Tamer 45
===
Chapter 45: First Real Struggle
TL : Cnine
ED/PF :
Part 1
「Pixies! Attack that man!」
I released the pixies from Pixla 49 and ordered them to all attack together.
If this was going to happen, I should have brought all the Pixla Saw 49s with me.
Sure, fusing the Pixla Saw 49 into the Skelittle Dragon and upgrading it into the Skedragon Shredder Pixla 49 was brilliant at the time. The problem? The Skelittle Dragon and the Pixla Saw 49 never appear together when summoned.
As a result, the current Skelittle Dragon still had its arms awkwardly fused together from when the saw was installed.
Now it has been summoned without the Pixla Saw 49 attached, which means it might not even be able to perform at the level shown in its own status.
「Gah! Hah! Ngh!! They’re surprisingly strong! I did not foresee the pixies being this formidable… and what of that skeletal dragon? Does it not intend to fight?」
This is bad. Strategically bad. Emotionally bad. Embarrassingly bad.
Even while being attacked by forty-five pixies, the Demon Lord still has the composure to counterattack and even hold a conversation.
If he has enough leeway to completely fend off attacks from that many pixies, then perhaps it was not entirely a lie when he described the Skelittle Dragon as “half of my power.”
With that level of status, he could ignore the monsters entirely and attack me directly, yet I could guess the reason why the Demon Lord did not come straight for me.
Most likely… He was wary of the Skelittle Dragon.
The Skelittle Dragon, which the Demon Lord appraised as “half of my power.” It is precisely because this creature exists that the front line is being maintained.
If the Demon Lord realises that the current Skelittle Dragon cannot display the strength indicated by its status, he might launch a full assault at once.
「Still looking comfortable, are you? Care for another helping?」
「Another helping?」
If forty-five pixies were not enough to finish him off, then I simply need to increase the number.
In order to mass-summon the pixies who were not present here, I declared a certain skill name.
「Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie…」
「You wretch! Is that what you meant by another helping?!」
「Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie…」
「H-hey! Hold on! What is that headcount?!」
As soon as they were summoned, the pixies swarm the Demon Lord one after another. It is like flies.
Even the Demon Lord seems flustered when attacked by one hundred pixies close to level 700.
Led by Bargain Girl, the pixies that had been used as Pixla 49 possess an abnormal level in their Physical Resistance skill.
As was the case with Bargain Girl, the pixies appear to receive only minor damage from the kicks and punches of Demon Lord Lizzy Naal.
Every single one of them took the Demon Lord’s attacks and merely ends up with a slight nosebleed.
It seems my method of raising them was not mistaken after all.
「Guhh!! With this many numbers…! You wretch! Summoning large numbers of monsters at the same level as a bottom-tier Demon Lord is unfair!!」
The same level as a bottom-tier Demon Lord?
In other words, my pixies have grown strong enough to put up a good fight against a weaker Demon Lord.
That was useful information. If the opponent was a Demon Lord who was not as strong as this one, then a large number of pixies would be sufficient to deal with them.
And yet he dares to call it cheating.
What nonsense. Since when has battle ever concerned itself with fairness?
In this world, victory belongs to those who willingly embrace dirty tactics.
To call something underhanded in battle was about as meaningful as saying, “Animal droppings smell, don’t they?” It was obvious and entirely pointless.
「Enough already! You wretched pests!!」
Swarmed on all sides, the Demon King suddenly erupted. From his body burst a violent wave of black energy, exploding outward in every direction. The pixies caught in it trembled, faltered, and dropped from the air like broken marionettes.
I had never seen magic like that before. Not heard whispers of it. Was it an exclusive spell reserved solely for Demon Kings?
It had no effect on the Skelittle Dragon or on me, so it might be a short range area attack. It looked like a major technique, so perhaps I should force him to use it repeatedly and drain his MP.
Good, it's work.
「Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie…」
「YOU WRETCH, ISN'T THIS A BIT TOO MUCH!?」
「Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie…」
「Cut out the pointless nonsense!」
「Too bad, I refuse. Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie, Monster Summoning Pixie…」
Right. That makes another hundred. Unless that ridiculous ultimate move gets thrown at us again, this should buy a bit of time.
Hmm. The Pixies who took the brunt of that spell were sprawled across the ground, faces twisted in agony. Still breathing though. Not dead.
「You lot. Get up and fly again and keep attacking until you die.」
「Are you really a monster tamer!?」
「I am a proper monster tamer though?」
I fight with monsters under my command. However you slice it, that makes me a monster tamer.
「Demon Boss. Heal these lot as you see fit. Well? Still want to continue? There are two hundred Pixies here, but if I feel like it, I can summon more. You understand my ability now, don’t you?」
「I know nothing of your ability. However, I do understand that you are a fiend beyond even a mediocre Demon Lord. Do you not possess a human heart? Do you feel no pain seeing the monsters who fought and were wounded for your sake?」
It did not pain me at all, and being told about a human heart by a Demon Lord did not move me in the slightest.
To begin with, a Demon Lord should not speak of the human heart.
「Stop pinning this on me. Why am I being treated like the villain here? You’re the one who beat them up. If they die, I have to burn MP resurrecting them. That’s extra effort for me. A complete nuisance.」
「Y-you wretched fiend…」
Says the bloke who just beat up my monsters.
Seriously. Which one of us was the real fiend here?
※Author Note: It's definitely your.
「Hmph. Summon all the Pixies you like. They won’t beat me.」
Fair point.
The only Pixies with real punch were the original lot, the ones I used like whips at the start. The Demon Lord neatly deals with those veterans while basically ignoring the newer Pixies, who were enthusiastically contributing absolutely nothing.
As things stand, the Demon Lord has suffered virtually no damage.
「At this rate, your Pixies will collapse from exhaustion before I do.」
「Are you sure of that?」
「Drop the bluff.」
If possible, I would have liked to see the Demon Lord flee in disgrace, begging for his life while liquids streamed from every hole in his body.
But yes. I knew that from the start that it was unrealistic.
「Even that Demon over there who wields healing magic possesses only finite mana. It will run dry. Once my monsters sweep yours aside, what will remain is you alone, with a mere potential magic value of roughly twenty thousand. Even should you stand last, defeat will not be mine.」
Potential mana value?
My MP sits slightly above forty thousand. Divide it cleanly in half and you get twenty thousand.
So in the Demon Lord trade, do they measure strength by halving their MP and calling it ‘potential mana value’?
Interesting. That opens the door to several possibilities.
When the Demon Lord laid eyes on the Skelittle Dragon, he declared it to be “half of my power.”
There was a clean, brutal gap between my MP and that of the Skelittle Dragon. Exactly double.
If Demon Lord Lizzy Naal was measuring not levels but this “potential mana value,” then the implication was simple. My MP was doubled by the Skelittle Dragon. And the Skelittle Dragon’s MP was doubled by Lizzy Naal.
That places the Demon Lord somewhere around one hundred and sixty thousand MP.
Since I cannot view the opponent’s status, I could only estimate, but it would be safer to assume that the Demon Lord’s other statistics are proportionate to his MP as well.
So when he says he has no intention of losing to me, it likely is not bravado. That was… Problematic.
Should I ditch the battle??