Chapter 815: December 17th: Blazing Beat Up Part 2
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The team consisted of fifteen members in total. The participation requirement for the party was having experienced at least one encounter with the Raid Monster "Smoldering Great Crimson Wings"......... In short, anyone who had been turned to ash by the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings at least once.
At the very least, they were players who understood the strategy well enough not to blindly charge at the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings, and who had memorized its attack patterns. Gathering under the premise that performing above PUG, below static was fine as long as they had basic coordination, the squad pushed through the torrential downpour and laid eyes on the undeniably radiant, scorching light at the summit of the extinct volcano.
"Target in sight! Somehow......... no, it's still burning, but it's clearly shriveled up compared to its initial state!"
"If a downpour this heavy has no effect, we're seriously sending a complaint email to the devs! Alright, everyone, stick to the plan!"
At the command of OiKatzo, the initiator and leader (or rather, the facilitator) of this party, the fifteen-man subjugation squad split into five parties of three.
"Ke— I mean, Katzo! This rain is terrible, but can we really do this!?"
"This is the prerequisite, Pepper! Without this rain, no one can even interact with the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings!!"
One of the players moving alongside OiKatzo. Comparing her Inside self to what OiKatzo knew, the player "Pepper Cardamom," who used a female avatar about five or six years older than her real self, shouted through the downpour, and OiKatzo shouted back just as loudly so as not to be drowned out.
Treading upon the earth of the extinct volcano where rain flowed down the slopes so fiercely it threatened to sweep their legs out from under them if they lost focus, the five teams splashed through the water, encircling the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings.
Naturally, there were other players besides OiKatzo's group who, despite being confused by the sudden pinpoint downpour, decided to brave the rain and challenge the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings anyway. Utilizing the system feature that makes the nameplates of players in the same party easier to distinguish from others, OiKatzo and the team waited for the moment according to their prior arrangements, each gripping that tightly in their hands.
『Vooooooooooooooooooooooooob………!』
The body of the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings was distinctly different from humanity or other monsters; it was not physical matter. Living flames, thinking energy—that was its true essence. However, precisely because the "Red" mana particles—the kin of the White God—used energy itself as a Body, they were, in a sense, even more susceptible to the laws of physics than biological creatures of flesh and blood.
Motion Name: Steam Expansion Wave.
Water or ice—when struck by attacks that lower its temperature, the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings transformed its own Body into high-temperature steam and scattered a steam shockwave equal to the total damage taken in an area around itself—a joint-liability-type counter skill.
However, this counter was not an auto-cast, but a manual activation. The entire sequence of events—from the energy's property alteration in response to damage to radiating it out in a dome—was controlled by the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings itself. Looking at it from another angle, the true nature of the Steam Expansion Wave was the the physical alteration of the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings' own body and the resulting blowback from that expansion.
To break it down into extremely simple terms......... one could say "The Smoldering Great Crimson Wings molts at an incredible speed, and the impact of the blown-off skin hitting things blows the surroundings away."
In short, if the Steam Expansion Wave was triggered over and over and over again......... say, every time it was subjected to the continuous temperature drop from a massive volume of liquid like an unceasing heavy rain, eventually its entire body would be converted into steam and it would vanish.
Or, if the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings' "only" goal was self-destruction, it could easily blow away the entire extinct volcano as if scooping it out with a spoon, treating the situation as highly convenient. But its mission was the production and supplementation of energy. Precisely because it was a thinking energy body, it judged that "self-destruction is bad."
Thus, struck by the Heavy Rain brought about by the actions of humanity, the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings manually halted its own vaporization through its own will and assumed a "defensive form" against the rain.
"Somehow......... is it slipping off?"
The falling rain shouldn't have held any grudges, yet whether it was a trick of the eye or not, a localized waterfall seemed to pour precisely onto the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings, the raindrops clearly tracing an abnormal trajectory.
