CH 125

It’s morning, and I feel myself being shaken awake.

I open my eyes, and see Sera’s face. She has a finger in front of her mouth, gesturing for me to be quiet.

I nod and sit up, before I sense something through Presence Detection. It’s still a little far, but it’s definitely coming this way. I’m surprised Sera noticed it this far away.

We wake up Hikari and Mia too, but they’re still half asleep and their reactions aren’t great.

Was I also more tired than I thought? I haven’t been fast asleep like that in a while.

“Something’s coming from that way. Only one.”

Sera is already prepared to fight, and I get up and grab my weapon too. Calm down Mia, your dear staff is right there near your feet. The magic barrier I put up when we went to sleep is still active.

“Master, can you undo that wall? It’s hard to fight like this.”

Sera’s right, it would get in the way. I release my magic, and the wall turns back to dirt, unable to hold its shape.

In this field, it’s possible to dig and make holes, which can be used with magic. I discovered this yesterday when I had to dig to get food buried in the ground.

“Mia, stay near him. I’m going first. Hikari, follow me after you see the monster.”

Sera gives instructions, and we get into formation.

It moves about as fast as a wolf. I see a cloud of dust as it gets near, but am I just imagining that?

“Blood snake.”

I nod and face forward. Snakes are kind of scary. I’m a bit traumatized, because when I was a kid I saw on TV one wrapping around a performer tightly and the staff rushing the stage to help.

But I can’t run away from this. Hikari and Mia are right behind me. Hikari also figures she won’t be able to attack it with her dagger, so it looks like she’s going to try ‘that’ instead. She’s going to be defenseless while she focuses.

“Sora, what should I do?”

“That thing attacks with poison, so you might have to cast Recovery. But prepare a Holy Arrow first, and shoot it to keep the snake in check when Sera moves away from it.”

“B-but…”

The blood snake’s size and speed is making her eyes spin. I’m sure this being the first time she sees one doesn’t help either.

“You don’t have to hit it. Think of it as practicing shooting a moving target.”

It probably won’t do a lot of damage even if it does hit. It’s more just to get her used to using magic in the heat of battle.

I’m not too confident that I can hit something with magic when it’s moving that fast either. I’ve been using magic mostly at close range, other than area of effect magic.

From this distance, I think the gun would be better. With the aim correction of the Throw – Shooting skill, I could probably hit it even if I can’t aim very well.

What I really need to do now is stop it if its attention is diverted away from Sera. I draw my sword and hold it, and increase its attack power with magic energy. It won’t be much of a threat if it doesn’t do damage.

All right, everything is set. Now I just watch Sera fight the blood snake.

Is it fending off Sera’s axe attacks? It feels like it’s being hit, but moving along with the attacks and lessening the impact. It’s also using that recoil to bite and sometimes attack with its tail. Sera mostly dodges these attacks, but when she can’t, she crosses her axes and blocks them. She can’t quite kill the impact though, and gets thrown back.

But there isn’t a hint of panic on her face. It actually feels like she’s leading the blood snake around so we have a chance to see how it moves.

Ah, the snake breathes in deeply, and expels fluid that looks toxic from its mouth.

Sera jumps back to dodge it, and when it hits the tree that was behind her, smoke rises as it changes into a weird color and melts. Is it acid too?

I feel a disturbance in the flow of magic energy behind me. You’re right Mia, that really is scary.

“Master, I’m going.”

Hikari erases her presence and moves forward.

Sera senses this too, and bangs her axes together to draw the blood snake’s attention.

The monster takes the bait and attacks Sera. It goes in a straight line, but faster than we’ve seen it move so far. Sera simply faces it head on and strikes with her axes, first with her right hand, and a second later with her left.

The blood snake screeches as it’s blown back, and Hikari runs towards it and slashes what I guess could be called its neck with a knife.

Scales are torn off and red blood sprays, but it’s not a deep wound. The blood snake soon notices Hikari and opens its mouth widely to swallow her small body.

“Holy Arrow!”

Mia fires her magic. It doesn’t shine as much as it should, probably because the magic energy isn’t concentrated enough, but it flies straight towards the blood snake.

It’s going right towards its mouth as it flies, but veers off just before it hits. But that actually makes it an effective attack.

The Holy Arrow hits the blood snake near its eyes and bounces, and Hikari uses this opening to attack again and retreat.

Finally, Sera aims for the wound caused by Hikari and cuts its neck.

Ahh… That was tense. But now that I think about it, I didn’t do anything.

I should work extra hard making breakfast.

Blood snake meat can’t be used right away, so I use orc meat from the Item Box instead. I cut the meat into thin slices and roast it, and we eat it with bread along with soup.