A Timely Awakening
Thanks to that, even after finishing the base upgrade this time, we couldn't go straight into building new annex facilities the way we used to. We were left sitting around with nothing to do.
Fortunately, we didn't actually end up killing time in a daze.
Now that the base had hit Stage 10, a system I'd learned about through a message long ago kicked in: every five stages of base upgrade, one superhuman would randomly be released from hibernation.
And so, through the door of the command post where Jessica and I were, a superhuman who had supposedly just woken from hibernation made her entrance.
As for who that was…
Clomp, clomp… thump!
"Heeey, Commander? It's been a reeeally long time."
"Decarabia?"
"It's been a while, Miss Decarabia."
"Yaaawn… Heeey, Jessica."
A woman in a coat with a short ponytail, drawing every syllable out to absurd lengths and wearing an expression that said the entire universe was one long bore.
I hadn't planned it, but an SS-grade "commander" superhuman — extremely rare in our base — had just shown up: Decarabia.
Strictly speaking, it wasn't that I had no commander-type superhumans under me. Most of them, though, ran their own mercenary companies rather than truly belonging to me, so they couldn't take the helm of my fleet. Someone like Belial, who could actually operate my fleet on her own, was the real article.
Separate from that, Decarabia overlapped with Belial in a lot of her concept.
Belial, for instance, could command fleet battles — and if you threw her into personal combat, she fought with the combat "puppets" she controlled. She also pitched in herself with guns, blades, and the occasional fist, a true all-rounder.
Decarabia was similar: she could command a fleet battle and held her own if you put her on the front line. Like Belial, though, she preferred a fighting style that leaned on her "subordinates."
That said, Decarabia did have a few traits that set her apart from Belial.
[Decarabia setting art.jpg]
Hey hey, thanks everyone for writing all those superhuman guides.
This one's a review of the SS-grade superhuman Decarabia. Honestly? Not that different from the Belial write-up I did before (hyperlink).
If you ignore the raw stat gap that comes with SSS vs. SS, they're shockingly close in overall quality.
That said, Decarabia has carved out her own niche as a so-called "comfort food" superhuman — a solid everyday pick, unlike Belial, who's hard to get as an SSS.
Why? Separate from her own fleet command buffs, she also applies a modest buff to superhumans.
Technically it's applied to "fleets or assault units," but if you slot superhumans into those fleets or assault units, they get the buff too, so no problem.
Of course, given her grade, and the fact that she's already a commander type who also throws out fleet buffs and superhuman buffs at the same time, each individual buff is pretty weak next to Belial or dedicated support types.
The important part is this: normally you'd need at least one superhuman each for command, support, and assault. With Decarabia, the ceiling is a little lower, but you can run all three tactics at once. Yeah.
Oh good — matches what I remember almost exactly.
As that write-up made clear, our champion of drawn-out speech, Decarabia, was essentially the "midline" of a force — the flexible waist that held everything together.
"Now that Miss Decarabia is here, Belial's days of suffering alone are over."
"Hmm, right? Belial's gonna love this."
"Mmh… I'll dooo my best, Commaander."
I nodded at Decarabia's still-bored face and decided to welcome our newly acquired — or rather, experienced — new hire with open arms.
Talk about perfect timing!
And of course, the moment she popped out—
"Hm? Decarabia?"
"Heeey, Miss Belial."
"Ohhh, long time no see!"
"Grianar's heeere too."
I rounded up the superhumans who'd already finished today's daily quests, or who were off doing weird things among themselves, and sat them down for a cheerful girls' talk with Decarabia.
While they chattered, I decided to check Decarabia's status window in the meantime.
Level:1
Type:Grand Army Mid-Range
Trait:Survivalist
Just about right.
Decarabia's stats sat right where I'd expected them to. Knowing her performance as I did, the timing of her arrival felt almost too good to be true.
On paper, our fleet's superhuman roster looked overwhelming — plastered with SSS-grades. In practice, though… if you set aside the mercenary companies and the faction detachments, the whole structure was heavily skewed in one direction.
"Is something on your mind, Commander?"
"No. The more I think about it, the more it feels like Decarabia showed up at exactly the right moment."
"The right… timing?"
"Yeah. Fleet command, buffs — the literal 'waist' of the fleet in combat."
Jessica had drifted over and drawn me into conversation, so rather than brood alone I decided to talk it through with her.
"Look carefully, Jessica. Purely my direct reports — no, my actual property. How many superhumans is that?"
"Hmm. Excluding Miss Oxianor, whose affiliation is a little fuzzy, eight in total."
"And of those, how many are actually tied to command, besides Belial?"
"You're right. Ignis, Partia, and Smeragi are all close-combat specialists…"
"And Paschutra and Dornea are pure firepower long-range types, nowhere near command."
"You're absolutely right, Commander."