¡Boom! ¡Boom! ¡Boom!
Between the black orbs and me clinging to its back, the Hipramajent ended up losing its balance and falling forward.
¡Bum!
The impact raised another cloud of dust.
¡Uraaaaaah!
«¡Become-aah!»
Even in that moment of Chaos, I hit him on the head with my hammer, grabbed his ankle, and pushed him to the ground... anything to keep him from getting up.
«What kind of fight is this...?»
«Armin, can we even help right now?»
«Let's just watch for now...»
I lost track of time as the dogfight continued.
[Erwen Fornacci di Tersia has launched Concentrated Fire.]
A bright light enveloped Erwen's arrowhead. With his PM on the ground after summoning the Elemental Ruler, the Chaos Circuit had activated and, due to the intensity of the light, a whole minute had passed since he began to charge Concentrated Fire. He let the arrow fly and, for a brief moment, the entire world turned white before...
diana. Right in the middle of the giant's forehead.
The light had passed through him, making a hole in his head, where his eyebrows would have been.
«... Is he dead?»
However, like the group of adventurers watching from a safe distance, I did not let my guard down. We still didn't know anything about his liabilities. There were monsters out there that could survive even after their heads were cut off.
«It's moving...!»
I sighed. I knew this would happen.
¡Uraaaaaah!
The giant with a hole in his head stood on his side in the fetal position, roaring in pain. It was the same position he was in when we found him sleeping earlier. Thanks to that, I managed to discover another of his skills. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't passive.
[Hipramajent has launched Curl Up.]
I didn't expect him to have that one.
I quickly gave him another order. «Stop attacking!»
The reason was simple. Even if we hit him with everything we had now, it would be our loss.
[For three minutes, all your Resistances increase by 20x.]
[For three minutes, your Natural Regeneration increases by 20x.]
[Until the end of combat, all of his stats increase significantly relative to the amount of damage he takes while coiled].
In essence, it was a skill of invincibility. It was one of the active abilities that Ogres possessed, and it was the reason why Ogre raids were so complicated. However, it had a critical weakness when used by tanks. Although Curl Up was an S-rank survival skill, by the time the tank woke up from its nap, its allies would already be dead.
That, of course, didn't matter to the monsters.
One minute, two minutes...
As time passed, the hole in his head began to close, and after exactly three minutes, he straightened up and slowly stood up. From what I could see, his other visible wounds had also healed.
¡Uraah...!
After waking up, he tried to run away again, but...
No way.
While he was curled up on his side, we tied his ankles and got a mage and special abilities user to hold him with spells, and I actively got in his way to stop him in his tracks. Given our preparation, he seemed to change his mind.
¡Bum!
The Hipramajent gave up trying to flee and instead charged at me as if to say: either me or you, buddy.
That's when I felt like I was on a normal raid again. It may have been because my threat level had increased throughout the combat, but his aggro had taken notice of me.
«Attack!»
Dozens of adventurers opened fire from their respective formations, and the giant used a series of skills to counterattack.
[Hipramajent has released Roar of the End.]
[Hipramajent has launched Gravity Field.]
Those were the AOE ranged attack and crowd control skills that were mentioned in the village chief's book. Since I had prepared for them beforehand, we did not suffer any harm.
¡Fwoosh!
The wizards cast barrier spells to deal with meteorites falling from the sky, while the Gravitational Field, which had some chance of sucking its enemies into its reach, was nullified by our front guard who was saved by the people behind each time. every time they started to be dragged.
[Myul Armin has released Supersensitive Skin. The target will now take 30% more damage].
[Jackson Janvil has released Moving Target. If the target is attacked while moving, the next attack against them will deal triple damage].
[Nua Merbochi has launched. Precise shot...]
After ten minutes of attacks by dozens of people, the giant brought out a new ability. However, this was not passive either.
[Hipramajent has released Condensed Body.]
It was a transformation skill.
Unlike gigantization, which made you larger, this was a rank three skill that cut you in half and gave you additional bonuses based on your size.
She's still bigger than me even with her active.
However, since I had experimented with using this skill along with gigantization in Dungeon and Stone, it didn't give me too many problems.
«Stop attacking!»
