CH 140

[Bully Clown]

I completely have no idea what it was, but for some reason, the monsters were attracted by the mysterious sweet smell and gathered at the cathedral. We only encountered a few monsters on the way to the great library.

Or rather, the monsters we encountered were mostly the Planarian Slimes that had already multiplied so many that we were having trouble exterminating them.

“………nh.”

“Seriously, just how many of these slimes are there!? They filled up the road. Even if they’re practically harmless, it’s difficult to go forward with there being so many of them! Also, their fluorescent color makes my eyes dizzy!”

“It’s all thanks to the ‘Bully Clown’ who’s been zealously working to multiply the slimes without catching any wink of sleep for a week.”

“When all’s said and done, this whole situation was caused by you, though.”

As you may have guessed, the ‘Planarian Slime’ has the characteristics of ‘multiplying if the HP remains after receiving damage & recovering to full HP after multiplying’.

The multiplied slimes don’t inherit this characteristic, so they can be defeated with normal means, and the main body only has a slightly higher HP than the common slimes, so in terms of troublesomeness, the ‘Planarian Slime’ is ranked lower than the other monsters we’ve encountered so far.

And near such a slime I released the ‘Bully Clown’, who has the characteristics that are meant to bully people such as ‘limiting attack power so as not to incapacitate the target’ and ‘always targeting a character with the lowest HP’.

The characteristics of the two monsters meshed well with each other, the result of which is the countless numbers of fluorescent-colored Planarian Slimes before us.

Even if the slime had multiplied at the same rate as rats, its number wouldn’t have been enough to fill up the road like this.

It just goes to show the amount of work the clown had put into bullying. Hats off to him.

“Yo-, huma-, sto-, gah!”

That said, we must clear the road in order to reach to the great library.

Therefore, I keep on crushing the slimes blocking our way by swinging down the daemon fixed at the tip of my nodachi against the ground using the essentials of practice-swing as we march on.

Being treated that way, the daemon naturally tries to resist. It swings its arms around in attempt to grasp onto something, but this is outdoors.

The only thing it may grasp onto is the ground, but even that is not possible as I continuously swing it up and down. The only thing it manages to do is helplessly flail its arms in the air.

Its huge body makes a great slime-squashing tool. It plays an important contribution in clearing our way.

Moreover, once it has finished its purpose, all I need to do is burn the magic book that is the main body with ‘Flame Sword’. Talk about a convenient hammer.

“…………?”

“It’s no use to ask whether this guy has a heart. He has none, after all.”

I’m in a good mood because I can get experience points for ‘Monster Tamer’ and ‘Swordsmanship’ skills with each swing.

So, I’ll be generous and turn a deaf ear to what Ethel said.

———

And so, we arrived at the great library,

The fluorescent Planarian Slimes can be seen overflowing from all ‘holes’ of the building.

And by the side, I can see a 3m tall slender clown with a cracked mask carrying a slime, whom he keeps on smashing with the meat hammer he has in his other hand, laughing all the while.

“Ugh, that guy looks every bit like someone who has reached his mental limit after working nonstop without a break for days.”

“You can say that again, except it’s not a human but a monster. So? What do we do?”

“Oh, I’m gonna take it on by myself. Ayako, hold on to this guy for me, will you? As for Ethel, please look after my bag.”

“……???”

I hand Ayako my nodachi with the daemon, who’s hanging his head in silence, attached to it, and give Ethel my bag, which contains various essential items such as potions.

Ayako looks at the daemon who’s turned obedient in wonder, but without paying any heed to it I tell her that she only has to keep the nodachi pointed upward.

I’m sure it’s tired from clearing the road for us, so I’d like to give it a break.

Then, I take out a normal recovery potion from the tool bag I gave to Ethel and drink it.

Just in case, I rest for a couple of minutes to recover my stamina, and then I take out my spare weapon, ‘Knight’s Steel Sword’.

Well, rather than a spare, it’s more correct to say that it’s something I’ve especially brought for this occasion.

“Fwo~~~~, yotto.”

I stab the steel sword into my belly without hesitation.

“—!?”

