Dungeon Gacha Life Chapter 25

Chapter 25: How to Put On a Convincing Struggle

"...Huh?"

At my words, Lapis's mouth fell open, dumbfounded.

I'd just brought up the possibility that their attempt to beat the boss would end in failure.

"I can't see the boss's HP from out here so it's just a guess. Still, they're landing way too little attacks. At that rate, I doubt they've even taken the Minotaur's HP down to half."

I'd watched Minotaur fights on video plenty of times by now.

Both those that succeeded amd those that failed. A whole lot of both.

Among all that, what the failed videos tended to have in common was a failure to rack up damage efficiently.

They'd focus so much on defending against the Minotaur's attacks that they ran short on resources for attacking.

Or their Potion stock would start running out after spending them to heal HP that kept getting chipped away bit by bit.

These three had clearly prepared properly beforehand too.

They were swapping positions among themselves and healing up with Potions.

No sign of panic in any of that. I'd call them genuinely good.

Even so, each individual action was slower than what I'd seen from parties that actually pulled off a clear.

That was what led to so few hits landing and kept their attacks from ever becoming efficient.

With one more attacker like the pony girl, they probably could've cleared it.

"N-no way..."

When I told her all that, Lapis deflated completely.

"They looked so serious about it, betting everything on this fight..."

Lapis watched the three girls with a pained expression.

There were even faint tears welling up in her eyes.

Impressive. You can get that emotionally invested in this short a time?

"Ah!!"

Just as I was thinking that, the situation shifted.

They'd probably realized what I was thinking too, being out there on the field.

After all, they could actually see the boss's HP gauge.

Trying to squeeze out as much damage as possible, the ponytailed girl swung around to the boss's flank and started throwing out attack after attack.

The bob-cut girl scrambled to circle around the opposite side and start jabbing with her spear too.

The long-haired girl who was playing as tank, started attacking with the sword in her right hand too, on top of parrying with her shield, just trying to hold the Minotaur's attention just a little longer.

"Ooh! An all-out assault! Touya-san, this might actually work, right!?"

Lapis cried out, sounding delighted.

But I was thinking the exact opposite.

That was a losing pattern.

"Lapis. If they send up a call for help, we're going in. If one of them can't move, go ahead and use the Potions in the bag. Talk to them and get them back to a safe zone."

"...Understood."

Her face showed surprise and she looked like she was about to say something. But she gave that answer right away instead.

* * *

The collapse came fast.

Taking hits from three directions at once, the Minotaur swept its axe out in a half-circle.

The blow slammed into all three of them hard, knocking two of the girls off their feet.

The long-haired girl who was still standing, tried her best to draw the boss's aggro but it showed no mercy, focusing its attacks on the ponytailed girl, who hadn't managed to get back up yet.

"Saki! Get up, quick! Your HP's already—!!"

"Kyaa! No, wait! I-I can't get up—"

At this rate, her HP would hit zero and she'd take the next hit with nothing left to absorb it.

Not yet? If they didn't call for help soon, this was really going to end badly.

"Yaaaaaaaaaah!!"

Right at that moment, the bob-cut girl with her spear leveled, struck from behind the boss.

Judging by the visual effect, it was an Active Skill. It drove straight into the back of the wide-open boss's knee.

"Saki-san, get up! Kaori-san, we can't take any more of this!"

Watching the boss stumble off-balance, the bob-cut girl snapped out a sharp order to her friends.

That surprised me. She'd seemed like such a quiet one.

She had good judgment and she was staying calm too.

One of the reasons this party was losing was probably that she wasn't the one calling the shots.

The long-haired girl, their leader, dropped her head in frustration but she made her decision fast.

"We're retreating! Saki, you run first and get out of here!"

"O-okay!"

The ponytailed girl managed to get back on her feet and turned to run our way.

Good, it looked like they'd avoid a real disaster after all.

That relief lasted all of a moment. They weren't the only ones who'd managed to reset their footing.

The boss immediately body-slammed the shield-bearer in front of it and knocked the long-haired girl down.

"Kaori-san!?"

Another crisis again.

Unable to just watch any longer, Lapis called out to them at the top of her voice.

"We're coming in to help! Is that alright? Someone, please answer!!"

She must have sensed there was no more room to hold back.

So she'd decided to be the one to call out the offer of help herself.

Well, I had no complaints about that call.

Even I wasn't so worn down inside that I could stay perfectly composed watching a tragedy unfold right in front of me.

* * *

"Please, help us!!"

The one who called that out was, once again, the bob-cut girl.

The moment I heard it, I was already running.

I drew the sword at my hip.

First, I'd get the long-haired girl out of trouble.

"Long-hair! I'm cutting in now so get up, quick!!"

"—Long-hair!?"

"S-some tact, please..."

I heard Lapis's exasperated voice.

You've got room to spare for that, in the middle of an emergency like this?

"Bob-cut, one more hit and then fall back!"

"Y-yes, sir!"

I closed the distance to the boss while calling out orders.

At the edge of my vision, the bob-cut girl let loose an attack and the boss's attention swung toward her.

By the time the Minotaur was looking away, I was already right on top of it and I drove in a normal attack immediately.

The Minotaur reeled back hard.

Whoa, that took a huge chunk out of its HP gauge!?

Now that I'd joined the fight, the boss's HP gauge had appeared in my view and it had shrunk by a pretty significant amount.

Using Slash here would be a bad idea.

"I've got the rest. Just get somewhere it can't reach you!"

"Y-yes!"

Behind me, the long-haired girl got up and answered.

The others were already in the safe zone. All that was left was taking the boss down.

Right. From here, it was just a matter of doing what I'd already planned for.

Even with people watching me fight the boss, I couldn't let anyone realize I had far more power than I should.

I'd put on a good, convincing struggle.

It was one-on-one with the Minotaur now.

For whatever reason it didn't like, it let out a roar and swung its massive axe down at me.

I dodged that heavy, slow-looking swing with a hair to spare, making a show of it.

I didn't counter right away. I made it look like I was focused purely on dodging.

Next, I slipped past an upward swing from below, then landed a shallow normal attack of my own this time.

Judging by the feel of it a moment ago, going all-out would've one-shot the thing.

Alright, the gauge dropped by an acceptable amount this time!

At this rate, I could claim that first hit had been from an Active Skill.

It's not like you actually have to shout it out loud to use one, after all. Good, nothing suspicious here.

After that, I kept it up: focusing on dodges, landing an attack here and there whenever an opening showed, grinding the Minotaur down.

Bit by bit... no, more like a decent chunk at a time honestly and I broke into a cold sweat watching the gauge drop as I worked through it.

I could probably have beaten this thing with my eyes closed, just leaving it to Intuition.

Cheat skills are really a terrifying thing. Good to have that reconfirmed.

As I kept up that tedious routine of a fight, the Minotaur's HP gauge finally ran out.

Pale blue particles rose up, glittering as if celebrating the victory.

And right in the middle of all that, something occurred to me.

I was going to have to do this whole thing one more time, wasn't I?

...Could those three maybe just head home first?