Merchant Crab-Chapter 230: Team Effort

As the brick of steel in his pincers finished being consumed, Balthazar looked down at himself. His carapace was still gray, but now with a splendorous metal sheen to it, with just a hint of blue around the reflections of light bouncing off his body.

[Imbuing - Steel Ingot]

[Duration: 6 minutes]

[Effect: +15 physical defense. +10 unarmed damage. -2 speed.]

After quickly pulling the handle of a weapon inside his backpack into a vertical position so it was sticking out of the opening, Balthazar grabbed his bag and started skittering toward Blue.

He felt slightly slower than usual, but nowhere near as bad as it had been when he imbued himself with iron before.

But better than that, the crab felt sturdy and ready to take on anything.

Like a walking fortress of steel, Balthazar pushed past the incoming skeletons standing in his way.

They seemed almost confused by the crab’s charge and unthinkingly tried to strike him with their old, decrepit weapons.

Balthazar could see from his system status that the strikes were doing damage, even if just a few health points at a time, but he felt barely any pain from them, thanks to his steely carapace.

Good thing these guys don’t have a proper merchant to sell them weapons in decent conditions. Hey, maybe there’s a business opportunity in there some—

His thoughts tapered off as he reached Blue and found her fighting off a group of skeletons. One of the undead fiends was about to bring its axe down on her from behind, and she had no way to see it coming.

“Oh, no, you don’t!”

The crab snapped his steel claw around the savage skeleton’s ankle. Despite his imbuing’s boost, his attack was still not enough to cut the level 31’s bone clean, but it was enough to throw it off balance.

It tilted back, its skull looking surprised by the low blow as it attempted to free itself from the crab’s grasp, which only led to its collapse.

Blue turned around upon hearing the commotion, and Balthazar rushed past the downed skeleton to reach her. The drake’s big golden eyes reflected astonishment at the sight of the crab who had just saved her from a likely fatal blow.

“Yeah, yeah, I look pretty awesome, I know,” the merchant said quickly and dismissively. “No time for that now, though. Can you still fly?”

The winged creature shook herself back into focus and nodded affirmatively, her fierce gaze returning.

“Good. Then up and away with you. Once you catch your breath, I need you to use it smartly. Don’t dump all of your flames onto the colossus, it won’t work. I—We need you to focus your fire on clearing the smaller skeletons to give me and the others enough room to maneuver. Can you do that?”

As if the crab’s instructions had been a challenge, Blue nodded with fire in her eyes, straightened herself up with wings spread wide open, and took flight once more.

“Attagirl,” Balthazar muttered to himself as he pushed his sights and legs forward. He had no time to stand around and see if she would do as he instructed, he could only trust his companions to stand up to the task while he did his own part.

Next, he reached Leah, who was still defending her unmoving friend with unyielding resolve, despite her axe having been knocked out of her right hand, and the wooden shield on her left being nearly broken.

“Hey, you!” Balthazar exclaimed as he knocked one of her attackers out of his way with his steel shell. “Nobody ever taught you to use blunt weapons when fighting skeletons?”

The young woman looked over her cracked shield at the crab, her brow knitted in confusion as he grabbed and pulled the handle sticking out of his backpack with both pincers, revealing a weapon.

A mace, the handle made of old wood and the spiky ball that was the head made of rusty iron, was offered to her by the merchant.

She dropped her broken shield and took the blunt weapon into her hands with a frown as little brown specks flaked off the mace’s head and fell to the floor.

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“Thanks, but this thing is like… the rustiest mace I’ve ever seen,” Leah said.

“It’s what I got, so don’t be picky!” the crab responded. “Consider the rust bonus elemental damage.”

“But those things are made of bone, not metal.”

“What did I just say about being picky?!” the merchant exclaimed as he walked past her. “And for the record, I’m still going to charge you for that weapon later!”

Balthazar grabbed Jack’s limp shoulders and tried to shake him awake. When that didn’t work, he gave the big dent on his horned helmet a knock with the side of his pincer.

“Wake up, you naked fool! I need you for something!”

The swordsman’s eyes started rolling open from behind the slits of his helmet as he let out a “Huh?”

“Jack, you’re alive!” Leah exclaimed with an excited grin.

