Hans and Jade split up, circling round either side of the small figure. I hold my sword ready and face the figure.
Most likely…This fog hides spider thread as well as spider monsters. By having Hans and Jade to go first, I hope to expose any ambushes and distract the undead. In the opening they create, I’ll take down the main body in one strike. Undead tend to have a high vitality, but I have no intention of letting any chance to bring it down slip by.
The small figure hardly moves at all. I’d thought it’d use more magic while it still has the advantage of distance, but… I expect it’s out of magic power. I don’t want to be overly optimistic, but maintaining a fog of this scale must take a considerable amount of magic power. Its intention might be to limit visibility in order to force a close combat fight.
I hear the sound of rustling coming from near Hans’ feet.
“I-it’s here!”
Hans stops walking and swings his sword. Three shadows crawl across the ground to surround him. They’re spiders, most likely. Perhaps having been caught on their thread, Hans’ movements become slow.
“Damn it! Damn it! Azalea-samah, Azalea-samaa!”
The ambush was prepared over there it seems. Activating the ambush so soon was a mistake. The undead might have some intelligence, but then monsters are never able to handle the finer details of traps. Through a calm approach, the effectiveness of their traps can be drastically reduced. With this, the protection around the main body is weakened somewhat.
“Oraah!”
Jade’s sword swing is blocked by the undead’s large arm. I immediately dash forwards at full speed. I can cover this degree of distance in an instant. The whole reason I had them two go first and didn’t move myself was so that I could catch the undead by surprise like this.
I successfully shorten the distance, entering just outside sword range. While defending against Jade’s sword with one hand, it turns only its head to look at me. Because of the fog, I can’t see its facial expression, but I’m sure it’s staring at me in surprise, not having expected my speed.
From behind me to the side, I see a spider spitting thread towards me.
“Annoying.”
I hit the ground behind me with my sword, then scrape across the ground in a circular motion. The spray of earth flies into the eyes of the spider.
As I reach out with my sword, the undead pushes Jade aside and turns to shield itself with its thick earthen arm. My swing cuts through the arm. Pieces of it fly through the air as it breaks apart. My sword then smashes into its defenceless chest. It probably meant to block my sword the same way it did Jade’s.
“A, ah…”
The undead groans as it retreats. But it’s too slow. If its speciality is magic, then it should have used it before I closed the distance.
I step forwards in pursuit to match its retreat. Of course, I have no intention of falling back after a single hit. I mean to keep hitting until it’s down.
With its large arm destroyed at the start, I make three thrusts at its completely unguarded abdomen, leg, and chest. Its body is chipped away, and the earth that its composed of dances through the air. My fourth thrust stabs into its neck and lops off its head. The headless undead collapses on the spot.
The head falls to the ground near me. The nearby fog seems to become thinner. As the undead producing the fog loses its strength, its potency is falling.
“Phew… It’s over, then?”
But I can’t be too optimistic. If there are other undead like this, they’ll be a major obstacle. If the disorder caused by the fog isn’t handled properly, an entire battalion could easily be destroyed. I can only hope more undead aren’t laying in wait to ambush Tolman-kakka…
“As expected of Azalea-sama! You destroyed such a thick earth arm so easily…”
Hans and Jade are both safe, it seems. I look down at the fallen undead’s head.
It has the expressionless, hollow look characteristic of undead. When I saw it from a distance before, I thought it looked not more similar to a human, but now that I get a closer look I see that its skin is rough, its appearance similar to make-up applied to earth. So rather than a human, it appears much more similar to a golem. It has the shape of a little girl, so it’s unbearable creepy.
“When I saw it from a distance before, I thought its features were more human-like though… I suppose the visibility was bad. I was simply mistaken.”
As I say that, I feel a sense of discongruity. There’s something I’ve overlooked. It’s not the same. This isn’t the same as the undead I saw at the start.
The collapsed undead’s torso suddenly bursts open and a thin thread shoots out.
“Guh!”
As it’s a surprise shot at point blank range, I’m unable to dodge and instead cut it with my sword. With my attention is distracted by the thread, I fail to react as the ground at my feet deforms into the shape of an arm and grabs my ankle. A second arm appears and reinforces the restraint.
