Growth

A quick check on everyone's levels. Each of them had been steadily climbing.

"How about Kanan and Lyuka versus Setsuna next, a 2-on-1?"

That was Yuria's proposal.

Hmm… Leone might be a different story, but Setsuna handling 1-against-2 was a bit rough.

Still, I didn't feel like we'd lose.

"All right, I'll take it. Setsuna, this is your first battle under my command!"

"Yeah, Onii-chan! I'll do my best."

"Hmph, taking it on, are we? Talk about being underestimated. There's no way I'd lose 1-on-2. Let's do it, Lyuka!"

"Yes. I can't keep being a burden because my level is low forever, either."

The two of them were plenty fired up.

Now, even allowing for a bad matchup, when Setsuna had had to go one-on-one with Leone she'd had basically no answer.

The fact was she had no explosive damage output, and surprisingly, she wasn't very easy to use solo.

Her skill loadout was built for a back-line buffer, a Supporter type.

Put a high-firepower unit like Adelia in front and stack buffs on her with March of Exhilaration from the back, and she became a serious threat, but she wasn't really cut out as the team's ace Attacker.

Yuria, too, was more of a Supporter type. Her composition was light on damage: a Defender and two Supporters.

And yet she'd brought them up to a level where they could actually fight.

The reason Setsuna could be put to work as an ace Attacker was precisely because Haru-kun's high-level defensive ability was there to back her up.

If a battle dragged on into long turns, Bloody Masquerade reached a lethal level.

All right, time to think about my skill choices.

Her one useful attack skill, Bloody Masquerade…

Its effect went up with buffs, and it also had the property of stacking through repeated casts.

If it was 5 points of damage with 5 points of slip damage, then turn 2 was 5 damage with 10 slip, turn 3 was 5 with 15 slip, and so on.

On top of that, with a 30% attack buff it became 20. If everything went well up to that point, I should just about be able to take down one of them. But in reality, Kanan blocked the attack damage with Wind Shield, and if Lyuka spammed her healing skill the slip damage got nullified too. If Kanan shielded, taking out Lyuka first was hard as well.

Which meant…

"All right, decided."

The match began.

"Setsuna, Phantom Waltz!"

"Kanan, Wind's Blessing. Lyuka, Shining!"

"Yeah, Onii-chan!"

The music Setsuna played conjured countless phantom images.

"… If I just blow them all away, it amounts to the same thing… Shining!"

Lyuka's strongest spell triggered. But… Shining hurtled off into empty space and detonated.

A miss, of all things!

Yes, beautiful. Even at only 30%, a skill that could make even an all-target attack spell miss when it didn't have the guaranteed-hit attribute was amazing.

And once it was cast, the effect was permanent. I didn't get why Yuria hadn't used this skill earlier.

"Oh my… so even spells can miss. The first time I tried it there wasn't much effect, so… I just stopped using probability-based skills…"

It seemed Yuria had only just learned it and hadn't been making good use of it.

It was true, there were people who didn't like using probability-based techniques because they were unstable.

Next turn. I'd been planning to recover here, but no need.

"Radiant Symphony!"

Her stats shot up. Alongside Leone's Thunder Aura, this one was essential when running Setsuna solo.

"Kanan, Storm Cannon! Lyuka, Shining!"

This time both hit. But even with both connecting, the chip was slight. Just a hair over a quarter shaved off. In other words, Setsuna wouldn't go down unless they each landed four hits total.

Lyuka's Light element was convenient since it dealt at least normal damage to most elements, but it was surprisingly not treated as a strong element.

… That was because it had a weakness against Normal element, which was the most common Garumon element.

Well, Setsuna wasn't Normal element, mind you.

It wasn't that there was a Sound element. She was a slightly special case: Non-element. Non-element had the property of being unaffected by any element, which meant damage should be at normal multiplier.

And even so, the reason damage was low…

"She's using Guardian Fugue, isn't she…"

As expected of Yuria, she'd caught on. The 30% damage reduction effect wasn't strong, but it was reliable.

… Now then, it was Setsuna's turn. With this attack… could the two of them tank three turns?

"Death Requiem!"

"…!"

Setsuna drew a mournful melody from her violin. And…

"Agh!"

"Kuah…!"

The two of them had nearly half their HP shaved off in one go.

"… Wow, she's strong."

Of course she was. With the level gap, simple stat-wise Setsuna was way ahead. With skills boosting her further on top of that, damage taken was minimal and damage dealt was hugely amplified. If we could have afforded a long fight, pushing with Bloody Masquerade would have been an option, but with no Defender on her side, when it had to be a short fight, pushing with Death Requiem was better.

At this rate, two more shots would finish them.

"Storm Cannon!"

"Shining!"

Hit again. Setsuna's HP was now down to half from this, but factoring in Setsuna's Speed, the advantage was on our side.

"Mmm… well, against Kanan, of course you push with magic attacks she can't block with Wind Shield… ngh."

Yuria seemed to have miscalculated, having figured Bloody Masquerade would be sealed off by Lyuka's heals and Wind Shield.

"To turn this around from here… hmm…"

Yuria thought it over, but there wasn't much time to spare.

