PLEASE ENTER NAME : LEVEL 11
DAY 169 : A-DAY, SECONDWEEK, FULGORA, YEAR 1
ARENA 4 : ROUND 4 : JUICED AHEAD
[ NEW S.T.A.T.S — STRENGTH: MAGICAL=31 - PHYSICAL=16 — TENACITY: DEFENSE=31 - SPEED=16 — APTITUDE: MANA=31 - STAMINA=16 — TILT: CONTROL=31 - LUCK=16 ]
[ NEW COMMON C.L.A.S.S. TOGGLE: DULLAHAN / SACRIFACIAL PARALYSIS — EFFECT 1: FLEXIBILITY OF HELM REDUCED TO 0 — EFFECT 2: FLEXIBILITY OF ALL OTHER ARMOR PIECES INCREASED TO NEXT MINOR RANK OF SPEED AND CONTROL — WARNING: DISABLES SPEECH WHILE ACTIVE ]
[ NEW COMMON C.L.A.S.S. PASSIVE: DULLAHAN / SEPARATE BUT EQUAL — EFFECT 1: HEAD MAX HP REDUCED BY 87.5% — EFFECT 2: REST OF ARMOR MAX HP REDUCED BY 12.5% — EFFECT 3: DAMAGE TO YOUR ARMOR NO LONGER AFFECTS YOUR HEAD ]
I wasn’t sure what Skills to choose when I leveled last week. But, as superficial as it first sounded, Simon assured me that one Minor Rank, or the next STAT value divisible by eight, is massive in terms of both Control and Speed together. I initially didn’t understand how that could be the case. But now that my flexibility’s Speed and Control are effectively 24 and 32 respectively, the difference is immediately and qualitatively noticeable. The only downside is, since it’s focused on my helm, I can’t use my Movement Blessing. But is it worth it? Tyrone seems to think so. At least for today’s match.
As to the other, my inability to survive all my armors being destroyed has apparently been demonstrated as a major weakness. Therefore, Simon instructed me, and Oneshot agreed, and Civetta backed him up, that I should put my helm’s HP in a separate pool. Even if all that HP takes away an eighth of the max armors I can have out. I still have more Armor HP than my max armor count. But, as I can’t summon an armor without at least 1 HP, that won’t last long. And I won’t stop getting more Summon Armor and Body Duplication Skills. I can’t. It’s not in me to settle for less than the maximum Bodies I can control. Personally, I blame You.
“FFFIIIGHT!!!”
[ EPIC ACTION: SUMMON ARMOR 4 ]
Activating the same Skill as many times as I have available MP, all my armors start running underneath the lumbering forms of the black and white dragons with red and blue eyes respectively. I can’t actually discern those colors. But David told me that detail was very important.
[ COMMON TOGGLE ON: SACRIFACIAL PARALYSIS ]
Now, for the first time ever, I’m sprinting. Whether due to the general inflexibility of plate armor, or my own lack of coordination in a humanoid form, I’ve just never been able to do it before. While far slower and less focused than flight, it makes up for that by letting me spread myself and my Sonar range like some kind of sound-themed butter all across the Launch Base Zone. That, and running across this refreshingly cubic landscape holds the distinct advantage of not being targeted by the zone’s surface-to-air missile batteries spread liberally across the maze-like arena variation.
Extremely high walls separate extremely wide paths that fork every hundred meters or so. As Tyrone explained when we found out this would be our battleground, anything that peaks above the walls is an automatic target for all missiles across the battlefield. If there’s multiple, then each missile battery will fire at the closest one to it.
He grunts from where he’s carrying my head in one hand. “You know, I actually thought of a way to win faster than this.”
With only a few hundred Bodies to precisely control, I have no problem holding a conversation even as an enemy enters my Sonar range.
[ POWER BLESSING: GALE BALL ]
In fact, I’m what I’ve learned to call ‘bored’. I don’t believe I’ve ever not been bored since I arrived. It’s not a problem easily resolved, as in order to occupy all my focus, my total Body count needs to be more in the 16,384 range. Or maybe less. These armors are quite a bit more complex than my former Bodies that were only capable of rolling. Still, I always did have to roll all of me far more precisely than what is required to sprint.
Absentmindedly, I run a couple hundred times at once, directly into that enemy. No need to target with this strategy. My Targeted Hearing Skill isn’t even on.
[ COMMON TOGGLE ON: TARGETED HEARING ]
Drat. Maybe I’m a little distracted…
[ COMMON TOGGLE OFF: TARGETED HEARING ]
What was I going to say again? Oh yes… I can’t speak with my new toggle on. And I don’t want to clog team chat. But that’s not the only relevant channel.
