VOLUME 2
Chapter 1: The Raid
Part 13
Since they entered the bamboo forest, they had a two hour period of doubled moving speed due to the magic spell known as Running. Right after the third resting period, they encountered a group of Killer Pandas.
Jun’s party had been making their way up a hill. The six Killer Pandas suddenly appeared as they reached the top.
“Count: Six!”
They rushed out all at once at Jun, each more than six meters tall.
“Stick to the plan!”
Jun dashed down the hill, almost rolling.
In Sky World, if the enmity of the so called KOS (Kill On Sight, meaning attacking as soon as one enters its field of vision) monsters is not controlled, they can kill whoever they end up targeting in the beginning.
The reason Jun was in the front was not just that he was good at being alert of his surroundings, but also because he excelled at the art of luring monsters.
The six Killer Pandas chased after Jun in a line.
“Well then, die!” exclaimed the excited Yukaria.
She shot at them repeatedly with her two handguns, which slipped out smoothly from her holsters. The two Killer Pandas in the back took the hits in their stomachs and stopped moving. She used sleep bullets. They were very effective against animal-type monsters.
“Wow! Amazing!”
Eri raised her voice in admiration reflexively. With her two guns, she aimed at different targets with each hand, moving in ways that were not originally possible in Sky World. Eri understood that she had mastered that technique on her own.
“Controller cla.s.ses are very much targeted towards FPS gamers, though&h.e.l.lip;”
“I love things like FPS’!”
The sleep bullets that she had just shot could stop monsters flat in their tracks, almost as if they were put to sleep, for twenty seconds. It wasn’t actually putting them to sleep, but the effect was kind of like hypnosis. Because of that, even if someone disturbed the affected monsters with only a small tap, they would jump up and rush out attacking the gunslinger who shot the sleep bullets.
Though, without this kind of paralysis, the other group members would have to deal with multiple enemies at once. However st.u.r.dy the tank was, it would be difficult to hold up enmity for multiple monsters. So then, the enmity from healing would exceed the enmity gained by the tank, and all of the monsters would attack the healer. Most of the time, groups began breaking down with their healer getting under attack.
“Jun, this way!”
“Got it, I’m counting on you!”
As the swift Killer Pandas’ hits rained down on Jun, he changed course to rush over towards Yukaria. She was glowing a bit, and she began moving in a weird way.
This was the gunslinger’s ability.
“Burst Mode!”
Just as she said that, Yukaria pointed her guns at the four Killer Pandas that were chasing Jun. Her bullets. .h.i.t each of them equally again and again. The now-angered Killer Pandas switched targets and went after her, slipping by Jun in the process.
The bullets in her two guns should have run out from all of those consecutive shots&h.e.l.lip;
Yukaria threw her handguns away. As they fell to the ground and disappeared, two new handguns appeared out of nowhere in her holsters. She quickly drew them out.
That was Burst Mode, a gunslinger’s special ability. Usable once every five minutes, for about fifteen seconds, it would allow for immediate reloading just by letting go of the guns. Though it didn’t work for revolvers, because it could create an endless supply of bullets&h.e.l.lip;
“Two more are sleeping~”
Though right now, she had one more sleep bullet loaded, the rest of her bullets were regular ones. Two of the enemies chasing Yukaria began to sleep, and the other two started dealing damage to her. However, Yukaria let go of her guns and swiftly jumped out of their way. New guns again appeared in her holsters.
“This is basically what parking is. The non-damaging light warrior’s taunt works very well with gunslingers.”
“Got it. Uh, I’m probably not as good as the light warrior in your last group though&h.e.l.lip;”
“No matter. Kasumi, you’re very much a technical person.”
Yukaria shot at the Killer Pandas that were about to wake up with new sleep bullets. Even if they could resist the sleep bullets by some chance, the controller could still fulfill his or her objective by using another when the monsters would attack the tank.
While Yukaria and Kasumi were hard at work in battle, Eri buffed Jun.
“Let’s take them out one at a time.” Jun picked the more suitable of the sleeping Killer Pandas, imbued magic into his greatsword, and with all of his strength, slashed down at its stomach. “Eri, I’m counting on you for healing!”
“Yeah, yeaah.”
The amount of enemies they had to fight went down. Jun, while taking his own protection into consideration, began to attack the Killer Panda over and over again. Its HP bar was mostly depleted. In retaliation, the ferociously enraged panda clawed many times at Jun’s chest. With each of its light claw attacks, ten percent of Jun’s HP bar disappeared.
“Heal me on time!”
He said “on time”, and Eri’s timing of healing spells was certainly impeccable. Jun’s HP bar jumped back and forth between fifty percent and eighty percent.
Thanks to his buffs, Jun’s movements were swift and nimble. Without disregarding the other members of the group, sometimes, he was able to avoid attacks with just some quickly thought-out movements. The monsters jumped around in hot haste, resulting in a rather silly situation, but&h.e.l.lip;
Turning its head around, one Killer Panda opened its mouth and roared, showing off its sharp, shiny fangs. Its saliva dripping, it glared at Jun with its glowing-red eyes.
“&h.e.l.lip;You’re not cute at all.”
Very little remained of the final monster’s HP. Jun, continuing to cast attack spells in sync with others, further lowered the Killer Panda’s HP with fierce strikes like raging fires.
The Killer Panda, taking a fatal stab, fell to the ground. Items appeared immediately after, stacked on top of its dead body.
They were peaches. When he squinted, Jun could see the words “Hermit Peach” displayed above the items.
“Well, seems just about right. They should be rare.”
“Hey, they look yummy.”
“Though I don’t mind if you eat them, they can be used in alchemy. Maybe we should take them over to Isao’s place.”
“Maybe we should. Well then, Kasumi, which should we hit next?”
“Ah, okay. Wait on the right hand side please.”
As the Killer Pandas were killed one by one, the controller’s job became easier and easier.
Before long, all of the Killer Pandas had been vanquished.
Though in the few hours up until they went back, they had killed over fifty more Killer Pandas, they were only able to obtain three Hermit Peaches. It seemed like that the first one was just the result of being very lucky.
Having completed several quests, Jun and the rest of the group triumphantly set out on their way back.