Chapter 240
"GAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Provoked by my 『Enforced Detection』, the 『Crash Grizzly』 went straight at me .
Iris rushed forward charging toward the Crash Grizzly .
"Here I go! Soi!"
Iris thrust out her spear as she said that .
However . . .
"I missed!?"
Iris who had her spear evaded couldn't hide her surprise .
Befitting of a Floor Boss, the Crash Grizzly is far faster than your random average monsters .
It would of course easily dodge Iris's straightforward thrust .
After dodging the spear, the Crash Grizzly changed its target to Iris and attempted to strike her down .
Looks like provocation spells don't last long on monsters of this class .
My 『Enforced Detection』 probably would still work if I got close to it--but only for 20 seconds at most .
"Iris, fall back! You can't handle this foe by yourself!"
Iris has powers but not combat skills .
She wouldn't be able to land a clean hit on Crash Grizzly were she fought head-on .
"I understand! . . . But I won't miss like this!"
Iris swings her thrust spear horizontally .
Normally, you'd pull back a thrust spear before thrusting again to regain momentum . . . But Iris forcefully brandished her spear using brute force .
And then, Iris's spear hit the Crash Grizzly right as its claw struck her .
"Au!"
Iris got blown away toward my direction by the Crash Grizzly's strike .
Normal humans would haven been blown to pieces if that blow hit them . . . But Iris is left unscathed .
"Whoa . "
While lowering down Iris whom I caught, I checked the Crash Grizzly .
It's unscathed just like Iris .
Even with Iris's super strength, looks like a blow from a bad posture couldn't even scratch it .
Tough indeed . . .
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"This guy is pretty sturdy!"
"Yeah . Sturdy and quick . . . I'll take care of drawing its attentions, Iris, you focus on attacking its back . "
No matter how agile a Crash Grizzly is, it'll still have a hard time dealing with attacks from behind while coping with an enemy ahead .
Iris should be able to land a hit if I just repeatedly provoke it from a short distance .
This time, I'll be the tank and leave all the attacking to Iris and Alma .
Since I'd have to use my mana if I wanted to deal damage on monsters of this class otherwise .
Today we're not just dealing with the Floor Boss .
My mana is needed to farm exp, so I'd like to save on it as much as possible .
"Alright, hey over here!"
I lured the Crash Grizzly with Enforced Detection while saying that .
Depending on the enemy, some get used to Enforced Detection if it's used too much, so there needs to use other provocation methods when that happens . . . But since Crash Grizzly is the type of monster that's not used to provocation, drawing its aggro is a simple matter .
"GAAAAAA!"
I move just one step to dodge the Crash Grizzly who's coming at me while striking its claws many times over .
The ever increasing irritated Crash Grizzly that kept repeatedly missing its attacks went after me .
The Crash Grizzly barely moved from the spot all the while .
"GUAAAAAAA!"
Alma's arrow and Iris's spear struck the mostly immobile Crash Grizzly .
It may be sturdy, but by making it easy to land your hits like this, it's possible to deal enough damage on it .
"Over here!"
I provoked it again to prevent it changing target to Iris .
Enemy tend to change its target when they're attacked by your companions .
It's only natural since even monsters feel pain .
As such, it's necessary to adjust the frequency of my provocations while keeping track of the attackers' trend .
Tanks whose only job is to block enemy attacks may look like an easy job, but it's actually pretty hectic .
"Whoops . "
I dodged the Crash Grizzly strikes by moving one step again .
I'm not simply dodging with minimal movements .
I'm also reading ahead enemy movements and stopping it from moving too much .
Just moving minimally to dodge attacks often prompts your enemy to act erratically after all .
The act of tanking is often mistaken to simply involves drawing enemy's attention . . . but that's barely scratching the surface .
If the enemy gets to shift around too much every time you dodge, the attacker role will be late at attacking, stretching out combat time .
Stopping enemy in its track to draw out the attackers potential .
That's another job of Tanks .
"Alma, no need to use the 『Wired Homing Enchant』! Just focus on power!"
"Gotcha!"
Then Alma removed the homing enchant and put a new one that would increase attack power .
There's no need for homing attacks when the enemy is not moving .
As such, Alma and Iris gradually whittled the enemy down while I kept it from moving without using too much mana if at all .
. . . And then 10 minutes since the battle started .
"It's gotten quite weak . "
I side half-stepped away to dodge the downward swing of the Crash Grizzly's claw .
The claw gets stuck in the ground, creating a chance until it claws out of the ground .
. . . Or so it should have been .