A-Class Tournament First Match (Part 1)

And then, three days later…

The A-Class Tournament's schedule was a wildly hectic thing.

When any given match would start was never set in stone.

Matches were burned through one after another from the very first bout, and your turn came when it came. That was the schedule.

If a Master had some unavoidable circumstance, they could apparently apply for a schedule change, but if you didn't show up at the venue within thirty minutes of your match time, you forfeited by no-show.

With a schedule like that, honestly, I had no idea when my turn would come around, and it left me incredibly antsy. I couldn't settle down at all.

A Garumon Battle could wrap up in about ten minutes if it went fast, or run nearly an hour if it went slow.

Well, you got a message before your match, so you only had to rush over once it came in. There was no real need to wait at the venue itself…

But I wasn't bold enough to sleep in peace just because it wasn't my turn.

I guess that's because I'm a small-fry.

Since I had no idea when my match would be, I couldn't burn through skill uses in training either, and I'd basically wasted these three days doing nothing.

Maybe I'd been on edge from getting swept up in the heat of the A-Class Tournament.

Well, I supposed the wait had served as a period to calm those churning nerves.

"And here we go, day four of the A-Class Tournament! Today we'll be starting from match number 54! In all likelihood, all sixty-four first-round matches will conclude today. If we wrap up by 18:00, the schedule has us going straight into the second-round drawing ceremony.

"Today's hosting will be by yours truly, Daimos Production's idol Millenia.

"Commentary will be brought to you by former S-Class Master, A-Class NPC and Garumon critic, A-Class Tournament Steering Committee member, Deeds!"

"Pleased to be working with you."

The cute little girl introduced him, and the elderly Deeds bowed his white head in greeting.

Anastasia-san had only done commentary on day one; from then on, a different idol took over hosting each day.

A pair format with one idol hosting and a knowledgeable former Master providing commentary, men and women paired up.

Live broadcast for TV, conveying the program's progress within the venue, and so on.

The host's role was extensive, and looked exhausting.

If we were going from match 54 to match 57, I shouldn't have to worry too much about the wait.

I calmly waited for my turn. Eventually…

"And here we go, third match. The bout about to take place is A-Class number 8 Master Rudis vs. number 34 Master Naoto Akai!

"In the pre-tournament totocalcio popularity vote, Master Naoto Akai is at sixth place!

"He's a rookie Master currently at number 34, but the people's expectations seem high!

"Master Rudis is at the eighth ranking that matches his standing.

"How do you read these results, Deeds-san?"

"Well now. It's the voice of the masses hoping for the appearance of a young genius.

"That said, I have my doubts. To be sure, Master Naoto Akai must have talent. Otherwise, climbing to A-Class within a year would be impossible.

"However, a genius is fragile. One stumble can break him.

"Master Rudis, on the other hand, is a man of unbreakable fighting spirit who clawed his way up from the depths of despair.

"Just how far the young Naoto can stand against the seasoned Master Rudis. That's where we should focus."

That was the kind of commentary they were giving. Having yourself talked about objectively was kind of mortifying.

The world's pro athletes were really something.

"I see… So Deeds-san is a Rudis-favorite! In that case, I'll be cheering for Naoto-san!"

That was Millenia-san's response.

Or rather, was it really okay for the play-by-play and commentary voices to carry up onto the stage that clearly? It was actually pretty distracting…

Well, in any case, the commentator Deeds seemed to be in a "let's see what this young pup can do" mode.

But I didn't particularly mind. An otherworld Master who was an unknown quantity, neither fish nor fowl, was naturally going to draw suspicion.

… If anything, the people who'd ranked me sixth in the pre-tournament championship predictions were the strange ones.

Thanks to Patty, I'd apparently become quite a popular figure.

"… A young genius, huh, heh… Young, indeed."

Rudis laughed in a dry voice.

I took in Rudis's face up close. He looked nothing but elderly, in a rugged, weathered way.

Like a skilled veteran cop in a TV crime drama. Definitely not the noble type.

… That made him look pretty strong.

