Infinite Dendrogram: Volume 14 Page 4

  This was because Babi’s merging skill, Union Jack, allowed Rook to combine with her and a select monster under his command — in this case, Liz. Babi was a high-rank Embryo who’d used her Drain Learning to gather lots of stat-boosting skills from the monsters they’d defeated, while Liz was a slime that excelled in both speed and toughness. Obviously, merging these two together would have fearsome results.

  Despite being only a high-rank, Rook in this form had the stats and the skill repertoire of a Superior Job.

  The way it worked was almost like an off-shoot of the Guardian-Jaguarman Theory.

  Thanks to the buffs put up by The Lunar Society, his AGI was now a match for Behemot’s.

  Despite this, the moment he saw Behemot move, Rook realized something that made him break out in a cold sweat.

  Ohh... This is not good, Rook thought.

  He knew that he would be her first target.

  The extraordinary perception Rook boasted both in-game and in reality didn’t work as well when faced with a non-humanoid like Behemot — but since that tiny body hosted a human mind, he could follow some of her thought processes by observing her actions. One thing he knew for certain was that she would try to defeat him first.

  Most would have expected Behemot to go after the debuffer who was the only Superior here — Tsukuyo. Both Eishiro and Marie seemed deeply surprised to see Behemot charge straight at Rook, but he himself knew exactly why he was targeted.

  It wasn’t because of his stats. Though his were higher than those of the other Altarians here, Behemot wasn’t the type to pick her targets based on such meager stat differences.

  She was aiming for Rook first because she knew exactly what he was.

  I suppose this was to be expected. If she really did eliminate The Lunar Society just to get rid of all uncertain variables, it only makes sense that she would target me for the exact same reason.

  The skills Babylon had acquired through Drain Learning were numerous — easily surpassing the number of skills possessed by standard job builds. When fusing with her, Rook had access to all these skills, which would mesh well with his currently-insane stats. That made him an uncertain variable, and it was only natural that Behemot would see him as a threat.

  However, the fact that he’d gotten Behemot’s attention wasn’t what really bothered Rook — it was something far worse.

  The fact that she’s targeting me means that King of Beasts knows what we’ve got up our sleeves... She even knows about mere high-ranks like me. How much does she really know, then? Does she know all about our abilities and tactics?

  Moving as fast as Behemot, Rook retreated from her, occasionally winging his path.

  He used this time to think.

  Our strategy is based around King of Beasts attacking Ray and him surviving that attack. If she’s only aware of our strategies that have already been exposed, she will likely stick to attacking... But if she knows about his skill... we might have to find some means to get Ray’s damage counter up.

  Rook observed their opponent and tried to deduce how much she knew about them based on her actions. He accelerated his thoughts and continued his examination, while the distance between him and Behemot was swiftly closing.

  ...Wait. From what I can tell, King of Beasts doesn’t just want a simple victory here. She certainly wants to win, but unlike Franklin, she’s not the type to go for victory at any cost. If that was the case, she would have attacked while we were still talking to Princess Claudiah, or included us in the rampage against The Lunar Society, or targeted Tsukuyo Fuso instead of me. She doesn’t want to just win... she also wants to enjoy this.

  As his thoughts kept speeding along, the distance between Rook and Behemot kept closing.

  They were more or less equal in speed — or rather, Rook was slightly faster. The reason King of Beasts was catching up was because her movements were just better.

  Part of her objective here is to win only after fighting with all her might. She wants to put herself into a situation where she can bring her full strength to bear while also letting her opponents go all-out. That must be the primary reason she’s not targeting Tsukuyo Fuso. In that case, what I ought to do here is...

  Although Rook had trained for this, he hadn’t had much field experience with the high-speed movement of Metal-Devil-Man. He still hadn’t quite gotten the hang of actually controlling this human-devil-slime chimera body of his.

  King of Beasts, on the other hand, had been in Infinite Dendrogram for nearly five years.

