STGB Episode 527

Giant Island (6)

BOOM—! BOOM—! BOOM—!

As if the black orbs weren’t bad enough, I’m stuck to his body, causing the Hipramagent to lose his balance and fall forward.

Boom—!

Another cloud of dust rose from the impact.

[Uoooooooh-!]

“Bethel—raaaaaaa!!”

In the midst of the chaos, I struck him in the back of the head with my hammer, grabbed his ankle and slammed him into the ground again—doing everything I could to stop him from getting back up.

“Wh-What kind of fight is this…?”

“Armin, can we even help?”

“Let’s just watch for now…”

How long had I been stuck in this dogfight?

「Erwin Fornacci di Tercia has cast[Focused Shot].」

A bright light engulfed the tip of Erwin’s arrow.

After summoning the Spirit King, her MP was drained, activating the Chaos Circuit. And based on the intensity of the light, a whole minute has passed.

Swoosh

She released the arrow, and for a brief moment the whole world turned white

And…

Bullseye.

Right in the center of the giant’s head.

The light had cut a straight hole in its head, where its brows should have been.

“…Did we finish it?”

But like the gaggle of explorers watching from a safe distance, I didn’t let my guard down.

We still don’t know anything about its passives.

There are monsters out there that survive even with their heads cleanly cut off.

“It’s moving…!”

Hah, I figured

[Uoooooooh—!!]

The giant, now with a hole in its head, let out a pained roar and crouched on the ground.

The same position it was sleeping in when we first saw it earlier.

Thanks to that, I managed to learn another one of its skills.

Sadly, it’s not a passive skill, but……

「The Hipramagent has cast[Crouch].」

Who would’ve thought he had this skill?

First, I quickly gave the order.

“Stop attacking!”

The reason was simple.

Attacking it in this state would only hurt us.

「All of its resistances increase by 20x for 3 minutes.」

「Its Natural regeneration increases by 20x for 3 minutes.」

「Until the end of combat, all of its stats increase relative to the damage absorbed while crouching.」

Basically a near-invincibility skill.

It’s essentially the same [Crouch] that ogres use, one of their active skills that makes Ogre Raids such a pain.

But when used by tanks, it has a fatal flaw.

Although [Crouch] is undoubtedly an S-tier survival skill…

When a tank wakes up from it, there’s no guarantee that his allies are still alive.

Of course, monsters were an exception to this.

One minute, two minutes…

As time passed, the hole in his head gradually filled with new flesh.

And when exactly three minutes had passed…

The Hipramagent slowly rose from its crouched position.

All of his visible wounds had completely regenerated.

[Uoooh…!!]

The giant, now awake, tried to run away again.

But…

‘Not a chance.’

The shackles I had clamped around its ankles while he was crouching.

The bindings from the mages and sorcerers.

And my relentless interference – every time he tried to escape, I blocked him again and again.

Boom!

The Hipramagent gave up trying to escape and charged at me, as if to say ‘Me or you, buddy’.

Finally, it began to resemble a proper raid.

Perhaps because my threat level had risen during this fight, his aggro was finally locked at me

“Attack!”

Dozens of explorers began pouring damage from their respective formations, and the giant retaliated with its own array of active skills.

[Hipramajent has cast [Apocalypse Roar]

[Hipramajent has cast [Gravity Field]

According to the village chief’s book, these were AOE and crowd control skills.

We had prepared countermeasures in advance, so there were hardly any casualties.

Whoooosh-!

The meteorites falling from the sky were blocked by the mages’ barriers.

And the Gravity Field which sucked his enemies into his reach at a certain probability, was negated by the front liners, who were saved by those behind them whenever they were pulled in.

「Myul Armin has cast [Hyper-sensitive Skin]」

「The Damage taken by the target is increased by 30%.」

「Jackson Janville has activated [Moving Target].」

「Attacks against moving targets deal 3x damage on the next hit.」

「Nua Merboci has activated [Precision Shot]…」

「……」

After over ten minutes of dozens of people beating him with attacks, the giant pulled out another new skill.

But again, not a passive…

「The Hipramajent has activated [Body Compression].」

A transformation skill.

Unlike [Gigantification], this level 3 skill shrinks your body by half while granting additional stat bonuses proportional to size.

