Chapter 827: December 17th: Blazing Beat Up Part 10
Author's Preface
Took everything I had to deliver this one.
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It is said that there is no limit to rising temperatures. If it simply poured its inexhaustible energy into its attacks, its gaze would tear through the atmosphere with a scorching heat that seemed to carve away space itself. The rushing air, flowing in to fill the void of the atmosphere that was incinerated before the phenomenon of combustion could even occur, caused winds to rage like a roaring storm.
No, it would be presumptuous to even call it turbulence. The atmosphere where the lasers fired from the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings' butterfly face passed through was incinerated by the massive amount of thermal energy, and from the perspective of the giant infant, those beams of light were being fired in great numbers and repeatedly to shoot down the swarm of Winged Insects buzzing around it.
The air rushing in to fill the atmospheric "void" was then burned away as well; a tornado or typhoon that merely moves in a circle would be considered much better behaved.
Swept to the right, blown to the left, a sight so churning that one couldn't even tell up from down or front from back... That was what OiKatzo and the others saw after finally managing to reach the back of the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings.
"So this is what human pinball looks like......"
"The irony is, being airborne just means they get batted around until they finally eat a heat ray — real sad sight......"
Even players clad in Tactical Mechs were affected by the strong winds. Let alone being caught in extreme turbulence accompanied by tailspins in all directions—up, down, left, right, front, and back—it was no wonder they became pinballs until they died. As a result, reaching its back—a location its gaze couldn't reach—via climbing was the optimal solution.
"Now then......... we've climbed up, but what do we do now?"
"Did you come up here without a plan?"
"No, it's just that looking at it again, the scale is so massive I'm wondering how we should handle it."
The Smoldering Great Crimson Wings "Pseudo-Human Form" was gigantic. With a size that nearly stretched from the mountain's summit to its foot, its back alone was the size of a soccer stadium. And this was with the in-game perceived distances scaled down; if it had faithfully adhered to its scenario lore, its size would have long surpassed anything a swarm of humans could do something about. After all, merely flailing its arms and crawling around crushed the humans on the ground, and the heat rays fired from its eyes trampled the humans in the air like crane flies
Would blindly hitting it really do anything? OiKatzo was feeling anxious about its overwhelming size, but the one who cleared that anxiety was the person right next to him.
"I've got a plan."
"Do you know something?"
"No......... I just looked into a lot of things over at 'Mama'. A gifted education, you could call it. Even at this very moment, I am living inside my Dream......!"
Everything about this is insane. The only reason OiKatzo barely managed to swallow those words was because Eternal Zero hadn't yet reached the status of a close friend. A friend's friend is generally considered to be about eighty percent a stranger. And right now, OiKatzo was regretting that remaining twenty percent connection.
"Listen up. The essence of the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings...... the 'current' Smoldering Great Crimson Wings ain't that it's huge, but that it's taken a human form."
"Even giant tokusatsu heroes come in slightly more charming sizes, though."
"From the start, that guy is a living mass of power with infinite energy. At least based strictly on the world's lore settings......... something like that won't die, right?"
"For the game's sake, we need it to die......... Wait, hold on."
That was when OiKatzo realized. Or rather, remembered. Because the majority had been like that, he had completely forgotten about the minority possibility.
"Not just annihilating it, but the possibility of repelling it!"
It was an oversight precisely because Wethermon, Siegwurm, and the fellow Raid Monster, the Wandering Great Azure Plague, were all resolved through subjugation—by reducing their HP to 0. Ctarrnid, and from what he'd heard, Lycaon, were resolved through the end of the battle rather than one side losing their life.
Precisely because it was an enemy where even the first letter of 'mutual understanding' seemed impossible, he had strayed away from the answer of asking it to leave.
"......In that case, do we still need to wear it down? No...... in this game, it actually having infinite stamina is a real possibility......"
"Heh, I told you that ain't the important part, didn't I? This guy doesn't understand the spirit of it at all; it's just an ogya-ing infant in appearance......... but in appearance alone, it IS a baby."
Getting off OiKatzo's back, Eternal Zero tottered across the swaying Smoldering Great Crimson Wings, arriving at the area corresponding to human shoulder blades.
"Why do babies crawl......? It's to return to their mama."
"Is that right?"
"And why does a baby seek its mama......? That is 'trust'...... An instinctual trust to entrust everything to the entity that protects its fragile life......! In other words, Trust Mama......!! This guy doesn't have that! Because it's a completely flawless entity! No matter how much it imitates one...... this guy lacks dependence! What do you know about relying on someone!!"
A madman was swinging around absurd arguments. OiKatzo stared off into the distance, thinking it would have been better if the guy had just swung his fists and attacked him instead. Unfortunately, Eternal Zero was an ally...... and furthermore, a very reassuring "wise man."
"I skimmed through this guy's info in the Behemoth Library. Its essence is a mass of energy......... but in order to establish its own 'ego', a certain degree of restriction occurs on its shape...... This apparently applies to other Genesis Tribe as well. The New Continent's───"
"Sorry, but can we hold the open-air lecture some other day!?"
"Yeah, my bad. Basically......... the main body is strictly that thing on its face."
Saying that, Eternal Zero pointed at the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings' head...... more specifically, the butterfly face itself, growing as if glued to its face.
"So you're saying aim for the face?"
"Heh, didn't you just say 'repelling it is the victory condition' yourself? Even if we chip away at its wings a bit, it'll just regenerate immediately......... Listen, this guy is currently imitating a human baby......... an incomplete form with a flawless nature...... Ah, I mean in a physical sense, right? Because babies are perfect lifeforms...... Anyway, this guy has taken on a weakness specifically because it took this form."
OiKatzo felt like he had been turned into a honeycomb by dual-wielding handguns of sound logic and absurd rants, but speaking strictly of the sound logic part, it wasn't something he couldn't agree with. However, that said.
"What kind of weakness could this thing have, taking the form of a baby while retaining the nature of not dying even if beaten?"
"Its neck can't support its head yet."
......
............
..................
Through his earpiece, OiKatzo issued his Orders to his party members...... and through his party members, ensuring it reached every player present in the area.
"Ah. It's tentative, but we've got a highly probable strategy, so I'd like everyone to pass it on to the other players if possible."
He wouldn't go as far as to say there was concrete proof. However, looking at the wound on its neck caused by the Tiger on the Folding Screen's attack—which was indeed healing slower than attacks landed on other parts—OiKatzo made a move that, if his guess was wrong, could directly lead to the failure of the Raid subjugation...... but if his guess was right, would undoubtedly be the checkmate leading to victory.
"Its weakness is its neck! Lure the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings' head so it aligns with the crater......... and sever its neck!!"
Author's Afterword
It got a little long, so I split it. Eta-Zero talked more than I expected.
・Pseudo-Human Form
The form the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings took upon becoming "perfectly imperfect" by copying "Humanity". In short, it copied them too perfectly and ended up inheriting human structural flaws as well. It is true that the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings can instantly regenerate any damage using its inexhaustible energy, but paradoxically, that means it is undeniably "taking damage itself".
Furthermore, copying humans means that an average human intellect was also generated along with the reproduction of a brain, so it possesses an average human's curiosity, disgust, and even an average human's hostility.
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