Chapter 26 - 『Katze Plains Skirmish』

As Jack Shizu and Eve all stood with Foresight chatting, the undead in the area were all moving towards their location. The sound of the go-kart from earlier having attracted them in the first place. With the fog moving in however, it was very hard to detect them without one's eye sight being enhanced or one being able to detect the undead ambiently.

Thankfully the Half-Elf turned her head and glanced over her shoulder towards the fog which the Dragon had once emerged. There were faint silhouettes making their way out into the open. Zombies, skeletons.

As an arrow came flying from within the fog and towards the group, everyone seemed to move out of the way in order to avoid it.

But not Jack.

The arrow would snap in half a few inches away from him before dropping into the grass at his feet. Jack's gaze narrowed on a skeleton which was pulling back the string of their rotting wooden bow.

"Dead should stay dead..." Jack uttered quietly to himself observing the armor which the skeleton was wearing. It was once a member of the Re-Estize Kingdom's warrior troop.

Slowly his gaze moved over the others. This was definitely a battle field of the fallen as all of them were rising up to kill or even devour the mortals they may be lucky enough to cross paths with.

"Jack-dono," Termite addressed him politely, "Would you be able to support us while we assault them?" He didn't necessarily mean to put the stronger man in the background, but he wanted to show him how well his team coordinated with one another.

Jack's eyes gazed over the team leader of Foresight, before nodding. "If it looks like you're going to be overpowered, I will step in." He'd respond as he leaned his weapon forward slightly like a staff, casting a protection-type third tier spell onto the group in front of him. Letting them flash a light blue color as he did so.

Goltron would grin slightly as he felt the energy surrounding him against low tier attacks. "It is the light of God, is seems."

Hearing his line, Jack could only chuckle before turning his attention towards Arche as she was spreading out from the rest of them, Imina following after her.

He'd watch as the two close range fighters went running off towards the Undead. "Hm..." Jack would lean on his spear and simply watch.

Running as fast as he could, Termite steadied his breathing as he held his sword in both hands. Once he was within close range of the first zombie, he brought the weapon down hard upon its neck in a diagonal swipe.

Its neck split half way, the weapon getting stuck. As the zombie continued to try and bite and scratch him, an arrow ripped through the brain and sent the green skinned monster to the ground, lifelessly.

With a slight grin across his lips, Termite would pull the sword from his target in time to kick back another undead which was closing in on him.

Goltron kept moving, using his gauntlets to create the utmost damage upon his foes. Crashing and crushing in their skulls. He rushed a skeleton, quite literally punching its head off its shoulders. Only to turn around and parry a blade and kick out the lower body of another.

Jack's eyes wandered on over to Arche and Imina, both of which were providing ranged support. Their arrows and spells worked wonders against the weaker undead. They picked off enemies in the distance in order to keep their other team mates from being overrun.

Their teamwork was good, and while they kept shouting down to a minimum, they all kept within view of one another. That was another good thing Jack could see.

Eve sat down next to her brother's right leg and rested her head against the side of his knee. "Can we help?" She asked with a bored tone, huffing some air in an upward motion. If she had longer bangs, she was sure her hair would move.

"There's nothing for us to do, besides, they were hired for this job." Jack replied with a slight yawn, despite watching he was getting bored. So he understood her little plight. However even then, if he were to join the battle, it wouldn't last very long and that wouldn't be fun either.

"Booooorrrring!"

"Oh, hush up." Jack rolled his eyes at this as he listened to his sister whining over not being able to do anything. She was more than capable of sniping plenty of these monsters without any delay, but he wasn't going to have her do so unless he got impatient for some reason.

Shizu just stood on the opposite side of Jack, taking a sticker out from her item box and placing it on the white inner skirting of her dress.

Jack would glance over towards her as she was doing so and reached over, poking her cheek.

Immediately her head perked up and her eyes stared blankly through him. "Yes, Jack-Oniisama?" The way she said it was without emotion, but it was cute nonetheless, that was for sure.

"No, just wanted to feel your cheek with my finger," Jack said with a tone similar to her own before turning his sights to the people doing their job out on the grassy plains in the fog.

Shizu blinked and turned her attention forward to the people they had recently met. She was rather confused by his action, but dismissed it, not doubting his words.

Jack looked over at her from the corner of his eye, raising a brow slightly. She seemed to be watching intently, though for the most part, her eyes were on Arche and Imina. The temptation to put a sticker on Arche's forehead could definitely be seen in her eyes while the rest of her was without any true expression.

His eye softened slightly as he shook his head subtly and rested his sights on Goltron.

There were at least three zombies about to attack him at once while he was preoccupied with another couple of skeletons. When he crushed one of the skulls and then used Turn Undead on the one beside him, he turned around just in time to swat away the arms of a rotting undead.

"It's really strange how the world hasn't succumbed to the undead with places like this..." Jack uttered quietly as he looked to the sky above.

"...Is it really that strange?" Shizu asked as she turned her attention back towards the Supreme Being which had introduced her as his little sister. Personally, she didn't know how she felt about that, but she was happy just to be within his presence, even though she couldn't really show it all that much.

Jack looked over at her and nodded, "The national Military, Workers and Adventurers seem to be able to keep them at bay, but negative energy is everywhere..."

Shizu paused slightly before slowly nodding, if what he said was true, he wasn't wrong. The Undead could be everywhere or anywhere. It seemed though that they were either kept at a low number, or stayed within the area they had spawned.

