The Spearmaster and the Black Cat

Chapter 214: The Usual

Although it looked like their fighting spirit hadn’t decreased, I could see the panic, in their three eyes and by how their face muscles worked. They were clearly of a different race than the goblins we had annihilated a while ago.

I adopted a polite attitude, and asked with the goal to smooth the waters, “…Excuse me, is it alright for me to join the fight against that monster?”

It was straight to the point, but sure enough it was an elder person who reacted first while being out of breath, “What did you say?”

His hair, which had a hue closer to gray than silver, was swept back. Appropriate for his age, he had wrinkles that looked as if they had been carved into his forehead with a knife. He wore an armor that seemed to be a patchwork of demonic beast skins with a pelt attached at the collar area.

In summary, his equipment was better than that of the army soldiers we encountered at first and also the large goblins we fought recently. You could say, there was a difference like day and night.

“…This guy speaks our language, but he’s from a race I’ve never seen before. A conspirator of the godorin?”

Godorin? So they are not called goblins in this world?

“There’s no way that the godorin unit that stole the treasure would expressly come back here, is there? Village chief, what are we going to do?”

“Maybe―― a demon?”

The wrinkled, elderly three-eye seems to be the village chief. That village chief examined me with an inquisitive look.

“A demon, huh? One with two eyes at that. I don’t think he’s like those freaks with four eyes, but…maybe a new species of demons――”

Just as the guy next to the village chief was in the middle of talking…

The monster widely swung one of its sickle arms, horizontally cutting the torsos of the three-eye fighting at the front in two parts.

More victims.

“Aaah, Eddie!!”

The three-eyes wailed in sadness. It was a gruesome sight as a rain of blood poured down on them at the same time.

“――Let him assist us!”

“――Yeah! He possesses the bravery to suggest joining the battle even after seeing a deidan!”

The three-eyes said as they were persisting by holding up big, round shields at the front line.

They had admirably been blocking the thrusts of the monster’s four spear arms, but all of them were breathing heavily. It was obvious that they had used up most of their stamina.

“He doesn’t seem to hold a weapon, but that’s proof that he’s quite confident of his own skills. Village chief! I agree with Tyto. Let’s have him assist us.”

“I share the same opinion as Oza. The ceremonial treasure was stolen and a deidan is rampaging around. Even though there are other deidans at the bottom of the lake as well…at this rate, according to the legends, the village…” One of the vanguards, who looked dismayed, stammered towards the end.

“…That’s right. We won’t be able to escape this predicament without making some sacrifices. My name is Fardo. It’s my request to the honorable person over there: Please join our battle against the foolish deidan and save our Ragni Village!” The elderly man of authority, Fardo-san, begged me.

They had three eyes, but they might unexpectedly be people possessing deep feelings of friendship and a pristine way of life closely resembling that of the surface. Though I can’t make a judgment as I haven’t seen much yet.

There’s no beautiful woman among them, but I sensed the righteous ideals of samurai in them. Hence I won’t ask them to leave in a roundabout way.

“…Very well. Please have those fighting at the front fall back then.” I requested.

“Understood―― Everyone, withdraw temporarily.” The village chief ordered.

The vanguards readily abode to his instruction. All of them retreated at once.

However, the huge monster used its multiple legs growing out of its lower body half, chasing after them with a force that caused the wet soil to be blown up. Probably because its multiple legs were clad in mana, it moved strangely quickly despite its large frame.

…I guess I will move before the number of victims rises sharply.

“Rollo!”

“Nya.”

I exchanged a look with RollodeenBlack Panther. An eye contact and a nod.

Rollodeen moved her head vertically after faintly blinking with her eyes. And then she turned around in the direction of the deidan.

I felt like her red black eyes lit up for a moment, but is that just my imagination?

She dashed off towards the monster’s flank while putting power into her supple limbs. I’m sure Rollodeen will decide the timing for her own assault.

Now then, since I’m right in front of it, I suppose I will try to attract its attention by acting very flashy. My <Head Servant Leaders>, who are watching from behind, will certainly decide on the spot once I fight.

I summoned the Magic Halberd into my right hand, and charged in a forward-bent posture.

