the newcomers were driven into astonishment wondering how they got paired with the members of Emperor's Might.

"No, wait. Can you prove your Identity?" A deep voice sounded from one of the figures, who looked to be their leader.

"Not really but you can trust us. Apart from us 2, the other one is a solo player but you don't need to worry about him." Chesces answered him while keeping the presence of Fudo and Kylian away from the newcomers.

"And you are?"

"Members of the tier 2 guild, East Crow." Old Jiro replied him.

"East Crow..." Griffin uttered in a pondering tone. "Troubled Sword's men right?" (AN : Daichi's IGN)

"Yes."

After they were done with the introductions, Old Juro spoke a little about their earlier encounter with rogue players and goblins which led to them running over here. Chesces, on the other hand, informed them of their current progress in the mission since having reached this point, fighting each other wouldn't be so smart as the boss is still nowhere to be seen and could possibly ambush them. As for the rewards from the trolls, they hide it from them as there was no reason to mention it.

"So the boss just disappeared?" Old Jiro asked.

"Apparently so." Griffin replied.

"Hmm...So the plan is to scatter out and look for him right? No problem but what if it's what it wants?"

"As we are now, unless we move about in groups, there's nothing else we can do." Chesces readily answered.

"Then where are the others?" Dream Tiger spoke up. "Even if you are a Super Guild, that doesn't give you the right to treat us as idiots. For only 2 of your guild members to make it here is pretty much impossible. The boss should have had a couple of guards or something so you can't just say that the 3 of you defeated them. You also didn't mention that they died so where are they?"

Chesces smiled and said "Alright. You can come out now." While the first part of the statement was aimed at Dream Tiger, the other was for Fudo and Kylian.

"As I expected." Dream Tiger frowned.

"Alright that's enough. It's normal to be suspicious." Old Jiro stopped Dream Tiger from taking the matter too far. He had actually reached the same conclusion as Dream Tiger but because the other party was a Super guild, he didn't force his way.

"Alright. So what do we do ne-"

"Kekekekekeke."

Interrupted by a weird laugh, they all entered battle mode while keeping their guards up for any surprise.

"What was that?" Swift Blade asked.

However, before he could get an answer, the voice came back again.

"Let the games begin."

AN :

[1] Creates a copy of an attack. Normally, this copy is fake but if more Mana is injected, a real copy could be produced but it will be far weaker than the original.

[2] When someone usually asks for your name, you tend to reply in reflexively without much thought towards it.