[ PRIVATE / TYRONE / PLEASE ENTER NAME: YOU HAVE A STRATEGY TO WIN FASTER? ]
Tyrone hesitantly nods. “Maybe… That’s the thing. It involves sacrificing all of your armors and all of David’s summons to the missile’s auto-targeting while Kirito and I jump to just behind their starting location and Zack portals the rest of us to flank the whole team. But if they don’t start by moving forward, or see any part of that beyond the explosions above, then the match becomes 6 vs 8 where their eight has our six totally surrounded. So it either becomes a significant tactical advantage or disadvantage depending on where people are looking at the time. Or in other words, pure luck.”
I currently lack the ability to nod.
[ PRIVATE / TYRONE / PLEASE ENTER NAME: THAT SOUNDS LIKE AN INFERIOR STRATEGY ]
[ OPPONENT ELIMINATED: MERBUTLER ]
Tyrone demonstrates his own capability in that field. “Indeed. Was that you?”
[ PRIVATE / TYRONE / PLEASE ENTER NAME: NO ]
[ OPPONENT ELIMINATED: SUIJIN ]
I also lack the capability to smirk. Although the same is true even with my new toggle off.
[ PRIVATE / TYRONE / PLEASE ENTER NAME: THAT WAS ]
[ TEAMMATE ELIMINATED: ALEX ]
[ PRIVATE / TYRONE / PLEASE ENTER NAME: THAT WAS NOT ]
[ TEAMMATE ELIMINATED: JOE ]
[ PRIVATE / TYRONE / PLEASE ENTER NAME: OR THAT ]
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
From the edge of my max Sonar range, an Epic-rarity Purple Juicy tidal wave floods down four different paths near where all my bodies are now collided from my dogpiling of Suijin.
So all of me sprints down the fifth path.
But increased flexibility or no, I’m still slower than a torrent of water.
[ HP: 124/992 ]
[ PRIVATE / TYRONE / PLEASE ENTER NAME: IT SEEMS MY ARMORS HAVE ALL DIED ]
Tyrone’s eyes bulge. “What? All at once?”
Oh right, this is pointless now.
[ COMMON TOGGLE OFF: SACRIFACIAL PARALYSIS ]
I didn’t expect this to be possible, but my jaw feels abnormally stiff. “They each had less than 10 HP and Juicy is ultra effective against Gale.”
“I’m aware. How does that translate to a total wipe?”
“Tidal wave incoming.”
“Oh.” With a twitch of Tyrone’s finger, the same roiling liquid-like energy encasing him and his tails, surrounds my helm as well.
“What was the purpose of-”
Then the tidal wave hits.
We’re underwater now.
Upon realizing I’m taking no damage from what is clearly either an Epic Power Blessing or a Legendary Skill, I repeat his last statement. “Oh.”
The torrential force beating against Tyrone is an excessively heavy one. I know from having briefly experienced it a few hundred times over a fraction of a second. Nonetheless, his walking speed is unchanged from before the wall of purple water hit and started boiling away and alternately passing around us like an impossibly hot, entrenched boulder in the middle of whatever a river is. Which makes me realize something as, for the first time, I take note of Tyrone’s walking speed. Walking Speed… Walking…
“Pardon me, but should we not run?”
Tyrone just chuckles. “Can’t run.”
“Is this what Simon calls your ‘religion’?”
The chuckle becomes a snort. “In a way. It’s a requirement for my build. That’s how I know you’ve never seen me run. Or drive a vehicle. Despite Simon’s nonsense, it’s not that I won’t. I can’t.”
“What about the time when-”
“In combat, PEN. I don’t have my toggles on all the time.”
“I see.”
Tyrone raises me to his eye level. “That’s it?”
“I… Am unsure.”
“Aren’t you going to ask why I don’t turn them off, run to where the enemies are, and then turn them back on?”
“No.”
“Oh.” Other than the methodical sizzling of water evaporating in a thin layer around his body, a moment of silence passes before Tyrone can’t seem to take it anymore. “I do more damage the more steps I take with each one active.”
[ TEAM / ZACK: DAMN IT SORRY GUYS I FORGOT ABOUT THE MISSILES ]
[ TEAMMATE ELIMINATED: ZACK ]
Tyrone sighs. “I can jump. But I can’t jump very far. Just very high. Which, as you just saw, doesn’t help us right now.”
“I do not see anything-”
Tyrone vigorously shakes the arm holding me.
Again, even with the toggle off, I lack the capability to smile. I think I am beginning to understand this ‘humor’ thing. Or maybe not. Nobody is laughing, after all. And yet… The concept remains an overall mystery.
