CH 274

Episode 274 – Dog-Shaped Mummy

Despite the fact that the dog-shaped mummy was about twice the size of an Angry Wolf, there weren’t any openings in the front, as far as I could see. Based on what I could see when looking at it directly head-on, the only parts that weren’t covered in bandages were its mouth and eyes. It seemed too risky to aim at its face, where there were two vicious, evil-looking fangs sticking up out from its lower jaw. I took the dog-shaped mummy’s movements into account while searching for a place where an attack could work.

As far as I could see when Rosalie had been fighting against it, there was no doubt that it was a strong opponent. But just like the humanoid mummies, we couldn’t afford to take too much time to defeat it.

In the meantime, the Mask Queen was always summoning the next wave of mummies; if we didn’t defeat it quickly, we would be overwhelmed by their numbers.

After steeling myself to accomplish what I needed to do, I increased my speed to the maximum and dashed towards the dog-shaped mummy.

I transitioned from a jog into a full sprint and was thinking of pressing the attack if it wasn’t able to follow my movements. But unfortunately, its gaze was still completely fixed upon me.

In that case… I took a powerful step and pretended to swing downward from an overhead position, and I then quickly maneuvered towards the side.

The feint allowed me to get around to the right side, and I immediately set my eyes on a place that I could attack.

There were six places where the bandages were loose, and at two of those points, the bandages were linked.

If I could use my dagger to hit the places where the bandages were linked, I might be able to loosen the bandages. But since there were only six places to attack on the right side anyway, I didn’t need to take the time to do that.

I saw the dog-shaped mummy swinging at the feint from the downward slash from moments before, so I knew that I could narrow the distance. I wrapped around further to its back side, and when the dog-shaped mummy tried to belatedly turn around in reaction to my movements, its right-side was facing me. In that instant, I began my attack.

Aiming at the spot on its flank where I thought it would do the most damage, I focused all of my energy at one point and thrust my sword into its body without the slightest deviation.

While maneuvering at top speed, I managed to strike at the slightest opening in the dog-shaped mummy’s movements while it was still moving around. If I missed this attack, I would be in a terrible position, but my sword slipped seamlessly into the gap in its bandages, slicing through its decaying flesh and inflicting serious damage.

Hearing the mummy’s groaning roar for the first time, I pulled out my sword and created some distance once more.

Purple-black liquid was spewing out from the area where my sword had pierced into its body. The wound was serious enough that a living creature would probably have died from it already, but… since it was an undead, it moved away and turned to face me as if nothing happened.

It leapt at me in a totally unaffected manner, but there was purple and black liquid dripping down from its mouth, and its movements were dull.

I calmly avoided its leaping attack by rolling forward, ending up behind it. This time, I circled to the left side, aiming at the gap close to where I had stabbed it on the other side, and I thrust my sword in once more.

Inside its body, the wound where I stabbed into the mummy intersected with the damage that I previously inflicted, and I saw the dog-shaped mummy’s movements slow down noticeably. When it turned around to try and maintain vision of me, I stuck my sword into its eye and twisted it as if to gouge it out.

The blow finally proved fatal, and the dog-shaped mummy fell to the ground face-first. Before long, it disintegrated into a pile of ashes on the floor.

Whew.

Thanks to the increased speed bestowed to me by the Strength Potion, I was able to beat it with some time to spare, but it had still been a much more troublesome opponent than I had imagined.

As a beast-type monster, it had both speed and reflexes, and most of its body was protected by those black bandages.

Due to its large physique, it also had power, and, as was typical of undead, only an attack to its head would be fatal, so I could only attack its eyes or mouth.

There were currently only 3 humanoid mummies on this floor, and Rosalie was doing her best to keep them in check.

Most likely because they had gotten the hang of fighting against the humanoid mummies and bird-shaped mummies, the pair were starting to be able to defeat them a lot faster than the mummies were being summoned.

I ran over to Rosalie’s side to provide her with backup.

“I safely defeated the dog mummy. Rosalie-san, are you injured anywhere?” (Lewin)

“Aruna defeated the bird mummy. I was fighting humanoid mummies the whole time, so I’m totally fine. Anyway, thanks for taking care of that dog mummy.” (Rosalie)

“No, it was nothing. I used a potion to strengthen my body, so I can deal with all the tough enemies… In return, I’ll have to ask for your help in case the potion’s effect wears off.” (Lewin)

“Yep! When that time comes, you can leave it to me!” (Rosalie)

After that exchange with Rosalie, we continued destroying the mummies that were being summoned.

The battle situation stabilized considerably after the dog-shaped mummy had been dealt with, so I began to run all around the floor dealing with as many mummies as I could in an effort to reduce their burden and allow them to take it a bit easier.

It was easy to know when the Mask Queen was switching attack patterns. When her magic power dropped to one-third, she would stop summoning humanoid mummies.

I wanted to be able to do as much as I could until that point, but… I found that my muscles were starting to twitch and cramp.

I’d felt cold sweat running in rivulets down my back as I fought against the humanoid mummies, and finally the Mask Queen came down from her position on high.

She landed softly on the ground, seemingly ignoring gravity in the process. Then, she held up her staff.

―This is the critical moment, huh?

We needed to defeat the mummies that were being summoned while avoiding the Mask Queen’s magic attacks.

The biggest concern was whether or not my body would hold out, but I probably didn’t have the luxury to think about that while fighting.

“Rosalie-san, Aruna-san. It’s the last stretch! Let’s fight with everything we’ve got!” (Lewin)

“Mhm. Now that I’ve gotten a bit of a breather, I’ll go all out.” (Aruna)

“I’ll also fight with everything I’ve got!” (Rosalie)

It was time for the Mask Queen’s final act.

This was where things really started to get tough. The difficulty level would shoot up significantly since we had to try to land attacks on the Mask Queen as she moved about the floor.

I exhaled deeply as if to release the heat building up in my body. Putting all of my strength into my trembling limbs, I stared intensely at the Mask Queen.