Chapter 1-16 : To The Battle (part 3)
As we feared, the boss was trying to escape. However, it didn’t know that we, the third squad, were about to ambush it.
「I’ll hold it down as long as I can! You guys know what to do!」(Third Squad Captain)
「「Aye, Sir!」」(third squad members)
Following the captain, we got out of our hiding place and faced the boss.
The boss looked surprised when it saw us, but it was too late for it to change direction because it was already in the captain’s aggro skill range.
「Come at me you foul creature!」(Third Squad Captain)
GRAAAAAAAAー!!
As soon as the captain activated his skill, the taunted giant wolf opened its mouth wide and jumped at him.
It was trying to bite the captain to death, but he blocked its sharp fangs with his huge shield.
As expected from the boss, its strength was incomparable to its minions. The captain was blocking with his shield, but the giant wolf was still able to push him backward little by little.
「ーGuuhhhh!! It’s much stronger than I expected!」(Third Squad Captain)
However, the captain didn’t give up. He put strength in his legs and tried to hold the boss with all his might.
I couldn’t afford to miss this chance. While the captain was keeping the boss under control, I activated my【Sever】skill and noticed some red lines appearing all over the boss’ body.
I saw one on its neck, which would be my target to hit!
I unsheath my wakizashi, dashed forward, and swung my blade, hitting the red line perfectly.
Howeverー
「Ehh!?」(Alice)
I thought I cut off its head, but I barely made a cut on its neck.
I have beheaded many monsters with this technique and have never failed before. Not just power, this boss monster was clearly much superior to its minions in terms of defense as well.
It’s a boss monster, of course, it can’t be defeated that easily. I underestimated it too much…
Noticing me trying to kill it, the boss glanced at me menacingly while still biting on the captain’s shield.
I felt a strong killing intent coming from it.
This is bad! It’s gonna kill me!
「Watch out!」(Warrior)
The giant wolf raised its left hind leg and curved its body sideways, trying to kick me, but the warrior guy quickly dashed toward me and shoved me away.
As a result, the one who received the boss’ powerful kick was him.
「Gaaahh!!」(Warrior)
The sharp claws on the boss’ foot were pushed deeply into the guy’s stomach and brutally scratched him before he was blown a few meters away.
「Holy shit! Hang in there, dude!」(Healer)
Seeing his squad mate was heavily injured, the healer immediately approached the warrior guy who was lying on the ground groaning.
「Ugh, that bastard almost instant-killed me! Hurry up! I got ‘bleeding’ debuff!」(Warrior)
「I’m on it! You only have less than five percent HP left, and it keeps decreasing because of the bleeding. The debuff is too strong. I can’t cleanse it with my skill, so it’s gonna take a while.」(Healer)
「Dammit!」(Warrior)
Apparently, the ‘bleeding’ debuff from the boss was so powerful that the healer couldn’t cleanse it. He didn’t have a choice but to continue healing the warrior guy to keep him alive until the debuff duration ended.
The warrior guy was still alive thanks to the healer’s swift action, but it seemed that he wouldn’t be able to fight for a while.
If it wasn’t for him, I would be the one lying there helplessly.
「Th, thank you for saving me! Are you gonna be alright?」(Alice)
「Don’t mind me! Focus on the boss!」(Warrior)
He’s right. I have to do something with this giant wolf.
I stood up and turned to the boss.
「【Shock Bolt】!」(Magician)
「【Tempest Shot】!」(Archer)
The magician and the archer are currently attacking the boss, but they barely even decrease its HP.
None of our attacks could kill it. We had no choice but to wait until the first and the second squad came, but…
「Guuuhhhhhh…!!」(Third Squad Captain)
The captain might not make it. The boss would likely defeat him before the other squads came.
I need to do something, but… what else can I do? I barely even grazed its neck with my attack.
「Alice-san, its legs! I’ll boost your speed, so aim for its legs!」(Bard)
While I was thinking, the bard buffed me, increasing my overall stats, especially my AGI.
「Its legs?」(Alice)
I moved my gaze and saw the red lines on each of the boss’ legs.
That’s right!
The boss kept pushing the captain backward. At this rate, it would eventually blow the captain away, so the best thing I could do was to make it lose its balance.
I held my weapon tightly and dashed forward, aiming for the boss’ left foreleg.
As expected, it noticed me and immediately tried to attack me.
