Chapter 139: Because They Were Aquatic to Begin With
I knew that if I let fear stop my feet, I'd be in even more danger. So I kept my body in constant motion, dashing across the deck of the Crying Innsman. The fish-men weren't coming at me bare-handed—each brandished some rusted, battered weapon that looked like it'd shatter after a few swings, intent on purging the foreign object that had boarded their ghost ship.
Sunraku: "Hah! If you wanna overwhelm me, you ain't got nearly enough bodies!"
Emul: "No, no matter how you look at it, this is a complete encirclement, wa!"
Sunraku: "Unless you've got enough numbers that the ones behind trample the ones in front just to crush me under the weight, it ain't even worth discussing."
Emul: "Oooh, when you put it that way, the encirclement looks full of holes, waa!"
The Crystal Scorpions really nailed that trash-game feel, by the way. After I fully cashed in on those blessings, I sent a feedback email to the admins, so it's probably been patched by now.
I twisted my body to evade a saber swung down at me, stabbed at a neck with my left sword, and deflected a spear thrust coming from my right with my right sword, sending it wide.
Before I could be surrounded again, I used the snapped, tilting mast as a springboard and leaped. With movements augmented by Possessed by the Great Asura King, I added a somersault and vaulted over the swarm of fish-men. Just before I landed, a ballista bolt shot through the space beneath my feet, blasting away several fish-men who'd turned to face me—they went flying in a clump, strung together like dango.
Sunraku: "She wasn't just landing those shots with that freakish mobility for nothing. For a fixed artillery piece, that's practically circus-act level."
Emul: "One wrong step and it's capital punishment, waa!"
Sunraku: "Oh, nice one. Somebody give her a cushion."
Rust: "Ballista's out of ammo. Switching to bow support."
Sunraku: "Why the hell are you boarding the ship too?!"
Rust: "…I'm a 'mid-range archer.' At least while I'm using my magic bow, this is my range…!"
With that quiet declaration, Rust readied her bow—the one with no string. The moment her left hand gripped it tight, a string and arrow formed from light, clearly something beyond the physical.
Sunraku: "That runs on MP, doesn't it?"
Rust: "And what’s more, it counts as magic damage…!"
Standing on the ghost ship's bow and balancing with practiced ease, Rust loosed her magic arrow. It struck one of the fish-men mid-attack animation, freezing it in place long enough for me to carve it apart.
The fish-men tried to eliminate the new foreign element that had suddenly appeared, but Rust kept her distance, never letting them close, and fired magic arrows in rapid succession. Rather than reacting to every attack like I did, she fought by predicting enemy attacks and movements—a perfectly irritating style, especially since she was deftly shoving all the aggro onto me.
Sunraku: "Guess I'd better do my job as the dodge tank…!"
A look of stern reproach told me to work my ass off, so I grabbed the Flame General's Executioner Sword and mowed down three fish-men of roughly similar height in a single sweeping slash—and just like that, the aggro focused squarely on me as I tore through the fight.
Mold: "S-Sorry, Rust!"
Rust: "You're late. How's your side?"
Mold: "Monsters crawled up from the sea and boarded us, but Akitsu Akane-san and the NPCs are handling things over there!"
Well, they are fish-men—of course they can swim. Still, they're small-fry enemies that burst into polygons after just two or three criticals to a weak point like the neck. It looked like Akitsu Akane and the NPCs could manage the defense on their own.
I see. This scenario was probably designed for four or five players. The optimal strategy would be splitting roles between defense—fighting alongside the NPCs—and directly boarding the ghost ship. Or assigning someone to ballista duty, like Rust had been doing earlier.
And since the whole point of this scenario was to storm the ghost ship, the victory condition was either total annihilation of the fish-men, or…
Sunraku: "You the captain?"
From the entrance to the ship's interior—which had been disgorging fish-men in droves until just now—it emerged, looming. If you looked at just the silhouette, "rokurokubi" might be the closest comparison. Its neck, far longer than any human's and more flexible than a giraffe's, was massive in proportion to its hulking body, and it slithered and swayed as it peered down at us.
