Chapter ShangriLa Fronteir 194: Meaning of Climax Part 1

Evasion Tank. It is a job that the player can assume in order to be the shield that protects their party from the opponent’s damage. However, they employ their protection not by the art of soaking up damage, but rather focusing on evading it altogether.

When it comes to merits of a job like that, you only need a set of working legs in order to make this work. But when it comes to demerits, once you get hit at least once, it could be all over to you.

「Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!」

When I was starting out in this game, the Ninja class seemed to be really appealing on paper, since it naturally possessed many traits that the Evasion Tank would love to have in its kit. However, seeing that ShanFro’s system was really specific in some aspects, playing as a Ninja from the beginning would have been tremendously difficult and challenging. But now that I have acquired quite a lot of useful and wholesome skills, the Ninja class seemed to be less and less appealing to me by the day. Because on my own I came to possess some skills that were simply ideal for that kind of Tank.

「What’s wrong!? What’s wrong!? You’re not really all that fresh, huh!? Hey! Hey!」

Let’s talk about something different for a moment. The idea of ‘fishing’ for enemies, or should I say ‘baiting’? It was quite the elaborate system in this game…… Or maybe not? Was the ‘elaborate’ an appropriate word to use in here?

But at the same time, there is also a job called ‘Fisherman’ in this game. And apparently the trademark of this class is that it is being able of fishing for various kinds of fish right from the get-go, with as little as a basic fishing rod or even without it.

Salmon, sea serpents, lobsters, leviathans…… You name it, Fishermen can catch it. And switching fishing rods and baits to better, rarer versions only boosts the probability of catching more rare and expensive fish.

And if I can remember correctly, barnacles can be used as a bait for fishing…… So does that mean that this here ‘Barnacle’ could serve as bait as well?

「Uwah, won’t you look at that? Water shoots like jet pack propellant from it’s back!」

「Hyaaaaaahhhhh!? It’s coming this waaaaaay!?」

「Sure looks that way to me, watch out, everyone!」

So apparently it can also absorb the barnacles it generates and convert their energy into kinetic energy that enables it to swiftly move across the battlefield. It would also be wise to assume that it can change such energy in order to attack. It surely is a handy ability and one that you’d need to be wary about, but it has one distinct weakness. One that can be rather fatal.

Even if you were to suddenly cut the kinetic energy to zero, this does not mean that the object propelled by that energy is going to stop right away. That is why even if you are riding a car and you suddenly see a pedestrian right in front of you, even if you floor the breaks you will still travel some distance before you come to a stop…… Which is more often than not enough to send the pedestrian flying.

‘Barnacle’ was on a collision course with Alva, Sickle and I. It was only a matter of time before it slammed its body into us with full power. Which it did almost right away.

Apparently MP Recovery items and effect are unaffected by such things as monsters slamming into you, because Akitsu Akane used one of those at the last possible moment and shot a beam of energy from his mouth in order to make the impact less powerful than it could have been. It was a really surreal sight…… Are we even playing the same game here?

Ah, I bumped right into Sickle, it seems.

「Hooooooooouuuuuuhhhhhh!?!?」

「ONIIIIII-CHAAAAAANNNNNN!!!」

「I’m soooo sooooory!!」

I shall name this…… Apology Breath? Apology Gun? Sometimes it is really hard to decide on a proper name.

「I was afraid that it would be a whole lot harder than that, but with a party like that this boss turned out to be nothing more but a total pushover.」

「But you still have to hand it to it, it was quite fearless. It was really horrible……」

「Ahaha…… But the second half of the fight was really interesting in my opinion……」

In the end, it turned out that Snail Knight must have dropped that cutlass as some sort of event flag. But Barnacle only ended up dropping normal items and materials. There was nothing all that special to it.

And since our party was quite big to begin with, after splitting it all up the amount of items that a single person would receive was not all that impressive…… No, impossible, but what if, hmm.

「What’s the matter?」

「No, nothing. You see, I was just thinking.」

Oh well, there is nothing I can do about it right now, so I might as well save it for later? By the way, Emul watch out as to not hit your head.

With that, we have managed to take down three of the four bosses. That would leave only one more boss left to be slain. I wonder why those bosses nullify the things that they nullify and what will actually happen once we manage to defeat all of them? Honestly, I would like to go and defeat the last boss as soon as possible, preferably right now, but I know that I must be patient. Emul, watch it so that you don’t hit your head by accident.

Be that as it may, there is always the possibility that once the final boss is defeated, we’ll be locked into Kutanid battle without any means of actually preparing ourselves beforehand. Emul, I swear to God, if you bump yourself in that stupid head of yours……!

「What is it? Emul?」

「Above us ------!!!」

Above? As I lifted my head upwards, I could see something in between the bits of underwater snow that was falling down. Arctus Regalex, opening its huge jaw wide, was coming down right at Emul and I, apparently intent of eating us in one big swoop. Good thing that judging by its shadow, only Emul and I were within its reach. For now, at least.

「Oh sh*t, dodge ------!!!」

「PIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!」

Hollywood Jump, Hollywood Jump, god damn it! Judging from the perspective of the third party observer or the world itself, what I managed to do right now was a perfectly executed Hollywood Jump, one that could surely net me the nomination for the Academy Award, or maybe even the award itself.

The very next second there was a loud sound in the exact place where Emul and I were standing just a moment before, and the Arctus Regalex crashed into the ground with a loud roar, forced to accepted the full humiliation of being outwitted like that. If I were to name that action, it would certainly be something alongside the lines of Licking the Earth…… Hm? What was that? That’s not how the pecking order around these neck of the woods should go? No, I mean what are you even doing, mister? Licking the earth with your face like that? Are you mad?