566

Defense Specialization vs. Evasion Specialization 2

【Atrocity】 doesn’t go down from a single 【Defense Break】. The rule Maple always forces on her enemies—“anything that can’t pierce defense is meaningless”—works just as well on Sally.

Taking fresh distance, Sally spoke to Maple as if to herself.

“【Armor-Piercer】. A skill that deals damage equal to the target’s 【VIT】. It isn’t a piercing-type attack, so even 【Pierce Guard】 can’t stop it.”

The skill Sally used to down the fake was 【Martial Arts】—

only at point-blank, only with her weapons sheathed, and against most foes it barely hurts.

But against Maple, it’s a finisher.

“Remember? We said if we ever fought for real, we’d keep our secret reasons close. This… is why I won.”

“Uu…”

“The cooldown’s short, too. Come on—let’s keep going.”

Sally still looked a little lonely, and Maple—helpless before that look—wanted to fix it somehow… but didn’t know how.

“【Water Path】!”

Sally darted in again.

Anything but 【Armor-Piercer】 was manageable for Maple.

So—don’t let her approach.

But thinking like that only let Sally seize the first move—because playing the “first move” game is what Sally does best.

Maple spat fire; Sally slipped past, and when Maple swung to sever 【Water Path】, Sally used 【Threadwork】 to skate down to the ground.

With 【Atrocity】’s big, sweeping swings, Maple couldn’t catch a Sally who was faster in both thoughts and feet; her back kept getting taken with ease.

“【Armor-Piercer】.”

No bluff—Sally had told the truth. The skill’s cooldown was truly short. It tore through 【Atrocity】’s shell and flung Maple—inside it—down onto the earth.

“【Cradle of Earth】!”

Hitting the ground, Maple dove into it to avoid the follow-up.

That was also prep for her counter.

A beat later, Maple burst back out of the soil—

black, four wings spreading wide. Underground, she had deployed 【Annihilation Zone】 and now checked where Sally was.

“How about—eh!?”

“Afraid I can’t let that hit me.”

Sally knew that tactic by heart. In fact, she knew the range of Maple’s 【Annihilation Zone】 even better than Maple did—so she was already far, far away.

Then Maple blinked at what greeted her: a corral of 【Icicle Pillar】 ringed her in, a tidy cage that stopped her from sprinting at once.

A perfect answer—too perfect.

Sally had counter-plans for all of Maple’s big moves. Maple had to pass those walls just to get on the same stage. Firing skills wasn’t enough; winning on pure technique against Sally was impossible.

Maple’s thoughts chased a path to victory… and found none.

With 【Reverse Rebirth】 sustaining it, 【Annihilation Zone】 would last five minutes. The 【Icicle Pillars】 would stand for one.

The moment the prison fell, Maple would deploy her armaments and rocket straight for Sally.

“【Full Armament Deploy】【Commence Attack】!”

【Annihilation Zone】 covers a ridiculous area. Even a blink with Sally inside its edge would force her to answer it.

“【Flash Flood】.”

“Kh—!?”

A geyser shouldered Maple back the second she tried to close. She chased anyway—only to have 【Mirage】 flip the script.

“How can I…?”

In spite of that sweeping threat radius, Maple still failed to tag Sally for five full minutes. 【Annihilation Zone】 faded; the wings vanished.

Another weapon—stripped away without doing a thing.

Facing Sally like this for the first time reminded Maple how big the gap was. It was a position that made giving up sound reasonable. If Maple were “the usual Maple,” the match would end with Sally’s win.

But something warm and stormy churned inside Maple and stopped her from stepping toward surrender.

Sally still wasn’t smiling.

Maple felt like she hadn’t given back enough of the joy Sally had given her.

And she hated that.

“【Poison Dragon】! 【Toxic Clone】!”

That feeling pushed Maple into her next move.

【Toxic Clone】 has Maple’s same defense. As lumps of poison, Sally can’t afford to touch them with 【Armor-Piercer】.

Near-unkillable copies rolled at Sally alongside the venomous dragon.

Sally ran the rim of the duel zone, skirting the spreading poison marsh.

“【Icicle Pillar】.”

“【Commence Attack】!”

Seeing her string to the ice, Maple opened fire—but she learned quickly that lead didn’t matter to Sally.

Pang, pang—bullets rang away. Any shot not truly on target drew zero reaction; if it would miss by even a few centimeters, Sally didn’t waste a twitch.

“【Wave Ride】.”

She dragged the poison clones behind her, then conjured a huge wave and shoved all three out of bounds.

“【Icicle Pillar】.”

She added a fast barricade and sealed their return path. Outside the area was a system damage zone; high defense meant nothing out there.

“This one fits best today.”

Without even glancing at the clones vanishing behind her, Sally kept batting Maple’s bullets aside.

Every time Maple showed a known plan, Sally crushed it on sight.

By the same logic, Maple’s 【Reborn in Darkness】 would be countered with the map just like that—squeezed, slowed, smothered.

It felt like a slow choke… and like being tested.

If Maple couldn’t do something new, this would be the end.

But in their battles, the one who always built the plan and turned it into something executable was, without fail…

Yes—the girl right in front of her: Shiramine Sally.

“Uu… what do I do…”

What Maple needed was a strategy Sally couldn’t even imagine—made now, in this very second.

If she could make one.

“Maple, I’m going to land 【Armor-Piercer】 again. Right now.”

“…!”

