The Anime Trope System: Stone vs. Viper, #12 a LitRPG (ATS)

by Alvin Atwater

  Toru: I’m not falling for that. Whatever you found can wait until the morning.

  “Dude… so is there any particular reason why Toru’s excused from this meeting?” Seth asked.

  “Fumi got food poisoning, so he’s looking after her,” Clyde said, turning around to the monster girl. The open window ahead and the trembling terrorist on the floor said everything. How the fuck did no one notice?

  Seth scoped every inch of the naked gray woman who stood about five feet tall. She had bat-like wings that matched the color of her skin. Same for the long tail. She could be easily mistaken as a cosplaying model. Then again, the same went for many monster girls.

  “Don’t underestimate me,” the gargoyle said, aura pouring from her.

  Episode 61 (Part 1): Strides

  Evening…

  Someone in the Nation’s Seat…

  Maverick puffed his cigar and stroked his chin. He did that for a minute until at last deciding something. He pulled off his shades to stare at Black Mask with impassive, heartless eyes that glowed gold.

  “Black Mask, what was it you told me?” Maverick asked. “You proposed a question. If strength is justice and then is powerlessness a crime?” He stood from his desk. “Tonight, I want you to prove yourself. Go talk with the princess. Open her mind to the reality of this Nation. Use your special ability to deal with anyone who gets in your way. Just remember your limits with it. Give me your vow again.”

  “If subjects are to follow, the king must move. The king cannot get them to follow by abusing his power. Without the people, there is no king.”

  Maverick nodded. “Think on that the next time you consider using Ki to pop someone’s head off. I’m glad you didn’t waste your special ability and command him to do something humiliating. We are professionals, not high school children. Remember that, Black Mask, or else I’ll strip away your title and send you back to the scouts. Now, go do your job and show me that we can make this Nation change.”

  “Yes sir!” Black Mask said. He saluted, about-faced and marched out the door.

  Maverick puffed his cigar. “It’s always the young ones that fuck up a plan,” he said to a guard standing at the door. “Not because they’re idiots, but only through misguidance. Black Mask has talent, but not the charisma and humility for a figurehead. Not yet. He must forge that shit through will and fire.”

  Abruptly, a blue robe rushed into Maverick’s office.

  “Sir, Pink Allure was captured by Team Stone. They’ve notified the android police and they should be arriving in less than twenty minutes.”

  “Fuck!” Maverick stood. “Where is Layla?”

  “She set off to rescue her,” the blue robe said. “She was the one that sent me to relay the message.”

  Maverick put out his cigar in the ashtray. “Fine. Since Team Stone will not comply, they are on the side of the government. We’ll send the gold robes to deal with them. Get them mobilized now. Tomorrow I want them dead, unless, of course, Black Mask’s plan succeeds. We won’t have to waste any resources on those outsiders.”

  “Sir! I’ll go let the gold robe leaders know.”

  Maverick shook his head after the blue robe left. He had invested way too much for some ignorant foreigners to ruin his plans now.

  Alon’s economy depended on his actions alone.

  Hotel….

  Night…

  Gargoyle- Yasha.

  Level: 532

  Type: Monster.

  Work under: N/A.

  Special: Rock Solid All Night Love! [Gargoyles will rock you all night, but turn to stone during the day. You will too if you’re in the middle of some outdoor loving. The good news is that you’d feel the sex and be able to communicate with the gargoyle until the sun went down. At night, the party begins again.]

  Weaknesses: holy, ice, physical, solar x 5000 (chance of turning a gargoyle to stone).

  Resistances: all magic except ice and holy.

  Secret: she’s absolutely terrified of the sun and hides in a dark, anti-sun building during the day, while her fellow gargoyles accepted petrification as a part of their lives.

  “A power level of five hundred thirty two,” Clyde said, “damn.”

  Yasha grinned. “Now that you know the deal, who’s going to volunteer? We’ve got a long, fun night.”

  The few hotel guests that were still out watched in fascination.

