Chapter 665: Boost That Cool Heart Into the Heat
The good thing about this game is that outside of raids, there is no time limit, but the bad thing about this game is that outside of raids, there is no time limit.
Um, yes, the battle started around 1:00 AM, and it is currently 3:30 AM! And um, "Golden Age"-san is still looking perfectly lively!!
We've already slammed it with nearly ten shots of those Class VIII Armaments from Saina... but even so, His Imperial Majesty is still going strong. The fact that it's terrifyingly tough is one thing, but losing my left arm is really hurting us.
Since I have to rely on Saina's rental weapons for our main firepower, and since we only get an effective hit once every 15 minutes, it's natural that after taking the same attack over and over again, the enemy learns that "Saina is the higher threat." In other words, it's started ignoring me and targeting Saina much more often.
"But... hehehehe, it feels like it's just one push away, right?"
Three pile bunkers, two electric saws, two thermal blades, and the rest were whiffs. Since almost all of those were slammed straight into the "Holy Sword," its tail is already at its limit; I can tell it'll shatter with just a little more damage.
But it seems the other side understands that too, because its action patterns are changing. It's preserving the "Holy Sword" and aggressively moving around to trap us in the range of its sword-claws—His Imperial Majesty's shift to a high-mobility fighting style is incredibly annoying. When I muttered about its irritating movements, Saina stared intensely at me for some reason, but I suppose I can take that as her agreeing with me.
After fighting for another two hours, I realized that my experience with ice cream actually came in handy. The official title is "Dolce Fairy ☆ Scramble Ice Cream!"... commonly known as "Sludge Ice." It's an indie game that should be described as a time-attack action game, something completely unimaginable from its cute title and setting.
I say indie, but apparently, it was made by a few former employees of some bankrupt developer. Looking back, it was probably some sort of self-promotion... Maybe it's because there was no one to balance the game, or because they only had people who wanted to take the unorthodox route, but aside from the finished product being a bit you-know-what, it was actually reasonably fun within our community.
"Whoa, close one!"
The protagonist is Ice Cream-chan, the Dolce Fairy. The premise is crossing fields and mountains to go meet her lover, Pudding-chan... but Ice Cream-chan's body melts as time passes. In other words, it's a time-attack game where a literal scoop of ice cream with bug-like wings attached (not anthropomorphized, just a literal round scoop of ice cream) desperately sprints through the scorching midsummer sun while risking her life.
"Uooooh, don't look away from me!!"
By the way, do you know what the worst part about indie trash games is? The answer is simple: because they're personal projects, certain weird aspects end up being incredibly sloppy. In this game, it was unequivocally the protagonist's voice. Ice Cream-chan screams using a voice that, no matter how many times you listen to it, sounds exactly like a middle-aged man's falsetto.
Every time her body melts under the sunlight, Ice Cream-chan (who is a fairy) screams with a voice like a Yakuza boss, "Unnu, guoaaahhhh!!"
"Damn it, it still won't break!?"
To protect her body, she submerges herself in relatively cool sewer water and exhales, "Nuuu, fuuuuuooooohhhh..." with a voice like an old man entering a hot spring. (Ice Cream-chan is supposedly a two-year-old girl.) (Her durability gauge recovers, and the message "※ Since she is a fairy, she stays clean thanks to mystical power" is constantly displayed in the corner of the screen.)
"Stop spamming small moves!!"
To acquire the Tempura Armor, she sneaks into a high-end restaurant, throws herself into scorching boiling oil, and screams like a battle-hardened warrior enduring torture, "Ogoaaaah! Guh, gaaaah!!" (The voice changer must have reached its limit because it just became a normal middle-aged man's voice.)
"Saina! Are we there yet!!?"
"Report: Two minutes remaining."
I understand it now, that stinging tension... Hurrying but not rushing, finding the absolute limit while weighing self-preservation against self-sacrifice, and above all, the ability to instantaneously determine the optimal route in a situation that changes by the second.
Thinking carefully about it, it perfectly matches this exact moment. Was ice cream power the key to opposing the Emperor...? No wait, the final boss being a starving homeless man was honestly insane, and I'd like to tell them that making those kinds of choices is exactly why they can't get re-employed. Also, the game balance is garbage and the physics engine feels cheap, so I don't really feel their supposed superiority as former game developers.
According to intel from the indie trash game hunters in the community, they still haven't been scouted... That guy makes face-cam videos, but every time an indie developer he had his eye on gets headhunted and leaves for the major leagues, he starts crying. He does it completely seriously, but it's treated as comedy material.
"Hmm, fighting for several hours really scatters your thoughts."
Because Saina is hoarding all the aggro, I've got more free time than I expected. Well, I am still doing my job, but since it brushes me off as if to say, "I don't have time to deal with you," I actually have a fair bit of mental breathing room compared to Saina, who is desperately running away.
"Saina! Let's go!!"
"Acknowledged: Deploying Plasmaite Thrasher."
At this point, just landing a hit requires a lot of effort and ingenuity since its target is almost exclusively Saina... or rather, strictly speaking, "Saina deploying a massive physical mass."
It's not just aiming for her; after taking devastating attacks for two hours, even it understands that we're trying to destroy the "Holy Sword." Even so, we've used every trick in the book to move Saina right in front of its tail and land our attacks, but it's managed to counter our moves three times in a row now... It feels like we're just one push away, but that push feels incredibly far.
"Now, what should I do..."
It has completely learned the jet pile bunker, and it's already seen through the tactic of dropping Genbu to stop its movements... Wait, is it about time for the climax? I was planning on saving it a bit longer, but... with my stats back then, it took me an entire night to defeat a regular Golden Scorpion. With my current stats, I can wrap one up in just over an hour, but I know full well that an Exordinary Monster is incomparably stronger than a regular entity. Even so, it shouldn't be leaps and bounds stronger than a Unique Monster or a Raid Monster.
In this game, Raid Monsters feel like "numbers" have a far greater narrative meaning than just being a DPS check, but Exordinary Monsters are basically just relatives of rare monsters. It might look perfectly fine on the surface, but isn't it actually being pushed into a corner right now?
"...Saina! We're kicking it into turbo! We're forcing a decisive play!!"
"However, the difficulty of landing an attack is increasing proportionally with the elapsed time."
"As long as it's not impossible! That means it's possible!! Don't fear fractional probabilities! If we don't attempt it, the chance of success won't move an inch from zero!!"
Clench your fist! Raise your sword! Ready your spear!! You can't win without bleeding, so if that's the case, we'll shed buckets of blood and seize the victory!!
Leave it to me, Saina. I'll take on the roles of both the evasion tank and the blood tank! Therefore, answer me, Areadbhair! It's been hours since the battle started... You should be all warmed up by now. Unfortunately, it's not a dragon, but I'm gonna need you to go all out!!
"That is the spear that cannot exist, the non-existent radiance spun by weaving stacked fragments!!"
Author's Afterword
・One-Armed
Loss of a limb primarily occurs due to attacks with the Destruction attribute, or Destructive Poison that applies the Destruction attribute.
In this case, because the arm is physically rendered unusable, the corresponding equipment slot vanishes. As a result, paired weapons that require being equipped in both hands (like twin swords) can no longer be used. However, weapons like fist weapons that are treated as two-handed weapons by the system can still be equipped, though the weapon on the missing limb's side will drop to the ground.
If an accessory was equipped on the missing limb, the accessory itself is not damaged and instead drops to the ground. However, since accessories dropped on the ground are treated as standard items, they can be lost if struck by attacks while in item form.
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