A savage skeleton wearing a red ball of felt where its nose should be lunged at her while she was looking back, but the fighter quickly spun on her heels and deflected the attack. With a swift downward movement, she brought the rusty mace down on its skull, producing a squeaky noise and shattering it in one blow as bits of white bone and brown rust went flying in every direction.

“Woah! This thing works!”

As the adventurer continued bashing skulls with joyful abandon, Balthazar carefully whispered instructions to Jack.

“You got all that?” the crab asked.

“I—I think so,” the half-awake young man replied as he stood up and rubbed the top of his helmet.

“Good. Then get ready to grab your sword.”

Balthazar left Jack’s side and looked over to where Bouldy and the bone colossus were, still engaged in a battle of strength—one which the golem was slowly losing.

“I need to get there fast,” the crab muttered as he eyed the crowd of skeletons standing between him and his bodyguard.

Turning his eyestalks, the steel crustacean looked for Druma.

After a moment, he finally found the green spot amid the sea of off-color white. The goblin was nimbly bobbing and weaving between the skeletons, passing under bony legs and dodging the attention of most of them, who were either too slow to register the small blur or simply deemed him too insignificant to chase.

Balthazar watched as Druma reached Rye and handed him the bundle of arrows. The archer looked confused as he checked them. They were normal-looking arrows, made of wood and feather fletching, but the arrowheads were the special part—each tip was made of stone and flat, instead of pointy and sharp like the projectiles the adventurer had been shooting.

“Blunt-tip arrows!” the merchant exclaimed from afar, catching Rye’s attention. “Much better to break bones! Use them to help me clear a path to Bouldy, will you?”

The archer looked down at the arrows again, let out a quick chuckle, and then gave the crab a thumbs-up before nocking one of them.

Without hesitation, Balthazar dashed forward, through the horde and toward his stone friend.

The first skeleton on his path, which was wearing a pair of rainbow-colored socks for whatever reason, saw the crab and prepared to cut him down with his sword. An arrow wheezed over the crustacean’s shell and hit the undead right on the shoulder, shattering the bone and making the arm fall off, along with its weapon.

“Nice shot!” exclaimed the steel juggernaut as he knocked the confused and armless undead out of his way. “That will be two coins per arrow you use, by the way!”

Balthazar heard the archer curse something in the distance, followed by laughter.

As he was about to meet a wall of four skeletons waiting to block him, the merchant saw a bright flash of blue from above. The savage shamblers all turned their skulls up as azure fire rained down on them, courtesy of a screeching drake.

“Good job, Blue!” Balthazar shouted as he shoved past the flailing skeletons with their bones and party hats caught on fire.

The crab reached the golem, who was bending backwards under the pressure of the colossus’s arm, barely able to hold it anymore.

“Bouldy!” Balthazar called. “You can’t beat it by force. I need you to disengage and keep the smaller skeletons off me instead!”

The construct strained to look down. “F-friend?”

Balthazar turned to Rye again. “A little help, please?”

The archer, who had repositioned again, gave him a single nod and aimed his greatbow at the top of the bone colossus.

He let the blunt-tip arrow loose and it flew straight at the side of the bone pile’s “head” with a whistle. It did little to damage it, but it was enough to break its focus on Bouldy.

“Friend!” the golem said with relief as he broke off from the standstill and swerved to the side, letting the colossus’s arm slam into the ground.

“Alright! Now keep those dusty savages away from me, buddy,” Balthazar said to his bodyguard. “And you keep distracting it, Rye!”

Bouldy stepped back and swept his arm at a line of incoming skeletons, sending bones flying everywhere.

The archer quickly fired several more arrows at the corrupted amalgam, pelting it in multiple spots every time it tried to find the crab skittering underneath its body.

But Balthazar’s luck couldn’t last forever.

A limb of bones and black ooze came swiping down as the crab ran behind one of the colossus’s legs. All he had time to do was throw himself flat on the ground as the arm brushed past the top of his shell.

“Phew, that was clo—”

Balthazar’s eyes widened as he looked at the floor behind him and saw it—a trail of petals and smashed up flowers.

He patted the top of his carapace with both pincers, searching for his Floral Crown of Friendship, but finding nothing.

The metal crab’s eyestalks curved, and he looked up at the bone colossus with a menacing scowl.

“My best friend gave me that, you overgrown xylophone!” Balthazar yelled as he reached inside his backpack for his secret weapon.

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l