Mock Battle with Griera

"For today, first off, I'd like to ask you for a serious mock battle. We can have lots of sex afterward."

I had let her know in advance, just in case. With her already raring to go for sex, it would have been a shame to disappoint her.

From Griera came only

"Got it."

That dispassionate reply, and nothing more.

… If we were doing this, then naturally I meant to fight to win.

Let's see, Griera's party was…

Griera, Klara, and Irana's party against Kishilia, Lizalind, and two Magical Beasts.

… Going by the obvious read, the 1st party would be Kishilia, Lizalind, and the Magical Beasts. The 2nd party would be Griera.

Because if Griera went down first, there would be no one to give orders.

… However, Kishilia was extremely accustomed to fighting alone.

Taking that into account, the order might be the reverse.

Griera held Moruna's power in high regard. And in fact, that overwhelming ability of hers… if she fought seriously, an A-Class Master would stand no chance against her.

But Moruna's everyday fighting style was anything but serious…

To get her to fight even a little properly, putting her in the no-retreat 2nd party might be better.

Well, even if I locked in Griera as 1st and Kishilia as 2nd, Griera was Demon-element, so either way I had to prep countermeasures against Demon-element. That much wouldn't change.

"So, with that, I'm prepping for Demon-element matchups. Strong against Demon are God, Thunder, Light, and Spirit. So…

"Luna, Suzanne, Patty, Lyuka, Leone. Those five are locked in. As for the last one… given the bad blood with Griera, and for leveling purposes I'd like to use Colette, but she's obviously not the kind of opponent you can show off against by sending in a Lesser Hero. Kanan."

And with that, the members were decided.

1st party: Luna, Patty, Kanan.

2nd party: Suzanne, Lyuka, Leone.

I wasn't picking Luna and Patty for leveling purposes. I was simply taking them along as straightforward combat strength.

And with that, off to where Griera was.

"… Glad you came. We're all set on our end."

Griera and her group were already fully geared up and waiting for us.

"Since we're at it, let's bet something. If we win, you have to listen to one thing each from us.

"… And if you win, Naoto, we'll listen to one thing each from you."

"Sounds good, let's do that."

"All right, Luna, Patty, here we go… You two did great last time so it's fine, but I had a rough go of it…

"I have to look cool in front of Naoto here! And that's all riding on you two!"

"I don't think you had a rough go of it at all, Kanan-san…"

"Kanan, that's traumatic for me, so please stop…"

Suzanne griped at her from below the stage.

"Suzanne doesn't need to mope, eitheeer～"

In any case, everyone was thoroughly fired up.

"… As for us, we showed nothing of value last time. At this rate we'll be branded as incompetents. Let's go, Irana-san."

"Ahaha… well, I always rely on Griera-san completely anyway, so it's the same as usual for me～"

"That's not true. I couldn't show my real strength either, when I was cut off from you all.

"… Today, let's show Naoto what we're really capable of."

And so, battle start.

"Now then, here I go. Perfect Order! Irana-san!

"… My Perfect Order is a skill that lets an ally take action again, up to three times."

"Roger that, here I go～

"My class as Irana, Porter, isn't even a Top-Tier Job. It's just a perfectly ordinary Advanced Job. The work is carrying and using items.

"And on top of that, the Porter's signature skill, the Item Box that lets you store as many items as you want, gets compared to things like 'isn't that just barely better than having a Garumon haul a cart,' or 'a Mage can stash as many items at base as they like with Gate, so isn't that more useful,' and well, getting a Mage to join your party is hard but Porters are easy, that's the so-called merit, and the class gets called a basically inferior version of the Mage. That's the kind of class it is.

"… But, the only class that can use items mid-battle is the Porter! As long as you have items, you can keep contributing forever. That's what a Porter is!

"So with all that, here I go again. Eternal Item! This skill takes rare items that can normally only be used once, and lets you use them once per battle each. It's the Porter's ultimate skill!

"In my case, up to five! Incidentally, that's a really high count! For a normal Porter, one is decent, two is excellent, three is genius!

"And I have five! Amazing, right Yo! You can totally praise me～!"

Irana puffed her chest out proudly.

"R-Right, that's amazing."

