Ursula Belzebute (4)

Gogogo…

The Demon Lord's ominous aura was almost visible.

The figure of Demon Lord Ursula Belzebute, emanating true killing intent, was beautiful and intimidating.

If my heart had been even a bit weaker, I might've thrown everything away and submitted to her.

But… now, to make her submit, I'd bet everything and stand against her.

"Member change. You did well, Colette. Suzanne."

"… Yes. Please take care of the rest."

"I leave the rest to you. Kanan, Adelia, Luna. Surely bring victory!"

I'd hesitated for an instant over whether to let Colette and Suzanne keep fighting, but quickly decided on the switch.

Both were almost completely spent, and in that state they'd just become combat-incapable in no time.

We'd lose the advantage of Luna being able to take preemptive too.

The merit of forcing 1-2 skill counts out of them was outweighed by the demerit of letting them stack buffs first.

"Now, let's go!"

"Nya, I'll do my best, nya!"

"Yes, I'll do my best!"

My three appeared.

"Now then, Naoto-senshu's members are Kanan, Adelia, and Luna."

"Oh dear, no chance for Yuria, huh～. A shame. Well, as expected, I guess."

"… If it was as expected, isn't it better not to mention her name?"

"Eh, getting named with no appearance is great content, isn't it?"

"We don't need that entertainer-spirit!"

The commentators seemed to be enjoying themselves easily.

"Let us go, Libera, Saria."

"Yes, Ursula-sama."

"Yes～. Let's do our best, Ursula-chan."

Oh-ho, Libera got promoted! That was the one opening I had to exploit.

… But I couldn't imagine Libera taking any action besides Holy Shield each turn… no, maybe she'd gotten some at-will skill.

… Well, I'd lay out my initial assumptions.

Our skill loadout was as follows.

Kanan: Magic Defense Greatly UP — Magic Defense 50% UP

Phantom Mist Clone 5 Creates a clone with same skill counts; both can fight. Clones can act on appearance turn.

Otherworld Gate 10 During combat, can freely teleport to any place (within 10 m).

Realm's Blessing 5 One ally, all stats 30% UP stackable, evasion rate 30% UP unstackable.

Element Shell 15 At-will, 1-3 people (consumes by number), physical-magical attack defense.

Adelia: Penetration — Even when defended against, deals 1/10 damage.

Fire Boost 3 Attack power 2x, can additionally fire another attack.

Demon Art - Flame Severing Claw 5 Super-large damage x 2-hit. Single-target Fire-magic + physical. Weakness effect.

Boost Power 10 Attack power 1.5x, stackable.

Demon Art - Beast-Blood Awakening 3 Status ailments unconditionally cured, piercing + guaranteed-hit granted; can additionally fire another attack.

Luna: First Skill — At battle start, can activate one held skill.

Divine Art - Messiah 3 All allies stats 100% UP, debuff/buff-dispel/status ailment 80% block, Angels enter Angel Halo state. Once per battle.

Divine Art - Balmung 10 God-element single-target super-large damage. 4x super-effective vs Dragon.

Divine Art - Cláu Solas 7 God-element single-target large damage. Piercing. 4x super-effective vs Demon. 2-hit.

Angel Wing 15 Usable only in Angel Halo state. 60% chance to cut phys/mag.

Now, all three actually had skills that had grown a little.

Easy to spot was Luna. Cláu Solas, in exchange for fewer uses, had become 2-hit.

Total damage dealt had increased, so it was likely a pure strengthening.

It got weaker in prolonged battles but stronger in normal combat… But would I use Cláu Solas this time?

If we took down Saria, we could use it against Ursula… but we couldn't break Libera's wall, hmm.

For Kanan, the easy-to-spot one if I had to pick was Phantom Mist Clone.

It had been strengthened and now matched the description text.

Or rather, until now it had been too unclear.

Every single time it was, "the description doesn't say it, but actually it has this hidden feature/effect" — I'd been plagued by hidden specs.

Particularly bad, I thought, was Phantom Mist Clone's "1 per battle" restriction.

If you have that, write it in! What would've happened if I hadn't used it in sparring.

Also, that the clone couldn't act on appearance turn.

For summoned beasts, whether they could act on the summon turn or not — no description, so you had to use them to find out.

Up till now, clones couldn't act on appearance turn.

But that restriction had been removed. So while still limited to 2 appearing at once, if a clone fell, the next clone could appear.

Furthermore, that clone could now act from the appearance turn.

Essentially, a pure strengthening that made Kanan-as-two-people. Wonderful.

Beyond that, if Kanan didn't act and let only the clone act, skill counts would multiply by 6x.

What was great was that sparring battle counts could also be multiplied 6x.

