Chapter 102: That Impulse Is Hunger
The first thing I thought was: "Whoever designed this monster has a sense for design."
The next thing I thought was: "Whoever designed this monster has some impressive tastes."
The thing I thought after that was: "Whoever made this monster is rotten to the core."
And what I'm thinking right now...
Sunraku: "AAAAARGH! GOD DAMN IT! I'LL KILL YOU! I SWEAR I'LL FUCKING KILL YOUUUUU!"
Who exactly is this killing intent directed at? The golden scorpion in front of me? The programmer who made it? The game's management staff? The one thing I can say is this: it's been hours since I started fighting the Golden Scorpion. Bitterly regretting that I didn't drink an energy drink beforehand, I continue the battle.
If I had to describe the Golden Scorpion in a single phrase, "combat-specialized" would be spot on. The pincers meant for severing and grasping crystal have evolved in a more aggressive direction—clearly optimized for killing living creatures. At a glance, its pincers look thinner and more fragile than those of the normal Crystal Scorpions, but that's a huge mistake. If the normal species' pincers are iron lumps, then those are tempered steel. They receive blows with hardness and crash down with weight. It's like having a heavily-armored greatsword wielder attached to each pincer. The golden crystals growing from its entire body—I've learned after slashing at them a few times—seem somewhat softer than those of the normal species. That said, I'm well aware that even if titanium were swapped for iron, a half-baked attack wouldn't leave so much as a scratch.
What's more, it seems that in exchange for reduced hardness, its mobility has increased—its instantaneous burst of speed is in a different league from the normal species. Without the emergency evasion via Inventoria, I'd have died eight times over. And the most troublesome part is the tail—specifically, the stinger, which is thicker and more robust than the normal species'. Scorpions fundamentally administer venom through a suppository-like method of "sting and inject." But this Golden Scorpion, as if it's the most natural thing in the world, fires venom from the tip of its stinger. And it's dexterous enough to use three different types with care: single-shot, scatter-shot, and laser-type. Did this thing end up in the wrong game?
But the biggest, biggest, BIGGEST... yes, the primary reason I've been forced to fight this thing for hours...
Sunraku: "Regeneration at this level bracket... is just cheating...!"
Once I've dealt a certain amount of damage, the Golden Scorpion blatantly puts distance between us. Then, striking a pose as if spreading both arms toward the moon shining in the sky, it repairs every wound across its body before my eyes. When it pulled that after what felt like an hour had passed, my heart nearly cracked. But I kept my spirits strong, and I'm still fighting even now.
That said, I haven't been fighting an entirely disadvantageous battle this whole time. By piecing together information gleaned from the Crystal Scorpions and intel gained during the fight, I've been gradually forming a rough strategy chart.
First: compared to the normal species, its durability is lower. Though its flashy appearance tends to draw the eye, gaps in its crystal carapace are visible here and there compared to the normal species. If I can just slide a blade in at the right spot, dealing damage itself is possible.
Next: the troublesome long-range venom rounds. Honestly, the only one I need to watch out for is the scatter-shot venom. The single-shot type is relatively easy to track with the eyes, and as long as I'm careful about the roughly one-meter splash radius upon impact, dodging it is simple. The laser type is bonus time—its homing accuracy is lax, so it won't hit me if I'm running, and firing venom continuously seems to be no easy feat even for the Golden Scorpion, leaving it immobile for about five seconds. The one to watch is the scatter-shot type—with a wide impact zone and broad attack coverage, if I mess up my positioning, getting hit is unavoidable. What happens if I touch the venom? I don't even want to think about it, let alone test it.
And then there's that troublesome self-regeneration. But apparently, its gimmick lies in the "moon." Come to think of it, Setsuna of Bygone Days mentioned something about the moon's magical power being involved when Wethermon created the Inverted Garden. So, much like a solar panel, the Golden Scorpion likely restores its health by bathing in moonlight. Proof of this: when clouds pass over the moon, its self-regeneration is abruptly interrupted. Beyond that, if I deal a certain amount of damage, the regeneration is also interrupted. The problem is how to close the distance against a Golden Scorpion that rapidly retreats... but for this, there's probably no solution more sophisticated than a primitive one: namely, run and catch up.
