「人の顔くらい判別しなさいよね!」
近接戦闘も出来なくはないけど、これ見よがしに細剣を持った前衛職っぽい相手にこの至近距離は不味い......とりあえず距離を離さないと一方的に殴られてしまう。
錫杖はもしもの時のガードに使う為に身体の近くに持っていくとして、武器による補正は乗らないけれど左手を前にしてそのまま魔術を放つ。
「《爆豪》!」
前方に立つ不審者に向けて強烈な爆発攻撃をお見舞いしてやると同時に、その衝撃を利用して後方へと飛んで退避する。
いつも通りなら私の自分でも馬鹿なんじゃないかなって思う火力を、モンスターでもない人が至近距離で受けたらここで終わりだけれど......ざっと二桁はあった人魂の数を鑑みるに、そう甘くはないだろうなって。
「《双頭・炎蛇焔舞》! 《スター・ゲージ》! 《燃焼》! 《蛍火》!」
高温の炎で出来た大蛇によって逃げ場を塞ぐ様に追撃し、不審者が居た場所へと大蛇ごと光で出来た檻で閉じ込める。
その後すぐに檻の周囲の空気を一瞬にして燃やし尽くし、一時的に真空状態へとなった檻周辺の空間に激しく流れ込む
「仕上げよ! 《蒼炎》!」
激しい大爆発を起こした檻に向かってダメ押しの攻撃......ガラスと化した砂浜が、さらにドロドロに溶けてしまう様な超高温の炎を檻を中心として圧縮させ、爆破する。
さざ波が寄せる端から蒸発し、引くことをしないのを見て内心でやり過ぎたかと少し後悔してしまう。
吹き上げる熱波と爆風のせいで自分も軽くないダメージが入ってるのがアホらしい。
「......この本当に倒したのか分からない時間の緊迫感ハンパない......思わずフラグ立てそうになる」
経験してみて初めて気持ちが分かる事ってあるよね......いつもなら創作物を見て『フラグ立てんな!』って怒るところだけれど、このまだ何とも言えない待機時間の緊張感や緊迫感が凄すぎて何かを言わないと不安になっちゃう。
思わず私自身も『やったか?!』とか漏らしちゃいそう。
「......居ない?」
『八熱魔術』の《慈母焦土》によって炎を支配下に置き、そのまま周囲へと拡散して散らして檻も解除したけれど......そこに奴の姿はない。
死んで直ぐに神殿へとデスルーラしたとかなら人魂も残ってない理由にはなるかな。
すぐ後ろから薄気味悪い声が聞こえたと同時に即座に横へと跳躍する。
「ぶふっ?!」
何故か跳躍した先から伸びた奴の拳......細剣のナックルガードに守られたそれに顔面を強打され、そのまま海にまで吹き飛ばされる。
「お、女の子の顔を殴るなんて......」
「? ......違いが分からない」
はっはーん? コイツさては喧嘩売ってんな?
赤く腫れた鼻から血を流してるなんて違いありまくりやろがい? お?
それともあれか? 普段の私は鼻血を垂れ流してる時とそこまで変わらんと? 別にそこまで可愛くないって言いたいのか? えぇ?
「どっからどう見ても違うやろがい! 普段の顔と、鼻血を垂れ流してる時が一緒な訳ないやろ!」
「一緒一緒」
「なんだァ? てめェ......」
今なら怒りで大気圏を突き抜けられる気がする......コイツは可愛く見られたくて努力してる女の子の気持ちを何だと思ってるのよ。
こんな妙な奴に訳も分からないままにPKされてたまるかっての!
