[With love from the Guild War. Looks like I'm actually going to get home alive... Hell, I might already have returned by the time this update reaches you. Heh heh. (That's a death flag.)]
Chapter 502: One Emergency Was Anticipated
Kei: "I'd appreciate it if you didn't casually say what I was about to say first... Still, Silver, what do you actually think?"
Silver: "I suspect Hannya is wary of No Face's Cursed Prison. So Hannya wants to force that gauge to be spent before finishing No Face off. As for No Face... could it be the 'Hexa Ult' rule in WΔ they're aiming for?"
Eight: "Hexa Ult?"
Kei: "It's a special Triangle Trinity rule. Once the two players have activated their Ultimates a combined total of five times, an item called an Ult Crystal appears somewhere in the city."
Silver: "It fills either the Heroic or Villainic gauge to one hundred percent. In other words, Eight, you can use another Ultimate immediately."
Eight: "Oh, so it's a kind of recovery item... Ah, is that why they used an Ultimate so early?"
The value of skipping GH:C's normal gauge-charging steps should need no explanation. And because the benefit can only go to one person, a whole new layer of tactics emerges.
Kei: "If both players use their Ultimates here, that'll bring the total to three. That's already enough to make you think twice before spending one casually."
Silver: "Depending on the situation, if you're cornered and your opponent gets the Ult Crystal, it could be game over."
Eight: "No Face and Hannya are both attacking less often now... They seem to be testing each other's movements while keeping each other in check."
Just as Eight describes, the furious offensive and cool-headed counters from earlier begin to lose momentum. Both sides chip away at each other's HP, but there's a strange stillness, like athletes waiting for the blank shot of a starting pistol.
Eight: "Cursed Prison only has two leg guns left. They seem to be settling into a stalemate, but No Face doesn't look particularly interested in targeting those guns anymore."
Kei: "Why would No Face be? Cursed Prison's Ultimate is Prison Break. It's faster to make Hannya activate it than to laboriously destroy all those guns."
Eight: "Ah, I see..."
Kei: "Of course, Prison Breaker is extremely powerful. Hannya had Real Cursed Prison on the ropes, too—no, forget I said that. Completely unrelated to Amelia Sullivan, of course. Yes."
Eight: "Isn't that excuse getting a little hard to maintain?"
Kei: "It's an official pretense, an official pretense. Anyway, even if Hannya is better at Cursed Prison, transforming into Prison Breaker doesn't suddenly make Hannya weak. That's why No Face is being just a little more cautious."
Silver: "Conversely, Hannya is wary of Twinkle Pixie's Ultimate too. Twinkle Phantom is an action-type Ultimate. Take even one hit and it can strip away a tremendous amount of HP."
Like Meteorias's Meteor Strike, Twinkle Pixie's Ultimate, Twinkle Phantom, is an action-type Ultimate whose entire sequence proceeds automatically from activation until the action ends.
But unlike Meteor Strike, which is essentially just a flying kick, the move follows the original portrayal: scatter a 'special powder' over the opponent, immobilize the target, then create three duplicates and attack together with a total of four fairies. Naturally, miss with the powder and the Ultimate fails.
Kei: "That totally wired Phantom is pretty hard to dodge once you've taken the powder... The original is briefly invincible too, and seriously, that powder must be—"
Eight: "Stop! Stop right there! We're in prime time, Mr. Uomi! Please don't say anything dangerous on air!!"
Kei: "Ah, sorry... Anyway, right now both players want to move first. Though No Face might only be able to do that after staggering the opponent."
If Twinkle Pixie acts first, the lumbering Cursed Prison can't respond fast enough. But the powder has a big opening, and the hit has to land.
If Cursed Prison acts first, it can respond in Prison Breaker form with powerful super armor. But once Prison Break's effect expires, the Machine Swarm armor naturally disappears.
An apparently contradictory deadlock: both sides keep fighting back and forth, yet neither can commit to an attack. One is waiting with cold calculation; the other, with accelerated instinct. If anyone breaks the balance, it will have to be a third party—not No Face or Hannya.
◆◆
The instant we heard that, Amelia Sullivan and I activated our Ultimates at exactly the same time.
Prison Breaker: "Prison Break!!"
Twinkle Pixie: "Twinkle☆Phantom!!"
Legal powder bursts outward. But debris from the mechanical components exploding off the opponent's body holds back the powder for just a moment. Using that debris as a shield, I see the crimson figure backstep out of the powder's range.
I failed...!
Fuck! I got too absorbed in High Torque! I should've waited more carefully for a real opening, but... damn it, staying here is bad!!
Prison Breaker: "That pile of scrap... It picked a hell of a time to interfere...!!"
Prison Breaker: "Don't look away from me, you little bug."
Twinkle Pixie: "Ghn!?!"
The face? You're going for the face of a small female character? Fine! I'll break your spine until it looks like the Greek letter sigma!!
But the situation isn't simply a confrontation with Prison Breaker anymore. Even Amelia Sullivan, who suddenly has a huge advantage, can't afford to ignore the third force that's intruded on the fight.
A second Target Enemy has even brought that infuriating piece of junk, Valkyrie, under its command...
Twinkle Pixie: "...Colonel!!"
The Target Enemy Colonel has a military rank for a name, and its defining trait is straightforward: it takes command of the nearby Mechanitan Machine Swarm and raises their AI level. The danger becomes impossible to ignore when it also has Valkyrie, one of the strongest individual units, following its orders.
Twinkle Pixie: "What a pain...!!"
Missiles fly in support of gunfire from Machine Swarm units that look like transformed cars and appliances. I dive behind a building to avoid them, cursing involuntarily.
Under Colonel's command, Machine Swarm units lead their shots and even move to shield badly damaged allies. Worst of all, they're trying to protect Valkyrie.
I have two options here. One is to run: hide until Prison Breaker's Prison Break ends, at the very least.
But given Colonel's abilities, leaving Cursed Prison right here is bad. Really, really, unbelievably bad.
Twinkle Pixie: "Hey! Don't look away from me, you half-naked bastard!!"
Prison Breaker: "You'll be looking like this too when you switch to your next character!!"
I close the distance in an instant and we cross-counter! My arm won't reach, so take a kick instead!!
Prison Breaker: "Ghh."
Twinkle Pixie: "Goh!"
No good. I'm completely outmatched in raw power. My kick only makes the opponent's cheek twitch, but I'm sent flying, my HP falling all the way to thirty percent.
A head-on collision with Prison Breaker really is stupid. In that case...!
Twinkle Pixie: "Reverse TQC... EVIL Style!!"
There's no future to worry about now. All I can do is fight until I die! Uoooooh! I'm not letting you die, Machine Swarm! I'm giving every last one of you the Tinky☆ treatment!!
[Since I'm here, I might as well answer this question.]
Q. Author, aren't you on Twitter or anything?
A. I just can't bring myself to start. I've meant to do it for ages, but somehow I always end up holding a controller instead.
I'll get around to it soon, probably. (In other words, I probably won't.)