CH 162.2

Chapter 162.2: Ruined City Capture 2

Fortunately, it’s only merit was its huge body. It was neither poisonous nor had breath skills, so we defeated it in its own game. And just like that with the oversized kokko and the poison-less basilisk, the frequency of us fighting big-sized monsters increased.

Rem, who used poison arrow with gorias power, had more than enough power to pull the bowstring like when she had made it from materials I got from Tendou-kun, but it was too dangerous to rely on Rem alone. If not for Mei-chan, my most prominent weakness, namely the lack of attacking power, would become even more prominent, and the battle was getting harder and harder as we went even deeper into the forest.

The silver lining in this situation was the fact that we’re not attacked by small fry monsters who formed packs such as raptors or wolves. I had no idea whether it happened because they guessed instinctively that they’re no match for us or simply avoided us due to our superior numbers, but being able to avoid unnecessary battles was definitely a big deal.

A battle against them was no big deal for us up to this point, but the consecutive battle such as that wa―― whoopsie, my 『Presence Sense』 was reacting again. This guy was a fairly powerful one and seemed to be fairly close with our current position.

Thus, when we were advancing really carefully while looking around for that enemy… we found it.

「Ah, that’s… could it be…」

「Yeah, living armor.」

It’s been a while since we encountered another human-type monster aside from a high zombie. There, we saw three huge knights wearing jet-black armor standing guard like a gatekeeper at the entrance of the building behind them.

I’ve heard about living armors from Mei-chan before. They’re a fairly powerful monster that appeared in the beautiful place called palace area. In fact, her 『Knight Halberd』 and 『Dark Tower Shield』 was looted from the corpse of those living armors.

「Since they can’t move too fast, they won’t go after us if we kept this distance though.」

「Uhm, since those guys were clearly protecting that building, there must be something in there.」

If possible, I didn’t want to fight against powerful opponents like living armor… but, if they turned out to be guarding some sort of rare treasure in that building, that much danger was only as expected. I mean, even if it turned out that there was nothing in that building, their whole body itself was a treasure.The weapon they used was much better than the one used by govus. I mean, their great sword seemed to be a perfect match for the current Rem the 1st.

「Mei-chan, suppose that you fight alone, can you defeat those three living armors by yourself?」

「Uhm, defeating them from the front might be too difficult, but I think the current me should be able to do that much. I’ve learned more martial arts too since the last time I fought them.」

「Great, then let’s beat them up. Rem and I will do our best to distract two living armors, please use that opening to defeat the last one. But please don’t overexert yourself… retreat at once if you can’t kill that one in thirty seconds. Be prepared since Rem and I will use smoke ball to help you when you’re retreating.」

「Uhm, understood.」

After explaining the simple plan and making sure that there were no other monsters around this area, we approached the trio gatekeeper living armor.

「HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

Mei-chan was rushing ahead with a warcry.

The living armor didn’t lose their cool upon seeing Mei-chan’s rush and readied their weapon at once. And right before they made their move, Rem and I entered the fray to distract them.

「――『Violent Tremor』!」

A loud explosive sound came from Mei-chan’s weapon. The living armor which was holding on to shield and mace guarded against her attack just in time with its shield. But Mei-chan’s attack power might be beyond their expectation.

The shield got blown away from its hand while making a loud metallic clank with GAGAGAGAGAN! . The living armor clearly got overpowered by the power of 『Violent Tremor』.

The moment Mei-chan destroyed the living mail’s guard, she didn’t waste that opening and launched the next strike to the exposed trunk of the living armor.

In normal situation, the other two living armors should’ve interrupted Mei-chan the moment she broke the guard of their comrade. But it was our duty to prevent that. Distracting our enemy attention was my forte.

The other second armor was equipped with a double-edged greatsword. Arachne Rem and I used our black and white thread to seal their movement and distract them from Mei-chan. Naturally, that alone was far from enough to stop them. And that’s where Rem the 1st and 3rd played their roles.

「GUGAGA!」

Rem’s sword which we robbed from govu was made fairly well. Though their sword might break if clashed from the front with a far more superior sword of the living armor, with Arachne Rem and I in the mix, our combat power should be more or less equal.

It already took almost everything for me to seal the second living armor’s movement and yet, we still had to deal with the third one.

