When someone used immense firepower to wipe out a horde of monsters that threatened the people and their way of life, a small number was likely to survive. These monsters would run away, grow their numbers, restore themselves, and once again rise to become a danger to the people.
King of Termination would not allow this to happen.
The job had two skills besides the ultimate.
The first of them was “Countdown Radar.” This allowed him to select a type of monster that he had defeated and immediately learn the locations of all other monsters of the same type.
The second skill was “Scar Marking,” which told him the current location and stats of anyone he dealt damage to.
Indeed—King of Termination was actually a job focused on pursuit.
No matter how hard his quarry tried to hide or flee, the terminator would follow you to the ends of the earth.
Albert was specialized in extermination through not letting anything get away.
Figaro was currently affected by Scar Marking, due to Firelyx’s explosion that had recently obliterated Albert. Figaro had jumped away and was equipped with a fire resistance accessory, so he hadn’t taken that much damage. In fact, he was barely scratched.
That, however, was more than enough. Scar Marking had been activated the moment Figaro was touched by Firelyx’s explosion.
Because of this, Albert could attack him even though he couldn’t use his vision, hearing, or sense of smell.
This was exactly the strategy he’d used to defeat Drac-Mist. And unlike the dragon, Figaro couldn’t sense a thing. The tide had turned overwhelmingly in Albert’s favor.
“I am impressed how well he is handling it, though,” Eishiro commented. Despite losing three of his five senses, and even though Albert could still see him, Figaro hadn’t received a single hit yet. His evasive movements were timed as though he knew when the attacks were coming, and Eishiro was wondering why that was.
“It’s the hat,” said Tsukuyo as she used a fan to point at the feathered hat Figaro always wore. “It’s an MVP reward, ‘Avian Windwatcher, Weather Feather.’ It’s got a juiced-up version of Killing Intent Perception or something. I think it reacts to dungeon traps too.”
“I see. That explains his skillful dodging.”
A versatile danger-sensing item—it made sense that a solo dungeon explorer like Figaro would wear such a thing all the time.
“And, well... There’s something else he’s always got on hand, right?”
The moment Tsukuyo said that, Figaro switched his equipment.
There was now a chain in each of his hands. The Crimson Dead Keepers—some of his most-used weapons.
A hint of shock came over Albert’s face. The two chains attacked automatically—not by vision, hearing, or smell, but by locking on to the opponent’s vital signs.
Their aim was true despite the mist, and they struck out. Albert’s heart and head were pulverized.
Albert staggered as metallic parts tumbled from his damaged body...
“γ: Phecda.”
...but this activated his third healing and buff skill, immediately fixing all the parts he’d lost.
The two chains continued attacking him, but they now bounced off him without dealing any damage.
In exchange for defeating Albert once despite his inability to see, Figaro could no longer fight him using impact-based physical attacks.
Despite that, he didn’t put the chains away, instead choosing to continue his attack—or maybe his inability to see or hear had prevented him from realizing that Albert had already been beaten once.
“Hmm?” As Tsukuyo watched this battle, a question appeared in her mind. It wasn’t directly about the battle in the mist, though.
“I’ve been thinking this since the fifth battle, but...that one’s kinda fragile, huh?” She was referring to Albert. Though they’d been launched by Figaro, who empowered all his gear, it was still surprising that the chains had dealt fatal damage to Albert, since they weren’t MVP awards.
His skills that granted resistances made up for that, but it was hard to deny that Albert seemed fragile.
King of Termination was a job that granted mainly HP and STR. While END certainly went up slower than those, it still felt like he was receiving more deadly injury-based debuffs than he should have.
“Machine parts fly off when he’s damaged, so maybe he’s a full-body replacement...? A Type Body, in other words. If that’s true...it would explain a lot.” Tsukuyo’s guess was right on the mark: Albert’s Septentrion was a Type Body Superior Embryo that replaced his entire body with a mechanical one.
While Embryos of this type were extremely rare, the few examples that did exist had several things in common.
One of them was that they applied a negative modifier to any stats increased by jobs. In exchange for his transformation ability and the properties of a slime, King of Crime had a negative modifier on all stats, for example.
Similarly, Septentrion also had such a stat penalty—especially for END. As a Superior Job with a high level, he should’ve been extremely tough, but he was actually so fragile that even Bishmal—a mere high-rank job—could strangle him to death.
Some might have argued that Septentrion’s resistance-granting skills made this flaw more like a feature, but...
Sechs gets negative stat mods in return for gaining the properties of a slime and the transformation thing, Tsukuyo thought. It would make sense if this one gives him the resistance power, but also the properties of a machine.
There actually was some evidence to suggest that. Albert could activate his skill even when his head had been crushed or he’d been turned to stone. The mechanism that allowed that might’ve been related to how his body actually functioned.
However, just watching the battle from the box seat wasn’t enough to let Tsukuyo figure it out.
In fact, even Figaro didn’t know that, and he was the one fighting Albert.
“Hmm...”
“Kage? What’s wrong?” Tsukuyo asked, sensing that Eishiro had a question.
“Figaro must’ve realized that his opponent is fragile by now.”
“Well, of course. He’s got Reveal and all.”
“Then why is he not switching out the chains?” Now that Eishiro had brought it up, it was strange that Figaro did not seem to have realized he’d already destroyed Albert.
And yet, despite having already granted him resistance to his chains, the duel champion continued the attack.
“What’s he trying to do?”
“He has also removed his footwear and is now barefoot,” Eishiro commented. Indeed, Figaro had removed the Unbound Sabatons MVP reward that protected him from binding effects and was now fighting on his bare feet.
While lowering the amount of things he had equipped empowered his remaining items, it seemed like that wasn’t his intention here.
“...No way.” Tsukuyo realized what Figaro was doing, and it made her break into a cold sweat.
No way he’s trying to pull something that absurd, right? she thought.
But she was exactly on the mark.
A moment later, despite having lost three of his senses, Figaro ran toward Albert.
He zigzagged to avoid the cannon fire, but he was definitely approaching him. He shouldn’t have been able to see, yet it was as if he knew Albert’s location with perfect accuracy.
Albert seemed a tiny bit shocked. He couldn’t actually see Figaro’s approach, but Scar Marking made it clear that Figaro was closing the distance between them.
How did Figaro know where he was?
Albert assumed that it was because of the attacks Figaro had been making with his chains—or what Albert figured were chains, anyway, based on prior information.
Because of this, Albert changed into a coat-like MVP reward that released a shock wave around him and used it on the chains attacking him. This reward also didn’t consider the safety of the wearer and would’ve pulverized himself too, but he already had resistance to physical impacts.
The chains that must’ve been guiding Figaro were shattered as they struck the shock wave barrier around Albert. If he came too close, Figaro would meet the same fate.
Blind, deaf, and unable to smell, Figaro charged toward Albert, only to stop right before the shock wave.
Scar Marking told Albert what he’d done, and the fact that Figaro had stopped moving right outside the shock wave’s effective range really threw him for a loop.
He’d lost three of his senses—how could Figaro know Albert’s location and predict his attacks with such precision?
The answer to that resided in things he hadn’t lost.
Figaro had continued attacking with his chains even after Albert had become resistant to their damage in order to measure the distance between him and his opponent, based on the feel of the chains as they pulled him along.
As he did that, he also made himself barefoot to feel the vibrations on the stage.