CH 120

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“[Incarnation of Fury]!” (Souma)

The King Butcher approached with its meaty body shaking as if he saw the opportunity with my shout. 

The movements of the Butcher couldn’t be described as nimble. 

But that’s when you think of it in human standards. 

If someone several times the size of a human does the same actions, the speed will be several times that too. 

That white giant swung down with everything it had. 

The cleaver was coming down at me with fearsome speed, and I…

(…I can see it!) (Souma)

However, I shifted my body to the side and avoided it with a paper-thin difference. 

The cleaver passed right by me, and I was on the verge of faltering from the sound of cutting wind, but I still maintained calm. 

I don’t know if it is an optical illusion from the adrenaline, but I feel like my vision has been amplified. 

The movements of the Butcher were slower than usual. 

This almighty feeling enveloping my body fueled my adrenaline even more.

(I can do this!) (Souma)

What aimed at me next was the kick of the Butcher that had sent me flying before. 

The leg of the giant that has the strength of mass was like a wall approaching me.

(I will…slip through here!) (Souma)

But that attack won’t be catching my current self. 

I jumped forward, slipping through the gap between the cleaver and the right leg…

“Woah there.” (Souma)

I couldn’t control the speed completely and pitched forward at the end, but by the time I somehow managed to fix my posture, I was already at the back of the Butcher. 

The thing that was impossible to do no matter how many movement skills I used…I managed to do it without using skills. 

Even when I am aware I am in the middle of a battle, I couldn’t hold back the surge of emotions in me. 

(This is the power Ina gave me! So this is the world with 3 times the speed!!) (Souma)

The Incarnation of Fury that’s purported as a balance breaker. 

This is a special skill that only a player can obtain, and there’s only one way to obtain it…

Trigger the Proposal Event, and activate the Curse of the Demon Lord. 

Even when you get the downside of there being a high change your playthrough will be done for, this skill is still popular. 

The effects are actually outstanding after all. 

It is understandable how this is the star of hope for the 7743 Reports.

First, if we look at just the positives of it, the Incarnation of Fury is the best stat buff skill without question. 

It has a lot of limitations like not working when there’s allies closeby, but it increases all of your base stats by 3 times for 30 seconds.

The Power Up I currently have is different due to the customization, but the original effect of this spell that is a buff just like Incarnation of Fury only increases your strength by 1.3 times for 30 seconds, so you should be able to tell how incredible it is. 

Just this alone already makes it crazy, but there’s actually even more to this. 

‘All base stats’ doesn’t only include stuff like strength, magic power, endurance, and resistances that have to do with attack and defense. 

It also includes things like HP, MP, and even stamina and agility which are stats that don’t increase by leveling up. They all increase by 3 times. 

What’s especially frightening are the effects of the increase in agility. 

3 times higher means that the agility of the player increases to 300 temporarily. 

That’s even higher than the 250 from the fastest character, Mitsuki.

Of course, her deftness and masterful techniques are solely because of Mitsuki herself, so even if my agility has surpassed hers, it is not like I can act as fast as Mitsuki.

Even with that taken into account, moving 3 times as fast is fearsome, and if I go 3 times as fast, I can act 3 times more. 

This can become an overwhelming advantage against enemies. 

That’s why…

(Gotcha!!) (Souma)

After having moved to the back of the Butcher without any difficulties, I was sure of my own victory. 

I swing down Shiranui on the right leg of the giant that still hasn’t detected me. 

“Guh!” (Souma)

But the one who groaned from that attack was me. 

My attack was stopped by the thick meat armor of the Butcher. I couldn’t deal enough damage. 

(It is not enough even with this?!) (Souma)

I was shocked by this unbelievable reality. 

I didn’t use Power Up, but I still have a 3 times buff on strength. 

I didn’t expect that it wouldn’t work. 

I unconsciously stopped moving from the shock. 

The giant white body in front of me moved in that brief instant.

An attack while turning around. 

I jumped back to try and avoid this attack that took advantage of the centrifugal force, but…

“No way!!” (Souma)

I made far more distance than I expected. 

I jumped out from the 3 meter distance I had set from the very beginning. 

