The Shield of Miracles

by Sakon Kaidou

  “...I do like my Embryo. I’m not tough enough to win this, but this baby should at least let me take a tenth of your HP.”

  Dum-dum took out a billhook-like blade and brandished it with a backhand grip. That weapon, too short to be a longsword and too long to be a shortsword, was his unique Embryo.

  Thus, the ex-leader of Mad Castle and the leader of Sol Crisis faced one another.

  Dum-dum moved slowly, while Barbaroy was completely idle.

  An AGI build looked for an opportunity to strike, while the END build prepared to counter it, making it a highly standard Dendro battle.

  However, there was a great difference between the two players.

  Barbaroy’s MP is almost out, Dum-dum thought while using Reveal on Barbaroy. I’ve got a chance.

  Using Astro Guard and her ultimate skill had nearly emptied Barbaroy’s remaining MP, while all the Flying Shields had reduced her SP to below the tenth of her maximum. In just a few seconds, her passive skills would reduce her MP to 0, and that very moment would be Dum-dum’s only chance.

  He waited for it as Barbaroy waited for him.

  Soon enough, the time came.

  “OAAGH!” Dum-dum let out a war cry as he charged directly towards Barbaroy, who responded by preparing to pulverize him with her shields.

  Dum-dum hit the shield like a bunted baseball, and...

  “She Stands Behind You — Bloody Mary!”

  ...vanished.

  He next appeared in the air right behind Barbaroy.

  That was the ultimate skill of his sword Embryo, Bloody Mary. It made him teleport behind his target and raised the power of his next attack. Additionally, he was a Sneak Raider — a high-rank job from the raider grouping — so the damage he dealt increased even further when he was undetected by his enemy.

  I’ve got her now! he thought as he swung his Bloody Mary, certain that he’d take away a tenth of her HP.

  Without any MP, Barbaroy would be unable to use any defensive skills like Astro Guard, and Dum-dum was sure that she was just bare enough for his attack to damage her.

  But that conviction of his disappeared the moment something cylindrical flew out of Barbaroy’s armor.

  Being an AGI build, Dum-dum could make out that it was actually a bullet case.

  It dropped out of her armor as if flying out of a shooting gun.

  What was that? Dum-dum thought, but before he could reach a conclusion, Bloody Mary’s blade reached the back of Barbaroy’s neck...

  “Astro Guard!”

  ...only to be deflected by a skill — one that she supposedly couldn’t use because of a lack of MP.

  “What...?!” Dum-dum exclaimed, but Barbaroy made her move before he could make any sense of the situation.

  She turned around, let go of her shields, formed spear hands, and directed them at Dum-dum. Being in mid-air, he wasn’t capable of evading what came next.

  “Double Gauntlet Trigger!” she roared, causing two more bullet cases to fall out of her armor, accompanied by a thunderous sound akin to a cannon shot.

  Following that, her gauntlets were fired forwards.

  Barbaroy’s aim was perfect, and they cleanly hit Dum-dum’s stomach.

  “Gh-ah...!” he exclaimed. The attack was both unexpected and powerful. Though he’d withstood the first with his Lifesaving Brooch, the second one split him in half. “Wh-What...?”

  “If you’re gonna fake my armor, at least learn its skills,” said Barbaroy as she looked down at Dum-dum’s separated halves and re-equipped the gauntlets. “Well, not like you could. I didn’t leak ’em anywhere.”

  Exactly. Both the MP regeneration and the attack had happened because of her special reward: the Legendary Gunhammer Plate, Magnum Colossus.

  The reason why it was titled “Gunhammer” were the bullet-shaped cartridges it used as the price for its unique skills. Their content was the MP that Barbaroy had channeled into them ahead of time.

  One of the armor’s skills was “Gauntlet Trigger,” which used all the MP in a single cartridge to fire a gauntlet which dealt damage almost as great as that of ultimate skills.

  The other skill was “Charge Trigger,” a battle ability that injected the MP in a cartridge into Barbaroy, restoring her MP much faster and more effectively than Potions did. A single use gave her half of her maximum MP.

