Chapter 86: Ah, Magic Jobs; Ah, Paper Armor
Sunraku: "Bilac, something's coming."
Bilac: "I can see that. Just gotta tell ya this: right now, that thing can cut down even a death god... but ya only got eight swings, tops. Push it past that and it shatters. I can fix it, but then it'll need sharpenin' again. Keep that in mind."
While sending a warning Bilac's way, I quickly checked the Dullahan General's Decapitator I'd just received. The stats didn't seem to have changed, but the moment I actually held it, the difference was unmistakable.
Sunraku: "It's lighter? And the blade... it's got one hell of a sharp edge now."
Bilac: "No forge, no anvil—so it's rough work, but I sharpened the hell out of it. Downside is it's thin enough to break any second, but the power and edge? Guaranteed."
Right—Bilac's magic list did have Stack Grind on it. I don't know the specifics, but the Dullahan General's Decapitator, forcibly ground down as it was, had shed the blood-rust caked on from years of abuse and regained its steel color, even if the process had worn its body dangerously thin.
Sunraku: "So I've gotta finish this in eight hits or less... feels like a challenge quest."
Eight hits... No way this boss has that little HP. The question is how much damage I can pack into my current hand, and how to calculate that damage. I kept my guard up while spinning my thoughts, consolidating the intel and constraints to work out the conditions for victory.
Sunraku: "Guess I'll trust that we can win in eight!"
Emul: "Yes...wa!"
Where my gaze landed, flames had kindled on the staff gripped by the Humming Lich. But this wasn't a simple blaze—from each petal of those grotesque lower jaws, dark, blood-like flames were shaping a fiery skull with a missing upper jaw.
Staff skull (groaning): "Gugi... ga... gigigigi..."
Staff skull (cackling): "Kukekekekekekeh! Kekekah! Kahkah!"
Staff skull (screaming): "EEEEEEEEE! GYEEEEEEEEEEE!!"
Staff skull (lamenting): "Gegagaga! Gagaguh, gagagaga!"
Staff skull (howling): "GUGOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"
Staff skull (singing): "AH— GA——RAAAAAH——!"
A groaning skull, a sneering skull, a screaming skull, a lamenting skull, a howling skull, and a singing skull... I see. So that's why it's called the Humming Lich. It isn't just the main body that sings—it's a septet, the six skulls bound to the staff singing alongside the main body.
Emul: "Eep... they've multiplied...wa?!"
Sunraku: "...No. That might actually work in our favor."
The flames became smoke, and the smoke became miasma, splitting six ways. What emerged were six copies nearly identical to the Humming Lich—except these carried weapons instead of staves, and their skulls had flames of different colors forming everything above the lower jaw. Still, clone attacks like this generally fall into three patterns.
Pattern One: clones that vanish after a single hit. Usually, the real challenge is finding the real body, so these clones often lack any feature that clearly distinguishes them from the original. Since these clones are already obviously different from the main body, this pattern doesn't apply.
Pattern Two: clones that vanish in one hit but have decent offensive power. These are less clones and more like stationary turrets, specialized purely in harassment. In time-attack scenarios, ignoring them and focusing on the boss is usually optimal... I'm getting off track. Either way, this pattern doesn't apply here, for a certain reason.
Pattern Three: true clone attacks where each copy is a fully independent enemy. And with this type, there's a not-insignificant chance that...
Sunraku: "...They share an HP pool with the main body... I want to believe that, anyway...!"
In other words, if these clones were created by the Humming Lich expending its own life force, then there's a chance—if the mechanic works such that destroying a clone damages the main body.
Sunraku: "Phew... About eight minutes have passed, I think...?"
I've got eight attacks left, and I need to land every single one at max power. A lot of my current skills have conditional activation requirements, so I'll investigate everything I can before meeting those conditions.
Sunraku: "Testing with everything at once... Emul! Bilac! Stick close!"
Emul: "Hai na!"
Bilac: "Got it!"
Back when I first started this game, I'd dumped a lot of stats, but with my current build, carrying one rabbit and the weight of a kindergartener isn't much of a strain... though Bilac, please put the hammer away—it's heavy.
