--- [Charlotte’s perspective]
“Now that both fighters are on stage, let the first match of the second round begin! Charlotte vs Vincent!” – Bob
That guy…
His specialty was rolling a big dice; the outcome of which decides his strength.
I could let him use it…
If he rolls a low number, winning will be trivial.
It’s tempting…
But no.
It’s not worth the risk.
He said his regular self is equivalent to a three.
What he rolled in the previous fight was a four, and I could easily beat him in that state.
If that’s the case, why not just end it before he has a chance to roll?
And just like that, the plan is decided.
With grace, I rush towards him.
He tries summoning the dice, but I quickly brush my hand on his torso, making him keel over in pain instead.
With my specialty, a simple touch is all I need to win.
Most of the other hunters here rely on brute force, but that can only get you so far.
Eventually you’ll hit a wall; when faced with an opponent with even greater strength than you, you’ll inevitably lose.
That’s just an innate disadvantage of basing your combat prowess on strength.
My specialty allows me to entirely bypass that…
If I so choose, any hit will deal internal damage.
No matter how little force I apply.
I could stop his heart with touch…
That attack earlier completely destroyed some of his organs.
That should be enough to make him surrender; if he’s even able to talk in his condition…
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“Ouch… That hurt, you know?” – Vincent
What?!
As he stands back up, the dice appears.
He’s smiling…
“You should take responsibility for that.” – Vincent
Shit!
This is exactly what I tried to avoid!
“Oh, I know how you can make up for it!” – Vincent
His smile turns to a grin as any sense of normalcy about him fades away…
“How about you do it again?” – Vincent
…
What the hell is wrong with him?
He wants me to destroy his organs…?
The dice starts spinning…
Whatever, I need to take him out before it stops!
In rapid succession, I tap him all over his body, making sure it’s barely not enough to kill him.
He coughs up blood, but never once screams…
“That’s it!” – Vincent
How is he still standing?!
Half his bodily functions must have shut down, and the pain should be enough to knock him out in an instant!
The dice slows down and quickly comes to a halt…
I failed to stop him before he could use it…
Now fate will decide the outcome of this battle…
The results are out…
“Oh, we’re gonna have so much fun!” – Vincent
He got a five…
Although he could somehow stay up after getting hit, he wasn’t strong or fast enough to defend himself.
Not that he even wanted to defend himself…
Looking at his performance in the previous round, a four isn’t that much of a step up from three; I could beat him at a four.
What about five?
Is the difference in power between four and five roughly the same as the difference between three and four?
Maybe the difference is bigger?
It could be smaller too…
There’s just no way to know without actually seeing him in action.
--- [Vincent’s perspective]
My specialty is…
Unique.
I’ve never encountered anyone with an ability that can literally make the user weaker before; as far as I know, I’m the only one in the world like that.
There are lots of people with useless specialties, and there are lots of people with specialties that are only marginally helpful in battle.
But, there are very few, if any, that are straight up negative.
On the flip side, my specialty can also make me overwhelmingly more powerful.
It’s all up to luck…
The dice my specialty uses to decide the outcome is a standard six-sided dice.
Let’s ignore six for now, and only look at the other numbers.
A three makes no difference; it makes me just as strong as I am regularly.
Right above that is four, and right below is two.
Four makes me considerably stronger, while two makes me considerably weaker.
The combat capabilities I get from getting a four is probably about roughly the same as, or maybe a little bit less than, the average specialty for a D-rank hunter.
Meaning if I were to fight someone who is equally as strong as me without the use of SDM, we’d still be roughly equal if they used their specialty, and I rolled a four.
On the flip side, if I roll a two, it’d be like getting a ‘specialty’s worth’ weaker.
It’s roughly as difficult to fight someone using their specialty while I don’t, as it is to fight someone who doesn’t use theirs while I roll a two
It puts me at a big disadvantage, but it’s not impossible to overcome.
A one and a five are different…
If I were to roll a one, I doubt there is any D-rank hunter out there I could beat.
Honestly, I’d probably struggle beating most E-rank regulars too…
But when I roll a five…!
I could probably count the number of D-rank hunters who could beat me on one hand.
The jump between numbers is exponential.
Me with a three is much closer to me with a four, than me with a four is to me with a five.
Of course, the same is true for one and two as well.
All that to say; there is no way in hell she’s beating me.
I’m in full control.
When I want to win, I will win.
For now though, let’s have some fun!