Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 17 - Chapter 9

Chapter Nine: Invincible Versus Invincible

March 15th, 2045

A month ago in real time and three months ago in Dendro time, a particular individual was walking on a beach at night.

“So I’m finally movin’ to Tokyo tomorrow, huh? Guess I can’t stay up all night this time.”

Listening to the waves and feeling the wind, Alto was strolling along the beach. She’d passed the UTokyo entrance exams and was now preparing, with her mother’s help, to move to Tokyo.

Alto...or rather, Natsume didn’t have much to bring, but her parents, overjoyed that she’d made it into UTokyo, had bought her enough furniture and the like to make the move a daylong affair.

“Huh?” As she imagined what her new life would be like, she noticed the entity standing on the beach with her.

It was the suit of samurai armor that had been making waves across Tenchi for the past few months. The creature had drifted to this country’s shore about five months ago and, upon arrival, said:

“Who here craves my arms and armor?

Challenge me in combat.

What I still bear is a longbow, naginata, and this armor itself.

I am a Superior Unique Boss Monster.

I am called Penta-Phased Destroyer, Horobimaru.”

Superior Unique Boss Monster—SUBM. A highly exclusive group of monsters containing the likes of “Biframe White Whale, Twin Moby Dick” and “Tri-Zenith Dragon, Gloria.”

Horobimaru was one of these creatures, but he was an odd example, never engaging in battle unless challenged. He simply presented his rewards and merely stood in place, waiting for those who would face him. Anyone who attacked him would be deemed a challenger, and he would quickly deal with them—and only them.

He brought no harm to anyone besides the martial artists who dared to fight him, making him an extremely peaceful SUBM.

Fighters from all over Tenchi had gathered to try and defeat him, and out of the thousands to face him, only two had ever actually bested him—King of Brigands, Bigman, and The Gun, Sauer Urgaur. Both of them were Superiors.

Following both defeats, Horobimaru instantly revived himself and granted them weapons. Bigman received the naginata, while Sauer was given the longbow.

Since Horobimaru hadn’t come equipped with a helm or a tachi, it was rumored that those items had been taken before he’d arrived at Tenchi.

And now, the only thing left was the headless suit of animated armor.

However, despite losing all of his weapons, Horobimaru was now stronger than ever before.

Bigman and Sauer had lost the right to challenge him again, but he had become so strong that even the other Superiors seemed to be completely powerless against him. His strength and toughness had even driven some to deem him completely invincible. Fighting him now seemed so hopeless that it didn’t take long for the number of challengers to start dwindling. Even Superiors and pre-Superiors who spent a long time preparing for the battle were defeated, while everyone else had already given up.

There was a time when this stretch of coastline had been bustling with people challenging Horobimaru around the clock, but now he might not even see a single combatant per day.

Tonight was no different—Horobimaru stood in the same spot, but Alto was the only person around.

“A headless samurai, standing on a beach at night. I can’t tell if this is picturesque or something straight out of a horror film,” she nonchalantly commented before an idea popped into her head. “I’m not gonna be able to log in tomorrow anyway, so let’s give him a little test! Just for funsies!”

If she was going to be too busy to log in the entire day anyway, getting a death penalty didn’t mean anything. She planned to try fighting him and maybe get a screenshot or two to post on her social media accounts.

“All right, the camera’s set, so...Gifted Quiz!” Thus, with little thought behind it, she used her Embryo’s skill on Horobimaru.

Alto’s Embryo was called the “String-Weave of Chance, Gordian Knot.” It was a buff that posed a random question to the target and held them in place while they answered.

Alto knew that an SUBM would immediately get it right and attack her. However, she hoped that before the answer came, she could at least get a picture she could caption with something like “I caught myself a Horobimaru!”

“Question: What is the capital of Japan?”

“Whoa, that’s so easy I’m gonna cry...” Alto said, cursing her misfortune, expecting Horobimaru to answer right away and kill her instantly.

Silence.

