Log Horizon - Volume 9 - Chapter 1.5

5 
The Daylight Shades welled up from the ground like mist. 
As their name suggested, they looked just like heat mirages. 
“Hiyah!” 
Leonardo swung the fantasy-class twin swords that were his pride and joy. 
Assassins weren’t as good at fighting with two swords as Swashbucklers, and the ones they wielded were exclusive equipment that had unique modeling and effects. The effect of this particular item added additional flame damage to all of Leonardo’s attacks. The blanket term for this type of incidental effect was “process activated ability,” or “proc,” and it was often seen in highly realistic magic items. 
Leaving tracks from those flames in the air, Leonardo raced through the enemy horde. 
Assassins were a class that specialized in attacking, and they were the most lethal of the twelve main classes. However, in order to inflict maximum damage, they had to clear several conditions. 
For example, the enemy’s attention had to be focused elsewhere. 
In this case, the vanguards were Kanami and Elias. Relying on that shining, pale blue effect, they were managing to completely draw the monsters’ attention. Some of this might have been due to their personalities: Elias stood grandly in the very center of the Daylight Shades, and Kanami gave cheerful yells and swung her arms and legs around. Both had the intensity to attract attention. 
The second condition was that attacks had to be made from the enemy’s blind spot. This was done by circling around behind its back and attacking from an angle it’d failed to check. Fortunately, Assassins had plenty of skills designed to make this happen. 
If you were concentrating on creating party dynamics that were true to the basics, these two conditions weren’t at all difficult to achieve. The formation in which the vanguard Warrior classes attracted the enemy while the Assassins circled around behind it and dealt damage was basic practical knowledge in Elder Tales. 
However, Assassins had great offensive power. If he inflicted too much damage, the monsters would probably decide that Leonardo, who was behind them, was more of a threat than the warriors in front of them, and they’d switch their target. If that happened, Leonardo would be on the receiving end, and not only would he take damage, he wouldn’t be able to put his vaunted attack power to work. 
In addition, once monsters took massive damage from the rear, even if they didn’t shift their attention to Leonardo, they’d still pay more attention to their surroundings for a little while. In other words, it would get harder to attack them from their blind spots. 
To prevent losses like these, Leonardo dashed across the battlefield. 
By moving, he increased the number of enemies he could attack. Among those expanded alternatives, he focused on finishing off monsters that had less health and destroyed the ones that’d gotten absorbed in attacking the vanguard and had left themselves open. 
This continuously moving attack was the answer Leonardo the Assassin had come up with after the Catastrophe. 
Leonardo’s combat was top-class, and no true game junkie could have been ashamed of it. However, the one that was clearly abnormal, even from Leonardo’s perspective, was Elias. 
Though, of course, Elias was an Ancient. He wasn’t an Adventurer. 
It was probably a mistake for Leonardo to use his common sense to decide whether he was normal or abnormal. Still, reflection on his error did nothing to calm his need to perform. 
“Go forth and conquer!! Crystal Stream!! Spirits of clear water, transform yourselves into a ten-thousand-foot blade and shine! Aqua Thousand Rain!!” 
Responding to Elias’s shout, a magic circle came together around him, and a semimaterial water spirit appeared from it. It was a Lady of the Lake with flowing hair. No sooner had she extended her slim fingers than, with a piercing yell, Elias swung his crystalline magic sword. 
A water-attribute aura sprang from the sword tip, changing countless water droplets into needles that mowed down the Daylight Shades. 
It was powerful enough that the spawns would stay low for a little while, and more than anything, its range was broad: probably about 120 degrees in front, with a distance of ten meters. It was a nonstandard attack skill. 
If that had been a Sorcerer’s attack, it probably wouldn’t have startled Leonardo. Sorcerer’s attacks were on par with Assassins’, and they were ranged attack experts. That meant it was only natural for their spells to be powerful. 
