Chapter 8: Rogue Lords (8)

With Randall in front of me, I equip [Daitouren]. The effect duration is 30 minutes!

[Ryuichi Hasegawa / Aintorian Erhin]

[Age: 25 years]

[Martial force: 58+30 (88)]

[Intelligence: ?]

[Command: ?]

The martial force figures jumped; a lower-grade martial force of 58 turned into a top-tier B-class instantly!

I shoved Bente away and executed the [Attack] command towards the flying enemy spear. My hand with the Datouren moved by itself, shaking off the enemy’s spears.

I felt a slight numbness in my fingertips; it was a rather pleasant sensation: it was so easy to thwart an enemy’s attacks with 88 martial force.

“Huh?”

Naturally, Randall tilted his head in disbelief. Then, in a half-crazed frenzy, he ran toward me while slaughtering my soldiers. There is no soldier in Aintorian that can rival an enraged warlord with 85 martial force; I’m the only one.

“Uhhhhh! Monster. Help me!”

Although he only threw a spear at them, some of the soldiers were killed at once when the spear pierced through them like a skewer as they were fleeing. Finally, some of the soldiers even peed their pants and ran away in fear.

“Lord! Please run! He is Randall, one of the ten warlords of Narja! He’s a brutal guy, please run!”

Then I heard a centurion under Haddin’s command shouting at me from behind the trap. It seemed that Haddin had noticed Randall’s presence. As I suspected, he was a renowned warlord. Then it’s even better. It’s time for the lord’s majesty to be engraved in the minds of my fleeing troops.

“Ten warlords or not, I’ll take care of him!”

I rode my horse to Randall, the moment when everyone who witnessed Randall’s bravery and thought I was reckless we collided.

“Sneaky move. Kuh-hahahahaha!”

Randall brandished his spear with all his might, sneering at me. That’s a lot of confidence, I’m sure he has the ability to be confident, but there is no way he can be a match for me right now.

As I grabbed my Daitouren and executed the [Attack] command, Randall’s massive spear and my sword crossed paths.

Randall, who swung his spear aiming to kill me with a single blow, attacked again with a disbelieving expression. Of course, I used the [Attack] command to repel all of his attacks.

The longer the weapon, the more advantageous it is in hand-to-hand combat. But my martial force value is higher than his, and my weapon is super-special. As a result, Randall is slowly being pushed by my attacks. The puzzled look on his face was evident as he spiritedly swung his spear.

“Die, die, die, die! How dare a mere lord stop me!”

That attack was also blocked with the [Attack] command. I was sure I had the upper hand, but for now, we were even. If the 30-minute time limit expired and I was unable to stop him, I would die.

[Crush]

[Slice through everything you touch when used.]

[You can apply a one-hit kill or stun only to enemies with up to +5 more martial force than you.]

[Can be used once every 30 minutes]

Now that I have a skill, I’ll have to use it. It’s a weapon skill that can only be used with Daitouren.

A skill that allows me to kill enemies with up to +5 more martial force than me in a single shot. Furthermore, it even had a function that allowed me to choose whether to kill or stun the enemy.

Initially, one-hit-kill kind of skills could only kill enemies. Still, there is a reason why the stun feature was included. The ultimate goal of this game is world domination.

That’s precisely what this feature is for, as a result of gamers demanding to game’s management to take their favorite enemies alive, or in other words, to recruit talents. This demand was also accurately reflected in the real world.

What was frightening about [Crush] was that it could kill an enemy with a martial force value of +5 higher than mine with a single hit.

Of course, it could only be used once in 30 minutes. So it would be useless if there were two strong enemies. But thanks to this skill, I was able to parade around the battlefield. It’s the protective barrier that holds me alive.

It’s a privilege, and that’s why I can survive the battle. Otherwise, I would have been dead long ago.

Randall’s recruitment was not in my mind, so I used [Crush] with a single thought in mind.

At that moment, the flying Daitouren cut through the enemy’s spear with a white flash, and then it went straight into Randall.

“Nah, Nah!”

Carelessness on the battlefield is a grave issue, and pride is even more of a no-no.

With a scream, blood sprayed from his head like a fountain. This is a world where the game has become reality, and on a battlefield, there is nothing more reckless than hesitance to kill your enemy.

Randall’s body immediately tumbled off the horse. As his body fell to the ground, silence fell over our surroundings. My troops, and even the enemy’s troops, stopped fighting and looked at us with open mouths as if they hadn’t expected to see this. No one would have expected Randall to die like this.

Now’s the time to break the enemy’s spirits.

“What are you doing! The commander is dead! Clear out the enemy forces!”

“Whooooooooooooo!”

Our morale went up.

[Morale at 90]

My troops, whose morale reached 90, rushed toward the enemy soldiers with a loud battle cry. Engulfed in shock, the enemy troops lost their commander and began to retreat left and right, not knowing what to do.

I was waiting for this retreat. I’m not going to let them leave quietly.

“Bente, raise the smoke again. Second ambush!”

“Yes sir!”

Bente raised the smoke with a satisfied look on his face. Soon the smoke could be seen in the sky. The moment Haddin saw this smoke, the fleeing enemy forces should be even more confused.

There was help from the system, but this was a moment of victory in a real battle!

The most precious loot of all was my life; I had survived and changed my fate. I began to get excited about that.

The pressure was incomparable to a game consisting of mere graphics, and the excitement of winning filled me with the feeling that world domination was not a dream because of the perks and the system.

* * *

The enemy forces, whose morale and line of battle had collapsed, were badly damaged as they began to retreat instead of advancing in the mountains. I allowed my troops to pursue them to the end. By the time the enemy troops had fled entirely across the border, it was morning.

I gave the order to withdraw to the barracks. It was noon when I returned to the lord’s castle after ordering the soldiers to rest.

After ordering the maids and the chamberlain not to wake me up, I went into my bedroom to see if I could level up.

[You have won a battle.]

[You have gained experience for victory].

[Experience gained]

[Strategy Grade C x1]

[Victory against an enemy army three times larger x3]

[Defeat a B-class opponent with E-Class strength x4]

Strategy grade means how efficiently I executed a tactic in combat. I only got a C? Was there a better strategy than this? This is reality there’s no way to start over, so I’m happy.

Winning against an enemy army that was three times larger than mine and killing Randall were the multipliers for my experience this time.

That means that when calculating the experience value needed to level up, it will be calculated at my original martial force of 58, not the martial force that was increased to +30 after using Daitouren.

The game’s basic rule is that you can only earn more experience by defeating a stronger opponent than you. Thanks to the perks, I was able to earn quite a bit of experience.

[Now at level 2.]

.

.

.

[Now at level 8.]

My level went up to 8.

Author note: There is a heroine. As in my previous novel, my heroine will appear later in the story. If you continue reading, she will come out eventually.