I hate being in pain, so I think I'll make a full defense build

Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu 501

Defense Specialization and the Distorted Space (2)

The scenery inside wasn’t that much different from the outside.

Neither walls nor floor could be found in the endless space, only a number of scaffoldings.

It seemed that they were expected to jump across the three-dimensionally arranged scaffoldings using flying machines. Considering that the boss was a bird, the mechanic would probably come to play later.

“First of all, stay on track!”

““Got it!””

From within, a giant swan slowly began to emerge from the darkness, light bouncing off its beak and pair of glass eyes. Its metal wings spread open, ready to pounce, giving off a boss-like aura.

However, instead of standing there and watching as the boss made its entrance, Maple and the others steadily began making preparations.

Their priority was to expand the scaffolding. They used an item to add a steel plate to the edge of the rubble, which was the original scaffolding. By increasing Sally’s mobility, they’d be decreasing the difficulty of the battle. As such, they didn’t waste the precious opportunity which was the boss’ entrance.

“[Aggravate]!”

As Maple drew attention, Iz soared away using a flying machine.

The boss’ attack range was wide, and staying inside its reach was the same as putting oneself in a disadvantage.

“Maple, I leave the offense to you.”

“Leave it to me!”

Maple transformed one of her hands into a weapon. At the same time, the swan made its presence known by flapping its wings. Along with a loud metallic clunk, the swan soared across the dark sky.

“[Commence Attack]!”

From Maple’s hand, a single laser beam was fired. Right when it was about to land, the boss sank into the darkness, leaving behind glowing metal feathers that accelerated rapidly towards Maple, before vanishing along the way in the same manner. Soon, many fluctuations appeared in the air around Maple.

“Time to get serious… [Flame Dragon Spear]!”

A pair of blazing spears of flame were conjured in Sally’s hands. Her trusty bleu dagger was tied to the end of the [Use Threads] that was entwined around her wrist.

A multitude of feathers flew like arrows. Even Sally, who was in charge of keeping Maple safe, would die instantly if she was hit.

Still, she was undaunted. Sally swung her flaming spears, keeping her eyes focused on the attack of her enemy.

The spears knocked away the launched feathers with a screech. Regardless, it only increased her attack range by a small margin.

The next feather rushed at Maple from a place that was unreachable even with both spears.

Gin—gin—…

Following those noises, sparks scattered in the air.

“Wow…”

“Okay, I got this.”

With a clank, the fluttering feathers were thwarted and could no longer resume their trajectory. The culprit was none other than a certain dagger tied to a long string. The dagger, swung like a whip, surrealistically repelled the feathers with precision.

An irregular four-wielding style that Sally had learned. Since the dagger was out of hand, it couldn’t be expected to cause any damage, so it was useless for attacking. For defense, on the other hand, it moved as if it was an automatic interception system that was impregnable.

Which was, again, very surreal.

After all, it moved as if it was controlled by invisible arms—no, as if there were nerves coursing through it. The dagger, which was simply connected by a thread, moved perfectly.

As if the dagger itself had free will—that was how skillful it was, to the point that it’d be much easier to explain it that way.

The dagger intercepted any attack as if it had eyes on its back, before shooting them down in the proper order without making a single mistake. It was truly a matter of skill.

“It’s okay. You just have to believe in me.”

“Uh-huh!”

Sally’s defense was one that focused on player skills. Anything within the reach of the thread that wasn’t invincible could be shot down—an amazing technique that no one could imitate.

“[Water Dragon]! [Flash Flood]!”

The heavy stream of water blocked the falling feathers. By mixing and matching skills, the defense became truly impenetrable.

“[Poison Dragon]!”

“I’m going in, too!”

Maple constantly fired lasers, and when Iz appeared, the two attacked together.

As expected, Maple’s strength lay in her array of powerful long-range attacks.

She initiated the first move—something that no ordinary tower shield user could pull off—and successfully attacked the boss, shaving its HP.

