Chapter 193: Realease From Impatience, Running With Impatience Part 2

Although the scene was quite shocking in its own right, the barnacles growing over the boss were somewhat lacking the glossiness that the seafood would usually have.

Honestly speaking, as someone whose father was a real nutjob when it comes to the idea of fishing, those barnacles were hardly classifying as ‘seafood’ for me. If anything, they were much closer to being a mere ‘bait’ in my book.

「…… Wait, is it even possible to eat barnacles in the first place?」

No, I don’t think it is? Or you’d have to take at least some part of them and cook it in a really convoluted way……Hm?

Looking around, I could see all of my party members looking at me as if I just said something incomprehensible. Or downright stupid. I could honestly even feel that the ‘Barnacle’ was looking at me dubiously as well.

「…… Sanraku-san, not to be rude, but you are probably the only person in this world who would genuinely think about trying to eat a barnacle.」

「I was thinking about that, but Sanraku. Are you perhaps the type who will eat anything, as long as it looks even slightly edible?」

「No, you see…… No matter how you look at this thing, it does not look like a real barnacle! So it must be something else! …… Yeah, something else for sure!」

But you can be damn sure that if an edible item drops from this boss, I’ll be the first one who will try to eat it. I can promise you that!

「Okay, without any further ado, let’s do this thing! Alva, let’s go!」

「Yeah!」

「Let’s start this battle with a bang! Hit it with the best shot you’ve got!」

「…… Yeah!?」

Don’t look so confused. If it really can nullify close-ranged attacks, we need to see if there is a limit to that nullification, and if we can still focus its aggro with short range attacks. It makes perfect sense.

「Come on now, let’s go! Let’s go! Don’t just stand there or you’ll be left behind!」

「Gah, fine then! You want brute force!? Brute force it is!」

「It’s the first time I see Alva being so agitated! You must have really gotten to him!」

「That he did! That he did! Nereis, if you’d please!」

「Of course…… ‘Deep Sea Fissure’.」

In the next moment, the blade of Alva’s thick sword stared to shine with a deep blue glow. And when the blade soared towards the body of the Barnacle faster than it could have possibly responded, a dull sound could be heard unlike anything we have all heard before.

It was not the sound of metal hitting against metal. It was not the sound of metal slicing flesh apart. It was more like the sound of metal object hitting against something extraordinary hard.

Of course, the sound indicated that a huge amount of damage was being dealt, but Alva’s attack did manage to reach the Barnacle’s body.

「So it works like the protection mechanism in close proximity……!」

「Uuueeeh, it looks like this thing is not messing around……」

Alva’s blade was on its way to slice the Barnacle’s face in half, but before it manage to make contact, something exploded in between the two objects, like a bomb. But it was not an actual bomb. It’s just that the barnacles proliferated at an astonishingly fast rate before Alva’s blade.

What an elaborate technique! So it works like a micro shield being deployed at the exact location where the foreign objects are supposed to make contact with the Boss itself.

However, it seems that Alva’s skill was not completely in vain. At least it looks like you can successfully aggro the boss with your normal attacks, judging by the fact that the Boss was on the move towards Alva, wanting to crush him with its bloated arm.

「Okay, it looks like getting through that is going to be quite literally impossible! Plan B it is! Alva, fall back for now!」

That was Plan A, during which we needed to estimate the distance at which the Barnacle nullifies physical attacks. And since it should be somewhat related to the Snail Knight, whose effective range of attacks was from five to eight meters, it could be estimated that the effective attack range for this here Barnacle would be from eight meters onward.

「Okay. Emul, Akitsu Akane, your time to shine!」

「Leave it to me! I shall do my best until my bones turn to dust!」

「Don’t you fucking dare to get into a situation where you’ll end up being crushed to dust!」

No, stop worrying, me. This is not me vs Silvia Goldberg anymore. Akitsu Akane and Emul know how to handle themselves, so they surely would not think of tanking attacks that would surely one-shot them. And speaking of one-shots, that arm is huge! Like holy sh*t! That would surely turn you into dust with only one attack!

「Okay now, Sickle, Alva! From now on we must do our best to grind this sucker into dust!」

「Yeah!」

「Are you sure you couldn’t have said it with a little bit more grace to it?」

「Let’s swat it down like a filthy fat fly it is!」

「I’m sorry! I’m sorry for saying anything!」