Chapter 148
Chapter 148
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 148
Chapter Title: Underground Ambush
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[Chapter 147 - Underground Passage (2)]
"A person?"
"No, I don't know if it's a person... but it's definitely something that looks human-like! I saw it clearly!"
When Arsen asked with some skepticism, Bazkal insisted that he had definitely seen it.
With the added testimony that it was wearing some kind of shell-like clothing, Arsen nodded in affirmation while falling into thought.
Barkran's claim of having seen a person was quite convincing.
This passage was originally designed as an enormously long structure to loop around the entire continent.
Though construction had been halted midway, even what had been built would be an immense length.
At that scale, it was only natural that there might be additional entrances midway or that passages had formed over long ages.
Eloise raised an objection to this assertion.
"It's supposed to be a ruin—would it really be that sloppy?"
In response to her objection, Latis shook his head.
"It's possible. Most ruins are designed so you can't pass through anywhere but the entrance, but sometimes holes appear in walls or other spaces. For a ruin this massive, it would actually be stranger if there weren't any such openings."
"Hmm."
"Then maybe looters came in and..."
At someone's words, everyone shuddered for a moment.
The offspring of looters are looters themselves, so if that kind had multiplied inside here, they'd be a formidable enemy.
In the worst case, there could be tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of looters living within this passage.
Of course, that would require ample food and water.
In any case, the only thing they could do now was press forward.
* * *
They advanced rapidly for several days without even taking time to rest beyond eating and sleeping, preparing for the depletion of their food and water, but the human-like figure never reappeared.
Anun scratched the back of his head and said.
"If we still haven't seen it despite going this far, maybe it split off into one of the side passages?"
Rino, standing beside him, replied.
"Or perhaps it fled faster than we're advancing."
"If that's the case, it definitely wasn't an ordinary person."
"Right. We're a bit slow, but no normal human could outrun us on foot..."
This underground passage wasn't a simple space with just the main tunnel.
It had started as a straight line, but at some point, small paths began appearing on both sides.
Ignoring them and pushing on risked a surprise attack from behind, which wouldn't be pleasant, so they began patrolling these small paths, dubbed side passages, one by one.
Some side passages were occupied by packs of magic beasts, others had streams of underground water or artifacts that seemed to have reached the end of their lifespan or were broken.
The underground water was drinkable and proved helpful.
After checking several small side passages like this, they finally gave up on patrolling them all.
The existing side passages intertwined with others, risking getting lost, and some that seemed short extended off to strange distant places.
Continuing to patrol side passages while advancing would take years to reach their destination.
Since they had decided at some point to ignore the side passages and push forward, it was entirely possible that the 'human' Bazkal had seen was hiding somewhere, evading them.
As they discussed this, the things reappeared, mocking their assumptions.
And in a most unwelcome form.
"Aaagh!"
The sudden scream came unexpectedly from the rear.
Turning around, Arsen saw a Starburmi mage collapsing from Jin, bleeding.
Something like a small tree branch protruding from his shoulder. Its meaning was clear.
An attack from an arrow or something similar.
"Enemies!"
"It's from the rear! Mages, gather inward!"
Shouting orders loudly, Arsen spurred his black lion toward the direction from which the arrow had likely come.
Positioned in the center of the formation, it didn't take him long to reach the suspected origin.
The black lion kicked off the ground and cleaved through the air like the wind, allowing Arsen to arrive at the launch point in an instant.
What met Arsen's eyes was a crossbow-like device left standing alone.
'This...'
A wall-mounted crossbow, connected at the end by a long cord—judging by the form, it hadn't been fired directly but rather triggered some trap-like mechanism.
The cord led into the adjacent side passage.
As he pondered whether to follow and check it, commotion began stirring from the main group.
"Damn it!"
"Arrows! Everyone, get down!"
Rushing back, he saw short spear-length arrows flying continuously from the front of the main passage.
Even with a knight's enhanced vision, shots from at least several hundred meters away in the darkness were hard to see clearly.
Their momentum was ferocious, making the earlier shot that pierced the mage's shoulder look like child's play.
To evade them, the group—combatants and non-combatants alike—had plastered themselves against the left and right walls, prone.
In the midst of this, Arsen standing idly seemed dangerous, so Latis, crouched behind a combat puppet, shouted.
Shocked by Arsen's stance, he even rose his upper body amid the peril to yell.
"Sir Arsen! It's dangerous! Get down!"
Just then, two or three arrows flew toward Arsen, who strode forward confidently atop Jin.
Without even shifting his step, Arsen casually tilted his head and smacked the incoming arrow shafts precisely, deflecting them.
It was so simple a motion that onlookers might think he was batting away pebbles.
With his ability to accelerate thought speed and the superior physical prowess unique to a high knight, such ranged attacks posed no threat to Arsen.
Only attacks exceeding the speed of sound like bullets or barrages of hundreds that left no room to dodge or block could harm him.
"It's fine, Elder Latis. You get down—it's dangerous."
"Oh... Understood."
Leaving Latis, who let out a dazed exclamation before prone again, Arsen walked toward Rino.
"Rino!"
At Arsen's call, Rino, prone and watching ahead, whipped his head around.
"Yes, Captain!"
"Damage report?"
"Sir Bazkal took an arrow to the arm. He's being transported to the rear for treatment!"
