Chapter 561 Defense Specialization and Revenge.

Maple and Mii took a certain distance from each other and began to move the moment the signal to start the duel sounded. The area had been partitioned off for the duel, sealing only Maple and Mii inside; stepping outside the boundary would cause continuous heavy damage. Because they had not set it to exclude spectators, cameras for viewing hovered above, projecting the two onto monitors, and with the gallery’s attention fixed on them, the duel began.

“【Hellfire of the Underworld】!”

“【Deploy Gun Barrels】【Commence Attack】!”

“【Flare Accel】!”
Mii immediately unveiled the skill 【Hellfire of the Underworld】, which she had obtained with Maple’s help. Six black flames floated around Mii, and black fire spread across the ground as well. As far as Maple remembered, that black flame the boss had used applied fixed damage. Deciding it was best not to rush in, Maple chose bombardment with armaments, and Mii tried to evade by increasing her movement speed.

“【Ancient Weapons】!”
Maple had two kinds of armaments. Clanking as they transformed, the cubes fired one blue laser after another, forcing Mii to dodge.

“I can’t just keep running!”
Changing her angle, Mii sprinted toward Maple. With only ultra–long-range attacks, Maple would never be brought down. Though Mii was a mage, the special flame spells she possessed were mostly mid-range; those with piercing effects in particular skewed to short–to mid-range. That said, closing distance—even with 【Flare Accel】 assisting—made dodging difficult at Mii’s speed. The attacks Maple released from her two weapon types found their mark on the approaching Mii.

“……!”
But just as it seemed the bullets would strike Mii head-on, one of the six flames floating to guard her blazed up, erased the round, and vanished. Maple could not tell the exact effect, but there was no mistaking that the flame had nullified Maple’s attack at the cost of itself. Defense equal to the number of those floating black flames—meaning Mii intended to use the five remaining charges of damage immunity she had granted herself to break through this barrage.

“【Seeping Chaos】!”

“【Blast】!”
Riding the shockwave of a 【Blast】 she created herself, Mii evaded and continued to close in.

“Can’t pin her down…! Syrup, 【Sinking Earth】!”
Borrowing Syrup’s power, Maple altered the ground to deny Mii’s approach. A bog that swallowed the foot was Maple’s bulwark. Even if Mii could activate damage immunity multiple times, if Maple bound her movement, she could finish her off on top of it. The black flames spread around Mii were meant to catch Maple within their range, but Maple would not allow her to come near so easily.

“Ignis, 【Enlarge】!”
Judging that the land route was impossible, Mii mounted Ignis and soared high. With the distance reopened, Maple’s attacks were easily avoided, yet Mii likewise lacked a telling blow.

“Mmm…”
Maple hesitated how to act. She could reach the sky, but none of her means were standard: levitating Syrup with 【Telekinesis】, using the shield held by 【Helping Hand】 as footholds, or forcing a suicide flight with 【Machine God】. However, whichever she chose, catching Ignis, who flew fast and freely, would be difficult. The gap between one flying by brute force and one born to fly was simply too great.

“【Poison Dragon】! 【Toxic Split Body】.”
Then she would command the ground. Maple created three poisonous clones and had all of them spread poison across the terrain. Of course Mii possessed poison immunity, but Maple’s poison was no longer mere poison. The instant-death effect from the 【Cursed Poison Rite】 had restored the swamp’s significance as a poison swamp. If Mii chose the air, Maple would never let her return to the ground. Rooted below, Maple shored up her defenses and countered Mii. Thus the two fixed their respective territories.

“【Ancient Weapons】! 【Commence Attack】!”
Maple continued to attack Mii, but the distance was simply too great for clean hits.

