A hail of bullets erupted from Metakin’s surface.
Thumb-sized slugs tore through the air with the volume and velocity of a heavy machine gun.
I broke into a dead sprint, circling Metakin counter-clockwise to weave through the barrage.
"Ngh!?"
Metakin didn't move from its spot; it simply adjusted its aim to track me.
I wasn't sure how it was seeing me, but it seemed able to freely rotate its firing points. Even when I circled behind it, the monster unleashed a relentless pursuit without ever turning its body.
I kept my feet moving, avoiding the lead by staying in constant motion.
The high-speed bullets that missed my frame whistled past to the edge of the boss room, carving deep craters into the rock walls with a roar like industrial drills.
For a mere diversionary attack it could fire inexhaustibly, the power was absurd.
Furthermore, the monster showed no sign of needing to stop for breath. It maintained a continuous, high-speed stream of projectiles that made it impossible to get close.
This was abnormal.
When ordinary slimes spat poison, mucus, or crystal shards, they always had a tell—a preparatory motion where they inflated their bodies to build pressure. Because of that, they couldn't fire continuously. Metakin, however, was an exception.
(Is it because it's so massive?)
That was my hunch.
Perhaps it was constantly performing those preparatory motions in one part of its internal mass while simultaneously firing from another.
Well, not that the "why" really mattered.
However—
(It seems it can’t spray bullets in every direction at once, at least.)
If it could do that, things would have been far more difficult. But Metakin appeared unable to perform a true omnidirectional machine-gun attack.
That alone made the fight manageable.
Even though the intense curtain of fire was blocking my approach, that trick wouldn't work forever. Once my HP dropped by half and Blood Vengeance activated, I would have the momentum to counterattack.
Except—
"—I figured you’d try that!"
While still spitting bullets, several parts of Metakin’s surface began to bubble and swell, as if massive blisters were rising from boiling liquid.
I’d never seen a slime behave this way before, but based on what Oishi-san had told me, it wasn't hard to guess Metakin's intent.
Specifically: division.
It was trying to split its own body to spawn countless Metaslas.
The monster had one enemy who kept annoyingly running away. Its attacks weren't landing. In that case, the logical strategy was to surround and crush me with numbers.
It was a sound tactical decision.
Facing Metakin alongside a swarm of Metaslas would inevitably wear me down.
It was unfortunate for the boss, then, that I couldn't allow it to finish that transformation.
The only question was whether I could stop it in time—
"——"
Just then, something happened that caused Metakin to hesitate.
A new wave of slimes was summoned into the boss room. The Magic Circle that had been glowing beneath Metakin’s mass (though it lacked feet) since I first rushed in had finally activated.
The timing wasn't slow.
The entire exchange since I’d unleashed my Explosive Blade had taken place in less than three seconds; the Summoning Circle was simply operating on its usual interval. It had merely reached the moment of materialization.
Because Metakin was occupying the center of the circle, sixteen slimes appeared in a ring surrounding it. Metakin faltered for a fraction of a second at their presence.
It was a moment of indecision.
Should it slacken its attack to absorb the surrounding slimes, or continue its assault on me?
If Oishi-san’s information was correct—and I was virtually certain of it now—other slimes were nothing more than power-up items to Metakin. It could strengthen itself by consuming them with Fusion Absorption.
Metakin’s choice was instantaneous. It decided it didn't have the luxury of feeding while I was right in front of it and resumed its attack.
However, in a high-speed battle where split-second choices determined life or death, that tiny window was all I needed.
A mere moment of hesitation was a glaring opening. The indecision caused a slight slackening in Metakin's firing pattern. In that momentary gap, I leaped. High into the air.
"——"
Metakin reacted immediately, spraying metal bullets toward my rising form.
—Footing Creation.
I generated a panel of aura in mid-air, kicked off it, and leaped again.
