Volume 8, Chapter 6 - Curse and Hot Springs
The fifth round had the enemy we have fought multiple times already.
"…Red Ogre and Blue Ogre, huh."
We have repeated those so many times. They won't be much of a problem now."
"But if they're the fifth round's opponent, means that the sixth round onward will be harder than the boss. I don't mind retiring after I get the eight round's prize, what do we do?"
"We're going as far as we can! And if that doesn't work, we'll challenge it again!"
"Then I'll continue supporting you two with all I have. 《Enchant》——Attack, defence, speed!"
I applied a triple enchant on Mikadzuchi and have seen her off.
While watching Sei-nee and Mikadzuchi who optimized their movements for fighting the Red Ogre and Blue Ogre at the back gate, I contributed to the battle by attacking with bow and arrow.
At early stage I used 【Curse】 arrows for cover fire to seal enemy's special attacks so we were able to get through the fifth round without any difficulty.
So far the Red and Blue Ogres from the fifth round were the strongest, but since the fourth round's Hobgoblins fought as a group they were even harder to fight against for a small group of people like ours, because there was a limit to how many of them can one person take on at once.
The sixth round, the one that awarded the 【Diffusing Crystal】, the strengthening material I wanted. And the round's opponent was——
"Urami-danuki? This time it's a mob I'm seeing for the first time. Moreover, he's animal-type."
What appeared was a nearly two metres tall, huge bake-danuki.
Covered in fluffy hair, he had a kettle-like armour on his torso as if to hide his fatty belly and was holding a spear in his hand, a spear with cross-shaped blade.
Although he had a cute silhouette, just like the "grudge" in his name suggested he glared at us with resentment in his eyes, these eyes butchered all cuteness there was to him.
"Oh-hoh, a new type of mob came out. Let's turn this uncute tanuki into a tanuki soup. Of course, Missy will cook it."
"Enemies in the arena don't drop items, so I can't cook it."
"Yun-chan, so that's what you're retort to, mm? Anyway, it's starting!"
This time, it was Sei-nee who retorted to me.
Right after that, the sound of a gong had started the sixth round.
At the same time it started, the Urami-danuki leaped up high.
Ahead of where we looked, the Urami-danuki let out a comical *bofun* sound and a white smoke spread from his body, hiding it.
"We have no idea what's coming, be careful!"
"This smokescreen can disappear for all I care!——《Bow Skill - Gust of Wind》!"
At the same time Mikadzuchi warned I invoked the art creating strong wind pressure along with an attack.
The arrow pierced through the centre of the white smoke and after scattering it, disappeared in the sky.
"What?!! He's gone!"
"Or rather, he divided? Look, we're surrounded."
Sei-nee silently moved as to protect Mikadzuchi's and my blind spots and as the three of us stared at the enemy standing back-to-back, little Urami-danuki's surrounded us.
There were five Urami-danuki's tall enough to reach my waist, each of them held a spear suiting their physique. They have steadily decreased the distance between us and them.
However——
"Trying to surround us like the Goblins won't work!!"
"Dumbass! Don't attack a new enemy carelessly!"
I switched the weapon from the bow to the meat cleaver and slashed at the Urami-danuki standing in front of me.
At the same time the meat cleaver reached, the Urami-danuki disappeared literally turning into smoke.
Along with that a blow from the cross-spear had come out from the white smoke and grazed my side.
As expected, with a blow delivered at zero distance even by making full use of my 【See-Through】 and 【Sky Eyes】 I was barely able to avoid the spear tip and ended up having my flank torn by the spear's blade.
"Oww! Heck, seems like the attack is also accompanied with 【Curse】."
I could hear a quiet scream from the audience when I received the counter, I just held my cut flank and took a step back.
"So rather than dividing, he made shadow clones, huh. In that case we need to find the real body between the clones."
Mikadzuchi calmly analysed the fact that one of the Urami-danuki disappeared turning into white smoke.
