Chapter 68: Dedicated to a Moment Part 15

Clang, the sound of knees hitting the ground echoed. Even if I smashed the knees of my forcibly half-naked avatar against the ground, it wouldn't make such a metallic sound. OiKatzo and Pencilgon's equipment looked like it had high VIT, but it wouldn't produce a metallic sound this heavy. In that case, did Kirin kneel? If so, the ground would shake more. Therefore, the one who knelt in this place is...

"......"

"Doesn't look like we beat him... though."

Wethermon the Tombguard, kneeling and motionless. At first glance, it looks like a chance time, but... no matter how you think about it, that's the kind of motion where you have to keep your distance and observe. As if backing up my hypothesis, Pencilgon, having put away the scales into her inventory, stood up warily.

"Here it comes, you two... From here on, it gets dangerous."

In sync with Wethermon the Tombguard's movement, Kirin stopped moving completely. On top of it, I can see even from a distance that OiKatzo, who had crazily tied himself to Kirin's neck, is bewildered. Seriously, stop making me laugh with that visual... the tension is leaking out.

"Even back when the Ashura-kai members were still decent, we only reached this point once. For convenience, I'll call it the Third Phase... but back then, we were wiped out by Wethermon the Tombguard's opening move."

"So you only know what he does first, right?"

But conversely, that means the three of us know what he will unleash first. In the First Phase, a ten-minute battle against Wethermon alone. The Second Phase, Kirin joins the fray, a multiple-opponent battle against Wethermon and Kirin simultaneously. And the Third Phase, which Pencilgon reached only once: Wethermon the Tombguard's opening full-field attack triggered by "self-destruction."

"You said you had a secret plan for this, right!?"

When Pencilgon fought before, a shockwave occurred the instant Wethermon the Tombguard roared while cracks formed in his armor. Pencilgon said during the plan explanation that she had prepared a secret strategy against that full-field attack, which had wiped out all five survivors (including herself) in a single blow, even if they were exhausted. Sorry, but with my stats, I'll be erased even if I bolster my defense. If you don't do something about it, there's nothing I can do.

"Katzo-kun! Kirin's movements might change too, so be careful!"

"Roger...!"

OiKatzo, who was performing the advanced play (in both senses) of tying himself to a horse for a rodeo, chugged recovery potions like he was bathing in them while undoing his bindings.

"From here on is uncharted territory. Steel yourselves."

"First-time clears are the basics of games. I've been ready from the start."

"Then good...!"

Pencilgon took something from her inventory... a potion? Taking out a bottle filled with some kind of liquid, she approached the motionless Wethermon the Tombguard with steps devoid of hesitation or fear.

"Ah, if this doesn't work, manage it on your own, okay?"

"Hey!"

My voice of protest, cracks forming in Wethermon's armor which had boasted phenomenal VIT until now, and Pencilgon throwing the potion bottle at Wethermon happened almost simultaneously. With a pleasant clink, the bottle hit Wethermon the Tombguard. Even though cracks were forming, the bottle couldn't withstand the collision with the armor whose sturdiness was still intact. It shattered, and Wethermon the Tombguard was doused in the liquid contents that glowed faintly blue. And just as Wethermon was about to take a roar motion—to put it in meta terms, as if releasing something—

"Ooooooohh......... G-Gah!?"

That motion was forcibly interrupted, and white smoke, clearly the result of damage, rose from deep within the cracks.

"Alright, Bingo!"

"What did you do!?"

My body prepared for the battle ahead, while my mouth demanded an explanation for the sequence of events just now.

"In this game, the worldview and lore become the keys to conquest. I always thought Wethermon the Tombguard was a 'Cyborg whose body was mechanized with Divine Age technology.'"

Certainly, if you deduce the true identity of Wethermon, who looks completely like a powered suit robot, considering Setsuna's story and the sci-fi setting of the "Divine Age" in ShanFro, thinking of him as a cyborg isn't particularly strange.

"But, I don't know where your source was, but the word 'survivor' (undead/failed to die) you brought, Sunraku-kun, revealed the hidden truth... In short, whatever the process, taxonomically he is an 'Undead Monster'."

"In other words," Pencilgon continued, readying her weapon... the spear, which was her specialty.

" 'Saint-chan's Holy Water,' made with devotion by ShanFro's idol Saint-chan... A top-class anti-undead potion I obtained by paying a huge sum through underground routes. As expected of its power."

Saint-chan's Holy Water (Meaningful)... No, I don't mean anything else by it, really, really. Or rather, "Saint-chan's Holy Water" circulating through underground routes (Meaningful) is totally that, isn't it?

"I know what you want to say, but it's not that kind of that."

