The Shield of Miracles

by Sakon Kaidou

  “Right, then. Like I said, you’re all about to get trashed.” Barbaroy’s words echoed within the armor. Her voice sounded somewhat masculine. “You can’t move for shit right now, so I could take my time and kill you slowly.”

  Sol Crisis shivered in fear.

  Each and every single one of them were currently bound by the high gravity field spread out around Barbaroy. Depending on the distance from her, that field multiplied their weight by a minimum of 200 and a maximum of 500, so they couldn’t make any significant movements. The wide reach of the skill had allowed her to catch the entire clan.

  At the edge of the field, the gravity was 200 times higher than normal, so those located thereabouts could move if they had 2,000 STR, which was 200 times higher than a normal person. It was a burden that most capable vanguard roles with low and high-rank jobs could carry with little trouble.

  However, those positioned further away from Barbaroy were either ranged attackers or supports. And since magic, archery, or gunnery didn’t scale with STR, they didn’t have enough of it to be able to escape the 200 times greater than normal gravity.

  And that was only for those who were at the edge of the field. Those who were closer could be exposed to 300, 400, and even 500 times greater gravity, and even, to top it off, receive the Binding debuff. Even max level high-ranks with good stat growth bonuses from their Embryos would find it hard to escape that.

  Not to mention that merely being able to move wasn’t enough, as the extra weight would still dull their mobility and make it impossible for them to fight properly.

  For these many reasons, Heaven’s Weight was a truly terrifying skill.

  Of course, it wasn’t absolute. During the capital blockade incident, Figaro had been able to break out of Barbaroy’s maximum gravity field.

  But if you looked at it another way, Figaro was the only one who’d succeeded at that, and he was a Superior.

  The mix of Barbaroy’s Heaven’s Weight and ultimate skill had even killed Superior Jobs like Rosa and Eldridge. In fact, Figaro’s feat had only been possible because of the powerful buffs from his Embryo and skills on his special rewards.

  Naturally, Sol Crisis had nothing that could overcome this. So great was the gravity that some were forced to the ground and had their bones break.

  Man, shame I’m not closer to the outside, thought the leader of Sol Crisis, Sneak Raider, Dum-dum. He was regretting setting the clan’s battle arrangement to what it was, and the reason for that was simple. I might’ve been able to escape after she ran out of MP taking care of the rest. Just my luck.

  Indeed, he would have liked to avoid the death penalty by using his clan members as decoys, and it wouldn’t exactly have been impossible, either.

  Though Heaven’s Weight was strong, it also drained a lot of MP.

  According to Dum-dum’s Reveal skill, Barbaroy now only had about a third of her max MP left, and he expected it to run out before she PK’d everyone.

  Thus, Dum-dum could have survived if he’d been at the edge of the gravity field. However, as a vanguard fighter, he’d been placed at the front of the encirclement.

  He gave up and just hoped that he wouldn’t drop any valuable items, but then... Barbaroy said something that made no sense to him or the rest of Sol Crisis.

  “I’m gonna cancel this field now.” The armor giant ignored their confusion and continued. “It’d piss me off something fierce if you started whining and telling everyone that you only got beaten ’cause I took you by surprise and crushed you when you couldn’t move... so I’m giving you all a fighting chance.”

  Barbaroy began to slowly walk through the barrier.

  For some, that made the burden lighter, while for others, Barbaroy’s approach increased the gravity and made their bones break. However, those who could more or less move now chose to stay still and watch what Barbaroy did next.

  “The rules are simple,” she said. “You all come at me, and anyone who can take a tenth of my HP within five minutes gets to go.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Dum-dum asked.

  “If you can manage that, I’m not gonna attack you at all. Hell, I’ll even write a Contract for this. ‘I will not attack anyone who, within the next five minutes, damages me for a tenth of my health’ or something should do the job.”

  “Wh-Why five minutes?” Dum-dum ventured.

  “What, you don’t see the shitty UBM up there? I’ve gotta go and help my boy Ray deal with that damn thing.”