Well, even though this was a mock battle doubling as a self-introduction on both sides, she sure went on and on. But that was cute too.

"All right, here goes! Ultimate Barrier!"

Shuvaaan!

A perfect barrier covered Griera's group.

"Nfufufuu! One-turn perfect defense! It's said one use sends a hundred million in gold flying. The ultimate defensive item, Ultimate Barrier!

"Whether or not you have one of these makes a heaven-and-earth difference in a Porter's value!"

"O-Oooh…"

Coming from an enemy, that was a way-too-broken skill. One-turn perfect defense…

"Luna, Angel Halo. Patty, Ogre God Charge. Kanan, Phantom Mist Clone."

Well, since the first turn was for buff-stacking, we weren't going to attack anyway.

"This is no time to dawdle… Hatred."

Bachi… bachibachibachi…!

Griera applied some sort of buff. An attack-power UP, maybe.

"Here you go, Griera-san! Item Use, Dragon Bullet! This skill uses a consumable item.

"This one, the more you use it, the more money flies away…!"

"This is Naoto's welcome party. No need to be stingy. Let's go big."

"Roger! Eternal Item, Mechanical Knight!"

Kata, katakatakata…

A knight doll that looked like a string puppet, clad in armor and helmet, appeared.

"It looks unreliable, but it's actually a pretty dependable knight that'll protect us a few times."

… That aside, how many times had Irana acted just now? She'd just acted three times, hadn't she?

"Now then, here I go. Princess Veil!"

A party-wide re-action…!

And the one acting again was Irana.

"All right, here we go, tettekete～! Magic Gun Megiddo! The strongest gun in history. The ultimate gun, with the catch that it only fires once…!

"Letting a Gunner hold this with a Porter's Eternal Item, just how strong does that get… let me show you! Here, Griera-san."

"Yeah." Cha-chick… Griera readied the Magic Gun Megiddo.

"Here I go, Aura of Miracles!" Klara gave Griera another action.

"Power Booster!" Irana again, on Griera.

"Wait a sec, how many times has Irana moved?!"

"My trait is Linked Action. I can move ahead in sync with Griera-san's actions!"

Irana's own two actions, Griera's two actions, plus the initial Perfect Order, made five total…!

"Hold on, the synergy is way too strong…!"

"Then take it. I'm going all-out…! Demon Eye of Lightning, activate. Magic Gun Megiddo!"

Ka!

"Kanan! Fly!"

Kanan grabbed Luna and teleported 10m to the upper-left.

Kanan's clone and Patty flew to the right, diagonally opposite. With a straight-line attack, there was no way to catch both in range at once.

"… As expected. Not bad…!"

Griera reflexively swung the gun straight to the side.

… Sorry, Patty. I'd sent Patty in the direction Griera was likely to find easier to swing the gun.

Dogooooooo!

And then a tremendous flash of light, roughly five meters in diameter, scorched Patty and the clone away.

… As damage to dish out on the opening play, it was an unbelievable amount.

"… kyuu…"

Naturally, Patty was one-shot into combat-incapacitation without getting to do a single thing…

… If all four of us had flown together, she'd have just shifted aim and burned us all up at once.

By deliberately splitting up and down, we'd sacrificed one side to keep the other alive.

"… U-Unbelievable destructive power…!"

Kanan touched down with Luna in tow.

"… Just dodging this on first sight is plenty impressive. As expected, Naoto. And Kanan."

"… I-I'll take her down! Divine Art, Cláu Solas!"

Zan!

Luna slashed at Griera, but the Mechanical Knight stopped her.

"Haa!" Zan!

She cut the Mechanical Knight, but the blow didn't quite feel like it had landed.

Apparently it could block several times.

"Welp… can't leave this all to Luna, can I. Here I go… Dragon Art, Blast Storm!"

A pair of tremendous gales!

"Kyaa!"

Considerable damage to Irana… Though it kind of felt like Irana had basically already played out her role.

"Tch, magic, huh… I'll just have to endure it." Klara braced and weathered the wind. Moderate damage.

The Mechanical Knight shielded Griera. The damage to Griera looked minimal.

"… Now then. Let me try to break through that famed Kanan defense.

"You ready, Klara, Irana!"

"Y-Yes!"

"Of course!"

