Ch.6564. The Imperial Princess (8)

# 64. The Princess (8)

That was our plan—to roam around the set and slaughter the surviving teams.

At least, that was supposed to be the plan, but…

“When are they going to show up?…”

I wasn’t sure if the set was ridiculously huge or if there weren’t many people left, but we’d been wandering around for two hours without encountering a single team.

“The watch shows that 5,000 out of 9,000 people are still alive… but we can’t find any of them.”

The watch displayed not only the current time and map but also information like the number of survivors and teams remaining.

While examining this useful watch, I noticed a timer whose purpose I couldn’t understand.

Since I didn’t know what the timer meant, I asked them.

“What’s this timer for?”

“When that timer ends, the set shrinks by a certain percentage. It was added after the survival event lasted two days last year.”

“Once every four hours… why even bother with that…”

Elin, wearing a disgruntled expression, stared at the nearly finished timer as she spoke.

“Look at the map.”

“The map?”

As the timer reached zero, the map changed.

‘It got smaller…’

It wasn’t drastically smaller, but it seemed to have shrunk by about 20%.

I could clearly understand what she meant by “shrinking by a certain percentage.”

“It really did get smaller, but not by much. I thought it would shrink more since this is the first time…”

“But… what happens to the people who were in the areas that disappeared?”

“They get teleported to the nearest available location from where they were.”

If that was the case, there was a good chance that two teams could suddenly be teleported to the same location.

‘Some unlucky teams might end up that way.’

***

And indeed, there were some unlucky teams.

The suddenly teleported members of Team 44, especially Chris who was acting as their de facto leader, got up from the floor and surveyed their surroundings.

“Teleportation? Ah… looks like time’s up.”

“Yeah… just our luck.”

The moment Chris heard the voice of the coward who had been beaten by him earlier and then fled shamefully, he looked in the direction of the voice.

And that coward also spotted the priest who had mercilessly assaulted him.

“Well, well! Nice to see you again after so long!”

“Ah… seriously… what rotten luck.”

The two teams, each seeking revenge for earlier, began attacking each other with their weapons.

Both teams had only about half their original members left, but since these were the survivors of the previous battle, their overall skill level was higher than before.

And the two individuals who had reluctantly postponed their duel earlier now looked at each other with smiles.

“Shall we settle this once and for all?”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

Reina drew her sword, revealing her will to fight.

“Come at me.”

As soon as Reina finished speaking, their battle began.

Raicle activated his skill and threw a punch aimed at his opponent’s face.

-Clang!-

Just like in their previous fight, Reina easily blocked the punch with her sword.

With fist and sword locked together, Raicle asked:

“What exactly is your skill?”

“You don’t need to know that.”

“Could it be that you haven’t even achieved your first awakening yet?”

Hearing this, Reina’s expression hardened as she replied in a cold voice:

“That’s not it.”

“Then why aren’t you using it?”

“Shut up.”

Reina shot him a cold glare and swung her sword.

-Clang! Clang! Clang!-

Reina’s sword and Raicle’s fist collided repeatedly, creating fierce impact sounds.

They continued attacking each other, each determined to prove their superiority.

-Clang!-

About 30 minutes had passed… their duel kept dragging on, and both were nearly at their limits.

Reina, addressing her opponent who was panting just as heavily as she was, said:

“Looks like… you’re out of mana now?”

Raicle ignored her comment.

He extended his fist toward the annoying girl before him.

Though his skill had deactivated due to mana depletion, his punch still carried considerable power.

However, it was clearly much weaker than when his skill had been active.

-Slash!-

Reina easily cut through his softened fist.

Bright red blood began flowing between his fingers.

Raicle looked at the gruesome sight and sighed.

“Haah…”

“You never deliver the finishing blow. That’s why you always lose like this.”

Raicle was a warrior with a similar style to Albert.

He used the stat difference provided by his skill to gain the upper hand in battle.

But that was all.

He was good at pressuring his opponents but couldn’t finish them off.

So eventually, as battles dragged on, he would lose due to his low mana reserves.