「《炎弾》──×五十!」
もう出し惜しみはなしでいく......普段から発動待機させておいた《炎弾》を五十個ほど発動し、そのまま《慈母焦土》によって操作する。
『詠唱待機』は強力な魔術になればなるほどコストが掛かって待機させられる魔術の数が減るけど、《炎弾》みたいに下級の魔術なら必要コストが少ないから大量に待機させられるのよね。
そして炎熱系統に限っていえば下級魔術でも対人なら一発か二発、タンク職でも五発直撃させれば溶かす事ができる火力が私にはある。
「──《パリィ》」
私が操作する事で複雑な起動を描きながら殺到する炎弾を《パリィ》で無効化してる......普通に難しいのに、ただでさえ私の手で不規則な動きをしてるのに......コイツ人間じゃねぇ。
急遽《炎鞭》を発動し、錫杖から伸びる炎の舌で舐め上げる様に奴の動きの邪魔をしてやる──が、これも弾かれる。
「くっ、意味わかんない......《爆豪》!」
五十の炎弾と炎の鞭による猛攻を全て捌き切り、目前にまで迫った敵に対して再度の爆破攻撃を仕掛ける。
「いや、私もここまで時間が掛かっているのは初めてですよユウさん」
「っ! だから私はユウじゃないっての!」
まただ、またいつの間にか背後を取られてる......もしかして短距離転移か何か? でも『空間魔術』なんて聞いた事もない。
......けど、相手がどんなスキルや魔術を使っているのかは分からないけれど、背後を取られるのなら仕方がないわね。
「《プロミネンス・バーニア》!」
「......驚いた、あと熱い」
自身の背中側から勢いよく炎を噴射し続ける......MP消費は馬鹿にならないけど、神出鬼没な相手に対して死角を守るという意味では役に立つ。
なんなら操って簡易的な盾にする事もできるしね。
「でも距離は近付いた」
顔面に迫る細剣の刺突を顔を逸らして避け、頬の薄皮を切り裂く痛みを堪えながら錫杖を高く上げる事でそのまま私の肩へと振り下ろされた一撃をせき止める。
普通狙いが外れたからって、刺突から斬り下げへと移行するかな......判断が早いよ。
「往生際が悪い」
刀身が半ばまでめり込んだ肩が熱い......錫杖と骨によってギリギリ抑え込んではいるけど、筋力は向こうの方が圧倒的に上だし、今も徐々に私の左肩を切断せんと少しずつ下がって来てる。
新しく魔術を使おうにも、その度にタイミング良く《乱魔》という《パリィ》の魔術特化型の派生スキルを使用されて邪魔される始末。
「だいたい何でユウを狙うのよ」
「名声」
「簡潔な答えをどうもありがとうございましたッ!! あと私はユウじゃないけどねッ!!」
「お前は今まで戦った中で一番強い。つまりユウである可能性が高い」
「どっからどう見ても違うでしょ?! そもそも性別からして違うよ?!」
「違いが分からない」
本当にこのポンコツはっ......そもそもユウユウって、私だってユウと遊びたいのに!
「ふん、じゃあこれでも喰らいなさい」
保険として発動待機させておいた──正確には微妙に余ったコストを埋める為に待機させておいた──簡易的な回復魔術で肩口の傷を無理やり塞ぎ、奴の細剣を抜けなくしてやってからそのまま《乱魔》でも妨害されない様に錫杖を
武器ごと捕らえられて動けないこの状況で、至近距離から武器スキルでも喰らって神殿でお祈りしてなさい!
「──《炎天の羽衣》!」
私を、私の持つ錫杖を中心として薄紅色の炎が円状に爆発的に拡散していく......周囲のあるもの全てを焼き焦がし、逆に錫杖の持ち主である私を優しく包み込んで癒していく。
仮にこれで仕留めきれなくても、再度距離を取れれば仕切り直しが出来る。
また背後に現れたとしても、まだ発動した《プロミネンス・バーニア》は生きてる......大丈夫、なはず。
「さぁ、次はいったい何処から──きゃっ?!」
「──下だ」
両足首を突然掴まれ、驚く暇もなく思いっ切り海面から浜辺へと続く岩礁へと叩き付けられる。
あ、ヤバい、背骨か肋骨が折れたかも......早く回復しなきゃ。
「《乱魔》」
「......いじわる」
血を咳き込みながらすぐ近くまで迫る敵を睨み付ける。
発動待機させておいた魔術も使い切ったし、私の身を守る《プロミネンス・バーニア》も燃え尽きてしまった。
「一応手足を切り落としてから殺した方が良いのかな」
前髪を掴まれ、無理やり顔を上げさせられる事に顔を顰めながら目前にまで迫る悪趣味なペストマスクから目を逸らす。
何か物騒な事を言ってるけれど、それをされる前にこの状況から脱しなければならない......でもその為の手段がないのが悔しい。
ゲームで肉体に影響はないとはいえ痛いものは痛いし、こんな意味わからない奴に負けるのもゲーマーとして嫌だった。
「まぁここまで追い詰めたなら普通に殺すだけで──ガっ?!」
「......勝利を確信して油断しちゃった?」
ラッシュガードの袖に仕込んでおいた短剣で奴のペストマスクを突き刺してやった......中身に届いたどうかは分からないけれど、一矢報いる事は出来たかな。
一部が欠けたマスクから覗く暗い赤色の瞳がドンドン吊り上がっていくのが分かる。
「すぐに殺してやる」
前髪を掴まれたまま背後にあった岩礁へと思いっ切り叩き付けられ、そのまま顔を押し付けられる。
ハッキリ言って凄く痛いし、キツい......何だか最近遊んでくれないユウのせいで変なトバッチリを受けちゃったな。
『神殿に戻ったら万全の準備をしてお礼参りをしてやろう』なんて物騒な事を考えながら、せめて最後は目を逸らしてやるもんかと振りかぶられる細剣を横目に見て......でもやっぱり恐怖に負けて目を瞑る──
「──待てよ、君の目当ては僕だろ」
──久しぶりに聞いた聞き慣れた声に鼓動が高鳴る音がした。
"You should be able to at least tell one person's face from another's!"
