Chapter 222 - The Little Heavy Tank
A wall in front of me… but then again, I was running towards a 'wall' to begin with.
The [Engage] barrier had been deployed right next to my original target, the central battle zone. I wasn't foolish enough to react too late and die by crashing into it.
[Floating Leaf] activated—come to think of it, I've gotten quite used to this “skill I don't really understand.” In the beginning, just changing my vector required a considerable amount of action… but now, it’s like this.
"Hnngh!"
By simply flicking my fingertips, I can create an arrow, grab it, and make a right-angle turn at top speed with almost no prior motion—
…But you already knew that, didn't you? The fact that you matched my speed without flinching means you've done your homework!
Manipulating my kinetic energy to shift my trajectory upward, I treated the barrier like a ramp and ran up it. As I reached out a hand towards the barrier I was using as a foothold, a cannonball clutching black steel came flying at me.
I dodged the line of fire just in the nick of time. The small shadow crashed into the barrier, shaking the [Engage] field with a roar like an actual tank cannon.
"Trying to run away on your first move? Isn't that a bit cruel?"
"It'd be crueler to start goofing around in a situation like this!"
My attempt to use [Break] was successfully cut off.
So far, the rankers from the North and South had each used a clear 'declaration' to activate [Engage] three times. This was because war-exclusive skills required a distinct vocalization to activate.
Furthermore, for [Break] and [Interrupt], an additional activation condition was added: “the user must be touching the field barrier of the [Engage].”
Touch the 'wall' and then, Break—just one word.
Even if I enunciated it like an idiot, it would take a second at most. At the minimum speed the system would recognize, it would be around half a second.
Half a second… I see. That's—a pretty damn tight condition…!
As I floated in the air, away from the wall, the [Heavy Tank]'s blade closed in, giving me no time to spare. He held daggers in both hands, but I couldn't afford to clash with them head-on.
[Blink Switch]—I summoned the [Revolving Wheel Shield]. Then, I activated [Whirlwind] and [Reflect Blower] in parallel.
"Take—this!!"
As I tumbled sideways in mid-air, I deflected the twin slash from both his daggers with my left shield—no, impossible!!
"Release!!"
I hadn't taken it head-on; my trajectory was meant to parry it at an angle. But the intense shock that ran not just through my left arm but my entire body forced me to release the gale from my right hand behind the shield, forcibly deflecting the black steel daggers.
Even a gale that had effortlessly sent Tiger Lucky and Maru II flying wasn't enough to repel them. The small shadow slipped past me as I dodged, crashing into the waterway and throwing up a ridiculous pillar of water.
Good grief… just how far can that dagger deceive the world?
[Dual Heavy, Starfall Twin Black Steel]—one might guess from the name, but that [Anima]'s main ability is 'gravity manipulation'…
...no, it's 'weight forgery.'
Forgery is an ability that deceives something. And the target of that dagger's deception is not the 'enemy,' nor is it the 'player'—it is the world (system) itself.
To put it simply, [Dual Heavy, Starfall Twin Black Steel] doesn't actually increase or decrease the weapon's weight. Instead, it can 'forge the weight only within the calculation formula' of the system's judgment.
It's a ridiculously roundabout and complex ability… but what are the benefits?
It's a crazy ability that can be exploited in countless ways—but the first thing to mention is this.
"So… heavy…!!!"
"You shouldn't block it. You'll get crushed in an instant!"
The dagger, swung as if it had no weight at all, slammed into the [An-ri Galta] I was using as a shield, creating a roaring sound—an absolute anomaly.
It intervenes in the calculation formula—meaning the forged weight is applied after the attack is judged to have hit.
What that means is… right now, that dagger probably weighs only a few kilograms to him. For a virtual avatar with superhuman specs, it's practically weightless.
"And—one more!!"
"Ngh, guoah!?"
—And for me, it's a lethal weapon with absurd weight, surpassing even my [An-ri Galta] and the [Giant's Hand Axe].
"Dammit, you and your overpowered, cheating Anima…!"
"Did the guy with cheating player skills just say something?!"
