Chapter 692: Angel Mirror
I can break down Jornes’ counter strategy. It looks like I can push through with the difference in speed, even if that probably wouldn’t be an option if her stats were in the region of mine. It’s also incredibly helpful that not only is my attack power stronger than hers, but so is my magic, so each and every hit I land is dealing good damage. Even if I take a little a little [Ruin] damage in retaliation, I can force my way to a victory.
It’s the first time [Wormhole]-san has been useful since I acquired it. This is the fruit of my experience being smacked around by the origin matter as it wished. Although, if Jornes wasn’t a minmaxed opponent, it wouldn’t be a very practical strategy…
I see Jornes’ eyes light up ominously within the cloud of smoke. Suddenly, an intense pain runs through my body, as though my insides are being torn apart. Bile rises into my mouth as though forced up from an impact.
It’s her damage-sharing skill, [Empath]…! It’s seriously awful that I’m forced to receive an unavoidable attack, even after slipping through her counters to deal damage.
It’ll be difficult to deal with a [Ruin] shot here. I fall back and heal my outer injuries with [Autoregeneration] and [Dragon Mirror]. Considering the danger of being hit by a second [Empath] after this, I only recover my HP to about forty percent.
I got hit by heavier damage than I was expecting. Even if I deal damage, the damage I dealt is returned in equal measure. There’s no way for me to claim an absolute win in an exchange.
However, for me to have taken heavy damage with my considerable HP, Jornes must have received the same level of damage as well. I have the advantage when it comes to toughness. If I continue like this, I’ll be able to properly whittle away her MP!
Her [Empath] can’t inflict damage to a more damaged opponent. I have a rough sense of how it works after having now taken it multiple times. It probably treats the difference between maximum and current HP as the damage already received, and so if the user has lost more HP than their opponent, it inflicts that difference in HP as damage. Even though it can freely ravage my HP, it should be absolutely impossible for [Empath] to defeat me, since my maximum HP is higher than Jornes.
It’s a stupidly troublesome skill, but I’ve grasped how it works now. Since Jornes lacks speed, upon understanding her tactics and formulating a counterplan to crush it, I can reliably take the advantage. As an apocalypse, I am readily capable of that.