CH 161.2

Chapter 161.2: Ruined City Capture 1

「INCOMING!」

「WOGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

Half a minute later, high zombies were coming out one after another as if having a running competition from the corner of the building. The distance between us and them was around 50 meters. It’d take at least five seconds for them to arrive at our position if they ran at full speed, but that’s only if they ran through an open, uninhibited road.

「――『Poison』」

I used Hinagiku-san’s『Poison』 with the 『Fool’s Cane』 the moment Rem fired her arrow.

The arrow flew straight towards its target in this kind of open field. The current Rem could get a headshot as much as she wanted.

And just as I thought, that arrow struck right into the temple of the high zombie with a thud. Anyone who studies zombies’ theory would believe that the zombie would die for real when you attacked their head.

Three high zombies who got shot in its temple fell forward just like that due to the inertia of their ru— wait a minute, three?

「Uwaa, the black horn bow could pierce through their skull as if it just a block of tofu.」

The arrow fired by Rem I pierced through the head of the high zombie she was aiming for. But its momentum didn’t get weaker, it also pierced through the rotten brain of the high zombie behind the first one.

As a result, she ended up accomplishing an achievement of a double kill in one shot.

Amazing, with such terrifying penetration power, not even a giant monster of roirops’ class could withstand the arrow fired from that bow as the arrow fired with black horn bow could easily pierce through their hard shell and fur. Rem, who was equipped with a black horn bow, was definitely the strongest one in the history of Rems until now.

Well then, even if I was super duper excited with the firepower of the black horn bow, I had to confirm the effect of my own magic.

But well, it was fairly obvious with just a single glance though.

「Uwaa, this is way too OP.」

The high zombie who got hit by 『Poison』 fell flat on the ground, vomiting blood from their mouth, writhing in agony for a few seconds… and dying.

The high zombie who stubbornly refused to die even after they got hit by two 『Air Sagitta』 fell flat and die with just one hit of this magic, this magic was too powerful. In addition, that wasn’t the only effect of 『Poison』.

In fact, this 『Poison』 didn’t seem to be released in the form of smoke or poison bullet. It was almost as if it hit the target within my field of vision.

It felt like something was relieved with a wave of magical power. As for how I knew when it hit its target, it felt like the target was zapped by light electric shock rather than fired by an arrow. I mean, the result of what happened by that zap was literally displayed right in front of me.

「What the heck, this is an absolutely terrifying offensive curse.」

Don’t tell me that Hinagiku-san received this terrifying 『Poison』 as one of her initial skills? That’s, how should I put it, made me jealous.

Hinagiku’s curse style was the kind that used something akin to instant death magic toward her enemy. While on the other hand, Ruinhilde curse style would cause my enemy to get a light fever(lol). I never expected that there would be such a huge difference between our offensive abilities despite being the same shaman… hiccup… I’m so f*cking jealous of her.

「That’s amazing, Kotaro-kun, you kill them all!」

「Ah, yeah, it’s amazing… this power is truly amazing.」

「Eh, for some reason, you don’t look too happy with this result?」

Please don’t mind me Mei-chan. It is only boring jealousy of a man.

Well then, my jealousy aside, I’ve finished the field test for the new ability of my skull collection.

Though the streets of the ruined city seemed to spread for as far as I could see after crossing the bridge, the further we walked, the scenery started to become greener and more wild animals or monsters could be seen.

「GYOA, GYOA, GUEEE!」

The one who let out an ugly-chiken-like chirp was a chick-like monster as big as an ostrich, yeah, it was a bird-type monster. It looked more like a bantam than a niwatori thanks to its light brown color. [TL : Bantam and niwatori are type of chicken]

It stood on its pair of burly and stout legs which were equipped with sharp claws that look sharp enough to stab their opponent to death. Those brutal and atrocious-looking weapons were definitely that of a carnivorous weapon. And worst of all, those guys formed a crowd.[TL: Chicken are omnivorous]

「Ooh, they eat high zombie.」

It seems that even the high zombies that were running freely in this ruin were also included in the food chain. Five high zombies were fighting against five carnivorous chickens. They were quickly dispatched one by one by the chickens and ended up as their lunch. Despite their toughness which allowed them to fight till death along with their inability to feel pain and fear, they’re reduced to bottom feeders against the ostrich-sized chickens whose claws could tear their bodies to shreds like it was just a piece of paper.