I hurriedly try to pull the brake on it, but my feet touch the ground at a speed faster than I imagined. 

(The reactions of my body are way too sharp!) (Souma)

That resulted in my body losing balance. 

I fumble around where there’s nothing and fall on my butt. 

(Calm down!) (Souma)

I reprimanded myself. 

Fortunately, I took way too much distance, so I have somehow escaped the attack range of the Butcher. 

I stand up in a way that I save as much of my strength as possible, and regain my posture. 

With agility being 3 times higher, you get an equal amount of difficulty in control. 

That’s something the other players have said when using Incarnation of Fury, and I should have been prepared for it.

Also, the attack just now not getting through is in a sense obvious. 

My attack had the customized attack power of Shiranui, with my strength buffed by around 10 times with Power Up, along with the Side Slash that has a high multiplier; all those 3 components are what made it possible to deal damage. 

My Side Slash didn’t work, and yet, I tried to do a normal attack with only 3 times the strength and no multiplier from Side Slash. 

My thoughts were just running solely on the strength amplification part, and completely forgot about the skill multiplier of Side Slash. 

Thinking about it with a calm mind, I can tell there’s no way an attack like that could have gone through. 

(It is okay. It’s still okay.) (Souma)

I tell myself this. 

I still can do something. 

This time I should use Side Slash, and if that doesn’t work either, I just have to use it together with Power Up. 

The issue here is that using Power UP while in the middle of Incarnation of Fury isn’t that efficient. 

If you use Power Up while you have 3 times the strength, the 10 times doesn’t become 30 times… Not only that, the buffs overlap and don’t even reach 12 times the power. 

Rather than calling this how buff skills and spells work, it is more like the trait of all buff states. 

I talk about Power Up and Incarnation of Fury increasing the base stats, but it is not like they are directly tinkering with the parameters of the character. 

Buff State is technically like a positive abnormal status effect. 

The relationship here can be easily settled with the calculation of: Character’s Base Stats x Modifier of the Buff State + Stats of the Equipment = Actual Stat.

What Power Up does is fiddle with the Buff State modifier, so it is not like it is tinkering directly. For example; even if it looks like the customized Power Up has increased your strength by 10 times when you level up in the middle of it, the reality is that it has only increased the usual number. 

Moreover, the only thing that’s applied in the Buff State modifier is the current highest number on you. 

In the case when both the customized Power Up and Incarnation of Fury are activated at the same time, only the customized Power Up will be taking effect. 

Well, rather than wishing for something that’s not there, I should be grateful that I can at least use Power Up in the middle of Incarnation of Fury. 

Anyways, I have just recently begun using Incarnation of Fury. 

There’s still time—

(…Time?) (Souma)

At that moment, I noticed that I have lost track of the time I have been using Incarnation of Fury. 

You normally would keep tabs of the skill effects while fighting, but the excitement of the battle and the unexpected agitation, on top of the agility messing with your sense of time, had changed what should have been a natural thing into an impossible task. 

(How long until the effect runs out? How long until I…) (Souma)

That reality made me grow even more impatient. 

This Incarnation of Fury has a big backlash. 

If I don’t defeat this guy within 30 seconds of the activation, I will definitely…

“[Step]!!” (Souma)

This uneasiness pushed me into action. 

What I chose by instinct was to move with a skill. 

This skill that I should be greatly familiar with created an acceleration that I have never experienced before due to the Incarnation of Fury. 

However, this caught the enemy off-guard. 

I entered the still defenseless bosom of the King Butcher, cancel the Step, and the Side Slash—

“…Eh?” (Souma)

I couldn’t chain it. 

The Step cancel to Side Slash; this technique that I have repeated thousands to millions of times…ended in my first failure in several months. 

Cancel Miss. 

That term surfaced in my mind. 

Because of the skill stun, I am made to stand upright without being able to do anything. And the monster in front of me raised his giant weapon. 

“…Ah.” (Souma)

A dumbfounded voice leaked out from me. 

The reddish-brown colored cleaver was covering my vision with its thickness that doesn’t even look like a bladed weapon anymore. 

—I have no way of avoiding it. 

