The manticore that spawns on the ninety-first floor immediately charges towards us.
It’s faster than a hellhound, and stronger than an orthros.
I would’ve probably been blown away, if it wasn’t for Mia casting support magic on my Shield Master, and me attaching the Absorption skill to my shield beforehand.
But by fighting it, I understand that the biggest threat isn’t its high physical abilities, but the way it expertly uses its tail to attack.
It swings its tail, that looks like a scorpion’s, like a whip, and touching its tip causes the paralysis status condition.
It’s also annoying how it doesn’t take effect right away, but it slowly permeates.
Thankfully, we learn that right after the boss is taken down.
“Why didn’t the reference materials mention this?”
I mumble.
“So what did you think of our fighting style?”
“It feels like you’re used to fighting. Your balance isn’t bad either. I had my doubts when I heard you were going to the upper floors with just seven members, but now it makes sense.”
The beast king praises us, but there’s the matter of compatibility too.
When an opponent uses long range attacks like magic, we have to have people protecting Chris and Mia.
Manticores mainly attack from a close range, so the people that would be defending them can go on the offensive. Of course, it would be dangerous if they got through, so we still have to be careful as we fight, and with how we position ourselves.
I used Provoke periodically, and didn’t forget to keep their attention on me as much as possible.
Also, the fact that it didn’t summon others helped a lot.
After a short break, we head to the ninety-second floor, where our group will mainly revolve around the beast king.
The beast king dodges and strikes when he sees an opening, Nene mainly uses magic, and Figel uses a bow and magic, mostly a bow.
Figel’s bow is a magic item, so it can both shoot normal arrows and create magic energy arrows.
“But only arrows of the attributes I can use.”
Says Figel. He can use ice and wind, so his ice arrows freeze targets, and wind arrows are made stronger by increasing their speed.
Maybe I could increase the scope of what I can do if I could make elemental arrows, but I don’t even use a bow to begin with.
Figel can work like that not just because of the magic arrows, but because of his skill with the bow too.
When we reach the ninety-third floor, we get into a proper formation.
We have a group of five that’s composed of the beast king, Nene, Sera, Rurika, and Hikari. That’s the offensive group, and the rest of us form another group.
“Why is Nene in the group that fights up close?”
She seemed to be mainly using magic before. Is it because having one person that can attack from a distance means she can support the other four?
When I ask Figel, he smiles awkwardly.
“Nene changes her style to fit the situation. Most people in our party use physical attacks, so she mostly used magic there, but she’s really good at close quarters fighting.”
According to Ryuryu, she used to be a lot stronger than even the beast king.
I can also feel a lot of confidence from the beast king and Figel. And sure enough, she strikes with such power, that she isn’t outdone by the beast king.
I peek at her while looking around at the manticores. There are five around me in a semicircle. All of them summoned monsters.
When they jump at me to attack, I focus on evading the strikes from their front legs and their attempts to step on me, and practically ignore their tails.
The main threat of the tail attacks is the status condition, so the direct impact is a lot weaker than the other attacks.
I have resistance to status conditions because my skill is maxed out, so it doesn’t work on me. The same goes for Kaina, because poison or paralysis don’t affect golems.
While I block, Chris uses wind magic to restrain them, and Kaina and Figel attack.
And when Chris is on the offensive, Figel’s support magic keeps them at bay.
Supporting with magic is more intense on the magic energy than using offensive magic, so it’s like they’re covering for each other.
Once their numbers start going down, I switch places with Kaina and swing my sword to take down manticores.
Our good coordination means we take down the summoned monsters, but just as we’re about to go help the others, they finish off the boss.
The same thing happens on the next two floors. When there are a lot of summoned monsters, the beast king’s team comes to support ours, and we get through them without much trouble.
And after we get through the ninety-fifth floor…
“You’re strong. How about joining our knights?”
Says the beast king after watching Sera fight.
“I’m not good at fighting people.”
She declines.
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