Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 17 - Chapter 6

Chapter Six: The Asura and the Hunter

Paladin, Ray Starling

All of a sudden, we were joined by God Hunter, Carl Lourlou.

I didn’t stop to wonder why he was here—after all, this was an event involving Masters from all over, so it wasn’t that much of a surprise to run into a foreign Superior.

The real problem was the situation. We already barely stood a chance against just Jubei. With a Superior joining in, things were probably going to go from bad to worse.

“Carl Lourlou,” said Jubei. “You once served Tenchi’s Seihakuto clan. I heard you had left for the continent by the time I became a Superior Job... I certainly did not expect to meet you here.”

She seemed to have a decent degree of interest in him.

The God Hunter, on the other hand, was looking not at her, but us. I could tell that even through the beady eyes of his bear costume.

Was he targeting us because we were the easier prey...? Weaklings were the first to die in a battle royale, so it would make sense.

More importantly, how do we deal with this...? I wondered.

“Eh heh heh,” Jubei giggled, interrupting my thoughts. “I suppose I shall start with him, then.”

Then, she rushed straight towards GH.

“Reasonable” meant nothing to an asura—the one who embodied strife.

All her weapons at the ready, Jubei Kaga turned to face Carl.

“Huh?!” I couldn’t hide my surprise.

“Ray Starling,” she said. “Let us meet again later. Until then, please think about what it was I lacked. I will do so as well... Ah ha ha ha HA HA HA HA! ENTRYYYY!”

After giving me the smile of someone in the throes of delirium, she let out a mad laugh and began to attack GH repeatedly.

This was no bluff—Jubei actually had shifted her sights from us to him. However, it didn’t seem that she just wanted to fight the stronger foe first. It was more like...she was saving the main dish for later.

The God Hunter, on the other hand, was standing in place, not saying a word. The flying weapons had touched him many times by now, but his suit remained undamaged.

“FANTASTIIIIIIIC!” Jubei let out a cry as she raised up the katanas held in her four prosthetic arms and swung them down at GH.

For the first time since the encounter began, Carl did something to defend himself, raising his “arm” to block the attack.

Once again, the costume wasn’t even scratched, but the weight of the impact cracked the ground beneath him in four directions.

These attacks were nothing like the ones she’d used on me—Jubei was really going all-out.

I didn’t know whether I should be more afraid of her power...or Carl for withstanding it.

Regardless, this was likely a clash between two of the strongest Masters in this event, and we honestly had no business just sitting around and watching it.

“...Hey! Ray! Juliet! Let’s get outta here!” Realizing that there was no better time, Alto gathered her resolve, raised her voice, and threw out a mix of smokescreen and firecrackers.

She’d basically read my mind.

“...Yeah!” I said in response. The smoke hid us from sight and the firecrackers drowned out the sound of our movement.

Her two-layered escape art allowed us to run away without issue.

◇◆◇

Event Area, South, Forest

Still silent as stone, Carl watched as Ray’s group ran away, while Jubei paid no heed and continued to slice at him.

This marked a parting with her “fave,” but she was absolutely certain that they now shared a bond—and that it wouldn’t be long until they would enjoy a much better fight.

So for now, she would enjoy a battle against this unexpected behemoth of a foe.

“My beloved curseblaaades, rise and shiiine!” She barked out an order to the four katanas in her prosthetic arms.

The curseblades began to release a dark purple aura which soon enveloped Jubei’s entire body.

A moment later, her stats rose at an explosive rate.

“Ah-HA!”

The four blades weren’t MVP rewards, but some would say that they were more powerful and dangerous than some Epics or Legendaries.

In the past, all of them had been counted among the hundred most famous blades in Tenchi, but over the centuries of their existence, they had been stained by an immense amount of curses and grudge. As a result, they had been turned into “curseblades.”

They greatly buffed the user’s stats, but at a great cost. The user would lose control over their body and be rendered unable to unequip anything, as well as suffering continuous HP drain and eventually self-destruction.

The price was far too great for most to pay, and these curseblades had driven many swordsmen of old to go on rampages that ended in their death.

However, Jubei was an exception. Asura’s ultimate skill negated all effects that weren’t accompanied by damage, and this fully applied to the curseblades’ debuffs.

This allowed her to use them however she wanted without any drawbacks.

“Hi-Fu-Mi-Yo-I-Mu-Na-Yaaa!” While chanting as though performing an invocation, Jubei continued her onslaught.

