CH 48

Undead Lizardman

***---***

Even at dawn, the heavy rain didn't show signs of weakening.

Reinhardt says that monsters are almost inactive during heavy rain.

The smell and noise of finding prey will be drowned out by the rain.

It seems that these points are no different from ordinary wild animals.

Since the tent is well waterproofed, rain will not infiltrate, but the moisture trapped inside may condense and drip.

If it falls on the nape of the neck, it will become a mess.

It's intended for use by large adults, so it's large enough to lie down and sleep, but it's too narrow for classmates who have just been released from slavery.

They don't have a smartphone or handheld game console like they did when they were in Japan, and when they don't have tools for killing time such as playing cards, they have no choice but to sleep.

Even though the rain calms the monster's activity, it's still in the Devil's Forest, so everyone is ready to move at any time.

It was the first time they fought with a real sword or knife in their hand against the kobolds yesterday, so some of them put it in the scabbard with blood still on it, so I had Fred teach them how to maintain their blade.

If there's nothing to do, you can have fun eating.

Breakfast and lunch were delivered via shadow movement from the garrison cafeteria, so everyone was satisfied.

Kobayashi-san and Sakurai-san, who helped with the meals, entrusted me with letters to all the girls, and Motomiya-san, who received them, had me deliver a message that they are looking forward to seeing them again at Volzard soon.

While everyone was having lunch, it was time to take care of the chairman at Lastock's garrison, give an interim report to Donovan-san, and start thinking about whether to leave for the weakening heavy rain.

Basten called out with a tense appearance.

[ Kent-sama, a pack of lizardmen is approaching, get everyone ready to move. ]

"Understood!"

In the center of the hastily lined up tents, I issued a loud warning.

"Monsters have arrived, everyone get ready for a fight! Hurry up!"

"Seriously ... where did my sword go?"

"Ehh, it's raining a little, but is there a raincoat?"

"Wow, the ground is messy ..."

Even though they were trained at the Lastock garrison, they seemed to have little training in line with an actual battle, as they were told to beat each other up without guidance in order to learn to activate magic.

I asked Kondo and Takayama to take command so that I could move at any time, but it doesn't seem to have been necessary.

It seems to be the same for the girls, and Motomiya-san and Sagara-san who have already prepared are running around giving instructions, but it seems that everyone's preparations are not finished yet.

[ Kent-sama, I'm going to intercept, come Basten, Fred remain on defense here. ]

[ Okay, branch leader, it's awkward to get closer, so let's do it far away. ]

[ Leave the defense to me ... ]

"I'm going to defend myself, but for the time being, as a greeting ..."

I shot a light-type attack magic at a lizardman who was approaching fiercely from a distance, but it seems that it was not damaged at all.

"No way, the attack didn't work ...?"

[ Kent-sama ... Stop with the shield of darkness ... ]

"Eh ... oh yeah, I understand ..."

When I put out a shield of darkness at the feet and face of the rushing lizardman, it fell and smashed its face, and the momentum of the rush slowed down.

"The shield of darkness worked, but it has light attribute resistance ...?"

I am impatient because the light attribute attack magic, which is the majority of my attack power, does not work.

I wondered if the magic itself didn't work well, and when I shot the attack magic at a tree in the distance, it didn't seem to be as powerful as usual.

"Ah ... maybe because of the rain ..."

It is common Chuunibyo knowledge that ray weapons such as lasers are affected by fog, rain, and dust in the atmosphere.

It seems that the influence will be small if it is from up close, but I feel that the risk is too high.

The lizardmen are lizard monsters about 2 meters tall, with their entire body covered in green scales and is terrifyingly agile.

Some of them live in dry areas such as deserts, while others prefer to live near the water, and the ones that are attacking are probably the types that live near the water.

Some individuals have not only sharp fangs and claws, but also swords that look like some sort of bone or fang.

The number is more than fifty at a glance, and may be close to one hundred.

At the time of the rock ogre invasion, Reinhardt was killing several of them at once, but for lizardmen he seemed to be able to kill only one with a single blow, and even the long-range attack by Basten's Gae Bulg was avoided.

