The Anime Trope System: Stone vs. Viper, #8 a LitRPG (ATS)

by Alvin Atwater

  “You think an attack like that would kill him?” Tear said, purple aura raging around her. “I think we’ve waited long enough—I’ll end this.”

  “No, Tear, it’s fine,” Clyde said, his voice tinged with the power. “There is no telling what kind of tricks she’s got planned. We all watch each other’s backs.”

  Abruptly Clyde felt the intensity of Alice’s aura.

  “No one plays with me like that,” she snapped. “NO ONE!”

  Clyde nodded.

  “Let’s fuck her up, Alice.”

  Amaterasu grinned.

  “Do you lot really think you have what it takes to even touch me?”

  Clyde drew the wind blade from his inventory, taking a one-handed stance from the light weapon. This was going to be perhaps his most difficult fight to date. He did not like the analysis.

  Episode 43 (Part 5)

  -Amaterasu, She Who Dawns Time-

  Level: ???

  Type: Legendary Trickster Demoness

  Work under: N/A

  Special: *Time and Space manipulation *

  Weakness: ???

  Resistances: ???

  Secret: she really loves cute things to the point of being a fanatic, but hides this well for reputation’s sake.

  [You are being confronted by incredible power…]

  [Your party has entered a DEATH SENTENCE!]

  [Life and Death. Defeat Amaterasu!]

  “Full power, all out,” Clyde told the others. “We don’t want to fuck around with her.”

  Amaterasu laughed.

  “It is nice that you think highly of me.”

  Alice aimed Hellbreaker at the trickster woman ahead.

  “I don’t care who she is—I do not find illusions of my Natalia getting tortured funny.”

  [Alice activated Tier 1 skill: Super Radiant raid crushing beam!]

  Amaterasu shimmered and the beam simply went through her. That part of the roof didn’t get so lucky. The crater was an impressive thirty feet wide.

  “Damn,” Dark said as he charged his magic. “I vow never to let her become an enemy of the shadow.”

  “Don’t aim at that, it’s going to be the usual illusion bullshit,” Clyde said as he started toward her. “The real—” He ducked as a blast of gray magic which seemingly launched from nowhere, soared above and smashed into Alice’s crater. Good thing his mystic senses allowed him to feel for vibrations, whether airborne or not, as well as moods—maybe some emotions.

  “Not bad.” Amaterasu’s body double vanished and there she stood, beside Clyde. She tossed one arm around him as if they were old friends. “I want twelve grandkids.” She blushed wildly.

  “Oh fuck—and there’s no way I’d trust you around them.”

  “But I’ll be the perfect grandmother,” she said, laughing and dodging all of Clyde’s attacks. She didn’t get so lucky when Tear’s magic pulled her into the air, exploding seconds later.

  [Tear used Special tier skill: Person eater.]

  [Amaterasu takes no damage.]

  “Bullshit,” Clyde snapped.

  [Clyde invoked Mystic wrath.]

  [Tessa activated Wind Crash.]

  [No effect.]

  Amaterasu reappeared in front of the group, smiling.

  “Is this the best you’ve got? Come on. Maybe I should’ve let Selkie stay for the handicap—”

  Tear’s tail had her by the throat as she gasped.

  [Tear’s wrath level: 40% of 100%]

  Amaterasu melted into goo, reappearing on the other side of the rooftop. Clyde continued to think, his Mystic wrath raging.

  Chizuru attempted to rush the trickster, surrounding in a thin light-element white and yellow aura, but was met with block after block. Not from Amaterasu, but a grotesque stone hand emerging from the roof’s flooring.

  [Harumi invoked Kitsune form]

  [Harumi activated Kitsune’s lightning whip.]

  And she made a direct hit. The giant whip made of pure electricity struck the trickster across several parts of her body, but instead of the cry of pain, there was laughter.

  “More! I’m just kidding, not an M,” Amaterasu said.

  “Great power, show me the way,” Dark said. “Dark buff!”

