CHAPTER FIFTY ONE

The enemy Mechs had started off as tiny dots in the distance. They were barely distinguishable from stars.

However, the group was approaching exceptionally quickly. The Mechs were moving at combat speed. Bright white fire blazed behind their thrusters.

They were soon close enough that Jason could count out the individual Mechs.

Beside him, Danny calmly spoke the total number. The fast-moving dots were hard to track. Perhaps the beginners in the group were having a hard time counting.

"Thirty-nine enemies."

Jason grimaced.

He'd gotten the same number.

Their group only had fourteen players in total. If the other team attacked, they'd be outnumbered nearly three to one.

As the enemies flew closer and closer, Danny began issuing directives for the overall team. He quickly got them into a defensive formation.

"Wendy, go here."

"Owen, stand here."

"Kelly, stay in place."

"Joseph, don't move."

"Jason, do you mind taking the lead here?"

All of his instructions were extremely clear.

He referred to each individual player by their name before pinging the exact location on the map where he wanted them to stand.

But despite Danny's clarity, many of the players responded slowly and hesitantly. They often asked for additional clarification.

While the other players trusted their leader, they weren't very good. It was easy for beginners to misunderstand basic instructions. This was a ragtag group that enjoyed playing together, but they did not practice much.

It was up to the more experienced players to fill in. Jason watched as Steven, Owen, and Wendy helped redirect players in the wrong space.

Jason greatly respected the other players' kindness and patience.

He knew his own personality pretty well.

He lacked that patience, and his standards were too high to work long-term with unserious players. However, he still greatly respected the pilots willing to do so. After all, that was how a game like Overdrive grew and became more popular.

Instead of working with the beginners, Jason focused on his own play. He followed Danny's instructions and readied himself for battle as he raised his machinegun and shield.

The BAG Guild and Jason shifted into a different formation.

Before, they were arranged in a loose circle.

Now, they were in a rough arrow formation with Danny, Steven, and Jason standing in the front to provide cover for Owen and the other artillery players.

Danny stopped rolling.

His Mech carried a dull steel great axe.

The item was rather suboptimal - it seemed like he'd only matched two icons with his slot. However, he needed a solid weapon if a fight broke out. It was not worth the risk of trying to go for one of his most overpowered options.

Meanwhile, Wendy was watching their backs with her Dehua melee Mech. Her machine had drawn and activated both of its generator-linked items. The bright blue light flared like a star through space.

However, their team did not attack yet.

It was critical to respect the unofficial rules of open exploration.

"Don't forget. It might just be a friendly party. We should try to shoot first, but only if it seems like they'll attack."

Usually, mobs flying through open space would try and avoid each other. After all, the BAG Guild was on its way to various maps. Other organizations might have specific designations in mind too.

However, other players simply flew around open space looking for a fight.

There was a reason why the Overdrive Corporation designated space as an open combat area. They wanted players to be able to fight at any time. The experience evoked the thrill and dangers of exploration.

That being said, there were still a few loose conventions enforced by the Overdrive community as a whole. It was just in everyone's best interest to try and minimize random attacks.

After all, there was no real benefit to attacking somebody. The Salvage rule wasn't activated. There was only the annoyance of getting killed and having to play again from the central spawn station or a Guild base.

As a result, the big organizations had all signed a loose treaty to prevent unfair sneak attacks.

The big organizations had the most to lose from open-space anarchy.

Getting ambushed or attacked on their way to a key mission was a considerable irritation.

In addition, the guilds often led various rookie training parties. Only a real asshole would gun down a bunch of rookies, but some players liked bragging that they'd "defeated the Vermillion Fighters."

These combined incentives meant that the top guilds all agreed to hunt down any offenders and shoot them on sight for a one-week period following an offense. Griefers would get a dose of their own medicine. With all the big guilds keeping an eye out on them, they wouldn't be able to safely leave the central spawning platform until their punishment period ended.

As a result, open space was more of a regulated zone with a rough semblance of honor and fairness.

Players would challenge each other to an official fight before attacking.

Jason's hand tightened on his machinegun trigger.

Of course, there were always players who tried ambushing others. It would be hard for a random group like the BAG Guild to chase down an offender.

Danny continued speaking to the rest of the team.

Despite the tense situation of a large group of enemy Mechs flying towards them, his voice remained very calm.

"Make sure you don't shoot. Make sure you don't shoot. Set your triggers for twenty feet."

Jason noticed that he spoke in an almost singsong voice. He'd said these words many times before because he knew how important it was to drill specific ideas in the head of beginners.

If an unidentified Mech flew within twenty feet without an explanation, you were allowed to gun them down without any issues. After a certain point, it was reasonable to assume that they were going for a sneak attack.

As the enemy Mechs came closer and closer, Jason was able to get a good look at their builds and armaments.

To his surprise, most of the machines were upgraded Grunts rather than true Aces.

Under most circumstances, players preferred crafting their own Ace machines or upgrading a Boss Ace they were awarded after beating a mission. However, there was another possibility - going to the hangar and changing the designation of a Grunt Mech so that you could equip more powerful items.

The Grunt would be treated as an Ace Mech, and players would be allowed to equip 50,000 Credits. However, that was generally an unpopular option. The rules restricted Grunt Mechs to a specific power cap.