So this past month, Kanan had been able to repeat sparring at 6x density.

Hard to spot was Adelia. What had changed was the heavily used Demon Art - Flame Severing Claw.

What was "Weakness effect"? That part.

The magic+physical trait wasn't seen much in other techniques.

What kind of trait was it? It had both magic and physical properties.

What merit did it have? Actually not much… no, none.

It got bounced by magic defenses like Sawako's Aqua Shield, and bounced by physical defenses like Colette's old Conqueror's Shield.

Of Strength or Magic, Strength applied. Probably the higher one applied.

Of the opponent's Defense or Magic Defense, again, the higher one.

If you attacked Kanan, magic defense applied; if you attacked Haru, defense applied.

So it was a trait where you only felt the demerit of being defended by both physical and magical defenses, with no felt merit.

Well, Adelia could also grant piercing, and since her Strength was high, the opponent's higher stat applying wasn't that bothersome.

But recently, damage had suddenly jumped, and the words "Weakness effect" had been added.

By the math, both Adelia's Strength and Magic now stacked together. As the "physical+magical" notation said.

And of the opponent's Defense and Magic Defense, only the lower one applied. That seemed to be what "Weakness effect" meant.

Until now, attacking Kanan with Adelia: 1 hit, 50 × 75 ÷ 70 = 53 damage.

Now: 50 × (75+58) / 50 = 133 damage.

So a roughly 2.5x damage increase could be expected — a super-strengthening.

… For a description "supplement," it was still hard to understand though.

Well, if it was a pain, just calculating it as 2x was fine too.

As Adelia's growth, of course I was happy.

I'd become A-Class too, and my value to the system had increased — maybe the weird effects I'd been stuck with were starting to get fixed up.

So with our growth on display too…

On Ursula's side, the predicted skills were as follows.

Ursula: Trait: Penetration — Even when defended against, deals 1/10 damage

Demon Art - Lævateinn 10 Absolute fixed 100 damage, guaranteed-hit, piercing

Demon Art - Catastrophe 10 Demon-element area super-large damage, piercing

Demon Art - Apocalypse 10 Demon-element single-target ultimate damage

Demon Art - Demon-Blood Awakening 5 Activates at will. Preemptive + Attack 2x + Sickness absolutely granted + 2-hit combo

Demon Art - Demon Lord's Pressure - Auto-activates, all allies' damage 1/2

Demon's Aura 15 Atk/Def 50% UP, once per turn at will. Stackable.

Demon Art - Belzebute 5 All stats 30% Down, paralysis, poison, illusion, confusion, sleep 100% granted, poison/sickness absolutely granted.

Libera: Trait: Shield's Guardian Deity — Grants complete defense effect to one shield-defense technique

Holy Shield 15 Defends one ally for 1 turn. On successful defense, self also defended.

Holy Sword 10 Piercing, guaranteed-hit, physical large damage

Holy Wall 10 All allies Defense 40% UP

Holy Light 5 One ally, Attack power 100% UP (unstackable)

Saria: Trait: White Dragon's Blessing — All Dragon-element effects 25% UP

Dragon Art - Naga 1 Guaranteed-hit, piercing, Light-advantage element. Status-ailment recovery, Attack 2x. At-will, 1 turn complete defense.

Dragon Battle Aura 5 Once per battle. All stats 2x, dispel nullified.

Dragon Art - Ultimate Breath 10 Dragon-element area large damage or single-target super-large damage. 4 attacks.

Dragonic Aura 10 Dragon-element. All allies' Atk/Def 50% UP, stackable. Once per turn at will.

Dragon Art - Annihilation 10 Dragon-element magic area immense damage

… Now then, first Ursula.

Her techniques couldn't be narrowed down.

She had 3 useful attack skills, each strong. At least 2 she'd brought along.

Bringing all 3 was an option too.

Demon-Blood Awakening was absolutely essential for low-Speed Ursula.

Demon Lord's Pressure was outstanding, but if Libera was there, you could argue it wasn't needed. If she thought that way, easier for us.

And then, Ursula's signature Demon Art - Belzebute…

That my three would be wearing Ursula's Spirit Garb — Ursula knew that.

Because during these 3 months of training, she'd only shown up for morning shaving.

If they wore Ursula's Spirit Garb, Demon Art Belzebute wouldn't work.

If she were the usual relaxed Ursula, she'd fire one Belzebute just to see the effect of the Spirit Garb I'd made… but…

In completely serious mode, there was a possibility she wouldn't bring a skill she knew wouldn't work.

On our side, to prevent Demon-Blood Awakening's Sickness effect too, we absolutely couldn't take Ursula's Spirit Garb off.

So, which attack skills would she bring — but Demon Art - Lævateinn she absolutely wouldn't skip.

