King of Swords 8-82
Chapter: 8
Vacus needles are forged exclusively from puresilver, a rare material that in the time of the Multiplicity was only obtained from the breath of Ovis, the glass god of emptiness. An individual’s Atum, or personal soul, cannot flow through a needle, making them highly effective weapons and anathema to beings whose Atum burns especially bright, such as angels or devils, who rely on their connections to their armor and masks.
Oof, at least the needles arent too… Pinful?
Boo.
No, you.
You boo.
… did you just punch yourself square in the face? What do you mean, “it’s a meme!?”
Is Gog Agog really a good judge of strength?
I’d think being a Demiurge she has better things to do than keeping tabs on the fighters of the world.
Or maybe she has a DBZ-type scouter?
Eh. Even if she was, it’s not a very good plan. If the only way Alison can get to Solomon is a series of rigged fights against weak opponents, then why would you expect her to be able to beat Solomon. Conversely, if she can actually scratch Solomon, unlike every previous entrant, then why would she need weak opponents?
Since Gog Agog has eyes and thralls everywhere, I wouldn’t be surprised if she has observed Allison fighting before (at least before the) and knew of some of her strategy. Gog Agog is insane, that’s definite, but it’d be a major mistake to pass her off as dumb.
As other people have commented on this page and previous pages, she needs to stop trying to punch her way out of every situation. This could be an attempt to teach her that lession. Eris Lo-Kai may be weak, but (as cliche as it is, and shown in many heroic tales) a weak (relative to the fighter) and smart opponent can defeat a strong and dumb opponent.
IS he really weak though? He and Layla Brimstone were the first of the pursuers, and so far they have survived everything, including the massive battle in Mammon’s fortress where they were in the thick of it. (Makes me wonder if our favorite Gun Witch is also fighting somewehere in this arena?) Anyway, from what we’ve seen, Eris isn’t one to back away from fights – in fact Abbadon has more or less said the pursuers are using Allison and her Key as an excuse to get into fights – yet he’s survived to grow this old. If there’s one thing watching anime has taught me, it’s that old, wrinkly guys make the most deadly fighters.
Perhaps Gog’s game is to grind her down with fights and get her into a position where she needs to accept Gog’s “help” in order to continue forward.
Apotheosis.
Or maybe she schemes to forge her into a weapon against the other Demiurges.
She’s clearly not content devouring only a seventh of the Wheel.
Well, that was short. Hopefully White Chain has a better showing.
Better luck next time Allison. Good show at the, uh, tryouts.
It ain’t over till it’s over, Carth! She’ll bounce back, just wait and see.
I agree with the entities who think Lady Agoga is using the competition to accelerate Allison’s training.
I assume that Preem Fist-of-Goo would know about bouncing back.
I do indeed have a jelly-like consistency.
she ain’t no Saitama
Didn’t even lose her hair training.
She hasn’t yet earned the honor of being compared to the bald nightmare of Z Sector
I’mma one man punch’em!
She who must resort to cleverness and cannot win through will has failed to achieve Royalty.
As I’ve thought, Gog Agog has been rigging the match, but maybe not in her favor. Wonder how Gog judged her weaknesses…
Did she?
The trouble with weakness is it can get you killed without being previously observed.
That’s probably the root of most of Alison’s problems when it comes to fighting. She’s thinking like a normal person, where things like strength, combat skill, and cleverness are how you win. Since she lacked those things, she’s been training, but she’s still a novice compared to most of the people she’s fighting, so that’s never going to be enough. Instead, she needs to think like Royalty. Of course she won, she’s the Conquering King. Of course her enemy was cut, who could strike at Royalty and not be cut down? I’m not sure if she needs to think more like a shonen protagonist or less like one.
For all that she’s hot headed, impetuous, and cocksure, her biggest weakness has been a lack of self confidence.
The imitable Oda already chronicled this issue in One Piece. Monkey D. Luffy has the King’s Disposition, but the Marineford arc showed its limitations. Alison has lacked self-confidence yes, but that was merely the first challenge towards ascending the throne.
A triumphal column has Will at its base, true, but Allison must add the stone of Insight next. One too many neglect to add, and thus their construction topples upon them.
This is blatantly untrue. These are the pages where we see firsthand just how untrue it is.
Authority alone does not make you a King.
She should’ve used an UNO reversal card on him
Eris Lo-Kai has already used his mirror of No-U.
I say again: Al needs to stop trying to brute force her way through life.
She can’t win on strength, so she needs to start using her head for something besides bludgeoning.
She could beat this particular jobber no problem if she’d stop rushing in blindly and start thinking tactically.
He’s pretty vulnerable right now, being up in the air like that. He has no grounding or means of stabilizing himself. A well-placed throw could net Al the win.
Hrmm… a nice force-push or deflection could easily knock him out of the ring.
Good thinking.
You kidding? She’s completely screwed. She’s panicking, forgot her training, can’t use her more flashy powers without immediately revealing herself, and to top it off Eris Lo-Kai has been preparing for more than a year to find and take her down. Meanwhile, Allison has NO IDEA what Eris is capable of, or whatever tricks he has up his sleeve.
