The Lunar Society

by Sakon Kaidou

  “Hmm,” hummed the person behind her. “I don’t really understand, but it all seems complicated. Let me just try to contact Rosa, and... Oh dear, she’s not answering. Looks like she’s already hunting. Her communication device must be in her inventory by now.”

  The person had tried to talk to Rosa, but hadn’t had any luck. It was only natural. During a hunt, the Nobushi Princess Rosa was a solo “search, ambush, and destroy” operative, so it was imperative for her to put away any magic devices that could give away her position. To avoid the effects of some search spells, she also didn’t wear the likes of Telepathy Cuffs or exchange any info with the other members of the hunt.

  This time, Rosa’s meticulous preparation had worked against them, and the person concluded that contacting her — or anyone else — was now impossible.

  “This leaves us no choice,” he said. “We’ll go there directly. Tomika, could you prepare the car?”

  “Uohh... Okaayy... Huh?”

  “So, where did they go?”

  “Fadl Mountain Pass...” Tomika replied in a stupor as she finally realized who was there with her. “Umm... How long have you been online, leader?”

  “For only three minutes. Come on, we have to hurry.”

  That person was none other than the leader of K&R — Kashimiya the Guillotine. At his side, there was an odachi — a blade so large it didn’t suit his frame. It was connected to him by a chain hook bearing the semblance of a rabbit’s skull.

  Chapter Seven: Cross Hunting

  Fadl Mountain Pass

  “Ten minutes have passed. K&R shall now commence hunting in the Fadl Mountain Pass,” the same voice as before resounded throughout the area, declaring the end of the waiting time.

  As the limit was reached, the Masters that had been unable to escape or were simply up to the challenge became on high alert, and justly so, as the first attacks began just as the time ran out.

  First came a deluge of arrows.

  From what seemed like out of nowhere, hundreds... no, thousands of arrows rained down upon the Masters. They were caused by the Heavy Bow Samurai skill, Early Summer Arrow Rain.

  It released 100 arrows for every use, and when used simultaneously by the 30-strong K&R group fighters, it created a storm of 3,000 arrows. Each one of those arrows did less than 100 damage by itself, but those numbers easily made up for that, making this tactic quickly whittle away the life of most targets.

  The Masters subjected to this lethal rain were less than a tenth of all those in the Fadl Mountain Pass, but that tenth included Ray and his group, who had yet to escape the area.

  As the owner of Nemesis, Ray was capable of using a single Counter Absorption to withstand 200,000 points of damage from a single attack, but he was painfully ineffective against rapid fire from a distance he couldn’t hope to reach. Whenever Marie switched to such tactics in their mock battles, Ray always ended up completely crushed.

  He might’ve been able to burn the arrows with Purgatorial Flames, but alas, he didn’t have the left hand for that.

  Silver’s Wind Hoof had the potential to block them, as well, but Ray had neither the MP stock for it, nor enough time to activate it, leaving Ray completely powerless to defend against this arrow storm.

  “Thousand Shutter!” B3 shouted the name of a skill as she jumped off the carriage, taking it upon herself to protect it.

  Out of her inventory, she’d taken out a shield so large it covered her whole body, and once she held it up, a giant, blueish barrier of light appeared and shielded the whole carriage. The countless arrows falling towards them all hit the barrier, and not a single one passed through.

  This was a Shield Giant skill, and it blocked any and all attacks that didn’t deal more than 1,000 damage, meaning that the arrows — with their focus on quantity at the cost of quality — couldn’t hope to pass this wall.

  Following this act of defense, B3 took out a shield even larger than before from her inventory, probably one meant to be used by giants, and, right as the arrow storm ended, went on the offensive.

  “Anti Gravity! Flying Shield!” she roared as she activated one of her Embryo’s unique skills and paired it with another job skill, which involved throwing the shield.

  She launched it in the direction where the arrows came from, combining her intuition, calculations, and experience to fine-tune her throw. The result? Pure success. The shield landed in the middle of the gathering of K&R’s group fighters.