"Demon Eye of Lightning, Dual Shot! Demon Art, Desperate Magic Bullet, Soaring Magic Bullet!"

"Splitter, Splitter!"

"Princess Veil!"

"Demon Eye of Lightning, Dual Shot! Demon Art, Desperate Magic Bullet, Soaring Magic Bullet!"

"Splitter, Splitter!"

… Eight shots in a row?! Two attacks turned into four by re-action.

And on top of that, Irana's item apparently split each into two attacks at half damage apiece.

There was no teleport-evading this many bullets flying around in every direction at super-high speed!

The Soaring Magic Bullet especially was something I was seeing for the first time, and it was outrageous.

Guruguruguru! The bullets flew like a roller coaster. I wanted to say "bullets don't fly like that," but they were flying like that, so what could you do.

Bullets in this world were probably slower than the ones on Earth. Their base speed was maybe around 300 km/h.

Plenty fast, but if you timed it right, dodging them with teleport wasn't impossible.

… However, bullets accelerated by the Demon Eye of Lightning were nearly twice that. They flew at a speed not much different from the bullets you saw on Earth… or didn't see, rather.

That was already past the limit of normal reflexes.

I still managed to have Kanan teleport while clutching Luna several times, and we succeeded in dodging a few, but…

"Gu, agu, gugha!"

Kanan ate three of them. One of those was the Desperate Magic Bullet…!

"Goho, gu… I screwed up…"

The bullet was grinding into Kanan, the same way it had with me.

… Even if she didn't take a single hit from here on, Kanan would go down in two more turns.

If that happened, Luna would go down too…

… This was bad. A serious Griera was stronger than I'd expected.

This was… no good, we couldn't win…

… No, what good would giving up do.

Griera was strong, sure. But her defense was weak… If we landed two of Luna's serious Cláu Solas, taking her down wasn't impossible.

If the attacker Griera went down, this 1st party would be helpless.

But the Mechanical Knight was in the way…

"… No, with our coordination, we can pull this off.

"Kanan, Dragon Art, Blast Storm. Luna."

"… Right!"

"Haaaa!"

The two tornadoes Kanan unleashed… and into the center of them Luna dove.

The Mechanical Knight got caught up in the tornado, its movement hampered, while conversely… Luna was accelerated by the tornado's force!

Flying at super-high speed, Luna…

"Haaaa!"

"Kuh, again… gugha!"

Zudaaan!

She delivered a sharp thrust with Divine Art Cláu Solas to Griera.

Griera's HP plunged to less than half in a single strike.

"… Tch, you're really something, Luna. But I can't afford to lose twice! With this… I'll stop you!"

Dadadadadada…

"… Luna, at least, I'll keep alive."

Dan, dan!

Kanan took two attacks but… she defended through them!

But she was already on the brink, and with the additional damage from the Desperate Magic Bullet…

"If it's just one shot, Endure has a high proc rate!"

She survived at HP 1!

Next turn!

"Dragon Art, Blast Storm!"

"Divine Art, Cláu Solas!"

Zubaaaan!

Ooooooh! Unbelievable! Through Kanan and Luna's coordination, splendidly… we'd shaved Griera's HP all the way down!

"… Not bad… at all. But this is what we're really capable of. Take a look."

"Eternal Item, Light of the World Tree!"

Irana's action was… a revival item?! Griera revived at HP 1.

"Sorry, you all fought hard, but… this ends here! Soaring Magic Bullet, Soaring Magic Bullet, Soaring Magic Bullet, Soaring Magic Bullet!"

Even Kanan, of course, couldn't dodge an attack split into eight.

And the remaining Luna, taking a clean shot from the now-Dragon-element Griera (an element God-element was weak against), couldn't endure.

We'd cornered her so well…!

The 1st party lost…

"Haa, haa, haa… Damn, didn't expect to be cornered that hard… We're switching members too.

"Anything more is pushing it."

"I shall avenge them!"

"Here I go."

"Let's go."

Suzanne, Lyuka, and Leone took the stage.

On the other side, Lizalind, Kishilia, and the Blood Skull, Bumir-chan, took the stage.

"Sanctuary of Light!"

"Divine Art Michaela!"

"Accel Speed."

The three of them stacked buffs.

