The fight against that brute bull made me realize that I can't entirely trust logic. I thought the colour of his horns showed his mood, but it is to show his other elemental domain.
The other issue is that I didn't think he would throw fireballs from the middle of his horns. In video games, all monsters throw fireballs from their mouth or hands. I wouldn't condense them in the middle of his horns unless they are undead type enemies.
This only confirms that I should not go easy when facing a monster. I already went through this with the two-headed serpent, the iron vulture, and the brute bull. If I want to defeat my opponents, I must know their abilities and behaviours and go all out.
The good thing is that I know the monsters' abilities and their effects. The bad thing is that I don't know their behaviours, attack patterns or variations, one more reason to be a B rank adventurer and be able to get into their library.
Let's see what other monsters are around this area, but this time I will fight with all my strength. I will not give the monster time to react, or if it looks like a strong monster, I will observe it for a while and then perform an ambush.
...
It didn't take long to find another monster, this time. It was the hypnotic butterfly. I found it while it was flying, and it looks like an ordinary butterfly, the difference lies in its wings because if you look closely, there is an eye that changes colour in each of its branches, but it is so tiny that, if you don't look, you couldn't see it.
The butterfly flies from side to side as if looking for something, maybe a plant or a monster. My knowledge about butterflies is almost nil, so I don't know what it wants to do, so I start to follow them from afar. For that, I take out the E2 binoculars.
After a while, I see that the butterfly is placed on the bark of a large tree to blend in with the tree's bark. This must be its camouflage ability. I must admit that this ability is very useful for fleeing or ambush. Still, if you are discovered, your opponent could pretend not to see you and then take you by surprise and shoot you in the head.
I know it sounds extreme, but it is the truth. Some monsters may have this tendency, like the chameleon sniper. I say this because one of his skills is called headshot. Still, I doubt that there is that kind of monster around here because it is rank A, and it seems that the most powerful monsters in this region are rank C-.
I keep checking the surroundings for more monsters when suddenly, the binoculars start to show question marks on some parts of the trees, so I point at one of them and see that it's another hypnotic butterfly. Then, I realize that each of the question marks is hypnotic butterflies.
I point the binoculars to the back, and to my good luck, I see nothing. Then I let out a sigh of relief. Although their mind control effects are useless against me, it doesn't mean that they can't cause damage to my brain. It's like congenital insensitivity to pain. You don't feel pain when you are hit, but your body will suffer the effects of the blow.
But the most important thing is that Kawaii is vulnerable to their attacks, and that's what worries me, so I only have two options left, attack from afar with focused slash because I still have 4 minutes to use possession again and use the cutting wind skill, the second option is to retreat.
* Mmm, why not both?
* Ki? (⊙_☉)
* Hehe, you'll see.
With that said, I take an HP and MP potion, get into a comfortable position, grip my sword tightly and then...
Focused slash!
I release a laido at full power towards the forest, aiming at the top of the trees where most of the hypnotic butterflies are. The laido I release destroys part of the trees and some butterflies in the surroundings, as I get a notification of their death.
[You have hunted hypnotic butterfly x9].
But that's not all. This attack also causes a commotion nearby, causing the hiding butterflies to rampage. I start flying frantically without knowing what's going on.
In the meantime, I wait a few seconds for my ability cooldown to wear off and throw my laido at full power again.
Focused slash!
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Once again, my sword laido is thrown. Still, now it goes toward the accumulation of hypnotic butterflies, killing them all without a trace.
[You have hunted hypnotic butterfly x 26].
The good news is that I killed several of them, making it easier to get the hunt 50 achievements from them. The bad news is that I can't recover their bodies as the strength of my laido exceeds their physique. Maybe I could get their bodies if I killed them one by one. The problem arises because the movements I perform with the sword are somewhat abrupt, and I could destroy their bodies.
This seems like an excellent opportunity to perfect the movements of my sword, to make them agile and flexible.
I notice how the butterflies start to fly in my direction, as they already found out that it was me who disturbed their resting place, so I quickly switch to "flake" for "butcher" and pull out an adrenaline shot for a slight speed boost, I also tell Kawaii to hold on and run away.
With that said, I start running in the direction of the lake while a massive group of butterflies chase me to fry my brain. While I'm running, I'm alternating my direction from left to right and vice versa to avoid the mental beam of these monsters.
This attack can only be seen when it hits a solid object because while I was running, one of those rays hit the bark of a tree. It showed a slight sinking followed by a barely visible wind wave, so it's better to be safe than sorry.