Five clones closing in fast, plus one providing support fire from the rear along with the main body. Not a great situation... but not a bad one either!
Sunraku: "Staff, sword, spear, bow, axe, dual blades... a shield?!"
I checked each weapon as the clones and main body bore down, but one of them was carrying something I couldn't quite identify. A shield? Too small for that. Even as a buckler, the way it was being held seemed off.
Humming Lich clone (unidentified): "GUGOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
Sunraku: "Whoa?!"
The moment that "small shield"—which, no matter how you looked at it, could only be a dragon's head—let out a roar, flames spewed from that dragon's maw like a flamethrower. I instinctively dodged with Drift Step, putting some distance between us. Two things I noticed right away: first, a clone with its weapon ready was lying in wait right where I'd dodged to. Annoyingly clever—it seemed I was being treated like a hunted rabbit being driven into a corner. And second, Drift Step had far more versatility than I'd given it credit for.
Sunraku: "Uahahaha! It's like my feet turned into tires!"
A descending sword, a thrusting spear—I slipped past them all with movements that human legs should never have been able to make, using friction and inertia... yes, literally drifting. At this point it's less Drift Step and more Drift Slip, but I like it.
Emul: "M-My head's spinning...wa!?"
Bilac: "If yer gonna spin us around, warn us first!"
Sunraku: "Sorry, sorry... I'm gonna spin you even more."
The clones’ AI wasn’t stupid, but it wasn’t exceptionally brilliant—or viciously cunning—either. The clones followed my retreat with obedient, straightforward movements. It had shaken me a little when I was cornered, but if I'm the one dictating the tempo, I won't fall for the same trap twice.
Sunraku: "That half-baked deflection shooting isn't gonna cut it!"
Arrows and a sphere of miasma flew from the distance. Using Ricochet Step—still only Lv.1, so it hasn't reached its full potential—I reversed from retreat to advance, slipping through the gaps between the clones. In an instant, our positions and the clones' positions swapped, and the ranged attacks slammed straight into the clones.
Sunraku: "...Did you see that?"
Bilac: "I definitely just saw..."
Emul: "It staggered...wa!"
Confirmed: the clones and the main body share an HP pool. And if that one attack was enough to trigger stagger, the HP can't be all that high, can it? Well, that makes sense. In my case, the "Curse" is the only reason this is just a simple fight against a mage; normally you'd be fighting through a hell of debuffs and curses. But the situation just flipped in our favor: seven enemies, three allies, eight attacks left, preparations... okay. I can see the path to victory.
Sunraku: "Emul, Bilac. Quick strategy rundown."
Bilac: "Right now?! In this mess?!"
Emul: "Hai na! What do we do...wa?"
Behold: the difference between a rabbit who's used to this and one who isn't. After all, Emul's been through mid-battle strategy meetings, fleeing, leaping, rolling, falling—she's been dealing with my improvised tactical planning from day one. I'm going to need you to get used to it, Bilac.
Sunraku: "...So that's the plan. Emul and I will handle the clones; Bilac, you hold position near the main body and wait. It's an area boss even if it's a magic job, so we'll have to count on you for the finishing blow."
I could have Bilac repair the Dullahan General's Decapitator after I use it up and keep fighting that way, but I went to the trouble of dragging Bilac—a behind-the-scenes NPC—into the spotlight. It'd be a waste not to let her fight. Besides, I've outleveled this area's recommended range by a wide margin now.
Sunraku: "In that case, might as well wrap this up fast."
I've got a clear objective now, and this place is nothing more than a transit point—a gateway. Wasting time dithering around here isn't great, and while I don't particularly like relying on high-level NPCs, rejecting it outright for that reason is a separate problem.
Bilac: "Still... to think I'd have to do something that breaks a weapon..."
Sunraku: "You've got it wrong, Bilac."
Bilac: "Hm?"
Sunraku: "You swing a weapon to win. If you break it and still don't win, that's when you've disrespected the weapon."
