Chapter 349: Death Throes

349 – Death Throes

I land next to the basilisk’s head.

My partner looks around restlessly and then upon seeing the face-up nightmare, cries out “Gaah”. The nightmare is wrapped in the light of [High Rest]. Its legs stop squirming, then after a few seconds, gets up. Great, it looks like it’s fine.

Still in the same posture that it fell in, poison dribbles from the basilisk’s mouth as its body convulses. Only its deep red eyeballs move freely, glaring at me.

Now then, how do you feel about returning my treant-san to normal? My foreleg is fine. I can cut it off later and grow a new one.

I feel something wriggling inside my mouth. It’s Aro. To be on the safe side, I’d prefer it if you stayed there a bit longer…

“No…more, I’m at my limit…”

I hear her feeble voice. I-I see… Well, the basilisk shouldn’t be able to do anything any more.

While my partner watches over the basilisk, I lower my head away from it and open my mouth and stick out my tongue. Aro rolls out, covered in saliva. She gets to her feet, her expression loose with relief.

She stinks of dragon. I grimace.

“Dragon-god-sama!?”

I quickly turn back to the basilisk. Now then, I’ll have you restore treant-san! You wouldn’t be able to eat it even if you cooked it! There are plenty of better things to eat around!

Perhaps realising that it can’t survive, it raises its head as though prepared for the worst and glares at me one more time before facing the sky.

“AaaAahaaaaAaAah!”

A grating scream spreads out from the crushed old man face. It’s a weird shriek that makes me shudder despite myself. Magic power is packed into the sound. Is it maybe the [Sinister Voice] skill?

I-is it trying to do something…? But I don’t feel any new status condition affecting me.

The basilisk’s face laughs at my suspiciousness. Although its face is crushed, a gentle expression appears. Thinking it impossible, I look up to see the colour returning to the treant. It seems to still be hardened, but upon noticing my gaze, it moves its branches and twists its trunk towards me slightly. It appears to notice that its movements are slowed.

B-basilisk… You…! Is this that, the fabled friendship at the end of a battle? To admit its defeat and realise that it’s on the verge of death, but then use its last moments to heal the treant, I can’t help but admire its spirit. What should I do? It’s quite dangerous, so I was certain I wanted to kill it, but it’s suddenly become hard to do.

Can’t we have basilisk-sensei join us? No, but having it adventure with us would be a bit difficult, visually speaking… No, I don’t mean to discriminate based on appearance, but there has to be limits…

『Hey! It’s doing something!』

I notice the basilisk’s face is twisted into an evil smile and sense its magic power quickly surging. I hastily chop its head off. Blood scatters, and its head falls to the ground.

Th-that scared me… Without thinking, I reflexively swung my claw with all my strength. I’m glad I was able to kill it before it was able to do anything…

“Avaaaah! Vavava! Va, vaAAaaaaah!”

The basilisk’s head screams in a strange, loud voice. After the scream, its stiff expression relaxes as though satisfied, then it blackens as though all its strength has been used up. It’s an unpleasant voice that feels as though it is directly echoing inside my skull.

【3168 experience points have been acquired.】

【Due to the Title Skill [Walking Egg: Lv -], an additional 3168 experience points have been acquired.】

【The level of [Ouroboros] has risen from 96 to 97.】

I-I’m happy about the level up, but… Perhaps because of that strange scream, my vision is blurry. I don’t understand, but I feel nauseous.

“Gaah! Aaaahah!”

My partner howls madly. Th-this is no good, it looks like it gave us some kind of negative status effect. I need to pull myself together. I control my breathing and calm myself down.

“Gaaaah!”

My partner turns her fangs towards me, so I headbutt her.

“Ogoh!”

She takes my headbutt directly, and her neck hangs limply.

『J-just a bit…of confusion, it seems.』

So it seems… I also feel a bit better off after the headbutt, but… I stagger slightly.

It looks like it was a triple threat of [Illusion], [Confusion] and [Berserk]. That must have been [Shrill Voice] earlier. Did the decapitated head use the [Death Throes] skill…? To be able to continue harassment even after death, it sure is a nasty skill.

I’m only glad that a monster like that would cure treant-san. I see the it moving towards me. At any rate, I’m glad that treant-san is safe… Ah, was it also affected…?

The treant is charging towards me with its branches held in front of itself. Just as I notice a light forming in front of its mouth, a sphere of red light flies towards me. It’s the [Fire Sphere] skill.

I-it got completely dominated by the status condition…!

“[Gale]!”

Aro’s voice resounds. A violent tornado extinguishes the ball of fire, then goes on to shake the treant’s body, scattering leaves. Then, her left hand enlarged with a coating of earth, she hits the treant. It pitches forwards.

A-Aro…! She has the [Status Condition Nullification] skill, so that shrill voice probably did nothing to her. High-ranking undead really are incredible.

B-basilisk. If you though treant-san was enough to kill me, you’re way too naive. If you want to defeat me, prepare fifty treant-sans.

“Shiih! Shiih!”

The nightmare rushes towards me, agitated. It’s clearly different from normal. It seems it was also affected by the scream. Its eyes are fixed on me… Or rather, on my partner.

I finally have a legitimate reason to punish the stupidly cheeky nightmare. I’ll hit it juuust light enough to restore its sanity. As light as possible, as light as possible. I can’t use enough force to crush it, after all.

…From behind the nightmare, I see new monsters staggering towards me. There’s the buff bipedal cow, the three headed tortoise… These guys, that’s right, they were petrified by the basilisk. Mixed into the pack of monsters, I see the figure of an adam. Oi you! Why’d you go and let yourself get petrified by the lower rank basilisk!? You’re a disgrace to A ranks! No, it won’t be a joke to fight though!?

It seems after restoring them all, it planned on starting having them all kill each other as a result of the wide area status condition. I was confused about why the skill to undo the petrification was called [Sinister Voice], but now I finally understand. After it has another monster hear that voice, that monster will then be crushed under the weight of monsters that return from petrification. It’s a ridiculous combo.

My partner calmly places the incoming nightmare in her mouth, then urges me with her eyes. I nod, picking up Aro with my mouth and grasping treant-san with my forelegs, then kick off the ground to enter low-altitude flight. My partner looks back wistfully.

『B-bird meat… Fruit…』

Give up on it! That thing’s not edible, and there’s no chance to pick up the bucket…!

The nightmare peeks out of her mouth and spits out thread towards the bucket and basilisk. Pulled by the threads, the basilisk’s body and the bucket drag behind us.

As dextrous as always… It seems its confusion went away after being thrown in my partner’s mouth. It puts on airs in front of me, but it seems to really like my partner and was probably able to pull itself together inside her mouth. Huh, is it maybe a pervert?

Its head still poking out of her mouth, the nightmare glares at me. I look back to the front.

Anyway, once we shake off the monsters, we’ll find someplace to gather ourselves. Aro should also be able to evolve now. The contents of the bucket is spilling out, and the basilisk’s body is getting beat up… No, I don’t care about the latter though.