Volume 5 - CH 5.11

The last time I was hit by the Green Caterpillar’s spit attack, I was only able to get myself free after I burned the threads binding me with fire magic, but before I thought about using that method, I was trying to free myself with regular means, slashing at the threads with Durandal, and it ended up going… pretty poorly. If it was not for Roxanne’s help, I would have been most definitely done for, so as you can see by the picture that I am trying to paint, if I were to be hit by such a combination, then the result would have been pretty deadly for me, and the dame thing can essentially be said about Sherry. The only person from our Party who can allow herself not to worry about the Skills the the enemies are using is Roxanne, because no matter what happens to her or what kind of Skills are going to be fired against her, she can simply brush it all off like it is nothing and dodge either to the sides or backstep.

「So it is about such a thing, huh?」

「The threads of the Green Caterpillars can certainly prove to be troublesome, but thankfully they can be avoided pretty easily!」

Yes Roxanne, it is certainly possible to avoid getting hit by the Green Caterpillar’s sticky threads, but you know what is a fundamental problem with such a manuever? That iit can only be done by a certain member of the Wolfkin tribe who possesses unnaturally high dodging abilities. Regrettably, something that you can do pretty much effortlessly remains pretty much impossible to pull of for me and Sherry. Is that not right, Sherry?

「Ah…!」

When Roxanne turned her back towards us, I gave Sherry a suggestive glance, and once she saw it, she nodded back at me, expressing that she agrees with what I have said.

Once the fighting on the eleventh floor started, it was exactly like we expected: it was not very easy on us. I know that we fought all of  the enemies that can be encountered here before, but it does not change the fact that here on the eleventh floor where the enemies get even tougher than before we actually have to put in an effort into doing it now, and whenever there are Green Caterpillars mixed in with other enemies, we have to do our very best to either kill all of them before they can activate their Skills or do our very best to dodge them if they do manage to unleash them.

That being said, we have no other choice but to move on and keep on fighting if we wish to proceed with our exploration. And thus, we move on little by little, fighting against the groups of enemies from time to time, and although we were encountering Green Caterpillars unusually often, so far neither me nor Sherry were caught in any of their threads. Escape Goats Lv.11 tend to run away from the battle after being hit with four magic attacks, so I always made sure to hit them with three magic attacks and then switch to Durandal in order to deliver the last strike that would defeat them for sure.

Yes, it is slowly but surely, but I can definitely see why people would be saying that the eleventh floor of Quratar’s Labyrinth is the most difficult to explore out of all the other floors. The combination of various types of different enemies plus their high levels makes it so that progressing through the eleventh floor is maybe not difficult, but most definitely a much slower endeavor than on the lower floors.

Eventually, we found a group of three Green Caterpillars Lv.11, and that was the first time when they actually managed to properly use their 「Thread Spit」Skill.

「Here they come, master, Sherry!」

Roxanne shouted that loudly, after which she jumped forward to avoid the incoming threads, which ended up falling and covering the ground where she was standing just a moment before, but now, the white threads hit nothing but empty air.

Thread lays scattered there where Roxanne was supposed to be standing. What the white thread hit was but empty space. Surprising nobody, Roxanne managed to dodge them all pretty much flawlessly, so if I am to be honest, I do not know why am I still getting worried about her. I know Roxanne for some time now, and throughout the entirety of our life together, there was not a single enemy and not a single attack that she would not be able to dodge with perfect accuracy.

Thankfully, due to my position in the backline as a magic casting support for Roxanne and Sherry’s vanguard, neither of the threads ever came close enough to hitting me. Ever since we first encountered the magic-using Needlewoods that scored a hit on me with their 「Water Balls」, I have already learned my lesson and made a habit to keep a safe distance from the main battlefield: far enough not to get myself aggroed by any of the enemy’s long distance Skills, but at the same time close enough to be able to aim my magic accurately and a still act as a reliable help for Roxanne and Sherry.

It was a good general strategy, but unfortunately it had one major weakness: if I stayed too far away from Roxanne and Sherry, there was an increasingly large risk of me getting attacked from behind by a monster what would have managed to make its way behind me without me noticing it, just like that one NT Ant that poisoned me did, and also there was a risk that if I stay to far and do end up getting attacked, Roxanne or Sherry will not be able to react in time to come to my rescue.

Second barrage of the threads has been shot by the Green Caterpillars, and just like before, Roxanne was able to dodge all of them splendidly.  

Their third attempt at using their Skills was interrupted with my help as I switched to Durandal and proceeded to engage them in melee range. But unfortunately, the fourth wave of the threads managed to catchSherry, since she was just a second too late with her side roll.

In a matter of seconds, Sherry has been covered in sticky white threads from top to bottom, and it was all because Sherry lost sight of the Green Caterpillar for a moment when the Escape Goat that I was currently fighting began running away before I could give it the last smack with Durandal to finish it off. It was a near perfect attack to Sherry’s blind spot, so she had no way of avoiding it in time. If I was in her place, then I do not think that I would have been able to dodge that attack as well, because all of it happened so fast and in such a hectic manner that even I had problems following up with all of it when staying at a distance.

Tens of… no, hundreds of small white threads were now all over her, just like it was once with me. And now that Sherry’s moves were slowed down to a halt, one of the Green Caterpillars used that opportunity to ram its body into her. It was unfortunate that she got herself caught like that, but the saving grace here was that she did not fall victim to Green Caterpillars concentrated attacks one after the other. Should I start healing her now? Or maybe cast 「Plating」on her and capitalize on my attack magic while it is still active to finish the enemies off and give her first aid once that is going to be done? I chose to go down the latter route.

Because I had already used my Attack Magic six times, I had to wait with shooting the seventh one right after the sixth spell went off cooldown. Since the Green Caterpillar could not move right after it attacked Sherry, the 「Fire Storm」that I fired in its direction ended up hitting it without fail, and because I chose to use the AoE Spell, it caught not only the one Green Caterpillar that was attacking Sherry, but also the other two of them and the Escape Goat that was about to make its escape from the scene of the battle inside of the blast, after which they all disappeared while turning into puffs of green smoke one after the other.

「Are you alright, Sherry?」

I ask Sherry while casting Heal on her to recover the damage that has been inflicted upon her.

「Yes, master, I am fine. I am sorry that I could not dodge the threads in time.」

「Don’t blame yourself for it. If I were in your place, I probably would not have been able to dodge these threads either. There, all done. How are you feeling?」