Ursula Belzebute (1)

"At long last, the first match begins.

"This year's champion of the A-Class Tournament, Naoto Akai-senshu!

"Though his career is short, he has S-Class-worthy lineups including a Seraph and a Hero, with a high level of technique. Especially noteworthy is his Kanan-aided ability to see through the opponent! With this as his weapon, he won through the harsh A-Class Tournament! Now… he challenges the very pinnacle, S-Class!

"Facing him is Ursula Belzebute-senshu!

"She is a futanari, an existence who is both Master and Garumon.

"Futanari, said to be made in the gods' likeness, are generally considered outstanding, and just as that reputation suggests, she is a Master boasting high prowess!

"Though her on-hand Garumon, herself included, number a mere six, those six are a match for a thousand, and incomparably strong!

"She has completed the three great ultimate jobs: Demon Lord, Dragon King, and Seraph!

"She has held S-Class for four years. Will she fulfill her fourth defense and challenge the S-Class Tournament for the second time as a Master?

"Or will she challenge her first S-Class Tournament as Naoto-senshu's Garumon?

"This match drawing all eyes… at last, it begins!"

Waaaaah…!

Annerose-san usually spoke in a relaxed tone, but for her pre-match emcee work — perhaps to build momentum — she fired up the crowd with a loud, crisp voice.

The venue heated up alongside her. And then…

I looked straight across the diagonal of the match field, into Ursula's eyes.

"… Naoto."

"… Ursula."

Unnecessary words were… no longer needed. Now… we simply fight!

"Go, Cellas! Mikoto! Mira!"

"Yes! … Seraph Raphaela Cellas, going forth!"

"Now then… let's settle this, Naoto. All the strength I've cultivated under Ursula… I'll bring it down on you."

"Fufu… I'm coming, Naoto-san… Because I love my dear Naoto-san… I absolutely, will not lose."

The 1st party was the lineup I'd predicted. But to have raised their LV by a full two…

Past LV50, leveling up was still possible, but it was said to require experience equivalent to LV1-50, or even more.

In just three months, how much training had they piled up?

"Let's go, Suzanne. Patty, Colette!"

"Mn… as a fellow Seraph, I can't afford to lose."

"Ye～s! I'll do my be～st!"

"Yes…! I absolutely, will not lose!"

These three had been forged primarily through sparring, so no LV increases here.

But in degree of refinement, I really didn't think we were inferior.

… There was no difference in Garumon quality… Or so I thought. Well, in actual career it was four years versus one, so there was a slight gap.

But I felt there was no real difference. Because everyone was strong!

After that… the difference between Ursula's command and mine would decide victory or defeat.

"Now then, both sides' Garumon are appearing. Ursula-senshu has Cellas, Mira, Mikoto.

"Naoto-senshu has Suzanne, Patty, Colette."

"Oh, Naoto-senshu's Garumon are all in their lewd, cute Spirit Garb. In the A-Class Tournament he only purged the costumes when things got serious, and that was nice in its own way, but this time it seems he's serious from the very start."

Now then, the skill loadouts looked like this.

Suzanne: God-Flame Seraph — God/Fire-element damage 100% UP

Divine Art Testament 10 God-element magic full-area immense damage. Always hits.

Divine Art Michaela 5 Self all-stats 2x, status ailment/debuff/dispel completely nullified, up to 2x per battle.

Overcharge 5 At end of turn, Endure permanent 100%; cannot use other skills simultaneously. Next turn attack 2x.

Divine Aura 10 One ally Atk/Def 30% UP. Activates at will. Stackable.

Patty: Great Strength King — When attacking, attack power 1.5x

Ogrification 5 After activation, always acts twice. Takes great damage to self each turn.

Barrier Crush 10 Nullifies Shield for 1 turn.

Demon Art - Plantain Fan 3 Element freely changeable among Spirit/Demon/Light/Dark. 49-hit small damage from raging wind.

Bull King's Blessing 5 Attack, Defense 100% UP.

Colette: Hero's Miracle — On Endure, HP fully restored. Endure activation rate x10.

Ultimate Art Conqueror's Shield 5 1 turn absolute defense, piercing nullified.

Hero's Sword 5 1 use per turn. Activates at will. One ally attack 75% UP. Stackable.

Hero's Armor 5 Activates at will. Damage halved. 1 per person per battle only, Endure activates.

Hero's Shield 5 1 per battle. Once used, permanently throughout battle prevents debuffs/buff-dispels 80%. Dispel nullified.

The skill change was on Suzanne. Aura had grown.

