Reido Academy Cup Tournament Round 3 (1)

All right, I made it back with a little time to spare. Bedroom time really is wonderful.

"Naoto!"

"Shaina. Sorry I'm late."

I'd come to Shaina's waiting room.

"Shaina, there's actually something I want to ask of you later…"

"A favor? Don't be so distant. If it's a favor from you, Naoto, anything's OK."

… Agreeing to it with a recklessness that went too far, Shaina. I really am trusted… happy as that makes me.

"So that's it, huh, my own shaving debut at last…"

"Not that one! … No, well, that one too, please! But this is something else."

"Ahaha… mm, got it. So, details later, then."

"Yeah, for now let's focus on the match."

Shaina, Shita, Carla. Haru, Setsuna, Patty.

Everyone seemed fully prepared.

"Right, so the plan is, we go first and do as much as we can. Of course, finishing them off outright is best, but…

if we lose, the rest is on you guys.

Well, with how thoroughly we'll have weakened them, there's no way Haru and the others lose, so on that point I'm going in nice and easy.

But I'm fired up. This time for sure, I'm gonna take down Fergus!"

That was how Shaina psyched herself up.

"Yeah, do your best."

"Yeah!"

Waaaaah…!

"Now, at last, Round 3. The battle of Shaina Fervey versus Fergus.

Shaina is entering her fourth year. With overwhelming strength she made S-Class promotion via the elite course in just one year, but she's had trouble climbing higher in S-Class. Yet here she comes with two straight wins.

Both opponents were Zeiros, granted.

But after recently deepening her ties with Naoto, has a change come over her, I wonder.

Hopes are high that she can avenge her defeat to Fergus two years ago.

Fergus has a ten-year S-Class history and is in his eleventh year now.

However, he too has been stuck. He's particularly ill-matched against Gidsen and has never once beaten him.

He soundly rebuffs challenges from A-Class and lower, so his high ability is clear.

If he defeats Shaina here once more, he can leapfrog Gidsen and challenge the 16th, Naoto Akai."

"Fergus is the man said to be the great lecher of S-Class 1st. Four times achieving a hundred-in-a-row, a fine list of accomplishments.

The Fergus-Shaina match calls to mind two years ago.

That time it turned into a pitiful affair for Shaina… I imagine no small number of men used that scene as their fap material.

This time, too, there are surely many men looking forward to a repeat."

"This time, in the event Fergus wins, his condition is to make Shaina his Garumon and then have public sex. If Shaina wins, it's a billion G. Ten times the going rate again."

"Oh my. Well, a typical S-Class Master would normally have a billion G or so saved up, but…

right now Fergus has reportedly sunk a fortune into a long-shot bet on whether he can achieve his next hundred-in-a-row.

I'd hate to see a glorious S-Class Master do something so unsightly as going bankrupt.

If he wins here, he can stiff Shaina on her wager, so Fergus will want to win at all costs.

Conversely, if he loses, then unless he achieves a hundred-in-a-row including Rosalia, he's on a straight path to bankruptcy.

… Even one-on-one against Rosalia would be an interesting match, but ninety-nine more after her? Practically impossible.

To avoid letting go of his own Garumon, he'll just have to work hard at raising the funds."

"And so, the cornered Fergus and Shaina's match begins shortly."

Ahaha…

There was laughter directed at Fergus.

Say what you will, the guy's a beloved character.

Well, I do want to gripe about him butting into other people's business, but it's true his joining did liven things up.

He's not a guy I like, but maybe there's no need to loathe him so much.

… Still, I will never forgive the matter of him publicly raping Shaina two years ago.

I want her to beat him to a pulp here today and ease the resentment from back then.

The muscle-bound Fergus stood planted in the arena like a guardian deity.

In this world, fighting is the Garumon's job, so a Master doesn't need to train all that much.

If anything, training for the purpose of fighting is a complete waste.

But that doesn't mean it's fine not to train at all, either.

A Master's most important job is having sex with his Garumon.

There are Masters who supposedly always lie there like a dead fish and have their Garumon do all the work… a fair number of them, in fact… but it's better to have at least enough stamina to hoist up a girl under 60 kg and move your hips.

That way you can enjoy more varied kinds of sex.

So a Master who's enthusiastic about sex tends, surprisingly, to be in trim shape.

I think I've clearly become sturdier myself than I was back in my original world.

But Fergus's muscle-bound state far surpassed that. From things like that, he probably demonstrated his prowess as a great lecher.

"Yo, Shaina. You all ready to get done in by me again today?"

Fergus called out, full of confidence and rough as ever.

Standing across from him was Shaina.

She really is cute… Her slender legs stretched out long. Her big chest, her truly cute face…

That such a wonderful girl is my friend really makes me happy.

