Outnumbered

When they finally managed to set everything up, it was already close to midday and many of the guilds were sleeping in shifts to ensure that no one would be dead on their feet by the time Demorotha's troops attacked.

Kurai himself had grabbed a few more hours of sleep and he almost expected that he would have to make more of the compound mixtures when he woke up, but neither the king nor any of the troops had been able to gather more of the ingredients that he required so instead they tried a simpler method of filling about 100 small clay pots with oil before sealing them.

The pots would first cover the entire area with oil and then the chemical compounds would be released, creating a fire that burns even fiercer when water is thrown onto it.

None of them wanted to think about the fact that they would have to use it on people because said people would be more likely to slaughter them without a second thought.

Finally, the horns of battle started sounding and the archers made their way to their positions.

The sound of 12 000 marching feet echoed all around them and Kurai clenched his fists to try and drive away the sense of hopelessness he was feeling.

'This is going to work! It has to!'

He felt a light nudge from behind and quickly turned, only for his eyes to widen in shock as he spotted Rai, Ren, and Rin, as well as quite a few of the trainees from the Training Hall standing behind him.

Rai was practically grinning at him, "You didn't think we'd let you go into the big battle without us, did you? Lee let us know and we packed up and came as soon as we were able to. He's here too."

Kurai shook his head to try and clear the shock, "But they said nothing about those in the Training Halls fighting as well!"

Ren threw an arm around his neck with a smile, "As if we'd let you have all the fun! Just imagine the big head you'd get after surviving the battle against 12 000 Demorothians! We can't allow that."

Kurai wanted to argue about it more, but it seemed like nothing was going to sway them, though he was relieved when he looked around and didn't spot Hana as well, then Rin motioned towards the healer tents with a grin, "If you're looking for Hana, she's in the healers tents. She may be a bloody good fighter, but we're all a bit overprotective so she agreed to protect the healers from sneak attacks instead. Seradeihn's Deity have mercy on any soul that tries."

His reaction was interrupted as the battle horns sounded even closer and they all readied their stances.

Zane, Satoru, Taya, and Reese joined them, though they came to stand before them in a protective formation, much to the Anifae's amusement.

No one dared to tell Taya to stay in the center of the formation, and it even looked like many of the people from the other guilds were purposefully keeping their guildmates quiet.

Kurai figured out why when Zane tossed a healing scroll to each of them and Taya vanished for a second before reappearing with the scroll perfectly balanced on her unsheathed blade.

That seemed to settle most of the others' concerns and Kurai slightly leaned over to Ren as he whispered, "Are all girls this stupidly strong? Or did they toss her into some kind of special school for ninjas?"

Ren laughed in response and shook his head, "You just found yourself in the places where the strong ones lurk about. The members of Abyssal Apocalypse wouldn't accept anything less."

Hozumi made her appearance just as the Demorothians made their way over the small hill, but no one made a move to advance even as they came closer and closer to the center of the field.

Kurai noticed the king standing on the front lines, and he blinked in surprise as he noticed a giant glowing spear in the man's hand. No one dared to move until the king gave the signal, even though many of the warriors started shifting around in either excitement or fear.

Finally, as their enemies reached the halfway point, the king quickly brought his hand up and clenched his fist, causing the archers to let loose the first volley, and, as expected, the enemy returned a volley of arrows.

Everyone either used their shields or magic to protect themselves.

The archers released another volley of arrows and this time they had the oil-filled pots attached to them.

Kurai could hear the confused shouts as the pots burst and the oil splattered across the enemy troops' weapons and armor. A few more volleys were exchanged before the archers finally started releasing the chemical compound when the enemy almost reached them, and the result was extremely explosive.

The chemical pots burst and the components mixed on contact, setting alight due to the alchemical reaction and then latching onto the oil from the oil pots.

The fire spread throughout the enemy in no time, but no one cheered as they waited to see the true extent of the damage that had been done…

…and that was their first mistake.

Cries of battle started sounding out from the flanks and Kurai could see the very moment that Zane and the others realized that it had been a trap.

Kurai himself glanced back to the carnage that the alchemical mixture should have wrought, but instead of the 4000 troops that should have died by their estimations, more than half of the bodies disappeared and Kurai turned to Hozumi in confusion.

