From there, we cleared B7F, B8F, and B9F with no particular issues. Now, we were on B10F. If we cleared this one too, would we find a save point? There should have been a save point each five floors, but B10F looked different from the rest.
This floor was a huge stadium of sorts. Walls surrounded us, with empty spectators’ stands lined up all around up above. It was kind of like the arena at Yukino’s guild, but there were no signs of life; it felt oddly lonely.
Right away, a ping! came to our attention.
Gate Condition: Defeat the boss monster!
Ooh?! Another new one!
Directly across from us, an iron gate made a grinding noise as it slowly rose. Within, a giant, suspiciously boss-sized silhouette was visible. Shrill, metallic grinding noises echoed through the room. Once the creature came into view, the reason for this sound became obvious. Its lower body was that of a monster, with scary-looking, thorned tank treads. When they spun, they made a grinding noise.
Level 105 Death Chariot
Crown Icon (rare monster)
Its face resembled a famously horrific, black-and-white screaming mask. It wielded a giant scythe, but its arms were bound together by a spiked chain. The robe enveloping its body had some sort of incantation written on it in blood, and the area around it was filled with terrifying effects that made it look like the monster was surrounded by vengeful spirits.
Meanwhile, its lower body was a tank with metal spikes all over it. From the hem of its robe, there were its treads and two dragon heads peeking out, the latter likely hauling the body of the vehicle. The dragons’ mouths flickered with fire, like they were about to erupt.
This guy’s design is insane!
It wasn’t visible due to the robes, but I had to wonder how his upper and lower body were connected. If he was actually just riding it like a Legway or something, I’d laugh myself to death. I wanted to climb up and peek under the robe, but... eh, it’d probably be too dark to see anything.
“This boss is kinda punk! I like it!” Emily’s eyes shone with admiration.
That was unsurprising; she had always liked weird abominations like him. Emily loved action games and the like where certain murderers in hockey masks were main characters.
“Punk? Eugh, it just looks gross to me. I don’t like it.”
“Agreed. I’d much prefer if it were cute, instead of ‘punk.’”
Yano and Maeda’s reactions were much more reserved. I expected as much, really.
“But wait, I say. What matters is not what’s on the outside, but what’s on the inside. I say we have nothing to fear.”
Ryuutarou’s response came off as kind and mature. But how could he, of all people, say such a thing?! His outside was so bad that you really had to wonder about the inside. With how ridiculous he looked, his claim wasn’t exactly persuasive.
Somebody, say something! Please! I don’t wanna talk to him! I’ve said it enough!
Clearly fed up to death with him, Shizuku commented, “I find myself unmoved when you don’t exactly look normal yourself. If Ryuugou saw you now, he would cry, Ryuutarou.”
“Urk... But wait, I say! I implore you to keep this between us! This all remains in the gaming world and is entirely unrelated to real life! A mere pastime! Please, have some discretion!”
Wow, was he really starting to panic? Maybe he’d realized that she knew his parents or whatever and that he was in danger. If he kept this up, I figured it was only a matter of time before they found out.
“Shizuku, who’s Ryuugou?”
“He’s this boy’s grandfather, a member of the Diet.”
“Heh. Yeah, I guess he would cry if he saw that.”
“Absolutely.”
Shizuku and I agreed.
“Everyone, he’s coming this way!”
Skree-ee! Skree-ee!
As the boss came screeching in on its treads, Emily activated Provoke and took aggro. She definitely had a fast reaction time.
“Okay. Yano, Shizuku—just do what you did against the Mimic!” I ordered. “Maeda, keep up support from the rear!”
“Gotcha, boss!”
“Very well!”
“Yes, sir!”
As for Ryuutarou, I didn’t have anything to say to him. Whether he was against a boss or mobs, his job remained the same. Naturally, being a sword dancer meant he was a healer. A while back, he’d claimed to be a progressive, a vegetarian, and a pacifist, but it seemed like he was really sticking to that, as he hadn’t attacked an enemy even once. He was ignoring the whole “sword” part of sword dancers, but if that was what he wanted, then that was fine with me.
