V3 Chapter 23

Translator: Silver  Editor: Namorax

Note: Holy Thunder Sword => Sword of Holy Thunder

Shield of Tituse => Teutates’ Holy Shield apparently Arc’s gear is based on Celtic gods

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「Leibnitz Incident」Part 3

Apparently, he managed to remember us despite his drunkenness.

“You are the bastards I met outside the castle! Who the hell are you? Western spies?”

The stranger we met yesterday couldn’t hide his excitement as he talked, even if he wanted to.

“We don’t need to talk with you.”

Ariane offered that reply as she drew her sword.

“Hehehe, I suppose I have to repay you for last time!?”

The man was carrying a sword on his waist, but he didn’t even try to draw it as he licked his lips,  ogling Ariane.

“How about you serve me with those breasts once that helmet head behind you is dead?”

There was a lecherous smile on the man’s face as he drew his sword and waved it around in an exaggerated fashion.

Along with his movements, two white beasts simultaneously leaped to the ground floor from the ballroom’s balcony. The two beast were large, two-meter long wolves with slightly phosphorescent tails that we had last encountered at the base of the Annette mountain range. They were troublesome monsters to deal with due to their ability to create illusions of themselves that confused their targets.

However, there were dull colored shackles around the forepaws of the two in front of us.

“Haunting Wolves!?”

Ariane’s and my shouts echoed simultaneously through the area.

As if they were waiting for that signal, the two beasts lowered their stances before pouncing at me with their fangs bared.

I immediately spun around to block one of the beasts with the shield on my back and clotheslined the other one.

I heard a dull sound as one of the Haunting Wolves was sent flying with a groan. My quick counterattack seems to have resulted in a critical hit.

“Huh!? So you’re not just a decoration? Then how about this!?”

The man was momentarily surprised at my unexpected actions before he resumed his laughter and hand waves.

A group of two-meter tall Ogres were the next monsters to step out of the dark abyss. Unlike the ogres we faced near the border, these were carrying large metal axes and they had dull colored shackles on their legs just like the Haunting Wolves.

“A monster tamer?”

It wasn’t a playable class in the game I played, but it wasn’t an unusual support class to find in an RPG.

In general, monster tamers could enthrall a number of monsters to fight for them. Since I never saw a person with a tamed monster in this world, I assumed they didn’t exist.

“I’ve heard rumors of humans in the north using black arts to enslave monsters!”

As I fixed my gaze on the man in front of Ariane, I saw him floating a smile as he positioned the ogres around us.

“Ohh, you’re well informed aren’cha!? My name is Funoba! Rozobanya’s monster tamer Funoba Sudo Rozobanya!! What are you gonna do? No matter how good that armor is, how many blows from these ogres can that guy withstand!?”

“How about we find out?”

The man who called himself Funoba started to laugh when I drew my sword, grabbed my shield from my back and I cracked my neck.

At my provocation, the self-proclaimed monster tamer Funoba shot me a death stare.

“Once I kill you, I’m gonna enjoy that big tittied woman’s body to my heart’s content.”

Funoba could not contain the anger from his voice as he licked his lips.

Ariane stepped forward and removed her own cloak, not only revealing her face but the contempt she felt towards Funoba.

“Regrettably, I was raised to not keep company with trash like you.”

Ignoring her sarcastic provocation completely, Funoba grabbed his stomach and started laughing harder once he got a good look at her face.

“Hihihi! Is that other bastard an elf too!? Did you come here to rescue the brethren that had been brought here!? Guess you should be congratulated for all of your efforts! But you know, they’re already gone!!”

As Funoba continued to laugh, a cold-blooded smile formed on Ariane’s face.

If this guy was to be believed, then there weren’t any elves left in this place.

“You wanna know what happened to them? Kukuku, were they experimented on with magic tools like the rumors say? What inhuman torture did they undergo? Were mothers separated from their children? How long did the men go before embracing the women? Kikiki.”

