Infinite Dendrogram: Volume 20, page 17
However, though Eldridge’s left arm was bleeding, it was still connected.
“And that’s why, as a weapon, my Embryo has surpassed yours.”
The wound was deep enough that the bone beneath was visible. However, the bone wasn’t white.
It was covered in blood, of course, but the crimson metal that composed it shone through nonetheless.
That was when Moneygold, still watching the battle, realized something.
I see! So he’s just like the Over Gladiator, then.
Indeed, just like Figaro’s heart, Eldridge also had an Embryo that was always inside him.
Blade Breaker Bones, Skeleton—a metallic full-body skeleton Embryo.
“My Embryo can easily shatter Mithril-tier stuff, but it looks like your hatchets are still really tough even if they don’t have a whole lot of attack power. I wouldn’t expect any less from a Superior Embryo. Shattering them won’t be easy. I feel like I might break something with all the effort I’m putting in here.”
Despite cracking a joke, Eldridge didn’t even smile or let his guard down. That was because he knew this wasn’t an enemy he could afford to show any openings to, and because he himself excelled at survival.
While Eldridge had an AGI-focused Superior Job that let him move at supersonic speeds, his Embryo was as tough as Mythical metal, giving him defenses that equaled those of END-focused Superior Jobs. He was a hybrid build that excelled at both AGI and END—a Master focused on survival, just like Emily.
Recently, he’d suffered defeat from having his heart stolen by surprise, suffocating after being buried beneath a mountain, burning up along with the very ocean around him, and being sliced in half by a ranged attack that ignored toughness. Under normal circumstances, though, death wasn’t something that took him easily.
The difference between his END and Emily’s wasn’t nearly as great as the difference between their AGI, but...
If END is all his Embryo has going for it, then he has no chance of winning this, Moneygold thought as he watched, and anyone would have been hard-pressed to disagree.
Emily still exceeded Eldridge in all stats, even after taking Skeleton into account. Fighting an endurance match with her was a fool’s errand to begin with.
Emily looked down at her damaged legs that hindered her movement—before she cut off her own head.
After death, she was reconstituted from her motes of light and emerged unharmed once again.
She still has that, after all. There’s no way he can win.
Emily could die over and over, while Eldridge, no matter how long he endured, would be defeated after just one death.
I would understand this strategy if he was just buying time until reinforcements came, but... No one was coming to support him, and that included Moneygold himself. While he could watch how the battle at the mall unfolded, Moneygold couldn’t even move from where he was because all of his attention was occupied with keeping Sardonyx at bay.
Emily, perhaps realizing that Eldridge had no one to back him up, rushed toward him yet again.
Thus, they repeated exactly the exchange that had occurred at the beginning of the battle. But this wouldn’t last, as Eldridge would surely lose this war of attrition eventually.
Hm...? However, Moneygold realized that something was different this time. Though only slightly, he felt as though the gap in their speeds had become smaller.
Does he have a skill like the Over Gladiator’s?
The Over Gladiator, Figaro’s Superior Embryo, Cor Leonis, had three skills. One of them was Dance of Anima, which increased his power the longer he was in battle. It was an immensely powerful ability that became known far and wide after he’d fought Xunyu during the Clash of the Superiors.
Moneygold could hardly believe it, but the battle below was strongly reminiscent of that famous duel he’d seen recordings of.
He thought that Eldridge’s Embryo must have a similar skill—but that wasn’t the case. This phenomenon was caused not by his Embryo, but by his ultimate job skill as King of Burglary—Greater All-Drain.
This was a skill that stole the enemy’s stats based on damage he dealt to them.
If he damaged his opponent for a tenth of their maximum HP, he received a tenth of their stats.
If he damaged them for half their health, he enhanced himself with half of their stats.
With the surprise attack on her throat and the recent strike on her ankles, Eldridge had taken off about a tenth of Emily’s HP. And with this increase—or rather, decrease for Emily—the gap between them became smaller.
If he continued to take her HP, the gap would close further, and eventually begin to tilt in Eldridge’s favor.
Greater All-Drain was a skill that ensured Eldridge would come out on top in any prolonged battle. It could only be used once per day and on only one target, but the stats stolen while it was active remained even if the target healed themselves from the damage.
Ultimately, it wasn’t any different with Emily’s revivals. While that restored her own stats that she’d lost when Eldridge took them, Eldridge still had the stats he’d gained.
Since he had never tried this skill on someone who would just revive after being killed, though, not even Eldridge himself knew it would work like this. One of the reasons he’d estimated that he had a seventy percent chance of winning was that he had considered the possibility that the revival would reset his stats as well as hers.
However, it turned out that it functioned in a way that was favorable to him.
Emily was beginning to develop a vague understanding of Eldridge’s combat style and skills. She considered the possibility that he would keep growing stronger without limit and realized that she had to end this battle as soon as possible. Her attacks grew more intense as she began to slice through his skin and flesh, avoiding contact with his Skeleton.