Since A-Class and above didn't age, in a tournament where most Masters looked young, an aging Master like Rudis, looking his age or even older, was a rare sight.

The deep-carved wrinkles probably told the story of the bitter trials he'd swallowed in his youth… or so I imagined.

To his eyes, did I look like someone who'd lived a carefree life?

… But that wasn't the case.

I'd had my share of hardships.

I didn't know how much he'd been through, but I had no intention of losing.

"Hardworking veteran Rudis, who reached A-Class more than twenty years after his debut, vs. the up-and-coming otherworld Master Naoto Akai, who climbed all the way to A-Class in less than a year since his debut. The clash between these two contrasting figures… starting shortly!"

I descended on the western side of the arena; Rudis descended on the eastern side.

From here on, the only ones fighting on top of the arena were the Garumon.

We Masters would issue our orders from below.

"Master Naoto Akai, this is your first time participating, isn't it. I'll be supporting you, Naoto-san, throughout the tournament. I'm Lumei, an NPC."

A lovely little Garumon stood at my side and called out.

"Now then, Naoto-san, a few things to note.

"This is a Garumon Battle, so you may propose conditions.

"However, a Garumon Battle in which both sides wager Garumon will not be established unless both sides propose the same condition.

"If a Garumon Battle is not established, it becomes a money battle wagering 30 million G between you. Please be aware of that."

… I see. The tournament was one of the few opportunities for A-Class Masters to openly challenge each other to Garumon Battles.

If you really wanted a Garumon, you could even take an opponent's. With consent.

That said, while I knew an A-Class Master's Garumon were beautiful and capable, I had no quarrel with anyone, and I wasn't about to try snatching another Master's Garumon at this stage.

"Money battle."

"Understood… Then please set up the six members you applied for in advance.

"Naoto-san's pre-application members are:

"1st party: Colette, Kanan Kazami, Adelia.

"2nd party: Lucifera Luna, Setsuna Akai, Maika Yukishiro.

"If you assemble any other formation, you will lose by default.

"Skill settings are free, so please complete your formation within five minutes."

I assembled the formation as instructed.

"I'm ready."

When I gave my answer, Lumei signaled to Rudis's NPC, Limei, apparently. Limei signaled back.

"Both sides appear ready. Then… start!"

At Millenia's signal, BOOM, fireworks went off, and our match grandly began.

"… Colette, Kanan, Adelia!"

The three of them took the stage.

"Oh-ho! The Colette that Naoto-san has put forward, her class is, of all things… LV49 Lesser Hero! Unbelievable. To put forward a Garumon still in the middle of leveling at this critical bout! And on top of that, the demerit class Lesser Hero!"

Millenia exclaimed in surprise. Well, the participating members had been registered the day before the A-Class Tournament opened.

It wasn't released to the public, but the host Millenia must have known in advance.

Her surprise was probably an act. She was good at hyping things up.

"Oh-ho. I see."

Deeds folded his arms and nodded.

"Deeds-san? What's this all about? What is Naoto-san's aim?"

"No, no, aim or not, it's simply leveling.

"For an A-Class Master, participating in the A-Class Tournament is an obligation.

"However, for the lower-ranked Masters, there's no chance of winning from the start. It's nothing but an unfortunate occasion to have funds meaninglessly stripped away.

"In that case, even if you're going to lose, you'd want to gain whatever you can.

"With that in mind, treating the A-Class Tournament as a rare opportunity to fight A-Class Masters of higher rank than yourself, and attempting to level up, is a fine strategy.

"Master Naoto's number 34 isn't what you'd call low rank, but if he's self-aware that his win was just from happening to exploit a weak point, then a strategy like this makes sense.

"He's young, but clever. I've revised my opinion of him.

"However, for the audience members who've paid hefty viewing fees to watch, this might be a less-than-satisfying development.

"In particular, those who bet on Naoto-san in the totocalcio won't be pleased, but this too is tactics. They mustn't bear unjust grudges over it."

Booo, booo.

Booing rained down from the audience.

He was running with his own assumptions about my thinking and defending me.

