At last, the time for the challenge had come.

“Take my hand. As you know, you must never let go of it. This opponent is especially dangerous—a demon lord.”

“Yes.”

Even Lee Shin was tense.

Meeting a new demon lord was a terrifying ordeal.

That’s because they all exuded an aura that stirred primal fear.

Pa-at!

He felt his body lift up, and in an instant, the surrounding scenery disappeared—only to be replaced by an entirely new and unfamiliar one.

It was the palace of the demon lord Flauros.

All around, braziers carved from stone in the shape of ferocious leopards blazed fiercely.

And then...

–You've come.

A voice rumbled like the growl of a wild beast.

It really was a beast.

A massive leopard approached.

Its eerie eyes, formed of blazing flames, locked with Lee Shin’s. In that instant, he felt as though his mind were being sucked in.

“Don’t look into its eyes.”

Gremory tightened her grip on his hand as she spoke.

Only then did Lee Shin manage to break eye contact with the leopard—demon lord Flauros.

His entire body was drenched in cold sweat.

In that fleeting moment of eye contact, he felt the exhaustion of having practiced for 100 hours without rest.

At that moment, warmth flowed through Gremory’s hand into his.

The warmth spread from his hand and arm throughout his body, and the fatigue vanished completely.

It was the activation of Gremory’s healing power.

“Don’t be rude, Flauros.”

Gremory warned sharply.

Flauros playfully swished his tail.

–My apologies. Just wanted to be a bit mischievous.

Finally regaining his composure, Lee Shin looked at the Asian man beside the leopard.

A middle-aged man with a dignified beard—though his expression had a mix of irritability and provocation.

That was Sanada Masayuki as Lee Shin saw him.

Sanada Masayuki walked up to Lee Shin and extended his hand.

“Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Lee Shin shook his hand without hesitation.

“Let’s make it a good match.”

“I don’t know of any match that’s good if I don’t win.”

“Heh, that’s true.”

Sanada Masayuki laughed fiercely.

With that, the two Contractors exchanged greetings, and Gremory declared her intent to challenge.

Flauros nodded.

–I’ll accept the challenge. The battlefield will be the 5th arena, Evil Hall. I’ll wager 10,000 mana.

“Afraid, are you?”

Gremory sneered.

Flauros snorted.

–Things have been heating up lately. I’ll play it safe until the bubble bursts.

“Whatever. See you on the battlefield.”

Gremory transported with Lee Shin to the battlefield first.

[Demon Lord Gremory and Contractor Lee Shin have arrived at the 5th battlefield, Evil Hall.]

Flauros and Sanada Masayuki soon followed.

[This is a ranking match between Demon Lord Gremory and Demon Lord Flauros. The outcome of the battle will affect their ranking and mana. A total of 20,000 mana will be wagered.]

[20,000 mana will be converted into mana stones and scattered across the battlefield.]

[Please select your race.]

“Human.”

“Monster.”

Lee Shin and Sanada Masayuki chose their races. As expected, there were no surprises.

[The ranking match begins.]

[Contractor Lee Shin of Demon Lord Gremory and Contractor Sanada Masayuki of Demon Lord Flauros will now engage in battle.]

The ranking match had begun.

Starting with the initial four slaves collecting mana stones, Lee Shin began his gameplay.

He had the seventh slave block the gate leading to the front yard with a barracks.

With 90% of the gate blocked by the barracks, only a small space remained for one person to squeeze through.

With the eighth slave, he built a food storage facility that sealed the small gate leading to the backyard. That entrance was now completely shut off.

As the barracks were completed, the ninth slave was summoned.

It was none other than the Apostle Columbus.

“Just give me your orders!”

Columbus shouted enthusiastically, brimming with eagerness to earn merit once again.

“Scout from the 1 o’clock direction.”

Lee Shin’s current location was the 7 o’clock area. The 5th battlefield, Evil Hall, had four starting points in total.

“Yes, sir!”

“You absolutely must not die. Avoid danger and scout for as long as possible.”

“Understood!”

Columbus dashed off energetically.

By then, the barracks had finished construction, and Lee Shin summoned archers.

That’s when it happened.

[An enemy has appeared!]

Sanada Masayuki’s Hellhound showed up at the front yard.

Only one.

It wasn’t an attack, just reconnaissance.

Scout toward 11 o’clock.

Lee Shin immediately redirected Columbus, who had been heading toward 1 o’clock.

If a scouting Hellhound arrived at that time, Lee Shin calculated that the opponent must be positioned diagonally.

It was unlikely Sanada Masayuki would summon many Hellhounds early on to go all-in from the start.

On this favorable battlefield, there was no reason for such a gamble.

Assuming he had summoned only two Hellhounds for scouting, Lee Shin could backtrack their path and time of arrival to deduce the enemy’s location.

For a pro gamer, this wasn’t difficult.

Sure enough—

In the 11 o’clock area, Columbus discovered Sanada Masayuki’s monster camp.

A magic circle was under construction in the front yard.

Just as expected.

Sanada Masayuki’s plan was to build mana stone collection sites in both the front and back yards to secure a mana advantage from the start.

Lee Shin continued with his original plan.

After completing one barracks, he built a forge, then immediately began constructing a special barracks.

[Special Barracks: A building that trains specialized military units, unlike general infantry. You can summon 'Knights' and 'Engineers'. When 'Catapult Technology' is developed, Engineers will be able to craft catapults.]

“Summon Knight, Gilles de Rais.”