Its effect… I'd reveal from here on.

Overcharge — the effect itself hadn't changed at all, but the description had become more detailed.

Skill descriptions were vague about many things by default. You only learned a lot through heavy use; quite unkind.

So we'd used Overcharge into the ground as the trump card for the Ursula match, and while we were talking it over — "so that's the effect, huh" — before I knew it, the system's description had been corrected.

This kind of thing had happened before. The descriptions for Sub-Master and Slave Master, I think.

The system seemed to sometimes listen in on our conversations and tidy things up, in a rather human way.

Going forward, descriptive text might suddenly get revised again.

Well, at least I was glad they hadn't told me, "Permanent 100% Endure was too strong after all, so errata is being applied — 100% → 10% → 1%."

"At end of turn" meant: with Spirit Garb and Hero's Armor giving 2 stacks of Endure, then Overcharge added, if Endure activated 3 times — the Spirit Garb and Hero's Armor Endures would be used up first, then Overcharge's permanent Endure would activate. In other words, Endure couldn't be carried over into the next turn, so caution was needed.

… However, there was also the rare case where Spirit Garb's Endure activated 3 times via 100% → 10% → 1%, leaving Hero's Armor's Endure intact.

Honestly, when this triggered, the logic was incomprehensible. Well, it'd be an unexpected save, so all the better.

Next, the predicted skills on Ursula's side.

In reality they might differ. If I was off, we'd have to adjust as we went.

Of the five listed, I predicted at least one would be present. The top four were the first candidates.

Cellas: Trait: Divine Wind Barrier — Trait: Divine Wind Barrier — Protects the party from damage under 50 pt.

Divine Art Raphaela 1 Usable from turn 5 onward. All stats 2x. Debuff/buff-dispel nullified. Below effects last 5 turns → complete dodge of all attacks, always acts twice.

Divine Art Gungnir 10 God-element physical super-large damage, 2-hit, piercing, Speed 30% UP per attack.

Divine Art Stormbringer 5 God/Wind-element single-target physical super-large damage, piercing + absolute hit.

Wind God's Blessing 5 Speed 100% UP stackable, evasion rate 50% UP.

Angel Wing 15 Auto-activates, 60% evasion of all attacks.

Mikoto: Trait: Rapid Incantation — 3 times per battle, grants self preemptive strike.

Ultimate Art - Seal Array 5 Renders 1 enemy unable to act for 1 turn. Pierces status-ailment-nullification effects.

Demon Art - Necromancy 5 Spirit-element enemy all super-large damage. Spirits grab feet, rendering unable to act for 1+ turn.

Underworld Possession 5 One ally all-stats 2x, Spirit-element advantageous attribute granted, guaranteed-hit granted.

Demon Art - Protective Curse 15 By the power of the dead, reduces all damage to 1/4. Once activated, continues even after death.

Curse Array 10 All enemies chance to stun + stats 30% Down 1～2 random.

Mira: Trait: Rapid Computation — Acts twice every turn.

Acid Shell 10 Whole party, activates at will, physical-magical defensive barrier. Blocks 5 attacks each and deals damage back.

Demon Art - Iron Maiden 3 Restrains 1 enemy, continually deals Metal-element super-large damage.

Defense Secret Elixir 15 Whole party Defense 50% UP.

Strength Secret Elixir 15 Whole party Attack 50% UP.

Melt Rain 10 1-3 enemies Defense 100% reduction (-100%). Using on 3 costs 3.

… Now then, the predicted skills looked like this.

Looking again… overwhelmingly strong, isn't it.

Yes. Ursula's party was incredibly strong.

… In our last sparring match we did get fairly close, but that was with Demon Art Belzebute sealed and half of their traits sealed too.

If they'd fought us truly seriously, cornering them would have been impossible.

… But, now… we'd win. That was all.

"Divine Wind Barrier!"

The first thing to activate was Raphaela Cellas's trait… This one thing alone, I thought, was utterly broken.

That was why I hadn't made Patty my main attacker. 50 pt or under was nullified. Ameri was useless for the same reason.

But it didn't subtract 50 from damage; rather, 50 or under became 0, 51 or more dealt 51 damage, so as long as you could put out 51+ you had nothing to fear.

If Patty stacked Bull King's Blessing aggressively, there was at least a chance of clearing 51 damage, but…

Unfortunately, even when damage was reduced by defense buffs, anything under 50 wouldn't get through, so pushing damage through Plantain Fan's small hits would be an extreme feat.

"Rapid Incantation: Demon Art - Protective Curse!"

