CH 172.1

Chapter 172.1: 2nd Decoy Tactic

「WOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

Grotesque human-shaped monsters were raising warcries as they walked in the forest. They were undead monsters whose danger levels were a cut above the zombies with raw, red, naked muscles wrapped in white armor. The monster Kotaro called 『High Zombie』— seven of them were currently running in the forest close to the beach.

「GUGO, GAGAGA.」

And the one who led them in the front was a jet-black knight. She was Rem-Dark Knight, otherwise known as Rem the 1st, a splendid clay doll.

Despite donning a huge, full plate armor, an enormous shield on the left hand, and a spear on the right hand, her speed rivaled that of the high zombies.

「Ki~, chichichi.」

Upon seeing a black tree sparrow-like bird chirping and flapping its wings, the high zombies and Rem were heading toward the direction pointed by the black tree sparrow-like bird.

Naturally, the black small bird was also Rem.

Weak, small birds without combat power almost didn’t consume Kotaro’s governing power, thus they’re basically low-cost units. Their combat strength was zero, but the bird’s eyes field of view along with their abilities to fly made them extremely valuable scouts.

Severals birds Rem were released to locate the position of the flocks led by the red raptor.

The goal given by Kotaro was to subjugate the red raptor.

Though the number of the flock was still unknown, Rem-Dark Knight and the high zombies shouldn’t fall behind in combat strength. If things went according to the plan, Rem-Dark Knight should be able to subjugate the red raptor.

But that’s only during frontal confrontation.

「KYOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

Flocks of raptors were rushing toward Rem and Co from one corner of the forest.

「GUGAGA!」

But now, she wouldn’t fall for the same trick as the night raid back then, Rem-Dark Knight was ready. Her sharp spear killed any raptor that dared to approach her, her shield blocking their claws and fangs.

Since her subordinates, the high zombies had no other means for an attack, aside from biting and kicking, it took them more than one attack to bring down the raptor that came at them. On the other hand, since the high zombies’ toughness and vitality were far above the skeleton, the raptors had a hard time killing them. Befitting of their endurance as undead, they endured the raptors’ fierce attack.

Their main role was to tank the attack and let Rem-Dark Knight finish off the enemy. With such clear role division, Rem’s troops wiped the floor with the raptor’s flock―― But the boss, the red raptor wasn’t among the attackers.

Or rather, Rem had already realized that the red raptor wasn’t stupid enough to clash from the front with her.

It wasn’t prediction or instinct, it was an actual fact delivered from bird Rem, her other-half.

「――You’ve finally come huh. I’ve been waiting for you, Red Raptor.」

Yes, the figure of Rem-Dark Knight stopped moving in that place after she confirmed that she had accomplished her duty while focusing her attention on her other-half who was looking at her master revealing a cunning, yet daring smile.

===

「――You’ve finally come, huh. I’ve been waiting for you, Red Raptor.」

The red raptor made its appearance, raising a growl in front of me who stood in the middle of the beach. Following it were its subordinates who were coming out from the forest one after another.

Uwaa, I would’ve never expected that there would be so many of them. This fella went all out this time, huh.

「It seems this is going to be a close fight, huh.」

The reason the red raptor appeared before me was it knew that one of my aces, Rem-Dark Knight, was away.

I ordered her to take the high zombies corps to subjugate the red raptor after all. I’d be lucky if she hit the jackpot and managed to exterminate the red raptor, but things wouldn’t go that easily; the red raptor was clearly planning to ambush me when the number of guardians around me had reduced.

The forest was their turf, a few raptors would be enough to stall Rem-Dark Knight in there. In fact, Rem-Dark Knight had engaged in the battle against raptors a few moments ago.

Now, her function had ceased, she was nothing more than an empty shell.

「Well then, come at me. With this, the only one left to protect me is Mei-chan.」

「KYOOO, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

The red raptor raised a war cry as if to answer my provocation.

And that was the trigger for our battle.

The raptors raised a savage roar as they rushed toward me who was standing in the middle of the sandy beach.

「Rot away in the water of rotten red――『Rotten Bog』」

I invoked 『Rotten Bog』 with full aria.

I had used this curse during the night raid back then, they were already familiar with it.

「Hou, that fella taught its subordinates how to bypass this one huh?」

Though the acid would cause a fatal wound upon contact, the wound wouldn’t be fatal in just a short moment. If one got entangled and fell, the extended period of immersing in the acid bog would bring irreparable damage. On the other hand, it didn’t mean it wasn’t possible to endure momentary pain.

