I Was the Supporter of a Popular Dungeon Streamer, but the Power Harassment Was Too Much, so I Quit. I’m Useless Anyway, so It Shouldn’t Be a Problem, Right? Huh? The Views Are Dropping Like Crazy? - 41-42

Chapter 41: Prosthetic Hand and Gloves

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We arrived at the point where the light had scattered. What we saw there was Riku, buried under rubble, and Ul standing over him.

“Riku!”

“Oh my, so all three of you have arrived.”

Isshiki-san kept a wary eye on Ul while I moved the rubble aside to help Riku.

“Hey, are you alright?”

Riku wasn’t critically injured, but he was on the verge of being unable to continue. His shoulder was dislocated and his right leg was in shreds. I laid Riku down on his back.

“…Shibuki, listen carefully…” 

Riku exerted his last remaining power to speak and continued on.

“That guy… He’s definitely got power on par with an upper-rank A-class…!”

“What…?”

Why would someone like that go out of their way to join Fenrir out of all available guilds?

“His OOPArt is that glove on his right hand. Its ability lets him blow away anything he touches. He can launch himself for high-speed movement or deflect attacks. Simple, but a real pain to deal with.”

The ability of Ul’s OOPArt had been a mystery until now. This was valuable information.

“…You really helped us out, Riku. You held on just to tell us that, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. Sorry, but this is as far as I go. My legs won’t move anymore. …I give up.”

The moment Riku declared his retirement, an association member appeared with a transfer crystal.

“I heard Riku Kazuhara’s surrender declaration. I will now retrieve Riku Kazuhara.”

“Alright. Please take care of him.”

Riku was taken away by the association member and left the battlefield. I stepped up beside Isshiki-san and faced Ul.

“You’re surprisingly kind, letting Riku explain your ability to us before finishing him off.”

“Consider it a reward for managing to escape from me for this long. Besides, even if you understand my ability, you won’t be able to counter it anyway. My ability has no weaknesses. His explanation was in vain.”

Ul touched himself with the glove. In an instant, his figure vanished from sight. I turned, swung my prosthetic arm, and targeted Ul as he moved behind me. He tried to block my attack with his glove, so I halted my prosthetic arm just before contact, then fired 【Blue Flame】 from my left hand without an incantation, slamming it into his stomach.

“Mm!”

Ul staggered back a few meters. Being a two-character spell, it barely did any damage.

“I could react because I heard about your ability from Riku. …His effort wasn’t in vain after all.”

“Heh. I’m surprised you countered it so perfectly on your first try. But… Even if you can handle it, what about the person next to you?”

He was watching over closely, after all. I had been able to react just now, but Isshiki-san hadn’t. If she became his target, we’d be in trouble.

“First, let’s start with this—”

Ul touched himself with the glove again and shot forward at high speed. In the next instant, he was behind Isshiki-san.

“Over here!”

Ul launched a kick in midair. I grabbed Isshiki-san and dodged his attack.

“Oh? Do you intend to fight me while carrying someone?”

“Isshiki-san, are you alright?”

“…N-no, I’m not.”

Isshiki-san had a nosebleed. Her face was flushed, and her eyes were unfocused.

“Eh!? What’s wrong!? Did you get hit!?”

“N-no… Please put me down. I can escape on my own.”

She pointed her right hand toward the upper floors of a nearby ruined building.

“【Dragon Chains】”

A chain shot out from her right hand, anchoring itself to the fifth-floor window. She retracted it, pulling herself up to the fifth floor.

“I won’t let you escape!”

Ul tried to touch himself with his glove to pursue her.

“”【Luminous Path Shield】!!””

Isshiki-san and I conjured walls of light at the same time.

She placed hers in front of Ul, while I positioned mine above him. If he tried to move forward or upward, he’d crash into a wall. If he slid sideways first, it’d give us time to counter.

Ul stopped. He then touched the light wall in front of him with his right hand, blasting it apart.

“You’re both quite skilled.”

“Now you’re going to fight me one-on-one.”

“I don’t mind. I’m quite interested in you myself.”

Ul and I faced each other in a one-on-one duel.

“Shibuki Hamura. You’re an anomaly in many ways. Despite being a Supporter, you cleared over fifty dungeon floors solo, learned a vast number of spells through self-study, and possess physical abilities unbefitting of a Supporter… And, most notably, you defeated that Red-Eyed Minotaur alone.”

“…!?”

Impossible. The official record stated that Abisu had taken down that Minotaur, not me. So how did he know the truth?

“Is the secret behind it your prosthetic arm?”

“Who knows? But I’m starting to get interested in you too. Guess you’re not just some newbie after all.”

A sharp tension crackled in the air.

“……”

“……”

Ul and I lunged at each other at the same time. My prosthetic arm collided with his glove. 

