"*Achew*"
A cute, high-pitched sneeze echoed in the level desert that was otherwise dead silent.
Mitsuna wiped her nose with her finger.
"Come on. You lot have the number advantage."
A few Soldiers readied their weapons.
With a quick glance towards each other, about ten Soldiers rushed toward Mitsuna while the rest formulated a strategy.
The enemy spread out and attacked from all sorts of angles.
Mitsuna raised her sword and held it like a knife. Placing her free arm on the blade of her weapon, she activated a Technique called [Crackling].
All the attacks aimed at her were parried.
As the people surrounding her were staggered due to the parry, Mitsuna finished them off.
She pointed her sword forward, shadow-like wind flew out from her sword and cleanly cut her enemies in two, they slowly started decaying after taking the hit. [Flurry of Decay] is indeed fierce.
Two managed to block Mitsuna's attack just barely, but their weapons were broken and turned to dust a moment later.
The two backed off to search for a spare weapon.
Mitsuna didn't go after them, the reason was simple. She didn't want to get a headache from moving too much.
Mitsuna yawned.
"The last fight seemed a lot more fun."
She talked to herself, unaware that the group of nearly 50 had heard her mutterings.
As their plan had come together thanks to the few moments of free time that the vanguard had provided, they were confident in their victory.
That confidence was unfounded.
The group was split into teams, the teams surrounded Mitsuna and started sprinting toward her.
'Each team seems to have a captain that gives orders. If I kill them the entire plan fails.'
Mitsuna thought about it for a moment but didn't find it fun to just go on a genocide spree in a place that wasn't a lab.
'Okay. Let's just counter.'
Turning to the team on her right, she used a Technique from her [Lunar Cinders] style. [Slash of Cinder].
A slash travelled towards the team as it burned anyone that came into contact. Most of their weapons were charred, slightly melted and every wooden component burned to ash.
Now, between her and the team on her right, the area was filled with blue burning ashes that people could not travel through.
On the team to her left, Mitsuna used a Technique from her [Solar Snow] style. [Solar Snowfall].
The team on her left also had all of their weapons lost. Some managed to keep theirs but most weapons were now pierced by thick and heavy ice chunks that made most weapons unusable.
The team in front of Mitsuna that was now only a few meters away was going to suffer the most.
Mitsuna prepared her blade and waited.
'Almost all in range... just a second more.'
Mitsuna held her sword like a sniper, looking down the edge of the blade.
A Soldier right in front of her raised his sword and brought it down.
'Unlucky chum.'
Mitsuna used a Technique from her [Sunken Rot] style. Simply named, [Rot].
A flowing stab forwards followed by an uncountable amount of secondary attacks.
Each Soldier in front of her was pierced and cut. Some through the head or heart, which made them the lucky ones. The others were unlucky as they had to bear the pain of slowly rotting alive.
One team was entirely decimated while the other two teams were unarmed.
"Huh. Wasn't there more of them?"
Mitsuna wondered out loud as all she could count right now was about 45 or so Soldiers.
About 5, maybe 6 were missing.
Just as she let down her sword and turned towards the team on her left that she was going to destroy next, Mitsuna was flabbergasted.
A sword pierced through the ground and through her kidney.
"Ow!"
Turning around, she was about to behead the enemy but was stopped as a spear pierced her arm.
A blade cut into her leg, and another through her free hand.
Before she could react and retreat, another two blades pierced her body. A lung and her heart were both sliced to ribbons.
Blood poured onto the ground.
'I guess alcohol and fighting really don't go together, my senses were really numbed.'
All the attacks came from below, beneath the sand.
As Mitsuna had not moved the surprise attack was not that difficult to pull off, the team turned out to have an excellent strategist and a swordsman who could use a modicum of Earth magic.
As Mitsuna was about to move and brake the weapons piercing her body, she was surprised as two more individuals ended up attacking her.
A rapier through her neck from behind and a greatsword that smashed right on her side.
Most of the bones in her body were broken.
Mitsuna spat out blood.
'Damn. The two I let go from the vanguard.'
Mitsuna seemed to be in a bit of a rough patch as every participant had already guessed the outcome.
...
"Damn. They actually did it."
"Biggest turnover within the last few years."
"She shouldn't have chugged that much liquor, numbs the senses that are a necessity for swordsmanship."
"She was overconfident, to say the least."
"Too bad. She was a looker and a good swordswoman."
"Good? Isn't that way too modest? Did you see that dark Technique style? What even was that?"
"Yeah, right? It slowly decayed everything it hit."
"Almost all the soldiers were disarmed too."
"Just thinking about what would have happened if she was in peak condition scares me."
"True. But why haven't we gone to the next B placement round yet?"
"No clue. The organizers have the cameras set up so that the moment the General's life and mana signs disappear, the next round will start getting set up, maybe they just left the cameras on as a mistake?"
"Hey... Why aren't the people who have weapons in that corpse moving?"
"Hmm? It seems like their hands are shaking too."
"Wait... does that mean the General is alive?"
"Nah. That's... I mean, she's getting pierced by like 7 weapons and a greatsword just smashed her ribs to dust."
"But the camera is still on."
"Hey! Shut it! I see movement!"
The scythe General that was still resting at the hospital was looking at the screen with worry when he realized that Mitsuna couldn't sense the enemies beneath her very feet.
When he saw how she was pierced by all those weapons, he felt a sting in his heart. He held back his sadness as he realized how a girl he found an interest in was just about to die.
Even though he felt like this, he knew he at least had to watch her final moments and memorize the faces of her killers. He at least owed her that much, or so he thought.
His eyes, however, soon widened as he saw Mitsuna still moving. She didn't seem to give up, almost like she was pushing herself for some reason.
And so he came to a conclusion. She couldn't give up because she could feel his feelings emanating through the camera towards her, he gave her the drive to keep fighting.
Yeah. He has not even talked to her once and has only seen her from afar. This is the scene of an insane stalker being born. No joke.
...
Back through the camera, on that level desert that has just gotten a fresh smell of blood, Mitsuna shook her body.
Mitsuna coughed out all of the blood in her throat and windpipes.
"*Cough Cough* Damn. Nice play, but you'll need more than that to kill me. Should have gone for the head greatsword kid."
Mitsuna forcefully spun her body counterclockwise.
The Soldiers beneath the sand were pulled out and everyone was tossed away.
Just as they landed, a few started making their way back to finish the job.
"Can't you give a girl some room?"
Mitsuna used a Technique from her [Sunken Rot] style. [Still Ocean].
A dark and thick liquid spread out.
All the Soldiers in her surroundings lost their heads one at a time as Mitsuna instantly travelled behind them and decapitated them.
Only a few remained, the one with the rapier, the one with the greatsword, two people with regular straight swords, one with a katana and a few others that were unarmed.
Mitsuna coughed violently as blood still spilt out of her wounds.
'It'll take a while to heal. I'll have to take it a little more seriously.'
"Alright. Come on, I'm all sobered up now."
Mitsuna said as she changed the grip of her weapon while covering it with an aura of rot.
The people opposed her all had a unanimous thought as they saw this.
'Phase two!'