  [Dark activated Shadow Sympathy]

  [Dark’s Speed, Endurance, and Attack increases!]

  “Now, eat this! Double Slicing darkness lance.”

  “What a dumb attack name,” Myriad said. “And stop wasting your time and tap into our contract already. If you don’t, we won’t make it out of here alive.”

  Dark nodded.

  Clyde stopped paying attention to them, but he felt the magic around the duo intensify. His intellect was three hundred thirty four, but it didn’t seem to amount to anything in this situation. He watched carefully as Dark and that harpy girl fought with lightning and impressive forms. Alice and Tear unleashed their magic, Chizuru too. Harumi and Tessa whipped out verifying spells yet nothing hit. The trickster demon hadn’t even made the first move.

  [Tear’s wrath has increased to 60%]

  What did that mean? Clyde honestly didn’t want his normally calm and collected succubus to lose her shit over this.

  He followed his mystic senses, searching for something off. Somehow no one of his party paid him no mind as he strolled to the far corner of the rooftop. And there she was, sitting and watching while sipping a cup of coffee. Her eyes widened.

  “Mental magic is cowardness,” Clyde said. “What did you do to them?”

  “I trapped them in an epic showdown against me,” the real Amaterasu said.

  “I see,” Clyde said then smiled.

  [Tear’s Wrath has reached 99%]

  “Do you want to see something cool?” Clyde said.

  “Are you going to try some silly attack that won’t work?” Amaterasu said, unconcerned. She took another sip of her coffee.

  System, I need you to push my luck stat to make this work , Clyde thought. Please. At least this once.

  [*System curiosity… ]

  [Talent. Main character stuff: One shot of perfect luck.]

  [Clyde activated Binder’s Hand!]

  [Binder’s hand 4 . Type: spiritual. Class: mysterious. Bind your enemies with tendrils of spirit energy. 44% chance to bind 1 enemy. Does no damage unless you will it. If willed, will do 5% damage per second. Able to will it to hold allies. Cannot damage allies.]

  That garnered the attention of the trickster—she dropped her coffee.

  “What are you doing to me?” she said and struggled, but no matter how much she wanted to move, the bind held strong.

  [Your luck has caused Bind 1 to temporarily max out to Bind 5+]

  “Hey Tear, over here!” Clyde shouted. “The bitch is over here and is talking shit about you. She insulted your birth and your bloodline and continues to yap.”

  “What? No, that is—”

  “And she’s insulting your intelligence!” Clyde yelled, covering the trickster’s mouth.

  [Tear’s wrath has reached 100% Tear’s wrath has entered Chaos Mode.]

  [Warning! You do not want to be caught in that.]

  The area seemed to have turned red, but the young man felt that intense pressure of magic, as if the world’s gravity increased. Tear burst from the air, a hole ripped through space time.

  Surrounding in crimson aura, eyes glowing red, and her wings doubled in size, Clyde was just glad that she fought on his side.

  “W—wait!”

  Amaterasu didn’t get all the words out as the succubus unleashed enough red magic to shatter a planet. From afar, this looked like an explosion to Clyde.

  [Tear activated Special tier skill: Breath’s End.]

  [Amaterasu took no damage.]

  As his eyes widened, the young man heard giggling behind him. Lying in a provocative way, Melody’s mother winked.

  “You earn points for the setup,” she said, “but unlike you, Tear can be affected by mental magic.”

  Those
words made Clyde realized something. He was the only one that could face her.

  “Ah, you’re started to get it,” Amaterasu said. “So what will it be? Would you like a bath, a meal, or…me?”

  Clyde shot her a blank stare.

  “You really don’t have to waste our time with this.”

  “This wasn’t a test of strength—any of your friends could pass that for you,” Amaterasu said. “How did you manage to stay calm enough to figure this out?”

