Chapter 17: The Battle and The Armor

Well, I was caught in a strange situation.

I ran fast, but the speed difference between the monster and me was not that big. For the time being, I decided to run away in a different direction from the town while thinking about how to deal with the Metal Lizard. I removed all my equipment to increase my speed.

What did Dveragh-san say? Did he say that this monster was difficult to defeat with just a few strong wizards? This town had really a disadvantage.

Despite it, this information meant that this monster could only be defeated with magic. It was big, hard, heavy and powerful. A sword was pointless and a shield meaningless. So, how wizards defeated it? I did not hear the answer to this question. In the first place, I did not even know how ordinary wizards used their magic.

Then, what should I do?

Option 1: Run away. This monster had the capability to inflict great damage to the town. There were no strong wizards in that town, so it meant that if I ran away, those people would surely die. Rejected.

Option 2: Tame it. However, this monster looked excessively menacing and violent. Rejected.

Option 3: Fight. This was the only one option available.

Well, how did I fight it? Fortunately, the Metal Lizard had not much HP, so that armor skin was probably not that sturdy. Perhaps, I could win with a single blow like the one I did with the rock spear on Gargon. However, it may be difficult because this monster was known as the swordsmen’s killer.

Okay, think. What was the superiority between a wizard and a swordsman? Maybe there was a reason why a wizard could do something about it.

First the distance. It was difficult to attack closer to it because it could kill me from a certain distance. Therefore, I had to think of special attacks with high power in order to kill with just one blow. I didn’t know the rules of the wizarding world, but fire and water were probably the privileges of wizards. My MP had recovered almost completely, and my recovery was quite large. Since I could use healing magic, there was a high possibility that I could recover quickly even I got hurt.

I had to try various things. If other wizards could do it, then I should be able to do it too. Maybe they needed 1000 wizards to defeat this monster, but it was impossible, there was no way that they would need that many people to defeat a B-rank monster.

The Metal Lizard looked like a giant silver chunky lizard, with a rugged front armor but smooth, flat armor around the back. This monster was about 2 and a half meters tall and 10 meters long.

It looked like a military tank because of the front thick armor. However, Dveragh-san didn’t say the spot where the armor was particularly thick, so I wanted to believe that this monster had parts of its body where it weren’t that thick.

First, I took the wand out of the item box while running, and generated a rock spear while continuing to escape. It seemed impossible for me to fight it with the swordsman’s sword. But what about a rock spear with plenty of MP?

I continued to put in 10 magical powers per second and ran for about 1 minute. The distance between us, which I thought to have been about 150m at the beginning, had shrunk to about 100m. The rock spear, which had absorbed about 600 magical powers, was 2.1 m long and 50 cm thick.

It flew at about 100km / h. Both the Metal Lizard and I were running at the speed of a car on a public road, but the speed of the lizard was higher because it was faster. It did not seem to have anything to do with power.

The rock spear landed on the lizard shortly after firing.

However, the rock spear broke, and the Metal Lizard did not even flinch or slow down. Why was it no good?

I decided to invoke Fire Magic next. Maybe the lizard’s lower armor was weak. I bet on it and released it a little lower this time. I tried to balance it out. I ran for another minute while charging a fireball. The distance was about 40m to the left because I turned around when I invoked the rock spear a moment ago. Because of this, the distance shortened between us.

The radius of the explosion was probably 10 times higher. Was it an explosion with a diameter of about 7m? I had no choice to increase its firepower, so I released it quickly.

The fireball brilliantly hit the lizard’s lower jaw and exploded.

I turned around while running in the same direction as before. The situation behind was not visible because of the smoke.

「Grrahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… 」

The roar of the Metal Lizard echoed so loud that even the forest and the grassland shook.

…Did I do it!?

The next moment I thought I won, the lizard monster popped out of the smoke. My attack did not work at all. The remaining distance between us was about 30m, and I had used all of moves.

I thought about using Water Magic, but it had no effect as well. The armor wet with water was shining in the sunlight.

It must be a magic I don’t know about. I had to think clearly.

Since ancient times, in Japan, the attribute that was strong against metals was the electric type. Electricity may be able to penetrate the lizard’s skin regardless of the type of armor it possesses.

Since the distance was shorter than before, I decided to change directions in order to escape even further. I turned to the right at once to avoid a rushing attack. Successful. After all, the lizard didn’t seem to be very good at changing directions quickly, so it made a U-turn as it headed for me. I used magic with the image of electricity in my mind towards the lizard.

I felt as if the MP…was not consumed at all.

Nothing happened. I didn’t invoke electricity like the time where I tried to invoke an ice spear to no avail.

When I thought about that, the lizard overtook me again. Once again, I turned to the left and tried to avoid its charge. Unfortunately, the lizard’s left foot caught the hem of my clothes. I was blown away instantaneously, and I collided against a tree. It was not a fatal injury because of my status, but I felt that one of my ribs and a bone in my arm were broken.

I used healing magic to cure both of these injuries. It took me about 5 seconds, but it completely cured me.

However, the lizard, whose direction had changed for a short moment, chased me again. I managed to change directions vertical to the lizard, and the distance increased again.

However, I could not attack. I felt despair at this rate. My MP was not consumed that much and my body did not seem to get tired so easily. But my spirit was different.

