Chapter 273: The Sword-Wolf Faces the Thunder-Fire Beast, Part Three
From behind, I could hear them saying some spectacularly rude things. But even after such a short time, I've come to understand that's just their performance style. Arthur Pencilgon treats them like rooks and bishops on a shogi board, so it figures they'd each have a quirk or two — or three.
The "Birdhead" I'd heard rumors about was even harder to describe than the rumors suggested, and Oikatzo, who'd barely stood out aside from the title for defeating Wethermon... honestly, I'd thought he was just riding coattails. But now I could even believe he might be the strongest of the three.
(Maybe I've actually joined a seriously amazing clan?)
I'd only glimpsed them briefly at the port in Fifticia, but Pencilgon had told me the clan's other players are just as impressive as those two. And on top of that, Psyger-0's transfer... It probably wasn't just Pencilgon's silver tongue that got the Library and Team 10PM to respond.
(Hm... I might be able to talk to them about that someday... but for now, I need to focus on the fun right in front of me.)
Unique Monsters aren't the only thing that makes SLF shine. Even I, who won the title of the Sixth Blade — one of the nine blades that guard a noble — in a distant new land, have a Unique I've kept completely secret.
Psyger-100: "Well now... You're Kyo the Ultimate."
Kyo the Ultimate: "Is this the first time we've actually faced each other? Or... could we have met... last year, maybe...?"
Psyger-100: "...You've either got guts, or you're reckless."
Apparently, she'd figured out my real identity. It seems she hadn't expected me to make my character data using my real name, just with different readings. Though honestly, I hadn't expected that both sisters would go with something as lazy as just tweaking the characters of their full names, either.
Kyo the Ultimate: "Come to think of it, Momo... no, Momo-san, I don't think we've ever had a serious match?"
Psyger-100: "That name... sigh, fine. But let me tell you, if you think this will go the same way as real life, you're dead wrong, Kyo the Ultimate."
The four flying swords vanish, and Psyger-100 takes a stance with a single sacred blade. In response, Kyo the Ultimate levels a jet-black blade forged of dark steel, right down to the cutting edge.
There's no referee. They just measure each other in silence, waiting to see who moves first...
Kyo the Ultimate: "—!"
Psyger-100: "Gh—!?"
In the next instant, as if to pin Kyo the Ultimate's advancing foot in place, the redeployed Sworvant blade plunges into the ground, skimming the tip of her lead foot.
Psyger-100: "I'm versed in Ryuguin School myself. I know your first step is weak if your initial rush gets checked... Hah!"
Kyo the Ultimate: "Ngh... In that case!"
Kyo the Ultimate scans the area, confirms that only one Sworvant blade is deployed, and keeps a wary eye on the planted Super Cat-Teaser, Level 100 and Psyger-100 herself—then unleashes her skills.
Top Slasher. Bloody Ideology. Tempestuous Surge. The so-called "three-digit skills" — newly learned and evolved thanks to the removal of her level cap — grant Kyo the Ultimate's body the system's blessing, heightening her agility.
Kyo the Ultimate: "And furthermore... Nine-Tail Six!"
Psyger-100: "Oh... I don't recognize that one. A Unique Magic, is it?"
Like an arrow loosed from a drawn bow, the swordswoman charges, her beast ears twitching and her black blade alight with purple flame. In response, Psyger-100 sets the sacred blade she had been wielding as a fifth sword to float, and instead grips a different straight sword.
Psyger-100: "Las Pegacius... It's not a Unique, but surely you know the name."
She knows it. A magic sword forged from the horn of an Itibal Pegasus, a rare enemy that appears very infrequently in the Mythical Great Forest. Its effect is Weapon Breaker — it deals damage directly to a weapon's durability.
That's a catastrophically bad matchup against a "katana"-type weapon like Kyo the Ultimate's, which has low total durability by nature. Unless the weapon has the "Durability Consumption Nullification" effect, even clashing blades could snap it. The fact that Psyger-100 is wielding that sword means Kyo the Ultimate can't recklessly engage in the kind of brutal slugfest of slashing exchanges she excels at.
Kyo the Ultimate: "Then... I'll just slash right through you!"
Psyger-100: "I won't allow it. Highest Dexterity."
The floating Sworvant blades lock in midair, their tips trained on Kyo the Ultimate. Acting not as weapons but as obstacles, the two blades restrict her movements, and with no other choice, Kyo the Ultimate brings her katana against Psyger-100's magic sword, locking blades.
Psyger-100: "Hup!"
Kyo the Ultimate: "Hah!"
Each pushes against the other, but in reality, they're executing the Ryuguin School's "Receding-Wave Kata" — pushing the opponent in order to step back themselves and create distance.
And just as a receding wave brings a new one crashing in, they both shift into the offensive stance paired with the Receding-Wave Kata.
Psyger-100: "Sworvant: Trio...!"
Kyo the Ultimate: "—!?"
The Ryuguin School, of course, has no absurd secret technique for remotely controlling swords. But that can be made possible.
Kyo the Ultimate: "Sworvant’s Trio: Synchronist!"
Two shadow blades move in the same trajectory, synchronized with the wielder's sword. A pseudo three-on-one, as if invisible figures are mimicking the Master of the Sword's every motion. No matter how good you are at PvP, you can't just ignore this.
Kyo the Ultimate: "Gh... Haaaah!"
