The Archer of a Fict.i.tious World 13
The Loner and the Event (4)
"What are we going to do? We"ll be defeated at this rate… there must be something we can do…"
"Projectiles won"t work as long as they"re within that "Light Curtain". You"ll have to fight in close quarters."
"Close quarters… And what if you lure them out of the Light Curtain, Saki? Could I attack them then…?"
"It doesn"t work like that. The Light Curtain"s range is 1 meter centered around its user, so that won"t do… The other two players behind Pisco are also rather famous. I"m not strong enough to force them out of their cover."
Saki sighed regretfully.
Sera was growing impatient. They had started running in Pisco"s opposite direction, so they had gotten some distance. But it would be a matter of time before they would catch up to them.
"Are we going to keep on running until that skill wears off?"
"The disadvantage of "Light Curtain" is that it keeps draining the user"s MP, and the user cannot do any action other than moving around while the skill is active. But Pisco"s companions surely know that as well. He can probably keep the skill up all the way until the event is over."
Sera was worried.
She was confident that she would be able to hold her own.
Her AGI was so high that if she were to simply keep on running, they would not be able to defeat her.
But Saki isn"t that lucky.
And according to her, the opponent seems to also have "Presence Detection A", so it would be a matter of time until they are found.
They may have met only recently, but they were in this together. They had come far.
Sera wanted to finish this event with her if possible.
"Pisco and his companions are probably setting up traps as they move. It"s going to be very hard to run away from them."
…Or perhaps they wouldn"t be able to escape at all.
Then something just clicked in Sera"s head.
"Saki, I have an idea."
"Huh?"
**********************
"Were you able to set the traps?"
"Yeah. We"ve laid traps all over the place."
"Well, doesn"t that cost a lot of MP? If you"ve set that many traps, haven"t you run out of it by now?
"I have the highest MP of all players. Well, I suppose I do have a little MP left…"
"Let"s get a move on. We need to reduce the amount of ground they can cover so we can catch up to them and beat them."
"Got it~ Hey, where is Sera now?"
"They haven"t moved an inch for a while. I wonder if they"ve given up…? Oh! One of them is moving and coming toward us! The other one still hasn"t moved yet!"
"At last! They must be trying to get you out of my Light Curtain"s range. Can you take them down without moving away from me?"
"If it"s just one of them, sure!"
The two of them readied their weapons.
They got closer to each other, and then…
"She"s here!"
"A Long Sword user, huh? Let"s go!"
"Be careful, you two!"
The woman who used Presence Detection was focused on Saki. The Light Curtain"s range wasn"t that wide.
Even though they were two versus one, they couldn"t just let their guard down.
It didn"t work. The woman should have kept focusing on using her Presence Detection, leaving the counterattack to her partner.
If only she had done that, she would have noticed the other girl who was approaching them at a tremendous speed.
Sera was running.
The plan was to take advantage of their Presence Detection and make them focus on Saki in order to approach them and attack before they can notice her.
She got closer to the male Dual Swords user.
His expression changed into total surprise as he noticed Sera.
Sera held an arrow in her hand and thrusted…!
"Woaaaah!"
The man dodged the attack in the nick of time.
The arrow Sera was holding as a dagger only managed to scratch his cheek.
The problem with leaving the Long Sword user to his teammate so he could focus on Sera was…
The male Dual Swords user suddenly felt an electric current flowing through his body.
Then he fell flat on the floor.
(What was that?)
"Wh… what!?
The female Dual Swords user looked at Sera.
It was understandable. She had appeared right in front of them just a second ago.
Anyone would be shocked.
However…
She shouldn"t have looked away.
"Take this!"
"Ack!"
The next moment, Saki had slashed at her with her Long Sword.
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"No way…"
Everything had happened in a matter of seconds.
Pisco could not believe what he had just seen.
Perhaps that"s why he made a fatal mistake when Saki and Sera turned to him.
He shouldn"t have stepped back.
He had forgotten.
He had forgotten that the Paralyze Traps were only visible to the one who set them.
He had forgotten that they remain on the field until their effect expires, even if the user"s HP becomes zero.
He had forgotten that such traps had been laid all over the place wherever they had been before.
"Auugggghhhhaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!"
And so, Pisco"s party of three was completely defeated.
"That was amazing, Sera! To be honest, I was a bit shocked when I heard what your plan was! I can"t believe you were actually able to cover that much distance so quickly!"
"Ahaha…"
She answered to Saki"s praise with laughter.
Sera"s plan had been rather unreasonable, to say the least.
The plan to stun one of the Dual Swords users with Sera"s skill "Paralysis Arrow" worked perfectly, but he could have resisted the paralysis effect.
Had he been calm enough to face Saki, the plan would not have worked.
The plan didn"t include defeating Pisco, either. After dealing with the two Dual Swords users, he would have no choice but to keep his "Light Curtain" up for the remainder of the event.
So the plan was to simply keep on running until the event was over.
But that"s not what happened.
"Sera, since Pisco is paralyzed, he cannot use his "Light Curtain". You can go ahead and finish both him and the remaining Dual Swords user off."
"Is that okay with you, Saki?"
"I was able to defeat one of them, so that"s enough for me.
Sera nodded and proceeded to deliver the final blow on both of them.
Shortly after that…
『The event has finished~! Well done, everyone!』
Gaiko"s voice echoed throughout the field.
And so, Sera"s first event was over.