Harem System In A fantasy World

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Elion dashed to the side swiftly, his body moving on instinct as he rolled and pushed off the ground, continuing to run with the momentum he had already built up.

Stopping even for a fraction of a second would mean death in this kind of barrage, and he had already lost count of how many times he had narrowly escaped being obliterated by those massive flaming spells that were crashing down around him like falling meteors.

Each one was easily the size of a large boulder, and every impact sent violent shockwaves through the air, kicking up dust, debris, and scorching winds that lashed against his body.

If he didn’t have his absurd stamina, speed, reflexes, and awareness, he was sure he would have died several times over already.

"Fucking hell!" he cursed under his breath for the tenth time as he dove forward and slid behind a jutting block of stone.

He pressed his back against it as another explosion rocked the ground nearby, the force of it sending a wave of heat and dust over his cover.

The air was very chaotic and violent.

Despite the fact that his uniform had somehow been restored and his body was in peak condition when this all started, he knew that would not last forever.

At this rate, it was only a matter of time before something slipped past his guard or he simply ran out of the energy needed to keep dodging like this.

There was no doubt that if someone else were in his situation, they would have died in the very first ten seconds.

He took the brief moment of cover to steady his breathing, his chest rising and falling as he tried to calm himself just enough to think clearly, even though it felt like the bombardment was not going to stop anytime soon.

But something was off.

"...Where the hell do all these keep coming from...?" he muttered, frowning slightly as he listened carefully.

There was no way a single person was casting spells on this scale, not even an army should be able to sustain something like this so continuously.

Right?

Slowly, he noticed that the sound around him was changing.

It sounded like the explosions were fewer now and the constant thunder of impacts was fading, turning into scattered booms that echoed less frequently with each passing second.

"...Wait..."

He narrowed his eyes.

"...Is it stopping?"

Carefully, he raised his head from behind the boulder and looked out across the clearing. His gaze swept through the smoke and dust that had filled the entire forest, the air thick with ash and heat as the aftermath of the bombardment lingered.

Visibility was terrible.

The entire forest was shrouded in rising plumes of smoke, the trees around him either scorched, burning, or completely destroyed, and for a moment, he could barely make out anything beyond a short distance.

He let out a slow breath, "...Looks like I made it..."

He pushed himself up from his cover, brushing the dust off his clothes from his chest downward, shaking off the debris that had settled on him, and just as he relaxed slightly, that is, until the ground beneath him started trembling.

He froze in his tracks.

"...Hmm..."

’Am I imagining things?’

He crouched down immediately, lowering his body closer to the ground as he slowed his breathing and pressed his palm flat against the earth beneath him, focusing on the vibrating sensation coming from the ground.

It was very much real, and it was getting stronger.

At first, it felt like a faint vibration, and then the small rocks around him began to jump up and down because of the vibrations.

"Shit..."

"What is it now!?"

Then he heard it.

A distant roar, no, it wasn’t one voice. It sounded like thousands of screaming voices!

"...People?" he muttered, his eyes narrowing as his instincts kicked in again, telling him that staying on the ground was a bad idea.

He figured that he needed a better view to see his surroundings and see what was coming.

Without wasting another second, he cast a water spell beneath his feet, using the pressure to propel himself upward toward one of the few trees that was still standing and also not burning.

As he reached it, he ran up the trunk with practiced ease, using his hands to grab and sling himself from branch to branch with fluid agility.

He climbed quickly until he reached the top of the canopy.

From there, he looked out as best he could.

The smoke still obscured much of the forest, thick and heavy as it drifted through the air, but after a few seconds, the view cleared just enough for him to make out a few things.

And what he saw made his eyes tremble.

Well, apparently, he was not alone in this gigantic forest. Not even close!

He was standing in the middle of a battlefield!

A massive one.

On either side of him, stretching as far as he could see, two enormous armies were charging straight at each other through the forest, their numbers overwhelming, and their movements shaking the ground with every step.

And he was right in the middle of it.

"...Fucking hell!" he cursed loudly.

This trial was really intent on trying to fuck him over!

Like, what the hell was he even supposed to do here! Elion thought as he stared at the two massive forces charging toward each other.

He was literally stuck right between them, and there was no way he could outrun both armies before they clashed.

Even if he sprinted straight down the middle, he would get caught in the collision no matter what he did.

Then a familiar voice sounded again.

[First objective complete ☑]

[Bonus points awarded for sustaining zero damage!]

[...]

[Second objective identified.]

This time, it was not layered; it was singular, clear, and direct as it echoed inside his mind instead of around him, and before he could even react, it continued.

[Fight for humanity’s forces against the demon lord’s army and help them win the first battle of the Great Forest]

And then it was gone again.

