They were still gathering up in front of the room. Eleven, no, twelve of them. I’d expected them to get past the traps this time, now that they were certainly more properly equipped, but I was a little surprised to see him waiting until the last moment to amass troops rather than just charging in with what he had. What a good idea. Is this Theodoran’s work, or does he have some skilled hunter calling the shots? All things considered, this was not a very high turnout. Had they run into trouble along the way? Maybe they just hadn’t brought enough rope.
“They’re readying weapons. Prepare yourself.”
Even though they were on the other side of the wall, Mary could tell what they were doing. If you asked her about it, she wouldn’t think it was anything out of the ordinary, but Mary was really something special.
I took the cursed sword in hand and focused on the coming fight. The sword converted my imagined techniques into physical motion, pushing my muscles and joints to their very limits to achieve my objective as quickly and effectively as possible. I was as strong as I could possibly be, given my status.
I made a fist with the black glove on my left hand. As I did, the hardened soil blocks all around me cracked and lifted up into the air. I raised them all up to my chest level. Man, this glove was seriously not all that great. I could see why people were talking up the newer models. I mean, sure, it was cool and all, but I had to expend all my own grip strength to hold these things, and then I had to lift them with my own arms too. My muscles were aching. Wish I could’ve sprung for the power-boosting gloves.
“Mary, you take care of the Daemons. Even if there’s only one of them, that’ll be a help.”
“Okay.”
“Charge!”
“Follow me!”
As the door slammed open, I hurled all the soil blocks at it. One hunter took a brick to the head and collapsed on the spot, but the rest rushed in, flooding the room. Not one of them batted an eye at their fallen comrade. They were used to battle. I leaped forward, closing the distance.
“Get in position!”
“Aye!”
I jumped with all my strength to clear the line of spears thrust at me.
“Take this!”
I leaped all the way to the ceiling, impacted and took a handhold momentarily, then launched myself forward again, above the spears.
“Focus, Aoi. Do the Phantom Flash.”
I kicked off the ceiling again and aimed the dull side of my blade at Theodoran. It was difficult to maneuver midair, but I used the glove to push off the floor and course-correct. I feinted at the hunter next to Theodoran, then turned to slash at him.
“How is he doing this?! That’s impossible!”
Theodoran parried my Phantom Flash in a hurry with a crystalline blue sword. Wait, he blocked it?! Where’s he get off calling my moves impossible if he can do that? He looked like the brainy type, but apparently he had pretty impressive combat abilities. Only thing for it was to keep pushing.
“Sorry for doing the impossible here, I— Guh!”
My field of vision went dark for a moment, and I pulled back in a panic. I groaned at the sudden strain and jumped backwards, trying not to injure myself further.
Cracks spread across the ceiling from where I’d landed. Maybe I was pushing the limits of how much the coagulant coating could strengthen it; blocks were falling out here and there. Failing to take out their leader in a preemptive strike was a major blow to my plan. Now they’d have their guard up. I returned to my initial position and took in the situation.
It didn’t look like they were using any kind of disruptive magic on me, at least. That meant something else was wrong. When a computer doesn’t have the specs to run a demanding game, it goes blurry and stutters. The same thing was happening to my senses. This had happened to me once before, the time I faced Mary in her Extended Knight Armor. The cursed sword had controlled my body just fine, but my brain hadn’t been able to keep up. The software in my head wasn’t as powerful as the hardware. If this was beyond even me, then we had to be talking about a task more complex than playing Dance Dance Rebellion and Shamisen Hero at the same time. After all, my natural state was sitting in front of a monitor, mashing the keyboard and madly clicking the mouse.
The intruders formed up, settled their lances, and advanced.
“Hard mode, finally.”
I broke into a grin. I was having a blast, fighting with my own fists just as though I was in a game. I wanted more of it, to fight until I dropped. Moments like these were what a gamer lived for! I was having a hard time even holding myself back from jumping straight at them. Damn, I was fighting myself even more than I was fighting them. Cool down, Aoi. The number one rule in a first-person game was, don’t get outnumbered. I needed to find a way to tilt the scales. Their leather armor was soaked in oil, and probably heavy as a result. Their spears were surely in the same condition, and difficult to wield to boot. In spite of all that, they handled themselves well.
“Execute Appraisal.”
I was looking for the weak link in the chain of their offense. Most of them had vitality and stamina in the double digits, although one of the Daemon hunters had conspicuously high stats. Fortunately, Mary had already taken her down during the initial onslaught. The only ones remaining were Theodoran and nine of the foot soldiers, all human.
“All right, cursed sword, don’t fail me now.”
I knew how to deal with insufficient specs. It was perfectly common for the most recent releases to make even a high-end gaming machine cry on their default settings. And there was the answer: all I had to do was lower the settings. Please, sword, if you can control my body, then can I at least configure how you do it? First, I lowered my monitor resolution and sound quality to the minimum. Those two were more of a luxury than a necessity in the first place. No good... I still felt weighed down. Okay, take out the colors. No good? Might have to just turn off the visuals entirely and go with sound only. I blinked a few times. I could feel the air on my open eyes, could sense the light hitting them, and I even vaguely knew where everyone was, but I couldn’t see a thing. My other senses were also hazy. Just how far had I gone in lowering my settings?!
But it had worked. I could feel the strength in my arms and legs. It was time to attack.