[NR] Ice Shell - Chapter 468 (Patreon)

The sixth floor was strange. All previous floors had a mix of tardigroids, but mostly featured the more feral forms. That was no longer the case.

While most groups of monsters would still have more animalistic members. The general composition switched to being at least half bipedal in form. This didn't mean the monsters were any smarter.

However, along with a more humanoid form came a smaller size. Even if being built like a tank was useful in a one on one fight, a humanoid shape better matched a group fight within a tunnel. It allowed the near mindless monsters to swarm the group.

A vital strategy for them when the increase in level meant little. Sure, this was past the halfway point and so had begun to catch up to the party's level, but this was a dungeon meant for this. While not the weakest dungeon in existence, tardigroids base animal, the tardigrade, didn't make for a good monster. At least not this style of monster.

They didn't even have the "legendary" survivability of a normal tardigrade. The increase in size and being mixed with more humanoid features eliminated them. Not that the ability to survive being frozen would help much against most adventurers.

So instead the dungeon went down the path of numbers. Not only improving the attrition rate of any delvers, but it also allowed more variants to be spawned. Sure, in exchange each individual monster would be weaker still, but you don't need absolute strength if you can pull a proper counter out of your bag of tricks.

This was exactly the situation Jason found himself in right now. Not that this was a problem for the group as a whole. In fact, Rosha and Courtney had already cleared up the rest of the current pack of monsters over a minute ago.

If Jason had asked for help, the fight would already be over as Courtney's shadow magic would be able to injure Jason's current opponent. Instead he asked for the opposite, for them to let him handle this himself. The question is, how do you fight water?

Sure, the variant he was currently facing had an ice shell, but otherwise it was made completely of water. Now, you would think that just means Jason has to crack the shell enough for the insides to leak out. If only it was that easy.

Any water that escaped the inside of the tardigroid would flow back towards the body and rejoin with it. Even ice that was knocked off would liquify and do the same. At most, Jason breaking the ice shell slowed it down as the water focused on refreezing any damage.

Even War Stomp: Runic Bloom failed to have an appreciable impact despite the moves conceptual basis being effective against water. This monster was a near perfect counter for everything Jason could do. It was only near perfect though.

The longer Jason fought the beast, the more he learned about it. By the time the main fight had been over for three minutes, Jason discovered an in. The ice was important for more than just a shell to keep the monster's shape intact.

As Jason broke that shell over and over, he realized what it actually was. His original assumption was wrong, the monster wasn't water. Rather, the monster was only the ice shell, even if it could control the water perfectly even when separated.

This made things a lot easier as it meant Jason wasn't fighting some formless water elemental. While tough to shatter and the tardigroid spent a lot of effort keeping it repaired, the shell despite being the toughest part was also the weakness. All it took was some preparation.

Strike after strike, Jason rained down blows on the bulky humanoid form. At first the strikes would shatter the ice. He even managed to remove one of the arms, though this proved as useless as he suspected when the arm simply grew back.

Good thing that wasn't his goal. Instead with each strike he dialed in the amount of force he was using. Weaker and weaker until finally only the outer layer of the ice was cracking.

It was at this point that Jason's plan began to become obvious to his party members. Without breaking through the ice fully, the cracks never managed to heal. Soon the tardigroid was covered in cracks all across its body.

At that point, Jason backed off. As the monster charged him, he took aim and readied himself. Breathe out, breathe in.

The ice tardigroid was right in front of him. Then with an explosive exhalation, Jason burst forward with a double palm strike to the lower shoulder joints. No fancy Energy use or anything, just plain attacks that even normal people could do irl.

Except that was exactly what was needed to finish the fight. Jason wasn't tricked by there being a head or ideas of hitting a critical area. The monster was made entirely of ice so how could the "head" be vital? What heart? Even limb removal barely slowed it down.

No, the correct answer was to in one go shatter it into as many pieces as possible. Jason's palm strikes were perfect for this as the monster first had a deep crack spread from one side to the other, splitting it in half.

That wasn't the end though. This damage released the pressure built up from all the other fractures. So like a prince Rupert drop, the entire monster burst apart.

The resulting explosion ended up doing more damage to Jason than the monster had managed to do in the entire fight. It was worth it though as he watched the parts attempt to form back together. Without some force like Courtney's shadow magic, this icy tardigroid could come back from almost anything. Good thing being completely shattered isn't among those things.

And the reward for what should have been an impossible foe for Jason to solo? A water skin made of leather-like ice that didn't feel cold. A water skin that quickly filled with clean water as the group watched.