My Glasses

Chapter 187 – Glasses boy and the hunting festival – part nine

It was now time to start putting my plans in action for this hunt.

Before the battle even started, I had thought about what a very long snake-like Demon Beast was likely to do. Its water blade was unexpected, but it was still within the margin of error.

What makes my victory possible, is the fact that Dragon Fishes are aquatic creatures.

As in, if I bring it to land, it will die on its own.

It also won’t chase me on land, so I can easily escape if I need to.

The Dragon Fish may have gotten the initiative in this battle, but I just need to go back to my original plan to turn things around.

So, I used the Shadow Hunter Warrior gift and imbued my harpoon with the power of the Shadow Hunter.

I learned this by watching my sister fight the Obsidian Wolf. If you focus on it, Shadow Hunter can remain active for a while even after it leaves your hands.

As in, it doesn’t need to be applied the whole time to function.

So, at least for a short while, it is possible for me to have two Gifts active in conjunction.

With this knowledge in mind, while the Dragon Fish prepared its next attack, I set the Anomalous Ogre gift.

Now, this harpoon had the power of the Shadow Hunter that weakened monsters, and I could throw it with the extraordinary strength provided by Anomalous Ogre.

And at this distance, my rope can reach it.

That was the plan. To pierce the Dragon Fish with Shadow Hunter, then drag it to the land by pulling the rope with the power of Anomalous Ogre.

Once it is dragged here, I’ll use my other harpoons to secure it to the land, and then it will essentially be a stranded fish.

I’m sure it will die on its own if I leave it there, but it’s likely to thrash about a lot, so I should deliver the finishing blow before long.

That was the plan at least.

******

“Eh?” I said.

I threw the harpoon as hard as I could while using the superhuman strength provided by Anomalous Ogre.

And the harpoon had indeed connected with the lower part of the Dragon Fish’s neck. It hit its mark.

However, the harpoon slipped past the Dragon Fish… But I was sure it had hit.

… Did it slip across the Dragon Fish’s skin and fly behind it somehow?

I was quite confused as I tried to understand what had just happened.

But my body kept on moving, as even a single delay in my actions could result in fatal injuries.

That was made clear with the first water blade shot. If I don’t dodge that thing before it’s fired, I’ll be cut in half.

So, I kept on running sideways while pulling the rope that was wrapped around my right arm with all my might, and quickly retrieved the harpoon.

Meanwhile, the Dragon Fish, with fairly relaxed movements, slowly turned its head in the direction I was running.

Right now, we seemed to be reading each other’s movements.

Nonetheless, I proceeded with my original plan and imbued my harpoon with the power of the Shadow Hunter again.

At the same time, I kept on thinking about how to hit it, while also avoiding the next water blade.

For as long as the water blade comes from right in front of me, I should be able to avoid it.

However, this was a precarious situation.

If I hit my foot on something and end up tripping, the water blade will hit me and it will be over.

… Ah, right, I remember now. I once saw a slender fish that had a very slimy skin.

No matter how I tried grabbing it, I just couldn’t hold it in place, as its skin was so slimy that it could always slip away.

Should I assume that the Dragon Fish has this same kind of skin?

In that case… How about this?

This time, I used Hit Correction before throwing the harpoon.

… And this too was a failure.

Even though this should have cleanly hit the Dragon Fish, the harpoon was simply unable to penetrate its skin. It slipped through once more.

Then maybe…

I threw the harpoon a third time.

I was worried about shooting it at the same time as the Dragon Fish attacked me, so I waited until the Dragon Fish shot another water blade, and immediately after dodging it, I threw my harpoon.

And this time, I aimed it at the head. Specifically, at the Dragon Fish’s mouth.

… It was avoided?

The harpoon flew in a straight line and was about to enter the Dragon Fish’s mouth, which was open because it had just shot a water blade.

However, the Dragon Fish moved its neck and dodged it.

It was a very quick evasive maneuver.

Coming to think of it, the Dragon Fish also surfaced extremely quickly.

So, the reason why the Dragon Fish is following me with slow movements isn’t because it is slow, but actually because slow movements are enough to keep up with me. This enemy is actually quite fast.

However, it cleanly avoided my third throw, so… It understands that it cannot take a hit in that area.

The Dragon Fish knows that it won’t be harmed if the harpoon hits its skin, so it doesn’t bother with avoiding it.

But if the harpoon is aimed towards a vulnerable area, like the mouth, it dodges… This Demon Beast understands its strengths and weaknesses well.

It’s no wonder that it’s classified as a dragon. It truly has a high level of intelligence.

This is troublesome.

For as long as I throw it from the front, the Dragon Fish should always be able to avoid it.

And if I throw it towards the neck, the harpoon won’t be able to pierce it.

… Even if I try throwing it with different Gifts attached, I doubt the result will change.

We’re at a stalemate, where I can avoid the Dragon Fish’s water blade, but it can also dodge or ignore my harpoon.

Therefore, I need to change plans.

******

The more adjusting a plan needs, the riskier it becomes.

If possible, I would have liked to hunt it with the first plan I thought of, which was a relatively safe choice, but… It seems like that will not be possible.

So, while taking the new information I learned from this confrontation against the Dragon Fish into account, I began my second plan.

For this, I’m gonna need one of the very-hard to use Gifts that I have registered… Or rather, the uses of those Gifts were just way too narrow.

One of those Gifts was One Point.

This Gift’s primary use was for disguise or makeup. It could do things like temporarily create a mole in one’s body, for example.

Unsurprisingly, this was basically useless for hunting.

However, the original version of this Gift seemed to be able to affect the bodies of other people too.

My copied version can only do things like create temporary moles on the target’s body though, so it’s even harder to use than the original.

Still, this might be useful now.