Chapter 69: Dedicated to a Moment Part 16

Wethermon the Tombguard. He possesses flinch immunity—so-called "Super Armor"—against almost all attacks. Furthermore, there's the disruption by the Tactical Mecha-Horse [Kirin], and the existence of a Third Phase triggered by self-destruction, which could only be observed for a brief moment. From these factors, Pencilgon had theorized that "Wethermon's own self-destruction due to time elapsed" was the method of conquest.

(Survive Wethermon for the first ten minutes. For the next ten, split members to handle Kirin and prevent their merger. Then, with the area attack as the trigger, attacks will start getting through to Wethermon, so switch to the offensive... I see, so that was the flow.)

"I hear some maniacal laughter, is he okay?"

"I'd like to think he's okay... but either way, if we don't stop this guy, we have no chance of winning."

Attack skills with additional effects, which couldn't be utilized against Wethermon up to the Second Phase since he was practically invincible. Pencilgon estimates that with those now unlocked, Sunraku's survival rate has gone up. That is the type whose motivation and player skill skyrocket the more adverse the situation is... correction, the more kusoge (shitty game-like) the adversity is. It seems he's thoroughly venting the pent-up frustration from twenty minutes of endurance; seeing as the loud laughter hasn't stopped for a while, he must still be alive.

"Sunraku-kun said it too, but if we let this thing merge with Wethermon, we're probably checkmated. Since attacks get through to Wethermon now, damage should start registering on this guy too... I think."

"At the very least, it's not an enemy we can take down with just two people, right?"

If the main body of Wethermon the Tombguard represents the critical limit of a humanoid enemy, the current Kirin is an extremely simple... design for a strong enemy.

"Like, do you have any hidden trump cards? Like that bottle you threw at Wethermon."

"Actually, I do."

Saying that, Pencilgon took out a few remaining items from her inventory, which had become quite desolate.

"Ta-da!"

"What's that?"

"Medicine called 'Evil Force' (Demon Soul Pills). For your mental health, it's better not to ask about the ingredients."

"Effect?"

"In exchange for gaining the power of practically level 99 for fifteen minutes, the side effects (penalty) are terrible. I used it once a long time ago, but it was awful in many ways."

"Okay."

OiKatzo accepted one of the three black pills politely prepared and used it without hesitation... The next moment, everything in the world OiKatzo saw inverted (....).

"Uoo!?"

"First, color inversion of visual information. Well, the field looked like the colors were reversed originally, so maybe it's not a problem? Besides that, hearing becomes muffled, sense of smell stops working... Well, it's not fatal, but your five senses get dull or weird... but even that is just the beginning."

Using the Evil Force herself and confirming that a massive amount of buffs were applied, she turned to face the Kirin Armor once more.

"Now, from here on, it's a battle against the sense of loss as you level down (..........) by 1 level every thirty seconds...!"

"Haaa!?"

A forbidden doping item that allows even an elementary schooler to become the strongest for a limited time of fifteen minutes, in exchange for the heavy restriction of practically "consuming 30 levels." The two, who performed desperate doping with Evil Force pills concocted from parts (items) of visually unhealthy monsters that one wouldn't want to touch even as data, sprinted toward the Kirin Armor, which was trying to head toward Sunraku... or strictly speaking, toward Wethermon the Tombguard who was fighting Sunraku.

"Dammit, after this is over I have to start over from level 20...!? Ah jeez, prepare yourself, you robot! I'm gonna turn you into a sandbag!"

Because it gained a humanoid form, the Kirin Armor harbored the same weaknesses as a human. The moment its legs stomped the ground, OiKatzo clad his fist in scarlet light and aimed for the joint.

"Red, Black... Add them up and you get Scarlet! Mixed Fist Aura [Scarlet Fire]! And then from Infight... Dual Impact!"

