After separating from the two, Sally moved around, hiding up in trees and in bushes and behind rocks as she searched the area for the other guilds.
Sally had found 5 guilds in all, after moving quite far.
And not all of them were small guilds, there were some that were medium sized.
Sally noted all of this with the locations on her map and then left the area, making sure that no one saw her.
“The medium-sized guild is inside the ruins… There is a ceiling over the orb, but no walls…hmm.”
Sally closed her map and leaned against the trunk of a tree in order to think.
They had achieved victory in the last fight while using as little energy as possible. But there was no guarantee that things would go smoothly next time.
Furthermore, while Sally was exploring, she realized that there was hardly any items to be found.
The only thing she found were items that recovered equipment durability, which was made specifically for this map.
That meant that they wouldn’t be able to make potions once they ran out of the ingredients.
“Harsh battles are being waged all over the place…Will we even have any MP potions left by the fifth day?”
MP potions depleted much faster than HP potions.
It was possible that support with magic would become more difficult by the fifth day.
“Hmm… But we won’t be able to catch up if we don’t rack up points early on.”
“…Considering all that, we would need Maple to attack head-on, but that’s not possible…so, what we can do now is…”
Sally gathered her thoughts before covering herself with the robe. She jumped up to the top of the tree and continued to look for other players.
Sally continued to explore for a while, when she came upon a trio of players.
As she listened to them for a while from on top of the tree, she learned that they were on a reconnaissance mission.
Their weapons were a staff, greatsword and one-handed sword plus shield. Sally moved away and silently climbed down to the ground. She was careful to get on bushes and make sounds as she approached them.
She even added an annoyed ‘tsk’ to express her emotion at being caught.
While they may have just been scouting, it was three against one.
And as she looked like she really didn’t care to fight, it was obvious that these three would go in for an attack.
Sally was looking hesitantly over her shoulder when a magic attack came flying. As if a continuation of the attack, the greatsword wielder charged at her at top speed.
Sally dodged the magic and avoided the charge, but still lost her balance.
As if he were waiting for this opportunity, the guy with the sword and shield jumped at her. Sally blocked his attack with her dagger, then she quickly rolled out of the way of the three shots of wind magic that came hurtling towards her.
“‘Leap’!”
Sally created some distance by using the skill, which allowed her to recover. She held her two daggers in front of her and slowly moved back.
The enemies saw that she was ready to retreat, and they quickly pushed forward.
“‘Leap’!”
“Heavy Charge’!”
The player with the greatsword charged forward, the player with the one-handed sword jumped and landed behind Sally in order to block her escape. They were both continually supported by magic.
They were pushing without consideration for anything else.
They were so sure that Sally was close to being defeated.
It was just when they started to get suspicious at her ability to dodge every attack. Sally, who was covered in dirt from so much rolling, darted out into the forest once again.
Part of it was due to the terrain, but the trio was not able to find her again, and so they gave up.
“Let’s go. Ignore that one.”
“Ahh, yeah.”
Now that Sally had shaken off her pursuers, she went looking for more players to repeat this process.
Sally’s purpose was to accomplish one thing, which was to raise the effects of ‘Sword Dance’ to its limits.
And after twenty minutes. Sally succeeded in raising ‘Sword Dance’ to the highest level.
“Preparations complete. Oboro, let’s go.”
Sally stuck Oboro to her neck, then she headed to one of the guilds that she had found.
“…Okay, found the orb.”
Both of the medium-sized guilds had orbs that could be spotted from outside. However, there were plenty of obstacles there as well, and since there were players defending the area, it would be quite hard to get through.
Sally had found two medium-sized guilds.
And she had arrived at one of those two.
And since it was a medium-sized guild, it was crawling with players.
“Hahh… Okay, I can do this!”
Sally slapped her cheeks to concentrate, then broke into the guild from an area that was the least protected.
“Intruder! She’s alone!”
A guard saw her, and the players who protected the orb immediately moved towards her.
“‘Leap’!”
Sally used Leap to move diagonally to the left.
“Surround her!”
Some of the guards ran towards her in order to surround her. And they successfully fell on her with their weapons.
But, she seemed to disappear into thin air.
The shocked faces stared in disbelief. Someone shouted that they found her again.
The intruder had somehow appeared on the right side this time.
A second team moved towards her.
They too were perfectly coordinated and were able to surround her and pound her with their weapons.
But she had disappeared again.
Sally had used Mirage twice with Oboro to distract them, making an opening in their defenses. In reality, she had only run straight ahead, but they had made a clear path to the orb by themselves.
“‘Super Acceleration’!”
It was too late when they realized what had happened.
Due to Sally’s final push, she was able to snatch the orb without killing a single player.
However, escaping this place was no easy task.
“‘Slash’!”
She pressed in with attack skills and an assault with her two daggers. The enemy still had not completely grasped the situation, and they easily fell.
Sally had raised the firepower of her daggers to their limits, and their bite hurt bad.
She cut through as many players as she could before the effects of Super Acceleration wore off, making a path in front of her.
Thanks to preparing for this fight, was able to break their formation by damaging them.
Sally had understood that it would be very tough if she tried fighting them head on, and so she devised a one-time scheme to steal the orb instead.
And Sally’s powers were a good match for it.
It was a cunning scheme that worked because this was still the first day, and most guilds lacked information.
“‘Water Wall’!”
She created a wall of water to block the magic attacks, and finally, Sally was able to burst through a weakened point in their line of defense and escape.
“I won’t be able to take orbs from here after this. Ah…here they come…!”
They had seen the orb snatched away right before their eyes, and they would not allow her to escape.
They had assigned most of their members to the offensive, but there was still around forty of them.
And now there was no orb to protect. All of them chased after Sally.
Sally ran.
She ran to the other medium-sized guild.
She ran so that they could not catch up with her, but also not too fast that they would lose her. She ran until she could see the other guild.
They saw Sally and what they assumed was the rest of her team, and the guild prepared from a large-scale attack.
The players that were chasing Sally assumed that she was running back to her own guild, and they went in for the attack.
While both sides had it wrong, they had decided to fight against each other.
Sally’s aim was to swipe the orb amidst the chaos of them clashing. That is why she had pulled them together.
“Oboro, ‘Quick Shadow’”
It was when the fight began, and everyone’s attention moved away from Sally.
Sally used Oboro’s skill to disappear for just one second.
And she hid in some bushes and watched the scene.
Both sides seemed to be pretty evenly matched. The players that Sally had led here were fighting their hardest in order to retrieve their stolen orb.
There was no time for them to see where Sally had appeared at.
As Sally’s pursuers had come from one direction, the players protecting the orb were all facing in that direction.
Sally slowly made her way through the ruins, moving towards her target.
“… ‘Leap’! ‘Double Slash’!”
She jumped out towards five guards and slashed at them before they could react.
‘Sword Dance’ was very useful here.
“Good!”
The orb was now in her hand, and she adeptly dodged and countered the oncoming attacks, and killed the rest of the guards. She would now return to Maple Tree, the perfect safe area.
“Maple will be there when I return! It’s over if I can…take it back!”
It would take a while for the continuing battle to end.
There would be no peace between these two sides. And they could not spare many players to chase after her.
It was the easiest thing for Sally to escape.