"You spent too much time inside her trauma world!" Inari shouted the moment my consciousness returned.
The Entertainer had her lips pressed together and seemed slightly worried.
"You pulled me at a really bad moment." I pointed out.
"That doesn't matter. The path towards the Phoenix is about to appear. Look at the percentage of energies."
"Hmm?"
+
Current energy:
- Pure energy: 49%
- Evil energy: 49%
+
"SHIT!"
I cursed the moment I saw the percentages. I glanced at the egg beside me and saw it pulsating brightly.
It only required two percent more energy to transform into the Phoenix egg.
[ Remaining energy requires a big sacrifice which is either evil or good. Depending on the final percentages, the reborn bird will either be aligned with the evil side or the good side. ]
This message must have appeared in front of every person participating in the scenario. I glanced around the at surroundings, knowing full well about the next thing that was about to happen.
"They are about to come here, aren't they?" I asked Inari.
"Yes, the last part of the scenario takes place in this region. Only those with the alternate method can access it early on. You are lucky you came here early or else a lot of evil energy might have been accumulated."
"I know. That's why I wanted to come here early."
"Well, I will have to begin streaming this area too since the part of the scenario is about to end. I want to see you do something interesting." Inari gave me a slight nod before flying high up in the sky.
Black portals opened all around the meadow, signaling the arrival of others. I picked up the Phoenix's egg from the ground and went to stand in front of Ana's body.
The first to appear out of the portal were the five C women. Their faces no longer held the smugness from before. Blank expressions were present on their faces.
They were soon followed by twenty more people, all of them showing the same expression on their faces. It closely resembled a scene from a horror movie.
Collectively, the horde advanced towards the oak tree.
I grabbed the rusty sword on my waist and wrapped it in my flames.
[ Pure Fire has been detected. ]
[ Rusty old sword is reacting to your flames. ]
[ Rusty Old Sword has evolved into Sword of Justice. ]
Seeing the flaming sword in my head, a few people momentarily stopped their advances. C2 noticed this and glared in my direction.
"Hand over the egg to us Michael. We outnumber you by a large number."
Her words made the doubtful humans regain their confidence. It was pretty easy to tell that all of them chose the killer's method or otherwise they wouldn't be standing behind the C women.
"I am not going to hand over the egg this easily," I replied calmly.
"Then we will take it by force. We need Anabelle too so we will be taking her as well. As for you, our employer said that he wants you to struggle a bit so we have orders to injure you and let you go."
"And why are you telling me this?"
"I have orders to explain this to you. Now if you will excuse us, we have work to do."
C2 raised her hand in the air, emitting black mana from her body. The black mana wrapped around every single person in the group before vanishing.
[ Evil Group buff is active. All members associated with Killer's method will receive a 20% buff to all their stats. ]
Damn. A 20% buff wasn't that huge compared to my current stats. It was the number of people in front of me that worried me.
Sword of Justice did provide me with a significant buff which was effective against every single person on the opposing team but I was still at a disadvantage.
I needed to protect the egg with my left hand while making sure that Ana's body remained safe behind me.
I erected a wall of flame around Ana's body to prevent the C women from shadow walking. Their skill allowed them to travel through shadows easily and take Ana's body away.
"You are stubborn." C2 shook her head. "Well, you asked for it. Charge ahead!"
With her orders, the entire horde started heading towards me. Countless messages appeared in front of me, showing the usage of numerous skills.
All the twenty extra members behind the C women used long-ranged skills like [Fireball], [Arrow Barrage], [Air Slash], etc.
Various magical attacks flew my way, some combining together to become more powerful while some remained separate.
Taking a deep breath, I swung the sword in a downward arc. A crescent slash made from blue flames shot out from the sword.
I repeated this action enough times to counter all the incoming ranged skills. The flames easily managed to destroy the ranged skills but the problem lay with the close-ranged fighters.
The five C women disappeared inside the shadows, thus vanishing from the meadow. I continued to use my magic to destroy the incoming attacks while waiting for them to reappear.
"How much mana do you have?" C4 whispered into my ears.
