That Time I Got Sent to Another World Where All of the Girls Are Super Hot and Super Into Me Because I Am Super Strong and Have Very Powerful Abilities that God Gave to Me Because Me and Them Were Friends When I Was in Grade School and God Is Actually A Loli Who is Also in Love with Me Because I Am A Super Epic Person Who Will Defeat The Demon Lord Who Threatens The Entire World but the Demon Lord Actually is in Love With Me and the Demon Lord is a Super Hot Busty Babe Who is Actually Just Trying to Get My Attention Because I Have a Cellphone That Can Contact the Internet and Can Get Anything Shipped To Me Within 2 Days But I Barely Need It Because I Am Actually the Most Strongest Guy Alive Because I Have Super Strong Powers Like Being Able to Lift Your Mom Really Easily Which is Nearly Impossible Because Your Mom is So Fat But is Actually A Secret Anime Busty Babe Who is Really into Me Because I Am Super Cool and Better Than Your Dad Because He is Super Lame Which I Am Not:

Rebel 1.44 - That time I was reincarnated into another world and met my match

Bonbon ducked under a wild swing of Juan's skillet, then let out a gasp, quickly grabbing and lifting the hem of her apron to cover her face.

"[Unbreakable Apron]!" she activated, just in time to block several quick shanks of Juan's knife. The blade was unable to pierce the apron, simply bouncing off Bonbon's chest in a way that made me envious (of the knife, not her chest).

Juan flipped the knife around in his hand and swiped for the arm holding the apron, but Bonbon shifted back, flipping her apron towards him. The cloth wrapped around his arm and she jerked it away like a matador, pulling him off balance and directly into the path of a swing from her cast iron skillet.

The [Elite Four] swore, uttering out a fuckword as he tilted his head to the side. The skillet clipped him along the cheek, but he brushed past it, dropping low until he was horizontal and level with his bound arm. Now tilted sideways, he kicked with his feet and spun, continuing Bonbon's motion and pulling her off balance as well. He continued to spin freely in midair, bringing his high leg down to sweep her legs out from underneath her while wrenching his hand free of the cape. Bonbon floated in midair for a split second (TL Note: A split second is ~2.5 seconds in Slowmo) before falling to the ground.

She landed with a chest-jiggling thud and a grunt of pain, hesitating for only a moment before gasping and quickly rolling out of the way of Juan's pan, which he brought down in a ground-cracking combo finisher. She scurried away, settling into a low crouch, and whipping around to face him, weapons at the ready.

The [Elite Four] stood and brushed at the scrape on his cheek, letting out a short, amused laugh. "You're pretty good, Missy..." he complimented her. "Why're you hanging out with this loser, anyways?"

I frowned. This guy... his self-esteem issues aside, did he really think that he and Bonbon were just 'hanging out' right now? He wasn't even taking this fight seriously! If he was just going to job to us after bragging, he probably would have lost by now! The fact that he was still in the fight meant that Bonbon was seriously in trouble...

"Because," Bonbon huffed, catching her breath while she talked as a free action. "Flavos commands it." She nodded over in my direction for some reason, her braid flipping behind her with the motion. "He knows recipes that are like nothing I've never seen before. I won't get another chance like this."

Juan blinked, then gave her a big grin, clearly seeing some kind of opening in her defense. He tapped his chest with the point of his knife, which was an extremely ill-advised thing to do in a fight, before winking at Bonbon and making a kind of gross kissing face, which was an extremely ill-advised thing to do in a flirt.

"Y'know, he's not the only one with unique recipes. I know a thing or two about cooking, too," he bragged.

"No, you don't," Taro corrected him. Such a gainsay was a huge violation of the bro code, but I still gave it a nod of approval, because it was directly benefiting me.

Juan flushed, turning to flash an annoyed look at his cooler comrade. "Uh, yeah, I do. The hell are you talking about, man? I just made dinner last night."

Taro chuckled in a low, badass way. "Heating up convenience store curry is not cooking."

"Yeah? Well, what about last week?"

Taro shuddered, grimacing. "I hope you're not referring to your 'egg salad' ."

Juan turned his head and spat. "Gonna get all [Food Critic Supremacy] on me while I'm trying to hit on a hot elf chick, man? Egg salad is cooking."

"Sure," Taro replied gravely. "But most people take the eggshells off. And cook the eggs."

"Um..." Bonbon interrupted, horrified by the described food atrocity. "C-can we maybe get back to the fight?"

"Tch," Juan tched again, turning back to face Bonbon, a disappointed look on his face. "Fine. If you ain't gonna give me your number, I guess I'll just kick your ass."

