Serious Match

With the match set, I took another look at Yuria's stats.

… Just look at that LV gap.

Up till now, even when we'd been outleveled, a wide enough rarity gap had let us cover for it. This time, though, the rarities were even too.

By any normal reckoning, there was no way we'd win.

Our one path to victory was fielding Leone, but I couldn't bring her out until I was down to my last Garumon.

And even Leone, could she really pull off a one-versus-three? Especially when this would be the first time I'd ever given her commands in a battle.

Still, in the few months I'd been running Garumon Battles, I hadn't lost a single one.

So if we all pooled our strength, we'd find a way through this one too. That was what I told myself, with no real basis for it.

First match. I picked the trio I'd drilled the most combos with: Kanan, Adelia, and Maika.

With no real choice on their side, the opponents went with Setsuna, Haru, and Yuria.

It was our first battle against an opponent completely out of our weight class.

"Listen, this is no opponent to be playing it safe with. Spirit Garb form."

"Got it."

"Understood…"

"Nya, got it nya."

Shuru, pasa… The three of them stripped off their clothes.

"… Whoa, that's lewd… your tastes are something else."

"Onii-chan…"

"Naoto-kun…"

Setsuna and Haru-kun shot me looks of contempt. Y-You don't have to look at me like that.

On their side, Yuria was back in her usual robe. Setsuna was back in her school uniform too, but Haru, no longer able to fit into a boys' uniform, must have picked up some women's clothing on this side. Overalls trimmed with an apron, the kind of thing you'd associate with gardening attire. The way it looked vaguely like a "naked apron" was a little erotic, though I supposed that was standard for this world.

"Here we go, Kanan. Wind's Blessing. Adelia, Boost Power. Maika, Dance of Frost."

I started stacking buffs as usual.

"Let's go, Setsuna!"

"Right. Bloody Masquerade!"

The next instant, Setsuna came flying in. Fast!

Up till now, no enemy had slipped past Kanan's Skill-less Skill, "Cover," that easily.

In a flash she was past Kanan and on Maika. Her leg whipped out gracefully, and ZWAK, a sweeping kick.

She shouldn't have any martial arts background, but that was a remarkably beautiful kick.

"Ah… ngh."

Maika's Shadow Step didn't trigger, and she ate the hit.

But the damage was minor.

"…? For such a cool-sounding name, the effect feels kinda weak…"

"Thanks, Onii-chan… But it's a really, really nasty technique to be on the receiving end of."

That's the advice Setsuna offered me.

"Green Wall."

When Haru-kun said that, a green wall enveloped the three of them. The effect on that one was easy to read. Looked like a physical defense buff.

And on top of that, "Green"… right, Haru-kun was most likely Grass-element.

… One advantage spotted. Grass-element is weak to both Fire and Ice. Our super-effective hits were going to land hard.

"Then I'll go too… Dark Sphere!"

Bobobo…!

A purplish, glowing orb was loosed.

That one was easy to read. Dark-element…! Dark is weak to Light, but tends to be strong against everything else.

… If only I'd managed to put together a Spirit Garb woven from Lyuka's hair, we could've fought her on favorable terms too. But we didn't have what we didn't have.

We'd just have to tank it on raw Magic Defense.

Her dark orb looked aimed at Maika. She was probably going for the highest-level target first.

Her techniques were precisely controlled and quick to launch. No way Kanan could Cover that.

But…

Suru…

Shadow Step triggered, and she dodged it cleanly.

"Oh my, you have Shadow Step. A probabilistic auto-trigger that can dodge physical and magic alike… troublesome…"

Yuria analyzed.

"… Then it would've been nice if you could've dodged Bloody Masquerade instead. There… here comes the effect."

"Ah… ngh."

The next instant, Maika took damage again… The damage was small, but it was about the same as taking the original hit.

"A continuous-damage technique…?"

When I looked closer, light was leaking from Maika's shoulder where the kick had landed. That must have been the mark of slip damage.

"For now, the damage is small. Don't worry about it, push on."

"Yes!"

Next turn.

Could I take down Haru-kun with Adelia? Fire-element is super-effective against Grass-element.

But the opponent was higher-level. Plus he already had one stack of a defense skill up… taking him out all the way was a tall order, huh.

"Boost Power one more time. Kanan, Wind's Blessing. Maika, Accel Mirage on Yuria!"

