Ch.40 Helper, Players Vs Area Boss. Part 5 《Shuuto》

Shuuto's POV

Although everyone was tired, at least our HP had been restored.

The people who came to help us are still fighting in our place. We can't rest here forever.

"Alright, it's time to go. Let's run!"

Nozomi and Kaito... Mimia and Kaito all nodded in agreement and began running across the grassland together.

As I run through the grassland, the wind hits my body. It feels good for my still slightly warm body. Feeling a little relief, I move my feet.

◇◆◇

Since we had originally taken refuge not too far away, we quickly arrived at the location where the turtle was.

"What should we do from here? Is it okay to go to the front of the enemy and ask that person for instructions?"

"Ah, Onii. That woman is calling you."

When I turned towards Mimia's voice, I saw a female beastkin player motioning with her hand for me to come over.

"Let's go to her and get some instructions!"

"Yes, let's do that."

The three of us then headed towards the female player, Sakidori Midori-san.

On the way there, she kept throwing what looked like knives at the turtle. What's more, the things she threw kept coming back to her. Is this some kind of magic?

"Ah, you guys are here. Have you recovered properly?"

Sakidori Midori-san caught the knife with her hand and threw it again, hitting the hind leg.

"Thank you so much for stepping in to help!"

"Really, thank you very much!" "Thank you very much!"

"Well, we should help each other when in trouble."

It's a cheesy line, but it suits her well. She's a cool person.

"Thanks to you, all three of us were able to recover our strength."

"That's the best thing. Oh, by the way, there's something I'd like to ask you."

Apparently, Sakidori Midori-san beckoned us over because she wanted to know what kind of attacks the turtles would use. It's certainly easier to deal with them if you know.

We give her a detail account of the attacks we had received during the battle, adding that we had been fighting desperately, so there might have been some discrepancies.

"I see. It seems it still has other methods of attack, but I get to hear some of them thanks to you three. Thank you for teaching me."

"No, not at all..."

"Sakidori Midori-san, what should we do now? Should we attack head-on?"

Ah, that's right. Thank you for asking, Kaito. We'll listen to any instructions she might have.

Although we're are in different parties, we're now comrades with the same goal of defeating the turtle. Moreover, the other player is probably a senior player with a higher level.

If we attack blindly without some kind of instructions, nithing will change.

"All I did was just probing around while attacking... I'm sorry, but could you ask Takemaru over there?"

"Understood"

Her finger was pointed at the enemy. There stood the male player who had attracted the enemy and allowed us to escape from the turtle. Is that Takemaru-san?

Just as I was about to head off, someone called out to me to wait.

"Um, Mimia is... ah, can I call your name as is?"

"it's okay"

"It's okay to call us like that as well."

"I understand. So, Mimia has a short staff, so you're a mage, right?"

"That's right. Most of the magic I remember is offensive magic."

Sakidori Midori-san nods in agreement, then looks at Mimia and asks if she would like to join her in attacking the turtle.

Not from the front, but here. Is there some kind of strategy?

"Um, I understand. Should Onii... Should Shuuto and the others stay here too?"

"No, four people in one place is a lot, and on top of that, this turtle is so big. It's better to spread ourselves out as we're attacking it rather than sticking together, as that will give us more areas to atrack. It's more annoying for the enemy too."

This game is realistic in every way, even the emotions.

So this turtle will get irritated if it is constantly being attacked from all over. And not only will it get irritated, it will also get stressed.

They often say that mental attacks are more effective than normal attacks... Sakidori Midori-san is scary.

"I decided this on a whim, but I'd appreciate it if you could attack the turtles here with me, Mimia."

"Yes"

Whether you attack one spot at the same time or attack separately, the amount of damage should end up being the same. Probably.

It would also avoid the risk of everyone dying all at once, so it would probably be better to split up and fight as she instructed.

"Well, before we part ways, I'll invite you to our party, would you like to join?"

Immediately after saying those words, a window appeared in front of me.

"You have been invited to a party." A message appears asking if you want to leave the current party.

I choose Yes. The next window that appears after the one you closed is a list of party members.

From top to bottom, they are Sakidori Midori-san, Takemaru-san, and Vester-san. Could this person be the spirit Kaito saw?

The names that followed belonged to the three of us, and so a party of six was formed.

After joining the party, I exchanged a few words and left.

Kaito and I head towards the enemy's front, where Takemaru-san is.

◇◆◇

We ran to Takemaru-san.

Next to Takemaru-san is a small girl with beautiful wings. Is this person a spirit? She is certainly cute enough to be called a spirit.

she would have looked even more so if she had blonde hair.

Just as I was thinking that, I saw the turtle raise its front legs, preparing to attack Takemaru-san.