… That irritated me a little. It was a totally off-base opinion. I was here to win, period.

I'd factored in that I could still win even with Colette, which was why I was openly going for leveling.

But I supposed I couldn't blame him for thinking that way.

That was how big a drawback the Lesser Hero's stat-halving on every party member's stats except HP was.

Still, if I couldn't leap over a wall of that height, then talk of winning the A-Class Tournament, defeating Ursula, and getting promoted to S-Class would all end as a pipe dream.

I'd break through.

"Come forth, Amanda, Sertia, Elsa."

All three at the highest-tier UR class. As expected of A-Class.

That said, having no Ultimate-Job-tier members at all felt oddly underwhelming for one of the so-called near-S-Class top eight.

Even number 34 Shiraki had held one Ultimate-Job-tier member, after all.

… But Griera was the same. No Ultimate-Job tier, and yet that strong.

Carelessness was forbidden.

That was the skill setup I went in with.

Hero's Sword was the last skill Colette had learned just before becoming a Hero, at LV49.

Optional trigger plus a 75% multiplier was nice, but only one use per battle… I'd thought that was a little iffy. Still, frankly, after Hero's Shield Colette could just keep using Conqueror's Shield endlessly, so I'd valued the convenience of an optional trigger that could fire at the same time as the shield.

All right. Battle, start.

Du…

First, Colette's Lesser Hero effect halved all three members' stats. Black aura rained down from above, descending over each of them.

Attack and defense, of course, but in particular, having Speed halved was pretty painful.

Though the "Skill" stat being lowered didn't really matter much.

The higher Skill is, the more accurately it corrects fine movements.

In other words, if your underlying technique is high enough, even with Skill at 0 there's no real problem. Well, when it comes to movements that surpass the limits of the human body, Skill correction is unavoidable.

Right, for now this turn was for buff-stacking.

Colette first. Now grown to her Lesser Hero peak, she was a solid combatant.

"Colette, activate Hero's Shield. Hero's Armor on Kanan. Hero's Sword on Adelia."

"Yes!"

The Lesser Hero had a major drawback, but it was a powerful class that learned useful skills one after another.

In a single turn, she used three skills at once.

Hero's Armor and Hero's Sword were optional triggers. Hero's Shield was a normal action. With this, three actions in one turn became possible.

Don! Don! Don!

Above Colette, a giant transparent sword, transparent shield, and transparent armor appeared simultaneously.

The sword, suu…, was sucked into Adelia, granting her power. Attack UP 75%. For a one-time-only buff, a fairly high one.

The armor, suu…, was sucked into Kanan. Defense UP 100%. It restored her halved defense and granted one Endure stack.

And… the shield expanded further still, enveloping all allies and being absorbed in. The effect blocked debuffs and buff-strips at high probability.

A buff-stacking strategy was vulnerable to debuffs and buff-strips.

That this skill, even if only by chance, kept blocking them throughout the battle made it a great skill my party had been wishing for.

Continuing on…

"Adelia, Boost Power."

Adelia, as usual. That said, since Boost Power came after Colette's Hero's Sword had been applied, it shot up to 262%.

A bit hard to calculate on the fly, but other than that, a wonderful effect.

"Kanan, Phantom Mist Clone."

Kanan also went with a clone right off the bat.

The clone could copy Kanan's state and skill counts at the time of cloning. So cloning first was the most use-efficient move.

In particular, applying single-use buff skills before cloning was the way to go.

Both Kanan and her clone, thanks to Hero's Armor, had their defense restored to the original value plus one Endure stack.

Right, our preparations were squared away for now.

It looked like Rudis was the buff-up type too.

If he weren't, he'd have taken the first move with the Speed difference before Colette could use Hero's Shield.

"Amanda, Dragon Aura."

"Yes…! Haaaaaah!"

Dogogogogo…!

Dragon Aura…! Did I explain it before? All stats UP 100%. Even though Dragonkin had relatively low Speed, since we were halved, we'd be greatly outmatched in that area.

"Dance of Light Wings!"

