Perfect World [EN]: Chapter 388

390

“Everyone, keep a close watch. Report anything unusual immediately.”

Following Karelia’s command, the two gladiators behind her carefully scanned their surroundings. The atmosphere was quiet, and the wind was still, not even rustling the leaves. There was nothing out of the ordinary. However, the Forest Elf gladiator with the number 6 on her back approached Karelia with a troubled expression. Something felt off.

“Something feels strange around you, Sister.”

“What is it?”

She glanced at the bird cameras [small drones used for surveillance and broadcasting] flying nearby.

“The number of bird cameras has more than doubled. Just a moment ago, there were only about six, but now there are well over ten.”

“Everyone, stop!”

Karelia whispered, raising her hand to halt everyone and survey the area. There were hundreds of bird cameras in the arena, so having ten or so nearby wouldn’t normally be an issue, but one could never be too sure. The number of bird cameras increased when there were other beings nearby besides them.

‘Could it be that Beomseok is near here?’

It might be Beomseok, but it could also be other fellow gladiators. They checked each other’s locations via communication every hour, but the hologram cube in the center was currently out of order, so they couldn’t know for sure. However, there was a definite way to find out.

The approximate location of each gladiator was being displayed on a mobile hologram video above the arena, for the audience to see.

Although they couldn’t get a detailed view, they could figure out who was nearby by checking this video.

She nudged the shoulder of the number 9 gladiator next to her.

“You, climb up the tree and check the hologram video. Let me know if anyone is nearby.”

“Yes, Sister.”

The number 9 gladiator jumped high and firmly grabbed a thick tree branch. After swinging her body to gain momentum, she lightly stepped onto it. At that moment, she heard a sharp whistling sound and tilted her head to the side.

“Wh, what!”

With a short scream, a throwing knife struck her face directly. There wasn’t much room to dodge on the tree branch, and more importantly, it was already too late to avoid it.

Her body stiffened, and she fell weakly to the ground. Sensing a potentially injurious situation, the number 6 gladiator quickly spread her arms to catch her. However, this was a mistake. Beomseok, who had leaped in for a surprise attack, brushed past the number 6 gladiator and precisely slashed her waist with his jungle knife.

Karelia, who had watched this from beginning to end, belatedly shouted at the top of her lungs. She couldn’t face Beomseok alone, so she had to call for her other teammates.

“Sister Lypris! Sister Moia! Beomseok is here!”

But before she could finish, Beomseok disappeared into the nearby bushes. She didn’t dare chase after him and instead warily scanned her surroundings with a tense expression. Even holding her ground and waiting for her teammates to arrive was difficult now.

“Hurry! Beomseok has appeared near Karelia!”

Lypris rushed towards Karelia’s location with gladiators number 14 and 5. According to the communication, Karelia was the only one unharmed in their group. Lypris knew very well that she couldn’t face Beomseok alone.

At that moment, the number 5 gladiator moved to her side and said,

“Sister, we’ll get caught if we rush. And we don’t know exactly where Sister Karelia is. I think it would be better to go slowly while surveying the surroundings.”

“Karelia will get caught if we do that. Then this round is over!”

“But it’s really over if we get caught too.”

Lypris shot a sharp glance at the number 5 gladiator.

“Don’t talk nonsense! Beomseok is alone, and there are three of us.”

“There were three in Sister Karelia’s group too. But she’s the only one left.”

“But I’m here!”

The number 5 gladiator frowned. She acknowledged Lypris’s skills, but she didn’t think she could face Beomseok. Apart from battles in this kind of forest terrain, there was a significant difference even in basic swordsmanship. He was a gladiator who had driven even Prisika, who had once held the title of the strongest, to despair.

‘Honestly, Tiela is much stronger in the Home Colosseum [their usual training arena]. She’s been with our team since her promising days. On the other hand, Sister Lypris hasn’t even been transferred for a few years.’

Moreover, Tiela had predicted this situation before the match and even suggested a draw, showing how well she knew Beomseok’s strength. No matter how she looked at it, she trusted Tiela more than Lypris.

