Strongly fending off the Nepent’s vine attack with the buckler, as
Coper broke off the bout, he delivered a short line while looking at me,
who was standing stock still.
“Sorry, Kirito.”
And he returned his sight to the monster, forcefully raising the
sword in his right hand above his head. The blade glistened light blue.
A sword skill was activated. That motion—was that of the single-hit
vertical slash, «Vertical».
“No... that’s bad, isn’t it...”
Even with the confusion caused by the earlier statement, I
murmured so with my mind numb.
The upper portion of the stalk, a weak point of the Little Nepent,
was obstructed by its sturdy prey-trapping mechanism, and as such,
vertical attacks are ineffective. Additionally, there was a clear reason
why Coper should not be using a vertical slash now. He should also be
well aware of that.
However, the sword skill was already beyond the point of no
return. The avatar, half taken over by the system assist, kicked the
ground savagely, and the glowing blade was driven into the Nepent’s
prey-trapping mechanism—or at least, what was above it, striking that
wobbling, round «seed».
*Baaan!*
That explosive sound shook the forest at a monstrous volume.
This was the second time I heard this sound. The first was of
course, during the β test period. At that time, the members of my ad
hoc party carelessly poked it with a spear, and due to the swarm of