What was amazing about it was truly amazing.

Ursula's trait was the same as Adelia's: Penetration. Even when defended, 1/10 pierced through.

And this Demon Art Lævateinn had the effect that, if it dealt damage, it absolutely dealt 100 pt of fixed damage.

No matter how many buffs were stacked, irrelevant; but it also absolutely couldn't be reduced.

With Penetration at 1/10, attacking an opponent who was normally completely defending dealt 10 damage.

But Lævateinn, as a technique, had the trait of absolute 100 fixed damage…

When the two clashed… 100 fixed damage won.

In other words, Ursula's Lævateinn, even when defended against with complete defense, would absolutely deal 100 pt of damage.

See, Colette couldn't defend against it.

Colette, who'd defended so perfectly against Cellas, would be taken down before our eyes against Ursula.

To dodge it, only Cellas's complete evasion or Kanan's teleport could do it.

As for Libera, beyond these 4, I didn't even know what skills she had. Well, she probably had secretary skills.

Libera's basic action was almost exclusively Holy Shield.

Why exclusively Holy Shield? Because it was an extremely outstanding skill.

It completely defended one ally. If defense succeeded, self also entered complete defense state.

Plus, 15 uses. Way too many.

The pitfall to avoid: Holy Shield itself wasn't actually a complete-defense skill.

I'd been mistaken too.

There were quite a number of Holy Knights in the world, and many of them used Holy Shield, but most of those were only skills that defended self and one ally.

Always being able to guard one or two was certainly an outstanding skill, but piercing attacks wouldn't be stopped.

What made this Holy Shield exceptional was Libera's trait.

Originally complete-defense skills were powerful but had few uses. So you could expect skill-count exhaustion.

But Holy Shield was the Holy Knight's standard defense skill — the original effect wasn't that great, so the use count was also large.

Made into complete defense by trait… it was a horrible cheat.

When Libera was seriously defending, you should give up on breaking through.

She'd been a vital main Defender even at the rank-below highest-tier class, so I'd thought — and now she'd risen to the ultimate-tier Divine Knight class? What was this.

If you're going to grow, do it after becoming my comrade!

Lastly, for Saria, I'd just lined up all the techniques I knew she had.

Dragonic Aura plus Dragon Battle Aura, activate Dragon Art Naga, then spam Ultimate Breath or Annihilation.

… Just that alone was overly terrifying.

Ultimate Breath and Annihilation were equivalent. Ultimate Breath was higher in versatility.

Saria's blessing was 25%, seemingly low-effect. But it also applied to support magic.

A 25% Attack UP was a pittance, but Dragonic Aura, becoming 75% Atk/Def UP, was extremely nasty.

… So if you simply lined up the forces, it started looking troublingly hopeless.

Of course, it wasn't. The one who'd win… was me.

"… I'm coming, Naoto."

"Yeah, come, Ursula!"

Her feelings… I'd take them all on!

"Divine Art - Messiah!"

First to activate was First Skill. This was faster than preemptive.

Our 3 all-stats 2x.

… Yeah, this side was also a cheat, after all.

"Demon Art - Demon Lord's Pressure."

Ursula's auto-activated skill. She'd brought it. Well, damage 1/2 was useful.

"Demon Art - Demon-Blood Awakening!"

And then, sudden preemptive activation!

"Now, Naoto, show me thy growth! But first… look upon my growth too! Demon Art - Lævateinn!"

A sudden preemptive attack!

"… Kanan!"

I instantly teleported Kanan. Concentration was perfect too. Timing was perfect; I gave the teleport instruction with confidence that this was the moment I could absolutely evade.

But…

"It's not coming!?"

For an instant, I'd misread! Mistook a feint for an attack and teleported.

Ursula instantly stepped, re-aimed at Kanan's teleport destination, and

"Haaaaa!"

Like a flash of light, fired Demon Art - Lævateinn.

Visually, by the way, it was a straight from her right fist that came flying, releasing a black flame. That was Demon Art Lævateinn.

Since it was an empty-handed punch, the range wasn't that long. Ursula's limbs were slender and long, but it was the body of a girl not even 160 cm tall.

But… since it had the guaranteed-hit effect, range and so on were irrelevant.

In any case, it came flying in.

Dogo!

One strike on Kanan!

"Goho!"

… Got cleanly hit!

Day after day, every single day, I'd piled up practice in evading guaranteed-hit attacks, and she'd outdone me even further beyond that.

… Rather than blame my own inadequacy, I should praise Ursula.

I'd completely believed it was an attack. To think she'd become able to use feints at that level.

How much training had Ursula continued piling up, too…

"… Kanan! A follow-up's coming!"