  The reason the distance between them was growing smaller was that immense gap in their respective experience controlling bodies that were totally unlike their real life ones.

  This was particularly obvious in the timing with which Rook changed his direction.

  ...From my perspective, I have only three seconds left until she catches up. The moment when the distance closed... when the beast’s claws would dig into Rook’s flesh... was swiftly approaching.

  And then, Behemot was right next to him.

  “Hm...?!” she exclaimed, noticing that something wasn’t right. Rook had suddenly crossed his hands in front of his chest...

  “Flash Eye.”

  ...And the artificial eyes created on his arms released an intense burst of light.

  “Hh...!” The dazzling flash stopped Behemot in her tracks for a moment.

  This was a skill that Babylon had acquired with Drain Learning from a monster called “Floating Spark Eye.”

  The skill released a powerful flash of light from the user’s eyes, dazzling the targets and inflicting the Blind debuff. Rook had used Liz’s ability to create a number of artificial eyes on his arms before using the skill through them. Being a Mithril Arms Slime, Liz could change her shape — and he could now do the same thanks to Union Jack.

  All this time, he’d been running away from Behemot in a winding pattern in order to get himself into a position where Flash Eye wouldn’t affect any of his allies.

  A brief dazzle. The first condition is cleared. This chance will not last, however.

  Rook knew full well that, to someone like King of Beasts, this would just be a momentary distraction. She didn’t even get the Blind status effect. The obvious conclusion was that at least one of the many MVP rewards she was wearing let her easily resist it.

  Regardless, the intense light still briefly blocked out her line of sight. King of Beasts might’ve had something that helped her see in total darkness, but she wasn’t equipped to handle an abundance of light, since that would be a hindrance in more circumstances than not.

  Despite being unable to see, Behemot wasn’t panicking one bit.

  She couldn’t properly gauge the distance between her and Rook, but sound and presence alone was enough for her to know that he was somewhere ahead of her.

  Thus, she decided to use a skill that didn’t care about a slight difference in distance.

  Behemot swung her right hand. The arc of her swing created a claw-shaped shockwave that barreled straight forward.

  The skill was called “Winged Ripper.” It was a Claw Boxer active skill, and it created a shockwave with a range of a few dozen metels and had the same power as the user’s regular attacks.

  She’d used this skill in order to keep Rook in check.

  However... it was exactly what he had been waiting for.

  [Now!]

  Rook shouted through his Telepathy Cuffs, while at the same time moving his slime tentacle with his Metal-Devil-Man body. He’d grown the tentacle at the same time he’d used Flash Eye, and now he yanked it back towards him, dragging along the thing it’d wrapped around in the process.

  The thing in question... or rather, the person... was none other than Ray.

  Rook had drawn his friend closer so he could use him as a shield. He’d been running away from Behemot while carefully positioning himself precisely so that he could bring Ray towards him like this.

  Though this seemed like the heartless actions of a person who would sacrifice his friend to save his own skin, it was actually a necessary step towards victory.

  “Counter Absorption!”

  After all... the damage counter was the source of Ray and Nemesis’ power. They had to be attacked by Behemot in order to use the damage taken as a Resource to power their own skills.

  They had agreed ahead of time that Ray would use Counter Absorption the moment Rook signaled to him using Telepathy Cuffs.

  And now, that barrier of light took the full brunt of the shockwave, adding the damage to Nemesis’ counter.

  The dazzling burst from earlier was nothing but a step towards luring Behemot into attacking Ray — it would’ve been much more difficult to direct her attacks to the proper target when she could see everything that was happening.

  “Gh...!” After Ray had just barely survived the attack, Rook used his tentacle to fling him out of range.

  That was all he could do here... for Behemot had already launched her follow-up attack.

  Although she couldn’t see, she’d realized that her attack had been blocked. That wasn’t a problem for her, though. If one of her attacks failed, she only had charge and attack again.

  The only problem for her now was deciding who to prioritize — Ray, who’d absorbed her immense damage, or Rook, her original target.

