Chapter 207: Reaching the Heavens Part 13 Part 2

「What’s that? You want to eat some yakiniku? Is that it?」

「Akitsu Akane, now you get a grip!」

For some bizarre reason I was also feeling like I wanted to laugh. But the moment I have seen the change undergoing in Kutanid, I knew that it was not the reason for why I was laughing…… It was because all the people around me were running around with panic in their eyes, acting like headless chickens. I screamed at everyone while readying my weapon and taking a battle stance:

「Everyone! Ready your weapons and brace yourselves! Eyes at the back of your head!」

If you were to compare that event that was happening right before our very eyes to something, seeing how Kutanid’s flesh was being sucked suck into itself and then expanding like that, there was only one thing that was coming to mind. A terror from deep space, an occurance that that swallows up stars and planets and even devours light…… a black hole. After the shrinking and compressing was finally done, what was left was the Kutanid black hole with dozens of magic circles starting to appear all over it.

And while I am no magic users and by no means I am familiar with how magic and magic circles in particular are supposed to work, the way in which they were currently glowing and their symbols were strangely familiar to me. To be more exact, it looked very similar to that one particular magic ability that small and vaunerable creatures like Vorpal Bunnies or Cait Seith possessed……

「STRUGGLE IS THE ESSENCE OF LIFE, LIFE IS LIKE THE CONSTANT GOING AGAINST THE CURRENT.」

It looks like Kutanid managed to get his very own version of skill “Random Encounter”. But with this, I don’t think that there was anything “Random” to it and it has nothing to do with “ennounter” of any sorts. Oh, and instead of one, there were like thirty magic circles that were activating right about now.

How can I even describe this? In a nutshell, this is hell. Literally every monster possible from the underwater city was now present in here.

「This feels like a mixture of horror game with a hunting game and zombie apocalypse game!」

「We’re gonna die! We’re gonna die! We’re gonna die! We are all going to die!」

「Stop your bitching, you’re a Vorpal Bunny for fuck’s sake! Now let’s focus on that incoming monster train!」

As I said that, the hoard of the rotten fish-people and giant fish started to run in our direction, causing us to start to run away for our lives.

There is something in the gaming terminology as “Monster House”. It is a kind of trap that is common in dungeon exploration and it describes a situation when a mass of monsters flood the chamber and you cannot exit the chamber unless you clear the entire mass of monsters first. There are many types of Monster houses, with the two most popular types being a swarm of lower level monsters and a few powerful monsters whose levels even exceed the number that the players may have. It seems that Kutanid is taking advantage of both of those types.

For convenience’s sake let’s call that ability “True Random Encounter” for now. It was an ability that employed magic in order to fill in the Coliseum with a huge numbers of monsters. Thus our current predicament where we would face off against the literal zombie fish horde. Just like in some cheap horror movie.

「…… What the hell is that?」

「Looks like a “Summon Friends” command to me!」

「…… Alright! Mold, you take care of support!」

「On it!」

I’m truly glad that there is at least one fellow gamer here who can understand my train of thoughts. Then I look at Akitsu Akane, who looked helluva confused. “Kutanid has friends?” that’s what his current expression was like to me. You gotta admire the fact that he can be seriously oblivious like that on a daily basis.

「Rei! I’ll try to focus the aggro of this big thing onto myself! You take care of all of the small fries!」

Thinking about a meaning behind Kutanid’s actions, calling your friends for help to battle is something only a wounded monster would do. It’s not that uncommon for boss monsters to be able to do that as well, but not in such quantities and only to devour them indiscreetly.

If so, those monsters are not simple mobs, but the “blood”, “bones” and “flesh” that Kutanid was talking about. So apparently Kutanid’s dialogue pieces were part of the bigger game lore, as well as hints towards the next gimmick of the form that was coming.

Good thing that Kutanid’s lines were written in a modern language, albeit needlessly esotheric and convoluted. If we analyze it for some time, we are going to find the answer eventually. It said it had no blood so it wanted blood. And with delusions turning into facts, fantasies begin to gather and turn real through the means of virtual reality.

What is important here is not the overall meaning, but the specific words that are appearing. “Delusion”, “fantasy”, “virtual”, “imagination”…… If we think about it in terms of the battle so far, it might be possible to assume that this octopus would have five forms in total. So the current form should be the “virtual” one.

「Emul, I will try to get the incoming monsters to go after me. Then you attack them. If possible, try to get rid of as many as you possibly can while you’re at it.」

「R-Right.」

Ask for flesh and blood, and flesh and blood you shall receive, apparently. Not to mention that the final form was most probably on its way here. Maybe now would be the time to star fitting in all the pieces of the puzzle. Kutanid has given us enough hints as it is.

「PROCEED WITH AN UNWEAVERING HEART, AND THERE WILL BE NO HEIGHTS THAT YOU CANNOT REACH.」

Fight without giving up. Without giving it everything you have got you won’t be able to beat Kutanid. That is the only way to take down things that stay high in the sky, way out of reach. Or maybe getting rid of the tentacles would do the trick? In getting it down to the ground, I mean?

「BELIEVE IN YOURSELF, AND YOUR RESOLVE SHALL NOT SHAKE EVEN IN THE FACE OF MOST POWERFUL OF ADVERSITIES.」

Eight chalices, eight lights and eight powers associated with them. No matter what kind of power it was, none of it was affecting Kutanid itself. And no matter what we were doing or what was happening, Kutanid kept on fighting until off of its chalices were finally broken.

But if so, what does the previous words of Kutanid even mean? Struggle is the essence of life, life is a constant going against the current?

If you want struggle then we are struggling against a current alright. Against a current of monsters, that is! Although our current actions would not exactly fit the definition of going against the current, but much rather trying to run away from the current.

Thinking about it calmly, it becomes apparent that Kutanid did not transform into a literal black hole. It was something that was more resembling an opened mouth. Could it be that it decided to ask for a food delivery at the last possible moment?

「Then we all know what it is that we must do.」

Reduce the amount of smaller monsters that go into that thing’s mouth, in order to prevent it from becoming full. Apparently this form is all about us being able to reduce the power and HP potential of the form that comes after that.