Translation: Charlotte
Editor: Weasalopes
「Wasn"t there some kind of plan that the summoner thread had?」
「Huh?」
「O- Oh, yeah!」
「You don"t have to worry too much about the plan, just show up whenever you feel like it.」
Both of them had shocked looks on their faces.
Was I successful?
「I was already thinking I had to kidnap you!」
「You don"t have to go that far… What time is it?」
「5 pm, after all the games should be over. We"re going to have dinner too.」
「Ah, that"s nice. What"re you guys going to do until then?」
「Watch some matches, I guess.」
「Me too. Want to watch together?」
The two of them looked at each other.
And then shouted at the same time.
「「Of course!」」
Ooh.
I hadn"t heard them shout something at the same time like that in a while.
The waiting room was crowded.
Well, that was natural.
There were a lot of matches, and a lot of players too.
The same lonely rooms in the last tournament became too cramped to breathe.
I did some last checks on my equipment.
Adele and Irina were also struggling to breathe.
「You guys want to head out to the ceremony?」
「Yeah, let"s do that.」
「The smell of sweat!」
Well, I suppose that was to be expected.
It was difficult to breathe for everyone.
The opening ceremony had already begun.
The Guild Leader was reading a speech on the platform.
Juna was standing next to him.
Along with Gelta and Master.
But I was more interested in my surroundings.
I was being stared at.
Was I being stared at?
Applause rang when the opening speech was over.
The time was 8:30 am.
The games started immediately.
I stood outside the waiting room.
From there, I could see the A arena and the C arena at the same time.
It was a good position.
Adele and Irina stood next to me.
Summon monsters surrounded us.
No one else came close.
Well, I did have Senki with me.
Adele was just enjoying getting surrounded by two tigers and two wolves.
Her face had a dangerous look to it.
Make sure you focus on the match too, alright?
Every match was interesting.
I looked at the battle logs too, but with spells and martial art skills flying be at such a speed, it was difficult to tell what was going on.
There were six players in one team and two teams fighting per match, after all.
But I could get the gist of each fight.
There were also some fights that were especially interesting too.
Rapid Projection.
It was a strategy that involved stopping arrows and spells while they were still in the air using wall spells.
They could then counterattack by sending arrows over the walls.
One party kept stopping the other party"s approach by using wall spells everywhere.
But wouldn"t that be a big burden on the MP bars of the players?
But it was still a good strategy.
Defence Focus.
A tactic that focused on defence, while slowly inching forward and choking the enemy.
With a few support players in the back, the tanks could repel any attacks in the centre.
It wasn"t a very flashy style, but it was good at getting wins.
I had to watch carefully if I wanted to grasp a chance to break through.
Mobility focus.
It was the strategy I liked the best.
At the start of the game, two players dashed to the left and right, attacking the enemy from both sides.
Depending on how strong the two players were, it looked very effective.
But the risk was also great.
With so many players on offence, they were very p.r.o.ne to getting counterattacked and then overwhelmed.
In the match I was watching, the attacking side"s rear guard player was almost completely crushed.
Well, it was something that had to be taken care of in the planning phase.
Attack Focus.
It was a simple strategy.
By just attacking head-on, it was a tactic that involved breaking through with force.
I only saw one party try it, and they were all dwarves.
Very effective, depending on the party members" toughness.
But a lot of parties went for a more balanced approach.
No, most of them, actually.
It was quite natural.
Each party member had different roles and different flanks to cover.
It was a safe style, not allowing many opportunities for attack.
It was very easy for attacks to fail against this type.
After that, it was just a matter of counterattacking.
With so many diverse players in a team, it would be easy to take advantage of a weakness in the enemy.
I couldn"t underestimate the strategy.
So what strategy would I go for?
Probably an offence focus strategy.
I mix in a bit of mobility focus in there too.
Higher-level parties tended to use spells and martial art skills more often.
Areof-Effect spells, in particular, appeared very often.
Lv.10 spells were less common, but still effective.
Spamming martial art skills was also an annoying tactic.
Well…
Worrying about it before my own fight wasn"t very helpful.
As usual.
Just as usual.
「Adele, it"s almost time for us I think.」
「Oh yeah! Let"s go!」
Time flew by.
It was already time for their first match.
A staff member came over to call them.
Well, they still had some preparations to do.
The time was still 9:20 am.
The matches proceeded at an amazing rate.
Of course, I immediately pulled out Adele"s and Irina"s battle log.
It was definitely much better to see the fight live.
But there were some things that could only be understood by looking at the battle log.
It provided a nice idea of the two parties" relative strengths.
There was still a lot I didn"t know though.
For example, in the case of Adele and Irina…
? ? ? Lv.9
Summoner On Standby
Forest Tiger / ? ? ? Lv.1
Summon Monster On Standby
Wolf / ? ? ? Lv.6
Summon Monster On Standby
? ? ? Lv.9
Summoner On Standby
Venom Python / ? ? ? Lv.1
Summon Monster On Standby
Tiger / ? ? ? Lv.6
Summon Monster On Standby
That was the only part I understood.
They still hide the partic.i.p.ants" names, huh.
Who were they up against?
? ? ? Lv.11
Fighter On Standby
? ? ? Lv.10
Fighter On Standby
? ? ? Lv.9
Fighter On Standby
? ? ? Lv.10
Hunter On Standby
? ? ? Lv.11
Sorcerer On Standby
? ? ? Lv.12
Treasure Hunter On Standby
Not too bad…
They had different equipment too, most of which I couldn"t recognise.
Who was the key to their strategy?
The fighters in the front were all humans.
Their equipment wasn"t heavy.
The three others had bows.
They were probably looking to settle the fight quickly.
The fighters looked ready to break out into a run.
There was one guy in the back, giving everyone else instructions.
It was probably the Treasure Hunter.
He was in the middle, surrounded by everyone else.
Hmm?
The match was about to begin.
The match started.
Everyone immediately got moving.
No, only Irina stood still.
She immediately pulled out an arrow and prepared to shoot.
Adele?
While moving to the right, she shot an arrow to keep the fighters away.
The Summon Monsters were the main force.
U-chan took the lead.
From there the tigers Calico and Mii-chan followed.
Wait, what? Toggle?
I spotted Toggle.
It was running behind Mii-chan.
The enemy shot arrow after arrow.
Half of them hit their targets.
But the Summon Monsters ignored them and kept running.
『Gaa!』
『Grau!』
『Gaaaaaa!!!』
The three of them stopped and roared at the same time.
In that moment, Toggle slipped ran into the fighters guarding the front.
No, Toggle was slipping past them.
That was probably the deciding moment of the fight.
The rear guard players fell into chaos.
Toggle wrapped around the sorcerer and bit into the sorcerer"s neck.
While keeping itself wrapped around the sorcerer, Toggle glared at everyone else.
I shivered too.
I thought Toggle was about to swallow the sorcerer whole.
The fighters probably noticed that the rear guard was down, and…
They made the fatal mistake of turning around.
『Gravel Blast!』
『Fire Storm!』
A barrage of attack spells. .h.i.t the distracted fighters.
As soon as the spells were over, the Summon Monsters jumped on them.
After that, it was just a matter of taking out the disorganised party.
They desperately tried resisting with martial art skills and spells, but eventually gave up.
The match was over in less than three minutes.
It would be an understatement to call it a perfect victory.