Defense Specialization and the End of the Dream

Maple widened the gap again, and Sally pressed with magic while carefully checking Maple’s reactions one by one.

“【Flame Bullet】【Wind Cutter】!”

Maple took Sally’s spells on her greatshield; seeing them bounce off rather than get eaten, Sally confirmed that 【Devour】 wasn’t available.

For Sally, among Maple’s remaining options there was just one truly troublesome skill that would force her to scramble. Maple also knew exactly which one it was—and how strong.

“【Darkness of Rebirth】【Ancient Sea】!”

“So you’re using it!”

“I’m going to win with this!”

“We’ll see…!”

While pushing the abominations toward Sally, Maple made her next move—an idea she hadn’t discussed with Sally and had just thought up on the spot.

“【Ice Pillar】! 【Path of Water】!”

Sally shot a thread to an ice pillar so the creatures couldn’t mob her, then rode the water current to the edge of the area. The abominations charged in, kicking up dust. She lured them to the limit, slipped under their feet, vaulted through the gaps, and—with perfect spacing—passed without taking damage. After that, she only needed to flush them outside like she had with the 【Toxic Splitlings】.

“Ge—…!”

“【Paralyze Shout】!”

“Whoops!”

It was reflex by now. As Maple called a skill, Sally’s hand moved on its own—she yanked a crystal from her pouch and smashed it.

“It still reaches in time…!?”

“Naturally. 【Torrent】!”

Even so, Sally saw the paralyze effect wrap her—despite Maple being far away. Maple had come up with a tactic Sally hadn’t predicted.

“【Deadly Breath】!”

“【Wind Blast】! …So it’s 【Hand of Salvation】!”

Down among the abominations’ feet, hidden by dust and bulk, a pale floating hand held a dagger—

a lethal status attack, concealed by cover. If she hadn’t trained to the limit for a Maple matchup, she would’ve died in that instant.

“【Wave Ride】【Freezing Domain】!”

She shoved the creatures away on a rolling wave, then froze the wave to pin them down. They’d break free soon, but even if they didn’t die, next time she wouldn’t need to push them. A blow boosted by 【Sword Dance】 could easily finish off the near-dead abominations not protected by 【Self-Sacrificing Grace】.

But Maple couldn’t use 【Self-Sacrificing Grace】 so long as 【Armor Pierce】 existed.

With each side’s skills restricting the other’s approach, Maple lavishly spent the abominations as decoys to thread in her real dagger—but here, Sally came out on top.

“Twice won’t work on me, Maple.”

She nullified 【Deadly Breath】 and closed in.

“That’s not all!”

Flashes at Sally’s feet burst in succession, scattering different elemental spells. Knowing 【Darkness of Rebirth】 wouldn’t catch her, Maple used the abominations as cover to set a mass of items.

“【Commence Attack】! 【Poison Dragon】!”

A saturation barrage slammed at Sally: 【Hand of Salvation】 spat 【Poison Dragon】 from behind, bullets raked from ahead, and the items left her almost no room to dodge.

“I knew it… Sally, you’re amazing…!”

Even so, Sally twisted into hairline gaps and stitched her way toward Maple with almost no waste. Every time Sally shone, Maple felt joy.

She wanted to draw out even more of Sally’s brilliance—with her own hands.

Maple called up the panel and opened her inventory.

“【Ice Pillar】!”

“!?”

Hit upward by a sudden 【Flash Flood】 from below, she couldn’t flip on 【Heavy Body】—being immobilized now was tantamount to accepting death. Launched and exposed, she presented the perfect window, and Sally came to end it with 【Armor Pierce】.

“Sally…!”

A perfect chance. Yet Sally trusted the alarm ringing in her head and held back that last step—sensing Maple had a counter ready. And she was right: a timed bomb on Maple’s chest detonated, blasting Maple—stuck by 【Flash Flood】—out to safety, and ready to kill Sally if she’d closed. An offensive–defensive one-two.

Spinning from the blast, Maple manipulated the open blue panel and planted the next bomb on her chest. Explosion after explosion blocked Sally’s pursuit; Maple fired 【Ancient Armaments】 while re-opening the gap.

“That’s some nimble madness!”

“You can’t… attack like that, can you!”

“Not as long as that’s there.”

