Chapter 190: The Collapse of the Apex

In reality, historical rapiers were weapons used by nobles for duels, and apparently weren't all that useful on an actual battlefield.
But this is a game world, a place that's as close to reality as possible while still fundamentally differing from it, and the rapier wielded by a boss character has more than enough resources poured into it to send a player straight to the respawn screen.

Naturally, a thrusting sword's main attack is the thrust. The troublesome thing about thrusts is that when you take them head-on, the attack is a "point."
If it were a "line" attack like a slash or a sweep, dealing with it would ultimately be easy. Sure, stat parameters and other things would actually get involved, but in extreme terms, you can catch a vertical line attack with a horizontal line defense.
But a thrust is a "point"; the hitbox is tiny, so dealing with it is relatively difficult.

"Can you comprehend that much, Mr. Ammo-Knight?"

"Tch...!"

Just how many TAS-like freaks do you think I've fought over the past month? Hell, just recently I even came across a human-powered TAS. Even thinking back on it now, what the hell was that guy? Was he hiding a battery compartment on his back or something?

The roles are clearly distinct, meaning it's clear who is supposed to play which role.
Two strikes from a forward step, and I parry the thrust that comes flying back in retaliation by slamming my sword into it from the side, then drive a gouging thrust right into the Ammo-Knight's elbow, which is completely extended from its thrusting form.
A game where you have to figure out how to manage a limited hand of moves is great and all, but an action game where you're armed with skills tailored exactly to your preferences is truly magnificent.

Activating 【Fading Mirror】—while the cutlass slices through thin air, my weapon swaps to the Zweihänder which slams directly into the base of the Ammo-Knight's head, where the boundary between head and torso is rather ambiguous.
The advantage of a thrust isn't some exclusive privilege reserved only for the enemy; it's a blessing granted equally to players as well. And I can deal with yours, so you're the only one taking damage here.

"Shoot."

"Got it!"

Hearing Rust's voice—who seems to have recovered from her status ailment: Frenzied Joy—I hurriedly jump back to open up the line of fire. In the next instant, an arrow piercing through the air slams into the side of the Ammo-Knight's face with a tremendous sound.

"...If that was an early-game mob it'd probably get obliterated in one hit."

"I tested it a few times and figured out the exact threshold just before it gets nullified. Now I just need to carefully land them..."

"I re-specced completely into physical attacks just now, do you think it's working—?!"

It's weird coming from me since I'm the one inflicting the damage, but I observe the Ammo-Knight who was blown away in what looked like an incredibly painful manner, yet it doesn't seem to have taken any actual damage aside from the knockback from the sheer impact.

"It's decent enough!"

"Rust, I'm trying fire next!"

"Understood."

Glancing sideways at Rust stepping back and Mold who's already begun his incantation, I switch my equipment to the Gilta-Brill and stand before the rising Ammo-Knight.

"Next up, let's play rock-paper-scissors. You've even got a handicap since I'm only throwing rock."

Though if you throw out some half-assed paper, I'm going to forcibly claim victory with my Fist.
I face off against the cutlass and rapier with movements that are closer to fighting bare-handed, trading range for mobility compared to before.
And just when it forgets about everyone but me, an arrow imbued with some sort of power, fired from outside its awareness by a heavy bow, steadily chips away at the Ammo-Knight.

Then, just as Mold's tests to figure out which attribute is effective make a full rotation and settle on an answer, right around the tenth arrow fired.

"........., ......!"

"Well, you were on the stronger side, I'll give you that. But if you want to push me into a corner, you need to be spamming an instant-death attack with zero recast time for thirty seconds straight."

Even if I fought Wethermon with my current stats exactly as they are, it's highly doubtful I'd be able to pull off the same stunt.
That being said, if there was one thing that bothered me, it was its battle style.

(It felt somewhat mismatched, or maybe there were too many unnecessary movements... Redundant?)

