When the light settled down, we found ourselves inside a translucent dome. It was about fifty meters in diameter, and there were rocks scattered around underfoot. The footing wasn’t that bad, though. As long as we were being careful, the rocks shouldn’t pose an issue.
The dome was surrounded by crystal clear water, giving us a view of swimming fish and aquatic plants swaying in the current. We must have been on the river bed.
“Silver should be able to run around just fine here.”
“Make sure you don’t attack it.”
“Understood. We’ll be your decoys.”
Splash!
“It’s here!” I cried.
While we were forming a quick plan, a figure burst into the dome. There was a loud splash and it landed right in the center of the dome—a mysterious, green entity.
“Gwak gwak gwak.”
“Whoa, an actual kappa,” I said. “It looks super creepy.”
“So that’s a realistic kappa... It’s pretty scary.”
What had made its entrance into the dome was a Kappa that looked exactly like the one painted on the scroll. There was a dirty plate on its head, on top of its loose, disheveled hair. It had a piercing gaze and drool dripping from its beak. The claws extending from its webbed hands and feet looked frighteningly sharp. Its skirt of bundled straw swayed when it moved, threatening to give a glimpse of what was underneath.
While I said its skin was green, it wasn’t completely monochrome; it had a light green base, with tiger stripes in dark green.
This Kappa was a yokai through and through, and bore absolutely no resemblance to the Mini Kappa mascot.
“Gwak gwak gwak!”
The Kappa raised a shrill, grating cry that sounded like a gruffer version of a heron’s call, then braced itself. I could sense its determination. No, its bloodlust!
The Kappa’s cry had acted to signal the start of the battle. It was charging right towards us.
“Guys, it’s coming at us! Carro, I’m counting on you!”
“Neigh-neigh!”
Instead of facing off against the Kappa’s charge, we dispersed. We all observed the Kappa’s movements as we ran.
“Come on! Over here!” Siegfried called out.
“Neigh!”
“Gwak gwak!”
Siegfried and Silver were keeping the Kappa’s aggro focused on them. Siegfried was acting as an effective decoy by using a skill that accumulated aggro.
Carro probably could have outrun the Kappa, but Siegfried had a higher Riding skill level than I did—overwhelmingly so. He hadn’t been riding on a horse from level 1 just for show. He probably had the highest Riding level out of all players in the game. There was no question that he’d be able to pull off being a decoy better than I could.
“Gwak gwak!”
“Good job, Silver! Keep that up!”
“Neeeigh!”
Siegfried and Silver were exclusively focused on evading the Kappa, never attacking it.
The truth was, the last thing we wanted to do was defeat this Kappa. If we defeated it, we’d get regular item drops and be freed from this dome. But that was not our objective here. From the information we were told, we knew that if we kept this battle against the Kappa going for a certain amount of time, an event would trigger and we would be able to form a friendship with the Kappa. I was trying to trigger that very event.
“Gwak gwak!”
“Come on, Siegfried! Silver! You can do it!”
“Ha ha ha ha!” Siegfried bellowed “Right over here! Keep chasing us!”
“Neeeigh!”
Silver, who had acquired the Galloping skill from the emblem, maintained the perfect distance from the Kappa to keep it chasing after them. That would have probably been difficult for Carro to do. Having them here with us was a huge help.
“Gwak gwaaak!”
“Neeeigh!”
“Very nice, Silver! A perfect jump!”
Ten minutes had passed since the battle against the Kappa began. We’d kept up with our evasive maneuvers, so neither side had taken any damage. And by “we,” I mainly meant Siegfried and Silver.
The Kappa’s methods of attack included shooting water from its mouth and dish, and attacking with the claws on its hands. It would also throw rocks at us. That was about it. On the other hand, it was very quick on its feet, so we really had to pay attention to make sure it didn’t get too close. If it weren’t for Silver, we probably would’ve had the displeasure of getting hit with several of its attacks by this point.
Also, sometimes it would charge at my monsters and me, as if suddenly remembering we existed, so we couldn’t let our guards down either.
“Gwak gwak gwaaak!”
“Gah! Gross!”
“Gwak gwaaak!”
The Kappa had opened its mouth wide and spewed out dirty, sticky water. It looked super filthy. I managed to avoid it by crouching.
“Carro! Run!”
“Neigh-neigh!”
Carro ran fiercely across the riverbed in a zigzag. The dirty water shot by our side a couple times, missing us.
“Nice, Carro!”
“Neeeigh!”
I really wished we could have used Carro’s invisibility, but it would have only lasted for three minutes.
“Gwak gwak gwak!”
Having missed its target, the Kappa angrily jumped up with incredible force. It burst straight out of the dome.
It was preparing to charge up for one of its attacks that it used once every so often. Outside the dome, we could see the Kappa sucking up a large volume of water and then opening its mouth wider than it ever had before. Then, it spewed out numerous balls of water one right after another.
Since this was all taking place outside the dome, we were powerless to stop it. Well, even if we could have, we wouldn’t have attacked the Kappa anyway!
We tried to avoid the balls of water flying our way, but as I had expected, it was too tough.
“At this rate— Guh!”
“Neigh?”
One of the water balls hit me! I’d thought I dodged it, but then it curved! How’s a rearguard player supposed to deal with that?!