I’d also be surprised if the guy’s stupid enough to have no countermeasures against someone trying to target him in the air. You don’t get to that age in his line of work without having a way to deal with the most obvious strategies.
Arrogance works both ways in this fight
Or just use MORE brute force, just hit maximum mad like aesma, lift the wheel, and beat everyoen to death with it.
Shoulda been paying more attention to him. As dire as things look right now, we all know she’s going to win this fight somehow.
Don’t plot armor on us though Abbadon 😉 (though at the very minimum, she just has to not die)
Poor Allison, the match is undoubtedly rigged, simply not in her favour. Eric Lo-Kai is a Vatra, a type of sorcerer that even White Chain believed he would lose against.
On another matter, one does have to question just how much confetti Gog-Agog intends to unleash upon the competition.
Gog-Agog plans to use all of the confetti. Yes, all of it.
Yep, all the confetti from all the universes. The macrocosm shall be rendered confettiless.
Did White Chain believe that she would lose against any Vatra, or did she believe that she believe that she would lose against one wielding a Key of Kings and which even before that was powerful enough to steal said key?
There is a distinction there.
It’d be a surprising reversal of the tournament arc trope if the main character got defeated in the preliminaries and had to sit the entire thing out watching her master do all the winning.
What would White Chain ask for if she managed to scratch Solomon?
Justice, of course.
The one thing he can never give her.
Awesome.
He took out the sword.
So much for the bonus points.
Plot twist: Allison loses in the first round, and then 40 pages later we get to watch White Chain fight Solomon-David.
god Alyson WTF his Ariel drops is sloppy and over equipped, and mostly a bluff for fear factor
hand stand kick him right in the nuts
or forward dash then back kick him off the rid
his tools and weapons for we weaklings, ignore throe pathetic effect
this guys chump city
Weapons are force multipliers, playing field levelers, mechanical advantage. Without a knife, the big muscly guy wins. With a knife, what does his strength matter? The weaker combatant is still strong enough to cut, and the stronger combatant’s skin is still easy to pierce.
Weaklings are not those who lack strength, but those who refuse to use their tools.
a weapon is also an extension of the user! okay so they’re a force multiplier? Why hide the mirror and needles then? Why use an metal that pierces everything instead of his own technique? why aim to disable instead of aim to kill?
Weapon can be a crutch too. This guy has no force to multiply.
His only hope is that all of these tools are just an elaborate feint for his true power. And even that is pretty pathetic.
The vatra’s tools are not force multipliers, but incomperables.
On the padded leather bench
Cleanliness has its own stench
A buzz that forces teeth to clench
Just do it! No, wait.
Fire at the discotheque? No damnit that’s not even three words.
Crazy on you? I think that’s more in the right direction but I’m still stuck on rock classics.
Liberte, fraternite, egalinope what the fuck. Get it together. Get it together? No.
Eat, pray love! Got it.
Eat prey, love.
Have you reached Heaven through violence today?
No, it is:
Veni, Vidi, Vici.
That is all you need.
Came
Saw
Conquered
Mantra of the old kings.
If at first you don’t succeed, you just weren’t punching hard enough
Its not the time to start flailing around like a novice swordsman, panic leads to a messy end
Allison I believe your mantra is “No Cuts, No Buts, No Coconuts”. Wait, no, that’s mine.
I can understand the first two, but why no coconuts? Story time me thinks
Failure leads to introspection.
Introspection leads to growth of self.
Growth leads to success.
Few are those who knowingly put themselves in position to fail, however. Growth is a process full of pain. Most students must be pushed into it.
But is it the time to grow for Al-Yisun? Perhaps this is a battle she prefers to win now using all she got and not learn from at all, and ignoring the consequences? Perhaps it is time
To
Take
Out
The
Key
And
Win
Hrmm… Mind over matter? You hold the Key, bend reality to your will.
Yes! Allison should summon a portal that Eris would drop through into hellfire! Problem solved.
Or just send him to plain boring Earth
Let’s assume she can do it – it would make at least the smarter of the future opponents realise what trick she’s hiding. And tricks should be hidden until really needed, not used in the first round.
Good point, Var. But she’s gonna need to dream up something pretty quick to get out of her current predicament.
One of the first things you learn in the martial arts is the danger of overcommitment.
When you release your energy into an attack, you risk losing control over it. This is how we can use a foe’s own strength against him.
Jumping attacks are generally classified as a “total commitment”.
Both of these fighters have recklessly overcommited.
Oft. Good luck, Alison…
If truly you are the Rising King, you don’t even need one hand to punch him.
Remember your Auntie Maya.
O’ Un-Fel, Divine Gamblingant of Fatalities,
This One agrees, one hand not needed vs Vatra.
( Pssst ! Allison ! Open your mind ! Try this one…. )
FLAMING PLUM ATTACK !
Bareful Polymorph into a plum tree with a breath attack.
In other news, it looks like the ceiling is glass.
Settle your debts.
I bet ceiling is diamond. And it wont help it survive tournament in the slightest.