Basten will outperform them in close quarters, but it seems that is is still not possible to kill them with a single touch of a weapon.

"Takayama, Kondo, it looks pretty tough, so can you keep them from being scattered?"

"Should I go to those two skeletons?"

"Yeah, and do it flashy so that they don't come near me."

"OK, leave it to me!"

"Don't go alone, go with everyone."

"It's enough with me alone ..."

"No, yesterday you missed the kobold opponents, where does that confidence come from?"

"Noisy! Shut up!"

Novice Takayama parts from the group that gathered at last and looks in the direction in which Reinhardt and the others are fighting.

"Kondo, I'm sorry, but can you get everyone else together and ask for what I said earlier?"

"Okay, leave it to me ... but what about Kokubu?"

"I'll look at the situation from the top of a tree."

I climbed up to the top of a nearby large tree via shadow movement so that I could see the entire situation.

Although the heavy rain has weakened, it is still raining, and both Reinhardt and Basten are fighting in muddy areas.

It seems that the two deliberately jumped into the front of the pack and attracted the attention of the lizardmen with their flashy moves.

Perhaps because of that, most of the lizardmen are paying attention to Reinhardt and Basten and attacking them one after another.

Also, other than that, there is a lizardman who is trying to approach by separating from the pack.

If they can be stopped here, I thought the danger to my classmates would be reduced.

"Mana, oh mana, oh mana that governs the world, gather, gather, gather in my hands and become a flame, dance, dance, dance oh flame, and become a fireball!"

At that time, the fireball of Novice Takayama hit one of the lizardmen that surrounded Basten.

"Gyaoooo ..."

"How is that! Do you like that lizard bastard!"

The lizardman who ate Takayama's fireball rolled around on fire, but after all, the area was extremely muddy, and the fire was easily extinguished.

"Guruuu ... Gyauaaaaa!"

Once the lizardman was set on fire, when it got up with an angry cry, it screamed at Takayama.

Being attracted by that voice, the lizardmen around it also switched their goal from Basten to Takayama.

The lizardmen are all moving towards Takayama all at once, and my classmates are gathering behind Takayama.

"That damned Novice, you really did it now ..."

The moment I turned my gaze towards my classmates, the hair on my back stood up.

[ Reinhardt, Basten, come back! Fred, it's a pincer attack, they're coming from behind! ]

I sank into the shadows and moved behind my classmates who gathered together.

In front of my eyes, I saw a pack of lizardmen sprinting towards us.

It looks like there are more than fifty of them.

I put out shields of darkness to slow down the speed of their rush, but there are too many to stop.

"Mana, oh mana, oh mana that governs the world, gather, gather, gather in my hands and become water, dance, dance, dance oh water, and become a lance!"

The water-based attack magic that Motomiya-san released from beside me slightly broke their scales and caused fresh blood to dance, but it seems to be far from a fatal injury.

Still, the lizardman stopped in fear for a moment, Fred appeared and slashed its nape deeply.

Reinhardt and Basten came back towards us to strengthen the defense, but it seems that they will be pushed back by the force of numbers.

In the rear, they stopped moving as Fred was killing them in one blow without fail, but they're still being pushed.

It's okay if you have the escort of the three evil skeletons, and if your classmates are trained, they will become a force ... I am no longer sure about this.

I never thought that a monster that was more troublesome than rock ogres would come out.

If we are pushed back like this, my classmates will definitely be wiped out.

If that is the case, I have no choice but to try the method I came up with.

"Motomiya-san, could you lend me a knife?"

"A knife, no way ... you're going to engrave a mark that will never disappear ... Kya!"

Motomiya-san, who is about to start her delusions again, Sagara-san put an end to it with an accurate thrust.

"Don't go saying something stupid in this situation, yes Kokubu-kun, use it!"

"Thank you, Sagara-san, I'll borrow it."

"I don't mind lending it, but don't go thinking of doing close combat."

"Of course, this knife is used like this."

