42 Episode 41 Distance and Barrage

I'll follow the two vanguards out through the thinly-opened gate in the outer wall. The rest of us are following.

I didn't notice it when I went out for the test, but I can see what looks like the remnants of a rock-paved road ahead.

It doesn't look like it's going to serve as a road at all, but it can serve as a landmark.

Let's go.

said a shabby man, and started running in the direction of the path.

His acceleration was clearly different from the adventurers I'd seen before. In the blink of an eye, I've reached a speed that would be hard for me to keep up with without magic.

Well, it's slower than me running with magic, but I guess it's too much to ask for that much. My magic power is six or seven orders of magnitude different.

The rest of the pack followed me without showing much difficulty. I have to run for nearly fifteen hours, so if it's too hard for me now, it's not worth it.

I notice that the people behind me are keeping a 10-meter gap from me, and I also keep a 10-meter gap from the front.

I guess it's hard to move when you're too tightly packed.

There are almost no trees in the area, only short grass, so the visibility is good. Even if there is some distance between us and them, they will not be able to destroy us by surprise.

After running for ten minutes or so, you will encounter a demon. It was a pack of about five black wolves.

There were a lot of them within sight, but this was the first time I'd had a battle.

This time I'm the one being protected, so I don't do anything if I don't have to. It might take away from my job.

I'm sure they'll call on me if they need me.

Now, how are we going to handle this?

And while I was watching, the battle was over. It wasn't even a battle.

The two vanguards looked at each other, nodded lightly, increased their speed a little to increase the distance between them, and then cut down the Kuro Wolves in one fell swoop.

The one on the left took out two and the one on the right took out three.

Perhaps he slowed down when he swung his sword, but by the time the battle was over, the distance had returned to normal. Not too dangerous.

That's what I call an overkill party.

The rest of the trip went smoothly. I didn't even need to touch them.

The vanguard kicked out the enemies in front of us, and there were no demons following us from the sides or behind.

The number of demons that had the misfortune to attack us from the front was about five or sixty.

The rest seemed to be out of work, which was probably a good thing.

Let's get some food. Let's go.

After another 20 or so demons had been sacrificed, the vanguard, a guy named Unon I think, said.

As planned, he took out the food that was given to him when he stored the items, and threw it to him.

After making sure that Unon finished eating, he threw the next meal to Quaton.

The food looks like a simple version of a curry mart. A cookie on a stick, if you will.

You're going to be thirsty, but you don't need to give them water because they have their own mages. I've never eaten one, so I don't know if I'll be thirsty.

As for the order of eating, it is said to be customary that the order of eating is counterclockwise from the vanguard to the last person in the middle.

The advantage of this may be that you don't have to think about or remember the order, rather than the order itself.

A little later, it was my turn. I put it in my mouth and chewed it, although I was a little nervous about what it would taste like.

...... It's hard. I tried to bite into it as if I were eating a calorie-maker, but it didn't even feel like I could bite into it.

I'm not sure if this is something that the average person can eat.

Normally, I can hold a dead branch without thinking about it.

But if I exert myself, it will break. In other words, if I don't put any effort into it, I can guess that my strength is at the level of an ordinary person, much lower than my status.

So I tried to bite it and couldn't. This probably means that I need enhanced jaw strength and tooth strength.

If you can't bite down like this, you are not qualified to be a decibatore, I guess.

The taste is not very good either. It is soggy, with no sweetness and a sour taste. On top of that, it sticks in your mouth.

It's terrible.

But I can't be the only one to eat something decent in this situation, so I have no choice but to eat it. Yeah, it's bad.

Three bottles of this may be enough to provide nourishment in a small amount, but couldn't they have done something about the taste?

Well, I managed to finish it. It was not good, but not inedible either.

The party went on smoothly, with the tension dropping but not the speed.

But then, after about an hour of driving. There was an explosion nearby. An explosion with a radius of a meter or so.

"It's an e-prindle!　Stragglers!

Ixprondr ......?

There are no demons around. There was nothing around, and then suddenly there was an explosion.

I looked around and saw that the guards were looking up.

I looked up and saw a huge bird-like thing. It looks to be about a kilometer high.

"There's only one!　Keep your distance!

