A-Class Tournament Final (De Facto) (3)

"Ahahahaha! Die, die, dieeee!"

The transformed Lava was spewing out a miasma of darkness.

Honestly, it was pretty terrifying.

… Lyuka had gone down. Only Colette and Yuria remained. The opponent was Lava alone.

Her HP was 1… In other words, all I needed was to land one attack and she'd fall. But…

"Ahahahaha!"

Lava's Immortality Barrier. It was probably an Endure-grant skill.

That Heavenly Demon Lava's trait had given me a good hint.

The Immortality Barrier was an optional-trigger skill. If she only used Immortality Barrier, no use-counts were spent. That was why on the very first turn she'd used nothing but Immortality Barrier.

Meaning, if she did consume a use-count, she could trigger it at will.

… The way to defeat her was to keep attacking until the Immortality Barrier ran out.

The other option was to use Yuria's Black Matrix to strip the Immortality Barrier, then finish her off with Colette's Ultimate Art.

If we could pull that off, we'd one-shot the tenacious-looking Lava, and it would probably feel pretty damn satisfying.

… But by now they'd be absolutely on guard against that.

Aaah, I shouldn't have used Black Matrix earlier!

That had taught them Yuria's Black Matrix could strip the Immortality Barrier.

The opponent wasn't dumb enough to miss it.

Once they were on guard, pulling it off was impossible. Sure, it was easy enough for Colette and Yuria to coordinate and attack at the same time.

But the opponent wasn't a tree or a stone. They could deliberately take Black Matrix first, then immediately fire off Immortality Barrier.

And then all she'd have to do was take Colette's attack.

Landing a simultaneous strike on an opponent moving like that was impossible.

So only the former option remained.

Aah, how many use-counts would there be? 3? 5? … If it was 10 or something, that'd be impossible no matter what.

At least let it be 5! If so… would it be enough? Probably enough. Just barely though!

She'd already used 1, so 4 left… I hoped.

"Colette, Hero's Armor on Yuria. Ultimate Art - Conqueror's Shield. Yuria, Black Hole."

"That's all we've got. Black Hole!"

"Immortality Barrier!"

Lava Endured the damage from Black Hole.

"Heavenly Demon Strike, Demon Art - Chandrahasa!"

Aah, of course! She had a guaranteed-hit attack. No good. Colette can't Cover guaranteed-hit attacks.

"!"

Yuria took the strike. But…

"… Kuh! Not yet!"

… Yuria's HP held! I see, Morale Boost had stacked this high by now. Her defense was just enough.

"Heavenly Demon Strike, Demon Art - Chandrahasa!"

"Aguh."

A two-hit combo. But Endure activated.

"I can take one more. After that… I'm counting on you, Colette."

"… Yes!"

Next turn. From here on, all we could do was attack to the limit!

"Colette, Ultimate Art - Conqueror's Sword! Yuria, Demon Art - Black Hole!"

"Yes!"

Colette's sword sliced into Lava,

"Please, let this be enough!? Demon Art - Black Hole!"

And Yuria's magic pierced through.

"Immortality Barrier! Immortality Barrier!"

But it only burned 2 of her skill uses. Aah geez, Endure is so cheesy because no matter how much damage you deal it doesn't go through! Well, it cuts both ways.

"Heavenly Demon Strike, Demon Art - Pushpaka Ratha!"

The moment Aldis saw we had no defenses left, he immediately switched to an all-target attack.

His judgment in this kind of situation really was top-notch.

"Colette…! The rest is… up to you!"

Yuria desperately Covered for Colette.

Minuscule damage to Colette. With Morale Boost stacked, Colette's defense had risen quite high.

… But Yuria went down.

"Heavenly Demon Strike, Demon Art - Chandrahasa!"

Lava's two-hit attack!

"Colette! Hero's Armor!"

Kan!

… Damage was minuscule. Hero's Armor halved damage on the turn it was used.

"Demon Art - Chandrahasa!"

Eh, Lava acted three times!? What was going on?

… Wait, could it be that Heavenly Demon Strike wasn't just piercing-grant, but a pick-one between piercing or two-actions!?

No good, this one really was unbearable.

But… I won't lose!

"Colette…!"

"Ku…!"

Zan! But… it was just slightly… not enough. Colette's HP became 0.

But…

Gyun!

Instantly, full recovery!

"What!?"

Hero's Miracle, activated! … Crap, I'd forgotten too. That's right, when Colette goes down, her HP fully restores.

I'd been calculating she'd be left at HP 1.

But on my face I kept a cool just-as-planned expression.

All right, with this we could do it!

"Ultimate Art - Conqueror's Sword!"

Colette sliced. But Lava Endured. That made 5.

If it was 5 Endures, we'd take her out next turn. Did we win?

"Heavenly Demon Strike, Demon Art - Chandrahasa!"

Two-actions twice for four attacks!

"Colette, your clothes!"

"Yes!"

Pan! Colette purged her clothing. What she'd been wearing was Irana's Spirit Garb.

The effect: 30% re-action and 100% Endure-grant!

Zan! Zan! Zan! Zan!

Guh…! Just barely, Colette's HP got shaved through.

In the brief opening as she stripped off the costume, she took a critical and couldn't hold out.

