The Right Arm of the Victor

**The Right Arm of the Victor** is the eleventh episode of the Infinite Dendrogram anime.

## Plot

Rook Holmes recalls his past, born in London as a son of a father and mother who are a detective and a thief respectively. As he is extremely gifted with the talents from both his parents, they agreed to teach him their skills. His father taught him how to observe, how to read people's mind, all the languages and human psychology while his mother taught him the ways to get out of traps, to find humans' blind spots, to charm and manipulate others but they never asked him to follow their careers and they told him that he has to decide what kind of life to live himself.

By the time Rook was fifteen years of age, his parents died in a plane accident. When there was only him left, he realized that he had never made any decision on how to live. As he is wondering how to go on with life and feeling totally lost, he found the headgear for *Infinite Dendrogram* in his father's study. Seeing a letter from someone that had asked his father's to explore the game's secret, it got him interested. As he recalls the game's tagline, tempted by the premise of a virtual life filled with new possibilities, he decided to play it that day.

Meanwhile back in Gideon, Hugo Lesseps attacks with a Motor Slash to which Marilyn intercepts with a Tri-Horn Upper. As Hugo's Magingear clash with Marilyn, Hugo clicks his tongue. Rook then orders Babylon to use Little Flare skill just a moment before Hugo draws out his large gun, and then it hits the projectile right before it escaped the gun. Seeing as the muzzle is destroyed due to the resulting explosion and rendering it impossible for use, Hugo throws the weapon away. Rook then predicts Hugo's next few moves as a moment later Hugo moves exactly the way he predicts it to be. Ordering Liz to move, Rook managed to dodge an upward slash from the left blade with a backwards jumps. He was able to do that due to Liz smoothly extending herself to his heels while making sure that Hugo couldn’t see it and then pushing the ground in a way that made the impact take him backwards. Seeing an opening at the back right of the Magingear, Rook orders Marilyn to attack there. As a response, Hugo managed to stop Marilyn's charge right before she hits. Cocytus complained as Hugo, seeing that their attacks are not connecting properly, feels as if Rook could really predict their moves. Hugo thinks that they will run out of power if things go on like this but he also wonders how long before Rook is frozen from his **La Porte de l'Enfer** skill. Hearing it, Rook looks at his partially frozen left arm and thinks about the effective range which are the same every time and the between times which are different each times with the second time the freezing progress come 39 seconds after the initial freeze, while the third had happened 130 seconds after the second, the greatest common divisor of them is 13. Rook thinks it might have some meaning and then orders Liz to focus on evasion and defense as he wants to focus on thinking.

Analysing the situation, Rook deduces there are three ways Hugo's skill affected its targets, those who got Frozen partially and progressively like Audrey and him, those who got completely Frozen in an instant like the ice statues of Masters around them and finally those who didn’t get Frozen at all like Babylon and Marilyn. Evading the attack on him a few times, Rook is deep in thoughts while Marilyn and Babi keep Hugo occupied. Speculating in his own thoughts a few times, Rook heard Babi's warning to him as he noticed Hugo has dodged Marilyn's grand dash and Babi's Little Flare and are closing in on him. Predicting it will hit him in two seconds and is too late to dodge now, Rook completely focused in thinking instead. Rook's thought process accelerates even further just as Hugo reaches in front of Rook. Strengthening the coat by using Liz, just before Hugo's right blade arrived at Rook, Rook finally managed to understand how La Porte de l'Enfer works. A moment later, Rook is slashed and blasted away straight into Gideon’s outer wall that sent up clouds of dust to which Babi screamed worriedly.

