Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~

Luck dashed forward from his mid-guard spot, covering 30m distance in a breath. 10m was the range for vanguard, 30m for the mid-guard, and 50m for the rearguard.

«Everyone, Luck is joining the helm to cast debuff better. Act accordingly to the plan!»

Given the huge gap between their battle formation against Nestirad, the «Transmission» was a lifesaver for the group. Nestirad was already appearing too much to handle, and if they'd to shout commands in a loud voice to cover the gap, they'd risk Nestirad already waiting in anticipation of their next move.

The space spirit Jigen—It was best of the spirit available in striking resistance and endurance—appeared beside Luck in the shape of upper body armor following the effect of Sophia's skill «Spirit Garb.» Soon, it transformed itself into a mass of spiritual energy and again appeared as armour on Luck.

«Sophia, channel your whole spiritual energy into me!»

"Roger!!"

Promptly, spiritual force diffused from Sophie and encapsulated Luck in it.

The armor hadn't completely materialised, but given its firmness, it had undoubtedly surpassed orichalcum in hardness.

—Spirit Garb Effect (Skill Level 9)—

[Skill User] Sophiarone

[Skill Type] Buff

[Mana (Spiritual Power) Cost] 10,000 (Spiritual Power)

[Effect] A gentle aura envelops the target's body.

[Effect 1] The target can wear the blessing of the spirits as armor.

[Range] 10 kilometers from the user

[Growth Potential] With each level up, the «Effect 1» would encompass one more person, irrespective of their spirit rank. At Level 9, the user can manifest one spirit as armor for each of 9 companions.

[Duration (second)] Spirit Power consumed / 100

[Activation Time] 60 seconds

[Cooldown Time] 1 hour

[Required Skill Experience] 10,000 required to reach skill level 2, with 10x more required after that.

—[Note 1] The spirit prioritizes taking damage for the wearer. When the spirit's endurance takes a hit beyond a certain level, it will be unable to manifest for one day.

—[Note 2] The number of spirits that can manifest may increase under the influence of the "Fountain of Life" skill, and it depends on that skill’s effect (Current Count - 10). ŗâ𐌽ỌβÊŠ

—[Note 3] Multiple spirits cannot manifest on the same target.

—[Note 4] The spirits that manifest are limited to those contracted by the user.

※If the Spiritual Power (including MP) is 360,000, the duration lasts for 1 hour.

※The duration extends to 2 hours under the blessing of the Great Spirit of Time.

※The cooldown of skills like "Fountain of Life" would be revised to be one hour.

"Haaaa!!"

Luck made one slash after another on the abdomen of Nestirad with extreme agility, and with each contact the sacred artifact «Arc Jewel of the Spirit King» made, the spark would scatter in all direction.

«Begone. This one is seeking one's object. Enough with the hindrance!!»

But of course, Nestirad didn't take the attack lying down. And soon, Nestirad's left hand—this time, it wasn't enhanced with spiritual force—attacked Luck.

"Rrgh! Quiet the power it has. How do one even one against an opponent that's out of our league?!»

(Hey, hey, Great Spirit. How about you stop dampening the morale of our comrades first? I mean, of course we can see there's barely any silver bullet for us! It's almost like those detestable, pre-scripted inevitable defeat events!!)

Jigen promptly expanded the armor to shrug off the damage, nevertheless it still left behind a shocking impact, prompting him to share his true feelings.

As the battle progressed, Allen was made to think even clearing the trials of god and gaining strength hadn't been enough to close the gap with Nestirad. The gulf between them was akin to challenging the secret boss of a game without the sword of light.

«It's just come to debuff! It wouldn't be impossible to fill the gap if only Luck’s debuff could work. Focus, everyone, we must overcome this gap!!»

Knowing the importance of morale, Allen tried to uplift everyone's spirit.

When even the strengthened Merus brought to his knees with merely one attack, it wouldn't require any genius to understand they're like eggs against stone.

