kscans

Chapter 222 - The Little Heavy Tank

A wall right in front of me… but then again, I was running towards a 'wall' to begin with.

I'm not foolish enough to crash and die just because the [Engage] barrier appeared in the same spot as my original target, the central battlefield.

Activate [Floating Leaf]—come to think of it, I've gotten quite used to this 'hard to understand' skill. In the beginning, I needed a considerable amount of movement just to change vectors… but now, it's like this.

"Nngh!"

Just a flick of my fingertips creates an arrow that I can grab, allowing me to make a right-angle turn at top speed with almost no motion—

…But you knew that would happen, right? The fact that you reacted to my speed without missing a beat means you've done your homework! That's what I get for showing off!

I manipulated my kinetic energy to change my course upwards, and as I ran up the barrier I was using as a foothold, I reached out my hand. In that instant, a cannonball wielding black steel came flying at me.

I dodged the line of fire by a hair's breadth. The small shadow impacted the barrier, shaking the [Engage] field with a roar like a tank cannon.

"Isn't it a bit cruel to try and run away on your first move?"

"It'd be crueler to start playing around in this situation!"

I was skillfully cut off from my attempt to [Break] the engagement.

As I've seen three times now from the Northern and Southern rankers, this wartime-exclusive skill requires a clear verbal declaration to activate.

Furthermore, for [Break] and [Interrupt], there's an additional condition: 'you must be touching the field barrier of the [Engage].'

Touch the 'wall,' then say, Break—just one word.

Even if I enunciated it like a fool, it would take a second at most. At the minimum speed the system would recognize, it would be about 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 wielded twin daggers, but I couldn't afford to clash with them head-on.

[Blink Switch]—I summoned the [Revolving Shields]. Then, I activated [Whirlwind] and [Reflect Blower] in parallel.

"Heeere—we go!"

As I tumbled sideways in mid-air, I deflected the twin slash from his daggers with my left shield—no, I can't! It's impossible!

"Release!"

I didn't take it head-on; my trajectory was already set to deflect it. Even so, the violent impact shot not just through my left arm but my entire body. I had no choice but to release the gale from my right hand behind the shield, forcibly deflecting the black steel daggers.

Even a blast of wind that had sent players like Tiger Lucky and Maru II flying wasn't enough to repel them. The small shadow slipped past me as I dodged, landing in the waterway and sending up a ridiculously huge pillar of water.

Good grief… just how far can those daggers deceive the world?

[Dual Heavy, Starfall Twin Black Steel]—as you might guess from the name, the main ability of that Anima is 'gravity manipulation'…

No, it's 'weight falsification.'

Falsification. In other words, an ability that deceives something. And the target of those daggers' deception is not the 'enemy,' nor even a 'player'—it's the world, the system itself.

To put it simply, [Dual Heavy] doesn't actually increase or decrease the weapon's weight. Instead, it can falsify the weight value only within the system's calculation formula for determining outcomes.

It's a ridiculously roundabout and complex ability, but… what's the benefit of that?

There are so many ways to abuse this insane ability, it's not even funny—but, well, the first thing to mention is…

"Ngh, so heavy…!"

"You're not supposed to block it! You'll get crushed!"

…the anomaly of a dagger, swung as if it had no weight at all, pushing back my [An-ri Galta], which I'd set up as a shield, with a deafening roar.

It intervenes in the calculation formula—meaning the falsified weight is applied after the attack connects.

What that means is… right now, those daggers probably weigh only a few kilograms to him. For a virtual avatar with superhuman specs, that's next to nothing.

"Aaaand—heave-ho!"

"Nuh, gwaah?!"

—But for me, they are a lethal weapon with absurd weight, surpassing even my [An-ri Galta] and [Giant's Hand Axe].

"Dammit, you cheat Anima, doing whatever you want…!"

"Look who's talking, Mr. Cheat-PS!"

Oh, I'm flattered—so heavy!!!

I have my own oversized, indestructible cheat weapon, so I can barely manage to defend myself, but just as he said, I'm not supposed to be blocking this at all.

I can't block it, but—my legs feel heavy.

Actually, my whole body feels heavy. It's a clear status abnormality, and this annoying feeling, like a severe case of fatigue, is probably…

"Hey, I never read anything about your ability being able to 'intervene' with players themselves…!"

As I desperately pushed back the daggers he swung with ease, I directed my complaint at him. In response, the Heavy Tank flashed a playful smile, like a boy whose prank had succeeded.

This bastard… I swear, the face I'm making right now is not something I'd want anyone to see. Good thing I'm wearing a hood—not the time for that!

My legs are heavy, my body won't move as I want.

In that case, I might as well switch to a slower-paced fighting style.

"Come,"

"Tch!"

"—[Samidorizuki]."

I summoned the 'katana' and drew its jade blade.

My iai strike rang out, but he must have sensed it just in time. The Heavy Tank, showing off an agility that matched the reports, leaped back, and the blade of my [Samidorizuki] cut through empty air.

AGI: 200… maybe a bit more? I should probably assume it's around 250.

"Ah… that. That's what I was afraid of. I didn't want to fight it."

"Oh? You have a good eye."

I haven't shown it off much, and I haven't clearly demonstrated the 'technique' yet. The fact that my 'sword' 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 doesn't seem to have guessed that much. He probably saw me fighting Tiger Lucky from a distance.

"You know, Haru, your whole vibe changes when you hold a katana. It's scary, fighting an opponent who pushes with pure skill… Just as I thought, it seems like my ability isn't affecting your legs much either."

"So you are up to something… congratulations on reaching the fifth tier, I assume?"

"Aha, well, you figured it out. Not that I was trying to hide it, so it's fine."

No need to bluff, it seems. The Heavy Tank, twirling his daggers, admitted it with a proud smile.

"I was planning to 'reveal' it after the war anyway, so I'll tell you—[Regalias, Tree-Calming Royalty]. It's the new ability of my [Dual Heavy] 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 Agility (AGI) based on their durability stat… It's another PvP-focused ability that's probably going to get 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 bonus stats from armor and such are also being flipped into a debuff. Furthermore, I suspect that in my case, a mere 50-point penalty from my [Meteor Serpent] series equipment wouldn't slow my legs down this much.

This probably means, just as he described it as durability versus AGI, that it takes the player's total overall defense into its calculations.

If so—if an excessive subtraction could drop AGI into the negatives—then it makes sense why the defense squad from the East, who specialize in being walls for the 'Eastern Wings,' were all immobilized.

…Man, if my magic resistance (MID) counted as durability, I would have been done for.

"So if your Agility (AGI) goes into the negative, you can't even move, huh?"

"Exactly. I tested it, and even at -1, it feels incredibly heavy. At -10, you can barely even crawl, apparently."

So it's confirmed. This ability is the epitome of cheating…

"That's why it's selective about its opponents. It's barely affecting you at all. Is your VIT less than 100 or something?"

"…Yeah, something like that."

It's zero.

What? Zero, a hundred, they're basically the same thing!

"Now then? I, for one, wouldn't mind continuing this little chat, you know?"

"Unfortunately for you—that's not convenient for me!"

I tossed a lighthearted retort back at him, tightened my grip on my [Samidorizuki], and charged forward without hesitation.

Behind the Heavy Tank's annoying expression, the inside of the adjacent field was still obscured by the constantly rising dust, impossible to see.

However, the ever-intensifying roars and flashes of light—

They were a silent declaration: "You're out of time."