She immediately defended and fully blocked the remaining 3 hits, but…!

Strong. Not letting even the slightest opening slip by.

But, instantly, the equipment's Endure activated and her HP fully restored.

What's more, Colette moved. Eh, the 30% re-action came through!

"Ultimate Art - Conqueror's Sword!"

Zan!

Did it land…!

"Immortality Barrier!"

Gegege!? The 6th!? Just how immortal are you! This was looking like a 10-count.

Colette could only attack once at a time. The other side had 4-hit attacks. We could win… maybe…

No, Colette was still hanging on. We wouldn't lose!

"Just… hang in there!"

After that, all that was left was sheer willpower.

"Yes!"

"Uwaaaah… wh-what is this! A-amazing! A magnificent, fierce exchange of blows between Hero and Heavenly Demon!

"They keep dealing fatal blows to each other and reviving! What an outrageous battle!"

The commentator's voice rang out. Now that he mentioned it, maybe it really was incredible.

But over here, my heart was in my throat!

"Ultimate Art - Conqueror's Sword!"

7th… let it be 10…

"Heavenly Demon Strike, Demon Art - Chandrahasa!"

Aah geez, casually pulling off four-action turns!

Zan! Zan! Zan! Zan!

… But this time Colette survived. Her defensive technique plus all the turns that had passed had pushed her defense even higher.

"Ultimate Art - Conqueror's Sword!"

"Immortality Barrier!"

8th!

"Demon Art - Chandrahasa!"

… Huh? What about Heavenly Demon Strike?

… I see, her skill uses had run out too! All right, the other side was also at her limit!

Zan! Zan!

And yet, with brilliant swordsmanship she slipped through Colette's defense. Guh…! If she'd properly received it with her shield, she'd have survived!

Colette's HP hit 0. But…

"Haa!"

Full recovery again!

Colette's Hero's Miracle trait multiplies Endure probability by 10.

With Endure, every time it activates the probability drops to 1/10. So with Irana's Spirit Garb's 1st time at 100%, the 2nd time would be 10%, 3rd time 1%.

With Hero's Miracle, 1st-2nd times are 100%, 3rd time 10%, 4th time 1%. In other words, combined with Hero's Armor, that's 3 Endures and full HP! That was probably no less powerful than the other side's 10 Endures.

"Wha…!"

Lava was stunned.

"Ultimate Art - Conqueror's Sword!"

9th… 2 more! Would it be enough…? We were at our limit too!

"Demon Art - Chandrahasa!"

Zan! Zan!

Colette received with her shield. All right, she kept the damage low! With this… we could do it!

"Ultimate Art - Conqueror's Sword!"

"Immortality… Barrier!"

10th. Surely this was the last. If she said 15 or something, that'd be the end.

But with offense and defense both buffed up by now, we could withstand 2 more attacks easy!

"… How… could this…"

Zan, zan…!

Lava's attacks couldn't finish off Colette. Colette firmly received with her shield.

And then, finally…

"Ultimate Art - Conqueror's Sword!"

Zan!

… The Hero's sword caught the Heavenly Demon.

"… Impossible… that I… should…"

Thud.

Finally… Lava had fallen.

"… I-impossible… Lava… lost…?"

Aldis was crestfallen too.

It seemed even he hadn't anticipated Lava losing.

… Well, given she could Endure 10 times.

If it had been a super-multi-hit skill like Ameri's Hundred-Leaf Wild Dance or Patty's Plantain Fan, the other side would've had to give up, but they'd probably figured there was no way she'd lose to Colette's single-hit attacks.

"Well… done, Colette."

But I was worn out too.

This was bad for the heart…

"Uwaaaah… amazing, too amazing!

"Both of them rising up again and again, an exchange of blows of incredible ferocity!

"A breathtaking one-on-one between Hero and Heavenly Demon!

"And the one who emerged victorious was…

"Hero Colette! The winner is Hero Colette!"

Dowaaaaaaaa…!

The venue… was hyped up. Thank goodness.

I'd worried that with the match dragging on so long, the crowd might have cooled off.

… Haaaaah…

One more time, haaaaah…

I let out a deep sigh.

For my part, I hadn't felt like I was alive.

I mean, at first I'd thought there was no way we could win if the Endure count was 10.

Colette was more amazing, more powerful than I'd expected. Well, that was because I'd momentarily blanked on Hero's Miracle.

The whole if Endure procs you're left at HP 1 idea was just too ingrained…

As expected of a Hero. Or rather, maybe it was that Colette herself was incredible.

Maybe instead of going purely defense-focused, I should aim for a Hero who could properly use offensive skills, defend, and fight.

… When Colette focused on protecting only herself, she was strong.

Co-letteee!

So coooool!

Cheers from the crowd rained down. For Colette, who hadn't stood much in the spotlight, being showered with this much praise was probably a first.

"Colette, you were amazing. You did so well!"

Of course, I lavished her with praise myself.

Truly… she'd done so well. And Lyuka and Yuria too, of course.

The first match was our win.

"… Tch, can't be helped. Member change."

But naturally the match was far from over.

Next was the second round.

Honestly, I was pretty burned out, but I had to push through one more round.