The Anime Trope System: Stone vs. Viper, #14 a LitRPG (ATS)

by Alvin Atwater

  “And so much damage dealt,” Tessa said. She shot Clyde a look. “You’d better not sleep on her. She’s your prophet for a reason.”

  Harumi gave Ming a head rub.

  “Speaking of training,” Toru said. “Let’s see Sazuki and Kiko go at it for once.”

  The sisters glared at him.

  “And then Chika and Maki,” Noona said.

  “Why them specifically?” Airi asked.

  Noona shrugged. “They both make me shiver inside.”

  Chika stuck her tongue out at the blonde demoness. Natalia laughed.

  “We don’t have that much time,” Clyde said. “It’s hot springs and then out.”

  “Hai!” Natalia said, gaining Clyde and Tear’s blank stares.

  “Someone find me a box so I can toss the loli inside,” Clyde said. They laughed, even though the young man wasn’t exactly cracking a joke.

  Episode 69 (Part 6)

  Afternoon…

  Libado Grasslands…

  An idea came to mind that made Clyde wonder if he was still sane. But… why not? This would be good for them. He chuckled evilly.

  “Team Stone and Selkie’s Team.”

  “You mean the great lord of the Dark’s—”

  “Shut up,” Clyde said, interrupting the chuuni. “This will also include Maki, Sophia, the Stone Maidens. I want all of you to come at me in top form.”

  The entire area grew silent, not a single soul moving.

  “Let me put things into perspective,” Clyde said as he pulled on the power that hovered invisibly just outside his reach.

  [Clyde has Awakened…]

  [Awakened Stone Mode.]

  [Clyde’s Immense Unstoppable Pressure.]

  “Gear up or die,” Clyde said, his god chant booming across the universes like the genesis of all living things.

  [You have challenged the entirety of Team Stone.]

  [Team Stone, prepare yourselves!]

  Clyde’s Flash Step put him in front of Selkie. “Not so cocky now, are you, Entity?”

  The moment Clyde’s finger moved toward her, she teleported twenty yards away, seemingly out of breath as she came to understand that the young man wasn’t kidding.

  “Dude, what the hell,” Seth said, on his knees, panting.

  “Think of this as training pushed to your very limits,” Clyde said. “If you can land just one hit on me, I’ll give you the win.”

  Clyde grinned evilly as he saw the game faces of the entire team, especially his women, occur. “I know I sound like an asshole, but remember what Sol did to us. Now.”

  [Chika invoked Zero Control.]

  Just what is Zero Control? the young man thought.

  Crimson aura erupted around the yandere. She lunged for the young man with a glowing knife of magic, speed breaking the sound barrier twice over. This attack would’ve caught any normal enemy off guard, and done immense damage. Clyde sidestepped, catching her hand a half-second later.

  “One down,” he said as he tapped Chika’s forehead. The powered-up yandere fainted.

  Some of Team Stone took a step back, some didn’t. Matsume, brave soul, grinned. Airi, unsurprisingly, seemed excited too.

  “I have so many questions,” Airi said. “If I get the hit, you must answer them… in private with me. I will have no interruptions this time.”

  “If you think you can get me, come,” Clyde said, “but I wouldn’t run alone. Yuki, make sure Chika gets the proper make-up training. Remember what I said about pulling Yusukes.”

  “Oh, come on,” Yusuke said.

  Clyde gestured for the team to approach, taking on a fighting stance learned from the days at the dojo. The Team was too cautious to charge. They wisely powered up first. Melody took on her dark goddess state, Harumi shifted into kitsune form, Tear to wrath one hundred, Alice to full demoness, Matsume to a more pronounced hellhound form, Kitome to magical girl, Yusuke to ninja, Toru to Zen Mode, Tessa to Raging Storm Mode. The young man expected Airi to finally reveal her full power, but she didn’t. There was a chance that it could be similar to Natalia’s breaking of the seven seals. A body that couldn’t handle the magical overload, resulting in her cooking from the inside out.

  Team Stone went on the offensive.

  Surprisingly, Seth was the first to attack, yelling, “Fuck it! I’ll do this.”

