William didn’t want to risk his life on a trivial fight, but that was the nature of any fight. After all, in a normal fight he could get stabbed in the eye… though he wasn’t actually sure that would be a problem anymore. At least, if he used ki and his enemy did not, he would probably be able to avoid anything actually penetrating into his brain… unless it was a thin weapon. Otherwise, the bones in his skull were strong enough to stop it, even though his eyeball probably wouldn’t be. However, that wouldn’t happen so easily unless he were distracted during battle. Like he was now. Except, William found that he seemed to be able to dwell on any number of pointless topics in battle without it really affecting his ability.

William dodged back from a claw. It was still better to focus on the battle. This was a giant crab after all. Its main body was almost half a dozen feet wide, and its legs stretched further than that to each side. Actually, though it was big, it wasn’t that dangerous. If you could see the claw coming, it wasn’t a problem. Much of the danger would be if he was taken by surprise. William supposed crabs weren’t really a terrifying predator, and even if they were bigger that didn’t change. The point being, it was slow and not really made for a straightforward fight, especially not many-on-one.

Unfortunately, those attacking the legs hadn’t yet broken through the shell, and it was moving enough that they couldn’t accurately target the joints. William thought he could have, but he wasn’t fulfilling that role, so he had to deal with what he got. What he got was claws snapping at him over and over. He couldn’t attack them, because they would be even stronger than the rest. The joint… was inside the most dangerous part of the claws, and it wouldn’t be simple to reach behind. So, William just continued to dodge. The other warrior who was stuck at the front with him seemed to be having a rougher time of it, so William occasionally swung toward the crab’s eyes to make it pull back a bit.

Then, the crab started making a loud rumbling sound. It was a strange sound, and William wasn’t sure how it made it… but that didn’t matter. What mattered was the other effects that came with it. Mana was moving toward it, which represented a number of problems. William actively concentrated on his disguise, because otherwise he would probably lose it… and him using some of the mana would help detract from whatever the crab was doing. He wanted to warn people, but he didn’t know what to say… and he could see the eyes were focused on him. Unfortunately, William couldn’t tell what type of magic it was doing- only that it involved something internal to the crab. Because he couldn’t tell, William just gathered more ki, and prepared to dodge or block or whatever he needed to do. William wished he had studied aquatic magical beasts more, because surely it would be known what giant crabs did.

Not that it took him long to find out. Because he was watching carefully with his ki senses, William managed to dodge fast enough. However, he still felt his ki defenses being ripped through and felt like hammers were impacting his side even though he dodge out of the way as quickly as possible. What the crab used was a high pressure water jet. That was a mostly impractical type of magic in most cases, because it required so much energy to get the water to a high pressure and speed. However, the giant crab seemed to have a little tube that surely connected to something internal that allowed it to happen. Regardless, the water only briefly touched William, but it still left a wound on his side that would at least be a horrible bruise, and tore open his robes. Behind him, the water jet impacted into the ground, leaving a groove several inches deep from several yards away.

Fortunately, the water jet only fired for a few brief moments, but if William had actually taken a direct hit… that would have been enough. Just after that dangerous moment, William heard a loud crack, and could tell that one of those in the back finally got a good hit in. Before there was time to celebrate, the crab lifted itself up high. Normally it kept its torso close to the ground, but now it was standing up at almost its full height. Then, it almost threw itself at William.

William had found his brain was still idly dwelling on strange topics as he had fought. He couldn’t help it. Thoughts like, “How much bigger is this crab than a normal one?” and “Don’t crabs have one big and one small claw?” and other such things. The answer to the first thing was five, but of course the real answer was really one hundred and twenty-five. Times bigger, that was. William wasn’t a crab expert, but this crab had two big claws… which was probably all wrong. They took up so much space and actually seemed pretty useless. Could it even pick up food with them? Well, William supposed it if was eating whole humans it could. Right now, though, the most important question William had answered was “how heavy is it?” The answer was… not more than a couple tons. Of course, that was still quite a big number.

However, because he had that answer, instead of dodging away from the crab as it tried to fall on top of him, William actually stepped forward. He gathered all of his ki and swung Chris up from below, using all of that power and all of his muscle strength from his training… and from just being a gevai. There was a loud thud as the staff and crab collided, and then the crab landed on its back nearly a dozen feet away.