CH 139

[Breaking Through the Cathedral]

“Gyokkeee!!”

“Holy water throw!”

“Gyokee!?”

“Ethel, one blessing please!”

I throw holy water without hesitation on a ‘Headbutt Carrier’—a three-headed, steel-helmeted, goose-shaped monster—that appeared in the central nave.

At the sight of the monster writhing in pain while smoke raises from its body, I order Ethel, who is behind me, to give me support.

“‘Sacred Magic: Blessing’! Wait, this guy is an undead type!?”

“I mean, there’s no way a proper living being can swing their head around!”

“It can do that!?”

“Well, those aren’t real heads, though!”

As we’re talking, the ‘Headbutt Carrier’ flails around its elongated heads that have been mangled from the damage caused by the holy water as it retreats.

After which, a big hole opens in its body that’s covered with feather.

It’s the mouth of the Headbutt Carrier. The goose body is its real head, whereas the necks along with the heads attached to them are actually tentacles of sorts.

“Gyokgee!”

“Oh? For you to open your mouth, is it time to end this?”

The Headbutt Carrier vomit out a helmeted goose head—a projectile which explodes and scatters splinters upon hit—stored in its body from the back of its throat to its mouth.

It then sticks out the tip of the head out of its mouth, purses it, and takes a shooting posture. However, it needs to gather energy before it can shoot.

On the other hand, I, having anticipated that action (motion), have already finished my preparation and am ready to release my move anytime.

“‘Fake・Sword Saint’s Slash’!”

“Gyo, gyagigubi!?”

Enhanced physical abilities thanks to ‘Sacred Magic: Blessing’, and double damage against undead thanks to the sacred attribute that comes with it.

Boosted by them, the deadly silver flash run through the body of the Headbutt Carrier.

It seems that even the goose heads (explosive bullets) that’re still left in its body get cut thanks to the long reach of my nodachi, as they burst inside of it, setting off a chain reaction of explosions.

Following the muffled explosion sounds, pieces of metal shoot out from the inside of the Headbutt Carrier one after another, white smoke raises from the holes they left. Then the monster flops onto the ground powerlessly.

Headbutt Carrier.

It mimics the appearance of a goose, and is a monster that fights by swinging goose head-shaped explosive bullets while concealing the fact that the goose body is actually its main body.

This guy explodes an explosive bullet following its attack, which makes all its normal attacks AoE attacks, and you can’t attack its real head if you haven’t eliminated all the goose heads it swings around—those are its characteristics.

Well, as long you figure out that it’s an undead type monster, it’s a much easier enemy to deal with than Haneru Mushrooms.

That’s why it’s considered on the weaker side among the sealed monsters, but I rather like it as it doesn’t take time nor effort to kill it.

“9000 experience points, huh. Not bad.”

I didn’t expect that the explosive bullets in its body would trigger a series of explosions and cause it to die in an instant.

But nothing’s wrong with defeating a monster quickly. In fact, I’m rather pleased by it.

“Oh, right. Should give it a try.”

I grab a goose head—the only one that hasn’t blown up—and throw it into a group of ‘Planarian Slime’ some distance ahead.

It appears that it still carries the property of being an AoE attack, and it succeeds in erasing a group of slime with its explosion.

The multiplication of Planarian Slime will not end unless the main body is defeated, but that’s not my concern at the moment.

Getting out of the cathedral is my first priority, because then, we’ll be able to get rid of those monsters that have been gathered up at the entrance.

“Alright! Next!”

However, I don’t immediately head to the entrance.

After securing a retreat route, I turn around and start running toward the monster that Ayako is holding down.

“——”

“Wogooo!”

At the end of my line of sight, Ayako is facing an ogre type monster that gives off silver luster as if its whole body is coated with metal.

From the clothes its wearing, the club it holds in its hand, to even the inside of its mouth that’s visible when it screams are also silver-colored, making it seems like a figure before painting.

Facing such a monster, Ayako slips under the club it swings while thrusting out her trident at its silver body.

However, the attack scatters circular sparks upon hit and gets bounced back. Still, she doesn’t retreat and continues her vain offensive.

“~~~~”

The exchange of offense and defense repeats for another three times until I finally arrive. Ayako frowns like she can’t understand why her attack gets repelled every time.

I’d told her the characteristics of the monster when I was asking her to hold it down, but seeing the situation, she seemed unable to deal any meaningful damage to it, which is kinda expected.

“Sorry for the wait, I’ll take over from here.”

“!”

I swap places with Ayako as soon as I arrive, and this time I swing down my nodachi right in front of the monster.

All you need to do to defeat this monster is your number of hits.

I send out a barrage of violent slashes without regard for the power behind it nor a proper form, aiming to diss out as many blows as I can.

Sparks scatters every time my slash hit the monster, but I don’t pay it any mind, which makes the monster focuses its attention to me.

“Wogooo!!”

“You’re as troublesome as before, huh.”

Downward swing, thrust, mow down.

I stick close to its front while foreseeing all its attack from its movements.

As I’m waiting for Ethel and Ayako to finish their preparation at the back, I get 20 or so blows in, but its huge body is completely uninjured.

That’s because this monster named ‘Oniharukon’ has a shitty characteristic, that is ‘negating all damage except from fatal attack (critical) which occurs at a low probability’.

On top of that, it also has the characteristic of ‘slightly increasing attack power and agility every 4 turns (40 seconds)’.

