abcnovels
Chapter 189
Chapter 189
Chapter 189
Sukuna’s turn!
TL note:
Alexa, play Those Who Fight Further /watch?v=cQDLBKpbXQU
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“…Sukuna is forcing her way through….”
“She’s dodging everything with a paper-thin margin. I don’t know why she dares to do such a thing with her magic defense.”
Drago and Arthur, who had survived the magic by working together, watched the Sukuna’s antics as they were healing themselves.
They also noticed that the Nocturne doesn’t generate hate based on damage or enemy actions. Her targeting system is probably only based on a timer. Each person has about a minute to take a concentrated attack, which will change its target when the time is up.
Drago was convinced this theory was correct, though it became confusing because of Rou.
However, if you approach carelessly thinking you are not the current target, you will be greeted by standby magic floating around Nocturne.
They didn’t know why Sukuna didn’t attack earlier, but Drago and Arthur struggled with this counterattack mechanism, causing them to have a hard time attacking.
They both have a higher magic defense than Sukuna, but that doesn’t mean they will have enough HP if they keep eating those magic bullets.
And now Sukuna is diving into it alone; she must have some plan.
“You two.”
Rou, who had been waiting for a chance, called out to them as they used recovery items to get back on their feet.
“UWAA! …uh, it’s you, Rou? Seriously that skill… it’s going to give me a heart attack.”
“I will agree that it is surprising, but… what do you want?”
“I have a message from Sukuna.”
“From Sukuna?”
As Arthur and Drago tilted their heads, Rou told them about the message that Sukuna left them earlier.
“[In three minutes from now, I’m going to cut off the first gauge. You don’t have to do anything for those three minutes, but in exchange, I want all three of you to prepare your biggest move soon after]; that’s the message Sukuna asked me to pass along.”
Arthur and Drago furrowed their eyebrows as they listened to the outlandish message from Rou.
“What…?”
“Is that what Miss Sukuna told you?”
“Yes, word by word, with nothing I left out. And I would never mistake a word of Sukuna’s in the first place.”
Both reacted differently to Rou, who said this with a very serious expression.
Drago smiled a little excitedly in anticipation while Arthur looked a little troubled, as though something was making her uneasy.
“Three minutes…, gotcha, I’ll try to bring out the best attack I had.”
“I don’t need much preparation for mine, but… let me be blunt about it, I cannot do this for a prolonged time, okay?”
Arthur said with a sullen look on her face as Drago seemed to have some special secret technique prepared.
Arthur’s secret moves need no preparation to activate it, but those are a trump card for a short-term battle. She won’t mind showing it off here, but she had her doubt if her trump card could fulfill Sukuna’s wish.
“I’m sure Sukuna knows what she’s doing. I don’t have any strength to do long-term fights too. But since Sukuna said it like that, I think she’s trying to make this battle into a short one.”
“You’re also not good with endurance battle, huh? Well, not that I have any right to criticize you about it.”
Hearing Rou’s speculation, Drago nodded as she manipulated her menu. Indeed, she had been about to be had by Nocturne’s magic, even before she could show her trump card.
The story might be different if they were prepared to brace for damage; it is also possible to push Nocturne to the next stage using their combined brute force.
But Drago, Arthur, and Rou all thought it was too early to use their finishing move in this early stage of the fight.
In this battle, the basic status difference between the three of them and Nocturne was too great.
If they used their moves too early, not only would they be left behind in the latter half of the fight when it would become more severe, in the worst case, they could become a factor that dragging Sukuna down.
But if you reverse it, it could be said that three of them had hidden enough power to fight in the latter half.
And Sukuna knew this, which is why she went to end this delicate stalemate by herself.
“Anyway, Rou… it’s fine for us to use the three minutes to prepare, but that’s assuming that Sukuna can shave out the other half of that bar by herself, right?
“Right.”
Arthur made a good point.
The message from Sukuna suggested that she would be able to shave off almost the same amount of HP that the four of them had spent over 20 minutes in just three minutes. All by herself.
No one dared to say that it was impossible.
However, even Arthur, who had seen a fair amount of Sukuna, couldn’t fully believe those words.
It should be even more so if it were Rou, with whom Sukuna had little interaction.
