“Ground!” Next, he tried to escape down into the ground, but his feet didn’t sink at all. “Why?! Why won’t Gungnir activate?!”
“It’s working,” Vandal told him. “It’s that ability of yours. Gungnir, did you call it? You can’t pass through spirit bodies.”
Kanata’s Gungnir was the ability to pass through anything that he stipulated. If he stipulated weapons, for example, then it wasn’t just enemy weapons; his own weapons would also fall through his fingers. Vandal had worked most of this out from the information the spirits had told him.
However, Vandal was using something that Kanata couldn’t pass through: spirit bodies.
Every living human had a spirit body inside themselves while they were alive. If Kanata were to apply Gungnir to that, it would be like casting his own spirit out from his body. Suicide, nothing less. On a primal, instinctual level, Kanata wouldn’t attempt it. That was why he couldn’t avoid the attacks of the Fire Phantoms: they were burning spirit bodies.
Furthermore, Vandal had extended his Spirit Bodification body into the walls, floor, and ceiling throughout the crypt and used Substantiation.
“I’ve got some other attacks you probably can’t pass through as well. For example . . . ” Vandal pursed his lips and launched off a directional Scream.
Kanata was still trying to fight back, using his Resist Fire Attribute and Resist Death Attribute, but when this new attack hit him, he screamed and grabbed his head. “My ears!”
His Spiritual Pollution could nearly withstand the attack, but Scream wasn’t magic, it was just a skill. Kanata was therefore unable to protect his senses from the raging noise, which sounded like glass fragments grinding together.
This was another weakness of Gungnir. If he turned off sound, Kanata would himself be unable to cast any magic.
“You’ve got one final weakness, too—” Vandal closed in, almost recklessly, as blood gushed from Kanata’s ears.
Screaming wildly, Kanata grabbed a knife with his burnt hand and desperately threw it at Vandal. Vandal slashed it away with his claws, almost nonchalantly.
“You little shit!” Kanata bellowed, taking out one more knife and dashing forward. Maybe he had quickly used a potion or something because the burns across his entire body were already starting to heal.
“You’re the shit one!”
“We’ll burn you as many times as we need to!” Hanna and Aria attacked again, still big burning skulls. However—
“Phantoms!” Suddenly they were unable to touch Kanata, simply passing through him. Kanata had used Gungnir to specifically state “phantoms”—not spirit bodies as a whole, but the monster in particular.
“This is because you just had to monologue everything! You underestimated me, and now—you’ll pay!” Kanata had only been able come up with the idea of stipulating “phantoms” thanks to Vandal’s running commentary. Kanata smiled at the idiocy of sharing your strategy with your opponents while in the middle of fighting them as he attacked Vandal with the knife. His movements were quick and clean, bringing to bear all of the high-level training he had received.
“I’m not underestimating anyone.” Vandal easily avoided Kanata’s knife. The man stuttered and gasped but pressed the attack.
Two, three swings. He launched a feint at the face to disguise a kick, trying to hit the kid in the crotch. Vandal remained completely impassive, ignoring the knife and dropping backward to dodge the kick. Kanata swung the knife as fast as he could, launching slashes and thrusts, but Vandal made skillful use of his claws to intercept and deflect the attacks.
“Claws!” Kanata added those annoying claws to his Gungnir.
But Vandal reacted as though he had been expecting this move as well. “Now it’s my turn,” he said.
He’s faster than me and stronger too?! Kanata thought. And he’s got all sorts of techniques! Where did he get all of this from? Was he always some kind of martial artist?! It can’t be—he played this world like a freaking video game?! In the moment he had that thought, the blood rushed to Kanata’s head. It felt like he was boiling alive.
“You’re joking me! Just how much training do you think I received on Origin—?”
“I have no idea. I spent my entire second life in a laboratory.” Kanata’s anger had no effect on Vandal. He simply focused his intent to kill and launched an overarm strike.
“Ngh!” Kanata managed to sweep the attack away with his arm, but Vandal’s fingers ripped off a chunk of his flesh at the same time.
“In this third life, though,” Vandal continued, “I’ve had plenty of training and practical experience.”
“Gaah!” Kanata followed up with a kick, trying to sweep the kid’s ankles out from under him. But Vandal dodged that too and, as he did, tore another chunk out of Kanata, this time from his leg.
I’m avoiding his claws! What’s going on?! The effects of Gungnir meant that Vandal’s claws shouldn’t be able to hurt him, and yet Vandal was still causing considerable damage. “Don’t tell me—you’re only using your fingers to do that?!”
That was exactly what was happening. Swinging his claws around when fighting people and monsters had naturally strengthened the fingers from which his claws extended.
“I have a lot of enemies,” Vandal said. “Enemies like you.”
“You freaking monster!” Kanata continued the fight, raging inside, but he was on the losing side of this equation. He had to be far more careful of Vandal’s attacks.
“No matter the attacks you use, you can’t make your opponent’s body transparent. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to hurt them. Which means, I simply need to use my body to protect myself. That’s your greatest weakness. However—”
Vandal launched a kick toward Kanata with the sole of his foot. Kanata saw it as a chance to counterattack and tried to stab Vandal in the foot by ramming his knife through sole of the incoming sandal. If he could take out one of his legs, even a monster like this would slow down.
However, Kanata groaned and yelped as his knife not only failed to pierce the sandal, but it snapped with a clear metallic sound. Kanata ate the full force of the kick, which sent him flying backward. His right arm was left mangled, bent in an unpleasant angle.
“You have weaknesses beyond your ability. Did you really think a simple steel knife would pierce these sandals, made by my expert crafter?” The sandals Vandal was wearing had been made from dragon skin as a special order by Talea: the same monster materials that Kanata had scoffed at and refused to consider using. “On that note, your crossbow, the other knives, that armor—they’re all just steel and animal hide. Why didn’t you get some better gear first? You didn’t want to use any materials that didn’t exist on Origin, was that it?”
Of course, Vandal had heard from Hanna and the other spirits how Kanata had scoffed about using things made from monster materials. He was bringing all this up intentionally.
“Taunting me, are you?!” Kanata also knew what was happening. He swung his knife, not with the right arm but the left.
“Four limbs!” As he swung it, he shouted to activate Gungnir. The knife passed through his own limbs, through his left arm and flew toward Vandal.
He won’t stop this one, surely! Kanata had been in a panic, scrambling for ideas. He finally landed on a throw where the start of the motion passed the knife through his own body.
“Yes, I was taunting you. I wanted to see if you had anything else up your sleeve.”
Vandal smashed the knife out of the air using his tongue, even as he talked.
“It looks like that’s all your tricks.”
Barbed Tongue’s level had increased already, allowing Vandal’s tongue to extend even further. Kanata watched it writhing in the air and, this time, completely gave up.
“Of course, a knife that size wouldn’t do anything even if you hit me with it.”
Then, Vandal picked the knife up with his tongue and snapped it.