SYSTEMBREAKER: Rise Of The Ninth Overlord

#6: Sending Chosen In

Bravo should have realized the odd acting NPC wasn't actually an NPC. He sprinted after the [Infiltrator] as he gave the orders.

"Stop! We aren't here to kill you, we can work together."

He yelled to the sprinting [Infiltrator].

Damned, he had picked [Arcanist] and wasn't prepared to sprint like this. He was spec ops and was falling behind what looked like an out of shape young adult.

His squad member sprinted past him. They were top of their physique before their [Infiltrator] class. Yet somehow he was still only matching the same pace.

Bravo's dwarf companion ran beside him, annoyed at the whole scenario.

"I thought the Arbiter stopped sending Chosen in like this."

"Guess he thought we deserved special treatment." Bravo said.

The mortal and the drake were sprinting ahead now, they'd just broken into the forested path. The two were getting further and further away as they were going too far.

All of a sudden, the Chosen jumped out of the path and straight into the forest. That was too many variables. He whistled to his companion.

The drake stopped chasing and doubled back towards him. He panting but annoyed at the call.

"He was slowing down! I would have had him."

"Enough, there's too much risk in that forest to chase blindly. We need to go back to the plan." He'd already lost sight of the damned Chosen, Bravo shook his head. "You go on ahead and guard the dungeon. Us two will finish organizing and clear the village."

The dwarven [Vanguard] spat in disgust.

"The whole shit's fucked now."

Bravo grit his teeth. "I could have salvaged it if you hadn't killed that farmer."

His dwarven companion didn't seem to want to acknowledge the blame. He just chuckled.

"Heh, well we've done enough for your class though, right? It must be something if The Arbiter is interfering like this."

Bravo stayed silent but couldn't help but acknowledge his words.

The brass wanted a [Strategist] after finding out that the Overlords had been cultivating one in secret. Bravo had to follow a specific path to get the pre-class offered to him at Dominion 1. He hadn't been excited for it, but now that the Arbiter had shown his hand… maybe it would be worth something after all.

The duo made their way back to the village. There hadn't been any other witnesses on that old crier's death. They had just organized everyone into the village center after all.

At most, the Trial NPCs would be crowding around the dead man, and they could explain themselves.

What he hadn't expected was to find the Chosen [Infiltrator] in front of a crowd explaining everything and pointing at them and at his dwarf teammate's empty scabbard and the sword stuck in the farmer's eye.

~

Rhys had run for a few minutes with the trio hot behind his heels. His head start had allowed him to keep the distance, but not so much that they'd lost sight of him.

He came up with a plan on the fly. Soloing the dungeon? Impossible with the three behind him. Hiding out in the woods? Also impossible considering the Trial perimeter would slowly shrink after the main quest was completed.

Fighting them? That was a bad joke. None of them brought emergency gear or guns. Paradoxically, that was scarier.

They had to be confident soldiers trying to really maximize their achievements.

The only option Rhys had was to rally the village. He jumped into the forest and started doubling back the moment he was out of sight.

To his relief, he arrived first. Quite a few of the villagers had gathered around the farmer's corpse and were holding bits and pieces of makeshift weaponry. That made him sigh in relief. He had no idea why they were still left alive and holding weapons. Did the soldiers really plan to slaughter the village? It didn't matter anymore.

He walked out into the open and towards them with his hands up.

"Hello!" He called out.

A man in common clothing put up his pitchfork, he held it steady with only a slight hint of fear. A young woman scrambled at her crossbow, the only one in the village.

"Stay back!"

"I called out the attack! Those three adventurers are traitors! They're the ones that killed him."

"They were sent here to protect us."

"They're liars, what did they tell you to do?" Rhys asked.

"They told us to gather so they can organize us. We were going to fight off the skeleton noble together."

That was when the soldiers appeared out of the forested path. That was unfortunate, he hadn't had enough time to convince them. It was obvious from his perspective what those soldiers were, but these villagers wanted to stick with the mortals that had warned them first. Damn.

Wait a second.

Rhys pointed at the newly arrived adventurers.

"Look, it's them! They killed the farmer, you see that dwarf? It's his sword that was put in that man's head."

The villagers all looked towards the dwarf's belt. His face might have been hidden behind the Trial issued helmet, but Rhys could tell the surprise on the bastard. The mortal man put his hand out to his companion and shouted out.

"A lie! This [Infiltrator] came along and was accosting him. We were trying to stop this fugitive until he grabbed my companion's blade and threw it at farmer Ja'kar."