In front of us where the lizardmen are approaching, I put out a shield of darkness and it crashes into it and stops moving.

Then, thrust the knife into the small shield of darkness I put out in front of me, twist it tightly, then pull it out.

The lizardman, who stopped moving because of the shield of darkness, staggered and collapsed on the spot.

"That, Kokubu-kun, what did you do?"

"I connected the shadow space to the inside of the lizardman's body and cut its heart with the knife."

While explaining to Sagara-san, I followed the same procedure to kill the second lizardman.

From that point on, it was like an assembly line.

Stopping and stabbing, stopping and stabbing, stopping and stabbing ... With Fred's strenuous struggle, the group from behind reduced in number as we watched.

"Fred, are you okay with the rest?"

[ Kent-sama ... support the front ... ]

"OK, I'm counting on you."

On the side that was attacked first, Reinhardt and Basten continue to struggle.

And the classmates led by Kondo continued to chant without interruption and continued casting magic.

"Team Two chant and Team One shoot!"

Although it was not Nobunaga's three-stage shooting, Kondo had the mages of the 1st and 2nd teams chanting alternately, and continued to shoot attack magic without interruption.

Even if the power of each shot is small, it seems to be annoying for the lizardmen that it attacks without interruption, and it is difficult for them to approach.

Still, some of my classmates have run out of magic and are starting to sit down with a blue face, and the balance is about to break for the worse.

Fortunately, the magic of my classmates has stalled the lizardmen.

This is my chance to attack.

Standing on the outermost side out of the way of my classmates who are attacking, I thrust the knife into the shield of darkness.

Every time I thrust, a lizardman collapsed, and my classmates cheered, wondering if their magic had worked.

"Look, one of them has fallen!"

"It worked, next, next shot, quickly!"

"It fell down again!"

"Look, they're falling down!"

Now that the left side has been roughly cleaned up, it is time to turn to the right side and launch an attack.

Here, too, the magic of my classmates has stopped them, so I continued to stab their hearts with the knife.

"Wow ... they're no longer being overwhelmed."

"That's because everyone stalled them ..."

Some of my classmates looked back at the conversation between Sagara-san and I.

The small round shield of darkness floating in the air, and the appearance of me silently thrusting a knife into it, seemed quite strange, but before long, they noticed that every time I thrust the knife, one lizardman collapsed, and they looked at me with wide eyes.

Perhaps because they were less worried about their surroundings, or because they were accustomed to fighting, Reinhardt and Basten returned to slaughtering the lizardmen one after another.

Seeing their group of comrades who were rapidly decreasing in number, some lizardmen began to retreat, and from there the lizardmen ran away one after the other.

"We did it, they ran away."

"Hmm ... I thought I'd die seriously."

Seeing the lizardmen retreat, my classmates cheered and sat down as if they were exhausted.

"Motomiya-san, Sagara-san, check if anyone is injured."

"Okay, but I think they're okay, because they didn't reach this point."

As Sagara-san said, we were able to prevent the lizardmen from approaching, so they didn't have a chance to be injured, but if we made a mistake, it wouldn't be strange if there were many injured or dead.

[ Kent-sama, we managed to protect them, but if they come again, I don't know if we can. ]

[ Yeah, thank you Reinhardt and the others, I have something to think about, but can you help me? ]

[ Of course, what are you going to do? ]

[ I didn't expect this to happen, so I thought I'd add a few more companions. ]

With the help of Reinhardt and the others, I asked them to select about five lizardmen with a strong body from among the lizardmen I had stabbed in the heart with the knife.

I'm able to use both darkness and light magic, but I'm still not sure how to use it.

Even so, I called up something like the magical connection I had with Reinhardt and the others, with the image of connecting it to the five lizardmen I chose.

"Please help me, as my genus ... Guu ..."

Through the connected links, I felt that my magical power was being pulled out, and immediately after that, the dead lizardmen slowly got up as undead.

The five undead lizarden stood side by side in front of me after looking at each other.

"Gururuuu ..."

"Um ... I don't know what you're saying, but will you help me?"