The flames of rage quickly consumed Ariane’s face.

“Youuu……!!?”

As Funoba continued to taunt us, flames erupted from Ariane’s sword once she was pushed beyond her breaking point, illumining the ballroom in a crimson glow.

All Funoba did was lightly whistle and smirk at this spectacle.

“Rest assured, I’m different from the rest of the humans in this country, why would I reject the the holes of a big breasted woman simply because she’s an elf? Kikiki.”

“!!! Shut your mouth this instant!!”

Funoba’s continuous provocations caused her to lunge at the man in a fit of rage. The sword cloaked in flames left a trace in the air as it was easily deflected by Funoba’s blade. Looks like  he was adept in swordplay as well.

As if that were the signal they’d been waiting for, the ogres and the remaining Haunting Wolves ignored Ariane and attacked me.

There was hardly any other person in the place apart from Funoba and his monsters, and he had yet to call for help. If we defeated this guy we could potentially escape undetected.

I tightened my hold on the 『Teutates’ Holy Shield』 while backing up to the closest wall. Believing this to be the best strategy for killing these monsters, I raised the 『Sword of Holy Thunder』 in preparation for battle. Fortunately, I’ve fought these types of monsters before and they weren’t much of a threat.

After I repelled a blow from one of the ogres’ heavy axes, I focused on the two Haunting Wolves charging me from the right, I noticed that two Haunting wolves were following behind them, so those in front must have been illusions.

“Perfect!!”

Previously, there were multiple Haunting wolves and they used their numbers to surround me, but there were only two here. Even with their illusions, I should be able to take them all out. As the two approached, I swung the 『Sword of Holy Thunder』.

After a pale blue light left the blade, one illusion dissipated and the floor was covered in the blood of a bisected Haunting Wolf.

I raise my sword again and refocused my attention, now calmer than before. While blocking every blow the ogres tried to deliver, I managed to slay three of them.

When one of the ogres faltered I quickly bashed it with my shield. A dull metallic sound rang through the area as the ogre was flung against one of the thick pillars and stayed down.

The other Haunting wolf tried to sneak around and attack, but was only greeted with my sword cutting off a piece of its nose. When the wolf stepped back to avoid the danger it bumped into the last of the ogres, allowing me to bisect the both of them.

“This amount of ogres is nothing!”

When I shouted and shook the blood from the 『Sword of Holy Thunder』, both Ariane and Funoba were shocked even as they crossed swords.

“What!? That monster!! Is there a Minotaur inside that armor!?”

“I’m disappointed, it’d take at the very least a dragon to restrain him!”

The both of them said some rather selfish things.

Ariane thinly smiled as she burnt away bits of Funoba’s clothing with each shallow cut she inflicted. Funoba ripped his tattered shirt from his body in anger. His tattoo was emitting a strange light and appeared to rise from his body. Was it a medium for invoking his monster tamer magic?

Though Ariane could be considered a skilled swordswoman, Funoba wasn’t lagging far behind. Watching their sword techniques made me realize just how skilled the two were.

However, my total decimation of Funabo’s tamed monsters seems to have given Ariane the edge.

“Fuck!! I guess I have no choice but to show you bastards my prized possession!”

When the loud sound of some of the ballroom windows shattering reached us, Funoba took the opportunity to distance himself from Ariane as a group of bipedal fishmen dropped in.

Their hunched over bodies were covered in bluish-green scales and they had fish-like limbs. They all carried metal harpoons and let out a strange shout while shaking their dorsal fins.

It was a common aquatic monster seen in the game. Could they have been hiding in that garden pond?

“They’re not wearing fishnet tights……”

“Sahuagin!? These monsters aren’t even as strong as the ogres!”

Despite myself, I remembered the carefree character from a certain anime I watched, as Ariane laughed at Funoba after cutting down a stray Sahuagin.

Just like the ogres before them, I used the 『Sword of Holy Thunder』 to cut down the Sahuagin that grouped up on me.

