Chapter 877: December 20th: Stepping Over Countless Corpses to Stream
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"Murakumo Gekkou Style Secret Art───"
"This is fantasy!!"
"Bguh!?"
Since he seemed to be making a roundabout brag about mastering some minor traditional sword style? in real life, I decided to make him 'understand' with a gun.
In a world where humans can do a light-speed flipbook dash, exactly how much value is there in just swinging a katana around? Even Kyogoku, who practices mainstream Kendo, is out here enchanting her sword with fire.
"Hey samurai swordsman, try cutting some bullets."
It's on full-auto, though.
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The traditional Murakumo Gekkou Style can apparently parry up to four shots from a full-auto barrage. I really hope he puts that result to good use in real life.........
And with that, next.
"Tsuchinoko-san, do you know what Aiki is...?"
First traditional swordplay, now traditional martial arts?
"Then let me teach you the technique that cancels out Aiki...! What do you get when you read Aiki backwards?"
".........Ikia?"
"It's Kiai!!!" [*1]
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Whether it's Aikido, wrestling, or boxing, if you're facing an opponent holding a blade, just run away.
The Aikido-man who taught me that the slashing waves fired from the Night-Glowing Blade form of Treasure Sword of Boundary Light cannot be parried with Aiki... Guess he just didn't have enough Kiai.
"I'm your next opponent! I'll let you taste my Chouten Style to your heart's content...!"
"Another traditional sword style?"
"No, a style I made in ShanFro."
The conversation just shifted a bit.
I know that players can create their own martial arts styles in ShanFro. However, I also know that it's not so convenient that you can just create the 'Strongest Peerless Style of All Times and Places, Past and Future,' and that making an 'Annihilation Surge Heaven-and-Earth-Creation Roundhouse Kick' actually perform according to its name is considerably difficult.
But in terms of being able to create and customize the skills you yourself can master best, a player-made style is the ultimate first-timer trap and a true mark of originality.
Chouten Style... Apex? Or Super Heaven? Whatever, no matter what kind of Heaven you are, over here is the Clear Sky! It's the battle to decide the strongest style!!
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The Chouten Style... wasn't as great as he made it sound, but the player's own performance was normally high, so I struggled......... It's a bit tough when they blatantly ready a counter.
The Chouten Style techniques, heavily utilizing aerial maneuvers executed from a dual-wielding style, which coincidentally matched my own, evened out the three-dimensional spatial advantage I had, dragging it into a clash of spatial combat methods.
"You're too... fast..."
Even though the opponent's swords were excessively flashy, the fact that they were some kind of magic sword with built-in magical effects served as quite the check since I 'didn't know what they were going to do.'
Magic swords, huh......... I don't really have good memories of them, or rather, they remind me of a certain someone who sends multiple magic swords flying around whoosh whoosh, so I have a bit of a complex about them.........
"I s-surrender..."
"GG. I want to ask you one thing though. That 'Tornado' thing? The one where you spin like a top, can you actually see anything?"
"No, not at all."
"Eeeh..."
I can't exactly talk, but isn't that a bad idea for an attack?
The player named JUMP, who I feel surrendered more because his weapons were about to break rather than his HP being at its limit, left as if swapping places with the next player...
"I leave the rest to you."
"Yeah, yeah."
Hm? A high-five with the next challenger? An acquaintance?
A female warrior clad in pure white armor, the player named Yuki, readied her kodachi.
"Let's have a good match."
"Hm? Ah, let's."
A kodachi only is rare. Akitsu Akane also fought with a single kodachi, but that was probably because of her Ninja job.
The sight of an armored warrior readying a short-bladed kodachi looked somewhat compact......... Usually, you'd expect something like that to be used in a dual-wielding setup alongside a full-length katana, but the white warrior was only readying the kodachi.
However, her stance was completely natural. That was proof that she had swung it countless times until it blended perfectly into her hands to reach her current strength.
"Let us do our utmost."
"Ah, yeah... Well, I'm always going all-out, of course."
Carrying through with what you can do, and forcing the resulting outcome onto the opponent. At the end of the day, that's what PvP is all about.
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I'm not a demon either. My hand gets a little blunt when it comes to delivering the finishing blow to a player who challenges me with equipment that clearly looks like it took a lot of effort to make.
"I surrender."
"GG."
The Kodachi One-Sword Style, she was quite a formidable opponent. That weapon has the properties of both a katana and a dagger, huh... As expected, rather than someone with flashy moves, a person who lines up minor tricks and firmly sticks to an unwavering tactic is the scariest.