Combat actions continued. The very first to act was Mikoto. Opening move: preemptive grant + Protective Curse.

… All damage 1/4. In other words, anything under 203 wouldn't get through… Pretty ridiculous, isn't it.

I'd considered bringing Curse Array, but if we ran into Luna, First Skill would activate before the preemptive, so it'd be no use.

So I'd predicted they probably wouldn't bring it after all — and it seemed I'd guessed right.

If they had used it, they'd have had to open with it preemptively. That way they could've gotten ahead of Colette's Hero's Shield.

Next to move was Suzanne.

Suzanne's skill had evolved one step. The attack-up value had dropped, but it had become Atk/Def 30% UP, with an activates-at-will tag added.

With that, this skill — Divine Aura — instantly became a vicious skill granting 300% Atk/Def UP.

… It said Atk/Def 30% UP, 10 at-will activations…

"Divine Aura!"

Gagagagagagagagagagagagan!

In an instant, she fired off 10 consecutive activations of the skill. It was advanced technique on the level of firing a pistol 10 times at one shot per second, but Suzanne pulled it off easily.

With the at-will tag and no "once per turn" restriction, if there was no other merit to holding back, why not just use them all at once? — that was the thinking, and she executed it exactly.

Colette's Hero's Armor had the merit of halving damage on the turn it was used, so timing adjustment was needed for that.

"Hero's Sword!"

Conversely, Hero's Sword had no demerits other than the multiplier being hard to calculate, so we used it immediately.

As for multiplying by 0.75 — this past month I'd done mountains of calculation practice. I had confidence I could do it faster than a calculator now, instantly in my head.

With this, Suzanne was Attack 475%, Defense 400%. From there…

"Divine Art - Michaela!"

Attack 950%, Defense 800%, Speed-Skill 200%!

"Hero's Shield!"

Colette's buff-dispel, debuff-resistance skill activated. With that, I felt secure. 80% blocking was pretty effective.

Suzanne further had +100% blocking from Divine Art - Michaela's effect.

So I doubted Mikoto would bring her specialty debuff-type skills.

There was a debate about whether buffs or debuffs were more effective, but debuffs had these demerits:

• They could be resisted by the opponent.

• Once the opponent was defeated they disappeared. Whether they were more effective than an attack skill was unclear.

So I felt buffs were the more effective approach.

"Rapid Computation…!"

Mira moved.

"Strength Secret Elixir! Demon Art - Iron Maiden!"

Here it came…! A move that continually dealt Metal-element super-large damage every turn while rendering the target unable to act — get hit, and it was over.

This skill had 3 uses. In other words: open with it on turn 1, then on turn 2 activate Iron Maiden twice more, and the whole team would be rendered unable to act, continuously taking Iron Maiden damage until annihilated — a terrifying massacre show of just waiting for everyone to die.

Meanwhile, Cellas would wait the 5 turns out, then trample the 2nd party with her invincible power…

That was Ursula's 1st party's specialty and surefire strategy.

The answer to breaking it was the Setsuna Spirit Garb the three of them were now wearing.

Suzanne was the one targeted. Metal-element was 2x against God-element. But we let it through.

… Because Suzanne's defense was 8x. Even taking it raw, it was about 12.5 damage.

Visually, though, it was terrifying. Inside a goddess statue packed with spikes.

They sure had thought up a horrid execution device.

Against the looming Iron Maiden, Suzanne firmly guarded with both hands.

… A mere 10 pt of damage.

Ooh, strong.

Bakiin!

Suzanne smashed Iron Maiden easily and stepped out.

… The continuous-damage effect disappeared with that. The trait of adding render-unable-to-act became their own undoing.

Through unable-to-act resistance, it broke.

"…! Hard, isn't she…"

Mira showed signs of agitation.

"As expected, Naoto… It's all right, Mira. I'll take her down.

"Wind God!"

Goo…!

Mn, she'd brought Wind God. Cellas's powerful buff skill.

Speed 100% UP was certainly a threat. To endure 5 turns I'd thought they'd bring Angel Wing, but…

…! The color of the buff had changed!

Not just the green of speed increase, but the red of attack-power increase too…!

The speed-increase value seemed lower, but more than that, she was strengthened overall.

Wind God? Attack, Speed 75% UP stackable, evasion rate 50% UP.

Upward revision needed. Bad news…

"Ogrification, Bull King's Blessing, Bull King's Blessing!"

Patty also moved. Starting with Bull King's Blessing.

I'd considered concentrating buffs on Patty and trying to crank 200 damage out of Demon Art - Plantain Fan, but a 20x multiplier was honestly impossible.