Oh, what a compliment—so heavy!!!
I myself have a super-heavy, indestructible, cheating weapon, so I can barely manage to defend, but just as he said, I'm not supposed to block it in the first place.
I know I shouldn't—but my legs are so heavy.
More accurately, my whole body is heavy. It's a clear status abnormality, and this annoying feeling, like severe exhaustion, is probably…
"Hey, I never heard anything about you being able to 'intervene' with the player's body itself…!?"
As I desperately pushed back against the daggers he swung so effortlessly, I shot him a resentful look. The [Heavy Tank] just gave me a playful grin, like a boy whose prank had succeeded.
This bastard… I swear, the face I'm making right now is not fit for public viewing. Good thing I'm wearing a hood—wait, this is no time for that!
My legs are heavy. My body won't move as I want it to.
In that case, maybe I should just switch to a combat style that uses slower speeds.
"Come,"
"Tch."
"—[Samidorizuki]."
I summoned a 'katana' and drew its jade blade.
He must have sensed the high-pitched Iai strike just before it landed. As I expected, the [Heavy Tank] showed impressive agility and leaped back, causing the blade of [Samidorizuki] to cut through empty air.
AGI: 200… or maybe a bit more? Better to assume it's around 250.
"Ah… that. That's the reason I didn't want to fight you."
"Oh? You've got a good eye."
I haven't revealed it yet, nor have I clearly shown my 'techniques'. The fact that my 'sword style' comes from the [Sword Saint]—…well, I wonder? Maybe some super-core fans have figured it out from my fighting style.
In any case, the boy in front of me didn't seem to have guessed that far. He probably just saw my fight with Tiger Lucky from a distance.
"When you hold a katana, Acrobat-san, your whole aura changes. It's scary, fighting an opponent who pushes with pure skill… and just as I thought, it seems like my debuff barely affects your legs either."
"So you are up to something… congratulations on reaching the fifth tier, I assume?"
"Haha, well, I figured you'd find out. Not that I was trying to hide it, so it's fine."
No need to bluff, it seems. The [Heavy Tank] spun his daggers playfully and admitted it with a proud smile.
"I was planning to 'reveal' it after the war anyway, so I'll tell you—it's [Regalias, Tree-Calming Royalty], the new ability of my [Dual Heavy, Starfall Twin Black Steel] that I got at the fifth tier."
"Huh, the name's cool, at least."
"Right? It targets players within a certain range of me and subtracts from their AGI based on their vitality stat… it's another one of those PvP-specialized abilities that's going to get me a lot of complaints from all sides."
—Ah, I see… so that's it. Everything makes sense now.
The fact that it's affecting me means that additional stats from equipment are also reversed as a debuff. Furthermore, I suspect that in my case, a mere minus 50 from the [Meteor Serpent] series wouldn't slow my legs down this much.
So, just as he described it as vitality versus AGI, it's likely applying a calculation based on the player's total defensive power.
If you think about it that way—if the excessive subtraction could drop AGI into the negatives, it's no wonder the defensive units of the [Eastern Wings], who specialize in being walls, were completely immobilized.
…If my magic resistance (MID) had been counted as vitality, I would've been toast.
"So if your AGI goes into the negatives, you can't even move, huh?"
"Exactly. I tested it, and apparently even at -1, you get super heavy. At -10, you can pretty much only crawl."
So that's confirmed. What a ridiculously cheating ability…
"So yeah, it really depends on the opponent. It's not working on you at all, Acrobat-san. Is your VIT under 100 or something?"
"…Yeah, something like that."
It's zero.
What? Zero and a hundred are pretty much the same thing!
"Now then? I'd be perfectly fine continuing this chat, you know?"
"Too bad—because I'm not!"
I shot back a retort, tightened my grip on [Samidorizuki]'s hilt, and charged forward without hesitation.
Behind the smug-looking [Heavy Tank], the inside of the adjacent field was still obscured by a relentless cloud of dust, impossible to see through.
But the roars, growing ever more intense, and the flashes of light—
They told me, without words, that there was no more time to waste.