“A-Azalea-samah!”
Jade hurries over. I see a spider burst out of the undead’s body and swiftly run away.
“Quickly, get away! It’s a trap!”
As I shout, the ground splits open a short distance away, and a young girl appears. She looks different from the lump of earth I saw earlier, with fair porcelain-like skin.
As I thought, it switched places with a substitute under the cover of the fog. It looks like the main body used Clay to hide under the ground. Did it make one arm larger to distract from the smaller differences?
The undead girl has a spider on its arm. It’s a pitch-black spider with a white face. A light shines on the arm.
“It’s [Mana Drain]!”
I was wondering why its magic power wasn’t running out… It has a spider monster with high magic power nearby so it can take from it with [Mana Drain] whenever it wants. Now that its magic power is replenished, an attack is clearly coming.
“[Gale]!”
A tornado bursts forth, drawing a line in the ground as it heads straight towards me. It’s far more powerful than the previous tornado. This is meant to be the decider, it seems.
“This…”
I put strength into my legs to yank them free of the earthen arms. I avoid the newly appearing small arms and smash them with my sword.
I can’t dodge in time… And near me are Jade, who rushed over to help, and Hans, who’s still caught in the spider thread. I’ve no choice but to use [Resist] again.
As I raise my sword towards the oncoming tornado… The pale dragon I saw a short while ago appears in my mind. After I get through this, I still have to defeat that dragon. I can’t use magic. If that’s an ouroboros, then it should be tough. If I don’t survive this, then I also can’t fight that dragon, but… In the first place, if I’m so weak that I’m forced to use magic in a place like this, I won’t have the slightest chance at killing it.
“Uguh…”
I lower my sword.
“A-Azalea-sama! Why!?”
Hans shouts reproachfully.
I stab my lowered sword into the ground, and brace my body with my head pointed downwards. The tornado shreds my back. I put strength into my arms and legs to resist the winds that try to send me flying.
Hans and Jade split up, circling round either side of the small figure. I hold my sword ready and face the figure.
Most likely…This fog hides spider thread as well as spider monsters. By having Hans and Jade to go first, I hope to expose any ambushes and distract the undead. In the opening they create, I’ll take down the main body in one strike. Undead tend to have a high vitality, but I have no intention of letting any chance to bring it down slip by.
The small figure hardly moves at all. I’d thought it’d use more magic while it still has the advantage of distance, but… I expect it’s out of magic power. I don’t want to be overly optimistic, but maintaining a fog of this scale must take a considerable amount of magic power. Its intention might be to limit visibility in order to force a close combat fight.
I hear the sound of rustling coming from near Hans’ feet.
“I-it’s here!”
Hans stops walking and swings his sword. Three shadows crawl across the ground to surround him. They’re spiders, most likely. Perhaps having been caught on their thread, Hans’ movements become slow.
“Damn it! Damn it! Azalea-samah, Azalea-samaa!”
The ambush was prepared over there it seems. Activating the ambush so soon was a mistake. The undead might have some intelligence, but then monsters are never able to handle the finer details of traps. Through a calm approach, the effectiveness of their traps can be drastically reduced. With this, the protection around the main body is weakened somewhat.
“Oraah!”
Jade’s sword swing is blocked by the undead’s large arm. I immediately dash forwards at full speed. I can cover this degree of distance in an instant. The whole reason I had them two go first and didn’t move myself was so that I could catch the undead by surprise like this.
I successfully shorten the distance, entering just outside sword range. While defending against Jade’s sword with one hand, it turns only its head to look at me. Because of the fog, I can’t see its facial expression, but I’m sure it’s staring at me in surprise, not having expected my speed.
From behind me to the side, I see a spider spitting thread towards me.
“Annoying.”
I hit the ground behind me with my sword, then scrape across the ground in a circular motion. The spray of earth flies into the eyes of the spider.
