Chapter 209: Sharing the Same Heaven - Part 15

The opening blow acting as the vanguard was loosed from Rust's greatbow. The arrow—fired at the cost of the greatbow's durability—tore straight through the sky and pierced into Ctarrnid... or rather, it didn't.

"...That was actually a critical hit, too."

"I guess you really can't pierce through abs that absurdly macho."

Ah, so it's the type of muscular armor that you can't pierce without firepower on the level of the trump cards Rei-shi or I possess. We need to stick to the fundamentals of boss-fighting here.

"I want to say aim for the face... but aim for the legs first! Trip it up, and then focus all your attacks on the face! For now, let's grasp what kind of attacks it uses!"

Ctarrnid—with its bizarre appearance that could only be described as an Octopus Gorilla Bodhisattva—likely possesses a truly physical body for the first time across all its phases. In other words, this isn't a tentacle-smacking, chalice-smacking, or trash-mob-smacking minigame; it's a genuine, head-on brawl. The poetry did basically say, "Come at me, bro."

"Alright, let's shatter that jaw of yours!"

It wasn't time to use it yet, but to observe how it fights in close quarters, I readied my Brilliant Scorpion Gauntlets (Gilta Brille) and closed the distance. Bring it on, Ctarrnid! Let's have a fistfight!

Vvvvvvvvoooooooooooo!!

"Ogugh... nice, that's a good shout!"

Activating Momentary Sight. A thunderous punch—so brutal I couldn't believe it came from a boss that had been throwing gimmick after gimmick at us until just moments ago—slowed down to a crawl, limited only to my own perception. If I only wanted to dodge, I wouldn't have needed to go out of my way to use this skill, but I used it because I had an ulterior motive.

Rei-shi had a parrying skill that deflected attacks by clashing her own attack against them... I wanted to figure out a way to learn that. I know Level 99 Exceed is the cap, but if I remember correctly, the level cap was supposedly unlocked. If that's true, then mimicking movements to learn skills wouldn't be a waste of time, even for me, whose growth is currently plateaued.

The slow-motion world regained its speed, as if being pulled back into the natural laws of providence. But I was already completely accustomed to both the timing and how to move my body within the rapidly accelerating perception.
Twisting my body and shifting to the side with a step, I activated Airgetlám. Clad in a silver light effect, my right fist slammed into Ctarrnid's fist from the side. The corner of my mouth twitched at the sensation of my wrist nearly being blown off, but the solid feedback of a direct hit transmitted through my fist.

"So you've probably got the basic physical attacks covered. What other tricks are you hiding?"

You're just going to shoot some kind of magic out of that ring growing from your back and the jewels dangling from it anyway, right? Hurry up and spit it out so I can counter it.
Perhaps my provocation rode on my gaze; as it pulled back the fist I had deflected into empty air, Ctarrnid roared. In response, the ring growing from its back... Looking at it up close, I realized this is probably a ring made from the ribs of a massive monster. If so, what kind of monster had ribs that size...? No, talking about a dead monster won't accomplish anything.

The jewels attached to the ring on its back began to glow and detached themselves. They then moved directly above the heads of everyone present and stopped.

"What is this, this looks really bad..."

"No, wait, there's way too little room for counterplay here. Since it's a gimmick, it won't be an instant-kill... I hope!"

"I really wanted you to declare that confidently desu waaa!"

『───Analysis.』

Analysis? The pronunciation of the word sounded like Analyze... but wait, why is Ctarrnid...
The light passed over me—no, rings of light passed down over the bodies of every single one of us, exactly as if our data were being scanned.
Akitsu Akane and Ceecrue were flailing around trying to escape the rings of light, but I'm pretty sure struggling is useless since it's a guaranteed-hit gimmick attack.

"Now then... what's coming...?"

I don't know what it analyzed from me, but the jewel that turned blue after performing the so-called "Analysis" returned to Ctarrnid. It seems it did something similar to the others as well, because a total of eight jewels in various colors—red, purple, and so on—were set back into the ring on Ctarrnid's back.
Does the number correspond to the members registered in the party? Or is eight the hard cap? Since it's a Unique Monster—a one-of-a-kind boss—the former is entirely possible, but since it's an octopus, I can't rule out the latter either.

『───Reflexus.』

"Hey wait, isn't that cheating!?"

The blue jewel lit up. There were other blue-ish jewels, but the ultramarine one was the one that analyzed something directly above my head. Unlike the chalices, the blue light wasn't bright enough to completely blind our vision. However, there was one other difference.
As time passed, the emitted blue light gained directionality, converging onto a single point... And the moment all the light pouring onto Ctarrnid's back was absorbed into its massive body, a change occurred.

"Isn't that..."

"...The stance Sunraku always takes when using twin swords...?"

