Chapter 54 10.3 Particle Effects?

"Wake up," I practically seethed, barely keeping my volume a bit low as I began shaking her awake. "We have a fight in our hands."

"Ehhh... Hehe...."

Wow... I guess I now knew that she was a sleep-talker. Nobody would ever chuckle like that in their sleep voluntarily. She actually sounded like a creep despite her inherently graceful tone.

"Great..."

Shaking my head, I rapidly went through my options as the abject sound of nothing but the waves crashing on the shoreline kept me company. I could always just leave her here and face this threat alone, but that would leave her defenseless. And even if she was level 80, the game might still scale her down since that damn prompt appeared. Clearly, it was another battle like that big wolf where we had to actually work to kill it. This wasn't just a fight, this was a boss.

"Just fantastic..." I growled out as I slowly lifted my leg up to stand. "Only now did this game have to give me some semblance of an activity..."

Holstering my right-hand weapon, I gently grabbed Shizu's head and raised it off my thigh. I wouldn't even-

"Mmpphh..."

"What the hell-"

Before I could react, Shizu suddenly wrapped her arms around my arm, pulling me back down with her as she hummed in her sleep. I grimaced as she sandwiched my arm in between her chest, her softness amplified tenfold as she rubbed her cheek against me.

"So warm...."

Oh my lord.... This would've been so awkward if it wasn't so infuriating! "Get off me, Shizu."

"Don't wanna..." she mumbled out, her eyes still closed. "Me wanna sleep...."

Gritting my teeth, I forcibly tried yanking out my arm from her grasp, my other arm still holding my other pistol at the ready as I did my best to free myself. To my surprise, however, her strength only made itself more apparent as she pulled me back in.

"No leaving...."

Oh my god! "Shizu!"

[*whistlee*]

A faint whistle rang through my ears, my eyes quickly turning to a crack through the wall as I braced myself for some kind of attack.

"W-Whu..."

"Oh! Is sleeping beauty finally awake!?" I couldn't help but yell at the sleepy woman as she finally let go of my arm.

Blearily rubbing at her eyes, Shizu looked completely lost as she slowly came to. She looked at me with a confused look, her tone filled with curious innocence as she spoke. "Wha... Stranger?"

"No time to explain!" I screamed out, pulling her up as she struggled to gather her bearings. "We're under attack, and we don't have-"

[*BOOM!*]

What the- "GUH!!"

[HP: 113/125]

I let out a gasp of pain as stray rock pummeled me from all sides. The walls around us exploded, blowing both Shizu and I back out onto the town proper. It didn't take out a substantial chunk of my health, but it was still something that I probably could've avoided if I moved fast enough.

"W-what in the world," Shizu coughed out, all pretense of sleep now thoroughly out the window as she spoke with a serious tone. "Cannons?!"

"What-"

[*whisstttlleee*]

I held my tongue as another round of whistles echoed through the night. Immediately, my eyes scanned the horizon, the sea of errors making it hard to see as I eventually spotted something floating out in the distance.

"A ship!" I called out.

[*BOOM!*]

Another round of explosions erupted all around us. The round didn't hit anything near our general vicinity, but the surrounding chaos it provided only added to the stress that I was feeling. I mean, if there was a ship that could somehow spot us even through this poor light, then what else were there-

[*HISSS!!!*]

A mechanical hiss came from behind me. I didn't know how to react beyond actually turning my head and looking at the damn thing, but doing it now, I suppose that it was the right thing to do.

"A Vestygian Spider?! In Kattleyna!?"

[BZZTT!!]

[Kii$61ill Vestygian Spider: 00000111/00139]

A foreboding screech echoed from the ether. To my horror, the quest objectives I had up flickered in and out of existence, now replaced with something far more unsettling as a glitched-out prompt appeared in front of me. This was clearly off the cuff now, and Shizu was just as horrified beside me as her knees shook from under her.

"T-This isn't supposed to happen...." she hauntingly whispered out. "T-the enemy.... They're here...."

[*HISS!*]

My eyes widened, "Look out!"

Tackling her out of the way, the mechanical spider slammed one of its metal legs onto the ground, steam erupting from every one of its joints as it tried to squash us underfoot.

"You okay?"

"I-I'm fine..." the wide-eyed princess stuttered out. "The 'Script...' It was wrong...."

"No shot, it was wrong!" I yelled out in a panic. "We still have to get out of here alive!"

[VUvEysyGtIgan Sppri028derLe99evk 0129 ]

Looking at this thing's prompt above its head, the same garbled nonsense greeted me in the same way that Shizu once had back when she was glitching out. Noting the monster itself, it looked like a mechanical spider out of some steampunk novel. Smoke and steam came out of every single joint as it moved, its mechanical mechanisms whirring with an angry hiss as it slowly made its way to us.

"Can you fight?"

"O-Of course!"

[*whiisstttlleeee....*]

My ears perked up as the dreaded sound of something flying through the air made itself known once more. Looking around, faint orange circles had appeared on the ground, signifying that something was about to happen in the same way that the Wolf King once had while we were fighting it.

"Step away from the orange circles!" I called out, training my pistols at the slow-moving machine as I turned to Shizu. "Don't get hit, and keep moving!"

"G-Got it!"

Splitting off to our respective directions, Shizu and I began circling around the machine monstrosity, explosions ringing all around us as the distant ship kept on firing at our location. I just got a decent upgrade to my damage, so hopefully, this thing would actually go down.

[*BANG! BANG! BANG!*]

I fired off preliminary shots, all of them hitting the spider in some way shape or form as it turned its attention onto me. Still nothing in terms of having a health bar to track progress, but I guess we'll just have to wing it again.

[HP: 113/125]

[*HISS! CRANK!*]

Steam sputtered out of the machine, my bullets doing decent damage as I actually spotted some dents in its armor. My bullets now take four points per shot, but those are four more points into my damage anyway. So at least it won't be a complete loss for me.

"T-Take this!"

I paused my aim as I heard Shizu charging ahead. Slipping underneath the spider's legs, her speed was a lot slower than she was supposed to. Her form was also sloppy with her hits actually missing despite the monster being laughably slow.

"Stop attacking!" she screamed out, all semblance of the usual joy absent as a nervous tension visibly consumed her. "Leave my home alone!"

[*Thud Thud Thud*]

[*BANG! BANG! BANG!*]

Not having any time to think about it, I joined Shizu on her onslaught as we rained hell on the slow mechanical spider. Each time it raised one of its legs, Shizu quickly rolled out of the way to evade. The monster was still looking at me, at least, which meant that I still held aggro of the thing. All I had to do then was lead it around while we killed it.

[*whisstttlleee*]

"Cannon fire!" I called out as I quickly looked on the ground for the indicators. "Care, Shizu!"

"O-Of course!"

[*BOOM!*]

Sure enough, the cannon fire exploded all around us. The mechanical spider was still standing, but everything looked fine even now...

"Die already!"

Still, something was telling me that this wasn't the end of this... This was all off-script, and if there wasn't any script, then-

"KHH!!"

Shizu?!

Turning my head, my eyes almost bugged out as I saw Shizu's body flying through the air, one of the spider's legs clearly beng exploded off of the thing as it staggered backward.

[*BANG! BANG! BANG!*]

I quickly moved to provide covering fire, hastily making my way to Shizu to see if she needed help. My [HP] notwithstanding, I won't have anyone dying on my watch!

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