At that moment, the number 5 gladiator saw a gladiator standing stiffly with a sword in her field of vision. She couldn’t see clearly because she was hidden between the trees, but it seemed to be Karelia.

“Sister! Sister Karelia is over there!”

Lypris nodded with a bright expression. Since she had eyes, there was no way she wouldn’t have seen her.

“Good. Let’s go to Karelia.”

“Yes.”

As Lypris and the number 5 gladiator emerged from the bushes, Karelia let out a deep sigh of relief and staggered slightly. She had been so tense that she had lost all her strength.

“Whew~ Sister, you’re here.”

“Yes. What happened to the others?”

Karelia pointed to the number 9 and 6 gladiators lying on the ground nearby.

“As I said, they were both taken down.”

“How on earth did they end up like that?”

“I don’t know. It happened so fast that I couldn’t figure it out properly.”

Lypris frowned in annoyance. She had lost two people and didn’t even know how it happened, which was pathetic.

Karelia cautiously asked her,

“By the way, Sister, where did one go? Only two of you came.”

Lypris raised an eyebrow and looked back. The only teammate who had followed her was the number 5 gladiator. That meant the number 14 gladiator who had been with them was not here.

She looked at the number 5 gladiator and said,

“Why are you alone?”

The number 5 gladiator looked around and made a troubled expression.

“I don’t know. She was following behind me until just now. Could she have fallen behind?”

Annoyed, Lypris frowned. Even if they had moved a little faster, she couldn’t understand how a W1-class gladiator [a gladiator of a specific skill level] could fall behind.

At that moment, Karelia, looking worried, stepped forward and said,

“Co, could it be that Beomseok took her down?”

“Don’t talk nonsense. She was always behind us.”

“But if she had fallen behind, she should have contacted us by now.”

Well, there was some truth to her words. Since there was definitely a communication device in her helmet, she should have contacted them if she had been separated.

‘Damn it, we’ve been had!’

Lypris had a strong sense of foreboding.

In fact, Beomseok’s swordsmanship was good enough to easily eliminate Karelia. But the fact that he had left her alone and left this place meant that he had other intentions. Like targeting them.

‘That’s right. He knew it would be difficult if we joined the battle with Karelia, so he left her as bait and targeted us as we rushed over.’

Realizing this, she swallowed hard. She had been ignoring Tiela’s advice, but now she realized she had made a mistake. He was gradually eliminating her teammates one by one, as if mocking their arrogance.

“Eve, everyone, move while guarding the surroundings!”

The confidence that Lypris had before was gone from her voice. Even though she had rushed over, she didn’t even know that her teammate who had been with her had been taken down. That meant that the opponent’s skills were not to be underestimated.

“Where to?”

“We’re going to the leader, Sister Miraz. It’s dangerous to be separated!”

Karelia immediately said,

“Then are we going with Tiela’s draw strategy?”

“If possible… we have to do that.”

Karelia nodded. For now, the best option was to join the group with Miraz and Tiela and get out of the forest. If they continued to be defeated like this and lost in the first round, it would really be over. Then, in order to win or draw in today’s match, they would need to win a round, which meant continuing the jungle battle.

Karelia put her back to Lypris and the number 5 gladiator and said,

“Okay. Let’s move now.”

“We have to. Come on, don’t rush and follow me closely. Never forget to thoroughly guard the surroundings!”

“Yes. Don’t worry.”

Lypris’s group soon began to move slowly to the west, to join Miraz, who was searching there.

‘I have to be careful. Otherwise, we can all be taken down in an instant.’

Lypris’s tense gaze quickly turned from side to side. She focused her eyes and scanned her surroundings, as if not wanting to miss even the slightest rustling of leaves. But because of the bird cameras fluttering around, she kept getting distracted. Dozens of them had already gathered in this place, filming every detail.

Karelia leaned closer and said in a trembling voice,

“B, Beomseok is nearby right now.”

“How do you know that?”