  She could have a total of six cartridges, and she’d finished charging all of them just this afternoon.

  That meant that she’d had enough to completely restore her MP three times, so there had never been a chance she wouldn’t have enough of it to take care of Sol Crisis.

  While they’d believed they’d have a chance if Barbaroy ran out of MP, she herself had never worried about it at all. If her MP reserves had been an actual problem for her, she wouldn’t have wasted time examining them all with Reveal or undoing her Heaven’s Weight.

  In fact, she’d intentionally made them believe that her MP was her weakness and had them act accordingly. There was logic behind it.

  “Ah, shit,” Dum-dum grumbled. Despite being split in half, he could still talk just fine. “I thought I had it.”

  “Well, Mary sure ain’t the only thing that’s ‘bloody’ here anymore,” Barbaroy commented. “I’ve gotta say, for someone lookin’ like a Teke Teke, you seem pretty good. That a skill or something?”

  “Nah. I have a bit of HP left, but this Bleeding’ll kill me in seconds.”

  He wasn’t wrong. It wouldn’t be long until the death penalty took him and made him vanish.

  “Oh, maaan,” Dum-dum muttered with slight regret in his tone. “The scheme is over, the pretense is off, and we don’t have any prestige anymore. Guess that’s that for Sol Crisis... Shame. It wasn’t too bad.”

  Looking at his state, Barbaroy, being an ex-leader of a PK clan herself, felt like she had to make a comment, so she said, “Create a proper PK clan next time. If you ask me, you can easily make it to second-rate.”

  Her words were barely any consolation.

  “Ha ha...” Dum-dum chuckled wryly. “What the hell’s a ‘proper’ PK clan?’”

  With those words as his last, the leader of Sol Crisis received the death penalty.

  “And that leaves just you,” said Barbaroy as she turned around and looked at Vermin — the fake.

  “...Kh.” He was silent. At first, Vermin just lay on the ground and lightly shook. The quivering gradually grew stronger until, it culminated in a thunderous, out-of-control laughter. “KYAH HA HA HA HA! Dumbasses! They all lost like the weak shits they are! I knew it! Without my skill, Sol Crisis was just a bunch of hopeless parasites!”

  “Kyah ha ha!” Barbaroy chuckled. “You really think you can say that?”

  “Shut up! You should’ve just retired like the loser you are! You just had to show up now, of all times! Fuck you!” Vermin stood up as his shattered armor made a clanging sound. Then, he pointed at Barbaroy and said, “And what the hell are you planning?!”

  “Whaddya mean?”

  “You weren’t attacking me at all!”

  Barbaroy heaved a sigh before replying, “That’s because you were dialing defense skills like there’s no tomorrow.”

  Indeed, Barbaroy hadn’t left Vermin alive because the fake made her sentimental or anything. He’d used nothing but defensive skills throughout the whole massacre, increasing his defense so much that she’d figured it was best to take care of the others before dealing with him.

  “You’re a Full Armor Giant, too, so you can also use Astro Guard. And you were squatting and cowering for your sub job skills — Beast Boxer’s Turtleshell Stance and Monk’s Prostration Barrier. All of them multiply defense several times over, so even I can’t do much when they’re stacked.”

  “Well, aren’t you a know-it-all,” said Vermin. Though it didn’t show, the fact that she’d pointed out his skills so precisely made his heart rate intensify.

  “Well, I just barely redid my build. I considered takin’ those jobs, so I looked ’
em up.”

  They had been a decent choice if she wanted to buff her defense and maximize the damage of Emancipated Giant. However, she’d decided against them because they had worse limitations than Astro Guard. Turtleshell Stance would only activate when placing your hands on your head, while Prostration Barrier could only be used when you were prostrated on the ground.

  “So, why’d ya finally decide to stop tanking and stand up?” Barbaroy asked.

  “’Cause I’m done preparing to kill you!” Vermin shouted as his left hand began glowing and something appeared in his palm.

  It was a pen — a fountain pen made of something that emitted an amethyst-like gleam. That was Vermin’s Embryo.

  “The False Bride — Amanojaku!” he exclaimed as he crushed it in his hand.

