chapter05 · 150-ep150
Episode 143: The Abyss's Baptism
【Eh】
【Hah!?】
【What was that!?】
【Something just made an insane sound!?】
【Eh, did Ojou-sama's fist just get deflected!?】
The abyss could apparently still be conquered Elegantly—the comments had been riding that high over Karin perfectly dodging the armadillo's attacks, until cold water hit them and they erupted.
Karin's fists, having dodged the armadillo's tackles left and right and gone on the offensive, had been deflected utterly.
And not once or twice.
"Hn hn hn hn!"
GAGIGIGIGIGIGIIIIIIIIIIIN!
Dodging the tackles, Karin landed several more punches—all deflected with thunderous clangs.
What's more, the armadillo seemed to be taking no decent damage—not so much as a squeal rose from it, and its tackles lost nothing in speed or power.
And then—
"As expected of the abyss. Well played, desu wa. Not a shock-absorbing or reflecting magic ability—my fists are deflected purely by the shell's hardness and deflection through hyper-rotation. I must train more, desu wa."
【M-my Side Effect is whispering to me... that armadillo genuinely isn't using ANY magic ability...】
【@Captain pizza: The type that funnels all its magic-ability resources into pure physical performance and brute-forces you... In a sense, the most troublesome kind of enemy there is—no tricks work on it...!
【Is he serious!?】
【Hah!? This isn't a magic ability!?】
【You're kidding!?】
【Sure, something that smashes dungeon walls like it's nothing deflecting Ojou-sama's fist wouldn't be strange...】
【My brain is refusing to process this!?】
【That's weird... come to think of it, a monster deflecting a bare fist should be the NORMAL thing. When exactly did my common sense get destroyed...】
【(90% of the viewers are too fixated on Ojou-sama's fist being deflected to notice that the sound of the deflection is unmistakably metallic)】
【And wait—not just the armadillo, but Ojou-sama's deflected FIST is unharmed too—what IS that, desu no!?】
【Hold on, better late than never—the abyss is SCARY, right!?】
An absolute defense born of devoting all its mana to pure physical ability and shell hardness rather than magic effects. Karin's analysis, Side Effect bro, and multiple other testimonies filled the comments with astonishment and confusion.
But—the abyss's true threat did not stop there.
"Hmm. With fa jin as well, I must stay pressed against it even if only for an instant, so against hyper-rotation I cannot produce sufficient power. Deflecting it into the dungeon wall would accomplish nothing either. In that case—I shall try all sorts of things, desu wa!"
【<Divine Artisan> gear is hereeeeeeee!】
【As expected of the abyss...! But Ojou-sama has her whole arsenal of outrageous equipment, desu no!】
【This is no time to hold back!】
Karin drew magic gear from her item box and unleashed it against the bouncing armadillo, one piece after another.
But—
"Doryaaaaaaa! Desu waaaaa!"
GAGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!!
The pile bunker that had once effortlessly finished the Storm Dragon was deflected as a matter of course.
"Dossei!"
GYARYARYARYARYA!!
She swung the goddamn-huge hammer forged from hardened dungeon wall just as she'd batted back the Dragon Cannon's fire, catching the armadillo's core—but its hyper-rotation deflected the impact, and like a foul ball it glanced off the hammer, evading a clean hit.
"Sh—!"
BAGII!
The long-range slash of <Mongolian Desu-Worm> loosed iai-style, the mana bullets of her Elegatlings—the armadillo deflected, deflected, and deflected every last attack!
By pressing head to tail and curling up without a single gap, hiding its whole body in carapace like a true sphere, the armadillo's hyper-rotation enabled high attack power, high mobility, and an absolute defense that repelled even Karin's magic gear.
"KYIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN?"
Only the shockwave bombs alone dealt damage to the armadillo—
"Hmm. It does not seem to amount to much damage, though. From the feel of my strikes, it is a multi-layered structure—not merely hard, but with soft layers as well—and it appears to absorb shocks and the like too. Perhaps because its fighting style centers on tackles, its countermeasures around impact are thorough, desu wa."
Moreover, most of her shockwave bombs had been spent in the 'writhing dungeon' conquest and the battle with the water god dragon; reloading enough to finish off the armadillo would certainly cost a fair amount of time. And while she did that, other monsters drawn by the sounds of battle—even multiple armadillos—might come gathering. It was not a very realistic method.
【HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!?】
【Hey hey hey hey hey, seriously!?】
【Ojou-sama's arsenal is getting nullified at every turrrrrrrrrrrrrn!?】
【You're kidding me...!?】
【Isn't this Ojou-sama's next natural enemy, after red superchats and the police!?】
【This thing's a natural enemy for every human being on Earth EXCEPT Ojou-sama!】
【This is no time for jokes—what IS this thing? In a way it's worse than a boss!?】
【If it were a boss, fine—but this is a REGULAR monster, are you serious!?】
【I mean, I figured it'd be bad, but the abyss is just TOO much!?】
【What now!? She won't lose, but she can't WIN either, I say!?】
【Isn't there anything!? Like that flamethrower!】
【That rotation would probably blow the flames away, and if it charges in close, the flamethrower gets dicey!? She might literally catch fire...】
【No, without some new gear this isn't 'difficult,' it's IMPOSSIBLE!?】
【Ojou-sama, don't you have some hidden equipment, desu no!?】
At the abyss's true threat—repelling even the magic gear that had slaughtered countless enemies before—the composure evaporated from the comments.
But amid that—
"Hmm hmm. I have mostly figured it out, desu wa."
Karin muttered in a voice far too relaxed for someone whose attacks had been shut out completely, still dodging the armadillo's assaults as naturally as ever.
"I have now filmed the essentials of this monster-sama's defensive performance. As information to send up to the surface, that is sufficient. My eyes have just about adjusted to the rotation, too... Time to hunt, desu wa."
【Eh】
【Eh】
【Eh?】
"KYUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!"
The comments flooded with "Eh" at Karin's words, and the armadillo too, as if to say "What nonsense!", roared its beast-cry and charged Karin once more.
The next instant—
"You there—you move half-unconsciously so that attacks never land on the seam where your body closes up when you curl into a ball, do you not? —Eiya!!"
ZUBOCHUUU!!!
"GA———H!?!?"
Karin's hand-blade—every hardening and fist-reinforcing skill concentrated into it, its mobility boosted by Storm Style—had plunged deep into the body of the armadillo from the side, mid-hyper-rotation as it charged past.
――――――――――――――――――――――――
The true subtitle of this episode might actually have been "The Ojou-sama's Baptism"...
Or, if this were a manga, it'd be one of those where "Episode 143: Fist F***" pops up as the title at the very end, desu wa.
So that's what the split updates I mentioned before look like, desu wa. The pacing of the breaks is a bit different from before, so various fine-grained explanations got pushed to next episode—thank you for bearing with it, desu wa...! (Though come to think of it, plenty of other works have episodes around this character count. Everyone packs so much into so little, desu wa!)
Postscript: Sorry—Karin ojou-sama's line made it confusing, but her hand-blade did NOT stab into a hole, desu wa! I hurriedly fixed it a little, desu no!