Translation: Charlotte
Editor: Weasalopes

I meant to watch another match again from near the waiting room.

But I couldn"t.

It was my turn in no time.

You"re here to get me too early!

My opponents were in the other corner.

But there were only five players.

The three players in the front looked like dwarves.

They were probably fighters.

One of them had a shield and a hatchet, another, a shield and a hammer, and the last one, a spear in each hand.

Wait, they weren"t spears.

The tip of the spear was in the shape of a cross.

One side looked like the blade of a pickaxe, while the other looked like the blade of an axe

A pole weapon, huh.

There were two players in the back.

One of them had a bow and the other had a staff.

Judging from their equipment, they were probably a hunter and a sorcerer.

I used【Identify】before the game started.

? ? ?　 Lv.13

Fighter　On Standby

? ? ?　 Lv.13

Fighter　On Standby

? ? ?　 Lv.13

Fighter　On Standby

? ? ?　 Lv.13

Hunter　On Standby

? ? ?　 Lv.13

Sorcerer　On Standby

Wow.

They looked pretty strong.

But it was just five of them.

Why?

It was obvious.

Either the Hunter or the Sorcerer was an elf.

The Hunter was equipped with leather armour.

The Sorcerer had a hood so only the lower half of their face was visible.

I thought about what kind of fight they would give me…

I was definitely interested.

Well, leaving that for later…

What should I do…?

Everyone in the front was a fighter.

Dwarves too.

Their weaknesses were obvious.

I had to take advantage of my superior mobility.

Of course, I had to watch out to make sure I wouldn"t get intercepted.

Maybe I could attack slowly, while using spells to strengthen myself?

That wasn"t fun either.

I was the only man in my party who could cast spells.

My opponents could fire off five spells in the time it took me to cast one.

Even with【Speedcasting】, the difference would be very subtle.

What should i do…?

Hmm…

How did I get myself into a difficult situation before the actual fight?

But that was fine too.

I just had to do what I had to do.

I could just go as usual.

As usual.

But still, I could come up with a basic strategy.

Volff.

I had to make the most of Volff"s mobility.

And Jericho.

It would help to get Jericho to the front line as quickly as possible.

10 seconds before the beginning of the match.

My instructions to Volff were simple.

No issues there.

My instructions to Jericho were also simple.

No problems there either.

I gripped my Staff of Torture.

I took a deep breath.

3 seconds.

A simultaneous…

Bow.

「Begin!」

The moment the match started…

We all ran forwards.

「Practiced Spirit!」「Meditate!」「Bless!」

『Snipe Shot Burst!』

Arrows flew at me and hit me square in the shoulder.

But I kept moving.

My spell casting process was also not cancelled.

Nice.

Volff ran right, trying to flank the players in the back.

I told Volff to attack if he got the chance.

But I had another purpose to that.

I wanted to distract the front line players.

The dwarf with a shield and a hammer stood in front of Volff.

「Graaa!」

Volff kept his distance while he intimidated the dwarf.

But the dwarf stayed strong.

Senki rushed ahead of me.

Of course, with Rig too.

「Physical Enchant: Wind!」

I raised Jericho"s AGI stat.

It may not have made a big difference.

But I had a plan for Jericho too.

Jericho suddenly liquefied.

『Summon Elemental!』

Yep.

A spirit started manifesting in front of the dwarves.

I felt like I"d seen the figure before…

It was a salamander.

The other team continued casting spells.

I almost made it to the back players, but as expected, I couldn"t reach them.

「Vibration!」

The three dwarves in the front had their spell casting processes interrupted.

I immediately started casting my next spell.

『Physical Enchant: Fire! 』

Looked like my skill was resisted by some…

But I didn"t have the time to worry about it.

I slammed my staff into the salamander.

Senki and Rig took the opportunity to slip past.

The front-line players, who were still distracted by Volff, were confused for a moment.

They couldn"t hold two attacks at the same time.

But clearly, their confusion made things worse.

I continued attacking the salamander.

My Staff of Torture was causing its HP bar to slowly decrease.

But just being close to it was burning me.

It was a close-range battle, after all. Touching it would probably damage me.

No, there was no doubt about it.

「Flash Flood!」

I threw a【Water Magic】attack spell at the salamander from close range.

At the same time, the salamander fired a bolt of flame at me.

They both directly hit.

We were both hit hard.

But there was a clear difference.

I still had a good amount of my HP bar.

The salamander"s HP bar was almost at zero.

I slammed my staff into the salamander and took it out.

I had the advantage of numbers now.

I turned around to see Goki.

A sword and an axe were in his hands.

Goki was fighting in close-range against the shield-and-hatchet dwarf.

I was probably only able to defeat the salamander because Goki bought me the time to do so.

Goki"s HP bar was down by 30%.

Thank you for your sacrifice.

『Shield Rush Burst!』

Goki was blown away.

I stepped up to take his place.

I slipped to the side to dodge the dwarf as it charged at me.

I used my staff to hit his knee, and immediately tackled him from behind.

But still, the dwarf didn"t fall.

He was heavy.

His centre of gravity was low too.

And on top of that, the dwarf had power.

Well, that was typical of a dwarf.

But something else happened to the dwarf.

Something was creeping up his feet.

It was Jericho.

In no time, Jericho completely covered the dwarf.

Like a slime.

While Jericho was slowly hardening, another dwarf pinned my arms behind me.

All I could do was wave my feet in the air.

Ah, that"s bad…

The third dwarf ran at me.

Arrows flew at me from the sides, but I didn"t have the time to worry about that.

The tip of the dwarf"s pole weapon was pointed at me.

『Double Stab!』

I thought I avoided it, but I got hit by the second stab.

Oh, now you"ve done it.

Time to finish this.

I broke free and ducked before rushing forwards.

The dwarf was still recovering from the stab.

He wasn"t prepared for a sudden attack.

I aimed for his right leg.

A tackle.

But it wasn"t enough to cause the dwarf to fall.

I went around behind him and kicked his back.

Where were Senki and Rig?

Volff?

What were they doing?

My advantage was becoming more certain.

The Sorcerer and the Hunter were already thrown outside the fighting zone.

Probably Senki"s work.

Senki had a strong arm, after all.

Of course, just being outside the fighting zone didn"t mean instant disqualification.

But Volff was preventing them from returning.

He was bearing his fangs. and using intimidation tactics like a pro.

The two players were hesitating to make the slightest movement.

What about Senki and Rig?

Senki was straddling the shield-and-hatchet dwarf.

Rig crawled towards the dwarf"s mouth.

That would be the end of him.

There would be no recovering from that.

「Gravity Bullet!」

I shot a spell at the dwarf with the pole weapon.

It was a direct hit, but he still stood strong.

How tough can one guy be!?

The decrease in his HP bar was also nothing to be amazed at.

But the spell still served its purpose.

The dwarf"s movements became even slower.

At that moment, the dwarf got hit by a hard swing from Goki.

A direct hit to the head, too.

A deep sound rumbled around me like an earthquake.

The dwarf"s HP bar completely disappeared.

Hey!

Let me partic.i.p.ate a little bit, at least!

Volff stopped his intimidation tactics.

I called him beside me.

「Fire Heal!」

I healed Goki while I waited for the last two players to return.

What about the other dwarf?

He was already done for.

His HP bar was about to hit zero.

Here we go…

Come on.

Get back in the ring.

No, really, come in.

Would you please come in?

I"m not going to be mean to you, alright?

Please?

Please!