CH 80
Data.73 – Old Bowman, Cloudsea Turtle Dragon
The Seacloud Turtle Dragon..which I will just call Turtle Dragon, breathed out clumps of clouds as its attack.
However, they were not very fast and looked rather weak.
Also, it had a proper HP gauge above its head.
So it had the special ability of concealing its HP gauge and avoiding Monster Scan when it pretended to be an island, but it was likely not as strong as the Windcloud Dragon or the Bluesea Dragon.
Those were special dragons.
“It seems like it lures in players in order to kill the monsters that started nesting on its back.. That is the lore. And we did a good clean up job for it.”
“Well, it was necessary, so I’m not going to complain. Besides, that also tells us its weakness.”
In other words, this guy can’t get rid of the enemies on its back by itself.
Like how some people can’t scratch their back.
And this was a turtle with a huge shell and likely short arms.
Kind of like how it’s always dark right under a lighthouse.. Well, maybe not like that. But sometimes being too close was the same as being too far.
The Turtle Dragon was no longer attacking us with its cloud breath.
It was because we were now out of its range.
However, my arrows could still reach it!
“Trident Arrow!”
It was a skill I acquired when defeating the Poseidon Kraken in the south sea, but I hadn’t had any opportunities to use it since, as I had been away from the sea.
This skill was effective against water and fish type monsters.
And Satomi had told me that the Turtle Dragon had the water attribute.
Now, I could attack it from safety..or so I thought.
But unlike humans, turtles had tails on the other side of their shell.
And this tail was longer than the neck. It shot out of the cloud sea and lashed at us like a whip.
“Ukyakya! Ukyaaa!!”
Gochu had tried to block the tail with his staff, but was blown into the air.
While it wasn’t as powerful as those other special dragons, it was still a dragon. There was no way that it would be weak.
Perhaps I should crush the tail first..!
“Mister Kyuji, you should continue to aim for the head. We’ll deal with the tail.”
And like that, Satomi’s body turned invisible.
It was the effect of Unmoving Invisible Stance.
While the restrictions were even more harsher than Necoco’s ‘unmoving’ skill, it was still powerful as it made you invisible and erased your hitbox.
He activated this while taking control of Gochu through Monster Link. His style of fighting involved defeating enemies without lifting a finger.
And so I could turn my back without worrying. Just as I faced the dragon’s head again, the ground started to shake.
The Turtle Dragon had started to move in order to stop me from shooting..
Thankfully, there were plenty of trees growing on the shell, and so I had something to hang onto.
And so while it had stopped one attack, I wasn’t flung off into the sea..
“Gah..!”
But Satomi crashed into a tree.
“Are you okay?”
“I just can’t get used to how soft the ground is. Besides, it also exploited the weakness of this skill.. While it erases my hitbox, it doesn’t fully apply to collision detection.”
“I see.. Otherwise you would fall right through the floor..!”
“Exactly. It’s been a consistent weakness even before the skill was nerfed during the update. If a hole opens under where I am standing, I will fall. In other words, the invisibility will be deactivated. And it’s the same when the ground shakes.”
Now I understood why the skill was even allowed.
It had seemed so powerful that I wondered why it was in the game. But management must have decided it was not a problem because there was such a clear weakness.
The people making the game were the ones that played it the most.
And so sometimes they would get bored and start raising the difficulty.
As they were making the game, they knew about the weakness from the beginning.
That being said, most players wouldn’t know about it, so it wasn’t much of a weakness.
And so it had been nerfed later on. It was good that management was flexible.
Sometimes when you work on the same game for so long, you miss things that seem like they should be obvious..
“Mister Kyuji. We’re still going to follow the same strategy. We’ll stop the tail.”
“But the enemy will target you first now. And then Gochu will have to protect you and won’t be able to attack.”
Not only that, but Gochu used fire magic.
“Still, the plan is the same. I’m going to burn it..with a combination charge attack. Besides, it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t show you one of my trump cards.”
“Ukya-kya-kya!”
Gochu stood behind Satomi.
And then it started to emit a fiery aura.
“It’s not easy to use it, but in the current situation, it should be fine.. HAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!”
Satomi started shouting suddenly. And then Gochu’s body turned into flames which spread to Satomi.