Thus, the raptor’s method to cope with this acid bog was jumping instead of running.

Thanks to my training, the range of rotten bog had expanded rapidly. Not even the agile raptor could cross over in one jump. But then, they might be able to cross over in a jump or two after landing in the middle. If they kept jumping like that, it was possible for them to jump over the bog without having to suffer from the effect of the acid―― could be what they thought, right?

「GYO, OAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!?」

The raptor that jumped in first drowned immediately upon landing on the bog.

After landing with a great splash, the raptor finally succumbed to the deadly bog.

「FOOL! IT ISN’T JUST A PUDDLE OF WATER!」

As long as I did everything properly, from the start to finish — from drawing magic circles, giving offerings, and chanting properly, I could turn 『Rotten Bog』 into a literal deep bog. Since the proper preparation was quite troublesome, it was rarely used in live combat, but it was a perfect trap.

The only time I got the chance to use this was when I subjugated basilisk. I’ve been growing stronger ever since then. I too was really surprised upon finding out that the 『Rotten Bog』 that I invoked with the complete ceremony was bigger and deeper. If I used this during the fight against high zombie boss, I was sure that battle would turn into an easy mode with just 『Rotten Bog』alone.

But as expected, preparing bloody offerings and drawing that huge ass magic circle brought me quite a lot of trouble. Though I used 『Twin Shadow』 to do all of those preparatory jobs, the time I needed to complete it wasn’t that different compared to when I did it by myself.

Well, playing on the beach had also become a good pass time while preparing for the ceremony. Most of all, it was the best tactic since that was all I needed to do.

「KYOA, OU, GUOOOOOOOO!」

The red raptor cried upon seeing a few raptors sinking at once. Since all the raptors that had yet to jump suddenly stopped in place, it seemed the cry just now was an order to stop at once.

The raptors then started loitering around aimlessly around the acid bog.

I was currently standing right in the centre of 『Rotten Bog』 that deployed doughnut-shaped formation, trying to circle around the bog was pretty much impossible. Though the raptors were clamouring as they tried to completely encircle the bog, none of them dared to jump.

Even the red raptor looked extremely troubled by the depth of the bog. Or maybe, they were waiting until the effect of the acid bog wore off.

But I was sure the wise red raptor would choose to retreat soon. It would learn that I might be laying a trap like this, and then, it wouldn’t try to attack me when I stayed still again.

But I couldn’t let things go as they wished. We would be only put at a disadvantage the more we let the red raptor get away after failing to ambush us.

「That’s why I’ll defeat you in this place. It’s checkmate.」

Well then, now is the time for the main actor to enter the stage. Jumping vigorously from the sea with a splash wasn’t a humanoid fish with fin, but an extremely ferocious ox-headed monster with a pair of horns.

Rem the 4th, otherwise known as Rem-Minotaurs. With a massive, minogorilla and high zombie boss body, clad in armour made from giant crab, she was an ace candidate despite being a new type.

Dual-wielding great sword in right-hand, and mace in the left which was handed down by Rem-Dark Knight, she was eager to try her new form.

「Good girl, it seems the transfer is a success.」

The reason I chose a stupid plan like dividing our forces and sending Rem-Dark Knight out was simply that she could return. Recalling Rem-Dark Knight’s physical body within a moment with summoning skill was impossible but… Rem herself could return. To be exact, her core, or should I call the essence of Rem, part of it seemed to exist within my body, thus, we’re always together. The body that was created with the clay doll was no different from the duplicate that was created with my 『Twin Shadow』, they were nothing more than our avatar.

Thus, we could commence our swapping plan by sending Rem from Dark Knight to the 4th, Minotaurs who had already been put on standby inside the sea.

Powerful Dark Knight and Minotaurs couldn’t be used at the same time. But, it was possible to make one of them move. And even though Rem changed her body, it took no mana from me at all.

Around this time, the Dark Knight in the jungle was nothing more than a soulless armour. I did have my worries about leaving it alone in such a place, but since the armour was really solid and not even a raptor’s claws could leave a scratch on it, we could leave it alone for now and let Rem return to Dark Knight’s body later.

「GRRRRRR, KYOA, KUAAAAAAAAAAA!」

The red raptor raised a shrill scream upon witnessing the Minotaurs’ appearance. It started to lose its cool huh.

I mean, that was only natural. It felt that it was safe to attack me now that Rem-Dark Knight had left, but the new one whose strength rivalled that of Dark Knight appeared out of nowhere. We’d turned the tables against him.