Chapter 48 : Where could it be?

(AN : This chapter is susceptible to change due to possible available errors.)

"It looks like we've lost our opportunity." Daichi stated as he stared at the Emissary departing with Arman.

With the Emissary gone together with Arman, the players who were at the battlefield couldn't just leave their posts and head over to the mountain peak. If they did so, chances are that they will lose the battle.

"Come on!" Lord Midel urged the players and NPCs.

*Clang* *clang*

The players and the NPC army fought against the goblin horde. They originally held the momentum but were being slowed down by the unending numbers of the goblins. Even so, the goblin army had the higher casualty rate, losing at least 40% of their forces.

Blood and body parts were spilled all around, turning the battlefield into hell. Some of the players who couldn't handle the scene had to switch of the gore and blood option on the interface. Once the option is turned off, the players wouldn't be able to see any bloody scenes, rather they would just see simple body parts with no bloods or insides.

As they fought, some of the players tried to pay attention to the battle on the mountain, hoping to see the outcome of the battle or the level of the battle. Even though the two main characters of the fight had displayed a bit of their power before leaving, some of the players still held hope that they would be able to interfere in the fight after all a reward of a 4 star material might not come again.

*Phew*

As they did so, they heard a sound akin to that of a high speed projectile soaring through the sky.

*Boom*

Before they could react to it, an explosion occurred, wiping out quite a large portion of the goblin army. A crater had formed at the crash site with burnt marks all over.

"Sssss."

"This is insane."

"Thank God we aren't facing that."

The players took in a deep breath after they realised that that was actually an attack that had misfired from the mountain top.

In battle, one would always try to make sure that their special attack would land on their target(s), as such, it is usually a regular attack that misfires. If a regular attack was that powerful far more than what any player can currently achieve, what can the players do against such a creature? If it even took them seriously, would they even live? Reaching that conclusion, most of the players and guilds gave up on trying to sneak over to the mountain and participate in that duel.

"Move!" Midel urged.

Since the misfire had landed on the side of the goblins, it gave the human forces a little space to breathe. Using that opportunity, they decided to push forward even more.

At this point in the battle, the players were already in the plains, closely approaching the mountains where the goblin army surfaced from. As they approached, they discovered that all the goblins were already on land and the unending wave finally had an end. But that wasn't the only thing they found out.

"The goblins have a commander." Sato told Fudo after sending a goblin warrior to meet it's maker.

"Why do you say so?" Fudo queried as he wasn't really paying attention to the battle, only spamming fire type spells everywhere.

"Even though the goblins have a larger number than us, we would have normally gone farther than this since they lack a chain of command however that isn't happening is it?"

"... you're right." Fudo replied as he recalled their current progress together with the steps involved.

"Yeah. This means that There most likely a guy in the background organizing the goblin army. That's why despite their rash like actions and battle style, they are still able to hold us back." Sato continued as he scanned through the battlefield. "Though the commander is still a novice, leaving him be would just make things worse and we might lose more of our forces."

The players were able to hold the goblin army back alright, but they still suffered casualties. Those who died would have to wait awhile before being re-spawned back at Riverdale or wherever they set their respawn point. If it were set at Riverdale, things would be worse as the distance of Riverdale from the Ghost mansion was quite far, taking at least 20 minutes to get there.

As for the NPCs, the ones who died couldn't be resurrected. Due to this two factors, as the battle goes on, the human faction would slowly lose out to the goblins both as a result of the death of a few NPCs and also the delay in re-spawning of players plus the transportation distance.

" We have to find the commander and eliminate him quickly."

Sato wasn't the only one who figured this out as all the commanding figures for the players also did. Even Midel had realised the same.

"Find him." Midel yelled out.

As soon as he did so, all the players in the battlefield received a system notification.

[[ System notification :

Emergency : Lord Midel has just discovered that the goblin forces has a commander figure apart from the Emissary. Find and eliminate this figure before the army suffers more casualties.

Reward : 1000 experience points, 10 silver coins, Loot, 10 kill points.[1]

Failure Penalty : Potential defeat in battle. ]]

The loot referred to the gains that could be gotten from the victim's remains. This includes skin, bones, blood and so on.

Infinite Realm pursues reality and reality changes constant. An emergency mission is a mission that could come up in a current mission or event due an unforeseen circumstance. In the original mission, there was no mention of a commander figure but now the deal had changed. The players were now required to eliminate this figure before their forces ended up in the losing side of the battle.

"10 kill points for the general...Uncle, since the boss is gone, can you go assist Dream Tiger and Swift Blade? If one of them could get the kill, that will give us a much better edge over the other players." Daichi pointed out as he held his own against 3 goblin warriors.

"Alright." Old Jiro responded before blasting out a small path in the goblin horse and running through it.

"Chesces, you got that right?" Yukino communicated over the interface in an audio call.

"Check. I'm already scouting for him." A voice replied back.

"Good." Yukino ended the call.

All around the battlefield, each guild that was interested in ranking high or gaining better rewards sent their Trump units or players to find the commander whilst the solo players who were also interested, tried to force their way through the goblin army.

"So are we gonna go find him?" Fudo asked Sato as he noticed that most of the players had set their sights on completing the emergency mission.

"The fact that I said I don't plan on achieving a noticeable fact doesn't mean that I don't plan on achieving something. The earlier we gain good stuffs , the better our foundation would be."

"So you mean…"

"Yes. Now let's move, I think I've got a hit on the commander's location." Sato said as he started weaving through the warriors.

"That quick?!"

"I have been eliminating the potential places that could serve as a perfect command centre for the boss immediately the battle had begun. Even though the boss wasn't actually there, it's quite possible for the commander to be in one of those places.

"As the battle went on, I eliminated some of these places. There are only 3 such spots that remained after my analysis. One is at the mountains, another would be underground and the 3rd is the mansion.The mansion is marked out since we have just gone past it and some of the players must have scouted the buildings. The mountain is a potentially suitable hiding place but with the battle going on there, I'm not so sure. As for an underground base, the commander would need a figure or equipment that would help it overlook the battlefield. When you consider this option, it sounds very logical." Sato speculated.

" So which do we go for?"

"Underground."

. . . . .

"Boss, where do you think he might be hiding?"

"Considering that the goblins all come from beneath the mountain, they should have a way to surveil the area. So we head underground."

AN :

[1] Was supposed to have added this previously. 1 goblin kill = 1 kill point. 1 troll kill = 3 kill point. The one with the highest kill points is the winner for the Most kills award. In other words, kill points are used to rank the players for this event.