CH 125.2

Chapter 125.2 : Goma’s Fortress-Capture Battle 3

「GOOO――『Blackhair Bind』!」

I used flying knives to attack just like before. I was so sure that it would just charge through the raining knives just like before. You’ll charge through this one like before for me, right?

「BUGAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

A scratch was all I needed, and this attack looked like my last, desperate attempt after being cornered by that fireball. I had no idea about how to differentiate Goma’s expression but, the last roar might be a victorious roar, convinced of their victories.

Humph, fool. You might’ve a stronger and bigger body. But, the inside is still that idiot Goma. I was saved thanks to the Gogma’s idiotic brain.

「TAKE THIS!」

I used an extremely precise control of my feeler for this attack. Giving it an excellent precision, speed, calmness similar to a thief’s sneak attack.

Ah, I see now. So this is what you feel when you stab someone with this skill huh, Higuchi.

I stabbed the back of the Gogma with Higuchi’s butterfly knife while recalling a strange sense of sympathy.

「NGAAAAAAAAAAA!?」

It then let out an agonizing roar as soon as it felt something piercing its solid skin.

Yosh, I did it!

I used seven knives for this attack. The red knife was aiming for its head to create a smokescreen. The other five knives were also used as a diversion.

That fella had completely ignored my attack due to its confidence in its defense. That’s why it was ignoring the butterfly knife that was stabbing towards its back.

And this was the result of its own negligience.

「YEAAAH!」

「BUGO, MUGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

Despite the blood that was spraying from its back, the Gogma raised an even more furious roar as it ran towards me.

Despite the large cut on its back, it was by no means a fatal wound. Though it seemed to feel pain from the wound on its back, it wasn’t enough to stop it. That small wound wouldn’t affect the flow of the battle at all.

But, that small wound was all I needed.

「You lost the moment you’re wounded by me――  Rem, FIRE!」

A flying arrow pierced into it along with the sound of it piercing through the air.

「NGA!? Go, GUAAAAAAA…」

Its speed was slowing down considerably with just one arrow.

「UOOOO, WHAT THE!?」

「NO WAY, YOU DID IT MOMOKAWA!」

By the way, it seems we’d been running a full lap around the fortress ever since the beginning of the playing tag with the Gogma. Yamada and Co., who were still in the middle of fighting Govus in front of the tower entrance, were really surprised upon seeing Gogma fall on its knees.

「I’ve killed the boss! now we can enter the tower!」

「Seriously, that’s awesome Momokawa!」

「This must be dream…」

「But, now we can escape!」

That Gogma had yet to die though. But of course, it wasn’t that far from dying. Everyone regained their vigor upon hearing my declaration of triumph and dispatched one Govu after another.

The Govus’ side on the other hand couldn’t hide their shock upon seeing the fall of their leader. This defeat instantly changed the tide of the battle.

「Haa… nevertheless, I’m glad that everything went according to our plan.」

Though it felt like everything went far too smooth for us, we safely completed the most dangerous part of our strategy. In short, we were lucky.

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The arrow that killed the Gogma was naturally fired by Rem who was stationed on top of the watchtower. She could have an undisturbed view of me racing against the Gogma from above.

Thanks to her archery training in the jungle tower, the current Rem could hit anything within her bow range as long as she had a clear view and there was no obstacle. Thus, I left the important job of dealing the finishing blow to Rem.

I plastered the arrow bud with 『Spirog’s Poison』.

Though it was prized, the first poison series that should be celebrated after numerous trials and errors on Gomas to make sure it was ready for the live combat, I had no choice but to use it due to its scarcity. I only needed an extremely small dose to kill small fries.

But then, a drop of that poison on the skin was enough to completely paralyze a Goma.

It was an extremely lethal poison. Thus, it was only natural for me to use it against a boss.

In the case of this boss fight, I’d intended to use this poison from the very beginning. As long as we sealed its movement with the paralysis poison, the rest was a piece of cake.

And the first boss who fell victim to this poison was none other than Gogma. My research had proven that Spirog’s poison was extremely effective against the Goma race. Honestly, our victory was already in the bag as soon as we saw that there was only Gogma, the Goma race’s superior species who appeared as the boss of this area.

Well, the fact that it was completely focusing on me was rather unexpected though.

Anyhow, we won as long as we paralyzed the boss. The reason why I was desperately trying to open a wound on it was for the purpose of using the paralysis poison. I mean, I was almost sure that the effects of poison would be nullified just by applying it on its tough layers of skin.

That’s why I needed to open a wound to inject the poison into its body, weakening it from the inside, as big as possible to make it easier for the poisoned arrow to hit it.

Moreover, just in case, I used 『Reverse Dance Butterfly』 using the poison antidote as catalyst to increase the effectiveness of the paralysis poison dealing continuous damage with Ointment A’s butterfly to hide the effect of the antidote. But well, all of those feints and backup plans ended up getting scrapped seeing that the Gogma had already fallen under the effect of the poisoned arrow.

Nay, to be honest, I was really glad that everything (save for the fact that I was being chased around by Gogma) went well according to the plan. Without Higuchi’s knives, I wouldn’t have been able to wound the Gogma skin, thus preventing Rem’s poisoned arrow from achieving its purpose.

「Though it feels awkward for me to say this, thanks for your knife, Higuchi. Your knife is really sharp!」

With Higuchi’s butterfly knife in my hand, I approached the boss whose face had already planted on the ground and stabbed the butterfly knife into its flank. From there, I drew a straight line with the butterfly knife.

The sharpness of this knife was truly outstanding, I mean, regardless of my lack of strength, the sensation of cutting through the boss was no different from cutting a normal Goma. This butterfly knife was truly amazing as if it had received some sort of enchantment.

Could it be that the sharpness of this knife was fueled by Higuchi’s grudge?

I focused on my current job to forget that scary thought. It wasn’t just killing the boss, I was currently picking up its core.

「Is it around this area?」

「KYOAAA!」

Raptor Rem thrust her head into the wound that I opened on the Gogma’s flank. After she had enlarged the wound even further with her claws, bit off its internal organs―― she finally took out the blood-stained core.

「Yosh, we get the core! now let’s enter the tower!」

We, who left the Gogma we just gutted alive, were unclear whether it’s still alive or already dead from the shock as it was heading towards the entrance of the tower at full speed.

Now we could finally say goodbye to this jungle tower!