[Summoning a Knight from the Special Barracks. The summoned Knight is Contractor Lee Shin's Apostle, Gilles de Rais.]

Lee Shin boldly constructed only one barracks and quickly advanced his tech tree.

Anyway, the opponent would focus on mana collection early on and wouldn't attack. Defense was sufficient just by blocking the entrance through building placement.

Due to the inherent vulnerability of Humans, unlike monsters, it was difficult to quickly expand outside the main base and increase mana stone collection points.

In that case, the better choice was to raise the tech tree quickly to secure at least one advantage.

So he chose a build order to summon a Knight as early as possible.

It was a build order he came up with after seeing Joachim Müller.

“Contractor.”

At last, the Knight summoning was complete.

The summoned Knight, Gilles de Rais, bowed his head before Lee Shin.

“You know what to do, right?”

“Yes.”

“Go.”

Gilles de Rais rode off on horseback.

Sanada Masayuki, who had prioritized securing a mana stone collection point in the natural expansion, began summoning Dragon Beasts.

His strategy combined Dragon Beasts and Hellhounds for a mobile warfare approach.

He liked to gradually chip away at enemy forces with flying Dragon Beasts, then sweep in with Hellhounds to wipe them out.

To do that, he first had to secure the back expansion's mana stone collection point to increase his mana supply. That was the only way to summon a large number of Dragon Beasts.

Since Humans were weak in the early game, they had no choice but to play defensively, meaning he could focus on mana collection without worrying about interference.

...Or so he thought.

[An enemy has appeared!]

Sanada Masayuki doubted his eyes for a moment.

At most, he thought a few archers had come to perform a surprise attack. If that were the case, he wouldn’t even need Hellhounds—just Claws would suffice to deal with it.

But what had intruded was a Knight.

A heavily armed Knight on horseback wielding a lance.

‘A Knight? This early?!’

The Knight swiftly charged into the main base.

He rampaged through the undefended base, starting to hunt the Claws collecting mana stones.

“Damn it! Evacuate!”

Sanada Masayuki ordered the Claws working inside the base to retreat to the mana stone collection point at the natural expansion.

The Knight relentlessly pursued and picked off the Claws one by one.

Sanada Masayuki responded calmly.

The opponent had summoned a Knight as early as possible to sneak in and stab at a weak point.

Since he hadn’t set up defenses, some damage was inevitable.

‘But even with that damage, I won’t be at a disadvantage.’

Sanada Masayuki began summoning six Hellhounds from the magic circle in his main base and three Dragon Beasts from the one in the natural expansion.

Meanwhile, the Knight continued to rampage and hunt Claws.

The Claws ran to escape the Knight, but he persistently chased them down and killed six of them.

Even aside from the loss of six Claws, the fact that the others couldn’t collect mana stones while fleeing caused tremendous loss.

Only after the six Hellhounds were summoned did the Knight vanish.

‘I took more damage than expected.’

Still, he had the upper hand.

The opponent was still holed up in his main base.

Although he had taken some damage, he still had many surviving Claws, and the natural expansion’s collection point gave him a mana advantage.

Of course, that gap had shrunk significantly due to the recent damage.

Originally, he had intended to secure a mana collection point in the back expansion as well.

Main base, natural expansion, and back expansion.

With massive mana collected from all three locations, he had planned to raise a large army.

But the unexpected damage had narrowed the gap.

‘Since the opponent already summoned a Knight, he’ll likely continue to produce more Knights or catapults.’

In that case, he no longer had the luxury of securing the back expansion’s collection point.

He had to replenish the lost Claws and summon more troops in preparation for attacks.

‘His goal is clearly to prevent me from securing a third mana collection point.’

Sanada Masayuki saw through his opponent’s intent.

‘If he can’t be rich alone, he wants to make us both poor. Fine by me.’

Sanada Masayuki let out a fierce grin.

‘Looks like he doesn’t know—I excel at these attritional, blood-drying battles.’

He quickly assessed the situation.

The opponent had constructed a ‘Special Barracks’. From it, he could summon Engineers and Knights. Engineers could craft catapults. But neither catapults nor Knights could attack airborne units.

Sanada Masayuki focused on summoning Dragon Beasts.

‘To deal with the Dragon Beasts, he’ll probably summon more archers.’

That would set the stage for a Dragon Beast vs. Archer battle.

Archers had to move on foot.

Dragon Beasts flew freely through the air.

Naturally, the side commanding the Dragon Beasts—Sanada Masayuki—would seize the initiative in the battle.

With that, Sanada Masayuki revised and drew a new plan.

Only after gaining the upper hand in mobility would his strategy truly begin.

Once he had gathered nine Dragon Beasts, Sanada Masayuki decided to lightly probe Lee Shin’s main base at the 5 o’clock position.

The nine Dragon Beasts quickly flew toward the 5 o’clock direction.

And then—

[An enemy has appeared!]

“Screeeeech—!”

“ScreeeEEEeeech—!!”

With a loud screech, something flew in from the 5 o’clock direction as well.

[Griffins: Tamed Griffins summoned from the ‘Griffin Ranch’. When the ‘Riding’ skill is developed, up to two soldiers can ride on each of them.]

Riding on four Griffins were eight crossbowmen with upgraded weapons.

They were flying on the Griffins, ready to fire bolts.

‘What?!’

Sanada Masayuki was quite shocked by the unexpected composition of enemy forces.

Surprisingly, Lee Shin had prepared for an aerial battle!