Episode 12

Defense and Bonds is the final episode of the first season of the BOFURI anime series. of the BOFURI anime series.

Summary
Brought down to minimal health, Maple uses a risky counter move to deal Payne's damage back at him. Payne manages to withstand the attack, forcing Maple to bring out her Atrocity form to defeat him and the rest of Holy Sword. Sally decide that since their trump cards with Maple have all been played, and they've learned just how dangerous both Flame Emperors and Holy Sword are, the best move to stay in the top ten is to eliminate all the weaker guilds; preventing others from racking up points and shrinking the number of guilds down to ten. As Maple doesn't want to waste her use of Atrocity, they decided to use it and split up to take out the guilds. Seeing Flame Emperor in trouble, Maple laser breaths the enemeis around them away; leaving Mii horrified and confused. Sally and Kanade clone Atrocity Maple into seven and sicc her on the other guilds. Holy Sword asre confused, but deciede to folow the idea and wipe out the other guilds; Flame Emperor does the same.

By the end of the third day, only 8 guilds are left. The admins end the event early as a result. They reflect on the effect Maple has on the other players, deciding to leave her alone; since she's drawing in more new players to level grind (and make them a profit for all the copies of New Word Online sold). They ponder what silly thing Maple is up to, finding that she had combined Machine God and Wooly to become a ball for the twins to bounce.

Maple Tree holds a party for winning third place, and has invited the top members of Flame Emperor and Holy Sword to join them. Some did out of fear Maple would retaliate if they denied her invitation.

Mii and Payne reflect on almost beating Maple, promising to gets stronger to beat her. However, Chrome points out the she'll get another crazyy power up even if they do. Pouting, Maple tells them that she's just playing the game normally like them. Everyone, INCLUDING Maple Tree collectively shout in exhasperation "YEAH RIGHT!" Maple then blushes, unable to say anything.

Characters

 * Maple
 * Sally
 * Chrome
 * Kasumi
 * Kanade
 * Iz
 * Mai
 * Yui
 * Syrup
 * Oboro
 * Payne
 * Frederica
 * Dred
 * Drag
 * Mii
 * Marx
 * Misery
 * Shin

Trivia & Notes

 * Maple getting shadow cloned while in Atrocity to create seven monsters is THE craziest thing she's ever done.
 * The resulting battle looked like something you'd see during an apocalypse; something Holy Swords comment. "The more I look at this, the more my brain melts."
 * The event is pretty much over before the time limit is up. Maple Tree, Congregation of the Holy Swords, and Kingdom of the Flame Emperor all decide to just go all out and take out the weaker guilds; seeing no point in further playing out the idea of stealing each other's orbs.
 * So Maple invitee the top members of each guild to join Maple Tree for a party after the event.
 * Maple's vitality is now in quintuple digits, explaining why the suicide explosion attack last episode did not work against her; her defense was just too high.
 * The developers finally give up on stopping Maple from getting stronger; nerfing her abilities again will not do anything but temporarily hinder Maple until she finds ANOTHER crazy power up.
 * They also realize that her achievements out of sheer stupidity are drawing in more players, thus making them more profit as well; since they all want to fight the seemingly invincible Maple.
 * The ending title card shows Maple's shield splitting into two; signifying the next season.