  “Because every illusionist do the same thing,” Clyde snapped. “They make clones and hide somewhere. Your test isn’t even original thinking—it’s stupid. What is wrong with you? Like, you boast about being high and mighty but can’t even come up with an original idea? How many times was this boring ass way of fighting done? Nobody likes it—not even the illusionist. It sucks. It’s stupid. It reeks of someone who could’ve done so much better with their abilities. Everyone will want you quickly dead so we can move onto something else.” After Clyde’s minute-long rant finished, Amaterasu’s eyes were wide, mouth agape, tears on the corners then she laid down.

  “Are you done?”

  “Pretty much,” Clyde answered.

  “Then the real fight starts now,” Amaterasu said. “And when I crush you, I’ll be taking my daughter home.” She stood up. “No more games. If you can best me, I’ll undo the chaos and none of the normal humans will remember this. Hmm, no that’s not enough. I need motivation.”

  “If you think I’m going to fall for your dumbass illusions, just stop,” Clyde said. “Let’s just get this shit over with.”

  Amaterasu frowned, eyes taking on an intense glow. Her voice sounded from every direction.

  “You blab, but you know with just a flick of my wrist, I can easily kill your friends. And it won’t be by illusion. You’re under the impression that a trickster demon only knows the power of illusion. You don’t want to admit that it is actually space-time manipulation.”

  Clyde waved her off.

  “And here comes the monologue. Listen, I don’t care.” He shook his head. “No one does.”

  Amaterasu walked over to the rooftop, waving a finger. The protective fence disappeared. Then she leapt.

  “Did you just make her commit suicide?” Alice said as she walked up to Clyde. He sighed.

  “Quit pretending to be Alice,” Clyde said. “Her eyes are pink, not blue.”

  The fake Alice laughed demonically, melting into purplish goo. Seconds later, Amaterasu stood in front of him, smiling.

  This ordeal reminded Clyde of something Loki, from Norse mythology, often did: messed with the heads of his opponents.

  Fuck. How could he fight someone like this? Shit, they hadn’t damaged her once—not even a little.

  [You’ve entered a DEATH SENTENCE, phase 2.]

  “Ah, you’re thinking now,” Amaterasu said, “but you still need some motivation. So here’s the deal. For every five minutes you don’t damage me, I’ll badly hurt one of your friends. Maybe kill them in some kind of gruesome way.”

  [Objective: damage She Who Dawns Time. If you fail, the lives of your party members will be in danger.]

  [Time remaining: five minutes.]

  Clyde lurched at the woman, swinging the wind blade. She dodged, laughing then returned a kick, which the young man blocked. Sparks and magic appeared at the center of that block.

  [Time remaining: three minutes.]

  “How does it sound? Alice burning in a fire?” Amaterasu laughed while dodging Clyde’s Mystic wrath-enhanced attacks.

  [Clyde activated Six Hand skill.]

  The powerful energy balls he launched were swatted away by a single finger.

  [Amaterasu activated Gold tier skill: Fallout.]

  Clyde had no time to react to the geyser of magic that poured from the sky like a waterfall. He felt pain, the familiar feeling of magic burn, and even regret. His bones creaked, breath shortened.

  [Clyde’s HP has dropped to 10%]

  [Clyde was inflicted with burn!]

  [Clyde’s HP has dropped to 5% due to the burn.]

  [Time remaining: 1 minute.]

  Clyde quickly warped the Full health potion from his inventory, gulping it down like a man who thirst for years.

  [Clyde’s HP has been fully restored!]

  [Clyde’s HP has dropped from 410% to 405% due to the burn.]

  [Time remaining: 10 seconds…]

  “Don’t you fucking dare,” Clyde said. “This is a one on one. There’s no need for the extra shit.”

  Amaterasu simply laughed, dodging the young man’s punches, which…warped the air, time, and space.

  [Time remaining: 0.]

  [Clyde activated Summon Mist.]

  [Summon Mist: Type: water. Class: uncommon. Summon a thick mist that can cover an area the size of a small town. You and your allies will be able to see 40% better than any enemies. Warning, this is useless against enemies that do not rely on vision.]

