Chapter 886: December 20th: Three Roles Assembled, the Majesty of Scarlet
Dread Dragon-King Armor: Resolute Tail. As the last of the three Dread Dragon-King Armors, this one also boasts an extremely simple ability.
Namely, "it pseudo-adds a 'tail' to the player"... At first glance, it might seem special, but in this game, having external parts added beyond the head, limbs, and torso through race changes, fusing with dragons, or whatever else isn't all that uncommon. What's important is the nature of this tail.
This bone tail... which once supported three heads and maintained their balance, exerts physical power equal to 1.5 times the wearer's STR. And amazingly, this skill doesn't multiply the base stat by 1.5, but rather multiplies the grand total after summing up all kinds of buff modifiers by 1.5.
...I'd like to say it's like a third arm growing out of your ass with 1.5 times the power of a normal arm, but I won't think about it because some idiot would probably blabber, "An arm out of your ass!? Doesn't that mean—! (Insert some obscene word here)!?"
"I feel like I finally managed to slam a decent shot right into the side of his face......"
I've only raised my tail-handling proficiency to a 'decent' level... and I couldn't even learn any tail-based skills that probably exist, either. Even so, I slammed an attack with 1.5 times the power of a full-swing punch into him, so as expected, it's fair to call this an 'effective hit.'
".........That was careless of me. I had forgotten about attacks using a tail."
"Carelessness is your greatest enemy; isn't that basic knowledge, not just in PvP?"
"I have no reply to that...... however, isn't failing to press the attack also being careless?"
He has a point. Even though I had just thrown that roundhouse kick, there was an opportunity for a follow-up attack. The reason I didn't take it was partly because I wanted to catch my breath for a moment, but.........
"The careless thing wasn't me, but rather my tactics, I guess."
Even for testing the waters, fighting bare-handed was taking him way too lightly. Well, it's not like I was slacking off, but the reason for not equipping weapons was either carelessness or hubris or............ my opponent was way stronger than I thought. I can't tell what game he comes from, but those are the movements of someone who's made quite a name for themselves.
"Bare hands are a bit of a bad matchup; it's not that I can't smash through his defense, but the efficiency is terrible."
Therefore.
"From here on out, I'm gearing up with everything I've got—I'm gonna be as strong as an ogre with an iron club and a rocket launcher."
Making its public debut. I pull it out from Inventoria and grip it tightly as if showing it off. Since the Meteor Iron Mirror is floating closer, it's probably being captured on the stream as well.........
If I had to describe it in one word, it's something that should be called a sword with no blade. Despite its gorgeous... ornate design lavish enough to be called a decorative sword, the part corresponding to the blade simply doesn't exist. It almost feels goofy, as if someone made a prop like that but forgot to order the blade part.
However, the golden radiance of that "goofy" grip...... a gold that nevertheless possessed the transparency of crystal, sparkled under the moonlight as if screaming and declaring that it wasn't a mere prop...... no, it dazzled.
"This guy is a special order, and using it here is pretty fateful in its own right, but........."
Simultaneously, operating Inventoria to pull out from infinite storage......... a pitch-black hexagonal chunk. While it could pass as some kind of processed good, anyone in the know would recognize it as being in its raw, freshly-mined state.
"This guy won't even work properly for me unless I pay its salary in advance, you see."
A sword-imitation without a blade. A single long "needle" growing out from its pommel...... a thick needle that looks like it could pierce right through a human palm if stabbed with full force, but this isn't for attacking. In full view of Garunose—who seems to be watching me warily... no, waiting to see what I'm going to do—and in full view of the Meteor Iron Mirror, I thrust that "needle" into the hexagon in my palm...... into the Amursidian Quartz.
"He who does not work, neither shall he eat......"
Amursidian Quartz is an ore...... in other words, a solid. And one of the hardest solids at that. Yet the piece in my palm is shriveling up as if it's juice being sucked through a straw in a paper carton. And the Amursidian Quartz, which ought to easily shatter one's teeth if bitten, is sucked into the "needle" without a single fragment remaining............ and immediately after, a transformation occurs within it.
As if something that had been in a state of starvation was now rejoicing that it could finally stand up after becoming full. Or rather............ as if showing off the brilliance of the "holy sword" of an emperor who once reigned beneath the moon, as a repayment for a single meal.
"Then I might as well rephrase it...... now that you've eaten, get to work!"
With a sharp swing, a pitch-black blade extends straight out with force from that object which "was not" a sword. Obtaining a blade that extended to the length of a straight sword, I call out the name of the weapon that has reclaimed its true form.
"Imperial Gold Sword!!"
◇
(I can't get enough of this, man.)
At the sight of Sunraku swinging the sword after deploying its blade alongside a dramatic name drop, Garunose no longer held back or hid his expression, flashing a fierce, toothy grin.
Striking that much of a grand pose was surprisingly difficult. One would expect a sense of "trying too hard" or embarrassment to bleed through... Garunose, who had analyzed Sunraku as someone not in that profession based on the Orchestra conquest stream, found him surprisingly getting completely into the groove. Or perhaps, what he was bad at was live commentary "while explaining," and he was actually experienced with being exposed to the gazes of a crowd.
For Garunose, the better the enemy he defeated, the happier he was. In other words, the cooler they were, the happier he was.
If so, responding with a fitting full power of his own was only proper etiquette.
Garunose made up his mind to use one of the several "trump cards" he had kept hidden.
"—'Deadly Decapitation Technique'!"
Author's Afterword
I tweeted the name itself a really long time ago, but I finally got to bring out the Imperial Gold Sword.
Its first effect is a simple one: making it "predate" on ores to form a blade with the "same properties" as that ore.
Its second effect is similar to the Treasure Sword of Boundary Light: it consumes durability upon deploying the blade, and after deployment, durability does not decrease no matter if the blade chips, breaks, melts, or shatters.
And as for its third effect.........
Believe it or not, starting October 1st, the Shangri-La Frontier anime will be broadcast nationwide across 28 stations on the MBS/TBS network.
It's every Sunday at 5:00 PM〜 in the "#Nichigo Slot"! Nichigo!
And what's more, it's broadcasting for two consecutive cours! Can't wait for October!
Translator's Notes
- [1] Title (三役揃って緋色の威 / Three Roles Assembled, the Majesty of Scarlet) : 三役 in sumo officially designates the three junior champion ranks sitting just below yokozuna (ōzeki, sekiwake, komusubi). 三役揃い踏み (三役 side-by-side stomping) is the ceremonial ritual performed by these top wrestlers right before the final three bouts on the concluding day of a tournament. The title uses this structure to parallel the three Dread Dragon-King Armor pieces finally being complete.
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