"… Magical Beast Summon, Moruna-chan."

Sharaaaaaa…

Here she came…! I was glad to see Moruna-chan, but in a serious fight, she was the kind of opponent I didn't want to meet. But…

Sha…!

The moment Moruna appeared, threads filled the entire battlefield, trying to lock down everyone's movement.

But…

"Suzanne, Leone!"

The two quickest ones flew around the battlefield trying to dodge the threads.

… But the threads packing every direction were too dense to dodge entirely. Everyone got caught.

"… Leone. Demon Art, Beast-Blood Awakening! Demon Art, Gale Thunderclap, attack Bumir, and free Suzanne and Lyuka from their bindings!"

"Right!"

After Beast-Blood Awakening burned through the threads and lifted her action-disable,

Zan! Zan! Zan!

The three-hit combo could land separate attacks on three pre-targeted enemies.

She splendidly freed Suzanne and Lyuka from their bindings.

"…!"

"All right, I won't be caught off guard this time, Moruna-chan."

We were fully prepped on our side, and our morale was high.

"Sanctuary of Light!"

Lyuka's skill. All allies got attack and defense UP 50%, the Light-attack-favorable attribute was added on top, and through her trait Light attacks got a 100% UP for all allies! In one turn, everyone's attack power went up 150%. A powerful skill.

And then…

"All right, here I go. Divine Art Michaela!"

Here, all stats doubled. Powerful status-ailment resistance was also added, so binding wouldn't work anymore.

… And further, since this came on top of the 50% UP for attack and defense, those stats became tripled. The 100% UP for Light attacks didn't double, of course.

But at this point, if Suzanne fired off a God- and Fire-element attack imbued with Light-element, combined with her own trait, that came out to a 5x attack with attack power UP 200%.

In other words, attack power 5x, defense 3x, speed and skill 2x.

Just on the first turn, the strength UP was enough to make me want to say, hey, isn't this basically already won?

And the action for this turn wasn't over yet.

On top of that, Leone got a re-action from her doubled speed!

Naturally, with the Light-attack-favorable attribute added, attack power UP 100%. Leone attacked Bumir.

"Haaaa!"

Considering the first hit had done about 1/3 damage, shaving off the remaining 2/3 was a sure thing.

"…! Bumir-chan, Demon Order, Major Defense!"

Gan! Gan! Gan!

But… Bumir didn't fall. Major Defense was a skill that… reduced damage to about 1/10. That was strong.

"… Tch, strong. But we're strong too!

"Boost Aura! I'll… take everyone down!"

Lizalind was fired up too.

"Bumir-chan, Wild Slash!"

A normal action not going through Demon Order, huh.

"I won't let you!"

Kan kan kan kan!

Suzanne, descending onto the field, batted away and dodged Bumir-chan's attacks.

The God-element strong against Demon-element, plus defense doubled and speed doubled, sealed Bumir's attacks with overwhelming strength.

Or rather, Angel Wing activated four times and shut everything down completely.

… All right, next turn.

"Leone, Thunder Aura!"

"Yes, got it."

A 30% UP across all stats was a tame buff at this point, but the goal was to recover Awakening.

That way, even if she got hit with action-disable, she could break it with Awakening + Gale Thunderclap.

… Well, the HP-halving each time was unavoidable.

"Light Protect."

Lyuka stacked defense.

"… Something like that, useless! Kishilia!"

"Mn, piercing imbue."

"All right, here I go! Demon Art, Beast-Blood Release! Demon Art, Dark Wolf Howl! Quickness activate, 8 hits!"

"Divine Art Michaela!"

In response, the one who stood in the way was Suzanne.

On top of being already plenty strong from the first turn, here she activated for a second time.

Attack 8x, defense 6x, speed and skill 4x. An overwhelming stat line.

Lizalind extended her claws and brought them down with the force to shatter everything. Against that, Suzanne drew her Flamberge to receive.

Kin!

She received them easily… Even just barely making a sound was something Lizalind could be proud of.

When Suzanne received an attack truly perfectly, it didn't even make a sound.

Against Lizalind, who attacked with her Skill blessings, Suzanne received using nothing but martial arts and swordplay.

No matter how perfectly you received, you couldn't avoid 1/2 damage. But…

"… Tiny."