I immediately swung my elbow backward but it didn't connect with anything. I had to rely on [Author's Eyes] to not only trace their movements but also pay attention to the other attackers.
I spun around on my spot countless times, protecting myself from their close attacks. I was forced to distance myself from Ana's body to avoid myself from being hit a couple of times.
I couldn't travel too far from her body in case the firewall came down.
< Looks like they are following a strategy. The twenty people attack using various ranged skills while the other five do close ranged combat. Make sure to summon fire with your left hand while swinging the sword with your right. >
'Yeah, I know. Thanks.'
Between holding the egg, spamming fire attacks to counter the range attacks and combating the five women, I felt extremely drained.
"Fuck…"
A punch landed on my gut, making me stumble a bit. My physique handled the punch but it startled me a bit, allowing another attack to slip past my radar.
< Blue says he is sorry. >
Even Blue couldn't help me in such a situation.
From there onwards, the women were able to land a blow on my from time to time. Gritting my teeth, I tried to put some distance between us but it was impossible.
The stats buff plus the fact that they were focusing their mana only on shadow walking allowed them to hyperfocus on hitting me with physical attacks.
Not to mention that I needed to destroy or avoid the long range attacks as well.
[ Viewer 'Velstad The Bro' questions the fairness of the current fight. ]
[ Viewer 'Goat Atop A Mountain' agrees with the statement. ]
[ A small amount of viewers are in agreement with the statement. ]
Even the viewers felt pity for me after seeing my miserable condition. Obviously every Viewer didn't think the same but I didn't care about their messages.
"You are stubborn but you can't win this battle sadly."
Suddenly, two C women grabbed my arms from the side. Black demonic energy flickered around their body as shadows wrapped around my arms.
I set my arms on fire, burning the hands of the women grabbing me. They shouted in pain but held on to my arms like madmen.
I couldn't swing my sword at this angle and had no choice except increasing the temperature of the flames.
"Ugh…"
Both the women groaned in pain. Their mana went wild for a few seconds, keeping me grounded to my location.
[ Shadow Bond has been formed. You are currently bonded with the shadows and will not be able to move for the next five minutes. ]
"You clearly don't have enough mana for that. I hope you know that even your employer will not like to bear the consequences of doing that." I pointed out.
Neither of the two women possessed the energy required to use [Shadow Bond]. Forcing the usage of such skills resulted in consequences they couldn't bear.
"Our employer promised us enough things in exchange for completing his orders." C2 replied.
"Ohh? Did he promise you things like that modeling agency promised you?" I asked mockingly.
C2's face tightened after hearing my words. All five of them were the same people who bullied Ana in her high school, which made me dislike them.
The modeling agency that hired the five girls turned out to be a fraud place which exploited young aspiring models. I knew this because these five girls talked about this while bullying Ana to get some money.
Though she didn't give up her money, she faced some injuries in places no one could see. They made sure to hit her in places where the bruises won't show up.
"I guess she told you about it." C2 muttered.
"No, she didn't. I just know everything about you." I grinned. "Are you curious to know what else I know?"
[ Time remaining: 2 minutes 30 seconds ]
I somehow managed to stall for half the time. Sadly, doing this for another two minutes and half was a tough thing.
"Your stalling time is over." C2 stepped close to me. "As for Ana, she is a bitch who deserves all that. No one asked her to be ugly and get good grades. She is useless."
"Haha, no wonder you are black mana. Ana is a beautiful angel unlike you filthy humans. Now I feel happy that I barely interacted with anyone during high school. If I met someone like you, you would be in jail."
I wanted to trash talk the women but it was useless. They already sold themselves to their employers and simply considered themselves better than others.
Such humans couldn't be changed.
C2 advanced forward and touched the egg tightly clasped to my chest. Our eyes met as a small smile appeared on her face.
"Looks like you lose. There is nothing you can do, Michael."
With those words, C2 extended her hands towards me chest. She firmly wrapped her hands around the bird's egg and with one swift motion, she took the egg from my chest.
"You can continue to play hero but I am afraid that this time, my side has won."