Volume 2, Chapter 24 – The Battle Begins

The sky itself seemed to darken.

The little girl holding the golden sword quietly took a step forward as the pillar of light surrounding her faded away.

Just one step forward.

The dust on the ground trembled faintly under her foot, and the suffocating pressure Tianyin had just unleashed upon the players grew even heavier.

“What the hell… she’s just a blue-tier NPC!”

The suffocating aura made it hard for some players to believe the terrifying pressure radiating from Tianyin’s entire being.

It was as if the one standing before them was a demon awakening from a deep slumber.

“Hey, what are we scared of? Didn’t we just use Scout? She’s only a blue-tier NPC, and her level’s ridiculously low. If we all attack at once, we can definitely take her down!”

Indeed, as that player said, they had already confirmed Tianyin’s rank through Scout earlier.

Scout was a basic general skill every player learned, used to check enemy attributes. Normally, before any battle, players would instinctively use it to size up their opponent.

Naturally, Tianyin’s stats had been inspected.

And just as the player said, on their Attribute Panels, Tianyin was nothing more than an ordinary blue-tier NPC template.

With that reminder, the other players recalled the data they’d gotten from scouting her.

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A blue-tier NPC’s combat power was nowhere near a Legendary’s, it wasn’t even close.

“Yeah, everyone attack together! There’s so many of us, how can we not deal with one little girl?”

The players completely forgot how terrified they had been just moments ago. They ignored the crushing aura emanating from Tianyin.

Arrows were drawn and aimed, spells began to charge, priests started chanting, and warriors stepped forward to form a defensive line.

As expected of guild players, even when facing a little girl NPC, they treated her like a raid boss, forming up seriously and focusing all their attention on Tianyin standing ahead of them.

“Archers, fire! Mages, cast spells! Warriors, charge in and taunt her!”

Orders barked like they were facing the final boss of a dungeon.

Whoosh—! Whoosh—!

With that command, arrows sliced through the air one after another, flying toward Tianyin.

And right after the arrows, the mages in the backline released their spells.

Blazing fireballs, freezing ice spears, invisible wind blades.

Individually, each attack from a player was weak, easily nullified by an NPC of this level. But when unleashed in mass numbers, the sight of arrows and magic raining down was enough to make anyone gasp in awe.

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In Tianyin’s eyes, countless spells and arrows filled her vision, blotting out nearly everything as they surged toward her.

「Oh my, so many arrows and low-tier spells, Xiaoyin.」

Although Samael noticed the overwhelming attacks coming at her, her voice in Tianyin’s mind carried no hint of emotion.

『Yes, Samael. But this kind of attack… isn’t even worth looking at for me now.』

Tianyin slowly opened her mouth, her cute little face unusually serious.

“Looks like these ‘big brothers’… have underestimated me~”

In the eyes of the players, however, Tianyin seemed stopped in fear before the oncoming barrage, standing there motionless.

“Ha, looks like we overthought it.”

“Seriously, she’s just a blue-tier NPC. What were we even scared of?”

Seeing this, many players let out a sigh of relief.

But would things really be that simple?

No one knew the answer, and the facts before them seemed to confirm it.

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But was it really so?

The corners of Tianyin’s mouth curved into a lazy little smile…

Gripping the Victory Golden Sword that the knight girl Fisiel had given her, Tianyin casually swung it forward.

It looked soft, almost careless, as if she lacked even the strength to swing it. Anyone watching would think that by the time the barrage landed, she wouldn’t even have managed to complete the motion.

“Pfft, what kind of swing is that? Is the NPC scared stiff?”

“She’s got no strength at all. She’s weaker than I was as a newbie.”

“Guess we really worried over nothing. She’s no match for us—”

But just as everyone laughed at her clumsy swing, that sword completed its arc in an instant.

Yes, in just an instant.

The once-noisy players all fell silent together.

Because in that instant, as Tianyin drew her sword back, every single attack stopped.

The roaring magic dispersed into the air. The arrows mid-flight suddenly lost all momentum and dropped straight to the ground.

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“…You’ve got to be kidding me.”

The warrior who had been about to charge and taunt Tianyin stopped where he stood, eyes wide in disbelief.

But Tianyin didn’t intend to give them time to recover.

Effortlessly dispelling all those attacks, she knew what came next.

It was her turn.

「Nice use of your Dispelling Skill, Xiaoyin… but what are you going to do about them now?」

Samael’s voice echoed in her mind again.

『How to deal with them?』

At Samael’s question, Tianyin took another light step forward.

“Of course… I will send them all back to respawn~”

And with that, the moment her foot touched the ground, Tianyin’s figure vanished…