Next, the Yoko Beastkin dancer Elsa began a beautiful dance. An unfamiliar skill. Glowing wings enveloped her party.

I had to guess at the effect, but from the color of the light, I could roughly intuit it.

Looked like the same effect as Colette's Hero's Shield. Probably "debuff and buff-strip nullification."

So dance had a skill like that too.

"Double Dance, Dance of Exhilaration!"

… And two attacks on top of it. As expected of the highest-tier Dancer class. She was throwing out Setsuna-tier buffs.

As expected of A-Class. She had powerful skills.

I knew Dance of Exhilaration well. Like the music-line March of Exhilaration, it was a fairly standard but powerful buff among dance-line skills.

In its base state, all allies gain 30% Attack UP. When strengthened, it became 50% UP, as I knew well from Setsuna.

For a Master practically called S-Class, 50% UP would be the norm.

And then…

The March Hare Sertia rose to her feet languidly.

"The March Hare's a higher subspecies of the Moon Rabbit-nya."

Adelia filled me in. She seemed knowledgeable when it came to Beastkin.

"Thanks, Adelia."

I'd fought a Moon Rabbit before. The C-Class Lasheid match.

Amira was a frightening Garumon who manipulated madness. So this was the upgraded version…

"Now then, here we go. Moon Rabbit's Lunatic."

And then, after intoning some skill name, Sertia touched Amanda's groin… Sexual harassment?

"A, aaaaaaaah…!"

Amanda screamed. Her eyes turned bloodshot, drool dripped from her mouth, and she fell into a state of excitement and frenzy.

Moon Rabbit's Lunatic… what kind of skill could it be?

I figured it was a berserk-status grant type, but…

"Gaaaa!"

And in the next moment, Amanda came slashing in. A forced re-action!?

"Dragon Art - Dragon Slayer!"

Dragon Art…! Just by virtue of that, it was guaranteed to be a powerful technique.

… She'd ignored the action-end state from using Dragon Aura and acted again. Constant 2-actions. This was nasty.

Now then, an incoming Dragon Art demanded maximum caution. Most importantly, whether or not it had guaranteed-hit and piercing attached.

For an opponent's offensive skills, taking one hit lets you check the System and learn the skill's effect, but for the first strike, you can only guess.

That said, if you went around thinking "I'll take the first hit on purpose to confirm the effect," you couldn't complain about getting wiped out.

On our side, except for Kanan's defense, every stat including defense and magic defense was halved. A x2-damage state.

So I had to guess. Or rather, take maximum precautions and meet it head-on.

In other words, I'd treat it as a guaranteed-hit + piercing skill and respond accordingly!

"Kanan! Cover Adelia with the clone!"

Ba!

Kanan's clone leapt in front of Amanda.

The attack… came down, just like that, on Kanan's clone.

If it had been guaranteed-hit, it should have evaded the clone with movements transcending physical possibility, so at least it wasn't guaranteed-hit.

But if it had piercing, Element Shield would be broken through, and the clone might fall in one hit. Dragon-element was super-effective vs. Wind.

"Otherworld Gate! Evade!"

Pan!

Teleportation. Even if her stat-line Speed was less than half the opponent's, skill activation was possible as long as Kanan's will got there in time.

The clone teleported behind us with magnificent timing, evading Dragon Art - Dragon Slayer.

Bun!

On top of that, Amanda took a consecutive action. As I'd thought, in halved-Speed Kanan vs. doubled-Speed Amanda, Amanda outpaced Kanan in Speed by 2x.

I didn't think it was 4x, though. With this much of a Speed gap, dodging by physical technique was impossible.

"Kanan, Otherworld Gate!"

Bun!

Just like that, two charges had been forced out of me, but I'd somehow protected the clone.

I checked the description text for "Dragon Art - Dragon Slayer."

Piercing granted, and on top of that super-large damage. That was a pretty powerful attack.

Piercing attacks normally had weak attack power. Just like Suzanne's Flamberge being large-damage.

That was why the fixed-100Pt-damage Demon Art Lævateinn boasted such freakish strength.