  “You idiots may want to go,” Kitome said to them, “unless dying is on your night’s agenda.” She was in magical girl form.

  Thankfully they got the memo and fled the main lobby.

  “Welp, another big fish to face like usual,” Seth said.

  “A mini-boss,” Clyde said.

  Seeming annoyed at being taken so lightly, the gargoyle lurched at Kitome.

  [Your party has entered combat!]

  Kitome nimbly dodged, even performing a cartwheel, before returning fire using her cutesy wand.

  [Kitome activated Silver tier skill: Silent Heartbreaker Explosion.]

  Yasha tried to dodge - she had the nimbleness, but Kitome’s heart bomb actually honed in on her like a missile.

  [Yasha’s HP has dropped to 940% of 980%.]

  Yasha blurred toward Kitome, snarling. The blue-haired magical girl dodged her punches and blocked her kicks. She didn’t anticipate the tail grabbing her by the leg and slamming the young woman into the wall.

  [Kitome’s HP has dropped to 130% of 250%. Her magical barriers still hold fine.]

  Clyde still stood in place, arms folded, just watching the scrapple. Then he remembered the creature’s level was much higher. Since wizards were more than likely going to attack them, Team Stone needed to conserve their energy. He also wouldn’t be surprised if they sent someone to attempt to rescue Pink Allure. Yuki set a special trap just for that occasion.

  The young man warped Bloodlight from his inventory, preparing to cast its solar special that would surely one-shot Yasha.

  Kitome’s attacking intensified.

  [Kitome activated Gold tier skill: Magnifying Solar Ray.]

  Despite the attack being a golden beam, rare for Kitome, it still gave off tiny floating hearts. Yasha dodged it, but from the utter terror in her eyes, she knew that skill was concentrated solar magic.

  “No, no, no,” she said, then in one large leap, jumped out the open window. The sound of fading flapping signified a flee.

  [Battle completed! Victory? Reward: nothing. Your quarry ran.]

  “Wellllll, that was a bit anti-climactic,” Noona said.

  “You can say that again,” Fuyoko said, pushing past Amina and Nina. Neko, Ako, peeked from the hall, Maki, Sophia, and Hinako behind them.

  Airi sighed. “Damn. I was seconds away from unbinding her from this plane. Ah well, it’s good to see Kitome kick ass.”

  “Let me guess, you have questions,” Kitome said, her frown deepening.

  “Nope, Kitome, I’ve known you long enough not to bother. You’re more stubborn than the elves,” Airi said. “However, I think I’ll switch from asking questions to just observing. Feel free to come to me of your own accord, everyone.” She winked.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be the wise and great druid?” Clyde asked. “I mean you don’t have the wise old man thing going on, but you know how the movies are.”

  Airi snorted in amusement.

  “What’s taking those damn android police so long?” Alice asked.

  “Never mind that,” someone said.

  They turned to see Dera walking toward them, a serious expression on her face. Then she grabbed Kitome’s hands, eyes starry.

  “You had cute little hearts floating from your beam. And all of your attacks were so cute. My sensors detected a skill called Adorable Wink. You’ve used it only once. Come o-”

  Kitome attempted to shove her away, but the android was all over the young woman. “Get off me, you bucket of bolts.”

  Kitome dashed behind Clyde. “Do something about her.”

  Dera gave
him a Gin smile. The young man secretly hoped she’d say, ‘ara ara.’ She made groping gestures toward the magical girl.

  “See. She’s clearly defective,” Kitome said.

  “Alright, alright, enough playing around.” Clyde turned to Yuki. “Do you mind giving this place a quick rewind?” He looked thoughtful. “You know, we should figure out a way to create a portable barrier for every hotel we travel to. I’m really getting tired of-”

  Clyde and Kitome immediately turned to the new intruder that hopped through the window, landing at the side of the tied-up terrorist.

  “No, Layla, it’s a tra-”

  Yuki actually gave a small snort of amusement as tendrils of magic burst from Pink Allure’s ropes and tangled themselves around a familiar woman.

