I ducked as a sword passed by my head, but before I could attack on my own, the attacker changed her stance and tried to kick me.
My eyes went wide as I tried to jump to the side, but unfortunately, I was too slow so my shoulder was hit.
Unfortunately for her, my armor was doing more than protecting me, it absorbed the momentum of the attack, making me move my shoulder backwards, taking the attacker by surprise.
Taking advantage of that, I tackled my enemy and pointed my swords at her face making it my win.
"You are very bad at this Trader, yet you still won... how are you doing this?"
I helped Merry to get up while she was questioning the legitimacy of my win.
"I won only because of my armor, otherwise it would've been my loss."
"That's why I said we should train with wooden swords!"
"Not in this dimension!"
Plus she can't take her helmet off because of the curse, and I didn't plan on letting my defenses down in enemy territory.
It was the next day after the Pope told us his stories, and since the army wouldn't arrive here for another day we decided to do some training.
It was too short timed for me to get a skill level up and too long to do nothing all day.
That's why we decided to do some sparing to get more used for the upcoming fight.
Should I also ask Violet for some help?
No, she's too much of an opponent to us and I'm afraid she may accidently kill Merry.
Maybe an iron golem?
That could work, since one can take a lot of hits and listens to every command, I'll ask Merry what she thinks about this later.
"Ok let's fight once more and this time I won't be taken by surprise. Same rules, no potions or any other buffs otherwise everything is fair."
"Ok, tell me when you're ready."
And for the next 10 fights, I only won 2, and for some reason, her smugness was rubbing me the wrong way.
I should get some new weapons to increase my winning chances.
I wonder if Alexa knows how to make a trident and the loyalty enchantment.
"This was an interesting match to watch, but it seems that Teader keeps tanking hits or running away from them. I'm glad you didn't pick that up from him, I don't think you'll be able to survive for long like that."
Well excuse me for using that method, I only died once so I'll say it works pretty well for me.
Plus, what's the point of having an OP armor if you're not going to use it?
"Good morning mister Pope, feeling better?"
"Hoho, you don't have to worry that much about this old man. Just focus on saving the world for the System."
The Pope was smiling while running his hand over his long beard.
"So did something happen, or were you just curious about our duel?"
"Well, it seems that we are in luck, as our army managed to get here just an hour ago."
The church army? Well, that's a pleasant surprise, if we wait some more we'll have the Royal army as well, and for sure we'll be able to defeat the Lords like this.
"That's awesome, do they have the energy to start marching once again?"
"Merry, I think we should let them take a break until the other army arrives, I'm sure they're tired from traveling under the scorching sun for days."
I tried to reason with Merry.
"That's true, tell them to get some rest since we will be leaving tomorrow."
She's much more confident now which was good for a hero.
"Ok, now let's get back to sparring, it's starting to get fun."
While I couldn't see her face because of the helmet, I'm sure she had a mischievous grin under it.
-----
The next day came quickly, and now we were in front of the church headquarters with two armies standing beside each other.
I kept saying that those are armies, but there were 100 in total, and from a world where an army would have thousands or hundreds of thousands of members, it feels weird to call them an army.
But this wasn't my world so I can't say they have the same rules.
"Warriors of humanity, today we would march towards our biggest battle yet. As you may have heard the Prince has fallen and made a deal with the Monster Lords, and we don't accept such methods, we won't stand down as injustice continues to happen in our lands! We shall fight them, we shall kill them and be heroes that would write history!"
Merry stood on a pedestal and started to give a speech, and I could feel the soldiers getting fired up the more she spoke.
"But we don't fight for fame, we fight for our families, we fight for our nation, WE FIGHT FOR HUMANITY!!"
She finished her speech by raising her arm
Soon the whole army started to cheer in unison, ready to go to war.
We turned and started our journey with the hero in the front.
Green was left behind, leaving me, Merry, probably Violet, Alexa, and two whole armies.
Not that much.
After marching for an hour everyone forgot about me, which made me less tense from the unwanted attention.