After the resulting dust settled, Rook stands up and declared his intention to defeat Hugo here and now which astonished Hugo that Rook can still stand after the attack. Hearing that, Rook smiled and thanks Ray for it as he recalls how Ray had damaged the right arm of the Magingear. Seeing the damaged right arm, Hugo chuckled and tells Rook there will be no more luck and how La Porte de l'Enfer continue to consume his body. Rook agrees with Hugo and tells him his skill has him in *check* because he had killed several humans in the plaza battle against the player killers. Hearing that, Hugo paused momentarily before asking the meaning behind his words. Rook then opens his menu window, specifically battle history window, creature type kill counters and explains his deduction that La Porte de l’Enfer’s effects are based on ‘the kill count for the same type of creatures as yourself’. Seeing that his kill counter for humans is 7, Rook explains that his skill gives an X% chance to Freeze X% of the selected target’s body every 13 seconds. Rook further explains that he, for example, has a 7% chance to Freeze 7% of his body every 13 seconds. Rook deduces that is also the reason why Hugo is placed here in the escape route. Hearing all that, Hugo grunts and replied that it is a good guess but argues on it is just a coincidence. Hearing his answer, Rook chuckled and confirms it to be correct now. He also added that Hugo is bad at lying and deception which is why he hates him. As Hugo inquires about it, Rook further explains that despite Hugo being a Maiden's Master, his action is just so irritating. Rook then lets out all his irritation towards Hugo as the latter hear him out, Babi also added on that she is irritated by the Magingear's church design and that they are *done*. As Hugo is seething at the insults, Rook then added the last touch by calling him, *young miss*. Hearing the word, Hugo snapped and immediately slashed downwards at Rook with his left blade while Rook has already anticipated it and used his ace up his sleeve, the **Union Jack** skill.

As the attack sent up clouds of dust, a momentary pause falls in the battlefield. As the dusts that are clouding their vision cleared bit by bit, Hugo soon finds an unknown figure stands where Rook is supposed to be, a man with devilish wings on his back, devilish horns on his head, and draconic scales on his body. In his right hand, he held a silver lance which he used to block the Magingear's blade. Shocked, Hugo asks about the identity of the unknown figure. The man flashed a grin before responding with the name of his skill **Union Jack - Dragon Devil Man**. The man then slashes upwards and kicked the Magingear away. A moment later, Hugo noticed the man standing right beside his Magingear with his left hand on the robot’s chest armor piece and shot the Little Flare skill at point blank range. Hugo can't help but noticed that this is the same skill used by Rook's Embryo. The man then closed the distance between them and swung the silver lance upwards with the skill, Tri-Horn Upper. Hugo tried to deflect it with his left blade, but is unable to bear the attack and broke off at about the halfway point. He also noticed that this is the same skill used by Rook's Demi-Dragon monster. Evading the man's thrust, Hugo activated the Magingear's Smoke Dischargers and slashed at the man with his right blade. Seeing that his attack has missed, he wonders how and soon finds the man up in the air. He noticed that the man is in fact Rook combined with his embryo and monster. Wondering if the skill could be used without any preparation, Rook answer that he had, in fact, been preparing it and asks Hugo to think about the time when he started preparing it. As the two exchange attacks a few times, Rook answers it himself that he is actually the one who has Hugo in *check*. Hugo then recalls Rook's word *check* and Babi's word *done* and understands now that the insults are, in fact, to buy him time. Rook claims that he is now a chimera and since he has never killed one, La Porte de l’Enfer won't work on him. Rook then tells him that this is now merely a contest of strength and kicks the Magingear away. Hearing that, Hugo accepts this challenge. A momentary silence soon followed next as both of them wait for the right moment to attack. An explosion soon resounded from outside the gate, and they are both dashing towards each other as Rook uses **Tri-Horn Grand Dash** and Hugo uses **Purgatorial Slash**. As the two clashed, a loud sound echoed in the area. It results in Rook's attack piercing the Magingear's cockpit, almost hitting Hugo, while Hugo's attack caused Rook's fusion skill to be undone which makes them lie on the floor now. Pushing his body up, Rook wonders if they are lacking in power. Cocytus thinks it's very close to which Hugo agrees while closing his eyes. A moment later, he hears a glass break and finds a liquid metal press on the button to open the hatch. As the hatch opened, Rook thanks Liz and together with Babi uses their Temptation skills which shocked Hugo. Rook then states checkmate as the battle ends.

To be added...

## Characters

* Rook Holmes
* Hugo Lesseps
* Marilyn
* Babylon
* Liz
* Cocytus
* Audrey
* Ray Starling
* Theodore Lindos
* Liliana Grandria
* Mr. Franklin
* Behemoth
* Leviathan
* Fatoum
* Shu Starling
* Milianne Grandria
* Nemesis