But Arthur’s question was met by an unexpectedly bright and dazzling answer.
“It’s okay,” Rou said. “Because it’s a Sukuna.”
While she gazing confidently at Sukuna, who was now wielding her kanabou against Nocturne.
?
Let’s go back a little, in a few tens of seconds before Rou delivered Sukuna’s message to the two girls.
After entrusting the message to Rou and declaring it to the listeners, Sukuna was closing the distance to the Moon Wolf while evading the magic approaching from all directions with a paper-thin margin.
Sukuna feels like she’s the hero of a bullet hell game. 2 or 3 hits probably means her end, but if you look at the bright side, it could be said that Sukuna is allowed to take 2 or 3 hits from the magic missile.
The magic defense that had been raised at the expense of her zero Int and MP provided Sukuna with a minimum level of protection, even if it was far from that of a normal player.
(It’s not going to hit me, though.)
Sukuna has a complete grasp of the many magics projectile’s attributes, speed, and trajectory that has entered her perception radius.
And not just the present one.
She can predict the trajectories of the next attack, including several attacks ahead.
To put it simply, she had already seen through all the patterns of Nocturne’s attack.
Without even looking at the incoming magic, Sukuna was able to effortlessly dodge, and in just a few seconds, she was able to cover a distance of about 30 meters, a distance she had previously kept to stay safe.
“What the…?”
A surprised voice leaks from Nocturne’s lips as a pricking sensation goes through her hand that she is about to swing to guide the next magic.
The thing that pierced Nocturne’s hand and rolled on the ground along with a metallic sound was a throwing knife made by Haruru.
The knife was fired by Sukuna into the sky about the same time as her rush.
“Huh?”
Taking advantage of the gap created, Sukuna struck Nocturne’s flank with her [Sandaitsu Heiso – Ouma] as hard as she could.
“Ku…” Gush! It was a clean hit, but Nocturne only let out a small grunt and wasn’t that much bothered.
“This time, it’s my tu…!”
“Not yet.”
“???”
When Nocturne turned her gaze toward her attacker, Sukuna had already moved to the other side.
And Nocturne was receiving a heavy blow in the back of the head when she was aware of Sukuna’s position.
For the first time in this battle, Nocturne’s body was affected by Sukuna’s attack.
The impact to the back of her head has caused a [Stun] state.
This is a phenomenon that can easily occur in real life, but in WLO, stun is a privilege given only to blunt weapons.
Just as slashing weapons have their own perk, such as cutting off parts of the body or forcing a bleeding state, blunt weapons have their own.
Sukuna didn’t go for the stun until this far in this battle because there was a diminishing return to this state.
The more times a monster is stunned, the more resistant it becomes, and the less time the stun would last.
So if one could cause a stun, one would only do so when it could bring them a maximum benefit. That was also what Sukuna thought, and she decided that the time had come.
“Now…”
Sukuna mumbles something and calmly adds hit to Nocturne’s head.
The WLO wiki said that the normal stun time is usually around 15 seconds, but in some special cases, there is always a chance for Nocturne to recover from the stun much faster than that.
But that small amount of time will be a gap Sukuna could use to chain the next stun.
The sound of magic hitting the ground and dissipating, along with the dull thud of the [Ouma] that Sukuna wielded, echoed through the zone, creating some kind of symphony.
With calm and efficient movement, Sukuna continued to hit Nocturne’s head relentlessly.
While Sukuna continues doing so, some magic is automatically generated in Nocturne surrounding and launched themselves towards Sukuna, but without Nocturne’s control, the missiles misfired and hit their Master instead.
(3 …… 2 …… 1 …… now!)
Sukuna, who had been counting the time while checking Nocturne’s stun recovery time, now uses a certain art.
It’s an art Sukuna gained when she reached Skill Mastery of [Blunt Weapon], The name of the art itself was a reference to a famous horse [Deep Impact].
This is a buff art that consumes SP and quadruples the stun point build-up by four times for 10 seconds. And Sukuna had used this just before her attack landed on Nocturne’s head.
Combined with the initial stun value requirement that was extremely low for the first time it applied, Sukuna was able to bring down Nocturne to her knees in one hit. {stun value requirement: the amount of point one need to inflict stun, tln.}
However, [Deep Impact] is a tricky art to use.