“Gh—”

Lower in mobility than Sally, Maple mastered two self-destruct options—items and 【Machine God】—to keep Sally out of 【Armor Pierce】 range while hunting for just one more hit. If she stopped, death would rush in.

But 【Machine God】 ammo and bomb stock were finite. Bombs weren’t her main weapon, so she didn’t carry max; and 【Machine God】 kept draining under the constant suppressive fire that hemmed Sally in. Sally couldn’t quite break through—but Maple was only buying time.

She needed something surer—something even Sally wouldn’t foresee—and had to find and execute it before time robbed her movement.

“But… the inventory, huh. That’s fun!”

Sally halted and, like Maple, raised a blue panel in the air to check her item grid.

“Learned. Now I don’t have to rummage in my pouch.”

Maple stared, dumbfounded. Sally’s capacity always amazed her, but she didn’t doubt it; if Sally said she could, she could. In this state, Sally’s focus was so sharp she could absorb a new technique with zero practice. Right now, she could do anything.

“If only I had one more…!”

That earlier hit where Maple stripped Sally’s 【Empty Husk】 was good—but it landed mostly because Sally had halted in surprise. Maple still couldn’t see a route where her own power alone defeated Sally.

“Time’s nearly up… I won’t let you idle.”

“【Commence Attack】!”

No room left to sit and think—by the clock or under Sally’s rising pressure. Maple processed more than ever in parallel: counters to Sally’s approach; dagger strikes via 【Hand of Salvation】; weapon deployment; re-arming travel bombs; and sifting her skill list for anything that could reach Sally’s life. A cool, observing self even thought: I can think this fast?

Inside that first true storm of parallel thought, a plan surfaced like a puzzle clicking into place—bold enough that Maple dared to think: This will reach Sally.

She’d never thought harder; she’d never felt sharper. At the end of it—one answer. Maple chose it as her final card.

“I’ll… beat Sally!”

She shouted her resolve loud enough for Sally to hear. The air around Sally changed; joy lit her face, and the extra force in her first step radiated an even stronger pressure.

Do it. Show me.

To see Maple’s answer with her own eyes, Sally charged through the rain of lasers.

Sally spent no resources on her repeated rushes; Maple had to burn irrecoverables to answer—bomb stock, 【Machine God】 ammo. Sally could tell—without counting—that they were nearly gone; usually she tracked 【Machine God】 ammo more precisely than Maple herself, and there was no way she wasn’t counting now.

“The event will end soon. The event will end soon.”

The announcement sounded from the blue panel Maple had left open to pull bombs; the remaining time ticked there.

At last, Maple decided to play her last card. There was no guarantee Sally would take the bait—but the Sally of now wouldn’t let the fight end without defeating Maple.

“【Full Armament Deploy】【Commence Attack】! 【Partner’s Aid】!”

“…!”

Seeing the pile of bombs at Maple’s feet, Sally stepped back. This move had clear intent—unlike when Maple had only fled and fished for openings. She made a zone Sally couldn’t approach, then rode the overlapping blasts of items and weapons high into the sky.

“Of course I’m going!”

She knew Maple hadn’t flown just to run; she wanted to lure her. Even so, Sally reached the spot directly beneath, raised an 【Ice Pillar】, and fired a line upward.

Maple’s 【Machine God】 had about one salvo left; her timed bombs were spent. In the air, Maple’s mobility was greatly reduced. If she’d spent everything and still flew, she had a plan—danger screamed this truth.

So what.

If she didn’t go now, there’d be no time—or chance—to fell Maple. Maple had taken everything between them hostage—had taken herself hostage—and called Sally into the trap.

Sally wanted it too. The dream should end by her own hand; she needed no alarm-clock ending.

“【Wall】! 【Commence Attack】【Ancient Armaments】【Seeping Chaos】!”

“【Step to the Underworld】【Path of Water】!”

The skill Maple inherited from Syrup was 【Wall】. She caged Sally within tall rock walls and hammered myriad skills from above. Sally answered by making aerial footholds, climbing while executing perfect evasion. Webbing the air wouldn’t break her. Even with stats lowered by 【Step to the Underworld】, as long as she reached Maple, 【Armor Pierce】 would deal damage based on Maple’s 【VIT】; she didn’t even need 【STR】 to finish it.

