yemalu

Chapter 509 Maid Battle Royale Training

The second training after that was a combat training session between all the servants.

Interestingly, they were doing a team battle royale style in a section of the forest behind the mountains.

It seems like they had specifically cordoned off this area for this specific purpose too.

They had us divide ourselves into our own groups again before dropping each group in a different part of the forest to start. Our main goal was to reach the centre of the forest where Thora would be waiting and the last team to remain standing near her would be the winner.

We also only had a set amount of time to reach the centre and if you were not at least standing there within the time limit, you would be automatically counted as being eliminated as well.

I wasn\'t told what the prize was for winning but for some reason, everyone was quite fired up for it. That was enough to tell me that it most likely involved me somehow.

There was one thing I was curious about though…

"What if we destroy the forest?"

Gwen smiled at me, "No need ta worry, Aster. This place is enchanted ta restore itself back ta normal after a day. There\'s also an enchantment that would send anyone that\'s counted as defeated outside for healing. So ya can go all out without worry!"

I\'m not sure how I should feel about her automatically assuming that I was asking for myself…

I mean… Wouldn\'t Odeta cause more damage if she were to rampage around instead?

I guess if I were to call up all of my summons and let them rampage around, I could technically cause more damage than Odeta…

Ok, I guess her concerns were not unfounded.

"So… Do we have a plan?" I asked.

Selene turned to the rest of our group, "Shall we focus on culling the competition or simply on surviving?"

Groelle hefted her greatsword on her shoulder, "Heh, I suppose it all depends on how confident we are in dealing with every other group that we would meet."

Seraphine tilted her head, "What do you mean?"

The Wrunch nodded in my direction, "I\'d bet my ass that if we were to meet any group, they would definitely attack us. And if we were to meet two or more groups, they would also work together to attack us."

The other three maids nodded at her words like it explained everything but her explanation only made me more confused.

I raised my hand, "Err… I don\'t understand… Why would everyone work together against us because of me? I mean… I would understand if there were people who might choose to give up intentionally after meeting us, but why that?"

"Because our group is the biggest threat with Aster here," Selene explained. "We have the highest chance of winning and gaining the prize so if they don\'t get rid of us first, they would have no chance to get the prize anyway. Better to join forces with another opponent to take care of the bigger threat before going back to being enemies again."

Oh wow, I didn\'t know that everyone actually saw me as that big of a threat…

"So are we confident of taking on every group we come across?" Selene asked.

Groelle made a face, "I have no confidence going up against Odeta. So if we meet her group, don\'t expect me to be able to hold my ground."

That\'s fair, since a quick peek with my [Screened] showed that her strength stat was less than half of Odeta\'s.

The Amrap could possibly pick up the Wrunch and use her as a weapon if she wanted to.

"I\'m in favour of just hiding and sneaking our way to the finishing point with as few encounters as possible," I admitted.

Selene looked at the others and all of them nodded their heads.

The Meslatar nodded along, "Then we are all in favour then. Seraphine, scout ahead of us and we will keep to the shadows once the fight starts. We\'ll keep our pace as slow as possible."

I was just about to ask how we would know the battle royale had started when I heard a loud roar everberting through the forest.

It took me a moment to realise that it was simply Thora shouting for the game to start.

Seraphine strung her bow and started walking towards the deepest part of the forest, fulfilling her role as our scout.

Before we could even get far though, a gust of wind blew past us followed by a loud crash.

All of us turned in the direction of the noise, only to see Katsuki pinning down a Nekomata maid to the ground.

The Nekomata scowled at her, "What are you doing, Katsuki?!"

"Before anything else, she is still my Mistress. I will not allow any harm to befall on her under my watch."

The Nekomata\'s scowl deepened before she flicked her wrist, materialising a dagger in her hands to stab at my Inugami maid.

Katsuki also flicked her wrist and materialised her own dagger to parry it.

Faster than the Nekomata could respond, Katsuki slashed her knife on her opponent\'s arm.

It was a superficial wound at best but the Nekomata suddenly froze up and stopped moving.

Oh, it\'s the [Assassin\'s Dagger] that I gave to her that inflicts paralysis.

The Nekomata still glared at Katsuki despite the paralysis but my Inugami maid merely brought her dagger up again and stabbed it in her chest.

Her opponent was then engulfed in light before she disappeared, probably teleported out of the forest due to the enchantment.

Katsuki then stood up and smoothed her dress before turning to bow to me, "Good day, Mistress. Please be careful."

She then leapt into the trees, disappearing from view.

My party simply stared at the space she vacated for a good, long silent minute before turning to look at each other.

Err… How should I even react to what just happened?

Selene cleared her throat, "Ahem… I guess we should just continue?"

Seraphine nodded, "And we should expect ourselves to already be targeted…"

Gwen turned to where Katsuki had been a few moments ago, "I guess we can be assured that Katsuki\'s group would not be hostile to us?"

Selene shook her head, "I wouldn\'t count on it. In order to knock us out of this battle Royale, they only need to defeat three of us for the entire group to be counted as defeated. So she could still attack the rest of us without hurting Aster."

Gwen frowned, "But why would she do that? Wouldn\'t that just go against what Aster wants instead? Otherwise, why would she save us just now?"

Groelle chuckled, "Oh, you girls aren\'t familiar with her I see. Katsuki would most probably… Oops…"

She had to cut her words short as a dagger flew out from the trees and narrowly missed her, the blade embedding itself in the ground near her foot.

The Wrunch chuckled, "Well… I dare say that we would not need to worry about her attacking us at least until we reached Thora. But unless another group targets Aster directly like before, we shouldn\'t be expecting her to help us either."

The rest of us decided not to question it and just accepted it as fact, especially since the thrown dagger had disappeared the next moment we looked.

I\'m not sure if only Katsuki was watching us or if she got her entire group to do the same as well. The scary thing was the fact that I don\'t even sense anyone around.

I also wonder if her group had been placed nearby or did Katsuki actually travel a great distance through the forest to reach me?

Seraphine turned to Selene, "Should I still scout ahead?"

The Meslatar quickly shook her head, "No. Change of plans, everyone sticks together and moves together. Be prepared for ambushes at all times. We need to operate on the assumption that we could be attacked at any--"

Before she even got a chance to finish her words, something came hurtling through the undergrowth and the Meslatar was forced to lift her shield and deflect it.

The thing turned out to be a javelin and it was thrown with enough force that Selene slid a metre back despite blocking it with her shield.

Then it was Gwen\'s turn to make a dive to the side before she brought up her own shield to deflect several arrows shot at her, the projectiles bouncing off the surface with a resounding \'clang\'.

The fact that the two attacks came from two different directions meant either a team had surrounded us or we were being attacked by two different teams.

"Seraphine! Cover our rear! Groelle! Break open a path!!" Selene instructed, raising her shield again to block another javelin.

The Wrunch immediately lifted up her greatsword and swung it down, creating a shockwave that decimated an entire swath of the forest.

There was a yelp of surprise coming from that part of the forest as well, probably from a poor maid that got caught up in the blast.

With a way clear, we quickly escaped from that area while our pursuers shot even more arrows at us from behind, only to be intercepted and kept at bay by Seraphine.

The battle royale only just started and it\'s already so crazy…