“HUH!? He-, wha-, Tōru!?!?”

“Cough… that hurts.”

“Don’t ‘that hurts’ me!?”

While spitting out blood, I push the sword deeper in and let it penetrate through my back while avoiding my spine.

It feels hot rather than painful, as if the inside of my body is being directly burned with flames.

Then, I twist the handle to enlarge the wound.

I can clearly feel it as my blood flows out of my body and the heat slips away from me.

However, the threat of death is nothing compared to the suffering of not being able to raise my level.

As such, there’s no way I can’t endure it.

Clenching my teeth, I start walking forward while ignoring the panicked Ethel and Ayako.

“Gyo? Gyogehyahya!!”

The clown who’s been hitting the slime noticed me.

My being stuck with a sword in my stomach must’ve attracted his characteristic of ‘always targeting the character with the lowest HP’.

After the clown throws the slime in its arm away, it starts cackling and runs up to me before it swings down the meat hammer in its hand on the top of my head and—

“…………Gehya!?”

――hurriedly starts casting healing magic on me.

“Huh, what? Why… does that monster heal Tōru…?”

As Ethel’s question echoes behind me, I tackle down the clown and get on top of it in a mounting position.

Perhaps because my stomach is pierced with a sword, I couldn’t put as much strength into my fists as I wanted to.

Additionally, even though I’ve received healing magic, the sword is still stuck in my stomach, and the more I move my body, the more heat-like pain and fresh blood spread from the wound.

Even as I feel the presence of death that I’ve become familiar with after dying twice creeping closer upon me, I swing down my fists on the clown’s face.

“Gah, gih, gehya!?”

“Cough! Cough, tough one, ain’t ya!! Aha, ahaha, haha!!”

I keep on hitting the tall clown with a sword stuck in my stomach, whereas the clown keeps on healing me while receiving hits from me.

Laughter escapes my lips without me knowing even though I was the one who created such a strange situation.

I’ve got some insurance prepared, so the rest is a game of chicken to see whether I get exhausted first or the clown dies first.

“Guys! Don’t make a move until I beat this guy to death! Also, I’m counting on you to heal me as soon as it does!”

“That’s too reckless!? Just what’re you doing!”

I’m just doing as what I’ve been doing with the other monsters, exploiting their characteristics.

As the name suggests, the ‘Bully Clown’ is a monster whose sole purpose is to bully its opponent.

Therefore, its characteristics are meant to fulfill that very purpose. ‘Limiting attack power so as not to incapacitate the target’ and ‘always targeting the character with the lowest HP’; in addition to these two, it has another characteristic, that is ‘healing the target when they’re about to get incapacitated’.

Beating up the target who’s weaker than itself to the point of near-death, healing them when they’re about to die, then beating them again—these are the behavioral patterns of the monster called the ‘Bully Clown’.

Plus, this clown goes insane when gets attacked by someone other than its target.

It will launch a fierce counterattack against the ‘disturber’, only this counterattack packs considerable power because it doesn’t limit its attack power in this situation. If not careful, even a vanguard may get incapacitated in one blow.

If you continue attacking despite that, when its HP reduces to a certain point, it will use the bullying-purpose healing magic on itself, so without a great difference in power, you’ll end up on the losing end if you use the brute force tactic against it.

This is how it usually goes in the game. The ‘Bully Clown’ targets the rearguard who supports the whole party in the first move, counterattacks when it receives an attack from other party members—incapacitating them one after another, and when that’s done, it’ll resume bullying its target. Talk about a nasty hobby.

In our case, the ‘Bully Clown’ target would, without a doubt, be Ethel.

And if Ayako or I attack while it’s bullying Ethel, it will send us to our deaths with its counterattacks.

Then the only person left would be Ethel, whom it would continue bullying… in-game, you can just restart the game, but here the situation would be irreversible.

However, even such a troublesome opponent is so much simpler to deal with than the Oniharukon, and furthermore, there’s a strategy that anyone can use to take it down.

Actually, there’s a trick that allows the player to set a character as the target of the ‘Bully Clown’ in-game.

Further, the clown’s counterattack is triggered when it gets attacked by someone other than its target. If you take advantage of these two points, you can defeat the clown in a stable way.

