Kobold King Boss Battle (4)
Just before the bombardment began, the party watched the settlement from the cover of the undergrowth.
"There are way more kobolds than I expected."
Ho-jin muttered as he surveyed the creatures packed into the settlement. As he remembered it, even counting the royal guard and the boss — the Kobold King — there shouldn't have been more than twenty of them. What he was looking at now was easily north of thirty.
No wonder nothing got in our way on the trip here.
With them all clustered together like this, of course nothing had come out to harass them. Ho-jin stroked his chin, thinking. The sheer number of fodder didn't particularly worry him. If it was just a numbers problem, they could sweep them away with magic and be done with it.
But what came after? No matter how powerful Choco's magic was, a force this size would demand a serious expenditure of mana. If she burned through her reserves clearing the fodder, they couldn't count on her support when they faced the elites and the royal guard. Of course, if she pushed herself to the point of mana exhaustion like last time, they could probably handle the elites and royal guard easily enough.
But then there'd be no one to mark the Kobold Mage. Even if they sent Yeon — the fastest of them — to deal with the mage, holding off the Kobold King with just two people was close to impossible. If this had been the Kobold King before it was enhanced, Ho-jin could have tanked it alone. They were equal in level, and he had all the experience he'd built up as a tank. Given enough time and a one-on-one fight, he could take the thing down himself. Doing that now, though, would just get him a gray screen.
So what now...
Ho-jin rolled his eyes toward Choco. She was glaring at the Kobold Mage standing beside the Kobold King, draped in a filthy rag. Something about her expression looked thoroughly displeased, so he spoke up.
"Did you spot something strange?"
"Nay. Nothing of the sort."
Didn't look like nothing to him. Ho-jin swallowed the words that had risen to his throat and pressed on.
"More importantly, what's the plan? Even for you, Choco, wiping out this many at once is going to burn through a lot of mana."
"That is precisely why this one is deliberating, is it not?"
Ho-jin's point was valid. Because of the elites' appearance, Choco had rushed straight to the boss zone without rest, so her spiritual power wasn't sufficient. Natural recovery had topped her up a little, but she was barely over half. To cut down a force this size in one go, she'd have to spend most of what she had left. That would mean she couldn't use Five Elements Daoism in the fighting that followed, which was why she was agonizing over it.
"...What if we only take out about half, and handle the rest ourselves?"
"That's iffy. The fodder wouldn't be a problem, but the elites and royal guard aren't going to just sit there in the meantime. It'd be better to go all-out on a firepower dump, then have you support with your crossbow while you recover mana."
"Nngh... Then what if this one takes up a blade and fights directly?"
"You? With a sword?"
"This one may look the part of a mage, but I know my way around a blade as well."
Her main weapon had been the sword to begin with, more so than magic. Ho-jin pondered her words, then shook his head.
"No. That's still too much. I think the crossbow would be the better option."
"Dost thou mean to dismiss this one's skill?"
"It's not that I don't respect your skill. What's your durability stat, Choco?"
"Urgh..."
Ho-jin's pointed remark about the glass-cannon physique unique to mages made Choco flinch and turn her head. She muttered sulkily.
"Those sluggish attacks of theirs — this one need only dodge them all..."
"Please say something that actually makes sense."
"Tch."
Faced with Ho-jin's rare display of seriousness, Choco clicked her tongue under her breath. But he wasn't wrong. No matter how quick and skilled she was, dodging every single attack in a many-versus-one fight was something approaching the miraculous — or, to put it bluntly, impossible. If the level gap were enormous, maybe. But it wasn't, and with durability as tattered as Choco's, even a glancing sword stroke would have her hemorrhaging health in chunks.
Of course, Yeon's durability stat was similar — but there was an unbridgeable gap between Choco and Yeon.
"Someone who isn't even wearing proper armor — just a costume — standing on the front line with those durability stats? That's just asking to die."
"C-costume... Nngh..."
Ho-jin's remark about the white shrine maiden robes — not even the default leather gear — left Choco with nothing to say. To her, this was as good as default-issued clothing, but explaining that would mean explaining a great deal more.
"E-even so, I'm sure Choco would do just fine, right?"
As the cold remarks kept coming and Choco's face fell, Yeon offered an awkward smile. But Ho-jin's reply was firm.
"Like I said, it's not that I don't trust Choco's skill. But no matter how good you are, in a fight against a crowd, even the best player is going to eat a stray hit at least once."
For a tank like him, taking a hit or two wasn't a big deal. The same went for Yeon and Pretty Cute, who were front-line damage dealers. Even with low durability stats, the armor they wore would absorb the damage. But not a mage. The class itself was built around extreme firepower, so a single mistimed hit could send them past the red zone and straight into the dead zone. And even if they wanted to wear armor, their strength stats were so low they couldn't equip anything sturdy and heavy without penalties — only the lighter, inferior cloth-type gear. Ho-jin's argument was airtight.