The damage that slipped out of me, I muttered without meaning to. Just 4 pts per hit.

Demon-element attacks were halved by God-element. Factoring that in… Boost Aura earlier was about a 75% UP, maybe. If it had been doubled, the damage would have been 1 pt higher. If 50%, 1 pt lower.

Suzanne's reception was perfect. Against Lizalind's robust strength and exquisite precision, a breathless perfect 8-hit combo, she received with even more refined perfection.

Kin!

… Exactly 32 damage.

A piercing-imbued Demon Art… probably with a base attack power on par with Adelia or Leone, super-massive damage.

For an 8-hit combo received in full, that was an unbelievably tiny number.

… This was the result of activating Divine Art Michaela twice, defense, speed, and skill all 4x, plus the God-element advantage against Demon, and above all, overwhelming technique!

This was the strength of the Seraph Michaela Suzanne form of Suzanne.

"Wha… t…"

Lizalind, having had her Demon Art received in full, was shaken. Lizalind herself was first-rate in technique, so she could probably tell the overwhelming gap in skill against the current Suzanne.

… Ah, that skill gap includes the stat boosts, mind you. The gap between a natural Suzanne and Lizalind shouldn't go quite that far. The Skill stat looks like a plain stat that doesn't seem to influence either attack or defense at first glance, but it's directly tied to Critical + half-damage reception ease, so it definitely shouldn't be underestimated.

"Now then… here I come. Divine Art, Testament!"

Ka! Dogooooooo!

A tremendous light from above to below! Filling every crevice, an overwhelming radiance!

"Uaaaaa…!"

"Bumir-chan, Major Defense… aaah!"

Dokaaan!

Bumir was crushed and went down. In one strike.

Even though the 1/10 damage should have made it in time.

Well, super-massive damage with a base attack power of 100. 8x that, plus another 2x from elemental effect.

1600 damage meant that even at 1/10, factoring in earlier damage, going down in one hit was natural.

… Eh, wasn't this too strong? Suzanne…

Even though she was our ally… I was a bit intimidated.

… Bumir probably had the ability to draw all-target attacks onto herself.

Kishilia, Lizalind, and Moruna were unharmed.

But…

"Speed is 4x, so… two more rounds, here I come."

Bachi… bachibachi… Suzanne's hands began to give off radiance again.

"M-Moruna-chan!"

"…"

It was then… that Moruna-chan finally seemed to get serious.

Her expression turned grave.

"Magical Beast Awakening!"

Goouu…!

The fighting aura covering Moruna's body swelled several times over.

… Bachi, bachibachibachi…!

Moruna, exhaling Demon-miasma…

If we'd met as enemies, she was the kind of scary that would make me wet myself.

"Looks strong… but… can you endure this! Divine Art, Testament!"

Dogooooo!

A guaranteed-hit area attack.

"… No way…"

"Aaah…"

… Lizalind, even though she'd been so fired up, sorry… it was that easy. Lizalind and Kishilia went down.

Attack 6x. On top of that, Seraph of Holy Flame plus Faerial Light, attack power 8x…

But Moruna-chan deployed countless threads above her and received the Divine Art's light to the maximum extent.

Of course, with simple defensive technique alone she couldn't completely block it, but it looked like she'd halved it.

As a result, Moruna-chan still had over half her HP remaining.

Eh, has she been ridiculously powered up by something?

What's more, Suzanne's combo stopped after two strikes. Her speed could no longer outpace by 4x.

Continuing on, Moruna unleashed her attack.

"Demon Art, Severance."

Gashaaan!

That tremendous attack, the kind capable of crumbling everything in the world…

Lyuka and Leone had their HP shaved away in a single strike.

"…!"

Suzanne's HP dropped to a sliver. Defense 6x, plus 12x with the favorable attribute. Should have been an iron wall surpassing Major Defense, and yet to deal that much damage to Suzanne… as expected.

… But Lyuka and Leone splendidly proc'd Endure too.

The daily, steady improvements I'd been adding might have raised the Endure rate again.

And then the next turn… this was the last turn.

"Demon Art, Beast-Blood Release, Demon Art, Gale Thunderclap!"

Leone unleashed Thunder-Light and pounced.