They clashed once more, and once again, it seemed like Bonbon was on the back foot. It wasn't much, but Juan seemed stronger than her, faster than her. She still had bigger breasts, and he didn't have an apron to render [Unbreakable], but in all other respects, he met or exceeded her strength. What was going on?

Bonbon spun away from another attack and threw her knife up, quickly tossing her skillet to her offhand before snatching the knife out of the air and lunging for Juan.

"[Double Chop]!" She shouted, activating her skill. Her arm began to leave a dark afterimage as she lunged. Juan stepped back, grinning. He lifted his own blade, and shouted:

"[Adaptive Skill: Double Chop+1]!" He moved his arm, and to my shocked eyes, not one, but two black afterimages appeared. They met at once, chopping wildly, their bodies perfectly still while their arms became a cloud of blurred images. With one final swing, Juan sent Bonbon spiraling backwards through the air, her clothes falling to shreds. She landed hard on the ground and rolled to a stop in front of a dragon statue.

My heart caught in my chest, but with my [Binocular Vision], [Telescopic Vision], [Clairvoyance], [Periscope Vision], and [Supervision], I could see that her underclothes and apron were still unharmed. He'd spared her life. I let out a sigh of relief. Bonbon groaned, trying to rise to her feet before collapsing flat again, her knife tumbling out of her hand.

"H...how?" she asked. "H-Hiro-san. Y-you said I was stronger than him..."

"My bad," I replied, scratching the back of my head and sticking out my tongue in what I hoped was a cute way.

Juan chuckled, stretching his arms as his weapons merged back into his black sword. He gave me a triumphant sneer, his eyes shining with shit-eating glee. "That's one down. Feeling scared yet? I bet you want to know how my power works, huh?"

I nodded. More than anything.

"Heh... I guess I might as well tell you before we fight." He unshouldered his blade, stabbing the point into the head of one of the dead guards to keep it steady. "You're gonna die anyways, and it's not like giving you time to think about how my ability works ahead of time will let you identify its weaknesses and figure out a way to beat it or anything like that.

I nodded, again.

"My [Cheat Skill]," he began, spreading his arms as if he were about to T-pose to assert dominance. He stopped about halfway to the T-pose and I let out a sigh of relief. We were safe. "Is called..."

He smiled, pausing for dramatic effect.

"[PLUS ONE]!"

At that, his eyes flashed again, and an invisible force rippled through the air, emanating from him and stirring up dust as it passed me by. At first nothing happened, but then a sudden strange sensation came over me, like an itching of the skin.

From nowhere, a thin throw blanket of mist suddenly appeared, surrounding me. In a panic, I learned and activated [Mist Resistance - Lvl 1] (Using my [Instantly Learn Skill] Skill, naturally). I gave him a cocky smile, but soon uncocked my lips as I realized that the mist was undeterred by my skill. The mist coalesced onto me, and I felt a sensation almost like being appraised: the iconic taste of black licorice suddenly entering my mouth.

I smacked my lips, grimacing, as the mist took on a strange glow, like the light inside a fridge. It shot away from me, drifting over to envelop Juan. At once, Juan's appearance shifted, his hair turning gold and growing out. His eyes turned blue, and his muscles grinched out, growing three sizes at once. He mired in his newfound gainz, nodding appreciatively before turning to grin a smile at me.

"Basically, it works like this: " he continued, flexing casually. He lowered his eyes and arched one eyebrow in what could only be a taunt.

"I'm better than you."

I blinked at him. That... that was impossible, right? Him, better than me? There's no way he knew how cool, handsome, and popular I was, so I really doubted that could possibly be the case. Still... maybe it'd be better if I appraised him again. I did so, using my appraisal skill, [Appraisal (but secretly infinite knowledge)].

Juan Pluswan

Active Title: [Elite Four]

Faction: Demon Lord's Army

Level: 18

EXP: 980/3000

Skill Points: 25

Gold Stars: 16

Gacha Coins: 300

HP: 5640/5640

MP: 300/300

SP: 6400/6400

FP: 5/6

Attributes [Hiro ♥ Protagonist]:

Stranth: 60001

Dexterity: 60001

Swoleness: 60001

Magic: 60001

Karma: 546

Mojo:100000

Luck: -99998

Skills:

[Adaptive Skill - Supremacy] [Adaptive Resistance - Invulnerability] [Adaptive Talent - Supremacy] [Adaptive Weapon - Supremacy] [Foresight] [Divine Blessing] [Envy] [Icon of Envy]

Titles:

[Copycat] [Oneupsman] [Visibly Superior] [Great Warrior] [Sword Saint] [Demon Lord's Soldier] [Counter Master] [Bully] [Human Disaster] [Monster Disaster] [Demi-human Disaster] [Elf Slaughterer] [Demon Killer] [Icon of Envy] [Diamond Rank Adventurer] [Hero] [Fallen Hero] [Artes Master] [Underdog]

Adaptive Artes:

[Plus One] [Plus Ultra] [Plus Max] [Plus Infinite]

I gulped. This wasn't good. His stats were so high! Higher than mine, even. This didn't make any sense... Had they changed again? I felt like they were smaller last time, but I didn't have a strong enough sense of object permanence to know if that was truly the case. Considering his design had changed, he had most likely powered up somehow.