  In other words, five minutes was the approximate amount of time it would take for Monochrome to resume its attacks, and that was all the time Barbaroy was willing to waste on Sol Crisis.

  “You can try and run, but I already looked at you all with Reveal,” she added. “Got all your names and stats in my cranium. Not gonna forget your mugs, either. My memory’s pretty damn good.”

  So even if they escaped here and now, she’d kill them some other time — and probably more than just once.

  However, Sol Crisis saw that her conceit was giving them a chance.

  The fifteen members of the clan looked at each other. Both the deceived and the deceivers put their antagonism aside and became united again.

  “Hey, you said that a tenth’s fine, but, uh...” said Dum-dum, the leader. “We can kill you, right?”

  “Sure. Do that, and you’re all free to go.”

  With that, they had a verbal promise, and Barbaroy didn’t neglect to fill out a Contract, either.

  The sight made just about all of Sol Crisis silently chuckle. Dum-dum was no exception.

  She only has about a third of her MP left, he thought. If we all attack her at once, she’ll lose all of it before the fight ends. That’ll be my chance. If I let the other guys distract her, I might become a PKer who’s killed the real Barbaroy.

  He tried to keep a serious face so that no one would realize what he was thinking.

  Others might be picturing scenarios similar to his. Barbaroy was probably aware of that, but she showed no interest in it.

  “By the way... Do you numbskulls seriously think I’m givin’ you this chance just so you wouldn’t have any excuses?” she said with a voice thick with frightening bloodlust.

  Dum-dum faltered. “What... What do you mean?”

  “Yeah, I bet you’re curious. Anyway, just get ready to be broken in more ways than one,” she said, causing a chill to go down each of their spines. “All right. I’ll cancel it in three seconds. Threeeee...”

  The countdown to the battle began...

  “Two. Stronghold Pressure!”

  ...but then, before she was done counting, she canceled the gravity field and used both her shields to crush two of their casters.

  Stronghold Pressure was a Shield Giant skill that turned defense into offense. Though she’d switched her job to Full Armor Giant, she could freely use the skill because she was using the appropriate weapon type — a shield. Of course, the damage dealt was more than enough to make short work of the casters’ low HP and END.

  If the expressions on the halves of faces that they still had left were anything to go by, the two unfortunates had no idea what had just happened.

  After the first attack pulverized a large part of their skulls, Barbaroy confirmed that they were still conscious, then crushed them again.

  This time, their heads were reduced to mince meat, and it didn’t take long for the two to get the death penalty and vanish. One of them was a central figure of the clan and the one who’d stopped Silver — Gremlin’s Master, Blue Screen.

  “Huuuh?!”

  “Th-That’s so unfair!”

  Sol Crisis’ members stood up and distanced themselves while telling Barbaroy off, but she didn’t seem to care in the least.

  “Huhhh?” she sneered. “I said I’d cancel it in three seconds, didn’t I? What the hell’re you callin’ unfair?”

  Indeed, she’d canceled the skill exactly three seconds after saying that. She wasn’t lying at all. However, she had p
urposely begun a drawn-out, purposeless countdown to make Sol Crisis believe that the battle would begin the moment she finished counting.

  Also, they just hadn’t been able to imagine that a person who wanted to fight after undoing her highly advantageous field would actually fight unfairly.

  “And hell, what’s wrong with a PKer being unfair?” she continued. “Got taken by surprise? Well, that’s your own damn fault. If you want a fair battle, go and get your head lopped off by Kashimiya. Kyah ha ha ha!” Her belittling laughter was dense with cunning. “By the way, about why I canceled the field and gave you a chance...”

  She’d chose to turn a slaughter into a fight, and the reason for that was...

  “You dumb shits went and faked me, so I wanted to show you Barbaroy’s style and DRILL IT INTO YOUR DAMN HEADS!”

  And to that end, she was willing to discard her overwhelming advantage.

  Her roar made all of Sol Crisis completely forget the notion that they could win if they just waited for her to run out of MP. It made them aware that they had to go all-out or be mercilessly PK’d.

