The Bloody Rain Yamikage chanted intertwined with my Blood Flower into a devastating combination. Her dark magic had been imbued into my ice knife, giving its edge a blackish-reddish light as I sliced up the Dimension Naga and finished it off.
“Hssssh!”
A wet squelching sound filled the air, and with a flashy crimson-black effect, a spray of blood drenched all the monsters in the area.
Smoke began to rise from their bodies.
“All right, now we’ve got a strong defense debuff and DoT on all of them! Finish them off!”
Normally, when Blood Flower landed the finishing blow on an enemy it would dismantle them on the spot. Merging it with Bloody Rain changed that up a bit, transforming the corpse into a mass of blood that splashed onto nearby monsters and applied a powerful debuff.
“Of course! Circle Dance Zero Formation: Snow Moon Flower!”
“Death Step!”
Shouko’s and Tsumugi’s Skills went off, mowing down all the monsters that had been swarming around my sister. Oh, wow... When we actually factor in the debuffs, the monsters get blown away in an instant.
That’s right, it only took a moment for the entire swarm to be struck dead.
“That takes care of it for now. Seriously, I’m so tanky I don’t even need a heal.”
We did some mock battles before the wave, and our stability was on a whole nother level.
“You guys aren’t half bad. Your offenses are second to none.”
“It is an honor,” Shouko replied.
“Taking out a whole bunch in one go is satisfying and all, but there’s no bite to it. You know? I think I like it better when I can keep on smacking ’em, sis.”
I guess I could see where Tsumugi was coming from. Efficiency was important, yeah, but it did take away the fun of things when there was zero resistance.
Kanade would tank, Yamikage and I would apply the debuffs, and finally, Shouko and Tsumugi would clean house.
As a strategy, it was pretty solid.
“We’ve only just begun. With that said, the Cooperation Skill between Kizuna and Yamikage is incredibly strong. Can you two keep it up?”
“I’m not saying we can’t...”
“I want to go wild, I daresay.”
I didn’t mind being on support duty, but Yamikage probably wanted to sate the Drain fix of hers. She was an attacker, after all.
“Would you prefer we spread out to sow chaos across the battlefield?” my sister said, trying to sound cool. But she really lost a lot of that intimidation factor when she was wearing a mascot costume.
Honestly, it was more surreal than anything else.
“Right. We’ve all prepared for this wave in our own way, so I’m sure we can all hold our own.”
“You may be right. I mean, just look at how sturdy I am in this equipment. I knew it would be practical, but I didn’t expect it to be this good.”
“Yep. You’re giving weight to those conspiracies, sis.”
“Don’t worry, sis! You always try to act like that cool, unbothered type, but honestly, that spiteful side of you feels more authentic! Hip hip hooray!”
“Kizuna! Even you?! And Tsumugi, you’re eating my fist IRL.”
Teasing when you got the chance was just how our family did it.
“In fact, Kizuna! Your fans are all pretty hardcore, right? Why don’t you go over and play Princess Catfish?”
“Give me a break! What’s the point of crushing on me?! I’m a guy, I tell you!”
“The hard choice between a cute little brother and an unappealing big sister. The clash of fates.”
“Life is cruel, Jack.”
“Not too long ago, she was willing to do anything for money. You know that? That’s probably what’s fueling all the rumors. Hip hip hooray.”
“Eee! Eee! Eee!”
“Get it together, people!”
Just having me and Kanade chatting in the middle of the battlefield somehow seemed to reinforce this sort of...shady image of her. Like there was no low she wouldn’t stoop to for cash.
That was the internet—once an image stuck, it just wouldn’t go away. It was both a blessing and a curse.
Also, evil mook RPer, please use human words.
“Hold on, everyone. Let’s think about this rationally. This time, the monsters are mostly humanoid, and they’re swarming her. Sounds like natural character progression if you ask me.”
“I see, so she’s become their princess! The princess of all the monsters! I knew she had it in her.”
“Only monsters swarm like that. We mustn’t stoop to their level.”
“In this case, monster could refer not just to actual monsters, but also the people you surround yourself with. It’s a metaphor emblematic of—”
“TL;DR.”
“Five words or less.”
“Don’t try this at home. All the good boys and girls from Kizzy’s Fanclub, just worship from afar.”
“Rather than this ‘big brother’ with crossplaying allegations, I’d prefer to root for Yamikage or Shouko!”
Seriously. Stop getting worked up over me.
“All right, guys... I’m going to go MPK a few idiots. Feel free to go do your own thing.”
Ah... Sis’s patience finally ran out, and she’s gone full Wrath Pengu.
With heavy steps, she stormed off, gathering up every monster in her path.
In big events like these, trolling always walked a fine line between harmless fun and bullying. Still, going off the general mood, everyone was just laughing and goofing off and no one was actually taking it seriously.
It was all just jokes and jabs, with nothing to be gained from taking it to heart.
If anything, finding new quality material for future laughs was one of the main attractions. Come tomorrow, no one would even be thinking of it beyond “Oh yeah, that happened.”
That said, is this going to be okay...? I wondered. Then again, whether my sister took someone out or got taken out in return, the death penalty wasn’t too bad.