Zugzwang (3)
The question of how to secure victory against an opponent stronger than yourself had an answer my girlfriend once gave me.
"You aim for the blind spot in their thinking—the kind of attack they would never expect. After all, if your enemy isn't some AI or robot but a human being, they'll have their own habits, values, and preconceptions. A strike that lands completely outside their field of awareness. When you face someone stronger, the way to handle it is to transcend the limits of your own thinking."
"That's also why I kissed you. Ah, anyway! If it hadn't been for that, I wouldn't have won the game just now."
Because of that advice, the moment I dropped Stealth I didn't swing my sword to block the enemy. Instead, I tore off the right arm it seemed to favor. Since this wasn't a pattern the Blood Knight had ever seen in ordinary combat, it failed to counterattack.
"□'■□ ■□■□■□■!!!!"
The Blood Knight let out that grotesque roar and instinctively realized something was wrong. It began putting distance between us. Its ragged breathing, the trembling, the anxiety and fear—its face had no features left except the blood streaming from its eyes, yet its terror of me was unmistakable.
"Where do you think you're running? Rutum, Solidificatio."
I copied Luna's magic, turning the ground to mud, then immediately hardened it. It was low-tier magic that required no chant, but in battle the state of the terrain mattered a great deal.
"……!!!"
Thud, thud! The Blood Knight, which had been sprinting on its remaining arm and two legs like a beast, slowed in the mud and finally stopped. The knight trapped in the mire thrashed, unable to cope with the suddenly hardened ground.
"Hey, Demian. Can you move?"
"No, sir. I can't even move a finger."
"You're a handful. Here, drink this. How do you set out on an adventure without even bringing a single healing potion?"
Glug. While the enemy was momentarily immobilized, I propped up the blood-soaked Demian and uncorked the potion. It was something I'd bought at great expense from the renowned alchemist and mage, the Golden Tower Lord—an elixir that could heal even injuries that were normally impossible to mend.
I had originally planned to help only after the hero Demian suffered a crushing defeat and the other characters fell into despair.
"I trusted in Saintess Lavey's healing… and I thought calling for you, Shade-nim, would be more effective this way."
Looking at that foolishly trusting expression and the suspicious hero who believed in me without doubt, my resolve wavered.
"See? You really did come. To save me and my companions…"
"I should have just left you to die."
"You really can't lie, can you? Hic…!"
Gulp, gulp. Demian seemed to know my scolding wasn't sincere, so I simply forced the potion down his throat.
"Puhah, I can't breathe…! Huh? It doesn't hurt anymore…?"
Vitality returned to the hero's body. Every wound on his face and limbs vanished without a trace.
"Share the rest with your companions. You can manage that much, right?"
"Yes, I understand. Master, woof."
"…All talk."
Now fully recovered, Demian even cracked that joke. The way he kept needling me made it feel as though he'd learned the habit from someone I knew.
"I didn't come here for you. I just… remembered an old friend and got concerned, that's all."
I deliberately spoke coldly to Demian. Ever since I was young, anything involving my girlfriend made me far too sentimental. Having lost my parents early, enduring the world's contempt, drifting between orphanages and part-time jobs—meeting her had been my only salvation.
I'd only harbored a small, selfish desire to raise the characters' favorability as I once had, to see the ending of this world that she never got to witness.
'That was definitely Yuho's voice.'
An Yuho. From the moment we met, she'd been self-conscious about her name sounding masculine and had kept her true identity hidden while playing chess. That girl's voice had just echoed clearly in my ears.
It wasn't an auditory hallucination. My instincts told me so. The pounding of my heart, the trembling of my soul—they confirmed it was her.
Whether she had sent me a message or whether Demian was connected to it, I couldn't yet say for certain. But if—if she truly existed in this world—then this time I didn't want to repeat the same mistake.
"Phantom, gather all the scattered wounded here and guard them. The Blood Knight might try to take hostages."
- Got it, Shade!
The moment I gave the order, the shadow wolf vanished and returned with everyone. Demian's companions lay broken, organs ruptured, clinging to life by a thread.
- Is this okay? Is this okay?
Phantom wrapped its massive body around Demian and the others, forming a protective igloo-like shelter.