"Argh, fine! Storm Cannon and Shining!"

… Yeah, that was the right call. Their only option was to finish her off with maximum firepower.

"Death Requiem!"

Same on our side. First, both of them got pushed into critical. Then Setsuna's HP got knocked down to 1/4.

After that, the only thing left was to hope for Endure and trade blows with everything we'd got.

"Finisher, Death Requiem!"

"Don't let her! Storm Cannon and Shining!"

Kanan's first-strike Storm Cannon landed first.

… But here, a miss occurred.

"Argh, no!"

To Kanan as she stews,

"Death Requiem!"

Endure didn't proc, and Kanan and Lyuka went down.

All right, victory.

And so we kept up our back-and-forth bouts.

Through these tough battles, our levels rose nicely.

"Ah, Naoto, this one learned a new skill. What do you want to do?"

"Let me see…"

When learning a new skill, we'd discuss it with each other and decide which to drop and which to keep.

"The early-game physical techniques are obvious cut candidates, aren't they? They have the upside of higher use counts, but…"

"The way the current Garumon Battle is set up, it's rare to fight more than fifteen turns. But isn't the early-game magic technique even more useless? It's a complete inferior version, after all…"

"You're right. Then I'll erase this one."

… That was the kind of conversation it had become. The sense of a desperate battle where you fight to take everything from each other… that feeling had been gone for a while now.

But eventually…

On our side: Maika, Kanan, Adelia. On their side: Haru-kun, Yuria, Setsuna…

This was the revenge match for our first battle. We were going up against them with Haru and Kanan on the line.

I could no longer get away with the excuse that the level gap was too wide. An average level gap of 5 still fell within the bounds of a Disadvantageous Battle, but factoring in elemental advantages, we should actually have the edge this time.

In other words… this time for sure, we'd win.

What I'd get if I won was my best friend Haru-kun. That Haru-kun, who'd now turned into a futanari and become even more beautiful, joining my side… how could I not be fired up for this?

… Wait, was this actually okay? Haru-kun's a boy, and yet… well, never mind, it was fine for now.

Now then, let's do this.

"Kanan, Wind's Blessing. Adelia, Boost Power. Maika, Dance of Frost!"

Same as always on our side.

"Wood Golem!"

Haru-kun immediately rolled out his once-per-battle Golem summon.

"Phantom Waltz."

Setsuna lowered their hit rate, and…

"Dark Protect."

Yuria went for a defensive skill too. They were locking down their defense thoroughly.

Next turn.

"Kanan, Wind's Blessing. Adelia, Boost Power. Maika, Gale Dance, then Accel Mirage on Yuria."

"Dark Protect!"

Yuria stacked more defense in one move. Dark Protect was a shield that blocked three attacks.

She could put it up twice per battle, so up to six attacks could be blocked. Its weakness was consecutive attacks.

Gale Dance was a terrifying skill that temporarily doubled Speed. As long as Speed was superior, two attacks per turn were guaranteed.

Against Yuria, who had the lowest Speed, attacking twice was a comfortable margin.

But…

"Earth Barrier!"

Haru-kun's attack-drawing technique. Haru-kun's Speed wasn't yet outdone by 2x Speed, so Gale Dance ended up wasted.

… Still, she'd accelerated with Accel Mirage, so next turn she could land two attacks on anyone but Setsuna.

"Here we go, Onii-chan… Soul Refrain, Bloody Masquerade!"

"!"

Setsuna's new technique, Soul Refrain. It only had three uses, but it was a powerful skill that let you use the same skill twice.

Slash! Slash!

Kanan and Maika got attacked. Kanan, of course, blocked with Wind Shield, but slip damage couldn't be blocked.

Maika hadn't picked up Shadow Step yet.

All right, what's next.

"Maika, Gale Dance, Sword Dance on Haru-kun."

"Yes!"

"…! Sword Dance, you say…!?"

Slash slash slash slash! Attack UP. Slash slash slash slash! Attack UP!

Five layers of Dark Protect got torn off, and Haru-kun took damage three times.

"Dark Curse!"

Yuria tried to peel Adelia's buffs.

"Kanan, Wind's Blessing + Otherworld Wind, become Adelia's shield!"

"Yes!"

In that instant, Kanan teleported in to become Adelia's shield, blocking Dark Curse. The new technique, Otherworld Wind.

A handy skill that let her teleport anywhere within 5m of the battle's space and serve as a shield against any attack, or evade an attack outright.

"Adelia! We end it in one shot! Fire Boost + Awakening + Flame Claw on Haru-kun!"

"Nya!"

"… Earth Barrier…!"

The attack was being drawn by Haru-kun himself.

But it was x2.25 from Boost Power, x2 for one turn from Fire Boost, plus a stat UP from Awakening.

A super-effective Fire attack at 5x in total. No matter how much Earth Barrier halved it, there was no way Haru-kun would come out of that intact.

KABOOM!

Tremendous destruction.

"Aaaah…!"

Haru-kun, the Defense-type with massive HP and his own defensive techniques active, fell in just a single hit.