Super-large damage on a piercing attack was fairly extreme strength. Currently at x2.5 attack power, if it landed, it would exceed Lævateinn.

… The "stunned after use" demerit was attached. That had to be why such high firepower was possible.

And that demerit was being neutralized by the Moon Rabbit's Lunatic state.

I see. Well thought out. As expected of an A-Class top-tier Master. No fluke.

For a skill that powerful, you'd hope its skill count was low… but in Moon Rabbit's Lunatic state, even a depleted skill count might be ignored, allowing the attack to keep coming.

I'd brace myself for endless attacks.

The opposing camp's formation was 1 Attacker-and-Defender plus 2 Supporters.

That formation wasn't bad, actually. Once the Supporters were done buffing, you could just abandon them and protect yourself.

Our task was simple. We just had to think about taking down Amanda.

Next turn.

"Adelia, Boost Power. Kanan and clone, Realm's Blessing x2… on Adelia."

In any case, our strategy was clear.

If Adelia stacked her buffs to the maximum, then even accounting for the Lesser Hero's stat-halving, she could one-shot any opponent.

Until then, Kanan x2 and Colette would protect Adelia with everything they had.

More than anything, against piercing attacks, we had a counter on our end too.

"Colette, Ultimate Art - Conqueror's Shield!"

"Yes!"

Bun…! Colette set up a shield emitting light.

Ultimate Art. The hidden technique said to be wielded only by Heroes, Braves, and those who matched them, on par with Dragon Arts, Demon Arts, and Divine Arts.

A defense skill with the powerful piercing-nullification attribute. And turn-defense, on top of that.

If the opponent really had no guaranteed-hit and only physical attacks… I'd hold out for ten turns.

The question was whether Rudis could drop our Adelia in that time.

The fate of the match was entrusted to two with similar names.

"… Otherworld Gate… evading by teleportation, is it.

"… Then dance, Elsa. Double Dance. Guaranteed-Hit Dance + Dance of Exhilaration."

"Wha…!"

Guaranteed-hit granted…! Such a nasty skill!

Ba! Amanda lunged.

"I won't let you through! Au!"

Colette tried to bar the way, but Amanda showed bizarre maneuvering and slipped right past her.

Naturally, covering against a guaranteed-hit was a losing prospect.

One of my chances of victory had been Colette's high defensive technique.

A level where she could occasionally even block attacks from Suzanne or Leone. Ordinary Garumon attacks didn't get through.

If the opponent had come in underestimating the Lesser Hero, she could have held out for ten turns.

But against guaranteed-hit attacks, there was nothing to be done. Guaranteed-hit was the kind of thing that calmly broke physical laws to land an attack.

Dodging without using a skill was impossible.

Colette's strong point had been erased… Well, Garumon Battle was about both sides erasing each other's strong points, so it couldn't be helped.

Amanda continued straight on toward Adelia.

"… Kanan! Cover Adelia with the clone, Otherworld Gate!"

There was a way to cover against guaranteed-hit and come out with no damage.

Telepathic understanding. Kanan's clone teleported into Adelia's position. Adelia was bumped aside, and the clone remained in her place.

Against teleportation, guaranteed-hit didn't activate, so the attack target switched to Kanan.

The instant it did…

"Otherworld Gate!"

Teleport again.

Doing that allowed us to cover Adelia and escape with no damage.

If the attack target switched from Adelia to Kanan, a re-action from the 2x Speed difference should have triggered, but that wasn't an absolute.

If the swap happened at a good moment, the determination of "attacked someone with at least 1/2 the user's Speed, namely Adelia," remained on the books.

If you mistimed it, the Speed determination would also switch over, so it wasn't 100-out-of-100, mind you.

Fortunately, this time the re-action didn't trigger.

"What in the…!? Certainly, with a teleport skill, if you time it perfectly you can dodge guaranteed-hit, but…

"That such a thing was even possible…!?"

Rudis was floored.

Wooooo! The audience was buzzing too.

"Amazing! Naoto-san, an exquisite guaranteed-hit-attack evasion via teleport skill!

