About ten minutes ago...
“I guess he really does have an item like that, huh? I had a hunch. It’s the only thing that explains it, I’m afraid.”
Marie’s voice could be heard from Arcal’s back as the dragon flew through the sky. However, she could not be seen.
The obvious assumption was that she’d somehow become invisible to the naked eye, but that wasn’t exactly the case. Instead, she’d merely covered herself in a fabric with a chameleonlike effect that caused her to blend into Arcal’s back.
Like something straight out of an old ninja manga, she was hiding herself using her onmitsu grouping skills.
She was no longer clad in the black mist she had worn in their first meeting. While the mist was a potent asset that could conceal her identity from perception skills, it also stood out and could make her position easy to pick out visibly. The dark mass would certainly stand out when contrasted with Arcal’s body, and even if it didn’t there was a chance that the Star Helmet would perceive her because of the difference in output.
A brief silence ensued. Arcal had just told Marie about the helmet To’ori had once possessed, and the fact that it had been claimed by King of Plagues. However, Marie had already assumed that this menace had some means of spotting his enemies—that was why she’d hidden herself like this. Such a power was the only thing that would explain King of Plagues’s unusual ability to deal with anything thrown at him.
“You said that he can see,” said Marie. “Is it like clairvoyance? Far sight?”
“That is how To’ori described it, yes,” Arcal replied.
“Then there’s no problem. If I just stick to you like this, he’ll probably only see you—and I’ve still got my job ult too.”
Hearing Marie’s explanation, Arcal let out a doubtful grunt. “Are you certain about this?” he asked.
“Of course. I mean, it’s not like I could reach him by running on the ground.”
Thanks to the efforts of all those who had died trying to defeat King of Plagues, the maximum effective radius of his deadly bacteria had been determined. However, even with Marie’s supersonic speeds, it would take her a few minutes to reach him, and that wasn’t enough—she would collapse before getting close to him. And this estimation didn’t even account for any obstacles that could slow her down and make the situation worse. Even if she could reach him before the disease claimed her, King of Plagues would have more than enough time to notice and escape by logging out. This was why even Caldina’s “Multifariously Invincible” hadn’t been able to destroy him.
“But I know I can make it if I use the shortest path.” Another silence descended. Arcal seemed to have questions still, so Marie began her explanation.
“There are three ways King of Plagues reacts to his attackers. First is by ignoring them. Since his enemy is going to die anyway, he just doesn’t do anything and lets it happen. That’s how most people he’s fought have fallen to him, with Legendaria’s Over Wrestler being the most obvious example.”
King of Plagues’s always-active defensive web would simply kill most attackers and provide him with Resources—that was the easiest scenario for him.
“The second is by countering the attack. As we can see from him equipping something that negates your lightning and spreading metal eating bacteria against that tank, he sometimes deals with trouble by taking some specific defensive actions.”
Arcal silently listened. King of Plagues had killed many UBMs and claimed their rewards, and he possessed possibly hundreds of bacteria of all kinds. The fact that he possessed countermeasures for everything thrown at him so far made it quite clear that his defense was rock-solid.
“And his third strategy is just evacuating. He runs away by logging out and waiting for things to blow over.”
That was the approach King of Plagues had taken after having his Brooch broken, or when he was being targeted by The Cannon from Caldina. Though Marie was not yet aware of this, he also logged out at night, when Collapsed Present—his carnivorous bacteria—became inactive.
However...
“He also prioritizes these actions in precisely that order. It seems like he wants to avoid logging out to prevent anyone from camping and waiting for him, but he still does it when he has no choice.”
King of Plagues was safest when he escaped to reality, but it was also a risky move because he had to log in again at some point.
Marie had no way of knowing this either, but if he was logged out for too long, there was a chance that his bacteria would all die off, costing him his deadly web of defense. That was why logging out was his last resort.
“So...you breathe lightning on him again, he’ll go with the second option and just weather with his resistance gear. As in, he won’t try to escape.”
Marie was saying that she would use this moment as an opportunity to strike. Her thoughts, now put into words, were both slightly surprising and somewhat disturbing to Arcal.
“You thought that far ahead?” he asked.
“Well, yes. It happens that I’ve been thinking about such things for years.”
Marie—Nagisa Ichimiya in the real world—was the creative mind behind Into the Shadow, a battle manga with superpowered professional killers.
However, the “superpowered” part didn’t apply to the main character—also known as Marie Adler. Her first ally, Daisy, as well as everyone else in the series, were inhuman assassins. Into the Shadow was a story where Marie Adler—a normal human hit man—used only her wits and mundane skill to win against her supernatural foes.
And so, as author of this work, Nagisa spent many days thinking about how someone might deal with a far more powerful enemy. This experience turned out to be valuable in Infinite Dendrogram, making her a Master who was quite proficient at observing other people’s abilities and countering them.
“Anyway, we’re almost there,” she said.
“Indeed.” Arcal had arrived at the sky right above King of Plagues. This was about time the walking calamity would catch sight of him using the Star Helmet.