Chapter 316: The Moving Masterpiece "The Pitiful Elephant" (Excerpt from the Ending Only)

The Cloudive Elephant. From a player's perspective, it's blatantly obvious, but it possesses an active camouflage trait that allows it to hide from other monsters by cloaking itself in clouds. This means that, to some extent, it possesses the ability to control the clouds themselves.

With a roaring gougou, its long trunk began to suck up the clouds spread across the ground, and though limited to this specific area, the cloud level—not water level—began to drop.
I see. The reason those bees didn't run away and acted so cocky was exactly because they had this thing as a trump card...!

"Emul!"

"Gotcha!"

"Rejoice, it's time to farm some Vorpal Souls...!"

"Fufufu, I'll show you the power of the evolved me, desu waー!"

Placing Emul—who was hissing like a cat with a fushaaa!—back onto my head, I locked my gaze onto the Cloudive Elephant, which was chugging clouds through its trunk.

"Emul, let's observe for now. Hit that elephant with a Magic Edge supplemented by Add Spell. I'm gonna knock down those cocky bees... Make sure you don't get thrown off!!"

"Consider it done, desu waー!"

Almost simultaneously with Emul's response, the Cloudive Elephant forcefully scattered a smokescreen of Clouds from its trunk.
For such a massive body, it uses surprisingly technical attacks. Moreover, there's no way a boss would trip over its own subordinate's smokescreen... There!

"Uoh, it actually hit."

A Domineion Hornet that had used the Cloudive Elephant's smokescreen to launch a surprise attack collided with a rather casually swung Duxram and was swatted away. Tch, I guess I couldn't get a critical hit off that.

"It's probably best to get out of this cloud cover for now...!"

Because, for a little while now, there's been this dosun dosun heavy pressure—ah, crap, that was close!!

"Emul!"

"【Magic Edge】!!"

A few moments after I leapt away, a massive weight crushed the spot where I had just been standing. However, unfortunately for it, what was waiting there wasn't me, but a blade of magic power unleashed by Emul.
The Magic Edge scored a direct hit on its thick skin, which clearly boasted high VIT, but as expected, it didn't seem to deal a significantly effective blow in a single strike.

"That being said, with her base firepower, it doesn't look like it took zero damage either... Emul, get That ready. This is the perfect target for a live-combat test fire."

"U-Understood, desu wa... But, but, it's going to take a litttttle bit of time, desu wa...?"

"No problem. I'm not slow enough to get caught by trash mobs and a slowpoke... You know that too, right, Emul?"

Judging by how fast that elephant got here after being called by its bosses, its top speed seems pretty high, but its initial acceleration is garbage. On top of that, with a massive body like that, it's not exactly going to be sneaking around on tiptoes.
Actually, if anything, a monster with a ridiculously huge body moving swiftly would be fundamentally wrong. The Cloudive Elephant's movements should be completely natural... Any surprise attack I can see coming just turns it into a punching bag. Yep, materials acquired.

Perhaps they're utilizing some fully-fledged tactics, because the Domineion Hornets, along with reinforcements flying in from somewhere, surrounded me and began making movements to herd me toward the smokescreen.
But these guys are fundamentally misunderstanding something. An encirclement is completely meaningless if it doesn't possess the restraining power to actually keep the target inside!!

"Ora ora, out of the way!"

You damn bugs. What you lack is the ability to Stand your ground. Because they happen to have flight capabilities, if I hit them hard enough, they immediately retreat. However, I will highly evaluate your encirclement.

After all...

"It makes processing you guys way easier when you line up! Drop your materials!!"

Too bad! An elephant that takes time to turn around comes second. The main order for today is your lives!
I continuously slashed down the Domineion Hornets with a bassa bassa while occasionally dodging the charges of the incoming Cloudive Elephant.

In hunting games like this, having trash mobs spawn alongside the target monster is a standard trope. If this was Lycaon, my smile would instantly vanish, but if all I have to do is tease a slow, lumbering elephant that I don't even need to kill, then this is a truly easy quest.