I'd take down Yuria first, the lowest-level and trickiest-looking of them.

"Earth Barrier!"

But the moment Haru-kun activated his skill, Maika's kick got pulled toward him.

BISH!

"Ngh…!"

Damage was minimal.

Tough. A skill that raised defense and pulled enemy attacks toward the user. This was going to be a pain. So Haru-kun was that party's defender.

"Bloody Masquerade!"

"Not so fast!"

Klang!

This time Kanan stepped out in front of Setsuna and blocked with Wind Shield.

"… Too bad. You may have blocked the damage, but you can't block the effect."

"… Gh!"

Light leaked from Kanan's arm, too, where she'd blocked the hit.

"Dark Curse!"

Yuria's attack continued. This time a wave of dark energy spread outward and engulfed Adelia.

"Funya…!"

I thought I heard a dewu-like sound. One stack of Adelia's hard-won Boost Power got wiped, and on top of that, a slowdown effect was applied.

"Argh…!"

The nasty thing about slow-and-haste in this world is that it affects the number of attacks, too.

When your Speed is more than double an opponent's, you get two attacks. Four times the speed, three attacks; eight times, four attacks… that's the cap, but either way, Speed differences are a serious headache here.

Of course, higher Speed also lets you do things like step in and Cover, or evade, plenty of other things too. If your Speed's high, you can run wild.

That's exactly why the effects of Accel Mirage and Wind's Blessing are so huge.

If she had buff-stripping effects, then stacking more Boost Powers might be too risky.

End of turn…

Zuzuzu…

"Gh…"

"Me too…"

From Setsuna's Bloody Masquerade, both Maika and Kanan took slip damage.

The damage was small for now, but if it kept stacking, it would start hurting eventually…

Next turn.

"Push through anyway. Adelia, Flame Claw on Haru-kun! Kanan, Bind Whip on Yuria. Maika, Accel Mirage on Yuria!"

"Earth Barrier!"

But thanks to the attack-pulling effect, all of them ended up hitting Haru-kun.

BISH! The whip wrapped around him.

"Ah, ah…!"

That stunned Haru-kun. He'd already used Earth Barrier, so its effect was up. The attack itself didn't really mean much.

… Still, Haru-kun looked erotic bound up by the whip.

And on top of that, his clothes tore a little. Pale skin peeking through, erotically… just for that alone, the attack was worth landing.

Gh, my focus was getting chipped away.

But I mean, all three of mine were in lewd swimsuits.

Accel Mirage landed with a gas!. Damage was minimal, but Maika's Speed was up enough that she'd soon get two attacks per turn.

And the main event…

"Haaaaaa! Unyaaaaaa!"

ZAN!

Flame Claw connected!

It tore a huge chunk out of his gauge in one shot. But…

"… Gh."

A hair short of one-third? Counting the Accel Mirage damage, it just barely cleared a third…

Earth Barrier's effect, maybe? Or maybe Haru-kun's stats were abnormally defense-heavy.

Either way, it would be hard to take him out in one hit next turn.

"Buff types are more vulnerable to mine, then. Dark Curse!"

"Gh…"

This time Maika got slowed and had one stack of Accel Mirage stripped off.

So much for that acceleration…

"Here I go… March of Exhilaration!"

And then… Setsuna pulled a violin out of who knows where.

Wait, where was she even keeping that? The thought crossed my mind, but, well, no point fussing over it.

It was probably the equivalent of a battle effect in a video game.

Tarattatta, an upbeat melody. We could hear it normally, and it was a nice tune, but we didn't feel any particular effect from it.

The opposing side, on the other hand, all got buffed with an Attack-up effect.

End of turn. This time the damage was…

Zuzuzu…

"Ah…"

"Gh…"

…!? The damage was higher than before? Wait, does slip damage scale with Attack buffs too?!

"Gh, this is brutal…"

Leaving it alone was dangerous, but it wasn't like I had a way to remove it.

"… Anyway, we'll just have to wrap this up fast!"

Right then, Maika's Dance of Frost activated.

It's apparently a random one-in-three thing, but it goes off roughly every three turns, so it's easy to plan around.

"Aaaah…"

Haru-kun froze solid and couldn't move that turn. Good, that worked.

"Ngh… this is a pain, too…"

Yuria was also locked up. That was a relief.

"I have action-disable resistance, you know."