My movements became sluggish due to mental fatigue. No matter how much cheat-like magical powers I had, my healing magic would not cure an instant death.

I had to come up with a way to attack it successfully. Did I have any ideas?

It was simple, but I came up with one idea. A big gun-like strategy that earned me time. I threw a huge rock spear into the lizard’s armor. It was simple but easy to understand, and it had a high attack power.

I generated a rock spear and put in strong magical power. I decided to do it until I reached 3000 MP. The lizard approached me again, so I turned to the right and dodged its charge. I continued to dodge in order to earn time. I was not tired, but the lizard was not tired either.

I finally consumed 3000 MP after I forgot how many times I changed directions. The length of the rock spear was 3m and a half, and the thickness was about 1m. This was no longer just a random spear.

I avoided another attack to the right, but managed to release it in time…I tried to blow it slightly from above so that it wouldn’t decrease the impact. At the same time, I felt a shock on my right shoulder. I heard a dull sound on the scenery while I felt a severe pain in my shoulder.

I bounced 2 or 3 times on the ground and finally stopped.

I felt that my body was not okay since I felt dizzy. I almost passed out, so I used healing magic to wake up my dormant body.

…The monster was about 100 meters away from me after it was blown away. However, I noticed that it had no effect whatsoever. The Metal Lizard was certainly running towards where I was.

I tried to appraise the Metal Lizard again while standing up to run away.

—

Metal Lizard

RANK: B

HP: 2797/2800

MP: 0/0

STR: 1237

INT: 4

AGI: 163

DEX: 6

Skill: Metal Armor

—

I only managed to decrease 1 point of that lizard’s HP after doing so many attacks!

Why was it so strong even though it had a B-rank, which was only one rank higher than Gargon…? …It felt as if it was only strong because of that hard and heavy armor skin. I bet that I would be able to defeat this monster easily if it did not have such strong defense.

Without such a strong defense? Wait a second. How should I break through that metal armor? Certainly, the armor was hard but it was still metal. If so, then there may be a way to do it.

I invoked magic while running away. My body, perfectly treated after using healing magic, was in such a good condition that it seemed unbelievable. I had trouble standing up just a moment ago. This time, I won’t resort to a limit of 3000 MP. I decided to use up to all the 1000 magical powers left for emergency use.

The remaining magical power was about 6000 including the recovery amount. If I ran away for about 10 minutes, I would have about a total of 1000 recovery points.

I was getting used to the movement of that lizard. It won’t be able to catch up to me while I cast magic, well probably.

The good thing was that I didn’t get tired. I managed to keep earning time. Let’s hope this worked or I would have to use only the MP that I recovered in real time. In that case, it would be dangerous for my spirit too. Be it 1 hour or 2 hours, or even 10 hours of playing tag, I won’t be able to concentrate as much if I kept this for too long. My sanity had its limits unlike my physical prowess. That’s why I had to do my best on this crucial moment.

10 minutes had passed. I attracted the Metal Lizard and used my legs’ strength to avoid the charge.

The direction was, of course…Up. The Metal Lizard couldn’t attack upwards because of its heavy body.

My body went about 70 cm above the Metal Lizard after I jumped. Below I could see the slippery back armor of the Metal Lizard. It looked weaker than the front armor. Therefore, I reached for that back armor. At this point, the distance between my hand and the back armor of the Metal Lizard was less than 30 cm. It was near the limit of the distance that magic could be activated without loss.

From this state, I activated the magic that I was charging for a while. The magic that I activated was Pressure Magic, which developed in a circle with a radius of about 3 cm.

I heard a large bang when my magic attack hit the Metal Lizard. I noticed that a hole opened in that monster’s armor, clearly with a radius greater than 3 cm.

「Grrahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh………… 」

The Metal Lizard screamed, but its voice gradually diminished and became inaudible.

*victory sound*

It seemed that it was finally dead…Victory!

I stored the corpse in the item box. It should be quite heavy, but I managed to do it without any problems. The storage standard for item boxes was still a mystery.

Okay then. Should I go home while hunting the remnants?

By the way, this time I used the principle used for anti-tank shells such as HEAT bullets* (when a certain amount of pressure is applied to the metal, even if it is a hard metal, it behaves as if it were a fluid). Originally, it was a phenomenon that occurred by launching a metal that behaved like a liquid at super high speed (such as processed gunpowder), but I tried it because pressure could be applied directly like a HEAT bullet. However, it was a great success.

That said; I only saw it on Wikipedia or something a long time ago. I was not that sure.

It seemed that the mysterious metal in this otherworldly world also had a proper Hugoniot** elastic limit (pressure at which a solid becomes fluid).

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*High-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) is a type of shaped charge explosive that uses the Munroe effect to penetrate heavy armor. The warhead functions by having an explosive charge collapse a metal liner inside the warhead into a high-velocity superplastic jet; this superplastic jet is capable of penetrating armor steel to a depth of seven or more times the diameter of the charge.

**The Rankine–Hugoniot conditions, also referred to as Rankine–Hugoniot jump conditions or Rankine–Hugoniot relations, describe the relationship between the states on both sides of a shock wave or a combustion wave (deflagration or detonation) in a one-dimensional flow in fluids or a one-dimensional deformation in solids.

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