  And if they were to fight seriously, the fact that they’d just lost two casters was a huge problem.

  “That bastard went and started with our magic attackers!” Dum-dum shouted.

  “Who’re ya callin’ a ‘bastard’?!” roared Barbaroy.

  When fighting Full Armor Giants, who excelled at physical defense, magic was your strongest weapon. Barbaroy was fully aware of that, so she’d promptly and preemptively taken out the casters, not letting them do anything.

  Having lost his offensive casters, Dum-dum focused on the next best thing. “AGI dudes, move around and confuse her! She’s an END type!”

  But alas...

  “N-No dice... My leg broke while the gravity field was active.”

  “A-And I broke a hip.”

  Those two were both specialized vanguards with high AGI, but low STR and END. Their bones had broken while Barbaroy was walking around with an active barrier.

  “She even took out our AGI builds...!”

  Barbaroy herself had said that she’d learned all their names and stats through Reveal. It seemed she’d finished analyzing Sol Crisis’s builds and preemptively crushed the weak END members with her gravity field.

  “Get our Bishop to heal the—”

  Before Dum-dum could finish his sentence, something flew through his vision.

  It was a shield.

  Barbaroy used the Flying Shield skill to throw one of hers towards the Bishop.

  It hit him directly and, making short work of his low HP and END, cleanly split him in two.

  “Damn, you’re slow at makin’ decisions,” said Barbaroy. “And I know he’s low level and all, but you’re seriously underestimating my boy Ray. I mean, not one of you so far has had a Brooch. Are you dead broke or something? Also, you could at least get a maxed-out support.”

  After all, a max level Bishop would have had good chances of surviving a single Flying Shield. Though, in that case, Barbaroy would’ve taken care of him some other way.

  “Tch...” Dum-dum voiced his frustration.

  The battle had just begun, but he’d already lost three members — five, if you included the incapacitated AGI builds. And they weren’t even fighting a player with a Superior Job or anything else that deviated from the norm. Barbaroy was a high-rank — on the same tier as them — and these results were caused by nothing but her precise and ruthless tactics.

  That was Barbaroy’s style.

  She roleplayed a vulgar, violent, murderous, and antagonistic PKer while using well-crafted tactics that utilized the enemies’ job configurations and mental openings.

  This was the reason why, despite being a high-rank, she was always grouped with the Superior Job PKers in Altar.

  According to her, “Player battles aren’t all about differences in levels and stats. Preventing your opponent from using their powers while using your own cards in the best manner possible is far more important,” and she embodied these words well.

  After all, she had been able to act on those words to crush both Rosa and Eldridge, solidifying her position as the third strongest PK in the kingdom.

  Not only that, but she was now stronger than she had been back then.

  “Gh... No! We can still win!” Dum-dum roared with more power in his words than usual. “She has less than a fifth of her MP! Same for her SP, too! Just keep attacking, and we’ll win! Don’t let her rest!”

  He’d realized that his clan’s spirit was on the verge of breaking and saw the need to enliven them.

  Some members who’d been fooled by the fake Barbaroy were still antagonistic towards Dum-dum, but they knew that he was telling the truth. If Barbaroy ran out of MP and SP, she’d be unable to use any skills, giving Sol Crisis a huge advantage.

  “We’ve got no choice!”

  “Eat THIS!”

  Two members — a Strong Swordsman and a Strong Lancer — simultaneously used stat-buffing skills and rushed Barbaroy to make an attack.

  They both excelled in terms of STR, so they could’ve dealt damage to her directly through her armor. However...

  “Astro Guard!” Barbaroy activated a skill, repelling their weapons and protecting her from even the smallest bit of damage.

  “Huhhh?!”

  “Wha—? No way!”

  The two were thoroughly dumbfounded by what’d just happened, but to Barbaroy, things were going exactly as expected.

  Thanks to Reveal and Identification, she knew their stats and jobs, so she was fully aware what kind of damage they could deal.

  Not to mention that Barbaroy was now even tougher than she had been back when she’d fought Figaro. After all, following her defeat, she’d gone on to reconfigure her build.

