The third floor of the orphanage had been transformed into an otherworldly dimension, consisting mainly of a perfectly straight, endless corridor.
Inside, the Players Traveler and Viridescent were warily eyeing an indistinct, shadowy presence a few hundred meters ahead of them. It faced the wall, repeatedly slapping it with a steady rhythm.
Despite their strange circumstances, the Players looked calm. After all, such things were par for the course to seasoned Players who'd had their fair share of encounters with supernatural entities. Not to mention, supernatural entities were governed by certain rules, and would not attack unless their "kill condition" was activated. Even Impossible-class entities were bound by similar rules, so there was nothing to be gained from panicking—in fact, doing so was a sure way to hasten one's own death.
Viridescent glanced at Traveler, whose brows were still knitted together.
"Instead of wondering where the survivors are hiding, why don't we figure out how we're supposed to get out of here?" she said coldly. "Look, it's moving toward us now."
It was just as she said. The shadow that was once hundreds of meters away was now within a hundred meters of them. The dull smacking sounds it made as it slapped the wall were also louder and clearer than before.
It was undoubtedly drawing closer. Still, the shadow remained no more than a featureless, if vaguely humanoid, blur.
Traveler eyed the long sword in Viridescent's hand and sighed.
"We have no idea why it's slapping the wall. If we charge in with an attack, we might accidentally trigger its kill condition, which would be bad news... Allow me."
Swiftly, he lowered his body and placed a palm on the ground. The next second, a blocky-looking robot appeared by his feet.
[ Skill Name : RX-78 Land Runner ]
[ Type : Summoning ]
[ Rank : Normal ]
[ Effect : Summons a homing, self-destructing robot, the RX-78 Land Runner. It will automatically pursue a given target until coming into contact, upon which the robot will explode, dealing damage to the target. Can be remote-controlled or prematurely detonated. ]
[ SE Consumption : 10 SE ]
[ Cooldown : 1 minute ]
[ Requirements : Intelligence of 10 or above ]
[ Note : True Art is a Patrick Starfish!* ]
This skill had its origins in the game Dungeon Fighter Online, and was one of the basic skills used by the Gunslinger class. This version of it, which Traveler had acquired as a reward for participating in a Game, featured a slight improvement over the original, in that he could remotely control the robot's movements.
Nevertheless, it was only a Normal skill, and as one would expect, it had limited practical application. While it could, potentially, inflict some serious damage, the drawback was that the robot simply moved too slowly—its top speed was not much faster than walking pace for most people. It might work well for an ambush or sneak attack, but in a head-on confrontation, only a fool would let themselves get hit by such a thing.
However, under the present circumstances, it was well-suited to the task at hand, which was to engage the shadow from a safe distance.
The summoned robot now began to amble forward at a pace just faster than a walk, heading toward the dark shadow, which had closed in by another ten meters.
The shadow seemed to ignore everything that had gone on thus far, only continuing to beat against the wall with the same, steady mechanical rhythm, even as the little robot waddled right up to its feet.
A sudden thought occurred to Traveler, but too late—not before he sent the command to detonate the robot. As Traveler's eyes widened, Viridescent reacted with lightning speed, planting a foot in his gut. With a firm thrust, she sent him stumbling backward, and not a moment too soon.
BOOM!!!
With a deafening blast, a cloud of flame rose up around the shadow. At the same time, a shockwave burst out from where Traveler had been standing just moments ago.
If not for Viridescent kicking him to safety, he would most likely have suffered serious injuries.
"Khoff, khak... Da-damage reflection?"
Traveler coughed as he steadied himself against the wall with one hand while he held his other against his bruised abs. Frowning intensely, he fixed his gaze on the shape that stood, completely unharmed, amidst the dying flames.
"Only one way to find out!" Viridescent gritted her teeth and rushed at the shadow.
Ah, that old chestnut—"I'll take down anything, even a god, as long as it has an HP bar."
The true reason Players existed was not to save themselves from the supernatural entities in the city, but to rid the world of the endless scourge.
Even among the monstrously powerful, there were still degrees of power. The most dangerous supernatural entities were the kind that never showed their true form—the unfortunate soul who activated the kill conditions of such a creature was apt to die without even knowing why.
Of the known Impossible-class supernatural entities, most were the type to keep their true form hidden. A rare few, like the Kid Reaper, were able to roam openly, but that was because they were simply too powerful to destroy. They could only be contained, at best. On the other hand, lesser monsters could have their kill condition activated and still be defeated by someone with enough power.
Such was the monster that Viridescent was expecting to face. She was undoubtedly a skilled Player, being the second highest leveled among all seven of them, and she closed the fifty-meter distance between herself and the shadow in a flash. She slashed at where the shadow's hand seemed to be, her blade glowing with a faint light as it whistled through the air. It was clearly imbued with the ability to damage supernatural entities.
To Viridescent, and even Traveler's surprise, the instant before the blade would have sliced through the shadowy arm, the thing, whatever it was, disappeared and reappeared a few hundred meters away.
"Why you little...!"
Viridescent grimaced with frustration and not a little fury, because the moment she withdrew her blade, the shadow returned to a distance about a dozen meters away, its hand slapping away steadily at the wall, as if mocking her.
"...We should find another way out." Traveler frowned as he shot another glance at the shadow. Nudging his glasses, he said, "If we can't do anything about that thing, the least we can do is look for any clues that might help."
His other hand had unconsciously wrapped itself around his gut—the kick from Viridescent had proved to be a mighty one, and he was still somewhat winded from it.
"For some reason, I've got this nagging feeling that I've overlooked something, but I keep drawing a blank..."
"If we find whatever it is you overlooked, will it help us get out?" said Viridescent icily as she rejoined her teammate.
"Your guess is as good as mine. All I know is that thing seems to completely reflect ranged attacks, and melee attacks just make it blink** away... I can't even tell exactly what it is."
Traveler broke into a wry smile.
"It appears that we will soon need to call for rescue..."
* Reference to Naruto—during a fight between Deidara and Sasuke, the shape of Deidara's final explosion resembles Patrick's silhouette.
** Short-distance teleport.