"It doesn't seem like they have an infinite spawn rate, but since they brought out their trump card, it doesn't look like they intend to retreat easily either..."

Having materials literally fly toward me is delightful, but if they just keep expending their entire clan to try and annihilate me, it's just going to be tedious. I've already gathered a pretty decent amount of materials, so I could honestly just leave whenever I want... But I haven't finished the main dish yet.

"Emul, are you ready!?"

Peshi peshi. I felt two taps on my head. One tap means negative. Two taps means...

"Alright, let's hit 'em with a flashy one before we head home!"

Two taps is the signal for affirmative. With a cannon mounted on my head, I swatted away the bees and secured a position directly in line with the elephant's line of sight.

"How should I put it... this feels very bullfighter-esque. Fuh, look over here, flutter flutter."

As I dramatically fluttered the Lapistella Star Cloak like a matador, it seemed even a brain thoroughly broken by taming could understand it was being mocked. With a roar truly deserving of being called a scream, the Cloudive Elephant executed a reckless charge.

Whether it inherently lacked "compassion" and "consideration" due to its species, or whether it harbored a deep grudge despite being tamed, it completely scattered the Domineion Hornets in its path. Kicking away the clouds blanketing the earth, it charged straight forward with the sole intent of turning me and Emul into minced meat.

"Emul, the micro-vibrations on my head are annoying, so stop shivering."

".........!?"

I flicked the forehead of Emul—who had started rapidly smacking my head as if to say, "Why are you so calm in this situation!?"—just as the moment of impact rapidly approached.
It wasn't like I was the one consuming MP or casting the magic, but I had some free time, so I dramatically held my palm out forward and struck a pose. Uhh, a cool line, a cool line... let's see.

"I think I'll be taking that inertia for myself...!"

"【Full Counter Reflection】!!"

Right on the verge of collision, a magic circle resembling a wall-like shield deployed between us and the Cloudive Elephant. The Cloudive Elephant, having reached its absolute top speed in a reckless elephant-charge, had absolutely no way of choosing to evade or stop, and it smashed head-on into the magic circle.

The instant it hit, a crisp sound—one that you wouldn't think came from colliding with a magic circle floating in the void—echoed out... and the two tusks belonging to the Cloudive Elephant snapped off effortlessly.

"Hyahohoi! Ivory acquired!"

"You're acting like you did it yourself, but I was the one who cast it, desu wa!?"

"Don't worry about the minor details!"

Nice, nice! It's this effective against power fighters! It really was worth the hundreds of millions I paid for it. It was an item gathering dust even in Rabituza's grimoire shop, after all...!

The 【Full Counter Reflection】 I had Emul learn is, exactly as the name implies, a counter-type spell.
It consumes an absurd amount of MP and cannot be cast with chant omission, making its usability complete trash. However, the effect itself can only be described as phenomenal.

Specifically, it "Nullifies All incoming attacks up to a limit determined by the caster's total magic power and inflicts an equal amount of damage back." Just as Akitsu Akane's Apology Cannon (Dragon Breath) scales with lung capacity, this magic will completely block any attack—and reflect the exact same amount of damage—provided you pump enough MP into it.

It is quite literally a mirror. However, the reflection strikes back with the exact same attack. In other words, the Cloudive Elephant essentially collided head-on with its exact own weight traveling at its exact same speed.
And thanks to ShanFro's excellent physics engine, the damage calculation from a head-on collision while both parties are accelerating must have skyrocketed to a point where I have no idea how many of Me it could turn into minced meat───!

"Haaーhahahaha! Excellent, simply excellent!"

It was an unexpected bonus income, but at the very least, I accomplished my goal for coming here with flying colors. Now all that's left is to head back... However, it seems those bees have absolutely no intention of letting me escape.

Several Domineion Hornets clung to the Cloudive Elephant, which was writhing in agony after getting its tusks snapped and its face violently smashed.
They then thrust their stingers into the Cloudive Elephant's skin... Wait, they didn't even pierce it. Something like that wouldn't even count as acupuncture.