"Good. The bastard will try to burst out and attack me soon. This is only a stopgap—it won't work twice."
Boom—!
Just as I predicted, the Blood Knight deliberately detonated part of its own body, scattering itself into fragments. Wriggle, wriggle. The severed arm flew straight toward the pile of goblin corpses and blood, absorbing the crimson liquid. Red bone formed, fibrous muscle grew over it, and finally armor of congealed blood encased everything.
'It's quite sophisticated. If it can replace all material manifestation with blood… then it can't be killed unless completely annihilated.'
The sight would have made any ordinary person scream, but I immediately hurled a dagger to interrupt the regeneration.
Thud—! Crunch!
I aimed for where its eyes should have been. The long-haired figure I assumed was female staggered violently, yet that was all. Regeneration completed.
"…Miles Desperans!!"
"Talking during a fight? How novel."
The Blood Knight immediately took a stance and charged, swinging its sword. It was clearly a different creature from the one that had fought Demian and his companions. It treated me as foreign matter, its killing intent thick along the path of its blade.
'The Blood Knight grows stronger the stronger the player is… but I seem to be an exception.'
For whatever reason, it couldn't seal my Copy ability. Calliope's power had landed cleanly earlier, and now both magic and the Empire's swordsmanship flowed through me without issue.
'It's a swordsman like Demian—favors the right foot and hand. Breathing is rough; its gaze leads and the attack follows.'
The basics of combat were knowing yourself and knowing the enemy. I had already committed every detail of the Blood Knight's fight against Demian to memory. Unlike Demian, who seemed to know the future, this creature fought with a sharply honed survival instinct.
'The right side is open. I can endure.'
Therefore—clang—! Clang! Grgrgrgrk—! Even though my daggers had shorter reach than its sword, a few exchanges were enough to twist its trajectory and parry.
"□■□■□■-□■!"
"Giving up the knight act already? I'm almost disappointed."
In its frenzied state, the Blood Knight sharpened all the blood in its body and tried to impale me. It must have judged that normal methods wouldn't suffice, so it was throwing everything into the attack. Even without reason or intellect, its survival instinct would be screaming warnings.
"Whoops, that was close."
I pulled taut the wires I'd laid around the forest beforehand, lifting my entire body into the air and dodging the Blood Knight's strike. My actions remained calm and measured despite my words.
Whoosh—!
Like a spider traversing invisible threads, I sliced through the air on the unseen steel wires. Then I copied its sword. Crimson blood gathered in the empty space and took shape.
"Valtreia Imperial Swordsmanship, Third Form."
The stance I had swung hundreds of times unfolded in midair. I had learned it by watching the knights on the battlefield over my shoulder.
"Shadow Drop."
Kwaaaaaang—!
With a sound like an exploding powder magazine, the aura inside me detonated. The sword strike reduced the Blood Knight to pulp.
"□■! □■!"
Yet it did not die. Reduced to rags, it still managed to deflect my blade with trembling hands. So it truly couldn't be killed unless its very existence was erased. I used the Blood Knight's sword as a stepping stone and leapt back to gain distance.
"□'■□■! □'■□■! □'■□■!"
Once more I charged the Blood Knight before me and threw my daggers. This time I aimed for a trick using the rings on my fingers and the steel wires.
'I'll coat them with Lavey's holy power again, and string the wires between the tips of both daggers. Adding everything I prepared in advance…'
The enemy feared me and regarded me as a lethal threat. Therefore, instead of simply taking the attack, it would surely try to knock the daggers aside with its sword.
Clang—!
A metallic ring sounded as the two daggers fell near the Blood Knight and embedded themselves in the ground. At that exact moment—
"□■!! □■!!"
Kwaaaang—!
With a single bound from the Blood Knight, the air itself detonated in a circular shockwave. It was a speed no ordinary human could react to; the creature had clearly aimed for that. But—
—Swish, rrrrip, crack!
I turned that very speed and destructive force against it. As though carved apart by an invisible blade, the Blood Knight's body and head burst into countless small fragments.
"……?!!!"
The knight of the red moon seemed to realize too late that it had fallen into a trap, yet it could neither scream nor reach out. The tremendous velocity it had generated was already more than enough to destroy itself.