  [Seth activated Gold Tier skill: Warhammer Smash.]

  Clyde saw the poor guy moving in what felt like slow motion. He parried the magical hammer to the side with a finger, then softly backhanded Seth a few yards away. The two that were at Seth’s side, Nina and Yusuke, attempted a well-synched flank attack. Sadly, it was useless. The young man’s eyes flashed, freezing them in midair.

  [Clyde’s Immense Pressure Output…]

  He waved a finger, creating super-hurricane force winds, which pushed nearly everyone away from the young man. Even the hornet audience held onto dear life, doing their best not to get blown away. Ai erected a barrier around them so that they could watch the fight without the four-dimensional interaction.

  “Come on, Team, you can do better than that,” Clyde said.

  “The one who gets the first hit gets Clyde to herself for a full day,” Tear said. Chika just happened to awaken at that moment. She seemed peeved with herself, but more than ready to jump back into the action.

  Clyde chuckled. “Wager all you want, I won’t make it easy for you. NOW COME AT ME LIKE YOU MEAN IT.”

  Alice dashed toward him, the other girls trailing just a second behind. The young man ducked under every fist, every kick, every burst of magic, his movements almost like teleports.

  Clyde aimed a hand at the group, charging magic.

  It was Harumi that surprised him.

  [Harumi activated KITSUNE GODDESS TIER SKILL: RE: World Destruction Hellstorm! This is an unblockable skill.]

  Instead of engaging the entire team at once, the young man actually had to dodge. However, whenever she fired another spell in succession, he saw it coming and smacked it away with a single finger.

  “This is unreal,” Dark said, having not moved a muscle the entire fight. “Was he from Earth too? How?”

  “I don’t know what this Earth is, but I want no part of it,” Myr Myr said, hurrying toward the hornet audience. Clyde teleported in front of her, grinning.

  “Myr Myr, your team’s working hard to train,” he said. “I’m not letting you skip out.”

  He aimed a hand at her. “Die.”

  [Clyde activated SUPREME GOD TIER SKILL: Unlimited Death Kiss.]

  Clyde immediately canceled his attack, eyes wide. This skill wasn’t on his tree.

  “Fuck, I’m not trying to actually kill you—I’m just making fun of how anime characters always say that and then never get the kill,” Clyde said.

  Myr Myr thought the young man was distracted, so she attempted to get a low kick in, her hopes to end the madness. He blocked her blow with a finger, nonchalant.

  “I suppose this is the chance to learn to control this new strength. Or live with regret after accidentally injuring one of my friends badly. We are friends, right, Myr Myr?”

  Teary-eyed, Myr Myr said, “Sure… but please don’t hurt me.”

  Clyde grinned, aiming his hand at her. “Good, but that’s not the right finisher for your answer. And here I thought Selkie, a very powerful Entity, was training the shit out of you. Anyway, this is, in fact, going to hurt a lot, unless you fight back.”

  The thunderbird actually came at the young man. He easily evaded her martial arts with little effort, calm smile on his face, eyes actually closed.

  When he opened them, a force of magic exerted, bashing all of the people that rushed at him, which of course was the entirety of Team Stone.

  On the ground, Tear cast.

  [Tear activated Special Tier skill: Havoc God Crusher.]

  Clyde sliced through the magic with his pinky. It dissipated. “Not good enough. Hit me with the hard stuff.”

  Maki emerged f
rom a Ki-based portal, eyes glowing with manic power. She almost had Clyde, but it was no use. He knocked her out with a single finger to the temple.

  “We have to work together,” Tessa said to the other women.

  “You’d better do something,” Clyde said. “Time is ticking. Fifteen minutes left before I call it quits.”

  [Tessa activated Gold Tier skill: Windy Lightning.]

  [Toru activated Gold Tier skill: Zen Humming Slash.]

  Clyde blocked the chop and Tessa’s magic without looking.

  “Remember when I was much stronger than you?” Toru said.

  “No.” Clyde said, before ending his consciousness with a light chop to the face. That spiraled Toru into the ground so fast, he created a giant crater upon impact. “Good night, my friend.”