“What should I do…”
Mii surely had a plan. Of what Maple knew, the dangerous ones were 【Flame Prison】, 【Inferno】, and 【Hellfire of the Underworld】. The only one Maple had taken directly was 【Flame Prison】, but she suspected all three dealt fixed damage over time. As for Mii’s actions, she confined herself to using long-range magic to destroy the weapons of Maple’s 【Machine God】; for now there was no major movement. If Maple let her stay free in the air, Mii would look for an opening to begin the chant for 【Flame Prison】 and encircle Maple. Back in the fourth event Maple had broken through a direct hit from 【Flame Prison】 by a suicide flight with 【Machine God】. But Mii would know that. Even so, it was Mii who had challenged her to a duel. In other words, Mii had some winning line, and this standoff that seemed to offer neither of them a finishing blow might be exactly what Mii wanted.

“I have to do something!”
Thin as the grounds were, an ominous feeling ran through Maple at the eerie equilibrium, and she decided to act on it.

“【Darkness of Rebirth】【Sea of the Ancients】【Predator】!”
Spreading darkness, Maple summoned a great number of aberrations. She tossed in the 【Toxic Split Body】 and the 【Predator】 as well, entangling the created aberrations into one creature-like mass and extending it toward the sky.

“【Conflagration】!”

“【Self-Sacrificing Love】!”
The duel space had limits in the air as well. The conflagration Mii launched to burn away the oncoming mass was held off by Maple’s 【Self-Sacrificing Love】. While Maple’s protection was active, most magic and skills in-game were as good as nonexistent. Even Mii’s powerful 【Conflagration】 could not pierce Maple’s guard.

“Ignis! …【My Body to Fire】!”
Accelerating Ignis to open distance from the closing aberrations, Mii had Ignis transmute its body into flame high at the edge of the sky, wrapping her within. It was like a sun.

“【Inferno】!”

“【Ancient Weapons】!”
The flames Mii unleashed swallowed the mass and spread down toward the ground. 【Inferno】 dealt damage over time, and with Maple using 【Self-Sacrificing Love】, this was Mii’s chance. But Maple knew her own skills’ weaknesses well. The instant she saw Mii’s Inferno, she canceled 【Self-Sacrificing Love】, returned Syrup to her ring, and fired lasers at Mii, whose movement had halted.

“Mm-mm-mm, looks like it’s hitting… but! Ow, ow…”
Taking out an Iz potion, Maple drank as her HP was steadily shaved away by 【Inferno】’s damage over time, while she kept Mii, who had started moving again, in check and denied her approach. Once the ground fire died down, so would the damage. With proper continuous healing, this alone would not defeat Maple. However, the aberrations, lacking material for 【Darkness of Rebirth】 and taking direct damage from the flames themselves, were all incinerated and vanished.

“All right…!”
There was no material for 【Darkness of Rebirth】. 【Predator】, 【Toxic Split Body】, and 【Self-Sacrificing Love】 were now on cooldown and unusable. But this was exactly what Maple had aimed for. She was the one who had taken action, and her aim was to force Mii to spend skills. By presenting a major threat and a definite opening, Maple compelled Mii to respond. Use 【Self-Sacrificing Love】 and players will try to exploit its weakness—Sally had drummed that into Maple, and it had sunk deep. She had not devised a fine-grained plan, but experience had taught her that using 【Self-Sacrificing Love】 would draw skills out.

“All that’s left is 【Flame Prison】!”
She had torn away 【Inferno】 from Mii after spending several trump cards. And Maple—whose entire hand could be called trump cards—held more skills capable of overturning the situation than Mii did. Maple had already broken 【Flame Prison】 once. Even so, she continued attacking without letting down her guard, looking for a chance to surge in at once.

“【Commence Attack】!”
The cooldown on 【Inferno】 was long; it could be ignored for the duration of this fight. The fire at Maple’s feet subsided, and it had not been enough to defeat her. Mii would fire her last clear win condition, 【Flame Prison】, cautiously. It was not a skill one used in reaction to an opponent’s action, so Maple prepared to meet Mii’s 【Flame Prison】 in perfect condition. If possible, she wanted to avoid 【Flame Prison】 itself and seize a flawless advantage.

“【Expand Area】【Eruption】!”
Mii moved first. At her magic, towering flame shot up from beneath Maple’s feet. It did no damage to Maple, but the fire destroyed the weapons of 【Machine God】 and stripped her of mobility.

