She started with the familiar chaining debuffs. But Maple had fought a lot of foes and knew her own weakness.
“Pierce Guard!”
She blocked piercing damage before Hinata could seal the skill with Thought Freeze.
“Purple Bolt!”
Velvet herself was well aware of the threat Maple’s shield posed. While Maple was frozen in place, she fired lightning at it until the shield stopped devouring it.
“Thought Freeze.”
“Battle Awakening! Boom Fist!”
It was as if her aura had suddenly strengthened. She slipped around to Maple’s side, throwing a punch.
Pierce Guard was in effect. Ignoring defense, Maple focused on the blow.
But Sally got in the way.
“Substitute!”
Sally and Maple swapped locations, and Sally barely dodged Velvet’s swing.
“Flash Spout!”
A gush of water made Velvet stumble, and once more Sally stood guard before Maple.
“S-Sally?”
“……How’d you know?”
Maple looked baffled—but Velvet and Sally knew something she didn’t.
Substitute was a powerful skill, one Velvet had not previously seen—but nothing about that lead up had suggested Sally would need to go that far to guard Maple.
Velvet had been convinced the plan would work—and was baffled that it hadn’t.
“Our guild has pretty detailed info on what skills are out there. We’ve got a walking game guide.”
“Prior knowledge, then?”
“It’s not piercing, right?”
Kanade remembered every skill description, cost, and name that Akashic Records had given him. Over time, he’d been teaching these to Sally, so she had the whole set in her head.
And Boom Fist was on that list.
It was an ultra-high-power attack. Nothing more, nothing less.
“Ah-ha! Yup…but that ain’t gonna work twice.”
A bluff? It was possible, but it was out of character for Velvet to act so boldly without the ability to back her words up.
“Careful, Maple. Pierce Guard only negates pierce damage.”
With Hinata’s unmatched debuffs, perhaps Velvet’s mightiest blow might do more damage than they imagined possible.
Maple got what Sally meant.
Right now, Velvet could tackle Maple’s defense head on. Or at least Thunder Storm thought they could. Their own actions attested to it.
“I’ll bat it down if it gets dangerous. Trust me.”
“Okay, got it.”
Maple’s reaction speeds wouldn’t be enough to get her shield in front of Velvet’s punches. For that reason, she focused on offense, and Sally handled the defense.
Velvet was faster, and could get past Sally—so Sally stuck close to Maple’s side, weapons aimed at their foes. They’d have to watch each other’s backs until an opening presented itself.
Lightning was still peppering the ground, for no damage—all she needed to watch out for were Velvet’s fists.
“Dart!”
Velvet dashed toward them. It was a speed skill Sally didn’t have, and Superspeed had run out, leaving her far slower. All this speed purely to land a hit on Maple.
“Commence Assault!”
Velvet sidestepped the barrage, moving closer still. The lightning-wielding girl could circle around faster than Maple could spin.
“Thunderclap!”
A column of lightning swallowed Maple. She wasn’t hoping to hurt her—just shatter her weapons.
“Ancient Weapon!”
Blue Sparks scattered into the air. The black cube floating by her side split, forming a bundle of tubes that began to spin.
Like a rapid-fire gun, it fired blue projectiles at Velvet.
“Whoa!”
“Deploy Artillery!”
Her damaged weapons respawned and joined the suppressing fire. But Velvet was only getting faster, and nothing was hitting her.
Faster than a speeding bullet, Velvet closed in—until Sally blocked her path.
“Ice Spear.”
It was a spell, and one Velvet didn’t like the look of.
She chose to dodge, and as her body went off course, Sally’s daggers swung.
“But I’m faster!”
Velvet hit the brakes. Fancy footwork got her out of range, but sparks flew from her shoulder anyway. Maple was right there and had plenty of ammo. Sally could slip through this barrage like she had eyes in the back of her head, and make any projectile she liked vanish with Mirage.
“—! Again?!”
A mystifying attack. But she was done flinching—Hinata cast a healing spell, and Velvet just kept coming.
“Zone Freeze.”
Hinata bound Maple—and they got past Sally, closing in on Maple.
“—!”
“I ain’t holding back here.”
The pain Velvet felt was stronger than before, meaning this was the deepest strike yet. The gash on her belly was clearly not the work of Maple’s guns or lasers.
“Saturating Chaos!”
“Ice Wall!”
The instant their focus left Maple, a monster’s maw struck the ice wall, smashing it.
“Triple Slash!” Sally yelled.
Velvet spun around, eyes widening as she realized why she’d been hit.
In one hand, Sally held a blue dagger. In the other—a gray longsword.
And both were swinging furiously.
“You do the weirdest shit!”
“Cancel!”
Once again, Sally wasn’t actually using a skill. She was just baiting Velvet, then switching up her moves—namely, thrusting that longsword forward.
“Transform.”
The sword became a spear. The sudden change in length was enough to run Velvet through.
Certain Velvet was backing off, she shifted her weapon’s appearance back to a blue dagger, hid it behind her back, and then flipped it in her hand.
Velvet couldn’t tell what was real and what wasn’t.
“I’d love to know where you found all these nightmares.”
It wasn’t just the skill effects—even the weapons they saw were fake. Sally had been using Guise to swap the skill names so many times that only she had the slightest clue what was happening.
As Velvet tried to brute force the fight, Sally was steadily maintaining her offensive. Velvet might have the DPS advantage, but this fight was still under Sally’s control.
“.……………”
Still, she was skating on thin ice. She had to keep her expression confident, purely to unnerve her opponent.
Most of the time, Maple was the unfathomable one, but tonight, that was Sally’s role.