"If Choco dies fighting like that, the hole in our firepower would be irreversible."
"D-die?"
"Well, if you get hit, you die. Obviously."
Ho-jin said it like it was the most natural thing in the world, but there was something he didn't know. If Choco died in the game, she might die in the real world too. That was why, at the word die, Yeon whipped her head around, grabbed Choco by the shoulders, and said:
"I'm against it too."
"Thou reversest thy words faster than one might flip a palm."
"But—! What if you actually die?!"
It's just a game. What's the big deal about dying?
Watching Yeon shake Choco's body back and forth, whining, Ho-jin looked puzzled. Only Pretty Cute, who similarly understood Choco as a being that existed within the game rather than a player, could relate to how Yeon felt.
"I agree. I'm against Choco standing on the front line as well."
"You heard her. Either way, Choco going into melee is off the table."
"Tch."
At that, Choco didn't push the point any further. Instead, she asked Ho-jin:
"Then what dost thou intend to do now?"
"We need to think about how to conserve as much mana as possib—"
"Wait. Look at that."
At Pretty Cute's words, both of them turned. The rag-draped Kobold Mage was raising a staff topped with a jewel, shouting something. And at the same moment, light burst from the jewel — a fierce pulse of mana. As violet energy washed over the settlement, Ho-jin hastily raised his shield and shouted.
"Everyone, behind me!"
They ducked behind Ho-jin in perfect unison, and for an instant the world around them was drowned in violet. The moment passed, and everything returned to normal. Ho-jin muttered.
"Doesn't seem like an attack spell."
"Nor a debuff, it would appear."
"Then what was it?"
At Yeon's question, Choco turned her gaze back to the kobold settlement. The fodder that had been utterly unremarkable just moments ago now had violet energy rippling across their bodies.
"It was not aimed at us."
"A buff, then. Magic damage reduction, maybe?"
"Most likely."
The buff that had previously been limited to the elites now covered the entire kobold horde. Confirming this, Choco rose to her feet, and Ho-jin looked at her in confusion.
"Choco?"
"Dragging this out any longer will only raise the difficulty."
Spiritual power welled up as she spoke.
"A frontal assault. This one shall deal with every last one of the rabble. The rest of you, make straight for the elites and the royal guard."
"Can you manage it?"
"If this one cannot, then this one shall make it so."
Choco muttered this and closed her eyes. She had recovered some spiritual power while they planned here, but not nearly enough to wipe out enemies now protected by magic damage reduction. Before the buff, she could have done it if she accepted mana exhaustion. Now, she'd need to be at full spiritual power. In other words, it was currently impossible.
That said, it wasn't as though there was no way at all.
She spoke toward the Fox Bead within her body.
She'd been worried there might be no answer, but at least Tara hadn't ignored her completely. Choco secretly let out a breath of relief. She hadn't planned on asking Tara for help from the start. After watching her wail as though she'd been forcibly bound and betrayed by Gumiho, Choco had resolved not to call on her until Tara's feelings had settled. But she no longer had the luxury of waiting for that.
At Tara's thoroughly mocking tone, Choco counted to ten inwardly and forced her voice to stay even.
A sensation of spiritual power flooding in, accompanied by Tara's sneering voice. Needling her right down to the last word. Choco grumbled inwardly as she began generating foxfire.
"Whoa..."
"Oh..."
"..."
As the orbs of foxfire began to embroider the empty air one by one, the three of them let out murmurs of awe. But Choco kept her eyes closed, concentrating. The foxfire she'd used before had been tossed out scattershot, which made the spiritual power cost fairly high. It still cost less and hit harder than a regular fireball, but what she was doing now was a process of reducing the cost further while increasing the firepower. It was like the difference between slinging spells without an incantation and carefully, deliberately casting them.
"Hahh—"
Dozens of fireballs gathered together until it looked as though a small sun had descended upon the earth. Choco let out a weary sigh, drained by the spiritual power that had poured out of her in chunks, and muttered.
That voice was the signal flare. The foxfire launched in sequence. Like bombs dropping from a bomber, the orbs slammed into the kobold horde and shook the earth.
Even as the ground trembled as though in an earthquake, Ho-jin sprang to his feet and shouted to Yeon and Pretty Cute.
"Yeon! Cute! Let's move!"
"Right!"
Watching the three of them fall into their familiar formation and charge out, Choco raised her crossbow. Beyond the running figures, she could see kobolds turning gray and crumbling into ash. And behind the enraged elites and royal guard charging toward them, the Kobold King sat posed upon his throne.
But Choco's gaze wasn't on them. Those glittering golden eyes were locked on one target alone. Behind the throne, draped in rags, glaring this way — the Kobold Mage. The one with those ominous red eyes.
"...For a mere kobold, that level is disgustingly high."
Choco muttered this and pulled the trigger. With a sharp twang, the bolt split the battlefield as it flew.