Volume 2, Chapter 22: Deadman Walking’s Parade⑦
One of 『Devil’s Piper』’s eight sages, Manzi the necromancer, was attacking the adventurer guilds in Barreira City. He had turned the dead adventurers into undead. Using the jet-black crystal—the death black crystal—they were now his subordinates. The crystal was created from their own mana and was wreaking havoc right in the middle of Barreira City.
The adventurers who transformed into undead had already begun attacking the civilians even before Robin Hood parted from Lambert.
Robin Hood was straddling his trusted partner, Seraph, as they pushed through the flocks of undead.
Any undead adventurers who dared to block their way got trampled down to death by Seraph’s hooves.
Robin Hood’s arrows shot through a male undead who was trying to slash Seraph’s unprotected flank.
Utilizing his partner’s running speed, Robin Hood kicked away the shoulder of the man who was just disarmed by Robin Hood.
「Though this is the first time I’ve seen a flock of undead of this scale, too much excitement isn’t a good thing. They’re boring opponents who can’t bring pleasure at all.」
Robin Hood sent a sharp glare to the robed man who stood at a slightly separated place.
That man’s hands were holding the death black crystal that controlled the undead.
The undeads were gathering together like a whirlpool with that robed man at its epicenter.
They were clearly making a formation to protect that man.
Robin Hood circled around in order to charge through the gap of the undead’s formation without being ambushed from behind by the undead.
He fired his arrows at the head or leg joints of the undead as he got closer in order to reduce the number of the undead.
「It is just like a labyrinth formation. Old man, your formation is great, but you drew the short stick the moment you met me.」
The moment the man in robes said those words, Robin Hood replied with a self-mocking smile on his face.
「…No, count yourself lucky since the one you met was me.」
「I-Impossible… W-Why is it so hard to take down this old man?! How can this city still have such a terrifying person!」
The man in robes raised his death black crystal high in the air.
A sinister black light spread out with that death black crystal at its center.
Robin Hood knew that the man in robes was trying to load more mana into that crystal.
The darker the light emitted from the crystal, the paler the robed man’s complexion became.
…As if he was enduring some sort of pain.
「MY UNDEADS! KILL… KILL THAT PERSON NO MATTER WHAT! Maybe I need to prepare some excuse for this misinformation to Manzi-sama!」
The man’s voice staggered at the end.
For him, the superior named Manzi was like a source of fear rather than a mentor.
「My bad. I’m not interested with your circumstance, though.」
The arrow fired from Robin Hood’s bow headed straight toward the death black crystal.
The man in robes tried to lower the crystal in a hurry, but he was too late.
The arrow pierced the death black crystal first. Numerous cracks appeared on the surface of the crystal, and then it broke into numerous splinters.
The undeads around the man in robes stopped moving. Then, they began to fall one after another.
「H-HOW DARE YOUUUUU!」
「Thank you very much for showing me the target. Don’t worry, after I send you to hell, your scary superior will follow you right away.」
Robin Hood’s second arrow had already come flying toward the man who lost his meat shield.
The arrow pierced the robed man’s skull. The impact of the arrow was strong enough to send his body flying. The man fell face first on the ground, scattering a spray of fresh blood as the rest of his body fell too.
‘…As expected, this is an exhausting job. But a necromancer, huh. Such nasty magic. I can’t help but worry about the splinters of that man’s black crystal. Will my attack manage to completely destroy it?’
Since the research of necromancy was banned by the kingdom’s law, even Robin Hood who once reigned as the strongest adventurer in Barreira City just barely won against his opponent when he was forced to fight against a necromancer.
Though it wasn’t a problem if it was a small scale battle, he would be hard pressed if he fought such an opponent who he wasn’t familiar with on the battlefield.
Robin Hood got down from Seraph and walked toward the robed man’s corpse, which was located on the mountain of corpses.
He expected that man to have something such as grimoire about necromancy with him.
Robin Hood crouched down as he examined the corpse. But he couldn’t find anything in the end.
‘Well, maybe because it’d be inconvenient for him if such a thing was found out by others.’
When he stood up again, he noticed the killing intent released by his beloved partner, Seraph.
For some reason, Seraph raised an agitated breath as it glared at Robin Hood.
「What’s the matter, Seraph? Did you get confused or charmed?」
Suddenly, his beloved horse leaped at him.
Robin Hood readied himself in a hurry upon seeing the change in his horse’s behavior. Then, he felt that his shoulder was going to be eaten by something from his blindspot.
He twisted his body at once, trying to protect his shoulder.
An archer couldn’t use his archery without the support of their shoulder.
He moved in accordance to his instinct.
Thanks to that, he could barely protect his shoulder.
Instead, the other party managed to wound his abdomen.
Its teeth were trying desperately to gouge Robin Hood’s abdomen even further.
「GAH… D-DAM*MIT!」
The one who bit his abdomen the moment Robin Hood’s attention went elsewhere was the hooded man from before.
That man’s eyes were hollow and the arrow that was fired by Robin Hood a while ago still protruded from the hooded man’s che*st.
The man cast magic that would turn him into an undead upon his death.
Robin Hood tried to separate himself from the hooded man while suppressing his agitation.
But the hooded man’s strength was no joke.
Robin Hood sent a knee strike to that man’s face.
He felt that his knee strike just now broke the hooded man’s face bone.
The force of that knee strike sent the hooded man’s upper body swaying back a bit, hunched, with a piece of Robin Hood’s abdomen chewed in his mouth.
Robin Hood had let down his guard.
And he did so in front of an opponent who used unknown magic.
Robin Hood smacked his lips, feeling ashamed of his carelessness.
Though he tried to get away, the hooded man kept chasing after Robin Hood with the same hunched posture as before.
It was more persistent than the other undead he met before.
Though he could easily deal with such an opponent as long as he could open some distance to use his bow, he was at wits’ end when such an opponent came from a close distance.
The man was pressing on toward Robin Hood again.
At that moment, Seraph suddenly rammed itself toward the man.
Seraph’s interruption allowed Robin Hood to gain some distance from his opponent.
Robin Hood took a defensive posture upon falling, grabbed some arrows from his quiver, and fired them toward the hooded man as soon as he regained his stance.
Robin Hood’s fierce arrows lodged themselves into the hooded man’s body, forming a straight line down from his forehead to his lower abdomen.
Naturally, that degree of injury was far from enough to kill an undead.
The hooded man’s eyes were still wildly going from left to right, even after Robin Hood’s arrows broke his knees.
「Thanks, Seraph. This bastard almost got me just now.」
Robin Hood gently brushed Seraph who brought its head closer as if expecting praise from him.
And then, Robin Hood’s eyes were looking at the wound on his abdomen.
The wound that opened just now was still bleeding, even when he tried to suppress it with his hand.
「I guess… I need to rest, huh.」
Robin Hood then took refuge in the back of a building.
He heaved a long and deep sigh as he looked at the sky.
Then, he saw fire rising up from the direction in which Earl Mondo’s mansion was located.
「…Well, it’s not like I can do anything about this situation. I guess doing the impossible is like killing two birds with one stone.」
Robin Hood then stood to his feet after adjusting his breath.
He then straddled Seraph’s back and rallied toward the earl’s mansion which was on fire.
Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.co(m)