"Beryl… you beast!"
Even though the playback of the battle outside Gloucester had long ended, the final image on the display—Beryl raising his hand toward the dying Woodworth—still struck a nerve in Bavanshi. That bastard, how dare he? How dare he! Even she herself, when facing the Calamity at Norwich, knew not to stab in the back the Child of Prophecy who was resisting the calamity—especially knowing it was all just a simulation. But Beryl, who clearly had no regard for the simulator's rules, actually carried out such a treacherous act! He cares nothing for the Fairy Kingdom's survival!
With a "smack," Bavanshi punched the dressing table in front of her, smashing it in two; fragments flew everywhere.
"Oh? What's the matter, Spodumene? Why so angry today?"
Drawn by the crash, a creak sounded as the door to Bavanshi's chamber opened. She turned and saw Beryl's hateful face a few meters behind her, smiling as if nothing were wrong.
"Who upset you? If someone has, let's go kill them together."
Seeing Bavanshi turn around yet unaware of the gravity of her mood, Beryl still smiled lightly.
At sight of his smirk, Bavanshi's eyes turned red. That damned man: he'd always used sweet words to deceive her feelings, treating her like a fool to serve his schemes. In the third simulation, that bastard had even tricked her into using that cursed spell to kill Woodworth, obtaining his heart for him. But he never told her that after using that curse, the caster's soul would gradually rot away.
Bits of memory she had tried to bury rose to the surface. The terrifying ordeal made her body tremble: alone in her own bedchamber, feeling her limbs and flesh rotting bit by bit, powerless to stop it—too horrifying to bear. With every slight movement, corresponding flesh and bone would decay and fall away. The once-comfortable bed became a prison; her private chamber turned into hell—empty, leaving only her deteriorating soul.
All the guards and servants who normally came and went at her command had been sent away by Beryl; in the spacious queen's bedchamber, not a soul nor even an insect remained. Alone in that empty room, she had despaired as her body decayed piece by piece, listening to flesh turning to rot, and then "plop," dropping under gravity. The only sound outside had been the distant herald announcing Beryl's coronation as king before she died.
Pain, despair, regret… these mingled memories nearly caused Bavanshi—who had chosen to accept the simulation's memories—to faint. Now recalling those horrors, her murderous intent toward Beryl grew stronger. King? Let that kind of man be king? Although she died early and didn't know what became of the kingdom after the third simulation, she could imagine that under Beryl's rule, the Fairy Kingdom her mother protected for so long would meet a dreadful fate.
"Hey, hey, hey, what's going on? You seem to have a lot of resentment toward me—did I do something to upset you?"
Sensing Bavanshi's murderous intent directed at him, Beryl's expression darkened slightly. He smiled awkwardly while retreating toward the door. Damn! He'd exposed himself!
Seeing this, Bavanshi panicked. She had planned to wait a few more days, find a more opportune moment to kill Beryl more securely, but her fury had burst out and alerted him to her intent. Now there was no turning back—might as well finish it now! Before he could escape, she would kill this beast!
Without hesitation, Bavanshi raised her hand; deep crimson mana rapidly gathered at her fingertips.
"Die, Beryl!" she shouted, firing a crimson magic arrow straight at his throat.
…
"Ding—!"
The magic arrow was deflected by a swift slash of a mythril greatsword, and Gawain's forward momentum stuttered. Immediately, three more magic arrows chased after him.
"Clang, clang, clang—!"
Though the three arrows flew at extreme speed along nontrivial trajectories, Gawain, aided by his Star-Chasing Eyes skill, still managed to intercept them all.
[Skill: Star-Chasing Eyes B]
[Because you have repeatedly tried to track meteors with your naked eyes, after countless attempts you have adapted your vision to capture them.]
[Your dynamic vision is greatly enhanced; any projectile attack is laid bare to you. So long as your physical condition supports intercepting the attack, you will succeed.]
Before Gawain could catch his breath, a sharp blade of light traversed several meters and struck his neck. In the next instant, Gawain's radiant aura flared and then was extinguished. But the next moment, the greatsword in his hand abruptly spun and slashed at his own neck. Blood spurted.
