Chapter 274: The Sword Wolf Faces the Thunder-Fire Beast, Part 4
Kyogoku: "Ahh, this is really starting to piss me off! Deliberately holding back? Are you looking down on me?! You are, aren’t you?!"
Kyogoku knows better than anyone that a katana handled with one hand can't bring out its true power. Her stats are weighted heavily toward technique and dexterity — she's a technical swordswoman. Wildly swinging a two-handed katana around with one hand doesn't suit her style at all.
But even so, a fury she herself finds completely unreasonable keeps her in the fight with one arm.
Psyger-100: "Th-that's a cheap shot, Kyogoku! Melons, or whatever...!"
Kyogoku: "How many people do you think have been sent plunging into despair by you and your sister's fully ripe melons in our clan's big bath? You makin' fun of me? Want me to whack you with a harisen and record it on super-slow-motion camera?"
Psyger-100: "What did that idiot tell you?! Attacking me from the direction of real life is playing dirty!"
A rise in performance driven by emotion — it's nothing other than the aptitude of a tension fighter like Sunraku or Sylvia Goldberg. But since she's half-rampaging, Kyogoku has no self-awareness of it. For the record, Akitsu Akane is a bizarre hybrid chimera of instinct and logic who "raises performance through excitement and applies what she learns in real time." Which sounds exactly like the sort of setting you'd see on an invasive alien species, but we're not supposed to say that.
With Psyger-100’s concentration broken, she can no longer perform complex sword control. Kyogoku can dodge the coarsely aimed auto-controlled attacks. She stays clear of the magic sword Las Pegacius altogether and deflects the rest with her black katana, pressing steadily forward.
Psyger-100: "Tch... I hate to admit it, but that's effective harassment... However!"
Kyogoku: "I heard you snapped another bra recently. That true?"
Psyger-100: "Ghh—!"
A moment of weakness. The Sworvant blades begin spinning uselessly in midair, and a fatal opening — a chance — presents itself before Kyogoku.
Her black katana, Kenryu Goukaku — a blade forged from the horn of a monster called the Dracule Dinoceras, which is like some unholy cross between a triceratops and a horse — bursts back into vivid skill effects.
Secret Blaze: Lionfell. This time she won't miss. The tip aims for the nape of the neck, visible through a gap in the armor. She activates Moment Sight, heightening her perception and slowing her visual feed, adjusting her trajectory to land the hit with absolute certainty.
Kyogoku doesn't particularly like this sensation — where only her conscious mind remains at normal speed while everything she perceives turns slow. But if you could win just by doing what you like, there'd be no weak people in this world.
(I can do this... I can't confirm-kill, but I'm taking half her HP!)
But Kyogoku had overlooked one crucial fact.
The highest-tier job, Sword Saint. Its acquisition condition is strong results in the NPC-hosted Sword Tournament. Nowadays, placing in the top three lets you trigger a special quest, but the era when Psyger-100 acquired Sword Saint was before the nerf patch.
The fact this points to is extremely simple.
Sword Saint is a job that cannot be obtained without high PvP skill.
Psyger-100: "Stun Beat!"
Kyogoku: "Gwah—?!"
A numbness runs through her entire body. This isn't from damage processing. This is a damage effect configured as the phenomenon of "numbness." The tip of her sword wavers. She forcibly whips her body, which is trying to stop, slamming her left arm into place as a brace and forcing the slash through.
Kyogoku: "Oh, screw you!"
Psyger-100: "Ngh..."
Shallow. Her black katana did indeed slash Psyger-100's neck, but the sensation was far too light. She likely did almost no real HP damage.
Psyger-100: "...Heh heh. Convenient magic, isn't it? The damage itself is so weak that it only amounts to anything when used by someone with magic-specialized stats... but its activation speed and its excellence as a sneak attack against players are second to none."
Kyogoku: "You're... pretty used to PvP, aren't you."
Psyger-100: "Obviously. I'm a 'pre-nerf Sword Saint.' How many times do you think I've fought the pre-nerf crowd — the leader of Knights Tempura and the rest — without any rigging of the matches?"