  As she considered that question, Rook suddenly raised his voice. “Ray... Prepare that skill! Use it to match her stats!”

  He actually exposed one of his friend’s trump cards, revealing information about Ray’s skills that Behemot likely didn’t know.

  This seemed like another betrayal, but again — it was not.

  Rook merely did what he thought was optimal based on his assumptions regarding Behemot’s personality.

  His words dre
w her focus towards Ray... not out of caution, but more out of curiosity. Rook had noted this. He had deduced that since Behemot wanted not only to win, but to also go all-out and actually enjoy this battle, she would allow Ray to use a skill that made him stronger. That was why he’d emphasized that it wasn’t a sure-kill attack, but a buff, leading her to make a decision that was ultimately beneficial to them.

  If it was a skill like Tsukuyo’s Ulfaria Eltram, which could instantly kill her, Behemot would have certainly attacked Ray to avoid defeat. Rook, however, had deduced that King of Beasts’ desire to enjoy herself outweighed her desire to win at any cost, and that she would want to see what happened when Ray used his skill.

  With Truth Discernment, it was even possible to tell that Rook wasn’t bluffing about the skill’s effects.

  Rook saw clearly that Behemot was doing exactly what he expected her to do — her interest turned towards Ray and away from taking Rook down. He was also relieved to see that Ray would actually be able to use his skill... but then, Rook noticed that Behemot had gotten close enough to attack him.

  “Hhaah...” he sighed, having expected this exact outcome.

  Rook knew that he’d end up getting the death penalty the moment he realized that Behemot had investigated all of them and had decided he was an uncertain variable. Since he was currently a slime-man, he could withstand most physical attacks, but he wasn’t optimistic enough to believe that he would survive here.

  This is King of Beasts... the top of the Dryfean kill rankings. She must have at least as many MVP special rewards as Shu, and based on her equipment, she doesn’t have any limitations as absurd as his costume-only restriction. I think it’s fair to assume that she has one — or more likely a few items that let her break through resistances.

  Rook’s assumption was correct. The semi-transparent claws Behemot had equipped were a Mythical MVP reward called “Twin-Moon Carvers, Crescent Glissando.”

  It was an ethereal pair of weapons that allowed the selection of damage type.

  One of its skills, Blood Moonrise, turned physical damage into direct HP damage. This damage was affected by the target’s defense, but it ignored physical resistance skills, so even the fearsome Metal-Devil-Man couldn’t stand up to it.

  On top of this, Behemot was using the Claw Boxer’s ultimate job skill, Tiger Scratch. This allowed her to follow up every single attack she made with two additional strikes that inherited the nature, element, and power of the first one.

  Not even a slime with a Brooch could survive three powerful blows that ignored resistances and were powered by Behemot’s immense stats.

  Checkmate, I suppose... But I think I did everything I could. I helped Ray put some damage on his counter and gave him a chance to use that skill of his. All in all, I think I put up a good fight against her.

  Calm and collected, he pondered the situation while staring straight at Behemot.

  Then, he canceled his Union Jack so that he wouldn’t lose Liz to the coming onslaught.

  His stats dropped, and so did his speed. He could no longer even see Behemot’s movements.

  The next thing he knew, he’d been completely pulverized.

  He didn’t even have time to notice if his Brooch had activated or not.

  Rook’s resurrection period was shorter than the blink of an eye, but it was enough for one last thought: This is the first time I’ve gotten the death penalty, isn’t it...? I suppose that is a bit frustra—

  And with that, he dissolved into motes of light and vanished, leaving only five Altarian Masters.

  ◇◆

  “one.” After taking care of Rook, Behemot didn’t stop even for a moment, because she’d noticed that Eishiro and Marie were nowhere in sight.

