Chapter 342
If Poh had indeed confirmed that all Clearers guild, including Red Wings, have departed to various Floors in order to eliminate the Orange Guild, and none of them was in town, Rozen was indeed in a pickle.
Since Forest of Wandering was a sub-dungeon, Rozen couldn’t send messages. Therefore, he couldn’t request backup from his guild members.
Not to mention that a Player couldn’t be tracked when they were in Labyrinth or sub-dungeon.
So Rozen being alone was undoubtedly the truth.
That was the reason why PoH said Rozen’s cleverness blinded him. He was convinced that PoH wouldn’t fall for his plan and came to Forest of Wandering himself. Otherwise, Rozen wouldn’t put himself in danger like this.
“There’s no point in bluffing. The fact that you come here alone already proved my point.”
PoH gripped the Chinese kitchen knife in his hand firmly while laughing.
“Or do you think that you can deal with three of us alone?”
It was clear that PoH had a lot of faith in his and his friends’ strength, and indeed those three were extremely strong.
Rozen himself knew quite a lot about PoH, the famous red guild’s leader.
He was so good at handling dagger-type weapons as if it was the extension of his limb. He could cut both monsters and Players equally without System’s assistance. If Asuna was a genius rapier user, PoH was a talented dagger user.
Using a dagger, he has slashed, cut, and killed countless Players.
Eventually, this talented dagger user obtained his current weapon, “Mate Chopper,” which was a drop item from a boss-level monster.
Despite looking like a Chinese kitchen knife, it was a dagger-class weapon. Not even the best weapons created by the highest level craftsmen could match it. Thus, it was called a demon sword.
Even Rozen has only seen one weapon which could come close to that weapon’s attack damage, and that was Elucidator, which belonged to Kirito.
Even Rozen’s main weapon was nowhere as good as Mate Chopper that PoH was using. Due to its power, it was said to be able to pierce through full plate armor with ease.
Rozen’s hp might drop into the yellow zone with one clean hit from that weapon, and he would die for sure if he took several hits.
It was no exaggeration to say that the PoH could instill fear in the Cleares because of his strength along with his weapon.
Rozen himself was convinced that there were less than five Players who could stand toe to toe against PoH.
And PoH wasn’t alone at this moment, Johnny Black and Red-Eyed XaXa, who were on par with the Clearers’ strongest members.
Even Asuna won’t be able to deal with them that easily, so needless to say, the rest of Clearers would have an even harder time against them. Well, aside from Heathcliff, of course.
With Holy Sword in his arsenal, Heathcliff’s strength was on a whole different level. No matter how strong average Players were, they were powerless before the Unique Skill, Holy Sword.
However, putting it another way, Rozen managed to tie in a duel with Heathcliff even before he mastered Eye of the Mind.
Besides…
“One against three?”
Rozen smiled amusedly.
“That’s slightly wrong, I believe. It’s more like four-on-three.”
Rozen took out a crystal from his storage.
“Cling!”
As the crystal shone brightly, two beautiful Rainbow Butterflies flew out.
“Goo!”
“Woo!”
Saichou and Hanachou showed themselves again after spending quite some time inside the crystal.
“!”
Seeing this scene, the three Laughing Coffin members immediately gripped their weapons cautiously. Meanwhile, the rest was dumbfounded.
Especially Silica, upon seeing Saichou and Hanachou, the doubt in her hearts finally disappeared.
“It turns out Rozen-san really is…”
Silica was amazed and excited.
At this point, it was no longer possible to hide Rozen’s identity.
After all, only The Magician himself managed to tame two Rainbow Butterflies in the whole Aincrad.
The moment Saichou and Hanachou showed themselves, the identity of the Clearers’ commander, the strongest guild’s leader, and the Player who shouldered everyone’s hope to clear this game.
Even the three strongest Laughing Coffin members had no choice but to launch a surprise attack on Rozen because PoH believed that was the sure-fire way to kill Rozen.
Now that they failed to kill Rozen, they will be forced to deal with Rozen’s Tamed Monsters, the two Rainbow Butterflies that could even toy around with Floor Bosses.
But…
“Even with your Tamed Monsters, it’s still three against three. Where’s this fourth one?”
Poh casually said.
But it was someone else that answered him.
“Right here.”
Such a voice came from the other side of the forest.
Surprised by this voice, everyone started looking for the voice source, and shortly after, they found it.
They saw a Player walking out slowly from the trees dressed in black all across his body with a black one-handed sword on his back.
It was none other than Kirito.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
Kirito said to Rozen while looking at PoH and his company.
“Nah, you’re right on time.”
Rozen said casually.
PoH thought they were the one who ambushed Rozen, but before he realized it, he was the one being outnumbered.
“Black Swordsman…”
PoH spontaneously called Kirito’s nickname.
Kirito smiled in response.
“You didn’t expect me to be here, too, did you? You’ve confirmed Red Wings’ whereabouts, but you didn’t notice I was the only one missing, right?”
In other words…
“I’ve never gone to other Floors to eliminate orange guilds with the rest of the guild members. I’ve always been following Rozen using Hiding Skill ever since he teleported to this Floor.”
Kirito said toward PoH, whose face was covered with the poncho.
“You said Rozen’s cleverness blinded him, right?”
“The one who’s blinded by their own cleverness here is none other than you, PoH.”
PoH thought that Rozen was certain that he wouldn’t come to this place personally, so he came to the Forest of Wandering along with 2 strongest Laughing Coffin’s members to outwit him, but that was, in fact, part of Rozen’s plan.
“Rozen deliberately put himself in danger and asked all Clearers to eliminate the orange guilds on various Floors in order to lure you out, but it’s not like he’s completely alone either.”
Kirito said while trying to hold back his laughter.
“I’ve been accompanying him from the beginning.”