As I pat myself on the back for what I’m at least 51% sure was a successful joke, three bubbly blurs twirl around themselves as they speed down our tunnel in the opposite direction.
The first stabs Tyrone with a trident as it passes.
So does the second.
Tyrone catches the third. Not the trident. That pierces into his stomach like the others. What he does catch is the third opponent’s head.
Which implodes like a badly constructed submarine in the ocean depths. Whatever that means… These implanted definitions are getting more and more abstract. I don’t even understand the comparison myself.
[ OPPONENT ELIMINATED: TORPEDONALD ]
[ PRIVATE / TYRONE / TYRONE: DEPTH CHARGE ON 3 ]
Enraged, the other two turn and fly back toward Tyrone. They don’t get close, of course. Instead, they swirl around counterclockwise, making a partial underwater whirlpool with Tyrone in the center as they stab him over and over.
Tyrone’s skin turns from flesh to metal as he just stands there and takes it.
Then, slowly, methodically, he raises me in front of himself.
[ PRIVATE / TYRONE / TYRONE: 3 ]
[ UNCOMMON ACTION: HEADSPLOSION ]
At the same instant as my head explodes in his hand without the grip lessening or tightening even slightly, Tyrone de-metalizes and steps forward, straight into the explosion.
One of the spinning enemy’s legs whip forward as their head is stopped on a dime from Tyrone grabbing it through the temporarily bubble-saturated lack of visibility.
It collapses in on itself like the rest.
[ OPPONENT ELIMINATED: KEVIN ]
Now alone against our guild leader, the third enemy runs. Or rather, swims. In any case, they move faster than Tyrone apparently can without sacrificing most of his built-up Strength and Defense.
Even through the water, and despite it being out of my Sonar range, I hear a massive explosion.
[ TEAMMATE ELIMINATED: KIRITO ]
Tyrone’s grip does tighten this time.
[ TEAM / TYRONE: WHO NEEDS HELP? ]
[ TEAM / DAVID: ME ]
Right away, Tyrone starts moving towards his silhouette.
[ TEAMMATE ELIMINATED: DAVID ]
Tyrone doesn’t stop. Nor does he surface. Nor does he inquire further.
[ OPPONENT ELIMINATED: SOAKING JOSEPH ]
A minute passes where Tyrone silently trudges underwater towards David’s death indicator icon.
[ TEAM / SIMON: THEY ARE ALL HERE ]
Turning on a dime, Tyrone starts walking towards the giant silhouette of a man in a fish suit.
[ TEAM / TYRONE: HEAD TO ME ]
The fish-suited man that Simon calls a ‘Mermaid Gundam’, begins to wiggle awkwardly. Then its arms and legs shrink into itself like whatever a turtle is, while the mouth hatch closes. Wiggling more violently, it gets larger. Turning, it moves far to the left. Then left again. Then right three times. And just like that, it appears on my Sonar, heading straight towards us, wiggling the torso of a fish while the shrunken-in, yet distinctly humanoid hands and feet sticking out of it paddle for all they’re worth.
As Tyrone continues at his same pace, he passes right under the now very fish-looking giant robot of a fish-costumed-man spinning and curving and generally screaming through the mostly settled water in the opposite direction.
Seemingly led by the same Juicy Kingdom Royal Team member who attacked a few minutes ago, they take a wide berth around Tyrone as they stay almost literally on Simon’s tail.
But Tyrone was waiting for that. That’s why he’d adjusted to walking on the far right of the path. And it’s why he threw me to the upper left the moment Simon passed above.
[ PRIVATE / TYRONE / TYRONE: 3 ]
[ UNCOMMON ACTION: HEADSPLOSION ]
Between the lack of Tyrone’s protection against the purple water, my element’s fatal weakness to it, and the extra vulnerability of Headsplosion, all 154 of my partially recovered HP melts away before Tyrone can fetch me back.
Not that he doesn’t try. He even jumped for me the moment I exploded. But likely thanks to his toggles, he’s just not fast enough.
Simon is fast enough though. Or at least effective enough. It’s easy to forget with the giant mechas he makes. But he’s also our team’s healer. And the healing aura toggles he keeps active while he fights slows down my degradation just long enough.
Not to survive with just a weakened head in a superpowered slurry of my attunement’s main weakness. Or even to let Tyrone get to me before I’m fully melted by what I’m relatively sure is damaging me more than literal acid would. But it at least lets me live to see my sacriface partially pay off as the once-more transformed robot of a man in a fish costume spears the Royal closest to my head with a massive yellow trident.
[ OPPONENT ELIMINATED: QUILL ]
[ YOU DIED — XP DEBT: TOURNAMENT EXCEPTION — RESPAWN DELAY: 8 HOURS ]