Chapter 195: Strategy
Chapter 195: Strategy
All of this had been planned in advance.
Medusa was a master strategist, and as soon as she made the decision to help Adam, she quickly chose a target before devising a plan.
Her target was Diamond.
Oni no Miko was a powerful invocator with a whole host of abilities that Medusa was unfamiliar with. Compared with such a risky target, it was a much better choice to go after Diamond instead.
Furthermore, her abilities were a great counter to Diamond.
Aside from Eyeless, Medusa was the S tier combatant that Diamond least wanted to face. At times, certain ability matchups played a more important role in adapter battles than just power alone.
Diamond\'s physical resistance and defenses were unmatched, but his abilities were extremely limited.
As for Medusa, she was the perfect counter to tanks like Diamond.
The giant anomaly from before had also been a defensive juggernaut, but she had managed to kill it with just two attacks.
That anomaly possessed powers that would\'ve placed it in the upper mid level of the S tier, and it would\'ve taken most other S tier combatants far longer to kill it than it did for Medusa.
The same concept applied to Diamond. No matter how hard his body was in this form, it still didn\'t grant him complete immunity to all attacks. However, as a high-ranking S tier combatant, Diamond possessed exceptional telegnosis and far higher intelligence than artificial anomalies, so Medusa had to exercise a certain level of strategy and finesse in order to catch him off guard.
Furthermore, she had to land an attack on him at point blank range. If she were to strike him with a petrifying attack from a distance, the effect would\'ve been largely negligible.
Hence, she had to rely on the four mecha brothers to draw Diamond\'s attention. In their combined form, the giant mecha was already quite a visual spectacle, and in addition to that, its laser and electric saw attacks could disrupt Diamond\'s vision and hearing.
Even though the electric saw was unable to harm Diamond, the deafening screech that it emitted had completely disrupted Diamond\'s telegnosis.
Ultimately, adapters were still humans, and there was a limit to how sharp and sensitive their telegnosis could be. In this situation, where the majority of Diamond\'s attention was focused elsewhere, it was impossible for him to sense the danger lurking in the shadows.
This entire plan had been devised in order to grant Medusa an opportunity to attack Diamond from point blank range. Even if the plan were to succeed, as was the case here, it still wouldn\'t have been enough to kill Diamond on the spot, but it was definitely going to severely weaken him.
Diamond was a high-ranking S tier combatant with exceptional resistances, so even a point blank petrifying screech still couldn\'t completely take him out of?the?equation.
After Diamond\'s entire body had turned to stone, the four mecha brothers hurriedly pushed him away. They knew that if Diamond were to survive the attack, he would undoubtedly retaliate in a fit of fury, and the four mecha brothers certainly didn\'t want to be on the receiving end of that.
After Diamond was pushed away, cracks began to appear all over his body after he fell onto the ground.
The layer of stone that had formed over his body was very substantial, roughly five centimeters in thickness, and after the layer of stone was shattered, his glistening body was revealed.
"Medusa, you sly bitch!" Diamond roared with fury as he stepped out of the layer of stone like a hardened cocoon.
After emerging from the stony cocoon, Diamond had become significantly smaller than before, as if he had gone through an extensive weight loss phase.
That layer of stone had previously been a part of his body, and there was no way to recover from the damage that the attack had dealt upon him in a short time.
"How many carats did you lose, Diamond? Maybe I should call you Little Diamond from now on!"
Instead of pressing her advantage, Medusa chose to hang back and taunt Diamond instead. She was here to help, not to put her life on the line.
She couldn\'t?predict?what Diamond was going to do in his incensed state, and it was always better to be safe than sorry.
"Why are you helping that kid? Did you two strike some type of deal?"
Diamond was about to lash out in retaliation, but in the end, his sense of reason won out over his fury. With Medusa and the four mecha brothers working together, his chances of coming out on top were very slim.
"What do you think? Do you think I\'m doing this out of the kindness of my heart?" Medusa displayed no intention of attacking any further as she explained, "Someone promised us a bunch of cards in exchange for our help. All I have to do is help out a little, I don\'t have to risk my life or anything, so why wouldn\'t I?accept?the deal?"
Diamond quickly understood the nature of the situation.
"In that case, as long as I don\'t attack you, you\'re not going to attack me, right?"
"That\'s right. If you keep out of this battle, I\'ll do the same. That\'s fair, is it not?"
"What if I insist on killing him?"
Diamond wasn\'t willing to let Adam off the hook so easily.
"Then you can give it a try, but let me warn you that I fully intend to follow through on my promise. There are countless people all over the world watching the battle royale right now. If I go back on my word here, no one will want to work with me in the future," Medusa replied. "Even though I don\'t have to risk my life here, I still have to do what\'s asked of me if I want to claim the reward."
Diamond\'s fists were tightly clenched in frustration. If he were in peak condition, he would\'ve been inclined to try his luck.
However, he had been severely weakened from the get-go, and Medusa had the four mecha brothers on her side as well, so things were definitely looking rather grim for him.
"Alright, I can sit this one out, but you and the four mecha brothers have to do the same."
.
Diamond could see that Oni no Miko still held the upper hand in her battle against Adam, and that instilled him with a great deal of confidence. Ultimately, it was a beneficial trade if he could keep Medusa and the four mecha brothers out of the battle at the expense of his own participation.
"I can\'t tell them what to do. They\'re not my subordinates or my teammates."
"You... You\'ll pay for this!"
Diamond was furious, but there was nothing that he could do.
With Medusa choosing to sit out the battle, all of her teammates were instructed to refrain from getting involved as well.
Oni no Miko was too formidable an opponent. Even if Medusa were to face her in person, there would still be a major element of risk involved, and there was no way that she would send her teammates into such a perilous situation.
Hence, they were sent to the secondary battlefield.
Nie Yiyi\'s frustration was growing by the second as she continued to find herself stumped by the Shelled Tiger\'s turtle shell, but all of a sudden, a serpentine figure entered the fray before slithering toward the Shelled Tiger at a rapid speed.
The Shelled Tiger was greatly alarmed by this, and he immediately withdrew his head into his shell. However, the fangs of the serpent had already pierced viciously into a gap in his shell, following which a large volume of venom was injected.
The Shelled Tiger immediately began to howl in agony.
The venom had naturally come from none other than Belcher.
Her venom was too much to bear even for those enhanced artificial anomalies, so there was naturally no way that the Shelled Tiger could withstand its effects. It wasn\'t long before his entire shell was corroded away, completely destroying his defenses.
Luckily for him, he still possessed sufficient physical resistance for him to ward off Nie Yiyi\'s attacks for now, but his fellow Tiger was not so fortunate.
Rattlesnake and Anaconda had both rushed over to assist King Arthur in his battle against the technomancer. Rattlesnake\'s tracking abilities were the perfect counter to all illusions, so whenever the technomancer tried to conjure up a decoy to throw his opponents off his trail, his efforts would always be quickly foiled by Rattlesnake.
Anaconda was quite a powerful adapter in her own right, and with the even more formidable King Arthur on her side, the technomancer was quickly forced into a dire situation.
While the Shelled Tiger was still in relatively decent shape, the technomancer had already had half of his body chomped away by Anaconda, and he was on the verge of death.
"You\'re very powerful, but unfortunately for you, luck is not on your side. This is the end!"
King Arthur raised his holy sword as he spoke, then brought it down in one swift and powerful motion.
1. Around two inches.