However, as expected of the boss, it quickly showed that it was on a different level from the mechanical fish they fought along the way.

The boss faced the three of them, bending its gigantic metal wings and bringing the tip together above its head. Just as they finished drawing a circular arc, they began to glow brightly.

“…Maple!”

“[Cover] [Pierce Guard]!”

Sally quickly swapped positions with Maple, while Iz evacuated above.

The circular wing was a gun muzzle. A moment later, a pure white beam of light engulfed Maple and Sally, along with many of the scaffolds.

“I’m okay!”

“As expected of Maple.”

As the light subsided, it was revealed that Maple, who stood unharmed, had protected Sally.

Maple couldn’t deal with feathers, yet Sally could. Sally couldn’t withstand the ray of light, yet Maple could.

While the two of them made up for each other’s weaknesses and survived the boss’ attacks, Iz, flying freely in the sky, charged up her four weapons.

“Lock on, fire—!”

The fired missiles split into small pieces in the air, exploding as they came near the boss. Flames spewed at the boss from the front, while pillars of light cascaded from above, exacting vengeance. The pursuing storm swallowed up the boss, threatening to rip off its wings.

Of course, it was still not enough to slay the boss once and for all. Still, to think such massive damage was created by a single production worker…

“I wish I can use it more often in the future… Well, we’ve got a long way to go.”

The proud machine, which had undergone countless modifications, showed promising results.

Iz continued to maneuver while looking for an opportunity to attack again, being careful of her position so as not to get shot.

With its HP reduced by Iz and Maple’s attacks, the boss was about to launch its next attack.

By taking advantage of Mai and Yui’s offensive power, Iz and the others were able to gauge its strength. As such, they’d thought of ways to deal with that attack.

However, it’d require an incredible feat of strength.

Magic circles spawned on all the scaffoldings. As soon as some of them blinked, Maple and Sally jumped straight up.

“Stay calm.”

“I’m fine!”

Knowing what to expect, the two quickly activated their flying machines. Maple’s practice from before certainly paid off. Despite the opposing force from below, Maple was able to maintain her balance and flew through the air.

Regardless, the flight time of flying machines was limited. They must descend onto the rubble in search of stable footing.

“Maple, this way! [Water Path]!”

Sally tried to pull Maple with her string and used the flow of water to help move her to the platform.

In response, the boss attacked ruthlessly. Metal feathers scattered once more, resulting in space distortion. Soon, countless feathers flew all around Maple.

“Sally—!”

“Don’t worry.”

For Sally, as long as the flying machine was still working, flying in the air was no different than walking on the ground. Wielding both the flame spear and the dagger, Sally flew through the air with agility that surpassed Maple. As Sally spun around her, leaving trail effects of both weapons in the air, Maple was washed away by the water.

“If it’s only this level, I can still handle it.”

“[Commence Attack]!”

Maple shot down the feathers from the front with her own barrage while aiming at the faraway boss.

Iz’s cannon fired overhead, further reducing the boss’ HP.

The flight time of Iz’s flying machine was incomparably longer than that of Maple. Thanks to that, the three of them weren’t affected by the gimmick that affected the scaffolding, and the battle progressed smoothly.

“Maple, next time, go to the front!”

“Got it!”

“I’ll follow suit!”

After dealing with the metal wings, they acutely adjusted the position to match the boss that flew around in the sky.

Iz moved along with the boss, keeping it within range without ceasing fire.

Although Iz said that there was no problem in continuing, given the fact that the operation hung on Sally’s superhuman performance, it’d certainly be wise to end the battle as soon as possible.

“[Seeping Chaos]!”

“[Leviathan]!”

“Aim… okay!”

While there were no pure magicians, the long-range attacks of the three accumulated damage and continued to shave off the boss’ HP.

Surprisingly, their damage output increased even more as Sally began to get used to the continuous attacks from the boss’ wings and started participating in attacks using her skills.

