Out-of-Battle Battle

And so… we arrived at the present.

"Where are you, Naoto-kun?"

"Kanan-chan～"

"Adelia-chan～"

Nine of the ten were running a roller-search formation, hunting us down.

If we got fully surrounded, we'd take a one-sided beating from the whole swarm at once.

Game over.

But I had a hunch about how to dodge an out-of-battle battle.

The answer was, well, a Garumon Battle.

I quickly worked the system and pulled up one of the guys I'd marked earlier…

I set up a 1-vs-1 battle, putting both Kazami-san and Adelia on the table as my offered terms and naming the lowest-level Shule as the demanded prize. I also tacked on a 24-hour rematch ban as a condition, then submitted the Garumon Battle request!

While a Garumon Battle is in progress, no outside attacks can be made on the participants.

In other words, if you're getting ganged up on by a mob, you can pick someone in the group, slap them with a Garumon Battle they can't refuse, and once they accept, you've slipped out of the trap.

After a battle ends, there's a ten-minute grace period. If you keep challenging the next opponent during that window, you can stay safe at least until you've fought every one of them.

And by adding the 24-hour rematch ban, I'd never have to fight the same opponent twice.

… Of course, that did mean I'd have to take on the entire mob in back-to-back duels.

But 1-vs-1 ten times has way better odds than 1-vs-10 once.

"Oh, looks like a battle request just came in! Yahoo! Both of 'em?! This is the best!"

The little man Dyne was practically bouncing with excitement.

"Hey, no fair!"

"Don't fuck with us! Dyne, you bastard! Reject it!"

"No way in hell…! This is a stroke of luck dropped in my lap, of course I'm taking it!"

Garumon Battle START!

… And just like that, I won my gamble.

The biggest problem with this strategy was whether the first guy would actually accept.

The time limit between sending a Garumon Battle request and the opponent picking yes or no was one minute.

If they'd been thinking straight, they shouldn't have accepted.

If the side that submits the request runs away during those 60 seconds, it counts as forfeit and an automatic loss.

Likewise, if the side that received the request tries to start an out-of-battle battle, that's also a rules violation and an automatic loss.

But anyone other than the person who got the request is fair game, since they aren't in a Garumon Battle.

In other words, that 60 seconds was a death window for me. Running wasn't allowed, and I'd have to weather a many-on-one beating.

For them, it was a golden opportunity to use their numbers and corner me one-sidedly.

… However, anyone greedy enough wouldn't pass up the chance to monopolize Kanan and Adelia for himself.

If they'd had the calm judgment to do that kind of math, they wouldn't be smoldering at the bottom of G rank to begin with.

So with that, the gamble paid off for now.

… All that was left was to win ten in a row.

"Go, Shule!"

Boom! The figure that appeared was a scrawny woman with narrow, slanted eyes and a jutting jaw. She really couldn't be called a beauty.

Honestly, I didn't want her… not that it'd have been a nice thing to say out loud.

I'd thought 120 against an average value of 100 should mean slightly better looks, but I guessed there was individual variance. Whatever.

To begin with, my goal right then was getting through this out-of-battle battle crisis. Everything else came second.

"Go, Kazami-san!"

"Hmph, I just have to wallop that ugly bitch, right? … Easy win!"

Kazami-san leapt out from behind the rock.

A whip was gripped in her hand. She was fully ready for combat.

… Come to think of it, she didn't normally carry that whip, but at some point it had appeared in her hand.

At first I'd thought, "Wait, did she have that?" But no, she definitely didn't have it before. It just seemed to materialize the moment she entered battle.

Tools appearing and vanishing, just like skills and magic, might have been a Garumon-specific paranormal phenomenon.

It reminded me of the way hammers suddenly appeared out of nowhere in gag-comedy spacetime.

I kept that thought to myself.

She'd gone up one level from the fight against Adelia.

Whish, whish!

Even though we were in the middle of a Garumon Battle, some of them were still trying to pelt us with attacks.

