Chapter 89: An unlikely alliance.

Chapter 89: An unlikely alliance.

Several minutes after Karon had left, a few dozen creatures burrowed out of the ground and took to the skies. The insect monsters that guarded this crown looked more akin to flies than ants. They had compounded eyes and hovered from one place to another, seemingly unimpeded by their size and weight. Their backs were fuzzy and their insect legs had large hooks protruding from their skeleton in several places. From the way they were staring at me, I knew they considered me as their next dinner.

They were a little more threatening than the ants had been, thanks to their mobility, but their defenses were lacking. As they rammed into my maelstrom, they were torn limb from limb before they even got past the outside barrier. I knew flying creatures were more brittle, but damn.

Once again, the hive mind controlling them ordered them to keep their distance from me, but this seemingly went against their instincts. Before long, they would revert to their previous pattern of behavior: rush to their deaths. The few stragglers that were either smart or obedient enough to stay away were quickly cut down by my overloaded sword.

Like this, my attackers were wiped out, before being replaced by another group of reinforcements, which died in similar ways.

Time passed, and wave after wave of bugs put me under siege, as hordes of flying monsters dotted the sky, ready to defend their territory. The corpses piled up around my maelstrom and the green blood pooled around my feet. This method of hunting was convenient, at least. All I had to do was concentrate and keep my skill up.

After what felt like an hour, I noticed the number of insects start to thin again. I stood up and readied my sword, expecting another tier 3 monster to appear. Sure enough, after I killed the last normal bug, another rose to the skies to meet me.

Of similar size as the centipede had been, the dragonfly kept its eyes on me as its wings beat so quickly it nearly hurled me off of my feet. The sheer size of those wings, paired with their wingbeat which was too fast to see with the naked eye, was enough to tear shrubbery straight from the earth, roots and all. Its front wings and back wings moved opposite from one another, which I supposed allowed it to hover in place.

At least I was finally getting some use out of my armor, since its weight helped keep my feet on the ground.

Our battle began without any exchange of words, obviously. The dragonfly zipped from my left to my right, quickly approaching me as if I were prey. Its wings became more synchronized, now moving simultaneously as it homed in on me. I used my [Dark blade maelstrom] to interrupt its chase in an attempt to catch it off guard, but it dodged out of the way of my erupting cyclone right at the last second, and flew higher into the sky. Follow current novels at novelhall.com)

A moment later, I saw it hovering a few meters away from the outer part of my maelstrom, sizing me up. We stared at one another for a few moments, until I decided that I was wasting time and let my maelstrom go. The predatory dragonfly flew right at me with a glint in its eye, having found an opportunity to strike. This straightforward style of hunting was to its detriment, however. Right before it reached me, I used [Overloaded sword] and sent a sword arc in between its two compounded eyes. The creature didnt even have the time to shriek as its body was split into two halves, which parted ways before my eyes, splattering me with bug blood. The two halves of its body fell to my sides.

I breathed out in relief.

Well, that was easy. Thank Helios for dumb monsters that charge straight ahead. Did its intelligence not rise at all from when it was an actual dragonfly? That thing just followed its instincts, I think I muttered.

The dragonfly's moronic tactics also proved that the hive mind couldnt commence tier 3 creatures, like it could tier 2 ones. At least, that was if there was a hive mind at all. For all I knew, the tournament organizers control all of these bugs themselves.

Event notification: The tier 3 King monster in charge of this crown has been defeated. The crown will now disappear and no longer reward points to those within the area. For clearing a crown, you and your alliance have been awarded points.

As the notification rang, I saw the golden mark in the sky slowly fade away, and the golden circle that designated this crown turned to dust in the wind. That was another one down, making my total amount of conquered crowns two. If I was right and there were only 26 to start with, I would have gotten a large percentage of the total available points to myself. Still, this wasnt the time to get arrogant. There were more crowns to conquer and more points to gain.

I repeated this mantra to myself as I shot into the sky, jumping from aura-foothold to foothold, in search of any nearby golden light.

~scene transition~

Ten minutes later, I still hadnt come across any crowns. Many must have been conquered by now, because I felt like I was wasting my time at this point. Why didnt the organizers introduce another mechanic to spice things up, like they had done in the doubles category?

My question was soon answered by the flashing lights on the horizon. A myriad of colors and shapes were erupting constantly, swallowing one another. I dropped down to the ground and stealthily approached, curious to see what was going on before making my presence known.

His skepticism abated somewhat at my reply.

Well, I havent seen any crowns for a while now, but I havent exactly been looking, what with this internal conflict business. The last I saw in the sky was a few miles from here, in that direction. he said, as he pointed in the direction that I had just come from. Clearly, he couldnt help me further.

Lacking any concrete goals, I decided to just ask a few more questions.

So how does that internal conflict work, exactly? Is it an event phase or something?

No, dont think so, meself. Rictas and I got into an argument, and he was our alliance leader. During the argument, an event notification popped up and told all of us about a possible internal conflict. Accept, and the loser will not be part of the alliance anymore and lose a buncha points as well. Say, who are you, anyway? Wheres your alliance, stranger? Not too many lone players left, at this point

His caution had now reappeared in full force, since he couldnt be certain if I was a bad egg that had gotten kicked out of his own alliance, after all.

No reason to lie, I decided to tell him the truth.

I cleared two crowns on my own, so Im the sole member of alliance R. I spoke with a light chuckle, seeing his face warp in surprise.

As he recovered from his shock, he straightened his posture and stared me dead in the eyes.

Bollocks. he said dryly.

Not bollocks. I replied with a smile.

One of Johns thugs had approached us during the conversation and pulled John to the side to whisper into his ear. When John returned, he looked a lot more cautious than before.

So my friend here tells me youre some kinda big shot. So lets say I believe you for now. That leaves the question of why youre still even here in the first place. Looking for a fight?

Not at all. Im looking for points, but I can't find any. All of the crowns are gone from the sky. Nothing to see for miles and miles.

John took my measure for a moment, before surprising me with a proposal.

Well, since thats the case, why dont you run with us for a while. You dont need to join the alliance, mind you. We could use the extra muscle, is all. We lost a lot of good people to Rictas dumb ideology. Get a few people to the next round and fuck the rest, right? My belief is that everyone of us should get a fair shot. If we dont make it, thats on us being too weak. Whats the point of getting into the last round when youre just gonna get knocked out in the first fight anyway?

I nodded along to Johns explanation. I couldnt relate, to be honest, but I could see how that ideology might be preferable to a larger group.

Well, alright. Ill stick with you guys for a while. The moment I see any points, however, Im gone.

John laughed. It was the kind of laugh that was easy to laugh along to, one that made you trust the other person instinctively.

Ill keep tha in mind, fella.