Tray Karaoke
Personally, I recommend dual shields for beginners.
With dual shields in hand, you learn to tell the attacks you can block from the ones you can't.
The dual shields' main offense is the follow-up that comes after a Just Guard—the Guard Chaser.
Plant that into a monster's skull and you've got yourself a full-on tray karaoke concussion.
Dodge what needs dodging, parry everything you can, and build your Just Guard instincts—then even after you set the dual shields aside and pick up a weapon without a shield, it still helps enormously with avoiding attacks.
The image of a weapon that never makes the first move, like some cheerful little bell that only laughs, is hard to shake. But that can't be helped.
—!!
The Ekriki slammed its head into the ground and scraped forward, gouging the earth as it came.
I thrust my shields out and kept my eyes wide open.
I timed the exact moment its head would meet them.
The instant it stepped with its right foot, I drove my shields forward in the same motion and braced my entire body. Then, just before contact, I whipped the shields hard to the side.
Clang—!
A hollow ring rolled through the air, and my arms shuddered. The shields vibrated under the impact.
The Ekriki's head snapped sideways at the same instant. Its balance collapsed; it staggered. The Guard Chaser that followed cracked against its skull.
The Ekriki shook its head. Drool trailing from its jaws, it glared at me.
It bared its teeth and exhaled a low, rumbling growl, still looking full of fight.
It ought to be getting a headache by now…
For a long while I had been carefully, steadily deflecting the Ekriki's attacks without getting greedy—repeating only the Chaser.
There was a reason I had deliberately left other weapons behind and brought the dual shields.
The Ekriki's patterns were different before and after it enraged.
Before rage, it mainly used headbutt bullet attacks, so simply looping Just Guard into Chaser was enough to force a concussion in short order.
One beat of rest, then the Ekriki's head swing again.
This time was the real chance to put it down.
Clang—!
I struck its head clean and hard. The Ekriki's body swayed, its eyes rolled, and it toppled sideways.
It wasn't a part-break stun.
It was the concussion effect stacked from the shield Guard Chasers. This was tray karaoke!
The time it spent on the ground was short, but even that brief window was enough to catch a breath or put in damage.
This was where having essence in the shields made all the difference.
Light of essence flowed from the right shield with the socket filled. Continuous combat had charged the essence gauge to the brim.
The essence in the socket was a low-grade Galori essence with nothing special about it—no additional effects like the Luga-lac's Berserk.
But that only meant no extras.
The basic common skills were still fully usable.
With dual shields, you could expend the essence gauge for a powerful attack that compensated for their characteristically weak offense.
I planted my left knee on the ground in front of the fallen Ekriki's head and drove my left shield into the dirt beside my left thigh. Then I aimed the face of the right shield—the one carrying the essence—straight at the Ekriki.
Power gradually flooded the shield until it was completely steeped in the white aura unique to non-elemental energy.
Shield Burst
The energy gathered in the shield exploded forward.
The powerful blast swept over the Ekriki's head. The recoil of the discharge threw my body sideways. I leaned gently against the shield planted in the ground.
The shockwave fired from the shield crushed its nose and jaw.
Fragments of hide fell away, exposing tender flesh beneath.
Shield Burst was a dual-shield exclusive skill. You could use it whenever the essence gauge filled, but the motion was so long you had to force it into windows like this—moments when you could actually land damage.
I pulled the planted shield free and took it in my left hand again.
The Ekriki shook its head side to side and rose to its feet.
At this point, it ought to be getting angry soon.
—GRRRAAaaaa!!
Of course.
A roar thick with rage burst from the Ekriki's mouth.
Its pupils dilated as it glared at me with savage intensity. From now on, nothing would register in its eyes, and the patterns would change.
"Pina!!"
The moment its roar ended, I shouted her name at the top of my lungs.
Even just calling her name was enough to convey the meaning.
Through the clamor of the Ekriki's roar, Pina rose. She unstrapped the greatsword from her back and flung it, sweeping it across the ground. Once she'd done her part, she immediately hid herself in the underbrush—but that alone was enough.
Pina still seemed terrified of monsters.
For someone who had spent years living as a gathering hunter, a mid-tier monster like this was plenty frightening.
I had no intention of blaming her.
Nor did I want to tell her to just face that fear head-on without any plan and simply overcome it.
She had to decide for herself to overcome it before she could step forward more actively.
And for her to overcome it, I had no choice but to show her myself.
That monsters weren't terrifying beasts to be feared, but living creatures just like us.
