Chapter 651: Rampaging Like an Explosion

I messed up. Because its physique had changed, the distance required to evade its attacks naturally increased as well.

When Bamboo Bear's outer shell is destroyed, it extends bamboo spears from the broken sections. To be honest, I thought it wouldn't even be able to move if bamboo sprouted out of every part of its body, but seeing the bamboo fall out from the roots like they were rotting away once they reached a certain length made me understand. Ah... it takes care of its unwanted hairbamboo perfectly.

"Sunraku-saaan! The fish! The fish are coming!!"

"Isn't that way too fast?!!"

Wait, does the fact that the explosions I was hearing up until a moment ago have stopped mean that's what happened? The sound of the battle with Bamboo Bear is too loud to tell. I'll just believe they're still alive.

But the approaching eel-lizards are a problem. Even if the rear guard deals with them, expecting them to not let a single one slip through is impossible. That means the vanguard has to stay somewhat vigilant against the SwiminesExploding Swimming Fish too.

"As expected from an appearance that blatantly screams high toughness... Hup! 【Firing-upFire】!!"

Naturally, I'm not going to get hit twice. This time, I evaded the bamboo spear extending from its ass while firing a crystal bullet into the ground. Obviously, I can't lift it from underneath, so... right here.

"【growing-upGrow】!!"

Receiving the vibrations, the crystal bullet sprouted and rapidly grew into a crystal pillar directly under Bamboo Bear's hind leg... At the exact moment it tried to push forward to charge, the crystal pillar snagged its right hind leg.

In other words, even if you walk on four legs, if your feet are swept out from under you during a reckless charge, you're naturally going to trip and fall. How pitiful... it ended up presenting its defenseless head perfectly to Rei-shi right before she took a full swing.

"Haaaaaah!!"

Along with a fierce battle cry, her iron whip slammed into the side of Bamboo Bear's head. The head, protected by a helmet-like outer shell, didn't completely pop off from an impact that could probably shatter three of meSunraku with a single strike, likely due to the sturdy neck muscles uniquely developed in the skeletal structure of a bear.

The sound of the neck withstanding the blow, accompanied by creaking bones, echoed simultaneously with the sound of the head's outer shell failing to withstand it and violently cracking open.

It was now difficult to find any emotion other than pure rage in Bamboo Bear's actions. The Dominate Grizzly—with its outer shell stripped away, exposing what was mostly just a regular bear—continued to target me and Rei-shi out of sheer rage and hatredaggro.

However, I wasn't making any blunders like lingering in its attack range, and Rei-shi—having traded the sturdiness and physique of her male avatar for newfound litheness—parried, deflected, and occasionally fully absorbed its fangs and claws.

"By the way, where are the others!?"

"We've arrived."

"Whoa, there you are."

For a moment, I was taken aback by the sight of The Professor applying buffs to Rei-shi instead of me—since my body repels buffs—wondering when and from where he had appeared. But with the two vanguard players from his team (let's call it Team Professor) joining the battle, the burden on Rei-shi and me was effectively halved... Oh, right, obviously there would be standard combat-job players in 【Library】 too.

Without missing a beat after a flaming arrowhead fired from the rear struck and burst against Bamboo Bear's skin, I hammered further attacks into the hit area. With a ten-man party (including four vanguards) ganging up on it, I thought defeating it was only a matter of time...

Squish.

"Squish?"

Oops, excuse me, you were underneath me, Eel-lizard-kun. No, wait, wait, wait, I said I'm sorry, you don't need to get so heated... Ah, it's definitely heating up.

"That was close!!"

I narrowly managed to escape the explosion from the Swimine that immediately self-destructed and canceled the 【Fading Mirror】 I reflexively almost activated upon confirming the aggro wasn't on me.

Did Big sis Exploding Green Peas miss one? Or was it here from the beginning? Or perhaps... did it float up from below?

"Aren't these things floating up from the ground!?"

"There's no precedent for this, so I can neither confirm nor deny that! More importantly, looking at the Dominate Grizzly's 'mouth,' I've got a really bad feeling about this! Do whatever you can to keep the SwiminesExploding Swimming Fish away from the Grizzly!!"

Mouth? I see, the Bamboo Bear's oral cavity is definitely vicious; even the inside of its mouth is covered in the same material as its outer shell. While I can't help but question the biological viability of that, considering its combat actions so far, the movements are more akin to a bear trap... or perhaps the mechanical mouth of a fully robotic beast. Well, saying 'because it's a game' covers pretty much everything.

Anyway, what's so bad about that... Oops, an eel-lizard.

"Hmph."

"Ah."

"Ah."

Ah, I kicked away the one that leaped at me from the side, and it flew perfectly towards Bamboo Bear... Oh, nice catch. And it's just going to...?

"I've seen something exactly like that before. In wooden bear carvings."

Swapping my head gear to the Salmon Head.

"As a representative of the Salmon people, I find it unacceptable that a bear's primary diet consists of eel..."

"Pffft!!"

I win. Speed and freshness are the lifelines of a one-liner... Well, Mold is too much of a complete scrub, so he doesn't count as a benchmark, but after using Big sis Exploding Green Peas to verify that my comedic sense is still top-tier, the real issue at hand is the Bamboo Bear currently eating a high-class dish like live eel (lizard) right off the bone.

The players distanced themselves and went on high alert against the Bamboo Bear, which was greedily devouring the lizard-eel. It was hard to believe that it abandoned its counterattack to start eating in the middle of a battle like this—especially when it was at a disadvantage—simply because it was gluttonous.

Any gamer would think this: This must be an un-cancelable motion sequence right before a Phase 2 transition...

And that prediction turned into certainty when the Dominate Grizzly, having chewed and swallowed even the self-destructing Swimine, fired the bamboo spears that had shattered its entire outer shell "from the inside" out like an explosion.

"What!? Did it just weaponize the explosion inside its body into a long-range attack!!?"

"Gehh! Crap, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!!"

"Hey, someone just died!!"

"Isn't this basically a war crime caused by Tsuchinoko-san???"

"I'm pretty sure standing completely still is the stupider move, no???"

"H-He shows absolutely zero remorse! This guy isn't sorry at all!!"

No, I do feel somewhat responsible, which is why I'm going to get a little serious now.

I pulled out the Indigo Chalice and assigned the target parameters to STR and LUC! Times like these are exactly when you withdraw from your luck savings. Let's go, Power-Type Me!!

"Big sis Exploding Green Peas, switch with me! I want to farm some kills!!"

"I don't mind, but can you even deal with them as a physical-damage job!?"

"I do it like this: 【Overload MechanismExceed Charge】!!"

Wake upStart up, Centipede Type Tausend8-0.5, and rack up as many kills as you can in ten seconds!!

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Author's Afterword

Dominate Grizzly (Additional Info)

Primary Diet: Swimines

By absorbing the energy of the self-destructing Swimines, it can temporarily recreate a phenomenon of the exact same nature within its own body.

Incidentally, the biggest victim of this is the Parasite Bamboo, whose roots are blown clean out of the host's body by the internal blast wave.