They fell much too easily when the chicken delivered a kick with their top running speed, and then they greedily poked into the bodies of the high zombies with their savage beaks, effectively turning them into nothing more than fresh meat in mere seconds.

「They look like chicken-type raptors. I wonder which one is stronger between the two.」

""

Currently, I was observing the process called survival of the fittest between monsters from afar using 『Hawk Eye』 while reminiscing about the deceased Raptor Rem.

Anyhow, the carnivorous, chicken-like monster called 『Kokko』 wasn’t a big deal for the current me. Though I couldn’t say the same if there was a crowd comprising hundreds or thousands of them, the biggest group was only composed of around dozens of them. Though it was true that their combat strength was higher than that of high zombies, a single hit from Mei-chan’s halberd could easily bisect them, their fleshy body made it possible for Rem the 1st to kill two at once with her black-horn bow, they also fell way too easily with 『Poison』.

But I mustn’t let my guard down since they’re moving way faster than high zombies. The shortcoming of 『Poison』 was simply from the fact that the target must be inside my field of vision. Thus the target outside of my field of view was outside the firing range of this magic.

That’s why this magic is hardly effective against enemies who move really fast, or in the forest which vastly limits my field of vision. Just like any other offensive magic, I’d have to restrain my enemy in one place to fire my magic.

I must take note that some magic might be situational.

Even if I used rapid firing 『Poison』 to cover that weakness,  『Air Sagitta』 was much easier and practical to use for that.

Though poison is a powerful skill, it has an equally gaping weakness. Finally, I concluded that relying solely on 『Poison』 was a suicidal act.

By the way, the chicke— I mean kokko that we defeated along the way was preserved as today’s dinner. YAAY, IT’S A FRIED CHICKEN FESTIVAL. I mean, even my pharmacy intuition said 「These guys are delicious」…

Thus, we’re advancing while waiting for another batch of fresh chicken meat.

「Kotaro-kun, is this really, okay?」

「It’s okay. It looks like a gentle herbivorous dinosaur after all.」

As we walked along the main street that was covered with a beautiful green color, like a lawn, we were passing by the side of a truck-sized dinosaur that was lazing around on the lawn as if enjoying a nap under the sunlight.

It looked like hornless triceratops. Those fucking roirops were rushing at us with bloodshot eyes as soon as they saw us, but these hornless triceratops were just munching the grass in their mouths without a care for the world, just like the cows raised in farms. What peaceful fellas!

「I wonder if they’re edible.」

「They’re edible but let’s forget about that right now since we already have enough chicken meat.」

「You’re right, it’s not like we can bring the leftover meat with us too anyway.」

So Mei-chan would hunt them if we could finish them in one go. No, she would definitely hunt them. And hunt more of them if they turn out to be delicious.

Well, I had no opinion in this regard since I welcome even more delicious meat.

And then, after we passed the group of peaceful triceratops, my sensor picked up a sign. Active monsters were coming towards us!

「KUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!」

A huge shadow was sweeping down from the sky while raising a loud cry.

「UOOOO!」

Each flap of its giant pair of wings created a squall that could send us flying. And then, a giant bird-like monster landed in front of us along with the explosive sound of its flapping wings.

「H-Huge…」

It wasn’t as big as a dragon but to put it simply, it was an oversized bird.

Its gigantic figure that stood on two legs reminded me of that salamander and skeleton, half of its body covered with feathers while the other half was covered with shell. Its face resembled that of a lizard instead of a dragon, and just like those suicidal kokkos, its eyes were glaring at us with its huge beak pointing at us.

But its wings weren’t that of bird-like feathers’ wings, it had membrane-like bat wings. Its large eyes felt to be a mix of dragon and bird.

「A giant kokko huh. Its face resembles them after all.」