Ch.104[Chapter 104] Lord Dominic VS Hime

The three kunai thrown by Unryu Hime flew precisely toward Alice.

“Dan-ger-ous!”

Alice’s mother hurriedly cupped both hands to shield Alice.

When her two palms—each as large as Sir Dominic’s house—overlapped, they formed an enormous barrier.

Yet Hime calmly watched the flying kunai.

Now.

Hime instantly activated her special ability.

[Phase Shift]

Just before hitting the back of the hand, the flying kunai crossed from the material plane to the spirit realm, becoming ethereal and passing through the palm.

Because they existed in different phases, Alice’s mother suffered no damage, but once past her hands, the kunai returned to the material plane and pierced through Alice.

“My-child!”

Alice’s mother screamed.

Having lived in Gachaland for a long time, Alice’s mother could gauge how powerful this strike was.

After lifting her hand to check if Alice was alright, Alice’s mother looked at her with eyes full of surprise and confusion.

“Huh?”

To cut to the conclusion, Alice was perfectly fine.

Alice felt her body to check if she was injured anywhere.

However, there was no trace of Alice having been attacked.

Instead, the impact of the attack manifested elsewhere.

Sir Dominic coughed with a “Kuhuk.”

A tremendous shock had suddenly overwhelmed him.

Fortunately, the impact felt as if it had been reduced by a shield, but Sir Dominic couldn’t help being flustered by the sudden pain.

“Ah-“

Alice’s mother looked back and forth between Sir Dominic and Alice, then nodded as if realizing something.

The wind created by her nodding head violently shook Sir Dominic and Hime’s clothes.

Alice’s mother smiled brightly as she addressed Sir Dominic.

Her smile was so bright that her teeth, each like neatly arranged white castle walls, were fully visible.

“Now-that-I-think-about-it… She’s-grown-too-much-to-just-be-protected-“

The giant’s speech was unbearably slow and frustrating.

So for those who might be frustrated, to summarize what this giant was saying: Alice’s mother thought this situation was Sir Dominic’s training.

Improvement through sparring practice.

Alice’s mother, who had heard from her husband that experience is worth its weight in gold for a knight, recalled those words in this situation.

Sir Dominic must have invited an outside instructor for Alice!

The giant convinced herself of this and expressed gratitude to Sir Dominic.

“I-should-give-you-a-gift-sometime…”

“That’s unnecessary.”

Sir Dominic cut off the giant’s words.

His attention was now focused on Hime.

Hime was ready to throw kunai and shuriken again at any moment.

And Sir Dominic was ready to deflect any incoming kunai and shuriken.

In this tense atmosphere, Alice’s mother’s words were a distraction.

With Sir Dominic’s already poor eyesight, the moment he looked away, kunai would fly at him.

“Mom! I need to train now! I can’t train with you here!”

“Oh-, is-that-so?”

Alice shouted at her mother, pretending to be angry while puffing her cheeks.

Alice’s mother thought for a moment, then realized she was indeed interfering with the training and began to blush.

“Then…”

Thud. Thud.

The sound of the giant moving reached Sir Dominic’s ears.

Until the sound faded away, his vision shook so much that Hime appeared as two or even three figures.

The same was true for Hime.

But Hime was an elite trained in ninja arts.

If she couldn’t demonstrate precise throwing skills in this situation, she wouldn’t deserve to be called a kunoichi.

When the ground shook again with a “thud,” Hime launched another surprise attack with her kunai.

Sir Dominic stared intently at what appeared to be three Himes and nine kunai due to the vibrations.

Though blurry, Hime’s body was clearly one. And she could throw three kunai at once.

Instantly grasping this, Sir Dominic spotted the three clearest kunai and widened his remaining eye.

In an instant, he raised his shield and successfully blocked the three kunai.

A defense so perfect it deserved admiration!

But as a consequence, Sir Dominic allowed six kunai to pierce his right arm.

“Since when?”

Sir Dominic wondered as he pulled out these six kunai.

When had she thrown the other kunai? Could it be that the six that appeared to be illusions due to the shaking were actually real?

While Sir Dominic was pulling out the kunai in confusion, Hime, who had been standing silently, spoke.