It looked almost serpentine, but the bloated, sickly yellow-and-brown mottled hide—rotting though it was—and the expressionless face bearing a strong resemblance to a fish made it clear: this was a moray eel. Even without the neck, its massive frame was at least as tall as me, if not taller, and it clutched the ship's anchor in its grip. This thing was clearly a different breed from the other small-fry fish-men.
Sunraku: "Now, how should I cook this one…?"
Psyger-0: "Please, leave this to me."
Sunraku: "Ah, Rei-shi—where have you be—?"
The deck shook as an armored warrior leaped across the two ships locked together and landed on the ghost ship. But this was no knight of crumbling earth. Clad in armor adorned with Eastern designs and a helmet modeled after the raging visage of a hannya—as if a demon of wrath itself had been forged into protective gear—stood an armored samurai. In her hands was not a greatsword, but a red-black sledgehammer. In a sense, it looked even more brutal than if she'd been holding a blade.
Psyger-0: "I can do nothing about the stat debuff, but… something of this level, please leave to me."
Sunraku: "Y-Yeah… roger that. I'll back you up."
I'd keep it to myself that, for a split second, I'd thought a new monster had spawned.
Moray Fish-Man: "KOAARRGH, KIIIAAAAAAAHHHH!!"
The moray fish-man let out an indescribable shriek and brought its anchor down toward us with tremendous weight. Rei-shi and I scattered in opposite directions like repelling magnets, each moving to fulfill our respective roles.
Sunraku: "Emul! Prioritize any fish-men trying to interrupt Rei-shi's one-on-one with the moray bastard, but watch for openings and hit the moray itself when you can!"
Emul: "Th-That's a lot of demands, all at once, wa…!"
Sunraku: "In short: just rampage!"
Apparently, the moray fish-man's appearance meant the enemy was cornered. The other fish-men, whose movements had been sluggish—almost zombie-movie slow—now seemed just a little faster. But that speed didn't come from refined motion; it was impulsive, easy-to-read movement born of desperation.
Sunraku: "Then I can overturn the numbers disadvantage…!"
I launched a flying kick at one fish-man, making it seem like my aggro was fixed on him… then spun and slashed at a different one. Hahaha—not great with feints, are you? Then learn from this fight and do better next time… Oh, too bad—if you die here, there won't be a next time!
I hurled one of my Duxram, Blade of Aspiration swords at the nape of a fish-man trying to rush toward Rei-shi. The blade sank home. As it spun around, the other Duxram slammed into its flank, sending the fish-man reeling backward.
Seeing me unarmed, the fish-men swarmed, sensing an opening. Too bad for you fish-brains—players carry more than one weapon.
Sunraku: "Four hits guaranteed, three with luck!"
Accompanied by that magic incantation—packed with the meaning that four hits would seal it, three if fortune smiled—the right blade of the Empire Bee Twinblade [Kai-4] flashed. The thrusting sword, its "Break Venom" infliction rate boosted through repeated reinforcement, pierced and flashed four times, shredding the shoulder of a salmon-headed fish-man who'd gotten too close.
The salmon-head let out a scream—probably—clutching at its shoulder joint as it crumbled like apple pie crust. I smacked it aside with my left blade and sprinted, stashing the Empire Bee Twinblade [Kai-4] in my inventory. As I ran, I drove a kick into the pommel of the Duxram still buried in the flank of the fish-man I'd thrown it at earlier—strictly speaking, the one sticking out of its back. The blade punched through, and the moment its rotting body seized up from the hit, I yanked the other Duxram from its nape and slashed in rapid succession.
Its HP spent, the rotting body burst into polygons. I caught the falling blade—now with nothing to skewer—midair, ignored the fish-men thundering toward me, and sprinted toward the moray fish-man, which had dropped to one knee.
Sunraku: "Emul, attack its neck."
Emul: "Hai na!"
Damn—Possessed by the Great Asura King had already finished its recast timer? The Fool Arcanum's really pulling its weight.
A blade of magic carved into the moray fish-man's neck. Before it could even register the attack, I'd already reactivated Possessed by the Great Asura King and was racing up its colossal body, using it as my foothold.
Sunraku: "Don't hold back… take this!!"
Unbroken Lightdance—activate.
With each flash of the blade, three slashes erupted; the continuous onslaught bloomed into three times that many slash effects. The tide of battle was overwhelmingly in our favor…
But the real show was just getting started.