As I reach out with my sword, the undead pushes Jade aside and turns to shield itself with its thick earthen arm. My swing cuts through the arm. Pieces of it fly through the air as it breaks apart. My sword then smashes into its defenceless chest. It probably meant to block my sword the same way it did Jade’s.
“A, ah…”
The undead groans as it retreats. But it’s too slow. If its speciality is magic, then it should have used it before I closed the distance.
I step forwards in pursuit to match its retreat. Of course, I have no intention of falling back after a single hit. I mean to keep hitting until it’s down.
With its large arm destroyed at the start, I make three thrusts at its completely unguarded abdomen, leg, and chest. Its body is chipped away, and the earth that its composed of dances through the air. My fourth thrust stabs into its neck and lops off its head. The headless undead collapses on the spot.
The head falls to the ground near me. The nearby fog seems to become thinner. As the undead producing the fog loses its strength, its potency is falling.
“Phew… It’s over, then?”
But I can’t be too optimistic. If there are other undead like this, they’ll be a major obstacle. If the disorder caused by the fog isn’t handled properly, an entire battalion could easily be destroyed. I can only hope more undead aren’t laying in wait to ambush Tolman-kakka…
“As expected of Azalea-sama! You destroyed such a thick earth arm so easily…”
Hans and Jade are both safe, it seems. I look down at the fallen undead’s head.
It has the expressionless, hollow look characteristic of undead. When I saw it from a distance before, I thought it looked not more similar to a human, but now that I get a closer look I see that its skin is rough, its appearance similar to make-up applied to earth. So rather than a human, it appears much more similar to a golem. It has the shape of a little girl, so it’s unbearable creepy.
“When I saw it from a distance before, I thought its features were more human-like though… I suppose the visibility was bad. I was simply mistaken.”
As I say that, I feel a sense of discongruity. There’s something I’ve overlooked. It’s not the same. This isn’t the same as the undead I saw at the start.
The collapsed undead’s torso suddenly bursts open and a thin thread shoots out.
“Guh!”
As it’s a surprise shot at point blank range, I’m unable to dodge and instead cut it with my sword. With my attention is distracted by the thread, I fail to react as the ground at my feet deforms into the shape of an arm and grabs my ankle. A second arm appears and reinforces the restraint.
“A-Azalea-samah!”
Jade hurries over. I see a spider burst out of the undead’s body and swiftly run away.
“Quickly, get away! It’s a trap!”
As I shout, the ground splits open a short distance away, and a young girl appears. She looks different from the lump of earth I saw earlier, with fair porcelain-like skin.
As I thought, it switched places with a substitute under the cover of the fog. It looks like the main body used Clay to hide under the ground. Did it make one arm larger to distract from the smaller differences?
The undead girl has a spider on its arm. It’s a pitch-black spider with a white face. A light shines on the arm.
“It’s [Mana Drain]!”
I was wondering why its magic power wasn’t running out… It has a spider monster with high magic power nearby so it can take from it with [Mana Drain] whenever it wants. Now that its magic power is replenished, an attack is clearly coming.
“[Gale]!”
A tornado bursts forth, drawing a line in the ground as it heads straight towards me. It’s far more powerful than the previous tornado. This is meant to be the decider, it seems.
“This…”
I put strength into my legs to yank them free of the earthen arms. I avoid the newly appearing small arms and smash them with my sword.
I can’t dodge in time… And near me are Jade, who rushed over to help, and Hans, who’s still caught in the spider thread. I’ve no choice but to use [Resist] again.
As I raise my sword towards the oncoming tornado… The pale dragon I saw a short while ago appears in my mind. After I get through this, I still have to defeat that dragon. I can’t use magic. If that’s an ouroboros, then it should be tough. If I don’t survive this, then I also can’t fight that dragon, but… In the first place, if I’m so weak that I’m forced to use magic in a place like this, I won’t have the slightest chance at killing it.
“Uguh…”
I lower my sword.
“A-Azalea-sama! Why!?”
Hans shouts reproachfully.
I stab my lowered sword into the ground, and brace my body with my head pointed downwards. The tornado shreds my back. I put strength into my arms and legs to resist the winds that try to send me flying.
