Day Three started with Keiji standing at the center of our guild base, arms crossed, giving the kind of speech you usually hear right before someone makes a dramatic sacrifice in a movie.
His jaw was tight, his expression grim, and his tone carried the weight of someone who had already accepted pain as part of the strategy.
"Same plan for now," he announced. "Luna, Leonhart, you two still stay on defense. The rest of us are moving to offense. Sitting around won't win us this war."
I swear his eyes burned straight through me. Or maybe that was just my paranoia.
Either way, the words "stay on defense" made me want to cheer. Babysitting the flag?
That was my safe zone. Me, a healer with infinite patience, and an auto-cast sequence that turned enemies into diced sashimi while I stared heroically into the distance.
So when Keiji marched off with the others, banners raised, blades shining, I stayed behind with Luna.
We stood under the glow of the flag like two guardians in a really boring painting.
The first wave for the day, tried their luck an hour later. Auto-cast kicked in. Slash, thrust, dash, strike, bloodcurdling screams filled the air, armor shredded, bones cracked, but I didn't look.
I kept my eyes locked on the flag. Lesson learned.
"Flag looks good today," I told Luna through gritted teeth as something squelched behind me.
"Shut up," she said, her staff pulsing with quiet light.
When Keiji finally returned that evening, the survivors staggered like zombies.
He dropped two flags at my feet, the cloth still glowing with captured energy. Victories. But the price? Half the squad was gone.
"They had a Ranker," Keiji muttered, his jaw tight. "Rank 7 and Rank 8. Cut through us like paper."
My stomach flipped. Rankers were the celebrities of this game, the monsters in human skin who didn't just play, they dominated.
And then Keiji turned to me. "Tomorrow, you're not staying here. You're coming with us."
"What?" I squeaked. Or at least, I tried to squeak. Leonhart's body translated it into a deep, resonant "What," like I was auditioning for the role of Serious Anime Protagonist.
"You've proven you can kill," Keiji said simply. "Now we need that killing outside."
Luna smirked. "Try not to puke on the enemy's floor, alright?"
°°°°°°°°°
Day Four was a blur of blood and chaos.
We launched an ambush on a mid-level guild that hadn't reinforced their base properly.
Keiji led the charge, shouting commands, while I followed behind like a confused war god in borrowed skin.
The second their defenders moved, my auto-cast lit up. Leonhart lunged, blades flashing, strikes landing with surgical precision. I didn't even have to think, the body did it for me.
"Enemy flag secure!" someone shouted.
The world spun in colors of red and steel. I forced myself not to look, not to listen, not to breathe too deeply. By the time I dared glance at my HUD, we had dropped four captured flags back at our base.
The guild count shrank from thirty-two… to nineteen.
Every elimination pinged across the server like a funeral bell.
Luna patted my shoulder. "See? You're terrifyingly effective."
"I'd rather be cutely ineffective, thanks," I muttered, my hands shaking even though Leonhart's stance looked solid as a statue.
°°°°°°°°
Day Five was worse.
Word spread fast: our guild wasn't just defending anymore. We were predators now.
Another ambush. Another slaughter. I'd stopped counting how many guilds had fallen; the map did that for me.
Bright icons winked out one by one until only 5 remained.
The leaderboard updated in real time, floating above the battlefield like a divine scoreboard.
Flame Heart – 9 flags.
Shadow Reapers – 9 flags.
Black Vultures – 9 flags.
Keiji's grin was sharp, hungry. "Three guilds are still playing the game. Everyone else is cowering behind their walls. Which means the real war starts now."
I wanted to say something sarcastic, something brave, but all that came out was: "Oh no. We're actually winning."
Because winning meant more killing shifts. More screams. More auto-slash symphonies I refused to turn around and witness.
°°°°°°°
That night, I sat at the base, staring at the glowing flag while Luna quietly brewed tea from herbs she'd found in the field. The air was unnervingly calm.
"You're shaking again," she said softly, eyes flicking toward my hands.
I flexed Leonhart's fingers, the big heroic ones, and laughed weakly. "Hero jitters. Comes with the package."
She sighed, handed me the tea, and for a moment it felt almost normal. Almost like I wasn't the unwilling executioner of half the server.
But the map blinked again, more guild icons shifting, more bases syncing to us.
We were climbing, and I couldn't decide if that was victory… or the prelude to a much bigger fall.