Chapter 118: Embracing the Light of Ambition Part 4 Part 1

It was dark, even darker than the darkest night.

I imagine that the process of creating this thing was rather easy, since all you needed to do was to paint the whole thing black and be done with it.

「Luukan……!」

It was a chunk of data that was even more broken and terrifying than the Golden Scorpion. Even though it was a model made out of zeros and ones, the feeling of approaching death was so overwhelming that your whole body was feeling it all the way to its very core…… It felt as though you were just waiting for your own execution.

Even though I was way stronger than the day we first met and it put the curse marks on me, I could understand it in an instant: we couldn’t possibly win against that thing. It would be utter stupidity to think otherwise.

「KARORORORORORO……!」

Night Prowler Luukan emerged from the darkness of the night and gazed at us with its golden eyes, his jet-black body not making even the slightest move.

It looked at the members of the SF-Zoo calmly, then switched to Rei and eventually its gaze fell on me like an executioner’s blade.

After all, it wasn’t just a mindless monster. I assume that the AI steering its actions was as advanced as the ones animating the actions of the most advanced NPCs.

「Everyone, begin the operation! The strategy is the same as we agreed on! First, Anti-Dragon formation!」

As we were glaring at one another I realized that I readied my weapons out of reflex. If it wasn’t for Animalia’s sharp command, I would most probably have rushed towards this monster without thinking.

I was confident that I would be able to at least put up a decent fight, so the command issued to the members of SF-Zoo confused me greatly.

I don’t think they understand the gravity of the situation at hand. They needed to get the hell out of here before they were literally slaughtered.

「Sanraku-san.」

「Let’s put some distance between us. It is impossible to simply aggro this thing just like that.」

The battle hasn’t started yet. In terms of racing, we were still waiting at the start line for the green lights to light up.

Before the slaughter begins, we need to be as far from SF-Zoo and Lukaan as humanly possible……

「…… Are, are you sure about that?」

「Rei, do you have any experience with fighting Night Prowler?」

「About three encounters…… In all of which I got one-shotted instantly.」

Oh, you’ve encountered it even more than I did? Should I call you senpai then? Nah, forget about it for now.

「For me it was only once, but…… It was enough to understand that this beast will not simply go down without putting up quite a fight. I also don’t want to interfere and die because of SF-Zoo, so for now let’s just wait and see how the situation develops.」

Even against an entire raid team, I don’t think that Luukan will fall that easily. Besides, it was an opportunity for me to witness its battle style from an outsider’s perspective, so don’t mind me and just let it slaughter you all for my experience’s sake.

SF-Zoo. Seeing as they were experienced in catching formidable monsters, none of the party members seemed to have wavered in Luukan’s presence. They were all calm and composed.

「Let’s see, five tanks…… No way, please don’t tell me that all the rest are Debuffers!?」

And not your usual tanks, no less. Those guys were literal walls or even meat shields. With full body armor and tower shields in their hands, they seemed to have sacrificed every single fiber of offence in favor of defense.

They lined up in a single row, protecting the Debuffers like an insurmountable wall.

「This is SF-Zoo’s most basic formation and tactic. The tanks are just there to focus aggro on themselves and sponge all the incoming damage…… The Debuffers do all the real work.」

「I can’t imagine they are going to withstand attacks just like that…… Do they have some special skills that help them tank better?」

If you have five tanks, you can easily switch the one aggroing the attacks if you needed it. And when others are taking the damage, you can replenish your health and wait for your defensive skills to go off-cooldown.

Tanks focusing the aggro on themselves were a force that no monster could possibly ignore. And once they do that, the literal storm of debuffs will follow suit from behind them…… It was surely a poor boss subjugation strategy, focused more on catching your prey alive rather than finishing it off.

「But, that’s about it.」

「???」

For some extent such a strategy will surely work…… But there are so many more elements that you need to be aware of when it comes to enemies, not to mention that their mobility is pretty much non-existent at this point.

「Wow, this is going to turn really ugly really fast.」

Night Prowler is as cunning as any player out there. It wasn’t a bad idea for SF-Zoo’s tanks to scatter slightly to avoid being taken out all at once like bowling pins. It might have worked wonders against any other monster. But not against Luukan.