Skill active: Last Stand! Survived with 1 HP!
Damn. He almost killed me already!
I was quick to get up and ready my bow, but he threw both of the swords at me before I could attack! “Hey, that’s not fair!” I rolled to the side, dodging just in time. Damn, how was I meant to predict that?! What kind of swordsman throws his sword?! “Urgh... Okay, take two...!”
I was still getting over the shock of his surprise attacks as I tried once more to mount a counterattack, but the boss still had more tricks up his sleeve...
“Currsssss! Curse you!” The two swords he’d thrown shrieked at me and flew back toward me for another attack!
“What?!” They can’t be...living weapons?! The boss has monsters for weapons?!
It had been one surprise after another, and yet he still hadn’t shown the full extent of his power. “Your demise is nigh, challenger!” the armored knight yelled. “Art activate: Evil Sword Summoning!” Three new swords appeared around him then came flying right at me, along with the two he’d already thrown!
As the five swords closed in, I was laughing under my breath. “Ha... Ha ha... This is getting silly.” There’s no way you’re meant to fight this boss solo. I’d need a party of players and decent strategy just to stand a chance. Taking it on alone with a joke build makes no sense at all. My chances of winning on the first try are practically zero. But... “That’s what makes this a fight worth fighting!” I nocked five arrows at once and fired them all at the approaching swarm of swords! “Arts activate: Speed Burst! Power Burst!”
Puffster and the gang zoomed across the battlefield in a flurry of misty arrows, shattering each of the boss’s swords before skewering the armored knight himself!
“Arrrgh?!” The armored knight cried out in surprise. “H-How?! How did your puny arrows make such short work of my living weapons?!” As you might expect, the holes in his armor revealed that there was nothing inside.
“Isn’t it obvious?” I replied as I called Puffster and friends back to me. “My arrows are possessed by living weapons too. And my Puffster arrows are stronger than any average living weapon in the wild because they’ve been leveling up since joining me. Add in a few buffs from a summoner, and your living weapons don’t stand a chance!”
“How dare you enslave my brethren, wretch!” He used his arts once more, causing the air around him to shimmer as six more swords appeared. Needless to say, they were all living weapons. “Fall before my numbers! Forward!”
The living weapons flew at me at the armored knight’s command. Oh, I get it. He summoned more than I can block at a time with just five Puffster arrows. Only problem with that idea is...
“Take them out, gang!” I sent out six living weapons of my own, all buffed by my arts, to destroy every one of his swords. If only his AI hadn’t been so advanced, he wouldn’t have stopped for a few seconds to listen to my reply, and I wouldn’t have had time to register a new familiar!
“N-No... You can’t have...”
“Yep. Sorry, Armor Knight, but one of the first three minions you summoned works for me now!” With a grin, I called out two more living weapons that I’d just turned into allies. This was the power of a summoner. If a boss called on minions, I could turn them against their master. Making those minions into allies required some luck, but I had a pure luck build!
“Twisted fiend... To think anyone would use such bizarre tactics!”
“I’m fighting smart, and you know it. The true battle begins now, Armor Knight!” I deployed eight glowing arrows around me, then aimed my bow. “Eat this!”
“Crumble before me!”
My duel to the death with the Living Armor Knight had begun in earnest. Eight blades coated in black haze emerged from another dimension and came rushing at me as I unleashed an equal number of my own murky arrows. My newest summons, Puffs 6, 7, and 8, crashed to the ground after colliding with their opponents, but Puffster and Puffs 2 through 5 succeeded in breaking through the bullet hell the boss had created and were closing in on the Armor Knight.
“Urgh... Fall by my blade!” A greatsword appeared in his hand, and with a mighty swing, he knocked Puffster and the others away. Then he fixed his gaze on me and began closing in with speed I never would have expected from someone in full armor.
“Ha,” I laughed. “Your bullet hell didn’t cut it, so now you wanna fight at close range? Fine by me!” I materialized three arrows and gripped them tight. Naturally, they were all living weapons.
I’d just gained Puffs 9 through 11 as allies from among the eight swords I’d just shot down. I was close to reaching the limit of summoned monsters—I could never have more than twelve because the maximum party size was thirteen members.
A party of thirteen was what the online guide called a raid group. A party of about five or six was usually considered ideal because larger gatherings ran a huge risk of friendly fire, and a boss’s HP got higher the more players were in the boss room. Another problem with large parties was that any experience earned was shared between all members.
But none of that mattered to me! I was a summoner! The game was designed so that tamed monsters got as much experience as their master, and they counted as familiars rather than players, so I got the best of both worlds by having my own party while being treated as a solo adventurer. Whenever I fought a boss, its HP would remain at its base value—and that wasn’t all I had going for me...
“You think I can’t handle you up close? Never underestimate a bow wielder!”
I tossed my bow aside and charged forward with three arrows tight in my grasp! The Armor Knight sent his greatsword hurtling down at me, but I leaped forward and slammed my arrows into it.
“Twisted freak. What kind of bow wielder casts aside their bow?!”
“That’s rich coming from someone who throws swords!”
The air filled with sparks as his blade met my arrowheads...but the contest between our weapons lasted only a few moments before I was thrown backward with so much momentum that I slid back several meters. It was an obvious outcome since I had zero strength. However...
“Ngh?! How?!” Armor Knight froze in confusion when he noticed the notch in his blade where I’d struck it. “I drove her back with ease, yet my greatsword is cracked?!”
I’m such a genius—my idea worked perfectly! Turns out the Parable of Three Arrows is true after all! “It’s not complicated,” I explained. “Living weapons add their attack strength to the arrows they possess. And unlike swords, they’re narrow enough for me to hold a bunch at once. I had three of them sticking together in a bundle, so it counted as three hits. You might call it the power of friendship!”
“Whaaat?! That hardly explains why a bow wielder would be foolish enough to cast aside their bow! Moreover, those puny arrows should have splintered under your grip alone—they could not have possibly withstood my blade!”
“Nope. Beginner’s Arrows never break because they’re starting items. They might look like weak trash, but their upside is infinite durability!”
“Wh-Whaaaat?!”
While Armor Knight was coming to grips with the power of my projectiles, I picked up the bow from the ground and showered him with possessed arrows, launching each one the moment it came back to me.
You guys can take on this foe with no fear of death! The devastating weakness of most monsters is that, unlike players, they won’t respawn after dying, but you’re all different.
“Sure, they’re only possessing starting items, and yeah, my strength’s at rock bottom. Anyone with ordinary stats would be better off with a high-tier bow and arrows, but that’s where the power of friendship comes in to compensate! Fly, my Puffs! Riddle this boss with holes!”
“Curssssss!” The rebel gang of black glowing arrows rushed at Armor Knight.
To make doubly sure, I used my summoner arts. “Arts activate: Hyper Speed Burst! Hyper Power Burst!” My arrows transformed, raining down on the boss like obsidian meteorites.
The arts I’d just used were improved versions of Speed Burst and Power Burst that I’d learned while leveling up in the tomb. While I could double my familiars’ stats every thirty seconds with the standard versions, these improved versions had a three-minute cooldown in exchange for briefly multiplying their stats fivefold.
“Curssss!” With the added force from their rapid acceleration, all eleven arrows pierced straight through Armor Knight.
“Th-This cannot be!!!”