  With that alone, the few that weren’t wearing Lifesaving Brooches got the death penalty, and the ensuing confusion prevented the survivors from firing their next wave of arrows.

  Ray hurriedly made Silver move, using this opportunity to try and take them out of the area.

  Even as his left, prosthetic arm was fixed into holding the reins, he held sword-form Nemesis in his right, ready for whatever might come.

  B3 jumped up on the roof of the carriage and held up her shield, making it clear she was on high alert as well.

  Both of them were armed and ready, but even so, they failed to notice someone jump out from behind the tree and to the forward-right of the moving carriage. That “someone” was none other than the Nobushi Princess, Rosa.

  She didn’t miss the minor opening in their alertness.

  “A Kill Supreme!”

  And she used her Superior Job’s unique skill on Ray.

  ◇◇◇

  Five Minutes Earlier, Paladin, Ray Starling

  “K&R’s sub-leader is name Rosa. Rosa’s job is Nobushi Princess, and it’s the Superior Job from the nobushi grouping,” B3 told me.

  She’d started giving me info right after asking me whether I’d like to defeat K&R’s sub-leader.

  “Though Nobushi is a job branching out from Samurai, Nobushi and Samurai focus on very different things,” she continued.

  “As far as I know, Samurai are close to the Fighters or Gladiators we have here,” I said. “So, what do Nobushi focus on?”

  “Ambushes and first hits. The damage they deal with the first attack they use on an opponent on that day is ludicrous. Nobushi Princess’s unique job skill can easily go into the hundreds of thousands.”

  Ambushes, eh...? I thought. I guess it’s a reference to Sengoku Era peasants who preyed upon deserters.

  Anyway, six digits of damage was no joke. That amount was matched only by the likes of Shu’s punches or stabs from Xunyu’s Yinglong’s Fang.

  Through all my sparring, I’d found that Counter Absorption could only take 200,000 points of damage before breaking, so unless the damage done was closer to 100,000 than it was to 1,000,000, not even we could survive it. Hell, it would come as a surprise attack, so I probably wouldn’t even be able to activate it in time.

  “There’s no need to try and bear or dodge Rosa’s first attack,” said B3.

  “Huh?” I raised an eyebrow.

  “It’s best to just let it hit you.”

  ...B3, you’ve completely lost me.

  “Nobushi ambushes were greatly feared for quite a while after the game began. And for a reason. The jobs are a great source of single-attack damage, after all. They were especially popular among PKs who liked to ambush, and many players ended up being OHKO’d by Nobushis. But eventually, things started to change.”

  B3 raised up her upper clothing and showed me the thing she was wearing underneath. It was an accessory that I knew very well. In fact, I was wearing one right now.

  “What caused the change were these Lifesaving Brooches. When a certain portion of players began wearing these, Nobushi lost their advantage.”

  “I see...”

  Since Nobushi were only strongest on their first hit, the existence of an item that negated fatal damage was their bane. Lifesaving Brooches canceled out their sole advantage, effectively turning the immense power of their first hit into no problem.

  “It’s not unusual for certain MMO strategies to become obsolete as the environment changes,” B3 added. “I can also name the Guardian-Jagu
arman strategy as another example. That one declined when the King of Beasts appeared.”

  Basically, the game’s meta shifted. This was common in many multiplayer gaming scenes, and you could even see it in trading card games and the like.

  “Mind you, the Nobushi Princess, with her Superior Job stats, still uses this strategy,” B3 said. “‘Breaks the Brooch? Good enough for me,’ and all that.”

  B3 spoke as though she’d actually heard her say those words.

  “Still, that doesn’t change the fact that our Brooches can negate her first — and strongest — attack. And, as you can imagine, when she does her ambushes, she’s almost completely on the offensive, meaning that...”

  ◇

  Meaning that... for us, it was a great opportunity.

  “Gh!” The Nobushi Princess’s attack pierced my chest, and all the damage done was negated by my Lifesaving Brooch. Her attack was many times more powerful than my remaining HP, and it came as no surprise that the Brooch inside my armor instantly shattered. But that was no loss, for the moment I felt the impact on my chest, I was already making my move, fully certain of how I had to retaliate.

