I Was a Sword When I Reincarnated (Web Novel)

163 . Disaster Pill Bug

A large black ball, the Disaster Pill Bug, rapidly closed in on us .

Its massive body made its attacks incredibly powerful, but that wasn’t all — the bug was extremely mobile . The combination of these two factors made it ridiculously difficult to deal with .

We’d already experienced the extent of this combination head on several times . We barely managed to dodge the bug’s attacks only to have it suddenly turn on the spot and fly in our direction on several occasions . We would’ve long be squashed if not for our ability to teleport .

One couldn’t even get away from the damn thing by taking to the air, as its Air Jump skill allowed it to chase its prey in all 3 dimensions .

Even more troublesome was the hardness of its shell . Poking at it with anything other than an all out attack would only leave it with a scratch . That would be fine and dandy and allow us to accumulate damage and all, if not for the fact that the insect could regenerate . Its defenses were as solid as Rynford’s .

And if you thought that was all, then boy, you’ve got a whole ‘nother thing coming . The Disaster Pill Bug was capable of throwing a counter with Vibration Strike the moment we tried to attack it . Its detection skills seemed to make it capable of figuring exactly when we were going to strike each and every single time .

It didn’t seem like we were going to beat the bug by kiting it and poking at it sporadically . In fact, we were racking up more damage than it was .

But that honestly just made things a lot simpler .

「Nn . Same as usual . 」

We just had to do as we always did and finish it off with a single powerful blow .

「Master . 」

『Roger . 』

Transform was one of the skills I’d used the most in our exploration of Ulmutt’s Eastern Dungeon; I’d practiced it hundreds upon hundreds of times . The Katana form was one of the forms I’d assumed the most, and hence, I was now able to take it in an instant . I’d even become capable of maintaining it for an hour with relative ease .

「Master . Going . 」

『Alright! Urushi, lure the boss real quick . 』

「Ruff!」

We hid our presences as Urushi provoked the pill bug and got its attention .

The large black ball immediately turned in Urushi’s direction the moment he threw a spell at it . The wolf was in his larger form, but he still looked puny next to the giant pill bug regardless .

「Grooowl!」

Urushi was not only more agile than Fran, but also capable of diving into the shadows if need be, so I was pretty sure that he wouldn’t have any issues if all he needed to do was dodge the pill bug’s attacks . His efficacy as bait was furthered by the fact that his magical strikes allowed him to ensure that the enemy stayed focused on him .

We finished all necessary preparations in a mere few moments .

That said, there wasn’t actually enough space for us to use the thing we used on Rynford . The ceiling was too low; we couldn’t fall far enough to build up all the kinetic energy we needed to make the technique work . I wasn’t too sure how things would end up going, so I didn’t dare pour every last bit of magical energy I had into my blade .

That said, we did have a plan . None of the dodging we did was aimless . We hadn’t just been running away .

Fran waited for the exact moment the pill bug struck a wall and immediately went on the offensive right as it lost all momentum .

She used a combination of my threads and Air Compression to fire herself off in the bug’s direction . That, of course, wasn’t all . She threw both wind and fire magic into the mix to accelerate herself even further . She activated weight manipulation and cloaked my blade in the elements twice over as she drew me from a sheath of compressed air . Every last bit of destructive force she outputted was concentrated on the very tip of my blade .

「Haaah!」

『Nice!』

I’d been pretty sure of our victory, but it looked like I’d been underestimating the Disaster Pill Bug . It was a C ranked threat . C ranked threats were more than just one trick ponies . The bug was capable of much more than mere offense .

The pill bug suddenly used magic emission and caused its body to begin rotating in the slash’s direction, an action that negated a fair portion of the damage that would have otherwise been inflicted .

As a result, her slash only managed to leave a large gash in the magic beast’s shell; its internals remained unharmed .

『Damn!』

「Strong as expected . 」

『But we’ve at least made enough progress . 』

I mean, it would’ve been nice if we were able to finish him in just one hit, but not doing so was just fine as well . We’d already planned ahead, just in case .

We focused our attentions on the wound that we’d just opened .

『Looks like it worked just the way we thought it would . 』

「Nn . Can’t regenerate when frozen . 」

Our element of choice hadn’t been the combination of the usual fire and lighting that we’d always loved to use . It’d instead been ice/snow .

The experiments we conducted regarding elemental weaknesses had led us to come to realize that wounds inflicted through ice/snow magic would regenerate at an abnormally slow rate .

We’d created the perfect weakness . All we needed to do now was launch an attack into the crack we made in its shell and we’d be golden . In other words, we secured ourselves a means of attacking the bug’s internals .

「Once more . 」

『Let’s finish it off!』

「Woof!」

The only problem was that the pill bug would likely rotate in much the same manner as it had earlier . It’d be pretty hard for Fran to attack the exact spot she was aiming for .

『Alright, here’s the plan . We’ll let attack immediately after he finishes one of those spins . It’s gotta take a good amount of force for him to spin like that, and he probably uses a tonne of magical energy every time, so he probably can’t do it in rapid succession . 』

「Nn . Urushi, leave to you . 」

「Woof!」

We kicked ourselves into gear so that we could bring the damned thing down . Urushi started spamming magic at it in order to draw its attention while Fran and I quietly awaited an opening .

It didn’t take long for opportunity to knock .

The pill bug emitted a bunch of magical energy in order to hunt down Urushi, but missed and crashed into yet another wall .

Fran immediately leapt at the pillbug, whose open wound just so happened to be facing us . Everything was perfect . All we needed to do was hit the damned thing one more time .

『Let’s do this!』

「Haaaah!」

We launched a second attack with everything we had behind it —

— Only to realize that we hadn’t grasped the full extent of the pill bug’s strength .

I’d thought that the tides of battle were in our favour and that victory would soon be in our grasp . In fact, I hadn’t just thought it . I’d been convinced of it by none other than the Disaster Pill Bug itself .

Shit! How the hell!? I lost to a mere bug in a battle of wits!?

Something burst out from within the bug’s wound the moment Fran was about to slash it .

It lured us in and made sure to attack from a range at which we would be unable to avoid its strike . That said, it seemed that it’d been pushing itself, as its actions had caused its MP to plummet .

「Nraaah!」

『Shittt!』

The insect compressed its magical energy and launched a projectile from within its broken carapace .

Our eyes were instantly filled with not but a single flash of white .

_______________________________________________________________

I’ve got some good(?) news . I’m going to be picking up Nidome No Yuusha in the near future to make up for the fact that I can’t find any good MMOs to play . I’ve spoken with the current translation team . They will be posting one more chapter as it was a sponsored chapter . I will be picking the project up thereafter .

Will this have an effect on TSKD’s release schedule? It will when I’m busy or if I find a new game to play, but otherwise, hopefully not too much . (Note that the schedule will change on Monday regardless because I won’t be on break anymore . It’ll go back to what it was in like September/October . )”