She repels the three blades with Blade of the Raging Seas, an attack skill that launches shockwaves in wave-like arcs — but it's three at once, and one of them is a magic sword with the Weapon Breaker effect.
Creak. The black katana lets out a groan that's not a pleasant sound.
Psyger-100: "This isn't a kendo match...!"
Kyo the Ultimate: "Then I'll just use the appropriate means...!"
Kyo the Ultimate's left hand blurs as she hurls something at Psyger-100. Like Pencilgon earlier, is it some kind of debuff item? Or a throwing weapon like a shuriken? Psyger-100 can't wait to identify it — she has to act. But she spares herself the trouble by catching it with a Sworvant blade.
The object is Binding Birdlime — an improvised sticky trap effective against both players and enemies. The auto-controlled Super Cat-Teaser, Level 100 writhes in midair, trying to shake off the goopy birdlime clinging to it, but Binding Birdlime won't come off for five seconds.
Kyo the Ultimate: "If I stop just one...!"
The Master of the Sword's unique magic Sworvant can only use skills that correspond to the number of deployed blades. In other words, with three deployed right now, if she disrupts just one blade's movement, the skill won't come.
And even if Psyger-100 puts the jammed blade away to switch to Duo, that opening is exactly what Kyo the Ultimate can exploit.
Kyo the Ultimate: "...Right here!"
Secret Blaze: Lionfell—shishi-otoshi. It sounds like shishi-odoshi, the name of a deer scarer, but the two are completely unrelated. It's the highest-firepower skill Kyo the Ultimate can unleash solo, and it wraps her purple-flame-wreathed black katana in an even denser shroud of fire.
Point-blank range—the Master of the Sword's weakness. The sacred blade flies in a second too late to block her path. Having caught Psyger-100 within her blade's reach, Kyo the Ultimate aims for the side of the torso.
Nine-Tail Six — likely some kind of Unique-line skill — applies a target marking to wherever an attack lands, and from then on, the Nine-Tail magic gains homing properties toward that spot.
(It landed!)
The sensation in the blade's tip. Crushing armor, biting into flesh... No. It's not flesh. Something different. The feeling of just pushing against metal, layer after layer. She missed. It's wrong.
A cascade of thoughts, scattering like sparks, makes Kyo the Ultimate choose to retreat.
Psyger-100: "Sworvant: Quartet..."
The flying sacred blade was a second too slow to defend its master. So, if the master herself grabs it and pulls it closer, she can close that one-second gap.
An instantaneous decision, a high-speed lead-switch where thought and action occur at practically the same moment. The sacred blade, grabbed in place of the dropped Las Pegacius, catches Kyo the Ultimate's all-out blow.
Psyger-100: "Quad Delta!"
In the air, the Sworvant blades form an equilateral triangle. The instant Psyger-100 thrusts the sacred blade through its center, a mass of force erupts — like a soap bubble welling up from the film stretched across a ring. The only difference from a soap bubble is that this isn't a sphere. It's a triangular pyramid.
Kyo the Ultimate: "Make it in time...!"
She forces a twist using an evasion skill, desperately trying to dodge the thrust of the triangular pyramid. But the damage hitbox grazes her left shoulder, shaving off about twenty percent of Kyo the Ultimate's HP.
Kyo the Ultimate: "...I see. As expected of a top clan's leader."
Psyger-100: "Kyo the Ultimate, this is SLF. Before it's a place with no rules, you should remember it isn't even kendo."
Kyo the Ultimate: "You've made me remember. Painfully well..."
Twenty percent shaved off. She can still fight, looking at the big picture, but from the standpoint of post-damage motion feedback, this is very bad.
(When you take a huge chunk of damage at once, that body part goes numb... Damn, I wonder how long it'll take for my left shoulder to recover...)
In SLF, pain is converted into numbness. That's why, whether you get chewed up or crushed, you never feel sharp agony. Instead, you get that unmistakable sensation — like the feeling when you stretch your body after just waking up — spreading all over.
In other words, it's a sense of powerlessness. It doesn't hurt, but if you try to run, the numbness will heavily impede your movement. That's exactly what's clinging to Kyo the Ultimate's shoulder right now.
Against an opponent like Psyger-100, having her left shoulder out of commission is seriously bad news.
(Well, what's even worse is...)
She glances briefly over at her side's spectator seats. If she loses here, there's no doubt the three scumbags of Wolfgang will roast her mercilessly. She talked such an awfully flashy amount of trash that the roasting is bound to be unimaginable.
(What is this... I really, really hate this!)
Pure instinctive rejection. She has to avoid losing here, no matter what. She doesn't intend to lose, but at the very least, she needs to buy time until her left shoulder recovers.
Kyo the Ultimate is lost in thought — and then, suddenly...
(...No, wait. This is...)
A devil descends upon her.
A devilish phrase that would absolutely rattle Psyger-100. But in terms of manners, it's a method that veers well into taboo territory... After all, it's practically attacking a player's real life.
However...
Kyo the Ultimate: "By the way, Psyger-100-san."
Psyger-100: "What is it?"
Without using her weakened left arm, Kyo the Ultimate grips her black katana with only her right hand, steadying her whole body. The three blades take aim at her — and in that very instant...
Kyo the Ultimate: "It really is easier to move without those melons hanging on your chest, huh?"
Psyger-100: "Buh—!!?"
Kyo the Ultimate: "An opening!!!"
The Sworvant blades go flying in completely the wrong direction, and this time, Kyo the Ultimate's slash lands squarely on Psyger-100.