  She realized that, during the Flash Eye, the former sunk into his shadow, while the latter must have used the Art of Vanishing. She also understood that they hadn’t attacked her while Rook was still alive because they didn’t want to interrupt Rook’s plan to help Ray fill his damage counter and activate his skill. Now that Rook was gone, it was clear that the two would take the opportunity to strike, so Behemot kept moving to avoid any ambushes.

  She was prioritizing evasion over offense, not targeting anyone she could currently see. After all, Behemot wanted to see this skill Ray supposedly had, and she’d long since decided that Tsukuyo would be her final target.

  The last opponent in Behemot’s field of view — Barbaroy — was an END build, and if she used Dragonscale Wards or sacrificed shields for Fatal Defender, it would be difficult to get rid of her quickly.

  Even Tiger Scratch might not have been enough to take Barbaroy out, and if it wasn’t, Behemot worried that might leave her open to counter attacks.

  Barbaroy herself was assuming a defensive stance, which made it likely that was precisely her plan.

  From Behemot’s point of view, there were no viable targets in sight, but although Eishiro had no trouble hiding in the shadows, Marie’s Art of Vanishing burned through her SP very quickly. Because of that, she’d likely reappear soon, so Behemot kept running, biding her time until that moment.

  That was when Ray, who was behind her in experienced time, made his next move.

  “...Rook!” he cried as he watched his friend’s body dissolve into light. He understood that Rook had sacrificed himself solely to give Ray the chance to use his skill.

  Ray’s teeth clenched in rage. He knew exactly what he had to do now.

  Rook had shown them the possibility of victory, and it was time for Ray and Nemesis to bring this new strategy to bear against the Physical Apex.

  Thus, he turned to his companion.

  “Let’s do it, Nemesis... Fourth Form!”

  “Certainly!” In response to his words, Nemesis canceled her greatsword form, melting into specks of darkness that floated to a point behind Ray and assumed a new shape.

  “Form Shift... Black Mirror!”

  And with that, Nemesis transformed into a round mirror with a frame shaped like a single wing.

  Behemot, still wary of attacks from Eishiro or Marie, also witnessed this transformation.

  Nemesis, now a mirror, was floating behind Ray. The surface of the mirror was like deep, black water, with no reflection at all...

  “Designating target!” Nemesis declared. “Damage counter set! Designating stat... AGI!”

  ...But as Nemesis spoke those words, the mirror’s surface began to undulate, and when the ripples subsided, it reflected none other than Behemot herself.

  While Nemesis finished her preparations, Ray was taking action as well. He turned the Monochrome he was wearing into the cannon that would fire Shining Despair and equipped it on his left arm.

  Once both were done, they shouted in unison, “Chaser from the Mirror!”

  It was a declaration of the skill they’d developed upon evolving to high-rank... the skill meant to combat opponents far more powerful than they.

  ◇◇◇

  A certain day in April, Death Soldier, Ray Starling

  “I’ve evolved to my fourth form.”

  “...I see.” Just like when she’d evolved to her third form, Nemesis simply told me about it shortly after I woke up at the inn.

  This didn’t come as a surprise, though — primarily because she’d had no appetite last night, just like right before she’d evolved to her third form.

  Apparently, during her normal evolutions, Nemesis would lose her appetite, then evolve while sleeping. It wasn’t a very flashy way to evolve, but as far as I knew all Embryos evolved differently, so... it was what it was. Her evolution from first to second form was the exception rather than the rule.

  Though, I was told that her evolution to high-rank was a little more exciting... and I missed it because I was asleep.

  “Anyway... Congratulations!” I said.

  “Much appreciated! You can now count me among the high-ranks!” There was a time when Nemesis was really troubled by how slowly she’d evolved, so she looked pretty happy about it now.

  “So, what changes did you get?” I asked. Well, one thing I could see for myself was that her clothing was different.

  It seemed like something you could call “an upgrade” — her apparel was a bit more extravagant than before... Her body didn’t seem to have changed, though.

  “Well, first off, I feel like Counter Absorption is stronger now,” Nemesis said. “I believe the damage limit now is 400,000.”