Both of them use potions. Their HP is back to square one, but the situation can only be described as the worst possible. The sexual harassment disruption probably won't work a second time. Five blades float in the air, under stable control...
Kyogoku: "...Five of them?"
Sworvant always requires one blade held in hand — the "command sword." If that's the case, there's absolutely no way five could be floating in midair.
Psyger-100: "The Sword Saint's Sworvant works just like skill levels — the more you use it, the more blades you can control. Solo, Duet, Trio... Yes, that's right."
The known limits of Sworvant were four subordinate blades and one command sword: Quintet. But what if that isn't the limit? As if to confirm the chill running down Kyogoku's spine, a seventh blade joins the sword formation.
Kyogoku: "Septet...?!"
Psyger-100: "This is the first time I've shown this against another player. I hope you savor it... Sworvant's Septet!"
There's no time for disruption. The six subordinate blades form an arrangement like a six-pointed star missing half its parts, and the seventh — the command sword — brings down the iron hammer at its master's will.
Psyger-100: "Seven Sinker!!"
Kyogoku: "Bwugh—"
A crushing compression, as if an invisible hand is pressing her flat from directly above — a monstrous force no human struggle can resist. A sound escapes her, like the air being forced from her lungs, and her vision drops violently. Perhaps it's her pride as a swordswoman that keeps her from letting go of her katana. Forced prostrate against the ground, unable to even lift her arms under the immense pressure, Kyogoku realizes the principle at work as a system-driven effect.
Kyogoku: "No way... Gravity...?"
Psyger-100: "Correct. Don't you think this would even work on Lycagon?"
That said, the magic consumption is disgustingly bad... Psyger-100 grumbles, but still points the blade of the Holy Sword down at the Sword Master.
Psyger-100: "My win."
So she really is a boss character. And getting reverse-swept like this puts us in serious danger. I have a lot of thoughts about that, but... as soon as the swiftly-defeated Kyotimate gets back, the two scumbags and I surround her.
Kyogoku: "Ahaha, sorry, I lost—"
Pencilgon: "No, I truly didn’t expect you to unleash sexual harassment in full view of the public, Kyogoku-chaaaan."
Oikatzo: "To hell with manners — you're the model of a PKer. I'm humbled."
Sunraku: "Seriously, all of us were totally underestimating you, Kyotimate... No, Kyotimate-sama! You're an absolute arch-demon of sexual harassment, beyond our wildest imaginations!"
Kyogoku: "Tch...! I expected this, but you people really don't hesitate to mock someone, do you...!"
That's that, and this is this. Heckling the loser is the privilege of bystanders and the victor. Still, thanks to Kyotimate, we've learned a lot. Like how Psyger-100 was hiding two more modes, and that magic which makes you wonder if it even has any use outside PvP...
Sunraku: "Can anyone beat that on a blind first try...?"
Pencilgon: "If you lose, Wolfgang ends up as Schwarz Vulf's errand boy, so I'd really rather you didn't, Sunraku-kun."
Sunraku: "Man, that's a straight-up boss character. Honestly, if she goes 'Ha! I was actually hiding an Octet too!' I'm gonna cry."
But complaining about it won't nerf Psyger-100. I've just gotta go out there, as Wolfgang's anchor, and do what needs to be done.
Sunraku: "If I win, I'm gonna milk this to trash-talk you for the next six months, so you losers better brace yourselves."
Pencilgon: "Bold words. If you lose, I'll milk this to trash-talk you for the next three years."
Three years is brutal.
Psyger-0: "Um, Sunraku...san."
Sunraku: "Hm?"
Psyger-0: "Um... good luck."
A cheer from Rei-shi, directed at me as I'm about to face down her own sister. Nice. This feels like something straight out of a game cutscene.
Sunraku: "Leave it to me. When it comes to volume of moves, I'm pretty confident too."
Besides, that fight between Kyotimate and Psyger-100 brought up some words I'm really curious about.
Let me show you all — this thing of mine! Role Play: Ryuguin Fugaku!