“And that’s a shortcoming of yours.” Evading any fatal attacks, Eldridge downed a pill-like healing item and began to speak again. He considered words to be another technique in his arsenal for managing how his opponents behaved. “The way you fight is way too simple. You put so many Resources into revival that your Embryo itself doesn’t have many other tricks, and your Superior Job does nothing but give you some stats. That’s why your strategy doesn’t go beyond using your immortality for reckless onslaughts. And that’s it.”
Based on what he’d seen, Emily’s only other means of attack were her hatchet throws. He’d considered the possibility that she could use an ult, but it didn’t look like it was happening—and he was fairly certain that she would never take the most straightforward option and just switch to some other weapon.
“The hatchets have a weak attack and limit the ways you can fight, but you don’t switch to anything better. You’re strong enough to beat UBMs and get MVP rewards, yet you still use only the hatchets. Why is that?”
As he spoke, Eldridge used an opening he saw to use Greater Takeover on Emily to take both her HP and mobility, enhancing himself in the process.
“Many Type Arms Embryos activate their skills through contact with their Masters,” Eldridge went on. Ray’s Nemesis could only use Vengeance is Mine if she touched him, for example. Xunyu’s Tenaga-Ashinaga could only extend and retract when she had it equipped. Eldridge’s Skeleton and Figaro’s Cor Leonis worked as they did only because they replaced a particular part of their bodies.
Most Type Arms could only use their effects when in contact with their wielders.
“And what about that Superior Embryo? Do you have to touch it for it to bring you back? No, you don’t. Back in Cortana, you sometimes threw both of them at once. If you couldn’t revive if they were both out of your hands, you would always hold at least one. But you didn’t.”
Eldridge explained his analysis of the combat video he’d watched. Even while under Emily’s ferocious assault, he kept calm and examined her.
“Does that mean you don’t need them to use it? No. If that was the case, you’d already be using some MVP reward or whatever. You’d throw those hatchets so they auto-attacked while wielding some other weapons yourself. Theoretically, that’s the strategy that would make you strongest.”
Eldridge had thought about how he would optimize for combat if he was in Emily’s shoes—and considered the reasons she might not be doing those things.
The answer had come to him in no time.
“It’s because...your equipment slots are occupied. If you’re not the Over Gladiator or something, you only have one weapon slot for each hand—and both of yours are occupied by the hatchets. You can let go of them, but their skills won’t activate if you don’t have them equipped. That goes for both the throwing and the revival.”
Those words seemed to cause an emotional reaction in Emily. She haphazardly swung her axe at him, but Eldridge sidestepped it and tore at her flesh again.
“Your combat ability is too reliant on your Superior Embryo. Without the revivals, you’re basically just a wild boar with high stats. That’s why it’s obvious what I gotta do.”
As though feeling a sense of urgency, Emily lashed out with all of her nearly 40,000 STR behind it. She’d abandoned all of her defense to launch an attack meant to break even through his metallic bones.
However, Eldridge didn’t defend against or evade it.
He simply opened his hands, preparing to use Greater Takeover and ignoring the hatchet in her right hand coming straight toward his skull.
A moment later, they clashed, and the sound of shattering metal rang out.
◇◆
Skeleton. As the name would suggest, this Embryo was based on the creatures from many different mythologies that were all made solely of bone. Skinless and fleshless—they were the remains of the dead who had been deprived of everything.
Perhaps because of that, Skeleton’s core focus was empty-handedness.
Eldridge himself had no idea why his Embryo had turned out like this. He’d started Infinite Dendrogram as a way to relax, so perhaps its theme referred to the fact that he’d seen his life back then as a burden he wished to let go of. It was even possible the reason was something Eldridge had not discovered about himself yet.
Regardless of where it had come from, this core trait of empty-handedness meant that all of Skeleton’s skills required Eldridge to not wield any weapon or shield.
Its first skill, All That Is Left After Death, was a skill that increased the toughness of his metallic frame—Skeleton itself—as well as Eldridge’s own END as long as he wasn’t wielding anything in either of his hands. As had already been demonstrated, the combined defense matched Mythical metal, and not even the Murder Princess’s almost 40,000 STR was enough to break through it.
The second skill, The Dead Have Their Husk and Will, was a skill that enabled simultaneous use of active skills as long as both hands had nothing equipped in them. This was what allowed Eldridge to ready his King of Burglary skills on both hands. As a bonus, it also reduced the skills’ cooldowns.
The third skill was the Embryo’s ult, and it had two conditions that needed to be fulfilled.
First, just like the other two, it required that Eldridge’s hands were completely free. And second, it required him to be in battle for more than five minutes. This was most likely to give him some time to analyze his opponent.
Eldridge had laughed out loud when he’d discovered this particular condition. He’d started playing Infinite Dendrogram to gain time, but now he was being forced to dedicate his time to the game instead.
This condition might’ve been a representation of that change in his point of view.
He’d found that very funny, and had fully understood why his Embryo’s ult had come with that restriction.
Similarly, he fully understood why his ult’s effect had turned out like it had.
◇◆
“Return, and Take Nothing to the Grave—Skeleton.”
The moment they clashed, Eldridge activated his ultimate.
A moment later, Emily’s right hatchet nearly touched his head...and shattered.
