The Villainess VTuber Rips People Apart-Chapter 53: Gentle Laura

"I'll use this as an opportunity to play Arcade Mode and check my teammates’ skills."

With that thought, I created a custom room in Arcade Mode and decided to do a 3v1 match.

In other words, it would be me, Aurora, against the other three.

'...I'm probably going to lose.'

But even before the game started, Sora's confidence was already crumbling.

This was Sora’s first time playing Labyrinthos today.

Inagika and Chel didn’t seem like complete beginners, but they were pretty much at the same level as Sora, meaning they were still rookies.

Winning seemed unlikely.

Thinking that, Sora proceeded to choose her character.

【Battle Confirmed: Dungeon Map / Extermination】

【Hunt all the monsters on the map. You win by hunting more monsters than the enemy team or by eliminating all enemy players. There is a time limit.】

"So, we can win without fighting Laura directly?"

"In theory, yes..."

Inagika nodded from beside her.

"If we hunt more monsters than Laura, we’ll win. Since it’s just Laura on her team, her hunting speed will be slower than ours."

"I see~."

Sora listened to the explanation, but she still didn’t fully grasp it. It was her first time playing Labyrinthos, after all.

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However, Sora had watched a few streams of the game, so it wasn’t entirely unfamiliar to her.

Sora picked the Bard.

"Huh, a Bard...? Did you spend money on this?"

Inagika was a little surprised.

Labyrinthos was a game with hardly any pay-to-win elements, aside from character skins. When starting out, only 8 characters are unlocked.

To unlock more characters, you need to level up your account to earn in-game currency and then buy characters one by one.

Like other PVP games, it was possible to collect all the characters without spending real money, though it took time.

If that process felt too tedious, some players would spend money, but Inagika, a veteran spender, thought it was a waste of cash.

If she had that kind of money, she would have spent it on gacha games.

"Well, I am a minstrel in real life, so isn’t it only natural that I play as a Bard?"

"...Right."

If she wanted to play that character, there wasn’t much that could be done.

Streamers, after all, had a lower threshold for spending money on games compared to regular players. Since they made a living by showing games to viewers, they had no choice but to invest in them.

Sora locked in the Bard. Inagika picked a mage with a lot of area-of-effect skills.

And Chel—

"Is that a gladiator?"

Sora asked, and Chel nodded.

"That’s unexpected. I thought you’d pick a quieter character."

"I’m not that good, but I’ve seen some gladiator gameplay videos, so I thought I’d try."

"Are you talking about Rinko-senpai’s stream? I’ve seen her play as a gladiator too."

"Yes, that’s the one."

Chel confirmed.

Kisaki Rinko’s main character was the gladiator.

Anyone affiliated with EYEAI knew that.

Stepping forward, the sensation of something squishy splattered in all directions. The amorphous slime, once its core was destroyed, died immediately.

I glanced at the remains of the slime and muttered.

"The monsters are weaker than I thought."

It had been some time since the custom match started.

So far, all I had encountered were slimes. The kill count indicator in the corner of my view steadily increased.

In other words, this game had essentially turned into a contest of who could hunt more slimes.

'This might be tougher than I expected.'

There was no way around being at a disadvantage in a 3v1 match. However, my skill level was significantly higher than my teammates, so I still believed I could win.

That said, with the ‘Extermination’ rule and the weakness of the monsters, the dynamics of this Labyrinthos match were quite different from usual.

To put it simply, the game had turned into something more like an asymmetrical survival game, like Dead by Daylight.

Sora and her group would likely try to avoid me while focusing on hunting monsters.

Since there were three of them, their hunting speed would outpace mine. So even without directly engaging me, they could win just by increasing their kill count.

Their most effective strategy would be to spread out and cover as much of the map as possible.

"In that case, they’re either all acting separately or moving in pairs."

The monsters were too weak to justify staying grouped together.

They would have to spread out to maximize hunting speed, and it would also make it easier to avoid me.

If you think about it in Dead by Daylight terms, survivors spreading out across the map was the best way to buy time.

That made my objective simple. I just had to hunt down my teammates, one by one.

And quickly, too.

I started running.

【<Blood Scent>: You can smell blood.】

A faint scent of blood reached my nose. My passive skill had activated.

This time, I was playing as a Berserker.

Dark Knights weren’t ideal for hunting speed, so I figured Berserker would be a better option.

I followed the scent, and soon I saw someone wielding a large sword in the distance.

The name ‘Chell_Sumeragi_V’ floated above them.

"Oh my, isn’t that Chel."

"......"

Chel glanced at me.

The Berserker’s passive skill, <Blood Scent>, allowed me to track enemies by their blood.

Chel had a small cut on her body, probably from fighting slimes.

But it wasn’t a serious wound. She was still nearly in peak condition.

Chel tightened her grip on the greatsword and prepared for battle.

As expected, neither Sora nor Inagika was in sight.

"You’re alone? Are you sure about that?"

"......"

"You can call Sora and Inagika if you want. It’d make for a fairer fight, wouldn’t it?"

"I’m enough on my own."

Chel charged at me. As I thought, that won’t work.

My teammates seemed to understand Dead by Daylight pretty well. Chel was stalling for time, allowing Sora and Inagika to hunt slimes as part of their strategy.

'So, a gladiator, huh.'

While I hadn’t faced many gladiators, I was familiar with them.

A little while ago, Leon had said something to me:

-"Sister Laura." -"After the tournament, there will be a one-on-one event match between you and Rinko-senpai." -"No matter what, you have to win that match."

Leon had been especially insistent about it.

I didn’t know why Leon was so focused on my match with Rinko, but there had to be a reason.