Meanwhile, Sei-nee healed me up, returning me to perfect state.
"Seriously, how do we find it."
Succeeding with an attack on me, the Urami-danuki's mouth distorted turning into a cynical smile.
"We can attack all the shadow clones at once. We can eliminate all those clones and then attack the real body. Also, we can try preventing him from his special attack. That's about all I can think of."
Or, we can try frontal attack on them to try finding the difference between clones and the real body. Mikadzuchi muttered and at the same time she rushed towards the Urami-danuki and thrust with her hexagonal stick.
As the weapons fiercely clashed against each other Mikadzuchi parried Urami-danuki's spear and hit him in the torso. However, just like the first one the enemy disappeared letting out white smoke and another shadow clone appeared, joining others surrounding us.
"Seriously, what do we do about these?!"
Although I desperately avoided the attack from the cross-spear, my HP was cut down by the counter-attack coming from inside the white smoke.
The shadow clones' attacks weren't strong enough to take us down with a single hit, but they put on 【Curse】 bad status, moreover, the spear's shape was troublesome.
The 【Curse】 bad status in addition to reducing MP had caused random negative effects from time to time, so if we continue receiving those attacks there's a chance of receiving a lethal negative effect.
Right now we could recover with items, Sei-nee could also use 【Recovery Magic】 to maintain the margin of safety, but it didn't seem like we could deliver any damage to the enemy.
The cross-spears had broad attack range as their tips had crescent-shaped blade so it was hard to avoid them, unless you avoid them by a large margin you will get caught.
Also, since the spear encirclement narrowed from all sides, defending ourselves had gradually become more difficult.
"Damn it!! ——《Zone Bomb》!"
Desperate, I used the lowest magic in the Earth Element in combination with 【Sky Eyes】.
Focusing on multiple enemies in my range of vision I invoked 《Bomb》 magic all at once.
As a result, four shadow clones of the tanuki were wrapped around by 《Bomb》's yellow explosion and received slight damage, but since they were attacked at the same time four of them thrust at me with their spears.
"Nowah?! T-that was close!"
Abandoning any shame and respectability I avoided by crouching, four enemies' spears have passed over my head. As if crawling, I slipped away from under them.
"Missy, what are you doing?"
"What, you ask. Trial and error!"
"That attack just now was dangerous. Try imagining what would happen if you received that spears' simultaneous attack."
Told so, I thought of a situation where I receive multiple simultaneous attacks from four shadow clones and came to conclusion that there was a high chance I could receive severe 【Curse】.
As well as chain damage from continuous attacks within a short period of time.
"Seems like you understood. But well, it's a good example of a failure. The guild's members will surely take note of that."
Kukuku, Mikadzuchi let out a muffled laughter as she parried an attack of a shadow clone and continued to search for a clue on beating them.
After that, I received several counter-attacks from the Urami-danuki, and while recovering the damage with potions I used 《Bomb》 magic to accumulate damage on a single Urami-danuki.
"Damn, attack with 《Bomb》 don't deal too much damage. I need to think of a more efficient method."
"Missy, can't you find the main body with your 【See-Through】?"
'Not happening. I've been looking at them all for a while now, but I can't seem to find tanuki any different. His 【Concealment】-type Sense must be quite high."
"After coming this far we had a nasty opponent appear. We might get really exhausted if it goes badly. But, what if…"
While Mikadzuchi and I idled fighting against the Urami-danuki, Sei-nee seemed to have found a way out.
"——《High Heal》"
White light had appeared on the tip of the staff and the single target heal 《High Heal》 was activated.
Its target wasn't me or Mikadzuchi, but the Urami-danuki's shadow clone.
——GYAAAHHH!
Although the clone screamed and turned into white smoke, no spear had come as counter-attack.
The other shadow clones of the Urami-danuki returned to the main body and all the damage dealt to them so far had been included.
"I guess it's simple once you realize it?"
"Sei-nee, what do you mean?"