  He dodged Alice’s holy magic, then countered, controlling it to the best of his abilities. He pushed for his body to override wasteful power output. That enabled him to unleash a simple, but devastatingly powerful, energy ball. Kanako saved the half-demoness.

  [Kanako activated Life Shield.]

  “Well, look at that,” Clyde said. “Don’t sleep on Kanako.”

  [Melody activated GODDESS TIER SKILL: Rose Night.]

  [Ming activated Special Tier skill: Flash Forward. Target: Ming.]

  The blast lunged just a half-second before the young man could detect it. But…

  [Clyde’s Immense Unstoppable Pressure.]

  The magic snuffed out of existence, only an inch from the young man’s missed finger. Good thing he exerted that pressure before Ming’s spell cast.

  “I just learned that one,” Ming said to Melody, “Sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize—I had no idea you could do that,” Melody said.

  Ruri nodded to Alice. “Our fiancé’s showing his arrogance.”

  Alice smiled excitedly. “Let’s put aside our differences and bring him back to reality.”

  The duo shared a laugh.

  [Alice and Ruri’s Strengthened Friendship reached: level 3 out of 10.]

  [Cosmic duo attack triggered.]

  They simultaneously turned to Clyde, hands moving as one to aim at the young man.

  [Alice and Ruri activated Unknown Tier skill: Sister’s Circle.]

  A circle of magic appeared right where Clyde once stood. It erupted a geyser of energy as tall as a mountain toward the sky with the force of a giant lightning strike.

  Clyde placed his hands on their shoulders, nodding in approval.

  “Now, look at that,” he said, “all of the training is working.”

  They simultaneously punched, only to hit air, as Clyde twisted his body slightly out of the way, then lightly double-chopped, knocking both girls unconscious. He ducked under an enormous red beam of magic fired by Tear. Expanding his wings, he bashed Airi and Yuki, who were less than a half-second from point-blank nailing him with some intense energy.

  He saw more coming, moving in a way that told the young man that they had come up with a plan.

  Pushing power and magic into his feet, Clyde stomped the ground. It created a mini-quake. His team didn’t fall.

  Grinning, Clyde launched himself into the air, surprising the others. The looks on their faces when they saw his aimed hand said everything.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” Matsume said as she took off in a sprint.

  Abruptly, the young man saw Misaka, surrounded in a fiery aura come at him with flaming wings. He didn’t have time to worry about her because Selkie took that time to reenter the fray. Her first volley of magic launched from the ground sent Clyde on a flying spree, dodging all of them. Misaka’s fire-based attacks entered suddenly, putting his evasion stats to the test.

  “You’re doing good,” Clyde said as he flew incredibly high into the sky. He then came down on his team like a meteor, knocking them all over with the sheer force of his aura. “Come on, you can do better than this. Push yourself to the breaking point. Pull out your latent power.”

  “I can’t believe you, of all people, are lecturing me on that,” Selkie said.

  “Hmm, you believe yourself my superior? Still looking down on me?” Clyde said, then teleported in front of the Entity.

  She sighed. “You know I don’t mean it like that, idiot.”

  Clyde smiled. “I know. I’m just messing with you.”

  [Chika invoked Zero Control.]

  [Chika activated Special Tier skill: Ultimate Stealth.]

  [Chika activated GODDESS TIER SKILL: Goddess Ice Breaker. This is an unblockable, undodgeable, and unstoppable attack.]

  Clyde sighed and then allowed his pressure to cover the galaxy.

  [Chika is unaffected by Clyde’s pressure due to Ultimate Stealth.]

  What the hell…

  The blue and gray magic shot toward him, growing in size, seeming to devour all light in its path.

  “With attacks like these, the best way to avoid them is to attack them head on,” Clyde said. His eyes widened when Selkie aimed both hands in his direction, presenting the young man with the glowing pulse of charging magic, like a twinkling star in the midnight sky. “Yeah, like I’m just going to stand here and take this.”

  The young man teleported into the sky, dodging Selkie’s powerful magic blast. Before she could try again, he called the Executioner’s Staff and activated his counter spell.

  [Clyde activated Unknown Tier skill: Wrath of Raijin and Fujin [Evolution 3]: Type: spiritual, holy, deity. Class: mysterious.]

