Fighting against monsters is way different compared to fighting humans.

Normal monsters would simply rush toward you, following the shortest path. But humans? They’re crafty, underhanded, and extremely... obscene.

And the thing about fighting humans in particular—especially ones who had clearly done this before—was that you could see the intelligence behind their movements.

The way they positioned themselves wasn’t random. It was considered. Every body angled to maximize coverage, every step deliberate. Monsters moved like water following gravity.

As if wanting to prove my point, the members of the Justice Guild moved exactly as I had imagined.

A group of 15 vanguards rushed forward, creating a wall about three meters away from where my team stood. Miyabi and the rest were staring at them warily, with my android girls already rushing to their positions, prepared to fight.

The wall of vanguards was dense enough that pushing through it conventionally would’ve been a genuine effort—shoulder to shoulder, shields raised, each one covering the gap beside them.

Of course, that wasn’t what we’d actually be facing.

"FIRE!"

But instead, a rain of long-ranged attacks.

Various spells and projectiles flew forward, heading right for us.

Fireballs, wind blades, glowing spheres, lightning, arrows, bullets, stones—literally almost everything one could think of. It was quite a sight, filled with colors—but more than that, pretty deadly.

"GentleBreeze!" I roared.

"On it~!"

Her reply came without delay—a sign that she had already known what to do before I even called her name.

"Holy Sanctuary!"

Her skill was, of course, not the same one as before.

The normal "Sanctuary" was just something that repelled everything and added a minor purification to everyone within range. But Holy Sanctuary was a direct upgrade of it. The range was the same, but the effects had been upgraded by several levels—the difference between a fence and a wall.

The attacks that flew in fizzed out—magic or not—as soon as they touched the sanctuary’s thin film. The fireballs died mid-air without even a puff of smoke. The arrows simply stopped, hanging for a half second before clattering to the ground like they’d forgotten what momentum was.

Not only that, but the vanguards standing a bit too close ended up flying backwards as if thrown by a catapult, sailing through the air and landing somewhere further down the forest, well out of sight.

"Fuck...!"

"What the hell is that defense?!"

"Attack! Attack! Don’t let them regain composure!"

The enemies seemed to be panicking fast, but... did we even lose composure in the first place?

I turned to the girls.

Although all of them looked serious, they were relaxed—settled into their stances the way you only got when you were confident in the people standing beside you. In fact, one could even see their lips curling up slightly, as if finding the whole situation more interesting than threatening.

Seeing them, I smiled.

"Alright, I guess it’s time to teach you girls some PVP manners." I said. "Especially when against large groups like this one."

I pointed a finger forward, lips curled up.

"First! Don’t let the enemy hit you one-sidedly!"

After that, as if it were a magic word—or a prepared code word—we all moved at the same time.

Previously, the enemy’s formation was designed to let the vanguard pin us in place while the long-ranged attackers poured attacks down over their heads.

A one-sided attacking design that was a pretty common strategy, and not a bad one either. Clean in theory, and against a team without our kind of defensive options, it would’ve been suffocating to deal with.

It was also easy to figure out they’d try the same formation again if we gave them the chance. We were greatly outnumbered, after all. Letting them reset and recompose would only make the next wave worse.

Thus, the only way to win this situation was by taking the reins entirely.

Not staying on the receiving side—being the ones doing the offensive.

"Moon Waltz!"

Miyabi and Kiki activated the ability immediately, jumping straight into the enemy’s formation. Miyabi, being a full-damage-build Shogun, was an obvious choice for that kind of dive.

But Kiki, a semi-tank, doing the same?

’That girl’s enjoying this situation a bit too much.’ I giggled as I moved.

"Iai Slash!"

CRITICAL!

3,828!!!

3,844!!!

3,791!!!

Miyabi used her skill, waving her katana in a full, sweeping circle. The blade caught the light for just a moment before the damage numbers started cascading.

All the enemies around her—seven of them—quickly broke into particles of light, dying in a single hit. The ones further back who had been watching from behind their vanguard had about half a second to process what had happened before Miyabi was already turning toward them.

Kiki, on the other hand, was hitting enemies one punch at a time. Her damage wasn’t as explosive, but in four hits she could burst down a single player easily.

She moved between targets without hesitation—reading the cluster, picking the next, flowing from one to the next with the kind of rhythm you only got from someone who had been brawling since before the game existed. She didn’t even need skills or critical hits.

I didn’t dare dally either.