"Divine Art, Eternal Shine!"

Lyuka let out light that filled everything.

"Divine Art, Tempest!"

Suzanne unleashed an overwhelming sacred light…

"Demon Art, Severance."

Moruna crumbled everything.

Sparkling flashes, running Thunder-Light, light and dark. Divine Art and Demon Art on parade.

After a tremendous clash of flash against flash, destruction against destruction…

"kyuu…"

Moruna-chan had fallen, and the only one still standing was Suzanne, alone.

YOU WIN

"O-Oooh… we won…"

Or rather, when it was all over, Suzanne had basically swept it all on her own!

So this was the strength of the most powerful Seraph! Leave Suzanne alone for two turns and it was basically over. But taking her down within two turns was also incredibly difficult.

"… Well, how was that, Onii-sama!"

"Yeah… at this rate, you're banned from the A-Class Tournament. At the very least, let's self-impose a one-time-per-match limit on Divine Art Michaela."

"Wha, why?!"

Instead of being praised, getting hit with a sudden ban, Suzanne looked unsatisfied.

Oop, first I had to praise Suzanne, who'd worked so hard.

"S-Sorry, Suzanne. You were strong. Reaaaa… lly strong! That was wonderful, Suzanne."

I said that as I patted her head.

"… Fufufu. Well, of course."

Suzanne looked very pleased.

"But, at this rate you're too strong… Doing nothing but lukewarm fights would dull your battle instincts, so…

"In matches against A-Class or below, the 4x activation is forbidden. Once we're S-Class it'll be unlocked.

"Ah, in mock battles, please play the enemy role in 4x state.

"If the others can fight against 4x Suzanne, they'll all get stronger.

"In your 4x state, Suzanne, prioritize accurately and reliably controlling your own movements over winning or losing.

"Even with skill and speed enhanced, control definitely becomes harder.

"Just now you were defended against by Moruna, right.

"Don't get drunk on stat strength alone and neglect each individual technique.

"You need to master Testament more, too. Its wide effect range conversely makes it harder to land a Critical that focuses force, which is a downside."

"Yes! Of course. The place I should be fighting is much further ahead. I can't be satisfied with this much!

"Onii-sama, let's keep getting stronger together going forward."

Even as she said that, Suzanne, having properly proven her strength, looked completely satisfied.

… As for me, the prospect that even if I met a Demon God, with Suzanne around I could manage to survive at least five turns was a relief.

No, rather… winning was something I could plenty aim for. And it had to be.

"… Haah… am I… weak…"

Sitting hugged-knees and slumped over, the most depressed of all was Lizalind.

Halved by element, against a defense-6x opponent, after eight attacks… and even then, perfectly defended into halved damage. Of course you'd only deal tiny damage…

"You don't need to be that down. With a complete elemental disadvantage, there's nothing you can do, that happens often."

"… Uuu…"

She was thoroughly down…

"Hah, we lost. Suzanne's too strong, isn't she! … So this is the strength of a Seraph. The name 'one of the Three Strongest Ultimate Jobs' isn't just for show. But, of the three strongest, Demon Lord, Dragon King, and Seraph, the only one ranked among the 24 Strongest is the Seraph.

"… Maybe Seraphs really are in a different league."

Even though she'd lost, Griera was in a great mood.

Well, Griera had thoroughly demonstrated her own strength too.

"My, didn't you say you'd win nine times out of ten in a fair fight?"

Kanan teased her a bit.

"That was a story for if we'd fought with no information at all, on first sight. If you prepare countermeasures properly, losing isn't strange at all.

"… After all, this is Naoto we're talking about."

Griera's evaluation of me was high.

"My, you understand quite well… Fufufu, I'm Kanan Kazami. Nice to formally make your acquaintance."

"Yeah. I'm Griera. Looking forward to working with you from here on out."

Griera shook Kanan's hand.

A serious Griera was strong as expected… though more than that, I was intimidated by Suzanne's overwhelming strength. Still, if it weren't for Suzanne, things like a serious Moruna-chan would have been completely unmanageable.

It seemed to have made for a good self-introduction on both sides.

My companions and Griera's companions… everyone was chatting amicably about their thoughts on the just-finished battle, and they all seemed to have warmed up to each other.