abcnovels
Chapter 240 Strongest Sage, Draws Enemy Aggro
Chapter 240 Strongest Sage, Draws Enemy Aggro
Chapter 240 Strongest Sage, Draws Enemy Aggro
"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…
"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.