Chapter 114
A 1st-circle spell can be countered by a 2nd-circle spell, and a 2nd-circle spell can be countered by a 3rd-circle spell.
Then if a 10th-circle spell existed, what could counter it?
‘It cannot be countered’ is the answer.
Since the limit contained within this dimension was the 10th circle, the prevailing theoretical opinion was that a 10th-circle spell would assimilate with the world and continue forever.
But can something that cannot be countered still be called magic?
It would no longer be appropriate to call it magic. It would have to be called a phenomenon, or the world itself.
Whether WOA had borrowed the concept knowingly or not was unclear, but in WOA, there was a classification called an unblockable move.
It referred to attacks with extremely long startup times that could not be defended against once cast unless they were dodged.
Of course, not every unblockable move was a fatal attack, but when an unblockable move was combined with an instant-death attack, its power was horrific.
Giselle Phoenix’s instant-death attack, ‘Avatar’s Descent.’
The fire-based Unique Magic that burned everything within 50 meters in front of her had no means of being overcome.
Jin Chronicle’s ‘Ice Prison’ was the same, as it reliably bound its target in place.
But neither of them could ever be compared to a 10th-circle spell.
That was why it was impossible to say with certainty what sort of interaction would occur when they met.
However, one thing could be predicted: one side would definitely collapse.
Clang-!
Giselle’s Avatar’s Descent, cast while targeting me, shattered Jin Chronicle’s Ice Prison in its path.
I emerged from the dozens of ice pillars and shook off the ice fragments embedded in my limbs.
Furthermore, the steam billowing out with terrifying force weakened the flames of Avatar’s Descent as well.
It was the best-case scenario we could have hoped for.
-I’m free!
-How the hell did she do that lolㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Magic can interfere with each other?
-If NoName really lured Giselle all the way here hoping for this, she’s a genuine genius
-Giselle! Giselle! Giselle! Giselle! Giselle!
-Wait, Boss, you said fire couldn’t beat ice...!
└ Ah, that was when she was the iceㅋㅋㅋ
└ So you meant she can even beat an unfavorable matchupㅋㅋㅋㅋ
“Adela, good work. Now we tag in.”
“No... Don’t! We can fight together! We have to fight together!”
Adela stood up again with resolute determination, but there seemed to be nothing she could do about her trembling legs.
“No... I can do it... I can, but... my legs...”
She clutched her uncooperative legs and tried to force herself upright, but soon collapsed with a thud.
Where did she get that courage? I knew this was a game, but to her, it must feel like the real world.
"No... If this happens here..."
“Heal.”
Without even needing to cast it, healing magic unfolded with a single word. I suppose I could do this because it was a world inside a game.
The bleeding stopped, and her dark-blue bruises gradually faded.
“Huh...?”
“Did you forget I’m a healer? What are you doing? We have to fight together.”
“Hngh... Yeah...!”
* * *
[Enemy Status Display ON]
[■■■■■& %^$#$ Jin Chronicle]
[HP: 666,666]
So devoted was he to the concept that even his HP was plastered with sixes. He wasn’t a boss designed to be cleared in the first place.
A sigh escaped me when I thought of Valum Venanons’s 100,000 HP.
Still, we had to consider ourselves lucky that the Academy personnel who had been chasing us vanished as if evaporating when the boss battle began...
Even so, one improvement over the first round was the presence of a companion who could properly fulfill the role of one full party member.
Clearing Act 1 would reset the main penalty.
It would not restore the growth stats accumulated from the amount that had been reduced in the meantime, but it meant that we could somehow manage from there on.
In other words, I had a feeling that this very moment might be WOA’s greatest hurdle.
“Let’s do our best... Sis.”
Adela raised her arm to the side and offered me her fist.
It was a gesture commonly used among companions as a token of trust before an important battle.
“Sis...?”
“Huh...? What did I just say, meow! Not ‘sis,’ NoName! I misspoke! My words just came out wrong!”
“Pfft.”
“I mean it...!”
Tap-
I pressed my fist against her hand, its skin scraped raw and covered in blisters.