She gritted her teeth and growled out, "Mage-made illusions. It seems we have a spy in our midst."

Zane gave a serious nod of agreement, "Fan out in pairs and protect each other's backs. Stay close to at least one healer or the healers' tent at all times!"

The group nodded and scattered, making their way through the village-turned-battlefield and making use of the buildings to sneak attacks on enemies while trying to free up the troops around them as much as possible, only for new enemies to appear.

They soon learned that the estimation of 12 000 troops had greatly been underestimated as fresh troops kept replacing the ones they take out.

The healers started pulling shifts and the guilds were forced to protect resting teammates as the Demorothians kept pushing their attacks.

Each hour of sleep became a blessing until Kurai felt like he was more of a zombie than a human as the days dragged on.

Fight…

Scarf down food…

Sleep an hour…

Fight…

Sleep…

Eat…

Fight…

Fight…Fight…Fight…Fight…Sleep…Fight

The air was stifling hot as he took in the carnage of the battle that was happening around him as he woke up from a daze to realize that Hozumi wasn't at his side anymore.

The corpses of those that had died were piled haphazardly to one side to make way for the bloody battle that had been raging on for days now and there was currently no end in sight.

All around him were corpses, but he was too afraid to look at their faces for fear of recognizing them, so he kept his distance and focused on something he'd know even before he'd gotten himself uploaded onto the game.

He wasn't supposed to be here; He wasn't made for this!

But his haven of books had stopped being his reality a long time ago, and now every day was spent trying to survive the new, horrible reality that he'd been tossed into without warning.

His limbs felt like lead as he tried to swing his sword, and while the shield talisman from Hana blocked most blows, he still needed to parry to ensure that the attacks didn't change their angle at the last minute.

His mind started growing fuzzy again as he glanced at a sound, only to see two enemies charging at him."

"Oh, for Imp's sake, DODGE YOU MORON!"

He dodged away as a blade missed his neck by mere inches, Lin's voice berating him for daydreaming.

When did she arrive?

How much time has passed?

She started calling out all sorts of combos that he could use to decimate his opponents, and yet it meant nothing because he simply didn't understand how to execute the attacks even when his mind didn't feel like it was cut off from his body.

He didn't even know how to pile them together successfully to activate the bonuses that apparently resulted from well-timed attacks or combos like Satoru had mentioned, because they hadn't gotten to that part of the training yet.

"Dodge left! Use your shield to block, and then bring your sword up! Be carefu-" he didn't hear the rest as one of his opponents landed a successful attack from behind that left him seeing stars while a second attack from the front knocked him out completely.

His would-be killers barely blinked as his body crumbled onto the bloodstained ground; instead, they turned toward their next target, and the battle simply carried on.

He could hear Lin's voice begging for him to stand up, but everything was muted as if he was listening to it through a door.

Kurai didn't want to give up, but as much as he wanted to force his body up, everything felt entirely numb as he lay there.

Finally, a soft voice seemed to reach his ears, and although he struggled to figure out what the voice was saying in favor of ignoring the feeling of life leaving his body, he wasn't able to ignore it any longer when the world went completely dark around him.

No one noticed a blue light enveloping the body among the sparks of arcane magic that lit up the battlefield or that there was no corpse left once the light disappeared, but Lin saw everything, and her shock and horror were almost tangible as their link was severed.

For a moment, everything seemed to fade away, but then relief came crashing down hard as the link was swiftly re-established, and she was momentarily blindsided when he didn't reappear in the form of her Avatar, but instead, he now had his own.

Kurai raised his arms to see that he now held two short curved swords and that his gear was completely different from the warrior gear that he had used up until now. It resembled assassin gear more than anything else, and for some reason, it really suited him.

He moved into a basic attack pattern, and he couldn't help but smile as he realized how light he now was in comparison to earlier. A glance to the side revealed that the ones that struck him down weren't too far away, and the thought barely registered before his daggers were buried in their necks.

His whole body felt rejuvenated and he instinctively activated 'Seraph's Form' before casting a wide area 'Seraph's Blessing' onto the battlefield.

It baffled him when he noticed that Seraph's Blessing was taking health from the enemy troops to heal their own, but he didn't pause long enough to think about it for more than a second before he started cutting through the Demorothians once more.