But we were protected by a barrier that displayed SYSTEM GUARD.

So this was the systemic defense that kicked in during a Garumon Battle.

Now we could focus solely on Shule.

"Kazami-san, the whip… Aim for Shule's feet and trip her!"

I'd been thinking about this back during the previous battle.

What if you weren't just attacking, but aiming for additional effects too?

After all, this wasn't a game where the system made you pick "Attack" from a menu.

"Shule, bite her!"

Seriously? That's a hell of a way to make a woman attack…

I really didn't want to watch Kazami-san get bitten by that fish-faced woman, but…

Dash!

Whish!

The two started moving at the same time, but Kazami-san was a beat faster. Her attack landed first.

"Gyau!"

Shule-san got beautifully snagged at the feet by the whip and went sprawling. The HP gauge above her head dropped.

"Uuuugh…!"

Shule-san wobbled to her feet, but she didn't seem able to follow up with her bite.

In game terms, it was like a stun proc. Just as planned.

"Kazami-san, that's good. Well done."

"Hmph…!"

Kazami-san looked smug.

"… Wait, why are you talking down to me… don't get cocky!"

She got mad at me right away.

Well, on to the next turn.

"Same thing again."

"Give me a proper instruction! What's with the 'and so on' treatment?!"

I got chewed out again for cutting corners.

Kazami-san held her whip at the ready, and the two glared at each other for a beat.

While they did, light gathered from around them, settling into Kazami-san's whip and Shule's face respectively.

A few seconds later, I could tell the prep was done.

… Right, this Garumon Battle was turn-based.

You might wonder what the hell "turn-based" even means in the real world. If you want to swing a whip, just swing the damn thing as much as you want.

But a whip swung as a skill and a whip just swung normally are completely different things.

Even swung normally, it has enough force to split skin, like back in the original world. But that's nothing meaningful against a tough Garumon.

When used as a skill, it puts out destructive force like wind-wrapped explosives, strong enough to easily snap a big tree in half.

For a Garumon to use a skill like that, it needs a buildup of some kind of magic or chi. You can faintly perceive it as light.

Once a skill is used, that chi disperses, and there's an interval of about ten to twenty seconds before it builds back up.

That's how a turn-based battle naturally takes shape.

Shule couldn't use a skill at the moment. Getting tripped had dispersed the chi buildup needed to use her skill.

That was the stun.

Both sides had to wait until their chi built up again. Until the next turn.

"… Go! Shule!"

Shule got her stance back and tried to leap out again…

"Kanan!"

Whish!

The instant she did, I gave the order, and Kanan whipped her feet out from under her again. Shule's gauge dropped.

"Gyau!"

Shule sprawled flat, unable to move.

"You bastard! Shule! What are you doing? Kill them! Bring it out! Death Breath!"

"Gyaaah!"

Shule got back up.

Whish!

"Gya-gyah!"

Sprawled again. Her gauge dropped.

… She was probably trying to do something, but without a forced first-strike skill, I could lock her in a kill loop.

"Gaaah! Damn it, damn it, what the hell are you doing?!"

No matter how much Dyne wailed and shouted, Shule couldn't do a thing.

The turns ticked by uselessly, and eventually…

YOU WIN!

A total shutout. A one-sided lock-kill.

You acquired Office Hag Shule.

Hmm, I'd noticed it the first time too, but Office Hag… what kind of race name was that?

Honestly, I didn't really want her…

But I had one slot left for an ally. To make it through this situation, I had to use whatever I could.

Use my newly acquired Garumon to challenge the next opponent. If I won, great. If I lost, I'd just lose that Garumon. No risk to me.

By steadily burning through their Garumon, I could get through this without wearing down Kazami-san and Adelia.

With that thought, I went to press "no" on "Release her?"… but my finger stopped.

… What had I thought when I looked at her? Not a beauty, don't really want her, don't need her.

… Was it really okay to take in a Garumon I felt that way about?

Letting myself get steeped in this world, using a woman up like a tool… wasn't that the lowest thing imaginable?

