第十一回：祭師囔影自信滿滿，黑貓初戰智取敵首
Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.
"Did you not hear me? Turn around and face Mineko, who serves the House of Yu!"
"I heard yoooou the first time..."
Having completely botched any chance at ending this JRPG boss encounter in a swift and clean manner by SHOUTING FOR A DUEL, the cultivator stands tall in a familiar gait, adjusting the brown bamboo hat on her head and flicking her 【Horsetail Whip】at the air, like she was flicking away annoying gnats (us) that had disturbed her inner sanctum. Turning around, I recognize a familiar face and light hazel brown hair.
"You...!"
Its the same onee-san cultivator that was at the siege encampment! Words fail me at this point. Did I not clearly see that she got cut in half just yesterday? This violates some sort of 'people die when they are killed' rule, I am sure!
"I have not foooorgotten yoooou..."
Ah? At this moment I should be honored right? I mean, all I did was just pull a small little prank to get into your camp. Nothing special, really. Me and Madi-san do this all the time, you know, the whole exposing conspiracies schtick. I do have to say that it was an ingenious plan though! I was the one who thought it up---
"... 【Hereticate】Guardian who wields a 【Headsman's Dadao】[1]!"
Ahhh?
Well, I have to admit that in the end it was Neko-chan who cleaved you in two at the end, but don't you think that you should give some credit to the person who barged into the camp and set up the opportunity in the first place? I think its only fair! Besides, how are you alive still? Why aren't you attacking? I'm sorry for not understanding a single thing about mortal combat, I am just a girl who reads detective manga...
"Stay behind and find cover." Neko-chan readies the grip on her 『Daikatana-like』weapon, anticipating the next move from her opponent, who is still emanating that ominous purplish hue around her body.
"I'll take booooth of yoooou on at once...!
Ying Zuixu, 【Jishi】[2] of the【Cult of Black Bandanna】... comes forth!"
With a whisk of her horsetail whip, the earlier question I had was immediately answered. Two circular dark purple splotches form of their own accord on the ground, and emerging from the depths of the purple abyss...
... are exact replicas of the bamboo hat-wearing cultist.
Barely a moment after they have fully formed, they step into a line with choreographed steps, movements completely in sync in a dance I can only describe as something that you would get out of a street magician trying to scam you by moving three paper cups on a table really, really quickly and asking you under which cup the candy was hidden.
"Can you gueeeess..."
"...which oooone..."
"... is the reeeeaEEEAAAA...!!!"
Miss Ying never got to finish that last sentence, since the moment she made a single forward step at Neko-chan; Neko-chan whirls her gigantic weapon in a single circular arc, advancing forwards herself, while the whirl of her blade simply cuts down one of the phantoms leaping at her; switching grips now that she passed the phantomic duo, Neko-chan cuts vertically from sidewinder position, felling the second now-screaming phantom; pulling back the blade and finishing with a long thrust straight at the last body!
Holding her longblade outwards with both arms...
... the tip of her blade is now a leaf's distance from back of the true body's neck.
"I asked for a duel. Not a display of circus tricks."
"Then, why don't you try cutting downwards?"
Cultivator Ying taps the back of her neck without even turning around, as if daring Neko-chan to strike her down.
There is a flash of steel---
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The camera slides to black in a rightward motion.
On the other side of the battlefield, a purple-haired fiend is surrounded by NPCs holding an assortment of stabbity stabs. Having jumped off the chariot for no good strategic purpose, she bangs the simple steel shield with the merest of engravings with her right hand. It is barely large enough to cover the top half of Madi-san's body, not a reliable piece of equipment at all.
That is, unless you are Madi-san.
"Alright, who's next!!"
One of the NPCs heeds her taunt, charging out of the thinning circle, she raises a ringed scimitar up high, looking to strike at Madi-san's neck!
"You!! You're next!"
Perfectly anticipating the incoming slash, Madi-san retaliates at the exact moment the blade comes down in a technique she calls...
[Perfect Parry].
The instant the unfortunate scimitar meets shielded steel, swirling darkness forms where metal meets metal, and Madi-san simply pushes the poor soul out of the way. How and why this works, I have no idea. Does attacking at the immediate point of an opponent's attack just give a big buff or something? That makes zero logical sense. Madi-san makes it all look so easy too, despite having zero weapons training at all. I do not count playing Souls-likes as proper education in the way of the blade, no matter how historically accurate nor how many hundreds of hours---
"Yap yap yap! You guys done back there?!"
Madi-san points towards the sky with an accusatory tone.
...
