Chapter 20.1

「Quite a ruckus out there.」

When the Mazlack knights were just about wiped out, Douga whispered. He sensed that something was off in the courtyard.

「Isn’t from combat?」

「Not quite. No blades clashing. I can hear some sort of discourse.」

Since they were in the middle of a battle, this was bizarre. Slightly confused by this situation, Douga continued to corner Odenell. As leader, Odenell was marginally more skilled than the rest of the lot, but that margin was negligible to Douga. Unable to put up any sort of a fight, his weapon was shattered, and his armor was destroyed. Knees quaking, Odenell crumpled to the ground.

「We won’t find out until we take a look. Let’s head over and…」

Douga couldn’t finish. The same disturbance that was affecting the courtyard had taken affect in the front entrance.

「…Huh?」

The bodies of the Mazlack knights began to suddenly morph. For some, their arms blew up, making them more buff than an ogre, and for others, their hair changed to tentacles. Only some of them were lucky enough to maintain a humanoid appearance, while there were a few who had morphed to some sort of slime. What all of them had in common was oozing affliction, and the fact that they had each doubled in size.

「…Stomach-turning.」

Carefully watching this ominous (undoubtedly R-rated) turn of events, Douga spat out in disgust.

「Do you think this has anything to do with the commotion earlier?」

Rayna asked.

「Not sure. In any case, I figure we can’t leave these bastards be.」

「…If the same thing is happening outside, things aren’t looking well for us.」

Nodding in response, Douga poised his lance. There were one hundred Mazlack knights in all. While Douga didn’t know how much of a change these morphing would cause, it wasn’t as hard as taking on Cerberuses. That being said, if they retained their human intelligence, they could use their new-gained powers in unexpected ways. The best course of action, Douga thought, was to wipe them out at once.

「On the double, Rayna!」

「Lord Douga, head to the courtyard for back-up, please.」

「Hm?」

「No restraint is required here, anymore. They don’t seem like the type to leave any useful materials behind, and Hiroshi isn’t messed up that way to use materials harvested from ex-humans. No one would be inconvenienced if I cut loose here.」

Rayna proposed, as she sliced the first mutant in pieces, with a rabid, rabid grin glowing across her face.

「Alone? Are you sure?」

「I won’t stand to give these fools the respect to ask for back-up, mutants or not. Besides, this is the perfect opportunity to exact my revenge for everything they’ve done. Legally, nonetheless. I don’t mind, really. I’ll make sure that every single one is obliterated.」

Even as she responded to Douga, she cut down two mutants. As she was using Elemental Enchantments against those more durable to normal sword attacks, Douga could see that Rayna wasn’t losing herself.

「…Fine. I won’t accept any complaints for running a few of them over on my way out, though.」

「I understand.」

The mutant (who used to be Odenell) must have heard this, and cackled:

「How stupid can you be, She-Man!? You’re outnumbered and now outclassed!」

Ignoring Odenell, Rayna sliced them down left and right to cover Douga as he prepared. After a full second or so, Douga unleashed his attack through the most crowded route to the courtyard.

「It’s good for you scum, but I don’t have much time. Sky-Sunder Lance!」

Using the most powerful attack in his arsenal, Douga sprung towards the courtyard. Becoming a giant spearhead, Douga tore through any and all mutants in his path, while also tearing to shreds all the monsters just standing near the trajectory. Leaving behind over thirty corpses behind him, Douga walked out of the front entrance. The Mazlack knights had lost over half of their army, but their nightmare wasn’t over.

「I don’t have time to cut you up one at a time, either. Die, the lot of you!」

While the mutants were distracted by Douga’s big play, Rayna had prepared her own. With strong intent to kill, she slammed in a wide-range attack.

「Blast Square!」

Swiping her blade with all of her bloodlust, the dense energy surrounding it burned everything in the blade’s path to a crisp. The decreased power due to the long range left a few mutants alive after being hit, but the only unscathed mutant so far was Odenell, who had coincidentally avoided both attacks. The number of mutants that could put up any chance of a fight were down to thirty or so.

「Now, you’re going to sit and watch this stupid girl’s righteous rampage.」

Firing off an Outclass with her rabid grin, the Mazlack knights couldn’t help but quake in fear despite their newfound mutant powers.

