After their conversation through the feature of their Adventurer Cards, Haruna drew the Piaranork towards Hiroshiâs direction. She had to choose her route carefully, as to not provoke the other spiders. She carefully began walking back.
The Piaranork was formidable.
ăGoinâ your way, Toudou-san!ă
ăAye-aye!ă
The massive spider flew through the air. Without being distracted by the bizarre sight of it, Haruna cast a spell to set a trap where it would land. As soon as it landed, a pillar of flame erupted, torching the spider boss.
With what sounded like grinding, the spider, an epitome of rage, charged towards her. Haruna dodged it by a thread, and blew it away with a Smash attack, as if to steal Hiroshiâs thunder. Even as it lost balance, Piaranork spun its web in order to catch itself. Jumping into range, Hiroshi charged with another Smash attack, rendering it completely immobile.
ăPile on it, now!ă
ăAye-aye!ă
Returning the role of the distraction to Hiroshi, Haruna shot out a flying Magical Sword (Light), Aurora Bird. It was a Novice Magical Sword, that prioritized a quick draw over damage output, but combined with Harunaâs own skills and the caliber of the rapier, along with its âElemental Attack (All)â bonus, it easily penetrated Piaranorkâs exoskeleton.
ăYouâre goinâ down!ă
Clenching his shaking arms, Hiroshi slammed his axe with his all his might into Piaranorkâs face. While he didnât have combat skills, his physical strength had been buffed by all the modifiers from skills like Harvesting, Excavating, Forging, and Building, bulking up Hiroshiâs base Attack stat to nearly double of Harunaâs. While his damage output per second was much less impressive, mainly because his attack speed were slow and he hadnât learned any attack moves. Still, it was powerful enough to wound a boss monster. Overall, his damage was still above the average of adventurers in this world.
However, despite the high base Attack stat, he lacked the explosiveness of attacking skills; he wouldnât match up to an adventurer whoâs skill sets were developed for combat. In the end, he wasnât up to par in comparison to an adventurer. Even this attack, while it penetrated the spiderâs exoskeleton, it just wasnât as effective at Harunaâs attack. The fact that he disabled the spiderâs fangs were more meaningful than the damage he put out.
ăAnother one!ă
As Piaranork reared up, enraged, Hiroshi flipped it over with a Smash attack.
ăToudou-san!ă
ăFlash of Blood!ă
In response to Hiroshiâs call, Haruna shouted, and developed an Intermediate combo attack with her rapier to tear open the spiderâs gut. In succession, she precisely retraced the cut again with her Intermediate magical sword, Dance of Flames, to torch its insides. Piaranork writhed in agony and slammed its front leg into Haruna, which was elegantly brushed aside by her precise swordsmanship, preventing it from dealing any damage to her.
ăI can get in one more!ă
Lunging towards the Piaranork, which had lost its balance from the parry, Haruna held high her Magical Sword (Light), Saintâs Blade. However, Haruna had forgotten something.
Her enemy was a spider, which could move without using its feet.
ăToudou-san, donât!ă
Hiroshi had called out a moment too late. Haruna ended up cutting off the leg she had just blocked, and taking a massive hit by the giant spider while she was vulnerable in the follow through of her swing.
ăAaah!ă
With a girlish scream, Haruna was blown away. She had instinctively guarded with her rapier to avoid a direct hit, but she was completely thrown to the ground.
Immediately, Piaranork tried to pin Haruna down with what were now its seven legs. Once she was caught, she would be wrapped into a silk ball in no time. Struggle, and the spider may shatter every bone in her body. Then, she was done for.
ăNot so fast!ă
Striking in between the spiderâs gut and chest, where Haruna had sliced and burned, as it was about to jump onto Haruna, Hiroshi accurately blew away the spider.
With the self-awareness that he didnât have much cards in hand, Hiroshi was determined to stick to defense and buying time. Until Haruna could gather herself up so she could protect herself, Hiroshi had to guard the line. If the spider were to make it past him, that would be the end.
ăCâmon!ă
Desperately trying to keep his knees from buckling, Hiroshi shouted as loud as he could to draw the spiderâs attention. Truth be told, Hiroshi was terrified of facing off this one, unlike the Giant Spiders from earlier. Itâs size was intimidating, too, but it just had so many moves in its arsenal, and each of them were painful. It didnât matter that he wouldnât even bruise from the attacks, they still hurt.