However, Elias wasn’t a Sorcerer. In spite of that, he was fighting as a vanguard whose defense was at least as good as Kanami’s, if not better—like a Warrior. In addition, the pale blue spell that had been cast to protect everyone in the party was performing as well as a healer’s. 
Leonardo was forced to admit that the guy had the advantages of every class that existed. 
Frankly, he was so strong it seemed fake. 
What the hell is he?! 
Even as he inwardly shouted in amazement, Leonardo took out one enemy, then another. Assassin attacks concentrated their damage on individuals. Elias’s range attacks were highly effective, but Leonardo flattered himself that he wasn’t losing to the other guy where damage per second was concerned. 
Leonardo captured the back of a Daylight Shade that Elias had sent flying, freezing it temporarily, then swung his twin swords with the speed of a swallow in flight. 
Assassinate was a lethal skill, and its recast time was three hundred seconds. He wouldn’t be able to use it for a while. However, when a top-class Assassin hit an enemy from behind with a well-aimed attack, the critical rate was over 50 percent. He compensated for Assassinate, accumulating damage. 
“Finish them off, if you would, Adventurer Leonardo!” 
“I told you, he’s Croakanardo!” 
Kanami’s cheerful voice made Leonardo’s head hurt. Gimme a break. 
“I am unable to kill the enemy with my sword technique, Fairy Arts!” 
Elias began saying something that didn’t make much sense. 
“I have been marked by the fairy tribe, and the curse of Fairy Eye runs through the Mana Circuits within me.” 
At first, Elias’s words made Leonardo think that the translation function had gone haywire, but when he saw that his expression was completely serious, he was sure: This guy was what they’d call a “background info fiend” in Japan—somebody with severe delusions. With a louder voice, Elias kept saying the sort of words that made Leonardo’s spine crawl. 
“Due to the curse of Fairy Eye, I am unable to finish off monsters!” 
“Huh?” 
At that confession, even Leonardo stopped and turned back. 
“And so, if you would, finish them off!” 

“Umm, Croakanardo? He’s saying, well, you know. Elias is an Ancient, so he can’t drop monsters’ HP to zero.” 
That’s nuts!! For a moment, Leonardo was stunned, but then he reconsidered. Maybe there was no help for that. Come to think of it, Ancients were NPCs. Their duty was to support players’ game experiences and to make things more interesting. There wouldn’t be any point in grandstanding all on their own. 
That was probably why Elias had been saddled with the restriction of being unable to finish off monsters. 
Leonardo didn’t know whether this restriction was true for all Ancients or whether it was specific to Elias, but from what the Ancient had said, he thought it might be the latter. After all, Elias had been given detailed background information—it was “due to the curse of Fairy Eye”—in order to rationalize the restriction. It made Leonardo’s head ache, but it was self-reported. He couldn’t deny it. 
Either way, it didn’t change Leonardo’s job. 
Bending low to evade a gust of hot wind coming at him from the side, Leonardo swung the straight sword in his right hand, crouching even lower. He slashed through the enemy without feeling much resistance. 
Then he moved, seeming to slide. He attacked. 
It didn’t matter whether the other fell to Leonardo’s attack or survived it. He kept moving, continuing to attack blind spots. 
Having killed one Daylight Shade, Leonardo shot a glance at Kanami. His expression looked as if he’d just chomped down on something bitter. 
Elias was one thing. He was an Ancient and a Blademancer, a special class that wasn’t available to Adventurers. Even if Leonardo couldn’t be satisfied in the face of those ridiculous abilities, in terms of the system, there was room to think it at least made sense. 
However, Kanami was another matter. 
She was a proper Adventurer, and her class was Monk, something Leonardo was used to seeing. Her level was 90, too, the same as his own. 
She didn’t seem to be using any equipment that was particularly rare or high-class. At the very least, it didn’t look as if she had any powerful items like Ninja Twin Flames, the fantasy-class Assassin twin blades, or Siolo’s Darkwalker Belt, a fantasy-class accessory. 