But it was strange, or rather, it felt like she was moving with the intention of surrendering right from the start. Well, it wasn't equipment meant for the war event that she'd be fine dropping; she was clad in what was obviously either her everyday gear or her trump card armor, so instantly surrendering when she was about to lose wasn't particularly weird.
"Liberty, you're up next."
"Shall I let it out... my full power."
Hmm? Are these guys three acquaintances in a row? The next one to come up was a swordsman whose clothes were strangely fluttery for a swordsman... an armor that was closer to a robe than actual armor. His face being bizarrely mob-like was, ironically, his defining feature.
"That sword is........."
I remember seeing it. If I'm not mistaken, that's...............
The smiling face of death suddenly flashes across my mind. PT Overwerke......... Ah, crap.
"Well then, let's have a good match."
"YES, LET'S."
Saina sounds the starting signal───
"OOOOOOOOORAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!"
"OOOOOOOOOWAAAAAAAHHHHHH!?"
If I don't take this guy out immediately, it's gonna be seriously bad!!
Because I know the sheer danger of a full-throttle Mystic Sword, I relentlessly rained down Kick Arts on him without a shred of mercy.
Please just die...! I absolutely do not want to fight a melee class while magic flies at me from four directions with a time delay...! Assuming he's like PT Overwerke, my only chance of winning is a guaranteed instant kill...!!
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Since I kind of had a feeling that was the case, I relentlessly focused my attacks on his Ritual Spirit Sword, and sure enough, Liberty surrendered.
"It seems you know the most effective way to attack the Mystic Sword."
"I have an acquaintance who shaves away his own life playing the Mystic Sword... I didn't have the heart to break it, so it really saved me that you surrendered."
"I ended up losing far too easily... I feel like they're going to nag me about this later..."
Ritual Spirit Sword. I hear the sword with properties of a magic catalyst handled by the Mystic Sword takes a terrifying amount of effort to craft... and this is in a game like ShanFro, where it shatters into pieces and is lost forever if its durability runs out.
Therefore, was he resigned enough to accept losing it in a mock-kumite like this? That's what I targeted.
"Now then........."
And so, at the timing when the player equipped with a shield in each hand, who also seemed to be an acquaintance of Liberty, arrived, I finally asked it.
"So? If I defeat the Four Heavenly Kings, are the Hidden Four Heavenly Kings next?"
"Hah? Four Heavenly Kings......... Ah, I get it. No, that right there is the 'Boss'."
Players who are acquaintances coming in succession, using excessively passive tactics. However, they aggressively pushed back against the actions I had already shown... as if demanding I bring out the techniques and weapons I hadn't shown yet.
Furthermore, the three people I had defeated earlier were gathered in the same spot. Amidst this crowd, there were four people standing in a strangely open, empty space.
Yes, four people. I had defeated three, the fourth challenger was standing right in front of me, and on top of that, there were four people in the non-combat space. Which means.........
"Is that armor guy the big boss?"
"Pretty much. You can tell who it is just by looking at his name, right?"
Name...?
"I can't see it well from here. I'll drag him out here and take my time reading his name out loud."
"You sure talk big...!!"
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And so, the man arrived.
Accompanied by a Meteor Iron Mirror just like me, his demeanor clearly stated that he had absolutely no intention of dying and scattering his equipment.
".........The highly rumored Tsuchinoko-san. So you're quite capable in PvP too."
"Garunose... Garunose............ Ah, I was wondering who it was."
Aren't you a member of the Streamer Frontline? If I recall, the boss was called Paya-Garu or something......... Wait, were they a duo? In that case, Paya and Garu......... I see.
"Is it okay for the great general of the enemy army to come out to the frontlines?"
"...There's no life worth sparing on the final day anyway. Besides..."
───I wouldn't be a streamer if I let this pass me by.
Saying that, one-half of the bosses of the Streamer Frontline readied his 'shield' with firm resolve and pointed his 'axe' at me.
Author's Afterword
It was a truly long journey to reach this point...
Translator's Notes
- [1] Aiki / Kiai: "Aiki" (合気 - Harmonized Energy/Spirit) is a defensive martial arts principle of blending with and redirecting an opponent's momentum (as in Aikido). Reversing the two kanji (合気 -> 気合), it becomes "Kiai" (Fighting Spirit / Guts). Sunraku is jokingly countering a delicate technique of energy redirection by just overwhelming it with brute-force "spirit."
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