The soldier's voice was authoritative, calm and completely demanded that he was the one to listen to. The villagers all glared at Rhys as if that made total sense..

Rhys could almost see the smug look of victory on that soldier's face. Even if he couldn't actually see a face behind that helmet… Wait.

Rhys narrowed his eyes.

"Oh yeah? Why don't you show your face to everyone here? Why keep your faces hidden, huh? what have you got to hide? Huh?"

It was like a light switch in the heads of the villagers. They all turned to stare at the 'friendly' adventurers as they suddenly realized having three masked heroes that all wore identical helmets was a little unnerving.

Rhys decided to push while he had the advantage.

"Why would I double back to the scene of the crime? I could have just ran off. There's nothing else that makes sense!"

One villager whispered to another, "I thought it was weird they told us to organize our weapons in the middle and they'd distribute it to us later."

Rhys's argument would collapse the moment they took off their helmets. But they couldn't. They wouldn't show their faces to Rhys and have them be identified, that was definitely worse than losing a safety life here.

The Overlords weren't friendly to active soldiers from Terra Prime encroaching on their lands. They'd get slaughtered the moment they stepped foot in The Dominion. The best part? They didn't know he had lost his safety. They probably still thought he had it.

For a moment, the mortal man turned to Rhys, and he felt the eyes bore into him. The [Arcanist] just sighed and shrugged, too casually.

"Cover's been blown I guess."

Rhys's hair stood up. The man looked at his companion and offered his sword. the dwarf took the blade.

Now, Rhys had expected them to retreat and complete the dungeon. Rhys could then maybe take the townspeople and then go for the exit at the dungeon. What he didn't expect was both soldiers to charge at the crowd.

Two versus twenty.

Most of the villagers were surprised but there had been plenty of time for them to raise their pitchforks and spears.

A [Magebolt] hit the front villager with a pitchfork right between the eyes. The dwarf used that opening to charge into the middle of the surprised crowd. He swung his blade.

[Cleave]

It was like the scene out of a nightmare, eight mortals were bisected from that single skill.

The dwarf didn't stop, he jumped out as he stabbed another terrified mortal through the gut and pulled back. He snatched pitchfork and threw it at another villager's head.

Eleven mortals had died just like that.

Rhys finally started sprinting. His hand reached for a throwing knife as he made an exaggerated throwing motion, not at the [Vanguard] dwarf, but at the [Arcanist].

The disarmed [Arcanist] that had just cast his spell. The soldier [Arcanist] instinctively dodged as he realized the [Infiltrator] hadn't actually thrown. Rhys had used the feint to close the gap.

He threw his knife for real and immediately drew another knife. The [Arcanist] dodged again, this time more ready than before.

Rhys leapt forward with two blades outstretched. It looked like he was trying to tackle and stab the [Arcanist]. The soldier, instead of dodging, tried to spin and did the quickest forward kick Rhys had ever seen someone do. The kick slammed into his chest as he was flung backwards.

He looked up from his prone position to see the [Arcanist] look at his own chest. A knife and a sword had pierced through his ribs.

Maybe if Rhys weren't a Dominion zero [Infiltrator] he wouldn't have had the coordination to throw his weapons with the flick of his wrists. Unfortunately for the [Arcanist] he hadn't expected that his opponent had never been planning on trying to gut him.

He wasn't stupid, of course a confident soldier would know how to handle a charging stab.

"m-[Magebolt]!"

Rhys rolled out of the way as a blue bolt of magic smashed the ground, where his head had just been.

"Ah shit." The [Arcanist] said. He fell forward into the weapons embedded in his chest.

Rhys turned around to look at what was happening to the villagers. The dwarf was just staring at his fallen teammate, surprised.

"The fuck, Bravo really died to a kid?"

"I'm not a kid, you asshole."

"You're a dead kid, that's what you-"

Rhys heard a twang and a thwack as he saw a crossbow bolt embed into the dwarf's side. The [Vanguard] looked at his side then looked at the girl that had just shot him. He had let his guard down and left an opening for that shot.

A crying villager glared hatefully at the dwarf. They had shaking hands and were trying to reload.

"You're fucking dead too."

The dwarf stepped towards his shooter, blood dripping from his side.

Another villager took that opportunity to try to spear the dwarf in the back, he screamed in righteous fury as he stabbed forward.

The soldier simply sidestepped and cut off the villagers' hands.

They weren't coordinated at all. These villagers weren't fighters, and they'd already lost too much. Rhys started shouting orders.