Well, theoretically it wasn't impossible.

For example: Setsuna, Patty, and Yuria.

If Yuria's all-member 2x Dark Aura + Concentrate ran — 2x × 2x × 2x — it wouldn't become 8x. Only the UP-amounts stacked. So bare, that was 100% + 100% + 100% = only 300% UP.

But if Setsuna used Furious March - Allegria 15 times, everyone became 750% UP — 850%.

Patty using Bull King's Blessing 5 times — 1350%.

Add Dark Aura, and Patty became 2700%, Setsuna and Yuria 1700%.

Add Concentrate, and 2700 + 1600 + 1600 = 5900%.

With Great Strength King, 8850%. Far from 20x, an 88x Patty was complete. Use Plantain Fan with that and one strike was 880 × 49 damage — not even bones left.

Well, before you raised firepower that high, just Yuria's Dark Protect wouldn't hold up defense.

Also, Mira raising defense 500% was the biggest problem.

Even an 88x attack, against 6x defense, couldn't exceed defense by 20x, and would get nullified by Divine Wind Barrier.

Of the elements — Light, Dark, Spirit, Demon — none had advantage over God or Metal, so none would work on Cellas or Mira.

Light was 4x super-effective against Spirit, so we could take down just Mikoto with Light.

Then why bring Plantain Fan? Wouldn't Demon God's Great Spirit Strike be better?

So I'd thought, but Spirit-element was nullified against Metal-element, so Mira couldn't be taken down. If Patty got a chance to attack, with a Light attack she might one-shot just Mikoto.

Also, Mira's Acid Shell — 50 blocks of defense total — was a vicious wall, but if Patty's 49-hit combo broke through, we might leave 1 left… that was a faint hope of mine.

So, turn 1 ended with both sides exchanging buffs.

"Silvana-san, for now it's a quiet opening, isn't it.

"Mira's strong-looking technique activated first with preemptive, but it dealt only minuscule damage to Suzanne.

"Just how powerful are the buffs Suzanne is stacking?"

"Well, roughly… no, saying that wouldn't be right. At any rate, she's gotten rock-solid, so taking her down will be quite a chore."

Turn 2.

"Rapid Incantation, Ultimate Art - Seal Array!"

So it came after all!

"Suzanne, dodge!"

… That was unreasonable, huh. Faced with a massive stream of charms looming in, Suzanne got pinned in place.

"Gh, uu…!"

It just rendered one opponent unable to act for one turn. Only that effect.

But it nullified the opponent's unable-to-act resistance, absolutely rendering them unable to move.

That was Mikoto's Ultimate Art.

… If Mikoto couldn't move, wasn't it the same on both sides?

You might think so, but… that wasn't the case. Mikoto was a supporter. Her being unable to move was no problem.

If a Defender's movements got sealed, the moment they were attacked the party would be wiped out.

If an Attacker's movements got sealed, the strategy fell apart.

A skill that just sealed one person's movements was tremendously frightening.

… As expected, the choice of whether to seal Defender or Attacker was spot-on.

If they'd sealed Colette, we could've wiped them out right then with Patty's Barrier Crush and Suzanne's Testament.

For Cellas, all we needed was to prevent her from attacking for 5 turns.

"Rapid Chant, Strength Secret Elixir, Defense Secret Elixir!"

So with this:

Cellas: Attack 275% Defense 150% Speed 175%

Mira: Attack 200% Defense 150%

Mikoto: Attack 200% Defense 150%

Huh? … Hm? This was doable! With 4 chances, not using Defense Secret Elixir twice — that was a blunder for Ursula!

"Colette, Hero's Sword on Patty!

"Patty! Bull King's Blessing, Demon Art - Plantain Fan! Element: Light, concentrate attacks on Mikoto!"

"Yes!"

"Ye～s!"

Base attack 10, with Patty's attack power 375% UP for 475%. Attribute effect 4x, Great Strength King 1.5x. Divide by defense 1.5x… 190. Short of 204. But this buff calculation always assumed our attack and the opponent's defense were equal. Patty's Strength was 76. Mikoto's Defense wasn't precisely known, but it was 60 or less.

Even if it was 60, damage became 240, and 1/4 of that exceeded 51!

"Go! Take down Mikoto!"

"Ye～s! Demon Art - Plantain Fan - Light!"

Buon!

Patty brandished the fan!

A massive flood of needle-like aura surged out, attacking, heading straight for Mikoto!

"Mikoto!"

"No…!"