Focused slash!
I leap forward and swing my sword to kill more butterflies on the way and lower their agglomeration a bit, thus achieving a casualty of 32 hypnotic butterflies and getting a new achievement.
[You have hunted hypnotic butterfly x 32]
[Congratulations, you have completed the achievement "Hypnotic butterfly hunter"]
[You get MP +10 - Intelligence+2]
And so I get another achievement, but I don't have time to enjoy it as they are still chasing me, and there seems to be no end to it, maybe that place was their nest, and I ended up destroying the peace they had?
If so, I think I went a little overboard, but what can you do? What's done is done. I have to continue.
While I think about it, I take out a potion of MP to recover my mana, and then I see a raw bull near the lake. This one also has red horns, so it also throws fireballs. When I see it, I have an idea.
So I run in his direction, making him aware of my presence, which causes him to condemn a fireball to attack me, only this time I am prepared to dodge it. When he throws it, I slide to the left side and dodge his fireball, which causes it to impact the group of butterflies behind me. At that, I quickly get up and continue running so that the bull stays in the middle of the road as an obstacle.
The bull doesn't seem to notice at first, but soon he sees how a vast cloud of butterflies goes in his way. Due to the fireball I throw, I cause the butterflies to change their target, so now it's the brute bull vs hundreds of hypnotic butterflies.
And as for me? Now I'm far enough away to enjoy the show. It's like watching those 1vs100 videos on YouTube. If I had popcorn, it would be much better. Next time I should buy that.
The butterflies have already surrounded the brute bull by the time I say this, making it almost out of sight. However, the bull is still alive and waving the hooves of its hind legs to hit the butterflies around it. In contrast, the butterflies continue to throw their mental lightning to control the brute bull without much success.
I see that the bull is about to launch its fireball, so I seize the moment and attack from afar.
Focused slash!
The laido shoots out and hits a large group of butterflies, making almost no trace. Still, before the butterflies know where I am, the brute bull throws his fireball, burning the nearby butterflies, which causes them to attack him again and forget about the blow of my laido from a moment ago.
The blow of my laido killed another 33 butterflies, but this does not seem to have an end. It is then when I realize something, if I use cutting wind at the moment when the brute bull uses his fireball, I could use that attack to extend its range and destroy these butterflies, I do not know if it will work or not, but it is better to do it soon because as things are going, I do not think that bull will last long.
Possession!
I use possession and get as close as possible to the group of butterflies and wait for the right moment.
When I see that the bull is about to throw its fireball, I quickly act.
Cutting wind!
The wind shoots out and cuts the butterflies in front and hits the fireball of the brute bull; the wind makes it expand the fire, making it go in all directions, which causes more butterflies to be trapped in that vortex of death.
If my cutting wind does not kill them, they will be burned to death by the fire they carry. This only results in all the butterflies falling to the ground, but so does the brute bull, as it could no longer withstand the multiple mental lightning attacks.
That's when multiple notifications appear before me.
[You have hunted hypnotic butterfly x 432]
[You have hunted brute bull]
[Congratulations, you have completed the achievement "Insane hunter"]
[You get HP/MP/Stamina +100]
[Congratulations, you have completed the achievement "Provocateur"]
[You get the Title: Provocateur]
A new title? It's been a while since I've seen one, but I already have an idea of why or how I got it by its name. Anyway, let's see what it does.
* State
[Name: Marco Diaz - Adventurer]
[HP: 520/620]
[MP: 320/470]
[Stamina: 460/460]
[Strength: 26]
[Dexterity: 23]
[Agility: 23]
[Intelligence: 29]
[Profession: None]
[Active Skills: Focused Slash - Seal Monster]
[Passive Skills: Cold Mind]
[Pet: Floral Hedgehog]
[Titles: Novice Herb Seeker - Ruthless - Crafty Dog - Provocateur]
[Current purse: 6-61-50-99]
[Title: Provocateur]
[Description: You provoked a group of monsters to confront other monsters. You are an intelligent and evil person; are you sure you are not a communist leader].
[Effect: Increases your MP+50 and Intelligence+5]
Well... I don't know whether to feel flattered or insulted. In any case, they increased my stats, which always comes in handy. Now the question is, can anything be collected from here? The truth, I have no idea, so I pick up some of the ashes of the hypnotic butterflies hoping that this dust can be used, but there is nothing to see.
So I pick up the body of the brute bull and set off back to where the hypnotic butterflies were, as it is likely that the place where these monsters were is some nest. If what I think is true, there might be eggs that could sell.