I can handle myself well fighting in close quarters, but this vanguard-like opponent and his tiny blade might be a little too close for comfort... I should keep some distance from him if I plan on not getting beat down.
Since I was holding my staff close to my body to help me shield against his attacks in case of emergency, the spell I used had to be unleashed from my naked left hand, so the weapon's bonus wasn't applied.
"[Explosion]!"
But at the same time I unleashed my explosion, the suspicious man standing in front of me used the initial force of impact to launch himself backwards and avoid it.
I think even letting myself get hit by such powerful attack would be stupid, so anyone who's not a monster would be finished in an instant, but... I might have been a bit too naive to think that someone who had taken souls by the hundreds would be defeated so easily.
"[Dance of the Double-Headed Flame Snake]! [Star Cage]! [Burning]! [Embers]!"
My huge serpent made of super-hot flames lunged at the suspicious man in order to block his escape, and then I created a cage made of light to trap them both inside.
Then I made the air around the air heat up to extreme temperatures in an instant, causing it to be drawn inside the cage -which had been in a temporary vacuum state- through its slits as the embers I had scattered mixed with it.
"You're finished! [Blue Flame]!"
The explosion that followed after trapping him in a cage was just for good measure... The sand beach that had turned into glass once again melted into a sticky goo, compressing the ultra-high temperature caused by the flames, detonating it.
Seeing the ripples from the explosion disappear as they approached me, I inwardly wondered if it hadn't been too much.
I felt a bit stupid to have the heatwave and shockwaves from my own attack deal a slight amount of damage to my own HP.
"...Not knowing if I really defeated him now is making me get all tense... I might end up flagging him before I realize."
I guess I could only understand this by feeling it for the first time... I would usually look at my work and angrily think to myself "Don't flag it!", but the tension I was feeling at this moment due to not knowing what actually happened got me so worried that I couldn't even speak.
I think I thought to myself "Did I do it!?" or something like that.
"...He's gone?"
I put the flames under control using the [Eight Hot Magic] spell, [Mother's Scorched Earth], dispersing them to the surroundings and dispelled the cage, but... there was no one inside.
I wonder if the reason for his soul not to linger here was that he had immediately returned to the temple to respawn right after he died... If he had died at all, that is.
I heard a creepy voice behind me and then he immediately jumped to my side.
"Whoa!?"
Somehow, his fist... protected by his small sword's knuckle guard, stretched from the point where he jumped, and hit me straight in the face, launching me towards the sea.
"H-How can you punch a girl right in the face like that...!?"
"...? ...I can't tell the difference."
Huh? He also wants to argue now?
You come from behind and cause my nose to swell and bleed and you give me that face? Huh?
And this? Does it look the same to you as when I have a normal nosebleed? Do you want to say that you think it's cute or something like that? Eh?
"No matter how you look at it, it's not the same! It's not the same as when I have a nosebleed with my usual face!"
"It is the same, though."
"What? You brat..."
Now my previous uncertainty has been pierced by my anger... I'm just trying hard to look cute and this dense brat can't even see that?
Really, is this guy going to not know the reason why he's getting PK'd?
"[Flame Bullet]... x50!"
No more Mrs. Nice Girl... I activated 50 [Flame Bullets], which would have normally taken some time to be created, and controlled them with my [Mother's Scorched Earth].
With [Spell Standby], setting a queue for powerful spells to be cast in quick succession will cost a lot of MP, and it won't be a long queue anyway. But low-level, less expensive spells like [Flame Bullet] could be placed in standby one right after another in large quantities.
And with my level of Fire Magic, I had enough firepower to reduce anyone to a crisp in PvP with one or two shots, maybe five for tanks.
"...[Parry]"
Despite my ability to freely control the Flame Bullets' movements in the most complex ways I could think of, he simply used his [Parry] to dodge them all. That was such a complicated thing to do that it made me wonder what kind of monster I was  actually fighting against.
I suddenly unleashed my [Flame Whip] to try to disrupt his movements with the tongue-like fiery whip that had emerged from my staff... But he dodged that as well.
"Dammit, I don't get this... [Explosion]!"
After ending the onslaught of my 50 Flame Bullets and the Flame Whip, I launched another blast against my approaching enemy.
"Oh, it's the first time it's taken me this long, Yuu."
"I'm telling you I'm not Yuu!"
He was once again behind me... Was he using some kind of short-distance teleport or something like that? Though I'd never heard of anything like [Space Magic]...
...Though I had no knowledge of what kinds of skills and spells he could use, so if he could get behind me whenever he wanted, there wasn't much I could do about it.