"...Fuck you!" Elion snapped immediately, his frustration spilling out as he glared at nothing in particular.

It seemed he was never meant to run away anyway...

This trial was seriously pushing him into one impossible situation after another, but even as he cursed, his mind was already working.

He didn’t have much of a choice but to comply.

His eyes sharpened as he activated Discerning Eye; his vision shifted as he focused on the two approaching armies. Even though his natural perception was already high, it was not enough to clearly distinguish everything at this scale.

And sure enough, it became obvious what the trial’s voice was referring to.

One side was made up of what he could only describe as demon forces, their bodies varied in shape and size, many of them with different colored skin, some with horns, others with strange features that made it clear they were not human.

The other side was a coalition of humans, elves, and beastmen.

"...What the fuck is this..." he muttered under his breath, his brows furrowing as he processed what he was seeing.

"...Some kind of historical trial?"

He was no historian, but he was smart enough to think of a few reasonable explanations. Either this trial was simulating an illusion of a war from the past, or he had been dropped into a specific moment in time.

He was more inclined to believe in the former. The latter was felt so far fetched he doubted it was even possible. What scale of power would one need to send someone back in time? Would they have to be a god?

The first possibility he thought of was that he had been thrown into a simulation of the war that happened against the demon race centuries ago.

That seemed like the most likely explanation, because this did not feel random; it felt very much purposeful and structured.

He quickly climbed down from the tree, moving with urgency now.

Staying up there was a terrible idea, especially if either side spotted him, and the last thing he needed was to get targeted before he even figured out what he was doing.

Once his feet hit the ground, his thoughts sharpened further. He was going to be thrown straight into the front lines.

There was no avoiding that, and that meant things were looking quite grim.

If he made even a single mistake, if he overextended even slightly, he would get cut down almost instantly, because no matter how strong he was, a battlefield like this did not forgive carelessness.

He was not some war veteran, nor was he some genius strategist. But he was not stupid either.

He didn’t need to be a genius to know how battles worked. The front lines were absolute hell. And what made it worse was that this looked like a very typical war setup.

From what he could tell at first glance, most of the fighters at the front were lower-ranked mages, probably around novice to adept level, thrown forward as expendable forces, while the stronger individuals were held back, waiting for the real clash further into the battle.

Cannon fodder.

That was what they were.

And now, that included him.

He dropped down fully to the ground and stayed low as the rumbling grew stronger with every passing second.

The sound of thousands of feet crashing against the earth grew louder and louder until it felt like the forest itself was shaking apart, and as he steadied his breathing, his eyes drifted down to his academy uniform.

"...What do I even do about this..." he muttered under his breath, his brows furrowing slightly.

While he looked human, there was no guarantee that anyone on that battlefield would stop to think before swinging a blade at him.

Since he was not wearing the same brown uniforms and iron plate armor as the coalition forces, there was a very real chance that he would be mistaken for an enemy and cut down on sight.

"...Shit..." he cursed quietly, his mind racing as he tried to figure out a solution.

Without wasting any more time, he opened the system store, navigating quickly through the options until he found what he needed under weapons and armor.

A cheap plate armor set at two hundred system points.

He bought it instantly.

In the next moment, the armor flashed onto his body, forming seamlessly around him as if it had always been there, fitting perfectly without any discomfort.

He quickly summoned one of the swords from his storage as well, gripping it tightly as he adjusted to the added weight.

He exhaled slowly.

"This will have to do..."

His academy uniform still peeked out in some places, making him stand out slightly, but in the middle of a battlefield like this, no one would have the time or clarity to notice such details, at least not while chaos was unfolding all around them.

The plate armour should be enough.

’After this battle is over...’

He narrowed his eyes slightly.

’I can just take proper full armor from a corpse.’

It was a cold thought, but realistic. There would be plenty of bodies lying on the ground by the time this was over.

He didn’t know what the trial would make him do when the battle came to an end, but he had to be prepared for anything. The most likely scenario, he would be involved in more fights on humanity’s side as part of the trial.

He didn’t forget how the voice had said ’the first battle’ when it mentioned the battle of the Great Forest.

The mention of the forest was what hinted to him that this place was still the same place he called home, not some hidden world or a secluded space, but just not in the time he remembered.

"Okay..." he breathed out quietly, tightening his grip on the sword as he steadied himself.

It would not be long now.

The roars were already close enough to be heard clearly, and the clash of voices and war cries echoed through the forest as the two forces closed in on each other.

Elion moved quickly. He slipped behind a thick tree and crouched low within the foliage, hiding himself as best as he could.

And then he waited while holding his breath.