Chapter 479
The four adventurers were shocked when they saw the 30 or so Skeletons that had been chasing them get turned to ash or sliced to pieces by wind blades.
Rei and Elena walked over to the four and called out.
「Are you okay?」
「Y-Yeah. ……No! We can’t stay here, we have to run! Thank you for helping us, but you should get away from here! It’s……it’s coming!」
At Rei’s words, one of the adventurers came back to his senses before shouting those words as he looked back towards the passage they had come from with a pale face.
Fear and despair could be seen in his expression.
It was hard to believe that this was an adventurer with a certain level of skill, having reached the 16th floor.
He turned to his companions as the fear and despair remained in his eyes.
Another man had taken out a potion from a pouch at his waist to use on a female warrior who had lost her right arm from the shoulder.
The adventurer with a spear, who had told Rei to run away earlier, hurriedly spoke.
「Goto, how’s Tivia!?」
「Guh, guh……I’m fine. Just get as far away from it as you can……」
「It’s no good. It’s all I can do to stop the bleeding with the potions I have. We’ll have to leave the dungeon as soon as possible to heal her in a safer place. If only I had advanced potions in my backpack……」
The man named Goto shook his head with a pale face.
The last adventurer in the group looked at him. He looked to be a thief with a long sword and spoke as he kept a wary eye on the passage they had escaped from.
「That’s right. But if you, the porter, hadn’t dumped your bag there to delay them, we would be done in by that monster by now……tch, it’s here!」
With a shout from the theif and a kasha-, kasha-, kasha-, sound, the monster revealed itself.
Judging from the fact that its body was made up of bones, it was definitely a skeleton type undead.
However, Rei, Elena, and Set knew this Skeleton was different the moment they saw it.
After all, ordinary Skeletons didn’t have four arms. They weren’t 3m tall either. Furthermore, the eye sockets in the skull glowed with green flames that seemed to exude hatred.
Lastly, the Skeleton held four scimitars in each arm.
「……Well, that’s a fairly unusual Skeleton. Do Skeletons like this appear here?」
Hearing Rei mutter to himself, the man with the spear shouted out that this was no joke.
「Of course they shouldn’t! We tried fighting it, but it definitely has the power of a B rank monster. In addition……」
「In addition?」
The man, who stopped speaking mid sentence, looked over to where the unusual Skeleton was standing. Or rather, where the remains of the Skeletons that had showed up earlier were.
The remains of the Skeletons that had been burned to ash by Rei or cut to pieces by Elena’s magic.
What about it? Rei was going to ask when……
「GOOOOOooOOH!」
The moment the unusual Skeleton gave a roar, that seemed to come from the depths of the earth, a white mist poured out from its body before forming into a dozen or so human figures.
「……Hey, aren’t those……」
「That’s the true form of the Skeletons you killed earlier. Fortunately, they’re a lot weaker than ordinary Skeletons, but even so, with so many of them the difference in strength is not an issue.」
「I don’t think it can generate Skeletons infinitely, but it’s still a nasty thing to have to deal with. ……I see.」
As Rei muttered to himself, the unusual Skeleton pointed the tip of a scimitar in the direction of Rei and the others as its Skeleton army started moving towards them.
「Anyhow, we can’t keep fighting that monster! We have to get out of here now! What are you going to do!?」
The man with the spear shouted as he started moving towards the direction where the small room with the magic circle was.
Rei’s group would naturally run away with them. Was what he though when he asked Rei. However, the reply he recieved was completely unexpected.
「Running away? Here? Well, I see that’s what you’d normally do……but unfortunately, I think I have too good of an idea to what that monster is.」
Rei said that as he held up his Death Scythe while Elena smiled as she readied her sword whip.
Yes, Rei had a guess to the identity of the unusual Skeleton in front of him. The day before, on the 15th floor, an adventurer from the Silva family had told him that they had seen a monster believed to be an abnormal species nearby. There had also been eyewitness testimonies of people who seemed to have been creating abnormal species.
In other words……
「An abnormal species Skeleton, huh?」
Rei’s words stopped the party from leaving momentarily.
It seemed they had not considered the possibility.
Or rather, they hadn’t the time to consider the possibility as one of their party members, Tivia, had her right arm suddenly cut off when they ran into it.
「That’s, an abnormal species……?」
「I see, since it’s a monster that shouldn’t be on this floor, it’s natural to consider that.」
The man with the spear muttered in shock while the thief nodded in agreement.
Elena spoke up as she turned to look at the two of them as well as Goto, who was currently giving potions to Tivia, who had lost her arm.
「It would be best to tend to her wounds as soon as possible. Leave this to us.」
「……No, we’ll stay and help you.」
「Hey, Nakuto! What the hell are you thinking! Even if we stay here, we’ll only drag them down!」
「Esetus, you’re the one who needs to calm down and think. Do you think we’ll be able to escape from here and reach the magic circle safely? Tivia is injured and can’t help us. Goto is a porter and, even if I can help, I’m just a thief. If you consider everything, you’re the only one who can really fight. In such a situation, if multiple undead appeared……you understand, right?」
We’d definitely be wiped out. At Nakuto’s implied words, Esestus bit his lips on reflex as he tried to find something to say back.