Nestirad was an unstoppable force in itself, and that was supported by its absurdly high resistance and endurance. It was evident no one's attack could even make a minute difference in the situation. But—just once, they just need Luck's skill to target Nestirad and inflict it with the terrific debuff they know, and then, they should have the way against Nestirad.

"... Leave it to me. Luck, just focus on hitting it with your skill! Keep attacking it again and again, I will not let its attention turn to you!!"

"Thanks! That's what I need!!"

Ignonas decided to take the situation in his hands. With his large physique and long range, which was in contrast to Luck's small physique and short-sword for weapons, Ignomas believed this was his call to take. Immediately, he swung down his over 3m long spear at Nestirad from behind Luck, promptly covering the gap of 2m.

"Grrrgh! Let's go, Calypson. It's the moment to vanquish the forces that disrupt myyy path to hegemony! The True Water Dragon Crest!!"

The head of Water Dragon emerged from the tip of spear—Calypson, a sacred artifact, followed by its trunk and then a tail as it crashed against the Nestirad like a destructive wave of sunami.

«Hmph. Haaa!!»

The attack struck Nestirad squarely on his stomach, but their strength was so far apart Nestirad easily shrugged it out without flinching from his spot. Meanwhile, the water current in the shape of Water Dragon scattered all over like the aftermath ballon colliding against a wall.

On the other hand, Nestirad ignored the parlour tricks of Ignomas and leap over Luck's head, launching its attack in Ignomas direction. And it happened when Ignomas had yet to recover from his earlier attack movement.

"Damn! Aqua-sama! Drifting Tide!!"

Ignomas could tell that the attack was bad news, and it would even leave him dead, but he couldn't promptly dodge in his current state. Neither would he. After all, he had assured Luck that he would stop Nestirad from targeting him no matter what.

In a precarious group battle, every single action of comrades was a liability to everyone. Now, if he tried to escape from his spot after assuring other, this would open a gap in the formation.

At the end, unable to escape and leave Luck behind, Ignomas intoned his prayer to the Water God Aqua. It had been a split moment when Ignomas activated the divine technique «Drifting Water», the water gushed from all over the fish-scale armor—Sacred Artifact Watatsumi—and engulfed him into it like taking a cover in protective shell.

Ignomas found his movement turning extremely fluid, almost as naturally as a fish in water, allowing him to dodge the direct attack Nestirad and offset his momentum.

"Pfft—!!"

But, while he might have avoided direct hit, he still couldn't completely avoid the damage and coughed out some blood, dying the water protection red.

"I'm fine. Just focus on the opponent! Not even hundreds of such attacks would push me out of the game! You continue to hit it with your skill, Luck, every attack counts!! —Nine-Strikes Combo!!"

It was his old habit again. There's no way he could have withstand more than three of the earlier moves, even with the help of divine technique, dodge rate or resistance, but he still bluffed it out.

To add weight to his support, he firmly took another step forward and launched «Nine-Strikes Combo». On another day, the consecutive nine strikes from his spear would have easily suppressed the enemy, but once again, only the sparks flew out of Nestirad's body.

"Take it!! «Poisonous Dark Fang»! «Hex Blade»! «Poison Swamp Wave»!!"

Meanwhile, Luck continued with his onslaught of debuff skills. During the cooldown, he would also use incompatible skills like «Poison Swamp Wave»—it was actually a mid-range skill, but he was using it in close combat—without shying away.

Nevertheless, Nestirad's movement didn't struggle or halted at the barrage of attacks.

Here is the translation of the provided skill descriptions:

[Ignomas Skill Description - Simplified Version]

- True Single Thrust: A thrust from the front.

-True Foot Sweep: A sweeping motion downward. Occasionally causes the target to trip with a debuff effect. The chance of activation is dependent on intelligence.

-True Helm Splitter: A downward strike from above. Occasionally reduces the target's durability. The chance of activation is dependent on intelligence.

