BXBX NOVEL Chapter 205: Three Vantage Points
Chapter 205: Three Vantage Points
The zone was shrinking faster and faster, and night was also gradually approaching. Adam and his team made their way toward the final zone, but before arriving there, they were greeted by the sight of a valley.
"Wow, this terrain is ideal for the defending team."
Up ahead was a long and narrow valley with elevated ground on either side of it. At its lowest point, the valley was over 50 meters deep. The elevated ground on either side of the valley was extremely flat and spacious, creating a stark contrast with the long and narrow valley down below. If a team were to claim the high ground, they would be able to completely dominate any team that attempted to pass through the valley.
"How about we claim the vantage point first?"
Adam was very tempted by the prospect of claiming such a favorable vantage point, but as soon as his voice trailed off, Hook stowed his telescope away as he said, "It looks like it\'s already been claimed."
"By who?"
"They\'re too far away, so I can\'t see them clearly, but one of them is wearing monk robes, so it should be Dead Wood\'s team."
"That\'s not going to be easy to deal with."
Dead Wood was one of the top-ranking S tier combatants, and prior to Oni no Miko\'s arrival, he had always been ranked second in the S tier. Granted, he was a distant second to Eyeless, but he was still second, nonetheless.
Of course, following Oni no Miko\'s arrival, his status as the second-ranked S tier combatant had become rather debatable. Previously, Adam had been of the opinion that Dead Wood and Oni no Miko were roughly on equal footing with one another, but after witnessing Yamata no Orochi invoked by Oni no Miko, he was convinced that she was the more powerful adapter of the two.
"Let\'s go somewhere else."
The penultimate zone wasn\'t very large, so it didn\'t take very long for Adam and his team to travel to the next vantage point, where Hook whipped out his telescope again to observe the area from afar.
"Let\'s go to the next place."
"Is there someone already up there?"
Hook nodded in response.
"Who is it?"
"Eyeless."
"Alright, let\'s get out of here."
No one wanted to mess with an ultra-powerful madman like Eyeless. It was clear that he had claimed one of the vantage points so that other teams would attack him.
After traveling for another 10 minutes, Adam\'s team arrived at the third vantage point, which had already been occupied by Oni no Miko\'s team.
Even though Adam and the others were observing the vantage point from quite far away, they were still discovered by the technomancer\'s dove, and he reported their presence to Oni no Miko.
.
At this point, the technomancer had already mostly recovered from his injuries, thanks to the elementary healing cards that he had received from Oni no Miko.
"Mistress Miko, Adam\'s team has appeared outside the valley. Should we go after them?"
"How far away are they? They\'re a dozen or so kilometers away, and one of them is observing us using a telescope."
Oni no Miko considered the idea for a moment before shaking her head.
"They\'re too far away. By the time we get to them, they\'ll have already escaped. On top of that, other teams have already gathered near the area, so if we leave now, this vantage point will most likely be taken by others, and that would be a heavy loss for us."
"That\'s true." Diamond was a seasoned player in the battle royale, and he didn\'t allow his emotions to get the better of him. "We got here this early so we could hunt down as many teams as possible. At the very least, we have to capture a few healing cards. It\'s going to take quite a few of them for my body to recover."
Adam\'s body had already recovered somewhat, but it still wasn\'t looking quite as full and muscular as before. It was clear that given the special nature of his body, a single elementary healing card wasn\'t enough for him to make a full recovery.
"We\'ll take care of that brat sooner or later. There\'s no need to take any undue risks."
"Alright, then we\'ll leave them be for now."
The technomancer naturally wasn\'t going to raise any objections to the two leaders of the team.
Meanwhile, Hook was also observing Oni no Miko\'s team from outside the valley.
"Oni no Miko\'s claimed this vantage point?" Nie Yiyi was rather surprised to hear this, and there was even a hint of concern in her eyes. "Has she discovered us yet?"
"Given how they were able to track us down earlier, I\'m sure they\'ve already discovered us, but it doesn\'t look like they intend to come after us."
"It sounds like they want to face us in the final zone. In that case, we\'ll grant them their wish. Let\'s find another path into the final zone."
With that, the team set off again, only to return to the initial vantage point, which was the valley that had been taken over by Dead Wood.
"These three valleys form a circle!"
Only after arriving back at the initial vantage point did Adam and the others arrive at this realization.
The final zone was tucked behind the three valleys, so it was most likely a basin.
All of the paths leading to the final zone required one to pass through the vantage points, which was bound to be an extremely arduous endeavor, given the extremely unfavorable terrain.
"It looks like the map was specially designed so that attacking teams will be forced to pick their poison and engage one of the defending teams in direct battle."
"That makes sense. The final zone is about to take shape, so it\'s no surprise that the map is designed in a way to build up to a climax," Hook remarked. "I\'m just wondering how they managed to get here so quickly. I thought we were already very fast in getting here."
"Perhaps those defending teams decided to pass up on the airdrops entirely and came here in advance to claim these vantage points," King Arthur speculated. "They would rather take from others than waste time collecting resources from airdrops."
"In any case, we\'ll have to choose a team to attack."
"Are we going to choose this one?"
"It\'ll have to be this one."
There was no way that they were going to attack Eyeless, and with the threat of Yamata no Orochi up her sleeve, Oni no Miko clearly possessed superior combat prowess to Dead Wood. Dead Wood\'s team certainly wasn\'t weak, by any means, but it was definitely the weakest of the three available options.
"Alright, then let\'s... Hold on, there\'s someone coming. I\'m gonna hide."
As usual, Hook concealed himself at the first sign of a potential battle.
Adam and the others also ducked into the shadows upon hearing this, and it didn\'t take long before they spotted three people approaching from the distance. The leader of the trio was someone that Adam was familiar with.
After a moment of contemplation, he decided to take a risk and emerged from the shadows before waving at the trio from afar.
"There\'s someone waving at us, Boss," a fiery figure said as he turned to the ninja next to him.
"It looks like Lean Mean Killing Machine. As expected, he managed to survive to this point."
The ninja\'s face was concealed behind a visor, and he directly approached Adam.
He appeared to be walking at a very slow and leisurely pace, but somehow, he was able to cover a large distance with every single step, almost as if he were able to shrink the ground in front of him.
With each seemingly small step, he was able to cover a distance of several meters, creating a mirage-like visual effect that was extremely uncomfortable to behold, almost to the point of being nauseating.
It didn\'t take long for the ninja to approach Adam, and Adam extended a casual greeting. "Good to see you, Ikkaku."
Ikkaku nodded in response.
"Have you found Oni no Miko? I\'ve been trying to find her, but I haven\'t had any luck."
"I did. She\'s over there on that mountain" Adam pointed at a distant mountain as he spoke. "But I\'d advise against going to her."