‘Even at this size, he is bigger than me.’

However since I had experimented with the combination of [Gigantification] and this skill before, countering it wasn’t too difficult.

“Stop attacking”

The best strategy to deal with this skill is simply not to engage.

Unlike [Gigantification], this skill had a fixed duration.

Kwaaaaang-!

His fists, now twice as strong and fast.

But I had all melee fighters fall back and faced it alone.

Crunch-!

Each blow shattered my bones, but…

Swoooosh—!

Now, our expedition had healers.

A priest and a healing mage.

With both of them focused on me, and the Barbarian’s special stat ‘Restoration’ boosting all incoming heals, my body was healing almost in real time, even though it was brutally shattered.

Of course, the searing pain was another matter.

“Gaaaaaah!!”

But I gritted my teeth. Sometimes you just endure.

「[Body Compression] has been deactivated.」

Eventually, his ‘berserk pattern’ ended and his body returned to its normal size.

The close combatants rushed forward again, attacking relentlessly.

Kuuung-!

Finally, one of his ankles was completely shattered, and he fell to his knees. From there, the close combatants seized the opportunity and targeted his vital points.

The giant suffered an almost fatal blow.

“It’s almost done!”

“Don’t let your guard down until the end!”

The tide was clearly turning in our favour, and the explorers were beginning to feel confident of victory, but I was feeling anxious.

It had been 25 minutes already.

‘[Crouch] has a 30-minute cooldown.’

In just five minutes, he would use [Crouch] again.

And we’d have to repeat this all over again…

At that point, the raid would effectively be a failure.

With our MPs already stretched thin, it would take much longer to lower his HP again.

‘At least we learned we don’t have enough DPS to finish it quickly, so next time we’ll definitely prepare more… but still, it’s frustrating to fail here.’

But failing like this was still frustrating.

Should I use that?

It didn’t take me long to make up my mind, and I was even quicker to take action.

“Misha! Emily! Fusion!”

Unfortunately, the two currently competing for top melee DPS in our team didn’t understand what I meant.

“…Huh? F-Fusion?”

Misha, holding a longsword in each hand, looked confused, while Amelia stared at me from a distance with a look that basically said, “What nonsense is he spouting?”

Tch, they should’ve understood immediately.

“Never mind, just come here!”

At least they stopped what they were doing and ran over when called.

Actions speak louder than words.

You can’t grab something new if your hands are already full.

So I tossed aside my hammer and shield.

“Huh?”

“What are you doing…?!”

With my freed hands, I grabbed Misha and Amelia around their waists.

Then…

Swoosh.

I took my stance as if each of them were a sword in my hands.

I call this Barbarian Samurai Mode.

“Jandel… you’re not seriously…!”

Amelia seemed to guess my plan.

“Just keep your aura up. I’ll do the rest.”

“Stop it! That’s ridiculous—!”

“Misha, you too—keep a good grip on your blade.”

“Uh? O-Okay!”

Perfect. I’d gotten their approval.

I began wielding Misha-sword and Amelia-sword.

Why couldn’t they land critical hits before?

Because the giant was so big they could only stab at its legs.

But now…

‘This changes everything.’

Thunk-!

The Amelia Sword, held in my right hand, dug deep into the giant’s flesh. Though the dagger was short, the extended aura made up for it.

And it wasn’t the only sword.

Ssshk-!

Misha Sword, held in my left, slashed across the giant’s neck.

Though its cutting power was inferior to Amelia Sword, Misha Sword had its own advantage.

Misha had an ice attribute.

Crackle—

A layer of frost spread over the wound. Hitting the same spot again shattered the ice and widened the wound further.
A creature that barely flinched when I used my hammer was now…
‘Is… is this how a real DPS fights…?’
Something hot rose from deep in my gut.
“Behel—raaaaaaaa!!”
Wait, Misha has dual swords, Amelia has dual daggers, so…

“Four-sword style…?”

I muttered, and for some reason, Amelia-sword radiated a killing intent toward me.

“…I will kill you.”

Tch, a cursed sword, huh?

Though I was worried about the aftermath, Amelia diligently activated her aura in sync with my swings, and used her hands to attack whenever I got her close enough to the target.