It wasn't evaporating, nor was it even touching the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings...... If one had to describe it, it was as if it was sliding down the surface of glasswork. Its crimson wings—incomparably smaller than when it bombarded Thirdrema with its ultra-long-range Flame Fire, yet still unable to be hidden even by the torrential rain—had water sliding right off their surface.
"What do we do!? Are we starting now!!?"
"No......... Just one shot, let's hit it with a different attack for just one shot. That 'membrane' is peculiarly nagging at me."
The "countermeasure equipment" OiKatzo's group brought was heavily predicated on the assumption that the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings was a "scorching energy body." If OiKatzo's prediction was correct, the "membrane" stretched across its surface... no, that was──────
"Notice to all members. The surface of the Great Crimson Wings is suspicious, so we're going to hit it with one normal attack. Hold the all-out attack, I repeat, hold the all-out attack......"
"───Leave it to me."
As OiKatzo issued instructions through the intercom everyone had obtained from Behemoth......... the third member forming the three-man cell with OiKatzo and Pepper Cardamom stepped forward.
"Ah, wait a sec."
"Well, I kinda forced my way in to tag along......... gotta show some usefulness, right? Don't worry, I'm not reckless enough to go punch it directly."
Pulling a throwing Gravel from his inventory and winding up with all his might, his figure was............ far too small and unreliable. But the person they met during the conquest of Behemoth──────
OiKatzo and the others knew that this bona fide player—who claimed to be an Acquaintance of an Acquaintance, and looked like nothing more than a five-year-old child—hid strength completely opposite to his appearance, like a muscle-bound gladiator.
"Oruruuuaaaaaa!!"
The pitiable wreck of a man who went mad from craving motherly love, having pushed the lowering of his physical age to its absolute limit.
To eliminate his Mommy's anxieties, this man declared his participation in the Raid Monster subjugation under the banner of "filial piety"...... Eternal Zero.
The gravel thrown by the man transformed into a fastball of unimaginable speed relative to his figure, propelling straight toward the eerily altered Smoldering Great Crimson Wings.
Author's Afterword
I will exorcise Mommy's anxieties.
OiKatzo doubted Sunraku's sanity. But because Sunraku-kun generally doesn't deny the perversion itself, even if he rejects actions stemming from it, he possesses a demonic attribute that naturally attracts perverts............
The combo of Saba-Gan -> SpellCre -> Bakumatsu -> and various others cultivated a mysterious tolerance within him.
Is it weird to promote here in this flow? Well anyway, Volume 5 of the manga adaptation of Shangri-La Frontier ~Crappy Game Hunter Challenges God-Tier Game~ is finally going on sale!
The cover features Wethermon the Tombguard! Thanks to the transcendent technique of the Great Mage Fuji-sensei, it's the ultimate cover where the dignity as a boss and the sorrow as a character are conveyed through the art without needing a single word.
The booklet included in the special edition is the second half of the TRPG side story, where we pulled off an absurdly unprecedented "splitting content across two special editions" stunt, as far as Katarina's memory serves!! Honestly, I couldn't bring myself to say "Umm......... maybe a mid-length story instead........."! The author's conscience circuit isn't dead yet!!
On top of that, additionally, incredibly, the tankoubon includes a collaboration SS with "Wistoria: Wand and Sword"—a manga you could call a Medroa tag-team by original author Omori Fujino-sensei and artist Aoi Toshi-sensei. And it wasn't Katarina who wrote it, it was Omori-sensei! Seriously? Even now, it's about 50/50 whether this is a dream or not...... [*1]
The release date you're wondering about is August 17th. It's damn hot (and I mean burning-to-the-touch hot, not just the weather), and even if you wanted to brave it, given the current climate, how about picking up my humble work as content to enjoy in an air-conditioned room?
The contents of Volume 5 feature some seriously heated developments, so I won't take responsibility if your home AC breaks. Please call a repair service.
Translator's Notes
- [1] Medroa (メドローア): A powerful dual-element fusion spell from the Dragon Quest franchise where a single mage simultaneously combines extreme fire and extreme ice magic to form one devastating attack.
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