Mira and Cellas tried to shield her, but Patty swung the fan further — woom, woom — and the aura turned magnificently, evading the two, and rained down on Mikoto…

"No! Defend, Mira!"

Ursula's instruction flew.

"Acid Shell!"

Paripari paripari pariin!

In an instant, 5 layers were broken.

"Acid Shell! Acid Shell! Acid Shell! Acid Shell! …"

… Skilled. Even as an enemy, I admired it.

Magnificently, against Patty's attacks, she layered 5, 5, 5 multi-layered shields and defended.

The flying fragments tried to wound the opponent, but… ranged attacks had no effect after all.

The effect only triggered against close-range attacks.

I'd wondered if 49 hits maybe couldn't break 50 shields.

To think that exact development awaited.

"Haa, haa, haa…!"

And then, Mira thoroughly unleashed Acid Shell at full force.

… No matter how at-will the skill was, using it 10 times consecutively in one turn was a heavy feat — as I knew from making Suzanne consecutively use Divine Aura.

Well, Suzanne had pulled it off in one day.

But defense skills that put up defense in sync with attacks were far more difficult.

Mira's wall was truly magnificent.

… But with that, she'd used 49 of 50 shells.

The last one could be smashed with Barrier Crush. After that, Suzanne could land hits at will.

… Maybe we could handle the 1st party after all?

For now, a glimmer of light was showing through.

"… Wind God's Blessing."

Cellas calmly stacked a buff.

Cellas: Attack 350% Defense 150% Speed 250%

She was getting steadily stronger.

Turn 3. Had they decided to keep Mikoto alive no matter what? Sure enough…

"Rapid Incantation, Ultimate Art - Seal Array!"

Suzanne was caught.

Only Mikoto's Rapid Incantation could stop Suzanne, so I understood the choice.

But Mikoto's Rapid Incantation was up to 3 times… or so it should have been.

If it hadn't grown and the count hadn't extended, that is.

… Bad. There was a possibility the count had grown.

If we couldn't take her down next turn… Divine Art - Raphaela would activate.

Whether we could endure 5 turns or not… I didn't want to risk it.

Cellas used Wind God's Blessing again.

"Defense Secret Elixir, Defense Secret Elixir!"

Mira solidified defense. With that, Defense 250%.

This was no good… no, how was it? Apply Hero's Sword to Patty, use Great Strength King: 650 × 4 × 1.5 ÷ 2.5 = 156.

Hm, maybe… this… I wasn't sure. If Mikoto's defense was 58, damage became 204 and reached 51. If 59, it fell short.

This… was worth the gamble!

If I bet… and could take down Mikoto, Suzanne's actions could no longer be impeded. On turn 4, victory would be ours!

"Colette! One more time. Hero's Sword on Patty. Patty, Bull King's Blessing, Plantain Fan, Light!"

"Yes! Hero's Sword!"

"Ye～s!

"This will be the finishing blow～! Demon Art - Plantain Fan - Light!"

Buon!

Wind, wind, blades rained down again…!

The effect was… obvious at a glance. If no good, it'd vanish via Divine Wind Barrier without even breaking Acid Shell.

If effective, Acid Shell would break, and then…

Parin!

"Kyaaaaaa!"

Dodododododododo!

The storm of falling blades, in an instant, ripped through the beautiful Yoko.

… No, she didn't actually get hurt.

She just looked ripped to pieces, that much.

All right, won the gamble!

Mikoto may have Endured somewhat, but against a 51-damage 49-hit combo, it was meaningless.

She was easily pulverized.

"… Ku… To think it was such an attack…"

Even for Ursula, it seemed to exceed her calculations.

Well, Ursula didn't really know Patty's current abilities.

We hadn't sparred since Patty became Bull Demon King. That Patty had grown this strong was probably outside her expectations.

So it wasn't really a blunder on her part. We'd exceeded Ursula's predictions and become stronger.

Turn 4. Now, no one could impede Suzanne. We could win this!

… Well, with one charge of Michaela's Testament, taking down Mira might be tough. But taking down Cellas was enough.

"… Splendid indeed. Mikoto has grown enough through training to use Rapid Incantation 4 times now.

"If Mikoto were intact, I'd have sealed thy movements next turn too."

So Ursula informed me.

"… But Mikoto isn't the only one who's grown.

"My preparations are already complete. Go, Cellas!"

"By thy command. I go forth.

"… Divine Art - Raphaela!"

"… Eh?"

Goh!

Surely not… Cellas had grown too, and become able to activate it from turn 4…!?

The battle between Ursula and me had become one where we both betrayed each other's expectations, astonished at our opponent's growth.