Using Moon Waltz myself, I crossed the distance to the leader-like man, who still wore a stoic expression even now. Even with his vanguard flying through the air and his formation crumbling at the edges, there wasn’t a flicker of panic on his face.

I had to respect that, at least a little.

"It seems like we’ll see who this forest truly belongs to in a bit." I teased.

The man didn’t flinch, nor did he fall to the provocation. He just drew his sword and shield, settled his weight, and spoke in an indifferent but proud tone.

"If you think you’re a god just because of that ability of yours, then you’re greatly mistaken."

Then he unceremoniously swung his sword straight down toward my head. A casual attack in its delivery, but—

"...!"

The flash of the blade wasn’t one I could mistake. There was something in the angle, the timing, the way his grip shifted mid-swing—a tell that only made sense if you’d seen the technique before.

"Threefold Slash...!" The man roared.

At the same time, his blade split into three distinct images and continued slamming straight down at my head in rapid succession. Seeing this, I couldn’t help but smile wide.

"Great! Now this is what I’m talking about!"

Threefold Slash... Although I called it by a different name myself, it was essentially the same technique.

An attack initiated by attack-interrupt-attack-interrupt, done three times in a row. The timing was easy to grasp thanks to the repeated rhythm—once you felt the first interval, the rest followed predictably, like a metronome dressed up as a killing blow.

But it was a combo application that "I" hadn’t used yet in this timeline. Meaning this man had discovered it independently. Meaning he was smarter than he looked.

"So you discovered your own combo, huh?!"

I waved my flag and parried the attack perfectly. As someone who had used the technique before, I also knew its weaknesses intimately—the brief window of overextension between the second and third strike, where the attacker’s weight was committed and couldn’t be recalled.

The reason why I haven’t used this one at all was... I guess it’s pretty obvious.

PERFECT PARRY!

When the man’s attack was caught and turned, his expression finally changed. Surprise flashed in his eyes as his hands flew back from the force of the parry. He staggered for just a brief moment, blinking at me like he was recalculating something—

"This is more than enough for me!"

Paying respect to his spirit of discovery, of finding a combination technique all by himself without anyone handing it to him, I sent him off using the very same method he had tried on me.

I raised the flag using both hands, brought it down, and applied the interrupt three times in a row at perfect timing. "Three Bites...!"

The flag’s tip split into three before bearing down on the man’s body in rapid, overlapping strikes.

His armor barely offered resistance to two of the slashes—they were ethereal, able to phase through solid objects. A common property of combo attacks like this, the real damage bypassing the surface entirely and hitting what was underneath. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

With the level gap being over ten, and the attack landing three times, his HP disappeared in a flash.

I could see him beginning to form a word—something he wanted to shout, some parting remark or acknowledgment—but he shattered into hundreds of light shards before he could even get the first syllable out.

"Phew...!"

I heaved a satisfied sigh, staring at the spot where he had been standing.

There was something quietly fulfilling about that exchange specifically. Not the win—the recognition.

He had come up with that combo on his own without my help. That kind of thing deserved better than getting stomped by a clueless enemy. It just happened that I wasn’t clueless.

Then, I turned to the remaining members of the Justice Guild, who were staring at me like I was something that had crawled out of a place they hadn’t known existed, and shrugged.

Without their leader, their offensive quickly lost its edge.

The cohesion that had made their formation impressive two minutes ago started unraveling—players hesitating, looking at each other for instruction that wasn’t coming anymore.

Miyabi and Kiki were like demons in particular, killing enemies one after another without mercy or pause.

Ram and Gwen held their flanks cleanly, neither letting anyone slip past nor wasting movement on targets the others had already marked.

Sunny, despite being a support build, was practically on par with Ram in terms of raw sword and shield work—something that continued to quietly impress me every time I remembered it.

When the girls’ kill counts went past ten each, the remaining enemies turned and ran, heading deeper into the forest.

Their destination was, without a doubt, the same place we were heading.

"Alright, that should be enough warmup!"

I clapped, calling the girls over. They came without complaint, most of them looking less tired than they did after a normal monster wave. Kiki was even grinning, as if satisfied.

"Now, let’s go for the main dish. Let’s deal with all those thieving bastards planning to snatch my first-clear!"

"It wouldn’t go to that length, would it?"

Miyabi retorted, falling into step beside me with the practiced ease of someone who had already made peace with the fact that it absolutely would.

I shrugged, ignoring her snappy remark.

They were the ones who had started this war in the first place.

I was just finishing it.