“Hahaha! They’re here to stop you from escaping!! Soon my special pet will arrive! Then it’ll be the end of the line for you bastards!!”

What the Sahuagin lacked in strength, they more than made up for with numbers.

Funoba’s laughter and the Sahuagin’s cries echoed through the ballroom when screams and a roar could be heard from outside the castle. The vibrations that accompanied the sound of thuds caused the entire castle to shake.

“What!?” “What’s that?”

“You may have the strength to cut through ogres, but can you take on this guy!?”

Funoba triumphantly smiled when he said that. The thuds and the vibrations gradually became bigger as something large approached.

The idea of him actually possessing a dragon suddenly crossed my mind.

Ariane only glanced at what was causing the uproar outside before she weaved through the Sahuagin in an attempt to reach Funoba. His perceived victory had let him become careless

『ーInfernal Flame, reduce all that you consume to ashesー』

A pale flame, whose heat was incomparable to anything before, engulfed Ariane’s sword. With each of her swings, the Sahuagin that protected Funoba were set ablaze by the deadly flame.

“Shit!”

Judging that he couldn’t take that attack directly, Funoba tried to retreat further behind his Sahuagin shields, but Ariane was one step ahead.

The wall of Sahuagin was set ablaze like a bunch of tissue paper the moment Ariane’s sword connected, allowing her to quickly catch up with Funoba.

“You bitch!!!”

Funoba screamed profanities at Ariane as their swords clashed. Though he managed to block her attack, the pale flames wrapped over Funoba like a snake and mercilessly consumed his body.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!?”

Funoba’s death wail echoed through the ballroom as the huge column of flame consumed the remaining Sahuagin and scorched the ceiling. The fire quickly spread over the entire ballroom ceiling before it was extinguished.

Ariane stuck her sword into the stone floor as she gasped for air.

The Sahuagin that had managed to avoid the flame quickly made their escape by jumping out of the broken windows. The few ogres that managed to survive followed suit.

“Ariane-dono, are you alright!?”

When I rushed to the panting Ariane’s side, she held up a hand to stop me and even floated a small smile.

“I’m alright, I just used a little too much mana……”

The Sahuagin that had been caught in the blaze had been completely reduced to scorch marks on the ground. That was quite a powerful magic.

From where I was standing I could see that Funoba’s body had been completely turned into charcoal and collapsed in on itself.

“Can you stand?”

“Thanks, Arc”

I sheathed my sword and helped Ariane up. Ponta suddenly unwrapped herself from my neck, leaped to my head and let out a cry, just before a deafening roar and shock ran through the entire building. The shock was so great that the chandelier fell to the stone floor and shattered into pieces.

I covered Ariane with my body to protect her from the flying glass shards.

“What was that!?”

Ariane frantically looked around before grabbing her sword and jumping out a broken window. Not knowing what to do I followed her lead.

There was a garden and pond outside the ballroom with the castle wall not far off. Some of the guards atop the wall were raising a clamor as they looked towards something just beyond the wall.

However, they were too distracted by something else to notice us.

“Arc! There!”

Ariane pointed out a corner of the castle’s roof where we could get a look at what was going on. I invoked 【Dimensional Step】 to transfer to that location.

What we saw were a number of giant snakes lifting their heads up as they flicked their tongues.  If the snakes were held straight up, they would measure about ten meters. When the five snakeheads attacked some nearby guards, I could see that they were all connected to one body.

The body the five snakes were attached to was a huge quadruped, it had been bending it’s neck over the city wall until the main body managed to smash through it.

“Hydra……”

Ariane muttered that beast’s name as her gaze fixed in on the overwhelmingly huge monster.

Though it could differ from those I know, the Hydras in the game were high-level monsters with water magic resistance and high-level regenerative abilities. While mostly unaware of a Hydra’s standings in this world, it was clear from the castle guards’ panic that it was a monster too menacing and overwhelming for humans to deal with.