*Crack!*

A nasty sound rang from my cranium, and my consciousness flew away. 

I probably only lost consciousness for a mere instant.

“Ouch…” (Souma)

I woke up from the intense pain. 

I lift up my body while feeling dizzy and…

“—?!” (Souma)

I immediately moved to evade the gigantic white leg that was coming right at me. 

([Step]!!) (Souma)

The habit that has seeped into my body made me choose to avoid it by using Step before I could come to my senses. 

The skill barely activated even when my posture was a mess, and my body jumped to the side. 

It really is an acceleration I can’t get used to.

But I managed to escape from the trample of the Butcher with that. 

I was bewildered by the speed that I haven’t felt much of before as I landed, and tried to cancel the Step with a Side Slash…

(Again?!) (Souma)

I am not getting the timing right.

It failed. 

I was stunned again. 

The cleaver was coming at me from the side. 

“Guuuh!” (Souma)

It hits my body. 

My lungs were emptied. 

I was shot off. 

(This is…) (Souma)

However, I didn’t lose consciousness there. 

I was thinking even while in midair. 

(This is the wall of acceleration, huh.) (Souma)

The Incarnation of Fury greatly increases the user’s agility. 

This is a big plus, and at the same time, a big minus that makes seasoned Nekomimi Neko players suffer.

That’s because the way too high agility creates a big barrier along with its benefits. 

This phenomenon is called the wall of acceleration by a number of people. 

Agility accelerates almost all actions and shortens them. 

This shortening also leads to the Cancel Points being heavily shifted. 

If your agility is 3 times more, your skills are 3 times faster, and as a result, the Cancel Point arrives 3 times faster. The cancel window is also shortened to a third of its length. 

Even the Nekomimi Neko players that have learned the cancel timing with their every pore and have seeped it into their body…no, it is exactly because of this that those types of players can’t keep up with the change. 

On the other hand, there’s something that can’t be shortened no matter what even with the acceleration of the agility. 

The increase of agility accelerates almost all actions, but active actions of yours like stuns or knockbacks and the skill stuns are not included in this. 

If you fail in canceling the skill, you will still be hit with the same stun time even when your agility has increased. 

That’s why it is even said that the better the Nekomimi Neko player, the more they hate the change in speed. 

If you can manage to chain your skills properly, you can bring out close to 3 times the movement speed. 

It is definitely the correct choice to take skill canceling properly over 3 times the speed. 

There’s also the fighting style of Mitsuki.

Rather than killing your speed after using a skill that stuns you, it would be better to hold back on the use of skills when you have high agility. 

That choice is most likely also correct. 

(Even so…!) (Souma)

I think something like that is not enough, so I have chosen this path. 

It is because I think I would be far from achieving what I want if I don’t use this skill. 

The skill cancel technique that I have polished to the extreme has taken root in my body to the point that it is already muscle memory. 

However, with the change of speed, all of that is pointless. No, it might even turn into shackles. 

The time I spent on the game, my hard work in it will have no point at all. 

(Even with that…!!) (Souma)

The agility is decreased with the weight of your equipment. 

For example; if I were to hold something heavy like the cleaver, I would be able to adjust my agility artificially to get to 100 again. 

But I won’t take that route. 

In order to get used to that speed as fast as possible, I have already pledged in my heart that I won’t use skills in any other time aside from the 3x state until I defeat the Demon Lord. 

I of course am aware that the risk is big when I fail.

I can’t escape the big decrease in power at that time, and if I get used to the 3x speed in a half-assed way, I might end up unable to properly use the skills in my normal state. 

But no matter how difficult of a choice this is, this speed is absolutely necessary for my objective. 

Everything is for the sake of defeating the Demon Lord. 

For the sake of not letting my companions die…no, so that I don’t have to sacrifice anyone! 

In order to not cloud the smile of Ina!! 

(I have already decided to make this speed mine!!) (Souma)

My head was throbbing in pain and my hit chest was also burning up, screaming in pain. 

My body is also in tatters, and there’s probably only a little bit left before the effect runs out. 

Even with that, my two legs were planted on the ground, with Shiranui ready against the oncoming white giant.