A-Class Tournament First Match (Part 3)

Wooooaaah…

When Luna and Setsuna stepped onto the stage, the venue erupted.

"Oh, that girl…"

"It's Luna, the angel of Courage Just for You! She just debuted recently!"

"Ooh, that great song…!"

"And the performer Setsuna Akai is with her too!"

"… This is…"

The cheers rose, perfectly natural, for the appearance of the idol angel Luna.

It can't be staged, can it? I thought, glancing toward Farida-san in the audience seats, but she shook her head.

So she was insisting it wasn't… Was that really true?

But, well, it didn't seem like a lie that her popularity was rising sharply.

"Luna-san's record sales are amazing! And her magic stones are selling well too!"

Just as Farida-san had been gushing, her face and name were apparently getting out there.

Well, none of that mattered in the actual battle.

"Grrr… For her to outshine me! And I'm a Dragon King, of which there are only so many in this world!"

"… Even so, there are over ten Dragon Kings in the world.

"She is one of only five Seraphs in the world. It can't be helped."

Rudis kept his cool as he soothed Anantha.

Now then, the match resumed.

That said, thanks to her First Skill, Luna had already activated her skill on turn zero.

We could begin the match with everyone's stats already doubled, the inverse of the Lesser Hero state.

From this overwhelmingly advantageous position, we couldn't afford to fumble.

If we didn't win decisively, a postmortem would be in order.

"Soul Refrain, March of Passion - Allegria."

First was Setsuna. A powerful buff skill that raised allies' attack and speed by 100%.

That put everyone at triple attack and speed, double everywhere else: a complete cheat state. From there…

"Gale Dance, Divine Art Accel Mirage!"

The first to move was Maika.

Accel Mirage could attack four times, which made it perfect for checking what kind of defensive techniques the opponent had.

After Divine Art Messiah, Gale Dance multiplied speed sixfold.

That meant six actions, so twelve attacks. Speed went up another 360%.

That put speed past eight times the original. Whether re-actions occurred was rerolled after the final attack landed, so almost certainly four actions, sixteen attacks: an absolutely insane attack count.

This wasn't just scouting; it could conceivably wipe them all out in one go.

Dogo!

"Hmph, useless. Dragonic Barrier!"

The attack on Anantha did zero damage. A defensive skill, then. Without piercing, this might be tough.

… No, the reaction felt a little different from a normal defense.

It was as if it had almost gone through for an instant before being repelled.

"… Does it only let damage of over 100 through?"

"…"

Anantha didn't react openly, but from that faint reaction I inferred my guess was on the mark.

I see. I'd thought Ameri's Hundred-Leaf Wild Dance, 1 pt times 100 hits, was unbeatable, but barriers like this existed too…

But on the next turn, if I cast March of Passion again, the damage would get through.

Anantha's defense seemed to extend to Fatori as well. Probably it covered all Dragon-element allies.

Then how about the remaining one, Sharla?

Dogoo!

Damage went through normally. In a single stroke her HP was carved down by nearly half, and the menace of a 200% attack buff made itself felt. But…

"Seal-Sever!"

Gakiiin!

"… Tch."

Maika's movement halted the instant she struck Sharla.

Maika's attacks, Divine Art Accel Mirage's four-hit combo, the re-actions from doubled-plus speed, all stopped without activating.

… I see. So it was a counter skill that sealed the actions of whoever attacked.

Good thing Maika had been the one scouting.

"Then let's try a normal attack. Luna, Balmung."

"Yes! Divine Art Balmung!"

Luna slashed at Anantha.

"… Grnnh!? A divine sword that slays dragons!? Dragon Art Ultimate Protection!"

Kaaan!

Repelled. Whoops, the same skill she'd used a moment ago.

"Grrr… Dragon-super-effective on the God-element!? To possess such a vexatious technique…"

Anantha was shaken.

… I see. The only elements Dragon-element was weak to were Demon and Ice.

A Demon Sealer could probably deal with Demon-element attacks somehow. They might have countermeasures for Ice-element too.

… But normally they wouldn't have countermeasures for the God-element, which they'd usually be strong against.

That's why she was rattled.

If this Ultimate Protection lasted three turns like the last one, we just had to grind out four turns.

I really did want a Breakthrough option besides Adelia…

Like a Breakthrough-granting skill.

I wondered if Patty might learn one if I begged her.

"Whew, whew… But this far is the limit. The God is fated to fall to the Dragon in the end!

"Dragon Battle Aura!"

Anantha's stats doubled.

That said, it just brought her up to par with Luna and the others' current stats.

… But her attitude still had room to spare, as if to say that's not all I have.

"… No need to hold back, then."

"Mm, come, Fatori!

"… Dragon God Descent!"

The instant she used it, Fatori collapsed.

