With a roar of pain, the shell tremored itself violently as the crab within it started to sprawl its legs about. Basking its limbs into the sunlight, the crab peered its head out, its peridot-sized eyes holding a burning grudge within them as it began to twitch and move about in multiple directions, constantly going back and forth unpredictably as it snapped its claws at the MC’s direction.

“Nice shot… it seems that this one’s a bit more brittle than last time. It’s even smaller than last time,” the Summoner spoke of his analysis. “Let’s see if it’s still impervious to magic.”

Withdrawing the journal of Ral with a swift flick of the arm, the Summoner drew it upon the crab. “Death by a thousand papercuts!” Kindling the malice of forbidden magic within the book, individual pages of the book began to squall themselves towards the crab.

Peppering the crab’s several legs with searing, cutting parchment, the hermit crab lowered its claws, covering its face with them. The pages still cut through the claws, soon enough, green ooze from before began to seep out from them as the papers lashed out at them.

“Vaati, you’re up.” The Summoner relinquished control, the Main Character losing its vivace as his face suddenly went blank along with his actions. “Train up your magic a bit.”

“I’m flattered, I assure you that I won’t give out any fuck-me eyes weak spots.” The Main Character suddenly shifted from a pallid gray to a purple as he promptly let a sinister grin etch on his face. Vaati stabbed the Staff into the sandy surface, making it stick upright.

Bones clicking into place as he cracked his knuckles, Vaati began chanting mystic citations underneath his breath as he flared his palm wide open. His hands began to emit a purplish aura of magic as the winds suddenly moderated, turning into wild gales.

Forming from thin air were pitch dark orbs. They all began to circle around the MC--who was still muttering out incantations subtly and silently. Forming a barrier, the shadows consistently encircled the Main Character.

With a fell glare, Vaati flung his arm at the crab’s general presence.

Following the gesture were shadowy orbs mingled with blood scarlet color appearing once more from nothingness. These orbs began to seek out the crab, steadily making their way towards it as they homed in.

Burying themselves into the crab, they all left tongues of black fire as they passed through the crab. As they passed through, these dark spheres made U-turns towards the hermit, striking the crab once more in succession.

The crab, shooting its limbs in a frantic pattern in several directions, attempted to extinguish the lingering flames.

Two more orbs appeared around Vaati. Circling around a bit high above the air, they began to stream out a steady ray of black arcane energy. The crab, seared by both laser and inferno, drew out green blood, dying the sand a repugnant green color.

“Anyone else that wants a chance is free to take over from here.”

“Wha-” the Summoner trailed off suddenly. “Of all times, you decided to do that now.”

“What? I thought you all wanted to get some more fun.”

“I can’t do much since I’m used to swords and rifles… so…” Ricky nervously spoke.

“I only specialize in either swords or bludgeoning weapons.” The Overlord exhaled in annoyance. “I cannot participate in the murder of this crab.”

“Meh. I ain’t feeling it--killing a wee crab seems too boring for me,” Audrey let a sigh escape from the MC’s lips as she said that.

“I’ve a feeling I’ve already showcased enough…” the Summoner muttered idly. “Malideus. Have a go at it, will you?”

“Fine then,” Malideus spoke.

With a swipe of his staff, Malideus simply gazed at the beast a moment, then rushed over, fast as lightning, and grabbed the crab in a vicelike bear-hug, using his legs to lift the crab over his head.

"Gonna... snap you... into a Slim Jim!" Malideus roared, lifting the crab, and with a grunt, Malideus bent backwards, suplexing the crab, then spinning around, and preparing for another. And with two consecutive slams into the sand dealt, the crab simply laid there, limp, before exploding into white light and Slim Jims.

“Well then…” the Summoner let out a soft whistle as he spoke. “That took care of that,” he uttered out almost inaudibly as he continued staring at the thoroughly obliterated viscera of the formerly-a-crab thing. “And we gained a level… and with that…”

Skimming through the display screen, the Summoner slipped out a hiss of agitation. “What a pain… We gained a meager one Equipment Point. What a pain, but still, it’s something.”

“Yeah… and we still have several crabs left to kill.” Ral motioned towards the shells simply reclining on the beach. “Surprised that merpony still hasn’t arrived yet, however.”

“Forget her… for now, let’s focus on purging this place of crabs.” The Summoner shrugged slowly, withdrawing Ral’s journal once more as he faced the myriad shells.

...In which they kill ALL the crabs offscreen as to not bore the readers with crab battles...

“Last… one…” Panting, the Summoner’s voice rang out from the Main Character who was well drenched in sweat. “Last… bloody… crab.”

“In the end… we received an additional four levels…” Ral’s voice spoke with fatigue, causing him to stop abruptly. With a deep inhale, Ral continued through a somewhat hoarse tone, “I don’t think that was worth it…”

Vaati shrugged off the fatigue, managing to blurt out, “At least… it’s a damn start.”

Suddenly, the echoing sound of clapping came from somewhere near the shore. Turning the right, the MC’s glare was greeted with the mer from some time ago.

“You…” the Summoner managed to barely say.

“You!” Malideus rose his finger, pointing it at her.

“You,” Ral spoke with not much emotion--presumably, he was drained much from fighting the same enemy over and over again.

“You?” Audrey spoke out with slight confusion, scratching the back of her head, having already forgotten who she was--this was presumably because she nearly lost it to utter bloodlust when they had to simultaneously fight ten crabs at once.

“What took you so damned long?!” Malideus rose his fist, violently spinning it around in the air. “We had to kill crabs just to avoid being suffocated by boredom!”

“Actually, it was for the exp-”

“Shut up!” Malideus spat back.

“Well. Seeing that you were busy killing the mutants-”

“Ha!” Ral shouted out. “So I was correct; these crabs aren't natural.”