He understood that Tivia, their strongest fighter, had lost her arm and could no longer fight. As a result, he would have no choice but to become the main fighter while protecting Tivia at the same time. If they ran into more than one undead on the way back like that, there was a high chance they would be anihilated.
But even so, Esetus still thought that they stood a better chance of survival running away than fighting the abnormal species that could summon Skeletons that was approaching them.
「Calm down, don’t get confused. ……Look, look at those guys.」
Nakuto quietly told Esestus to calm down as he looked over at the group of Skeletons.
What was taking place was a one sided stomp.
Flames spread out in an instant, turning several Skeletons to ash while a sword whip swept through the air in an instant, slicing others to pieces. A blow from a Griffon’s claw, that seemed like a light hit at first, blasted several Skeletons into the wall and shattered their bones.
Against the Skeletons that attacked them with such numbers that they struggled greatly, Rei, Elena, and Set, disposed them like they were walking through a field……no, it was like they were walking along a mountain path and were slashing through any tree branches in their way.
Rei, who had initially shot flames from a distance, was now cutting, smashing, and destroying the Skeletons with a huge scythe that Esestus had never seen before.
「I-Impossible……」
「It’s all real. And with those guys, there’s a good chance we’ll make it out of the dungeon in one piece.」
「But, we’ll just drag them down……」
At Nakuto’s words, Esestus still tried to argue back.
However, Nakuto forcefully grabbed his shoulder.
「I know you’re scared. I understand you’re afraid of the abnormal speices. But are you going to put everyone in danger because of your selfishness? That include Tivia, who has lost her arm.」
「Guh……」
Esestus froze as Nakuto’s eyes pierced right through him. After several seconds of silence, he nodded reluctantly.
「I understand. ……It will definitely be hard for us to escape the dungeon alone. But will they help us? What if they want to go ahead instead of going back to the magic circle? What would you do if they said that?」
「……If that happens, I’ll try to convince them. I don’t have much I can give them as a reward, but at worst, I can sell myself. ……If they’re fine with a woman who’s lost an arm.」
Tivia spoke up as Goto finished giving first aid treatment, pouring potion over her wound and binding it with cloth.
It was true that Tivia was currently covered in blood, sweat, and mud. However, everyone present knew that she was still a beauty in her own right when dressed up.
In fact, there had even been one person with a one sided crush on Tivia that had misunderstood her relationship with her party and had challenged Esestus to a duel.
It was because she knew what people thought of her that Tivia said what she said.
However……
「It would be best not to do that. It would be counterproductive.」
As he said that, Nakuto looked towards Elena was cutting up several Skeletons with her sword whip.
Tivia followed his gaze and her instincts as woman clued her in to what Nakuto meant.
「I see. But, what do we do then? Even if we ask them to help us back, I don’t know if they’ll accept it without a reward.」
「……That’s right. We have to take care of your injury as soon as we can. The sooner the better.」
Tivia didn’t show it, but she had still lost an arm. There was no way that would be painless.
The fact that her forehead was oozing sweat was proof that she was enduring the pain.
Seeing that, the other three felt a strong sense of frustration at their powerlessness.
Even though it couldn’t be helped at the time, Goto also felt great bitterness at dropping his backpack, which was the core of his work, when they were escaping.
(There were advanced potions in that bag……)
And, although they had said that they would stay back and work together with Rei and Elena, there wasn’t much of a difference between Esestus and Nakuto in what they could contribute. The skill involved in the fight before them was way above their ability and there was no room for them to do anything.
「Flying Slash!」
As they heard that shout, a slash flew out from Rei’s huge scythe, slashing several Skeletons in half and sending them flying.
「He can use fire and wind magic……?」
As Esestus was stunned by what he saw, Rei closed the gap to the abnormal species after clearing all the Skeletons in his way.
Destroying the Skeletons in front of him, or pseudo Skeletons as they didn’t have a magic stone, Rei closed in on the abnormal species while swinging the Death Scythe.
Seeing that its Skeleton army, which served as its shield, was gone, the abnormal species spewed out more mist in an attempt to create more pseudo Skeletons as the green flames in its eyes blazed with hatred.
In order to stop it, the Death Scythe’s blade swung out. However, the abnormal species leapt back with an agility that was unimaginable for a Skeleton as it dodged the blade before point the tips of the four scimitars in its hands towards Rei.
「……Heh. I knew it, but you’re pretty good for a Skeleton.」
A smirk appeared on Rei’s face as he glanced around.
Most of the pseudo Skeletons had already been wiped out by Elena and Set. It was only a matter of time before they could assist Rei.
However……
「GOOOoooOOooh!」
The abnormal species gave a roar as if it was unacceptable. The green flames in its eyes burned with a hatred of the living as it brandished its scimitars and attacked Rei.