"[Prominence Vernier]!"
"...Whoa, it's hot!"
Flames continuously erupted from my back... It had a hefty MP cost, but it was useful to protect my blindspot from this sneaky opponent.
I could manipulate these flames enough to create a simple shield that covered my back.
"But I'm getting closer."
I turned my face away to avoid the thrust from his short sword, and raised my staff while enduring the pain of his sword tearing through the thin skin of my cheek, before bringing it down to block his next thrust on my shoulder.
I wondered if he would eventually stop trying to stab me and begin to simply slash at me, since he was missing so much... and my question was quickly answered.
"You're a bad loser."
My shoulder started to feel hot as his blade cleaved itself halfway through... And though my staff and my bones had managed to momentarily stop the blow from getting any further, his physical strength vastly surpassed mine, and I found myself going down on my knees as the blade little by little continued to cut through my shoulder.
Even if I tried to use a new spell, he would still dodge it using his magic-oriented variant of [Parry] called [War Demon] at the right time.
"Why are are you trying to kill Yuu?"
"For fame."
"Well, thank you very much for being so upfront about it!! And I'm not Yuu!!"
"You are the strongest you have ever fought. So you're very likely to be Yuu."
"Take a good look at me, won't you!? You've got the gender wrong to begin with!"
"I can't tell the difference."
How can he be this dense...? He's all Yuu this and Yuu that... And I'm the one who wanted to play with Yuu in the first place!
"Well then, take this!"
I had been keeping this on standby just in case... To be exact, I have been keeping this on standby because it was going to expend quite a bit of my MP... I closed the wound on my shoulder with a simple recovery spell without pulling out his sword, and then used my staff in the position it was so I wouldn't give him time to use his [War Demon].
With your weapon still stuck inside my flesh, you won't be able to move so easily so take this and go pray at the temple!
"...[Blazing Plumage]!"
A light crimson flame spread explosively in a circle around my staff... Burning everything around me, while gently covering and healing me.
Even if this wasn't enough to finish him off, it would allow me to get some distance from him so that I could prepare for a follow-up attack.
And even if he were to teleport behind me, my [Prominence Vernier] was still active, so... I would be fine.
"So, where are you going to come out from next- Kyaa!?"
"...Below you."
He again came out of nowhere, suddenly grabbing both of my ankles before slamming me into the stony reef that stretched from the surface of the sea to the beach.
Oh dear. That had to break at least a few of my ribs... I have to recover quickly.
"[War Demon]"
"...You fiend."
Coughing blood, I glared at the enemy that was quickly approaching me.
I had used up the spell I had been keeping under my sleeve, and the [Prominence Vernier] that had been protecting me had burned out.
"Should I cut off your limbs before I kill you?"
He grabbed me by my bangs and pulled my face up. I did everything I could to turn away from looking at that disgusting plague mask he was wearing.
He was saying some nasty things... I had to get out of this sticky situation before he could do any of it... But I started to regretfully realize that there was nothing I could do to stop him.
Though it wouldn't affect my in-game body, it would still hurt, and as a gamer, I didn't want to lose to someone as dense as him.
"Well, I think I've played with you enough, so I guess I'll just kill you now- Gah!?"
"...Are you so sure you've won already that you're letting your guard down like this?"
I took a stab at his plague mask with a dagger I had been hiding under my rash guard... I didn't know if I had actually hurt him, but at least I would have gotten back at him.
Through his mask, I could see the pupils of his dark red eyes slanting themselves slightly upwards.
"I'm gonna kill you right now."
Still grabbing me by my bangs, he slammed my face onto the reef and kept me pressed against it.
It hurt a lot, and it was too much for me to bear... Somehow, I had gotten myself dragged into this hot mess because of Yuu, who hadn't been playing as of late.
Trying to avert the pain, I thought "Well, once I get back to the temple, I'll get myself ready and have my revenge", and then closed my eyes...
"...Wait, I'm the one you're looking for."
...My heart nearly skipped a beat after hearing a familiar voice I hadn't heard in a long time.
Genocide Online ~Playtime Diary of an Evil Young Girl~
ジェノサイド・オンライン 〜極悪令嬢のプレイ日記〜
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/genocide-online-playtime-diary-of-an-evil-young-girl/
Action Adventure Fantasy Psychological
Adapted to Manga Aristocracy Assassins Beautiful Female Lead Cold Protagonist Cruel Characters Dark Depictions of Cruelty Evil Organizations Evil Protagonist Famous Protagonist Fearless Protagonist Female Protagonist Gamers Gods Gore Lack of Common Sense Level System MMORPG Modern Day Murders Overpowered Protagonist Psychopaths R-15 Royalty Ruthless Protagonist Sadistic Characters Sword And Magic Virtual Reality Wars
https://ncode.syosetu.com/n7796fc/
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