… Unreasonable, but this was Adelia's power as of now.

Well, basically I'd outread her.

She'd probably figured I'd use Adelia's Mad Slash to break the barriers.

It looked like skipping Maika's Blizzard and coming in with Sword Dance instead had been outside her predictions.

"Tch… not yet! Soul Refrain + March of Exhilaration!"

Buffs stacked up double, and the slip damage on the two of them became serious.

By using Soul Refrain, Setsuna had become able to comfortably finish off enemies in 4-5 turns.

But that wasn't quite enough to cover a 3-on-2.

Whap whap whap whap!

Also, this Wood Golem dealt pretty significant damage if you left it alive.

Adelia had already used up her guaranteed-hit Awakening, so all that was left was to leave the rest to luck.

"Adelia, Flame Claw on the golem. Kanan, Wind's Blessing + Otherworld Wind to defend Adelia. Maika, Gale Dance + Accel Mirage on Yuria!"

"Dark Curse! Argh!"

Yuria's debuff got eaten by Kanan. Combined with Otherworld Wind, Kanan could now step in and block any attack at all.

And then…

Whap, swish! One of Maika's kicks landed, shaving off nearly half of Yuria's HP.

The Sword Dance buff meant damage was up. Either way, I couldn't have finished Yuria in one turn, so this worked.

"Soul Refrain + March of Exhilaration."

Surge, and again the buffs jumped up. If Concentrate came here, Maika and Kanan would have to give up.

That said, Soul Refrain was used up at this point…

Now then, Adelia, can you see through the phantoms and take down the golem!

KABOOM!

All right, it landed. The golem was shattered in one hit.

Next turn. Shoooo…

Yes, Dance of Frost activated. As long as Yuria couldn't move, Concentrate wasn't coming.

We'd also burned through our Gale Dance, but…

"Adelia, Flame Claw on Setsuna. Maika, Sword Dance on Yuria. Kanan, Tornado!"

"Bloody Masquerade!"

Setsuna's attack landed on Adelia. Big damage. Looked like Adelia would go down in another 2-3 turns.

But…

Sword Dance plunged into the immobilized Yuria. Landed clean and finished her off.

"Flame Claw, nyaaaa!"

If this had hit, we'd be a lot closer to victory, but it was a miss.

"Tornado!"

Also a miss.

Still, that made it 1-on-3. The battle situation was firmly in our favor for now.

That said… the three of them were pretty banged up on HP, and Setsuna had taken almost no damage.

Maika and Kanan would fall in two turns even if left alone.

Setsuna's firepower had shot up to absurd levels, and if she landed a hit, both Maika and Kanan would go down instantly.

… The thing was, if Adelia didn't attack, it'd take four turns to whittle Setsuna down with slip damage alone.

Dodging that long with just one phantom layer was reckless.

"Adelia, Flame Claw. Maika, Sword Dance. Kanan, Tornado!"

Whichever connected, it would be a nasty attack.

"Bloody Masquerade!"

Slash!

Maika got taken out. Well, dodging Sword Dance forever was impossible, so that was natural.

Two misses on Flame Claw would have been bad, but…

KABOOM!

Finally, it landed. Knocked Setsuna's HP down by close to half.

"Tornado!"

If this hit, then with one more Flame Claw I could take her down… yes, hit!

Setsuna's HP dropped well below half.

Next turn. Tornado wasn't quite enough. Flame Claw could one-shot.

If she attacked, Kanan would go down, and even if she didn't, Kanan would fall at end of turn anyway. But me, I was ignoring Kanan.

Tornado hitting or not didn't matter, and either way, if Flame Claw landed, it was over.

"Nyaaaa! Flame Claw!"

Missing this would put us in a really bad spot…!

KABOOM! Yes, hit!

But…

"She's still standing!?"

Had I miscalculated? Or had Setsuna braced herself fully, knowing damage was coming, so the damage had got reduced?

"Tornado!"

Land this and it would be over! But… too bad, miss.

"Ah… I'm sorry…"

From slip damage, Kanan went down too.

Adelia was already at half HP. One more Bloody Masquerade and she'd fall to slip damage.

Setsuna's HP was right on the edge.

One more hit and she'd be out.

The outcome of the match hung on whether Adelia's Flame Claw would land.

Miss and we'd lose. Hit and we'd win.

"I'm counting on you, Adelia."

"I know, nya. Kanan threw away her own moment in the spotlight to keep guarding Adelia… I'll absolutely land this one shot, nya!"

Last shot. System-wise, the phantom-disruption effect made it a 30% miss chance.

… Back at the start, in that bad flow, I hadn't felt like it would land. But now…

"Bloody Masquerade!"

Setsuna's strike shaved a huge chunk off Adelia's HP. The next round of slip damage would be unsurvivable. But this would end it!

"Nyaaaa! Flame Claw!"

KABOOM!

"…!"

It finally landed clean, and Setsuna fell… Revenge successful! The letters YOU WIN danced across the screen.

"All right, did it…!"

I threw a fist pump, raising my fist to the sky.

"Haaah… at last… we lost, didn't we…"

Yuria smiled, as if accepting it all.