Chapter 903: December 20th: Show the Answer
Author's Preface
I made the previous chapter's subtitle nothing but the date because I thought, "Leaving it blank gives it that moment-of-silence-before-the-decision feeling," but since there isn't any character that represents nothingness, it ended up looking like December 20th: (← the sentence cuts off here), so now I'm reflecting on how that was a failure.........
What character represents nothingness, anyway?
◆
Keep putting out stable positive numbers as consistently as possible. Keep the number from changing in the negative direction as much as possible.
PvP, when you boil it all down, comes down to those two things...... or at least, that's how I see it. If your HP bar is even one millimeter longer, you win, and even a strategy like "bet everything on the opening move, then run away until the timer expires" is, once you strip it to the bones, simply a strategy of stretching the opening positive number as far as possible and then avoiding any negative change to that number until time runs out.
Finishers that leave you wide open once you've committed to them, or huge moves that eat away at your own body, should be secondary in PvP.
That said, though. If crouching light kicks, low kicks, and TODs were all it took to win, PvP would've vanished as an entire culture ages ago.[*1]
Super armor, invincibility frames, fastest startup, priority, long-range attacks, instant death, multi-hit...... anything goes, really; overwhelming power that smashes apart a snoozefest, a dirty trick that smashes apart that power, then something that outmaneuvers every last one of those and loops right back around to crouching-light-kick TODs...... the circle drawn by that kind of fighting is what we call the meta, and that is why the meta's turnover is described as "rotating."
PvP is judged by how cleanly that circle forms an actual circle. In a trash game, the usual pattern is that the circle is tiny, and beside it sits a dot bigger than the circle that obliterates the whole thing. Gorilionline is......... how the hell do you even describe that thing, there's a circle surrounding a dot, then a dot big enough to crush that circle, except that dot is weak to the tiny dot at the center of the circle......... what a damn optical-illusion meta, that game's useless as a reference.
But no matter how grandly I lecture from on high, the way to win PvP is always simple.
Quit yapping, delete the other guy's HP, and take the win. Simple. The shortest route to victory.
"At this point, let's blaze until we burn all the way out."
I planted a foot on the Tower Shield and leapt. Repeating backflips and back handsprings, I tore open the distance from Garunose all at once. The distance between us that I'd wanted so badly to close, I pushed all the way out to the limit.
"Complete combustion!!"
"............!!"
What I'm about to do absolutely needs distance. The duel barrier DeepSlo made is dome-shaped, and the space is, well...... passing grade.
Garunose looked surprised that I, after forcing close-range combat that hard, had suddenly ripped the distance wide open...... but maybe he'd read my intent, because he changed his stance too.
......That's a weird stance. He isn't picking up his weapon, he's only holding the shield, and instead of raising it in front of himself to guard his body, the closest thing it resembles is......... shot put?
"No fucking way."
He's throwing it? That Tower Shield?!
Well, now, that's one hell of a fun ace up his sleeve. If he chose that instead of blocking, redirecting, or parrying...... then he's been holding a finisher in reserve too!!
At first I thought that guy was nothing but a turtling shield-poke bastard, and yet, damn, this is the best. And because it's the best......... I want to win and end it here!!
The time is near. If everything had gone right, I should've been relieved of duty long ago, and the fact that the fighting has kept going until now proves that the clash between the two far larger factions encompassing this battle is still underway...... but even so, this is the last one.
"Garunose! What time do you think it is!!"
"What......?"
"Two minutes until the event ends!!"
"!!"
At those words, not just Garunose but the surrounding players all made faces that said, "Oh." Made faces that said it, or rather, they actually said it.
My role is to draw players in and pin them down, a decoy toy that makes one hell of a loud noise! But that role ends in two minutes. Once it does...... I won't have any reason left to fight like this.
"While we've still got a reason to fight, let's settle this in style! Settle it once and for all!!"
"......You really are a bastard built for streaming."
"What?"
He seemed to mutter something, but from this distance there was no way I could hear it. The Meteor Iron Mirror he'd deployed was hovering close to him, so his stream was probably catching his voice. The one I'd deployed keeps drifting over every now and then too, so it's probably picked up every single line I've said, huh〜............ haaah.
"I said, I'm in!!"
"Bring it!!"
Screw it, I can figure out how to delete the streaming account and send Pencilgon flying with a punch later. Right now, all that matters is settling this showdown!
I gripped Antiares......... and hurled it with everything I had. Then I planted both hands on the ground, one leg bent and the other stretched back in a forward lean, in other words, a crouching start!!
"Kick Arts...... Secret Art!!"
My job isn't Dragon Buster, it's Kick Striker.
And because it's my main job, every one of its techniques comes out at full spec!
"Hell yeaaah!!"