Sunraku: "After that, it's a question of how to whittle down that stupidly massive HP pool... but this is where the fundamentals of hunting games come in."
Destroy the body parts that serve as the bases for its troublesome attacks, stripping away its options. Dodging the tail's spinning sweep attack—which comes at a terrifying speed—like jumping rope is quite difficult. But at least it's easier to avoid than having scatter-shot venom sprayed at me, and it conserves my uses of Inventoria.
Sunraku: "MP recovery potions remaining: six..."
Emergency evasions remaining: six. Inventoria is my trump card for critical moments, and I'm trying to use it as sparingly as possible. After all, my initial speculation—that entering the storage space might be treated as "fleeing"—remains unresolved. While they do spawn-camp me, from inside the storage space, I have no way of knowing whether the battle is still ongoing or whether the scorpions have been repositioned in a spawn-camping state after combat ended. Therefore, even when I do use Inventoria's escape, I keep my time in the storage space as short as possible. After fighting for hours, if the punchline turned out to be "I ran away," I wouldn't recover for a while. That said, the critical action of reloading my focus—frayed after a multi-hour battle—is necessary, so the number of remaining uses of magic-recovery Inventoria items is slowly but surely dwindling.
Sunraku: "Come at me, Golden Scorpion. You're not soft enough to let a single cheeky little human slip away, are you?"
At the far end of my gaze: the Golden Scorpion, one of my Marsh Daggers still lodged in its left eye. As if converting rage directly into action, it slams its forelimbs—which look less like pincers and more like shields or greatswords—against the ground. Marsh Dagger A was a throw I'd half-resigned to losing, but gouging out one eye was a huge win. If I can recover it safely, I'll strengthen it together with B.
With agility unimaginable from its massive frame, the Golden Scorpion closes in on me. I dash across the shattered crystal floor—like cobblestones of unevenly-sized stones—picking out crystals large enough to serve as footholds. The next instant: the Golden Scorpion forces its body into a half-spin like a drifting car, and its tail scythes through the space where I stood. By the time the tail attack is unleashed, I've already reversed direction—finding footing on the flat of its blade-pincer, which now faces me directly.
Sunraku: "First, I’m taking away your ranged attacks...!"
The paired-blade category is excellent in that it allows both gauge-building and durability-shaving simultaneously. Plus, they function perfectly fine on their own—another wonderful point. Every time I swing Togetsu [Waxing], my own health is shaved away with the sensation of a critical hit via [Waxing]'s effect. Every time I swing Togetsu [Waning], my health recovers with the sensation of a critical hit via [Waning]'s effect. It feels like I'm performing a balancing act on a scale. I should take a lesson from Scales of Price—senpai over there takes whatever you throw at it and always makes it a perfect 50:50.
Sunraku: "Uahahahaha! This is getting more and more fun!"
I spend the health I scraped together through [Waning]'s effect without reservation, activating Nitro Gain. Transient Lone Wolf, already used dozens of times, is reactivated. I fire off skills in succession, intent on unleashing everything except one. If the Empire Bee Twinblades' durability had held out, I'd be attacking the tail. But unfortunately, I burned through almost all of it in the first few dozen minutes, and to make matters worse, the corrosive poison was rendered moot by that damn self-regeneration.
Sunraku: "Then I'll just have to smash it by force!"
Using Sky Walker—the double-jump that has become the lynchpin of this fight—I force myself up onto the Golden Scorpion's back. Using the crystals growing from its back as footholds, I activate Seven-Fold Jump. With momentum compounded by the leap's acceleration, I drive Glowing Pierce into the base of the Golden Scorpion's stinger... Four hits. Not bad. Released from its charge's recovery frames, the Golden Scorpion's stinger targets me—but in a flash, I activate Fatal Blade Art: Water Mirror Moon. Against the stinger, now spun to face directly behind it, I unleash the skill evolved from Endless Chain Slash: Beast-Slaughtering Endless Chain.