“Whuh?” Contrary to her expectations, Horobimaru said nothing and did not move whatsoever. She found it strange, but she didn’t miss the chance to get close to him and snap the picture.

“All righty! I can see this gettin’ a lotta likes!” she said excitedly.

“...Hmm?” However, when Horobimaru continued to stay silent and unmoving, she started to become confused.

Huhhh? I mean, the answer’s obviously Tokyo. It’s one of the most famous cities in the world, isn’t it? Don’t Dendro’s servers have this data stored somewhere? she thought, not realizing how off the mark she was with that assumption.

The question was only easy for Masters—any of them could answer it in a split second.

However, for tians and monsters, it was information from a different world they could never know.

No matter how much Horobimaru thought about it, the answer could never come to him.

Five minutes passed, then ten. Alto was actually about to give up and log out, when...

“I have been immobilized,” said Horobimaru. “I will never break free of this by my own power.”

“Huh?” Alto was surprised that he’d said anything that not only wasn’t the answer, but also sounded like words of someone thoroughly defeated.

However, the surprise was nothing before the shock from the words that followed.

“Thus, I recognize you as the final victor.”

“Huh? Wait. HUH? Hold on. Whaddya mean?! Say that again!” As Alto became more and more perplexed, Horobimaru knelt before her.

Gifted Quiz was now undone.

“I am no longer Horobimaru,” he said. “I grant you this body of mine, ‘Prototype Horobimaru-Star Armor.’”

The reason Gifted Quiz had ceased to affect him was that his nature had changed. He was no longer the target of the skill or even an SUBM at all—he had become Alto’s property.

Indeed—through her Gordian Knot, Alto had just defeated the SUBM that many of Tenchi’s strongest were powerless against.

“When champions with Superior Jobs stand before you, I will wield my powers against them for three minutes once a day. Grant me much strife and many battles, and I shall grant you victory.”

Without even waiting for Alto’s response, Horobimaru took out a Jewel and placed himself inside of it. The Jewel then moved by itself to take its place on the back of Alto’s right hand.

Horobimaru was gone, leaving only Alto...who was so shocked she had fallen backwards onto the ground.

“...What do I do?”

She had just defeated Horobimaru and taken him for herself. If anyone found that out, Tenchi’s battle junkies would be hounding her every moment she was online. Smart as she was, she instantly realized how terrible this was, and the joy of beating the SUBM was quickly crushed by fear.

Before anyone could see her, Alto logged out, certain that she simply couldn’t let anyone know about this.

After that, Tenchi had held a countrywide event to celebrate Horobimaru’s final defeat, and Alto didn’t log in once for the entire event.

◇

Paladin, Ray Starling

My college friend had just summoned an SUBM.

I would say that I was pretty used to shocking things by now, but this was enough to render even me speechless.

Still, I managed to call out to her.

“Alto, this is...” She turned back towards me when she heard my words, and she looked like she was on the verge of tears.

“...Keep it a secret, okay...? Never ever ever tell anyone about it...”

“Uhh... Sure.”

“If this comes out, my Dendro life will be over for good...” She seemed to be caught in that downward spiral of negativity again. “This guy says that he’ll only fight SJs, and if people in Tenchi find out I have him, I’ll have no future there! He’s a real problem child! I have no idea how to use him... Hell, this is actually the first time I’ve summoned him! I’m scared of what’s gonna happen after this!”

...I could see her point, though. And I could understand why she hadn’t summoned him in front of Jubei.

I wasn’t the only one surprised by this turn of events, though. God Hunter seemed just as, if not more, shocked. He also seemed hesitant to come closer, standing at a distance and observing us.

Who could blame him, honestly? A newbie to the game had just used a Superior MVP reward to summon the actual SUBM itself. For someone who’d gained all his strength through normal means, this was completely unheard of.

I thought that GH might even decide to retreat now. Instead of fighting such an uncertain battle, he could choose to head for the goal instead.

