Chapter 146: Using Roars and Destruction as a Beacon

No, you see, it wasn't like I was actually planning to defeat it. Of course, I had no intention of half-assing the combat maneuvers, but it was obviously a massive block of pure HP, so I was just planning to land a few hits and pull back.
But you know, these things... or rather, the enemies swimming through the air... are doing so thanks to Ctarrnid's illogical power enforcing the convoluted logic of "acting as if they are entering the water, despite being in an environment identical to the surface."

Which means that their animations are calculated using underwater physics.
And furthermore, my animations are calculated using surface physics.

Swinging that massive, flat body around underwater generates a tremendous amount of resistance. Even if it charges at 80 kilometers per hour, it takes a significant distance for that gargantuan frame to accelerate underwater. Meanwhile, I can react to it with the exact same mobility I'd have on land. And so, I couldn't help but think:

Wait, isn't this actually super easy?

Comparing it to Wethermon, Lycaon, and the Golden Crystal Scorpion was my mistake. It didn't have the sheer brutality of Wethermon relentlessly unleashing instant-death attacks; it didn't have the sheer malice of Lycaon launching transparent clones for surprise attacks; and it didn't have the sheer unreasonableness of the Golden Crystal Scorpion (Goldy Scorpion), which deflected all blades and even possessed regeneration on top of it. But above all else, the deciding factor was that I... not Sunraku, but Rakuro Hizutome... know "how to fillet a fish."

The universally correct strategy for dealing with giant monsters that have a positional advantage is to "wait for them to come to you." Because its movements were so dynamic, there were very few sudden surprise attacks. And since it couldn't exactly spam its breath attack, the vast majority of its offense relied on closing the distance and using its massive body for physical strikes. Plus, while its outer skin was flexible, it wasn't all that hard... Everything about it was just so manageable, which is why I tried a little too hard. I tried way too hard.

"The openings after its charges were incredibly generous, too..."

It had to deal with liquid resistance, while I only had to deal with air resistance. Above all, gravity was functioning normally for me, so I could run, brake instantly, and jump. Moving a massive body expends an enormous amount of energy. Because the game faithfully simulated that basic fact, it was incredibly easy to close the distance on the Giga-Oarfish when it left a massive opening and unleash attacks on its belly. For me—whose weapons don't lose durability on critical hits, meaning I can fight indefinitely without worrying about weapon degradation as long as my player skill doesn't falter—the difficulty of defeating it was inversely proportional to its massive size and strength, provided I had enough time.

"But because the difficulty felt like manual labor, the sense of accomplishment is..."

Well, even accounting for that, it was still a long, fierce battle. The attacks themselves were dynamic enough that a half-naked player like me would be blown to pieces in a single hit, so it wasn't without its dangerous moments. It's just... in the end, even the Giga-Oarfish couldn't escape the classic hunting game trope: "Super-massive monsters become a chore once you get used to them."

"Still... to think I could solo it... It's not that I was too strong, right...? Is it possible the Giga-Oarfish actually just had low HP?"

No, I have to admit that possibility is low. But there is one thing bothering me. Several times during the fight, even when I wasn't attacking, the Giga-Oarfish played a flinching animation. I'm pretty sure none of the weapons or items I have can deal delayed damage, and the Aspiring Blades of the Hero (Duxram) certainly don't have that kind of power. If that's the case, the most likely explanation is that it was suffering from poison... or some similar damage-over-time status effect before I arrived. And when I think about what it plowed through right before fighting me, the answer becomes obvious.

"That's dangerous... Are there rotten fish balls carrying poison strong enough to cause food poisoning? I really can't let my guard down."

Whether it's weak to poison in general, or if there's a fish-man carrying poison so potent it can inflict the status on a monster that massive... like a pufferfish or a scorpionfish fish-man, is something I'll need to verify. But it just proves that ignoring the fish-men is the correct answer. Thank you, Giga-Oarfish. Thanks to you, I've grown a little wiser.

The massive pile of dropped items right in front of me... Because it was a monster whose size might have been dozens of times that of the Goldy Scorpion, the volume of drops was absurd. It was literally a mountain.

"Uhe, uhehehehehehehehe......"

It felt less like an unexpected bonus and more like I struck a buried treasure hoard. Materials for weapons, armor, selling, or even eating—it's a veritable buffet. You really can't blame me for letting out a creepy laugh...

"...What's with that creepy laugh?"

"Uoshia!?"

