Chapter ShangriLa Fronteir 194: Meaning of Climax Part 2

No, something’s not right here. Why did it hit the ground so hard?

But anyways, we know that this thing is not friendly. That being said, I take out my weapons and prepare myself to rush into action, when……

GOOONNN!!!

「Heee」

Good thing that this game regulates the gore factor. That way, no matter how you brutalize the enemy or your fellow players, there will be hardly any blood to be seen, you won’t be able to see any cross sections of flesh and bones and there will be no innards spilling all over the ground.

However, I was sure of this one thing: right about now the head of Arctus Regalex was being crushed flat by a tremendous shock from above, caused by the weapon that looked strangely like an oversized sledgehammer. Of course, the one holding such a monster of a weapon was none other than our good old Saiga-0, wearing a demon-like armor and accompanied by the effect resembling steam erupting from it, even from the helmet.

I gazed at Saiga-0 looking like that……

「Finally found you……!」

「Kyu……」

Hey, wasn’t that the same kind of reaction that Emul did once he learned I wanted to go and face off against Gravekeeper Wezaemon? The one that was so over the top that it was actually quite entertaining? Why would he react like that right now?

To be perfectly honest I was more surprised than scared here, especially since I would not pin in on Rei to do something so gory and over the top for an entrance. But more than anything, I was feeling relief right now. Something alongside the lines of “Ah, she’s finally here”.

「H-Hello there, Rei……」

「………」

W-Why the silent treatment all of a sudden? The way Rei was behaving right now and the way in which she manhandled the Arctus Regalex just now made her look like some overly edgy boss character from a B-rate movie or game. And now it was even more ridiculous, because Arctus Regalex finally died, exploding into a geyser of polygons.

The sight of Rei standing in the rain of red polygons that once made Arctus Regalex was so overwhelming and shocking that for a good moment out there none of knew how we were supposed to react to that. Just then Rei put the hammer back into her inventory, took a step back, and……

「I am truly…… SO TERRIBLY SORRY!」

She bowed down so deeply that she almost hit the ground with her forehead.

Oh, oh yeah. I guess I should say something here, right?

「Oh, so I see I was right. You had some urgent business to take care of in real life.」

「I am so terribly sorry about that…… I was unable to contact any of you for the last five days……」

So it must mean that whatever it was that Rei was taking care of in real life, it must have been some serious business. Especially since it was making her unable to log in even for a moment and to read on the situation, even in the evenings or at night.

On the other hand, once Rei rose her head and calmed herself down, I was able to ask her if she would like to participate together with us in the final battle on the seventh day here.

「Yes, that would be great! Please let me do it! There’s no problem with that!」

「I, I see.」

「Yes, that’s right. Obstacles… all of them………… I mean, I have taken care of everything that needed being taken care of.」

Oh, I see, that’s cool. But although Rei’s voice was the same as usual, a gentle female voice, for some reason her words just now made a chill run down my spine. I wonder what’s up with that?

「…… Sanraku, I have a suggestion. May I?」

「Hm?」

「It seems that all of the players have assembled here right now.」

「Yes, that’s right.」

「If so, why not challenge the fourth boss right here right now? There’s nothing that would prevent us from doing so anymore.」

「…… Seriously?」

No, but that might actually be a really good idea. Because we do not know how long it’s going to take us to defeat Kutanid, if we go to battle it too late, we might get forcefully evacuated from this underwater city if we run out of time.

And it that is the case, then the proposition of going to fight the fourth boss a well as Kutanid right here right now is actually the best possible course of action.

While I think about that, I take a look at the faces of all people gathered around me in this moment. After that, making a decision was only a matter of a few seconds.

「…… It’s true that I want to have a go at Kutanid at best possible conditions for us. But at the same time I don’t want us to go fight it as we are, without proper preparations. So here’s what we are going to do: we go and we fight the fourth boss. If it takes us straight to Kutanid after its defeat -- then fuck it, that’s what we are going to do. But if nothing happens, we are going to fight Kutanid during the seventh day, as early as possible. Any objections?」

There were no objections at all. And with the addition of Rei, our battle party was now officially completed. That being said, we went towards the fourth and the final tower where the last boss - ‘Married Couple’ - would await us……

How would you define a cripple?