A left jab emitting a scarlet shine darker than red and brighter than black hit the knee joint of the Kirin Armor. However, the Kirin Armor was not so weak as to waver from just that. Knowing this, OiKatzo punched through the cross-shaped mark that appeared where his left fist hit with a right straight charged with all his might. The next moment, an impact like a colorless, heatless explosion assaulted the knee joint of the Kirin Armor. Even with its massive size, taking that much load on a knee joint meant it couldn't remain without reaction; the Kirin Armor lost its balance with unnatural movement as if its knees had buckled.

"Switch!"

"Roger!"

OiKatzo and Pencilgon switched places as if flipping a switch. The tip of her spear aimed for... the knee joint OiKatzo had targeted.

"I'll bully that knee until it shatters...!"

The spear Pencilgon gripped was already layered with multiple enchantments and buffs she had applied to herself. The effect cloaking the spear thrust into the damaged knee joint of the Kirin Armor, as if gouging the wound, was "Spear of Sunrays," located at the top tier among spear skills. The attack hammered in released heat as if to follow up, but even then, the knee joint of the Kirin Armor did not break.

"It's tough..."

"But it got through (....). As I thought, this is the critical moment."

"Though the dodge game starts for us too now!"

OiKatzo and Pencilgon evaded the homing missiles fired from the Kirin Armor's back using their respective means. In that opening, the Kirin Armor stood up and turned its palm toward Pencilgon as if to show off, then fired a laser containing immense heat and destructive power.

"Crap."

The heat ray assaulted the left side of Pencilgon, who had twisted her body. Perhaps due to the effect of the Evil Force, surprisingly, Pencilgon didn't die instantly, but her left half became so unstable it looked like it would dissolve into polygons any moment.

"Heave-ho!"

"I would've liked at least a word of warning!"

Her thought process took an instant. Dexterously aiming the spear tip at herself with just her right arm, Pencilgon thrust the spear into her own stomach without hesitation. Her meager remaining HP was fully depleted, and Pencilgon's body turned into polygons... Before that could happen, she was revived in full health by the resurrection item OiKatzo threw.

"Being unable to use my left hand makes me dead weight as a spear user...!"

Taking out a disposable magic medium (Magic Scroll) from her inventory, she dexterously slammed the lightning magic contained within it into the knee joint of the Kirin Armor while starting to run with her spear.

"Fist Aura 'Red Impact', High Strength, Herculean Body Charge... Fall down!"

With the rope from Marionette Rope [Snake] wrapped around the Kirin Armor's leg, OiKatzo, buffed with every bit of STR enhancement available, pulled the rope in the exact opposite direction of the Kirin Armor's movement. Different from knees buckling, the Kirin Armor lost its balance as if tripped, falling face-first. In that opening, the two hammered in their attacks.

"Ah jeez, we're lacking in firepower, number of hits, everything!"

"If we draw aggro and don't die, our role gets a passing grade, Katzo-kun. Even if we can punch it, it's still an endurance battle...!"

While dealing with the diffuse laser strafing fired from the Kirin Armor's palm with minimal damage taken, the two readied their respective weapons once again.

"By the way, what's a perfect score?"

"That would be turning that rampage robot into scrap, obviously."

"I see. Then let's aim for a gold star perfect score!"

I deflected a horizontal sweep that swung the head from bottom to straight up. Head parrying is convenient, but tiring...

"Tch... As expected, it's not designed to be defeated by a single level 50 player."

I've hammered in attacks countless times and made him flinch a fair number of times, but... he's not an opponent I can defeat alone. Even if only nominally, he belongs to the same category as Lycaon of the Night raid; I knew that. But I persisted against Lycaon until my legs were bitten off and my upper body was munched on. I shouldn't fear mere super-speed frame attacks in what is practically a PvP battle.

"Is my Kusoge Level insufficient?"

I won't tell you to level up the degree of shittiness... I won't. Leaving aside the sturdiness of the War Horn Helmet [Quad-Shell], the condition of Togetsu is incredibly good. Being able to adjust HP on my own is a powerful element in any game of all times and places.

(HP adjustment complete... Now, when to use it?)