All floating weapons besides the retaliating Dankajin and the breath-dispersing axe, as well as the four curseblades held by Asura—a total of eight weapons—were absolutely showering Carl in attacks.

This chain of blows, each of which might easily cut apart even a vanguard SJ, were completely deforesting the area just from the shock waves.

The weapons’ speed combined with their sheer number made their assault impossible to evade or deflect.

Carl, however, wasn’t attempting to do either of those things.

He simply took every attack...yet there wasn’t a scratch on him.

“Toughness? Hardness? No, this is something else!” said Jubei. Her excitement was rising, but she was still able to analyze the situation calmly.

My attacks aren’t ineffective! His HP is dropping! But the damage is lower than expected! He also isn’t getting any debuffs! His bones aren’t breaking and I see no bleeding! His movements are hardly hampered at all! And there is still not a single tear on his costume! Jubei’s relentless onslaught was more dangerous than that of an ordinary pre-Superior, but despite that, she hadn’t managed to harm a single hair on the God Hunter.

There were no cuts on the suit—only short-lived little holes that soon snapped closed. It was as though her blades weren’t cutting into him, but merely brushing against the plush costume.

By now, she’d done enough damage to kill ten vanguard SJs, but Carl wasn’t even flinching.

What kind of skill is letting him withstand this? His HP isn’t 0, so it’s not a Death Soldier situation. Rear Soldier’s Last Stand allows you to survive with 1 HP, but that skill would have expired by now. Is it some sort of spell? Doesn’t seem to be. Jubei was attacking him with her chakram, but it hadn’t broken any spells.

She didn’t know how, but it was clear that Carl couldn’t be killed by mere damage.

If this was some sort of defensive skill, the fact that the defense-negating Hora didn’t work could only mean that the nature of the defense was different than anything she’d ever seen.

“I cannot see your wounds. This is not to my taste,” Jubei muttered in dissatisfaction, never ceasing her attack.

She found joy in cutting and being cut, giving and taking wounds. An enemy who couldn’t be harmed no matter how hard she cut him was no fun for her. It didn’t take long after this for her to lose her interest, then excitement, and finally calm down entirely. Her ideal opponents were those who struggled to win tooth and nail no matter how many injuries they suffered or limbs they lost.

Even though Ray was far below Carl in power, there was no doubt that he was Jubei’s main dish.

Carl did not respond to any of her attacks or her complaints. Instead, he pulled out a hose linked to the gas canister on his back.

The flamethrower-like weapon was aimed straight at Jubei—and a moment later, it released a scarlet spray.

“I expected as much.” It was easy to tell what kind of attack this would be just by looking at the weapon, and Jubei was prepared to launch her breath-dispersing axe towards the crimson mist.

Split apart, the spray vanished...but the trees it touched all decayed at an extreme rate.

“Poison...? Since you only just used it, I assume the strength of the poison is based on the damage you’ve received?”

Carl neither confirmed nor denied that, but Jubei’s analysis was indeed correct. The weapon was “The Scarlet Brewer, Drag-Blood,” and the power of the spray it released depended on the damage the wielder had suffered.

With how much Jubei had attacked him, the power of the spray was now so great that it made the run-of-the-mill Poison effect seem inconsequential. Even if she’d dispersed it, the tiniest droplet in the air would be enough to give Jubei a crippling debuff.

However, she seemed completely unaffected.

“Poison I breathe in or drink doesn’t work on me. After all, they only start dealing damage after they apply their debuffs.”

Carl once again said nothing. She’d basically revealed part of her capabilities, but he didn’t seem to think that she was bluffing.

Taking as much damage as possible, then using that to clear the area, was one of his go-to techniques—and if that didn’t work, his compatibility against Jubei was terrible.

Jubei couldn’t cut Carl to death, but Carl’s poison didn’t work on Jubei. Neither of them could put an end to this battle.

While Jubei found Carl to be “against her tastes,” Carl found Jubei to be “bothersome.”

Still silent, Carl switched his weapon from Drag-Blood to an unusual staff shaped like a deer’s antlers. He then swung around like a Druid mid-ritual, making new trees sprout in place of the ones he’d withered with his poison.

As eerie as this sight was, the lingering spray didn’t seem to harm the trees.

Realizing what Carl was trying to do, Jubei tried to close the distance between them again, but he used the new trees and spray as cover for his escape.