A massive dragon's soul rained down upon Anantha.

Ka…!

"Hahaha!"

"Behold! With Fatori's whole soul, the strongest skill that empowers me!

"The strength of the supreme Dragon God… gaze well upon it!"

… Ohh, this was…!

A skill that sacrificed an ally's life to massively boost a teammate!

This… we couldn't afford to relax at all. The outcome was anybody's guess.

"… I don't know about Demon-element attacks, but just to be safe.

"Evil Force!"

On top of that, Sharla poured something more in.

Probably a barrier against Demon-element attacks.

Sharla couldn't be left alone either. We'd have to take her down quickly.

… Next turn.

"Soul Refrain, March of Passion - Allegria, Bloody Masquerade."

Dogo! Dogo!

Anantha's body began to glimmer.

As a countermeasure to perfect defense, we had Setsuna's Bloody Masquerade. It dealt slip damage every turn, and was further enhanced in tandem with Setsuna's buffs.

With attack now at 3.5x, two attacks were possible too, and we could expect around 40 pt of damage per turn.

"Gale Dance, Demon Art - Cocytus!"

Next was Maika. Let's see what her Ice-resistance countermeasure looked like. And even failing that, taking down Sharla would be a win.

"Kukuku… Snow White, of the Ice-element! Spot on, Rudis! With the Ice-Sealing Orb in hand, even a Demon Art such as this is no more than a breeze!"

Anantha blocked Cocytus. However, the area around her froze over.

Would the Incapacitation effect activate?

"Nn, nnnn… Shatter!"

Gashaaan! Too bad, no Incapacitation.

But it ground Sharla's HP all the way down in one go and took her out. However…

"Seal… Sever…"

Right to the end, she'd let through only a single attack. She should have had a re-action speed-wise.

"Let's try this. Divine Art Cláu Solas!"

"Nguuuu… Dragon Art Ultimate Protection!"

Turn 2. Yep, perfect defense again. Even with a piercing follow-up, no damage got through.

We wouldn't be taking her down next turn either…

Their only hope was to wipe us out in the next turn or the one after.

We needed to be on maximum guard.

"… Kukuku… You've held out well thus far. You were strong, Naoto, was it.

"But this is the end.

"Behold, my ultimate Dragon Art…!

"Dragon Art Ultimate Breath!"

Dogoo!

What she unleashed with that preface was a colossal fireball.

The damage was probably ultimate-tier. Surely, it couldn't lack both piercing and guaranteed-hit.

Probably it was guaranteed-hit.

Guaranteed-hit attacks flew in on trajectories that warped physical law, making evasion practically impossible.

So… no, with this, we might just pull it off.

I reflexively assembled a countermeasure.

"Maika! Up front! Luna! Setsuna! Behind!"

I gave Maika her instructions.

Maika stepped forward as told and made herself a shield.

For a guaranteed-hit area attack, the formation could control the order in which the attack hit.

Maika first.

Maika threw her arms wide… and took it.

Without defending at all, deliberately taking the maximum possible damage. She caught the ultimate-tier attack head-on.

Her HP plummeted in an instant. And then…

"Demon Art - Cocytus!"

Maika deliberately allowed herself to be killed, and immediately activated her Demon Art via Poison Apple.

That triggered Cocytus.

Cocytus, which generated a massive amount of ice, actually had the effect of sealing the opponent's attacks too.

It wasn't only Garumon that got frozen; techniques got frozen too.

Of course, there were techniques that could be frozen and ones that couldn't.

The probability of success was high against grass and dragons, types Ice-element was strong against.

Even if Anantha herself had countermeasures against Ice-element attacks, the technique she'd unleashed had to still be weak to ice. So I figured.

… And wonderfully, we sealed Ultimate Breath in.

Most of Ultimate Breath got locked away in the ice, dealing almost no damage to Luna and Setsuna.

What's more…

"Nuoh, ohhhhhh!?"

Just like that, the cold rained down on Anantha. Apparently she hadn't expected a counterattack to rain down the moment she struck, because Anantha was slow drawing out her Cold-Sealing Orb, and her HP was carved down in one go.

"Guhhhh…! Seal!"

A beat late, Anantha pulled out the orb.

She barely survived, but Anantha was now on the brink.

Next turn.

"Grrrrr… Impossible, that I, the Dragon God, the ultimate existence, should be cornered like this…!

"… That can't be, I am the Dragon God now!

"Rudis, here we go!"

"… Yeah."

"Onward, on the Dragon God's pride, I shall not lose! Dragon Art Ultimate Breath!"

A massive fireball that would hit the whole party. But once seen, we could deal with it however we liked.

"Maika, you've got this."

"Fufufu, just how much practice do you think I've put in under you?

"… Leave it to me. Here we go…

"Demon Art - Cocytus!"

