Volume 2, Chapter 24.2: Half-Face Witch, Adamaria ③
Lambert was looking at the corpse of the skinny man that he just split in half.
The death black crystal rolled out from the corpse’s limp hand, and Lambert crushed it underfoot.
He shifted his gaze to the people who were strung up as sacrifices to resurrect the hero of Barreira City.
「…」
Lambert felt that something was amiss.
He felt like he was missing a piece of the puzzle from this situation.
‘Is it just… my imagination?’
Lambert paused for a moment.
The skinny man that he just killed didn’t seem like he was trying to trick Lambert.
Moreover, it was almost impossible for their side to be able to prepare such a meticulous trap. Although the trap was far from enough to kill Lambert, against any other, it would have worked well.
The method to gather necessary information in the battlefield was something that Lambert lacked.
As a general from the Eight Countries Unification War, if he had such means of intel-gathering, Lambert would have been more akin to a god of death.
It was this reason that Lambert paused and tried to look at the situation from another angle.
One of the sacrifices twisted their body as if they were in extreme pain.
…And raising an agonizing cry.
Lambert leaned toward the man and tore off the hemp bag that covered the latter’s head.
「What’s the matter? Did that man over there perform some magic on you?」
The man suddenly leapt at a puzzled Lambert, clinging to his armor and screaming in pain.
「What the…?」
「ADAMARIA-SAMA! DO IT NOW!」
The man who Lambert believed to be a sacrifice screamed some sort of signal.
「O’ earth, become mud!」
Right after that, Lambert heard someone’s voice from the graveyard chanting a magic aria.
It wasn’t just one person’s voice, there were five of them.
Almost at the same time, Lambert’s body became really heavy due to his armor sinking into the mud.
Barely hesitating, Lambert poked the forehead of the man who twined himself around his armor with his gauntlet-protected finger, smashing the latter’s skull and instantly killing him.
「Strangle to death, Flesh Feeler!」
Five magicians chanted at the same time.
Their magic enclosed Lambert from five different directions.
It turned out to be something that came out from the hemp bag that covered the head of their sacrifice, the corpses of the citizens of Barreira who had already been sacrificed to resurrect the hero.
The thing that came out from inside the hemp bag was… a Flesh Feeler.
It was a magic that was created from corpses.
The disgusting, tongue-like feeler then coiled around the joints of Lambert’s full-plate armor. It took advantage of the fact that Lambert momentarily lost his balance as he sunk into the mud.
As an undead, Lambert was extremely sensitive to mana, especially a living being’s mana.
That was why this kind of ambush wouldn’t work against him in a normal situation.
Some of the magicians who attacked Lambert were hiding themself amongst the victims.
They had been waiting for Lambert to let his guard down while acting like sacrifices.
「I never expected him to dispatch Hildyard and his greataxe so easily, but… He still fell into our second and third traps.」
Lambert’s helmet tilted slightly toward the voice that came from behind him.
Though the figure standing behind him was a fair-skinned beauty, the right half of her face was hideously burned, the exact opposite of the left half of her face.
She was the assistant of the wise man Manzi—half-face Adamaria.
Whether it was tactics or alchemy, her ability was unmatched.
As an alchemist, she trampled over corpses, fiddled with them, and recreated nerves and muscles, turning them into one of her weapons.
Lambert played along with her game, pretending to tug at one of the feelers wrapped around him.
But he was holding back, just enough to show the other party that he couldn’t resist anymore.
「Resistance is futile. The thing that is coiling around you isn’t a makeshift item that was prepared in hurry. I was tampering with those corpses, changing their muscle structure to make them far tougher. And then, I changed them into batteries that only released tough… whip meat. It took a lot of time and energy, but it succeeded, right? In addition, I already completely analyzed your irregular strength. That’s why I locked the joints of your armor and sunk you into a bog to stop your movement.」
「…I see.」
Lambert replied with a low voice.
「Since you’re that extraordinary, all I need to do is concoct a multi-layered plan based on your strengths.」
Adamaria spoke calmly.
「What should we do to this man, Adamaria-sama?」
「Let’s deliver his corpse to Manzi-sama after we torture him. This person has surpassed the bounds of a normal human, after all. He might prove useful for Manzi-sama’s research.」
Adamaria spoke while holding a long needle in one of her hands.
「Well then, this will be a bit rough since we’re in a hurry, you see.」
Adamaria then looked at Lambert with her disfigured right eye and the still-beautiful left eye.
Her gaze would send a chill down any normal person’s spine.
「Tell me… one thing. How did you know of my movements?」
The most important factor in concocting a plan was the understanding about the enemy’s route.
Even the reason behind Adamaria’s extremely meticulous plan was because she understood Lambert’s monstrous power, and because she could track his movements.
Adamaria’s lips formed a distorted smile as she spoke.
「Haven’t you see them already, that peculiar insect?」
「…」
Was said insect a chimera? A homunculus? Or just a mere golem?
Anyhow, Lambert finally realized that his enemy had a weapon that could slip through his presence detection.
And it was an extremely powerful weapon on top of that.
Even Lambert realized that he had to play with mud, being restricted like this due to his lack of means of gathering information.
He could finally find out the source of his uneasiness.
The number of sacrifices were way too much.
There were so many irregularities to the situation that led Lambert here. For one, someone was pleading for help, suspiciously close to the position of the resurrected hero, Hildyard.
「Enough chit-chat. Now it’s time to end this.」
Adamaria spoke with a cold, blunt voice.
Lambert also agreed with her.
「You’re right, there’s nothing to hear from you anymore. I guess it’s time to end this farce.」
And just as he said this, Lambert twisted his body, forcefully raising his arms that were held back by the meat feeler.
「You won’t be able to move freely since we’re limiting the movement of your legs with mud. In the first place, there’s no way you can use your full strength since I’ve restrained all your joints—」
The meat feeler that was twisted around Lambert’s limbs then ripped apart, sending a spray of blood flying in all directions.
Adamaria’s asymmetrical eyes were locked on Lambert.
Lambert tore the meat feeler so easily, as if it was nothing more than a piece of string, and regained the freedom of his limbs.
「Do you really think that this cheap toy of yours is enough to restrict me?」
「S-Strangle him to death, meat feeler!」
Adamaria chanted her aria to invoke her sorcery again.
Another volley of grotesque meat feelers were fired from the hemp bag that covered the head of the sacrifice, aiming to end Lambert’s life.
Lambert smashed all of the incoming feelers with the flat side of his greatsword, using the resulting force to leap into the air and escape from the mud sea.
Without any warning whatsoever, he crushed one of the sorcerers who cast the mud spell underfoot upon landing.
The poor sorcerer who received the weight of his heavy organ was practically crushed to death as his spine and ribcage shattered to pieces along with his heart.
HIs end was tragic; his body had been quite literally folded in half.
「You said before that you concocted a multi-layered plan after learning of me. What’s next?」
Lambert stabbed his greatsword into the ground as he asked Adamaria and Co.
The true reason for Lambert to deliberately allow himself to fall into their trap was to get the information about the instigator of the incident who overwhelmed him in the information war.
He allowed Adamaria to restrict his movement just to let the latter lower her guard and reveal more information for him.
The only reason Lambert recognized Adamaria as a danger was because of her way to gather information in the battle so quickly.
Despite the talent that she displayed in alchemy and planning, it was nothing more than child’s play in front of Lambert, who saw all kinds of madmen during the Eight Countries Unification War. That was a time when even a person could wipe out an entire city.
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