Chapter 241

241 – Showdown in the Forest Depths

Aro steps forwards, and the black pig’s agitation grows .

“FugOUH!”

It cries out in anger, kicking the ground twice . The ground fragments, sending sand flying . With its third kick, it jumps forward .

Aro holds out a hand towards the incoming black pig . A light appears from her hand and touches the ground in its path . The ground deforms, creating a slight bulge .

It’s the skill she learnt from evolving, [Clay] .

“Fugouh!?”

Tripping over the mound, the pig crashes shoulder-first into the ground .

That was well done . Using its direct movements against it, she set a trap to break its charge .

Its attack power and speed are low for a D-rank monster, but they’re still much higher than Aro’s . Rather than clashing from the front, she needs to maintain the initiative, seeing as a single hit would be enough to take her out of the fight .

That is why all she can do is keep her distance from it and chip away at gradually at its health in order to increase the experience she’ll gain .

She sticks out her left hand . With a clicking sound, her left arm drops out of her sleeve, detached at the shoulder . She lowers her posture, gripping her detached arm at the humerus . The rest of her left arm obeys gravity and clatters to the ground .

She wedges the bone she’s gripping beneath the pig’s forefoot and swings it up .

“Fugouh!”

Together with a dull sound, it screams out .

Umm, that arm… You’re going to reattach it later, right? It’s gonna break if you keep waving it around like that .

Aro wields her arm from the opposite side . This time she strikes it in the face .

The pig catches her bone in its mouth, and twists its head, dragging Aro along with it . She quickly releases her grip, and steps back to create some distance .

The pig bites down, biting into the bone with an audible snap . It spits it out and glares at her .

…That bone, it’s okay, right? None of it is missing, right? That definitely didn’t sound good . Even if it’s cracked, we can still fix it, right? Can we fix it?

I glance at my partner . “Gaa…”, she says, hanging her head . I-I see . It might be hard, huh… W-well, it was only the sound that was bad; from what I can see there’s no problem with it… It’s okay, right? In the worst case, I want to think evolving will fix it .

The black pig paws the ground as if to check its struck forefoot, squinting its eyes in displeasure .

If that damage will hold it back, then that was a profitable exchange . Aro’s MP pool isn’t very large . Once she uses it all up, she’ll be forced into a fistfight .

If she’s able to chip away at its leg strength, she’ll be able to hold her own better in a fistfight .

…Plus, if she picks up her bones, she can extend her reach . With a reach advantage, the difference in speed won’t hurt her as much . Though I feel uneasy watching her use her bones like that, so I don’t really want her to . She’s not going to throw her skull at it, right?

Well, then, having received such a forceful hit, its HP must have dropped . Let’s take a looksee .

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

Species: Oinoin

Lv: 9/30

HP: 52/68

MP: 33/33

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

…It took surprisingly little . It started off with 57 HP . In other words, that hit just now only did 5 damage .

No, that wasn’t just one hit . There’s the damage from tumbling over the [Clay] mound, the damage from the blow to its forefoot, and the damage from the blow to its mouth . All that only did 5 in total . Probably, the breakdown was something like 1-3-1 .

…Well, hunting above your rank is always difficult . In my case, I think I only did it for the Great Vase Turtle and Giant Centipede . In both cases I didn’t give them a fatal wound myself . From the start I didn’t have much hope that Aro would be able to win by herself .

“Fugouh!”

The black pig charges her for a second time . Compared to before, it’s got a lot more bloodlust . Its speed has barely dropped a fraction, but it’s swaying as it charges . As expected, because of the damage to its forefoot, running is difficult for it .

Aro extends a hand towards the incoming pig . It sneers at her, kicking off the ground with all its might to leap into the air . It must be trying to avoid running into another [Clay] mound .

But it was naive . What Aro is extending her hand towards this time is not the ground, but the pig itself .

From her hand, a miniature tornado appears, attacking the midair pig . It’s the [Gale] magic .

The miniature tornado bursts and dissipates as it strikes the pig . But the pig loses its balance in the air as a result, becoming defenceless . Aro runs alongside it, striking its forefoot with her hand as she does so .

It seems her plan is to focus completely on its forefoot . That’s good, that should work .

“Obuh!?”

The pig falls to the ground, face first . It gets up and shakes its head, dislodging the dirt stuck to it .

While it does, Aro collects her humerus that the pig spit out earlier, gripping it tightly in her left hand . It seems she still doesn’t plan on putting her arm back .

W-well, improving her reach is important… It would have been great if I’d thought to borrow a spear from the Lithovar village .

Things are going well, but I can see the limit approaching . Soon enough, Aro will be reaching her limit . Up to now, she has been one-sidedly beating it down, but that’s only been possible because she’s had MP .

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

Species: Oinoin

Lv: 9/30

HP: 49/68

MP: 33/33

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

That’s its current status . The damage is slowly piling up, but the bottom of its HP still isn’t in sight .

On the other hand, this is Aro’s status:

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

Name: Aro

Species: Skull Lowmage

Lv: 4/13

HP: 26/26

MP: 9/22

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

That’s right, over half of her MP is gone already . Her best cards – [Clay] and [Gale] – have already been revealed . All she really has left is [Life Drain] . At best, she can only use it a single time, too .

From here on, it’s a question of how much damage Aro will be able to deal to it . It’s about time I get ready to intervene .