With every step, the monster would mercilessly crush anything in its path.

A pressurized stream of water was shot out from one of the head, and it was strong enough to cut into the ground in a straight line, even decimating a section of the castle wall in its path.

Screams rose from the city as the streams even managed to reach there.

Without a doubt, this thing was what had been Funoba’s trump card.

With Funoba no longer here to control it, the Hydra was going on an indiscriminate rampage. If a powerful monster made its way into the city beyond the mansion even if it was somehow defeated, the city would most likely be reduced to a pile of rubble in the process.

“What should we do, Ariane-dono!?”

“This is a hopeless situation that has nothing to do with us, right!? Or do you have a way of defeating that thing?”

“Nuu……”

I could think of a few ways to defeat it, but…

If I confront such a huge monstrosity and won, I would no longer be able to remain out of sight since such a feat was bound to attract attention. But, this thing would become a problem if left alone.

The suffering that would surely befall the citizens caused me to hesitate in turning a blind eye to this situation.

The leadership of the castle guards had already broken down and they were simply trying to escape. It was only a matter of time before the Hydra entered the city.

There was no helping it, I’ll stand out in a slightly different fashion and divert the Hydra’s attention here so it could be slain.

“I’ll settle this in five minutes!”

I declared that while holding my hands out in front of me.

A huge magic formation appeared on the ground below us and started to emit a dazzling red glow that illuminated the area.

This is the first time I used something like this since I came to this world, but there was no sign of any problems. As the skill completed its activation, I was confident that I could deal with this problem without standing out.

“Come forth, 【Ifrit】!!”

A huge torrent of flame rose towards the sky from the large magic formation when I spoke. As the rain started to disperse the flames, a large shadow started to appear as a mighty roar echoed throughout the area.

Once the flames completely died out, a five meter tall demon was left in its place.

Two large black horns protruded from its head and a mane composed of fire surrounded its face. Its upper body was covered in red, armor-like scales and it stood on two legs that appeared to be a mix between a human’s’ and an ox’s.

Completing its terrifying visage was an open mouth filled with large fangs that exhaled fire.

“!? Wa-Wait Arc! What is that thing!?”

Ariane glared at me and demanded an explanation for the phenomenon that just played out in front of her.

It was one of the skills from the 『Summoner』 class I had obtained. As the name suggested, it was a class that allowed me to summon a support beast for a limited amount of time. Basically, the summoned beast would attack anyone that I marked as a target. Though it was impossible to give it detailed instructions, it was rather effective in exterminating enemies.

『Ifrit』 was a summoned beast that you received early on after acquiring the summoner class, so it only possessed high physical attack power and one fire attribute magic attack.

However, since the strength of a summoned beast scaled with the mana pool of the summoner, mine shouldn’t be inferior to a high-level monster.

As this was Ariane’s first time seeing summoner magic or a summoned beast she naturally had a lot of questions about it, but I was at a loss for words as how to explain it.

“Eh〜, it’s a creature I called forth from another world, I guess?”

Avoiding eye-contact with Ariane, who was still unconvinced after I gave her my answer, I paid attention to the rampaging Hydra instead.

All five of the Hydra’s heads were focused on the intruding 『Ifrit』 that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

As if instinctively knowing its target, 『Ifrit』 roared again before baring both of its clawed hands and leaping into the air.

Two of the snake heads opened their mouths wide and fired off the same beam attack from before.

『Ifrit』 was easily able to dodge the intersecting beams as they cut through the ground. Once it reached one of the hydra’s heads, it grasped onto the monster’s neck and used it’s flaming claws to tear it off.

“Gishaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”

The Hydra cried out in anger before it withdrew the burnt remains of its neck. However, 『Ifrit』 didn’t give the Hydra room to breathe, jumping over its heads and grabbing its tail.

One of the hydra’s heads tried to bite 『Ifrit』, but the fangs couldn’t pierce the armor-like red scales.

