A monster’s HP was defined with a numerical value.

That itself was something that didn’t really have to be explained.

If it was something like an old RPG, even if you didn’t know how much HP the enemy had, you could defeat them after piling up several hundred attack’s worth of damage.

Even in this game, where you could see the HP gauge with your bare eyes, that didn’t really change much.

On the surface you would just see the gauge being reduced, but the numbers were actually properly being calculated.

There were lots of reasons for using that type of gauge, but among them, there was an easily apparent advantage to it. It was even possible to see in the WLO boss-type monsters with many gauges.

And that was that you could monitor the patterns of the boss monsters based on each gauge.

To be precise, this method was used just to clearly indicate to the players that their action patterns had changed.

If this was done with just one gauge, then the color of the gauge would change depending on the remaining HP or something like that. Games usually tended to go that way with that.

You could also set different numbers of health in each gauge, it would be more visually obvious rather than having to count the damage. Also, rather than showing the number directly, it gave more room for interpretation. It was a rational method.

Among the type of game that had gauge-style HP bars, it was normal for there to be a state called berserker mode or rage mode.

There were many ways to say it, but what was certain was that when the boss monster was cornered, with their HP on the last gauge, they would always pull out their trump card.

This was some kind of trope. Other monsters might have only one gauge, but the gauge would be divided into colors and they would change their actions depending on the color. It was just like the Red Wolf.

What was it that I wanted to say?

It was that, as you see, as long as the Armored Mount Gorilla in front of me had two gauges left, it still had a trump card.

☆

It happened when the Mount Gorilla had only one HP bar left.

The Mount Gorilla abandoned the melee skirmish and retreated far backwards. Then it roared and started shining.

「Uwa, so bright!?」

「Kya!?」

“Bikaaa—!” A light flared up with a sound like that, and after it dimmed down, standing there was a gorilla wearing golden armor.

「Eeh….」

A gorilla wearing a set of golden armor. Hmmm….hmmmm.

I guessed that was fine too.

『eh….』

『Kusa』

『I coughed』

『Fashion sense-san!?』

『I’ve been waiting for that reaction』

Usually I wouldn’t look at the comments during battles, but I unintentionally took a peek this time. There were quite a lot of viewers that had the same reaction as me.

Well, the armor itself was cool, you know?

It was just that, the one wearing it was just a huge gorilla. Just like, rather, something like…yeah.

I wondered if there was someone in the dev team that liked gorillas?

「That gag factor of the whole thing is jus-….Touka-chan, watch out!」

「Eh-….Kyaaa!」

Due to the impact of its appearance and the comments section, my attention was drawn away, causing me to react late.

The Mount Gorilla used the debris from the battle and grabbed some rubble, throwing it with all of its strength.

If I had been able to react, I could have knocked it down, but it happened too quickly that I couldn’t even knock it away.

It seemed that Touka-chan had also lowered her guard, and because of that she directly let out a scream as she was blown away.

「I won’t let you!」

Facing the incoming rubble, I only evaded the ones that could hit me and focused on deflecting the rubble that could hit Touka-chan.

I knew it was kinda late, but Touka-chan hadn’t put any buffs on herself. That might’ve been the reason why she wasn’t able to gather much aggro even from a bit of excessive buffing.

Moreover, since Touka-chan specialized in buffing, she prioritized her agility over her toughness, which was on the lower side.

As a result, she received damage exceeding half her HP.

If this had been a full party and this was a raid battle, it wouldn’t be strange for buffers to focus on buffing the frontline, but naturally, with just the two of us, it would be bad not to put buffs on yourself.

…..No, this was wrong. Touka-chan put her trust in me and judged that she didn’t need to do so.

Rather, I should take responsibility for not focusing.

Being in the front for Touka-chan to protect her was my job, after all.

That was right. I had to protect her.

The moment I thought that, I remembered a really horrible, strange feeling.

☆

Unintentionally, I tilted my head, and nodded to myself. It shouldn’t have been strange for me to stand in the front and protect Touka-chan.

To pro-…tect…?

The strange feeling had gotten more horrible. I felt buzzing in my ears. I felt dizzy. Even so, my body kept knocking away the incoming rubble on autopilot.

It felt like my spirit and body were starting to separate.

I also somewhat felt really sleepy.

My heart was calm. However, at the same time, it felt like it was about to erupt.

But still, I had someone to protect behind me.

「That’s why…I have to destroy.」

Those words, they leaked out of my mouth naturally.

I unintentionally covered my own mouth, but they continued to spill out as if ignoring my will, those words that I couldn’t stop.

The moment I spent in that strange feeling had caused a meltdown.

It felt like my power had overflowed from my whole body.

I felt my head instantly heat up to the point of boiling then it rapidly grew cold.

The endless throwing that didn’t know when to stop. While avoiding the rubble with only the slightest possible movements, the only gap was the one between my spirit and body.

「Nee-sama!? Are you alright!?」

I was taken aback when Touka-chan called out to me.

The sensation of the gap suddenly disappeared.