In a way, it was similar to the game world. Spawns typically stayed in a singular area rather than to move where there was lives to take. Unless of course, they were lead there or pointed in a direction.

Jack began to wonder if Momonga could take control of all of these undead and use them as additional forces for Nazarick. Though considering the proximity of the Katze Plains to the Great Tomb, he could only assume that Momon was already aware of its existence and had a plan for it. If not, it didn't really matter. These undead would only be cannon fodder, whilst the skeletal dragons on the other hand would be a greater threat against their probable enemies.

Hearing a squeak of distress, Jack's eyes drifted over towards Imina and Arche. His eyes coming to a rest upon a zombie which was clawing its way out of the ground, one hand having grabbed onto her mantle.

Jack simply frowned, teleporting with ease over to their location and planting the small bladed edge of his spear into the head of the undead. It quickly ceased moving as he removed the weapon from the limp corpse.

"Thank you!" Arche sighed and fired several magic arrows from her hand towards a zombie which was creeping its way up the hill towards them. It was practically torn apart by the spell.

"No problem," Jack said though he knew that the zombie couldn't have hurt her with the protection spell which he had cast upon the group. They'd have to be at the level of a Death Knight or another Dragon to harm them too badly.

He remained standing behind the two ranged fighters, whilst keeping his eyes on the two men which were fighting melee wise.

They were slowly withdrawing towards Jack and the two girls.

Jack's sister and Shizu were making their way over to them as well, though much more casually than the members of Foresight.

The men weren't in danger of getting over run, but there were plenty less undead on their way and it seemed the fog was beginning to lift. The fighting continued on for at least several more hours until the field was practically clear of walking corpses, whilst there were a few stragglers left. Imina took her time to knock each one out with head shots from her bow.

As time had flown by, it was far into the day. The sky was clear and the sun was only a couple more hours from setting. The group was making their way back to the main road in order to return to the City. Their job for today was practically done.

"You know," Jack broke the silence which held them as they were all tired out from a hard day's work. "I could teleport us back to the Capital," he'd boasted lightly as he looked over at them, offering them an easier way back home.

"We still have to go to the nearest City to get our reward, then head to Arwintar afterward."

"I can do that," Jack watched as the four were practically waddling as he casually walked beside them with the two residents from Nazarick.

Termite made a mighty grin, not knowing how far his power went. "Hm… Can you get the entire wagon there?" With smiling eyes, he kept his sights on Jack as they made their way towards the wagon which they had road here.

"Perhaps," his eyes shifted to the driver who was casually reading a book, waiting for them.

『Gate』A gate would open up in front of the wagon. Immediately startling the driver and the horses, who neighed in surprise as they raised their hooves into the air.

Chuckling at the sight, Jack would pull the back of the tarp on the wagon to the side. "All board!"

As her friends moved onto the back of the wagon, Arche just stood there staring at the whirling mass of energy in front of the wagon. Her eyes then shifted to that of Jack who was casually standing there holding the tarp open.

"Jack-dono..." She imitated the politeness of her friend Termite, though she wore this blank expression and a matching monotone voice. "Could you teach me how to do that, while you work with us?"

Jack rested his eyes on the girl. He was interested in see how far someone from this world could go. He knew that there were very few people who could even reach the sixth tier. According to the Slane Theocracy, the only way for them to use the seventh tier was through big rituals and such.

He found that relatively hard to resist, the idea of training and leveling someone. He used to do that as well prior to joining Nazarick, helping lesser players level up quickly.

However he did have something that may change that, but he wasn't going to offer it just yet. He wanted to see how far she could get. In his item box, was a Heaven's Feather. It allowed one to transform into an Angel. He had a few of these actually, as he at some point prior to the news of the shutdown… Was planning on making a squadron of Seraphim NPCs, that however never panned out.

Turning her into an Angel may be interesting, or another species. He even had a Seed of the World Tree in his item box. He wasn't sure if either of these items would work, or if they would give additional options since this was a New World and some things were different than the game.

While he was tempted to use it on himself, but he didn't want to lose the progress of his racial classes as he didn't know if he could ever regain them here.

He could only imagine though what she could accomplish with her talent, and the use of magic itself. The only problem if she were to become an Angel, was that she couldn't fake her name. That and others may try to take control of her.

So many options out there.

"Once we get settled in, I'll consider it." Jack said as he looked over her, "May I ask why?"

Averting her gaze for a second, as if in though or in shame, she locked her eyes with him. Her face was still like that of a delicate doll with hidden emotions. "When… When my family lost our status, I had no choice but to drop out of the Imperial Academy in order to support… them… So I haven't been able to continue and study magic."

Jack nodded slowly as she went to pull herself up into the wagon, he placed a hand on her head, causing her to freeze in place with one leg up on the wagon. "Your losing of status.. Does it have anything to do with taking the little sisters of yours?"

She turned her head as her head was in his grasp and looked up at him, blankly with her blue eyes.

"I see..." Jack would ruffle the top of her head, before letting his hand drop down and scoop up her rear.

"Hey! Watch wh--"

Jack flipped her up into the back of the wagon with a chuckle.

"Oniisama, did you touch her butt!? I wanna touch!" Eve suddenly spouted from inside the tent of the wagon, giggle snorting.

"What? No!" Arche shouted as she could be heard scampering about.

Shaking his head at this, Jack pulled himself onto the transport and snapped his fingers twice. When the reigns could be heard snapping at the horses, the wagon was off and going through the portal.