Chapter 177: Breaking the Limits: Dead Weight Part 1
Chapter 177: Breaking the Limits: Dead Weight Part 1
Swords start to spin all over the place, cutting deep trenches in the asphalt and sending sparks flying. However, Meetias was already out of the harm’s way.
I then felt an unnatural weight on the tip of one of my swords and when I looked up to see what was that about, I saw Meetias standing at the swords tip, about ready to send a kick flying my way.
「Nuoooh!?」
「Tsk!」
I do my best to avoid the steel heel that was descending fast onto me. Once the heels barely manages to scrape the tip of my chest plate, I start acting in order to counterattack.
I position myself in the center of the main street, intercept Meetias’s incoming attacks and start to run away in order to put some distance in between us.
My gauge was almost completely filled up, only a little bit more and I could unleash my ultimate move. But just where should I use it? After all, Cursed Prison’s Ultimate Move is slightly different from that of other characters.
If you use it carelessly it won’t bring you the win you want, so you need to carefully choose the right place…… Oh, RNG can just go blow itself! Sh*t, did she managed to avoid it?
「Wait, can we talk about……」
「Hurry, hurry! We only have so much time we can spend with one another, so let’s use it to the fullest!」
Sh*t, I take a deep breath to calm myself down…… Let’s do this. I have no other choice.
There is a slight difference in between our HP bars, but as long as it won’t go past thirty percent I should be alright. Still, I needed to keep my guard up at all times. One wrong move and it could be all over for me.
Also, I’m perfectly aware of that fact, but once I decide to do this, this match will more or less be brought down to the level of bashing special attacks against one another. Doing something like that against Silvia Goldberg is a huge gamble on my part.
「Your Ultimate Move…… It should be about ready to use, right? Then come on! Come right at me with it!」
「You’ve taken the words right out of my mouth!」
Meetias’s Ultimate Move, Meteor Strike is the homing ability. Basically it’s a technique that can follow you around and once it targets you, you have very little options to defend against it.
The only way to avoid an attack like that is to move faster than the attack is coming right at you, at the speed which would allow you to outrun the homing. You could also try to…… Ah, in this setting there’s no point in thinking about that option.
(Are you going to activate it first? Or maybe you’re going to wait? Both options have their merits and demerits, and the HP bars can make all the difference right about now……)
Depending on the situation, my course of action would change drastically, just like my HP bar and gauge bar…… But I still needed to be cautious of that thirty percent.
「An opening!」
「Oh, sh*t!」
I got distracted. And once I realized what was going on, it was already too late. A strong impact started to course through my chest and my body got immobilized.
「It was fun while it lasted, Cursed Prison. I had so much fun…… But the Hero always comes out on top!」
Meetias jumps in the air, then blue particles start to gather around his legs and shine brightly.
Was I just stunned again? No! Not yet…… I just need a little bit more time! Just a little bit more so that my gauge fills and I can use my own Ultimate Move in order to get out of this mess! As long as I do this before the kick connects!
When it comes to Ultimate Attacks, if they detonate near you it can easily chip about forty percent of your HP bar away. If it’s a clean hit, that number can go as high as fifty or even sixty percent. That being said, Meteor Strike is not an attack that only hits its target. It causes area of effect damage on a large radius around it.
So completely avoiding that attack is out of the question because of the splash damage, but I should at least be able to survive it if I avoid a direct hit.
「Don’t…… UNDERESTIMATE MEEEEEE!!!」
With that, I deploy my own Ultimate Move and……
「Mama, where are you……?」
By concentrating my five senses to their very limit, I quickly scout out the entire area and formulate a plan, before eventually my mind arrives at a solution.
Voice, child, woman, familiarity, kurikinton, background, blast range, radius, more kurikinton, Pencilgton, even more kurikinton, weapon, kurininton, Meetias’s positioning……
It feels as though my body moves on its own. No, that’s not right. It moves exactly how I want it to move. Why, how, what’s behind me, all of that information becomes obsolete in my brain as only three words emerge to the surface and take over: DON”T RUN AWAY.
Meetias’s “Meteor Strike” is a technique that pours energy into the target it hits and uses that energy to implode the target from within, creating a huge blast radius in the process. In other words, the key to this technique is “contact”.
The blast is inevitable, and completely avoiding it is something that is quite literally impossible to do. You could technically try to use shields, or get to cover, or stack things that would create a barrier, but…… Meaningless.
My thoughts come to me only after my body is already set in motion. It’s time to act now, the time to rationalize my actions will come later.
With both swords in my hands I make an “X”-like slash, then I grab the spare swords at my waist and do the X-slash again.
Four walls, headache, feeling drowsy, another kick comes right in, fluffy, guard up, need to pee, starting,
Match the timing.
「Here.」
While assuming the guard posture similar to the American tackle, I lean towards the flying blades that slowly started to fall down towards the ground. In the very next moment, a shock wave penetrates through those four swords.
It was a direct hit from the side, but thanks to that the thing that was directly hit was not Cursed Prison but the propeller blades.
Behind the swords that suddenly turned into shields, the shields that were being ripped apart and eroded from the inside, there was a shocked expression of the Hero. I only saw it for a moment before he accelerated even further, but he seemed shocked that his attack didn’t go through.
I can’t be too sure, but behind the mask with star-shaped googles, there was probably a smile and eyes-wide open, looking as though they were on the verge of tears.
Then there was an explosion.
「Talk about packing quite a punch……」
Despite avoiding the direct hit by the Meteor Strike, the force of the blast was so powerful that even a heavy giant like Cursed Prison was unable to withstand the blast wave and was swept off its feet. Of course, I immediately started to get back up on my feet.
As expected, the full-body helicopter armor did little in terms of defense as it was largely just for show. However, thanks to that Cursed Prison was still standing, although with only fumes of its HP bar being left right now. So I’d say it’s pretty accurate that I could fall down at any minute now, due to the slightest of damage.
「Meteor Strike is a super deadly Ultimate Move that injects the power of the Meetias Star into the target and destroys it from the inside…… I could easily protect myself with the propeller, but why to do something like this? I can’t figure it out.」
「……… Why accepting it head-on without trying to escape………?」
Well, it’s not really that much of a mystery. I just wanted to make it up to the girl that we caused so much suffering to earlier that day.
Because of that I blocked the attack and suffered the shockwave, and hence my current situation. But I don’t want to be treated like Pencilgton. I would like to leave a good impression, if I can help it.
「Hey, the little girl with chestnut ice cream. It’s not safe here, so you should go away. Besides, your mom is probably looking for you, worried sick.」
「Y, yeah……」
Right behind me, there is a scared little NPC girl that Cursed Prison protected from the blast. I know it was foolish. I know that it’s not the same girl. I know that the Chaos City that Clock Fire decimated and this one are completely different things.
However, no matter a Hero or a Villain, you should never get innocent people get caught up with your own affairs.
Think of it like a bad guy who took pity on the little puppy he happened to come across in a cardboard box on a rainy day. It’s a cliché since time immemorial, but who gives a sh*t? Now, worship this here Cursed Prison, you savor……!