“Gwanniiniiniiii!”
“(That’s huge, is it a Greater Beast or something just before it? A worthy opponent!)”
What appeared before me was a crayfish Demon Beast. However, it wasn’t just any crayfish; it had a centaur-like form.
The middle of its long torso was bent vertically, making its upper body resemble a human’s.
Well, when I say human-like, its entire body was covered in reddish-brown carapace, and the ends of its arms were pincers.
Its head was about the same height as the humans I had met earlier. The inorganic black eyes on its head looked down at me.
Then, the crayfish raised one of its pincers.
–Somehow, I have a bad feeling about this!
“Slash!”
“Nini!”
Although there was still some distance, I jumped back on instinct.
Reacting to my desire to escape, 〖Escape〗 activated, and I instantly moved several meters.
Thwack!
The pincer was launched. It pierced the spot where I had been just a moment ago, closing its sharp blades and tearing through the ground.
It was sharpness that didn’t seem natural.
The launched pincer was connected to the arm by something like a string, which wound back in with a whirring sound, reconnecting it to the arm.
“(That was close…!)”
I muttered in fear.
Well, honestly, my 〖Toughness〗 would have probably left me unscathed, but I didn’t want to willingly take an attack at that speed.
The crayfish glared at me for dodging, then pulled back the pincer on the opposite arm.
I started to 〖Escape〗 to the left.
I dodged the second attack, but the crayfish immediately followed up.
I dodged that, then another follow-up, evaded, followed up, and so on.
“(Whoa there)”
The crayfish seemed to be getting used to my clockwise movements, and its pincer was closing in on my predicted location.
I jumped up on the spur of the moment.
~Unidentified Information Log~
…
Fue Toukouya (Jewel Slime) has acquired 〖Skill: Leap〗.
Acquired 〖Skill: Evasion〗.
…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“(That was a close one)”
I somehow managed to dodge that attack as well.
I landed and started moving counterclockwise this time.
The crayfish, having gotten used to my speed from our previous exchanges, launched its pincer with accurate aim once again.
But I was getting used to it too.
The moment it swung its arm back, I changed direction.
As a result, the pincer pierced the ground about two meters away from me.
And I didn’t miss that opening.
“Slash!”
I wrapped the whip around the axe on my back, used 〖Compact Whip〗, and tried to slam it down while spinning it around.
Right before that, my movements suddenly slowed down.
“(Whoa!?)”
Fortunately, I managed to attack before the pincer was pulled back, but the carapace covering the pincer didn’t seem to have a single scratch.
But now wasn’t the time to be discouraged.
“(I guess 〖Escape〗 ran out)”
I thought while dodging the pincer’s follow-up.
I didn’t feel like I was hit with a weakening 〖Skill〗, so that must be it.
In fact, my speed had returned now that I had started to run away from the attack again.
Combined with 〖Evasion〗, which I had somehow acquired, I was easily able to deal with the rapid-fire pincers.
“(Well, I guess it’s time to find a way to win)”
I thought while dodging nimbly.
The biggest obstacle in defeating the crayfish centaur was its carapace.
It had a solid defense with its carapace that had blocked the axe attack with 〖Compact Whip〗.
To win, I had to either break through the carapace or attack a place where there was no carapace.
I gathered my thoughts while evading and put them into action.
First, I started by 〖Throwing〗 the axe.
“Zwaga!”
The crayfish, who was pulling back one arm to launch the next pincer, calmly redirected it to guard.
The axe was deflected and stuck into a nearby tree.
Thinking it had taken away a troublesome weapon, the crayfish intensified its attacks.
But hey, my weapon isn’t just the axe.
“Slash, slash!”
~Unidentified Information Log~
…
Fue Toukouya (Jewel Slime) has acquired 〖Skill: Slash〗.
…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I grabbed the knife I had brought with the axe and swung it while evading.
The slowdown from the 〖Escape〗 deactivation wasn’t so scary if I knew it was coming.
I wasn’t able to put much centrifugal force into it because of the short distance, but it seemed I had acquired a 〖Skill〗.
I knew because I was checking my 〖Status〗 frequently.
From then on, I continued to evade and slash with the knife.
I could feel 〖Combo〗 starting to activate within me.
~Unidentified Information Log~
…
Fue Toukouya (Jewel Slime) has acquired 〖Skill: Compact Slash〗.
…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I must have learned the compact version because I was focusing on swinging quickly.
Thanks to that, I was able to reduce the gaps in my attacks, and the stability of the evasion and attack cycle increased.
I still hadn’t managed to inflict any damage, but I was steadily increasing the effectiveness of 〖Combo〗.
However, the crayfish seemed to have grown impatient with this stalemate.