At this rate, there was a chance of victory, but it seemed that the boss refused to go down so easily at the hands of the three. After the boss’ HP was reduced to half, its next move was triggered.

“…I think something is going to happen.”

“Iz—!”

“Yes, I’m coming.”

With a loud flapping of its wings, along with the echoing metallic clank around it, the boss soared far, far away into the limitless sky. When they saw that the boss was up to something, the three gathered around to watch.

Now that she still had [Aegis], along with the combo of [Loving Sacrifice] and [Pierce Guard] left, Maple was fully prepared for the ultimate move.

When the boss stopped moving far up in the sky, a number of circles were formed using the metal feathers. As they lined up in a line, a shining luminosity overflowed.

It reminded them of the previous intense beam fired by the boss. But this time, it wasn’t one or two. More than ten gun muzzles were trained at the three from the sky.

As always, the scaffolds with magic circles were set up to make the player lose balance rose up one by one. They were supposed to leap across them to reach the boss that was waiting at the top.

It was the final phase. In order to win, they had to break through that final hurdle.

“You have to fly to get within range.”

“Let’s decide quickly. The boss will probably shoot soon.”

“W-what should I do? Should I just fly away?”

The floating scaffoldings weren’t for crossing, but for getting back on one’s feet when they were knocked off or toppled over. Sally and Iz guessed so because it was the Third Floor Area, where flying machines were the main feature.

“Let’s get closer at once. If Maple can land a hit using [Evil Eater], we can finish this before anything else could happen.”

“Yes, I agree. Get on top! I’ll carry you!”

“I’ll do my best!”

Iz brought her flying machine close to the two, stowed away the cannon, and put the two on the roof. They could use it as an emergency evacuation, and unlike in the car, Sally could use her irregular four-wielding skills to some extent.

“Let’s go! I’ll show you how I fly!”

As soon as Iz began maneuvering, a pillar of light fell from a ring of gleaming feathers in the sky.

Intense acceleration. Iz activated the booster that she’d saved for that exact moment, using her tremendous speed to swerve left and right to avoid the pillars of light.

“Wow, wow, wow!”

“I’ll fasten you!”

Sally immediately secured Maple’s body with her strings to prevent her from being blown away. No matter how dexterous Sally was, it was inevitable that the accuracy of her parry would drop to some extent. However, Sally quickly grasped the situation. She looked at her surroundings, realizing that the feathers ejected from the distortions of space couldn’t keep up with the speed of Iz’s flying machine, rendering the boss’ attempts to enclose them unsuccessful.

“Okay, then…!”

Sally extinguished her flame spears, calling forth the dagger that was attached to the string on her wrist.

The only things she needed to repel were the feathers that were fired directly by the boss. In that case, two weapons would suffice.

“It can still accelerate!”

A voice echoed from inside the car as the flying machine roared, gaining altitude towards the boss.

The banging sound was the sound of Sally effortlessly deflecting the metal feathers despite the moving and unstable scaffolding.

“Deploy energy barrier!”

The brilliance that rivaled the boss’ pillars of light acted as a shield to block the blow that should’ve hit the vehicle body.

Due to the narrowing distance, it became harder to evade, but Iz used a once-a-day barrier to break through the ever-increasing barrage.

“Hehe, it’s worth the ride!”

“Yeah! [Deploy All Weapons]! [Dedicated Affection]!”

Once they were close enough, Maple hugged Sally and stared at the boss.

Her fastest flight in a straight line while protecting Sally from her own blasts.

“[Commence Attack] [Pierce Guard]!”

Using Iz’s flying machine as a foothold, Maple flew straight towards the boss. A forceful breakthrough that ignored everything else—something that neither Iz nor Sally could do. By nullifying defense penetration with [Pierce Guard], she could come out on top.

“[Quick Change]”

“[Heal]”

“[Aegis]”

Maple changed to white equipment and healed herself immediately. Right after securing HP, she activated [Aegis] to extend the invincibility period and closed in on the boss.