Its claws are shining. That's the ranged one.

"Please get out of the way!"

"A slash is coming!"

I shouted along with Kaito. Just as the shout began, the spirit dodged into the air. At the same time, a purple slash hit Takemaru-san.

"That won't hit me! I'll get it back!"

Takemaru-san blocked the attack with his shield and slashed at the turtle's neck with the sword in his right hand. The skin split open and a small amount of blood splattered.

I don't think the sword I own is dull, but it doesn't have the same sharpness to his. As expected, the weapons of experienced players are on a different level.

He was probably planning to slash the turtle's neck and then use the momentum to strike again, but he couldn't because the turtle had closed itself back into its shell. In the end, he couldn't land a second blow and stopped just before striking.

Takemaru-san had no choice but to straighten up and called out to me.

"Is it okay to return to combat now?"

"It's fine! Thank you very much! Oh, and also, the turtle didn't take any damage at all when in this state!"

"Thank you for your help! It's too hard and the blade might chip! Be careful!"

"It's a turtle, so I already thought that was the case... No, thanks for the tips."

I wanted to express my gratitude to the people who had saved us from that dire situation, and I offered some advice in the hopes that it would be of some help.

That shell is too hard. Our attacks were unable to do any damage. It would be really troublesome if it were to keep holed up inside.

"Do you have any other information?"

As I was talking with Takemaru-san, I heard a cute voice from the right. I turned my eyes and saw the spirit. She must have returned from the place where it had taken refuge.

"Oh, spirit-san? "I'm Vester, a fairy" ... I'm sorry. Thank for your help too, Vester-san."

Ah, how rude of me. It seems she was a fairy. I had the image of fairies being part of the Demon King's army.

I suddenly remember a single-player RPG I was playing.

The fairies that appear in the 《Legends of Heroes Series》 games are enemies that use magic to toy with their opponents by placing curses on them. They have long, vertical faces with slanted red eyes, black skin, small bodies, and an evil aura surrounding them.

Compared to that, Vester-san had dark hair mixed with brown, but with her translucent wings, cute, youthful face, and white dress, she exuded a mysterious aura. Just as Kaito had said, she was truly like a spirit.

Therefore, when I heard that she was a spirit, I believed it without a doubt, but I never expected to be wrong.

If this is what fairies look like, then what do spirits look like? Could it be that they all look the same, just with different species names?

"Thank you very much! That turtle also used a biting attack and spat out a purple beam from its mouth."

"Beam?! What is this thing? mecha turtle?"

I thought it couldn't be a mechanical turtle, but it's possible that it's just flesh on the outside. And the inside is mechanical.

...No, I don't think anything like that will appear in the first area.

"The name has the word 'demon' in it, so maybe it's not a mechanical beam, but a magical beam?"

"Isn't that the same thing?"

Takemaru-san is busy switching between honorifics and adding honorifics. So It's not like they've been in the same party all this time, huh.

Vester-san mentioned the difference between mechanical beams and magical beams.

The first difference is the image of the beam emitted by machines and magic. Machines are imagined as storing up something like energy and then firing it, while magic is imagined as floating something like a magic circle in the air and firing it immediately.

The only other thing is that it depends on whether it requires energy or magical power to be released.

"When it fired the beam, did something like a magic circle appear?"

"No, I don't think so."

I don't see anything like that. If there is, I would have noticed.

So when I answered that there wasn't, Vester-an nodded.

"So that means after firing one beam from the mouth, it takes a certain amount of time before the next one can be fired."

"I'm glad it cant fire the beam continuously. But this thing won't come out at all, even if I thrust my sword into it, it'll probably just bite and break the sword... what should I do?

I wanted to ask how he came to that answer, but when Takemaru-san continued, I completely missed the opportunity to ask.

If I listen to it now, I'll look like someone who can't read the room. Well, the beams can't be fired continuously, so that's good enough now.

He looked at the turtle again. The turtle was hiding inside its shell, refusing to accept any attacks. Its mysteriously glowing eyes could be seen through the gaps, glaring at Takemaru-san.

Come to think of it, it hasn't even looked at us even once. I wonder if the red aura emanating from Takemaru-san's body has something to do with it.

"Umm, Shuuto-san and Kaito-san, right? Could you both try and see if you can reach the arms and legs hidden inside the shell? As you can see, it's glaring at me. I can't move from here."

As he was looking around the turtle to try to sort out the situation, Takemaru-san gave us an instruction. It was more like a request than an instruction, though.

Certainly, the turtles were not looking at us with hostility right now. This was our chance to try attacking.

Kaito and I look each other in the eye and nod.

"I'll try."

"Okay"

I replied that I would just give it a try.