  [Clyde’s MP has dropped to 295%]

  That actually stopped the trickster demoness from raising a hand in the air.

  [Due to the mist, Amaterasu’s accuracy has dropped by 50% Her attack on Alice badly missed.]

  Clyde gave a sigh of relief. There’s nothing like quick thinking and utilizing skills that he rarely used. But…she really intended to strike down his life mate.

  He flash stepped in front of the woman, but she dodged his attacks as if the mist wasn’t there.

  “You may have cheated this ordeal once, but I wouldn’t be She Who Dawns Time if I didn’t quickly adapt.”

  [Time remaining: 4 minutes…]

  “This time, it will be a killing move,” Amaterasu continued, “That should make up for your cheap trick.”

  Clyde paused, allowing the mist to dispel.

  “You know, this is what I get for my own arrogance.” He sighed. “I had it in my head that I could do this with my own magic, my own strength. Then when the life threats come, I remember…the power is still mine.” He sighed, god chant tinging his voice. “I don’t care who you are—you entered my territory and threatened mine.”

  Amaterasu laughed.

  “So? What’s a puny small fry like you going to do about it?”

  [Time remaining: seconds…]

  Amaterasu raised a hand.

  “I’ll—”

  “Pervy-nii, duck!”

  [Natalia activated Void tier skill: Magic Betrayer de Eval.]

  Clyde dropped to the ground as the loli unleashed magic that matched the color of the sky. The collision with Amaterasu created sparks. Yet, the trickster demon simply laughed…for about five seconds.

  [Amaterasu’s space and time manipulation abilities have been disabled for two hours.]

  “No-no-no-no-no—this can’t be happening!” she snapped. “You…”

  Natalia stuck her tongue out at her.

  “You may be some legendary trickster demon but your stupid tricks can’t hold me.”

  “So much for the fun in this,” Amaterasu said. “Now I have to get to killing. My heart-soother’s getting on my nerves, complaining about the destruction of the Blood Hand. Of course taking out our problems on you is hardly fair.”

  “So this wasn’t a test,” Clyde said. “Just a grudge because we crushed your wimpy invading force.”

  “It’s a test and a grudge,” Amaterasu said, twirling her hair the same way Melody did sometimes.

  Natalia walked over to Clyde, staring down the trickster with him.

  “Pervy-nii,” Natalia said lowly. “Don’t fight it, just let the power flow. Don’t think of the strain. If you push back what’s already yours, the strain increases. That’s just my guess, but…you’ve improved so much. However. If you don’t go all out, we will certainly die in here. Ming told me that. The evil mother-in-law will take this supposed test too far.”

  Natalia placed a hand on the young man’s leg.

  “I can hold back the worse of your strain for five minutes so you don’t pass
out.”

  “Ming…saving our asses again,” Clyde said. “It seems like she relies on you a lot.”

  “Of course,” Natalia said. “I’m her best fan.”

  Clyde sighed, focusing on his opponent, not that he took her eyes off her, not even for a moment.

  “You won’t be able to damage her without being in your full deity thingy,” Natalia said. “Hurry—she’s got the others in a separate bubble tiring themselves out against a fake version of her.”

  “No wonder no one’s come over to help,” Clyde said.

  Amaterasu winked.

  “I think it’s time for this little show to come to an end, don’t you think, Clyde? It’s either die to me or die to my heart-soother. Really, me coming down here and entertaining you is a blessing.”

  Clyde shook his head.

  “You just love to hear yourself talk, don’t you, lady? And to think someone like this…”

  “Is going to be your mother-in-law?” Amaterasu finished. “You can’t marry a deity’s daughter and expect everything to be flowery and peachy.”

  “Coming from the coward,” Clyde said. “You left Alena out of the bubble because you know she’d rain down that heavenly punishment. Same for Selkie.”

  “Pervy-nii, you’ll just have to do it for them,” Natalia said.