“Since when…”

Her tone was still colder than eternal snow.

“Did you think I would fight fairly?”

That’s right.

She was now a kunoichi belonging to a secret organization!

What they had in common was hiding their true nature.

Her fighting style was the standard of both secret organizations and ninjas.

When Hime showed Sir Dominic three kunai, she was already holding six additional kunai behind her back.

Then, using [Phase Shift], she overlapped kunai from the material plane with those from the spirit realm to make them appear as illusions, and when the material kunai were blocked, she manifested the spirit realm kunai to exert physical force.

A technique that utilized her characteristics perfectly.

Hime felt a sudden whirlwind lifting her hair.

In this whirlwind full of swirling leaves, Hime now gripped a chain sickle in her left hand.

Her right hand, moved behind her back, still held three kunai.

“This is troublesome, Lady Hime.”

Sir Dominic realized from this one move that Hime had come thoroughly prepared.

Hime’s technique was essentially a counter to Sir Dominic’s abilities.

Systemic damage reduction through the [Tanker] characteristic and special ability [Knight].

Practical damage reduction through his shield.

Sir Dominic was a tank who could fight continuously by appropriately mixing these two.

But as you all know, to “sell a character,” weaknesses must be as clear as strengths.

If too versatile, they get nerfed.

Then those who couldn’t obtain the character would “feel bad” for not having it, and those who did would “feel bad” about the nerf.

If too weak, it doesn’t matter whether you have them or not.

But what if they’re awkwardly strong?

Too ambiguous to nerf, yet too strong to leave alone?

What if they’re one of those characters called “human rights”—nice to have and envied if you don’t?

That subtle push and pull is one of the important elements in selling characters.

Therefore, even Sir Dominic, considered versatile, was not without flaws.

Namely, the absence of health recovery, regeneration, and barrier techniques.

Hime’s special technique [Phase Shift] was penetrating damage that ignored defense.

Although she couldn’t avoid the 4% damage reduction from the special ability [Knight], she could bypass the [Tanker] characteristic and defense techniques from experience, putting Sir Dominic at a disadvantage.

Moreover, Hime cleverly didn’t allow Sir Dominic to close the distance.

She only threw kunai from afar to keep him at bay.

Sir Dominic raised his shield again but felt helpless.

Fighting such an opponent was quite exhausting.

“Um-“

Alice watched this scene, not knowing what to do, stamping her feet anxiously.

The chain mail she wore rattled with her movement.

Hime, whose senses were heightened to the extreme, reacted to that sound.

The chain sickle in her hand flew toward Alice, catching in the gap between her tunic and chain mail.

“Huh?”

As Alice was yanked forward, three kunai rushed toward her!

Startled by the fierce momentum, Alice instinctively squeezed her eyes shut.

But Alice wouldn’t be hurt.

Sir Dominic suddenly appeared where Alice was and took the kunai in her place.

“What? How!”

Surprised by this bug-like situation, Hime jumped back two large steps to create distance.

“What is this…?”

Sir Dominic was equally confused.

The distance between Sir Dominic and Hime had been about 50 meters.

Even if Sir Dominic ran with all his might, it would take 3-5 seconds to cover that distance, yet he had appeared in the blink of an eye.

“…Ah!”

Alice, watching this strange situation, seemed to realize something and shouted to Sir Dominic.

“Master! Equipment! Equipment!”

“Ah.”

Only after hearing Alice’s urgent cry did Sir Dominic understand what had happened.

It all made sense now—why Sir Dominic had taken damage when Alice was attacked earlier, and why he had appeared when Alice was pulled.

Although Alice existed as an entity, she was currently “equipped” by Sir Dominic as “equipment.”

Damage to equipment transfers to its owner, and if equipment is pulled, naturally its owner is pulled along.

What seemed like a bug was actually a legitimate rule in Gachaland.

Currently, Alice was treated as equipment, so she was subject to these effects.

“My goodness.”

While Sir Dominic was bewildered by this absurd result, Brigadier General Joseph, who had been watching everything, muttered in surprise.

“When… did he learn a movement skill?”

Though his surprise was in a different direction.