“Swooosh, slaaash, slaaash!”
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
I advance through the forest, rotating my arms like a kusarigama.
No, since what’s connected to the scythe blade is a whip, it’s more accurately a whip scythe, right…?
“(Well, whatever.)”
I stop the scythe spinning.
I have to keep timing the transformations, so it’s surprisingly nerve-wracking.
More importantly, the problem is that I can’t find any prey.
I’ve seen small animal-type Demon Beasts a few times, but their perception is high, and they run away immediately.
And they probably have some kind of 〖Escape〗 skill.
They’re supposed to be 〖Lesser Beasts〗, but I couldn’t catch up to them no matter how fast I ran.
“(Surprisingly, when you look for them, they’re never around.)”
The 〖Mana〗 is denser than around the Slime Village, so I should be encountering something soon, but no enemies are appearing.
Ah, I wish a 〖Greater Beast〗 would show up.
It’s just a guess, but my 〖Toughness: 818〗 should be able to withstand a 〖Greater Beast’s〗 attack without taking damage.
So, I want to confirm if this guess is correct around here.
By the way, the Great Bear was probably a 〖Dire Beast〗, above a 〖Greater Beast〗.
Basically, the 〖Beast Rank〗 goes up according to the size of the body.
“(Even a Goblin would be fine, just come out—)”
—〖Block〗!
Clang!
“Kweeek!”
Suddenly, a Gryphon broke through the branches and swooped down, its claw attack blocked by my two whips crossed.
If a Slime’s vision wasn’t omnidirectional, that would have been dangerous.
“Kweh!”
The Gryphon, its attack blocked, immediately retreated.
It hovers at the height of the branches, looking down at me.
It looked like a bird of prey, like a hawk or an eagle.
Its total length is about one and a half meters. If it spread its wings, it would be about three meters.
Its 〖Beast Rank〗 is probably 〖Greater Beast〗.
The impact of the claw attack just now, even through the 〖Block〗, felt a little lighter than the Crayfish’s last attack.
The surprise attack startled me, but I might have found a suitable opponent.
“Pihyoo!”
After glaring at each other for a while, the Gryphon let out a high-pitched cry and suddenly began to flap its wings violently.
Mixed with the sound of its wings, I heard something cutting through the air, and then something burst on my body surface.
“Slaa!?”
The “something” continued to hit me in succession.
My 〖Life〗 isn’t decreasing at all, but the impact of the collisions was gradually pushing me back.
“(Is that some kind of Kamaitachi?)”
I guessed the identity of the mysterious attack.
The sensation is more like a mass of air than a wind blade. It’s a literal air cannon.
“(But what should I do? In this situation.)”
The opponent’s attacks aren’t effective, but I don’t have any means of attack either.
If I try to attack, I can’t use my 〖Escape-type Skills〗, and in the middle of this barrage, neither 〖Throwing〗 nor Lightning Strike will reach.
“(…No, wait a minute…)”
While enduring the air bullets, I came up with an idea.
Once I decide, I act immediately.
First, I jumped left and right like I was doing a shuttle run.
“(Okay, 〖Escape〗 and 〖Evasion〗 are activated.)”
I focused my consciousness inward and confirmed that my attempt was going well.
By the way, 〖Evasion〗 is a 〖Skill〗 that increases the speed of evasion actions. I learned it in the Crayfish battle.
“(Alright, let’s go!)”
And then, I suddenly started running.
The direction, of course, is towards the Gryphon.
Since I’m charging at the opponent, naturally the effects of 〖Escape〗 and the others should be canceled—but they’re not.
“(Success!)”
The trick is simple: I’m moving forward to escape.
This time, the Gryphon is in the air. If I think of it as escaping by passing under it, I can keep the skills activated.
If 〖Escape〗 and the others were judging escape based on whether I was moving away from the enemy, this plan would have failed.
But I was confident it would succeed.
In the shuttle run just now, the 〖Escape〗 skills were activated even though I wasn’t moving away from the enemy.
“(Change of plans! I’m going to leap over the opponent and escape! 〖Leap〗!)”
While 〖Evading〗 the air bullets trying to catch me, I sprinted, and when the distance was close enough, I jumped.
But the opponent isn’t stupid either. I was using 〖Provoke〗 to guide its thoughts towards attacking, but even so, it saw my sudden approach and tried to escape into the sky.
My plan to jump over its head failed, and it looks like I’ll be on a trajectory that grazes about a meter below it.
Too bad, too bad.
“Slaaash!”
I improvised my next move.
While extending the whip that had grown longer after 〖Evolution〗,
“(Lightning Strike!)”
I released lightning from the tip of the whip.
The Gryphon, which was about to escape, was temporarily paralyzed by the Lightning Strike.
“(Take this!)”
“Kweeeeh!?”
Yes! I managed to wrap the long whip around the Gryphon’s ankle.
And with my weight added, it lost its balance, and the Gryphon crashed to the ground.
“(I won’t let you escape! 〖Crush〗! 〖Crush〗! 〖Crush〗!)”
Immediately after the crash, I quickly took a mount position and lightly 〖Leaped〗 to deliver a series of stomps.
I inflicted my pointlessly hard and heavy crushing weight.
The Gryphon couldn’t escape the attacks, and with the effect of 〖Combo〗, its resistance quickly weakened.
I finished it off by adding the momentum of the fall to a 〖Slash〗, and this battle came to an end.
~Non-Notification Information Recording Area~
…
Fue Toukouya’s (Jewel Weapon Slime) 〖Soul Accumulation Value (Level)〗 has increased to 27.
…
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