It unleashed a new attack method.
“Bulbobobobo!”
The crayfish blew out several bubbles from its mouth.
It wouldn’t just be blowing out ordinary bubbles, so they probably explode on contact or something.
I could feel a considerable amount of 〖Mana〗 from the bubbles, which had streaks of seven colors.
〖Mana〗 was precious in the Demon Beast world, where you never know when you’ll be in a continuous battle, but it seemed it had decided it couldn’t win while conserving it.
“(Well, it’s a logical move against an evasion-type opponent, area suppression)”
The bubbles were spreading out radially, and the density was quite high.
It was an attack range that made it seem difficult to evade all of them, no matter how confident I was in my 〖Speed〗.
“(But hey, I’m better at defense than evasion!)”
I decided to accept some hits and charged towards the crayfish.
It was to make the most of 〖Combo〗.
Naturally, I collided with some of the bubbles, scattering droplets.
As I had initially predicted, they didn’t explode, but instead, the plants that touched the droplets melted.
It might be a 〖Skill〗 similar to my 〖Dissolving Liquid〗.
Well, acid was meaningless against my 〖Toughness〗. I broke through the bubble storm unscathed.
Since there was no time, I 〖Threw〗 the knife, which was now just a handle.
“(Huh, it’s melting!?)”
It seemed that even though I could withstand it, my weapon couldn’t.
Even so, the handle of the knife tapped the crayfish’s carapace.
The 〖Combo〗 count increased by one more.
“Gwanni!”
“(〖Evasion〗, 〖Compact Whip〗)”
The crayfish, which had come within a reasonable distance, moved its legs to approach me and swung its pincer.
Since there was no need to rewind, it could attack faster.
However, I had an unnecessary number of evasion 〖Skills〗.
I jumped back with 〖Escape〗, 〖Evasion〗, and 〖Leap〗, and in return, I gave it a 〖Compact Whip〗.
The crayfish closed the distance and swung its pincer, and I evaded it and created some distance again.
I made sure not to get too far away, and used 〖Provoke〗 and 〖Alluring Radiance〗 to make it chase after me.
I succeeded in luring the crayfish to the desired location.
“Zwarii!”
“(〖Leap〗!)”
I jumped to dodge the pincer attack that I was already tired of seeing, and jumped onto a nearby tree.
Then, I climbed up with 〖Climbing〗, and retrieved the axe that was stuck halfway up. It was the axe that I had 〖Thrown〗 at the beginning.
Thanks to 〖Carry〗, I was able to climb the tree without much trouble, even with the added weight of the axe.
“Slaaash, slaaash (bleh)”
“Gwanni!?”
I finished with a 〖Provoke〗, and now the preparations were complete.
First, I used the tree’s bend to 〖Leap〗 high into the air.
Then, I focused my attention below and confirmed the crayfish’s position.
During the fall, I created a whip, wrapped it around the axe, and started rotating vertically.
And then, towards the crayfish, whose thoughts were focused on attacking due to 〖Provoke〗 and 〖Alluring Radiance〗, I added my falling speed and weight—
“(—〖Slash〗!)”
The axe embedded itself into the crayfish’s face.
I felt a sensation of my body floating slightly from the recoil. I definitely felt the sensation of crushing the carapace and the skull beyond it.
“(Alright!)”
“…………!”
However, I had underestimated the tenacity of anger.
I was sure of victory after landing the 〖Slash〗, and I had relaxed my guard slightly.
“Zwagaaaa!”
“(What the heck!?)”
The crayfish, with an axe embedded in its face, swung its arm at me as I fell.
Whether it intended to chop down a tree or was aiming for a counter, I couldn’t tell.
But it must have started charging the moment I began to climb.
That attack, likely using some kind of 〖Skill〗, had power that was incomparable to its previous ones.
“Gueeeehhh──”
I took a full-force blow, and the impact sent me flying high into the air.
Damn it, to be counterattacked from there.
I thought my 〖Slash〗 had landed, but it was still alive—
~Unidentified Information Log Area~
…
>> Fue Toukouya’s (Jewel Slime) 〖Soul Accumulation Value (Level)〗 has increased to 21.
>> 〖Evolution〗 is now possible.
…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
—And then, power surged from the depths of my body.
Looking at my 〖Status〗, my 〖Level〗 had increased.
It seems that last bit was some kind of last-ditch effort.
“(Alright, alright, it went up quite a bit.)”
The tension released as the battle ended.
I’m currently launched to a considerable height, but it’s nothing compared to when I was blown away by that giant Demon Beast.
I thought there was no need to worry about injuries, and then I landed on the ground with a thud.
“Kyaaah!”
“(Crap!?)”
I was seen by a human who was near my landing spot.