  [Unknown Tier skill: Wrath of Raijin and Fujin [Evolution 3]: Type: spiritual, holy, deity. Class: mysterious. You can only use this if you have 200% MP or more. Shoot a wave of godly energy. Does immense spiritual damage. Chance to inflict triple super-severe damage to dark creatures at 35%. Chance to cause spiritual blight at 59%. Does holy and purity damage. If conditions are met, this attack will become Super Fallen Angel Spirit Wave instead. Will do demonic and taint damage. Chance to cause agony at 41%. Chance to do quadruple damage to non-dark creatures at 37%. Chance to summon dark creatures from the abyss at 1%.]

  The magic pushed against each other for only a millisecond, if that. Then Clyde’s magic consumed Chika’s like a Saturday evening snack. The young man’s enormous stats dictated that, he supposed.

  “Well, time was up some time ago, but I admire your attempts,” Clyde said. “Let’s end this.”

  [Dark invoked Hidden Burst Mode: Eternal Silent Night.]

  [Dark is unaffected by physical attacks.]

  Dark teleported in front of Clyde, magic charging, black aura spiraling around him like unnatural fire. It seemed to laugh.

  [Dark activated Void Tier skill: Hollow Grounds. This is an unblockable skill.]

  Clyde smacked the magic to the side using his wing without even turning around. “I said time’s up!” His god chant rattled the planet, almost freezing time for a second. Dark’s burst mode flickered out in the same manner as a dying candle. “Let’s go rest in the hot springs.”

  “Clyde…” Selkie said. “Did you just kick all of our asses without breaking a sweat?”

  “We couldn’t even touch him,” Sazuki said.

  “I wanted no part of this,” Myr Myr said.

  “I’m not all that great,” Clyde admitted. “If I took on the Viper, he might mop the floor with me.”

  Selkie gave him a skeptical look. “I don’t know.”

  “Trust me,” Clyde said, “levels matter for the bigger fry. We have to increase the effectiveness of our training methods. And I think Airi can help us out in that aspect by simply finding us dungeons. Once a week minimum, or something along those lines.”

  [Training DRAMATICALLY effective. All participants gained EXP, including you.]

  [Congratulations, you have reached levels 212-235. Stats increased!]

  The team all grudgingly agreed that the young man was right. Fortunately, the hot springs awaited them all.

  Clyde first sent his farewells to the hornets.

  “Will you ever visit?” A
i asked Clyde.

  “We train out here a lot,” Clyde told the forest deity. “Feel free to drop by anytime.”

  Episode 70 (Part 1): Revolving

  Middle of Night…

  Unknown City…

  Office…

  The Disciple finalized her plans, feeling quite eager with the Soulless Head’s discovery. That elder dragon sure knew how to brown-nose a woman. Now if they presented the heads of the two discovered kitsunes, one being considerably powerful, to their god, they would be granted the world, even a wish.

  Of course, the Disciple would simply choose to follow her goddess wherever she went, basking in her glory, and producing glory of her own.

  Despite the beautiful, wonderful, glorious news, the Disciple had to prepare. She needed to not only be prepared to possibly take on the legendary nine-tailed fox, who was supposed to be extinct, but something else. A powerful deity that was almost half as strong as the Thousand Year Dragon herself.

  Half of that incredible strength would force the Disciple to actually try. She didn’t enjoy fighting. Powerful people like her sent assassins for that sort of thing. The woman chuckled. She had someone interesting in mind… Someone… incredible—one that even dragons respected. That person earning it through amazing work, of course.

  “Guard,” she said to the man. “Locate the contact information of the number one adventurer, Airi the God Slayer.”

  “Do you know her, ma’am?” the guard replied.

  “Not personally, but the underground knows of that delicious reputation,” the Disciple said. “Before she started jumping into adventurer groups, Airi journeyed alone with a title different from her current one. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s attempting to hide it.” The Disciple dramatically pointed at her guard, smiling. “I want to hire her, but do it through a disposable proxy. We can’t have anything traced back to us just in case she decides to undo that dangerous seal.”