In "Guardian Troopers", the discoverer of a new item has the right to name it. If the discoverer does not name it within 24 hours, all owners of that item can name it, with the fastest person winning.
The Links Exclusive Sword was such a nameable item. Meaning I was the first one nationwide to obtain it. I was likely the first player to clear Stage 4 with Links.
Since naming can be done on the official website, I decided to think it over overnight.
Being an unused weapon, it was hard to visualize, so I should have at least tested it out on Stage 1. Its appearance looks more like an art nouveau oversized letter opener than a sword. Its ridiculous size definitely makes it a two-handed sword.
For a powerful sword name, Murasame or Kotetsu come to mind, but the design is far from a Japanese blade.
For a powerful Western sword, Excalibur is the first that comes to mind. Or rather, it's the only one I know. I could probably find tons searching online, but that somehow feels like giving up.
Let's just go with Excalibur.
I enter it with a pounding heart.
"That name is already in use"? Really?
Then how about Exccaliburr?
"That name is already in use."
I guess everyone thinks alike. I'm getting over Excalibur now. On a whim I try Xcalibur and it registers. Somehow it got an extra helping of chuunibyou edginess.
After wrapping up unpaid overtime perfunctorily, I head to the arcade excitedly. Finally, it's time to test out Xcalibur. As an adult getting fired up over a game item is questionable, but I can't help feeling excited.
Xcalibur's durability is on a completely different level from the Buster Sword, and it even has self-repair ability. The convenient ability to automatically recover durability over real time is almost standard for prize items.
Maximum durability only decreases when repair fails, so self-repairing weapons should never be repaired.
If durability hits 0 it breaks, so when it gets low just leave it until it self-repairs. It takes time, but avoids risking reduced max durability, which is fortunate.
I'll need to strategically use it alongside the store-bought Buster Swords that can instantly repair durability.
On Stage 1, I was astounded by Xcalibur's overwhelmingly high attack power. Xcalibur is an actual sword, but can also deploy a beam blade around itself. It consumes a lot of energy, but extends the reach and greatly increases power.
Using just the physical blade, its sharpness may not be that different from the Buster Sword. But its sheer weight gives it far more blunt destructive power, letting it smash enemies like the spider mech with a single hit.
Stage 2 was also a breeze, and I was surprised at how easily it could deflect enemy beams. Well, with the beam blade at maximum extension, its area is even larger than the Scutum shield, letting it block most attacks just by being deployed.
It's not without drawbacks. Swinging the heavy blade can easily throw off balance and risks falling over. Especially during boost movement, having to reduce speed hurts clear times if going for score points, so the Buster Sword may be better up to Stage 2.
On Stage 3, I was able to pulverize the crab mecha that gave me so much trouble before with a single strike. This is almost too easy - relying on it too much might dull my skills.
I hesitated briefly, but since the durability had only dropped by 1, I decided to take on Stage 4 with Xcalibur as well.
I charged the multi-legged battleship, deflecting all its missiles. Trying to evade seemed more likely to cause me to fall over.
When I got within wire anchor range, I realized an issue. With both hands occupied, I couldn't use the wire anchor.
I could probably wield Xcalibur one-handed briefly, but failure would be disastrous, so I decided not to use the wire anchor.
With the beam blade extended to the maximum, I used Xcalibur as a shield to force my way under the battleship to the safe zone.
The battleship's armor was meaningless against Xcalibur's overpowered attacks. I pierced straight through to the reactor and hastily retreated. The reactor exploded shortly after, showering debris everywhere. Being caught in the explosion seems far more dangerous than taking fire.
In close combat, getting caught in the explosion of a defeated enemy is the scariest thing. No matter how powerful my offense, I can't do anything about that. Rather, destroying the reactor in one strike left me almost no time to escape.
Since Stage 5 was uncharted territory, I decided to take the Buster Sword, just in case I lost Xcalibur.
The battlefield was a dried salt lake. For a moment I wondered if I had accidentally selected player match.
The enemy was only one unit, but it was a humanoid combat robot. If I recall, its name was Sagittarius - one of the store's somewhat pricey machines.
A top-heavy, seemingly sluggish design with six weapon bays on each shoulder, foot, and side of the waist.
Its high firepower design concept was obvious. If a player used it, ammo costs would be astronomical, but the CPU likely doesn't care.
How am I supposed to fight something like that on a stage with zero cover? Maybe I could win with Xcalibur as a shield, but the Buster Sword is no good, right?
I could retreat to a player match with the eject button, but I might as well gather intel since I'm here.
Right after the start, the enemy unleashed a massive beam blast. I thought I had evaded it, but partway through it swept the beam horizontally. It was like being slashed by an ultra-long beam sword - that's cheating! The damage wasn't too bad, but taking several more would be troublesome.
It followed up with a triple beam gun burst. I could walk to evade that, or so I thought until poorly timed guided missiles came after. Forced to boost dash, it set up another massive beam at my landing point. I instinctively jumped over it only for it to sweep the beam upwards. The AI is impressive, reading my moves in advance.
At my landing point, a hail of rocket fire rained down as beam guns and missiles relentlessly flew at me.
I managed to change trajectory with the wire anchor and escape. It probably couldn't predict that tricky move - the wire anchor is surprisingly handy.
The weakness of solid ammunition is running out of ammo. Once it was out of rockets and missiles, its only weapons left were the massive beam and beam guns.
Beam weapons don't run out of ammo, but consume energy. Continuous fire will eventually outpace the reactor's energy output.
Though left battered and bruised, I finally had it on the ropes. Out of energy, it could barely move satisfactorily.
Certain of a comeback victory, I went in for the kill, only for my robot's footing to suddenly explode from a land mine. Just how many weapons does this thing have?
What finally delivered the killing blow was the solid ammunition cannons mounted on its shoulders.