… I used to be the one worked like a slave that way.

Just because I'd come to this world, if I turned into the kind of person who used others up like objects…

How could I ever criticize Kazami-san? I didn't want to become that kind of person.

Before I knew it, my finger had pressed "yes" on Release her.

"Huh? What are you doing?! If you can capture an enemy, you capture them, work them to death, and throw them away!"

Kanan said that. That was exactly what I'd thought at first, and as a strategy she was correct. Fair point.

But…

"… I don't want to become the kind of person who treats women like objects and uses them up."

I argued back to Kazami-san. I thought my tone got a little harsher than I meant.

"…!"

Kazami-san seemed to immediately catch what I was getting at and didn't open her mouth again.

… Of course, that was the surface reason I'd just stated…

If I was being honest, with Adelia and Kanan, both equally beautiful girls…

The way those two leaned together made for a gorgeous picture, and slipping some unwanted foreign object in between… I just kind of didn't like it. Maybe that was really the only reason. I wouldn't say it out loud, though.

You acquired 12G.

… When you release one, you get 10% of their value. In game terms, 12G is pocket change worth about one herb.

But thinking of it as the equivalent of 120,000 yen… that was a pretty sizable amount.

And at last, I'd gotten my hands on the money I'd been after.

My spirits lifted.

"Uwaaah… Shuuuule…!"

Dyne, on the other hand, was crying his heart out. Looked like he either didn't want to pay 120G or didn't have it…

He'd lost Shule.

Lose, and you instantly forfeit a precious ally. The harsh side of Garumon Battles peeked through.

The fact that I was the one who'd done it stung my heart a little.

… But I had to push past it. He'd brought it on himself.

If I'd lost, I'd have lost Kanan. That was all.

"Alright, next."

For the next ten minutes, they couldn't attack us. That was the rule of Garumon Battle.

During those ten minutes, I didn't have to worry about being attacked, and I didn't have to worry about getting hit while leaving the request hanging. So only that very first opponent was the real problem.

Still, I had to hurry and find the next opponent before time ran out. The lowest level I could find…

… But there were a lot of LV10s.

The low-tier Garumon a G ranker would have… N rank, was it? The level cap was probably 10.

Kanan and Adelia had 2/50 written.

A Garumon's value and rarity seemed to determine the level cap.

Anyway, back to the topic. Focus on the fight.

From there on, I'd just have to go on instinct and look for a sluggish opponent I could lock down like the last one…

But the only info available was name, level, value, and race.

The most useful was probably race, but there was a wide variety.

Thief, Warrior: the kind you saw all the time in RPGs. Easy to read.

Brute Strength, Swift Foot, Cunning: abilities or features. Didn't see those in games, but the meaning was clear.

OL, Office Worker, Tea Server, Window-Seater: I got them in a sense, but as battle classes, no clue what they meant.

… Argh, whatever. Low value just meant there was a chance they were weak. I'd target the lowest-value opponent I could find.

I picked the lowest-value one I could see at a glance, Miru. Monstrosity…?

"… Gudododo…"

"Ueh…"

… My apologies. This was rough… Hideous!

If I had to pick between sharing a bed with her and sharing a bed with a toad, I'd pick the toad.

The toad would be cuter.

No wait, at that level she might actually win first place in some kind of grotesquery contest, generating value of a different sort…

That was how staggeringly hideous her appearance was.

… Well, putting aside those rude thoughts, she did look sluggish like I'd hoped.

"Kazami-san, let's go with the same pattern, trip her!"

"Right…! Haa!"

Whap!

"…! Wha…"

But while the strike on her foot did damage, she was too heavy and didn't go down. That was unexpected!

"Go, Miru, crush them!"

"Gumooooh!"

Thud, thud, thud…

Miru charged in. Sluggish, but the destructive force looked high.

"Dodge!"

"…!"

Dash!

Kanan made a sideways leap and dodged… Yeah, dodgeable. Easy clear.