“A Superior—running away! Your deviousness is irritating!” Though her face showed no anger, she voiced her honest thoughts.

However, this was an event with a well-defined objective—and for everyone but Jubei, confrontation was a means to an end, not a goal in and of itself. Because of this, avoiding bothersome opponents was the wise thing to do, especially if you’d seen easier prey—and a three-for-one deal, at that!

Naturally, Jubei wouldn’t tolerate having her main dish taken away from her.

She couldn’t let him flee or hunt down Ray, so she sliced through the trees and poison to chase after him.

Being faster than him, she caught up in no time...

“Ah...!”

...but that was when her battle instincts flared into life.

The moment she turned and jumped away, a heavy, metallic sound rang out behind her.

The noise had been made by a closing bear trap—perhaps one of the most well-known tools for trapping animals. Its maw-like blades were coated in some sort of poison—and its presence wasn’t the only change to the environment. The sounds of some mechanism activating could be heard, as though in response to Jubei triggering the bear trap.

“...You are the God Hunter, after all.”

It was one of the hunter grouping’s Superior Jobs, and it was focused on “hunting” rather than “combat.” The job granted toughness that kept the owner active for long periods of time without food or water, superb tracking capabilities, and, most relevantly to this situation, trap creation.

One of the God Hunter’s skills was called “Quick Trap.” Just as the name implied, it allowed high-speed creation of traps using the items in its user’s inventories, and Carl had used it to set countless traps on the path he traveled.

He’d obscured Jubei’s sight and pretended to chase after Ray’s group, leading her straight into a death trap.

Asura’s ult, “Speak of Strife by Blade—Asura,” negated all effects that weren’t accompanied by damage, but if she was targeted by so many traps at once, she would surely be hurt and collapse.

“Impertinent.”

However, that couldn’t happen when Asura’s Master was Jubei.

Her blades deflected any and all traps coming towards her from every direction. The poison arrows, spells, explosions, spike pits—she broke through everything.

This was only to be expected. Jubei was King of Asura. She manually commanded six flying weapons, with nothing whatsoever to support her.

The kind of processing power she employed for this was beyond the capabilities of a normal person.

Because of this, none of the traps could take her life...but they did overwhelm her brain.

Not missing the opportunity, Carl had approached her from behind. Instead of the bear costume, he was now wearing leaf-covered clothing, like a hunter’s ghillie suit.

This outfit had a forest-exclusive camouflage effect, which, when mixed with the scent- and presence-eliminating skills he had as God Hunter, had allowed him to approach Jubei undetected.

He’d lured her into this trap-filled space not to buy time for his escape, but to set her up for a sure-kill attack.

Only Life Can Pay For Life: Drag-Pain

The large knife in his hand was a Legendary MVP reward that accumulated the damage he’d received and stored it in the weapon’s tip as fixed damage. In a way, it was much like Ray’s Vengeance.

“Ah...” Jubei finally felt the destruction approaching her from behind. However, it was too late to evade or even turn around. Because of this, she twisted one of her prosthetics in an inhuman way to swat the approaching knife aside.

At the moment of impact, destructive energy began to spread out from the blade—but before it could reach her, she purged the prosthetic.

The obscene amount of fixed damage instantly made the freed prosthetic vanish, but that was the extent of the destruction.

Shock overcame Carl. Jubei reacting to his surprise attack and the disappearance of the thing he’d struck had put him off-balance, opening him up for a counterattack.

Like a sonic whirl, Jubei turned back to Carl...

“Hidden Blade...”

...and with her own flesh-and-blood hands, she swung a single katana.

This was the strongest weapon she had—the Mythical “Amasser’s Woundblade, Kasanehime.”

It had the terrifying power of releasing a strike that dealt damage equal to all damage dealt to others in the past sixty minutes.

“Scatter Like Mist: Unsan-Musho.”

Indeed, it was a sure-kill weapon that grew stronger without limit the more she attacked.

The hunter’s deadly strike had missed the asura, and now the asura had landed her own deadly strike on the hunter.

Considering how much damage she’d distributed in the past hour, the damage this attack would deal would utterly destroy even vanguard SJs.

And yet...the Multifariously Invincible was still standing.

Not even the ace up Jubei’s sleeve could harm this costumed anomaly.

“...My, my,” she said. Her countless attacks, the defense-breaking Hora, and now even Kasanehime all had failed...and this made Jubei realize something about Carl. She now understood that he was protected by some sort of “law.”