In general, players only reclassified Grunt Mechs when they couldn't build or find high-quality machines by themselves. Power Grunt frames like the Dehua, the Bandit, the Guardian-X, or the CWT-141 Zombie could usually outperform One Star Boss level Aces like the base Red Minerva frame or the Belcher.

In this case, they were up against an entire army of assorted upgraded Grunts.

There were about seven different Grunt frames, but many of the machines carried a pretty standardized load of weapons and upgrades.

All of the Mechs were using the same blade, the ever-reliable Triple Steel Broadsword.

The ranged weapons were standardized in the same way. The Mechs each carried a Repeating Beam Rifle and a high-powered Burst Bazooka, a launcher that fired explosive projectiles.

A durable Triple Steel Kiteshield rounded out the standardized handheld arsenal.

However, the Mechs also carried a specialized backpack with boosted thrusters and a pair of high-powered mortars located over their shoulders. The adjustable cannons launched both arced shelling attacks and head-on blasts.

Out of the Mechs' equipment, the backpack was the most expensive. Each of the handheld items cost roughly 5,000 Credits to equip. The backpack ate up the rest of the space.

None of the items were the sort of overwhelmingly powerful weapon Jason would want to absorb with the Blazing Avarice. However, this was all solid and reliable equipment. It was unusual for someone to have over thirty-nine copies of those powerful items.

Bzzt.

Wendy flickered onto the screen as she sent a general message to the whole group.

The veteran Guild Wars fighter was a very short and slim Chinese girl with very long hair that went down to her waist.

Despite her dainty appearance, she had a very gruff and deep voice. She was one of only two girls in the current party, but the team's conversations made it sound like there were quite a few others who'd be joining them on different days.

The Guild War veteran knew exactly what was happening.

"This is a training group. They are preparing for the upcoming Guild War. They start all new recruits like this - they think it's easier to adjust to a Grunt Mech if you overload it with equipment first. If you notice, they are mixing the Mechs types, so we don't recognize the specific guild. They want to keep their tactics hidden."

That meant it would definitely come to a fight.

The BAG Guild's inexperienced members tensed up, but Danny reminded them to stay calm and wait for the official announcement. A stupid mistake wouldn't have any effect on Danny or Jason - only the player who fired inappropriately would be punished.

An erroneous shot would not doom Jason's attempt to reach Castle Notoria. Rather, Danny just didn't want any of his players to suffer from a one-week timeout period. After all, he still had a responsibility as a guild leader beyond accomplishing the Tournament of Assassins mission.

In the end, the Dehua moved up.

It drew its sword with a flourish, and the loud clang echoed through the air.

The sword was just plain steel, not a beam item. However, the well-made blade was still quite impressive. Jason heard several gasps of appreciation from the beginners in the group.

The Dehua's pilot moved his sword in a fanciful salute.

His actions suggested a fanciful and honorable guild such as the Vermillion Fighters or the Noblesse Oblige Guild. However, that could just as easily be another part of their act.

"Would you like to battle?"

Danny sounded excited, but he did not want to answer unilaterally. He was excited, but he still polled the overall group.

Wendy and Steven went through the team, encouraging the rest of them to try it.

"Don't worry. We just flew for thirty minutes or so. It'll be easy to get going again."

"If we lose, we won't get sent back very far."

"You gotta get practice eventually."

Eventually, the group agreed. Once they did, Danny replied.

"We're good. Let's do this!"

The other player nodded.

"Sounds good. Count it down together?"

The process was extremely formal - more formal than Jason expected.

The two players countered out together. Their voices blended together.

"Three, two, one!"

Both teams charged.

The Dehua at the front went straight for Jason. He barely ducked back in time as the blade whisked past him.

Jason's eyes widened.

He was unused to the Vampire Spell Titan's speed. He'd barely escaped.

But on top of that...

His opponent was pretty good!

The leader had strong fundamentals, and they'd instantly closed the gap at full speed to stop Jason from firing his machinegun. The Mech swiped with its sword again. It clearly didn't want Jason to draw his spear.

In response...

Jason activated his special abilities.

The Mana Gatherer Spikes glowed bright red as the Vampire Spell Titan activated its blood energy boost ability. In this case, he concentrated the strength in the shield held in his left hand.

The empowered plate of metal could be used as a pure bludgeoning item.

Cracks spread across the Spell Titan's armor, the blood price for empowering its attacks.

He feigned a swipe, and the enemy Mech fell back.

However, Jason's goal wasn't hitting his opponent with the shield.

It was just a bluff, a technique based on what he'd seen from Vile.

As soon as his opponent fell back, he instantly dismissed the blood magic concentrated in his shield. Now that he'd frightened the Dehua, he had a gap.

He abruptly concentrated his blood magic to his right hand, then raised the machinegun and started firing. The bright red bullets burst through the air.

The technique of abruptly shifting power from one hand to the next worked like a charm against the Dehua.

Unfortunately...

This was a technique Jason had only recently learned.

As a result, his hastily executed attack failed to hit him in the cockpit. The bullets inflicted severe damage on his opponent's shoulder, but now the pilot was pissed.

The enemy Dehua promptly charged again.