You didn't resist. Unlike gigantization, this skill had a time limit.
¡Bum!
The giant's fists were twice as strong and fast as before. However, I sent the other melee warriors back so they wouldn't get in the way and fought him alone.
¡Crujido!
Every time he hit me, I felt my bones creak under my skin.
Chispas!
But now we had doctors on our side: a priest and a healer. And thanks to the Restorative Power, a special stat that I obtained in phase seven of the Immortality Imprint, its healings were supercharged and healed my body almost immediately, no matter how much they hit me.
Well, pain was a completely different matter, of course.
«¡Aaagh!»
Still, I just had to hold on until...
[Condensed Body has been deactivated.]
When Condensed Corps finally ran out of energy, it returned to its original size, and the other melee warriors swooped in at just the right moment and resumed their attack.
¡Bum!
At that moment, one of the giant's ankles was completely shattered and he was forced to kneel. The melee warriors took the opportunity to attack his vital organs.
In an instant, the giant suffered a near-fatal blow.
«It's almost finished!»
«Keep it up and don't let your guard down!»
As the victory showed signs of gracing us with its presence, the other adventurers began to become more and more confident, but, on the contrary, I began to become more and more anxious.
Twenty-five minutes had already passed.
Curl Up cooldown is thirty minutes.
In just five minutes, I would use Curl Up again and we would have to repeat the entire process.
Honestly, at that point, we would have to consider this raid a failure. Since we hadn't rationed our PMs this time, it would take us even longer to finish him off once he was cured.
If the lesson we learn here is that we need more people to deal damage, we will certainly be able to kill this thing the next time we encounter another one... But I still don't want to fail here. Should I use that?
It didn't take me long to make a decision, let alone take action.
«¡Missha! ¡Emily! Combinar! »
Unfortunately, the two people competing for first and second place in DPS in my group didn't seem to understand what I meant.
«...¿Eh? ¿Combinar?»
Missha, with a long sword in each hand, blinked in confusion and Amelia looked at me as if speaking in tongues.
By now I should be able to read my mind.
«Come here!»
Still, despite the hiccups, when I called them, they immediately ran to my side. Since I couldn't pick up anything else with the things I already had in my hands, I dropped my hammer and shield.
«¿Eh?»
«What are you doing...?!»
With my now empty and huge hands, I grabbed Missha and Amelia by the waist.
Swoosh.
Then I adopted a posture while holding them both like swords: barbarian samurai mode.
«Yandel! Are you...?!»
Amelia seemed to have finally realized what she intended.
«Keep your aura high. I'll do the rest».
«Stop! Have you lost your...?!»
«Missha, you too. Maintain a good grip on your swords.»
«¿Huh? ¡O-Okay!»
Alright, now that I had permission, I started brandishing my Missha Sword and my Amelia Sword.
Why weren't they able to deal any critical blows to the giant before, you ask? Very simple. Because the giant was so tall that they could not reach his vital organs.
But this changes things.
Stab!
My Sword Amelia stabbed deep into the giant's skin. The sword itself was short, but that didn't matter since the aura was long.
Besides, it wasn't like he only had a sword.
Slash!
My Missha Sword sliced off some of the skin on the giant's neck. Although it lacked some of the lethality of the Amelia Sword, the Missha Sword had a different advantage: it was an ice type.
Grieta.
An icy layer of ice formed over the wound. When I hit the same point again, the ice shattered and the giant took even more damage.
He hadn't even flinched when I was hitting him with my hammer.
Is this... what it feels like to be a DPS...?
I felt a fire light up deep in my heart.
«Behel-aaaaaah!» I roared, brandishing my swords frantically. Then, out of nowhere, a thought struck me.
One moment. As Missha she used two long swords and Amelia two daggers...
«Four Swords Style»? I murmured.
For some reason, Amelia's Sword turned its head to look at me with murderous intent. «...I will kill you».
So it was a cursed sword.
I was worried about what she might do after that ominous comment, but Amelia diligently ignited her aura to the beat of my punches and used her bare hands to attack whenever I got her close enough to the target.
One minute, two minutes, three minutes...
Uraaaaaah...
After receiving multiple stab wounds to the neck and heart...