Using the falling Antiares and my own battle cry as the signal, I exploded forward. Every skill that had come back online during the time I'd bought, all of it poured into moving ahead! But I couldn't miss the timing.
The instant acceleration gave me enough speed to keep moving forward on inertia alone even without running......... I changed posture. A real human body couldn't build that kind of speed in ten meters, but because this is a game, I get to bulldoze over the laws of physics with sheer bullshit!
The posture I chose was a flying kick. Then, as though the pommel of the falling Antiares clicked perfectly into place against the sole of my outstretched foot, I kicked it and drove the sword forward!!
I wasn't kicking the sword away, I was kicking it and flying along with it, and that made the whole shape a spear. Therefore, the name of this Secret Art is───
"Pierce through! 'Cogito Ergo Hasta'aaaaah!!"
It is I Think, Therefore I Spear.[*2]
It was a flying kick straight out of a hero's finisher, with not just Antiares but my whole body wrapped in golden radiance, but unfortunately, the guy I'm aiming at doesn't seem obliging enough to stand there and take it without resistance.
As the Kick Arts Secret Art that drives a weapon directly in with a flying kick closed in at high speed...... I saw Garunose move.
"If you're bringing out a Secret Art...... then I'll answer with one of my own—an Unprecedented Secret Art!!"
He wasn't even pretending to hide it anymore, that was a shield-throwing stance. But what made it bizarre was the ridiculous radiance dwelling in the shield. It shone so brightly it could be called a light source outright, illuminating the area around him until the whole place looked like daytime. Being a modern person, my lame first thought was, "LED?"......... but someone with a medieval mindset would probably describe that as "the sun."
That much radiance, that much power, all converging into the shield alone. No, there was probably some kind of buff skill applied to his body too, but maybe it was being washed out and erased by the shield's glow.
What conditions trigger that thing......... I don't care anymore. Like analyzing it now would change the damage. At this point, what I'm doing isn't changing either.
He means to smash me down head-on too. He'd already started the throw at the moment I launched into my run. In the center of my vision, the Tower Shield left his hand.
In that instant, the shield accelerated. The light packed inside it blasted out like a rocket engine, trailing a tail like Mercury's as its momentum surged all at once.
".........'Shield-Wind Banner Rebellion'!!"[*3]
Now that's a damn fine name for something that ignores the laws of physics! But............
The meta is made when combat styles, tactics, and strategies draw a circle. Just as there are huge moves that smash apart snoozefests,
there are dirty tricks that surpass those huge moves, you know?
◆◆
The ring I have equipped, "Circle of Harvest and Temperance," has an ability that consumes stocked recovery items to keep applying tiny, regen-like healing effects bit by bit.
The rarity of the items it uses isn't anything special, and neither is the crafting difficulty......... it's the kind of accessory a player makes once they've gotten a little used to ShanFro, decides, "This isn't as strong as people say, is it?" and leaves gathering dust.
Because that trait of "high total healing, but minuscule healing per tick" was well suited to meeting the conditions of Reverberating Nether True Canon: Migratory Bird, I deliberately chose this shabby ring instead of anything that would count as a straight upgrade.
But............ actually, there's one more reason I use it.
The "Fool" Arcanum that tormented me for so long, and helped me for just as long. It once became the "Reverse Position" and dragged me down one hell of a lot......... but tarot cards hold different meanings upright and reversed, and beyond accepting both of them lies the destination called Truth!
Truth "Fool" inherits the Upright Position's abilities, while an additional effect is added to its demerits.
The "Fool's" demerits are turning heals into RNG checks and worsening the effects of status ailments. But now that it has reached Truth............ there is an effect that can only be activated by fulfilling the absurdly distant condition of failing fifty chance-based heals!!
That's right—instead of healing 100% in one shot, it makes one hundred separate 1% recovery checks: the strongest possible synergy with Truth "Fool"!!
And the miracle granted to the fool who kept fighting after pushing through garbage luck bad enough to fail fifty heals.
That miracle is──────
◇
Garunose saw it.
"Wha──────?!"
The strongest spear, and the strongest shield (projectile). As he watched to see what would come of their collision...... Sunraku became light.
"Target one skill, and unconditionally reduce its recast time to zero."
Before he could understand those words......... before he could grasp that they meant making any chosen skill immediately usable, he barely managed to react to the voice and turn, and there, behind him.
"Don't call it cowardly, PvP is all about doing whatever the other guy hates most, isn't it?"
He heard Sunraku, gripping blue scorching heat in both hands, say it in a voice without the slightest scrap of remorse.
"You piece of───"
"───My radiance is Incineration, blazing brilliantly!"
He'd been had.
He realized it at the exact moment the sound rang out behind him—behind him now only because he had turned away from what had once been directly ahead—as his all-or-nothing strike pierced empty space and slammed into the barrier.