"Kazami-san, Wind Cutter! Get away after firing!"

"Got it, haa!"

Zang!

She slashed with a blade of air, then quickly changed direction.

Miru came charging in even as she got slashed, but Kanan easily slipped the attack.

I let out a breath of relief. The opponent had high muscle, but her movement was way too slow.

At that rate, the chance of getting hit was probably less than 10%.

But the problem was… HP.

Wind Cutter only shaved off less than 1/6. We'd need seven hits.

Wind Cutter was strong, but it had a cap of 15 uses. Was it really okay to burn seven of those here?

That said, the whip at 30 uses dealt damage so tiny that the number of attacks would balloon even more.

More attacks meant a higher chance Miru's sluggish strikes would land.

… Tch, this was an enemy better suited to Adelia, who had the edge in speed and firepower.

But you couldn't swap members in a 1-vs-1 battle.

Should I have switched it to a 2-vs-2 battle?

… No, then we'd have to use even more skills with the bigger fight. With ten battles ahead, running out of skill uses meant the end.

Right then, the priority was ending the fight fast.

"Kazami-san, fire Wind Cutter on repeat! Dodge every attack and push her down in a one-sided assault!"

"Got it! Like I'd let a sluggish attack like that hit me! Wind Cutter!"

And then… Kanan came through.

She dodged elegantly and landed Wind Cutter after Wind Cutter. Six times running, she pulled it off splendidly.

I'd burned through too much Wind Cutter, but winning each fight one by one was what mattered.

Eight more battles. I just had to manage somehow.

You acquired Monstrosity Miru.

"Monstrosity, huh…"

Was that really a race name to slap on a human?

What even was a race? Adelia's "Beastkin" and "Nekomata" were races, sure, but some of these were jobs or features. Way too inconsistent.

Whatever. Didn't matter.

… As for Miru, I absolutely didn't want her. Her capsule would probably stink.

"… S-Sorry. I get how you feel. I really don't want her on the team even temporarily… she's worse than Noda…"

Kanan had come around.

"Uwaaaah! My Miruuuu! No, please no!"

… Even so, Zen was wailing in genuine grief.

Even if she was the kind I didn't want to look at directly, he really cherished her, huh…

Refusing as before…

"Uooooh, my Miruuuu! You came back to me! Thank god! For your sake, 30G is nothing…!"

You acquired 3G.

Cheap… Still, Zen looked so happy about it that it warmed my heart.

… Yeah, there really were Masters out there who treasured their Garumon.

He was an enemy who'd come to attack me, but I felt a little glad anyway.

… Now then, I had to kick up the pace from here.

"Adelia, you too! It's your turn next."

"Got it nya!"

Adelia appeared.

"We're going all the way through, just like this!"

"You bastaaard… don't get full of yourself! The guys you just beat are the bottom-feeders of our crew! I'll fucking kill you!"

"Heh heh heh… try not to die before you reach me…"

"Kuh kuh kuh…"

And then…

"Nyaaah! Will-o'-Wisp!"

Bofoooo!

Adelia's flames knocked down enemy Garumon.

"… No… way…"

We took down eight G-Class Masters!

I'd been worried since we were behind in level, but the G-Class Garumon weren't that strong.

… Well, it wasn't a total cakewalk. We'd struggled. The biggest problem was skill counts.

If we could've gone all-out every fight, it'd probably have been an easy win.

But once you burned through your skill uses, you couldn't fight anymore. That was the scariest part.

We had no choice but to lean on the high-count skills like Whip Strike and Scratch, and as the turn count climbed, we couldn't pull off the perfect wins like the first two fights.

Both girls had taken some damage too.

When you take damage with no recovery magic or recovery items on hand, you can't heal.

The two of them gradually dropped to near-death.

By the late battles, we had no choice but to push through with high-firepower attacks.

Both of them used up all their Will-o'-Wisp and Wind Cutter, and we just barely scraped a paper-thin victory.

… And if you're wondering why I cut the descriptions when we struggled that hard?

