「Ooh…..there sure are a lot of rabbits in that field. Look, look at that, Touka-chan! There’s a rainbow rabbit right there!」

「Suku-neesama, I can’t see that far, you know?」

「I see.」

The large river before my eyes connected Tria and Fias. It was named the《Firia River》, it seemed. The thinking behind the name was quite simple, but there were also places in reality with names like this where names were created by sandwiching two other names together.

Touka-chan said that it had a width of a kilometer, but from what I saw, the width was probably just around five hundred meters.

Although, since there was a possibility for the river to be wider as you approached the mouth, depending on the place, it might actually be around one kilometer.

It’s just that, swimming across it would most likely be impossible.

That was not due to a problem with skills or SP.

In the deeper parts of the water, I could see the shadows of several 30m-class aquatic monsters.

I wonder, why were white, fin whale-sized monsters just leisurely swimming inside a river?

It seemed they had also noticed I was looking at them. Were their intelligences high, or did they have high perception abilities?

If we were to go meta, it was probably the unspoken message by the developers to just properly cross over the bridge.

That’s right, a bridge. Just as I had heard from Touka-chan earlier, there was a huge bridge that connected both sides of the river, and we had arrived at its head.

Then why was I talking about seeing what was beyond the river, you asked? It was because, to say it simply, we were waiting for our turn to enter the boss room.

The huge bridge had a breadth of one hundred meters, but only one party at a time was allowed to fight the boss.

The boss here was apparently strong enough that it was also being called 「The gateway to being full-fledged.」There weren’t even that many players from the first wave who were able to defeat it and move onwards. In fact, the passage rate was only around thirty percent.

In any case, you had to grind for levels and you needed to challenge it a lot and grasp its patterns or something, so apparently during golden times or holidays the bridge would be awfully crowded.

However, if it was during a weekday morning then we only had to wait for the party that came before us to finish their boss battle.

To avoid trouble, gatekeeper-like NPCs were standing at the bridge and they gave out numbered note-tickets to those waiting. This was the proof that you were in line, waiting for your turn.

By the way, if you defeated the boss here, you would receive a 『Pass.』If you showed that to a gatekeeper, they would allow you to use a warp point.

Since the normal mob monsters beyond Fias were much stronger, the gatekeepers kept watch on the gate. That’s what they said.

「Ah, it opened up.」

「Did they lose or did they win? We can’t really know which it is from this side…」

「I wonder which it is?」

The gate to the entrance of the bridge opened, and the gatekeeper looked toward us.

While Touka-chan and I were having a carefree chat, I passed over our numbered tickets.

I thought I could peek over from the sides of the bridge, but strangely, you couldn’t see the battle. I think there was some sort of barrier spread around it.

「Well then, let’s go.」

「I’ll do my best!」

『have a safe trip~』

『Do your best!』

『A battle of a Gorilla and a Gorilla…..』

「Who are you calling a gorilla?!」

☆

「It sure is spacious.」

「This place, I wonder just how they were able to maintain the shape of it?」

「Isn’t it magic?」

I already knew it from seeing it on the outside, but it sure was a big bridge. If it was like this, then I could freely run around. Holding the handle of the metal club lightly, I understood that there weren’t any symptoms left from my fight with Kokaku.

As if to announce that beyond this point would be a trial, a sound echoed as the gate closed.

To both the NPCs that lived in this world, and to us players as well, it was a trial.

Looking far away toward the center of the bridge, while looking at the《Armored Mount Gorilla》that was starting to spawn, I took a long, deep breath.

The Mount Gorilla that had finished spawning certainly had an oppressive presence incomparable to the dungeon bosses I had faced before.

“DON! DON!” A drumming sound loud enough to hurt your ears reverberated. It was probably the gorilla’s way of intimidating us.

The Mount Gorilla was staying still as if waiting for us. To check it out, I took out the weight I received from Haruru that I always carried.

The distance between us. The balance of force. Wind. Using the calculated angle of release for it, as aimed, the roaring weight drove inside the right eye of the Mount Gorilla.

「Eh? It hit?」

「As always, it sure is crazy.」

To Touka-chan’s shocked exclamation that it had hit, some rather carefree words were given in return.

Had the gorilla reacted late because I had thrown it from so far? I thought it would just be deflected, so the feeling that it had been a miracle was overwhelming.

Though I had hit a vital point, the damage was small. But still, I think I was able to make an opening.

「Let’s go!」

「Yeah!」

As I had discussed before with Touka-chan, we decided to close in towards the Mount Gorilla.

I couldn’t do damage with melee weapons if I didn’t get close to the gorilla and Touka-chan couldn’t use her support magic if she wasn’t close enough to me.

