Chapter 142
"Boss!?"
"Izam-san!?"
Nanako and Moss-san let out involuntary screams. Izam had just driven a great scythe into his own eye socket, so their reaction was only natural. But this was fine. I hadn't gone insane, nor had I given up.
'Are you stupid? Doing that will only make you take damage!'
"That's right. And that's fine with me... Hmm, perhaps that's not enough."
I pushed the great scythe in farther. The horrified stares from everyone around me stung, but that was irrelevant. If I let them bother me, I'd lose.
When I pulled the great scythe's blade out of my eye socket, bone fragments spilled out in little showers. Still, the sensation of solid matter trickling out of my own eye was a strange one. In a way, it was an experience I could never have had without being this Race.
"Now my health has fallen below ten percent. ...Thank you, Goddess Aruru. It's been a long time since I've been able to use this Skill."
'What are you talking about...?'
As I drew the blade of the great scythe from my eye socket, an especially intense light ignited within it. I wonder just how much I can do now. I'm really looking forward to it!
"Let's go... 【Dragon Factor】, activate."
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While Izam and the others were locked in a life-and-death battle with White Dunamis, the battle before the castle gate had reached its climax. Surprisingly, the human side had the upper hand.
"G-Grrrr...! I... I cannot possibly lose!"
"How can you say something like that in your current situation!? Flurry of Thrusts!"
"Gwaaaaaaah!? You...!"
The Troll King was pierced over and over by the spearhead imbued with the Fire attribute, and let out an anguished scream. Normally, his powerful armor and the martial techniques he used with it should have blocked most of the damage.
However, his armor had already been almost completely destroyed, and he had exhausted the magic power needed for his martial techniques. He had no choice but to endure the attacks with his own flesh, yet, driven by rage, he brought his great axe down on the one who had wounded him.
"Hmph...! Hah! Are you already worn out!?"
But his attack was blocked by Kikuno, one of the members of 'Holy Flame and Sword.' Although she was inferior to the Troll King in both base stats and Skills, the difference in numbers was becoming clear here.
The reason was that the human side reduced everyone's individual burden by rotating who served as the shield and who served as the attacker. Those who withdrew could focus on healing, while those who stepped forward could fight knowing they would be healed in turn. Though it was a makeshift team of players and NPCs, their coordination was solid because the players and NPCs on both sides were all first-rate.
"You insolent pests!"
"Oh my, oh my. Please don't ignore me like that. I'll get lonely."
"Guh...!? The constant poking is so damned annoying!"
Whenever someone else drew the Troll King's attention—in other words, the instant they generated aggro—Usuba would seize the opening and slash at its throat. Since he was attacking with a dagger, the wounds themselves were not very deep. But he struck vital points with precision and coated his weapon in deadly poison, inflicting non-negligible damage over time. In fact, Usuba might have been dealing the most total damage.
"Now!"
"Hah!"
"Flame Bind!"
Whenever Usuba drew the Troll King's attention, the advanced knights and Luke's group unleashed a barrage of martial techniques and magic. Shining swords, sharp spears, and magic aimed at its weak points steadily shaved away the Troll King's health. If this continued, he would unquestionably be worn down and defeated. Realizing this, the Troll King decided to use his final trump card.
"Gwooooooaaaaaaaaah!!!"
"Whoa!?"
"W-What!?"
The Troll King let out a roar loud enough to nearly rupture their eardrums. Even though it was an avatar, the sound seemed to reverberate in the pit of their stomachs.
But that wasn't what mattered to those fighting. The roar was accompanied by a physical shockwave, and everyone nearby was blasted away. It dealt no damage, but forcibly knocking every nearby enemy away had to serve a purpose. For a boss enemy, this was practically a standard feature.
"Huh? I-I can't move!"
"This inability to move is bad."
At the same time, those caught in the shockwave became unable to move. Even though not a single status ailment icon had appeared.
"Roooo... Rooooooooooooar!!!"
Yet despite having a perfect opportunity to attack, the Troll King did nothing. He merely stood there, looking up at the sky and shouting. But that did not mean nothing was changing. The Troll King's body began to bulge, its muscles swelling with a creaking sound.
The players and NPCs were immobilized, while the boss enemy—the Troll King—was obviously growing stronger. Anyone accustomed to games could tell what was happening.
"Hmm, could this perhaps be..."
"A cutscene?"
Since ancient times, it had been standard for a boss enemy's abilities to be enhanced when it fell into a specific situation, such as being driven into a corner. It was also common for a cutscene to be inserted when the boss powered up. Even VR games often used that kind of presentation. It was dramatic, and above all, it made it easy to understand that the enemy had grown stronger.
And now, the Troll King was actually in the middle of powering up. This was the effect of the Skill 【King's Rage】. Its activation condition was that a monster that had attained the rank of King had consumed ninety percent or more of both its health and magic power. Its effect was to greatly increase every stat until death, while almost completely restoring its magic power.
This super-enhancement after being driven into adversity was why Races with 'King' in their names were feared. They could thrash about as if squeezing out the last of their lives, overturning the battlefield and seizing a comeback victory at the very end. Even when they were defeated, they would use this enhancement to drag as many enemies down with them as possible. This was the true reason the Knight Commander had said casualties were unavoidable.
