Chapter 201: Luxurious Bait
A jet of watery mana tore through the group of players, sending them sprawling across the bubble. And this was just one among many setbacks.
“Fall back!”
“Cover the archers.”
“We need backup on 9 o’ clock.”
The command center was bustling with all sorts of reports. Ria was in charge of a special squad that was solely responsible for relaying her commands. It was hard to imagine how stress-inducing this task was. One wrong move and they’d cause the total annihilation of their allies.
*Riiiiiiiinnngg*
“Fuck it,” Ria slammed her tiara on the desk and stormed out of the tent. She didn’t even want to look at the update given by the system.
She wasn’t the only one who was in a foul mood. Kyle, Lauren, Shi kun…everyone felt the same way. This was the tenth space they had lost to the mermen. They were going to lose this round if nothing changed.
“Any news on Zyrus?” Lauren asked what was on everyone’s mind.
“None. He’s been out of contact ever since the last message.”
“Well, nothing we can do about it. Let’s proceed with the plan,” Jacob stood up from the ground and waved at the others. The reason behind their taut nerves was something Zyrus had ordered this morning: The Vajeers would be moving tonight.
There was a big difference between mobilizing Vajeers as individuals versus as a unit. And this time, it was the latter.
The players would be at a great risk without them. All they had to do was defend, but still, it was an arduous task. Not to mention that their leaving in the middle of a battle would lower the troops' morale.
There was no way Zyrus overlooked something so simple. Thus, there was only one reason behind his action.
This was a test.
[Ding! A turn is being used]
…
A few minutes ago, near the bottom of the Shuidao Island.
A hundred feet long dragon was swimming alongside the water currents. Neither the players nor the merfolk were able to sense his presence.
The azure dragon was none other than Zyrus who had disguised himself with the Devour talent. This wasn’t enough to fool the mermen, but he had the means to deal with that. With his heavenly eye he was able to observe every inch of the battlefield. That was enough for him to sneak around without catching anyone’s attention.
The fact that the ruler of merfolk was unable to sense his presence was both a good and a bad thing. The ruler of Jindao didn’t have any peculiar skills to speak of. But from the looks of it, things would be different this time.
‘They’re doing better than I thought…’
Zyrus changed his focus and looked at the screen once again. Even without his assistance, the players were holding their ground against the mermen.
It was a huge improvement compared to the first day. The reason for that were the elemental seeds.
Close to fifteen thousand players had obtained the seed from the Jindao Island. The actual number of seeds bought was much higher, but they were either stored away or consumed by Zyrus’s summons.
This didn’t make much of a difference on the first day because unlike the natives, the players didn’t know the method to utilize their elemental powers.
But now, it was different.
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‘Let’s see…11:55, about time we start.’
Zyrus looked at the map’s corner which had 8 flickering flames. They showed the number of turns he could use at the moment. Six were the default ones accumulated by saving up the one turn that was added each day. The cap was further increased by 3 under the rules of shatar.
In the last two days, he had used two turns to move towards this area. He had to wait for 24 hours so as to not get penalized by the rules of shatar.
[A turn has been added]
[Double consumption is lifted]
Zyrus didn’t waste a second further and made his first move. The projection of a mammoth charged out from one of the three spaces they controlled and created a blockade towards the merfolk’s palace.
The knights left right after and attacked the nearby bubble that was still neutral. The mammoths were tasked with delaying the merfolk’s reinforcements whereas the knights were in charge of activating a safe zone.
Avoiding a pincer attack and creating a safe retreat route was their foremost priority.
Finally, Zyrus used 4 turns to move the Vajeers.
Nothing seemed to have changed as there wasn’t any beastly projection in sight. He closed his eyes and spread out his senses across the whole bubble, and sure enough, there was a change.
The description of the Vajeer role was somewhat vague. 'Vajeer can mobilize and communicate with all units, Agi + 20.'
While it was a powerful ability, it was still lacking considering the fact that the Vajeer was the most powerful role. If the king’s role was most restrictive, then the Vajeers were the exact opposite. They were the ones who could reach every space within the shortest amount of time.
*Cling*Cling*Cling*
The entire bubble started to tremble as a colossal scepter manifested in the sky. Its staff became a miniature tower that contained the players. Above them, the 10 Vajeer were hovering inside the scepter’s rings.
Scepters were used as ceremonial objects that signified the ruler’s authority. The Vajeers were similar in a sense since they were the king’s sharpest sword and the strongest shield.
When a turn was used on Vajeers, they gained an almost cheat-like ability: Teleportation.
There were two phases to this. First, the Vajeers and every player in their space would teleport to the king’s space. Second, they could do three minor teleportations in any two directions. The key here was that they could choose to ‘drop off’ some of the players each time.
It was a great ability, but the downsides were just as big. Losing the Vajeer was a devastating blow that was very hard to recover from. The loss of mobility was fatal in wars like these.
“The mammoth won’t hold out for long, so be as quick as you can.”
“Roger that.”
“Roger that.”
Zyrus released his concealment and spread the abyssal mana in all directions. He could’ve left with the others to fight alongside them, but then he'd just secure at most one bubble.
There was a better way in which he could contribute in this fight.
‘I’m quite a luxurious bait if I say so myself…’
Zyrus somewhat missed his companion whom he could joke around with. Franken, Stephen, and his knights were left to deal with the islands in the first and second zones. It couldn’t be helped since someone had to stay behind and manage the new players who were being summoned via the cube. Building more bases and technological advancement was just as, if not more important than the player’s individual strength.
He didn’t have to indulge in idle thoughts for a long time. The merfolk were caught off guard by the sudden counterattack, but it didn’t take them too long to get their bearings.
The players were attacking on five fronts at the same time. Even the merfolk had to consider how to dispatch their army.
The normal thing would be to send them based on the players' strength, yet that would mean giving up on their momentum.
From the perspective of the merman, rather than responding to the enemy’s moves it would be better to target their king and make them waste the advantage they had. Zyrus understood that, so he wasn’t surprised when he saw nearly 50,000 merfolk surrounding him from all sides.
This was more than half of their whole army. They would be hard-pressed to fight back the players after this, but then again, it didn’t matter as long as they managed to take him out.
It was obvious to everyone that Zyrus was out of turns. Escaping was also out of option since he couldn’t move from this bubble.
The only positive thing was that this was an unconquered space. He’d be safe for 24 hours if he managed to hold onto the anchor, but both sides knew that it was impossible.
The merfolk could just slam him over and over and push him away from the anchor. They weren’t interested in capturing the anchor either since it would mean pushing Zyrus out of the bubble.
Thus, there was only one option left.
A fight to the death.
‘And that’s what I need right now.’
Zyrus had realized something after the previous fight. He was working on too many things, and this resulted in him neglecting some crucial aspects.
There was no doubt that he was strong. If not for the system restricting his powers, he could easily wipe out the entire island.
But such a thought process was detrimental to his progress, and he was well aware of it.
It was true that the system limited his powers. Still, was the current him the strongest he could possibly be while being restricted by the system?
The answer was a resounding ‘No’.
His class, 13 curses of void, and many such things were restricted by the system. But what about the rest of it? Be it his trait, talent, or skills, most of them weren't restricted.
This meant that there was still room for improvement.