Given what happened two years ago, Shaina probably had a bit of a complex about facing Fergus.

But she'd spent a whole week sharpening her skills with me.

Instead, she shot back full of confidence.

"You're the one who'd better have your money ready. I won't take responsibility if Dakini gets sold off cheap to the system."

"Heh, give it a rest."

"For starters, I'll be taking back 21st. Rosenhearth, a fine pretty castle like that, is wasted on you."

"… I'll show you a good time, Shaina Fervey! Go!"

Bom bom bom!

Fergus sent out his Garumon.

The three Fergus brought out were sexy, dynamite beauties with deep, sharply chiseled features, the very picture of American Beauty.

Hmm, every Master really does have their own taste.

Of course there's no doubt they were stunning beauties, but they were a little… no, quite garish.

He apparently liked the rather brawny sort of muscular beauty who wouldn't look out of place beside his own muscular self.

Aldis's Lava, and Rosalia too, lean a bit that way. Beautiful as those women are, they're just a little off from my taste.

For me it's still girls like Shaina who are best — round, big eyes, a slim chin, a loli-faced adorable beauty.

And the size of her breasts loses nothing at all to Fergus's sexy-dynamite Garumon, which is even more to my taste.

But Shaina's breasts feel soft — and in fact they're very soft, melting breasts — whereas Fergus's women's chests are like slabs of muscle, looking even a bit hard.

Well, enough comparing looks.

More than that, the one with the most impact was Dakini.

"Haaah!"

Zuryu!

To my astonishment, the moment she appeared, she transformed into a six-armed figure like an Asura.

Ogre God Knight Dakini.

So that's the ace-tier of Fergus's party.

… Even so, all three of them being knights.

Well, knight-type Garumon excel at offense and defense, so even an extreme lineup of nothing but knights can fight well enough, I suppose.

The pitch is that they see wide use from the early game all the way up to S-Class, and just as advertised, even in S-Class there's no escaping the curse of "knights again!" Fergus seemed to take that to an even greater extreme.

… Well, if Shaina wins this, I'll never have to worry about fighting Fergus again.

"All right, here we go. Carla, Shita!"

"Now, on Shaina's side it's the usual three. Fergus has sent out Dakini from his ace party in the lead."

"Fergus is a surprise. His next match is a back-to-back against Naoto, isn't it? You'd think he'd want to conserve his ace, Dakini, as much as possible.

Weaken Shaina as much as you can with the first party, then win with minimal losses using Dakini. Swap out the first party for the next match and fight at full strength.

That's the standard move.

Well, unless Fergus has thrown in the towel — figuring that as long as he beats Shaina and gets his sex, losing to Naoto is fine — then maybe he's prepared some secret weapon. Let's look forward to finding out."

Silvana's comment. I see, I thought, and focused my attention on the arena.

With the information masking, I couldn't actually know everything 100%, but I could ask Shaina for the details afterward, and since I knew almost everything about Shaina, I could infer from there too. Silvana's comments were a help as well.

So I'd ignore the information masking and describe it as if I could see it all properly.

"Divine Art - Guard!"

Rebecca immediately put up a defense. Guard — attack-draw and one-turn defense — a defensive skill in wide use from G-Class to S-Class.

The Divine Art version of it, then. Doesn't seem all that rare, but it's my first time seeing it.

What effect, I wonder. Well, if it's a straight upgrade of Guard, it'd be guaranteed-hit draw, or complete defense, or usable every turn — one of those, or some combination.

"Demon Art - Ogre General Battle Aura!"

Dakini went with an easy-to-read attack buff. A charge-type buff — she couldn't act immediately… which meant it was probably that much more powerful. Maybe on par with Patty's Super Ogre God Charge, or more.

"Spirit's Shield!"

Jessie buffed Dakini. Defensive? No, it's a buff-removal, debuff-prevention type.

"Spirit's Sword!"

Rebecca also buffed Dakini. This one's an attack-UP type. Looked like about +100%. The "Spirit's —" skills must be free actions. Which meant…

"Knight's Pride!"

Jessie could act again. Probably an effect of all-allies attack/defense +50% and a large HP heal.

Thoroughly protect Dakini, pile on buffs, and the attacker Dakini attacks for all she's worth. Easy to read.

Charge this turn, attack the next. So that's it.

Now then, Shaina, after watching Fergus's moves, started moving leisurely.

"Here we go, Shita!"

"Yeah! Divine Art Possession - Kali!"

Oh, Kali right out of the gate, huh.

"Divine Art - Light of Ruin! And one more!"

"!?"

Two in a row, right off the bat, aimed at Rebecca!

Light of Ruin reduces the skill uses spent that turn by 3.

If Divine Art - Guard has the same count as Guard, that's five. Which means… this empties out Rebecca's defense.