“Let’s do our best, little sis.”
“Tch!”
“It’s coming. Prepare yourself.”
Black tentacles burst from Jin Chronicle’s back and split the space between us. Its grotesque form was gradually shedding all traces of a human shape.
“Aaaah!”
Adela was startled and flung herself to the side.
I likewise rolled once across the ground toward the opposite side and watched the corpse’s transformation change by the second.
Its skin writhed and swelled. Bubbles rose as if lava were boiling.
Black liquid began taking shape inside the popping bubbles, eventually covering the man’s entire body.
“Ugh... Just imagining that I almost became something like that is horrifying...!”
Adela trembled from head to toe.
“It’s definitely not a pretty sight.”
“How can you stay calm after looking at something like that, meow! Don’t even think about dying again. I won’t forgive you!”
“Now that you’ve made it this far, I can’t possibly do that.”
[Yggdrasil’s summons is futile. Is the blood-drinking tree the god you worship?]
“Speak so I can understand you.”
[Cast: Adjust Friction Coefficient]
The monster’s body staggered, but two tentacles slammed violently into the ground and kept it balanced.
Adela infused her dagger with aura.
The dozens of tentacles rushing toward her could not block her path.
“Hyaaah-!”
As dozens of sword strikes battered its body, the black skin repeatedly tore apart and regenerated.
A tentacle transformed into a sharp needle and shot toward her, trying to pierce her body, but Adela dodged every one of the monster’s attacks again.
She was driving the monster back, but the damage was far too low.
[HP: 659459/666666]
Adela couldn’t keep swinging her sword forever.
When the monster’s regeneration began to outpace the damage it had taken, Adela returned to my side with a devastated expression.
There are entities like that every now and then.
Humans have only two hands and two arms, whereas they have dozens of arms.
A single stab from a blade can put a human’s life in danger, whereas they can take several stabs without flinching.
Most intermediate monsters belonged to that category.
“Haa... Hah... What... What should we do...?”
The weapon in my hand was the broadsword I had taken from the Academy’s student council president.
A similar build and a similar weapon to those of my previous life.
Could I do it?
I was NoName, not Estasha Latias de Kaizen from my previous life.
Her entire life had been a continuous struggle, but I had never fought in the real world.
So far, I had barely managed to follow her footsteps by retracing the actions she had taken, but I still doubted whether I could imitate swordsmanship that embodied the pinnacle of the art as well.
[‘Hoyamuyaho’ donated 5,000 won!]
-NoName, you can do it! Fighting!
Right. Forget the girl named Name for a moment. You are now NoName, a Forest Keeper stronger than anyone else and a streamer receiving the support of more than twenty thousand people all at once.
Just as I became firmly convinced that there was no reason I couldn’t reproduce the movements of my previous life,
Vwoooong-
the sword filled with blue sword aura vibrated fiercely and sliced through the air.
“I have a way. Any mindless creature has clear limits.”
“Then tell me quickly! Can’t you see it’s recovering even now, meow!”
“From now on, we’ll stack impacts on the monster’s body. Attack in order according to the places where I inscribe marks. Following my movements is easy enough, right?”
“What?”
“Here we go. Since it’s the first time, we’ll start at 100.”
The first Unique Magic Estasha developed at the young age of nine.
I hadn’t given it a name back then. I had always been embarrassed about naming techniques.
[Cast: Resonance]
[Co-Cast: Fatigue Strength Control]
Developing Unique Magic was originally an unbelievably complicated process.
That was why a simple magic sword art composed only of 1st-circle spells deserved to be praised, but
because the first Unique Magic had been designed from the beginning for two people to attack in concert, it would never again be used by her.
I’ll let you vent that frustration here. And your Unique Magic will be completed by that catgirl, so watch closely. Its name is...
[Unique Magic – Estasha Style, First Form]
“Adela.”
[Adella]
* * *
-What is this?