「GO, SKELETON THIRD TEAM! STOP THEM WITH EVERYTHING YOU GOT!」

The sacrificial pawn skeletons were really useful for this kind of situation. Man, when they say that number was justice, they really mean it.

Naturally, there was no way those stupid skeletons could match the living armor equipped with long spears. But their numbers made up for it.

Even if one swing of the living armor’s spear could knock back three skeletons, the ten remaining skeletons leaped forward, tackled the living armor like a certain line-backer tackling a certain running back number 21.

But still, I might’ve to say that persistently sticking like that to the living armor could only hold them back for a while. They could easily peel off the clinging skeletons, and crush them apiece.

With this, how many more seconds do you need to peel off all those skeletons?

「――『Rupture』」

When they’re about to peel off the last skeleton, a mighty strike split the skeleton in two.

Mei-chan had finished off the first living armor within allocated time. Since none of its comrades could cover for the gap in their defense, the first living armor ended up turning into sandbag for her, and died without being able to resist her brute force.

After finishing off the first one, she rushed towards the living armor who was playing with the skeletons.

And bissected its body finishing the fight in mere seconds. With this, there was only one remaining living armor. This was a perfect victory for us.

「Thanks for the hard work, Mei-chan. I’m truly amazed seeing you being able to finish them off faster than my expectation.」

「Yeah, it’s thanks to your power, Kotaro-kun.」

Man, Mei-chan with her brute force to insta-kill such an opponent was the MVP though. I mean, all I did was stall them for around thirty seconds.

「I mean, in Souma-kun’s party, I wouldn’t even know when the monsters are going to attack me. If it’s Kotaro-kun, I believe that you’ll definitely stall them for me.」

I never wanted to hear the backstory of Souma’s party. I mean, everyone except for Souma-kun might want Mei-chan to die. That’s why there’s no way she would entrust her back to those unreliable party members…

「I see, I believe in you too, Mei-chan.」

But I had no intention to let her force herself to resolve an impossible mission. That’s why I had to at least secure her retreat path.

""

「… Anyhow, it seems there’s no other living armor.」

「Yeah, there’s no other monster around this area either.」

Great, with this there’s nothing to stop us from entering the building.

I re-summoned the disposable skeleton that got killed in the previous fight and ordered them to enter the building as a sacrifice to dispose of any trap that might be set inside the building. I mean, we’re a goner if a chandelier suddenly falls from above, right? Mei-chan might be able to do something about it though.

「It seems there’s no trap either.」

There was no new living armor popping out of nowhere either. The inside of the building was quite spacious, but that’s all, there was nothing in it, just really spacious.

No wait a minute, it wasn’t that there was nothing at all. Right in the center of the building, straight from the entrance was a treasure box, standing proudly by itself.

「That treasure box… is absolutely suspicious, right?」

「Eh? You think it isn’t safe?」

It seems Mei-chan had no suspicion towards anyone who set the treasure box in such a position. As for me, placing a treasure box at such a place literally screamed “I’m a trap, you know!”. Rather, the treasure box itself might be the trap, was it some sort of mimic!?

「Anyhow, let’s use the skeleton to check it for now.」

Whether it was a time bomb or mimic, it wasn’t a big deal to sacrifice the disposable skeleton.

""

And then, skeleton-kun walked with clattering footsteps, arriving safely till right in front of the treasure box. After they opened its lid and confirmed its safety, they brought the contents back to us.

Eh, that was rather unexpected since nothing happened, what about the trap? Or the mimic?

「Look, it’s absolutely safe right.」

「Y-aeah, you’re right.」

It was quite anti-climatic but, well, all was well and we got the treasure too. Now then, time to see the treasure inside the treasure box.

「This is… potion huh.」

Inside the transparent glass bottle was a pale bluish liquid which let out a dim light. I knew it at a glance since I had seen it before. There was no mistake about it, this was a potion.

「Kotaro-kun…」

「It’s okay, rather, this is a jackpot.」

Mei-chan looked like she wanted to say something, but I decided to ignore it.

I knew that she wanted to say “If… if only Sakurai-kun got the potion in this place”… well, there was no need to think about that “IF” anymore, what had happened had happened.

That’s why let’s take this potion for ourselves, use it for our own survival beyond this point. That’s all we could do right now.