Spirit's Sword, a free-action +100%-UP, would be five uses at most. That empties it too.

In no time, Rebecca had lost her means of defense.

"Demon Art - Hegemonic Battle Aura."

Carla buffed normally… This one, a powerful buff that also halves her HP, isn't suited to consecutive matches either.

Well, she heals it with Lakshmi, but still.

In her drive to win in the high-level S-Class, Shaina chased ever more powerful skills, and as a result her skills became more and more ill-suited to consecutive matches, and she'd become unable to win 3-vs-6 battles.

A vicious cycle. There was no escaping it short of gathering six members.

… Conversely, if she committed to fighting all-out as a fixed three, there'd be hardly any lower-tier S-Class Master who could beat Shaina.

"Tch! This… can't be helped! Go, Dakini!"

"Ah! If I just smash all of it to pieces, who needs defense! Demon Art - Asura Slash!"

… But she lived up to her billing.

Demon-attribute colossal damage, single-target physical — and Dakini's six-arm trait raised it to a 6-hit attack.

On top of that, the earlier Ogre General Battle Aura granted guaranteed-hit, piercing, and double damage.

Pretty insanely strong!

But…

"Divine Art Possession - Lakshmi!"

Complete defense granted to all allies. Sacrificing Kali after just one turn, switching over to defense.

Kan kan kan kan…

Dakini's Demon Art was completely blocked.

"Tch! But next time for sure…!"

"Divine Art - Guard!"

Jessie's defense.

"Light of Ruin!"

Shaina mercilessly whittled it down. Jessie's defense count was down to one.

"Demon Art - Black-God Possession."

Carla buffed again this turn too. If Jessie hadn't used Guard, she'd have attacked.

Attack 2x or more, +2 hits, piercing granted.

It was about time to go on the offensive.

"You splendidly blocked Dakini's fierce attack, Shita."

"That's right. Meanwhile, Fergus's defense has been turned to mush by Shaina in no time.

Shaina used to stand out for getting heated up rather easily, but somehow her way of fighting has become more cool-headed than before… more like Naoto, you might say.

Could this be Naoto's good influence too, I wonder."

Silvana made that comment. Huh, I thought — when you're doing it together you don't really notice, but that's how it looks from the outside.

The next turn.

Divine Art - Guard apparently still couldn't be used on consecutive turns. In other words, Fergus had no means of defense.

"Right, here we go! Divine Art - Brilliant Light Riot!"

"Demon Art - Brahmastra!"

The two aimed at Dakini.

"I won't let you!"

"Dakini!"

Jessie and Rebecca moved to shield Dakini together.

… But Carla's Brahmastra was an absolute guaranteed-hit. There was no way to block it with the off-skill Cover action.

Doon!

In one blow, Carla's chakram leapt up from a ground-skimming low arc into the sky, lifting Dakini's body heavenward.

"Gaha…!?"

Jessie and Rebecca couldn't Cover the airborne Dakini.

Taking precise aim at that, Shaina's Brilliant Light Riot concentrated its fire!

Zudadadadada…!

… Fufu. That tactic of concentrating Brilliant Light Riot on a target launched into the air by Brahmastra — the idea was mine, you know.

I quietly smirked to myself, not saying it to anyone.

"This… goho… guboa!"

Dakini probably Endured a few times, but whether spirit or demon, Shaina held the elemental advantage.

With overwhelming colossal damage, Dakini was rendered unable to fight.

All right, a splendid total victory!

With their only attacker down, the two defenders were helpless.

"… Tch, can't be helped, member change!"

Fergus showed signs of impatience. Manga-style, this was the point where he'd break out in a cold sweat.

… But did he have some secret weapon? He still seemed to have a margin of composure somewhere.

"… Hah! Interesting…! Then, shall we get to work…!"

And the one who stood up was a red-haired, beautiful girl clad in red bikini armor. With sharp, upturned eyes, a loli face and huge breasts — exactly my type.

… She held a staff, and had a monkey's tail on her behind. The armor's design was a little Chinese too. Sun Wukong-ish, I thought on instinct.

"…! That's…"

The ones who reacted were Griera and Melvis. The fact that these two reacted meant…

"She's a… mercenary?"

"… Yeah. One of the comrades of Servi the Wanderer.

Monkey King Regina. Servi herself roams all over the place. The comrades she leaves behind take on jobs individually too.

If she gets to fight a strong opponent, Regina will take on most any job…"

"Oh, it's Griera and Melvis. 'Monkey King' is old info. I class-changed recently.

Now I'm Regina, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven. I don't really get it, but it sounds strong, right?"

Bishi! And she leveled her Ruyi Staff.

… She really was Sun Wukong!

I could feel destiny in the showdown with Patty, waiting in the second slot.