In the first battle, we were no match for it, but now we have people who can attract the enemy's attention.

"It'll probably continue to view me as an enemy for a little while longer, I won't let any of its attacks go in that direction. So feel free to try it out."

"Yes," I said, and together with Kaito, we ran to the left side of the turtle, since Mimia and Sakidori Midori-san were already on the right.

◇◆◇

"Ah, won't its legs come out all of a sudden?"

We came to where the left hind leg was, but it was still hidden inside the shell and we couldn't see it.

Kaito didn't look in with me, afraid that its feet might suddenly appear.

"Let's try stabbing it with this sword for now."

"I guess so."

I swish my sword in and out of the darkness. I feel my swird touching something. I don't know if it's a foot, though.

"I hit something. It won't even fight back."

"Then let's do as much damage as we can."

We nodded and activated our skills.

"<Muscle Up> <Sharpness Up> <Swordsman's One Strike>"

"<Muscle Up> <Sharpness Up> <Swordsman's One Strike>"

We increase out attack power and weapon sharpness, and finally uses a skill that increases damage from attacks that would only land one hit by 1.3 times.

I readied my sword, step forward and slash sideways with force.

"<Straight Slash>"

The attack penetrated the gap in the shell and sliced ​​through the flesh inside, leaving red blood on the sword as proof.

"<Straight Slash – Fire>"

Next, Kaito readied his sword, step forward and slash to the side.

His skill is an elemental attack that burned the area that got slashed. Blood was also on the sword. It seemed that it had certainly done damage.

"Let's keep going like this!"

There would be no counterattack, I thought, everything would be fine. But then an explosion occurred on the other side, and black smoke rose up.

"Wh-what?!"

"I, I don't know, but it must be Mimia and the others' doing, right?"

On the other side are Mimia and Sakidori Midori-san. Worried that the turtle had attacked, I went over to check on them, when I saw a red, fiery attack hitting the turtle.

That must be Mimia's magic. I've seen her use it many times. It could also be Sakidori Midori-san's attack, though.

"A-Are you going to help?"

"...No, we'll attack here and keep doing damage."

There is Sakidori Midori-san. And looking at the party members displayed in the window, the two's HP bar hasn't decreased

In other words, they're safe. Perhaps the initial attack wasn't even from the turtle.

So all we can do here is continue to inflict damage.

"I get it. So then... Wait, what's going on now?!"

Suddenly the turtle's body began to tremble, and its legs, which had been tucked in until then, came loose and extended out.

I was confused as to what was going on.

"Uwa, how cruel"

I heard Takemaru-san's voice.

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〘Legends of Heroes Series〙

A single-player RPG series.

Like Mystery Of Life 3, this is a popular VR game, with 10 titles currently available.

This is the story of a hero who receives a branch from a tree growing in the castle garden from the king and sets out on a journey to defeat the demon king.

Although tree branches can be removed from equipment, they cannot be thrown away, and the heroes always cherish them, which has led to rumors that hidden powers lie dormant within these simple tree branches.

Apparently, no player has yet been able to figure out what this tree branch is, which appears throughout the series.

〘Swordsman Guild〙

A guild of courageous people who take up swords and face their enemies. It is not a gathering of heroes.

Many people who want to become swordsmen knock on this guild's doors, and it has the most members of any guild.

Conditions for joining: Possess a sword and pass the aptitude test.

〘Occupation: Beginner Swordsman〙

Primary occupation. A job that can be taken on by joining the Swordsman Guild.

You will feel like you can use the sword more efficiently.

When set as a job, you will receive a slight HP and STR bonus.

Job conditions:

1) Possess a sword.

2) Pass the aptitude test and join the Swordsman's Guild.

〘Skill: Sharpness Up〙

A skill that anyone can use once they learn it.

When used, the blade becomes sharper for 30 seconds, making it easier to cut through even hard objects.

Cooldown: 50 seconds

〘Skill: Swordsman's One Strike〙

A Skill exclusive to swordsman.

When used, the next sword skill that only lands onenjot will be 1.3 times stronger.

Cooldown: 40 seconds

〘Skill: Straight Slash〙

A skill exclusive to swordsman.

When used, the body moves automatically, slashing the opponent horizontally from right to left.

Cooldown: 20 seconds

〘Skill: Straight Slash - Fire〙

Skill: Straight Slash with the added fire attribute.

Deals additional fire damage to the slashed area. Burns the enemy and causes continuous damage for 20 seconds.

Cooldown: 40 seconds

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Author's note:

We're reaching the 40th chapter.

Thank you everyone for your ratings and bookmarks!

I would be happy if you would continue to support me.

https://kakuyomu.jp/works/16818622171694118637

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