by Okina Baba
Inert Evil Eye?
That one’s probably least effective of all, isn’t it?
I definitely can’t picture Araba being paralyzed.
I do have Annihilating Evil Eye, which I haven’t tried yet, but I don’t really want to use it, since it seems more like a last resort kind of move.
I automatically acquired the skill when I evolved into an Ede Saine, but as you might guess, it’s an Evil Eye that carries the Death attribute.
Right, the Rot attribute, which controls death.
Rot attacks tend to be suicide-bombing techniques, and this one’s no exception.
When I activate it in one eye, that eye becomes useless.
Not only that, but it even gives me a nasty headache.
It’s super-strong, of course, so I’m sure it could damage even Araba, but I don’t know if it’d be enough to make it worth it.
Not to mention, the damage it’d cause my much lower HP would be relatively big.
If I’ve got the enemy down to the point where using it would finish them off, I could get away with using it then, but otherwise I’ll be the one in a pinch if I use it.
By nature, Evil Eye attacks can’t be dodged as long as the target is in my line of sight, but that doesn’t matter if they don’t work properly.
Ugh, my attacks don’t hit, and even when they do, they hardly do anything!
Seriously, I knew this, but what an aggravating enemy.
Fleeing farther upward, I keep firing magic.
Araba chases after me, fighting back with Breath.
I keep going farther up, but Araba stops abruptly.
Damn! It noticed the spiderweb I set up in advance.
Once I decided to make this pit the site of my showdown with Araba, I set up one or two traps for good measure.
But it saw right through them.
Just above the spot where Araba stopped, a network of my thread blocks off the vertical shaft.
With a hole just big enough for me to pass through, of course.
I fire magic at Araba, careful not to hit the thread.
Araba dodges the attacks, moving left and right without coming any higher.
I was hoping Araba would get caught in my web so I could fire a load of magic at the dragon while it was stuck, but this is still hindering Araba, so I guess that works, too.
Undaunted, Araba fires back with Breath.
Our firefight of Breath and magic continues through the barrier of the web.
Araba avoids my magic.
Then a waterfall of poison rains down on the dragon.
I made it by using Poison Synthesis at its max production amount, multiple times in a row.
The rain of deadly and paralyzing poison is blown away by a single blast of Breath.
The drops of poison scatter harmlessly.
I didn’t really have high hopes that it’d do damage, but blowing it all away that easily? No waaay.
Araba keeps shooting more breath attacks up toward me.
The repeated barrage is starting to create a hole in my web.
I avoid the antiaircraft fire with the help of Dimensional Maneuvering.
In the process, I use Utility Thread to make a net and shoot it at the hole with my Expel skill.
Heh-heh-heh. That’s right—I finally got the Expel skill I’ve always wanted!
Or rather, it emerged from Throw once I maxed that out.
Well…it does use MP, and it’s too low-level to be very fast, so honestly, just using the regular Throw skill would probably have been better. But it’s the thought that counts.
I clumped the net into a ball before Expelling it, but then I use Thread Control to spread it back out into net form right before Araba’s eyes.
The dragon dodges the net with almost exaggerated caution.
That’s totally the right way to react, though.
Even Araba won’t have an easy time of escaping if it gets caught in my web.
But if the dragon’s going to be that wary of my thread, that’s actually a good thing for me.
I start spraying thread down from the sky.
Araba recoils from it, dodging or destroying the thread with Breath.
Then, at last, a hole large enough for Araba to pass through opens in the web.
Araba promptly comes up toward me with Dimensional Maneuvering.
Come on in, pal!
At first glance, it might seem like I was scattering the thread at random, but they’re all connected with thread so thin, it’s practically invisible to the naked eye.
And I’m holding the thread that’s the source of it all right here.
I use Thread Control to reel in a bunch of the thread at once.
At the same time, I fire Black Bullets toward Araba.
Spider thread coming up from behind.
Black Bullets approaching from the front.
If the dragon dodges the Black Bullets, it’ll get caught in the thread.
But if it doesn’t dodge the Black Bullets, it’ll take damage.
So, Araba, which will you choose?!
Araba chooses.
But it’s not either of those options.
Araba uses Breath to eliminate the Black Bullets.
Then, ignoring the aftermath, the dragon charges right toward me.
Shit!
I barely manage to avoid a fang attack.
It grazes me slightly, decreasing my Satiation stock of HP.
That was close.
I almost failed to avoid it because I was holding this thread.
Naturally, pulling on all that thread limits my movements.
Araba’s actions just now were a little unexpected.
I was sure that either the thread or the Black Bullets would work.
I guess I’ve still been underestimating Araba.
Okay, gotta focus.
Araba and I both still have energy to spare.