  That was the activation of his ultimate skill — the ace up his sleeve that he’d even hidden from the other Sol Crisis members.

  A moment later, Vermin’s body was engulfed in a purple light similar to Amanojaku’s.

  “I’m winning this shit!” he shouted.

  “I see what’s goin’ on here,” Barbaroy said as she noticed a change in what her Reveal skill was showing.

  Vermin’s stats and job config were now the same as Barbaroy’s.

  With the exception of offense and defense, which also gained bonuses from equipment, he had the exact same stats as her.

  Considering Vermin’s track record, it would have been fair to assume that it was just more fakery, but Barbaroy was experienced enough to tell that it wasn’t.

  “So it’s a skill that lets you go beyond descriptions and perfectly copy the actual abilities, huh?”

  “You got it right! It’s like copying and pasting! I now have the same powers as you! Including your Embryo!”

  Barbaroy took a moment to consider whether he was bluffing, and concluded that such an ability was, indeed, possible.

  The fact that he had to destroy his Embryo to activate it says a lot, she thought. There are probably other limitations, as well. For example, copying people with a higher total level or Embryo form would probably make the result incomplete. And there might be a time limit, too.

  Barbaroy was assuming right, and that was exactly why The False Bride was functioning so well. After all, since she was in the middle of leveling her new build, her total level was lower than Vermin’s — who had it maxed — and their Embryos were both in their sixth forms.

  “I watched you fight and now know how to use your skills!” Vermin shouted with excitement. “Your crazy powerful ultimate skill, the Shield Giant attack skill, the Binding gravity field — I know them all!”

  “So you focused on defense to watch me for as long as you could.”

  “Exactly! And that’s why I can fight like you now! But there’s one difference!” He reached into his inventory and took out a shield. “While you’re still on your ultimate skill cooldown, I can use it just fine! Heaven’s Weight!”

  Vermin used the gravity field that he’d been subjected to just minutes ago on the original user herself.

  The distance was such that the gravity around Barbaroy became 400 times greater. Though it wasn’t enough to bring her to her knees, it rendered her immobile.

  Despite being a copy, the field was about as strong as Barbaroy’s.

  “Astro Guard!” Vermin howled as he traced the steps taken by Barbaroy when she’d used her ultimate skill. “You’re done! Emancipated Giant — Atlas!”

  Vermin activated it the same way she had. In an instant, the great defense he’d earned through Astro Guard became even more immense offense.

  Not wasting a moment, he charged towards Barbaroy. His extraordinary attack power made every step he took pulverize the ground beneath him.

  Having gained such great damage potential made him shake with excitement.

  The stat summary at the edge of his vision said that his current offense was over 100,000. It was lower than Barbaroy’s due to the difference between their equipment bonuses, but it was still more than enough to break through her Astro Guard.

  Vermin was assured of his victory.

  Because of that, Barbaroy’s next move amused him.

  “—avity!” she shouted a skill, but he couldn’t hear it well. “Looks like you’ll need a fourth pointer. Heaven’s Weight.”

  The fact that she’d activated the gravity field made him laugh. “You ’tard! Like that’ll be enough to stop this powe—!”

  Vermin had pictured himself pushing through the field like it was nothing and crushing Barbaroy with little effort.

  However, what actually happened was that he stopped in place before getting to her.

  “...Huh?” he exclaimed as he became immobile the same way as Barbaroy had just moments ago. “H-How?! I’ve got this much power! This shouldn’t stop me!”

  The seemingly impossible situation perplexed him. He struggled to break free, but Emancipated Giant’s ten seconds expired before he could.

  “Wh-Wh... Why?” he muttered, still utterly confused.

  “You know how you said the word ‘power’?” Barbaroy said as she sighed. “What the hell’re you actually talkin’ about?”

  The question puzzled Vermin even further. “A-Attack power! Offense, damn it! It was so high, so why couldn’t I move?!”

  While under the effects of Emancipated Giant, Vermin had an attack power of over 100,000. Though it was lower than Barbaroy’s because he couldn’t copy her equipment, it was still more than 10,000 times greater than a normal person’s.

