I kept swinging the crab into the wall, but nothing seemed to be happening. After the fifth time left it no more damaged than the first, I started getting worried. It was just like my caestus all over again. Maybe swinging a steel pickaxe at stone would eventually damage the metal, but how long would that take? Thousands of swings? Tens of thousands?

I didn’t have that long. Maybe my ambushers would get bored and decide to join the party or maybe they’d leave, but I wouldn’t bet my life on that coin flip. I needed to figure out a way to actually hurt this thing, and that meant getting underneath it. That actually gave me an idea.

I grabbed the tail again but changed my position slightly. The ancient creature wasn’t smart enough to learn from its mistakes, and I was incredibly thankful as it came off the ground. Halfway through the swing, I tried to pivot my upper body, turning my hands to the side. If it worked, the crab would be turned so it’s bottom would collide with the wall instead. Sadly, the thing managed to turn enough to catch the wall with its shell even in the air.

The next time, I turned it even more, but that gave it enough spin to just land shell first anyways. This was getting frustrating. Finally, I decided to give up and wrestle the thing. Slamming it over my head didn’t work since I just wasn’t strong enough to do that. Hell, I was barely strong enough to pull it off the ground in the first place. I didn’t give up though, using every muscle I had to get this thing onto its back.

Eventually, I succeeded. I used the momentum from the spin to step forward and change my position, allowing me to turn the end of my throw in the middle while keeping all the energy. It was hell on my planted foot, but I stuck it out all the same. Finally, I was able to get a full rotation with no spin, sending the crab sliding along the cave floor and into the wall, all on its back. I sprinted after it, not giving it a moment to recover.

Knowing better than to attack its front legs, I began my combo attack on the tail. Part of me worried that I might ruin it’s only weak spot, but a bigger, much more vocal part screamed for blood. This thing had been wasting my time or nearly killing me every second of the fight. It needed to die.

My straight caved something in, causing wet squelching sounds as it writhed on the ground. My jabs kept it in place but couldn’t do much damage even without the hard shell in the way. Frustrating as it was, the area under the tail wasn’t as defenseless as I’d hoped. The only portion of the crab that had no shell was the meat grinder it used to walk and feed.

It managed to recover before my five seconds were up, meaning I couldn’t get another straight on it unless I spun it again. Fortunately, I was already positioned at its tail. Three more good hits weren’t enough to finish the creature, but it was beginning to slow down. Lucky for me since my leg was also starting to groan dangerously after my last throw. The strategy was working, but I didn’t know if it would be enough.

My biggest fear was losing a battle of attrition. With this creature as tanky as it obviously was, it had to have a huge health pool. Even if it didn’t, regeneration seemed to be percentage based. Meaning, if I waited for the damage to my leg to recover, it would also recover in that same time frame.

Would that undo one punch or even more? Maybe it would be less, but there was no way to know ahead of time. Hell, it wasn’t even all that possible to track if I did pay attention. How do you see damage on a crab, exactly?

I waited a little bit to see if I was right, and by the time my leg had recovered, it had gone back to its normal speed as well.

I just had to risk it.

Four more throws forced me to change what leg I used as my anchor. Another four and the crab had gotten really slow but so had I. My legs were screaming at me after taking on so much weight back to back. But I already knew that I couldn’t stop now.

I grabbed the crab by its tail, and this time I felt something crack as soon as I tried to step through. Pain shot through my leg as it threatened to crumble below me, but I pushed through. There was no telling how much damage that would cause me until my health stopped falling, but that was a worry for the future.

I ran after the crustacean as it skidded to a halt, ignoring the pain in my leg as I jumped on top of it. This was now or never, so I had to take big risks. I sat on its tail and positioned myself over its scrambling legs, staring directly into its disgusting maw. Two jabs was all the opening I had time to make before delivering a straight directly into the meat grinder.

Pain shot up my arm but my fist connected, causing another wet squelch as the creature finally went still. Pulling my hand back, I hoped that my regeneration was good enough to replace fingers.

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Content to rest after my victory, I sat on the ground and just watched my health bar go down. Thankfully, it stopped just before hitting double digits, leaving me with a full two days of recovery. With nothing better to do, I just laid down and stared at the cave ceiling.