【Ifrit】ignored the hydra’s bite attempt and gave a courageous shout as it began turning the beast around. The bulky body of the Hydra began to rise off the ground as the rotation speed increased.

Everything that the spinning hydra came into contact with was instantly destroyed. The guards were now even more desperate in their attempt to escape the castle.

The 『Ifrit』 I summoned in the game never had such a move-set though……

“Ho-Hold on! That! Do something about that thing!!”

“Sorry. It won’t disappear until five minutes have passed……”

I didn’t plan to start a monster brawl in the city. As I was worrying about the damage from the 『Ifrit』 vs. Hydra fight spreading into the city, a familiar voice called out to us.

“Arc-dono! Ariane-dono! You’re both safe!?”

When I looked back, I saw Chiome standing behind me in full ninja garb.

“We’re not having any problems. How are things on your end?”

“I didn’t have any problems either. However, a Hydra appeared from the fort. Its movements became disorderly for a brief moment before it proceeded to break through the city wall and started destroying the feudal lord’s mansion.”

Chiome gave us a brief explanation before she turned towards the 『Ifrit』 while it continued its battle.

“By the way, what in the world is that fire demon?”

Unfortunately, the situation changed before I could answer.

The 『Ifrit』 released its hold on the hydra’s tail. The bulky hydra was sent flying by the momentum, and then it bounced off the wall like a rubber ball, just vanishing beyond.

A large boom outside of the property that was accompanied by the the sound of something collapsing and a bell ringing as a magnificent dust cloud rose up nearby.

The 『Ifrit』 leaped into the sky as it chased after the Hydra.

This was bad.

“We’re going after the Hydra and 『Ifrit』! Hold on!”

At my order, Chiome and Ariane immediately placed their hands on my shoulder. I ran by eye over the wall until I found a place that hadn’t collapsed yet

When I invoked 【Dimensional Step】, our surroundings instantly changed.

There weren’t any guards left. When I surveyed the city from the wall, I saw that the Hydra had crashed into one of the Hiruku church’s bell towers, and partially destroyed the main entrance.

Three of the Hydra’s heads rose from the wreckage of the church and let out an intimidating cry towards the sky. It was looking at the 『Ifrit』 that was slowly closing in on it from above.

I could hear screams from the surrounding buildings as the inhabitants fled the area.

When the 『Ifrit』 gave another mighty roar, its fire mane became white hot and spread over its entire body as it fell towards the Hydra like a meteor.

The three snake heads widely opened their mouths and fired pressurized water attacks at the flaming beast rushing towards it.

The collision of the meteor and white streams generated a large smoke screen that encompassed the whole area. Then something that sounded like a bomb going off created an explosion that blew the smoke away.

The 『Ifrit』 leaped into the sky while looking down at the remains of the church before it disappeared as if it had been a mere illusion.

“This…… has become quite a serious incident hadn’t it?

Ariane, Chiome, and I were left staring that the scene in silence.

The smell of burnt meat drifted up from the smoldering pile or rubble that had once been a church. Without the roaring from before, the terrified screams of the citizens could be clearly heard.

“…… Well, the Hydra has been defeated.”

“Kyun Kyun!”

While I sighed and pretended to wipe my forehead, Ponta sensed that the danger had passed and moved to my head again.

Ariane immediately took Ponta from atop my head and tightly held her against her chest.

“Yeah, so let’s get away from this dangerous place.”

“Kyun?”

Ariane’s flat voice caused Ponta to look up at her in confusion.

“Wh-What should we do now……?

It was Chiome, with her half closed eye, that broke the awkward silence.

Ariane and I shared a single look.

“Let’s return to Raratoia……”

“Let’s return to Raratoia……”

The two of us sighed when we simultaneously made the same suggestion.

From now on, let’s be prudent with summoning magic. I made that decision as I stared down at the destruction before looking towards the heavens.

Even the heavy rain, that had been pouring since midnight, couldn’t drown out the pandemonium that had sprung up.

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