Bilac's eyes went wide as if something had clicked. Sorry, Bilac—that line's from another game. It's not originally mine. For the record, the character who said it fought with absolute, wholehearted devotion. Thanks to the AI's complete inflexibility, he'd open every single fight—no matter the enemy—by blowing his own ultimate move, which destroyed his equipment as a trade-off. He was so insanely loyal to his own catchphrase that the most cost-effective optimal strategy was just handing him a tree branch. How does that even make sense?
Sunraku: "Anyway... from here on out, we're running nonstop!"
Emul: "Hai na!"
Bilac detached from my back and, gripping her bottle of holy water, circled wide toward the main body. Emul clung to my head and fired off a Magic Edge to keep aggro off Bilac.
Sunraku: "Ten minutes in... time to stack on the buffs like every game ever!"
Emul: "Buff 'em up!"
Overheat: a skill that activates after ten minutes of combat. For five full minutes, all stats get a bonus—an incredible skill, but once those five minutes end, every stat gets cut in half. It's the definition of a short-decisive-battle skill, like forcing your engine into overdrive. Then Nitro Gain, with its terrifyingly short one-second recast time. Its effect: burn twenty percent of your HP to boost STR and AGI. You could call it the self-damage version of Accel. But its true value is in damage control. And on top of that, Climax Boost triggers off HP loss—both a buff and a way to manage my HP. Nitro Gain, you're a lifesaver.
Sunraku: "Transient Lone Wolf's a little harder to use now, though."
Compared to Hunger Wolf, its effect is stronger and its duration is longer, but the activation condition got saddled with a troublesome addition: "must be the sole target of enemy aggro." That limits when I can use it. I'd like to evolve this skill as soon as possible, but... no, that's not what matters right now.
Sunraku: "Emul, we're taking those five out one by one... I'll bounce 'em. Don't need power—just rapid fire."
Emul: "Hai na!"
I shifted to the offensive, and my first target was that flamethrower bastard. I adjusted my positioning, circling around so that the flamethrower clone ended up at the very back of the pack, forcing the clones to chase me.
Emul: "Mmm... Magic Edge!"
Sunraku: "Hup!"
I timed my move with the magic blade and activated Six-Fold Jump. Not quite matching the speed of a bullet, but using the magic blade—normally too fast to catch by running—as a shield, I closed in on the approaching clones myself.
Sunraku: "Two steps to close... here!"
The skill's effective step count is six. Two steps to close the gap, then four steps—sideways, straight, straight, reverse—four commands to get behind the flamethrower clone that had been chasing me from the rear.
Sunraku: "That head's gotta be hot. Let me take it off and cool you down."
I held back on attack skills. Gripping the Decapitator with both hands, I swung it in a horizontal arc. The blade wielded by that headless, clumsy Dullahan—which had kept on cutting necks without distinction between living and dead—could reach even the source of the miasma that had drowned this entire canyon. The revived sharpness of the blade, now imbued with the obsession of the Dullahan General, struck the cervical spine, shearing through dense bone and severing the flame-spewing lower jaw from its vertebrae.
Sunraku: "Buffs stacked, critical hit, weak-point bonus—one-shot confirmed...! Emul, next: anything except the axe!"
Emul: "Understood...wa!"
Four clones left, seven attacks remaining. With the flamethrower clone gone, the remaining four turned around—and a fresh blade of magic energy was fired at them. While they were busy dealing with it, I slipped through the gap and targeted the axe-wielding clone. It noticed my approach and swung its axe down at me. I activated Setsuna's Parting.
This skill originally branched off from a parry skill, but the Wethermon battle seems to have triggered it to evolve in a strange direction. It's probably still categorized as a parry skill, but rather than deflecting attacks...
Sunraku: "'Strike second, land first, and the later move becomes the first'—all handled by the system for me, huh..."
The instant it activates, the attack I launch hits before the opponent's attack, inflicting a momentary stagger. Setsuna's Parting—now transformed into an aggressive skill that seizes the initiative from a defensive stance—severed the axe-wielding clone's neck, and it scattered into miasma. Three clones left on the field, six attacks remaining!