Yo, Deidan-san! Here I come――

『There’s an unnatural clump of mana at the monster’s jaw.』

Helme warned me swiftly.

――She’s right. It’s that part that looks cleaved open, isn’t it?

『Its eyes are shining and it has cast wind magic so far, but it might possess other magic as well.』

『Yes, please be careful.』

I observed the monster while still forward-bent. The deidan’s features were crooked. Its six eyeballs were moving about restlessly, perceiving me as I approached. It lifted what appeared to be the corners of its mouth, and displayed its yellow, uneven, big teeth.

Is it smiling cynically at me? The deidan might think of me as a summer insect that’s drawn towards the light.

I had planned to crush that sarcastic face, but I first targeted its legs.

Elementary water spell 《Ice Sphere》.

Intermediate water spell 《Ice Arrow》.

I cast these spells in succession. It was a screen, substituting for using my daggers with <Throwing>.

“Guongadzu――,” yelled the deidan when it saw the magic.

It smoothly stopped its huge body in the midst of charging by making use of its legs while scattering muddy water at the same time.

What kind of braking mechanism is that supposed to be!?

Do you have suction pads at your soles? Or do you possess a turn pick like Eva? I really wanted to give such a retort, but instead I simply activated three instances of <Chain Spear of the Ray System>.

The deidan split the ice spheres in half by swinging its sickle arms with a shoulder movement that felt intimidating, and repelled the ice arrows with its spear arms as if hitting up a ball with a cricket bat, but my real attack, the light spears, easily hit its legs. The three light spears stabbed into the iron-rod-like legs. The butt ends of those spears split apart like squirming sea anemone while deploying light nets. The light nets expanded to the extent of covering the big legs, connecting their light edges with the ground.

“Gaazuooh!”

The deidan repeatedly moved its remaining legs to get the light nets off with all its might, but the light nets sank deeply, very deeply into the legs. The deidan’s desperate wish didn’t come true.

In addition I unleashed <Dusk’s Stake> at those multiple legs. It caused a simple version of the dimension of darkness to spontaneously appear. Its designated range was limited to only the scope of my visual field, but it was still powerful.

The iron-rod-like legs were pierced by the darkness stakes which suddenly manifested in the air, and as they were also put into a bunch once the light nets passed through them, the parts which used to be legs were penetrated, turning them into a bloody mess.

While scattering yellow-green blood into the vicinity, its huge torso buckled towards the ground.

“――Guuooooh!” The huge monster screamed because of the intense pain.

At that moment, the leeches, which had been clinging to its body, sucked up the blood flowing out of the crushed legs, and grew dramatically.

Uwaaah, how disgusting…

The grown leeches separated themselves from the deidan’s torso, unnaturally floated up, and started to swim through the air, making me vividly remember the child spirits.

I wondered what those are, but the leeches changed into an ink black color while trembling repeatedly, and began to release an ink black smoke from their bodies.

A pitch black sky that felt dreary. Such was the scenery that had been created above the deidan.

Do they intend to produce a huge umbrella?

Moreover, the leeches, who had finished changing their color, extended several tentacles.

――Fast.

Switching to defense, I rotated the Magic Halberd as if drawing a crimson moon in midair, cutting and repelling the approaching tentacles with their tapered ends as if burning them away. Each time I blocked and burned a swarm of tentacles, the deidan moved its six eyes around, glaring at me.

Are the senses of that deidan and the grown leeches connected?

“Gaddzuooo.” The deidan screamed while glaring and showing the ridge of its sharp teeth.

And then it divided its jaw, which contained an unnatural cluster of mana, to the left and right. A magatama1 similar to a rare earth element was situated at the center of that split jaw while emitting a strong magnetic force. A mana vortex, which was obvious enough that I had no need to use Magic Observation, originated from that magatama. It was also connected to the dreary black sky that had expanded above the deidan’s head.

Under the vortex’ influence, the black sky warped in wave-like motions, took on a directionality while wriggling, and swooped down on me.

It wasn’t a mere umbrella ― it was a wave of ink I couldn’t dodge. I was swallowed up by the ink with a splash, and my whole body was bathed in the ink.

“Guuaaaa――”

The ink permeated inside my leather clothes, coiled around my whole body, and made me experience a pain as if I was getting burned. The recovery and the pain kept repeating themselves.