  “Hey, I’ve seen you before,” Ruri said. “You’re that gold digger lady from the restaurant.”

  “I’m not a gold digger lady,” Layla snapped, struggling with the ropes. Yuki walked over and pulled off her mask. Tear took pictures.

  “Upload them,” Natalia said. “Just in case the booby cow lady escapes.”

  “You know, I found the man you were with off-putting, but only assumed that he was some kind of CEO or bigshot,” Clyde said. “He probably is, and is either leading or backing the terrorists.” He grinned. “Bold of you guys to go out in public.” Clyde stretched. “Ah, I love it when a plan works. The gargoyle wasn’t a part of it, but hey, we have a masked voluptuous woman to turn over to the cops.”

  Clyde walked over and knelt at her side.

  “You charged in here, believing that you could easily beat a bunch of amateurs. But honestly, you’re a fucking idiot.” He shook his head. “Did your spies not give you our numbers? How arrogant can one be to just charge in here… never mind. Let’s hurry up and get them to a room before some bullshit Deus Ex Machina happens for them.”

  Alice shot him a blank stare.

  “What?” Clyde asked.

  “Oh nothing,” the half-demoness said.

  Dera twirled over to Clyde.

  “My sensors detect the approach of lifeforms in vehicles, but the androids…” her voice softened to sadness. “Were destroyed.”

  Layla grinned. “I didn’t come alone.”

  “So, what’s to stop me from just killing you now?” Clyde asked, causing her to flinch. He wasn’t in the mood for giving the terrorists handouts. “We’ll handle this. Dera.” He looked into the android’s eyes. Life-filled, glistening eyes. “Your kind are just as alive as we are.” He did take notice of her gasp as Clyde turned to give Team Stone orders.

  “Wipe them out,” Clyde said. “No mercy. Protect this hotel, its guests, and make damned sure they don’t pull that bullshit where they somehow end up barely escaping with our prisoners. Remember, they are terrorists and the killing kind.”

  “You don’t have to tell us twice,” Chika said. “In fact, just leave it all to me.”

  Clyde laughed. “Noona, give her all the buffs she needs.”

  Noona nodded. “Okay. Oh - why didn’t I dress up as a fairy godmother?”

  Seth whispered to Clyde, “Did you, like, roleplay things when you had sex with Noona? Is she your horse and you, her cowboy?” He performed a terrible motion of a horseback rider, grinning.

  Clyde actually anime-fell to the side.

  Smaller city of Alon…

  Night…

  Terrance parked his motorcycle, then took one look around the grocery store’s parking lot. It was just a quiet night with few cars, one or two people trailing in and out of the building, handling everyday matters. Where the fuck was his client? He wouldn’t be surprised if she turned out to be a hoax. His own services were simply mundane under the bullshit guise of an implied, but not declared psychic. Sure, he delivered better results than the quacks, but every method could be done by anyone with the proper schooling and training.

  And Terrance educated himself in as many things as possible, including the high-end technology from the Nation’s Seat.

  “Are you him?” someone asked from behind Terrance. He flinched, turning around to see a woman dressed in some kind of gray and white robe with a golden cross on the left breast.

  “Are you Nurin?” he asked.

  “That’s my code name,” she said. “Others call me Crusader Researcher Tiffia.”

  Terrance’s eyes widened. His day just had to get weirder. First that strange man with the long hair, handing him some kind of business card, and now a Crusader. Why? Just why was this shit happening to him? He didn’t believe in the supernatural, but at that moment, the man considered the concept of karma.

  “What do you want, Crusader?” Terrance asked.

  Tiffia’s smile brightened. “It’s not about what I want, but the will of the Great Ones. You’re psychic filth, dabbling in forces without permission. I offer you a cleansing out of kindness.”

  “I never claimed to be a psychic,” Terrance said. “I offer services. Nothing more, nothing less. A businessman. Not that you would understand the concept of such a thing.”

  Tiffia shook her head and poked Terrance’s nose, her smile odd and cheerful. The deadly aura stripped away the playful woman illusion.