「Haruna!」

「I’m okay!」

Shoving away Oria, who had stabbed a knife in Haruna’s side, she carefully plucked the knife out (careful to avoid touching the hilt and triggering a curse of some sort) as she answered Makoto’s call. The knife was cursed considerably to improve its Attack, but it wasn’t quite enough to pierce the set of armor on Haruna.

Perhaps because she had expended all of her Stamina with this Unblockable Attack, Oria was already passed out by the time Haruna shoved her away. It was only natural, since this special attack cost a varying amount of Stamina depending on the target’s skill level. It was a miracle that the attack could be activated at all.

Unblockable Attacks and Ignore Defense were both prevalent in most RPGs. Fairy Tale Chronicles was no exception. In Fairy Tale Chronicles, however, there were extremely few skills that possessed these sort of effects, and they were limited to very high-level bosses and Extra Skills, or else to ridiculously rare drops and specific crafted equipment.

The difference in skill level between the user and the target (as well as the target’s skill level in general) increased the attack’s Stamina cost, making it quite costly if one were to attack through the Defense of someone like Hiroshi or Douga. While an Unblockable Attack against Haruna wasn’t as costly, an untrained civilian would expend all of their Stamina, losing their consciousness as a result.

The same stipulation applies even when the attack is achieved through an equipment’s effect rather than a skill. A weapon that automatically activates an Unblockable Attack or Ignore Defense would harshly drain the attacker’s Stamina at each use; it would be useless without a ridiculous amount of endurance. The cost may not be so unreasonable, though, considering that it distorts the laws of physics.

This led to the conclusion that Oria wasn’t too bad of a fighter (although it was doubtful that she would take this as a compliment).

「Still, I could feel the tip of the blade through the undershirt. It was close…」

「You hear that? Don’t you regret not making her a bra and a pair of undershorts?」

「Gimme a break…」

The cursed knife had completely penetrated the Wyvern leather armor and the Spider Silk shirt below it, reaching the silk undershirt (with a Defense stat equivalent to leather armor in itself). Upon closer inspection, it seemed that the knife had even dug into the undershirt a little. It really was a close call.

If it was Mio instead of Hiroshi who had made the undershirt, or if Hiroshi had not started the crafting processes at the loom, or if the attacker was someone with proper training (like the assassin from the night before) Haruna would not have gotten off scot free. Especially because the knife was cursed with who-knows-what, the knife breaking a single layer of skin could have been deadly.

Couldn’t have Hiroshi blocked the attack? He had not learned a skill capable of doing so. The only skills that he could have used (if he had learned them) were Deplosion, which transferred the damage itself to the user, Cover Dive, which allowed the user to jump in front of the attack regardless of timing or distance, and Switcheroo, which switched the positions of the user with the target, al regardless of timing or distance between them. Even an Unblockable Attack didn’t trace its original target if it was suddenly interrupted in these ways.

「I’m so glad we thought about these undershirts, seriously…」

「I mean, it weren’t too hard makin’ ’em, since they weren’t too different from men’s shirts…」

Hiroshi reminisced about having the task sprung on him at the last minute, and crafting five of them on the double. Thankfully the royal family had provided him with ample silk, but the project required almost too much materials if they had to harvest them from the spider webs. Hiroshi had his thoughts about the quality of the silk, but it was still the best quality silk on the market. The slight drop in quality seemed negligible.

They had these undershirts crafted for the sole purpose of protecting Unblockable attacks against the supporting members. They didn’t expect the opposition to provide a servant girl with a cursed Unblockable knife (in fact, Oria had no weapon of any kind in her possession until moments before the assault) but this additional layer provided protection for various attacks. Since Hiroshi couldn’t protect everyone all the time, this sort of added defense was always welcomed.

「No joke, though, we’ll have to have Hiro craft all of our undergarments at some point.」

「Come on, now…」

Hiroshi slumped in defeat to Tatsuya’s request. It was agonizing enough crafting for Aearis and her undeveloped body. Crafting underwear for someone with a supermodel’s silhouette was unthinkable.

「Let’s drop the underwear thing for now.」

Layotte interjected.