—Grrrr…
The Ekriki lowered its head. Its scale-fur bristled.
White powder swirled around its body, wrapping it completely.
It was a strangely beautiful form, like a fairy's robes from a fairy tale.
The first phase was over.
The second-phase Ekriki after rage used powder and breath to overwhelm newbies and make them hit a wall.
There was one thing you needed to know when fighting an Ekriki.
From the second phase onward, if you fought it up close, white powder gradually stuck to your body and put you into a blastblight state.
If you took a fire-attribute attack while blastblighted, the powder detonated and dealt heavy damage.
In the game it was heavy damage—but what about in reality? Would any of my body be left? I swallowed hard. Even for me, dying was a frightening thing.
So I had no choice but to kill it before I died.
Fighting up close was tricky because of the powder, so ranging it seemed better—but the Ekriki had far too many long-range response patterns.
If aggro snapped to someone far away, it would jump and hurl its entire body, whip its tail to fling powder for detonation, or just spit breath outright.
That was why I'd told Pina to hide completely out of sight. It was better for her to just throw the greatsword right there and vanish.
The moment the Ekriki's aggro slipped to Pina even for an instant, she would be in serious danger.
Dodging a charge jump from that massive bipedal body wasn't easy.
As long as no other monsters showed up, she should be safe.
Now it was time to put the shields down.
Against powder explosions, even if you guarded you couldn't chain into a Chaser, so dual shields were at a disadvantage. You just became a fool who only blocked.
But right now the greatsword was a little ways away from me.
I needed time to go get it.
As if unwilling to give me that time, the Ekriki suddenly spun halfway around and swung its tail.
I raised my shields to block the tail and slowly backed away.
It stomped hard, shaking the ground. The aftershock of the vibration threw my balance slightly off.
I steadied my stumbling steps and corrected my stance.
Once it saw me moving away, the creature that had stomped immediately began its charge.
Blast powder spread in the wake of its charging movement.
This wasn't something to parry. I threw my whole body, planting a shield against the ground, and scrambled sideways.
An instant later the powder detonated all at once, sweeping the path it had taken.
Because only the places with powder exploded, the range wasn't that wide—it was dodgeable.
While the Ekriki slid after its charge and recovered its broken stance, I kicked off the ground and ran.
I flung the shields aside and immediately grabbed the greatsword lying on the ground.
With the greatsword in hand, it was time to butcher the thing up close.
I quickly pulled a Waterburst Fruit from the auxiliary pouch at my waist.
The weather out here was scorching every single day, and wandering around always left me thirsty, so the water in my canteen ran short constantly.
There had been plenty of times I'd wanted to just smash a Waterburst Fruit open.
I'd held back all this time for this moment.
Getting close was dangerous because of the blastblight, but if there was a reason I'd stubbornly chosen the greatsword, it was precisely this Waterburst Fruit.
I crushed the skin of the Waterburst Fruit in my hand, burst it, and poured it over my head. After squeezing out all the water, I tossed the fruit aside.
My body was soaked from the fruit's water.
Moisture ran down the leather armor, and the clothes underneath clung wetly to my skin.
Being waterlogged all over made my body a little uncomfortable, but it was a problem I could endure for the sake of the strategy.
I swept my soaked bangs up over my head and dragged the greatsword one-handed as I approached the Ekriki.
Having fully recovered its stance, the creature was continuously drooling fire from its mouth as it watched me.
The key to breaking the Ekriki's second phase was the Waterburst Fruit.
Unlike with the Kakari, this time you used the Waterburst Fruit on yourself.
Using a Waterburst Fruit on yourself immediately cleared the blastblight status and granted immunity for a set time.
Then even if you approached the Ekriki, powder wouldn't build up on your body.
Even if it did, it would dissolve in the water and disappear.
In the game the immunity time was fixed, but in reality it was probably however long the water soaking your body took to dry.
I had brought ten Waterburst Fruits for this hunt.
Nine left now.
I intended to sever the Ekriki's neck before I used them all.
That was why I'd only brought ten.
Now the only thing I needed to worry about was its attack patterns.
I gripped the greatsword with both hands and settled into stance. Water that had run down the bridge of my nose dripped off. Clenching the leather-wrapped hilt, I exhaled.
Outwardly calm, my heart was pounding wildly, seized by excitement. That incomprehensible thrill I felt every time I faced a monster surged up. A sensation that could only belong to the original owner of this body.
I surrendered myself to that excitement and charged in.