"Stand back! Let him bleed out! You with the crossbow! Get further back, two of you with pikes stand in front of her. Don't get any closer." Rhys yelled.

The dwarven soldier looked at the villagers keeping away, then turned back at Rhys.

"You're a little shit, I'll remember you."

"I'll make sure to tell the Overlords that."

That made the dwarven [Vanguard] pause. Then the dwarf charged towards Rhys, a mad bull that didn't seem to care for the bleeding hole in his body.

Rhys kept his distance, his mortal [Infiltrator] legs outpacing the dwarven [Vanguard] by a fair margin. Rhys wondered if the soldier was planning on retreating to his other teammates. Without any healing potions, the dwarf was dead. Rhys thought it was time to gloat

"Should have brought armor or healing potions, you idiots."

"You don't know what you're dealing with."

"I know–"

The dwarf stopped running after him and jumped onto his companion's body. He took off his companion's helmet, and smashed the corpse's face into the ground. Again and again.

The dwarven soldier was mutilating his teammate's corpse.

Rhys stepped forward, readying a knife, and wondering if he should stop him. The [Vanguard] slowed down a little and Rhys stepped back. Thirty seconds had passed and [Cleave] was likely back up. It was definitely a trap.

Another bolt pierced into the dwarf's back as he continued to mutilate his companion's corpse. Once he was satisfied the face was unrecognizable, he looked up and laughed at Rhys.

"Thanks for reminding me, kid."

The dwarf fell forward on top of his companion, any chance of identifying the mortal soldier was completely gone. Rhys didn't dare to get close to retrieve his sword from the [Arcanist]'s chest. He just took out a knife and threw them at the fallen dwarf. There was an audible noise as Rhys narrowed his eyes at the 'fallen' dwarf.

"Can someone bring a spear and make sure this dwarf is dead?"

"Fucking coward." the 'corpse' coughed.

He put dwarven durability a few notches higher in his mind. Then the notifications came in.

《You have slain a Dominion 0 [Arcanist]

You have slain a Dominion 0 [Vanguard]》

~

Thirty minutes later, the villagers were getting ready to leave. Nearly half of their combat capable members had been slain by a single dwarf. Waiting for the Bone Sovereign to siege them was practically suicide now.

A few had collapsed and sat down, just staring blankly or wailing at the corpses of their fallen while the others were dragging bodies to burn. There was no sense in letting the Bone Sovereign resurrect them after all.

The two adventurers' corpses were in their own pile. He took one more look at the soldiers' bodies and felt disgusted. There were children in this village. No wonder nobody ever admitted to taking the path of slaughter. He didn't think he'd even be able to take those online discussions seriously again.

It was fucked up, even if these mortals were Trial mortals and would reappear in the next Trial.

An old man walked with the things Rhys asked for. The man nodded at his shaking hands.

"Was that your first time killing someone?"

"Ah, that's not the problem. I'm just angry at the pointless murder, that's all."

The soldiers had extra lives, Rhys hadn't actually killed them, he didn't feel bad at all. He looked at his hands as he tried to stop it from shaking.

It had been so quick, so easy. The old man squeezed his arm, looking him in the eyes.

"It'll fade with time, just remember that if it wasn't for what you did, we would all be dead." The old man said.

Rhys didn't even register what was being said. Killing just for a tiny potential upgrade to their achievements. It probably wouldn't have changed a single letter grade. Assholes.

"Are you sure you don't want anything else? You can't hunt a Bone Sovereign by yourself."

Rhys checked over his gear – a single sword and three throwing knives, cleaned by the villagers themselves. Also, a map of the dungeon.

"I have a plan, I can't bring too much or it'll scare the boss. Don't worry it's a pretty good plan."

The old man didn't quite seem to trust his current state of mind. "You can come travel with us. Please, it would be safer to travel together than for you to handle the noble yourself.

《Trial Quest updated!

Slay the undead noble

Or

Help the villagers flee into the next village five days away.

Capacity 3/3 + 1》

Rhys wasn't going to try the second option. Five days was far too long, and the journey would have too many random elements. It was far better for him to handle the boss with a tried and tested plan.

He shook his head as he started walking -

"Stop him!"

He ducked as a villager tried to tackle him. Another man jumped at him as he sidestepped them, then Rhys started jogging down the road. He waved back, laughing at the mortals that believed they were trying to save him.

"Don't worry about me. Watch out for that drake! He's definitely an [Infiltrator]. If he comes back, keep your distance and don't fire until he's close."

He had a three scaled Trial to solo.