Shiro had let her eccentric side run wild, bestowing me with an absurd power-up. Kuro had protested vehemently at first, but after a moment, she let out a sigh of pure resignation.
"...Whew. Well, as long as I know what I'm up against, I can find a way to manage. Shall we resume? Here I come, Kaito-kun!"
"Eh? Oh, sure..."
Part of me thought we really ought to pause and fix the status adjustment, but Kuro seemed to have found a path to victory as she closed the distance between our characters once again.
Feeling a bit hesitant, I threw out a poking attack just like I had earlier. Kuro used the invincibility frames from a step-cancel guard to slip right past it, pressing in close.
Timing an invincibility evasion against a quick jab was supposed to be an incredibly difficult technique, but the way she pulled it off so nonchalantly was a testament to her sheer skill.
Kuro’s character landed a heavy strike on mine, but... the damage counter showed a measly 1. Right, my defense had also been boosted fiftyfold. Of course a normal attack wouldn't do a thing.
"...Just as I thought. Normal attacks won't cut it. In that case!"
"Whoa! Kuro-san has put some serious distance between herself and Kaito-san's character... and she's picked up a randomly spawned weapon item!"
I see, so that was her plan. In this game, various items spawn on the stage over time, including several weapons. The damage from these weapon items consisted of fixed values that ignored a character’s defense stat. Even with my defense boosted fiftyfold, they would still hurt me.
Their strength varied by type, their appearance was random, and they broke after a set number of uses, but they definitely gave Kuro a fighting chance.
Kuro’s movement was superior to mine, and with my concentration slipping from the absurdity of it all, my controls grew sloppy. She steadily chipped away at my health with the weapons until my HP had dropped by about three hundred.
Okay, if things stayed like this, it might actually turn into a decent match. Before I started moving in earnest, I decided to take advantage of the gap while Kuro was busy scavenging to use a recovery skill.
One of my character’s moves was a small self-heal. It usually only recovered about fifty HP, and because of its long animation and high vulnerability, it wasn't particularly useful. Still, I figured I'd top myself off while Kuro was occupied.
Just as I’d planned, Kuro couldn’t close the gap in time to interrupt. The recovery skill activated... and my character’s HP shot past three thousand.
"...Shirooooo! You tinkered with the skills, too?!"
"Yes. I multiplied the recovery amount by fifty and added guard-piercing properties to your offensive skills."
"If you do that, my chances of winning drop to zero!"
"And your point is?"
"...Before I deal with Kaito-kun, I might have to blow Shiro away first..."
It must have been crushing for her. After working so hard to chip away at my health, I’d recovered more than she’d dealt in a single heartbeat. Come to think of it, Shiro must have messed with the HP cap as well, since it was clearly well over nine hundred ninety-nine...
"...Shiro-san, this really is too unfair. Please change it back."
"Hmm. If Kaito-san insists, I shall revert it. I will also return your HP to its previous value."
"Thank you... Kuro, do you want to have the stats adjusted again while we're at it?"
"No, that's okay. As long as the skills aren't broken, I can manage. Kaito-kun, don't hold back. Give me everything you've got!"
Seeing her bright smile, I cleared my mind and nodded. Kuro seemed to be genuinely enjoying the challenge of facing a monstrously over-statted opponent. In that case, the least I could do was fight her without any more hesitation.
The battle resumed for the third time. Kuro closed in, weapon in hand. It was a melee weapon... which meant she was likely planning to use another invincibility evasion to get into my personal space.
With that in mind, I unleashed another poking attack, then immediately tilted the stick in the opposite direction while hitting the heavy attack button. By changing my character's facing as the strike came out, I executed a technique called Ura-uchi to delay the hit timing. The blow caught Kuro’s character right as her invincibility frames ended, draining the rest of her HP and blasting her clean out of the arena.
"Whoa! Kaito-san landed a razor-sharp counter! Kuro-san is down to her last stock and is being cornered... Wait, Kuro-san is calling for another time-out!"
"...Um... actually, can we maybe adjust the stats after all? I—I thought I could handle it based on how things were going, but Kaito-kun, you're probably as good as Amel-chan. If you're going to time Ura-uchi counters against me like that... then it's probably impossible for me to win."
Seeing her look so taken aback, everything clicked. Up until now, my stats had been so absurd that I’d been fighting with hesitation, which made my movements sloppy. Kuro had mistaken that for my actual skill level, leading her to believe she could overcome a fiftyfold difference.
But I wasn't exactly a novice. I was the one who usually played with Amel-san, after all. She was definitely better than me, but I was skilled enough to keep up with her under normal circumstances.
"...Shiro-san, please adjust the stats as well."
"Understood. Then, a fivefold increase..."
"Y-Yeah. That sounds better... At least she won't be dying from a single touch now."
"Kuro, do you want to start over? You already lost one stock."
"...No, it's fine. Let's keep going. Now that my attacks will actually register, I can fight properly."
A fivefold status buff while she was down to one stock seemed like a fair handicap, considering the gap in our skill. Kuro no longer had to worry about being one-shot, so she wouldn't have to force dangerous invincibility evasions. Since her innate skill was superior to mine, even with the buff, I wasn't sure I could actually win.
Still, there was no reason to obsess over winning or losing. For now, I would just give it everything I had.
Serious-senpai: "By the way, exactly how good is Kaito?"
???: "Against Amel-san, his win rate is around thirty to forty percent. Against Lilia-san, he wins ninety percent of the time because of the difference in their luck. Even against Vulpecula-san, Kaito-san would have a 70-30 advantage thanks to his superior experience and game knowledge."