The instant I wondered whether I should use the blood chain armor, 『Your Excellency――』

Once Helme shouted in my left eye, she naturally seeped out of my eyes as liquid, and wrapped up my whole body.

Strangely I could feel her warm love.

And then Helme absorbed the black ink wave as if purifying the pollution of the ink black liquid surrounding me. At once the wave disappeared.

The liquefied Helme, who had finished the absorption, disappeared into a puddle while rotating in a spiral. Once she completely erased her presence by blending with the puddle’s water, suddenly several objects similar to black swords extended high into the sky from the puddle where she had vanished, stabbing through the leeches floating in the air.

The leeches were agitated by the abrupt attacks from the ground, but they counterattacked by extending their tentacles towards the puddle. The tentacles caused the water to splash as they stabbed into the ground, but there was no way for that to work against Helme in her liquefied form. She froze the ink black tentacles while at the same time encroaching them with a blue color in reverse.

The tentacles instantly turned into ice, and even the main bodies of the leeches were frozen into bluish white blocks of ice. It sounded as if they had become rock hard.

In reality, it was cracking sounds that heralded the beginning of the frozen tentacles’ crumbling as if having received an absolute zero attack. And the leeches’ main bodies also kept crashing to the ground, obviously breaking apart.

However, as I was watching Helme’s splendid counterattack, several of those damned tentacles swarmed in my direction as well. In a hurry I took several steps back, spreading my arms to the left and right while retreating.

I released <Chain> from both marks at my wrists, forming a specific image in my mind, that of Aegis Shield. The original had apparently been made out of goat leather, though. It was a shield that Zeus gave the sun god Apollo, who later gave it to his daughter Athena

Athena was the goddess ruling over wisdom, art, and tactics, wasn’t she?

I manipulated the chains while imagining that. While stabbing the approaching swarm of pointed tentacles with the two chains, I focused on them forming a defensive circle, starting midway, and had them transform into such a big shield that it covered my whole body. Now I was prepared for the attacks of the tentacle swarm.

I suppose the leeches’ tentacle swarm was vigorously hitting against the big chain Aegis Shield.

――I could hear deep, physical clashing sounds of bang, bang, boom.

However, cocooning doesn’t conform to my nature.

…I jumped into the air with my Magic Halberd in the right hand in order to take a look at the situation.

Creating scaffolding with <Magic Hand guided by Thought>, I ran through the air as if performing a two-staged jump. Seemingly having spotted me, the leeches sent their tentacles towards me who was moving through the air by jumping up and down. The tentacles had a certain level of chasing ability, but I was faster. The pointed tentacles only managed to reach the places that I had already left.

Will the leeches stop if I finish off the immobile deidan first?

Just when I thought about this, I saw Rollodeen jump on its back and sink her teeth into its flesh.

Alright then I will focus on those annoying leeches together with Helme…

No sooner than I decided that, “Nn, Shuuya, I will back you up,” I heard Eva from behind me.

A swarm of metals in various shapes such as blades, needles, disks, stakes, and circles, which were all wrapped up in her violet mana, penetrated the bodies of the leeches. As if signifying that several things were thrown at them as it happens when being punished by a bee hive or being executed by several people at once, the leeches were pierced and fell down.

The leeches, who looked like they had been sewn to the ground, caused a sound similar to evaporation, and their bodies wilted away like slugs that had been sprinkled with salt.

“Thanks, Eva.”

“Nn, it’s the usual, fufufu.” Eva apparently imitated me.

I remember that I had said something like that during our fly battle date. I went down to the ground after looking at her angelic smile. There Helme showed up with a wet sound from the puddle.

“Your Excellency, how’s your body?”

“Don’t worry, I’m fine. Thanks for helping me out there.”

“Don’t mind it, it’s the usual.” Helme winked at me with her curly eyelashes. Moreover, she repeated Eva’s words while doing one of her Helme poses. She seductively swung her hips and her pudding-like butt. It was the pose the red Burning Knight Adomos couldn’t copy because it was too advanced for him.

As I was watching Helme who made me hallucinate that she was surrounded by a nimbus, the other <Head Servant Leaders> ran up to me as well.

