One hour after the first attack.
Nearly 200 players came storming in. Maple Tree had decided to leave all of the orbs except their own, and move to the back of their base.
“Well, if anyone is going to take them, it should be that kind of guild, right?”
“Yeah… Okay, now it begins.”
The back room.
They stood near the sleeping Maple and listened to see if the invaders would come after them.
They would just have to wake up Maple if they did, but the invaders seemed to be thankful for their good luck and ended up leaving without bothering them any further.
Taking Maple Tree’s orb would mean that Maple Tree would always know your position. They probably did not think it was worth the trouble for a single orb.
Five minutes after the invaders left, Chrome walked in the lead as they returned to the room with the pedestal in order to reset their orb.
“Now…let’s hope that this causes a fight between two large guilds…”
As Sally mumbled this, Kasumi approached her and showed her the current rankings.
“Judging by this…medium-sized guilds are being crushed left and right. The pace is really picking up.”
Considering the number of guilds that were destroyed, it was clear that there would mostly only be large guilds left by the fourth day.
“I would have liked to have protected the orbs if we could…but that would have been too hard without Maple.”
Even if they couldn’t quickly increase their points, they still had the next part of their plan.
Sally started to walk towards the exit.
“I’m going to follow the guild that was just here. If it seems like there will be a large-scale battle somewhere…then…”
Sally looked at Kanade.
“Yeah, with mine and Sally’s skills.”
“Take Maple with you too.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Okay. I’m off then.”
So saying, Sally left the base.
They would wake Maple up in 3 hours, or when Sally contacted them.
“Well, I doubt any guilds will attack us now. Let’s take it easy.”
“That’s right.”
“That’s right.”
Yui and Mai also had an important role left to them.
They would have to rest and prepare for it.
Sally was able to find the group of nearly 200 players rather quickly. Large groups could not move as fast. Not only that, but they had to move in a direction that would not affect their advantage of numbers, so they were restricted by terrain as well.
She had made a guess based on these factors and had been right.
“They…still haven’t clashed with any other guilds yet…”
Sally observed them from a distance.
She could not get caught, but she could not lose them either.
Their position would be known by many other large guilds.
One of those guilds would show up, Sally thought as she watched. Then, two spheres of fire reflected in her eyes.
“I didn’t expect this…is it a coincidence? …Hmm, we didn’t attack them.”
The flames burned the ground, it rose into the sky as the players flew and disappeared.
As magic counter attacks were shot, she saw that there was one player with overwhelming mobility who was covered in explosive flames.
“‘Ifrit’s Kingdome’…huh. I see. There are fewer guilds left now, and anyone who wants to enter the top 10 has to attack ‘Ifrit’s Kingdom’…I think? I’m sorry, Maple…”
Sally sent a message to Chrome, which meant that they would all have to gather to where she was.
After easily destroying the large guild, Mi took all of the orbs and returned to their base.
‘Ifrit’s Kingdom’ was currently 5th.
If the tragedy of the Maple attack had not happened, they might have been higher. Maple had caused Marx to waste so many traps that their defenses were in tatters.
And many players had died because of that.
“It will all be better if we can somehow protect these orbs…”
Mi returned to the base so that they would not be taken, and she set them in place and sighed.
“Alright…I was quite lucky to be able to take them…”
“I don’t know which guilds they are from, but they will likely come to get them back.”
Misery said next to her.
They didn’t know which guilds and when they would come, but they would likely come before the orbs turned into points.
“Ahhh…call Shin back as well.”
“Understood.”
They would call everyone back in order to defend with their full force.
Shin came back in time, and as Ifrit’s Kingdom silently waited, reports from their scouts came in.
All of them were about large guilds advancing towards them.
The other guilds knew just how powerful Ifrit’s Kingdom was, and so they had held back with the intention of swooping in at the end when things were favorable. This had resulted in several large guilds now surrounding Ifrit’s Kingdom.
“They are coming! Everyone, prepare!”
“Yes…let’s do our best…!”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Mi will do something about this.”
“Leave the healing to me.”
The four of them seemed eager. Just then, Mi received 1 new message.
It said ‘Danger, a monster that is likely Maple is approaching.’
The blood seemed to drain from Mi’s face.
“Are you kidding…I’ve had enough of this…no, no, no…”
Her true personality jumped out for a second, and the others looked at her in surprise.
Mi relayed the message to them.
“This sucks.”
“I…even lost to Kasumi…I lost!”
“Ah, yes…yes…”
Marx just rolled onto the floor.
He was all too aware that his traps would not work against Maple.
“This sucks.”
As they stood there like that, the other large guilds were closing in.