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ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 151 Part 2

Translator: Kurehashi Aiko

Editor: ryunakama

Chapter 151: Character Games In a Nutshell Part 2

Best thing about this technique is that there is no motion blur alongside its duration. Another one of Ranzo’s techniques that required the gauge to be filled to some extent was “Amatsukaze Tairanzan”, which lets him use a cross-slash-like attack, with each slash being approximately ten meters long. There was also one more thing: the feeling of defying the laws of physics was simply great! All because it was a character based on American comic books!

You see, I’m not stupid enough to just rush head-first into the opponent I just met and don’t know anything about it. Yes…… That’s because there is always this feeling of “Let’s wait and see what he does for the time being” stuck inside my chest.

Surely she didn’t expect this attack of hers to be perfect, but judging from the startled way in which Natsume-san started to manipulate the vines and roots around her to minimize the damage of my slashes was proving just that. And the way she used her resources and changed their use on the spot was a mark of a true professional gamer.

But in this situation completely negating all the damage would be impossible, the only way to go about it was to accept at least part of it. That way she could give me a false sense of security while creating a counterattack of her own…… But unfortunately the way she was going about it was worth only  sixty five points at best.

Since she is a counter-based character, she prepares herself for intercepting my incoming attack. It wasn’t that much of a problem in and of itself, but it would be such a waste to just let an attack opportunity like that pass me by. After all, the only way for me to beat her right now is to reduce her Hit Points to zero.

After all, this battle is supposed to be proof that I’m indeed someone who can hold a forty percent win-rate against Uomi Kei. So in other words, I must achieve a flawless victory over her right now, otherwise she’ll think it was nothing more than a fluke as well. Realizing that, the path towards victory starts to open one by one.

If she dares to intercept me, I’m not going to push my luck. And when I try to attack her, she just backs away to safety.

For a while a certain stagnation is created, with none of us daring to attack the other one. It is like playing Rock-Paper-Scissors and getting a draw all the time. In my opinion Natsume-san was a little bit overly cautious, putting up her own safety in front of utilizing her character’s abilities to their full potential.

Somehow, from all of that I came to understand Natsume-san’s battle style a little. That is, she is creating her own rhythm.

There are players like Rei or I who…… don’t do well when it comes to battle rhythm at all. Regardless of who we are and what we do, we can accomplish everything we set our minds to. If an opponent takes the initiative we might well lose, but we will always work on getting the upper hand and doing the same to our opponents.

That being said, Katsu, Pencilgton and Natsume seem to be the kind of players that create a certain rhythm to their actions. They anticipate their opponent’s actions and work on turning it into a flow that works best for them. At first it seems really haphazard, putting the urge to win before the safety or getting the initiative.

Both of those methods have their merits and demerits…… But from that fact alone, at least the concept of defeating Natsume-san started to shape in my mind.

If my guess is correct…… She’s the type that is not all that good at taking defeat with grace.

「So, Megu, it looks like you fought with Sanraku…… How did it go?」

「…… I lost. What the hell is wrong with this guy!? His movements got so messed up halfway through the fight that it was difficult to follow! What the hell is that all about!?」

Katsu…… Kei asked his teammate about her experience with fighting Gasmask Sanraku, who was now back at testing various characters.

From her reaction it looks like she fell victim to the same type of strategy that cornered him at that time, and realizing that he couldn’t help but to smile in a bitter way.

「Told you? He’s the same type of player as Silvia Goldberg. He tends to adapt and change his battlestyle every ten seconds, so you must always take that into account and act accordingly on your own.」

According to Kei’s words, that Sanraku-guy is like a Swiss Army Knife, always hiding some kind of Ace up his sleeve. And by using all of those tools and combining them as needed, he could achieve results otherwise impossible to achieve for anyone else. It was a true double edged sword, for if you were able to see through all of his tricks, it was pretty much possible to respond accordingly and counter him.

「I get it that he’s strong, but his thought pattern makes him extremely unstable in my opinion. It’s as though his mind is driven by some kind of ridiculous romantic ideas or something like that……」

The ideas such like: let’s play it by ear and not think of any strategy in advance, and see if it is going to be enough to defeat a professional gamer! Things like that tend to turn people off their game and Kei fell victim to that logic before just like Natsume did not so long ago.

Following the path of romance instead of a foolproof strategy can more often than not lead you down the path of utter defeat, but at the same time it can produce some interesting results that are worth witnessing with your own eyes.

「But it is precisely because of that that I think we might be able to beat Star Rain.」

「…… So, does that mean this Towa Amane is as strong as well?」

「No, her case is somewhat different. When it comes to her, she’s just pure evil.」

If Sanraku was to be compared to a tuna that swims freely and is unpredictable because of that, Pencil Warrior is more of a spider that weaves its net all around you only to trap you inside it before you even realize what’s going on.