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Chapter 100: Arch Chimera ①

As we entered the boss room, we found ourselves on a plain under the night sky.

Looking up at the sky, the moon that had been covered by clouds slowly began to peek out, and the entire plain was gradually illuminated by the moonlight.

And at the same time, a huge silhouette can be seen slowly rising up from afar.

As planned, Shinku moved to the front, followed by Drake. Me and Kinu were in the middle, and Nelfie in the rear.

≪Everyone be careful. This is a monster I’ve never seen before. I think it’s probably a mutated species that isn’t even listed in the monster encyclopedia. I’ll try appraising it as we get closer.»

I appraised it as we slowly closed the distance. It seemed to be a monster called “Arch Chimera”. Chimera is a B-rank four-legged monster with the head of a lion and a goat, the tail of a snake, and its size is about 3m in total length.

However, the total length of this monster exceeded 10m, and its height exceeded that of even the Red Ogre. Moreover, it possessed two attributes; lightning and earth.

I had never faced a monster with the lightning attribute until now, and even thought that I was special. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. Moreover, in addition to the agility and offensive power that are synonymous with the lightning attribute, the combination of the earth attribute means that it also specializes in defense. This could be a rather troublesome enemy.

≪I have partially appraised it. It’s a monster called Arch Chimera, which I think is a variant of Chimera. It has two attributes, lightning and earth, and is highly likely to be a high S rank or higher.≫

≪Understood. I will pull it’s attention first!≫

Saying so, Shinku raised her attack and defense with the Bravery buff and gained enmity with Provocation.

Aiming for the moment when the two heads of the Arch Chimera focused on Shinku, Drake ran towards its left leg and swung the Red Ogre’s Iron Rod.

Kinu and I used magic while moving, and Nelfie also attacked with magic arrows from a distance. We were not holding back on the damage.

However, although the Arch Chimera took two steps back, it didn’t seem to have taken as much damage as expected.

≪It’s harder than I thought. What’s going on?≫

≪Aun-sama, a phenomenon similar to this happened when I was fighting the demon called Zoa.≫

≪Indeed. It feels like the attacks are being repelled by a hard membrane.≫

Is it using magic to create something like a magic barrier that the magic airships of the Ibrudia Empire used?

In that case, being able to fight this monster will be beneficial to us.

≪I want to see what principle the Arch Chimera uses to create that membrane. Kinu, Nelfie, this might be a little strainful, but I’ll be going to the front too, so please take on the support.≫

≪Nn. Got it.≫≪Understood.≫

After that, I joined the vanguard and started attacking, but I felt that even Shiranuemaru would be repelled if I just slash normally.

The enemy’s attacks were well defended by Shinku, so I had enough time to analyze it, but if we want to defeat this guy, we would have to do something about this barrier-like membrane.

As for Nelfie’s arrows, she shot both normal arrows and arrows made with magic. However, as for the enchanted normal arrows, although their power was weakened, I found that they pierced through the membrane and pierced the Arch Chimera.

≪Nelfie, your enchanted arrows are piercing through. Shoot as many as you can.≫

≪That seems to be the case. Got it.≫

As an experiment, I tried to cut through the membrane while circulating mana through Shiranuemaru. I felt resistance from the membrane and the power of the cut seemed to be weakened, but damage was certainly dealt.

Just when I thought I had found a way out, a yellow aura burst out of the Arch Chimera’s body like lightning, greatly increasing its attack and movement speed, and knocked Shinku far back.

When the enmity towards Shinku ended, I was attacked by the serpent, which was the tail part of the Arch Chimera, from behind like a whip.

As I jumped back to reduce the damage, the serpent gave chase but Drake repelled it away with the Red Ogre’s Iron Rod. Upon landing, Kinu cast healing magic on me.

　

≪Thank you. Shinku, are you okay?≫

≪Yes, I was able to guard the attack, but I was knocked back. I apologize.≫

≪Don’t worry. Rather than that, the Arch Chimera can even use buffs, huh.≫

≪Bro, it’s going to be tough at this rate. What should we do?≫

≪Hmm. If that barrier is peeled off, it looks like we can deal some damage, but……≫

≪When I looked closely, I realized that the Arch Chimera’s barrier seems to absorb impact like rubber. Zoa’s barrier was made like a transparent glass and repelled all attacks. Although the properties may be different, we were able to break it with a certain amount of power.≫Shinku.

≪Then let me and Drake attack with all our might. Shinku, you continue to provoke it. Can you do it?≫

≪Of course.≫

After Drake and I activated our double buffs, Shinku rushed to the front line and repelled the Arch Chimera’s claw attack with Guard Impact.

Drake and I used that opportunity to attack.

After a few seconds of continuous attacks, the barrier film suddenly disappeared as if it had popped off, and I realized that the resistance I felt when attacking had disappeared.

≪The barrier has disappeared! Kinu and Nelfie, join the attack.≫

Magic and arrows flew following my instructions, but the Arch Chimera took a big step back and suddenly launched a charge attack and a tail bite attack on Drake.

Drake managed to guard the charge with both hands, but his shoulder was bitten by the serpent tail.

Drake managed to hold on without collapsing, and when healing magic was cast on him and an arrow was shot at its tail, the Arch Chimera jumped back and glared at us while recovering its posture.

≪Kinu-neesan, it looks like I’ve been inflicted with a poison status ailment. Can you detoxify it?≫

≪Nn. I will take care of it immediately.≫

As I appraised Drake, he had the [Poisoned] condition and his HP had decreased by about 10%. Earlier when Kinu had to heal me, I had taken about 30% damage in one hit.

The Arch Chimera seems to be a monster that possesses high attack, defense, and agility.

It was now clear that it’s a type that specializes in close combat, and does not use long-range attacks. However, I felt that the goat neck hardly participated in the attacks.

Well then, what to do next…