“All the bird cameras around us are flocking to this place. We were attacked by Beomseok right after this happened before.”

Well, the sight of Beomseok in action was going to be the main highlight of today’s match. It was only natural that many bird cameras would be deployed to film him. But what was driving her crazy was that even though she knew he was there, she couldn’t see him.

Because the bird camera lenses were pointing in different directions, there was no way to pinpoint Beomseok’s location.

“Everyone, be careful! You never know when Beomseok will appear!”

“Yes!”

After a moment of tension, Lypris smiled brightly. She quickly looked to her right at the rustling sound, and she saw some of her teammates approaching. Since the leader, Miraz’s group, was the only one besides them, it could be said that they had achieved their goal.

“Sister Miraz! We’re here! Come quickly!”

Miraz turned her head to the left and gestured to Tiela and the guardian gladiator to change direction. Now that they had met Lypris’s group, they just had to join them and get out of the forest.

Suddenly, Tiela’s eyes widened. A black figure was dropping on top of Lypris’s head, who was approaching happily. Recognizing that it was Beomseok, she shouted loudly,

“Sister! Danger!”

With a harsh metallic sound, Karelia and the number 5 gladiator fell with a dumbfounded expression. Beomseok had landed in the center of Lypris’s group, who were back-to-back, and accurately struck the back of their necks with the twin swords in his hand. Fortunately, Lypris, who had heard Tiela’s warning, jumped away at the last moment and was safe, but the loss of these two was a painful blow to the Forest Elves.

Tiela rushed over and blocked between Beomseok and Lypris, who was rolling on the ground.

“You can’t come any further!”

Beomseok, with a bitter smile, slowly retreated. In the meantime, Miraz and the guardian gladiators had taken out their bows and were drawing their strings.

“I won’t go even if you ask me to. The game is already over.”

“What do you mean the game is over? We still have five left.”

Beomseok, who had hidden himself back into the darkness, said in a sinister tone,

“You have five, and we have 12.”

“Wh, what does that mean?”

But he didn’t answer any further. They would find out naturally anyway. It was just a waste of breath to say it. There was no flat land for them to return to now.

– Do, do not come to our dugout [shelter], everyone.

Tiela shouted at the top of her lungs at the director’s communication.

“What does that mean!”

– Six Gods Knights gladiators are breaking through the center of the forest and setting up camp. The moment you return, you will be attacked from the front and back. The only way to survive now is to eliminate Beomseok.

Tiela gripped her sword tightly. If that was the situation, the director’s judgment was correct.

If they fought the Gods Knights gladiators who were occupying the flat land in front of the dugout right now, and Beomseok attacked from behind, they would face a disadvantageous situation. Of course, it was still worth a try with Lypris and Miraz remaining, but if the five opposing gladiators waiting on the flat land in front of the Gods Knights dugout crossed the forest and joined in the fierce battle, the game would be over.

She approached Miraz and said,

“Sister, what should we do?”

“Well, it seems difficult to go to the flat land as the director said. We have no choice but to lose due to numerical inferiority.”

“But Beomseok is in this forest.”

“I know. But facing Beomseok is much more likely to result in a draw. We still have five, so if we pay close attention, he won’t be able to attack us recklessly.”

Tiela nodded as if agreeing with that opinion. There were five of them, and he was alone. If they stayed put and guarded the surroundings, Beomseok wouldn’t be able to do anything, she thought.

“Okay. Then where should we start camping?”

“Let’s move a little further east. This place is too overgrown with bushes, so we can easily be ambushed.”

Tiela, who looked around at the surrounding dense trees, immediately answered. As Miraz said, this was a good place to attack.

“Okay. Let’s go then.”

Soon, five Forest Elves gladiators, including Tiela, began to move. They were planning to find a place where it was easy to guard the surroundings and aim for a draw.

============================ Author’s Notes ============================

Ah. My head is spinning. I think I drank too much. I have too many drinking parties every weekend, so I’m worried about this. ^^;;;;;;

Then everyone have a nice day. I’ll see you again tomorrow.