Blue light overflowed from both of Ctarrnid's hands. It materialized into two twin swords—sized like greatswords to us, but perfectly scaled for Ctarrnid to swing with one hand. And Ctarrnid's stance while equipped with those twin swords was incredibly familiar.
It was my stance—one I had casually referenced from the twin-sword users I'd seen in historical dramas, Hollywood movies, and, of course, video games—with the left sword held forward and the right sword pointing down.

"So that means..."

"It analyzed our playstyles!?"

Akitsu Akane shouted what was almost certainly the correct answer at practically the exact same time Ctarrnid raised its twin swords and lunged at us.

"Sunraku-san!"

"Uwah, kuh... whoooa!?"

The right sword swung down, and when I dodged it, the left sword thrust straight toward me. The Imaginative Form of Ctarrnid is only about 5 meters—no, maybe 4 meters tall. It's quite small compared to its previous forms, but perhaps because of its humanoid shape, its physical laws are much closer to a human's.
I barely managed to evade it, but using the momentum of pulling its arm back, it dexterously caught the right sword—which it had tossed into the air—with a reverse grip mid-air, chaining it into another strike that I desperately managed to avoid by rolling away.

"Sunraku!"

"I'll swap in...!"

"I'm counting on you...!"

Araba and Rei-shi stepped forward to cover for me since my balance was broken. Glancing around, I saw Mold buffing Rust, while Akitsu Akane and Ceecrue were running in a wide arc around the Colosseum, trying to get behind Ctarrnid.
A light blue jewel shone on Ctarrnid's back. The twin swords unraveled like threads and vanished, and materializing in Ctarrnid's hands instead was a massive, single-edged Odachi that looked like a greatsword even scaled to Ctarrnid's massive build.

"I-Is that me!?"

"There's no way... I can block that!?"

Right where Araba and Rei-shi's necks had been just moments before they frantically ducked, the Odachi cleaved through empty air. Ctarrnid attempted to slash them both with the returning blade, but its movement was interrupted by the explosion of a magic arrow piercing into its head.

"It flinched!?"

"...No, the aggro just shifted."

The Odachi vanished. Displaying an abnormal level of aggressiveness that completely abandoned any dignity it had as a gimmick-focused boss during phases one through four, Ctarrnid readied a bow and took aim squarely at Rust. The intensely drawn bowstring silently conveyed the immense firepower of the impending shot; if it hit, instant death was unavoidable.

"Taaaaah!"

However, perhaps using a skill or magic to avoid drawing aggro, Akitsu Akane—having successfully slipped behind it without being noticed even once—delivered a flying kick with bizarrely high momentum straight into the back of Ctarrnid's knee.
The ancestral heirloom: the Knee-Buckler. It's a forbidden ultimate technique that forces even the most macho of men to lose their balance without question. It's also a demonic ultimate technique that makes the person on the receiving end incredibly irritated.

"Veh."

"...!"

Bzaaaan!! The arrow was released with a deafening roar completely unbefitting of a bow and arrow, but thanks to Akitsu Akane's fine play, the lethal arrow didn't hit anyone. Skimming right over my head and just past Rust's face, the arrow slammed into the Colosseum's spectator seats, triggering a massive explosion purely from the kinetic impact.

"Ah, so it reflects the main weapons and playstyles of everyone here onto itself..."

If that's the case, this is extremely bad.
If that's true, Ctarrnid currently possesses the equivalent of eight different forms. Furthermore, my playstyle and Akitsu Akane's playstyle—which only work because we are "human-sized" and can pull off reckless movements—are still manageable. But if Ctarrnid were to apply the physical specs of a "Heavy Armor Knight" type like Rei-shi, which is actually suited for a giant...

Red light materialized into the shape of a greatsword. One thing I at least understand now is that Ctarrnid isn't simply copying our currently equipped gear and playstyle, but rather the playstyle that the players and NPCs have used the longest, or are the most proficient at.

"Tch... Everyone, prioritize evasion! If it comes to this, we just have to hold out until it switches to a type that's easy to kill!"

"Specifically, when would that be!"

"The playstyle of a Pure Mage (Mold) whose physical skills are absolute garbage!"

"You're completely right, but that still sounds mean!"

For now, just survive against Ctarrnid, who has transformed into an absolute monster of STR and VIT!!

Author's Afterword
It's a system where the more unique playstyles a party has, the harder the fight becomes. However, since it only copies movements to a certain extent, it's actually not that troublesome... But if it rips off an STR-heavy playstyle that perfectly synergizes with Gorilla Ctarrnid, it becomes extremely dangerous.
If it's a party filled with uniform playstyles like an army, it wouldn't be nearly as threatening.

By the way, the maximum number of jewels is eight, and if the party has more than eight members, it will periodically update the analyzed information.