Chapter 272: The Sword-Wolf Faces the Thunder-Fire Beast, Part Two
[Author's Note:] I was actually plotting to drop a little story into Inventoria along the lines of, “If you turn an isekai reincarnation into a game, isn’t that just debug mode?!” But I was violently under the weather, so for April Fools’ Day please forgive me for settling on, “Thought it was 6 PM? It was 6 PM!”...!
I ate, slept, and got better. Wait, was that just hunger...?
If you really think about it, the setup is Hero versus Hero... That hit me when the golden sword and spear faced off.
Sunraku: "Hey, Rei-shi. That holy sword — what's its deal?"
Psyger-0: "Sacred Blade Excalibur has... the revival effect and repair effect that all Hero weapons share... and then one more..."
Kyo the Ultimate: "Arouse, right?"
Psyger-0: "Y-yes... um, K-Kyogoku...san?"
Kyo the Ultimate: "It’s Kyo the Ultimate. Saiga-san?"
For a second, I thought sparks were flying between Rei-shi and Kyotimate. Maybe it's a PKer's natural instinct to stir things up.
For reference, in Bakumatsu, just putting your hand on your sword is treated as picking a fight, and you get smited. There's even a trick where you provoke someone into attacking, then everyone dogpiles them in a "righteous smiting."
Sunraku: "I can mostly guess from the name, but Arouse basically means..."
Oikatzo: "When you're in a pinch, all stats except HP and MP get a huge boost, and it even has a random-chance Guts effect as a bonus."
Sunraku: "...With all that other stuff?"
I muttered, watching Pencilgon fend off four flying swords while clearly spamming some kind of underhanded-looking items. The boss-monster truth that cornering her just makes her stronger hit me.
Kyo the Ultimate: "I heard you, Psyger-0-san, and Akitsu Akane took down Lycagon with three people. But then, if it can be beaten with small numbers, why hasn't Schwarz Vulf managed it all this time...?"
Psyger-0: "My sister... has, um, encountered Lycagon quite a few times, but... the party members weren't enough, or the job types were too unbalanced..."
So it's the merciless tragedy of login RNG. And apparently Schwarz Vulf didn't even know about Lycagon's invisible clone until very recently.
In our case, we had the high-spec fan — er, the ideal field maintenance provided by Suzaku. But it's not like you can just casually prep something like Suzaku.
In other words, on a perfectly cloudless night, all ideal party members have to be logged in and moving as a group, and then you have to land the random encounter. Even I'd lose heart at those jackpot-tier RNG odds.
Psyger-0: "Players who can log in at night... um, mostly, end up in Team 10PM... so..."
Sunraku: "Ahh."
Yeah, sure. Top-class as Schwarz Vulf is, it's full of Rebellius types. Meanwhile, Team 10PM has a ton of working adults logging in around the same time as you... Yeah, I'd probably pick the latter too.
Psyger-0: "So, my sister personally... um, this is a bad way to put it, but... I think she intends to... kick Rebellius-san and his faction out, to unify the clan..."
Sunraku: "Then she could just put up a fake struggle and lose... No, wait. With that much skill, if she went down too easy, that'd be even more obvious."
Too strong to even convincingly throw a fight, huh. Wait... so that means the fish over there got insta-gibbed, and Pencilgon's going in fully expecting to lose...
Oikatzo: "Whoa, Pencilgon's insane. Look at that — she's trying to curse her to death with zero hesitation."
Sunraku: "So either Kyotimate or I have to win..."
Rei-shi got poached from the other side, so she can't fight. For a split second, "Old Maid" crossed my mind, but in terms of sheer malice, Pencilgon battling right now is way more of a Joker, so I shook off the dumb thought.
Sunraku: "Was she always that strong?"
Oikatzo: "She probably prepped a bunch of stuff for the Wethermon fight and leveled up her skills."
Sunraku: "I see..."
Like she's playing baseball or golf, Pencilgon smacks a red straw doll riddled with five-inch nails with her spear. Given Psyger-100's reaction, getting hit by one would be bad news, and unusually, she pulls all four swords back to defense, deflecting the Crimson Straw Dolls.
Pencilgon thrusts, aiming for the moment Psyger-100 hunkers down, but behind the sword-wall, Psyger-100 is already evading.
