The monster that appeared as the centerpiece of the LAW ver2.0 game, which Kageichi was familiar with in his previous life, was named “Earth Dragon Behemoth.”
It had a shape that fused a giant turtle with a rhinoceros’s horn.
Its dull-colored shell, enveloping a body as massive as a mountain, defended against all attacks as its appearance suggested, and its limbs, so large they could be mistaken for giant trees, would easily crush anything that stood in its way.
Its very size was a weapon, as if it were openly declaring it itself.
Its weakness, as one could see, was its sluggish movement.
The players at the time also thought that they could easily defeat it by using their speed to outmaneuver it upon their first encounter.
They thought that it might have power, but as long as they adopted an evasive style that avoided taking a single hit, there would be no problem.
The premise wasn’t wrong.
The miscalculation was—
Kageichi lightly kicked off the ground and circled around to the Behemoth’s flank.
Expressionless eyes swiveled to follow Kageichi’s figure, and with a snap, it opened its mouth,
“GOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!”
The Heat Flash, unleashed once again, scraped across the ground, passing by Kageichi’s side.
Its power was immense, and an average Hunter would have been obliterated without a trace.
Except for Kageichi, the exception.
“S-Sensei… are you alright?!”
“There’s no problem. In the first place, a Heat Flash that can be deflected with bare hands is nothing to worry about.”
“But Sensei, you seemed to take a little damage just now, didn’t you?”
She noticed, Kageichi thought, narrowing his eyes.
When he deflected the Heat Flash with one hand, Kageichi’s Magical Power was indeed slightly reduced.
At most, it was about the same as being bitten by a mosquito… but to see through that, Kiraboshi-san’s Magical Power detection ability has improved.
Besides—
“How many years has it been since someone worried about me? I see, it’s not bad.”
“Eh?”
“However, if my disciple is worried about me, I’m disqualified as a teacher. From here on out, let’s proceed without taking any damage.”
While admiring her as a truly excellent disciple, Kageichi aimed his Crossbow at the Behemoth.
In response, the Behemoth shook its shell, and faint thorns appeared at its tip. Then,
DOSHUU—!
Numerous needles were fired with a unique shooting sound, changing direction in mid-air like guided missiles and approaching him.
Following the Behemoth’s signature “Heat Flash,” its special move, “Needle Barrage.”
The continuous attack with piercing attributes and high tracking performance had claimed the lives of many weakly-defended back-liners, making it an extremely troublesome technique, but—
Kageichi stored the Crossbow in his Inventory, and in its place, he took out a Tower Shield so large that it covered his entire figure.
The needles, striking like a rain of hail, failed to inflict even a scratch on Kageichi and fell to the ground.
The Needle Barrage had a large quantity of needles and high tracking performance, but the power of each individual needle was negligible.
If one properly braced with a shield, it wasn’t much of an attack.
As long as one didn’t make the mistake of panicking and running away, countermeasures were easy.
Evading the needle attack, Kageichi discarded the large shield and leaped into the sky.
In his hand, a Crossbow.
He aimed for the back.
Normally, its sturdy armor would deflect all attacks, but only after a needle attack did its durability greatly decrease.
The Behemoth’s strengths were its super-powerful ranged attacks and its tough armor.
However, the two had contradictory properties, and immediately after nullifying a long-range attack, it would become soft—exploiting that gap to whittle down its health, a turn-based battle of offense and defense, was the essence of this fight.
Kageichi drew the Crossbow, imbued with Magical Power.
A simple attack that just hurled a Magical Power bullet, called a “Normal Shot.”
Without even the attributes of fire or lightning, Kageichi unleashed a barrage of unremarkable white Magical Power bullets, relying on the sheer number of “Dragon Cannons.”
Each of the blows raining down like hail struck the gaps in the needle holes on the Behemoth’s back.
The monster cried out, “GUOOO,” and without waiting to confirm the damage, Kageichi immediately released the string.
Landing. Jumping again. Drawing the Crossbow.
Aiming five shots, releasing.
Aiming. Releasing. He endlessly repeated that.
After twenty follow-up attacks, the Behemoth roared.
With a howl of “GUOOOOOOO,” it charged towards him, its massive body reverberating.
Although it was slow, it was by no means sluggish, and the force was like a giant bulldozer bearing down—
At his feet, a unique electronic sound, pi-pip, rang out.
The ground exploded, and in the gap where the Behemoth faltered slightly, he circled around to its flank.
Once again, he aimed his Crossbow and fired a Magical Power arrow into the mouth that had been slightly opened by the mine damage.
The enemy writhed, and as it turned to face him again, it unleashed a Heat Flash.
Evasion.
Attack.
Evasion.
Attack—repeating the monotonous rhythm, Kageichi felt a sense of comfort and smiled faintly.
“Ah. As expected, this kind of combat is comfortable. Unlike dealing with humans, it’s nice not having to think about unnecessary things.”
There were hardly any exception cases for the monsters that appeared in the Dungeon.
There were no irregularities based on human emotions, no fear or agitation, only small fluctuations, errors, bugs, and accidental accidents.
Like solving a puzzle game he was used to playing.
Like endlessly performing a single task to level up.
Monsters that output exactly what he thought they would were really easy to deal with, even excluding the work aspect—
“Now then, have I dealt about half the damage yet? If things go as planned, the pattern should be changing soon.”
Some Boss Monsters changed their attack patterns depending on their current Magical Power reserves.
Many had high “first-time kill” potential, but they weren’t completely impossible to deal with.
Thinking about such things, he pulled the string of the Crossbow again—and felt a strange sensation in his right finger.
Looking, he saw the string of the “Dragon Cannon” snap with a snap sound, drooping like a bowed head of rice.
“…I messed up. Did it have durability issues?”
Mr. Nyamdore probably hadn’t anticipated that the five-shot string would be fired continuously until it overheated.
It was his mistake for forgetting to tell him, Kageichi reflected,
ZUSHIN, a footstep.
The Behemoth’s sturdy jaw approached the ground as if to touch it.
Its magnificent single horn aimed precisely at Kageichi, who was holding the Crossbow.
A preparatory motion as if to unleash a charge.
But the Behemoth’s special moves were all super-powerful ranged attacks.
Light dwelled in the dull-colored horn, accompanied by crackling sounds.
Unlike Heat Flash or needles, it was like static electricity crackling.
Belatedly, a circular light appeared at Kageichi’s feet.
Then, despite being in the closed space of the Iceberg Dungeon, along with the Behemoth’s roar—thunderous sounds and lightning echoed throughout the surrounding area.
The Behemoth’s super-range attack, “Thunderous Wrath,” dyed everything around Kageichi pure white.