A double jump. I had already confirmed during the fight with the Metaslas that they didn't possess the Footing Creation skill. They couldn't jump in mid-air. Metakin was likely the same. In that case—
"——"
I would do what it couldn't. That was how you caught a monster off guard.
Metakin’s aim lagged for a heartbeat. Unable to track my unexpected aerial trajectory, the stream of bullets veered wildly off course.
In that opening, I struck.
"Hyaaaah! Like I’d let you split up!!"
Having reached a position almost directly above Metakin with the second jump, I swung my sword straight down.
—Mighty Blade Great Flying Blade: Explosive Blade.
—Two-fold.
I unleashed two consecutive slashes.
The two strikes formed a massive X and slammed into Metakin from above. Upon impact, the blue flames swelled violently and detonated with a deafening roar.
A tremendous blast wave erupted with Metakin at the epicenter, blowing me back through the air.
"—!?"
My vision spun. My sense of balance vanished. Even so, I managed to force my body into a stable posture and landed feet-first—against the wall of the boss room.
As the blast subsided, I dropped to the ground.
Landing properly, I felt a cold sweat break out at the sheer power of my own attack.
If I’d miscalculated by an inch, I might have caught myself in the blast. At the very least, if Hinata-san hadn't cast Holy Protection on me, that explosion would have certainly caused self-inflicted damage.
Well, I was unharmed, so all’s well that ends well.
Pulling myself together, I looked toward the center of the room.
Residual blue flames were scattered across the floor like embers, illuminating the area. In the center stood the motionless figure of Metakin.
The slimes that had been summoned around it were gone, vaporized by the aftermath of the explosion.
Meanwhile, Metakin’s upper half was deeply gouged; it stood frozen in a distorted shape like a mushroomed bullet or a flower with its petals forced open.
I saw no sign of the split Metaslas. Either I’d successfully interrupted the process, or they had been obliterated the moment they were born. As long as the result was the same, the details didn't matter.
What mattered was whether Metakin was dead.
Which was it—wait,
"Stop playing dead so poorly!"
When monsters die, they dissolve into particles of light. More importantly, I hadn't felt the rush of Experience Points. That meant Metakin was still alive.
I readjusted my stance and lowered my center of gravity. I channeled Sword Aura into my longsword once more, pouring a massive amount of HP into the blade.
As if realizing its ruse had failed, Metakin moved.
Gyuru!
With a terrifyingly fast squirm, it restored its body to its original teardrop shape in an instant.
It looked exactly as it had at the start. It didn't appear to have taken damage, but its HP had certainly dropped, and more importantly, its total mass had shrunk.
Regardless, as soon as Metakin regained its form, it prepared to fire metal bullets from its surface again—
"Too slow!"
—but I had already swung my sword.
Mighty Blade Great Flying Blade: Explosive Blade.
Facing the approaching crescent of aura, Metakin abruptly aborted its attack. Just like at the start of the battle, it conjured a massive, thick shield in front of itself.
But...
"You fell for it!"
The move was so predictable I couldn't help but grin as I shouted.
The massive blade of aura slammed into the shield, detonating with a roar of blue fire.
However, the power of this explosion was on a different level than the first.
"——"
When the smoke cleared, Metakin was stationary again.
The Great Explosive Blade had easily obliterated the shield and gouged Metakin’s body even deeper than before, leaving it mangled and deformed.
The reason for the discrepancy was simple if you looked at my HP. The first strike cost 60. The aerial double-strike cost another 120. Factoring in the Poison and Consumption from Asceticism, the drain from Sword Aura and Fighting Spirit, and the recovery from High Regeneration, my remaining HP when I unleashed that strike was 84—out of a maximum of 350.
That meant the first stage of Blood Vengeance was active.
The power of the Explosive Blade had scaled up alongside my enhanced stats.
And then—
"——"
Gyuru!!
Metakin squirmed again to restore its shape.
However, this time it took several seconds.
I wasn't so incompetent that I’d miss an opening that large. Even before the smoke from the last attack had cleared, I was ready for the finisher.