"......'Incinerating Slash Shown to the Radiant God'!!"[*4]
The blue-radiant scorching heat—the true headliner—carved a deep slash across Garunose's torso.
Author's Afterword
Settled!! The stuff I wanted to write was too damn long!!
And the setting notes are long too, so the afterword turned into an absolute monster.
Q. So what did Sunraku actually do at the end?
A. Sunraku-kun is a horrible person, so even though he shouted "Secret Art!" that entire thing was one gigantic decoy, and he used the instant-skill-activation effect of Truth "Fool" to reactivate Faster-Than-Light while ignoring its recast.
He moved behind Garunose, and because it isn't acceleration but ultra-rapid consecutive teleportation, all his inertia vanished too, letting him reset his posture without any trouble and dump Areadbhair's super move straight into Garunose's back.
Ever been ambushed at the speed of light?
・Incinerating Slash Shown to the Radiant God
My radiance is Incineration, blazing brilliantly. That is the answer Areadbhair reached for the Radiant Spear, and therefore its radiance can be nothing less than divine handiwork.
Since this is the ability Areadbhair reached by being forged, this is the correct answer for Brionac. In a sense, that makes it literally "answer matching." The answer says, "Match me."[*5]
Every weapon in the Radiant Spear Hypothesis series, upon reaching its final stage, meaning defeating a True Dragon and proving the reason for its own existence, gains an "○ Slash Shown to the Radiant God."
※ Addendum: The ""Slash"" in "○ Slash Shown to the Radiant God" changes depending on the weapon category. For a spear it becomes "Thrust," and depending on the weapon category it can also become things like "Sweep," "Strike," or "Flash."
・Unprecedented Secret Art "Shield-Wind Banner Rebellion"
An Exordinary Skill learned by defeating the Exordinary Monster Roaring Assault Griffon "Smooth Sailing." It has the unusual restriction of "can only be activated while using a shield."
A throwing technique whose acceleration and power rise in proportion to the total numerical damage blocked with a shield during that battle. On top of that, invincibility frames occur throughout the throwing motion, making it impossible for any form of interference to interrupt the movement until the throw is complete.
Now that Siegwurm is gone, this special Jet Griffon individual stands to inherit the position of ruler over the Heavenly Sanctuary of High Aspirations......... although Jet Griffons normally possess feathers with hardness likened to chainmail, every feather across this individual's body has abnormally low durability; however, the particulate magical energy contained within them gives it the property that no matter how badly it is wounded, its flight performance never deteriorates—and the more it is wounded, the more that performance improves.
The reason it is Exordinary is that it is weak to cold, and the faster it flies, the more damage accumulates in its internal organs from the load generated by its speed.
Incidentally, a Jet Griffon's hunting method is to fly above the clouds and then dive-bomb the ground. It has no concept of moderation, so it is a pitiful creature that shivers from the cold while diving at full power, damages its own organs, and dies. That said, its hunting success rate is absurdly high even compared to the normal species, so while it is short-lived, it is extremely popular with females. The fact that it becomes the best hunter only when it is right on the verge of death means there is no saving it.
Its number-one cause of death is organ failure during the fall, followed by slamming straight into the ground while already dead (and unbelievably, if this cause of death happens during combat with a player, it still counts as the player's victory).
Number two is getting eaten by some kind of "Kamui species" the moment it climbs above the clouds. Things like black lightning that falls sideways, or a cloud monk.[*6]
Volume 16 went on sale December 15th!
Translator's Notes
- [1] Crouching light kick / TOD: 小足 is fighting-game slang for a crouching light kick. TOD means "Touch of Death," a combo that kills from full health if completed.
- [2] Cogito Ergo Hasta: A parody of René Descartes' Cogito, ergo sum, "I think, therefore I am." Hasta is Latin for "spear," producing "I think, therefore I spear."
- [3] Shield-Wind Banner Rebellion: The kanji 盾風幡叛 are a homophonic distortion of 順風満帆, "smooth sailing," which is also the epithet of the Jet Griffon that grants the skill. The ruby instead reads "Freedom Fall."
- [4] Eochu Bairche: The name points to Eochu Bairche from the Irish tale The Wooing of Emer, the youth who guides Cú Chulainn toward Scáthach and foretells his future hardships.
- [5] Answer matching: 答え合わせ ordinarily means checking or comparing answers, literally "answer matching." The author then resegments it as 答え（が）合わせ（ろ）, making the answer itself demand, "Match me."
- [6] Cloud monk: 雲の入道 reverses 入道雲, a traditional name for a towering cumulonimbus cloud whose shape is likened to a hulking monk. Here, the reversed phrase appears to name or describe a Kamui creature.
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