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Chapter 42: Pulse

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“Kh…!”

The moment I came in contact with the glove, I was sent flying and crashed into a wrecked car.

“Are you an idiot? You just heard what that glove can do, didn’t you?”

“I knew I’d be blown away. I just wanted to experience what it actually feels like.”

“Hm?”

Now that I had been blasted away, I learned a few things. First, simply being launched didn’t cause damage. Damage only occurred upon impact with something. In other words, if I were sent flying into an empty space, I wouldn’t take any damage. That meant the high-speed movement that guy was using caused no damage. However, if he crashed into something mid-movement, it wouldn’t end well for him.

I also realized there was a difference in the speed of the blowback. I weighed about 70 kg. That guy, despite being tall, was slim. He was probably around 65 kg. He was clearly sent flying faster than I was. So, the speed of the blowback varied depending on weight… Probably. I was starting to get a grasp on how he used his OOPArts and his attack methods.

“Well then, let’s begin with hand-to-hand combat, shall we?”

“That’s what I was hoping for.”

I stepped out of the wreckage and rushed forward. Ul used the glove’s high-speed movement to get behind me, but I quickly turned and dodged his right fist. Ul kept thrusting his right hand at me, trying to send me flying. Because of that, his attacks were easy to read. I slipped under his right hand, closed the distance, and drove my left elbow into his stomach.

“Not bad.”

“-!? “

I was sure I had landed the hit… Until I realized he had barely managed to catch my elbow with his left hand. I tried to follow up with my prosthetic arm, but before I could, he tapped my back with his right hand, sending me crashing into the ground.

“Ugh!!?”

Ul swung his right hand down at me as I lay embedded in the ground. I grabbed his wrist with my prosthetic arm, stopping his attack.

“【Eightfold Bind】!”

I drove eight stakes into Ul, immobilizing him. Then, I stood up and clenched my right fist.

“【Wind God’s Dance】.”

Ul muttered and a tornado erupted around him. It expanded in an instant. I was caught in the whirlwind and blown away.

“Tch! So you can use four-character magic too!”

“Well, yeah, but this is the only one I can use. Unlike you guys, I can’t use multiple four-character magics.”

The stake lodged in Ul’s right shoulder shattered. He then touched himself with his freed right hand, causing the remaining seven stakes to crumble into dust. So he used his own blowback ability to forcibly remove the stakes. A perfect countermeasure… His combat experience was evident in the way he fought.

“I see… You really do have the power of an upper A-rank.”

“Oh no, no.  I haven’t shown you that level of strength yet.”

Ul reached into the pouch at his waist with his left hand.

“Now, I will show you my true essence.”

What he pulled out was a single bullet. Cold sweat broke out across my body. If weight affected the speed of the blowback… Then just how fast would a bullet fly…?

“Crap…!”

“As expected, you’re quick to catch on.”

Ul flicked the bullet into the air with his left thumb, like tossing a coin. Then, as the bullet spun midair, he touched it with the glove on his right hand.

The bullet’s orientation! The angle he touched it with the glove! I had to read the impact point from his line of sight!! With a sharp clink!, the bullet shot forward. Too fast! I could barely track its shadow…! I managed to read its trajectory and caught it with the palm of my prosthetic hand. The moment it hit, the bullet shattered into fragments.

The impact traveled from my prosthetic to my shoulder. This was bad. If I had blocked it with anything else, it would’ve gone straight through me! Even 【Radiant Shield】 would’ve been easily pierced by the bullet!!

“Amazing! You even managed to block that!!”

Ul reached into his pouch with his left hand once more, and then—

“Well then, how about this?”

He withdrew his left hand from the pouch. Lifting his clenched fist, he slowly opened his hand and… From his palm, eight bullets spilled out. As they fluttered downward, he lightly brushed each one with his right hand.

TANG! TANG! TANG! TANG! TANG! TANG! TANG! TANG!

At this point, predicting the trajectory of the bullets alone wasn’t going to cut it. I turned my body sideways to minimize my target profile, positioning my right arm vertically to shield everything from my armpit to my head with my prosthetic arm. Of course, anything outside that area was completely unguarded. Bullets grazed my back, my waist, my legs.

“Tch—!?”

Blood spurted from the areas the bullets had scraped. The wounds weren’t shallow.

“As expected, with more bullets, the accuracy drops.”

I was panicking on the inside. Not because of Ul’s display of power, but—

“What… the hell…!?”

After taking those bullets… My prosthetic hand started trembling violently, rattling uncontrollably.

My prosthetic arm, Origin, is acting strange!!!

The shaking wouldn’t stop. And then… I started hearing a deep, pulsing thrum, like a heartbeat.

“Th-This is bad…!!”

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