Chapter 281: The Sword Wolf Faces the Thunder-Fire Beast, Part 11
A body physically ablaze. Until Moment Sight's recast time finishes, I can only manage simple movements. But even so, I've got the speed to shake off the Sworvant blades Psyger-100 controls.
My HP, halving with every passing moment, will drop me to 1 before long. Shakkotsu Breaker removed the shackle that nullified my buffs. Ancient Lightning gives me speed beyond the norm, controlled by Moment Sight. And Dis Pater, Nether King's Mirror Shield, stacks a second layer of stat boosts.
Sunraku: "I'll say it up front. Right now, if I take a single hit, I sink."
Psyger-100: "...In that case, allow me to play every last trump card of my own."
The Sworvant blades vanish. When they reappear, their composition has changed.
Psyger-100: "I shall operate Sworvant and the Holy Sword simultaneously at maximum efficiency."
Six subordinate swords, and the Holy Sword as the command blade. With Septet deployed, Psyger-100 raises her left arm — the one not holding the Holy Sword. In the next instant, the six Sworvant blades behind her clamp onto that arm as if devouring it, slicing it open.
Psyger-100: "It's a simple matter. I've filled all six swords with effects that trigger on self-injury. With those activation conditions met, I then fulfill the Holy Sword's trigger condition...!"
Sunraku: "You're setting your own fires and calling it adversity!"
Psyger-100: "The very fact that I must resort to this is already an adverse situation... Domineion! Iviromis! Vandal Grey! Funk Fang! Glutt Blood! Uroborossa! ...And Excalibur!"
Dammit, she's got a cool final gambit. The six subordinate swords activate their respective self-injury trigger effects, and with her HP now below the threshold, Excalibur awakens. It was an all-stats boost plus a Guts effect, if I recall. Unlike me — who's so fragile that being on the receiving end of damage means instant death — she looks way tougher than her condition suggests.
Sunraku: "Now then..."
This is the critical moment. Dis Pater's Exceed Charge buff has a time limit. The duration is determined by the power of the absorbed magic — even with something clearly high-damage like that thunder beast she dropped earlier, I'd be lucky to get three minutes. That said, if I try to take a spell that's too powerful, Dis Pater itself might break, so it's all a balancing act.
Sunraku: "I'll smash you!"
Psyger-100: "Come!"
On one side, a Sword Saint player strengthened by six self-injury magic swords, plus Arouse from the Holy Sword — sacrificing over eighty percent of a massive HP pool, with abilities meticulously crafted so none overlap, all focused on empowering a single person.
On the other, a player wreathed in flame and lightning — canceling one curse with another, built on the brink of death where HP might as well be 1 or 0, pushing risk to its absolute limit and overwriting it with even greater returns.
Similar in core concept, yet wildly different in process, but equal in fundamental stance. You could call it a clash of two builds: "Super-Desperate Mobility-Tuned Dual Swordsman" versus "Adversity-Adjusted Self-Harming Desperate Magic Sword Saint." A showdown between two model cases proving that even players can reach this height — with every passing second, the intensity keeps renewing itself, pushing past the point where you'd think there's nothing more to give.
It's not that they hate each other. One sees the other as a punching bag to test the full extent of what he can do right now. The other sees him as a whetstone to test whether her current self can stand against the Emperor of the Night. Neither cares what kind of play history brought the other to this point. They only seek to define themselves by defeating the opponent. This is the pinnacle of PvP in the game system called Shangri-La Frontier.
When the seven swords try to form an array to drop the hammer of sin, flying slashes disrupt them. When the flames run with black lightning trailing behind, six swords block and the seventh counterattacks.
The battle intensifies, accelerates, becomes ever more heated. The spectators can't tear their eyes away from the sight. Whatever started this fight, whatever agreements were made behind the scenes, whatever flow led to this moment — all of it, for just this instant, is forgotten. Only the simple question of "who will win" remains, as everyone waits for the moment the answer is forged.
With that clash reflected in their eyes and crystal screens.
There's no Role Play here anymore, no half-assed tricks. I'm running reaction, guidance, and instinct at full throttle to shake off the Sworvant blades and race in to strike the main body. A single lapse in focus means a stumble into instant death. Even so, I don't hesitate to use Formula Drift for acceleration on the dodge, and Flit Float to make footholds of empty air, turning even the sky into a path.