The whole appearance was weird to begin with. Why was a monster with the form of an anthropomorphized ammonite knight using a cutlass of all things?
Truthfully, its rapier attacks actually gave me a few close calls, but its cutlass attacks were so sluggish I could probably deal with them even running on a two-day all-nighter.
Well, a cutlass is a weapon strongly associated with pirates, so using it roughly is just about right...

"Pirates?"

"What is it?"

"No... could it be?"

Unlike the standard disintegration effect, I gaze at the Ammo-Knight vanishing like bubbles—just like when we defeated Clionea—and narrow my eyes at the cutlass and seashell-like material items left behind.

"So it has boss drops..."

"Neither Mold nor I use close-combat weapons. So you can take it."

"No, I want you or Mold to hold onto this."

The two of them look at me with question marks floating above their heads, but if they just look at the item menu, they'll probably understand what this cutlass with a red whale engraved on it signifies.

Taking all the dissonance thus far into consideration, I deduce that this cutlass isn't just a boss drop, but is tied to an entirely different factor.
I see, they definitely got me with this one. I see, I see. Come to think of it, that's exactly how it was.

"It got overshadowed by the impact of the EX Scenario, but so that's how it is..."

"...!"

"What's wrong, Rust?"

"...'Cutlass of the Red Whale', this is..."

My mind flashes back to the first day of Ruluiath Survival... specifically the moment we clashed with the Fishman Ghost Ship and got dragged down by those massive tentacles.
In my fading consciousness as the screen faded to black, the last thing I recognized was the system message announcing the start of the EX Scenario. Ah, that's right. Nobody ever said the scenario we were doing right before that had actually ended.

"They're progressing simultaneously."

To put it simply, the Unique Scenario "Pierce the Abyssal Apostle" hasn't ended yet.

In other words.

"Right now, two entirely separate stories are progressing on a single stage."

One is the Unique Scenario EX "Behold the Abyss Above, as the World Turns on Its Head", challenging Ctarrnid who reigns over Ruluiath.
And the other is the Unique Scenario "Pierce the Abyssal Apostle," the scenario where we raid the ghost ship that kidnapped the father of the self-proclaimed great pirate (shitty brat), Stude.

"Maybe 'Pierce the Abyssal Apostle' has multiple endings."

The normal ending would be defeating all the Fishmen on the ghost ship, and if you meet certain conditions and arrive in Ruluiath, the route branches off into another ending. If you think about it that way, the reason the Ammo-Knight had a cutlass kind of starts making sense.

"In that case, the ones who accepted the quest should be the ones to progress it, right?"

ShanFro is basically a visual novel sprinkled with a bit of a dating sim when it comes to talking to NPCs; wouldn't it be better for someone who actually has some level of interaction with him to initiate contact rather than a complete stranger?
For the EX Scenario I'm a full participant, but when it comes to Stude, I'm strictly nothing more than the "bird-head who tagged along with the two people who actually accepted the request."

"As the quest acceptor, it's your job to guide this lost lamb."

"What a pain... Mold."

"Ahaha, I'll tag along too..."

Well, setting that aside, we've defeated two Sealed Generals now... and no specific changes have occurred in the field.
That being said, if some event triggered after defeating the fourth one it'd be a huge pain, so we're planning to defeat the fourth one at the very last minute on the sixth day.
Hopefully we find her by then, but... just where is Rei, and what is she doing?

It was a trivial sisterly spat.

A lack of "communication and reporting."
A younger sister who pulled ahead of her older sister.
Resistance against the tyrannical exercise of older sister privileges.
Anyone who gets in the way of a romance gets kicked by a horse, but since there are no horses around, the younger sister snapped instead.

"...Rei!"

"I am not your accessory, sister, nor am I a dog tied to a leash!"

It was a trivial sisterly spat.
But in a certain place... it became a fatal collapse for the Schwarz Vulf.

Author's Afterword
Well, to summarize, the older sister found out what her little sister was doing during Chapter 2 and where she went at the start of Chapter 3.
And after this and that, the heroine finally snapped.

I won't say exactly what it entails, but she got 124 missed calls and her house was raided in real life.