Chapter 883: December 20th: Fists and Armor, Scattering Sparks

In that sequence of movements just now, I undoubtedly maintained the advantage the whole time. I didn't expose myself to anything stupid like having the initiative taken from me after I acted first.

My two-stage surprise attack had definitely connected, and I can confidently say it was a perfect punch with no oversights or struggling.

But as a matter of fact, my punch was repelled by his elbow... and now, his counterattack was about to be driven into me.

"Nngh!"

A slow-motion world, and me accelerating within it. But that was purely within my perception; the actual me was moving in step with the other players in a world where one second advances by exactly one second.

No matter how fast you move, one second is one second. Even against an opponent making three seconds' worth of movements in a single second, it's not at all impossible for the other side to perceive it.

But, even with that premise, using an elbow strike parry against an attack from behind isn't just on the level of acrobatics or whatever anymore, right!?

In ShanFro, a parry is a defensive measure that yields a return equal to or greater than its risk. As long as you match the timing perfectly, even Lycaon's scratch can be deflected by human physical strength.

It's strictly on the premise that it's a physical attack and an "attack that can be deflected"... but even so, saying "it's a human's attack so it can be deflected with an elbow!" is completely absurd.

And, the one "on the receiving end" of a parry becomes unable to move the impacted body part for a certain amount of time. Converted to time... about two seconds, maybe. But at this distance, and taking into account that the other guy is fully armed, two seconds is more than long enough to die.

"Like hell I'm going to be an opening-gag punchline!"

A handaxe was about to be driven into my neck from the side of my right arm which was repelled by the elbow. In response, without clenching my left hand, I smashed it against that blade.

CLAAANG!!

"—!?"

It was supposed to be my "trump card", for the record. Since I was forced to use it right after the start, it'd be a problem if he wasn't surprised.

Garunose's eyes widened at the situation where my gold-clad left handchop was in a blade lock against an axe that was obviously harder and sharper than human skin.

While the famed blade Left Hand was pushing against his axe, movement returned to my right hand. I powerfully clenched my palm, which had lost its tension from being deflected, once again.

I had shown the sight of this hardened mass of bone and flesh, formed by bending my five fingers, easily destroying the bodies of adversaries many times during this kumite. Therefore, Garunose choosing to retreat was exactly what I was hoping for, too.

My mental state was shaken more than I expected by that elbow parry earlier; I wanted some time to catch my breath as well.

"Now then........."

With both of us taking a backstep, a distance of about 3 meters opened up.

While confirming once again that the effects of the parry had completely vanished from my right hand, this time I used my head instead of my skills. During the consecutive battles, I had started judging my opponents' battle styles based purely on their appearances, which was dangerous, dangerous... that being said, I never thought a guy in such sluggish, turtle-like heavy armor would match my speed and parry me.

...No, looking closely, his armor itself doesn't actually give off the impression of being that much of a heavyweight class. Damn it, if I had observed carefully, I might have avoided taking a counter like that. Furthermore, having to use my other hidden MiracleAvatar so early on......... seriously,

"You're a pain in the ass, hey...!!"

Garunose, this guy is stronger than I thought.

◇

(...Valumbala the Dragon-Eater? No, is that speed Twilight Blade Lerisha? But he has long-range options too... Gate-Piercing Skeleton... No, trying to fit him into just one of them is my mistake.)

Having taken their distance from each other, Garunose deeply exhaled the breath that had built up in his lungs and caught in his throat without being noticed.

The player "Sunraku"... He didn't intend to underestimate his combat power, nor did he intend to overestimate it.

Even for the first contact, his prediction of "He'll probably feint a frontal assault and circle around to the back" was completely spot-on, and his preemptive countermeasures had completely succeeded.

But even so, Garunose perceived the realistic sensation of cold sweat running down his back, and while the sensation of cold sweat wasn't normally something one would care about when making a game, he raised his evaluation of the game ShanFro once again at just how much obsession was poured into it...

(Closing in at maximum speed, circling behind, and delivering a high-impact, efficient blow. That's normally just a theoretical value...)

Even with the "reinforcement" provided by the game system, closing a distance of several meters in an instant, executing a flawless wrap-around, and landing a strike without missing... Garunose twisted the corners of his mouth at the fact that his opponent was capable of doing that.

He had flawlessly executed all the "moves you least want your opponent to do" that he could think of, and as if that wasn't enough, he spat a laser out of his mouth as a bonus. Having to fight such an opponent from now on made him want to laugh.

(He breathes fire, he's a master of both bare-handed combat and weapons, he even has firearms... add a mouth laser to that, and he even gets into a blade lock against an axe with his bare hands? This is way too absurd, you Boss Chimera...!)

Boss Chimera. That was the conclusion Garunose derived after analyzing the battle style of the individual known as "Sunraku".

Bare hands, short-range weapons, mid-range weapons, long-range weapons, speed, parries, inhuman attack methods... He had experience fighting players, monsters, and bosses that possessed some of those elements partially.

But within Garunose's experience, there was nothing that matched an existence possessing all of those at once.

If he had to name it, it would be a Boss Rush, but in the case of the opponent he was facing now, all of that was crammed into a single character. It was an opponent he truly had no choice but to call a Boss Chimera.

『Lone Wolf』.

The game Garunose loved the most; his PvP experience there was the very backbone supporting him. Not satisfied with clearing it just once, he repeated it through dozens of playthroughs, and when a sequel came out, he naturally did the same with that. Yet he still occasionally logged into the original... It could confidently be said that it undeniably occupied a decent portion of Garunose's life.

To reference types similar to the adversary before him from among the boss characters that appeared in that Lone Wolf, and fight... that was Garunose's way of doing things.

The barbarian who devoured a dragon and housed its power within a human body, "Valumbala the Dragon-Eater".

Known as the fastest in the series, launching thorough hit-and-away attacks, "Twilight Blade Lerisha".

Interchanging between a rain-like barrage and a single shot capable of piercing even fortress gates, the "Gate-Piercing Skeleton".

Every time he watched Sunraku fight, he would recall the image of one boss, only for it to be overwritten by the image of yet another.

(I can't get enough of this, hey.........)

While thinking how absurd this was, there was also a sense of admiration of "To think such a thing could truly exist".

Therefore, Garunose took the corners of his mouth — twisted in a grimace of "I have no choice but to laugh" — and curled them into a smile of the same sentiment.

"Splendid...!"

The "all-the-toppings-included" he had once dreamed of. Here in the land of ShanFro, a game from a different franchise and a different developer, Garunose challenged the what if of 『Lone Wolf』.

Author's Afterword

They're both thinking, "Is this guy an idiot or what?" about each other.