"H-how did you do that?"
Having distributed the healing potions to his companions, Demian watched the battle from beyond the shadow wolf and asked.
"I exploited its carelessness. The assumption that once it deflected the incoming daggers, there would be no further danger."
The daggers had been thrown purely as a feint. Watching it fight Demian, I'd noticed it could reach the rear line and knock down multiple allies with its fists in a single motion. Once the trap was set, it would unhesitatingly try to kill me at that same incredible speed.
"I strung thin but strong wires all across the space in front—completely invisible to the naked eye. Like a dense net."
"Don't tell me the reason I lost was…"
"Steel wire coated with Saintess Lavey's holy power. There's no ordinary way to cut or untangle it. Obviously."
I readily explained the secret of the wires to Demian. At least for now, I no longer felt we would be enemies.
"The fact that you're telling me this… does it mean you trust me…?"
"Well, at the very least I no longer believe you're the hero."
I recalled Demian's blood-soaked figure. Even if he knew the future, there were moments of despair when anyone might run or show weakness. Yet the hero now standing behind me had done everything he could to protect his companions. Unlike the original character I knew, he was a protagonist who had overcome his trauma—like a chick breaking free of its shell.
Moreover, my intuition told me that staying with Demian would lead me to clues about my girlfriend.
"…Wait. Don't tell me you knew about this too?"
"Heh, want to guess?"
"No, forget it. The result can't be undone anyway."
A chill ran down my spine, but I had no desire to step into that abyss. The hero's ability—regression, looping, or something else—had the status window flashing warnings to block any further inquiry.
And at that moment—
"Alea Iacta Est!! Alea Iacta Est!!"
Mouths formed on the scattered blood fragments of the Blood Knight and began screaming the phrase toward the sky.
"Miles In Aeternum Non Salvabitur!!"
Beneath the crimson moon, ominous tentacle-like shadows slithered past. Once again the Blood Knight began to manifest endlessly from the ground. The blood-red knights tangled and merged, reforming into a single colossal knight. It designated me as an impurity and sought to destroy me by any means necessary.
That madness and killing intent coursed along my spine, making my body tremble with the urge to flee. Yet—
"…So you won't let me leave quietly, huh?"
I clenched my molars and stepped one foot forward, shifting my weight. As long as this involved my girlfriend, I would not run any farther.
'System, aside from the hero's ability, can I copy his "qualification"?'
I tightened my grip and seized the Holy Sword Einherjar. A sacred blade that could only be wielded by one chosen as the hero—I was about to forcibly twist that rule.
■□□□□ affirms this.
"Good. You should have said so sooner."
—Clang!
As though the Holy Sword itself leapt from its scabbard into my hand, the motion flowed naturally. A weapon imbued with the power to banish evil and bring light to the world. Blood surged hot through my veins, sending danger signals toward the colossal blood-red giant before me.
Ordinary methods wouldn't kill it. In that case—
'Let's give that a try.'
—Hoooo.
I drew my arm back slightly, inhaled deeply, and assumed a posture suited for throwing the sword.
- Your character is the rogue Shade who possesses Copy. So couldn't you combine the abilities of other characters and use them all at once?
A technique my girlfriend had once imagined, doodling in her notebook with cute handwriting.
'Coat the blade with Lavey's holy power, spin it at high speed using Luna's magic, and concentrate as much energy as possible at the tip.'
My body wouldn't withstand using this. I probably wouldn't be able to move a single finger for a whole day afterward. But I had no choice.
"□■□■□■□■ □■□■□■─!!"
The colossal knight before me was reaching out to crush me and the others with its bare hands.
'Add the tension from Isabella's bow, and finish with Calliope's strength to throw it with full force.'
I copied and condensed the power of everyone present into the Holy Sword, then aimed it at the knight's head.
- The name of your ultimate move? Hmm, I haven't really thought about what would be good yet…
- Ah, that's it!
I hurled the sword skyward with every ounce of strength, reciting the name of the technique she herself had given it—
"…Chekhov's Gun."
The Holy Sword Einherjar, leaving my hand, erased the colossal knight without a trace amid an earth-shaking roar.