A Certain Middle-Aged Man’s VRMMO Activity Log - Chapter 64

Nasty Existences

In the form of a surprise attack, the ghosts that slipped through the door were stabbed with arrows, burst into flames, and were drenched in a torrent of light … This attack blew away the lower-class ghost-type Wraiths and Wights who aren’t as strong.
However, there’s still the Lesser Liches that haven’t been reduced by even one. Anyway, with this, the 12 monsters have been reduced to 4; for now, at least the numbers alone have become better …

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Lesser Liches, or the ‘Vanguard Destroyers’ as the players call them, or the ‘Trauma Bringers’.
If you’re wondering why they have such a ridiculously bad reputation, first of all, since they’re ghosts, physical attacks attacks won’t hit at all, like I’ve said before. 
Axes in particular have a bad affinity with them, so in front of a Lesser Lich, the heavy-hitting Axe can’t do a thing.
Furthermore, although the Lesser Lich has less damaging ability when compared to a Lich … this is why they’re called the ‘Trauma Bringers’.

I’m derailing a bit, but I want to talk about what it means for a party to be annihilated; it’s when every member’s HP becomes 0, and every member is unable to battle; that’s the standard ‘annihilation’.
This is what’s widely understood, but the terrifying part of a Lesser Lich is [it’s no different from a Lich when it comes to inflicting Bad Statuses], and from that, if every member is Paralyzed, Frozen, or Petrified and first cornered into this pseudo-annihilated state, it’s more than enough.

Freeze and Paralyzation can be given by AOE Water Magic and Dark Magics, but Paralyzation and Petrification are additional effects that can by inflicted through their scratches. If you become unable to move, it won’t matter what kind of defensive power you have, and recovery as well has about no meaning.
And to make things even worse, the Lesser Lich has the logic to prioritize the players who can still move over the players who have been inflicted with the inability to move. As for what that means…

[After sealing the movements of the party members one at a time, once all members are unable to move, before it kills you, it can endlessly torment you] is what it means, and as a bonus, it’s firepower is less than a Lich’s, so the time it torments you can be even longer … and therefore it’s the “Trauma Bringer”.
And even though experiencing its scratches and close-range attacks can cause you to suffer from Paralyzation and Petrification with 1 hit if you’re unlucky, from the player’s side, physical attacks are completely ineffective, so that’s why it’s the “Vanguard Destroyer”.

Therefore, even if it’s just one, it’s an opponent where you can’t afford any negligence.

Of course, the Bad Statuses will be dissolved after a fixed amount of time passes, but it’s not at all so weak that it would take that long, so when all members are unable to move, at that point your annihilation is 99% decided.

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“Ku, if we could have at least taken out one of them …”

Even though they took AOE magic, and even arrows, the 4 Lesser Liches survived, so I curse at them. It looks like, although the arrows hit the Wraiths, they didn’t reach the Lesser Liches because they were probably still in the wall.
At this point, our situation looks pretty bleak.

But it’s not like I stopped my hand; anyway, I don’t spare my MP and continue to activate Wind-Blown Arrow, aiming at one of the Lesser Liches and loosing the drawn arrow; if we don’t first reduce the numbers, we’ll be annihilated in the blink of an eye.
Milly and Eliza also immediately began chanting magic arias.

Vanguard Reiji doesn’t attack with his one-handed axe; freely using his Shield Arts, he circles around defending the rearguards from the incoming magic the Lesser Liches are bombarding them with.

As for Rona, with a,“Twin Fists of Battle Ki!1 With this I can beat you up!” she activated one of the Arts from the Battle Ki Skill, one of the Knuckles weapon’s special progressions, in her palms; by activating Twin Fists of Battle Ki, she will be able to punch the Lesser Liches.
Battle Ki is a Skill where you can utilize a type of “ki” to fight with; you can deal out damage other than physical damage with physical attacks; it’s a rare ability she has. This way, the risky possibility of being able to punch Lesser Liches is possible.

Last is Zwei, with a “Aura Blade! If this doesn’t do it, we’re screwed; wish I had a magic sword!”, he set up the One-Handed Sword and Two-Handed Sword’s only middle-ranged attack at the present, an attack of fighting spirit shot off, Aura Blade.
Since it’s a vanguard’s projectile attack, the MP cost is pretty harsh, but I guess he doesn’t have any other Arts he can use, so it can’t be helped.

Even so, 4 Lesser Liches really is tough after all; With my own bow and Milly and Eliza’s magic, we finally sunk one, but that’s when the situation began to get bad.