Caught completely off guard by words radiating an aura of What's with this creep..., I jumped back and spun around. Standing there was Rust, looking at me with eyes that were a mix of exasperation and respect. Behind her, for some reason, wasn't Mold, but Ceecrue.

"O-oh, it's just you, Rust... Glad we managed to meet up."

"...Anyone would come looking if they heard a roar that loud. Though I never expected you to have actually killed a monster that massive."

Ah, yeah, that makes sense. If an Oarfish the size of a train is swimming through the air, anyone anywhere in this city would notice it, especially if it was going on a rampage. And the one who would be the first to realize what caused that "Anomaly" in this city would, of course, be Ceecrue, a fellow Vorpal Bunny and older brother to Emul, the root cause. He's not the kind of samurai rabbit who'd ignore Emul being in danger. Judging by his name, he's probably Vysache's third child in the A-to-Z sibling naming convention too.

"Sunraku-dono, is Emul safe?"

"Yeah, I picked her up while she was being chased by that Oarfish. I've left her at our temporary base for now."

"Is that so..."

A situation that forces you to summon a monster that massive is never a good one. Ceecrue finally let the tension bleed out of his body upon hearing from me that Emul was safe. Ah, the beauty of sibling love. It brings a tear to the eye... Now, back to item collection.

"That giant monster... did you beat it with the robot?"

"No, I can't use it right now for various reasons."

The reason being that the Non-Standard Ether Reactor—which is required to power the Tactical Machine Beasts, which in turn are required to operate the Special Reinforced Armor—is still charging. It's designed to passively absorb magical energy from the surroundings while sitting in my "Inventory" to charge, but even after charging for a full week, it's still only at a level where I might get a solid ten minutes of use out of it.
It's a piece of absurd, lost-technology equipment, and since there's apparently no upper limit to the charge, I could theoretically run it for an hour or two if I left it alone long enough. But realistically, it was probably designed as an equipment set meant to be used for about ten minutes once a week.

"I can show it to you, though, if that's all you want."

"I would very much like to see it...!"

And so, I summoned Suzaku without its battery. I could have brought out one of the other Machine Beasts, but since she's the one who built a mech named Crimson Twinewing in Nephilim Hollow, I figured Suzaku would be more up her alley.

"Truly... truly magnificent... It's so, so good... The coldness of the metal feels amazing... ShanFro is the best......"

"Well, games from the Nephilim Hollow generation tended to compromise a lot on stuff like that, after all..."

You won't easily find a game that recreates the fact that pulling a weed uproots soil clinging to the roots, and perfectly simulates the coldness of that soil. Especially since games released roughly a year before ShanFro still treated virtual reality as purely virtual. It's ShanFro that is abnormal, approaching reality on an almost disgusting level. It's beyond a simple technological breakthrough... It's like forcing a generation whose latest tech was pixel art to suddenly play a hyper-realistic polygon game. It feels like tech from a century in the future.

"So that Giga-Oarfish was called an Arctus Regalecus? That name is way too cool."

A lot of the scientific names for animals, bugs, and fish sound awesome when you look them up. Latin really carries this genre of monster and item names. German? German is a legend, so it's unfair to compare. Let's see, fins, scales, bones...

"Meat, huh... I've heard oarfish tastes pretty light, but this is ShanFro, so who knows..."

It'll probably taste like nothing or just be very faint. I've never even seen a real one in person, but as expected of his absurdly wide social circle, my dad either has or hasn't eaten oarfish before. He said it tasted "light"... Wait, if you're giving a review of the taste, you've definitely eaten it, Dad!
Leaving Rust—who had eventually started rubbing her cheek affectionately against Suzaku—to her own devices, I looked over the sector of Ruluiath that had been leveled into an empty lot during my fierce battle with the Giga-Oarfish, officially named Arctus Regalecus.

"Should I just be glad it was an aquatic monster...? If it had been a genuine flying dragon, this might have triggered some hellish, recurring raid event... Huh?"

The split second it takes for an eyelid to drop and rise during a blink. Because it's virtual reality, blinking isn't actually necessary, but human instinct does it reflexively and unconsciously anyway. Still, it's just a blink; my vision was obscured for less than a single second.

And yet—

"Hey, hey, you've gotta be kidding me..."

Witnessing a cityscape that had been completely restored to its original state in the span of a single blink, as if the destruction from moments ago had never happened, was enough to chip away at even my sanity. It's painfully obvious who did this.

A Monster (Ctarrnid) that casually pulls off something akin to a system reset... No, seriously, is this thing even beatable?