"Urami-danuki is an undead enemy so physical attacks are ineffective I think. Moreover, unless it's specific magic it will have very poor effect."
"I see. It's simple once we know the trick. Missy, give me fire element."
"Roger that. 《Element Enchant》——Weapon!"
The counter-attack was fast once Mikadzuchi and I learned the enemy's weakness.
I used Fire Elemental Stone and applied element enchant on Mikadzuchi's weapon.
From thereon, Mikadzuchi fought Urami-danuki using fire elemental damage, Sei-nee attacked with recovery magic and I continued to deliver damage by using silver arrows that were very effective against undead.
Finally, the Urami-danuki let out his death throes and sprouting white smoke from his body, he collapsed.
"He was quite tough. I used lots of 【Yellow Potions】 there."
"I also hit him quite many times with 《High Heal》 so I don't have much MP Potions left."
Although Sei-nee and Mikadzuchi were in perfect state, they didn't have enough consumables to support that.
"Are you all right? How many 【Yellow Potions】 you have left?"
"Got 10 right now. At current pace it feels like I'll be able to barely reach tenth round."
"Looks like for now, we don't have to think about retiring half-way."
I listened to the two's opinions and though that at this rate we'll get through the seventh round and will likely be able to get the prize for eight round, the one Sei-nee wanted. Possibly, we might see through it to the end.
While I stood there relieved I'll get the strengthening material I wanted, suddenly I received an impact in the back.
"——HAa?"
The shock was strong enough to crush my naive ideas about the arena challenge.
A purple cross-spear had protruded from my belly.
Sei-nee and Mikadzuchi also were pierced by the same thing and voice like a scream sounded from the audience.
●
"Yun-oneechan! Sei-oneechan!"
With a loud *whump* I was pierced by a purple spear, but I didn't feel any pain or received damage.
I twisted my body to look behind and saw a purple, semi-transparent Urami-danuki looking at us with resentment. In the end, right before disappearing he put on a cynical smile.
"What was that, just now…"
As I rubbed my abdomen stunned by the lack of pain it was Mikadzuchi's voice that made me return to myself.
"Tch! He got us!"
Mikadzuchi immediately cursed and confirmed her status in the menu.
"In the end he left us a ridiculous 【Curse】! How about you, Sei?"
"It was somewhat reduced since I have 【Curse】 resistance accessories on but…"
When the two looked my way I confirmed my status in the menu.
Seeing the 【Curse】 effects displayed there, I was at loss for words.
"…what the hell is this?"
My status was currently displayed as 【Cursed】 and there was no value that would indicate its intensity.
Moreover, unlike normal 【Curse】 I received a variety of negative effects.
"【Skills Sealed】, 【Healing Skills and Items Disabled】, 【Statistics Decrease】. Also 【HP Decrease】 and 【MP Decrease】? What's with this?"
I was stunned by the overly-strong 【Curse】's effect.
With this I couldn't recover my HP and MP, as well as from the bad status. The HP Decrease wasn't as fast as that of 【Poison】 but it was steadily decreasing.
And it seemed like Mikadzuchi received the same 【Curse】 as me.
"So Missy didn't resist it and got the whole set. And you Sei?"
"Just 【MP Decrease】. But, since my MP is decreasing I won't be able to use much magic in combat."
"Tch, Urami-danuki's final attack huh. Let's get over the retirement choice and rush for the seventh round. In fact, this turns into a battle with time limit."
Final attack is a general term for attack that forcibly activates when mob's HP reaches zero, it's also called 【Attack Upon Death】 and 【Stray Attack】.
During arena battle you cannot pass recovery items to each other.
Right now Mikadzuchi and I cannot use items we have available, the only one who could use items was Sei-nee who mainly picked up MP Potions.
"It was going too easy, I should have been more careful."
Mikadzuchi muttered quietly, her mutter echoed in the completely silent arena. Then, "it was easy for you, Mikadzuchi
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