Chapter 348: O Dragon, O Dragon! Part 13

"Impossible, impossible, impossible, impossible!"

This is impossible. It's not a matter of whether "Scar" is here or not; we simply lack the sheer number of bodies needed.

A Bull's Head slammed down exactly where I had been standing just seconds ago before I executed a Hollywood-movie-tier leap.
Looking over at "Scar," it was being pecked by an Eagle's Beak, scratched by a Lion's Paw... It was genuinely getting ganged up on and shrieking in pain. This is weird, isn't it? We're the ones with the numerical advantage, and the Devouring Great Crimson Clad is supposed to be just one entity...!

"Thanks. For. Wai. Ting!"

"Wha... What the hell is that...?"

"S-Sunraku-saaaan!!"

Kuh, there's no choice but to retreat for now. I'm counting on you, "Scar." I plan to come back as quickly as possible, so please don't die on me...?
While disengaging using Fading Mirror, I shouted toward Tottori and Deep Slaughter, who were running toward me.

"Information sharing!!"

"Eh, ah, well..."

"It looks like defeating a specific number of them was the trigger, you knooow. They ran away right in the middle of the act, so I just headed this way while regrouping..."

I knew it. I had considered the possibility that its HP dropping below a certain threshold was the trigger, but despite providing full support to the three-headed dinosaur, I didn't feel any feedback suggesting we had cornered it. If that's the case, it's more natural to assume the Blood Crystals were the flag, and it seems I was probably right.

"Let's see... First off, Monsters (Attacks) are being generated from that red tornado. Furthermore, the main body doesn't actually take any attack actions itself."

That red tornado... I don't know if it's formed by a massive swarm of bugs or something based on the buzzing sounds that get louder as you get closer, but the one thing I know through painful experience is that various monsters emerge from within it.
There's no limit to their numbers, and they return to the tornado after a set amount of time, so there's no merit in defeating them. On top of that, their specs are exactly the same as when they were alive... probably.

"In short... the monster is constantly spamming something like summoning magic?"

"That's exactly what it is. And the main body doesn't even need to perform any specific motions to do it."

"...Haha."

A dry laugh escaped Tottori's lips. I don't blame him. Motion-canceling is broken enough when players do it in PvP, but now a Raid Monster is doing it of all things.

"...So? Do we have any chance of winning, Sunraku-kuuuun?"

"Chance of winning or not... We players just have to smash the main body alongside 'Scar.' Or else... Emul, the tornado!"

"Yes, sir!"

A Magic Edge slammed into the red tornado, causing damage effects to bloom like flowers. After a brief silence, the tornado clearly showed signs of preparing to generate something in our direction, so we hurriedly put some distance between us.
The next instant, Only the arm of a monkey was launched at the exact spot we had been standing, violently striking the ground with a thunderous roar.

"...Are you kidding me, a rocket punch?"

"It seems it can also create specific body parts, you knooow... Meaning..."

Clack went the Areadbhair, and the pervert shut up. Skipping dialogue is important, you know.

"But I did learn one thing, you knooow..."

"What is it?"

"If it's an Attack That Causes No Meaningful Impact, there is No Need to Counterattack."

...I see. That makes sense. There's a high chance that the red tornado isn't an invincible object. If it truly were invincible, there would be little reason for it to react to our attacks, considering it could just wipe us out simply by expanding.
Of course, I can't entirely rule out the possibility that it's programmed to react that way and is actually an invincible object... but I really don't want to consider the idea of a Raid Monster possessing an invincibility mechanic.

"By the way, Tottori, do you have any effective attack methods against that tornado?"

"I mean, I have some, but... they aren't high-firepower like DeepThro-san's, and I only have a few charges, so please don't expect too much."

"I'm in the exact same boat, so don't worry about it. I have massive firepower, but thinking about it carefully, it's strictly single-target..."

It would be a simple matter if we just targeted the main body, but honestly, even if we managed to sprint all the way to the base of that tornado without taking a single scratch, the thing waiting for us at the finish line is a pseudo-five-headed dragon shooting bullshit lasers.
I'm starting to get a bit bored—or rather, because the encounter was an unexpected surprise attack, my motivation just isn't rising much... I'm maintaining a relatively high baseline, but I'm not breaking past my limits. It feels like driving a car while strictly obeying the speed limit.

"It's like, I want that feeling of flooring the accelerator..."

"Accelerator...?"

When I challenged Rei-shi and Lycaon, those were surprise encounters too, but I was fired up because I actually had a history and a grudge with them.