“【Blast】!”
A voice from beyond the flames—and a blast from below bucked Maple’s body upward.

“【Ancient Weapons】【Poison Dragon】!”
From the closeness of Mii’s voice shouting 【Blast】 and from the skill’s range, which Maple knew from long acquaintance, she realized Mii had come up close and scattered attacks wildly all around. Mii did have some mobility, but her stats were those of a mage. A direct hit from Maple’s attacks would not be trivial. However, here Mii’s sense of distance and her luck prevailed. Screened even from Maple herself by the effects of 【Eruption】, Mii dodged and moved to her next setup.

“…Take this—【Flame Prison】!”
As the flames of 【Eruption】 around Maple died away, a prison of fire seized her body. From Mii’s perfect setup into the cast, Maple could not get clear at her movement speed.

“【Afterglow of Salvation】【Throne of the Heavenly King】【Meditation】!”
Using an Iz item, Maple created a restorative mist and, potion in hand, fixed her eyes on her HP bar. Piling on damage cut and healing, she first checked the damage from 【Flame Prison】.

“……!”
It was not only Maple who had grown since their last fight. The power of Mii’s 【Flame Prison】 had risen dramatically—damage from 【Wraith’s Mire】 and 【Hellfire of the Underworld】 combined with improved base magic strength. If Maple did not keep drinking the potions Iz had given her, healing would not keep up. Potions were limited; this balance would surely collapse, and when it did, Maple would die. Maple had hoped to endure within and devise a plan, but Mii would grant her no such leeway.

“Escape it, if you can!”
Mii’s voice rang out as Maple quickly sorted through her mobility options. Only two were realistic: 【Ark】 and a suicide flight; these alone offered a possible way out. But 【Ark】 carried risks. Maple had used it in a large-scale PvP; because that event had spectator areas, she assumed its effects were roughly known through information sharing among members of the guild 【Flame Emperor Nation】 watching from there. In short, it was unlikely Mii did not know of 【Ark】—and firing 【Flame Prison】 regardless all but implied it could not be broken by an 【Ark】 teleport.

“【Full Armament Deployment】! 【Commence Attack】!”
Using 【Ark】 would also end the effect of 【Afterglow of Salvation】, reducing one layer of damage cut. Disliking that as well, Maple tried to break out upward with a suicide flight. Trailing a tail of fire, she climbed and climbed to jailbreak from 【Flame Prison】—but waiting at the exit above was Mii.

“【Blast】!”

“Wah!?”
A brutal knockback hammered Maple back to the ground. As Maple fell, Mii spoke down from Ignis’s back.

“This time is different. I have Ignis! The sky is no longer Maple’s domain alone!”
Where there had once been an opening in 【Flame Prison】, Mii erased that weakness with Ignis’s aid and sent Maple back into the fiery cage.

“This won’t do…! 【Atrocity】!”
Having tried a suicide flight, Maple moved, which removed the effects of 【Throne of the Heavenly King】, 【Meditation】, and the restorative mist; she could not use potions either, and watching her HP plummet, she cloaked herself in the outer shell of 【Atrocity】. The temporary HP from 【Atrocity】 let her endure the fall time, but it contributed nothing to offense. Slammed into the ground and left to take continuous damage, it would soon be stripped away. Mii would keep sealing the exit of 【Flame Prison】 like a jailer until Maple ran out of potions. She had to do something about the knockback from 【Blast】, but in her current desire to move, the immobility from 【Heavy Body】—which nullified knockback—was a poor match.

Falling, Maple raced through her thoughts. When it seemed hopeless, she still found an answer among her limited hand. The figure that had always shown her that—her closest player, her best friend Sally—flashed across her mind. The experience Maple had accumulated up to today sparked a single plan. Without 【Atrocity】, she might not endure damage while falling; try too many times and Mii might notice something. Do it now. Praising her head for working better than usual, Maple bet on her flash of insight. As the shell of 【Atrocity】 burned away and Maple’s true body burst out, an instant before she crashed into the ground—

“【Cradle of the Earth】!”
Maple slipped into the earth.