  I had to aim for the exact moment her attack hit, and give it back twofold.

  “Vengeance...”

  It was the technique I’d pictured when I’d prepared for death while facing Franklin’s DGP.

  “...is...”

  It was the move I’d mastered while sparring against the duel rankers.

  “...Mine!”

  And now, without a flaw to name, I used it on Rosa.

  “Wha?!” she gasped in surprise as my counterattack forced her to drop down from the carriage. Her body skipped on the ground three times before she stopped, leaving her spread out and vulnerable.

  “—las! Stronghold Pressure!” B3, not missing the opportunity, jumped off the carriage and crushed Rosa with her second giant shield.

  Suddenly, I heard the sound of something wet being crushed.

  “...” I had no words.

  “Oh, dear,” said Nemesis. “I’m actually scared of seeing what’s going on under the shield.”

  B3 had mercilessly pulverized a downed enemy, but I didn’t think it was relentless of her. After all, Rosa had been perfectly fine even after taking my Vengeance, which had dealt double the six-digit damage she’d done to me. That wasn’t an amount that could be taken care of with just a Dragonscale Ward — which reduced incoming damage by 90% — so it was clear she’d also had a Lifesaving Brooch.

  Unlike in my mock battles, my opponents could also use Brooches, so the result of my counterattack was pretty obvious. Still, B3’s follow-up ought to be more than enough to finish her off.

  As proof, the blood spreading out from beneath the shield was slowly becoming particles of light, making it clear that Rosa had received the death penalty.

  “Well done, Ray,” said B3.

  “You, too,” I replied. “And hey, you were right. She actually did go for me.”

  When we’d talked about how we’d deal with her, B3 had said that Rosa would most likely attack me first. I’d assumed she’d go for B3, considering she was a higher level, but she’d suggested otherwise, saying that, because I held the reins, taking care of me would reduce our mobility. That seemed like a good reason by itself, but I felt like B3 had had another basis for this assumption.

  “Yes, I expected as much,” B3 said. “She and I have fought before, and I used the same ultimate skill I used just now as a counter, in a manner similar to yours. I assumed she wouldn’t attack me to avoid repeating the same mistake.”

  Oh, so you’ve fought her before, I thought. That explains why you know so much.

  “But man, to think we won against an SJ so easily...” I said.

  “Player battles aren’t all about differences in levels and stats,” B3 replied. “Preventing your opponent from using their powers, while using your own cards in the best manner possible, is far more important.”

  The battle just now had been the perfect example of that. We’d used my Brooch to negate her primary power, and then used the resulting opening to launch a combination of my counterattack and B3’s ultimate skill.

  “I must say, your counter was quite a feat,” B3 commented. “Not everyone can land a hit while taking a hit.”

  “Well, I’ve had tons of practice. The duel rankers helped me out a lot with that.”

  They’d helped me learn to launch a counter while receiving my opponent’s attack. That wasn’t a Dendro skill, but a technique I’d learned myself. Though I hadn’t gotten to use it against DGP, I’d kept the idea in my mind, polished it in the many mock battles I’d had during the past in-game month, and become good enough at it to use it in a real battle.

  All the sparring had given me many chances to test it, and Bishmal, the seventh in the rankings, had been especially passionate about helping me. After all, he had always, without fail, started every battle by charging towards me with his ultimate skill. He had obviously been taking that simple approach to help me learn.

  I mean... that couldn’t have been his actual fighting style... right? I pondered.

  Anyway, because of that, he was the only ranker against whom I’d won more than I’d lost. The other rankers had been able to counter this technique after the first time I’d used it on them, but still, without it, we wouldn’t have won this battle.

  I said, “The counter not only had excellent timing, but—”

  “A Kill Supreme!” B3’s words were cut short by the activation of a skill. For a moment, I was completely lost as to what was happening.

  Before I realized it, a spear had pierced B3’s chest and launched her into the carriage’s door.