"That star model is pretty corrupted, isn't she?"

"Flowers bloom beautifully by absorbing both purity and impurity... I blocked the full-field shockwave. From here on, I'm improvising too!"

It seems even Saint-chan's Holy Water (Meaningful) could only interrupt the full-field attack and not deal fatal damage. The shoulders, arms, waist... the armor on each part of Wethermon the Tombguard, who stopped his agonizing movements, burst open as if breaking. Blue flame-like energy erupted from the cracks all over his body like spurting blood. The mechanical figure that gave a strong cyber impression until a moment ago changed completely in the blink of an eye. Standing up swaying with cracks spreading all over his body, appearing as a ghost clad in blue flames... the term "ghost of the past" is truly fitting. Pencilgon seems fully intent on fighting Wethermon, but... um, look to the side a bit?

"Ah, well. Sorry to interrupt when you're all fired up to fight Wethermon the Tombguard, but go help OiKatzo."

"Eh? Of course I'll assist, bu... huh?"

Well, I'm making that face too under this.

"The victory condition being a time limit is almost certainly confirmed, and the limit is probably thirty minutes."

Where our gazes turned. The Tactical Mecha-Horse [Kirin] had transformed, changing into the appearance of a halfway-finished suit of armor lacking a head and torso. In front of it, OiKatzo was taking a fighting pose while bewildered. I see, so Wethermon enters that to become a giant armored state.

"Even with improvised stat boosts, fighting the complete 'That' with level restrictions is impossible. At least you understand that we can't let the current Giant Armor—formerly a horse—merge with Wethermon, right?"

In other words, the division of roles for the three of us in the remaining unknown minutes of survival is to prevent them from merging. Kirin Armor and Wethermon Main Body. How to allocate our numbers, who to pit against Wethermon... Pencilgon should be able to come up with the answer immediately.

"Probably. The merger of Wethermon and Kirin I knew was like a centaur, but it seems there was a different form for the Third Phase........."

Pencilgon stared bitterly at the Kirin Armor that was about to move. Although her role of assisting both me and OiKatzo hasn't changed, there's no need to think about which one of us she needs to prioritize.

"..................Sunraku-kun, I'll provide assist just in case, but can I leave it to you (............)?"

"Leave it to me (...)."

It's not a bluff. I've finished most of my verification here too, and above all, since my prediction was correct, the chance of victory has suddenly become visible. Confirming that Pencilgon headed to support OiKatzo, I opened my mouth even knowing he wouldn't answer, while walking toward the ghost clad in flames. I'm getting immersed in the game nicely; performance goes up at times like this.

"...Ever since I heard your combat pattern from Pencilgon, I've been wondering about it. 'Isn't that boring?'"

"......"

I see. Enduring until a mighty enemy self-destructs. Slipping through blades, running with full power from the presence of death, yet not fleeing from the battle. It's a highlight scene akin to "Leave this to me and go on ahead." As a story, it's not boring; it would fall into the interesting category. But this isn't a novel, manga, or anime. It is a "Game." The one fighting the threat, the one enduring, is not a character—someone else—but myself. In that case, is a boss where you "just endure for thirty minutes" actually interesting as a game? I assert: it is decided to be fucking boring.

Five minutes, or maybe ten minutes depending on the case, is one thing. But a boss where you just run, dodge, and endure for thirty minutes is crap game design. Even as an event battle, it's crap. Even if the Unique Monster prioritized story over gameplay, that would be the end of it, but I trust this.

"A God Game wouldn't do something like that."

Balancing worldview and gameplay. Countless games have failed in that adjustment and been branded as Kusoge (Shitty Games) with "Gameplay prioritized so story is crap," "Too faithful to story so gameplay is crap," or "Both are crap, dammit!" But if it's Shangri-La Frontier, I believed it would surely wrap up both with a passing grade or higher. Even if it's a Unique Monster designed as end-game content, if it made players endure for twenty minutes, surely a player's turn to vent their frustration would come around.

That's why, even when receiving the order from Pencilgon to "Prioritize endurance and arrange equipment," I believed in the "what if" possibility and made "this." Believing that "a turn to properly punch Wethermon the Tombguard will come."

Wethermon the Tombguard's attack, spewing blue flames from his entire body and even cloaking his katana in it. I activated Parrying Protect against the downward slash coming to split my head from high above, and parried with my head (....).

".........!"

"Amazing, right? It's my first time parrying with my head too... I practiced properly, you know?"