"I KNOW you are badmouthing me up there, Aya-chan! That---" Madi-san points a thumb to the fallen NPC who had been knocked clear out of the way into a nearby kiln,
"... was number thirty-two! Ehehehe!"
... ...
"You better tell Neko-chan to start shining up her knees, we're coming for 「dogeza」city!"
... ... ...
"And give me back my [Narrator's] power! THIS side is WAY more interesting! Now THIS is lore-accurate combat---"
Moving on, we end this cutscene as the camera slides to black.
"Hey!!"
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Neko-chan's blade cuts downwards, but it does not meet flesh.
Instead, some mysterious sort of force repels the top of Neko-chan's blade, preventing the incisive cut by rebuffing Neko-chan's blade!
Without any hint of surprise or emotion, the bladed catgirl rolls with the backwards momentum, taking steady steps backward with the repelling force, 『daikatana-like』weapon still held in an upward overhead stance, ready to cut down any possible lines of counterattack. Recalibrating her stance, she now lowers her blade into a defensive stance, holding the blade pointed up at fourty-five degrees, catears twitching in thought.
Turning around, cultivator Ying lets out a loud "REEEEEEAAA" like she had won the fight, despite not having done anything at all.
"You fooooool! How can a mere mortal touch ooooone who has ascended beyond mortal ken?!"
She says, as she touches the backside of her neck to make sure she didn't get cut but hadn't yet realized it, samurai duel-style. Some small relief was had before she starts crooooowing again. (Did I do that right?)
"I, who have ascended tooooo 【专家】, Expert-Class ninth rank! On the verge of becoming Master-class, I am..."
... even if her next word was invincible, Neko-chan wasn't having any of it.
A flurry of wordless sword blows land on every part of the cultivator's body, from the roof, a strike to the head; from the plow, a quick upwards swing, even thrusting directly at her chest with a two-handed stance held parallel to her head...
... all did nothing. Absolutely nothing at all.
The cultivator simply stood mockingly still as it all happened, seemingly nonplussed about the whole ordeal.
Finishing with a spinning cut where she whirls her entire body around and slashes the middle of the cultist's body, a move that should by all rights have cleaved her in half... not a single mark is left on her body!
The last move let Neko-chan bypass her duel opponent once more; honed battle instincts screaming that something was wrong, she leaps away from the cultivator, who had just made a motion with her 【Horsetail Whip】, causing a ring of purplish shadowy flame to burst outwards!
"I toooold you, lower ranked cultivators can't harm higher ranks...!
Much less oooone who cannot use 【Qi】 or 【Dao】!"
Neko-chan, now on the backfoot in a low stance, holding her blade diagonally in a guard position...
... is not impressed.
"Sixteen times."
"Huh?"
"I hit you sixteen times."
"That's what I have been telling you---"
"Not even [Master Avalon] is arrogant enough to let us, his disciples, hit him sixteen times in a duel."
"What...?"
"I know nothing of 【Qi】 or 【Dao】, but [Vespana]...
... has a long history of felling high-minded tyrants and big-mouthed frauds like you!"
There is the sound of something akin to shattering glass in the cavern, perhaps it was the direct shot to the cultie's glass heart, but more likely it was because Neko-chan wasn't swinging her blade wildly at all...
... for the purplish hue that had surrounded the cultish cracks, freezing in the air, and dissipates into the dark nothingness of the cavern! Wispy colorless whimpers of incense-like smoke are all that is left of that aura, harmlessly rising from the cultie's body.
"What did you---"
"[Shell Crusher], one of [Vespana's] many greatsword techniques to defeat enchantments. Whatever it is you are coating yourself with, Qi, Dao, whatever... it definitely feels very familiar!"
A small trickle of blood flows from the side of Cultivator/Jobber Z's mouth, a clear indication that she had already lost.
But as sore losers do...
"Not yet...! Nooooot yet! Defense is not the oooonly thing that the 【Dao of Ying】can dooooo--- "
At that moment, a small and cute shadow emerges from behind her,
...bringing down a paper fan with a good smack on her head.
The impact was considerably oversized, smashing her head into a ground pounding crater, cracks emanating from the center of the slam.
That I didn't expect.
Neko-chan looks at (me), surprise and bewilderment covers her entire face.
"What? She said she would take BOTH of us on!"
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NEXT: That's a Wyrm Not A Dragon, Know The Difference It Could Save Your Lives!
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Terminology
[1]【Headsman's Dadao】- Not to be confused with Dao, the source of power. A Dadao simply means oversized blade. If Neko-chan didn't explain to me that she uses a sort of greatsword, I would have called it a 『Daikatana』 too.
[2] 【Jishi】- Libator, you can think of it as a position that is really high up in cults.