She saw a path to victory, and yet—
“Hydra! Commence Assault!”
As Maple attacked, Sally made up her mind.
She had one qualm—and that was the makeup of Velvet and Hinata’s skills.
Each of them had two main vectors. Lightning and fisticuffs. Ice and gravity.
And all four of those involved skills she’d never seen other players use. Sally herself had two unique series, and made use of them both, so she knew. These girls were the same. They had multiple unique series sets. But where Sally was using Guise to hide what her gear looked like, Thunder Storm’s gear was visually consistent.
“Guess I’ve just gotta roll with that.”
One less thing to think about. Just one less reason to be optimistic, left in the back of her mind.
“Maple, when this times out, I’m going in.”
“Got it!”
If Vertex Voracity was indefinite, Velvet would have started with it. Since she hadn’t, it undoubtedly had a time limit.
In which case, Velvet wasn’t about to dawdle. Well aware this was her last major challenge, Sally opened her inventory, took out some items, and renewed her buffs.
“Velvet,” Hinata murmured.
“Hit me!” Velvet said, done hesitating.
She’d picked this strategy while aware of the risks. Backing out halfway would just put them back at square one.
“Here goes!”
“I’m ready!”
“Zero Gravity.”
“Whoa!”
“Maple!”
Sally scowled—one of her fears had been proven accurate.
Purple light radiated from Hinata as everything not attached to the ground began to levitate.
Maple’s projectiles, the poison pool, even the falling lightning. Maple shouldered Sally’s portion of this, leaving her alone floating above, defenseless—all while Velvet raced through the air, directly under Hinata’s gravity control.
“Hinata…!”
“Commence Assault…huh?!”
The new bullets quickly lost momentum and floated away. Maple couldn’t believe her eyes.
“Ice Pillar! Web Spinner!”
Sally alone wasn’t floating, so she had to get herself up there.
But her aerial mobility was no match for someone controlling gravity itself.
“Too slow!”
“Brittle Ice Sculpture. Rusted Armor. Celestial Collapse.”
“Maple, use it!”
“Atrocity!”
“Boom Fist!”
Maple shifted into her monster form the second Sally gave the word, right before Velvet’s fist struck home. An incredible number of damage sparks flew, and the monstrous flesh burst off her, slamming the real Maple back to the ground below.
“Awaken! Syrup, Mother Nature!”
“Ice Pillar!”
Maple’s turtle created vines, and Sally dropped a defensive pillar; then she used her webs to prevent Maple from floating away again.
This left Maple immobilized, but that was far better than floating adrift.
“Ain’t got time to waste! Let’s do this!”
Only Sally could keep Maple safe. With all projectiles off the table, Maple herself was unarmed. Sally was her last—and greatest—line of defense.
Velvet came in for their final battle, and Sally stepped out to face her.
“Polar Flash!”
“……!”
Sally used a skill she couldn’t have—hiding herself and Maple behind the blinding light.
But no moves Sally made would be a match for Velvet’s speed. With that in mind, Velvet made a big circle—as an unseen attack slashed at her side.
“This again?!”
Sally had slipped through Hinata’s ice and gravity, repeatedly landing pointed attacks on Velvet.
Whether it was her arms or her legs, every time she tried to get near Maple, damage sparks shot from somewhere.
But a moment later, they would be healed up as she continued to look for an opening.
When the light of Polar Flash died down, leaving Maple and Sally visible again, Velvet rushed toward the former.
“Not happening!”
““Awaken!””
“……!”
Velvet and Hinata’s cries made Sally stiffen. The gears in her head spun fast, weighing everything she could against the worst-case scenario.
“You’re bluffing, right?” she said, lunging forward and swinging a dagger—that promptly turned into a greatsword, just barely nicking Velvet.
“Nothing gets by you!”
Bloodred damage sparks.
Thunder Storm’s leaders used two power skill sets each. There had to be a downside, and Sally figured they’d filled all their accessory slots with gear that provided combat skills.
These two couldn’t equip Bonding Bridge.
And yet, this closely guarded secret had been enough to delay her attack.
And a moment’s hesitation made all the difference.
Sally cut through the flesh to bone—but even as she soaked that damage, Velvet slipped past Sally.
“Deploy Artillery! Commence Assault!”
“Iron Heart!”
She couldn’t avoid Sally’s strikes, so Velvet used a skill that provided a dramatic—if short-lived—damage reduction. Combined with Hinata’s defenses, she plunged into the barrage, minimizing her evasive moves.
“Purple Bolt!”
The lightning shattered Maple’s weapons, and brought her into range.
“Ancient Weapon!”
Maple replaced her shattered weapons, and held out a hand, making her spark-shooting cylinders spin up again.
“Hinata!”
“Brittle Ice Sculpture. Rusted Armor. Celestial Collapse.”
“Boom Fist!”
Before Maple’s weapons could start firing, Velvet’s fist slammed home.
And of course—Maple couldn’t dodge.
Like they’d feared, the skill overcame Maple’s defenses, blowing her HP away.
Nevertheless—even as Maple winced at the damage, her eyes were locked on the furious cascade of sparks around her right hand.
“Counter!”
“—! Electrobeast!”
Blue light gushed from her right hand. She had one HP left. If she was alive, she could act. She turned Velvet’s ultimate attack into her own, forcing Velvet to transform into a giant white tiger to bail herself out. Maple’s thick blue laser pierced the beast’s sides, blowing it away before disappearing over the horizon.
“Maple!”
“Mm-hmm!”
Unwavering trust. Sally had let Velvet through—because she was certain Maple would survive.
No dodging, no defending necessary. She need only attack.
Sally’s judgment call determined if she lived or died.