  Picking Shield Giant as her sub high-rank job had raised her base defense from 3,000 to 5,000, so using Astro Guard, which quintupled the user’s defense in exchange for rendering them immobile, increased her defense to 25,000.

  As the leader of Mad Castle, necessity had required her to keep one of her two high-rank job slots dedicated to Commander, which increased the stats of her party and clan. Thus, back then, even if she’d boasted battle prowess that could make most non-SJs envious, she definitely hadn’t been the best solo fighter she could be.

  Things had changed since then. Following Mad Castle’s dissolution, she’d repurposed her clan leader build for solo battle.

  There was no need for her to lead anymore, and she wanted to become strong enough to hold herself against foes like Figaro.

  She’d been so invested into perfecting her build that she’d accepted Tsukuyo’s invitation to CID in order to gain access to their data.

  As a result, she’d acquired the Shield Giant job, which now gave her new skills and greatly increased her stats.

  Additionally, she still had skills from before the reconfiguration, such as Damage Decrease and Damage Reduction.

  Due to all that, to damage Barbaroy in her Astro Guard state, one had to break through the 25,000 defense, make up for the 20% decrease, and still deal more than 500 damage.

  According to her calculations, the only ones who could do that purely with stats and job skills were the two level 500 offense casters... the ones she’d crushed when the battle began.

  Therefore, Sol Crisis could only damage Barbaroy if she ran out of MP and couldn’t uphold her Astro Guard anymore, or if they had some sort of Embryo capable of that.

  While considering what they’d do next, Barbaroy decided to continue reducing their numbers.

  Thus came the ultimate skill.

  “Emancipated Giant — Atlas!”

  It was the ace up her sleeve — an ability that, for 10 seconds, multiplied her defense by 10 and transformed it to attack power.

  A tenth of a second after using Atlas, she deactivated Astro Guard, and used her immense, greater than 250,000 offense to pulverize both the Strong Swordsman and Strong Lancer in one hit each.

&
nbsp; Eight left, she thought, and it was hard to tell whether she was referring to the enemy count or seconds remaining for her ultimate skill.

  Once Emancipated Giant’s effect was over, it could only be used again after an hour-long cooldown, so Barbaroy didn’t want to waste a second of it.

  She took to repeatedly using the Flying Shield skill and throwing her 250,000 damage shields towards Sol Crisis members.

  Though it lasted for a mere ten seconds, her ultimate skill gave her attack power that matched the one and only King of Destruction.

  Under its effects, Barbaroy was a messenger of ruin. She pulverized her surroundings and ground Sol Crisis members into dust, one after the other.

  True to her nickname, she crushed them before they could even scream.

  And by the time the ten seconds were over, there were only three people left on the scene, Barbaroy included.

  “So one of you survived, huh?” she said.

  As the dust raised by the destruction began to settle, Barbaroy saw two other people. She’d purposely let one of them live, but the other had survived despite her trying to kill him.

  The one she’d let live was the faker, Vermin, who was now cowering with his hands on his head, while the one who had survived was the leader of Sol Crisis, Dum-dum.

  He wasn’t in a good state, though. Barbaroy’s attack had lopped off his right arm.

  Dum-dum had his pain set to off, so it didn’t hurt at all. Nevertheless, the feeling of not having a limb made him break out in a cold sweat.

  “Damn monster,” he spat out. “And you’re supposed to be a high-rank like us?”

  “It’s all ’cause of the difference in our Embryo traits and the effort I’ve spent on developing my build and learning when to use my skills.”

  “You ain’t wrong there. Not wrong at all.” Dum-dum formed a self-deriding, wry grin. “Man, the devs keep talking about possibilities or whatever, but Embryos are just straight-up broken. There’s weak shit like this guy’s — only good for cheating people — and then there’s beastly stuff like yours, which lets you fucking demolish everyone by yourself. It’s just unfair. But still...”

  He momentarily stopped talking and turned his grin into an indomitable smile before continuing.