I glanced at his new Super form. It was intimidating, but I took a bit of comfort knowing that he didn't have four or more stronger versions of it in his back pocket. This was as strong as he was going to get. Still... his stats were higher than mine, so that was strong enough!

I knew that there was only one way we'd get out of this alive. I turned to look at Bonbon's collapsed form. Wanda had walked over and was kneeling next to her, casting [Healing - Lvl 1] repeatedly on the fallen busty anime elf.

"Wanda," I called out, causing the doggirl in question to tilt her head backwards, arching her back until she was looking at me, upside down. I pointed to Juan.

"You're up next. You're stronger than Bonbon, but weaker than I am, so you fight him next."

My plan was foolproof. She'd fight him and wear him down, but probably lose. Then, I'd be able to fight him one on one and, with the hopes of my teammates pinned on me, triumph using the power of friendship. Wanda dipped one of her shoulders, so that she was looking at Juan, then tilted back to me.

"No way, wan."

...

Huh? She said no? My mind reeled like she'd slapped me with her tail, leaving me stunned, vaguely offended, but also not too upset because she was cute. W-was that legal? For a [Slave] to tell me no, I mean? Isn't that kind of what they were there for, to listen to you?

"Wanda," I cautioned her. "I can't have you disobeying me like this. What would the other [Slaves] think if they could see you?"

"Sic semper tyrannis, wan?"

I frowned. I didn't speak French, but I felt like she was being sassy to me. I placed my hands on my hips, showing her that I meant business. "Young lady, you go fight that man to the death right now."

She turned to face me normally, pressing her lips into a thin, unimpressed line. "Wan. I'm older than you, Master."

I lifted my hands from my hips then placed them back down, reloading my stern expression.

"Old lady," I corrected myself, which somehow made her even more irritated, "you go fight that man to the death right now."

"Fuck off, wan!" she replied happily, casting another healing spell.

This damn brat! (TL Note: 'damn brat' means kusogaki) I couldn't believe she was refusing such a simple request. I'd have to discipline her! I raised my hand and stepped towards her to give her a punitive headpat, and she suddenly began crying!

"Waah(n)!" she cried, letting out a heart-wrenching monotone wail and rubbing at her eyes. "Wah! Master is a bad Master, wan! Master is mean!"

H-huh? Bad master? Mean? Wan? Every word of hers shot me straight through the heart. I fell to my knees. I... I was a bad master?! Was... was I really? I looked over to Juan for confirmation, but he was simply shaking his head in disbelief, staring at me like I was the scum of the soup.

"N-no, I'm sorry!" I pleaded, pressing my hands towards her in a plaintive gesture, begging her to calm down. "D-don't call the cops. I'm a good master!"

"Wan..." Wanda sniffed, looking up at me with puppydog(girl) eyes. "So... you'll fight that guy to the death instead, wan?"

I nodded, thumping my chest. "Absolutely! I'll show you what a good Master I am."

"Wan!" She exclaimed, leaning over and hugging me about the waist, her tail wagging. "Master is a good Master!"

"Y-yeah," I coughed, freezing up at the sudden physical contact. "Y-you too."

Wanda immediately turned back to what she'd been doing before, healing Bonbon. My heart soared. She had such faith in me that she didn't even have to watch the fight to know that I would win. I couldn't let her down! I walked back to the center of the room and entered the conveniently-marked 'battle zone.' Juan was waiting patiently for me, hacking pointlessly at the dead guards to kill time. He turned to face me as I entered the arena.

I unzipped my katana, performing that flourish that Juan had used earlier, and only clipping myself on the back of the head twice. I couldn't lose this fight. There was too much at stake. I'd show Wanda that I could be a good owner. I'd show Bonbon that I could be a good sensei. Most importantly of all, I'd show Juan that I was cooler, more handsome, and stronger than he was, despite what he said, and despite the clear numerical advantage presented by our stats.

"Alright," I said, activating several dozen skills at once, "Let's boogie."