「For now, I will start by rushing in and becoming its target, when you think you can do it safely, just start throwing in buffs.」

「Ok. I will match you, so Suku-neesama, move as you like.」

「Roger that.」

It seemed that it had shaken off its pain, or maybe it had reacted to us getting close, but the Mount Gorilla had also taken up a battle stance. As its heavy-sounding footsteps neared, the five-meter-tall gorilla’s fist and the metal club that I swung clashed as we came face to face.

「Nuooo!?」

I would lose this one. The moment that I realized that, I shifted my club to alter the direction of the force of the fist and parried.

Redirecting the fist towards the ground, a huge crack in the bridge was produced. This gorilla showed it was incomparable to the other gorillas with its absurd destructive power.

Not having given up simply from having its fist staved off, another swing of its fist produced the crisp sound of something blasting through the air. I backstepped and warded it off with my club.

After doing that five times, the gorilla took some distance.

「As expected of a boss.」

「Nee-sama! Are you alright?」

「Yup, no problem.」

Having put a close to its continuous attacks mid-way, I could tell that this monster was quite smart.

Most likely, the gorilla before me was a monster that had a proper system of stamina management. It probably hated missing attacks and considered them a waste.

This time, there was something I wanted to try for a bit.

It was my aptitude that Kohaku pointed out. The ability to make use of how good my eyes were, a defensive tactic. I couldn’t really compare this guy with Kohaku, but still, the boss before me certainly had enough power to have obviously higher stats than me.

To the gorilla that came jumping in for an attack, this time, I wouldn’t ward it off. Instead, I’d completely evade it and strike behind its foot.

The damage was miniscule. In the first place, the Armored Mount Gorilla had two bars of HP, and, as its name implied, its fur was hard like armor.

Before the Mount Gorilla’s attack hit, I did three quick strikes. To change the direction of its attack, I hit its arm from the side, and after a few moments I swung upwards towards its chin.

「《Cheer Up》,《Protect》.」

The moment my attack connected, she had probably judged that the aggro wouldn’t be drawn to her.

The buffs that came from Touka-chan were a strength increase, 《Cheer Up》, and a toughness increase, 《Protect》. Either of them were magics to be grateful for in melee battles, let alone both.

The Mount Gorilla held up both of its hands and did a strike combo which I evaded with a side step. The moment its offensive eased up, I beat the toes on its hind foot.

With my attack damage increased from Cheer Up, this time I activated Strike as I attacked.

And thanks to the fact that its armor didn’t cover up the toes of its hind leg, I was able to get in quite a good amount of damage.

As the gorilla faltered, I beat and beat it up, then quickly evaded its press attack.

「《Armed》,《Haste》,《Armor》,《Sensibility》.」

The agility, dexterity, attack power, and damage-cut increase buffs came. Having buffs stacked on top of buffs, my whole body was ruled by the feeling of being light.

As the gorilla decided to take some distance with a backstep movement, I chased after it and closed the distance. It seemed it had thought I wouldn’t be able to keep up. It had a bit of a surprised face towards which I drove a new art.

「《Destroy》!」

A《Blunt Weapon》 skill’s art,《Destroy》.

At a glance, you could see that it was not that different from Strike. In cases where your attack power was greater than your opponent’s toughness, it would ignore the toughness and do true damage. It had that sort of effect.

It was not surface damage, but internal destruction. You could say that it was in the attack style of blunt weapons.

My attack power, which was increased from Cheer Up and Armed, cleanly exceeded the Mount Gorilla’s defensive power. I was able to directly give it damage, totally incomparable to what I had dealt before.

「Uwa.」

As if being petty, the gorilla swung its fist around and attacked. Since I still hadn’t been released from the art’s stun time, I was caught up in the attack and fell down.

There wasn’t that much damage, but I was caught a bit off guard.

「《Strong》,《Accel》.」

It seemed that she had judged that my attacks had drawn even more aggro. Touka-chan activated composite magic.

Strong buffed strength and toughness, and Accel accelerated one’s agility more than Haste did. They were intermediate-level support magics.

It seemed that she was skilled in handling aggro management, because even though she did that, the aggro of the Mount Gorilla stayed on me.

Since she kept the buffs coming, she was able to make fighting feel good. There was no mistaking that my performance was better than usual.

Taking a glance towards Touka-chan, she smiled as she reasserted her assurance with her hands. So it looked like she still had enough leeway.

As she properly readied up behind me, I could have peace of mind as I continued being at the front. After all, Touka-chan herself was able to properly read aggro levels and manage them, which I was bad with.

A fight where you weren’t alone sure was nice. While thinking such things, I continued facing off against the gorilla.