Chapter 42: 300-Limit Rhapsody, The One Who Pursues the Odds
The Aberrant Wood-Mage is, to put it mildly, bad news. Just how bad? So bad that I honestly believe I’d have a better chance of winning if I were fighting Lycagon the Nightslayer again.
I dodge the tree roots turned spears that launch from the ground with virtually zero motion (and of course they’re homing, as if it’s their birthright), then slip past a jet-black chain fired from the Aberrant Wood-Mage’s main body that would clearly inflict some debuff if it touched me. Amidst an unpleasant shrieking like a creaking noise—so awful that a cicada buzzing in my ear would be better for my mental health—I just run and run, clinging to survival, sometimes tumbling, until those five minutes are up.
Damn it. If I don’t force my nearly-crashed consciousness back and think while I move, I’m dead. First, as a basic premise, none of my attacks work against that thing. It’s not like Lycagon, where the specs are so far apart I can’t even scratch it. No, it’s a matter of compatibility: that mummy-wannabe is the ultimate physical-job killer.
Sunraku: “Complete immunity to physical attacks...!?”
In the first few seconds, there was still a chance to attack, so I didn’t hold back and landed my hits. But what came back was the futile sensation of punching a rubber-wrapped block of iron. The standard tactic for these types is usually to take them down with other kinds of attacks—it’s practically a given for enemy mobs. But I haven’t learned a single spell, so I can’t deal even a millimeter of damage to this guy. That being the case, Vash’s clear condition—survive for five minutes—seemed simple at a glance. But that sweet thought was blasted away within the first twenty seconds.
Sunraku: “That was... close...!”
A few seconds after the ground unnaturally blackens, sludge erupts. Damn, yet another new attack. Loser’s... too long. I’ll call it “Mummy Palm.” Anyway, this thing simply has too many moves. Would you understand how troublesome it is if I said that every single action is a first-timer trap? It hasn’t repeated a single action since this started. It keeps throwing different moves at me. The only saving grace is that the Mummy Palm’s main body never moves from the center of the arena, and between all the attacks it unleashes, there definitely exists a recast window that links one motion to the next.
As long as that spell-like attack doesn’t catch me, I ought to manage five minutes...
(But clearly, if I just keep running, it’s game over.)
At the very least, during the first twenty seconds, it was just lobbing fireballs, and only a single earthen spear shot up from the ground. Now, two minutes in, five of them appear at once, they home, and the recast time is clearly shorter.
Damn, my head hurts... I want something sweet... Gather up the brain cells that still work and think. Even if it’s just intel for the next attempt... no.
Sunraku: “A game that you can clear by assuming you’ll give up is...!”
...worse than even kusoge!! Except for event battles that happen with absolutely no foreshadowing! Come to think of it, I might have been a little too soft. The result was that pathetic parasite play against Mud Digger. While I talked a big game about efficiency, in reality I feel like I was half-assing it somewhere, thinking, “Eh, dying’s not a big deal.” Right. Playing a kusoge you’ve already beaten on easy mode is one thing, but half-assing a game you haven’t cleared yet is pure nonsense. I’m no different from those enemy characters who blatantly underestimate the protagonist player and then say stuff like, “I-Impossible! Me, the great one! Gwaaah!” before bursting into polygons. What a revelation—has too much kusoge turned my own mentality into a shit-character’s? Indeed, excessive intake of Kusogenium carries risks and must be neutralized with Kamigenium............... Right.
Sunraku: “I’m gonna clear this fast... and sleep!”
I’m just tired, dammit.
So then, the question is how to buy time. A personal hard counter with complete physical immunity, attack density that’s steadily increasing, and eventually magic that will likely fill the entire area like a hailstorm. Area-wide magic is an extremely convenient factor for creating obviously strong characters, and of course I have some know-how for dealing with such attacks, but... dealing with it without magic, with a light warrior build, is a bit much. Whoa, dangerous.
Sunraku: “Lightning, roughly half a second after it appears...”
Even if it’s an attack I’ve never seen before, it won’t hurt to memorize it. Besides, these location-targeted, delayed attacks that aren’t homing are a chance to recover stamina. Next is sludge... There it is!
Sunraku: “Running out of ideas?!”
Remember it—its attack patterns! First fireballs, then earthen spears, then geyser sludge, then lightning strikes, then chains of magical power, then miasma smoke... and then physical attacks at close range! I see. If I think about it calmly, the only thing that changes is the scale; the basic attack attributes and shapes are the same... Damn, I just assumed they were entirely different types of attacks! Normally I’d have caught on much faster. I need caffeine.
Sunraku: “Its attacks grow denser and stronger with time, and it completely negates physical attacks... No.”
It’s true that this Mummy Palm is tuned specifically to kill physical specialists. But would a physical specialist just be completely useless... could that even be possible? Would the game really balance a monster on the assumption that every physical-class player at the intended level had also learned magic? That seems unlikely. Even if a pure physical fighter couldn’t win outright, surely there would be some way for them to fight back.
Sunraku: “Then... that... means...”
I see the thread of the strategy.