The first drawback is that the amount of SP required to activate it is much higher than other arts. Because of its high multiplier, second, the duration itself is very short.
And even if you activate it, that stun point multiplier will only show its worth when you could hit the opponent in the head.
By not using any arts when continuing to hit Nocturne, Sukuna is able to activate the [SP Drain] that [Ouma] has and recover the SP she used to activate [Deep Impact].
And by continuing to hit Nocturne while she was stunned, Sukuna could build up a stun point by continuing to aim her blow at the Nocturne’s head, which was supposed to be difficult.
About 18 seconds after being trapped into the stun, Nocturne finally could move again.
But during those time, Nocturne’s HP gauge was reduced by about one-twentieth of its total. It was a small but definite advance. {tln1}
“…Not bad, I’m impre—”
“Go back to sleep!”
“—GUH?”
As soon as Nocturne recovered from the stun, Sukuna hit her in the head again with all her might, knocking Nocturne into a second stun.
What Sukuna is doing is often called [Hamewaza], an orthodox strategy in hack and slash game, where you use trap and ailment to restrict your opponent’s actions and reduce their HP. {tln2}
In WLO, the accumulation of stun point requirement returns to 0 when the opponent falls into the stun state, so if you can time it right, you can immediately apply the stun state for the second time, like what Sukuna doing now. {mark my word, Sukuna will get nerfed lol}
Normally, that was impossible because one would have run out of SP due to the bad fuel usage of [Deep Impact]; even though you will need to keep attacking and farm the stun point, the consecutive stun is normally impossible if you are doing it by yourself.
But Sukuna’s [Ouma] will plunder the enemy’s SP. And with Sukuna’s specialized equipment, her SP gain will exceed its consumption.
Sukuna herself did not blindly use this chance to ‘just’ hit Nocturne’s head. Sukuna also hits other vital areas such as temples, chin, and other points to increase the total damage done so that damage, stun point, and SP recovery can all be generated efficiently.
However, this method has a fatal flaw, which is… you won’t look pretty because you will be endlessly hitting an unresisting enemy on the head, just like Sukuna does right now.
This method might be fine against giant monsters, and people might even praise you for your craftiness. But against a human-sized opponent like Nocturne, this would only look like an act of domestic violence.
That said, Sukuna has no leeway to think about how she looks during this battle.
([Deep Impact] ‘s SP consumption is already recovered by using [Ouma]. Also, the stun duration was exactly 18.5 seconds the first time. I needed to use 32 hits to drive her into stun at first, and I was able to drive her back to the second stun using 33 hits.
I didn’t expect it needs so many blows to apply that state. If possible, I want to deliver more hits, but stun time will decrease in the next one. And looking at the speed of Nocturne’s stun resistance build-up, I’m definitely not going to be able to use THAT if I force it.)
Sukuna was hoping to do this routine two more times, but the stun resistance build-up is far quicker than she expected.
However, Sukuna also never hoped to keep Nocturne in stun forever.
This strategy is only meant to scrape Nocturne’s hp as much as possible while the stun is still effective.
“Stop it! you bas—”
“Nope.”
(This one lasted exactly 16 seconds. The duration didn’t decrease as much as I expected. Maybe it’s a type of resistance that builds resistance to blow but doesn’t affect the stun time that much.)
So far, about 45 seconds has lasted. While preparing to counter Nocturne’s attack when she had broken out of the stun, Sukuna kept an eye on Nocturne’s remaining HP.
Nocturne switched her attack type to magic when her HP bar was half-emptied.
From that point on, Sukuna hadn’t received any damage, and in the last 30 seconds of Sukuna’s one-sided beating, she only managed to shave less than 10% of Nocturne’s HP bar, which left Nocturne with about 40% of her HP in the first bar.
(This Nocturne seems to have more HP than Ars Nova, or she has an unusually high defense. I’m guessing it’s the former since my normal attacks are registered, but yeah, at this pace, I’ll never make it in time.)
Not even once she stopped thinking in this fight, she needs to keep her brain level-headed, while she holds her urge to use her move. It’s not the time yet.