  “Terrance, Terrance. Oh, yes, don’t look surprised, we know your name. We dug deep into your past. We know all about you. After all, the old man who kept telling you about yourself is actually one of us. Also, I didn’t give you a choice.”

  Episode 61 (Part 2)

  Nation’s Seat of Alon…

  Hotel parking lot…

  Clyde wasn’t sure why he came up with this idea, but he figured if they were going to patiently wait for them to arrive, why not hide behind the vehicles outside? Dera gave him a surprisingly high probability of the plan working, so he went with it. The young man told everyone to be on the lookout for any gargoyles flying through the air. After that last encounter, he just wanted to avoid fighting them period. If he took one down in Stone Mode, then the young man would lose ninety-five percent of the rewards. Outside of that, they were simply too high-level - and sure, his large team would take it out eventually by working together, but that wasn’t the point. The risk of the monster inflicting a surprise attack and seriously injuring one of his friends was there.

  The young man tilted his head. He had a list of spells, but really… he needed to improve his technique. Stone Mode would be a last resort for anything unforeseen - the usual. However, from here on out, Clyde decided he’d not pick unnecessary fights. Not that he did on purpose. From the beginning, it always seemed like no matter what choices he made, at the end of the road stood either a high-level Entity, a legendary beast, a pseudo deity, or hell, even a dark god. And speaking of legendary beast… wait. A gargoyle, casually walking around with such strength, had to be under some kind of classification. It had a detrimental weakness, but Kitome couldn’t land her spell. Well, to be fair, the gargoyle had come out of nowhere and they had to defend themselves. Fuck that. You win some; you lose some by running, but live to fight another day. Team Stone would not always be able to rely on him going god mode all the time. That didn’t mean he’d not use his own powers. They were something he was born with; however, a strategy set in place just in case the system decided to fuck him over wouldn’t hurt.

  Clyde examined his list of spells through his mind’s eye. They were evolvable, even if they didn’t show a level. What if he selected a set few before each battle and utilized them in creative ways?

  A lightbulb exploded in the young man’s head as he silently changed the way he’d fight from here on out. First, he turned on his Area sense so that the mini-map would show.

  [Your Area Sense has increase to level 2. Keep at it!]

  [Area Sense level 2. You will be able to detect all enemies within a vicinity. You gain a Mini-map to accompany your mental navigation system. Your foes will show up as red dots. Level this system up and you’ll gain more details and range. Example: yellow dots indicating tougher enemies and much more.]

/>   So far, nothing showed up, so he resumed reforming himself. System, can you set all the buffs to auto-activate before battle? he thought. He normally did them manually, but taking that tidbit off his mind would be nice. The system complied.

  [All current buffs will automatically activate at the start of each battle.]

  [Quick Meditation: once per cooldown, you can boost random stats. The buffs will last for up to two hours.]

  [Mystic Meditation: once per cooldown, you can boost speed, will, and composure. This buff will last up to 2.5 hours.]

  He felt the power surging already. Good. Instead of making up half-baked strategies as he went, the young man would attempt a few things: overwhelm foes, fight dirty, and other nasty surprises. He chuckled. Battle could be a lot less tedious.

  Just then, Clyde saw a mass of red dots moving quickly toward the hotel. The wizards had no idea they were hiding. To make matters even more complicated for them, the young man cast another surprise.

  [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.]

  Uncommon class his ass, this ability felt like gold to Clyde and something he should’ve utilized more. Then again, the young man was certain that most of his enemies didn’t rely on vision. But the wizards were human…

  His team watched him, felt his buffs and resolve, and waited for his signal. Support Team, of course, hid on the now-repaired bus, all lights off. The hotel guests were evacuated from the building. The young man had to tell them the truth. That the android police were killed and terrorists were on the way. Of course, they heard most of it anyway from Pink Allure herself. And speaking of the tied up, he left the prisoners out in the open, secured. Tear muted them with magic so they wouldn’t give away the dozens of traps Yuki had taken the time to set up. And to add more to their calamity of shittiness, they now had to deal with a new, thick mist.