Reflections On The Boss Fight

Hah... I won. I didn’t die... But content-wise, it was a terrible fight with a lot of room for reflection.

Even as I bathed in the golden life energy that surged forth after defeating the boss, I couldn’t help but dwell on those thoughts.

(Damn, I should’ve at least equipped the mithril shoehorn before the boss...)

But Masaru’s movements were part of the problem.

(That guy... He goes all out with friendly fire, and it hurts like hell, too.)

His high morale and boldness are good, sure.

A little damage on my end is fine, but when he charges straight into the swing of a mithril shoehorn, it’s unbearable. No matter how much Masaru armors himself in muscle, a mithril shoehorn vibrating at high frequencies will slice through his thick neck or tail like butter.

It was so nerve-wracking that I couldn’t even use the mithril shoehorn when Masaru was around.

(Ah... This reminds me of those useless teammates I got stuck with in online versus games.)

Back then, I suffered endlessly thanks to deadweight allies. But while it was just frustrating in games, real battles aren’t so forgiving. A second of carelessness, a lifetime of injury. When even the smallest mistake can mean death, you can’t afford to take reckless risks.

So, considering how lethally sharp the mithril shoehorn was, I stashed it away in my spatial storage.

Still, I should’ve at least equipped it before the boss. If I had, the Great Ants wouldn’t have been such a struggle.

Well, part of it was also my hope that Nina-san and Serai-san would gain more experience fighting as a balanced team rather than relying on one overpowered weapon to carry the fight.

The same went for the pixies.

The pixies from the Fridge Dungeon’s 12th floor—vanishing from sight, excelling in magical attacks—their concentrated firepower was my strongest asset, aside from Shiotaro and the Pixie Queen. In terms of suppression, they were the ultimate trump card.

But while they’re absurdly strong against magic, their vitality once their Magic Barrier breaks is on par with a cat’s.

No, maybe even worse. There’s no way they could withstand a boss’s attacks. If I carelessly summoned them against a boss like the Queen Fly, with its devastating AoE attacks, they’d get wiped out in one go.

So, my plan was to assess the situation first—if things looked bad and summoning the pixies seemed safe, then I’d do it. But I never expected to get taken down by poison before that even happened.

(Hey, [Disease Resistance], do your damn job! Well, even if it had, I’m not sure I could’ve done much in that state, with my magic barely functioning...)

Anyway, good thing I stopped by the home center and bought another jerry can just in case. Though... I didn’t even get to use it before it caught fire and blew up in my face...

In any case, it was a terrible fight with a lot of room for reflection.

"Hey, Egetsu-san, your stomach’s wide open? You okay?"

Huh, seriously? ...Oh, yeah.

The protruding additional armor had blocked my view, but when Serai-san pointed it out, I checked and saw my abs peeking through a large tear in the suit.

"Muu, the explosion must’ve ripped it open. There wasn’t any additional armor on the abdomen..."

I must’ve looked like a complete wreck.

Since we were inside the ultra-giant aphid’s moisture-rich body, the gasoline didn’t fully ignite, but taking a jerry can bomb explosion at point-blank range was no joke. The Armored Insect King Suit’s armor, the Red Slime’s aid, and the ultra-giant aphid’s restorative bodily fluids kept me alive—constantly taking damage while also healing.

At least my exposed abs didn’t have any major wounds, and the puncture marks from the Great Ant’s venomous stingers were barely visible.

"Damn, ya got abs o’ steel~!"

"Ahaha, that’s a good one~"

"Still, those venomous stingers pierced right through. That was seriously bad... So never let your guard down."

""Got it!""

By the way, "seriously bad" (yabai) comes from old-timey archery ranges.

Like modern dart bars, they were places where you could play with bows and arrows. But since they gave out prizes—like festival stalls still do today—they were closer to pachinko parlors. Apparently, some also ran shady illegal businesses on the side, and the phrase came from people scrambling to escape (or failing to escape) police raids.

As for "letting your guard down is the greatest enemy" or "never let your guard down," those sayings originally came from the Eternal Flame at Enryaku-ji Temple on Mt. Hiei—a fire that must never be extinguished. The warning "Don’t let the oil run out!" became the proverb.

For the longest time, I thought it was related to wartime slogans like "Luxury is the enemy!" or "A drop of oil is a drop of blood."

And this time, I almost ended up becoming a human fireball myself...

...Still, this life energy is crazy dense. The giant black spider was intense, but even with the pixies here, it’s still going... Isn’t this way more than last time?