Chapter 17 (1/2)

Some distance away, in a wide-open area littered with boulders and rocks, ten adventurers who seemed to be beta players were locked in mortal combat with the two-headed horned wolf.

[Two-Headed Horned Wolf] [Magic Points: 315/340] [Hit Points: 372/415] [Total Combat Power: 499]

The beta players were all at around 200 combat power. The party was composed of more than just warriors. At least, I also saw a magician, plus someone holding a greats.h.i.+eld.

A nimble woman wielding a shortsword was holding the wolf's attention. When it tried to approach her, a s.h.i.+eld-holder immediately intervened and held it at bay. Any damage the s.h.i.+elder took was healed by a magician. Once the wolf stopped moving, the warriors swiftly attacked with axes and spears.

Was this what good cooperation looked like? The beta players were moving so well. Even though the horned wolf was stronger than any single one of the players, I couldn't imagine it winning at all.

But the wolf continued to toss around the warriors, all the while just barely avoiding being wounded too severely. The two heads were acting on their own. Completely unpredictable. The party's a.s.sault had stalled.

The left head was rampaging in beastly frenzy, while the right head calmly watched and dissected the beta players' movements, managing their attacks.

The wolf wasn't exactly the mad beast that I met that first time… I didn't know what happened then. Perhaps it-they really was an alpha tester like me.

If this continued, I was quite sure they'd lose. But what if… what if I joined in? The wolf was still putting up a good fight. Maybe I could tip the scale?

Worst case scenario, I'd get killed alongside them… Oh, whatever, who cares. Death would just cut my magic in half anyway. I could handle being weakened for a while.

Alright, charge! But Blobsy's fragile, so 'lie low over there, okay?'

”WhSomething's coming!”

The first one to realize was the bow-wielding woman. As my density in humanoid form rose whenever I gained more power, in mist form, I now covered an area of several square meters.

”Somebody check for new info!”

”s.h.i.+t, who'd have time for it right now…”

”I got it! It's the white mist monster! Not a new one, some people've seen it before. According to the newest location update, it's getting here really quickly!”

”Combat power… 499! An event monster, gotta be!”

Event? Was there an event going on? And the corporation was even exposing our locations for the beta players to hunt us?

”It's intangible! We need one magician and one archer to aggro it!”

”Got it! We'll buy some time, so deal with the wolf quickly!”

”Alright, freak, come over here!”

The archer was firing at me, all the while moving away from the main fight.

I wasn't just making myself a bigger target with this form. As long as they could see me, they would [Fear] me, even if the effect wasn't exactly significant. And while my defense did drop when spread out like this, damage received from piercing attacks was reduced, too.

The fight would be a lot simpler if I could kill the two trying to drag me away, but they'd probably just run around to waste my time once I made my intention clear. Plus, magicians were my natural enemies.

So obviously, I hit them right where they didn't want me to.

I pretended to chase after the two. At the same time, I stretched out a part of myself from the edge of my gaseous form, aiming for a white-robed girl who was busy healing the s.h.i.+eld-holder. My tendril of mist slithered forward and struck.

”Aaaghh!!!”

”s.h.i.+t, it attacked us? Support!”

”You two, come back!”

The reckless shapes.h.i.+fting played h.e.l.l with my vision. It's been a long time since I felt dizzy again, but I couldn't afford to be distracted here.

I couldn't stay and leisurely absorb the healer here. The whole party would just gang up on me. So I circled around to her back, turned to humanoid form, grabbed her neck and used my shortsword, formerly belonging to the bandit leader, to slice it open.

All players, all humans, would take heavy damage if you hit them in the right spot. No matter how much hit points they had, this fact wouldn't change.

The white-robed girl collapsed in a daze. The beta players were flabbergasted, and their shock quickly turned into an uproar. But the one most surprised was me – from the corner of my vision, I saw the calmer head of the wolf looked at me. And their eyes widened.

The girl lying on the ground turned into light particles and disappeared. The beta testers started to panic.

”What the f.u.c.k is this thing?! It just turned human!!”

”Calm down, guys, we can handle this! Anyone who can do healing magic, help the tank!”

”Gotta deal with this white one firs-”

”s.h.i.+t, the Cerberus-aaaagh!!!”

The two-headed wolf… the Cerberus, apparently? They sent the tank flying and pinned him down.

The tank covered himself with his s.h.i.+eld, trying to ward off the fangs. The warriors attacked the Cerberus all at once to rescue him.

”Let go of him!”

”Quick, heal, heal!”

The moment the beta players were distracted by the wolf, I returned to gas and attacked the magician who was readying a healing spell.

”d.a.m.n it, the white monster again!”

”f.u.c.k! It's targeting the supporters first!”

”Melee people, help!”

The magician held himself in a ready stance with his staff, even while I was enveloping him. Perhaps he still remembered my previous shapes.h.i.+fting.

But I wasn't going to do that all the time. Unlike my gaseous form, my humanoid form was actually quite vulnerable to physical damage.

I was delaying the magician's healing. As long as the Cerberus took the opportunity to finish off the tank, we should have a much higher chance of winning this.

…but my expectations were betrayed.

”Whoa, what the h.e.l.l is wrong with this thing?!”