Youaltepuztli, a Superior Embryo, let out a high-pitched metallic shriek as it broke against Eldridge’s arm instead.
Emily looked at its scattered pieces, dumbfounded...
“That’s one.”
...and Eldridge used Greater Takeover with both his hands to tear out her eyes.
In shock, Emily covered her empty sockets and desperately jumped back. It was an unusual move for her, someone who was always on the offensive and never feared death, but who could blame her? This was something she’d never experienced before.
Although it was just one of two, the Youaltepuztli that ensured her immortality had been broken.
Skeleton’s ultimate was a skill that destroyed the opponent’s weapon.
When the battle lasted for at least five minutes, Eldridge could destroy any one weapon the enemy was wielding in either hand. Nothing was immune—not even Superior metals or Superior Embryos could withstand it.
This was the reason he had once been known as Altar’s strongest PK—Eldridge, the Arms Killer.
The driving force behind Emily’s immortality was Youaltepuztli’s auto-revival skill, Survival of the Fittest. Obviously, if Youaltepuztli was destroyed, her immortality would be compromised.
Although hesitantly, Emily used her remaining Youaltepuztli to decapitate herself.
A moment later, she dissipated into bits of light...and was successfully reconstituted. This restored her eyes and vision, but not the other Youaltepuztli—it was still broken.
“One more left,” said Eldridge, declaring that he absolutely would destroy her immortality—in other words, that he could do this again.
Return, and Take Nothing to the Grave—Skeleton was an ultimate that could be used twice per day. That wasn’t an unexpected amount of uses for a skill explicitly meant to destroy each weapon in an opponent’s hand. The cooldown between daily uses was an additional five minutes.
That made Eldridge’s words a declaration of inevitable destruction.
With shock in her fully restored eyes, Emily stared at the man in front of her.
He was the beloved of the girl she’d killed simply because she stood in her way, and the man who’d used to be Altar’s strongest PK—the man who’d taken away half of her immortality.
“Don’t underestimate the Goblin...Murder-Demon.”
To Emily, Eldridge was an even more fearsome enemy than Hugo.
Chapter Seven: The Jester and the Dragon
About Curtis Eldona
To end the reign of the false imperator, Reinhard—that was the goal of the Dryfe Legitimate Government, and it was also the goal of Curtis himself.
He was driven by a grudge against Reinhard for killing his cousins, among many others, and by a conviction that it was his duty to bring down the warmongering usurper who ravaged his homeland. Such feelings—especially the latter one—were shared by many of those in the DLG.
However, those weren’t the only things driving him. The grudge and sense of duty were matched—if not surpassed—by something else.
That was an emotion called “love.”
◆
Six years ago, Curtis Eldona fell in love.
Before the increase in Masters, he was participating in a ceremony to celebrate those who’d taken part in defeating a UBM that had been ransacking the outer reaches of Dryfe.
On the dais stood the elderly, but still living, Imperator Xanafald as well as two more people. One of them was SMTF Captain Gifted Barbaros. As the adopted son of Marquis Barbaros, he had seen many battles and was already considered to be a pillar of Dryfe’s military might despite his young age.
There was nothing strange about him defeating a UBM.
However, the person standing by his side was a girl who could not have been more than thirteen years old—and surprisingly, she clutched a red crystal, seemingly the MVP reward, in her hands.
That meant that despite her age, she had contributed to the battle more than Gifted.
“Claudiah Reinhard Dryfe, I commend you.” In Dryfe, it was common for twins to each bear the other’s name as their middle name, which resulted in the girl’s masculine middle name. That combined with the surname Dryfe made it obvious that she was part of the imperial family.
Indeed, she was the daughter of the late third prince and the granddaughter of the imperator bestowing the award upon her.
Though still young, Claudiah already held the title of The Ram.
“Beautiful...” The girl standing on the stage left Curtis enchanted. He himself was extremely talented and had already acquired a Superior Job, so he found himself strongly attracted to her.
Curtis continued to think about Claudiah long after this ceremony was over.
He intently and excitedly followed her activities by newspapers and word of mouth, and he spent many nights thinking how he might approach her and talk to her.
Curtis was like a fan and a young man in love all at once—his heart had nothing but Claudiah in it.
That didn’t change even after Masters came to the world en masse and began to reshape it.
When she became old enough to marry, he began wondering how they could be together. Although of less importance, she was still royalty. The first prince’s mother came from Curtis’s own family—Eldona—and they were fairly powerful as far as nobility went. He was, however, only the second son, so he didn’t know if he would be welcomed into the royal family itself.
That was why, instead of relying on his rank as a noble, he chose to prove his worth another way—by becoming Dryfe’s field Marshall.
The current field Marshall was elderly and would soon need to be replaced, and there were several candidates for the position.
First was Curtis himself. He had come from an important noble family and was the commander of the First Armored Battalion.
Next was the commander of the Second Armored Battalion. He was another man from a strong noble background who was known as a more skilled commander.
The second prince’s faction also had soldiers who, while not as renowned as the two commanders, were still put forth as candidates.