After finally being released from the stun for real, Nocturne now switched her main attack to physical instead of magic, perhaps because Sukuna was getting too close to her.
(I’ve seen through her. I don’t even need to parry it.)
Sukuna calmly responds to Nocturne’s assault.
Counter.
Counter. Counter.
Counter. Counter. Counter.
Counter after counter after counter.
Having seen through all of Nocturne’s possible attack patterns, power, and speed, Sukuna countered all of her attacks.
Sometimes Nocturne’s own magic that falls from the sky was used to break Nocturne’s stance and deflect her attacks.
This is Sukuna’s signature counterattack strategy, but it is slightly different from what she has done in the past.
In the past, she had only evaded and countered while defending, but this time, Sukuna was not only defended and countered but also slipped in many of her own attacks.
(No matter how much I move and attack, I never run out of SP; my recovery outpaces my consumption. It’s amazing that Haruru can create such a weapon.)
Originally, the amount of SP that [Ouma], could leech from the enemy should not have been able to keep up with the player’s SP consumption according to the game design.
The only thing that Haruru was able to implement was the ability to reduce the speed of SP depletion at best. And if you were constantly moving or unleashing powerful arts, you would eventually run out of SP.
However, Sukuna is equipped with the named equipment [Lone Moon Camelia].
This equipment, which halves all SP consumption, effectively doubles the amount of SP recovery of her [Ouma].
There is also a further reduction that comes from [Red Wolf Attire Alter]. Namely, the (large) SP consumption reduction effect activated by the skill called [Wolf King Rush – Alter].
As Konekomaru once promised, the synergy of all the equipment would complement each other to grant Sukuna tremendous SP efficiency.
There was no longer any need to worry about running out of SP for the current Sukuna.
The SP problem that had been plagued her for a long time finally came to an end, and Sukuna was very happy with this.
Sukuna’s onslaught didn’t stop, and she was able to counteract all of Nocturne’s brawl using only her player skills.
Two minutes passed, and there were only 30 seconds left until the promised three minutes.
Nocturne still had about 20% HP left from the first bar, and she was able to withstand Sukuna’s attacks without any arts using only her overwhelming HP.
However, a change occurred in the situation of the two who had been exchanging blows to each other (despite being one-sided).
“Hmph!”
“GAH!?”
The turning point was made by an uppercut Sukuna made while letting her weapon go.
As a result, Nocturne fell into a stun for the third time.
Nocturne’s stun point limit, which had been gradually piled up, was now reaching its maximum cap.
(So far, it’s just as I hoped. The time of the stun wasn’t too bad. But the stun probably won’t last 15 seconds now. It’s the time for me to unleash it all!)
With her hands clasped together and her weapon out of her hand, Sukuna initiated her [Oni no Mai].
The dance used is [Douji no Mai], a dance she only used once; it was then that she slaughtered Ars Nova – the Great Dragon of Waves.
To explain this dance effect simply, this dance would allow the user to deny death for 30 seconds. Or to elaborate it even further; no matter how much damage you would take in 30 seconds, you won’t die; instead, it will drop your HP to 1 point, but in exchange, your defense, stamina, and Magic Defense will be reduced to zero, while the damage you take will be multiplied by five.
After activating this, Sukuna no longer needed to evade magic. And from this point, she can devote all her concentration to attack.
“Replace!”
This time, she uses [Instant Replacement] to put [Ouma] back into her inventory.
Which left her to be barehanded, and it was clear what skill she wanted to use now.
The more one uses this skill; the more proficient one becomes in this skill. And the more proficient you are, the stronger your fist will be.
Sukuna’s [Bare-handed Fighting] skill had been steadily increasing in proficiency and had finally reached a point where her attack power was better without the Heavy Metal Gauntlet.
Nocturne, who had been stunned for the third time, now unable to move for at least 10 seconds, was hit with a series of special attacks that are quickly transformed into Sukuna’s ultimate.
[Soryuu]
[Mikumo]
[Yotsuba]
[Itsuwa]
[Rikudou]
[Sichiyo]
[Hachirin]
[Kuze]
[Bare Handed Fighting] skill’s arts combo, consisting of forty-four consecutive attacks. And with Sukuna’s current agility, it would take less than 10 seconds to finish this movie set.