With that order, the distance between each of you increases to twice as much as before. A strategy to reduce the damage.

Immediately after, there's another explosion. About halfway between me and the vanguard.

I think the gap was only about 10 seconds. If you keep getting hit, you're bound to get hit at some point.

I'll try to shoot it down with magic!

Aerial attacks are to be dealt with in the city!　It won't reach us anyway, use it for defense!

They can't reach us?

It's worth a try.

You can't reach them, but even a normal decibel trekker can't load a ton of supplies into an item box. It makes no sense to talk about normal now.

Besides, magical armor is already in place. As far as the explosion range is concerned, it should be able to withstand it.

"Defense is up!　I'll try to shoot it down!

I'm going to shoot it down!" I say, and fire a single explosive shell upwards, aiming for the Ixprondor. I'll see if I can reach it first.

But because we launched it straight up, the shell was left behind by us. Since Ixprondr is also chasing us, the shell passes far behind Ixprondr.

But in terms of distance, it did reach us. It took about two seconds.

"It arrived!　And fast!

People around me shouted. It's true that my magic is fast to begin with, but I'm also using a special wand. It's only natural that I'm fast.

But even so, I feel like I'm not going fast enough.

It takes two seconds. Ixplondor's, while not as well controlled, has no bullets, and unlike a sudden explosion, it can be avoided on sight.

There's still a chance it won't be evaded, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Let's see, we're going about 40 kilometers per hour, and the bullet speed is about 12 times that.

If we look at it from above, we should shoot at an angle of about 1/12.

When I fired at that level, I reached a place not far from the monster.

As I fired the third shot, I heard a roar and my vision turned red for a moment. It seems that I was hit by a bullet.

However, as expected, the explosion only gave me a faint warmth, and did not damage me. The warmth might have been my imagination.

"Is your magic okay?

He called out to me as he ran. He didn't seem to be that upset. He didn't seem to be that upset, as expected of a Decibatore.

Yes, I can withstand hundreds of shots like that. I have plenty of magic power.

This is not a metaphor. In fact, it recovers faster than it consumes.

"I was wondering what kind of trick the item box had, but it's just a monster!

I don't like the word "monster. I'm just a Desibatore among Desibatoreans, even before arriving at Desibatore.

I'm just a Desibatore!

As he shouted this, the explosive shell he fired flew in a trajectory that almost hit Ixprondr.

As expected, it was dodged just in time.

...... But if it's dodged, there is a way.

You can block all the areas that can be avoided. The barrage is power.

Create a batch of 100 fireballs that consume less magic, and send them flying at slightly different angles. At the same time, an explosion will occur nearby.

This time you're able to dexterously get through. Bloody hell.

But being able to dodge means that there is a good chance that you won't be able to dodge very far. Unless, of course, the bird is very confident of its evasive ability.

In that case, there is a way to deal with it. It is a very cerebral solution.

Just don't give the bird any room to avoid. It looks like the bird is pretty big, so it should be possible.

We'll use the shotgun magic we used against them on a much larger scale. There'll be over 10,000 of them.

I can't deploy more than that for lack of space. I'd still look like a rock hedgehog to the outside world.

I shoot the same way as before.

The rock shot flew straight up and exploded on the way. There is an explosion with a radius of about one meter, and in the aftermath, the spear disappears from twice that radius.

My eyesight has been enhanced, and I can see the birds and the projectiles from here.

If I'm not mistaken, the bird also dexterously dove into the gap and made it through almost unscathed. Remarkable dexterity.

Having observed this much, I noticed that no new explosions had occurred in the last ten seconds.

This means that the rock-splatter explosion was actually caused by Ixprondr.

If you think about it, the previous explosions had occurred on the ground. Just like the fireball that hit the ground.

So, was Ixprondr's attack actually an invisible projectile attack, rather than a bulletless attack?

He tried to fire the same shot again, but it still exploded in midair. And then I was caught in the gap.

There's no explosion on the ground.

Looks like you're right.

No matter how many of them there are, they can't be reaped at full range. It doesn't matter how hard you are to prevent bullet magic.

It seems that air and flying dust cannot prevent it, but other than that, it is basically stationary. It turns into a physical phenomenon at that point.

I don't know what to do.