“Gegi, gehya, gehya!!”

“Cough, cough! Haha, thanks for healing me to keep me from dying! Lemme keep on paying you back with my fists!”

Here’s how it works in the original game: You first attack one character in the first move at the beginning of the battle to bring their HP to the lowest among all party members so as to designate them as the clown’s target.

After that, have all the other characters use support actions such as using magic that increases the attack power of the targeted character or using items that lower the defense power on the clown.

Finally, have the targeted character focus on attacking the clown.

The clown’s counterattack will only trigger upon receiving an attack from other than the target.

Therefore, by making the target an attacker, it becomes possible to reduce the HP of the clown without receiving its severe counterattack.

Once the clown begins to use healing magic on itself, from the next turn, use items that deal fixed damage to make the targeted character’s HP closer to zero so as to induce the clown to prioritize using healing magic on them.

By doing this, you can deal more damage to it, so the accumulation of damage that the clown receives will eventually exceed the amount of HP it recovers, and at the last moment, you just have to have the whole party attack simultaneously to defeat it.

And in this world, the quickest way to defeat it is—self-harm.

If I had attacked it while it was still holding the Planarian Slime, I would’ve received a painful counterattack, so in order to change its target to me, I first stabbed myself in the stomach and got myself in a condition of near-death.

Even after it changed its target to me, I didn’t pull out the sword, nor heal myself, as by doing so, I could do whatever I wanted while having the clown use healing magic on me.

And so, this situation in which I kept on attacking the clown and the clown kept on recovering was created… and all that’s left is to wait until the ‘Bully Clown’ died.

Anyone can use this strategy as long as they have the willingness to do it, but there’s no way I can risk Ethel’s safety and I don’t know how Joseph will react if I let Ayako do it.

As a result, I had no choice but to do it myself. But unlike the Oniharukon we dealt with earlier, the ‘Bully Clown’ doesn’t negate damage, making it an ideal stress-relieving punching bag. I mean, it yields experience points!!

By the way, some of you may think, “But what if you end up dying for real?”

Well, accidents may happen, so it’s a natural concern. But of course, I’ve prepared some insurance just in case.

The obvious one is Ethel.

She has healing magic called ‘Sacred Magic: Revive’ and has my bag in her hands, so in case of emergency, she can use the potion in there.

My other insurance is the ‘Knight’s Steel Sword’ that I’ve stabbed into my stomach.

This sword has the trait of ‘Small Regeneration’, which recovers 1% of maximum HP at the beginning of each turn—or in other words every 10—seconds, as long you haven’t died.

It’s stabbed and stuck inside of me, so it counts as being equipped. I think.

So, its trait should be working, too. I haven’t verified it, but I’m sure of it!

“You must’ve got your fill of bullying, so now, cough, cough! It’s- cough, it’s your turn to be bullied!”

“Gyagi, gehi!? Gehihi!?”

Hahaha, you’d never be able to escape even if you wanted to.

Keep your eyes on me, and keep on healing me!

If you want to hate someone, then hate the guy who designed you and your characteristics!

The wicked will be preyed upon by the more wicked (players)—remember that and die!

“Ah, goh, haha, geho, gah, hegh, haha!”

“I know you got a screw loose from the start, but man… you’re being way too creepy… eww…”

“Ng—nh~~~!”

“No worries, I’ve still got a lot of that in store for you!”

And thus, I rouse all my spirit and willpower and succeed in laying the Bully Clown to rest in the pool of my own blood.

After that, Ayako pulls out the sword from my stomach, Ethel heals my wound, and we go to the great library!

Or so I’d like us to do, but Ethel is mentally exhausted for some reason, so we decide to take a break first.

If even Ayako, who has the highest stake here, agreed to take a break, there’s no way I could force them to go on.

So, until Ethel gets enough rest, I have Ayako return the daemon-attached nodachi and decide to wait by practice-swinging some distance away from them.

Tsk! The experience points I gain each swing don’t increase even with the daemon attached. Does this guy have no use other than as a substitute for a weight? What a good-for-nothing.