Her aim is Nocturne’s body. Sukuna didn’t even try to hit Nocturne’s head because it won’t have much effect unless you use a weapon to hit the head part.
“OooOooo OOOoooooOOHHHH!”
A high-speed fist strike devoid of hesitation was fired at stunned Nocturne.
However, these 44 consecutive hits from [Soryuu] to [Kuze] were nothing but an opening act; the main event is the next 11 strikes of extreme power that have been waiting for their turn.
“ONE!” {HITOTSU!}
Along with Sukuna’s shout, a loud thud of the first hit of certain art was echoed.
Without pause, the second and third shots are fired. Each successive strike increased in power, and each collision produced louder and even louder sounds.
[Bare-handed fighting] skill, the 10-strike art [Toe Sakura{Ten-layered Cherry Blossom}].
Every time it lands, its power is doubled, and if all of its hits are connected, the total damage is 55 times that of the opening blow.
Normally, it would be difficult to connect all of them because of the tremendous recoil damage caused by the brutality each strike carried in the latter half of the art.
However, due to the effect of the Fifth form – [Douji no Mai], the current Sukuna [will not die from damage] in any way.
It doesn’t matter if it’s from an enemy attack or self-inflicted damage from a recoil [Douji no Mai] will keep the user alive within its duration, no matter how severe the damage is.
“Eight! Nine!”
Even though the avatar’s whole body was creaking from the tremendous recoil damage, Sukuna did not slow down.
The stun will break soon, and she need to deals the final blow before it does.
“Ten!”
Along with a deafening sound that is more proper to be called an explosion, [Toe Sakura] finished its part.
Nocturne’s first bar of HP is destroyed at the end of the completion of the strongest skill that boasts the highest DPS of all arts.
It hadn’t been three minutes yet, but Sukuna had shattered Nocturne’s HP gauge just as she had promised to three of her party members.
But no.
She’s not finished
Sukuna’s attack is not finished!
“Not! Yet!”
While unleashing a shout from her heart, Sukuna pulled her right arm as far as she could.
The most powerful art of the [Bare-Handed fighting] now resides in her broken avatar.
The power equal to the total damage of the [Toe Sakura] is put into a single blow, and an extreme yet unreasonable blow is about to be unleashed.
“Wa—Wait…!”
“[Zenken Yui]!!”
Nocturne finally broke free from the stun, but she can only stare shocked before the technique that Sukuna had prepared.
And Nocturne had no time left to dodge it.
It’s an extreme blow that destroys everything, including the person who used it. The blow pierced through Nocturne and unleashed a storm of destruction throughout the area.
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The aftermath caused a storm of destruction throughout the temple grounds.
It’s an honor to meet such great opponents.
In the sanctuary under the moon, a Nocturne softly spoke.
TLNote:
This is going to be long, maybe, I will try to shorten it as much as possible.
First! Overhaul of barehanded skill art list. The author finally provides the furigana, so I know how to pronounce it.
Second! The stun in this game determined by stun point/value, so you cannot just hit a vital with blunt weapon and put someone/thing in stun state, you need to farm/build it up first, until it finally reaches the limit and put your target into stunned state.
Tln1: It ain’t much, but its honest work.
Tln2: well… no exact terms for [Hamewaza] in English, I could use [Stun Locking], but that won’t be accurate, right?
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Below is my rant. I need to let out some steam lol. Read only if you have too much time in your hand.
ah also, I will release double for today, to compensate for my absence.
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Anyway, a day before yesterday thunderstorm hit Surabaya (my city) with a bit of ice rain. Yes, you read it right, not snow. It’s friggin ice.
I got kind of lucky that the biggest chuck on ice missed my car by a hairbreadth, it tore open my garage roof and by some miracle missed the most important object there, but the worse part is: for that day, we had black out almost a half-day in my place.
But wait, that’s only half of the story!
After that day, I found out my AC is out of freon, the cause? Some of the ice happened to hit the pipe leading to the outside unit and broke it.
So there you have it, my excuse to delay this release for two days.
Really, when people hit that kind of misfortune, all you can do is laugh it off. There’s no one to blame, well I can blame Zeus, but that would be unfair.