Chapter 5

The Odd Monster

Schwoo!

A rock flew over.

Tack!

It hit a player with a shiny helmet that resembled a beetle, as well as armor pieces that resembled an elytra.

"Pxan!"

Shouted a player who wore a martial artist's robe, with a shape of a moth stitched on its back.

"NanoRe.. go on without me."

The player turned into white light.

"Who the fuck threw a rock!?"

"Dude, focus! He's gonna respawn anyway!" shouted another player.

They were fighting a monster in the shape of the mantis. It's front legs resembled a steel sword.

Level ???

'A Blade Mantis? What is it doing here?'

[You have equipped the characteristic 'Black Iron Body'.]

"Speed Burst."

Suddenly a silhouette, like a gust of wind, suddenly appeared and punched the Mantis.

[You have dealt 1 damage!]

"..!"

It was Lost. He was at a loss. His favorite combination, Black Iron Body and Speed Burst failed to inflict even a scratch on the mantis. Black Iron is a material that warriors treat like gold. It was harder steel, but was as light as iron.

But Lost only dealt 1 damage. This meant that either the mantis' level was overwhelmingly high, or it had a physical damage resistance. If it was the latter, then it'd have a very high one too.

The mantis noticed Lost. It was quick to react. It retracted the blade on one of its front legs. Then when the front leg was in front of his face, the sword seemed to shoot from inside, revealing the shiny metallic texture it had.

The sword then pierced through Lost's skull, depleting his health to zero. Or at least, that's what should've happened.

[You have unequipped the characteristic 'Black Iron Body']

[You have equipped the characteristic 'Hungry Viscosity'.]

Tchsss…

As Lost's body turned into a slime's, the sword that was supposed to kill him dissolved in the viscosity instead.

[You have dealt 505 damage!]

As he read the amount of damage he dealt, he was satisfied. This proved something that he had been wondering for a while. He figured that slime's dissolving ability didn't deal physical or magical damage. Rather, it was absolute damage.

'Slimes are scary.' he thought, while jumping backwards to avoid being spotted by other players.

"Did you see that?"

"The hell happened to his arm?"

The players were confused, but they didn't hesitate to attack now that the mantis was flustered.

Thwack!

Skwulf!

Ttang!

A barrage of attacks hit the mantis. But it didn't seem to be hurt. The mantis soon recovered from its confusion and grew back another sword.

'As I thought..'

The blade was part of its body, if losing it dealt little damage, then he must've had a way of regenerating it.

The mantis didn't even waste a second. It slashed through the players, reducing the party to two.

One was a man with a mask, the other was a cowboy.

"Lloyd.. I think we'll fail this one."

"Yeah, me too."

"So.. should we drop our weapons and take this next damage and die?"

"Yeah."

"Aight."

"Mhm."

"Yep."

The mantis swung its sword-like leg towards the two players. When suddenly..

Thwip!

A whip grabbed the blade and redirected the slash downwards, passing through the floor.

The mask of the red-haired player glowed a blue tint.

"Dino: Chomp."

The mask's t-rex decal came alive, and chomped on the stuck leg. The mantis screeched, signalling that it took some damage.

"Oi oi, I thought you were going to give up?"

"Like hell I would, Auto."

The red haired man then swiped across his face, and the mask changed its texture. Now, it had resembled a japanese fox.

"Kitsune: Genjutsu."

When the masked man uttered those words, a thought came across Lost's mind.

'A weeaboo.'

But at the same time, red smoke started emerging from the mask. And in a flash he was gone. As he disappeared, the one in the cowboy outfit started whipping the surroundings like crazy.

Fhwootack!

Phewack!

From the ceiling of the cave, rocks started to fall down. And from the walls, they flew towards the mantis.

Red smoke started to form around the stones. The red smoke transformed into the shape of the man who caused them. They all held a katana, and prepared to slash the mantis.

The mantis used the stuck arm as a pivot, and then rotated like a fan, the other blade slashing through the mirages.

As the mantis cut through the biggest rock that fell from above, someone appeared from the slashed part of the rock, and swung their katana to the mantis' eyes.

The mantis screamed in pain. Lost's eyes widened, and before he could say anything, the cowboy took out his revolver, that was resting on his belt, and pointed it at the mantis.

"Hammer Fan."

All of the rounds from his revolver shot out. While most of them didn't do much damage, two hit the mantis' weak spot. It was the joints.

The mantis let out a cry.

Lost was genuinely impressed, they figured out the mantis' weak spots, its eye and joints. But there was still something he wants to know.

'Why did he scream?'

AutoSaver's doing well, and he didn't look like he was injured. So what happened that made him scream?

"AAARRGHH!" shouted AutoSaver.

"Ah."

As a result of their attacks, the Mantis bleed out, well, blood. The blood splattered onto AutoSaver's clothes.

'He's afraid of blood?'

'Then why did he turn it on?'

Freedom Fantasy had an option to turn on graphic effects once the user's age exceeded 21. Of course, there is also an option of turning it off.

'Is he like, dumb?'

Lost looked over at the boss mantis.

‘It’s health is very low, should I strike now?’

Lost prepared to strike. He made a blade shape with his ‘Hungry Viscosity’ characteristic, and proceeded to harden it using ‘Black Iron Body’.

Just then.

“KZAK KZAK!!” the mantis shouted.

The mantis’ ‘blades’ started to glow red.

“KZAK!!”

The mantis swung at the two players. They both fell backwards, barely dodging the attacks.

“Oi oi, the hell was that?”

“It’s changing forms, Auto.”

Just like what the man with a mask said, the mantis began to change its shape.

‘What the-’

Two legs in the middle retracted.The armor plates on those parts moved upwards onto the front legs. Its head separated into three parts, two of them became shoulder plates. One moved downwards, creating an armor’s chest piece. These movements revealed a humanoid head inside the mantis’ ‘head’ which had no face.

From its back, a strange shape enveloped the faceless humanoid head. The front part separated into two, creating a ‘v’-like shape. Then, out of nowhere, light surrounded the waist of the mantis.

[Slashing Mantis! Rising Mantis! Jump! Jump! Jump!] announced the light.

The light then died down, revealing a belt, that quickly merged with its waist. When it did, the body of the mantis morphed into that of a human, transforming it into what seemed like a man in green armor with a mantis motif.

“The hell’s up with that Blade Mantis?”

“It’s a variant, it seems.”

The name of the blade mantis changed.

Lost’s eyes widened when he saw it.

Level ???

'Masked Hero... the kid's show?'

'Why is that a thing in this fantasy game?'

Right after, the monster grabbed his belt. It spun the 'buckle' of the belt, and proceeded to smack it.

[Hero Blade!] announced the belt.

A sword handle appeared from the side of the buckle. The monster pulled it out, revealing a praying mantis musashi sword.

"Oi oi.."

"Yo Auto, let's get out of here."

"Yea."

The two players then ran towards the entrance, trying to escape.

The masked hero then got into a japanese samurai stance. It spun the handle of the sword.

[Hero Jump!]

Mantis' feet glowed in a green hue.

He proceeded to jump, springing off the walls of the cave, and becoming increasingly faster with each hop.

In a few seconds, it closed the distance between the two players and itself.

Swoosh!