When she was close enough to hear the meshing of gears within the boss, Maple attempted a final advance with Sally and the flying machine.

“Stay calm… Alright—!”

“Okay, well done. Leave the surroundings to me!”

Without panicking, Maple opened her inventory and switched her tower shield to [Replica of the Dark Night], from the [Evil Eater] series. Then, with the invincibility still remaining, she slammed the tower shield against the long neck of the swan boss.

It was a heavier blow, different from the long-range attack that slowly chipped away at something.

With Sally knocking down the feathers in their surroundings, Maple wouldn’t have to absorb any unnecessary things, and the [Evil Eater] would be solely focused on the boss.

“[Commence Attack] [Ancient Weapon] [Seeping Chaos] [Poison Dragon]!”

With a clanging sound, two types of weapons, powerful skills, and the most powerful melee attack called [Devour] continued to assail the boss.

Then, Maple’s skill tore off the swan’s head from the middle of its neck, scattering parts around. The metal feathers began to lose their momentum, and the pillars of light died down.

It was a telltale sign of an ending battle.

As the parts that made up the boss fell apart and disappeared, the only thing that remained in the air was a ring made of multiple shining metal feathers.

“We managed to defeat it.”

“Our first hurdle.”

“Good! It went well!”

“Right? If I team up with you two, I feel like it’s an automatic win.”

Maple and Sally’s weaknesses were obvious, so unless they were especially targeted, the two often won a battle without taking damage.

Due to their nature, if they made a mistake, they could be defeated. However, this time, they didn’t take any damage, so it was a complete victory.

“But… It’s actually quite troublesome. So, aside from Kanade and others who are solving the mysteries of the 8th Floor Area, it might be okay to call Kasumi and Chrome for the time being.”

Since Iz was the one who was advancing the quest, the most efficient way would be to proceed with Iz as the lead.

Even if Maple and Sally did their best from now on, they’d still be behind Iz. For Maple and Sally, who had limited time, that wasn’t really a doable method.

Besides, with that flying machine, Iz, would be able to provide firepower without having to be protected. The range of combinations and stratagems would increase, making battle easier. No doubt that if Chrome and Kasumi were there at this time, they’d have been able to fight in a different way. The enemy’s attack pattern was just that intense.

“We haven’t obtained the [Magic of the Demon King] yet, and I expect there will be more battles in the future.”

“Indeed. Since we have a certain goal in mind, it might be smarter to get their cooperation and finish the Third Floor Area.”

The reason why [Maple Tree] continued to split up and explore was because they wanted to collect information from each area.

If a certain number of players had gathered, it wasn’t a bad idea to switch to moving forward in that area.

“I’ll take this. In order to continue to the next quest, I need to proceed with the modifications that I was able to do in the previous quest.”

“Feel free to!”

“I can help.”

“You’re such a lifesaver. Let’s keep this up!”

After the three of them finished the fierce battle, they each took care of themselves, and then climbed onto a magic circle that appeared on top of a floating rubble and returned to the original field.

The three of them, who had returned by teleportation from a place that could be called another world, took a breather on the spot.

“That concludes it for today.”

“Should we call it a day?”

“Uh-huh. It was a pretty tough battle, right? I used up a bunch of features in my flying machine.”

Without an energy barrier or a booster for rapid acceleration, their ability to intercept would be reduced.

Since Maple didn’t have [Evil Eater], she wouldn’t be able to fight using the same method this time. Sally must be exhausted as well.

Considering these, it was important not to overdo it here. After all, there was no saying that a stronger boss wouldn’t appear.

“It’d be great if you could accompany me for a while.”

“Of course!”

“It seems like it’d be a good idea to use the free time to upgrade our own flying machines.”

“Iz was amazing…”

Even if theirs weren’t as f as Iz’s, once they witnessed that strength, their way of thinking underwent a change.

It’d be a waste to only use it for flying this time.

“That’s right. I agree with you.”

While deciding on their next goal, the three of them decided to disband for today.