Who Needs Magic in a Fantasy World Anyway?

Chapter 79: The Leaky Caverns (Part 4)

"Look out!" Richard yelled before placing himself between Koko and the monster, holding his hands out in front of him and blocking a beam of energy fired from Gornic's crystal that split apart against his barrier. And as Koko watched the beam split apart, her eyes followed one of the split beams behind her to see that even a fraction of the attack's power was enough to leave a medium-sized hole the dungeon's wall.

"Don't let the beams hit you directly!" Christina warned needlessly. "It's bound to have some kind of defenses for melee attackers as well!"

"Here I go!" Koko announced, running around Richard and towards Gornic before she suddenly had to dodge to the side as the monster was already able to fire another beam. However, even though she managed to evade its first attack, Koko slightly backed away now several of Gornic's crab legs turned upside down and started breaking off small sections of its crystal. And while she was wondering what it was doing at first, Koko soon had to withdraw completely as the monster fired its beam again into one of the smaller crystals, making it reflect and split apart before hitting the other crystals which caused the same thing to happen many times over. And while she was confident about her dodging ability, with hundreds of deadly beams coming from several different angles towards her, Koko could do nothing but retreat before she had to dive aside in a panic as a golden beam hit Gornic's crystal and reflected back towards her.

"Sorry!" Christina yelled her apology, though Koko was too busy patting her still burning sleeve where the beam had grazed her.

"That was scary..." Koko said softly as she extinguished the fire. "Getting close is going to be hard with those beams!"

"I can't use my light-based spells either..." Christina stated thoughtfully.

"Try using the swords themselves." Richard joined in. "Koko, charge towards it again and I'll try to destroy those crystals that it's using to reflect its beam!"

"Rodger!" Koko replied before she began running forward again, hoping that she could trust Richard's aim as Gornic prepared to fire another beam. And as it prepared to fire, Koko watched as five giant icicles flew over her head before impaling themselves into the small crystals that Gornic was holding. Though even as the crystals shattered and Gornic appeared to be vulnerable, the creature still had a trick up its sleeve as the ground beneath Koko erupted and she found herself on the inside of an enormous pincer.

Reacting by instinct more than anything, Koko jumped off of the floor just in time as the pincer slammed shut directly underneath her. While she was in the air, Koko traveled the rest of the distance to the monster until she finally reached the midsection of the giant crystal on its back. And when she reached it, Koko delivered two rapid punches in order to build up enough RG so that she could use her intended skill.

"Eat this!" Koko yelled with her right fist glowing red as she used her Shatter skill. And as her next punch connected the crystal around the area she hit immediately shattered, though the part that shattered was only slightly larger than her fist with cracks in the crystal ending at only about three meters away on any side of the impact. However, while she'd failed in destroying the crystal completely in one attack like she'd planned, Koko dodged to the side now as her friends started targeting the weak point that she had created.

"There's more crystal crabs coming from behind us!" Richard called out, and Koko look behind them to see that there was another swarm of the monsters heading towards them.

"I'll hold them off! You two just defeat Gornic!" Christina declared before she turned and ran behind Richard, who was busy guarding himself from another beam.

"Koko! Let's destroy the crystal!" Richard yelled.

"Let's do it!" Koko agreed, and she sprinted forward again, jumping on top of Gornic's giant pincer this time before she jumped to the side to avoid another beam. And after evading two more beams that were aimed at her, Koko had to start running across the dungeon wall to avoid Gornic's legs before she finally got behind the boss monster and hit its crystal several more times in order to raise her RG.

"Now!" Richard yelled, and Koko jumped in order to attack Gornic from behind before seeing a massive icicle impale the weak point at the front of the crystal. And even though the ice did plenty of damage, it wasn't quite enough to finish the job before Koko hit the crystal on the other side with another Shatter.

Rather than shattering the crystal completely like what normally happened with the smaller crystal crabs, the crystal on Gornic's back simply broke in half with the top half soon falling backwards off of the monster as it screamed in agony beneath it. And seeing as its method of attacking with the beams of energy was destroyed, Gornic was now left with only its pincer as a method of both attack and defense. However, its pincer couldn't reach its back where Koko was currently standing and she took advantage of this now as she started punching Gornic's back where the crystal was the thinnest.

Using her Lion's Barrage, Koko made every single strike that she made a Serpent's Strike in order for her blows to penetrate through the crystal and hit the monster beneath it. After her fifth strike, Gornic started shrieking again until Koko finally landed her final blow with the crystal crab queen collapsing to the ground beneath her. And if the creature wasn't defeated now, the result of their battle was made certain after Richard impaled another giant icicle through its head.

With Gornic turning into black smoke beneath her, Koko fell through the air a short ways before landing on the dungeon floor. And while she was satisfied with their victory, she didn't waste any time in rejoining her friends and helping them fight off the swarm of crystal crabs that had arrived during the boss fight. Though that didn't last for long before most of the crystal crabs that had been heading towards them turned in the other direction and fled.

"Why do we always get stuck in these life or death situations?" Richard complained as soon as the last crystal crab disappeared in the far cave. "How are normal adventurers supposed to do stuff like this when even we have a fight on our hands dealing with it?"

"That's... a good question." Koko agreed, though she was using her fellow classmates as a basis for her thoughts as she knew that none of them would have ever been able to handle the normally crystal crabs, much less the boss.

"All that matters now is that we survived." Christina attempted to cheer them up while breathing a sigh of relief.

"And it looks like we didn't fight for nothing either!" Koko announced happily before running over to where Gornic had stood. "Forget the little crystals, look at the size of this thing!"

"We'd need a wagon to haul that thing out of here." Christina said thoughtfully as all of them looked at the cylinder-shaped crystal that was just as tall as Koko was but at least three times as wide.

"As long as it'll fit through the caves, I can carry it!" Koko assured them before bending her knees, digging her fingers into the dirt underneath the crystal and maneuvering it to where she was carrying it on her back. "Whoa... it's heavier than I thought it'd be..."

"Are you alight?" Christina asked nervously as Koko's feet started sinking into the ground.

"Never better!" Koko replied happily. "But be sure to take all of the smaller crystals that dropped too. Leave no loot behind!"

"Okay... but just let us know if you need to take a break, alright?" Christina replied in concern.

"Hai haaai. Now lets go or we'll never be finished with the dungeon before nightfall." Koko reassured her friend. And after Richard finished gathering all of the crystals that had dropped from the normal crystal crabs in his satchel, which was nearly to the point of overflowing by the time he was finished, the group continued towards the next part of the dungeon.