- True Water Dragon Break: A stream of water shoots from the tip of the spear and charges straight forward. Water attribute.

- Overlord's Slash: A powerful slash from above. A shockwave that cracks the earth follows. Formerly an extra skill.

- Nine-Strikes Combo: A series of nine consecutive thrusts.

- Meteor Light Shot: A powerful strike delivered with the speed of light. Light attribute.

- Flash of Destruction: A powerful strike that pierces through armies.

- Drifting Water: For each skill level 1, increases health, agility, and durability by 5,000, and boosts evasion by 10%.

※If no attribute is mentioned, the skill is considered to have no attribute.

"Hey, are debuffs even working?!"

Luck should have stacked almost 10 of debuffs on opponent, but Nestirad was going strong as ever.

Dogora, who was holding the vanguard much like Ignomas, asked Allen in a flustered tone.

«The chances aren't zero, Dogora. Merus's debuff has indeed worked many times.»

"Man... I just hope you're right!!»

«Of course, at least they work twice in 30 times!»

(There's also the timing when to cast debuffs. Merus's taunt can only be used that many times after all... so basically... I wasn't not wrong.)

"Pfft!! You think this is time to mess?!"

Dogora unwittingly sprayed out his saliva when he heard the vague stance.

Allen had often challenge Nestirad alone with Merus in the past to chart its resistance level. While even thousands of spell were ineffective against Nestirad, the debuff, however, did apply at least one in every 100 chances.

Of course, it was an abysmal rate, but as long as the chance wasn't 0, it indicates a ray of hope against Nestirad.

Though even those debuffs required someone of Merus level. He had attempted using insec-type summoned beasts and tried to apply debuffs via techniques or awakening skill but neither succeed even once in thousands of time.

«Hey, Sophie. Buff cooldown should be ended, right? Help out Dogora here, his attacks are not even enough to spark an amber right now.»

"O-Ohh, it should be. Please wait a while."

"We would like a spirit too!"

"Umu! I want spirit garb too!"

"W-Whaat?!"

The voice of Freya, Fire God, suddenly addressed Sophie from within the sacred artifact Gagutsuchi.

The original one hour cooldown time had been reduced to mere 90 seconds with the grapes of equipment, skill.

«Oh dear, someone's swamped huh.»

Next, the Radiance Spirit Light muttered softly as she took Dogora in a sublime embrace.

[Current Cooldown Reduction Effects for Sophie]

—Bracelet ①: 50% reduction

—Bracelet ②: 50% reduction

—Spirit of Time, Quick: 50% reduction

—Royal Aura: 50% reduction

—Sky Dance [8]: 80% reduction

—Angel B's Special Skill "Crazy Dance": 50% reduction

—[Cooldown Reduction Calculation] 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

—For a 60-minute cooldown:

60 × 0.5 × 0.5 × 0.5 × 0.5 × (1 - 0.8) × 0.5 = 22.5 seconds

—For a 1-day cooldown:

24 × 60 × 0.5 × 0.5 × 0.5 × 0.5 × (1 - 0.8) × 0.5 = 9 minutes

Sophie activates the skill "Spirit’s Garb" on each of the companions' spirits, summoning one spirit per attack.

[List of Spirit’s Garb Combinations for Companions]

Luck: Great Spirit of Space, Jigen

Dogora: Great Spirit of Radiance, Light

Kurena: Spirit of Wind, Gale

Shea: Great Spirit of Thunder, Jin

The whole formation followed the plan and provided Luck the chance to do his work.

It had been nearly 30 minutes since the start of battle, and Luck should have stacked 300 sort of debuffs. But—

"Hex Slash!!»

«Rrgh»

«Haaaa!!»

After a long while, Luck felt a strange sensation as his sword pierced the chest of Nestirad.

It was as if a curse had been placed, as a poisonous skeleton appeared from behind the massive form of Nestirad, screaming as it tried to engulf him.