However, contrary to my expectations, he brandished his dagger and advanced towards us.

He wasn’t Shu, so I couldn’t read his emotions through his costume just yet. However, there was something I could understand.

His intention could be translated into one simple phrase: Like hell I’m going to run.

These feelings of pride and resolve were so great that I could sense them even behind his bear costume.

“Nemesis, Alto...Horobimaru.” This Superior, driven by his strong will, was now approaching us completely intent on victory.

In this case, the best thing to do was respond in kind—not back down, but step forwards.

We were here to win this event. There were Masters from all over the world here, and if we were to break the tape at the finishing line, it would be better to do so after facing our enemies head on, not through underhanded means. The latter would have certainly left a bad taste in my mouth.

“Let’s win against the invincible Superior!”

“Certainly!”

“O-O...Okay!”

“Fully understood!” The three of them answered my call in their own ways, and thus began the final round between us and God Hunter, Carl Lourlou.

◇◆◇

Event Area, West, Coastside Cliff

If he wanted to strive for victory like the hunter he was, Carl should’ve chosen to retreat.

Ray’s group had yet to acquire too many plates, and it would’ve surely taken them a while to find and read the hint that had sunk into the sea when the shipwreck was destroyed.

Even though they could fly using the Prism Steed, if he moved at top speed Carl would still reach the goal and input the correct answer before they could.

It had been the same situation with Jubei—to Carl, it was better to run away from enemies who were too much trouble.

However, there were some things that he couldn’t run away from no matter how much trouble they might be.

He couldn’t turn his back on the younger brother of the man who’d defeated him. He couldn’t run from the “Invincible” SUBM when he was deemed to be “Invincible” himself.

Jubei was too much trouble, but nothing more than that.

These two, however—his pride wouldn’t allow him to ignore either of them.

Thus, no matter how uncertain his victory seemed, Carl chose to stay.

Giant-slayer? SUBM? It doesn’t matter. Come at me. I am invincible—the “Multifariously Invincible.” Even if the entire world is against me, not one of them would be a worthy opponent.

Those weren’t exactly his thoughts, but an approximate translation of his emotional state as he charged towards his prey.

The prey, of course, were not content to simply let themselves be hunted down.

The headless armor samurai kicked off the sea’s surface and rushed towards Carl. What followed was something like a cross counter—both of their attacks landed at the exact same time. Carl was punched, while his dagger fell on the armor samurai.

The exchange was like a replay of the battle’s first strike, for it sent Carl flying backwards yet again.

This was in spite of him wearing Polar Star, which had the power to nullify all knockback.

And on top of that, the skill of his Drag-Pain—the dagger which returned damage dealt to him in the form of fixed damage—had failed to activate.

In fact, the dagger was now half broken.

Carl said nothing, but he wasn’t fazed by this. In fact, he’d expected this by now.

I knew it. So it is true. How fiendish. My gear no longer functions.

Having been attacked by Horobimaru, the Superior now knew exactly what made the creature so powerful.

◇◆

The headless samurai, Horobimaru—otherwise known as “Prototype Horobimaru-Star Armor.”

He had two special traits that made him what he was.

First was his sheer toughness. His defensive power, endurance, and all of his resistances were so high that not even END-focused SJs could match him. Even SJ ultimate job skills were like mere scratches to him, and only Greatest One exceeded him in magic and debuff resistance.

In terms of pure toughness, Horobimaru ranked second among the SUBMs.

However, that trait paled in comparison to the second one—his skill, which was quite ironically called “Anti Skill.”

This ability made it so that anything that touched him would be rendered unable to use skills for 999 seconds.

People, monsters, armaments, consumables—anything Horobimaru touched would lose its active and passive skills.

Polar Star had lost its knockback negation with the first punch Horobimaru threw at Carl. And now, the Drag-Pain he’d used against him had become nothing but a mere dagger.

Both MVP rewards had temporarily lost their indestructibility, but while Polar Star had the endurance to withstand the damage, Drag-Pain had broken.