And still, I can't finish her off. She's not physically tough, nor are my attacks being nullified. It's that she endures my relentless assault and tries to counter. You could call it a chicken race of concentration — both of us pulling the thread of focus to its absolute limit, right up to the breaking point.
I die if I take a single hit. She gets carved to pieces the instant she lets the barrage of Sworvant blades falter. Skills are used like water, each card that could be a trump card in its own right slammed down as if we're both trying to burn through every resource we have.
Sunraku: "Drop dead!"
Psyger-100: "You insolent little—!"
In a slowed-down world, I take aim and hurl both Duxrams, Blades of Aspiration. Without a pause, I follow with the Flame General's Decapitation Blade, thrown using one of those Bakumatsu techniques — "Sunny, Then Horse-Slaying Sword" as a reference. She defends against some of them with Sworvant blades, and sends a few back at me as counterfire. I intercept them with the Gilta Brille — can't use its Exceed Charge, but as a blunt weapon, it works just fine. Using the Overflow animation, I retrieve the Whalelore Moonblade I'd tossed aside, all while searching for that single instant to end this.
The time limit is almost up. If I don't finish it here, I'm out of gas.
Sunraku: "Combine gauge is good... It's the climax!"
Psyger-100: "I accept!"
This is the final move. A strategy built like a flimsy castle overnight, hammered together from all the information about Psyger-100 scattered in my brain, pinned down by what I can actually do. Activate every skill except the ones I intentionally held back — and the ones that'd be pointless to use now. Even though it was just a few hours ago, it feels like ages, but I'm using the combine function again, same as I did back then.
Psyger-100: "Facing each other head-on, in a straight line... and an iai stance... How fascinating!"
She's figured out how I'm going to attack. Psyger-100 readies Excalibur and sets herself to intercept.
Sunraku: "..."
Psyger-100: "..."
Silence.
The stamina management that constantly carried the risk of a fatal mistake for either side with a single wrong step. For this one instant, our pauses for stamina recovery aligned perfectly. A wordless moment stretches out, as if everything's already over — or as if this very moment is when the real match begins.
Sunraku: "—I speak my will unto the flawless world."
Psyger-100: "...!"
Initiation. As the string of words spills from my tongue, Psyger-100's eyes widen. She clearly never expected me to choose chanting, of all things, at this stage... Well, I don't actually know a single spell.
Sunraku: "Realm of nothingness, deep darkness that births billions of lights, astrograph shining in the heavens—"
Psyger-100: "Tch... I won't let you!"
The Sworvant blades dance. Everything that's been piled up so far has made her wary of letting me "do anything." And now that I've started spouting some mysterious incantation, of course she's going to try and stop me. Not that any of this is real.
Sunraku: "—Crimson's... aurora! Rivers and sands'... transmigration!"
Dodge, dodge, and push forward. Benefits and drawbacks can serve as a cloak to hide the real intent. The sheer fact that I'm deliberately performing a chant — when obviously stopping would be the easier play — creates an imaginary blade in her mind.
Sunraku: "From this shore, flowers! From the abyss, the sky! From ancient epics, courage is guided by the torch!"
Psyger-100: "Ngh... Then!"
She's realized that waiting around is a bad move. She thrusts her empty hand toward me—
Psyger-100: "Stun Beat!!"
I grin — the biggest smile I've worn this entire match — and take the anti-personnel flinch magic head-on.
Psyger-100: "Wha—"
Why do people get surprised when they trip? Because they didn't think they'd trip there.
Sunraku: "Heaven's secret! Sing, world! Dance, world! Defy the flawless world, and still laugh as you press on!"
Spouting garbage the whole time, I twist my body from the position where I'd caught the hit on my back — falling into it — then twist again, and the instant Psyger-100 and I face each other once more, I break into a run.
Why didn't I go down from that hit? What will happen when the chant completes? What will the two combined swords bring? What am I even aiming for? PvP and PvE are the same at their core: slam the opponent with a ton of options, stop their movement, and blow them away! That's why I'll reveal the final piece I procured on the spot — right here, right now!
Sunraku: "—The hazy, aesthetic stun-beat, its threads still spinning——!"
Psyger-100: "Gah!?"
Crackle. Lightning erupts.
Staggering, Psyger-100's eyes fill with pure shock. She has absolutely no idea why I just cast Stun Beat without chanting in the middle of a chant... Her confusion is wide open.
A chance to win.
I'll end it right here!