Episode 75 — Brownie Shoot
～ Part 2 ～
Read at
Several lightning magic Wogan released burned Inugami. While protecting her body, Inugami desperately endured the magic, but the azuki-arai was in this side’s hand, so she couldn’t counterattack. Only, monsters as they were, even Wombat wouldn’t feel too pleasant about tormenting ones who looked like human girls like this.
“(Rather, it’ll be more comfortable to quickly cut her neck with the knife?)”
Wogan was a magician completely devoted to attack, he didn’t have on hand convenient magic like bind. Inevitably, Wombat had to restrain the azuki-arai. With Wogan’s meager physique, she might be able to escape.
Going this far yet this lycanthrope named Inugami hadn’t died yet, she might have some degree of magic resistance. Both arms propped on the ground, Inugami was breathing heavily, looking at that, Wombat switched his knife. One arm holding the azuki-arai still held a knife. The free arm took out a different knife.
Did she imagine what he would do? The azuki-arai clung to his arm.
“Oi, release it.”
“Y–you can’t! Just now, Inugami-san, you tried to…”
“Even if I leave it like this, she’ll die by Wogan’s magic anyway! It’ll be better to put her to rest quickly!”
“No! Noo…!”
It would be rather easy if he could just shake her off, but Inugami’s golden eyes were glaring at him even now. The instant he shook off the azuki-arai, she would suddenly transform into a silver wolf and attack, that’s not necessarily not happening. Wombat clicked his tongue, and lightly pulled his knife.
“Ahh…”
∗Spurt∗, a streak of red ran on her cheek. Immediately after, plump blood swelled up from the wound. When the red blood touched the atmosphere, it changed into transparent clear water and flowed down the azuki-arai’s cheek.
“You…!”
Inugami, while panting, glared at Wombat.
“Don’t touch Mitarai…!”
“Then obediently be killed. Even I don’t want to do something unnecessary!”
When Wombat shouted so. «Something» flew straight from the thicket. That was a spherical object, but that was all he could discern. Only, that suddenly drew a curve midway and precisely caught Wombat’s hand.
“Uoo…!”
For a moment, he dropped the knife.
“!!”
In that moment, the azuki-arai forcefully shook off Wombat’s hand.
“Ah, you…!”
“Guuraou–!”
Wombat brandished the remaining knife at the escaped azuki-arai. But at the same time, Inugami sprung at him while raising a roar that a human’s vocal cord probably couldn’t produce, yet her appearance was still that of human. Her dainty arms demonstrated terrific strength, she pushed down Wombat shoulders, throwing him onto the ground.
“Kuh…!”
Straddled by Inugami, he decisively stabbed the knife to her stomach. As it were, he tried to gouge out her belly. But Inugami’s face that had approached close enough for their forehead to touch, changed in one go. Terrific murderous intent and hostility dwelled in her golden eyes, her mouth ripped till her ears, fangs grew, dripping saliva at him.
Wombat held back her jaw with one arm, the other arm took out a knife and stabbed, aiming at her eyeball this time.
“Gyaaunn!”
The silver wolf screamed, she arched back. Wombat succeeded in crawling out in that gap.
“Wooogann!”
Wombat called the name of this comrade adventurer. Just right, the magician Wogan tried to release a thin wind blade that he had just finished chanting toward Inugami.
“Like I’ll let you!”
Another different voice echoed, a black shadow jumped out from the thicket. The pointed beak and winged appearance seemed like a bird, but on top of its feathers wore clothes, it had arms growing too. And that arm was attacking Wogan with its momentum.
“A crow tengu!”
Wombat shouted.
“You! How dare you hurt Inugami and Mitarai!”
Anger bleeding into its voice, the crow tengu resolutely slapped Wogan against a tree nearby. Wombat pulled out a knife and this time, threw it at the crow tengu.
“Uooo!?”
The knife went straight, stabbing into the crow tengu’s arm. In that moment, Wogan somehow managed to escape from the crow tengu’s restrain. The crow tengu turned around, it waved a big leaf it was holding in its right hand. Wind bent, releasing an air blade, Wombat hid in the shadow of a tree, somehow letting it pass.
A melee in a place with lots of cover like this could be said to be the home ground of thief. Still, the situation was too lopsided.
