Chapter 163: Disaster Pill Bug

Chapter 163: Disaster Pill Bug

A large black ball, the Disaster Pill Bug, rapidly closed in on us.

Its massive body made its attacks incredibly powerful, but that wasn’t all — the bug was extremely mobile. The combination of these two factors made it ridiculously difficult to deal with.

We’d already experienced the extent of this combination head on several times. We barely managed to dodge the bug’s attacks only to have it suddenly turn on the spot and fly in our direction on several occasions. We would’ve long been squashed if not for our ability to teleport.

One couldn’t even get away from the damn thing by taking to the air, as its Air Jump skill allowed it to chase its prey in all 3 dimensions.

Even more troublesome was the hardness of its shell. Poking at it with anything other than an all out attack would only leave it with a scratch. That would be fine and dandy and allow us to accumulate damage and all, if not for the fact that the insect could regenerate. Its defenses were as solid as Rynford’s.

And if you thought that was all, then boy, you’ve got a whole ‘nother thing coming. The Disaster Pill Bug was capable of throwing a counter with Vibration Strike the moment we tried to attack it. Its detection skills seemed to make it capable of figuring exactly when we were going to strike each and every single time.

It didn’t seem like we were going to beat the bug by kiting it and poking at it sporadically. In fact, we were racking up more damage than it was.

But that honestly just made things a lot simpler.

「Nn. Same as usual.」

We just had to do as we always did and finish it off with a single powerful blow.

「Master.」

『Roger.』

Transform was one of the skills I’d used the most in our exploration of Ulmutt’s Eastern Dungeon; I’d practiced it hundreds upon hundreds of times. The Katana form was one of the forms I’d assumed the most, and hence, I was now able to take it in an instant. I’d even become capable of maintaining it for an hour with relative ease.

「Master. Going.」

『Alright! Urushi, lure the boss real quick.』

「Ruff!」

We hid our presences as Urushi provoked the pill bug and got its attention.

The large black ball immediately turned in Urushi’s direction the moment he threw a spell at it. The wolf was in his larger form, but he still looked puny next to the giant pill bug regardless.Follow the latest novels at novelhall.com

「Grooowl!」

『Let’s finish it off!』

「Woof!」

The only problem was that the pill bug would likely rotate in much the same manner as it had earlier. It’d be pretty hard for Fran to attack the exact spot she was aiming for.

『Alright, here’s the plan. We’ll let Urushi attack immediately after he finishes one of those spins. It’s gotta take a good amount of force for him to spin like that, and he probably uses a tonne of magical energy every time, so he probably can’t do it in rapid succession.』

「Nn. Urushi, leave to you.」

「Woof!」

We kicked ourselves into gear so that we could bring the damned thing down. Urushi started spamming magic at it in order to draw its attention while Fran and I quietly awaited an opening.

It didn’t take long for opportunity to knock.

The pill bug emitted a bunch of magical energy in order to hunt down Urushi, but missed and crashed into yet another wall.

Fran immediately leapt at the pillbug, whose open wound just so happened to be facing us. Everything was perfect. All we needed to do was hit the damned thing one more time.

『Let’s do this!』

「Haaaah!」

We launched a second attack with everything we had behind it —

— Only to realize that we hadn’t grasped the full extent of the pill bug’s strength.

I’d thought that the tides of battle were in our favour and that victory would soon be in our grasp. In fact, I hadn’t just thought it. I’d been convinced of it by none other than the Disaster Pill Bug itself.

Sheet! How the hell!? I lost to a mere bug in a battle of wits!?

Something burst out from within the bug’s wound the moment Fran was about to slash it.

It lured us in and made sure to attack from a range at which we would be unable to avoid its strike. That said, it seemed that it’d been pushing itself, as its actions had caused its MP to plummet.

「Nraaah!」

『Sheettt!』

The insect compressed its magical energy and launched a projectile from within its broken carapace.

Our eyes were instantly filled with naught but a single flash of white.