“Dammit, my MP’s shot!” Zwei was the first to raise the alarm for MP shortage; the vanguards never have much MP to begin with, and in addition, firing multiple Aura Blades in succession must have been harsh … Right now his Wolf Fairy is attacking while he endures by using his Two-Handed Sword half as a shield.

Right after, right when I thought I heard Reiji raise a “Gu-!?”, I see that his left hand has been Petrified. Clang! That loud sound resonated as his large shield fell from his hand.
With this, the magic attacks from the Lesser Liches that couldn’t reach the rearguards will be able to hit them.
Reiji leaves the attacks up to his Fairy as well, not able to do anything other than stand around. Right now there are antidotes for Poison, Burn, and Paralysis, but there’s no antidote for Petrification; there’s nothing that can be done without high level Light Magic.

Without the defense of Reiji’s shield, you could see Eliza’s composure fall apart. Clearly panicking, her magic aria mistakes became extremely obvious.
The only ones in the party that have Light Magic are only Milly and her; the one with the best healing abilities in the party is Eliza; the only who who can recover Reiji’s arm from Petrification is Eliza, and yet … thanks to her aria mistakes, she still hasn’t done it, and she’s stopped her attacks.

Rona is skillfully evading, absorbed in counter-styled fighting and escaping from the Lesser Lich’s outstretched arms. Milly is also continuing to attack with her specialty, Fire Magic … but the decrease in firepower is already obvious; at this rate, we won’t be able to hold out here. I am also making use of Wide Arrow freely to attack, but it’s not enough to get us out of this bad situation.

“I don’t really want to use this, but … Rona, get back!”

If we let this drag out, we really will be annihilated. Once I told Rona to back up, I activated Wind Booster and ran through up to the front of the Lesser Liches.
After seeing that Rona had fallen back with Back Step with a sideglance, I took out 6 of the 12 bottles of Enhanced Oil I was carry and threw them all out in front of the Lesser Liches. Of course, at the instant I threw them, I quickly backed up myself.

KABOOOOOooom!

And, letting loose that huge noise, 6 pillars of fire broke out, changing into 1 giant pillar of fire that roasted the Lesser Liches.
The Lesser Liches that had piled up the damage from Rona’s strikes and my own bow were burned out within this blaze; there are 2 left.

— as for why I chose to use the Oil here is, 1st , of course it’s to deal huge damage to the Lesser Liches, but there’s one more reason … “Eliza, awake now!?”; the other goal is to bring back Eliza before she falls into a panic.
Falling into a panic and randomly firing magic without thinking, it would be like we had 1 more enemy; that situation is what I had to avoid.
…. I’d like to avoid using an explosive in a confined place like this, but it probably wouldn’t have stopped the situation.

Shaving off one of the Lesser Liches, making a huge sound, and burning the Lesser Liches with fire; with all those as a shock, Eliza would be able to somehow avoid falling into a complete panic; she began her healing magic area … once the aria finished, the magic activated and Reiji’s left hand was freed from Petrification; Reiji picked up his dropped shield; the situation has already improved.

The leftover Lesser Liches only took a little longer to defeat successfully.
Even though they’re ghosts, it seems like fire is still hot for them, so they took quite a bit of damage.
Right after, my arrows, Milly and Eliza’s magic, Rona’s strikes, and the 5 Fairies struggled hard to take them down. I was wondering how it would turn out when we found this group of monsters, but ending up with only this degree of injury, we had good luck to defeat them, so I guess it’s fine.
Before the battle ended, all members were pushed to the brink, though. Fortunately, Danger Perception doesn’t show any monsters coming in this direction, so while staying cautious, we were able to take a break …

SKILLS
[Wind-Blown Hunting Bow]Lv11 ↑4UP
[Assaulting Kick]Lv21
[Farsight]Lv50
[Craftsmanship]Lv52
[Small Shield]Lv 6
[Stealth]Lv40

[Physical Ability Reinforcement]Lv31 ↑1UP
[Chivalrous Thief]Lv20 ↑1UP
[Whip]Lv36
[Fairy Language]Lv99 (Forced Acquisition) (Unable to be moved to Reserved Skills)

Reserved Skills
[Woodworking]Lv34
[Blacksmithing]Lv39
[Alchemy]Lv40
[Advanced Cooking]Lv4

ExP 4

Titles Possessed:  The One who Charmed Even the Fairy Queen, The One who Defeated a Great Foe Alone
His second name from other players is “The Fairy Queen’s Husband-san”

A/N:Nasty monsters are scary, but rather than those, the ones who use Confusion Statues and Charm Statuses to have you attack your allies are even scarier ne…
Being killed by a party member ally with a powerful weapon is an experience that everyone has probably experienced, maybe.