Oikatzo: "Caledfwlch has an armor-ignoring effect, so it's a natural predator against low-VIT opponents. Stabs right through 'em."
Oikatzo: "...Get it? Spear-ifically?"
Pencilgon: "Defendant Oikatzo, for the crime of unleashing that shit-tier pun, I sentence you to death."
Oikatzo: "Amnesty! Amnesty, please!"
I was thinking the same thing. Taking that one to the grave.
Anyway, Psyger-100 has low VIT? But she's not particularly fast, so is she letting the swords handle all defense?
Sunraku: "No, wait. If Arouse boosts stats, then what she really needs is HP and MP."
Oikatzo: "Correct. In a worst-case scenario, Master of the Sword burns MP on par with a specialized mage job. Especially when Fivefold Ensemble: Quintet is your main thing — you need mage-level MP."
We're similar in concept, just from different directions. My approach is accepting near-death for the payoff; hers makes near-death the payoff itself.
Depending on the specifics of this "Arouse" skill, Psyger-100 is likely a player built around being in a pinch, just like me. That kind of player is used to desperate situations — which means their late-fight stubbornness is a colossal pain in the ass.
Sunraku: "You said she burns a lot, but is her MP efficiency good enough to last two fights in a row?"
Psyger-0: "My sister... supplements her MP recovery with, accessories..."
Well, that makes sense. Apparently, she stuffs a mini-inventory — like a super-crappy knockoff of Inventoria — with every recovery item she can carry, and uses another accessory to skip the recovery animation.
...Doing basically what I pull off with Lapistella Cloak and Inventoria, just without Uniques. Sheesh, the parallels just don't stop. That said, I seriously, desperately want a recovery-motion-cut accessory. Wonder if I can ask where to get one later.
Sunraku: "So she can rampage like that and still have staying power... Yeah, she's basically a boss, isn't she?"
Oikatzo: "On this one, I'm with Sunraku. She's sealed off too many player-style openings. She's fully boss-ified."
Armor-ignoring means you bypass defense from equipment and force the opponent to tank hits with nothing but their body's durability. It's effective against monsters with tough shells, but Sacred Spear Caledfwlch is clearly aimed at PvP. Pencilgon fights aggressively, but the moment she failed to seize the range advantage, the outcome was half-decided.
Oikatzo: "So, realistically — second try onward, what would you do?"
Sunraku: "At first I thought it was pure bullshit, but it's probably semi-auto with manual override, right? In that case... yeah, I think I could adapt after about three tries."
True enough. No matter how crazy the realism is, manually controlling four swords down to every last detail is impossible. Probably certain motions are set to auto — floating behind her, flying straight at the target, stuff like that.
In other words, the auto-behavior can be manually shifted. But that doesn't make it completely unbeatable.
Oikatzo: "Exactly. Even a Master of the Sword isn't invincible. Run her out of MP, and her performance drops to basic Swordsman level. Even without that, moving while controlling four swords at once is bound to create openings. And I can exploit those openings."
Right. Not every human brain can multitask. Even those who can have a limit — otherwise computers wouldn't exist.
Kyo the Ultimate: "And on top of that, I'm a Player Killer who's broken the level cap... Leave it to me. I'll show you exactly what role I serve now that I've joined Wolfgang."
As Kyotimate flicks her beast ears with a little "hmph," Oikatzo and I silently lock eyes. Ah. Yeah, we're thinking the same thing.
Sunraku: "This... is the classic template of a strong character being set up to job..."
Oikatzo: "No, that's jumping to conclusions, Sunraku. These days, it's not rare for a joke character who seems like a jobber to pull off a giant killing."
Sunraku: "Level-wise, we're the giants here! And she's a Hero, a goddamn Hero!"
Kyo the Ultimate: "Actually, isn't she built specifically for Lycagon? A PvP-focused build might actually have the advantage here."
I can't really say this, since I'm the only one who knows, but... being Saiga-san's older sister means she's absolutely the type with high real-life combat ability...
For some reason, a ferocious unease started creeping over us. But anyway, Pencilgon just got cleanly bisected like a villain in a period drama, so it's time for the next round.
Psyger-100: "Now... the wolf hunt begins."
Pencilgon: "Kyogoku-chan, that's a total jobber flag."
Pencilgon! Shh! Stay! Saying it out loud just makes the flag worse!