“Master――I will attack the ink black waves!” Viine announced.

“Sure, go ahead. But Viine, don’t get too excited.” I reigned her in.

After all it’s not like I ripped my leather clothes with the goal of being seen. If I had wrapped up my body with the blood chain armor, my leather clothes might have been scattered as well though…

I don’t know whether my skin festered or got burned before, but since it doesn’t hurt, it must have recovered by now.

“I’m glad…” Viine placed her slender hand on my chest, revealing a pained expression.

It stabbed my heart a bit. It means…I made her worry, doesn’t it?

“So…what about those leeches?”

“They had been stuck to that huge monster. They seem to be other life-forms.”

Seemingly feeling relieved, Viine suddenly emitted a chilly aura. Viine, who made me imagine her as queen, apparently wasn’t pleased with me having suffered damage, and drilled her heel into a withered leech.

…I wanna be stepped on by those legs, is not what I’m thinking.

“I’m also very interested in those creatures, but the monster that’s still alive comes first.” Mysty raised her finger while still holding a pen in that hand.

Well, even she wouldn’t take notes in a situation like this.

“Yeah, I want to throw blue fireballs at them, but I will keep watching since Rollo-chan is doing her best.” Rebecca commented.

“Even Rollo would step aside if we joined the attack, don’t you think? We will handle the deidan.”

“Okay.”

“Let me cut it first――”

“Yui, I will go from the right.” Kaldo informed his daughter.

“Understood.”

While exchanging looks, Yui, who had activated her Eyes of Baycala, and Kaldo ran in forward-bent postures towards the deidan which was suffering as it was being bitten by Rollodeen.

Viine and I followed, too. Viine was holding her Jade Snake Bow.

First Yui horizontally cut into the right flank of the deidan.

Without leaving any time in-between, Kaldo somersaulted like a gymnastics athlete, and landed on the other side of the monster after mowing his sword down at the left side of the monster’s neck. Maintaining a refined expression, Kaldo thrust out the end of his sword as if weaving a way through the gaps in Rollodeen’s posture to stab at the monster, pulled the magic sword back, and retreated with his characteristic way of walking.

Moreover, Viine’s beam arrow directly hit the deidan’s chest. The small snakes that seem to be a power of Goddess of Magic Poison Misea permeated its chest on a small radius of the hit point. The instant the snakes disappeared, there was a small explosion with the beam arrow in the center accompanied by a flash.

“Guongaaaaa.”

At the same time as the sound of the explosion and a painful roar of the deidan, Rollodeen, who had been biting at its back, pulled back from it. After I confirmed that, I stepped on one of the smashed multi-legs, and jumped.

Closing in on the torso of the deidan which had bent back, I unleashed a <Thrust> by pushing out my right arm while twisting my waist. The spiraling red spear stabbed into its torso, and drilled through it.

“Gugaa――” The monster screamed shortly.

Not yet. I activated <Dusk’s Stake> in succession from a short distance while confirming the round hole where its blood gushed out. However, this time I will attempt something I usually don’t do.

Refining my image, and putting mana into it, I created a swarm of darkness stakes out of thin air as if surrounding my body with them with a distance of several millimeters between each. If you looked closely, it was a stake assembly similar to a Lego block or a design as if built with Minecraft…however, it was supposed to be a representation of a black, thousand-armed Kannon statue. Unexpectedly it consumed mana at the level of sage arts.

The black stakes, which had changed into a thousand hands, attacked the chest of the deidan as if to scrape off all of it. Each time the stake swarm clashed against the deidan’s torso, the impact became audible, and the torso, which was covered with wounds all over, bent and swayed as if being hit by a huge wave. Each time the palms of darkness struck it, some of its white flesh was shaved off.

Small chunks of meat were sent flying, yellow-green body fluids spilled out, and sprays of the yellow-green blood, which was surging out, were mixed with the rain.

My body got soaked with the color of vegetables.

And then the intestines of the deidan’s torso were gone because of the multi-chain attacks of the palm stakes of darkness, and only its spine with a bit of the spinal cord hanging down was left behind.