“……”
Seeing that, Mii calmly leveled her staff. Unlike 【Shadow World】 used by Dread’s tamed monster, 【Cradle of the Earth】 did not move. Maple would emerge right where she entered. Maple had now played two emergency cards. For Mii, 【Flame Prison】 was the last weapon that could still reach Maple. She would not allow a breakthrough here.

“【Commence Attack】!”
Maple erupted from the ground below and—still in the act—self-destructed into flight. At the sight, Mii mercilessly raised her staff.

“【Full Armament Deployment】!”

“【Scorching Heat】!”
Confirming Maple’s re-deployment of weapons, Mii unleashed fire. It did not damage Maple, but it melted the weapons that would have provided thrust, tearing off Maple’s wings. Leveraging her defense to push through the flames, Maple closed on Mii, but Mii was already prepared to swat her down.

“【Blast】!”

“【Quick Change】!”

“……!”
Maple switched equipment at once. She swung the floating shield borne by 【Helping Hand】 around to her back to support her body, rewriting a future in which she would only have plummeted far below. Beware a re-deployment of 【Machine God】’s armaments—so Mii thought, when Maple’s back suddenly spat fire and a massive explosion hurled her forward.

It was wholly outside expectation—an unknown propulsion and a sudden burst of speed.

“W-what…!? Ignis!”

“【Ancient Weapons】!”
With Maple accelerating and shooting like a bullet, her call set the ancient weapons clanking and spreading. Blue lasers linked each one, and they trapped Ignis.

“【Invitation to the Water’s Depths】!”
Before Ignis could escape, Maple, riding her momentum, slammed tentacles down. Not protected by 【Hellfire of the Underworld】, Ignis was swallowed in an instant and blown away. Even if both fell to the ground, Maple would survive. Mii, eyes wide in shock, looked at Maple—and noticed fragments trickling from Maple’s back.

“Bombs…? I see…!”
Like suicide flight, it was a method only Maple could use. A time bomb pasted to her back while underground would not explode no matter the shock until its timer expired. It was Maple’s last method of movement, one she had had no chance to use even in large-scale PvP. Turning in midair, Maple leveled two kinds of weapons. Seeing that, Mii let a satisfied smile rise and shouted.

“Heh—well done, Maple!”

“【Ancient Weapons】【Commence Attack】!”
With that, Maple shot through even the defense of 【Hellfire of the Underworld】, and together with fall damage shaved away Mii’s HP to zero—the victor of the duel was decided then and there.

Mii, whose HP had dropped to zero, could have chosen to respawn elsewhere, but she returned to the same spot to speak with Maple a little.

“…………”
With the fight over, Mii confirmed that the spectator cameras had pulled back and let out a long breath.

“So I lost… I couldn’t read you at all.”
Mii knew well—and had been wary—of how strong Maple’s skills and stats were and how they could form her losing line. Forcing powerful skills onto the opponent was Maple’s forte. Yet the method Maple used to break Mii’s prison had not been a brute-force skill push. As a response to Mii, it had been careful equipment swaps, refined great-shield handling, and Maple’s unique movement using bombs—small, technical actions and techniques born of accumulated training. Because it fell outside the impression she held of Maple, Mii had left herself open to be exploited.

“Hey, that second takeoff—was that Iz’s bomb?”

“Yeah! It’s a stick-on time bomb!”

“I figured… Since it’s not a store item, it was off my radar. And your movement was really good, too.”

“Really!?”

“Uh-huh. Getting clean upward thrust from an explosion is hard to begin with. I sometimes accelerate off my own skill’s blast, but it’s not something you can pull off in a single-shot situation.”

“I was so relieved it worked~.”

“Looks like the rematch will have to wait. You’re going away for a while, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Not even sure if you’ll come back, but I’ll just train at my own pace and wait on my own.”

“Got it!”

“Then I’ll say: see you later!”

“Mm, see you!”
Saying that, they parted, and Mii rode the now-revived Ignis into the sky.

“Phew… she was strong…”
Waving after the receding Mii, Maple toddled off once more across the event field.