Tenchi’s martial artists wielded many job skills as well as powerful blades, blessed or cursed with all manner of special powers. But while facing Horobimaru, none of those skills meant anything, rendering them powerless against him. All offensive magic and curses were also more or less negated by the armor’s pure toughness.

The only thing you could rely on while fighting the armor were your own stats and techniques that didn’t rely on skills to be effective.

That was the final form of the SUBM that had appeared in the land of strife—Penta-Phased Destroyer, Horobimaru.

The fact that this invincible monster had been defeated by a skill that didn’t touch him and couldn’t be negated by resistances due to being classified as a buff was a great example of the power of compatibility.

The entity that had created Horobimaru certainly hadn’t anticipated such a pitfall.

◇◆

Physical contact negates my skills, meaning that my Drag-Pain is of no use.

All skills that had to touch Horobimaru to work were useless solely because of that. Drag-Pain had been one of the aces up Carl’s sleeve, but it was no exception to this rule.

This, too, was an example of the power of compatibility.

Then again, one might say that he had already done a great deal to swing the compatibility of this battle in his favor by simply wearing a full-body costume. If his skin was exposed and Horobimaru touched it, Nemean Lion’s skills would vanish, making all his gear destructible once again. It was exactly because his entire body was covered that Horobimaru’s blow had only negated the skills of Polar Star.

However, that was little consolation. To Carl, facing the armor samurai meant a thorough defeat.

Carl was invincible through a skill combo, while Horobimaru was invincible through a combination of pure defensive power and a skill that negated the skills of anything he touched—which included Carl’s invincibility combo.

The Prototype Horobimaru-Star Armor was Carl’s natural enemy.

And what of it?

Despite that, Carl moved with determination.

So what if he is my natural enemy? I am invincible—the Superior who was called invincible and who strove to live up to that name. There is no reason for me to back away from anyone, even my natural enemy.

Carrying those feelings in his heart, Carl made a move.

The hunter that had felled many a powerful quarry considered his options.

Drag-Blood’s AoE poison was not viable. Not only was it useless against nonliving animated armor—Carl knew that its debuffs and the like could end up empowering Ray Starling. The third one could easily withstand it with just an Elixir.

Only a debuff as powerful as a Superior Embryo or SJ ultimate skill would be useful here, but Carl hadn’t yet taken enough damage for Drag-Blood to have reached that level.

Having been just sent here, he also didn’t have any traps set up in the area. Thus, he couldn’t use the same strategy he’d used against Jubei.

Carl put away his dagger and equipped a weapon that was perhaps most appropriate for his role as a hunter—a bow.

He pulled the bowstring back and fired into the sky.

“That’s...!” Ray was familiar with this technique. It was a Heavy Bow Samurai skill that he himself had weathered back when K&R had attacked him—Early Summer Arrow Rain. It turned a single arrow into a hundred. The hunter grouping was obviously capable of using bows, but the skill was only a high-rank ultimate job skill.

However, the user was Carl—a Superior.

If someone like him dedicated one of his two high-rank job slots to Heavy Bow Samurai, it could only mean that there was more to it than the skill itself.

As though to confirm that fact, the arrow that split in midair became a meteor shower.

And that was no poetic exaggeration—the arrows had all become actual meteors.

This was because the bow itself was an Ancient Legendary MVP reward—Star-Summoner, Meteoloader. Any arrows this bow shot to a certain height would fall back down as meteors with greatly increased toughness, weight, and heat.

This also applied to the arrows created by Early Summer Arrow Rain, which meant the skill summoned not a hundred arrows, but a hundred meteors.

This was Carl’s wide-scale extermination combo. It was so powerful that not even he could avoid it, but his defense made that irrelevant.

Also, what he was aiming at wasn’t actually Horobimaru himself.

“...Whuh?”

Instead, he’d aimed at the woman who was now staring at the meteors above with a dumbfounded expression—Horobimaru’s owner, Alto.