The battle is far from over.
Both of us are fighting ferociously.
However, the stalemate continues.
I have high enough evasion power to dodge Araba’s attacks, and even if I get hit once in a while, I recover quickly.
Araba is so focused on catching up to my speedy evasion that it can barely attack.
It’s not that neither of us has any way of winning.
My winning move is my thread.
If I catch the dragon in my thread, even Araba will need some time to escape.
If I fire magic at it for all I’m worth in that time, I can win.
But so far, Araba has been very cautious of my thread.
Apparently, the dragon knows as well as I do that it’s the one thing to avoid.
So Araba’s been responding carefully to any attacks involving thread as it chases me.
With that perfect guarding stance, I can’t seem to hit Araba with my thread.
On the other hand, Araba’s winning move would be its max-power breath attack.
If Araba uses all its power, its breath attack would be even more powerful than the time that it destroyed my home in a single blow.
A hit from that would be enough to turn even me into dust.
Even with Perseverance invoked, if I get hit with that once, I’ll keep getting roasted until I completely run out of strength.
But Araba isn’t firing that.
Since it takes so long to charge Breath to its maximum power, it creates a huge opening, making it that much easier to dodge and counterattack.
That’s why Araba’s using only single-shot Breaths without charging them up.
A single-shot Breath is no slouch, either.
But it’s inevitably got a shorter range and less power.
I’ve been able to dodge all of them so far, and even if it hits me, it’d be far from a fatal injury.
So even though we both have moves that would clinch our victory, we’re not actually able to use them.
So naturally, the battle’s getting dragged out.
We exchange fe
ints with the occasional serious attack, carefully avoiding letting the other take charge, keeping our eyes out for an opening.
As it stands, I’m at a slight disadvantage.
My attacks don’t work at all.
They do hit on rare occasions.
But even then, they don’t leave any lasting damage.
Any damage they cause is healed almost immediately.
Even if I hit a few times in a row, Araba withdraws for a moment or even attacks to stop me from firing, buying it enough time to recover from my attacks.
As a result, despite how long and hard we’ve been fighting, Araba’s damage is still at 0.
On the contrary, its resistance has actually increased.
Araba’s Dark Resistance, which started out at 4, is now at 5.
At this rate, the already small amount of damage I’m dealing will get even smaller.
On the other hand, if any of Araba’s attacks hit me, I’ll be in trouble.
A single blow isn’t enough to deplete all my HP and MP, of course.
But Araba’s attacks are definitely powerful.
If I get hit with a single attack, it’ll easily send my small body flying.
As soon as that happens, there’s a good chance it’ll create an opening for Araba to attack even more.
If that happens, I’ll be toast.
The difference in our chances is too large.
I specialize in evasion, but if I mess up even once, it could easily end up in victory for the dragon.
I have no intention of going down so easily, of course.
But the scary thing is that it’s not entirely impossible.
On top of that, this situation can’t go on indefinitely.
After all, this pit isn’t endless.
I keep fleeing higher and higher.
Naturally, that means I’m getting closer to the ceiling.
Once I reach the ceiling, I’ll have nowhere left to run.
Not to mention that the ceiling is also made of earth.
Anywhere there’s dirt means we’re in Araba’s domain.
So not only will I be out of places to run, Araba will have the home-field advantage again.
I’ve put up a few webs in the pit, but that’s only stalling for time.
At this rate, I’ll eventually hit the ceiling.
So on top of being at a slight disadvantage already, I’m gradually being driven into a corner.
Naturally, this fact is drastically increasing my tension.
Sharpening my senses.
I focus on the images Foresight projects for me.
In the slow-motion world of Thought Acceleration, I heighten all my senses, taking care not to miss even the smallest piece of information.
At this exact moment, my skills evolve.
Perfect timing.
The already-slow-motion movement of the world gets even slower.
The sporadic images Foresight showed me become constantly visible.
I can see it. Araba’s next move.
And now, with Thought Hyper-Acceleration, I can see what’s coming after that unfolding in slow-motion.
Like a game of chess.
The flowing combo attack of claws, fangs, and tail, which I’m sure Araba intended as a killing move, is easy to dodge for me now.
Damn, I’m good.
If Araba wants to land an attack on me now, it’ll have to move at a speed beyond my perception, right?
This is good.
That’s it. Go ahead and come at me. I don’t feel like anything could hit me now.
Dodge. Dodge. Dodge.
Evade. Evade. Evade.
And as I go, I keep firing counterattacks.
Before, the dragon had a slight upper hand in evasion, but now the scales are tipped in my favor.
Even though Araba was able to dodge my attacks with its expert techniques before, now that my skills have evolved, I can see right through its movements.
I already had the overwhelming advantage in speed.