I funneled 30 HP into Sword Aura and stacked Mighty Blade on top of it.
Another 60 HP vanished, leaving me with exactly 24. My health was now well below 20%. The second stage of Blood Vengeance activated.
—————————————————— Strength: 1008 → 907 Constitution: 910 → 819 Intelligence: 239 → 215 Spirit: 490 → 441 Agility: 923 → 831 Dexterity: 584 → 526 ——————————————————
These were my current stats.
The numbers on the left represent my status without the Frailty debuff. The numbers on the right are the actual values after the reduction.
I sprinted forward while Metakin was still struggling to reform. By the time it regained its teardrop shape, I was already inside its guard.
I swung.
—Mighty Blade Great Explosive Blade.
This wasn't a Flying Blade. It was a gargantuan greatsword of aura extending from my physical blade, its length exceeding seven meters. I drove the brilliant, bluish-white sword deep into the Metasla’s mass.
And then—kin!—I stopped the blade halfway through.
I didn't lose momentum; I stopped it by design.
Currently, my Mighty Blade Flying Blade damage multiplier against Slime species was 86.4x. However, for a direct strike, the Sword Aura multiplier also applied, bringing the total to 138.24x.
That multiplier applied to the Explosive Blade as well.
In other words—
"——"
As if sensing its imminent doom from the aura sword buried in its vitals, Metakin shuddered.
With the blade still embedded in the monster, I intentionally released my control over the surging energy, detaching the aura from the Holy Sword, and leaped backward with everything I had.
Then came the end.
An explosion erupted that dwarfed even the previous two-fold strike.
Blinding blue flames swallowed Metakin’s massive frame and expanded. Everything vanished into the light, and the atmosphere, compressed by the expanding fire, buckled and burst outward as a titanic shockwave.
The shockwave caught me mid-jump and threw me across the room. This time, I didn't even have a chance to fix my posture before I was slammed violently against the far wall.
The light of Holy Protection finally shattered, unable to withstand the pressure of the blast.
But thanks to that shield, I took zero damage.
The explosion felt like it lasted an eternity, though in reality, it was only a few seconds.
As the blinding blue light faded, Metakin was gone. In the center of the newly formed crater, nothing remained but a fountain of light particles dancing toward the ceiling—the unmistakable sign of a monster's death.
"I won...!"
Victory. Immediately afterward, a colossal flood of Experience Points surged into me.
And—did you notice?
Throughout this entire fight, I had kept Asceticism active.
It wasn't entirely intentional. Asceticism deals damage from Poison and Consumption every time it is reactivated. For example, if you restart it three times within ten seconds, you take damage three times.
My plan had been to reset the skill and its debuffs before the Frailty took 20% of my stats.
However, the entire battle from start to finish had taken more than ten seconds but less than twenty, so I never actually reset the skill.
Therefore, the Experience Points from Metakin were multiplied by 6 thanks to the combined effects of Awakened One and Asceticism.
Furthermore, do you remember the experience formula for a Legion Slime?
It was the base XP multiplied by "(Number of fusions ÷ 2) + 1."
Since Metakin followed the same logic, half of its base experience was added for every single slime it had absorbed.
So, what did that actually mean?
It meant Metakin’s reward was already legendary, and its use of Fusion Absorption had pushed it into the realm of the impossible.
In short, it went like this:
—Your Level has increased. —Your Level has increased. —Your Level has increased. —Your Level has increased.
The monotone female voice echoed in my mind.
She announced a level-up four times in a row.
I—
"—Ngh-ooooohhh! Th-this is insane! It’s, it’s too gooooooood!!"
Under the torrent of overwhelming pleasure, my spine arched back even further than a figure skater’s Ina Bauer, and I transitioned right into a head-bridge on the spot!
This was bad!
This was really bad!
Four levels at once? The experience points were too much!
I was about to lose myself to Metakin’s experience points!!
Twitch, twitch!