This being looked like the incarnation of weird death metal, but in truth, he was a really nice guy with a heart of gold who would literally give a naked man the clothes off his back. That was the true nature of our Mr. Death Chariot.
He appeared from behind the gate and sluggishly approached.
Seeing him for the first time, Akira squealed in excitement. “Whoa, that’s the Death Chariot?! He’s scary! I love this design so much!”
She then pulled out her camera and pointed it at him. No matter what, she always wanted to screenshot new things. That was our pic-snapping addict for you.
Akabane was very much the opposite. “What bizarre taste he has. I’m suddenly feeling ill.”
Hey, it’s a matter of taste. Anyway, I’d better get into striking range.
“He who strikes first wins! Final Strike! Enervating Circle!”
And as a reminder, here were the effects!
Final Strike
Cooldown: 0/300 seconds
<Effect> Greatly increases damage of next attack, but breaks weapon afterward.
Enervating Circle (MP: 5~∞)
Cooldown: 0/10 seconds
<Effect> Places a magic circle that decreases AGI by 25% for all enemies inside.
Symbologist only
In exchange for breaking my weapon, it would greatly boost my next attack’s damage. By creating a large circle, I also used up almost all of my MP.
“Eat my ultimate move! Vermilion Wiiing!”
“Graaaaargh!”
A phoenix’s flames enveloped me as I charged at the Death Chariot and sliced right through it. This ultimate was made up of Turnover, Explosive Tackle, and Quickdraw, thanks to the Skill Chain talent.
Turnover
Cooldown: 0/300 seconds
<Effect> Swaps current HP and MP.
Symbologist only
Explosive Tackle (AP: 75; HP: 10% of max)
Martial Artist Art (Strikes)
<Effect> A high-speed tackle that envelops the user in flames. Hits an area in front of the user.
Quickdraw (AP: 0)
Hidden Weapon Art
<Effect> Lightning-fast strike that takes enemies by surprise. Hits once.
Only usable once per battle. Grows stronger as HP decreases.
Ignores defense. Cannot be evaded.
When all of these were used at once, they made up Vermilion Wing.
As Turnover swapped my current HP and MP stats, using Enervating Circle ahead of time put my HP right into the red zone. Turnover was a symbologist-only skill, so bringing down one’s HP so low at will was something that only this class could do. Explosive Tackle’s high-speed, flaming charge came at a cost of 10% more HP, putting me in the single digits. I was a gust of wind away from certain death.
All of this culminated in Quickdraw, an art that increased my damage more as my HP went down. Thanks to my HP being this low, it was at maximum power. By activating Final Strike just before my ultimate, I ramped up my damage even further. This all resulted in such insane damage that it was truly worthy of being called the drama cannon!
That was how Vermilion Wing worked.
My other drama cannon ultimate worked pretty similarly, using Turnover to reduce my HP to near death at will and throwing in Quickdraw to maximize my damage. Activating Final Strike along with it made for the same basic setup in either situation.
In any case, firing off an ultimate put me close to dying. There were plenty of negatives. If I took aggro, I’d die almost immediately. Quickdraw and other hidden weapon arts were only usable once per battle, so to avoid that, I’d have to craft a new weapon mid-battle. Each ultimate used up a ton of money.
However, my one-shot damage was far and away the best. With this min-maxed drama cannon, my goal was to improve symbologist’s reputation from “worst of the worst.” That was my life’s work as the Emperor of the Underpowered!
Ren activated Vermilion Wing.
Dealt 5,904 damage to Death Chariot!
A log displayed the damage dealt by my ultimate.
Just as spicy as ever! It’s about time to finish this reaper off!
Having taken such a huge amount of damage from the outset, the Death Chariot turned to me and began charging in to attack. After my ultimate, I was inches from death. One hit would kill me. However, I trusted everyone else enough to hold him back, so I opened my item window to begin crafting my next Canesword.
“You’re up, girls!”
Crafting wasn’t normally possible in battle, but my Efficiency talent bypassed that limitation.
“Gotcha. Guilty Steal!”
Yuuna activated Guilty Steal.
Yuuna stole all of Ren’s aggro!
With that, Yano took away all of the aggro I’d built up. The Death Chariot spun around in place and rolled at her.
“Sword Samba!”
Akira and Akabane simultaneously used Sword Samba.
Akira activated Sword Samba.
Ren’s cooldowns have been fully reset!
Nozomi activated Sword Samba.
Yuuna’s cooldowns have been fully reset!
“Allow me to heal you too!”
Kotomi activated Ex-Heal.
Ren recovered 345 HP.
Maeda had come in with perfect timing as usual. I was truly grateful for these girls, especially the potent combination of two sword dancers. Last time we fought the Death Chariot, Ryuutarou had been our sword dancer; now we had the cute Akira and the beautiful Akabane in our arsenal instead. Simply incredible.
With that, my second Canesword was complete. As preparation for my ultimate, I cast circle magic and activated Final Strike.
“Off we go again! Vermilion Wing!”
“Graaaaarh!”
Ren activated Vermilion Wing.
Dealt 5,904 damage to Death Chariot!
Taking that as their signal, the girls moved again.
Yuuna activated Guilty Steal.
Yuuna stole all of Ren’s aggro!
Akira activated Sword Samba.
Ren’s cooldowns have been fully reset!
Nozomi activated Sword Samba.
Yuuna’s cooldowns have been fully reset!
Kotomi activated Ex-Heal.
Ren recovered 345 HP.
Everyone was in perfect sync! With one more shot of my ultimate, the Death Chariot would be down.
I crafted a third Canesword and performed pre-ult preparations. Next would be my ultimate, but this time, we needed a special twist. As for what that was, well, I was going to have to channel my inner Ryuutarou.
Indeed, I needed to strip!
“Equipment Set D!”
I activated the ability of my accessory, the Equip Ring.
Equip Ring
Type: Accessory
Level: 10
Effect: Allows the user to change equipment quickly through verbal commands.
[Same effect as the talent Quick Change]