Well, it was just that visually, it was unbearable to watch…

Our two were spectacularly beautiful. Kazami-san and Adelia, both stunning. Graceful, lovely, even adorable mid-fight.

… But the opponents weren't pretty.

Especially once their value dropped below 100, the freakshow factor kept ramping up. It was honestly turning into a trauma.

Anyway, that aside, just two left. G-Class Master Geral and F-Class Master Sice.

"Ch… useless bastards. But thanks to them, you guys are already wrecked… Now I'll just enjoy you nice and slow!"

"Kanan, Adelia… Let's go. We're starting an out-of-battle battle!"

For Geral, the last G ranker, I deliberately picked an out-of-battle battle instead of a Garumon Battle.

"You bastard?! Don't underestimate me! Go, Meiya, Nara, Quore!"

The out-of-battle battle, unprotected by Garumon Battle rules.

They'd been trying to pull this on me, and I'd dodged it by challenging them to Garumon Battles.

Of course, in the early stages, I'd have been stuck in a 27-vs-2. Running was the only option.

But once the opponents got fewer, the out-of-battle battle could become a tactical option too.

Because the out-of-battle battle had one feature, different from Garumon Battle, that came in handy especially when Garumon were near death.

"Go, Meiya! Slash her! Nara, bow and arrow! Quore! Attack with your axe!"

"Haaah!"

"Yaaah!"

"Eiyaaah!"

The three lunged at us all at once. And there…

Gaz! Doka! Baki!

I, myself, threw my arms wide and stood between them as a shield.

"… Wha, what?!"

HP 10 -> 7.

"Nya?! Goshujin-sama?!"

"…! Oh my, what a noble attitude."

Everyone there seemed surprised, but it was something I'd been thinking since I got the explanation about out-of-battle battles.

When a Garumon takes a hit, the Master takes 1 point of HP damage.

In other words, in an out-of-battle battle, the Master can shield their Garumon.

Claws, arrows, axes… exposing my body to attacks that whipped up gale-force winds was terrifying, but Kazami-san and Adelia had been working their hardest up to that point.

I had to put in work too.

"Adelia! Kanan! Take down Nara with a simultaneous attack!"

"…! Yes nya!"

"Got it! Haa!"

Whish! Dogo!

The instant Kanan's whip broke Nara's stance, Adelia's strike landed.

Nara's HP gauge was shaved off in one go, and she collapsed unconscious.

"You bastard… shit! Meiya! Quore!"

"You two, behind me again!"

Dogo! Dogo!

… No really, this was scary. A Garumon's attack was destructive, like having a bomb thrown at you. Even knowing it did no damage, taking it head-on was terrifying.

But it just brought me from HP 7 to 5. I could endure that.

The HP system was amazing…

Whish! Dogo! The two girls' attacks brought Quore's HP under 1/2 but didn't quite finish. Still, one more turn would do it.

So: two enemies attack, HP 5 to 3. Two allies attack, take down Quore. Enemy attack, 3 to 2. Two allies attack, enemy attack, 2 to 1. Allies' attack.

Yeah, that finished it.

"Th-That's insane… insane…!"

He could have shielded his own Garumon like I did and thrown off my math, but even watching me do it right in front of him, the idea of shielding his own Garumon apparently never occurred to him.

And without coming up with any counter-strategy, he let me win safely, exactly as calculated.

"Kuku ku… having a grand time mowing down small fry, full of yourself? Hah?"

And then… the last one left, Sice, rose to his feet.

"Didn't you notice? With that battle, you've…"

"… F-500th."

"Been promoted! Didn't you know that ten wins gets you bumped to F rank?! You idiot, when you're at the same rank, you're free to launch attacks on each other! Now, eat shit and die!"

And then he summoned three Garumon at once and came at us.

A Garumon Battle couldn't be initiated against me by him given the value gap. So this was an out-of-battle battle.

The two with values over 300 had decent enough looks, as you'd expect.

Well, you couldn't exactly call them beautiful even out of courtesy.