The undead lizardmen nodded over and over in response to my question.

The light of intelligence dwells in the eyes of the five of them, and the glaring murderous intentions from before can no longer be felt.

"I'm going to strengthen everyone, so I'll give you five magic stones each."

I distributed the other lizardman magic stones collected by Fred to the five, and gave each one five magic stones.

"Then, I'll stengthen you, so start absorbing the magic stones."

At the time of Reinhardt and the others, I strengthened them one by one, but this time I decided to do it all at once with a common image, and as usual, when I sent the image and magical power, black haze began to hang around the undead lizardmen.

Perhaps because it was a group of five, the black mist swirled in a jet-black vortex that seemed to swallow everything around it, and black lightning ran magnificently, causing thunder.

The classmates who were watching from nearby from the start, were so overpowered that they ran away all at once.

As the mist exploded and the condensed darkness burst, five undead lizardmen with jet-black scales stood there.

It feels that their bodies are one size larger, and a jet-black Kukri knife, which seems to have a blade length of about 1 meter, is hung on the waist.

The five of them look around at their own bodies and the bodies of each other, closing and opening their big hands.

At first glance, the sharp claws like before disappeared, but when one of them sharply struck out its hands, even more vicious claws sprung out.

For a while, the undead lizardmen were silently looking at each other, but suddenly they started fighting each other.

They were agile before, but with being powered up, the sound of them hitting each other seems to be on the level of the sound of a traffic accident.

I wonder if it's to test their skills while using a new body ... Why are Reinhardt and Basten added?

Um ... this, I wonder how long this will last, my classmates are drawing back in fear.

The undead lizardmen come back with a satisfied look.

Reinhardt and Basten also mix in and hit their fists and smile.

A powerful group approaching side by side ... Deja vu ...

"My King, I have no words to display my gratitude at receiving such a wonderful body."

"Fua? K, king ...?"

Pointing at myself, the undead lizardman, who spoke and thanked me, nodded as a matter of course.

"As genus of the king, we will use all our bodies and lives for you in loyalty."

"Oh, uh ... thank you."

"Why don't you give us new names?"

"Name ...?"

I felt that I had to respond to the sincere eyes that were staring at me from a kneeling posture.

"Okay, then I'll give you new names, you're Zae, you're Tsuo, you're Kame, you're Suo, and finally you're Tala."

The moment I gave names to the five people, I felt that the connection links became thicker.

If I'm not careful, embarassing thoughts are likely to leak out.

I mean, if you add speech to the image of strengthening, the undead lizardmen are talking normally, but can Reinhardt and the others also do it?

"I want everyone to take advantage of their speed and power to play the role of a mobile unit, I'll probably also ask you to do other things as well, I'm counting on you."

"As you will ... Maou-sama."

"Ma, Maou is ..."

"You are the king of, we, the demons, therefore isn't calling you the Maou correct?"

Zae smiles with a grin, and the other four nod.

"No, being called the Maou ..."

[ Buhahaha, if Kent-sama dominates the world, all your worries will be solved. ]

"No, I don't want to conquer the world, I want to live in peace."

"If Maou-sama so wishes, we will continue to fight until our bodies decay as your spearhead."

"That's why I'm telling you, because my policy is an exclusively defense-oriented policy ... That Maou is also prohibited!"

"Nuu ... It can't be helped if it's the order of my King."

It feels a little dangerous, but I was able to increase the number of powerful companions, but I have one thing I have to confirm.

"Zae, just in case, but if lizardmen attack, can you fight without hesitation?"

"Of course, this body was given by the King, we are the genus of the King, and the ones who are hostile to the King can only be our enemies."

"Yeah, but if you don't like killing, you can just drive them away without killing them."

"Thank you for your kindness. Then, let's say that we will show off our strength to have them realize that it is foolish to be hostile to us."

Yeah, with this it's okay if the lizardmen who withdrew attack again.

The rain is so weak that it is almost unnoticeable.

The corpses of the lizardmen are scattered around, so I decided to move toward Volzard and look for tonight's camp before other monsters gathered.