-There’s a magic circle engraved on the sword? I’ve never seen anything like that before ㄷㄷ
-It’s definitely 1st-circle
-This isn’t some magic bag of tricks, but the spells I’m seeing for the first time in my life just never endㅋㅋㅋ
-Let’s gooooo!
It began with Name’s attack.
However, unable to use tricks like switching weapons or bug-like play anymore, all her damage was reduced to one-eighth.
The viewers could only lament when they saw that even a heavy attack dealing 400 damage had been reduced to a mere 50, less than even a normal attack’s 50 damage.
Whirr-
Soon, a rotating blue sigil appeared on the spot she had struck.
It was shaped more like a gear than a sigil.
By the time gears moving neither too slowly nor too quickly had been inscribed across the monster’s entire body, Adela joined the offensive with her daggers.
“You’d only accept a ridiculous command like this because it’s me...!”
Kaaang-!
At the exact moment the gear completed one rotation, Adela stabbed relentlessly into the monster’s body with the same stance, the same attack, and the same force.
Kang-
Kang-
The sound of iron striking iron, something one might hear in a forge, rang out in the dead of night.
“You want me to attack in exactly the same way at exactly the right timing? Does that even make sense?!”
As if following a ghost in a time attack, Adela’s movements perfectly overlapped with Name’s from three seconds earlier.
Even while pouring out complaints, Adela trusted Name.
Because she knew Name would be able to show her something.
She firmly believed Name had an ingenious strategy capable of defeating even a monster with 660,000 HP.
The monster could not understand their actions either.
Even as the speed of their sword strikes gradually increased, its HP remained in the 640,000s.
“Not yet, NoName?”
“Don’t start whining already.”
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-But she’s fighting insanely well
-But NoName is even more amazing than Adela now, isn’t she?
-For real, Adela’s an NPC, so you could say that’s to be expected, but what the hell are those movements from NoName?
-Her magic is perfect! Her swordsmanship is perfect!
-Now all that’s left is for her face to be perfect!
└??
└?
-Its HP is barely dropping. Is this okay?;;
-It’s even going back up againㅋㅋ
-It still says the magic is being cast. Is this a bug too?
That was an accurate observation.
Name’s Unique Magic was still active.
By the time all 100 gears had been inscribed, her hair, soaked with sweat, was plastered tightly against her forehead.
“Focus until the very end! You can’t get even one wrong!”
“You don’t have to tell me...”
The 97th.
She brought her sword down diagonally and severed the monster’s heel.
The 98th.
She spun her body once in midair, gained ample acceleration, and swung hard across the area around its chest.
The 99th.
Using the rotational inertia gained from the previous attack, she raised her sword high and brought it crashing down toward its head.
And then the final, 100th.
Infusing her recovered sword with as much mana as possible, Adela plunged her dagger into the monster’s heart.
[Unique Magic – Estasha Style, First Form - Adella]
“Break!”
Wooooong-!
A resonant sound that shook the earth rang out. Adela’s ears were suddenly muffled, and she grimaced.
“Guh!”
However, the monster was clearly affected far more.
Explosions erupted one after another inside its body, threatening to burst through its entire form.
Black sludge shot dozens of meters into the air, and the tentacles even lost control and were severed as it writhed in agony.
The demon, which had withstood countless combined attacks, knelt for the first time.
Naturally, the HP bar showed the monster’s condition best as it repeatedly vomited black sludge.
[Critical Hit!]
[100 HIT COMBO]
[183110 DAMAGE]
[HP: 450374/666666]
-????????????
-180kㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-What the hell was that 180k?
-A single spell dealt 180k damage?
-???
-???????????
-Even the combined damage from the 200-hit combo the two of them landed was only 30k, but one spell dealt 180k?
-What kind of dynamite did she make with a 1st-circle spellㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Does that make any senseㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-If it’s 180k, how much would that be in the real world? I can’t get a feel for it
-1,000 would be enough to break through a steel wall
-If it’s over 100k, you could split a building in half
└ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ
└At this point, it’d be legal even if the NIS dragged her away, right?
└We should seriously suspect she’s a spy ㄹㅇ
-What am I looking at?