The huge monster had fallen silent, unable to raise any screams of death agony. as it became impossible for it to support the weight of its six-eyed head, it collapsed to the side. Once the deidan fell, it caused a thud that seemed to drown out the rain fall, and the yellow-green puddles, which had accumulated on the highway, were splashed up high into the air.

I had planned to use the Magic Destruction Spear, but it looks like it’s not necessary anymore.

※Piiing※<Thousand Palms of Darkness>※ Skill acquired.

Oooh, I got a skill. It might become a strong one from now on.

I landed at a place with no blood puddles. There I heard a cute, “――Nyaa.”

It was Rollo who had returned to her small kitten form.

Hmm? For some reason she’s standing on a square chunk of monster meat. Did she choose it as a surfing board? While riding the meat chunk with a good balance, she came back to me, gliding across the blood puddles as if doing a magnificent surfing stunt. She got off the meat board, and landed.

Once Rollo climbed on my shoulder, she licked my cheek.

How cute. Is it something along the lines of 『Well done nya～』? The black dots in the center of her red pupils were yet another charming part about her.

As I was frolicking around with Rollo while smiling, my chosen bloodkin gathered around me as well.

“Shuuya, you injured?”

“Master, was that your new technique? The hands of some statue, right? It looked like a mysterious object.” Viine commented.

“Nn, saw! Pitch black stakes? They turned into biiig hands going byuu byuu byuu byuuuu.” Eva attempted to recreate the movements of the stake swarm with her arms while being excited, but she couldn’t put it in words well.

“I saw how the monster’s body vanished as if being scraped off from behind it, but it was a truly terrifying way to be defeated…” Seemingly frightened, Yui still kept her Eye of Baycala active.

“Ah, Yui, your eyes have become white. Stay like that and don’t move for a moment!” Mysty exclaimed.

“Eh? Okay.” Yui answered Mysty while blinking in surprise.

Once again Mysty wrote something on her parchment with movements that seemed to be boosted by her skill.

A metal umbrella, apparently manipulated by Eva, was floating above her.

Kaldo returned his magic sword into its scabbard, and observed the parchment, apparently curious about the movements of Mysty’s hand.

At that point, “”Ooooohh!””

“They defeated the foolish deidan for uuuus!”

At the same time as the rain turned into a drizzle, the three-eyes, which had apparently observed after running away, gathered around us.

There’s quite a lot of them? It looks like there had been others of the three-eyes’ race who watched the battle.

“――It’s a lancer hero who made the black cat obey him!”

“――They are two-eyed, but there are some beauties among them as well! Magnificent.”

“The girls are goddesses.”

All of my chosen bloodkin looked bewildered, but they responded by smiling.

Among the three-eyes weren’t only married couples and elderly, but also children.

While wondering whether cats existed in this world, I took a safe approach and smiled as well.

“Wow! Even deidans had bones!?”

“The jewel at its jaw has lost its mana, but it’s definitely beautiful.”

“Whaaa~ the big monster is dead!”

“Rather than that, look! The cat on the shoulder of black-haired two-eye is cute!”

“Yep! But, for him to defeat the monster that gave dad and the others so much trouble, what an amazing lancer!”

Oh? They get it, don’t they? What sweet children.

“I wonder whether this white meat can be eaten?”

“It might actually be edible. To begin with, it’s a monster living in the Ragni Lake that brings about enlightenment.”

The two, who seemed to be a married couple, said such things while looking at the meat of the defeated monster.

“What a great person…his violet demonic spear is neat, and his black hair and eyes are…dreamy.”

“Sis, did you fall in love? The other party is a two-eye, you know?”

Ooh, a woman with green hair is praising me!

Her hair ornament with a small boat as motif that bundled her wet, emerald hair into one, is pretty, and her moist three eyes are nice, too!

I guess they have the custom of fishing if there are small boats.

“I don’t care about him having two eyes. He’s the hero who rescued our Ragni Village after all.”

“If only the treasure returned with this, it would become peaceful again…”

“Tyto, the recovery of the treasure comes afterwards. Right now we should openly celebrate that the monster has been eradicated.”

The villagers showed no signs of stopping with the hustle and bustle. It was a result of several coincidences coming together, but I was able to actually experience how nice it felt to be thanked.

1. Those comma-shaped jewels you will see mentioned as mysterious, precious gems in Japanese mythology

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