  There was no denying that it was immense. However...

  “Yeah. Attack power,” she replied. “Not STR.”

  “...Eh?”

  Barbaroy showed her stat window and continued, “STR increases attack power, but offense doesn’t do shit for STR, and Emancipated Giant is a skill that raises attack power directly. No matter how high your offense gets, STR won’t increase a bit. Here’s a good comparison for ya...” She paused briefly and waved her finger. “If a guy gets a crazy powerful weapon, does his STR grow any higher?”

  “...Ah.” Vermin finally understood it.

  Though Emancipated Giant greatly increased the user’s attack power — their influence on the outside — it did nothing for their own physical strength. Naturally, since STR was the stat necessary to resist the effects of the gravity field, the ultimate skill didn’t help dealing with it at all. If the person whose stats Vermin had copied couldn’t move, it was only reasonable that he would be immobile, as well.

  “Huh?” he suddenly realized that Barbaroy actually was moving in the field. “Y-You’re...! How?!”

  “Yeah, I bet you’re curious,” Barbaroy laughed.

  The reason for this mobility was another skill that she had used in conjunction with Heaven’s Weight. It was “Anti-Gravity,” which, true to its name, reduced the gravity of whatever she used it on.

  During her battle against K&R, she’d used it to throw a shield, but she could also use it on herself to cancel out the effects of Heaven’s Weight.

  “I-If you can do it, so can I!” said Vermin.

  “Well, yeah, you can,” she replied. “If you know it, I mean.”

  “...!” Vermin responded with just a gasp.

  “Your ultimate skill lets you copy the abilities, but your windows don’t give you the details about them.”

  “Whuh?!” Vermin was at a complete loss for words. He had no idea how she’d figured that out.

  “If you’d had descriptions and stuff, you wouldn’t have screwed up like you just did, and you would’ve known how to escape the gravity.”

  She wasn’t wrong. Vermin really did have Anti-Gravity among his copied abilities. However, he had no idea which skill it was. After all, Barbaroy hadn’t used it during her fight against Sol Crisis.

  Vermin could never know it, nor speak its name.

  It was as difficult as trying to figure out a password with an unknown number of characters.

  That was the limit of Vermin’s
copying ability. He’d thought he’d understood what he was copying after seeing just the surface of what Barbaroy could do.

  It was less about the skill and more about his own nature, and that was exactly why he’d ended up being nothing but a cheap knock-off.

  “Another thing,” Barbaroy continued. “The defense skills you’ve stacked up are all there to help you take a beating while you figure out what skills the enemy has before you copy them and retaliate, right?”

  He was dead silent.

  Vermin knew little about Barbaroy’s tactics, while she knew all about his. That was a clear difference between them that was in an entirely different realm than mere stats or Embryo powers.

  “All right, time to wrap things up,” she said as she walked through the gravity field as if it had no effects on her. “The five minutes are almost done.”

  Instead of holding shields, she formed spear hands and prepared a Gauntlet Trigger, the same skill that’d ended Dum-dum.

  It would be enough to break through Vermin’s Astro Guard and fatally wound him.

  Barbaroy’s approach made him imagine himself getting split in half, so he gave in to fear, and...

  “C-Cancel! Turtleshell Stance! Prostration Barrier! Astro Guard!”

  He deactivated The False Bride and returned to his original configuration before stacking his three defense skills and dropping to the ground.

  “This again? You like prostrating that much?”

  “Y-You can’t hurt me when I’m like this! This defense is perfect!”

  It had been enough to prevent Barbaroy from attacking him with her ultimate skill, so Vermin thought that she was now incapable of doing anything to him.

  “You serious? Breaking through this is easy,” said Barbaroy, not worried about it at all.

  “Y-You’re just bluffi—” Vermin tried to say something, but Barbaroy cut him off by picking his body up and throwing him into a nearby irrigational aqueduct.

  The water inside was only up to the waist of an adult man.

  “Ghbh! Thhellrudoohng?!” Vermin tried to get up and shout “The hell are you doing?!” but he was unable to do so. As if pushed down to the bottom, he couldn’t rise up from the water.