My head equipment, which deflected the blue-flame-clad katana, is not the flimsy bird mask with strong eye power. Or rather, if I did the same thing with that, my head would be split in two. The "Helmet" covering my entire face, which gained a dark blue shine—the natural color of the material—thanks to Bilac, has four characteristic horns growing from it. As expected of the armor monster Kabuto-Kuwagata (Beetle-Stag); not a single crack even after taking Wethermon's attack. Well, it looks like it would shatter if I clashed too many times.

"War Horn Helmet [Quad-Shell]. Made from Quad-Beetle materials, this is one of the few pieces of armor in all of Shangri-La Frontier that possesses... an Attack Hitbox (....)."

The Quad-Beetle horns and mandibles attached to the helmet have hitboxes. If I can headbutt attack, I can also headbutt parry. There is the argument that if I'm going to swing my head around to parry, I should just use a weapon, but I still mastered the Head Parry using the War Horn Helmet [Quad-Shell].

"After all, if I can parry with my head............ both hands are free."

The War Horn Helmet made from Quad-Beetle heavy armor naturally has a heavier equipment weight compared to the Mask of Gaze, so there was no use for it in the First and Second Phases which were evasion-endurance battles. But as I predicted, the Third Phase lost Wethermon the Tombguard's invincibility in the form of armor self-destruction.

"Eat this, my 80,000 Mani!"

If the opponent is desperate and prepared to self-destruct, I'll play my trump card too. It didn't have a turn because it didn't mesh with an endurance battle, but now I can utilize its power fully. The twin blades that gained their true form thanks to the Yakuza Rabbit. And the Skill Secret Book that even I, a veteran Kusoge gamer, was forced to buy... no, bought, yielding to the pressure emitted from a smile. Since I made a useless expenditure, I have to make it useful or I can't go on!

I slashed at the empty air with Togetsu [Waxing] and [Waning] clad in prism-like effects. It seemed the opponent understood that the blades wouldn't reach from this position, as Wethermon the Tombguard entered a thrusting stance without concern... but even my eyes confirmed that the space behind Wethermon, where no one should be, wavered (...).

"Watch your back."

".........!?"

Vorpal Blade Arts [Water Mirror Moon]. My impression after using it is that it's a very useful... and very difficult-to-use skill. This skill generates the hitbox created by the attack as a mirror image behind the enemy in front of you upon activation. Simply put, should I say... only the attack hitbox moves to the enemy's back. But the true value of this skill isn't there. If you succeed in landing a critical hit with an attack from this skill, which already has complicated hitboxes... you can erase your own aggro (.......).

A sudden slash from behind. Wethermon the Tombguard judged it as a surprise attack from a new reinforcement and completely removed his consciousness from me due to wariness of the "enemy" who slashed without presence. He turned around and swung his katana, but there was nothing there. It was truly the moon reflected on the water surface; even if it shines with brilliance equal to the moon in the night sky, it is nothing but a virtual image.

"Sorry if a wound on the back is a shame. Be ashamed to your heart's content."

Assassin Pierce, a skill that increases power when fulfilling the condition of not being noticed by the enemy mob or not having aggro directed at you. The blade of [Waxing] pierced Wethermon the Tombguard's defenseless back, right into the crack spewing energy. Effects scattered, and polygons danced. Aggro was directed at me in an instant. Against Wethermon who tried to turn his body, which was facing backward, toward me again, I clad the withdrawn [Waxing] in further effects.

"Drill Piercer!"

The blade swept away in the trajectory I predicted passed over my head, as I had crouched beforehand. I thrust the tip of [Waxing] from directly below into the crack generated in the tough armor without hesitation.

"Now then, correction plus weak point plus critical... Do you still have Super Armor left?"

The spiral effect burst in the weak point (wound) born from self-destruction, and Wethermon the Tombguard finally performed a stagger motion for the first time in the battle so far.

"Let me vent my frustration!"

From here on is my turn. Unlike the First and Second Phases where he didn't even flinch when attacked. My turn, which finally came around after twenty minutes... Prepare yourself, Wethermon the Tombguard. I'm going to beat the crap out of you!

"Fuhahahahahahahahahahahaha!!"

With my tension at its peak, I laughed loudly while slamming an Oppression Kick into the staggering Wethermon the Tombguard.

Author's Notes & Lore

• Wethermon Strategy Chart Finally Revealed:
  • Phase 1: Wethermon solo. Level restrictions & unreasonable attacks, but do your best to see through them (Heart).
  • Phase 2: Kirin summoned. If you don't ride the horse's back and rodeo, a bowling pin experience session will begin (Smile).
  • Phase 3: I will kill you (Opening Area Attack).
• Note that damage only starts properly registering in the Third Phase. The First and Second Phases prior to this have constant Super Armor & Damage Reduction. It is ultra-unreasonable armor that suppresses even Heroine-chan's full-power nuke to chip damage.