Chapter 634: Severing Tactics, the Chewing Ends in a Blink

You know what's so funny about this? The main body of the Demon of Slaughter is completely faceless, save for a mouth full of fangs that stretches all the way to the sides of its head. But if you were to map it to a human face, it projects the faces of the people it ate right above its 'nose', meaning that whenever its upper jaw moves, the human face floating there bobs up and down like a nodding bobblehead.

"Hey, come on! All the tension is draining completely out of the fight!!"

"If you get eaten, you're gonna join 'em, you know!!"

"No, no, my perfect face only exists because of this perfect body."

"The demon's got a pretty blessed physique itself, though."

"It's obviously going for the 'most muscular' bodybuilding pose! Alright, rest in peace already!!"

"Nugwoooaaahhh..."

Showing absolutely no mercy even with her little brother's face floating on it—or rather, showing absolutely no mercy specifically because her little brother's face was floating on it—Pencilgon unleashed a three-stage thrust that actually made the Orcelott-faced demon flinch.

However, the current demon had eaten one more person, transforming into an Asura Knight state with six arms. At close range, you'd get chopped to pieces before you even had a chance to get eaten, so most of the players were hanging back, observing the situation with long-range attacks... or something like that.

The ones fighting at close range were me, Pencilgon, and the high-level RPA players who rushed over after sensing the anomaly.

"Comrade! This isn't a scripted loss event, right!?"

"If we lose here, all our hard work goes down the drain along with all of Thirdrema! Plant your feet and do your best!!"

To be fair, the Demon of Slaughter is a formidable enemy. Its toughness is one thing, but what makes it truly troublesome is that it has super armor. A flurry of strikes from six arms and it barely even flinches. A single moment of carelessness leads directly to death.

"Sunraku-san! I'm attacking desu wa!!"

"Firing: Recommending evacuation."

Nice, ShanFro's AIs are way more competent than some scrub players.

Setting up a DecoyAggro with 【Fading Mirror】, Emul's magic and Saina's gunfire exploded right as the demon got caught in it. The every move of Saina, the robot girl, and Emul, the rabbit of rabbits, sent the players-turned-spectators (mostly melee rookies with no ranged options) into a roaring frenzy.

"Slaughteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer!!!"

Oh, the demon's main body screamed. Is it working? No, its core balance hasn't shifted at all... What do I do? Should I go for a high-risk play?

"We've been stabbing it like crazy this whole time, but I get it now. It's resisting everything except the Destructive Poison attribute."

"Resisting paralysis, poison, burns, and frostbite even though it's just a lump of meat... how cheeky! Hey, all you melee classes over there! If you have a weapon with the Destructive Poison attribute, you can actually contribute to the battle right now!!"

No response. I even heard a voice from the crowd mutter, "What's the difference between Destructive Poison and the regular Poison attribute?" Ugh, that pure, innocent noobishness pisses me off right now...!!

"I figured it out, Comrade! I think status ailments only work on its arms!! The middle right arm is paralyzed!!!"

"Isn't that a strategy you usually use on way bigger bosses!? Everyone, equip your status ailment weapons!! We'll handle the attacks on its main body!!"

"Wait, I have to do it too?"

"You're our DPS, so I'm not letting you run away, Sunraku-kuuuun!!"

Bring it on. If I can hold the frontline while simultaneously grinding my skills, I'll push as hard as I can.

I don't have any High Connection skills equipped right now, but in exchange, by unlinking them, I have access to a massive arsenal of the base skills I originally used as materials!!

Kurama Tengu Secret Tradition, Hermes Boots, and a whole bunch of others, consecutive activation!!

"Even without running at critical speed, I have the weapon known as tight cornering...!!"

I intentionally chose not to use accessories for speed augmentation. To dodge a chaotic flurry from six arms, rough and sweeping movements wouldn't be precise enough.

Gripping the Cruel Poison Bee Twin StingersVeno Stinger in both hands, my targets are those six arms. No matter how grotesque it has become, its base frame is still humanoid, meaning it has an absolute limit to its range of motion.

"I've fought enough Asura-type enemies to make me sick...! And I know exactly how to beat them too!!"

You sync your attack timing with the opponent's attacks. Multi-armed bosses can easily turn into bullshit bosses that pull off infinite "my turn" combos if their AI is poorly tuned... And I've fought a massive number of poorly tuned, multi-armed bullshit bosses.

That's why I know this demon operates on the exact same logic. And thanks to the God Game correction, the only openings available are the size of a needle's eye... But let me say this instead: having an opening the size of a needle's eye? Isn't that just a casual game!?

Its attacks inherit the properties of the players it absorbed. The ones eaten were the Knight Orcelott-kun, the wannabe Magic Swordsman-kun, the Knife User-chan, the Greatsword User-kun, the Katana User-chan, and the Katana User-kun who was eaten last... Wait, there's overlap.

But as a result, the Demon of Slaughter is currently rampaging with a knife, a greatsword, a longsword, a magic blade, and dual-wielding Japanese katanas. And naturally, there are distinct differences in the swing speed and attack range of each one...!!

Positioning and timing. Lure it out, make it swing, and corner it while being cornered yourself. What I'm aiming for is the consecutive two-hit combo transitioning from the greatsword to the knife, or the knife to the greatsword...!!

"Right now, I'm way sturdier than usual! You could call this my Defense Form...!!"

Thanks to the Stone Cloak of Obsidian Cladding, I can aggressively shrug off chip damage. I use the attacks of other players as a shield while landing my own hits, and use the aggro I draw to create openings for everyone else... Here it comes, the greatsword attack!

I twisted my body to dodge the strike aiming to cleave me in two from almost directly overhead, slightly diagonally, and by stepping on the bone greatsword after it slammed into the ground to seal its movement... See? Just as expected. Because we're too close to swing a katana, the only option left to intercept me is the knife, right? Sword of a Hundred FlashesHekaton Slash activated; this is the forbidden combination of an accumulating status ailment and multi-hit scaling...!!

"Gotcha!!"

Destructive Poison is an accumulating poison status effect that applies the Destruction attribute. And in ShanFro, the Destruction attribute is the only power capable of causing material disintegration.

Therefore, if it takes concentrated status ailment attacks along with a significant number of Destruction attribute hits... The knife arm is mine! That's one down!!

"Ah, I'm crossing oveeeeer..."

"Stop trying to make me laugh!!"

"No, seriously, I think we actually just respawn... Ohoo."

I-It seems we can safely assume that severing an arm frees the assimilated player... Dammit, the fact that these eaten guys are so bored inside that they've switched to a strategy of trying to make me laugh is an unexpectedly formidable obstacle. If Mold was here, he would have died eight times by now.

Besides, taking concentrated fire from the high-level players seems to be wearing the Demon of Slaughter down... No matter how strong of an enemy it is, it isn't invincible. If we keep pushing and pressuring it like this, we can win!!

However, right after destroying the fourth arm and sending the fourth person to the afterlife... the Demon of Slaughter moved.

With a wet sound, an eyeball glared at me. But it wasn't the gaze of one of the floating faces... It was an "eyeball" rising up from the demon's mouth, deep inside... emerging from its very throat to stare directly at me.

"Did I... step on a landmine?"

【You have received a Declaration of Murder!】

"Ah... I see."

It absolutely intends to kill me.

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Author's Afterword

In reality, combining accumulating status ailment attacks with multi-hit scaling attacks applies a negative correction modifier, so it doesn't accumulate as fast as you'd think.

However, since you can increase the number of hit checks, it still offers an advantage for status ailments with low application rates.

Pencil-san is awfully harsh on her little brother... Does she know what "the carrot and the stick" means?