¡Bum!
-the giant let out a moan as he finally collapsed, just forty seconds before Curl Up's cooldown clock reset to zero.
Giro.
I raised Amelia's Sword, intending to end this fight.
«...Why have you stopped?».
Amelia frowned at me when I suddenly froze halfway through the movement.
I didn't answer.
Something occurred to me just when I thought I had to kill her as soon as possible. In basement one there were two types of monsters: the normal ones, which released mana stones and essences, and the special ones, which left bodies when they died. Hipramajent was one of the latter.
But if you cast distortion magic on a monster that releases mana stones and essences, you can cause it to leave a corpse in its place.
Not even wizards could correctly explain how distortion spells worked. In the old days, when fire was discovered, all people knew was that when two flints collided, sparks flew, they didn't know why.
Which made me wonder.
What if we used distortion magic on a guy who already leaves a dead body?
It was definitely worth trying. Anyway, we had already obtained enough samples of the last body we found.
«Versyl! Launch Distortion!» I barked.
Less than a second later, a transparent layer of mana covered the giant's body. After confirming that the spell had been cast, I quickly brandished the Amelia Sword and the Missha Sword.
Stab!
When four swords simultaneously pierced his skin, the giant breathed his last before becoming limp. And then...
Destellum.
The giant's body turned into specks of light.
[Has matado a un Hippramajent.]
[No. 9999: Beginner's Luck has been activated.]
I didn't feel any flow of EXP in me as the Hipramajent's huge body dissolved into twinkling lights. However, something fell into the empty space he left behind.
Squeeze.
It was a huge mana stone the size of a fist. However, no one cared about that. What good was a mana stone when we were here?
«...It is an essence.»
«An essence!»
An essence had fallen.
Did Beginner's Luck work? I was just trying to check if the corpse disappeared or not, I didn't expect an essence to fall.
«All back!»
As my voice echoed on the battlefield, the hand-to-hand fighters approaching as if possessed immediately shuddered and retreated before the essence.
«N-No, I was just going to...»
«I do not care! Back!»
Thanks to my screams, the area around the essence quickly emptied. I took a moment to contemplate how to proceed. Although the essence was a welcome sight, it was also a bit disappointing.
No es... verde...
Since the Orc Hero's gigantization essence was green, there was a high probability that this essence was not gigantization.
Navy blue... It looks like it's Curl Up.
What should I do with this? Should I put it in a magic vial?
Damn. Giving it to Ainar would probably be the best option, but... I don't know what the liability is, so I don't totally agree with that idea either.
I have meditated on it. Curl Up would be a great skill for Ainar. Every barbarian warrior's biggest problem - not dying after jumping straight into danger - could be solved with this single ability.
And if I give it to Ainar, he would tell me what passives he has and let us also test the essence statistics...
Furthermore, once you reached the ninth stage of the Immortality Imprint, there was a cool combo that you could use with this ability. In that sense, if I had Ainar take it, I could save myself the cost of a magic vial on top of everything else.
Hmm, what to do?
«Ainar!»
«¿Sí?»
«Do you want this essence?» I asked for his opinion first and foremost, but his response was predictable.
«...I love her!»
«Even if we don't know what passive abilities he has or what stats you'll get?».
«Still! I still want it!»
I guess... if the passives and stats are bad, we can get rid of them in the temple later. And I have a suspicion or two about what liabilities he has.
«Alright, you can grab this one, then.»
«¡¿In series?!»
«Does anyone have a problem with that?»
I looked at the Armin Adventurer Group, as they were entitled to a third of the loot, but Myul Armin did not protest in the slightest.
«You choose first, Lord Baron».
«That's true».
«And even if it weren't like that, I would have told you to take it».
« ¿Hmm? »
«...We are not so shameless.»
Had his self-esteem plummeted without me realizing it? I had no idea, but since the owner of the essence was determined, I saw no reason to extend this any longer.
«Bjorn... W-Can I eat it now...?»
«Yes, go ahead».
When I nodded at him, Ainar ran excitedly towards the essence to absorb it.
[The Essence of Hipramajent has sunk deep into Ainar Fenelin's soul].
With that, Ainar Fenelin learned Curl Up.