Demon Art, Demon-Blood Awakening, granted 2-hit combo!

"Yes!"

Shuba!

Kanan teleported, but feint again…!

Damn! If I fell for it, I'd just teleport one more time! Because if Kanan fell here, everything would end.

"Kanan!"

Shuba!

Matching breath, instant next teleport. This one should dodge.

Because if she feinted further, the magical buildup would lapse and the attack would end in misfire — this was the absolute timing limit.

"Demon Art - Lævateinn!"

But Ursula sent her attack at Adelia.

Ignoring Kanan, who could be taken down in one more hit, and aiming at Adelia! Again, my prediction was off.

"Nya… nyaaaa!"

Dogoon!

"Adelia!"

Adelia was struck helplessly in one go.

With 100 fixed damage, saved.

Strong…!

Suddenly Kanan and Adelia were both cornered.

… Kanan having taken damage before creating a clone was seriously bad.

From here on, all the clones she generated would be in a 100-damage-taken state.

In other words, hit once and they'd be taken down in a single strike.

… I had to hope she could dodge the remaining attacks.

I'd also wasted 3 teleports on misfires.

… Gh. Ursula was truly serious.

With opponents I'd thoroughly stacked bodies with, I was relatively good at this.

What kind of timing they'd move on, how they'd reach climax — I could read their timing.

… But I'd never really stacked bodies with Ursula.

Furthermore, these past months… I hadn't been able to make Ursula climax much.

Because of that, I couldn't fully read Ursula's slightest dissonances.

… No, Ursula had become faster and sharper than before. I couldn't keep up.

Teleport only succeeded if you matched the timing perfectly…

Having her shift that timing was too brutal.

But next was our turn.

"Phantom Mist Clone!"

Instantly, Kanan became two. And then…

"Realm's Blessing!"

First, Luna. With that, all stats 2.3x!

"I'm going! Divine Art - Balmung!"

Confirming Libera was guarding Ursula, attack Saria.

… Even as a Divine Knight, in the end Libera was sticking exclusively to Holy Shield to defend Ursula.

But that was the optimal solution.

For now, leave Libera alone.

50 × 4 × 2.3 / 2 = 230!

Even against Saria's high Defense, more than enough damage to take her down in one strike.

Zan!

Saria's HP wiped out in one go. Endure effect from equipment activated.

And then, Speed re-action! If we could whittle Saria down in 1 turn, we'd be saved.

"Haaa!"

Luna's combo. The moment it hit…

"Dragon Art - Naga!"

Saria activated a skill. Eh, was there an effect I didn't know about?

Dragon Art - Naga 1 Guaranteed-hit, piercing, Light-advantage element. Status-ailment recovery, Attack 2x. At-will, 1 turn complete defense. On combat-incapable, auto-activates and nullifies combat-incapable.

… was that the effect?

Despite 1 use, this was strong…

"… Boost Power."

Adelia quietly stacked a buff. HP reduction was irrelevant.

Trusting that Kanan would absolutely protect her, she simply, just, accumulated power.

Adelia's Flame Severing Claw, base attack power 50. Ursula's Magic Defense and Defense should be about the average of Adelia's Strength and Magic, so with stat addition, 100. With Messiah, 200. With Boost Power, 300.

After that: 2-hit attack, Fire Boost, and Fire-attribute weak against Demon-attribute and Demon Lord's Pressure canceling out, so 1/10 produced Penetration damage.

Turn 2: with Realm's Blessing, 360 × 1.5 = 540

Turn 3: with Realm's Blessing, 600 × 1.5 = 900

Considering Speed re-action, we could settle it here.

Turn 4: with Realm's Blessing, 960 × 1.5 = 1440

Turn 5: with Realm's Blessing, 1500 × 1.5 = 2250

Without considering Speed re-action, this was where we could settle it.

Well, Ursula didn't have an acceleration technique, so turn 4 would be fine for the showdown.

There was Adelia's attack technique… but Ursula's defense technique was tremendously high.

Considering the possibility of being halved, I'd want to stack up one more turn.

… But starting from Kanan having taken damage was tough.

Whether we could maintain the front lines 4 or 5 turns from here…

… The decision might come sooner than expected.

"Dragonic Aura! Dragon Art - Ultimate Breath!"

Bo bo bo bo!

At that moment, Saria's attack targeted Adelia. 4-hit combo…!

… Tch. Unless we took down Saria fast, our teleport count would just dwindle!

"Kanan!"

The clone instantly hugged Adelia close, and with 3 consecutive teleports, evaded the 4-hit combo.

… If it ended with just the clone wasting teleport counts, fine, but…

At this rate, with continued use, would the teleport count really hold?

Already at this point I felt cornered.

And the match, supposedly, had only just begun.