Sally’s expression didn’t change. All along, she’d looked at the end of this fight with that faint, lonely gaze.

Maple kept the gears turning, but no idea she formed actually reached Sally in her mind’s eye.

“Here I come…!”

Sally sprinted straight at Maple.

Some part of Maple knew this exchange would be the last of the fight. Not just a hunch—self-evident truth.

She wanted Sally to smile. She wanted to keep fighting—to keep playing—so she needed something that could reach Sally.

The thing Maple trusted most inside herself.

The thing that shone brightest.

She bet everything on that.

“…Okay.”

Maple stopped thinking—and handed the wheel to that “something.”

Just once—block Sally’s attack.

Then they could talk.

Up to here, everything had gone as Sally expected—though in a bad way for Maple.

Sally had simply built too much. She’d gotten too strong.

She herself couldn’t see a future where Maple handled this offense and hit back.

She could answer every known pattern; there was no value in easing up.

“【Over-Accel】.”

“【Ancient Weapon】【Commence Attack】【Seeping Chaos】!”

Sally boosted and beelined for Maple. She’d trained to handle attacks—even from behind—while fighting, and avoided them best when she could focus only on them.

“Oboro, 【Black Smoke】【Shadow Clone】.”

Oboro’s smoke hid Maple’s form as copies broke in different directions.

The instant Maple’s attention shifted toward the clones, Sally flicked a crystal high inside the smoke.

A set delay later, it would drop behind Maple and play “【Armor-Piercer】.”

Less prep than against Frederica, which meant she couldn’t control the timing as freely—but so long as she believed this would land, it was enough.

Sally vanished with 【Flash Step】 and closed from the other side of the falling crystal.

“【Armor-Piercer】!”

Behind Maple, the crystal replayed Sally’s voice. She paired it with 【Mirage】 to force Maple to answer it—while the real Sally, still unseen, glided in on Maple.

This would end it.

That was Sally’s intent.

“【Commence Attack】—!”

“…!”

Sally’s eyes widened. Maple didn’t so much as glance back at the “【Armor-Piercer】” behind her. Instead, she pointed her barrel precisely at the unseen Sally.

The shot pinged off Sally’s blade and revealed her outline. Maple’s unreasonable, unexpected choice put a hard stop on Sally’s victory.

“I hit you!”

“How…?”

Clones don’t speak skill lines.

Maple knew that.

And until the Frederica duel, Sally had never used the recording-crystal trick. Even members of 【Maple Tree】 didn’t know it. Maple had no reason to ignore a “true” callout from behind—no reason to snipe a completely invisible Sally dead to rights.

“I just… felt you were there.”

“I see. Then—once more…!”

Sally began circling, keeping a poised distance—ready to trigger at any second.

“【Icicle Pillar】! Oboro, 【Illusion】!”

She slipped behind a pillar—and the instant she hid, her copies scattered. Sally blended back into the air with 【Mirage】 and watched for Maple’s guard to open.

“【Ancient Weapon】!”

“…!”

Maple aimed again.

At one of the “empty” spots—somewhere with no clone at all. From Sally’s view, Maple had no basis to shoot there.

But Maple’s muzzle aligned with Sally again—perfectly.

Through 【Mirage】 they “met” eyes. From Maple’s stare, Sally understood: this wasn’t luck. Maple had her own logic—and with it, she was reading Sally’s exact position.

Sally slipped the laser and let her form seep back into sight. Seeing her wide-eyed surprise, Maple lowered the gun for a breath.

“Amazing. How are you doing that?”

Once might be luck. Twice at this precision? No.

More than that, Maple’s whole movement quality had changed. What blocked Sally now wasn’t a big skill—it was Maple’s technique. That sudden awakening didn’t make sense to Sally.

“Because… I’m remembering everything you taught me.”

“Taught you…?”

“Yeah. From so many games—’Do this here,’ ‘That’s stronger,’ ‘I like to play it this way’…”

It wasn’t just “New World Online.” Day after day, the two of them at Sally’s place, playing everything.

Truth be told, Maple mostly watched. When she played, she rarely stuck with it. She just watched Sally’s super-plays and listened to her breakdowns, eyes shining.

Days, weeks, months—years—like that.

Sally froze at the realization.

The one person who had watched all of Sally’s thoughts and play, end to end… was Maple.

If a game-naïve Maple had held up a blank canvas—

and if, without knowing, Sally had painted on it everything about herself: her tiny habits, her favorite lines, her weak lines, her go-to ideas… then maybe a deep foundation had been laid over years.

And maybe—for some reason—it blossomed now.

“That’s why… I feel like I understand you, Sally.”

A seasoned scent rolled off Maple.

The clear future Sally had drawn for her win wavered—just a little, but truly—and she couldn’t help smiling.

“Hehe… hey, Maple—let’s play more.”

“Ah!”

“…?”

“You smiled! Finally!”

Seeing Sally grin, Maple let out a breath and beamed back.

“…But—can I be selfish?”

“Mm-hm!”

“I… want to enjoy this more.”

If they were doing this, she wanted the limit—the far edge. Could Maple’s change truly reach her?

If someone beats Maple, let it be me.

If someone beats me, let it be Maple.

“Watch me! Somehow… I feel like I can do things your way. Maybe… I really can.”

“Ahaha—said it now, huh? Don’t you dare disappoint me.”

“I’ll try!”

“Okay.”

Once more, they raised their weapons—and dove back in, searching for the finish.