The crow tengu pulled out the knife stabbed in its arm, discarding it on the ground. The lycanthrope Inugami also bared her fang, stilled with a knife stabbed in her one’s eye. The azuki-arai escaped and had already disappeared. The nurikabe was standing still as usual.
The situation was in a deadlock. If someone moved, someone else would move to stop it. That kind of situation.
“Ka, Karasuma-kun…!”
Muttered the nurikabe.
“Stay still, Kabeno. Ozashiki’s there as well.”
“Ozashiki-kun…? But…”
“That guy moved because he didn’t want Kabeno to suffer. Please consider it.”
Even in the midst of its conversation, the crow tengu never failed to be cautious of this side. Listening to that talk, Inugami snorted.
What do we do? Wombat exchanged look with Wogan. If escape was possible, he wanted to escape, but the enemies were a transformed lycanthrope and a crow tengu. Setting aside one thief anyway, a magician’s feet wouldn’t be able to get away. Just thinking about Wogan’s «Agility» status in the adventurer guild and that became evident.
Assuming they were to escape, there would still be the need to make a big opening. At a glance, the enemies seemed to have a strong sense of solidarity, but that wasn’t something grounded on a fixed professionalism like in an adventurer party.
It was the height of sympathy that worried about their wounded comrades. Target one of them.
Among them, the reasonable target would be biggest, yet the most unaccustomed to battle. Wombat quickly sent a hand a hand sign, Wogan nodded to that. Wogan at once readied his staff and commenced chanting magic.
“!!”
The crow tengu waved the leaf that looked like a folding fan. However, Wombat had read their move first and threw a knife, aiming at the arm the crow tengu used to wave its leaf.
“Guuh…!”
The crow tengu dropped the leaf. Separated from his hand, the leaf fluttered in the air.
Almost simultaneously, the silver wolf jumped at Wombat. From the knife throwing motion, he transitioned to avoidance and slipped behind a wall of a big tree. Inugami’s big forefoot crashed into the trunk, her claw shaved a big chunk from its surface.
2 more seconds till Wogan’s chant completed. Wombat took the last knife from his pocket, and threw it at the crow tengu for the 3rd time. Sure, he didn’t hit this time, but the crow tengu who was sensitive to that attack lost a bit of time by avoiding.
1 more second. Groaning, Inugami absurdly gouged out the trunk of the big tree. The balance of the tree’s base was greatly disturbed, she then pushed down the tree in Wombat direction. Just before he almost got squashed, Wombat jumped aside, avoiding it, however, what he saw before his eyes was a silver wolf approaching with its big mouth opened.
0 second. Wogan’s magic invoked. His forte, lightning magic burned the atmosphere, and this time, it was shoot at the nurikabe who was standing stock still.
Kabeno Chihaya could only dumbfoundedly stand stock still and watch over the battle, until that moment, she didn’t notice that she herself had become the target of the attack. The magic the magician released was the same thing as what he shot at Inugami some time ago. Ripping straight through the air, it flew over here.
“Kabeno-san–!”
She heard such a voice from behind, a petite boy flew out. The boy jumped in to obstruct the lightning streak from herself, and he took a direct hit.
“Uaaaa!”
“Ozashiki-kun!?”
That was her classmate who always hid in her shadow, never asserting himself, it was Ozashiki Dousuke himself. Ozashiki screamed and dropped on the ground, as it were, he stopped moving, not even twitching.
“Ozashiki-kun!”
“Ozashiki–!”
Following after Kabeno, Karasuma also turned around and shouted.
Exactly at that time, a bloodcurdling shriek could be heard from the front.
“Gyaaaa!!”
Whether willing or not, that scene settled in Kabeno’s view. Jumping at one of the adventurers, Inugami had just snapped at his shoulder, tearing off flesh. Furthermore, her claws gouged a big chunk on his back, but wounded as he was, the adventurer quickly fled.
The magician adventurer also tried to run after the escaped adventurer. But right then, the ground oozed out arms, the arms caught that adventurer’s feet.
“!?”
The adventurer tumbled, he looked at his own feet. There he saw semi-transparent blue arms growing from the ground, they tightly caught him and didn’t let go. The arms oozed from the ground weren’t just one or two, they had perfectly restrained the magician’s body.
“Naa, na, a, na… naaa…!”
“Receive the penalty for breaking the promise.”
A very familiar voice was filled with faint anger. It was Himemizu Rin. She who finally fully appeared from the ground, used a volume several time bigger than usual to bind the adventurer. She took the staff from his hand, blocked his mouth and perfectly sealed his magic.