[To avoid Shadow Yuser's Rani Dark Moon, you were forced to create distance. As you closed in again, Shadow Yuser used Loretta's ultimate technique: while you were intercepting magic arrows, you were struck head-on by Yuser's Crescent Moon Shadow and lost combat capability.]
[To save time, you decisively committed self-inflicted death, retriggering the Endless Trial effect.]
[Thus far, you have committed suicide seventy-two times in your battle against Shadow Yuser.]
He is strong—very strong. Even without Shadow Shen's aid, Shadow Yuser remains a bone-hard opponent: formidable in every aspect. Excellent physical base, capable of handling various magics, fluid and swift martial techniques, rapid adaptability, unparalleled combat experience, and swordsmanship fully matching Gawain… all these combine to form this hexagonal monster confronting Gawain.
Most importantly, his combat methods are so varied that though Gawain has died many times, the ways in which he perished differed almost every time. In past encounters, Gawain faced foes with even greater raw strength gaps—but through repeated deaths he gradually learned all their patterns and countermeasures; only the difficulty of execution differed. For example, in the match against Lancelot, a single ordinary initial dash required Gawain to replay nine hundred times to master.
Yet compared to that opponent, the ever-changing Shadow Yuser felt even more exhausting—at least Lancelot was straightforward.
[In the 192nd battle against Shadow Yuser, though you maintained close combat throughout, you were deceived by a feint in swordplay and then struck through by his staff's Comet Star technique, triggering Farewell.]
"I'm damn… Clear Mind, work for me, Clear Mind! You're supposed to let me always choose the best action—how could I be deceived by his feint?" Gawain grimaced in frustration. He even opened his Clear Mind description: "This allows you to often make the calmest choice in battle." He fell silent: calmest choice and correct choice are not the same. Like in certain realistic shooter games: you lay bait, throw grenades, set traps—only opponents on your level are fooled; reckless novices will just charge and can't be tricked. Unfortunately, Gawain seems past the stage of opponents who can't trick him. If he'd faced Shadow Yuser before battling Lancelot, even in an arena forced to LV1, his win rate would be zero. Yet precisely because he passed that trial, Gawain now qualifies to face him.
[In the 354th battle against Shadow Yuser, you successfully knocked away Yuser's Night-and-Fire sword and lunged to stab his heart, but before you could land the blow, Yuser's other-hand staff unleashed Kalia Swift Blade and severed your throat first, triggering Farewell.]
[You lose.]
"Damn! So close!!!"
In reality, Gawain leapt from the bed in anger, his blood pressure spiking. Disgusting, truly disgusting! How could this guy be so hard to beat?! After pacing in frustration, he unwillingly started another run. But this time, trembling from anger, he was taken out at the very start.
"…I'm tired."
Seeing the big "You Lose" prompt on the display, Gawain flopped onto the bed, feeling like giving up. "Feels like if I just surrender here, let the simulated me take over, and the simulator battles according to his current fighting will, maybe I could auto-battle straight to the victory animation?" he murmured. Unlike the Lancelot match—where he felt an urgent need to win for the skill reward—here there's no life-or-death necessity. Also, from how the fairy Tristan reacted after encountering the calamity… she even fought Artoria over ownership? Apparently his impression on her wasn't so bad? And importantly… he's not "in the zone" now. With these reasons combined, he felt he really had no reason to keep dying over and over. Moreover, the simulator's intelligence means that if he surrenders, the simulated Gawain—stronger than the real one—and his honed fighting will would likely auto-win.
"…Hey, you know what, that might actually work!"
