Chapter 305
"Watch out, Jamie! Here they come!"
"Th-They??"
Bwoooosh!
A fruit came flying out of nowhere from the jungle. Simon quickly ducked to dodge it, and the fruit flew past him and smashed into the tree on the opposite side.
Crack!
Splinters flew and a sizable crater was left in the tree from the impact.
"...Woah."
Exclaimed Jamie.
"Even the barrier won't protect me fully if one of those hits me in the head..."
"Dodge! They keep on coming!"
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
There were monsters with long arms reminiscent of a monkey's throwing the fruits.
They pulled fruits out from a pouch on their abdomen, throwing indiscriminately.
"Hah!"
Familiar with combat dark magic, Simon was slipping between each individual fruit with a suave confidence. Jamie tried following Simon, but after taking a few hits, she didn't dare to try again and conjured jet-black barriers on both arms.
Thud!
Thud!!
But the barriers wore out after only a few hits from the fruits.
As Jamie's face turned pale, Simon looked back at her.
"Do you think you can keep this up?"
"S-Simon! The front!"
A large boulder protruded from the rapids, perfectly placed by a malicious god to turn their raft to rubble.
Simon scrambled to his feet, fastened himself on the raft, and stretched his right arm behind him.
"Everyone, come out!"
His subspace opened, and the skeletons came out like lightning. As the skeletons moved, they disassembled themselves, connecting bone-to-bone to form one very long pole.
Simon grabbed it, placed it against the rock, and pushed it hard.
Creeeaaak!
Simon's strength plus the skeletons' self-magnetism barely stopped the rod from snapping in half as the raft narrowly turned and passed the rock by a hair.
"Amazing!"
While Simon was distracted with saving the raft, Jamie had at some point come up beside him, conjuring another shield to protect him.
They were working together quite well.
However, the moment didn't last long as a flying fruit disintegrated the already cracking barrier.
"Choose, Miss President!"
Shouted Simon as he dodged the ongoing volley of fruits.
"Do you want to hold on like this? Or do you want to do it my way?"
"I'm not Group 7, you know! What do you mean by your way?!"
"Overdoing it!"
The raft wasn't making any headway on the monkeys swarming around them, going too slowly to outrun them. Even now, the swarm of monkeys was still growing.
"Kugh!"
Jamie specialized in Curses. But unless you've focussed very specifically on area curses, it was hard for cursers to do much in situations like these.
"O-Okay! I don't know what you're after, but hurry up!"
A grin formed on Simon's face as he opened his subspace once more.
"Come forth, deimos!"
"What??!"
Splaaash!
The subspace opened, and the undead creature made of whalebones came out and entered the valley.
'So that's the summon that got Simon 1st place in the third BDMAT!'
Of course, Jamie knew about the deimos. Everyone was talking about it for a long while after the test.
Simon stretched his finger out.
'Cloud.'
Turquoise smoke flew out like a rope, one end wrapping around the swimming deimos, and the other tied itself to the raft.
'Every last detail matters...!'
Simon's fingers, directing the Cloud with even the slightest twitch, moved delicately as if playing a piano. The turquoise rope, now wrapped around the deimos and tightly coiled around the raft, then returned to Simon's hand.
"Excuse me, President."
Simon threw it toward Jamie, and immediately the turquoise smoke began to wrap around her.
"W-Wait! Why are you tying me up?!"
Shouted Jamie with a slight blush.
"I'm fixing you on the raft."
Simon moved the Cloud, sticking Jamie on the raft as if she were one with it.
He then also wrapped the Cloud around himself to make sure he wouldn't fly off, either.
Finally, getting as low as he could next to Jamie, Simon cheered,
"Let's do it, deimos!"
[Kieeeeeeeeeeee!]
The deimos started plunging forward, guiding the raft through the intense rapids. The world around them began to change at a tremendous speed.
Swaaaaaaash!
It quickly overtook the money monsters that were after them, jets of water forming either side of them as they carved through the comparatively slow currents.
"Faster! Swim faster, deimos!"
Shouted Simon.
A beam of water exploded out from the rapids and caught the charging gorilla right in the chest, slamming the beast into a wall of rock behind it.
Rrrrrrrrrrrumble!
The impact was strong enough not just to crack bone, but even the rock as pebbles, stones, and boulders broke off from the cliff and descended upon the bloodied beast.
Crush!
A splatter of blood washed over the nearby trees, bones and sinew alike being remolded like a gruesome putty. The creature was still alive, but the damage had been done.
It was losing a lot of blood, and all it was able to do was groan in agony.
"Woah...!"
Jamie's jaw dropped at the sheer display of power.
Simon stood up, drew his short sword, and finished the gorilla off.
[Additional objective accomplished.]
[Please claim your reward.]
The monster scattered into thin air, leaving two pairs of glasses in its place.
"Is this the reward?"
The two of them decided to take one each. When Simon tried his on and looked around, there was not much change.
"I don't know what kind of artifact this is."
"Let's just keep them. There must be some use for them."
The two started walking and returned to the valley.
"Aha."
Next to the remains of the raft that had just been smashed, there was a brand new raft. Apparently, new rafts were given when the monsters were hunted.
The two of them rode on the new raft, and the deimos pulled it.
"By the way..."
Jamie crossed her arms.
"From the books that my mom used to read me as a kid, there's usually a waterfall at the end of these kinds of currents."
"...You should be careful of what you wish for."
Swaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Sure enough, there was a waterfall right in front of them, dropping down into a sheer cliff. Jamie let out a scream of horror.
"Wh-What are you doing?! Stop the deimos!"
"Wait."
Simon pointed ahead.
"Isn't that the way out?"
A portal could be seen beyond the waterfall, hundreds of meters in the air. It was definitely the exit.
"A-Are we supposed to go through there to end the game? It's literally in the air!!"
"Looks like it."
Simon thought it was doable. He immediately returned the deimos to his subspace and pulled out some skeletons.
"Bone Armor."
The skeletons began to attach to his body. He put armor on Jamie next to him, as well.
"I've got something for you, too."
She drew a curse magic circle around both her and Simon.
"It's something to increase your opponent's weight, but I tuned it to do the opposite, so you should feel lighter instead."
"Okay. On my signal, I want you to stomp on your jet-black and jump up as high as you can."
"Got it."
Jamie nodded with a nervous face. The cliff was right in front of them now.
"Go!"
The two of them jumped into the air, their feet practically exploding with jet-black.
The raft plunged downward along with the waves, but they soared up higher. They could now see the portal to the outside directly in front of them.
'The distance is a bit far, but...!'
Simon gave an absolute order to the skeletons forming the Bone Armor.
Using the skeletons' natural pull, he created an upward lift for Jamie and himself, acting like a sort of gliding effect.
"I've now activated the curse!"
He definitely felt lighter. With their arms outstretched to further slow their falls, they safely made their way to the portal.
"It worked!"
Simon exclaimed in delight. Jamie winked.
"I got carried all the way by Mr. S.A.1. Thanks, I'll see you in class tomorrow!"
"You did well, too. I hope you find your next card soon."
They had gotten their first card.
* * *
Swaaaaah!
When Simon passed through the portal, he was back in the same valley as before. The walls of Kizen could be seen in the distance.
He had made it back safe.
"That was pretty fun."
Simon was happy to see the dark blue card in his hand. And the glasses as well.
First, Simon got out of the valley and climbed up onto dry ground.
Two hours had passed already. After checking the time, he put his glasses on and looked around.
"!"
He could not withhold his excitement.
'...This is crazy.'
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