Chapter 29

The transition to another world had rebuilt Truck-kun’s body, the same one he had used in the first two Isekai worlds. His Baku body was contained inside the human shell with stunningly iridescent white hair.

A quick glance with my True Vision confirmed that the majority of his dangerous Baku powers were sealed as long as he was in such a body. He couldn’t using his powerful animal muscles, or claws, or poison glands, or… wait a minute, were these Baku things actually egg laying? Weird. He was practically a platypus!

Wind rushed past our ears as we fell. I counted. One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

From this height it would be over thirty seconds before we landed. The fall wouldn’t kill us. I had picked this Isekai because it was based on a famous game that always started with the characters falling, but all characters were immune to fall damage.

That was when, with an effort of focus, I removed Truck-kun from my party of allies. Anyone in the hero’s party was immune to damage, but now Truck-kun would crack like an egg when he landed.

I continued counting in my head. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine.

Truck-kun was a veritable tangle of various animal parts that did not belong together except in nightmares. And that nightmare glared at me, unable to close the distance between us given that he had nothing to push against as he fell.

But then he tore from his false body and opened a pair of wings, catching the air and coming at me in a dive.

Well that was going to make things far more difficult than I had hoped. It was still nearly a minute before we would land. He was accelerating as he dove, but now he was coming right at me. The Baku came at me with tusks and talons and horns and claws and ape-like hands.

My red fire vision taught me things about him as he came. The Baku were built from the parts of living dreams or spirits they ate, because their creator hadn’t endowed them with anything of their own.

Baku had been called Mo before they were called Baku. Their real origin was a mystery, but reports of similar beasts dated back to almost every corner of the world as far back as such records could be found. Dream eaters. Devourers of nightmares, but nightmares themselves.

I counted. Ten. Eleven. Twelve.

The instant before Truck-kun would have caught me I pulled the ground up thousands of meters, directly underneath the three of us. Nyarin and I took no damage.

Truck-kun was not so lucky. Even with his wings out, he had been falling faster and faster for twelve seconds. I don’t remember where I first heard it, but you can only fall faster for about twelve seconds, give or take. After that you’re falling as fast as the air will allow. At twelve seconds the damage had been maximized and I pulled the ground up, crushing Truck-kun

“Ouch,” Truck-kun said, ever the master of understatement. He hadn’t seen the tactic coming.

Of course the fall didn’t kill him. I was pretty sure nothing in here could actually kill a dream eater. But killing him wasn’t part of the plan. Disorienting him with pain was.

We appeared again in the air in a different world.

Nyarin hadn’t taken damage, but apparently all of the quick changes and falling had left her a bit nauseated. “Dammit, not another Isekai.”

I was in control here, but I was still a novice. I had never shifted worlds while fighting safari Mr. Potato head. I couldn’t push us back into the air. All I could do was move us to a new Isekai, move the ground around, and change the pull of gravity.

Technically I could do a few other things, but they weren’t useful when fighting this particular monster. I could force people into specific roles in an Isekai, like I had done by pushing Truck-kun into the slime’s body. There were more tricks I could learn, plenty more, but those would take time to master and that was time that I didn’t have.

We fell over another world now, but one that didn’t provide protection from fall damage. When the ground hit us, it was going to hurt us all. Except in this Isekai, the protagonists were reincarnated as an effectively invincible sword.

The Baku’s many eyes widened, or at least the eyes with lids went wide. There were some really creepy squid eyes in there too. “Dammit, really, not ANOTHER Isekai!!” he growled.

I started counting to twelve. Truck-kun’s wings were too broken to do anything but slow him down. They trailed above him as he fell, making him spin in a lazy circle that had to be nauseating. That was good. I needed him distracted.

My tricks had worked so far, but against something like Truck-kun it was just going to be delay tactics. He would win, eventually, if we fought for long enough.

One thing I can promise you is that one doesn’t become a level 80 mage without learning a thing or two about conflict. You can usually beat a weaker enemy. With good tactics you’ll reliably beat a less prepared enemy of equal strength.

But when fighting a stronger enemy, it’s all about tactics and strategy. Tactics give you an advantage, while strategies maximize your chance to win. Believe it or not, knowing this kind of stuff is required for a master business negotiator.

I may be an idiot. I might have been a salaried office worker with no life. But I’m also one of the best negotiators in my business. And I was among the best gaming strategy nerds that free time and disposable income could produce in modern Japan. And Japan has plenty of nerds.

Truck-kun didn’t let me count to twelve before his wings had healed enough to really slow him down. I brought the ground up early, crushing what he had healed and creating new injuries. This tactic kept him injured, unable to react, and maximized the limited skills I had on hand.

Before I could shift us to another reality, Truck-kun opened his maw, despite having a shattered jaw, and ate a chunk of the ground about a meter wide. As he consumed the dream substance around him, his body began to heal quickly.

Perhaps with more time and practice I could control these worlds enough to prevent him from eating up my dreams. But I didn’t have time to practice entirely new skills.

Truck-kun wasn’t just a powerful and ancient Baku, exactly the wrong enemy to face inside your own dreams. He was also smart, and effectively unkillable.

I shifted tactics since Truck-kun was already preparing effective countermeasures to the fall damage tactic.

The strategies that I could use to win were heavily limited. I wasn’t just at a disadvantage. I was effectively destined to lose this fight. I couldn’t damage him and he couldn’t be stopped, so it was only a matter of time.

When you face a superior opponent, you have a few winning options that depend on how you define ‘winning’. All strategies boil down to eliminating either each enemy’s capacity to fight you, or their will to fight you.

Truck-kun’s capacity to fight was endless, especially when he was surrounded by dream food.

So the tactic changed. “Oh, dammit, not another Isekai,” I said, mockingly. And the world instantly shifted around us again.