"Haaah... I will not lose...! There is no way I can lose!"
"So that's his trump card... But using it is proof that he's been cornered! Everyone, don't let your guard down! Let's press our advantage and finish this!"
The Troll King had certainly been strengthened, but humanity wasn't about to lose, either. The Knight Commander, who commanded the elite NPC unit, raised the tip of his sword toward the heavens.
"Goddess, grant us victory! Secret Art, Blessing of Grunare!"
The Knight Commander finally used his own trump card as well. It was the most powerful Secret Art he could use, 'Blessing of Grunare.' Its effect was to raise the stats of himself and the allies around him.
The boost to stats was naturally weaker than 【King's Rage】, and it did not restore magic power, so at a glance it might have seemed like a mere inferior version. But that was not where the true strength of this Secret Art lay.
"Whoa!? My stats suddenly went up!?"
"The power of my magic has increased!"
Voices like these could be heard from all over the battlefield. The true value of 'Blessing of Grunare' lay in the breadth of its applicability. It affected even those who were not directly fighting the Troll King.
Furthermore, its effect would persist until its duration ended even if the Knight Commander who activated it died. So even if the human side suffered defeat, the players and NPC soldiers who had cleared out most of the other monster army thanks to the enhancement would fight the Troll King. In other words, this Secret Art was meant to lead all of his allies to victory, rather than merely the person who used it.
Because it was such a powerful Secret Art, the conditions for using it and the drawback after activation were extremely severe. First, every other Secret Art had to be off cooldown. The drawback after activation was that no other Secret Arts could be used until that cooldown expired. Simply put, once someone activated 'Blessing of Grunare,' they could not use another Secret Art during that battle.
He had not used a single Secret Art until now. That was why he could use 'Blessing of Grunare,' but if he had fought with only his unit, he would not have been able to conserve it. They would have tried to settle the fight with a more direct, high-powered offensive Secret Art. The fact that this had not happened was thanks to the valiant efforts of Luke's group and Usuba.
"Let's go! We are the final shield protecting our people! We fight until the final moment!"
"Follow the Knight Commander!"
"Woooooooah!!!"
After confirming that the effect of 'Blessing of Grunare' had spread throughout the entire force, the Knight Commander led the charge. Several advanced knights followed him. They closed in at blinding speed and surrounded the Troll King. With their coordination and the effect of 'Blessing of Grunare,' they could have shredded him like a rag in one fell swoop.
"Hnnnngh... Aaaaaah!!!"
"Gah!?"
"Commander!? Gwaaaaaah!?"
But that prediction only applied to the Troll King as he had been until now. The Troll King, dramatically enhanced by 【King's Rage】, knocked the Knight Commander and the others flying simply by swinging his great axe and shield around carelessly. The sight was almost like watching someone swat away gnats.
"You are nothing more than fragile creatures compared to me! No matter how strong you become or how much you rely on numbers, you cannot defeat me, a King!"
"Nnngh...!"
Even though they had been strengthened by 'Blessing of Grunare,' their enemy had powered up far beyond what they had imagined—enough to overpower the Knight Commander's coordinated attack through sheer force.
The Knight Commander and the others who had been sent flying immediately stood up, grimacing. They, too, had been strengthened, so they would not go down so easily.
"That bastard's going to heal like crazy! Let's keep up the pressure!"
"Got it!"
"Understood!"
Luke's group were the next to attack. They had learned firsthand during the battle that the Troll King possessed even greater recovery power than ordinary Trolls. They were trying to follow the rule of thumb for fighting Trolls: don't give them a chance to recover.
"Worthless!"
"H-Heavy...!? Ungh!"
Kikuno stepped in front of the Troll King's great axe, but its force was so great that she could not deflect it completely. Still braced, she was pushed backward. The strength behind the blow could easily be imagined from the two furrows her feet gouged into the stone paving.
"There!"
"Oh my, you noticed me?"
Usuba had crept up from the Troll King's rear right in concert with Luke's group, but he was noticed at the last moment. The Troll King swung his great axe at Usuba, but he barely managed to evade it.
The Troll King had not so much developed the ability to respond to surprise attacks as been empowered by the effect of 【King's Rage】. Considering that his field of vision had actually widened while he was enraged, it was an extremely powerful Skill.
"But this was the moment I was waiting for."
"Guh!?"
Just as the Troll King tried to strike Usuba with his shield as a follow-up attack, Usuba threw an item he had been hiding at his waist. It was a small sphere, but the instant he threw it at the Troll King's face, it exploded with a tremendous blast.
This was Usuba's trump card: explosives he had stolen and rolled into a ball. The explosives he had delivered to Izam and the others had also been taken from the same place. Since Usuba's main methods of attack were continuous strikes and poison damage over time, his burst damage tended to be low. He had prepared this as a way to make up for that weakness.
"Nnngh, my shield...!"
The Troll King had instinctively raised his shield and minimized the damage, but the price had been great. The shield he used both for defense and as a weapon to strike his enemies had finally broken.
"Not yet! I have not los—!?"
The Troll King was shouting something like a sore loser's excuse in his rage, but he could not finish. A black flash released from inside Ireves pierced him.