As a result, no matter how much buffs stacked on you, as long as your attacks are not critical, you won’t deal any damage to it, and if the battle gets drawn-out, you’ll be unable to land an attack due to its increased agility, reaching a deadlock. It truly is a troublesome monster.

Even if you try to defeat it with magic, magic attacks don’t crit, and it’s resistant to instant death magic, too. As such, the only way to defeat it is to keep hitting it while hoping for a critical hit to come up.

However, drag it out for too long, and the monster will become unbeatable thanks to the buffs it gets from its characteristics—truly a monster worthy of being sealed in the forbidden book section. The only silver lining is that the developers made the decision not to put it out as a common enemy.

I must say, the guy who came up with the design of Oniharukon should never be involved in the creation of enemies again.

“Tōru, we’re ready!”

“Righto~!”

Following the shout, I jump away from the spot. At the same time, I throw Shishū skill ‘Spider Wind’ and stop the Oniharukon’s movement for a moment.

In my place, the six chains released by Ayako attack it.

The magical chains enhanced by Ethel’s ‘Sacred Magic: Grace’ twine themselves around the Oniharukon.

“Wogo, goooa!!”

Hands, feet, body, and head. The chains restrain the Oniharukon.

In addition, I release Shishū skill ‘Spider Web’ on it, further strengthening the binding force.

“The daemon is under the statue of Anubis, and as for the other monsters… nowhere in sight for the time being. Alright, Ethel, let’s go.”

“Hey, are you sure about this? What if it suddenly starts moving?”

“It’ll be fine. Ayako will keep it restrained. That’s why I told you to buff her, to begin with.”

“…………”

“Look, she gives the thumbs up, too. I’m telling you, it’ll be fine.”

“If it starts moving, you’ve gotta help me first, okay? ‘Sacred Magic: Miracle’.”

While receiving Ethel’s buff that increase my critical rate, I stand in front of the Oniharukon, who has stopped moving, together with her.

Oniharukon negate all damage except for fatal attacks (critical).

And even with the buff from the Sacred Magic, crits won’t occur that easily.

Then what are you supposed to do?

The answer is obvious—you just have to keep hitting until a crit comes out.

“Ahhhh geeez, gimme a breaaaaak!!”

“Think of it as a good opportunity to one-sidedly beat a not resisting opponent! It’s the best violent experience, Ethel!!”

“I’m not interested in this kind of experience!!”

I use all of my limbs, whereas Ethel keeps on hitting with the cross in her hands.

While praying for a crit to come up, I relentlessly attack the monster at its vital points. Mainly its solar plexus, crotch, crotch, and well, crotch.

“Goa! Goaa, gogii…!”

Several crits occur as the number of attacks rises.

Perhaps because the place it being hit at, Oniharukon begins to tear up.

Well, this guy gave me a lot of trouble when I was playing through the original game, and not to mention, the experience point it gave was merely equal to 3 or less Red Goblins.

Furthermore, maybe because this scum negates the damage, even if you keep on hitting it, the experience points you gain for your skill doesn’t exceed the single digit.

Unsuitable as a punching bag, gives less experience points than Red Goblins.

So yeah, I hold quite a bit of grudge against it. As such, I’ve got no reason to show it mercy.

“So just die and become my experience points! And once you reach the afterworld, don’t forget to tell your creator that players hate luck-based battles the most!”

“Go, gogyi!? Goaaa!!”

“You seem to have hate it a lot, don’t you?”

Compared to the amount of time it takes to defeat it, the amount of experience points it gives is so little, so I’d like it if you cut me some slack. This is the only way for me to get a little motivated fighting against it.

After about 20 minutes of continuous beating.

I finally succeeded in taking down the Oniharukon with my limbs bruised here and there, and am gasping for breaths alongside Ethel.

“Haa… Haa… Hey, Tōru.”

“Haa… Haa. What’s up?”

“I don’t wanna fight a monster like this ever again.”

“I know, right?”

As I’m agreeing to Ethel’s impressions on behalf of all players, Ayako, who’ve been watching our struggle, gives us a pat on our shoulders.

By overcoming the battle against the troublesome monsters together, a trace of bond may have begun to form among us.

However, our journey isn’t even halfway done yet.

After taking a short rest, we go to the monster pinned under the slashed Anubis statue.

The name of the monster is ‘Book of Daemon’.

It’s a black goat-headed monster with a demonic outward appearance, and whose main body is the open grimoire its upper half coming out from.

The guy is squashed by Anubis statue, and it’s squirming in vain try to escape.

I walk around the monster before stabbing my nodachi into its main body, that is the grimoire, from behind it while saying, “Eiya.”

“And fix it like this… Alright, it’s done.”

“How dare you, human! What are you doing! Release me!”

“Nope.”

I fix the grimoire to my nodachi with a thread so that I can swing the demon upper half freely.

“Okay, I’m gonna clear the way of slimes with this guy. Follow my lead.”

“Uo!? Uooo!? Wai-, stahp! Buh!?”

“No way.”

And so, I, having exited the cathedral, begin to proceed to the great library while swinging around the daemon’s body to clear out the Planarian Slimes that filled the road.

“More ogre-ish than an ogre, more demonic than a demon…”

Hmm, someone is saying something behind me, but I can’t hear it clearly!

Alright, next stop, the great library!