CH 272

Episode 272 – Mummies

The movements of the attacking mummies were quite fast.

Ghouls, which were another type of undead monster, moved much slower in comparison, but these mummies movements were similar to those of an ordinary living creature.

Given their speed, I originally wanted to use Sticky Bombs to stop them. However, the mummies were crawling randomly out of the floor from all directions, and I realized that we might end up getting caught in the Sticky Bombs if I used them.

And though the powder explosion was useful in some cases, this floor wasn’t all that spacious, so I had to be careful not to use it in the wrong place.

“Duck your head, Lewin. [Power Arrow]. Rosalie, stay there. [Rain Arrow].” (Aruna)

While giving out instructions, Aruna was firing barrages of arrows nonstop. She mainly shot at the mummies that Rosalie and I weren’t in contact with. She was slaying mummies one after another across a massive area ranging from one end of the floor to the other.

I also didn’t want to lose out to Aruna, so I was calmly determining the movements of the mummies, slaughtering them as they came.

Alright, looks like I’m fine. I swung my sword about 10 times as hard as I could, but I didn’t feel any pain in my body.

When we were having our final break on the stairs earlier, I synthesized some Curare Leaves and applied them around my wound, being careful not to get it directly in the wound, which granted a useful [Paralysis] effect.

It was a crude trick to paralyze the painful parts of my body, forcing it not to feel anything, but it seemed to work well. I was frightened to think about what would happen when the paralysis wore off completely after the fight, but in order to not die, I was forced to concentrate only on the enemies before me.

The most important thing in the fight against the Mask Queen was the speed at which we could kill the mummies. If we slowed down even a little bit, we would be late to deal with the newly summoned mummies, which could easily end up in a numerical disadvantage for us.

It was even more important with a 3-person party. Even though Aruna was slaughtering mummies across an effective range that spanned the entire floor, we were only barely keeping up.

“Aruna-san. My injuries are fine, so I’ll cover a wider area on the right. You can take it a bit easier and just focus only on the enemies at a distance.” (Lewin)

“Got it.” (Aruna)

I told Aruna, who had been firing arrows off nonstop since the beginning, to fight while saving as much energy as possible. We were at a state where we were just barely defeating them quickly enough, but if I covered a wider area, our situation might improve.

In preparation for when the next mummies that would be summoned, I needed Aruna to rest as much as possible―

As soon as I had thought that far, the chanting of the Mask Queen’s song-like magic incantations suddenly stopped.

While staying aware of the mummy before me, I fleetingly glanced up at the Mask Queen, who was still standing on the ceiling. She was beginning to hold her staff up, as if in prayer.

“Rosalie-san, Aruna-san! Another type of mummy is coming!” (Lewin)

“[Summon Undead Beast].” (Mask Queen)

The Mask Queen’s chanting echoed throughout the area. Immediately after, a magic circle with a bluish sheen emerged from the center of the floor.

Damn, it’s way sooner than I’d expected.

According to what I had known about this floor, it was supposed to continue summoning humanoid mummies for quite some time, but it had only been a few minutes since the start of the battle before it started summoning beast-type mummies.

There were still a lot of humanoid mummies left on this floor. I wanted to buy some time so Aruna could catch a break, but now we had no choice.

We got unlucky, but we still had to do our best to find a way to deal with the situation.

“Aruna-san. I know I just told you to take it easy, but we need to go all out right now!” (Lewin)

“I know. I’ll aim for the remaining humanoid mummies.” (Aruna)

“I’m going to take down the beast mummies! Lewin-san, please take care of the humanoid mummies that are nearby!” (Rosalie)

The timing of the Mask Queen’s [Summon Undead Beast] was unexpected, but the two of them started making the right moves before I even needed to say anything. I was a bit scared to let Rosalie fight the beast mummies alone, but I had to defeat those humanoid mummies first.

Seeing that we had reached a critical juncture, I didn’t hesitate to take a Strength Potion out from my belt holder. There were only a few of them left, and this was the only one I had on me at the moment, but I decided that this was the point where I had to give it my all.

When I opened the bottle, the smell was as bad as ever, and my face contorted in disgust. I tipped the contents of the bottle into my stomach all at once.

While enduring the reflex to vomit from the nasty aftertaste of Dumbbell Weed, I faced the mummy in front that was charging relentlessly in my direction.

I dodged the mummy’s swinging punch, and then I continued the momentum through and slitted its stomach as I passed by. The response in my hands was good, and if it had been a normal living being then it would have been over, but… I immediately whipped around, and as black liquid spurted out from its stomach, I sent the mummy’s head flying.

The mummy’s head collided with the dark golden wall behind it, where it slid slowly to the ground. As it lay there, its mouth kept opening and closing like a fish gasping for air. It gradually ran out of energy and stopped moving, fading into ashes.

…Recently, I hadn’t been able to pay attention to my opponents’ appearances during battle, but right now it felt as if everything I saw was being instantly processed as information, even if I didn’t want to.

My heart was pounding so fast that it felt like it would jump out of my chest, and everything in my body was hyper-reactive as if in response to that pulse.

As expected, the effect of the Strength Potion made by the grandma from Elf’s Tears was tremendous.

While desperately trying to hold down my elation at the sensation that made me feel like I wasn’t even in my own body, I dashed towards the summoned mummies, determined to slaughter them all.