“Unlike someone else I know.”

But as Reina said, that “someone” who fought in a similar style was different.

Albert also fought primarily using stat differences and didn’t have any particularly powerful finishing moves.

However, he overcame that weakness through experience alone.

With battle instincts born from experience, he could neutralize his opponent’s techniques and drive his sword into them.

‘I wonder if he was like me at first…’

As Raicle thought, Albert had indeed gone through such a phase.

There was a time when, just like Raicle now, he would eventually lose as battles dragged on.

But he overcame it.

Through countless practice sessions, he endured numerous wounds and made many mistakes.

And the sharp instincts forged through that harsh training served as his excellent weapon, both then and now.

‘I should ask him about it sometime…’

Thinking of someone who used the same fighting style yet always emerged victorious unlike himself, Raicle accepted his defeat.

“I’ve lost. Finish it quickly.”

“What’s this? Admitting defeat so readily…?”

For some reason, he bowed his head with a bright expression.

Reina, looking at his pitiful appearance, said:

“Or would you like to form an alliance with us?”

“Alliance? What nonsense is that? How can you suggest such a thing in this situation?”

“I should have mentioned it earlier…”

Both teams, which originally had about half their members left, now had only about 40 people each.

“But what do you think about an alliance? We’re also in danger with so few people left.”

“That’s all because of you guys.”

“What are you talking about? You attacked us first.”

As the two bickered, others joined the conversation.

Chris, who had somehow maintained a relatively decent condition amidst the chaos, stopped his fight with Briton and approached the two.

Ignoring Briton who followed behind him, he shared his opinion:

“An alliance doesn’t sound bad.”

“What’s not bad about it?”

Raicle continued to show a negative reaction.

“If we keep fighting like this, we’ll both lose, and even if one side wins, what then?”

“Even with an alliance, we can’t defeat those monster-like guys anyway.”

“That’s true, but we can avoid them.”

Reina also supported Chris’s opinion, and gradually, a pro-alliance atmosphere began to form.

Encouraged by Reina’s support, Chris spoke with a clear voice:

“Right, we can avoid that team and take care of the weaker teams.”

“Easy to say, but…”

“It’s still better than continuing to fight like this. Don’t you all agree?”

As members of both teams showed positive reactions to the alliance proposal, Raicle reluctantly said:

“Fine… let’s form an alliance. And could you heal this for me?”

Having formed an alliance, the two teams enjoyed a brief moment of peace while treating their wounds.

“Isn’t this moving too fast?”

“Let’s just go with it. Don’t you agree?”

Though Raicle felt like punching Chris for his sarcastic attitude, he decided to hold back given the circumstances.

But the next comment was too much to bear:

“You were the loser anyway. You should be grateful that the winner showed mercy.”

“Do you really want to get hit?”

“Just kidding, just kidding. It’s a joke, a joke.”

Reina intervened to stop Raicle, who looked ready to throw a punch.

“Calm down. And you, stop provoking him. You’ll end up in a real fight.”

“Alright, alright.”

The alliance, which started with bickering, seemed quite unstable.

Reina sighed deeply as she watched the two going back and forth, despite being on the same team now.

***

At that same time.

The team that had been labeled as “monsters” by the alliance was indeed acting like monsters.

“You psychopath…”

I pointed my sword at the last survivor of Team 32.

‘Psychopath… I don’t think I’m that bad…’

It felt really unfair to keep hearing such comments when all I was doing was eliminating opposing teams in the survival event.

“Do I seem like a psychopath to you?”

“Of course… slicing people with that expressionless face…”

Certainly, as he said, I had become almost numb to the act of cutting people down.

I’d done it too many times, and such trivial emotions were unnecessary to begin with.

In fact, they would only get in the way.

“When you get a bit older, you’ll become like me… though, maybe you can’t quite reach my level.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing. Farewell.”

I sliced his neck with my sword, and he disappeared from that spot in a brilliant flash of light.

After dealing with him, I returned to where she was.

As soon as she spotted me, she ran over and asked:

“What does Albert think about when cutting people down?”