Chapter 209: Reaching the Heavens Part 15 Part 1

Rust fires a mighty blow from her bow. The arrow that she managed to shoot at the cost of breaking one of her bows cuts through the air in a straight line, landing right in the middle of Kutanid’s chest.

「…… No way! That arrow was supposed to pierce its heart for sure!」

「Sorry to say this, but I do not think that you will be able to pierce the muscles of such a giant mountain of flesh with a simple bow and arrow.」

Surely those muscles are not just for show. They must act like a sort of flesh armor, being impossible to penetrate by any normal means. If there is something that would be able to pierce through it, it would surely have to be a trump card in form of the ultimate offensive power attack. Fortunately both Rei and I have means to use such attacks, but for the time being let us stick to the basics here.

「Aim for its face, it is what I would like to say…… But first of all, aim for its legs! Once its down on the ground, then we all focus on the face! And for now we must figure out just what kind of attacks this thing is able to pull off!」

With an appearance that resembled a combination of gorilla, octopus and a bodhisattva, this form of Kutanid is probably the only one that possesses a physical body. In other words, this form was probably going to be all about good old fist fighting, with no strange gimmicks, reversal effects or tentacle smashes. It even said so itself: “Show me how you struggle!” This surely must be a challenge.

「Alright, I’m going to crush that stupid jaw of yours into million pieces!」

It is not yet the time to use my trump card, but in order to see how Kutanid behaves in a one-on-one fistfight, I needed some preparation. So I just activated Infight and closed the distance that was between us. In the meantime, I also equipped my Scorpion Gauntlets. Come on, Kutanid, you asshole! Let us punch the living crap out of one another!

VVVVVVVVVVVVOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

「Oguoh…… Nice, very nice! What a sonorous warcry!」

I can see a mighty straight punch coming my way, a punch that would normally be too fast to perceive or react to in any form of way. But if those last few battles taught me something, it is that everything is possible. In order to avoid that blow, I use one of my newest skills, Moment Site. Once I do that, it is as though the whole world slows down significantly. I did not really need to use that to avoid this, but I needed that for something else while I was at it.

As Rei mentioned before, she has a Tank skill that allows her to counter any physical attack right after that attack hits her…… I would like to imitate that somehow. I know that technically I have reached the limit by achieving Level Ninety Nine Extended, but I also know that limits exists in games to be surpassed. So it would not be all that utterly pointless for me, Sanraku, to try to learn the basic movements for a skill like that, even if I have stopped growing for the time being.

I stop the skill’s effect and regain my speed when the world around me goes back to normal. Normally that would cause some problems to my movements and coordination, but I did some secret training and now I was already used to that effect of sudden acceleration.

I twist my body, making a side step and shifting from Kutanid’s blow, activating my own Crystal Pillar at the same time. I then use my other gauntlet to completely knock Kutanid’s arm to the side, and them make a punch of my own. Upon impact I could feel a shockwave going throughout my entire body, accompanied by the feeling as though my arm was about to fall off. However, it was a clean and direct hit on my part and I could definitely feel it.

「You seem to have all basic hand to hand combat moves covered…… What other tricks are you hiding up your sleeve?」

Anyways, what’s the deal with that halo-like object and the jewels hanging from it? It is supposed to do something magical? Better be wary of that, or maybe even take measures to destroy the blasted things.

Perhaps my intention was written all over my face, because Kutanid roared loudly as it returned its fist back to a neutral position while shaking its body tremendously. In response to that, the ring that grew on its back…… Oh, wow. I only noticed that right now, but that ring was actually made out of bones, probably coming from some sort of a large monster’s rib cage. If so, then the only monster large enough to fit the description would be…… No, there is literally no point thinking about dead monsters.

The jewels attached to the ring shone brightly, and after a few seconds they started to float, separating from the ring. Then they move over the heads of everyone present here and stop all of a sudden.

「What the hell is this, that’s dangerous……」

「No wait, something’s not right here! It was too slow and there’s too much room to act around it! I don’t think that it would introduce an insta-death gimmick this late in the fight!」

「How can you know that!? It would be nice, but……!」

「---- ANALYSIS.」

Analysis? What is that? The pronunciation was a little bit off there, but…… No, for starters, why would Kutanid even have a move with such a strange name to it……?

The circle of light expands from the jewel and descends towards me, scanning my entire body as if it was trying to read some sort of data from my avatar. I could see that each and every other player was subjected to the same process.

Akitsu Akane and Sickle tried to do the most logical thing in response to that action and tried to bail out from the light circle, but I think that it is no use doing that. In my opinion once the light has shone on you, you cannot escape its effect, whatever it may be.

「Now then…… what comes next……?」

I have no idea just what kind of Analysis those jewels were conducting on us, but once they were all but done they all turned blue and returned to Kutanid. The jewels lodged themselves back onto Kutanid’s halo and after once more bright shine they went back to their original colors.

Could it be that the number of the jewels corresponds to the number of people in the players’ party? Or could it be that eight was its original limit? It is a boss monster, a Unique Monster at that, so the former was very much possible, but the latter was something that could not be denied either. Since it could have been something that only this octopus would have.

「---- REFLEXUS!」