Chapter 720: A Path of Light Shines Through the Blazing Thunder Tempest
Basically, doing a backflip during Overflow will kill you.
This is because if you apply force with the usual feeling of doing a backflip, you'll spin five and a half times on average and slam straight into the ground headfirst. I've died about thirty times just to test this, so the credibility of this claim is incredibly high.
But if you tense up only as much as you would when doing a light stretch, you'll get exactly one perfect backflip—in short, it's just like magic. If you pre-memorize the commands to trigger a specific motion, your actions won't stray even in the heat of battle. Relaxing under pressure—loosening your brain even more than your muscles—is what makes flawless movement possible!!
"Alright, time for some part-breaking!!"
Moving "forward" during Overflow requires a motion akin to gripping the ground with your toes, and if you want to accelerate further, you have to lean slightly forward with your stepping foot. Since taking a curved arc is way too difficult, I exclude it entirely; instead, I close the distance with sharp, angular trajectory corrections while maintaining my acceleration.
The combus-bastard's base design is a chameleon; its visual advantage should be completely incomparable to human's, but... there's been some weird timing in its movements for a while now, hasn't there? I'm calling it right now: it gets a massive debuff to its vision when its whole body heats up.
"Rei-shi!!"
"I'm on it...!"
While leaving the task of pulling aggro to Saina, Rei-shi and I flank the giant tail from both sides while the monster's vision is completely screwed by the heat.
I see; now that I'm up close, it's obvious this tail is serving as its cooling system. Even though the torso is emitting enough heat to grill meat, this tail is actively radiating a chilling air despite being directly connected to it... cutting through this is going to be quite the chore in its own right.
That is, if the ones handling the offensive weren't Rei-shi and me.
"...【Burst Extreme: Prominence】!"
"Burn, Areadbhair!!"
The flame-imbued Areadbhair carves wounds into the frozen scales, melting them upon contact with the blade, while the enchanted Sword of Taiji, now clad in crimson fire, smashes through the shattered scales to strike the flesh beneath.
Unfortunately, Areadbhair's dragon-slaying properties don't apply to reptiles, so I don't get the damage modifier, but this sword's innate heat damage still works wonders!
"This sword was born in the middle of primal, scorching heat, you know."
Like I'd ever be scared of some feverish chameleon's body!
With every slash I land, I can feel its flesh softening, and every time our blades—heated by Areadbhair and the Sword of Taiji—make contact, the chill surrounding the tail turns to steam, painting our vision in pure white.
"You two~! The aggro is shifting toward you~!!"
"Roger that!!"
Activating the skill 【Chronostaxia】. It grants a visual correction that far surpasses Quantum Gaze, along with a deceleration-mitigation effect on my body that scales with my DEX, TEC, and AGI stats!
It's just that the cooldown makes it hard to use casually, not that I can't activate it at all; I just have to be stingy with it.
In this familiar world—which normally makes you feel as if you are moving through highly viscous water—the black lightning of my exaggerated movements forces my body to accelerate straight through the water clinging to me.
I put force into my left leg and leap, deliberately adjusting the direction of the force to dodge the sweeping tail upside down, and as I swing my right hand—fully loaded with extra power—the scorching sword in my grip carves yet another slash into the target.
I land, tensing up to stop myself from tumbling over from the sheer inertia, and prepare a follow-up attack on the retreating tail... but it's too shallow; dodging the tail as it whipped from left to right forced me to jump, and my strike can't reach the tail as it draws away. However, in this slow-motion world, Rei-shi—whose body became delicate after our Behemoth raid—charges right past me.
What she's gripping in her hands isn't the Sword of Taiji, but an iron club made even more lethal with protruding spikes... an iron club?
Before I knew it, the armor clad over Rei-shi had changed; it wasn't that organic, pulsing Armor of Twin Reason, but a warrior's armor shaped like an ogre. I've seen that somewhere before... if I recall correctly, she used it back during our fight against Ctarrnid-san...
"───"
During thought acceleration, surrounding voices are recognized as nothing more than mere sound. That's why I can't tell exactly what Rei-shi said, but the only thing I can say for sure is that her stepping forward as if to shield me wasn't out of a desire to protect me, but rather out of a far more offensive intent.
