Olivia gasped and Suze let out a yelp.

  The ander groaned in fusion.

  But Balthazar didn’t make a sound.

  The sudden burst of disfort that had run through him was now repced with a feeling of extra weight.

  Part of it came from his body feeling much heavier than usual, but also because of the pressure being applied by the baton pushing down on his shell.

  Huh… Why isn’t it hurting?

  Twisting his eyestalks around, the crab saw the tip of the on pressed against the top of his shell, its spikes scratg fruitlessly on it but uo pierce his chitin.

  Not his usual chitin, however.

  It was still gray as his carapace usually was, but with a shinier finish. A metallic texture to it.

  His shell was iron.

  “What is this?!” the bewildered ander excimed, still trying to push the baton down on the crab, unsuccessfully.

  Balthazar looked at himself with almost as much bewilderment. “I’m… an iron crab.”

  “What?!” said the human. “That’s… that’s illegal!”

  “How’d you do that?!” excimed Suze, a few paces behind them.

  “I’m not sure,” the metallic crusta said. “I was hoping it would imbue my cw with iron, not my whole body.”

  The frustrated guardsman finally pulled his on away and took a couple of steps back, breathing fast as he scowled at his suddenly sturdier oppo.

  Balthazar checked his system status.

  [Imbuing - Iron]

  [Duration: 5 minutes]

  [Effect: +5 physical defense. +5 unarmed damage. -5 speed.]

  Hmm, that’s new. It’s not just an iron cw with extra damage anymore.

  Feeling fident about his new buff, the crab stepped forward to taunt the human, but his legs faltered uhe extra weight of his iron shell, dragging his pace.

  Ah, damn it. Not a fan of the reduced speed, though.

  “Al… alright, pal,” Balthazar said to the arying to remain cocky as he slowly rolled forward. “I’ll overlook the… oof, this is heavy… the fact that you tried to dome me right there on at of you not thinking straight right now. I’ll let… let you get out of here unscathed if you start running now. Go on, shoo.”

  The fuming man tightened his grip around the baton until his knuckles turned white, baring his teeth as he responded. “You want her all to yourself. I will never let you take her away from me!”

  “Oh, for the love of…” the mert sighed.

  Yelling an overly dramatic war cry, the armuard charged at Balthazar again, shield held forward as he brought the spiked on down on him once more.

  “Oh! Ow! Stop it!” the crab excimed as the human delivered thuds and ks over his shell oer another, causing a barrage of system notifications to assault Balthazar’s vision.

  [1 damage taken!]

  [1 damage taken!]

  [1 damage taken!]

  [1 damage taken!]

  [1 damage taken!]

  “Just. Crack. Already!” the exasperated guardsman yelled between strikes.

  As nice as his new iron shell was at redug physical damage, Balthazar knew he couldn’t stand there taking hit after hit forever, even with all the extra points he had ied ih.

  Unfortunately, fighting someone head on wasn’t something he had much experieh. Not uhat someone was a tiny fish trapped in a puddle. Or the fight was a verbal one over the price of a pair of used boots.

  “You’ve got cws, Balthazar!” Olivia shouted from the sideline. “Put ‘em up!”

  “ht, I’m a crab!”

  Thrusting his pincer forward, the metallivertebrate tried to reach for the man’s ankle—Balthazar’s signature move when it came to dealing with pesky humans b him.

  Unfortunately, the local guardsman wasn’t as easily felled as some overburdened adventurer skipping rocks over a pond.

  With trained reflexes, the ander blocked the crab’s strike with his round shield, hitting the tip of the pincer with a forceful bash.

  “ht in the funny joint!” Balthazar cried, pulling his arm back.

  The barrage of baton strikes resumed as the mert did his best to shield himself with the other cw.

  It wasn’t w out too well for him. While the iron provided him with increased defense and even some extra offeential—assuming he could make it ect—the speed penalty also made him a sitting duck for the man’s attacks.

  And if there was something Balthazar couldn’t stand was being likeo any kind of bird. Sitting or otherwise.

  [Health: 198/220]

  That isn’t good either. I ’t just keep taking this forever until I hit zero.

  The mert tried to ponder his options amid loud bonks to the top of his shell. None of his skills seemed all that useful for his current situation, and after activating the imbuing skill it was not like he had much mao work with anyway. His Backpack of Holding was still dropped on the floor a few paces bad out of reach. Even if he could search it, he couldn’t think of anything ihat would rid him of the bothersome human trying to get to his soft insides.

  “At least try hitting a different spot for a bit!” Balthazar excimed as arike of the baton ected with his iron chitin. “I’m starting to go numb there!”

  “I will op proteg my dame!” the tall man loudly decred as he brought his right arm up once again. “She will—Huh?!”

  The ander spun around sharply as he felt a figure ing up behind him.

  “Shut up already, white knight!” Olivia excimed as she hurled a teapot at his head.

  It hit the front of his helmet straight on and shattered into tless ceramic pieces, but it wasn’t enough to knock him down, merely making him stumble back.

  Until Suze appeared out of nowhere o Balthazar and popped down on her hands and knees behind the man’s heels, making him trip and tumble back.

  The ander fell on his cape and his helmet flew off his head, but his grip oon and shield remairong.

  Balthazar looked at Olivia with a baffled expression. “How do you keep finding all these things to smash on people’s heads?!”

  “What?! There was a tea cart right outside one of the bedrooms over there!” the young woman excimed. “Would you prefer I hadn't smashed it on his head?”

  Angry grunting interrupted their argument over the girl’s affinity for ceramic pieces as the aood back up onto his feet.

  “e here, you little brat!” the man yelled as he set his sights on Suze.

  He raised his right arm, bringing the batohe little girl as she scrambled to stand up.

  Balthazar’s eyes widened. His shell was iron, her skin was not. He straio reach forward, but before his heavy legs could take the first step, the crab felt a gust of wind zip past him as Olivia rushed to the irl.

  “Watch out!”

  She tackled Suze out of the way just as the furious baton of the ander came down hard on the floor where she stood a sed before, crag the wooden floorboards uhe rug.

  The two girls tumbled and rolled on each other, both ending up sprawled with their backs on the floor, still within reach of the mad man.

  “Fihe guardsman growled. “I’ll rid myself of the two of you in one go.”

  The raised baton cast a shadow over Olivia’s face as her eyes widened, her bad elbows still on the floor.