No matter how tough he may have been, Horobimaru was ultimately her summon. If she were to die, Horobimaru would vanish as well.

She had no means of defending herself against this, and the meteors would soon overwhelm her...

“Not happening!”

...but a knight stood to protect her.

The man on a silver steed, clad in a black coat, grabbed Alto and rode off, zigzagging between the meteors. Before the meteors landed and the shock waves reached them, he spurred his horse downwards while evading any superheated rock that launched their way.

“EEK! EEEEEEEEEEP!” Alto shrieked at every meteor that nearly grazed them.

“Ray!” Nemesis called out.

“It’s fine. They’re slower than lasers, and the shock waves aren’t as bad as the ones from that whale thing!” Ray said, relying on his combat experience to evade the meteors. The falling rocks went on to crash into the ground below, creating many repeated impact explosions.

Carl and Horobimaru were standing in the middle of it all, both thoroughly unharmed.

He instantly found the only weakness in my meteor shower. I suppose I shouldn’t expect any less from his brother. Though, he just broke it all with his fists.

Seeing Ray counter this attack made Carl crack a smile under his costume.

Horobimaru was still facing him, seemingly indifferent to his owner’s predicament, and the armor’s movements made Carl realize something.

Given what I know about the owner, she would definitely use Horobimaru to protect herself. The fact that she isn’t must mean that she cannot. This thing is not being controlled by her. And from what she said, Horobimaru would only take action to fight and destroy Superior Jobs... It makes one wonder who is being used by whom.

Carl’s conjecture was correct. Horobimaru was Alto’s property, but she couldn’t control him like a regular tamed monster. He could only be Called in battles involving Superior Jobs, and once summoned, he would do nothing but fight the SJs. Alto herself wasn’t aware of this specific fact, but if there were SJs on her side, Horobimaru would attack them as well.

Defeating—no, fighting—Superior Jobs was the very purpose for Horobimaru’s existence. Upon accepting his defeat by Alto, he had released his Resources as an SUBM and was no longer counted among their number, but that purpose had never changed.

After all, this was part of his nature before Jabberwock had even given him the designation of “UBM.”

“98 Seconds remaining.” However, some things had changed after he’d stopped being a UBM—most notably, the time he could be active.

Horobimaru’s Anti Skill constantly drained an immense amount of SP. When he’d had the vast Resources of an SUBM, he could use it and fight without needing a moment of rest; but having become a living armor summon that was merely based on the original SUBM, he would exhaust his SP in a mere three minutes. Once that time ran out, Horobimaru would automatically be sent back to the Jewel.

Because of this, Carl could win not by defeating Alto, but by merely focusing on defense and waiting for the summon time to expire.

He had done something like that against Jubei, and Carl fully understood that he would also have to do it here.

I am not doing that.

However, satisfying his feelings was more important than following the optimal course of action right now.

This was a battle against another “invincible.” His first fight against an SUBM...and the SUBM was being used by a newbie.

These facts made it impossible for Carl to take the easy way out.

This wasn’t a matter of haughtiness or scorn, but pure pride.

“Destroy Superior Jobs!”

“...Come.” He spoke his second word today and prepared to welcome Horobimaru.

The armor charged at him with more speed than ever before. With Polar Star’s knockback negation nullified, the incoming attack would surely send him flying outside the barrier, especially since he was only a metel away from it.

With over half of his body submerged, the Superior didn’t move as he waited for Horobimaru to come closer, only for the armor to be sent flying.

Horobimaru’s shock was apparent. Before the armor had even realized it, there was a ring of wire encircling his right leg.

It was the end of a snare trap—one of the most basic traps imaginable.

Carl had been waiting for Horobimaru to come closer just for this.

He had thrown the materials for the trap into the water ahead of time and waited for the armor to approach before using Quick Trap to create the full snare right under his feet and catch him.

Horobimaru no longer had the upper hand.

You should never underestimate a hunter, SUBM. You cannot negate traps of this kind, can you?

