Most likely, she guessed, it was set up to teleport you to the first teammate to enter the keep after the announcement at 2:20. For Llenn’s team, it was Clarence, and for SHINC, it was Tanya.
“What about M?” she asked Boss, but she realized she already knew the answer.
She forced her attention into the upper-left corner of her vision, where she could see the status of her various teammates, arranged neatly out of her regular line of sight.
Right as she saw the truth, Boss said, “M’s dead. He did it to get us here.”
Like Pitohui’s, M’s spot was red, and there was an X above his name.
“……”
Boss felt that she had an obligation to explain what had happened.
“The enemy had us pinned at the end of a long hallway. In order to break through the stalemate, M took my large plasma grenade and his shield and charged at them. Then he blew himself up and opened the way for us. We were just able to make it in time.”
The world shook a little bit just then.
“Well, if he’s dead, he’s dead. Seems like the castle is starting to crumble,” Fukaziroh said, distinctly lacking in solemnity. Meanwhile, Llenn could see the distant ramparts crumbling.
It was the second collapse of the day.
The ramparts were the farthest part of the castle. They went first, disappearing over the edge, and then, as though dragged down with them, the huge stone bridges that connected to the central keep fell, one after the other. If you happened to be stuck beneath them, you’d be crushed to death.
But even if you weren’t flattened by the bridges, you would lose the ground beneath your feet in moments. Right after the ramparts and bridges, the maze town was next.
The central area was lifted 150 feet above the town, and the spires rose another 150 from there, so the group had a three-hundred-foot vantage point over the destruction. It was very easy to tell what was happening.
“What a sight,” Fukaziroh murmured, popping her head over the edge to see. That was the moment that a bullet twanged off her helmet and deflected into the sky.
“Gmburgl!” she squawked. The helmet saved her life, but she still felt like someone had punched her in the head, and the shock traveled to her neck as well, causing the weird gurgling cry she made. She rolled around on the ground in agony; the shot had cost her 5 percent of her hit points.
“Sniper! Southwest!” Llenn called out, cursing their lack of caution in watching the collapse below. She fell to the floor as a red bullet line extended over Fukaziroh, only to be erased by its bullet. A nasty hiss buzzed in her ears.
“Yikes…,” she murmured, having seen it out of the corner of her eye. She asked Clarence, “Is that sniper in the next tower?”
“Yep, that’s my stalker. That creep’s still around? He’s pretty good, right?”
“I’ll admit it.”
“Why did he shoot just now? We were pretty chill before this. I really thought that there was a loving truce between the two of us.”
“Ow, my head… Must be because he’s found himself another woman,” Fukaziroh chimed in.
“I don’t think it’s anything as sweet as that,” Boss pointed out. She had sunk back against the stone wall, with binoculars pointed around the side of the pillar. Only the right lens was extended around the edge, because both would be too much of a target.
She reported back on what she saw. “MMTM’s in the next tower to the southwest! It’s the sniper in the sunglasses who shot at us: Lux. But there’s no one else in the tower… I think.”
“Ha-ha, so he’s the only one left, eh?” Fukaziroh snorted. However, while the chances of that being true were not zero, they were definitely very, very low.
Brrr! Llenn felt a sudden shiver down her spine. She had a very bad feeling.
“That’s not it! The others are there, too! They met up with the teleport, and they know we’re here…so they’re coming toward our tower so they can climb up!”
“That’s it!” Boss agreed, right as a sniper’s bullet cracked just past her head. Another three inches, and it would have pierced both the lens of the binoculars and her right eye.
No matter how many times she heard it, that sound like insect wings magnified hundreds of times in volume was a horrible sensation. The only good thing about it is that if you heard it, it meant you didn’t get hit by it.
Boss hunched down and said, “Dammit! Everyone, hurry down the tower! If they block us in, we’ll never get out! That’s what MMTM wants!”
Brrrr! Llenn’s back shivered again. Her dark premonition was exactly correct.
In other words, this was the situation.
David’s Team MMTM was reunited via the teleporter and realized the situation in this tower: M and Pitohui were not there. Then they leaped into prompt action to eliminate Llenn.
First, they left Lux to be a sniper atop the tower and prevent Llenn’s group from looking down or getting any closer. In the meantime, the other members rushed down their tower and were making their way toward Llenn’s tower now.
Then they could surround it at a safe distance and keep the group trapped inside. If they had plasma grenades, they could try knocking over the tower. Or they could steadily attack from below until they picked off everyone.
And if they didn’t want to risk the danger, they could just tell everyone else “The million yen’s up in that tower!” and let the opportunists do the rest.
The end result would be the same: Llenn’s group would be stuck in the tower, surrounded by enemies and unable to gain an advantage over anyone.
It was exactly the kind of plan MMTM would execute, given their overall team skill and David’s sharp, uncompromising tactical leadership. They were a formidable foe.
But this wasn’t the time to be paying compliments.
“If we don’t get down, we’re screwed…”
“That’s right! Let’s go!” Boss urged—right as she got trampled on. “Mrglh!”
Sophie and Rosa and Tohma had just jumped into the entrance from the crumbling castle and were promptly teleported on top of Boss as a group.
It wasn’t anyone’s fault. There just wasn’t any room.