That was a lie, and I knew it. I’d just struggled for hours to kill this stupid crab because of how little I knew about it. Sitting right next to me was the perfect specimen for my study, but just looking at it made me uncomfortable. Those dozens of spindly legs stretching out of its underbelly creeped me out like nothing I’d ever seen before ,but I had a job to do and looking at it more closely was the only way to get better at it. If I had to recover my hand every time I fought one of these things, then I’d be forced to retreat at some point. If they chased me to the portal, or if one of them ended up faster than this one, then I would just die. No two ways about it.

Groaning, I used my good arm to pull myself over to and above the stupid crab. It was weird, getting a good look at it. The body was vaguely conical, with a round shelled head with just a couple of the legs poking in front while tapering down to a skinny but long tail. I could see now why some of my punches did so little damage.

Half of the tail was fully shelled even underneath, and only the middle portion of the body was vulnerable. Even still, there was a slight protection there, like a softer shell. It made sense then that I’d had to get through the legs to do any real damage, though that obviously wasn’t a good plan.

It also seemed like the tail was wildly flexible. Had I not sat on it while dishing out my punches, it probably could have used it to fight back or flip over quickly. With how narrow and hard the tip was, that wouldn’t go super well for me either.

So grappling these things seemed like my best bet, otherwise I’d just end up in a battle of stamina against a literal crab. That sounded like a stupid plan. Sadly, the things were too heavy for me to move around easily, but what if that weren’t the case? If I could reliably get them on their backs without hurting myself in the process, I could mount them and punch the soft shell until they died. Even if they managed to flip over, I could just grapple them again. Easy.

I just needed to be strong enough to wrestle them to the ground. Looking at the enormous corpse, I was already getting some ideas. Sadly, my right hand was still a bloody mess, but that was the cool thing about the strength stat: you only had to work one muscle.

I slid along the ground and tried to grab the body, shell facing towards me. The carapace was too smooth for me to find purchase, even with the segmented portion along the middle. I realized, with horror, that I’d have to flip it over to do my benching, legs dangling in my face the whole time.

I got to work immediately, tearing one limb after another from the thing’s underbelly, tossing them into the corner as I did. There was no way in hell that I’d let those spindly little things crawl over me while I was trying to bench, even if it was already dead. Once all the legs were gone, I got a good look at the full damage I’d done, creating a crater where its tiny little brain probably was. Good job, Law. Next was to roll it over which took a while with only one good hand, but I eventually had everything ready. That set, I crawled over to position the crab head right at my left pec, pulling it on top of my chest with my good arm.

I then got to work on one armed benching which was hard, unpleasant, and disgustingly wet since each set managed to drizzle me with a little more of the creature’s blood and brain matter. I didn’t let up though, keeping my grip firmly on the shell as I pushed repeatedly, barely managing to lift even a portion of the body weight with one arm. My muscles screamed as I gave shouts of effort, trying to keep the corpse in the air. Realizing that this was going to be a productive workout session, I nearly smiled despite the effort.

----------------------------------------

“It’s been hours,” our leader said slowly, and everyone tensed up a little. We’d each taken a spot around the portal, prepared to shoot at the first sign of movement. When only one person loosed last time, Jenson had screamed at us for minutes, promising to dock our payout when this was done. I wasn’t planning to stick to this group after today though, and I doubted I was the only person that felt that way. Jenson was too shit at this and too hostile for the pittance we were liable to make.

“One of ya, go in and grab his bag. If you’re quick, the beasts won’t get’cha.” None of us moved as he spoke, worried about who he’d pick. We’d all heard about what was inside since Jenson wouldn’t shut up about it, and his stories were incredibly graphic. I definitely didn’t want to end up like that.

“Fine. I’ll pick.” A thick finger pointed directly at me despite the distance and my active camouflage. Sweat pooled on my brow as he gave his order.

“Go in, grab the bag, and bring it here. That or we toss ya in, see how fast ya are on all fours.”

I gulped, knowing better than to test the veteran. I hadn’t forgotten the last person to try. Stepping up to the portal, I steeled myself before poking my head through, prepared to pull right back out at the first sign of trouble.

There, in the middle of the cave, was a screaming man on the floor, one stumped hand covered in blood while the enormous shelled monster lowered itself onto his torso. I pulled back as fast as I could, panting.

“No good, boss. It’s right there, eating him.”

He grumbled a little before giving more orders.

“We try again in six hours. Get some rest and set up watch.”

Thanking whichever god was smiling upon me, I did just that. As we set up an area for our bedrolls, I immediately got to talking to the others. There was no way I’d pull the short straw again. I’d make one of these useless fuckers go in next time or I’d throw one in myself.