Chapter 143: When the World’s Out There to Get You Part 1

We continued to run forward together, destroying any fishmen that would be unfortunate to stumble upon us from time to time.

「What is a Bridman doing…… Wait, you have no wings!?」

「Sorry to disappoint you, but this birdhead is just a mask! Underneath it I’m just your plain and ordinary human!」

「H, human, I see…… My name is Alva, thank you for your help earlier.」

「And my name is Sanraku! Now climb onto that rubble and onto that roof, ASAP!」

「Y, yeah!」

We used the crumbled walls of one of the buildings to easily climb on top of it, staying vigilant and being on the lookout for incoming enemies.

「Right, now we jump onto that other roof……」

「Guh, bah, mgah…… Alva is……」

Turning around, I could see the NPC Alva climbing the roof with great effort using both of his hands and feet.

「What’s taking you so long!?」

「Uwoah!?」

Grabbing the surprisingly slender arm of the NPC, I forcibly pull him up to where I was standing. Mere seconds later fishmen crushed right to where Alva was standing a moment ago, starting to form another meat staircase.

「Don’t tell me you didn’t know that climbing requires so much STR!」

「T, that may be true but…… It is exactly as you say.」

「Whatever, you can try to make excuses later, now let’s haul ass out of here!」

I was a little bit worried that this guy wouldn’t be able to jump over to the next roof, and so I looked back to see what was going on. Although his strength wasn’t that great, at least he wasn’t wearing a set of heavy armor like Rei did, so he would most probably make that jump. At least that’s what I’d like to believe.

「Now then, where should we go to next…… Oh, for fuck’s sake. Here, take my hand.」

「I don’t know what you are, but are you sure that you’re not a bird? No, but then you’d have wings or feathers……」

「Dagh! What’s where you land, god damn it! Want me to step on your tail!? Is tht what you want!?」

「I’m, I’m sorry!」

I wish I brought some rope with me. Then I could have just give it to this guy and make his slightly less of a burden to carry around. Why didn’t I bring it with me? It would certainly be of use during this EX Quest. Just as I was pondering that question, I heard that.

「What’s that? A song?」

「Not good, not good…… It’s a mermaid! A mermaid is coming!」

A mermaid, as in the actual mermaid? Speaking about fish, I was honestly quite surprised that we didn’t encountered any mermaids thus far. …… Could it be?

「Say, Alva? You’re a monster, and a mermaid is a monster…… Doesn’t that make you relatives? Like, form the technical standpoint?」

「What an utter foolishness! Don’t lump me together with that wench that imitates the upper body of a human! I’m a Mareman, a proud fish person!」

Although there was a lot of new information coming through my head, I at least managed to confirm that mermaid was indeed a monster in this game. Now I wonder if mermaids will be like Vorpal Bunnies or Cait Seith, willing to resolve the situation peacefully with just talking. Hm?

Then something hits me. A mermaid? No, since we were in the underwater city, it wasn’t all that strange that a mermaid would be here. I mean hey, I was being chased around by a bunch of fish people, so the setting was all correct. Even though they all looked as though their expiration date was long overdue. They even had gills and all that to let them breathe underwater. …… That’s it.

「What the hell is a mermaid doing on land!?」

Looking up, there was indeed a figure of a mermaid, gracefully swimming through the air. And indeed, if I wasn’t told that she was a monster posing as a human, I would have surely mistake her for a normal human girl, given how beautiful she was. Just then, she opened her mouth and --

「La ---------!」

「Laa, aaaaaa ---------!」

「I was wondering what I would do if she started singing something really strange, but I guess we’re going with the classic siren’s song, huh?」

「Guaaah, gaaahhh!?」

「Eh? Wait, what? What’s going on!?」

Suddenly Alva starts to thrash about, covering his ears and screaming in pain. His body was also covered in some sort of dark energy, which was most probably a debuff of some sort. That one action of hers was enough for me to deem them hostile entities and assume battle stance in one short moment.

But for some strange reason, aside from swimming around and singing, the mermaid was not doing anything else. What should I do in that case?

「I could probably compensate for the height with a scaffolding of some sort.」

Activating my skills I run up to the nearest three-story building and run up its walls without being held back by gravity or anything like that. Then I jump off the wall and jumping in mid-air I manage to almost fly towards the unsuspecting mermaid.