But Setsuna could move. Tch… so she had the same trait as Leone.

"Adelia, Flame Claw on Haru-kun! Maika, Blizzard. Kanan, Tornado!"

We couldn't let any more damage stack. We had to wrap this up fast and clean!

"Lullaby Serenade!"

Just then, Setsuna's violin played a gentle melody.

A sleep effect on everyone…!

"Fua… aah…"

"Ah… ah…"

In that instant, both Maika and Kanan fell asleep.

"Wha…!"

The status effect rate was that high?!

"Oh my, lucky. Usually it's about one in three."

So Setsuna said. We were the unlucky ones, then.

"Haaaaaa!"

ZUGAN!

But Adelia's Flame Claw drove into Haru-kun.

He'd been stunned and hadn't gotten Earth Barrier off, so the damage came out pretty hefty.

Haru-kun's HP was down to a sliver. We should be able to take him out next turn.

… But Kanan and Maika's sleep didn't look like it was going to wear off in one turn.

And meanwhile, their HP kept getting chipped by slip damage…

Damn… we were at a disadvantage right now.

Their game plan was to drag out turns with Setsuna's slip damage at the core, wasn't it?

Anyway, Adelia was the only one who could act next turn, but let's take Haru-kun down.

If we left him alive, he'd just pull more crap. The question was whether to use Flame Claw or not… it only had five uses total, so by normal logic I should save it.

Next turn.

"March of Exhilaration."

Setsuna stacked another Attack buff. Since buff strength affected slip damage too, this was…

"Now, the truth is, I have a technique like this too. Concentrate!"

The skill Yuria used at that moment…

It pooled all of her allies' buffs onto Setsuna alone.

"… Wha…!"

This was brutal. The Attack buffs piled on Setsuna had just been tripled in one go…!

"Adelia. Buster Hand!"

Either way, we had to clear out Haru-kun first. With his HP this low, even if he used Earth Shield, we should be able to spare Flame Claw.

"Funya! Take this nya!"

"Wood Golem!"

Just before he got attacked, Haru-kun activated some kind of technique.

Thanks to Dark Curse, Adelia's Speed had dropped below Haru-kun's, too.

Gogogogogo…

"Gugoaaa!"

"Wha…!"

He summoned a wooden golem. It planted itself in front of him to shield his teammates.

"Funya…!"

BAKI!

Adelia's Buster Hand hit the golem instead… and didn't bring it down!

"Gh…!"

If it'd been Flame Claw, we might've been able to take down the golem too. Frustrating, failing because I hesitated.

Then slip damage struck the two of them.

"Augh!"

"Wha… gguh!"

The damage was so huge that both of them snapped awake. That wasn't damage that should have been coming from a slip.

Two or three more hits and they'd be down.

"S-Sorry, I can't believe I fell asleep."

"That couldn't be helped. Anyway, let's keep at it!"

We couldn't afford to lose.

All right, next turn.

It was 4-vs-3. And in the damage race, we'd fallen well behind.

"We can't fight a war of attrition. We'll have to use AoE attacks to chip them down all at once… Blizzard, Tornado, and Flame Claw on the golem!"

"Bloody Masquerade!"

"Gh…!"

Kanan tried to step in and shield, but failed…

BISH!

"Funya!"

And finally, Adelia took damage too. The damage was on a completely different level from before.

From here on, Adelia was going to start eating hits hard, too…

"Dark Curse on Adelia."

"Funyu…"

A debuff hit Adelia on top of that.

At this rate… but.

"Haaaaaa… nyaaaaaa!"

Flame Claw! If we could just take down the golem before it did anything…!

"Earth Barrier!"

But Haru-kun pulled the attack onto himself. Naturally, that single strike sent him flying… but the golem stayed.

So it stuck around even after Haru-kun went down…

Shubabababa!

"…! Four random physical hits…!"

The attacks scattered randomly, and Kanan couldn't Cover all of them.

"Aguh!"

"Funya!"

Two on Kanan, deflected by Wind Shield. One on Maika, dodged by Shadow Step. The last one hit Adelia, a result that wasn't too bad.

Still, the damage on Adelia was by no means small… Four attacks per turn, plus a support summon that could Cover too. A nasty technique.

Now, our turn.

"Blizzard!"

Maika's strongest spell went off.

Cold air is super-effective against plants. It chunked the Wood Golem's HP down, dropping it past half.