The weapons she’d equipped to both hands were probably Giant-Killer Gauntlets, a level-89 production-class item. 
Her equipment wasn’t shabby, and she seemed to have put careful thought into its selection, but it couldn’t compare to a high-ranker’s. All of it seemed to have been pulled together somehow or another within the limits of her budget. 
“Yahoo! Thwok, pow, kabooom!” 
Kanami paid out punches, putting her back into them. 
She stepped in farther, thrusting out her left fist, then her right, and landed a body blow using her elbow and shoulder. To round out the magnificent combo, she leapt into the air as if gravity had vanished, then, extending a single leg like a stake, nailed a Daylight Shade to the ground with a kick. 
The Daylight Shade flickered palely, then disappeared. 
Kanami’s attack power was simply abnormal. 
Leonardo had a lot of experience in Elder Tales, and he could tell. It was true that, as Warriors, Monks had high offensive abilities. They were the type that linked small blows together to accumulate damage, and an astonishing number of moves went into their combos and serial attacks. However, even if that was true, the amount of damage was still only “high for a Warrior.” 
The role of the Warrior classes was to draw the enemy’s attacks on the front line and hold them there. In other words, the class was characterized by the ability to keep the enemy in place and the ability to survive. 
Compared to Guardians, Monks’ ability to reduce damage with armor or shields was extremely low. In exchange, they were a type of Warrior who supported the front line with high evasion rates and abundant HP. They had several abilities that were suited to independent movement; in combination with their relatively high attack power, this made the class a favorite of veteran gamers and one that was well suited to solo play. 
However, there was no way they could have attack power that rivaled Assassins’, the attack specialists. In the balance structure of the Elder Tales game, that was a natural rule. 
That isn’t even… 
How could her results be possible? Leonardo checked again and again. 
At this point, in the world after the Catastrophe, damage dealt to monsters wasn’t visible. However, you could get a rough idea of attack power by seeing how many seconds it took to defeat the same monster. 
In terms of the total, Kanami was putting down Daylight Shades in about the same amount of time as Leonardo, or even less. 
Of course, if he used Assassinate, Leonardo could kill monsters instantly. That only worked once every few minutes, though, and it only took out one enemy. For a while now, Kanami had been steadily inflicting the sort of damage that Leonardo could manage only with Assassinate. 
What’s going on here? This doesn’t make any sense! 
Leonardo felt himself slipping toward panic. 
Was Kanami what you’d call a youkai? She was still cheerfully flattening enemies, but all of a sudden, Leonardo felt as if she’d turned into a creepy monster. 
“Ah!” 
Abruptly, seeming to rise high on her toes, Kanami looked at the far edge of the battlefield. 
“A space has opened up in the battlefield.” 
It was Coppélia who’d spoken. She’d come right up behind Leonardo before he noticed her. Coppélia was a healer. She wasn’t like that joker Ancient or the enigmatic Asian battle maniac. Leonardo scanned their surroundings warily, but possibly because of Elias’s range attacks and the fact that Leonardo and Kanami had both taken out every monster they could get their hands on, the Daylight Shades were hanging back. They seemed to be watching for openings. 
Just then, a white horse ran up gallantly, and Kanami grabbed its mane. Stretching out her left arm, she pulled Coppélia up. 
“Let’s go! The more we punch these guys, the more of ’em show up, and it’s kinda boring!” 
Kanami had taken a gourd-shaped canteen out of her bag, and she tipped her head back and took a swallow of water. 
“Wait!! What’s the meaning of this?! Are the two of us traveling on foot?!” 
Elias had almost screamed. Leonardo was in full agreement, and he nodded several times, but the only response Kanami gave them was a brilliant smile. The blue, blue sky was behind her. 
“Let’s go! To the East!” 
Thus began the journey of the quartet and its horse.