Her feet gradually slowed; her evasion rhythm slipped. But with superhuman correction, she maintained the quality of her dodges.

【Machine God】 clicked empty. Seeing Maple—launched high—begin to fall, Sally drew the picture up to 【Armor Pierce】—

“【Great Eruption】!”

—and the vision was drowned in red.

【Great Eruption】: a skill acquired in the tower of the 8th event that creates an area at the impact point dealing defense-ignoring damage to self and others; a bad match for both Maple and Sally, and Maple couldn’t use it before due to MP. For the first time, she’d slotted it. Skills in the slot ignore MP. By firing a skill she shouldn’t be able to, Maple came to finish Sally.

Her focus rose so high the lava looked slow. With 【Wall】 enclosing her, there was no escape route. But there wasn’t time left just to run. Then there was only one thing to do.

“【Partner’s Aid】! Oboro, 【Dormancy】… 【Divine Concealment】!”

A heartbeat before the red lava struck—drawn to the very limit—Sally slipped through everything with 【Divine Concealment】. She dashed across the footholds of 【Step to the Underworld】 at high speed, pierced the lava within its duration, and fixed on Maple beyond.

“【Poison Dragon】!”

Free fall closed the distance. For her last attack, Maple smashed every crystal on her greatshield and chose 【Poison Dragon】. Sally dodged the rain of toxin and reached 【Armor Pierce】 range.

“【Quick Change】【Unbreakable Shield】!”

Maple swapped gear—to the pure-white archangel set, her other loadout with high HP bonus and no 【VIT】 boost. With damage cut and the swap, Maple chose to take Sally’s 【Armor Pierce】.

Even so, Maple was DEF-maxed. Sally calculated Maple’s 【VIT】, computed 【Armor Pierce】’s damage, and solved for Maple’s death.

“【Armor Pierce】!”

She thrust as if stabbing into Maple’s chest and slammed the skill into the falling girl.

She’d had more than enough fun; she truly felt she didn’t need more. If she told yesterday’s self she’d bathe in Maple’s full power like this, that self wouldn’t believe it. Damage effects burst from Maple’s body.

It was the end of a long, long dream.

—It should have been.

“Huh…?”

“Got you!”

The words slipped out of Sally because Maple caught her outstretched hand and pulled her into a tight embrace. Sally had ended the dream—yet the HP bar above Maple’s head still sat above half.

【Quick Change】【Unbreakable Shield】 alone wouldn’t blunt it this much.

“【Break Core】!”

Energy bloomed at Maple’s core. Once triggered, within its range no one could attack—a guaranteed self-destruct. Holding Sally close, Maple smiled: it worked.

“Ah…”

“Ehehe, I used 【Jettison】.”

Sally finally realized. Maple is defense to the extreme—everyone knows it. Therefore few skills work; rationally, Sally had chosen 【Armor Pierce】 for the last strike. Maple had anticipated that—had anticipated (no, trusted) Sally to break through 【Great Eruption】 and dodge 【Poison Dragon】—and had thrown away, erased with 【Jettison】, her 【Absolute Defense】, 【Big-Game Eater】, and 【Fortress】. All of them.

The skills that raised her 【VIT】—gone. That inhuman defense was cast aside here and now—so she could hold Sally. A secret she could use only once in a very long journey.

“My 【STR】 is… gone too.”

“Twins, then.”

“Haha, I guess so.”

【Step to the Underworld】 had dragged 【STR】 to zero. Sally could no longer pry Maple’s arms away—

not that she planned to.

【Wall】 crumbled, and the sunset lit them in warm gold. The glow of 【Break Core】 swelled; the blast drew near.

“Hey, you said you’d grant me three wishes, right?”

“Eh? …Yeah! That’s right!”

“Then—my second.”

She slid her arms around Maple’s back, hugged even tighter than she was being hugged, and spoke the second wish.

“Die with me.”

“…!”

Maple’s wide-eyed surprise made Sally laugh—like a child whose prank had landed, and like someone satisfied to the depths. Seeing that smile, Maple’s own smile overflowed, relieved—Yes, this was right. Beyond the dream that should have ended, Maple had shown her more of it.

A moment later, a sun was born in the dusk sky; its swelling light wrapped them both and burned them away.