This time, it swung its big tail sideways, trying to hit me with it, but thanks to the buff from the bard, I could move more swiftly and successfully dodged it by sliding under it before it hit me.
I kept sliding toward the wolf’s left foreleg and hit the red line on it with my blade.
「Hya!」(Alice)
The boss was so strong that I couldn’t cut its leg off even with buffed overall stats.
I could only make about a ten-centimeter deep cut on its huge leg, but I could tell that it did some damage because the leg was shivering.
「One more time! Hya!」(Alice)
Realizing it wasn’t enough to take the boss down, I quickly turned toward the left hind leg this time and cut the red line on it.
Now that two of its legs were wounded, the giant wolf started to lose its balance, but the big monster refused to give up. It was still standing even with shaky legs.
「【Lighting Spear】!」(Magician)
「【Gale Arrow!】」(Archer)
However, the magician and the archer knew what to do. They immediately shot their spell and arrow and hit both of the boss’ wounded legs at the same time.
As a result, the boss finally fell down onto the ground.
「Phew! Well done!」(Third Squad Captain)
We managed to give the captain the time to take a breather, but that didn’t mean that we won because the boss was still alive.
It violently moved its legs, trying as best as it could to get up, but before it could do itー
「【Shield Stun】! 」(Leader)
ーThe first and the second squads came.
「Third Squad, good work preventing it from getting away! Now it’s time to finish it off!」(Leader)
「「HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAー！！！」」(players)
At the leader’s command, all the players began to attack the helpless giant wolf simultaneously.
Blades, hammers, fire, lightning, wind, arrows, and other various attacks were coming at the swarm boss at once.
GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAー!!
After screaming in pain while being bombarded with attacks from the players for about a minute, the giant wolf finally lost all of its HP and died.
It then disappeared into thin air, leaving a huge treasure box behind. At the same time, all the raid members received some Skill Points as rewards.
「We… We did it!」
「We beat the bossー No, we beat the entire swarm!」
「This is awesome!」(players)
As they saw the boss disappear, everyone started shouting in joy.
「Excellent job, everyone! We are victorious!」(Leader)
「「UOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!」」(players)
It was a long battle, but we managed to defeat all the monsters including the boss before the sun went down.
ーーーーー
It was getting dark, and some players had already called carriages to transport them back to Erst Town. Some others decided to explore the southern area for a while.
Speaking of which, in this game, our virtual body will remain in place if we log out outside safe areas. We don’t know what will happen to it while we are offline, so it’s better to go back to a town or village before logging out.
「Well then, thank you for today, guys. It was fun.」(Warrior)
The warrior guy was nearly killed, but he managed to witness our fight until the end.
After chilling and having conversations for a while, we decided to part ways.
「Yeah, it was fun. Again, thank you for saving me back then.」(Alice)
「Haha! Don’t mention it. Saving a cute girl is my duty as a gentleman. I’m going now. May we meet again someday. Adios, folks!」(Warrior)
The warrior guy turned around and made a peace sign before he left.
「He’s still trying to look cool until the end.」(Magician)
「What a guy. I kinda like him though.」(Archer)
「Seriously… By the way, I’m going to hunt some monsters around here for a while.」(Magician)
「I’m coming with you.」(Archer)
「Well then, I’m going back to town. See you guys around!」(Bard)
「I’m outta here too. See ya~」(Healer)
「Ou! Let’s play together again someday!」(Third Squad Captain)
The other third squad members left, leaving me and the captain.
While we were seeing them off, the leader and Eclair approached us.
「Yo! You guys Third Squad really did a great job today. The boss would have been escaped if it wasn’t for you.」(Leader)
「Well, I was just holding it down as much as I could. The real champs are the other members, especially this girl. She’s much stronger than she looks.」(Third Squad Captain)
Saying that, the captain glanced at me and smiled.
「Hoho~ I see.」(Leader)
「Fufu. I didn’t know you were that strong. Say, Alice-chan, were you having fun today?」(Eclair)
「Of course! It was my first raid, but I had a lot of fun! Thank you for letting me join!」(Alice)
「No, no. Thank YOU for joining.」(Leader)
「I’m glad you had fun! Oh, right. By the way, Alice-chan, have you joined a clan yet? If you don’t mind, do you want to join our clan? A strong player like you is always welcome!」(Eclair)
「Join your clan…?」(Alice)
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