The Mint Chocolate Boom is Coming! (4)
Boss mobs are basically what you'd call "named entities." In-game, they'd be the stage clear conditions, and unlike trash mobs, they come with special skills or conditions. That's just good manners. If a boss is no different from a regular trash mob—especially if it's in the mid-game or later—that's a serious problem with the game design.
The bosses that trigger monster outbreaks have a particular special skill: Fusion. More precisely, it's the separated mana returning to its original state. It recalls all the numerous entities it created from the mana emitted by its own core, pulling them back into its body and combining them into a new form. This newly differentiated form is drastically different from the previous one. When spread out in core form, it was the boss's own mana, but once it's out there, it starts absorbing the surrounding mana and gradually mutates into something new. So when reabsorbing it—whether it's grown, shrunk, or changed attributes—it has to process that mana to make it fully its own. That's fusion.
The wolf boy who mass-produced those Dark Wind Wolves is now recalling all the wolves he's scattered outside, preparing to transform into a new form.
At this moment, what choice should the greatest hunter make?
"Everyone!!"
Rydmila lets out a shout and leaps down from the ramparts.
"Bring your sacks!"
No sooner do the words leave her mouth than the hunters start descending from the wall, each in their own way. Some execute a proper landing roll on the way down, others use levitation magic to float slowly, and some leap across ice chunks they've scattered in the air—they all urgently dash beyond the wall.
"Wh-what is this...!"
"Unia. Don't panic. This is the 'right' procedure no matter the situation."
I calm Unia, who's pointing at the wolf boy boss in utter bewilderment.
"A boss that's entered fusion goes into an invincible state."
"Pardon? In...invincible?"
"Yeah. No method can deal damage to it—in fact, it ends up absorbing mana instead. Physical attacks just bounce off the barrier."
"No method at all?"
"Well, there might be something, but it hasn't shown up yet."
Unia probably gets it by now. "Invincible" isn't a term used lightly anywhere. It just means we haven't found the method yet—but there is some way to disrupt that wolf boy boss as he whips up the wind around him to absorb those wolf monsters.
A sniper shot with non-attribute mana. Possible. Sure, attacking during a transformation or fusion might lack romance, but in RPGs, anything with a "hatches after N turns!!" trait is canonically something you smash before it hatches.
Of course, even if it's possible, I have no intention of making Unia do it.
"Unia. Why do you think the hunters rushed down there?"
"Why...? Ah."
Unia gapes as she watches them sprint below the wall.
"Farming... right?"
"Exactly. Farming. They're all busy scooping up cores."
Led by Rydmila, the hunters begin recovering the cores. It's not like they're scrambling desperately as if picking up dropped cash—they're using magic to create net-like fields with their mana, scooping the cores into personalized mana nets.
"Heh heh heh! Look at all this value!"
"Quit yapping and grab 'em! It's all yours anyway!"
"I know it's not, but normally the finder gets a 20% commission, don't you kn—hey, you bastard! You baited me into talking so you could snag more? That's low!"
...It's not exactly the chaotic scramble of plebeian capitalists bloodshot-eyed over fallen coins.
"Unia. Just to clear up any misunderstanding, there are two reasons they're collecting those cores like that."
"For the money?"
"That's one, but when a boss is about to fuse like this, things get urgent."
I point to a core slowly rolling toward one side.
"See that? No wind blowing or anything, but the cores are rolling on their own."
"Huh...? That direction...?"
"Right. If we leave 'em, they'll flow right back to the boss. It's absorbing them now."
The cores roll across the ground. At first slowly on the wind, but gradually picking up speed, eventually trying to lift into the air.
"In other words, if they don't spread those mana nets fast..."
"Any unrecovered cores turn back into the boss's power...!"
"Pretty much."
Imagine your hard-farmed trash mobs becoming the enemy's extra health bar. You'd do anything—loot 'em, smash 'em—to keep that from happening, right? That's the gimmick.
"So we just... sit here from now on and watch that monster fuse into something?"
"Afraid so, for the moment."
"Oh god..."
Unia groans.
"But the danger..."
"Even if it becomes S-rank, we've got two S-ranks here already."
Esta the instructor and Ludbekia Marchioness.
"If they say it's dangerous and to retreat, they will. That monster—"
"Everyone, fall back!"
"Huh?"
Esta the instructor shouts to those who've gone beyond the wall to collect cores.
"Marchioness! Open the gates so our hunters can bring the cores back in! Rydmila! Guide everyone toward the gate! And you three..."
"Instructor Esta."
I grab the shoulder of Esta, who's about to yell with a pale face, and point ahead.
"I don't know what has you so worried, but to me, it looks like an A-rank-level monster is stirring inside that massive sphere."
"...You can see it?"
"Yes, I can."
Esta, who'd summoned her unicorn and was about to charge the wolf boy, calms at my words and takes a deep breath.
"Does it look like any particular form? Or can you see inside that 'sphere'?"
"Yes. It's like a silhouette, but I can make out the boss's true form gradually taking shape inside the sphere."
"Can you tell what it is?"
Ludbekia Marchioness approaches me and asks.
"Maybe something like this?"
She pulls a locket from her bosom and shows me the photo inside. A family portrait: a couple, a young boy, and what looks like a familiar girl—four siblings? No, a family of four. It's not a painting; magic has captured a photorealistic image, so calling it a family photo is spot on.
Regiph's family photo. Has she been carrying it all this time? Showing it to me now means—
"Is this your family?"
"........."
"Are you worried that monster might be a spirit of one of your family members?"
"...Even if it is a spirit, my duty is clear."
Ludbekia Marchioness grips her staff tightly, her eyes resolute.
"If it's a spirit, I'll personally send it from this land to a new life. So it won't suffer here anymore."
"........."
"Who does it resemble? The father? Not the son, I hope...?"
"Not the time for jokes like 'which one do you think?'—the situation's too dire."
I raise both hands.
"I understand your feelings, Marchioness. To answer: neither."
"Neither...?"
"Yes."
As someone who knows the full context, I know better than anyone where that wolf boy came from. A fake in wolf form. More precisely, a cunning monster disguised as a wolf to hide its true nature.
"It looks fierce like a wolf, but maybe a squirrel? Or a chipmunk?"
".......!!"
"A massive flying squirrel-like thing, curled up and absorbing mana."
Ratatosk.
We thought it was completely destroyed ten years ago, but it must not have been thanks to the angel power scattered around back then. Or maybe it possessed something nearby to evade annihilation, spent ten years building mana, and is only now becoming active.
"Then... why...?"
Ludbekia Marchioness's eyes shake wildly.
"Why take the form of that boy... my deceased son...?"
"Probably not to trick you by looking like that, I imagine."
Ratatosk is a cunning monster. Even if it's not specifically Ratatosk, monsters mimicking humans based on absorbed mana info aren't unheard of.
"......Instructor Esta."
Ludbekia calls out to Esta in a hollow voice.
"That's not a training dummy, is it?"
"No. It wasn't even part of the training exercise to begin with."
"Good. Then I can use magic without hesitation."
Ludbekia Marchioness precisely aims her staff at the sphere where Ratatosk is condensing mana to form its body.
"Phoenix, academy student?"
"Yes, Marchioness."
"Like you did for Unia, will you support my mana too?"
"Uh..."
"It's fine. Just like with Unia—hold it up from behind."
"........."
"The moment that thing hatches out of its egg, I'm burning it to ash. Will you help?"
Ludbekia turns her back to me, pulling her long hair forward to bare her back.
"If you need to, you can slip your hand in beside the dress here."
Her back was completely exposed.