Chapter 240

Chapter 240 Strongest Sage, Draws Enemy Aggro

"GAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Provoked by my 『Enforced Detection』, the 『Crash Grizzly』 went straight at me .

Iris rushed forward charging toward the Crash Grizzly .

"Here I go! Soi!"

Iris thrust out her spear as she said that .

However . . .

"I missed!?"

Iris who had her spear evaded couldn't hide her surprise .

Befitting of a Floor Boss, the Crash Grizzly is far faster than your random average monsters .

It would of course easily dodge Iris's straightforward thrust .

After dodging the spear, the Crash Grizzly changed its target to Iris and attempted to strike her down .

Looks like provocation spells don't last long on monsters of this class .

My 『Enforced Detection』 probably would still work if I got close to it–but only for 20 seconds at most .

"Iris, fall back! You can't handle this foe by yourself!"

Iris has powers but not combat skills .

She wouldn't be able to land a clean hit on Crash Grizzly were she fought head-on .

"I understand! . . . But I won't miss like this!"

Iris swings her thrust spear horizontally .

Normally, you'd pull back a thrust spear before thrusting again to regain momentum . . . But Iris forcefully brandished her spear using brute force .

And then, Iris's spear hit the Crash Grizzly right as its claw struck her .

"Au!"

Iris got blown away toward my direction by the Crash Grizzly's strike .

Normal humans would haven been blown to pieces if that blow hit them . . . But Iris is left unscathed .

"Whoa . "

While lowering down Iris whom I caught, I checked the Crash Grizzly .

It's unscathed just like Iris .

Even with Iris's super strength, looks like a blow from a bad posture couldn't even scratch it .

Tough indeed . . .

"This guy is pretty sturdy!"

"Yeah . Sturdy and quick . . . I'll take care of drawing its attentions, Iris, you focus on attacking its back . "

No matter how agile a Crash Grizzly is, it'll still have a hard time dealing with attacks from behind while coping with an enemy ahead .

Iris should be able to land a hit if I just repeatedly provoke it from a short distance .

This time, I'll be the tank and leave all the attacking to Iris and Alma .

Since I'd have to use my mana if I wanted to deal damage on monsters of this class otherwise .

Today we're not just dealing with the Floor Boss .

My mana is needed to farm exp, so I'd like to save on it as much as possible .

"Alright, hey over here!"

I lured the Crash Grizzly with Enforced Detection while saying that .

Depending on the enemy, some get used to Enforced Detection if it's used too much, so there needs to use other provocation methods when that happens . . . But since Crash Grizzly is the type of monster that's not used to provocation, drawing its aggro is a simple matter .

"GAAAAAA!"

I move just one step to dodge the Crash Grizzly who's coming at me while striking its claws many times over .

The ever increasing irritated Crash Grizzly that kept repeatedly missing its attacks went after me .

The Crash Grizzly barely moved from the spot all the while .

"GUAAAAAAA!"

Alma's arrow and Iris's spear struck the mostly immobile Crash Grizzly .

It may be sturdy, but by making it easy to land your hits like this, it's possible to deal enough damage on it .

"Over here!"

I provoked it again to prevent it changing target to Iris .

Enemy tend to change its target when they're attacked by your companions .

It's only natural since even monsters feel pain .

As such, it's necessary to adjust the frequency of my provocations while keeping track of the attackers' trend .

Tanks whose only job is to block enemy attacks may look like an easy job, but it's actually pretty hectic .

"Whoops . "

I dodged the Crash Grizzly strikes by moving one step again .

I'm not simply dodging with minimal movements .

I'm also reading ahead enemy movements and stopping it from moving too much .

Just moving minimally to dodge attacks often prompts your enemy to act erratically after all .

The act of tanking is often mistaken to simply involves drawing enemy's attention . . . but that's barely scratching the surface .

If the enemy gets to shift around too much every time you dodge, the attacker role will be late at attacking, stretching out combat time .

Stopping enemy in its track to draw out the attackers potential .

That's another job of Tanks .

"Alma, no need to use the 『Wired Homing Enchant』! Just focus on power!"

"Gotcha!"

Then Alma removed the homing enchant and put a new one that would increase attack power .

There's no need for homing attacks when the enemy is not moving .

As such, Alma and Iris gradually whittled the enemy down while I kept it from moving without using too much mana if at all .

. . . And then 10 minutes since the battle started .

"It's gotten quite weak . "

I side half-stepped away to dodge the downward swing of the Crash Grizzly's claw .

The claw gets stuck in the ground, creating a chance until it claws out of the ground .

. . . Or so it should have been .