Gawain suddenly bounced up, muttered, and quickly reached for the "Abandon Challenge" button. But just before touching the display, he stopped. "…No," he said, "I still feel a bit unwilling." Though lazy, gluttonous, lustful, and fond of slacking—leading to twenty aimless years—he still had two "undesirable" virtues: obsessive-compulsive and stubborn as hell. He had beaten Lancelot against astronomical odds; to now let a Shadow Yuser fight himself automatically? Wouldn't that feel like a regret? Even if no achievement pops up for manual victory, he'd set some inexplicable standard to finish it himself, no matter how absurd the difficulty. Like when he played that Leaf Brain Company game: he insisted on bringing every single employee through the true ending alive, even though the employees were expendable data and no achievement required that. He persisted until finally, after weeks stuck in each of the last levels, he did it—and at the end just sat back, watched the final BGM at normal speed, viewed the ending, then shut down the PC and went for a walk at sunrise. No reward, no reason, but sometimes he just insists on finishing some arbitrary feat.
Thinking that, he felt uneasy if his future simulation record showed a boss beaten by auto-battle.
"Fine," Gawain moved his finger to the other button: \[Retry Challenge]. "Again! I refuse to believe I can't kill you, you brat!" And so the battle restarted.
After being tortured by Shadow Yuser hundreds more times, on the 554th attempt, when Yuser once again leveraged sword collisions to push Gawain back and then drew his staff to cast a spell, the exasperated Gawain hurled his sword directly. The spinning greatsword flew unexpectedly, striking Shadow Yuser's shoulder and staggering him. Gawain was stunned. Though this battle soon ended in failure for losing his weapon, he felt he'd discovered a new path: compared to Shadow Yuser, his weakest point was ranged attacks. Magic projectiles, sword-energy waves, meteor showers—all are ranged methods. If Gawain also had a good ranged technique? Since both are ranged, there's no reason magic should be inherently superior to a thrown weapon. So… Gawain glanced at the round shield on his back. Percival had gifted him this mythril shield, but because he favored a two-handed greatsword, he'd never used it and had long forgotten it. But now… a greatsword can be thrown as a projectile—why not the shield? The theory existed, so he began to test it.
[You begin your experiment with a flying shield.]
[Attempt 555: in practical use the flying shield is very poor; before you even remove it from your back, Shadow Yuser's arrow pierces you.]
\[…]
[Attempt 689: your flying shield cannot hit the enemy at all.]
[You are defeated by Shadow Yuser's Destructive Meteor.]
\[…]
[Attempt 889: Shadow Yuser easily bats away your flying shield, but this still buys you considerable time.]
[You discover you don't need perfect mastery of the flying shield; just two successive hits suffice to buy enough time.]
\[…]
[In attempt 1328, as usual you first close the distance with Shadow Yuser.]
After several sword clashes in rapid succession, Yuser rapidly creates distance, and his other hand's staff begins to gather a spell. At that instant, Gawain unhesitatingly removes the shield from his back and hurls it at high speed. Since throwing requires no mana gathering, its attack speed surpasses the spell. Yuser's casting is interrupted; he immediately swings his sword to deflect the shield and tries to resume spellcasting. But at that moment, Gawain leaps swiftly, bringing his greatsword down onto the high-flying shield, smashing it back toward Yuser. As Yuser hastily uses Kalia Swift Blade to deflect the shield again, taking advantage of the shield blocking his vision, Gawain's greatsword follows and strikes.
"Hello, I'm damn well the Captain of Britain!"
[With the surprise attack enabled by the flying shield, you finally defeat Shadow Yuser.]
[Due to your special performance in this battle, you learn Skill: Flying Shield Mastery E.]
[Among weapon specializations, this skill is quite niche: compared to other superior thrown weapons, throwing away a defensive shield leaves you very vulnerable.]
[Typically, those with this skill are unlucky souls who couldn't find a better thrown weapon; they'd be better off asking why they didn't bring a throwing axe or dagger.]
[At higher levels this skill can produce marvelous effects—though not necessarily strong in practice, it can surely vex Newton.]
[With this skill at such a low rank, provided the enemy hasn't seized your shield, you can ensure the first two throws hit, but you cannot guarantee retrieving the shield.]
[Overall, though the skill can enable unexpected strikes, it remains quite situational.]
[But what does that matter?]
[There are always people who want to be Captain America.]
"Well said," Gawain's face darkened as he read the skill description, "so why don't I just ask someone else for a throwing axe or spear?"