It was most likely the power of his Superior Embryo.

Will I figure it out first...? Or...? Until she discovered the trick behind his invincibility, she wouldn’t be able to defeat him no matter how hard or long she attacked him.

It didn’t even matter how high her attack power was.

“Or will I break through it before then?”

Of course, the maddened embodiment of strife didn’t care how pointless her struggle might be. Her enemy was desperately overwhelming, yet Jubei smiled wide and cut at him.

And so, Carl turned out to be the first person who became fed up with their battle.

“Huh?!” Jubei exclaimed, shocked. Carl had turned his back on her and began running away—this time for real.

Poison hadn’t killed her, traps couldn’t catch her, the ace up his sleeve had only destroyed one of her arms, and his invincibility didn’t scare her in the slightest.

Realizing that this battle junkie wouldn’t give up until the event had ended, he figured that the best course of action was to just leave.

Carl switched into his escape gear, activated all the surrounding traps to keep Jubei busy, and ran as fast as possible.

He could hear her insulting him, but he didn’t care one bit.

He wasn’t a knight, but a hunter. To him, victory meant getting results.

And beyond just his pride as a hunter, the prey that had escaped him earlier were much more worthwhile targets than the battle maniac he just left behind.

Thus ended the battle between the hunter and the asura. The former retreated, leaving the latter feeling exceedingly sour.

◇◇◇

Paladin, Ray Starling

“...Did we get away?” I asked.

“It seems so,” said Nemesis.

An asura in front, a Superior behind. Talk about a rock and a hard place. It was a downright terrifying situation, but thankfully, we’d been able to get away.

If Jubei hadn’t made the suggestion she had, our group might’ve been completely destroyed. It was the kind of situation you’d expect in a battle royale, but you could say that the very fact that this was a battle royale had saved us in the end.

One thing was certain, though—as we progressed through the event, we would surely run into at least one of them again.

When that happened, we would have to beat either an overwhelming harbinger of strife...or a Superior everyone called invincible. Our chances against either seemed pretty slim...not that that was anything new for us, I guess.

“I-I thought I was gonna dieee...!” Alto dropped to her knees at my side, breathing raggedly.

“Thanks for the smokescreen,” I said.

“Y-You’re welcome! Wait, why’re you so calm?! We just ran into a Superior!”

“Well, that isn’t all that rare for me.” Starting with Figaro, I’d already met more than I could count on one hand.

It was kinda weird, actually. Superiors were like an exclusive club with less than a hundred members, yet I ran into them fairly regularly.

“Wooow, someone’s used to trouble. That’s our Ray the devil-eater,” Alto said.

“Don’t make that a thing,” I retorted.

“Well, that is the most notable scene in the videos,” said Nemesis.

I wonder who actually recorded our fight against Logan...? I said in thought.

“What about you? You okay?” I asked Juliet.

“No wound has struck true. My wings may yet still take to the skies.”

No problem, huh? Good to know.

“Anyway, we didn’t think much about where we were running, and we’re now at...” I said as I looked around and compared the scenery to the full view of the island shown to us by Cheshire.

We had bolted out of the forest and arrived at a shore—the outer edge of the island. There was a rocky area facing the sea, and based on the location of the forest and mountain, we were in the event area’s southeast.

“Anyway, let’s keep moving,” I said. “Someone will catch up to us if we stay in one place, and we sure won’t find any hints by just standing around.”

“Indeed,” Nemesis nodded before starting to walk. “But what do these hints look like, anyway? Cheshire certainly did not explain tha—AAT?!”

Her words were cut short by her tripping over something and falling to the ground.

“Ugh! Who put that there?!” she complained with her hand over her nose, glaring at a drain-like formation in the ground.

After a closer look, I realized that around where Nemesis tripped, there was some strange pale rock.

“Hm?” The thing Nemesis had stumbled over was far too square to be natural. It was as though it had been masterfully carved out by human hand.

“...It should be fine if I don’t go too high,” I said, still wary of the anti-air weapon I’d seen, as I jumped on Silver and rose up a bit.

I slowly gained altitude until I could look at the pale rock from above, and I saw something had been carved into it.

And so, below me...

“I see.”

...I read the letters “YYYYMMDD.”

The thing Nemesis had tripped over was part of one of those letters.

This was the first hint we’d found, and it confirmed to us that the eight-digit number was, indeed, a date in the Gregorian calendar.