Just to be sure that I was not going to get attention I sat beside the army at a respectful distance.
"Alexa, what did you get in the past few days?"
"And did something catch your eye?"
Those blocks were that special?
I didn't feel like it was that different from the everyday blocks.
Maybe I should use my monocle more often from now on.
"Do you think the System found out about me or you?"
How lucky of us.
That's true, especially for Merry since she would be fighting the Monster Lords.
But as Alexa said, I would be invisible for it unless it would use Merry's eyes.
Maybe it's better if I prepare a trap instead of fighting head-on like Merry.
A few ideas floated into my mind, but they wouldn't work most of the time because of the Shadow Lord.
If only there was a way to know where he would pop out or even seal his ability to teleport.
"Hey Alexa, did you get the chance to scan the Monster Lord by any chance?"
"Do you think you can point out where his location is like Merry knows the location of the Zombie Lord?"
I don't think I want to get its attention now, since it would be a pain to deal with later, but I also don't want to follow only the Zombie Lord, since they could've split up by now to do more damage.
"Do you know a way to hide the hero while she is being scanned?"
I should have enough obsidian to box her for a few minutes.
But I think we should do this at night when the soldiers won't pay as much attention.
I spoke with Alexa about this, and that's what we did.
When night arrived, we stopped to camp and get some well deserved rest, then I took this chance and spoke with Merry about the plan.
She was on board as soon as I finished my explanation, so we went a little further from the camp, dug a big hole in the Sand, and built a small room with three layers of obsidian.
"So, once I'm inside the box, Alexa will start scanning me. As soon as the scanning is completed I'll cover it in obsidian and try to get outside of the box with my diamond pickaxe."
"Yeah, that's the gist of it. We hope that in the time you get out, the System will try to scan the surrounding area, and seeing nothing it would think your just a weirdo."
Of course, in case the System scans the area I would be hidden from any eye's as well.
"Hey! If you want revenge for all that ass-kicking I gave you yesterday, you could've come up with a better plan."
She complained while getting inside the box and blocking the hole.
A few minutes later I suddenly felt pressure in the air, I felt like the eyes of God were watching over every gram of sand in this chunk.
The pressure lasted for 5-10 and finally 30 minutes before it was gone.
As the pressure left the obsidian box was broken, letting Merry out who was messaging her head.
"Are you ok, are you still in control?"
"Yes, I am, it's just that I've never talked with the System this way. It's similar to how Alexa talks, just more heavy and demanding."
The System spoke with her?
"What did it ask you?"
"I think it wanted to ask me about what I was doing but was suddenly got distracted by my new helmet. It insisted that I should get it off since it was a cursed equipment and would make me mad."
So the helmet managed to distract the System enough to not concentrate on Alexa or what was happening around the hero.
Is Netherite that dangerous for the System?
"And how did you respond?"
"I told it that it was a gift from you, and I can't take it off even if I wanted to."
Well the System was right in regards to the curse, after all I put Curse of binding on it specifically so the System couldn't take it off.
"Then what happen? I felt the System sitting here for quite a while."
"Ugh, don't remind me. It tried to remove my helmet with some kind if telekinesis power, but it only gave me a headache. After 10 minutes doing that constantly I threatened that I'll get a full armor it doesn't leave me alone. And surprisingly that worked."
Did you just threatened the System?
You have some guts Merry, I have to give you credit for that.
"Alexa, did you get what you wanted?"
Later then I expected but better then nothing.
I cleaned up the place and put all the sand back in the hole, after everything was done, we all went to get some rest.
----
Three days have passed and we arrived at our destination, or more exactly, at the place the Zombie Lord was residing.
It was a cave system in a small mountain.
I decided to go in first becouse of my armor, and scout the area for any traps.
As I entered the tunnels, I started to notice human activity, and soon saw some guards with iron armor patrolling the place.
Jackpot!
With silent steps, I went and checked every room that I could find, but there were only guards and nobles.
No Monster Lords or any Prince.
Where are they?