Chapter 885: December 20th: All into One, One into All
Author's Preface
My brush makes more progress when I get out of the house, as expected.
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The wall got bigger.
That was the first thing that popped into my head. And before I could even realize that was a mistake, upon the arms I reflexively readied───
"Guoh!?"
The wall... no, the readied tower shield smashed into me with tremendous speed and the suppressing force of a solid "surface".
Shield Bash...! No, Shield Charge! Ah crap, of course he'd have that! That was entirely my own carelessness!!
Damage is... 30%, but my arms are numb! This is bad, he's completely taken the turn. Avoiding the flinch motion was a stroke of luck in this disaster, though...!
A counter via a Shield Charge that closed the one-step gap in an instant is, naturally, the starting point to link into an offensive. As I try to create distance, Garunose steps in all at once.
My arms are still numb; I can't use skills that require both hands.
"Then I'll use anything elseeeeeeeeee!!"
Seiten Style 「Souzen」. But the breath I scream out touches my fangs, turning as red as the sunset!!
A flamethrower from point-blank range, even if he defends with his tower shield───
"One tempo too late!"
"What!?"
I never thought this would be an effective hit from the start. But seeing Garunose break through the flames not from the front, but from the side, and using an orbital trajectory step that I was far too familiar with, I let out a shout that was almost a scream.
He unleashed a horizontal sweep with his handaxe carrying the centrifugal force applied to his body by the orbital trajectory, which I dodged by lowering my head as if taking a bow. But the moment he finished his swing was an opening; this time, I'll step in from my end!
"Let's... reset!"
Miracle of the Divine God of Victory・Might of the Horned Bull activated! The distance is a bit short, but I'll slam a lariat into the opening the moment his axe finishes its swing!!
"Kuh."
The hit was shallow; he caught it with his shoulder. But the resulting knockback still forces Garunose to retreat... he's still close, did he brace himself? This is exactly why I hate defense types!!
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Adding a surprise Shield Charge to a sneak attack from the Maxell Dodge Arts' "Relative Three-Dimensional Motion"—one of his winning patterns. Having that easily evaded and then conversely taking a counterattack, Garunose calmly braced himself and offset the knockback with the skill "Thorough-Hoof Resistance", yet he felt astonishment and a certain kind of joy.
(I thought I completely "cornered" him... but is that the rumored "Thought Acceleration"?)
Player Sunraku. Having defeated Unique Monsters one after another, there is no mistaking that he is an individual with considerable player skill based on leaked videos and that broadcast of his.
Therefore, "anti-Sunraku" strategies or "analysis of Sunraku himself" are actively conducted by players who favor PvP in this ShanFro.
To begin with, Garunose was only in this place because he happened to encounter him en route to assassinate Arfiliya; he hadn't planned to defeat Sunraku from the start. But the reason he could construct countermeasures against "Sunraku" to a certain extent was simply because, as a member of the "PvP faction", he had been peeking at Sunraku research.
Among those, the most actively debated topic was, "Can he really control that much speed with his own reflexes alone?"
There is an individual named Sylvia Goldberg. She is likely a PvP player in the top five in the world, and the Meteos she pilots is sometimes referred to as a "Ricocheting Meteor".
While it is theoretically possible to move like a super-bouncy ball with a human body, there is a limit to that. Therefore, there has to be some kind of trick to Sunraku's movements, which are ultra-high-speed maneuvers yet somewhat delicate... One answer that emerged during such discussions was "Thought Acceleration".
Even from Garunose's perspective, it was obvious he wasn't very used to streaming during the "Orchestra of the Reverberating Nether" conquest battle, but while he was clumsily explaining things verbally, there were frequent periods where he went silent.
And during those silent periods, a skill effect was almost always lit up in his eyes───
Among parry skills, there are those that don't enhance the hitbox but rather accelerate the player's own thoughts... in other words, making it easier to parry by allowing them to perceive the opponent's movements in slow motion.
For example, what if such a thought acceleration skill was trained to its absolute limit? In ShanFro, where there is an inexhaustible supply of skills, wouldn't it shed the restriction of being parry-exclusive and acquire versatility?
(...Terrifying.)
Controllers do not exist in Full-Dive VR. Therefore, both attacks and evasions must be handled by each individual's brain... no, their flesh.
That means "As long as you have the flesh, you can do it." That is exactly why Garunose feels joy in the super plays of others rather than his own. Because even if the flesh and the world surrounding it are all fiction, the actions alone are nothing but pure facts.
Sunraku's movements, for better or worse, lack uniformity. Garunose feels he is a player like a D100. He shows a different "face" every time he is rolled, possessing as many tactics as there are faces, and has sufficiently mastered all of them.
Even if they were hastily acquired, he knew how to use them as hastily acquired tools... That is sometimes more terrifying than a mastered finishing move.
However, he didn't think there was no chance of winning.
The memories of Lone Wolf accumulated within Garunose could cope with a volume of attacks like a torrential downpour forming a swarm of falling raindrops.
He had fought a fire-breathing dragon, he had defeated an assassin who accelerated by stepping on the void, and he had struggled against a martial artist who challenged others to close-quarters combat with just their body in a world of swords and magic.
Just a single game, yet the seemingly narrow but wide variations of a popular franchise with multiple sequels supported the core of the individual known as Garunose.
Therefore, yes, easily dealing even with a surprise roundhouse kick───
(...A tail?)
At the exact moment his thoughts caught up to his perception, a flexing bone like an extension of the spine located behind Sunraku...... a tail of bone violently struck the side of Garunose's face.
Author's Afterword
The exceedingly merciful ivory of the elephant. Her archive of wisdom is always open for the sake of the beloved next humanity.
・Thorough-Hoof Resistance
Massively reduces knockback and braces the user in place... to put it simply, that's all this skill does, but its usefulness goes without saying.
Due to their tactic of dispersing damage among five people, it's a mandatory tank skill that the tank squad of SF-Zoo—where "not bracing too much as an individual" is important—surprisingly doesn't use.
Move after receiving an attack. Brace in place and don't move. But when you do move, move agilely.
As one of the means to realize Garunose's goal of an "offensive counter," the Maxell Dodge Arts have incredibly good synergy.
It's just like the Battle Art "Dancing Guardian Deity" from Lone Wolf 3... "Dancing Guardian Deity" is a Battle Art usable by equipping the mental image "Memory of the Dancing Princess," which is the defeat reward for the boss enemy "Guardian Deity of the Ruined Capital, Roselitte" in 3 (omitted below).
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