HP is a little below one-third. Level is vastly inferior to the opponent. My hunger parameter has also nicely hit rock bottom. With this, the activation conditions for both Climax Boost and Fighting Spirit of the Starving Wolf (Hunger Wolf) are met. But the problem is when to use them. Climax Boost's effect lasts as long as HP is maintained at one-third for five minutes after activation, but Hunger Wolf, taking that into account, only lasts for one minute.

(It's impossible for things to go on without incident until time is up, right?)

Area attack? Further frame attacks? or something else? At the very least, it shouldn't be a bland ending like "Time elapsed, okay, finished." Dealing with a triple strike where blue flames drew blue trails in the void by stepping and parrying, I stomped on the back (spine) of the katana at the timing when the swung-down blade was closest to the ground.

The pain like my soles are being burned is an illusion; I know there is no damage hitbox there. No, strictly speaking, sensually it is burning, but the health gauge hasn't decreased by even a millimeter... I'm not being burned in reality, and even if I call it pain, it's only about as hot as touching a cup with hot coffee poured in it. In other words, practically harmless. Best Step activated. My foot, stepping on the back of the katana which wasn't even placed on the ground, achieved an ideal leap.

"Fuh!"

I threw [Waning] backward to activate Infight, followed by Hand of Fortune, and punched him in the face. While he slightly reeled back, I slammed in an attack with [Waxing], then kicked his chest plate to gain distance. Landing after about a second of floating sensation, I retrieved the discarded [Waning] while being wary of Wethermon the Tombguard's movements.

"Ouch ouch... I want gloves or something."

Punching metal with bare hands only hurts my own fists without skill or magic assistance like OiKatzo has. While recovering stamina, I spoke to Wethermon the Tombguard to distract from the boredom of having nothing to do with my hands, which was inversely proportional to my excitement.

"What's wrong, what's wrong? Are you that shocked that your Robo-Samurai Style Swordsmanship isn't working?"

Unfortunately, I can reproduce action from other games manually to some extent. In conquering Wethermon the Tombguard, who is adjusted strictly by the skills and magic of this game, this is a huge advantage. After all, the dual-wielding maneuvers I'm using right now originate from a different game too.

"Well, I don't know if you're undead or a cyborg, but just keep getting chipped away and self-destruct."

"......A,"

"!!"

...Different. This is different. Wethermon the Tombguard just stood there and quietly re-gripped his katana. He had made "sounds" several times before, but that was clearly different. That was... a "word."

"...A, lice."

"What...?"

"Th, at, fragment... Alice, was... spun, was it?"

Those were not words from the Unique Monster "Wethermon the Tombguard," but from the character (......) "Wethermon the Tombguard" appearing in the game Shangri-La Frontier. From Vash's words and Pencilgon's analysis, I had arbitrarily assumed he was "a monster whose body is still moving even though the soul is dead or something like that." But now, right in front of me was the figure of an armored warrior speaking words via a definite AI.

"Alice...?"

"Eternity is, end, less... Though my body, rots, away, and I see not, their... fate... Certainly, 'Frontier' was, accomp, lished..."

"Hey, hey, hey, that can't be happening in this situation...!"

There's no way my brain, currently directing all nerves toward conquering Wethermon the Tombguard, can afford to think about lore considerations too!? Or rather, is this an event flag! Pencilgon's read was correct, but was my read correct too? Something is coming. Something, at the same time this conversation event ends.

"Here I come... Child of the 'Second Plan'. If you are to... trample... my vow... Then by my 'Great Cleansing of the Blue Sky (Seiten Taisei)'............ Perish."

A shiver like an electric current ran down my spine; alarm bells rang in my data consciousness.

"Crap."

The next moment, I was made to experience the seriousness of the character Wethermon the Tombguard with my own body.

Author’s Notes & Lore

Phase 1 & 2: Auto Mode. Just not dead (........).

Phase 3: Manual Mode. Alive (.....).

The difference is about that much.