「Um….that’s right, I have to defeat it.」

Looking at the irritated gorilla right in front of me, I reawakened my mind that had become absent for a moment.

Putting aside what happened just now, at the moment, I had to defeat that boss.

Since it wasn’t inside a forest, it wasn’t that hard to knock down the incoming rubble. For some reason I felt like I was in a very good condition.

It felt like I could fly…well, it wasn’t to that point, but I felt like I could move my body from the top of my head to the tips of my toes with absolute precision.

Did it run out of rubble, or was it a problem regarding its stamina?

The Mount Gorilla stopped throwing rubble and reinitiated melee combat with a hit, which I used my metal club to ward off.

Even though its power had raised and it was incomparably faster than before, strangely, it looked very slow.

If I fought it head on, I would naturally lose in a contest of strength. However, if I hit its fists aside, then I could ward off its attacks as much as I wanted.

Rather, there wasn’t any need to ward them off, was there? Evading the barrage of punches one by one and then doing a counter to end it, it would give me more breathing room if I changed to attacking.

That wiggle room would improve my next chance to attack, making my counter much more possible and precise.

Even if the Mount Gorilla was tough, if I countered each time it threw a flurry of punches, its HP would be reduced.

If I was going to aim for counters, I should aim for its vitals as much as possible. Since I didn’t know where the vital areas of the Mount Gorilla were, it should be fine to aim for its head which was always a similarly short distance away.

Thinking that way, after fifteen barrages where I continuously aimed for its chin, the Mount Gorilla became unsteady.

It seemed that its brain had been shaken up, so something similar to a stun effect had accumulated. In front of the gorilla, I threw my metal club upwards and released it then did two beats of claps.

The first formation of 《Dance of the Oni (Oni No Mai》, and then the 2nd formation,《Dance of the Man-eater(Rasetsu No Mai)》. Finally, the《Double-edged Dance (Moroha No Mai)》.Dancing them successively, I caught the metal club I threw upwards and then used the force of the fall to drive《Destroy》 into its cranium.

Because of my increased strength from both Touka-chan’s buffs and the dances, the Mount Gorilla’s HP was reduced greatly.

Raising a scream as it retreated, an electric sound buzzed as a small thunderbolt came.

「Uwa.」

It disappeared as I deflected it with my metal club. The source of the thunder had been the gorilla as I thought. Looking at it, it was shaking from the fear of pain. The Mount Gorilla’s fur had turned gold, and as if to match with its fur, it started scattering thunderbolts around.

「This feels very familiar….」

「Nee-sama, be careful!」

「Leave it to me!」

I wouldn’t make the same mistake a second time in such a short period. After answering Touka-chan, I concentrated on the Mount Gorilla who was activating its true trump card and transforming into its ultimate form.

The moment it scattered the thunderbolts, it seemed the transformation had been completed.

Its fur looked like flames as it stood upwards, and the golden gorilla looked surprisingly epic. The black and gold color scheme from earlier had been kind of lacking, but this time its appearance felt much better.

From my observations, that thunder thingy wasn’t just the aftermath of its transformation. Instead, it felt more like something that had to be activated.

And actually, the Mount Gorilla itself wasn’t coated in lightning, although it was covered by a mysterious aura. Aria the Red Wolf was just like this, so it wasn’t weird.

Now then, what would it do?

The instant I thought that, seeing the gorilla bending greatly, I had a bad feeling.

「《Shield》!《Magic Barrier》!」

It seemed that Touka-chan understood too. This time, she properly cast defensive magic on herself.

She probably didn’t know whether it was a physical or magical attack. It was just like Touka-chan to put both a physical and magic defense buff on just in case.

By the way, since no defensive magic came to me, I could feel her deep trust conveying that I could evade it by myself.

It would be less bad if it was a physical attack, but if it was magic then even if I was just grazed, I felt like it would be fatal, you know…?

“GGOO!” Spawning such a sound, a thick, two-meter in diameter laser was released.

「Just what in the~!」

Weren’t you going to release thunder?!

Holding back the desire to retort to that, I avoided the incoming beam of slaughter by diving to the side.

It was almost a joke of an attack, but I had predicted the directions it might come from and could evade it no problem.

That was why, even if I succeeded in evading it personally, with that trajectory, Touka-chan might be hit directly.

Instantly turning my head around, I could see the fragments of the Magic Barrier scattering.

「Touka-cha-…」

「I’m alright….」

Turning my head in the direction of the reply, at the far corner of the bridge, I could see a slightly burnt Touka-chan.

As she was able to evade a direct hit, she was blown away from just being grazed.

That was a purely magic-attribute attack. There was no mistake there, since Magic Barrier was the only spell that was broken. Pretending to be a pure physical-type boss, what a terrible surprise attack.

Anyhow, I’m glad she’s alive. With that, I didn’t have to worry and I could beat this guy down.

Naturally, after using such a big move, it seemed that the Mount Gorilla’s movement had slowed from exhaustion.

While praising it for having such a strong trump card and catching me by surprise with it, I slipped into the bosom of the Mount Gorilla and then properly shaved down the exhausted, weakened boss’s HP.