As the two burned, the Turtle Dragon’s tail approached them..!
What the hell was happening.. I could do nothing but watch..!
“Combination Charge Attack! Katenroooooou!!”
The aura of fire around them shot up into the sky!
Just like a castle..!
And the aura slammed right into the Turtle Dragon that came to crush Satomi from above.
Furthermore, the flames started to rotate at an incredible speed, turning the whole tail into a ball of fire.
Such firepower..!
And like that, the tail was knocked back by the force of the fire, and it sank limply back into the sea.
I doubted it would return for a while.
“Phew.. I fulfilled my role. This combination charge attack has a feature where the force becomes stronger if you raise your voice, kind of like a certain game that was popular a long time ago.. On the other hand, it only does damage to things close by and right above you. That makes it difficult to use.. It’s not easy at all.”
“Still, it must make you feel like a hero from an anime or manga! I wish that I would awaken to a similar power.”
“I’d give it to you right now if I could. But you would have to give me Meteor Bow. That one is clearly easier to use.”
“Um..I think I’ll pass on that. Well, I just need to attack the head now. So leave it to me.”
“Thank you. Gochu is in cooldown now, so I won’t be able to do anything.”
But I had a feeling that this wasn’t true.
Still, he had shown me an interesting skill, so now it was my turn to finish off the dragon.
“Ah, it’s head went down..”
Now that it wasn’t able to attack, the Turtle Dragon’s head went back into the water.
That was a turtle for you. They were smart.
However, I had a friend who was good at fighting in the water.
“You’re up next! Garbow!”
“Gar! Gar!”
After returning from his Meteor Bow cooldown, Garbow was unleashed into the sea.
And then a few moments later, the Turtle Dragons head reemerged with a depleted HP gauge.
Garbow’s attacks must have been too much for it.
But now it was at the mercy of my arrows.
After that, the Turtle Dragon would repeatedly move in and out of the water as I chipped away at its HP.
“And the final blow! Trident Arrow!”
A three-pronged arrow cut away at the remainder of its HP gauge.
The Seacloud Turtle Dragon fell, and then its body started to turn into light and disappear..
In other words, the platform we were standing on started to vanish..
“I had a feeling..that this would happen.”
“Too bad the turtle wasn’t nice enough to take us to the beach first. We had no choice but to defeat it. Also..I can’t swim.”
“..”
The ground below was becoming more and more transparent.
Not only that, but I could see sharks swimming in the water around the turtle as it faded away..
Like they were eating the dead creature.
How was I supposed to get out of this. And when I was with someone who couldn’t even swim..?
“You two! Hold onto this!”
“You.. Mister Yu!?”
Mister Yu was supposed to have returned to the workshop, but he was now riding on a cloud in the air.
Apparently, it was the heavenly maidens behind him that were controlling the cloud.
And they were grumbling about something..
“Really.. This isn’t a taxi..”
So they had taxis in the world above.. But there was no time to think about that.
Satomi had gone completely pale, like he knew he was going to drown. I pushed him onto the cloud and then contained Garbow.
And then I also rushed onto the cloud.
At the same time, the Turtle Dragon turned into light completely and disappeared.
The sharks below seemed very disappointed as they circled the water a little and then dispersed.
“You saved us, Mister Yu.”
“Don’t mention it! In the first place, I’m the one who sent you two to that monster!”
“Uh.. You knew about it? About the island’s secret..”
“Sorry, sorry! However, those Cloud Spiders are the best way to collect Cloud Strands, and the easiest way to get them is to go on that monster’s back and defeat it!”
The easiest..huh?
I suppose it was true, but couldn’t he have given us a little head up first..?
Well, there was no point in complaining about it now.
“Besides, there is great meaning in the fact that you defeated it! To be precise, with the materials it dropped!”
“Turtle Dragon materials?”
I was so concentrated on escaping that I hadn’t noticed.
Uhh.. ‘Shell of the Windcloud Turtle Dragon’ seemed to be the new item I acquired.
“With that, your Haori can evolve! Leave that and your bow to me!”
“The haori can evolve..? And my bow!?”
He was moving ahead very quickly!
So it wasn’t just about repairing now, but evolution? In other words, the Windcloud set will become even stronger..!?