Chapter 109: Skillful Swap

"..." Nio sees countless roots growing violently toward her, trying to surround her, rising directly from the ground near Typhon. Nio aims her staff and fires another spell.

"[Storm Breaker]"

[Storm Breaker] High-level magic that releases a powerful electric discharge that deals more damage based on the distance between the caster and the target hit.

The lightning bolt fired by Nio travels extremely fast downward, striking Typhon and splitting the roots in half while charring everything nearby. The air takes on a strange smell as plasma forms, so hot did the very air become along the lightning’s path.

’In the game it was impossible to switch gear sets in the middle of a fight... but now that this is reality, what’s stopping me?’ Nio thinks about switching her set to something that can handle Typhon’s life drain.

"!!!?" Typhon swaps positions with the very air behind Nio — a use Nio never thought possible, since it’s literally air! Typhon’s hand pierces through Nio’s back from one side to the other, while the black energy in her fist generates a second impact, turning the bones near her fist to dust.

She pulls her hand back as Nio begins to plummet from the sky, and she quickly uses magic from her Saint class.

"[Tear of Life]"

[Tear of Life] Generates a rain of silver droplets that heal any wound of the user and nearby allies, in exchange for consuming three times more mana than healing magic, and continuously spending mana for as long as the rain lasts.

The silver rain touches Nio’s body, and Nio immediately cancels the magic so her MP isn’t drained like water. Typhon finds Nio’s usage interesting — she let the droplets touch her and canceled right away without even waiting a little longer.

"..." She is healed, though a bit slower since she didn’t receive much of the rain, while Typhon, flying above Nio, generates a magic circle.

"...!" Nio lifts her skirt, but Typhon turns her face away so she doesn’t fall for the same trick, which Nio takes advantage of by spreading her wings and spinning in the air, recovering her balance as all her wounds close completely.

"[Oceanic Vastness]" Typhon fires the spell she prepared at Nio.

[Oceanic Vastness] Creates an immense beam of condensed water, generating millions of liters, while simultaneously generating the pressure of all that water at once at the point of contact.

Nio has no way to dodge that much water at once, so she is hit, and immediately the weight she feels on her body knocks her from the sky, pushing her against the ground as all the water crushes her, making her groan in pain.

The attack creates an immense artificial lake beneath the hole from Nio’s first attack. Even if both of them ignore it, their fight is literally reshaping the continent’s map irreversibly for the next millennia.

’Enough. DPS is useless if my health keeps dropping like this...’ Nio flies out of the bottom of the lake extremely fast while attempting something that was impossible before: completely switching her gear set, except for the staff, which is important for the fight.

"!!!" Nio manages, to her surprise, to switch sets. She completely abandons the initial DPS strategy, activating the [Shy Schoolgirl Set], which consists of a Magical Girl Skirt + School Hoodie + White Crop Top + Lovestruck Schoolgirl Socks.

Magical Girl Skirt = A soft, beautiful black skirt, a classic schoolgirl look. This magical piece increases Evasion by 100%, reduces the chance of physical attacks hitting the user by 50%, and increases speed by 300%.

School Hoodie = A black jacket-style top that stays tied around the waist. It grants the passive [Absolute Evasion] from the Absolute Deviant class, allowing the user to evade with a 50% success rate, in exchange for the user being unable to attack while evading.

White Crop Top = A simple white top in school uniform style. It has two modes: [Purity] and [Yandere]. While the clothing is clean, it stays in Purity mode, increasing the chance of evading magic by 70%. However, if the clothing gets stained with blood, it activates [Yandere] mode, reflecting any attack that hits the user with a 30% chance, protecting from damage while amplifying the returned attack.

Lovestruck Schoolgirl Socks = White socks that reach mid-thigh. They activate the Disillusion passive, causing 1 in every 3 enemy attacks to deal 0 damage, as well as inflicting Blindness on the enemy for 3 seconds every time their attack deals no damage.

"!!!" Nio feels absurdly faster, covering the distance between her and Typhon almost instantly and catching Typhon by surprise. Typhon reacts with a kick, but Nio dodges and fires a sphere of nightmare flames from her mouth at Typhon, pushing her upward.

"W-Wow!! Typhon doesn’t seem so fast anymore now." Nio is shocked by how the buffs actually interact in reality. Typhon, from the sky, generates a magic that opens an immense black portal covering an entire square kilometer.

From the portal, a rain of black projectiles falls upon Nio, but Nio’s new set, which has completely enhanced her evasion ability, lets her dodge everything at extreme speed.

Mixed with the Paladin class passives she has, every time she dodges, an afterimage identical to her remains behind, making it genuinely difficult to tell if she actually moved and dodged.

’Good! As long as I keep dodging, the life drain will be useless... although now my DPS depends much more on the staff’s damage multiplier and the potions I drank...’ Nio can intuitively feel that she deals less damage now, but she ignores it because, in her view, evasion makes up for it more.

"Nio, you sadden me like this. Then I’ll switch sets too." Typhon’s voice echoes through Nio’s mind as a black glow covers the skies. Typhon’s entire outfit is switched.

A black armor completely covers every part of her body except her head. The armor’s energy is so dense and heavy that space cracks and Typhon’s eyes bleed.

’Nightmare Ruin!?’ Nio recognizes the armor pieces — an armor capable of increasing the user’s defense by 6666%, in exchange for making the user so slow they’re like a rock.

"..." But Typhon can overcome the extreme slowness thanks to two specific classes: Deviant and, ironically, Zoologist — a class that would seem useless in this context if it didn’t allow the user to accumulate "animal attributes." With this, Typhon can apply the speed of a mythical beast to her body, and the Deviant class amplifies that speed attribute.

But even with that, when Typhon charges forward, Nio feels that she is at least five times slower than normal, while Nio is even faster — though now without DPS.

’If I switch back to my previous set, she’ll just go back to the life drain set... besides, my body hurts... my current set wasn’t made to combine with the potions I drank... also, Typhon bled. I think her body wasn’t prepared to trade life drain for pure defense.’ Nio realizes that switching sets wasn’t only advantages, because she still has the previous potions causing bad effects on her, not to mention the stress it causes her body.

Her body was "prepared" for a massive damage increase. The switch to speed and evasion was so stressful that Nio feels like her muscles are screaming in pain.

’Is that why Typhon didn’t drink buff potions? Did she already plan to switch sets from the start of the fight?’ Nio spins her staff, preparing magic while trying to figure out Typhon’s strategy.

’First I went with DPS and she went with life drain, and now that I’ve switched to Evasion, she switched to defense. While I have no defense at all, she has absurd defense, so getting hit is still just as bad as before... I hope... she isn’t even predicting which set I’ll use...’ Nio is slightly disturbed by this, but she doesn’t let the thoughts distract her from what matters.