But against the other two, Yuria and Setsuna both had respectable Magic Defense. Damage was about a quarter.

"Gh… my attack will land…! Tornado!"

Then Kanan's damage drove into the two of them.

That put Setsuna at just under half HP.

But…

"Oh my, sorry. My defense skill, Dark Mirror, is a probabilistic magic reflect."

"Eh… kyaaaaa!"

The Tornado bounced back at Kanan.

Luckily, Kanan being the magic-defense type, she didn't take too much from it… ah, no, this was bad.

The end-of-turn slip damage was at major-magic levels by now.

"… Kyuu…!"

Thud… Kanan went down.

"U-Uuh…"

Maika wasn't going to survive the next slip damage, either.

"Unyau…"

And Adelia, who'd just started taking damage, took the same.

She was already down to near half HP. Whittling that down in two more turns was…

"At this rate…"

"It's all right, Naoto-kun. My Dance of Frost should be due to trigger again any moment…"

"… Gh, I really don't get to shine here, do I…"

Bikibiki…

Yuria froze solid.

The Wood Golem froze too. Thank goodness, it worked on golems as well.

Yuria couldn't move next turn.

That said, considering Yuria's counter, attacking with magic was dangerous.

We had to take her down all at once.

But Setsuna, Yuria, Wood Golem… which to take down first?

The Wood Golem we could take out in one shot, but I didn't want to spend that one shot on it.

If it was the Wood Golem's four-hit physical, there was a chance Adelia's HP plus Maika's Shadow Step could handle it. Best to leave it alone for now.

Yuria, being a mage, presumably had weak defense, so she was the easier kill.

If we focused our attacks, there was a chance we'd finish her off.

… As for Setsuna, her HP was full and her durability was solid. Even concentrated attacks had zero chance of one-shotting her.

That being the case, we should take down the troublesome Yuria first.

"Maika, Accel Mirage. Adelia, Flame Claw! Focus on Yuria!"

"Haaaa!"

"Nyaaaa!"

Maika's brilliant attack, then Adelia's finisher!

"Augh… that I… should…"

Honestly, with that much HP left, it was a coin flip, but thanks to the attacks landing well, we just barely managed to whittle Yuria's HP down to zero!

We finally won the gamble. That counts as a real result.

But…

"Bloody Masquerade."

ZAN…!

"Nyau!"

The attack drove into Adelia, gouging her HP. And then…

"Aaaaah…"

Maika, unable to endure the slip damage, fell.

"Funyaaaaa!"

And then…

"…! Adelia's HP is dropping at twice the rate…!"

Right, Bloody Masquerade can be stacked… This was awful.

… Adelia's HP was also down to a sliver. She couldn't withstand even minimal damage. And Flame Claw only had one use left…

There was no way I could see her downing Setsuna, who still had more than half HP.

And the Wood Golem was still around to boot…

There was no path to victory left. But… I wouldn't give up till the very end.

And then, next turn.

What was left was Adelia, Setsuna, and the golem. Adelia only had single-target attacks; she couldn't take both down at once.

But even if a summon was still up, wasn't it over once the main three were down? Depended on this world's system… I'd have to gamble on that one slim hope.

Still, between Setsuna, stacked with buffs and still in good health, and Adelia, with barely any HP and no way to survive the next slip damage, the chance of winning was almost nil.

… But as long as it wasn't zero, no, even if it was zero, I wouldn't give up till the end.

"This is the last one. Go off to sleep at least… Lullaby Serenade."

Setsuna activated her sleep skill. Maybe she felt bad about finishing it with an attack.

Adelia…

Suya suya… fell asleep.

… A path to victory!

"Adelia, Awakening!"

PAN! In that instant, every debuff effect on Adelia was blown away.

The Speed reduction, the sleep, and of course the slip damage too.

"Go get 'em! Flame Claw!"

The last Flame Claw! And it's a guaranteed hit!

"Nyaaaaaaa!"

"Gh…!"

ZUN!

Adelia's strongest, mightiest attack…! But with no buffs and a glaring level gap, it couldn't quite shave off the remaining half of Setsuna's HP.

"Gh… aah…"

I was finally out of options.

Shubaba!

The Wood Golem's vines came raining down. Without Endure triggering, Adelia… fell.

W-We lost…

I… I lost…?

To Yuria, to Haru-kun… to Setsuna…