However, to the Cloudive Elephant, it wasn't about actually feeling the physical pain of being stung. As if screaming that the very Action of "being stung" was agonizing, it let out a horrific screech and forcefully forced itself to stand back up.

"The harsh reality of being a servant, huh."

Worked to the bone until you die, and then discarded. Preaching morals to bugs would be less productive than chanting Buddhist sutras at max volume into a horse's ear... but I did feel a slight twinge of pity.

"Sunraku-san..."

"...Yeah, you're right. I'll give it its last rites and Mourn it (Harvest its materials)."

"No, that's not it, Sunraku-san... T-That..."

Hm? What is it? Just what exactly is... Oh my. The Cloudive Elephant isn't moving, yet the ground is shaking. An earthquake? How strange. Isn't the epicenter moving towards us?

"Baoooooooooooooon!!"

"Barururururururua! Rururururuoooooon!!"

"P-Parents!?"

Was it coincidence, or was it inevitability?
The Cloudive Elephant that had been secretly tamed as the Domineion Hornets' trump card... During its battle with me, it screamed, rampaged, and sent numerous ripples across the sea of clouds.

And that scream reached the elephant parents, whose hearts—despite being separated from their child—held not a single shadow of doubt in their love.
Boiling with emotions of anger, joy, and hellfire, two Cloudive Elephants—both a full size larger than the one in front of me—entered the battlefield, instantly turning the situation into an absolute massacre.

"...This is bad. So they really are in the same class as the Crystal Scorpions."

Most likely, they were inhaling the clouds into their bodies, rapidly cooling and freezing them to create ice bullets, and then firing them using compressed air.
And they could even select their Ammunition type. The ice projectiles fired from the trunks of the two intruding elephants scattered mid-flight into a shotgun blast, roughly but reliably shooting the Domineion Hornets out of the sky.

Heavy armor for close range, possesses long-range attacks, and can even deploy smokescreens... What is this high-spec tank? And the turret can even bend flexibly.

The last Domineion Hornet was shattered by an extra-large ice bullet, and the child Cloudive Elephant with the broken tusks hesitantly extended its trunk toward its parents.
The parents gently pulled it in with their own trunks, caressing their child with movements filled with overwhelming emotion.

"Bravo... What a wonderful display of familial love..."

"It's so moving, desu wa...!"

The reunion of a torn-apart family. Even if they are just mob characters, I feel truly honored to have witnessed this moving scene...!!

............

.........

......

Well, putting that aside, since We were the ones who actually snapped the child elephant's tusks, we ended up getting chased around by a Furious elephant family for about ten minutes afterward.

Good for you! Make sure you don't get separated from your parents again!

Author's Afterword
The Domineion Hornet Taming Method:

1. Brutally beat the captured monster.

2. Feed it just enough so it doesn't die.

3. Repeat the cycle of brutally beating it before feeding it.

4. Starve it for a while.

5. Right around the time the monster willingly offers its body just to get food, beat it half to death again.

6. Repeat this process over and over.

7. A fully completed servant with its rebellious spirit completely broken!

"Don't think you can achieve anything with your own will," is what these bastard bees drill into them. However, considering there's an anglerfish in the deep sea whose victims go straight from "Ah, smells good..." -> "I love you!" into a lifetime of servitude, this honestly isn't that big of a deal.

• Cloudive Elephant (Adult)
  In terms of strength, they are stronger than a single Crystal Scorpion but weaker than a Golden Scorpion. The Ice Cloud Bullet is a technical skill taught from parent to child, which is the lore reason why the child elephant couldn't use it.
  Also, the current absolute strongest class of non-unique/raid monsters is the Atlanticus Repnorca. Wide-area electrical discharges and lasers underwater are just straight-up foul play.

By the way, the Kraken-esque octopus that attacked the New Continent Pioneer Ship is a species that fled to the shallows of the continental shelf because if it stayed in the deep sea, it would get casually eaten as a snack by things like the Arctus Regalecus.
If the Deep Sea Big Three weren't maintaining the ecosystem, they would have been wiped out a long time ago. Eldranza-kun really should have done more prior research...