CH 83

“Aoi, what kind of monster is that? Could it be a chimera? That’s still not right. Chimeras are a D-rank……”

“This is the first time I am seeing it too, but it is likely to be a myrmecoleon.”

“Myrmecoleon?”

“Yes, it is a monster that is said to have the head of a lion and the body of an ant.”

“This is my first time hearing about it.”

“It is supposed to be an upper E-rank monster, but I’ve never heard of a foreign monster appearing around here.”

So, it is a myrmecoleon, huh?

It was a name I’d never heard of before. The monster is rather conspicuous because it has a giant ant’s body connected down from the chest area of a big lion, and it seemed to be rampaging furiously.

And, its sides were flanked by an orc and an imp.

Although I didn’t know about the myrmecoleon’s abilities, just from the fact that there was an imp, a desperate battle was unavoidable.

I didn’t know if all imps have the Skill Resist ability. If so, they were going to be very tough opponents for Aoi.

“Aoi, I’ll take care of the orc and imp, so can you handle the myrmecoleon?”

“Alright, no problem.”

“Since we don’t know about the enemy’s abilities, don’t push yourself too hard.”

“I get it.”

I learned in the last battle that half-baked skill attacks can’t get through the imps’ defense, except when continuous firing of powerful skills from a close range.

I dashed with all my might until the enemy was within my skill range and—

“Go! [Lightning].”

I fired a lightning bolt at the orc; the lightning stuck the orc, driving it into extinction.

Everything was going according to plan. The real battle starts from here.

“One more shot. [Lightning].”

Successively, I fired another lightning bolt at the imp, but a green light appeared just like the previous time, and I wasn’t able to defeat the imp.

As expected, this guy also had the Skill Resist ability.

I held a survival knife in each hand and activated my skill again.

“It is now. [Ice Javelin] [Ice Javelin] [Ice Javelin].”

I closed the distance by repeatedly firing [Ice Javelin], which still could be activated normally although its display had become strange. The problem was that this time’s imp was holding a weapon in its hand, unlike the previous one.

If that weapon were to be wielded with the physical strength of a monster, something like my survival knives wouldn’t even last an instant, right?

But, I’d also leveled up since last time.

Honestly, I wasn’t really sure about how much stronger my degraded skills had become due to my level-ups. Nevertheless, I should be able to do more damage than the previous time.

Anyway, strike the enemy from a close distance. I focused on that point alone.

Even when I was activating my skills, the imp didn’t appear to have moved much. So, the distance was closed very quickly.

“Eat this. [Explosion] [Explosion] [Explosion].”

I attacked the imp by continuously firing [Explosion] as I approached a few meters away from the imp.

“Gahaa.”

The imp let out a gasp with an anguished expression on its face.

From its appearance and expression, it could be seen that it wasn’t able to escape the heat from the [Explosion] skills.

It was really effective.

I bombarded it with more and more follow-up attacks.

“There are still more. [Explosion] [Explosion] [Explosion].”

I wanted to give it more damage so that I would be able to defeat it for sure.