"Wow, Deeds-sama, that was incredible."

"…'Incredible' doesn't begin to cover it. I've never seen this kind of feat before."

"Eh…? But isn't dodging guaranteed-hit attacks with teleport skills a well-known trick among S-Class and A-Class Masters?

"It's been seen many times in last year's tournament too…"

"No, no. What's been seen up till now has been single-action evasion. 'Dodging an attack aimed at oneself with teleport,' or 'covering for a teammate's attack with teleport.'

"What Master Naoto did was 'cover for a teammate's attack with teleport, and on top of that evade with teleport.' Two consecutive actions in one turn to evade.

"That's an incredible feat. Technique on par with S-Class Master number 7, 'Fauzel of the Discerning Eye.'"

"S-So that's it! I'm stunned, Naoto-san! You're saying he possesses discernment technique that puts the master of discernment, Fauzel, to shame…!"

The venue was in an uproar.

Being mentioned in the same breath as a top-tier Master like S-Class number 7 was a compliment, wasn't it.

Being praised was nice. I might just get a little confidence out of this.

… Amanda wasn't attacking again? Maybe Moon Rabbit's Lunatic wasn't constant re-action, but rather "incapacitation nullification."

The previous turn, the post-action incapacitation got nullified, so re-action became possible. Something like that?

At that moment…

"Yare yare… I take my hat off to you. Young talent really is terrifying."

Rudis gave a wry smile, then…

"All right, Uncle here'll go for an endurance battle. Go, Sertia."

"Leave it to me, Rudis-sama. Dance… Lunatic Marionette."

Sertia, smirking, activated a skill. Threads woven from magic power tied around Amanda's four limbs, and…

"Gaaaaaa! Dragon Art - Dragon Slayer!"

This time was the real, true forced re-action!

Gyun! Once again, Amanda flew at Adelia.

"Otherworld Gate!"

Baba!

Kanan's clone bumped Adelia aside, then teleported once more to evade.

But where Adelia got bumped to…

"Gaaaaaa! Dragon Art - Dragon Slayer!"

The same maneuver again! Forced 2-action…!

"Otherworld Gate!"

Ba!

Once again, Kanan's clone bumped Adelia aside, then evaded.

… One turn, three actions! Otherworld Gate had been wasted six times over!

Clone's remaining teleport count: 2…! To be made to waste this much.

Biribiri…!

Amanda was paralyzed after acting. Probably a skill that gave 2 actions in exchange for paralyzing an ally.

… Paralysis. In Moon Rabbit's Lunatic state, action-disable status ailments were meaningless.

Slick… as expected of a veteran.

A-Class top-tier was no fluke.

A cold sweat began to run down me.

"Amazing, amazing, Naoto-san is dodging, dodging!"

"No, against Master Rudis's 1-turn 3-action, evading with 1-turn 6-action! This is too incredible!"

"With this much discernment, perhaps he's calculated that he can compensate for the Lesser Hero's drawback.

"But to aim for a win against a fellow A-Class Master while also going for leveling…"

The audience and commentary were both wildly enthusiastic over Kanan's movements.

The praise was nice, but no matter how you looked at it, we were completely cornered. Adelia's Boost Power was still at 2 stacks.

I needed to apply 3 more, then attack 3 times with Flame Severing Claw… I had to defend for 6 more turns. In that time, the number of attacks would be 18.

Otherworld Gate's action count was 12. Of our current actions defending against enemy attacks, only 6 could come from that.

Think. How do we defend the other 12?

Colette covers… no. Guaranteed-hit can't be covered.

… No, wait. Would guaranteed-hit really last that long? Wasn't Guaranteed-Hit Dance only 5 uses? Even with Moon Rabbit's Lunatic state granted, it'd just turn into a one-track attack stance. Dance would be impossible.

If so, after 4 more turns, Colette might be able to cover.

In that case, I just had to dodge 12 times.

If that was how it was… it was possible. At the very least, not impossible.

I settled on my approach and fixed my eyes on Rudis's Garumon.