Simply put, Counter is a Pokémon move that reflects any physical attack back at the attacker—only doubled.
If you can anticipate your opponent's strike and use Counter at just the right moment, they're basically finished. If not dead outright, then crippled beyond repair.
The instant Leon's sword cut into the slime, he suffered the same fate as a certain modern "strongest sorcerer"—
Split clean in half at the waist!
"Guhh!"
Leon's eyes bulged as blood gushed from the wound, spraying across the ground in an arc. He collapsed amid the horrified cries of his companions.
In those fleeting moments before darkness claimed him, his final sight was of his lower body still standing where he had been.
What the hell just happened!?
When consciousness returned, the first thing he saw was Drew's thick, bushy beard looming overhead. The dwarf's massive, calloused hand was pressed against his waist, fumbling back and forth.
"You're finally awake." Drew exhaled heavily, wiping sweat from his brow. "Patchin' you up wasn't easy. Good thing the priest inscribed plenty of healing scrolls. With those and a bit of elbow grease, I managed to keep you breathing."
Despite his rugged looks, Drew the dwarf wasn't just a brawler—he was a mage with a proper degree from the Mage's Association. His specialty lay in support magic: healing, haste, buffs, barriers. And if push came to shove, he could swing that massive axe on his back and fight in the thick of battle himself.
Leon, drained and pale, covered his face with one hand and muttered:
"That blue monster… what the hell was that?"
"I heard it's a newly discovered creature, boss." Maru crouched nearby, ears twitching, concern in her tone. "Plenty of folks have reported running into it. Word is, once it steps on your shadow, you're stuck. The guild's drowning in requests for live capture missions."
"I know that…"
Leon's teeth audibly ground together as his voice rose.
"What I want to know is—why could it reflect my attack!?"
His hands shook with fury. "It looked so damn stupid, and yet it used a magic that strong? Why!?"
…He was clearly mistaking Pokémon moves for magic.
"Calm Mind."
Seeing Leon spiraling toward a breakdown, Drew quickly cast a spell.
A wave of green light washed over him. His ragged breathing slowed, his gaze steadied. Like a monk in sudden enlightenment, clarity returned to his eyes.
"Sorry… I lost my temper." Leon's voice steadied as he slowly sat up. Pain throbbed in his waist, but under the soothing magic, even that dulled to a faint ache.
"Boss, here." Terl caught his arm, helping him upright.
Because of Wobbuffet's sudden appearance, Leon had only managed to cut down half the treants. After he'd collapsed, the rest of the party had fought tooth and nail to clear the remainder.
Now, after a brief rest, they had no choice but to move on—the noise had already drawn more creatures their way.
Leon may have been caught off guard by Wobbuffet, but that was from lack of intel. As a seasoned adventurer, his skill was unquestionable. Before long, he was back in form, leading the raid party through the encirclement.
Against them, the mid-level monsters weren't much more than fodder.
Skeletons leaping down with overhead chops, hordes of zombie knights—they might have seemed dangerous the first time, but once their attack patterns were learned, they were no longer a threat.
The only thing that unsettled them was—
They began seeing the same giant rats from Blighttown.
Only these had changed. Their skin was now sickly green, boils replaced with swelling spores, and instead of maggots, parasitic plants writhed across their bodies.
A damn reskin!?
When Terl's hammer crushed a cluster of them, spores burst in a foul cloud. The stench alone was nauseating, but inhaling even a little triggered vivid hallucinations.
Not lethal, but exhausting on the mind. And the more their mental strain increased, the more stray Mana leaked out.
Worse still—the monkeys were back.
The same ones that threw dung at intruders. Only now their arsenal had been upgraded.
No longer clumps of feces—they hurled entire chamber pots. Getting hit hurt more, was more humiliating, and now even inflicted poison.
Drew kept a grim expression as he maintained a barrier wide enough to protect the group. But the cost in mana was steep.
Even so, not a single one of them was willing to drop the shield. Being smeared in shit was a line no adventurer would cross—not elite raiders, not rookies like Stella, no one.
On this matter, there was absolute consensus.
The lack of a ranged attacker became glaring. Normally Bedan's air cannons could've cleaned out the monkeys in minutes, but since his disappearance, the group had no real counter.
So they resorted to hurling rocks picked from the ground up into the trees.
Sure, they had scrolls that could have blasted the pests away, but no one wanted to waste them on such annoyances.
"I swear, I'm gonna rush up there and smash them myself…" Terl's veins bulged as his grip tightened around his hammer.
"Don't be reckless." Maru flicked her tail, unimpressed. "If you get plastered with that stuff, every laundromat in town will blacklist you."
"But we can't just sit here! They're gathering more and more!"
"No…"
Leon's voice cut through, low and sharp.
"They're not gathering—they're herding us."
"Huh?" Maru's ears perked. "Herding?"
"I couldn't see past all the shit flying everywhere…" Terl muttered gloomily.
"Drew," Leon said, eyes narrowing, "can you keep the barrier up and prep a wide-area spell at the same time?"
"I'll try!" Drew grunted. "But it'll take time. Shove a mana potion in my mouth—I don't have a hand free."
As Leon fed him the potion, he explained:
"Look closely. The forest may look endless, but the paths are shrinking. These twisted trees are closing in like walls. The monkeys are baiting us into a bottleneck—for slaughter."
"Uh… boss, phrasing that way doesn't help."
"Then we'll flip the script—wipe them out in one strike!"
As expected of a veteran adventurer, Leon's deduction was dead on.
Minutes later, the harassment suddenly stopped.
"Eeeek! Eeeek! Eeeek!"
Shrill cries echoed from every direction, crawling under their skin. Pairs of glowing eyes opened in the dark, countless and unblinking.
The trees shifted and bent until they formed an airtight circle, sealing them in a natural arena. Oddly, the space inside wasn't cramped at all—it spread wide, as though built for spectacle.
Several wooden posts jutted from the ground at random intervals, their purpose unclear.
"Why aren't they coming down?" Leon muttered, scanning the treetops. He felt a prickling unease, as though he'd missed something vital.
"Eeeek! Eeeek! Eeeek!"
The cries climbed higher in pitch. The ground trembled beneath their feet, as though heralding the arrival of something massive.
"Everyone—battle stations."
Leon drew his longsword, eyes sharp as a blade, fixed on the canopy above.
And then he saw it.
Dangling lazily from the branches was a hulking white shape, a pair of massive blades gleaming faintly in the dark.
Leon's eyes narrowed.
Was that… a white-furred ape?
[Guardian Ape (Sekiro)]
[Mana per Unit: 80]
[HP: E+ | Strength: D | Intelligence: E+ | Endurance: E+ | Speed: D+]
[Overall Combat Power: D-]