The iron club lights up. It's not just a skill; whatever she chanted is probably a spell. Simultaneous usage of magic and skills—anyone can do it if they put their mind to it, but it's a feat that is utterly impossible for me at least. Since I don't know any magic... wait, no, that's not it! What she pulled out of her Inventoria was a Disposable Magic Medium... a triple buff cast upon a single target!!
Whether she modified it for females or had it entirely remade, lightning, flame, and mist crawl and wrap themselves around the iron club swung overhead by the female ogre warrior.
A tail-whip is essentially a motion where a monster braces its body and swings only its tail, meaning that the end of the motion involves the tail returning to its original position.
And right now, Rei-shi is standing exactly where that tail is returning. Even if the momentum of a tail whipped around by a body the size of a heavy-duty truck has lost its lethal intent at the end of its motion, it could still easily blow us away. But,
"───!!"
Whether it was a spell name, a skill name, or simply a battle cry filled with raw spirit—the moment the swung iron club collided with the tail closing in on us, the club, housing three distinct forces against that massive weight, unleashed its power.
Three counters activated in response to the impact. The moment the tail and iron club collided, an explosive flame burst forth, immediately followed by lightning that bit not into the combus-bastard, but directly into Rei-shi's arms. A buff-type spell? Rei-shi's pushing power surged.
And lastly, at almost the exact same timing as the flame—meaning the instant the tail and club collided—the mist wrapped alongside the flame and lightning detonated like a tempest!
The explosive fire, fueled by the arm strength boosted by lightning and the compression of air, burned even more violently. It was indeed a meticulously assembled "combo," and if Rei-shi—who is min-maxed entirely for dealing massive damage—was the one delivering it...
The window of victory!!
As the explosive flames, expanded by the gale, were driven deep by arms empowered by lightning, I thrust Areadbhair straight into the combus-bastard's tail—which had clearly snapped, bones and all!
It isn't just a simple thrust; it is the Level 150 thrust-type skill evolved from Lethal Finishing Touch: 【Shining Sting】!!
This skill possesses an extremely simple effect, but that is precisely why it can be called the strongest. And why is that...?
"Its critical multiplier is just stupidly high."
The slow-motion world rapidly returns to normal speed.
Bathed in a silvery-white light, the tip of Areadbhair, which pierced straight through the combus-bastard's tail without straying, meets a sensation akin to thick rubber.
And then, the sensation of tearing through and piercing it completely.
"Drop that part-break-exclusive material already."
The dragon-slaying flame sword completely severed its tail.
Author's Afterword
・Breakdown of the combo used by Heroine-chan (including weapon)
Weapon: Giant Killing・Head Crusher
Applies a damage correction against monsters with bodies larger than the player. A piece forged by further reinforcing one of her old weapons from the Old Continent, 【Brain Blow】, with materials harvested from the formidable monsters of the New Continent. Although she doesn't really get concepts like elemental matchups or resistances, it's basically a weapon she can swing brainlessly at anything larger than herself.
・Descending Surge of Lightning
A buff skill. When landing an attack against an opponent's attack, it applies a massive positive modifier to STR for exactly five seconds. If you high-five someone with this active, their hand will be pulverized.
・Explode Encounter
An offensive magic spell. When landing an attack against an opponent's attack, it consumes weapon durability (or HP if bare-handed) to trigger an explosion... but this explosion also inflicts heat damage on oneself. If Sunraku were to use it, the shockwave of the explosion would kill him instantly (Heroine-chan survives it thanks to her stats and equipment).
・Enhanstorm Rank-Up
A buff spell. It dramatically raises the power of conditional active magic spells currently applied to oneself. In this case, because the power of the explosion (namely, the thermal energy) was boosted, the flesh of the tail softened. If a player were to take a direct hit from this, the damage would amount to roughly 4 Sunrakus.
And that concludes the "When in trouble, just brute force it and everything will work out, so here's an efficient damage combo for that" lesson, directly passed down by Massive Dynamite.
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