We’ve been in the dungeon for five days. That means we’ve been here longer than last time.
“Chris, are you okay?”
“Yes, I have fully recovered my magic energy.”
Chris sounds like she’s raring to go.
On our fourth day in the dungeon, meaning yesterday, Chris’ magic detected an invisible kijin. That saved us from a sneak attack and allowed us to fight it.
Up until then, Chris was looking increasingly more dispirited, but not anymore.
She was able to pick up on reactions when contrasted with my Map, but she was worried that her Detection Magic couldn’t pick up on the invisible ones.
“I think it’s just that kijin with magic eyes that let them disappear are rare.”
I say, thinking back to yesterday’s fight.
If those things were all over the place, it might be impossible to hunt here properly. They might kill people in one attack depending on the weapons they’re holding.
We were lucky the shields protected us the first time.
“Yes. We’ve taken down twenty kijin so far, and I think three-eyed ones are just rare in general.”
“Rurika’s right. That was the second one.”
Sera means the second one in this outing.
We only came across one last time, so that makes only three of them so far.
And there are more one-eyed kijin than two-eyed ones. Maybe it’s just coincidence that there are a lot of them where we’re heading.
“So Sora, how are things looking on the other side?”
“I can’t tell if they’re doing well, but there aren’t any casualties.”
I don’t know everything, but they’re not too far away from the staircase even after five days, probably because each fight takes a long time.
If they wanted to go back, it would take them less than a day.
One of the reasons why fights drag on for them, is that kijin are drawn to them and join the fight. And that’s probably why after the fights are over, they take long breaks instead of moving on right away.
By my count, Jetblack have taken down seven kijin, and there’s a chance that they’ve encountered a two-eyed one and had trouble.
They might be over there if they aren’t here.
“Let’s go then. Chris, please do it.”
Chris nods, and releases magic energy.
“How is it looking?”
I ask, and Chris tells me where the direction from where her magic energy picked up something, and sometimes points.
I listen to her, and contrast it with Map.
“Yes, there are no hidden reactions this time. Tell me if you pick up more.”
Chris nods, and I walk towards the nearest reaction.
My steps are pretty light, but that’s thanks to Chris. I’m definitely not becoming complacent.
Everyone else is also like this.
“…Stop. There is a kijin after this corner.”
“How should we fight this one?”
“Judging by the reaction, it will be close to us once we turn the corner… Let’s move over there and check what kind of magic eyes it has. And then we’ll adjust accordingly?”
I say while looking at Rurika, and she nods.
We move without making a sound, and then I jump out and use Provoke.
Once it turns to me, I use Transfer to get behind it, and swing my sword.
It dodges the attack, and immediately turns to counterattack.
It’s bare-handed, and uses gauntlets and leg guards. This one’s mainly a fighter, and has two eyes.
But Analysis tells me they’re not magic eyes.
“It doesn’t have them!”
I declare while attacking, and suddenly, three reactions appear behind it.
It’s Rurika, Sera, and Argo.
Rurika stops for a moment, and Sera and Argo split to the left and right.
She then swings her twin swords, but the kijin twists its body and attacks with a backhanded fist.
Argo deflects it with his sword, and Sera swings her axes matching the kijin’s momentum, but it dodges.
It’s like it has eyes on the back of its head, and it jumps back and to the left for safety.
The four of us keep attacking it, but then it gets in front of a wall and fights us from that position.
Having its back to a wall limits how many of us can attack at the same time, and our attack options, making it easier for the kijin to defend itself.
This fighting style is good for a fighter, but I start to pick up on something as the fight prolongs itself. This kijin has high physical abilities.
Its level is about the same as the others we’ve faced, but I feel like it’s stronger and faster.
Is it because it doesn’t have magic eyes?
We’ve fought ones without magic eyes before, but we didn’t have this much trouble.
But its moves change once Hikari and Guilford join the fight.
Hikari’s Projectile Slash and Guilford’s arrows start supporting us from a distance, and we start doing damage, probably because the kijin’s rhythm has been broken.
It gets progressively more wounded, and its skin is covered in blood.
Losing blood makes it move not as well too, which makes it suffer even more attacks. In the end, even though the four of us fought it for over half an hour, once Hikari and Guilford joined in, it went down in less than five minutes.
Thanks for this weeks updates, & hope everybody has a good weekend 😎👍
🎆🎆Happy 4th of July.🎆🎆
Thanks for the treat.