Anyway, perhaps because of what Leon had said, facing a gladiator gave me a strange sense of excitement.

I smiled faintly.

Voom!

Chel swung her sword.

A massive overhead swing with the greatsword.

The movement was wide and easy to predict. I quickly stepped back.

But Chel’s attack didn’t stop there.

Without losing momentum, she brought the greatsword down to the ground.

Thud!

The sword embedded itself into the earth.

Then, Chel executed a somersault, bringing her heel down in a kick.

Whoosh!

Her heel missed me by a small margin.

I leaned to the side, narrowly avoiding Chel’s kick.

Boom!

With a loud crash, Chel landed on the ground, the force of her kick leaving an imprint on the ground.

‘Not bad.’

I watched as Chel readjusted her grip on the greatsword.

The greatsword had its pros and cons. It was powerful, but the movements were slow and cumbersome. If an opponent got in too close, it became difficult to handle.

The gladiator was a class designed to mitigate these weaknesses stylishly.

"......"

Chel swung the greatsword again.

This time, it wasn’t a straightforward downward strike. It was a diagonal slash, something she had likely seen in gladiator gameplay videos.

Many of the gladiator’s attacks started with a downward swing. That’s just how the character was built.

As expected, the greatsword once again became lodged in the ground after I dodged the strike.

And once again, Chel attempted a somersault.

Whoosh!

I watched as she planted the sword into the ground and used it as leverage for her acrobatic attack.

The gladiator class often used the greatsword as a pivot for their attacks.

This tactic had its benefits. For one, it extended the attack range significantly.

The greatsword already had a long range, but when followed by a somersault and a kick, the effective attack range nearly doubled. This meant that attacks came from farther away than expected.

Moreover, the gladiator’s kick wasn’t a simple attack.

The gladiator’s kick was said to be powerful enough to crush skulls, with the added momentum from the somersault. If you took a direct hit, you could easily be knocked out.

On top of that, the gladiator’s attacks doubled as evasive maneuvers.

Unlike knights wielding greatswords, the gladiator was constantly moving, making it hard for close-range characters like assassins to get in for an attack.

By enhancing the greatsword’s range and minimizing its weighty drawbacks, the gladiator class truly stood out.

‘Though this comes with a new weakness.’

Chel’s kick was coming towards me.

It wasn’t hard to predict her next move—her attacks were straightforward, likely because she wasn’t very familiar with Gladiator. Knowing where the attack was headed made it easy to close the distance.

As I dodged her strike, I moved toward the greatsword embedded in the ground.

Whack!

I struck the greatsword with my fist.

While the flashy movements might mislead someone, the core of Gladiator's combat was essentially a hand-to-hand fighting style using the greatsword as an anchor.

Chell continuously tumbled and changed positions, but during those moments, her greatsword was fixed in the ground as her pivot.

Since the sword was rooted in one spot, approaching it was not difficult. And once the pivot was destroyed, the Gladiator's technique would be nullified.

Whack!!

Another hit to the sword caused it to tilt heavily.

This alone broke Chell’s balance mid-tumble.

"Ugh...!"

She slid and rolled across the ground, failing to land properly due to her unsteady pivot.

Now covered in dust, Chell struggled to get up.

But before she could rise, I stood in front of her.

"Before attacking, you need to be more aware of your range. You should know that your opponent could target your greatsword. Also, your moves were too linear. If you had used more stylish attacks, you could’ve blocked my approach. Understand?"

"Yes," Chell nodded.

"This is too hard for me. I’ll stop using Gladiator."

Fair enough. That might be for the best.

"Next time, try picking an easier character."

With that, I grabbed Chell by the neck.

[Your Gladiator has been defeated by the enemy Berserker.]

"...Chell is down."

Sora muttered as she read the message that appeared on her screen.

It was as expected.

They had never assumed they could win without losing anyone.

From the start, they agreed to try and buy as much time as possible, even if one of them got killed.

Meanwhile, the remaining two would focus on hunting monsters.

"It’s just the two of us now. Should we split up too?" Sora asked, glancing back.

Sora had been moving together with Inagika.

Although Slimes were weak enough for a Bard to hunt solo, it was still inefficient for a support character to roam alone. That’s why Sora had been sticking with Inagika to hunt Slimes together.

But now that Chell was dead, Aurora would surely be coming after them.

Rather than staying together and getting killed, it might be better to split up and go their separate ways.

—That was Sora’s line of thinking.

"Inagika?"

But there was no answer to her question.

Finding this strange, Sora retraced her steps.

In the distance, she saw the Berserker holding Inagika by the collar.

"S-Sora... run...."

Snap!

A clean break.

Inagika’s neck was broken, and her body fell lifeless to the ground.

"This can’t be happening... How did she get here so fast...?"

"Chell was heavier than expected. Carrying her took some time," Aurora replied.

Following Aurora’s gaze, Sora spotted Chell’s body lying against the wall.

Why is Chell here?

She had separated from Chell right at the start of the game.

Could it be...?

...Did she bring Chell here without killing her?

Aurora had likely whittled down Chell’s HP without killing her, only finishing the job once she got here.

All to delay the kill notification.

If the kill log appeared late, Sora and Inagika would have let their guard down.

"Your strategy was to scatter and buy time, right? So logically, I assumed you would be on the opposite side of where I first encountered Chell."

"......"

"Thanks to that, I found you quickly. I’m glad we could meet so soon. But your thinking was too simple. Try to be a bit more unpredictable next time."

Aurora extended her hand toward Sora.

Looking at her, Sora sighed.

"...At least kill me gently."