In the time of night dominated by darkness, a brightness akin to noon returned to this clearing carved out by the Goblins.
Above the black-haired monster imprisoned in a massive rock prison, Lily’s full-powered “Star Fall” detonated.
This finishing blow had consistently buried enemies if it hit until now, but,
“Whoa, whoa—”
Chrono saw the monster intercepting the approaching rainbow-hued meteor with just its own fist.
As “Star Fall” activated and a white light magic circle was drawn in the void, the monster regained freedom in its right arm, which boasted a size significantly thicker than that of its left.
It was nothing out of the ordinary; it simply tore through the restraints of black hair with brute force and blew away the rock prison that held it down. That was all there was to it.
At that moment, a burst of light shot out from the magic circle with such force one could almost believe it was summoning a meteor directly from space.
The monster glared straight up, gripping its massive right fist and drawing its arm back as if it were pulling a bowstring.
A blood-red gem, shining like a “Red Crystal Ball” on the back of its right hand, glimmered, and from there, crimson flames erupted, enveloping its entire right arm.
With its right arm cloaked in the raging flames, it clashed head-on with the meteor rushing down from above like a missile.
Upon impact, the rainbow glow and crimson brilliance surged into a torrent of light, wreaking havoc in the surrounding area.
Chrono, witnessing that moment of impact, had to close his eyes to shield them from the dazzling light.
However, the sight of the monster smashing its fiery fist directly into “Star Fall” was far too powerful.
In an instant, the flood of light subsided, and night returned, illuminated only by the glow of “Lamp Light.”
“It actually deflected ‘Star Fall’…”
In his line of sight, at the center of a crater several dozen meters in diameter, stood the fully liberated form of the monster, unscathed.
“Damn it, this guy really seems dangerous. It really feels like a trial from the gods.”
While grumbling, there was no turning back now.
Chrono jumped out into the clearing with his party members, Lily and Fiona, positioning themselves protectively in front of the executive candidate and the maid.
“Oh, you are…”
The first to react to their presence was a tall boy, slightly shorter than Chrono, the executive candidate.
He looked thoroughly shocked, and considering the situation, it would be unnatural not to be surprised. Chrono thought so and decided to convey only what was necessary concisely.
“Hey, we will take on this monster. You all should run away quickly!”
Given the urgent circumstances, Chrono dropped his polite tone, speaking forcefully despite this being their first meeting.
“Uh, but…”
The boy hesitated, clearly resistant to leaving the fight against such a powerful monster to unfamiliar adventurers, providing no clear answer.
“Thank you very much!”
But his maid, even in such a situation, seemed to be able to make calm judgments.
She quickly lifted her master and, leaving a word of thanks, turned her apron dress away from Chrono and the others as if to leave the scene.
Chrono had no intention of stopping her; rather, he would be troubled if she didn’t escape.
“That thing is the Rank 5 Monster Raspun! Don’t even think about defeating it; just run away quickly!”
As she was carried away by the maid, the boy shouted those words.
Touched by his thoughtfulness, Chrono couldn’t help but smile.
“So it’s called Raspun. Is it some evolution of Pumpun?”
While thinking about how it seemed to have evolved into something far more vicious, Chrono turned to face the Rank 5 monster.
“I’m sorry, Chrono, I couldn’t finish it off.”
From his right, the voice apologizing came from Lily, who had already returned to her girl form, wrapped in a pale green “Fairy Barrier.”
“No, that thing was using fire; it has high resistance to heat. We were at a disadvantage.”
When monsters manipulate elements like fire or lightning, they almost always possess high resistance to those elements.
This monster called Raspun was no exception; if it was Rank 5, it would boast resistance close to nullifying attacks.
“Then it would be a bad match for me as well.”
From his left, the voice was that of Witch Fiona, who could turn vast lands into scorched earth with her runaway flames.
Indeed, it had demonstrated such resilience that even “Star Fall” hadn’t been able to blow off a limb, likely due to the elemental mismatch that also prevented it from falling to “Golden Sun.”
“We’re falling behind with a monster resistant to the heat; this reveals a weakness in our party.”
That said, there was no way to rectify that immediately.
“I guess there’s no helping it; I’ll have to cut it down myself. Lily and Fiona, focus on support.”
Acknowledgments echoed in Chrono’s ears in different voices.
In his hands, the “Curse Blade ‘Belly Split,'” his trusty weapon, was gripped as ten blackened swords unfolded behind him like wings.
“Here we go—”
As Chrono dashed straight forward, Raspun raised its red hair and let out a chilling roar that echoed again through the mountains of Galahad.
The eardrum-splitting roar seemed to indicate that Raspun was in an enraged state and had almost completely negated the damage from “Star Fall.”
With the high heat from “Star Fall,” the main source of damage almost entirely ineffective, only the shockwave from the explosion managed to reach its body.
A simple human, or even a Minotaur, would scatter at the mere force of that explosion, but this Raspun demonstrated significantly high resistance to shock like other power-type monsters, which was immediately evident from its vigorous form.
(But how about slashing?)
Even though it’s a monster, it’s not omnipotent; where there are strengths, there are also weaknesses.
Raspun looked like a blend of a bear covered in thick fur and a gorilla, a figure one could call a magical beast.
The fur and muscles might possess high resistance to shock and bludgeoning, but a sharp blade’s slash should be effective according to monster theory.
Conversely, skeletons with no flesh or monsters with hard scales and shells would react poorly to slashes while being vulnerable to blunt attacks.
Chrono believed that with his “Curse Blade ‘Belly Split,'” which had cut through countless enemies, he could cleave through the body of even this Rank 5 monster and charged in to strike.
However, Raspun would not simply wait for Chrono to come at it.
At a distance where the two had yet to close the gap, Raspun swung its right arm back as flames began to converge in its palm once more.
(Can it shoot a fireball!?)
It formed a large fireball on its palm, much like a fire-based attack magic.
And just before Chrono could close in on the giant body of the monster, the flaming arm was swung, and the fireball was launched at bullet-like speed.
“—Black Shield!”
A defensive magic was formed as black fibers intertwined.
The shield’s size was a rectangle covering from Chrono’s knees to above his head, looking excessively flimsy against the one-meter-wide fireball speeding toward him.
Surely, Raspun felt the same.
Impact, explosion, black smoke, and heatwaves surged as those sharp fangs twisted into an evil grin.