“Himemizu-san, (look at) Ozashiki-kun!”
Kabeno shouted. Karasuma who ran up to him shook Ozashiki.
A lightning attack. There was no conspicuous external wound. Inugami had eaten that attack many times. Just by this kind of thing? He thought, but the fact was that Ozashiki wasn’t moving a single muscle. The face that looked like a petite little girl still closed his eyes.
Rin and Azuki who was hiding in the shadow of a tree behind her ran over here, Inugami who chased after the adventurer till the depth also returned after a while.
“Nn, u … uu…”
Finally, Ozashiki stirred, he slowly opened his eyes.
“Ozashiki-kun…!”
“Ka, Kabeno-san…. I’m glad…. You’re safe…”
“Idiot! That’s my line!”
In truth, she wanted to immediately hug Ozashiki who said something dumb. Never had she felt this irritated about the fact that she had no arm. Inugami — who was having a meek look until then — snorted, and made a gesture of jerking her chin to Karasuma.
“What is it? Pull it out?”
Karasuma also let out a voice that seemed clear of tension.
He extracted the knife from Inugami’s eye. Blood sprayed, Inugami leaked a small scream.
“Inugami-san, are you okay…?”
When Azuki asked, Inugami nodded. While discarding the knife he pulled out on the ground, Karasuma confirmed Inugami’s face.
“I say, when looking closely, this didn’t stab into her eye. It’s exactly right next to it. She’s bleeding so it seems plenty painful though.”
“That’s right, it was lucky huh.”
Then Karasuma squatted straight down and pulled out the knife stabbed in Inugami stomach. As it were, he tried to confirmed the wound on her stomach, and was decisively knocked down by Inugami’s forefoot, his beak sunk into the ground.
“Mugoh!”
“The wound in your stomach also missed the vital parts. That’s really lucky.”
Said Azuki, Inugami nodded again.
“Speaking of which, Ozashiki-kun, it looks like you received a direct hit, are you okay? You’re not burn or anything?”
“Y–yeah…. Seem fine…. I don’t understand well though.”
“…Thank you for saving me.”
“Y, yeah…”
When Kabeno said thanks, Ozashiki scratched his cheek and averted his gaze.
He is this cowardly and timid, yet he jumped out for my sake, I was a little surprised and happy. Kabeno wanted to express that feelings in words, but in the end, she couldn’t think up any choice other than saying thanks.
“Then, shall we go back–.”
Rin who was silent so far, suddenly spoke up. She, as usual, was slowly crawling on the ground, though with one restrained adventurer coming along.
“Concerning the treatment of this adventurer, let’s slowly thinking about it after we consult with Kyousuke-kun group.”
“Speaking of good luck, this guy have it too.”
Pulling his beak from the ground, Karasuma said.
“If Ozashiki died or Inugami was injured more severely, I may break an arm or two as retaliation.”
“Ka, Karasuma-kun…. I, I don’t think that is very good…”
“That’s right. That’s not good at all, you know.”
Azuki reservedly protested. Rin also nodded. Perhaps, among these people, Karasuma was the only one whose filter still functioned, inevitably, his speech and conduct became extreme. Well, if Inugami could speak, she might say the same thing though.
Mouth still blocked, the adventurer tried to protest something, but of course, he couldn’t make any meaningful word.
“But in fact, Ozashiki-kun, Inugami-san and Mitarai-san are all safe, I’m really glad.”
“Well, everything is thanks to Ozashiki-kun mustering his courage.”
Rin carefreely answered Kabeno. But the person in question, Ozashiki placed his hand on his mouth and was pondering something with a frown.
“What happened? Ozashiki-kun.”
“…Perhaps, I have awaken to Phase 2.”
Muttered Ozashiki in a meek voice, the party cried out «OOHH!».
“Seriously! Congratulation, Ozashiki. What ability is it?”
“I’m not confident, but…. There’s a certain description about zashiki-warashi’s Phase 2 abilities in the documents Akai-san brought. According to that…”
“”””According to that?””””
The voice of everyone other than Inugami was in unison.
Ozashiki raised his face, he looked at everyone, and then at the adventurer who was still restrained by Rin. Finally, in a little shy but surprisingly clear and proud voice, he answered this:
“People around me get good luck, probably.”
Comments
Post a Comment