Sunraku: "Damn, this is awkward to use...!"
The effect of dealing consecutive blows until stamina runs out remains unchanged. But in exchange for a dramatic DPS increase from each hit's boosted power, the animations have become bigger—and in a situation where even two frames feel precious, this skill is incredibly frustrating.
Sunraku: "Shit... [Transfer: Storage Space — Enter Travel]!"
Though I dealt damage, my stamina is spent. I evacuate to the storage space, recovering MP and stamina while quickly loosening my body, stiffened by tension. It's not my actual physical body, but mental tension directly affects my avatar's movements. Pencilgon is the type who creates openings by taunting her opponents mid-battle; both Oikatzo and I built up resistance to taunt skills by fighting her.
Sunraku: "Like hell I’ll let you retreat and heal!"
With a cheerful clattering gait, the Golden Scorpion tries to put distance between us and attempt self-regeneration. I roar and sprint at full speed. Circling around to its front, which is blatantly wide open, I swing my fist—Hand of Fortune—with all my might, slamming it into the pommel of the Marsh Dagger still embedded in its eye, driving the blade deeper. Forced inward by this lite version of a human-powered pile bunker, the Marsh Dagger groans as it attacks the Golden Scorpion from within. I leap back, putting distance between myself and the thrashing scorpion.
Sunraku: "It's about time... you got CUT OFF!"
The paired blades transform into a single sword. Togetsu [Dual Crescent Moon]'s edge, bearing the light of the crescent moon, is further imbued with the destruction attribute for a single strike via the skill Single Stroke Bisection. The flash of the blade is brought down in a high stance—timed perfectly with the wildly rampaging Golden Scorpion's tail as it sweeps through. The sensation of cutting through a hard substance—like running a kitchen knife through meat frozen in a freezer—brings me the certainty of success.
Sunraku: "ALL RIIIIIIGHT!!"
I swing through with [Dual Crescent Moon]. The stingerless tail passes right beside my body. After a few frames' delay, the severed golden stinger, obeying gravity, plunges into the ground a short distance behind me.
Sunraku: "Haaah— hahaha, HAHAHA!"
In this moment—this moment alone—every chart and strategy is blasted from my mind. The top priority is recovering that stinger! As long as I can secure the stinger, I don't care if I die right now! Perhaps triggered by the previous incident of the RNG Goddess's betrayal, I fall into a frenzy and charge toward the stinger at a full sprint like a Black sprinter.
Sunraku: "GOT IT!!"
With the finest efficiency I've ever displayed, I store the Golden Scorpion's stinger into Inventoria. After basking in the afterglow of fulfillment for about two seconds, I turn back toward the Golden Scorpion.
Sunraku: "Hah. Rage mode, is it? Finally feels like time's moving forward."
As if the loss of its stinger has driven it absolutely furious, the golden crystals glow crimson as it incessantly pounds the ground with its blade-pincers. Each time those blade-pincers hammer the crystal-tatami floor, a small explosion erupts. The immense magical energy within the golden crystals rampages so violently it seems on the verge of emitting sparks. My odds of winning... well, maybe about twenty percent, if I'm lucky. If this were ten minutes into the fight, I might have been able to put up more of a fight. But now that I've secured the stinger, I can feel the tension I needed to maintain throughout my body has unraveled. Once it's come to this, there's no helping it. By the time I can reignite that tension, the Golden Scorpion will probably have killed me.
Sunraku: "That said... if there's a next time, for that—no, I take that back."
The moon begins to set. The sky whitens. From beyond the horizon, the sun reveals the first fragments of its light. I'd really like to head home soon. But I've got no intention of dying to respawn, either. So what do I do?
Sunraku: "Ssssss... WAKE UP, YOU SLEEPING BASTARDS!!"
Wake up, Crystal Scorpions!