S*ave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World Vol 3 Chapter 1.05

The Floor Boss this time… turned out to be a caterpillar. But not the same like all the other Green Caterpillars we have encountered so far, because that one was like, way larger. After using Identify on it, I learned that it was actually called a White Caterpillar, which made sense since instead of being green it was pale-whiteish in color. Since it is the Boss monster for the second floor, it was Lv.2.

Hmm, I wonder id this is a general rule that the Floor Boss of each floor is just a beefed-up version of the regular mobs that roam the given floor, because it was the same with the ones on the first floor. Normal monsters there were Needlewoods, and the Boss was an Udowood, which looked like a bigger, thicker version of a regular Needlewood. It would have been nice if we had a moment to stop and thin about it, but it was not to be, because White Caterpillar began the battle by creating an orange magic circle beneath its body.

「It's going to use its Skill, master! Brace yourself!」

Since this thing is a caterpillar, then it probably means that it has a Web Spit attack as its Skill, so I probably should prepare Fire Wall to guard against it. Damn, if only I knew beforehand that it might have the same Skill as its weaker counterparts, then I could have prepared to attack it while it has its guard down during the Skill casting timeframe. But that's only assuming that its Skill will really be spitting that sticky thread out of its mouth and not something else entirely. For the time being, I will proceed while assuming that it will be a Web Spit indeed.

While keeping a close watch on the White Caterpillars mouth, I chanted Fire Wall in my mind and deployed it just in the nick of time, because as it turned out, the Skill that the White Caterpillar used was indeed a Web Spitting attack. Kinda disappointing that it didn't have anything else up its sleeve, but whatever, I will take an attack that I know and can guard against it instead of something completely unpredictable any time of the day.

Now that Fire Wall was fully deployed, instead of sticking onto me and restricting my movements so that the White Caterpillar could devour me, its threads crashed against the barrier made out of flames, filling the entire room with the hissing sound and the smell of burned thread. I knew it, this is the best way of using such spells after all. Also, now that I know that it is using Skills and exactly what kind of Skill it is, I might as well modify my strategy to incorporate hitting it with Durandal since it has the ability to interrupt the chants of the spells and Skills used by the enemies, unless it will always try using it while being far away from us, in a place where it would be impossible to hit it with physical attacks. But to be honest, that is actually something that we can use to our advantage.

「Master, I'm going in!」

Roxanne shouted back to me as she ran past the Fire Wall with her Scimitar in hand and slashed the White Caterpillar's side on her way towards its head, causing it to divert its attention completely to her as it tried to bite her with its many rows of teeth. Thankfully, Roxanne's innate nimbleness allowed her to sidestep and avoid each and every one of its attacks without breaking too much of a sweat. Capitalizing on the opportunity she created for me, I ran to the White Caterpillar's backside and started wailing on it with Durandal. It raised the upper half of its body in an attempt to slam Roxanne with it, but she managed to avoid getting squashed underneath its weight by blocking most of the attack's impact with her shield. While all of this was happening in front of it, I didn't stop slashing its ass for even a second.

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I have to say, fighting such a gigantic Boss in such a way was incredibly effective and relatively easy. Since this is a Floor Boss, both Roxanne and I knew that the battle is going to be a long one, but I was expecting to have a little bit more difficulties with it, if I am to be totally honest with you. But now that we blocked its initial Web Spit Skill with my Fire Wall and divided its attention between Roxanne, who can do less damage but actually has a shield that can block frontal attacks and myself who doesn't have a shield for protection but my attacks are having one hell of a wallop, it became obvious that right now we were the ones dictating the pace of the battle. Funny thing, huh? Take away the monster's strongest ability and surround it, ad it won't be able to touch you at all, since it cannot turn it's body so much as to use its Skill against those who are sitting at its ass all the time, and even if it tried to do that it would have to either let Roxanne hit it with her Scimitar, or keep focusing on her and risk having its Skill interrupted by Durandal's OP Chant Interruption ability. Even so, we still had to maintain caution, because we don't know if it won't start pulling some new moves out of nowhere or when its HP starts going into the red zone.

Roxanne delivered another series of fast Scimitar slashes to the monster's head to continue provoking it, and I did the same with my holy sword to its backside while carefully observing its movements, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious that could have revealed what kind of attack was it going to use next, and when I saw that a sufficient enough opening has presented itself to me, I raised Durandal high into the air and used Rush, dealing even bigger damage than with my normal attacks. However, even though that attack fully connected without any issues, the Floor Boss was still standing, stubbornly refusing to keel over and die. Damn, for just a Lv.2 enemy, this thing must have a ton of HP if it was able to take the beating from both me and Roxanne and still be alive and kicking as if nothing had happened to it.

I quickly backstepped as to not get hit when it started thrashing its ass around, and then watched as it once again tried slamming its body into Roxanne, only to have her dodge to the sideways to avoid the incoming assault, leaving the monster in a brief state of confusion when it realized that its charge didn't hit anything. Sensing that this might be an ideal occasion to do some big damage, I performed another rush from up close, driving Durandal deep into the monster's soft flesh, and then yanking it out to the side with all my strength behind that motion, leaving it with a large, open wound. The White Caterpillar make a loud, ear-piercing shriek, thrashed its body upwards and then finally fell onto the ground, dead.

「Phew… we finally managed to defeat the Boss of the second floor, but I have to say, that was more tiring than I thought it was going to be.」

「Yes, it was certainly more difficult than the battle with the Boss of the first floor, but thanks to you we were able to once more defeat it rather quickly, master.」

Roxanne praised me, but to be frank, I don't know if I can accept that praise this time. It's true that we managed to achieve victory, and a win is a win, no matter how it was obtained… but I couldn't shake off the feeling that this time it all went all too easy for me because all I did was molesting the Floor Boss's as from behind while Roxanne was playing bait in front of it where it was infinitely more dangerous. Not to mention that I once again ended up relying on Durandal's absurd strength for the duration of pretty much the entire fight, which feels like a personal defeat after all my talking of how I wanted to rely more on my own abilities instead of the Bonus Weapons, but on the other hand, what choice do I had here? I didn't know what we were going to be fighting against and didn't want to risk dying. Nevertheless, some sour taste was still left in my mouth, even as I went to pick up the Drop Item that the White Caterpillar left behind it when it turned into clouds of green smoke and disappeared.

Surprising nobody, it seemed to be some kind of thread. Upon using Identify on it, it was revealed that this item was actually a Silk Thread. Silk, huh?

Chapter end