  Suddenly, it came to me that I’d heard the skill name and had seen the spear before. This attack could only have been done by one person. “Yeah, you’re wearing a Brooch, too. No surprise there, B3.” It was the Nobushi Princess, Rosa — the one we’d killed just a few moments ago.

  “Well, I’m quite sure it’s broken now,” she continued.

  “Why are you alive?” asked B3, still standing despite the impact and the damage from the spear. However, the shattered Brooch falling out of her clothes made it clear that she wasn’t as good as she appeared.

  “Ray’s attack broke your Brooch,” B3 continued. “So my ultimate skill should’ve killed you, right?”

  “Well, normally, yeah,” Rosa replied. “Your skill is as much of a big deal as ever, and the Unbreakable’s counter was something else. Sadly for you, though...”

  She cracked a grin and showed us the thing hanging on her wrist. Though it was wrapped around her arm like a bracelet, upon taking a better look at it, I realized it was a small, dried up doll.

  “I killed a UBM recently and got this thing here. It’s why I survived. You can guess what it does, can’t you?”

  “Considering there was blood and particles of light, I assume it ‘Creates a substitute and replaces you with it right before you experience fatal damage.’”

  “Not bad, you data nerd. You more or less got it.”

  So basically, Rosa had two accessories that let her avoid lethal damage.

  ...How is that allowed?

  “Non-Brooch items that negate fatal damage are rare and precious,” said B3. “You sure are lucky.”

  “Ha ha!” Rosa chuckled. “Good girls get good things, you know?”

  “Is that a joke?” B3 snapped. “Because I’m not laughing.”

  Though they were talking like friends, I could sense an air of bloodlust gathering between them. It was reminiscent of what I felt when watching Figaro and Tsukuyo Fuso.

  However, B3, being an endurance-type, showed no intention of attacking just yet. If she made one wrong move, Rosa would quickly take advantage of any openings in her defenses.

  “Anyway, now none of us can do anything against fatal damage,” Rosa spoke up again. “I also used my first attacks against you both, and B3’s pretty little ultimate skill can’t be used ag
ain until the cooldown’s up. I’m not wrong there, am I? Your ultimate’s cooldown ain’t as long as mine’s, but it still takes some time, doesn’t it?”

  B3 said nothing.

  “Also,” Rosa said before pausing and looking at me. “I now know about the Unbreakable’s counter. You just used a skill that works as long as the sword touches the enemy, didn’t you? The posture or the power you give it doesn’t matter at all, right?”

  “Ah!” I gasped. She already knew the workings of the counter I’d just used.

  Indeed, Vengeance is Mine worked as long as the blade touched my enemy, delivering double the damage I’d received from them to that particular part of the body. Sure, I’d had to force the sword inside when fighting large monsters with cores in their bodies, but that wasn’t necessary with human-sized opponents.

  Regardless of how awkward my posture was or how little power I put into it, Vengeance activated as long as the blade was connected to their body, meaning that I could use it even when I was being hit and couldn’t position myself properly.

  That was exactly why the counterattack I’d used against Rosa had worked so well, and apparently, that alone had been enough for her to figure out how it worked.

  “Guess you could call it an ‘Impact Counter’ or something,” Rosa commented.

  She’d actually given it a name. Well, it wasn’t weird or anything, so I was fine with it.

  “I’ve heard you’ve been sparring against the rankers. I can just imagine Bishmal charging at you, and you using him as a practice dummy for this trick.”

  “You seem quite knowledgeable about the rankers,” said Nemesis.

  “Well, that’s because I am one.” Rosa cracked a grin. “I’m the fifth, you know?”

  ...So it wasn’t just the third. Both the third and the fifth were among K&R’s player killers.

  “There’s not much to it,” she added. “My darling plays along with my hobbies, so I play along with his. I kinda like duels, too. Even if I can’t use my ambushes.” She formed a smile.

  “Yeah,” I said. “To ambush someone in a duel, you’d have to be like Xun...yu...?”