Araba’s ability to make up for that by dodging my attacks with sheer ability was, in a word, incredible, but now that I have skills that give me an additional advantage, the dragon can’t handle it so easily.
Araba’s HP slowly begins to go down.
Sensing the increase in my evasion and hit rate, Araba is starting to get desperate.
With Thought Hyper-Acceleration, even that emotion is an opportunity for me.
And I’m not lenient enough to let a mental gap like that slide.
Heretic Magic spell: Phantom Pain.
Araba reacts with visible surprise.
That’s only natural.
With Araba’s high level of Pain Super-Mitigation, the dragon probably hasn’t experienced intense pain like this in a long time.
And the illusion of pain created by Heretic Magic can’t be relieved by a Pain Mitigation skill.
I know that for a fact, since I experienced it myself with the pain Detection caused me.
Well? How do you like your first taste of pain in who knows how long?
Araba grits its teeth and withstands the pain.
Heretic Magic is fairly easy to resist if you set your mind to it.
A monster like Araba with immense mental power should be able to shake off the effects of the magic after a moment.
But a moment is all I need.
The second Araba is distracted by the pain, I cover its body in thread.
As the dragon tries to writhe free, I keep wrapping it up.
Bound by countless layers of thread, Araba’s body finally stays still.
I don’t want to let it fall back to the ground, so I stick the thread to the wall, suspending Araba in midair.
I’ve done it!
Now all I have to do is mow Araba down with magic before it can escape!
But Araba’s next action totally crushes my expectations of victory.
Come on, now.
That definitely can’t be right.
I mean, it did occur to me I might not be able to beat Araba just by catching it in my thread.
It might figure a way out, like using Breath on itself or something.
A full-powered breath attack would be too much for even my thread to withstand.
If the dragon did that, I’m sure it’d damage itself, too, but since Araba has Terrain Nullification, I’m sure it wouldn’t be enough to fatally wound itself.
That’s probably a much more realistic means of escaping than just letting me fire magic at Araba to my heart’s content.
And if I can come up with that plan, it wouldn’t be that surprising if Araba actually did it.
But what Araba does is far beyond anything I anticipated.
In fact, it catches me totally off guard.
In the worst possible way, too.
See, you get skill points when you level up.
But apparently, there are other ways to get them, too.
Looking at the skill points of, say, an arch taratect, which should be roughly on par with my own species, I clearly have way less.
The difference in our stats can be explained away by the difference in how long we’ve lived.
Even without leveling up, your stats go up gradually just by going about day-to-day life.
Unlike wild monsters, I’ve been actively working on leveling up, which is why I’ve grown rapidly in a short amount of time.
That’s why my stats outside my level haven’t gone up as much.
But I don’t think other monsters go out of their way to fight other t
han when hunting food.
So they level up more slowly.
I don’t know how long that arch had lived, but judging by the difference in our stats, I’m guessing it was a fairly long time.
Other than magic and speed, the arch’s stats were more than 2,000 points higher than mine.
Even if you assume stats go up one point a day, that means it’s lived more than two thousand days longer than me, or six years.
And I don’t think stats go up once a day at all, so it’s entirely possible it lived much longer.
Which means if you live for a long time, maybe you get a certain amount of skill points, too?
Otherwise, I have no idea why there would be such a large difference in our skill points.
Unless there’s some other condition for acquiring skill points that I don’t know about.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is this: Since earth dragon Araba has probably been alive for a ridiculously long amount of time, it has a ridiculous number of skill points.
Like most of the monsters I’ve seen, Araba has probably never once used those points.
I don’t see any skills that look like they were acquired with skill points, and most of all, Araba’s got that massive stockpile of points just sitting around, so I think that’s a safe assumption.
Seems like a waste to me, but it’s not like I can tell other monsters to use their points, and their not acquiring extra skills works out in my favor, so I never really worried about it.
But now…Araba’s skill points have decreased.
Not just a little, either. Araba has used practically all of them.
The 41,100 points the dragon started out with have dwindled to a mere 100.
And seeing what skills were acquired makes my breath catch.
[Fire Magic LV 10] [Flame Magic LV 10] [Inferno Magic LV 1] [Flame Enhancement LV 1] [Flame Resistance LV 1] [Black Resistance LV 1] [Space Perception].
My weakness is fire, and Inferno Magic is the highest form of Fire Magic there is.
Then there’s Flame Enhancement, the advanced version of Fire Enhancement.
In order to avoid being hurt by its own magic, Araba has improved the Fire Resistance it already had by acquiring Flame Resistance.
Black Resistance to counteract my main weapon, Black Magic.
Space Perception is probably to deal with my teleportation.
All these skills have been chosen specifically with me in mind.