"You two, behind me!"

And I threw my arms wide and became a shield.

Bashu! Bashu! Bashu!

And then… 3 points of damage. HP went 3 to 0.

Where did the 2 come from? Once you went to F rank, max HP became 12. A rank-up didn't fully heal you, but it did heal the increase.

So I knew taking that attack wouldn't kill me.

… That said, that put my HP at 0. Take one more hit and I'd die.

"Hyaa-hahaha! Idiot, I win! Gah-hah-hah-hah!"

Sice declared victory and laughed his ass off.

…? But I was still alive…

Right, my HP hitting 0 meant he was deciding I was already taken out.

This guy's brain was poisoned by the game system too.

I'd been listening carefully when Leone and Lyuka explained things.

When HP hits 0, all that happens is the system's protection drops, and the next attack will kill you.

In other words, hitting HP 0 isn't a defeat.

HP 0? So what.

I came from a world where you'd die instantly if a car hit you anyway.

"… If you've got time to check my rank, I think there's a couple other things you should be checking too."

"Hah…?"

So, the system could be operated normally even at HP 0.

In the ten seconds between turns, submitting a Garumon Battle request was easy.

Right then, I submitted a 3-vs-3 Garumon Battle. My demanded prize: all three of his Garumon!

"… Hah?"

When you get hit with a Garumon Battle, especially a disadvantageous one, there's nothing to do but accept.

Refuse and you forfeit automatically.

He immediately accepted.

"Kazami-san, Air Blast."

"Right, Air Blast!"

Dogooooh!

"… Hah?"

Wind element is super-effective against Earth element, dealing double damage. The earth-user Maray went flying.

"Adelia, Mad Slash."

"Yes nya!"

Zan-zan-zan-zan! A four-strike physical attack landed on Emeda, taking her down in one go.

"Wha… no way?"

"Fight this much and your level goes up. Of course you learn new skills."

Air Blast 10 Wind, single-target medium damage, first strike

Mad Slash 15 Single-target small attack, 4 random hits

Anticipating that I might end up fighting the highest-ranking Sice last after the G-Class crowd, I'd been holding back the new skills as much as possible.

I'd planned to use them if I really got cornered, but luckily I won out, so I got to save them till the end.

"You, you, you bastaaaard! Don't fuck with me! You're all on death's door! One hit and you're done! Aida! Bow!"

"Yes!"

Aida readied her bow.

"Fire! Blast Arrow!"

"Blast Arrow!"

Shuba! … She fired!

Goooooh! As expected of an F-Class Garumon.

The arrow came flying with explosive force unlike anything before. Take it head-on and Kazami-san and Adelia would both go down in one shot.

"Wind Shield!"

Gakeen!

That is, if Kanan hadn't awakened to one more new skill.

Wind Shield 10 Auto-trigger, physical attack defense

Kazami-san had gone up two levels in those ten battles. With those two levels, she'd learned two new skills.

… Honestly, if she'd learned this one a little sooner, I wouldn't have had to desperately shave my own HP to protect them.

"… Hmph. After being shielded that much, I can't just let it stand… With this, I've paid back what I owe!"

Kazami-san said something like that.

… Oh. The fact that she saw me shielding her as something she owed… before, she wouldn't have batted an eye at me getting hit.

Bit by bit, her thinking might have been changing from before.

"… Yeah. Kazami-san, Air Blast. Adelia, Mad Slash. Concentrate on Aida."

"Aaaaaah!"

Aida tanked the Air Blast, but the third hit of Mad Slash took her down.

YOU WIN

"Phew…"

Tired…

"Insane… insaaaane!"

Sice collapsed in stunned shock. His losses came to 800G. Probably a serious blow.

"… That's my line."

After all that struggle and fighting through… that day's earnings were a measly 260G.

The road to saving up 250,000G still looked long.

… But while ten G-Class battles had only earned 100G, an F-Class battle paid 160G.

Promote further and the haul would grow more. The outlook ahead felt bright.