A snare this primitive had no skills for Horobimaru to cancel, and Carl’s traps were meant to be used on creatures Pure-Dragon-tier or higher, meaning that it had no trouble catching this empty suit of armor.

Pure physics took over as the momentum from the snare trap flung Horobimaru behind Carl.

And so...

I am not the only “invincible” who would lose by going out of bounds.

Horobimaru touched the barrier...and vanished.

Carl had used himself as bait to trap his prey—a strategy employed by many skilled hunters.

Silence fell over the battlefield. Having defeated the greatest threat, Carl was taking in the moment...

“SILVEEEERRRRRRRRR!”

...when suddenly, someone seized that very moment as an opening.

A black wall was rushing towards Carl.

It had been created by the skill called “Wind Hoof.” This was the power that allowed the silver Prism Steed to gallop on compressed air while also permitting the rider to create barriers using his own magic.

And now, right in front of the steed, there was a barrier of air so heavily compressed that not even light could pass through it.

Ray didn’t have the time and his Grudge-Soaked Greaves didn’t have the magic to create an omnidirectional barrier like the one he’d once used against Franklin. The small barrier right in front of Silver was the most he could manage right now.

However, that was enough. This barrier wasn’t actually meant to protect anyway.

Ray didn’t intend to win against someone “invincible” with defense. He was doing what he’d been planning to do from the start.

Shock overcame Carl as he realized what was about to happen. Having been defeated by Shu, he’d been investigating Ray since the moment he’d revealed his power during Franklin’s Game and the events before it.

For Ray Starling, the black air barrier was not a means of defense...

“Wind Hoof, cancel!”

...but a compressed air bomb.

A moment later, an explosion would erupt in front of Carl, and with his knockback immunity nullified, the pressure would send him flying outside the barrier.

However, there were still a few moments left before that happened.

Not bad. Not bad at all. You sure are something else, Shu’s brother. You were waiting for this the whole time, weren’t you?! Very well—then I will show you the ace up my sleeve. Another way to be invincible is to kill everyone who threatens you, and that is exactly what I’ll do. My Burst Mode is gonna blow you away—along with your explosion!

With that surge of emotions, Carl activated the accessory with the Clothing Switch skill and prepared to swap Polar Star for his offensive gear when...

“Blackwing Requiem!”

...he received a direct hit from a spell coming from the right.

His surprise was evident as he turned towards the source of the attack and saw a heavily injured girl with black wings—Juliet.

She had finished her battle with Chelsea and had rushed back to the side of the teammate who’d believed in her victory.

Her spell delayed Carl’s counterattack by just a few moments, and his defeat was now inevitable.

The wind unleashed from the black barrier landed directly on Carl, throwing him back to the edge of the event area...and making him vanish.

The invincible Superior was eliminated.

◇◆◇

Kingdom of Altar, East

Carl was sent back to his nearest set save point—a particular town in Altar.

He was in the exact same position he’d been in when he touched the edge of the event area, so he fell backwards immediately after arrival.

“You are back. Why the strange posture?”

A colleague who had accompanied Carl on a quest westward posed that question in a tone that suggested he wasn’t even a little bit worried. It seemed that he’d been waiting for Carl to return.

Not saying a word, Carl slowly stood up. A keen eye would notice that his hands were slightly shaking.

“Did the event end already? I certainly do not believe you lost, but...” The colleague—a fellow Sefirot member, God Hand, Yumeji Iryo—adjusted his glasses.

He had no idea how deeply those words might have stung Carl right now.

Still shaking from the bitter humiliation, Carl somehow wrung out a response.

“I lost. I hate this. I’m so sad. I’m going off. See you tomorrow.”

“Huh? Oh. Sure, see you then.”

Leaving his confused colleague behind, Carl logged out and went to sulk in his bed.

God Hunter, Carl Lourlou was not very sociable and a Master of few words. Any words that he did manage to speak did not nearly measure up to the complexity of his emotions.