One minute, two minutes, three minutes…

[Uoooh…]

After taking multiple hits to his heart and neck-

Boom-!

The giant finally collapsed to the ground with a deafening crash.

With about 40 seconds left until [Crouch]’s cooldown ended.

Swish.

I hurriedly swung the Amelia Sword to finish him off.

“…Why did you stop?”

When my hand stopped, Amelia expressed her confusion.

I didn’t respond.

“…….”

Just as I was about to deliver the final blow, a thought occurred to me.

The first underground floor had two types of monsters.

Normal monsters that dropped magic stones and essence.

And special monsters that left behind corpses when slain.

The Hipramagent belonged to the latter.

But…

‘If you cast Distortion Magic on monsters that drop magic stones and essence, there’s a chance they’ll leave a corpse.’

Even mages couldn’t fully explain the principles behind Distortion Magic.

Just as people in ancient times knew that smashing two flint stones together would produce fire- they didn’t know why.

Which made me think

‘What happens if you cast Distortion Magic on a monster that already leaves a corpse?’

It seemed worth experimenting.

We already had plenty of samples from its corpse anyway.

“Versil, cast Distortion Magic!”

I quickly gave the order, and soon, a transparent membrane enveloped the giant’s body.

After confirming the spell had been cast, I swung boththe Amelia Sword and the Misha Sword simultaneously.

Thunk-!

The moment all four blades pierced deep, the giant, which had been breathing heavily, went limp.

And then…

Swoosh—

The giant’s body dissolved into a swirling light.

***

「The Hipramagent has been defeated.」

「No.9999 Beginner’s Luck has been activated.」

Immediately after the Hipramagent’s massive body vanished into light…

The feeling of gaining experience didn’t come.

Instead, something fell from the empty air.

Tok.

A magic stone the size of a fist.

But no one paid it any attention.

Who cared about a mere magic stone?

“…It’s essence.”

“It’s essence…!”

An essence dropped.

Could it be that the beginner’s luck had been activated?

I only wanted to see if the body would disappear, but I didn’t think that an essence would drop as well.

“Everyone, fall back!!!!!”

My shout made the close combatants, who had been attracted to the essence flinch and retreat.

“I-I was just trying to get a closer look…”

“Just fall back!”

Thanks to my shout, the area around the essence quickly cleared. And I took a deep breath to calm myself and think this through.

The essence was a welcome sight, but I was a bit disappointed.

‘It’s not green…’

Since the Ogre Hero’s [Gigantification] essence was green, this likely wasn’t [Gigantification].

‘If it’s navy blue… it’s probably [Crouch].’

What should I do with it?

Put it in a vial and think later?

‘Tch, part of me wants to feed it to Aynar… but I don’t know the passive, so it’s risky.’

I was conflicted.

[Crouch] itself would suit Aynar perfectly.

It would solve the Barbarian Warrior’s biggest problem – not dying after running into danger.

‘If Aynar consumes it, I can test what the passive is and what base stats the essence grants…’

And at Immortal Engraving Stage 9, it could even synergize.

In that sense, if I planned to give it to Aynar, now would be the perfect time. I would even save the cost of the test tube.

Ugh, what to do?

“Aynar!”

“Yeah?”

“Do you want this essence?”

First, I checked her interest, but as expected, the answer was immediate.

“…Y-yes!!”

“We don’t know what its passive ability is or what its base stats are.”

“I-I don’t care!!”

Well… if the passive or stats were bad, we could always erase it at the temple later.

And I had a rough idea of what the passive might be.

“Alright, it’s yours.”

“R-really?!!”

“Any objections?”

I glanced at the Myul Armin expedition team, who held a 30% stake in the spoils, but he showed no signs of dissatisfaction.

“The priority is yours, Baron.”

“Glad to hear it.”

“Even if it weren’t, it would’ve been the same.”

“Huh?”

“…We’re not shameless enough to contest that.”

Why did his self-esteem suddenly drop like that?

No idea, but now that the essence’s owner had been decided, there was no reason to drag it out.

“Bjørn… C-can I eat it now…?”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

With my nod, Aynar eagerly rushed forward and absorbed the essence.

「The [Hipramagent’s Essence] seeps into Aynar Pheneline’s soul.」

And with that, Aynar Pheneline learned [Crouch].

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