Maika unleashed Cocytus to coincide with Ultimate Breath.

Pitting attack against attack to cancel them out was something everyone would think of first.

But when you actually tried it, in this Garumon battle system, it didn't work out so smoothly.

In a lot of cases people gave up at that point.

Still, attack-versus-attack didn't always result in both passing through each other untouched and hitting their targets.

There were cases where they didn't interfere, and cases where they did interfere and disrupted each other but, in the end, still ended up landing on each other anyway. We'd thoroughly verified that through mock battles.

… The reasons attacks couldn't cancel each other out came down to:

• If elemental advantage and disadvantage didn't mesh well, they'd just slip past each other.

• Timing the attacks was difficult. Impossible if the opponent outpaced you in speed.

• If the areas of effect didn't align, no cancellation. There were cases where one was too wide or too narrow to seal the other off properly.

Those three points.

But put another way: if you had elemental advantage, room to spare in speed, and the areas of effect of both techniques aligned well…

… When those conditions were met, an attack could cancel another attack.

Not perfect cancellation, mind you. Direction-wise it could either reduce the effect (halve the damage) or narrow the area of effect, like 3 people down to 1.

Only one of those two was possible.

This time it was the latter: narrowing the area of effect.

Maika deployed Cocytus in a cylindrical shape so that all the attack would be funneled into her, and Luna and Setsuna evacuated outside that area of effect.

This way Ultimate Breath rained down only on Maika, while Luna and Setsuna came through with practically no damage at all.

… I felt bad for Maika, who fell. But, it was a magnificent showing.

"… Eh, eeehh…!? Deeds-san, what was that just now!?"

"… Th-that was attack converted into defense.

"Now, in theory it's not impossible. I have heard of it.

"I'm a former S-Class myself, after all.

"Apparently, by perfectly aligning the timing, perfectly reading the opponent's area of effect, with a perfectly advantageous element…

"If you could pull off such a perfect technique, you could block it…

"But… pulling off that perfect three-part harmony is impossible, so realistically it can't happen!

"… To pull off that impossible feat, th-this is…

"Th-this is truly top-tier S-Class.

"A feat of this caliber wouldn't be possible without being among the current S-Class top 4!"

Deeds was astonished.

"Amazing, that's amazing! Naoto-senshu's talent knows no bounds! To think he'd flaunt the talent of the top tier of S-Class!"

Millenia was excited too.

Well, being praised was nice. There was something fun about having what I could do evaluated objectively.

… But, top-4 of S-Class. So even pulling off something like this only just barely got you there?

Just how high a wall was it…?

Well, this fight was about to be settled.

If Ultimate Protection lasted the same as it had against Amanda, it should be wearing off about now.

"… To think that I, who should have awoken to the Dragon God's power, must content myself with felling but a single one of them…

"Thou art… strong. Be proud."

Anantha smiled in resignation.

"Then, here I go… Divine Art Balmung!"

Zan!

A one-strike kill. With masterful swordplay, Luna cut Anantha down.

"Match decided! Match decided! In the end, an overwhelming victory…!

"He cut down Anantha, who had awoken to the Dragon God's power, with overwhelming strength.

"Naoto Akai-senshu wins! With this, Naoto Akai-senshu is promoted to A-Class rank 8! Rudis-senshu drops to rank 9!

"If Naoto-senshu advances to the semifinals, Rudis-senshu will once again be able to challenge through the loser's bracket!"

Wooooaaah…!

Tremendous cheers rained down.

Victory on the glorious main stage.

Crowds praised my name, applauded, blessed me…

It made me proud, and I felt I might just get hooked.

To savor a glory this magnificent… I had to do more.

I wanted to climb higher. Endlessly, without end, to keep on winning.

That's what I was thinking, fervently.

But…

More than any of that, what I really wanted right then was to keep reading the system messages.

The second match aside, I'd just won the first match through this fierce a battle.

Colette's level had to go up from this one fight. I felt sure of it.

"A magnificent victory. Congratulations, Naoto-senshu!"

Millenia-san hurried over to me.

… She was gazing at me with admiring eyes. Was this the move where boxing champions and the like got to take home female news anchors?

Not that that would be bad, but for today, well, let's pass.

Because once Colette reached LV50, Colette and I could finally…

Aah, I just couldn't wait for tonight!

"Um, isn't Colette-san's LV about to go up? Why don't you check right here, if you don't mind!"

… But it seemed Millenia-san had only come over to confirm that.

What a misunderstanding to make. So embarrassing.

Well, of course she'd want to know. Hero was, after all, one of this world's representative powerful classes.

I'd gone this far to level her up.

Whether a new Hero had been born, or whether she'd become a Brave…

Everyone watching was likely to want to know that too.