"Sunraku-kun, something incredible is happening to 'Scar'."

"Nneh?"

The three-headed "Scar" could already be described as being completely covered in wounds. The flesh all over its body had been pecked away, slashed, or torn off... The damage effects spurting from it clearly indicated it was standing on the brink of a fatal wound.
Looking closely, one of its heads—the T-Rex head on the far right—seemed to have lost an eye. Despite spewing damage effects like raging flames, the sight of it bulging its muscle fibers conveyed both terror and a painful pity to anyone watching.

However, for "Scar," that was surely not something to be avoided.
The three heads roared, as if flaunting the meaning of the wounds carved into their body.
The three heads roared, to turn those carved wounds into an even more massive power.
The three heads roared, declaring that even against an enemy threatening its very life, it would be the one to emerge victorious.

" " "Goruuruooaaaaaahhhhh!!!!" " "

In this game, damage effects are generally displayed in red. Even when slicing through monsters that clearly don't have red blood, a red effect appears, which sometimes leaves a vague sense of incongruity... But precisely because of that, the change forced us to understand it all the more vividly.

"The damage effects turned black?"

"...I've heard about this. If I recall, when the 10 PM Army cornered it, it entered this exact state... They said they couldn't even scratch 'Scar' once it got like that."

"Eh, wait, you mean it gets buffed as its HP decreases?"

So I was the one holding it back.
Spewing pitch-black effects from everywhere on its body, "Scar" charged forward, causing the surrounding area to violently quake with its roars, its advance, and every single movement it made.
It was a reckless, straightforward charge. The Devouring Great Crimson Clad awaiting it displayed no emotion in response, handling it with an inorganic, mechanical reaction.

In other words, it generated several monsters from the red tornado, intending to reliably finish "Scar" off through a concentrated, isolated gang-up...

" " "Hieh." " "

" " "Eh..." " "

The former came from Coward #1 (Erina), Coward #2 (Hesh), and Coward #3 (Emul). The latter came from me, Tottori, and Deep Slaughter.
Because the sight it showed us was enough to revert Emul—who had been acting a bit cocky lately—back into a cowardly rabbit, and leave the player group completely speechless.

The beak of the two-headed eagle was shattered.
The horn of the bull consisting only of a head was snapped cleanly off.
The fingers of the monkey consisting only of an arm were twisted into bizarre angles.

And the main body of the Devouring Great Crimson Clad... one of its necks had been torn entirely off by "Scar"... It's way too strong.

"What's with that natural armor? Its VIT must be completely broken."

"Not only is it black and hard, but its STR probably skyrocketed too, you knooow..."

Well, considering that the monsters generated from the red tornado were pulverized simply by it Twitching, it's definitely not just hard.
Eh, can we actually beat this thing? Really? The only possibilities I can think of are that this state doesn't last very long, or there's some kind of backdoor method to chip away at its health... No, no, I shouldn't think like that.

"Alright, since 'Scar'-kun is acting as a maximum meat shield, let's jump into the fight too."

"Got it! I'll have the Elves (Forest-folks) focus entirely on support! Even just drawing the attention of the monsters coming out of that red tornado will be a massive help!"

For better or worse, Tottori the Hero is incredibly faithful to the flow of the moment. Re-gripping my Areadbhair to follow the archer who had cheered on the Forest-folks and dashed off to support "Scar"...

"Hey, Sunraku-kuuuun... Let's have a little chat, alright...?"

"...What is it? Don't break my momentum right at the start."

"No, no, this is an incredibly important conversation, and it won't take much time, sooo..."

Honestly, I could have just ignored her, but considering we've acted together as a party up until now, I suppose I can at least hear her out.

".........So?"

Prompting her to continue, Deep Slaughter smiled at me. It wasn't the smile of someone finding joy in hurling dirty jokes, nor was it a smile conforming to a rapidly changing character persona...

"───You're not having fun right now, are you."

With the final smile of the "Nutcracker" I saw on that day just before the servers shut down, she posed that question to me.

Author's Afterword
A status enhancement proportional to the numerical value of the damage taken, and granting "Resistance to the attack it received" to the specific part that took the damage.

The optimal solution is to form a party consisting of someone who got munched on by Lycaon, someone who has a hard time meeting Lycaon, and someone who landed an uppercut on Lycaon's jaw.
Recommended strategies include completely destroying the damaged body parts, preparing a wide variety of attack methods, or slowly chipping away at its health using DoT.