Using a Master’s Scroll (Healing Magic), he made himself able to use recovery spells. Now, he had two avenues of healing at his disposal. With his talent Tactical Magic, consuming MP would cause him to accumulate AP. Meanwhile, Tactical Arts meant that consuming AP would cause him to accumulate MP, doing the exact opposite. Furthermore, Breath of Ares naturally replenished his AP over time, while Breath of Zeus recovered his MP.
Finally, he had equipped a bizarre magical-girl wand, which provided no offensive power but increased the efficiency of his Tactical Magic and Tactical Arts just by wielding it. I mean, he could try to attack with it, but sword dancers had such poor synergy with staves that his attacks would just miss.
To summarize, his talents were Master’s Scroll (Healing Magic), Tactical Magic, Tactical Arts, Breath of Ares, and Breath of Zeus. In other words, he was super specialized toward healing. No matter where he went, his job was just to toss out heals. Therefore, he would need no directing.
That was appreciated in itself. It was annoying when he struck weird poses where we could see him and started pointlessly dancing around the enemies, but apart from that, he was basically just an NPC healer. So you could say he was less annoying to handle than he could have been.
“But wait, I say! Monsters, witness the power of my dance!”
Ryuutarou stood behind Emily where the Death Chariot could see him and struck a bizarre pose.
Eugh. Creepy, but he is healing us, so I can let it slide. Anyway, it’s time to take down the Death Chariot!
Death Chariot attacked.
Emily guarded the attack, taking 39 damage.
Dragon Head attacked.
But Emily guarded the attack!
Dragon Head attacked.
But Emily guarded the attack!
The Death Chariot itself attacked with its scythe, while the two Dragon Heads erupted from under its black robe to bite. Emily’s guard was rock-solid, as an armor knight’s should be! The main body’s attacks didn’t do much, and the Dragon Heads’ attacks did nothing. Tanks that they were, armor knights were just too OP against physical attacks. This would prove to be very useful.
“My turn! Elemental Circle!”
“Chirp! Blue!”
Ice attribute, eh? Well, no harm done. If the dark attribute came out right now, that would pose some issues.
Yano, Shizuku, and I stood in the radius of the Elemental Circle and started focus-firing on the Death Chariot. The icicles that came with my icy Elemental Circle slowly helped chip away at its health. Emily kept its aggro on her, so all we had to do was just keep attacking.
Then, Yano heated things up with her ultimate! “Ultimate move: Hidden Rising Blast!”
Leaping high into the air, she kicked off of the Death Chariot itself, using the propulsion to send herself somersaulting backward. She shot two rounds in midair before landing. It ended with a kick, before finally enveloping her in a translucent effect.
This was an ultimate made by Skill Chain, with one of its components being the Stealth Shot that kept the user from drawing aggro. The kick was a martial artist art, called Lightning Kick. Meanwhile, the shots were from the gun art, Double Blast.
Yuuna activated Hidden Rising Blast.
Dealt 1,113 damage to Death Chariot!
Hey, that was pretty decent damage.
As it had Stealth Shot included, she wasn’t going to steal aggro from Emily using this ultimate. Often, kicking off a fight with your ultimate would mean stealing aggro from your tank; including Stealth Shot was essentially insurance to keep from doing so. It was very like Yano, who despite her gaudy appearance, knew how to read the room and plan around things well. Her personality was very much involved in her playstyle.
I wanted to show off the power of my ultimate move, but if I did, I would definitely get beaten down; it would just steal too much aggro. Of course, I’d be fine if Yano activated Guilty Steal on me, but then she would be stuck with aggro, leaving our actual tank, Emily, dead in the water. I could even use another if I got our sword dancer to use Sword Samba, but if those two combined blows didn’t defeat the boss, then it would mess up our aggro management entirely. Emily would likely be useless the rest of the fight.