Of course it'd be fine for me if only my inner circle knew, but I felt I should also think about everyone who'd cheered me on this far.

If I were a spectator… I'd want to know too, definitely.

"… Understood. I'll advance the messages."

Oooohhh…!

Murmurs rose. I felt the expectations of everyone there. Or perhaps some were throwing curses, no way it'll work out, that sort of thing.

Of course not everyone was a fan of mine. Now that I'd made a name for myself, there had to be antis out there too.

If they were Rudis fans, they wouldn't be amused.

… Well, I didn't really mind if people who disliked me had a bad time of it.

If I had fans, they would be happy.

… If I didn't become a Hero, would those people find that funny?

That'd be irritating, but…

Whatever. All I could do now was pray.

I advanced the message.

"… Oh! She's at LV50."

Oooohhh…

Murmurs ran through the crowd.

I read on through the messages. Stat explanations followed, and then…

Even after the final Magic Defense entry, there was more message advancement.

… There… tap!

The moment of tension.

"Ah, it was Hero."

Phew, what a relief. I mean, after getting this far, if she didn't become a Hero, then what does anyone have to do to get one!?

I'd been on the verge of flipping out.

Wooooaaahhhh!

The venue exploded.

"Ohhhh! A Hero! A Hero! A new Hero has been born to this world!

"Her name is Colette! Let's all bless the birth of the Hero Colette!"

Wooooaaah…!

Massive applause. Aah… so the birth of a really powerful Garumon was a happy occasion for the whole world too.

That much was clear from this scene.

… This world, looking at it again… might just be fun.

Victory, Colette's growth… There were many joyful things, but maybe what made me happiest, again, was getting to feel people's kindness.

The moment Colette became a Hero, she learned a skill out of nowhere.

So this was a Hero's skill…

… It wasn't that big a deal. No, it wasn't bad. It activated on its own and raised stats on its own, so it didn't get in the way. After 15 turns the eventual cap was +300%.

It wasn't bad, but… a paltry 20% increment at this point, huh. The first skill she learned upon becoming a Hero being this was kind of underwhelming.

It was plain, but I erased Greatshield, since it was so plain there'd never been a good time to erase it. Farewell. From the very start, I'd actually used it more than I'd expected.

Not that I felt it had been particularly useful.

… Ohhh? Her Trait is… HP fully restored on Endure trigger!

The activation rate x10 was plain, but strong too. Endure's activation rate dropped to 1/10 with each use. Even at 100% the first time, the second time was 10%, the third 1%, and rounding down to integers, that was the limit.

With activation rate x10, the second time was still 100%, the third 10%, the fourth 1%.

Some enemies kept tanking with Endure over and over and were a real pain. Combined with Hero's Armor, three triggers were guaranteed.

… But quietly, the effects of her skills had changed! Three of them!

Ultimate Art - Conqueror's Shield, the use count dropped from 10 to 5! For a moment I was stunned, but…

It was upgraded from physical absolute defense to absolute defense. Meaning it could block magic too!

… No, but a halved use count meant it wasn't a complete upgrade. Please give a proper note about this and let me choose…

For Field Battle, the 10-uses physical-only version had been more useful.

Well, even halved, being able to absolutely defend against magic too was the more useful option, so I'd have picked it in the end anyway.

Hero's Armor became "1 person, 1 use per battle" only.

Optional trigger meant turn-independent and as much use as you wanted, so you could even put it on three teammates on the first turn. You couldn't reapply it, but everyone became tougher. That was nasty.

Hero's Sword became "1 use per turn" instead of "1 use per battle." Whenever Colette was out, one person could get +95% Atk for one turn.

Not as much as Setsuna, but Colette's primary role was Defender. To think she was this good as a Supporter too.

Combining her with Setsuna would work too, and that was strong.

Aside from when she was out at the same time as Luna, she could put up Hero's Shield on the first turn and then keep stacking buffs forever after.

Hmm, too many useful skills, hard to choose which to take. Or rather, could I just erase Secretary Skill?

Now that Libera had joined us, Colette didn't have to do secretary work anymore…

No, Colette seemed to find purpose in being a secretary, so that would be cruel. Fighting wasn't all there was to life either…

For her future growth, if she could use Ultimate Art - Conqueror's Shield and Ultimate Art - Conqueror's Sword together, she could play as a Defender-cum-Attacker. That was the sort of direction I had in mind.

As things were, attack skills would be hard to use.

But, with her solo combat endurance this high, there was also the option of structuring her attack skills so she could fight alone with only Colette left.

This time around, Rudis had set both Amanda and Anantha up to remain to the very end alone as Attacker-cum-Defender. Colette could be run that way too, perhaps.

In any case, having a Hero join us as an ally was wonderful.

It opened up dreams for what lay ahead, but… first, I was looking forward to tonight.