ăAzuma-kun!ă
ăToudou-san, ya all right?ă
ăYes!ă
After blocking a few attacks and countering a blow from one of its legs, Haruna called back as she seemed to have gotten back on her feet.
ăAzuma-kun. Any rare materials in this spider?ă
She asked, as Hiroshi was flipping the spider over with Smash attacks to set up an attack from her.
ăIn its gut, but donât worry âbout it.ă
ăSo if I cut off all its legs and head, you can go in for it?ă
ăWell, yeah.ă
Nodding, Haruna chugged a Mana potion and a Stamina potion, and started pouring magic into her rapier, holding it up.
ăIâm going to go big. Buy me a little more time, would you?ă
ăâŠSure thinâ.ă
Feeling the pressure in Harunaâs tone, Hiroshi nodded and did an uppercut to the Piaranork, charging towards him. With a swing of the axe, he swing down with all his might to chop off the leg he damaged earlier. Now, all this giant spider could do to attack was to spin a web or charge, nothing else.
Still, the Piaranork recklessly charged to crush Hiroshi and Haruna. While internally taken aback by its determination, Hiroshi had to fight for his life. Judging that it was about to spin a web and jump up, he slashed through the string with his knife. The spiderâs body, already halfway up, stumbled to the ground on its back.
ăAzuma-kun, ready!ă
ăAlright. Donât push it!ă
ăDonât worry!ă
With a chipper response, Haruna activated the spells she had been simultaneously processing. Multiple Harunas appeared, and the ground erupted under Piaranorkâs feet.
ăLetâs go! Elemental Dance!ă
All the Harunas called in harmony, then lunged at Piaranork in succession. The first cut off a leg with a magical sword of fire, then a second one froze the wound with a magical sword of ice. The third swung the Blade of Wind, and the fourth broke off a leg with Earthâs Fang. And so, they continued to tear up the spider, and when all legs were cut off, all the Harunaâs merged back into one.
ăFinale!ă
A blade that accomplished the ridiculous task of layering every element cleanly sliced the spiderâs gut in half. Even the king of the Giant Spiders couldnât survive this. It twitched for about a minute, and the base of where legs used to be were still moving, but the spider soon became immobile.
ăAgh, Iâm exhaustedâŠă
ăYa all right?ă
ăâŠYeah sure no problemâŠă
Even as she said so, Haruna crumpled down where she was, and leaned back against a nearby tree, as if to say that she couldnât lift a finger. Elemental Dance was an Advanced Magical Sword. It always hit any enemy that had an element with the element they were weak against.
Combined with the fact that the damage went through regardless of any resistance to a particular element, this was rumored to be the skill to have the best damage output (save for Extra Skill attacks). But, it came with various downsides that prevented many players from using it.
The first of which was that the conditions to learn the skill were difficult and convoluted. A minimum Speed of 150, along with mastering two Novice Magical Swords and one Intermediate Magical Sword, and to have a skill level of 50 or more for each element, on top of knowing two Intermediate element-less combo attack skills and one Double spell or skill, each at skill level 75 or above. The skill itself doesnât require a rapier, but many weapons canât fulfil these conditions without learning skills dedicated to rapier. Realistically, anyone who could use this skill mainly used a rapier.
The second drawback was that the player had to create their doubles before activating the skills, which wasnât included in the motion of the skill itself. There was always a beat or two before the attack, which it made it difficult to slam in this attack immediately when the enemy presents an opportunity while fighting it with a party.
The last (and worst) drawback was that it consumed a ridiculous amount of MP and Stamina. Perhaps because the player had to pay the cost for all the Magical Swords the doubles used, their MP and Stamina (already depleted from preparing for the spell) were drained almost to its last drop.
Not unlike a harvesting task in the beginning of the game, a player with average Stamina would have to rest for at least five minutes after firing this move off. It was terribly high-risk. Even an addict towards the top of the pyramid wouldnât be able to use it a third time during a single combat. This was truly a trump card.
ăThat just eats up my StaminaâŠă
ăYeah, it sure looked like itâŠă
ăBut, maybe itâs because Iâve been helping you out lately. My MP and Stamina werenât full, but it feels better than the last time I used it.ă
ăYou may have a point there.ă
To wait for her to recover, Hiroshi stood as close as he could to Haruna maintaining some distance to avoid his phobia acting up, as she slumped with an exhausted look. While no insects were as bad as a Piaranork, there still could be some aggressive bugs around.