Nowadays it can very well be a term used to define a person who sacrifices every moment possible from the interactions with the real world on something else. In this sense: gaming.

What is even a cripple?

A cripple is someone who, willingly or not, has reached the maximum limits allowed by the system.

What is even a cripple?

As far as our strategy for this boss was concerned, I have decided to leave it all to that one person so that the others could see that she was the real deal. That should be more than enough to beat it.

If so, then what is it that the cripples possess that makes them such a threat? Of course: it’s brute power.

「Physical attacks…… Are hardly doing any damage here.」

There are three way in which you can activate magic in ShanFro.

First in chanting the incantation and then releasing the spell that you have memorized within you. The number of spells that you can memorize is dependent on your skill levels. However, there are not all that many people in this game that can cast complex or powerful spells one after another that way…… And apparently the most mainstream way of spellcasting is to use spell books during battle, like the one that Mold has on him.

Next we have casting the spell with omission of the chant, which is probably the most popular way of spellcasting in this game. Although the speed of spellcasting increases tremendously, the power of the spells will decrease accordingly. The one to use that method are hybrid of mages and warriors, who focus on the offense but do not possess stats that would allow them to utilize spells potential to their full extent.

And finally, we have a proxy activation via a magic scroll. Although spells like that are weaker than normal ones, they can be cast by almost anyone, even a monkey, as long as they have enough MP to activate the spell. Generally speaking scrolls are best effective when using non-offensive spells, such as teleportation and the like.

「‘O the fierce flame, grand roar of heat that dwells in the beast’s throat. Thou art the great tusks of the beast that looms in the darkness. Violet eyes that stalks their prey, sends shivers down the spines and sinks the fangs of fear into the tender flesh. O the fierce flame, become the grand beast and rage on! BEAST DOOM FLAIR!!!」

And there is also that. A technique that is accordingly called ‘Complete Memorization’. I don’t know how some people manage to do that, but I know I would not be able to chant an incantation like that properly without biting my tongue at least once or mixing some of the words. Especially since some of them were repeating themselves quite often. And all that in the middle of the battlefield, with dangerous enemies being on our asses.

The Oni Armor places her hand over one of the faces of the ‘Married Couple’, and in the next moment a raging firestorm erupts from her hand. That firestorm takes shape of a huge fiery beast that will keep on raging about for as long as Rei’s MP bar would allow it. It raises its mouth and lets out a grand roar, one that could surely heat up the atmosphere itself.

In the next moment, the fiery beast sinks its fangs into the boss’s upper half, almost splitting it in half. I see, so that kind of attack technically does not count as physical attack, so it gets the job done. With the extreme heat burning its body and evaporating it, the boss monster lets out a tremendous scream that reverberates throughout the arena.

「It’s really convenient that they are of one set…… Emul, aim for the throat!」

「‘MAGIC EDGE!!’」

Emul’s attack hit the ‘husband’ right where it should have, and as a result it stopped moving altogether. Then Emul fired another shot, this time aimed at the ‘Wife’s’ throat. He transitioned to the next target so smoothly, as if he did not wanted to miss this opportunity.

The icing on the cake was the magical arrow fired off by Rust, which managed to finish the job alongside Rei’s fiery beast. All of that combined, it was a force that was simply too much for the boss monster to handle.

「Beware of the cripples.」

In the world of the MMORPGs, where everyone can proclaim that they are the protagonist of the story, there is only one thing that can be called absolute: power. And if there was one thing that could be called absolute power, it was the skill ‘Maximum Firepower’.

And as to its efficiency…… suffice to say that with the addition of only one person to our party, we managed to clear that last boss WAY faster than the other three.

And just like that, all of the four bosses - the Sea Kings - were defeated……