"Seems aimed?"
"Not fully precision-aimed, but they can roughly see us!"
"They're shooting at the light."
Arsen's group was the sole light source in this dark passage, using magic.
This bright light would be a target visible from hundreds or thousands of meters in the darkness.
Arsen bellowed loudly enough for the rear mages to hear.
"Everyone, extinguish the lights! The enemy is shooting at the fire!"
Knights struggled to accept darkness willingly, so the order took a moment to implement.
But the immediate threat of incoming arrows ensured all lights went out soon after.
As expected, once darkness fell, the arrows' accuracy visibly wavered.
They still came relentlessly, but their precision was abysmal—like begging the passage to hit someone passing by.
Arrows embedded far ahead of the group or whistled far over their heads frequently.
Still, they couldn't ignore them and advance.
Whether at least ten enemies were taking turns or not, the firing rate rivaled an old Gatling gun.
Moreover, being metal-shafted iron arrows, they packed enough power to pierce knight armor if taken undefended.
Coming from pitch blackness made observation and evasion extra difficult.
"Didn't one of the mages get hit earlier too?"
"He's been treated."
Eloise approached while answering the question.
Arsen said with concern.
"It's dangerous here—fall back."
Arsen now stood at the group's foremost point, the highest probability spot for arrows.
To his words, Eloise smiled and replied.
"Hiding just gets you hit by bad luck. Better to have someone who can reliably block right beside you."
"Well..."
Mid-reply, Arsen's senses caught an arrow.
Unclear if precisely aimed or chance, but left alone, it would pierce Eloise's head.
Arsen raised his axe to swat it away.
But someone moved a step ahead of him. Her reaction was slightly slower, but positioned right beside Eloise, the motion's outcome was faster.
It was her combat puppet, the shield bearer.
This skilled knight positioned itself to shield Eloise, raising its shield diagonally to meet the incoming arrow.
The arrow struck the shield and bounced harmlessly away.
"...Like this, it can block. That one was blocked, right?"
Unsure due to the darkness, Eloise spoke tentatively.
Arsen nodded affirmatively.
"Yeah. The shield bearer blocked it. It's well-modified."
Combat puppets' cognitive abilities were pathetically limited originally, incapable of proactive defense like this.
They only blocked if the controlling mage directly perceived and commanded against the arrow.
Arsen himself had exploited this weakness to wipe out Starburmi's coup forces.
This proactive defense was a result of Eloise independently modifying the controller, thanks to Barkran's advice and acquiring superior artifact processing skills.
"Anyway, as you see, no need to worry about me. Better to put this shield bearer up front to block. Can't tell who'll get hit if they fire wildly."
Even as she spoke, arrows kept coming relentlessly. One had to wonder how they amassed so many metal arrows.
If knights and soldiers charged upright, half dying before reaching the enemy wouldn't surprise.
Nor was Arsen solo-charging on his black lion a clear solution.
If ten or more knight-level foes up ahead shot then swarmed him?
Arsen could beat six or seven knights, but that many posed a risk. He was mighty, but not invincible.
'Invincible... invincible...'
Then, an apt solution flashed in Arsen's mind.
Arsen spun around quickly and said to Eloise.
"Eli, incoming arrows from ahead are yours."
"How?"
"Biwing Bird."
Arsen dashed toward one soldier. Precisely, the space bag on that soldier's mount.
* * *
Thanks to relentless practice since acquiring Jin, Arsen's flight skills had improved vastly from his initial attempts.
Not proficient enough to joke about, but at least he wouldn't crash-land like Bazkal once did, smashing Jin into the ground.
Even for him, flying here gave pause.
"Hmm..."
Arsen maximized his vision and accelerated his thought speed.
He now flew atop the biwing bird along the upper part of the underground passage.
As a knight, he had excellent night vision, but it didn't equate to daylight clarity.
Especially in a place without a speck of light.
Hitting the ceiling or pillars stretching from floor to ceiling would mean a crash.
Wearing artifact armor, fall damage posed no risk to him, but wrecking the biwing bird sent chills down his spine.
'Where are they?'
Not too high to hit the ceiling, not too low to be spotted by enemies, not colliding with pillars.
Adhering to all three, he slowly flew hundreds of meters until the arrow perpetrators finally revealed themselves.
Ugly beings blending human and ape features, with grotesque, pot-bellied builds.
They wore overcoats seemingly made from magic beast byproducts—likely what Bazkal had seen.
Surprisingly, there were only three of them, and the source of the ferocious firing rate was a Gatling-like device.
'What the hell is that?'
Metallic with two wheels, it vaguely resembled an old cannon fitted with Gatling barrels.
A ship-wheel-like drum in the center, with iron arrows lined up on rails beside it.
These iron arrows loaded sequentially as the drum turned.
The creatures had roles well-divided.
One cranked the drum-like device furiously, while the other two hauled and loaded iron arrows diligently.
That explained the ceaseless barrage.
Now that he'd grasped their nature, it was time for counterattack.
Ideally, capture these monstrosities to identify them and seize that Gatling-like iron-arrow shooter.
Arsen circled slowly to find the optimal attack angle, then struck.
'Here goes!'
A javelin attack using the javelin launcher.
Twisting his whole body to gather power, amplified through the launcher, the force and speed were immense.
So intense it ripped the air with a sonic boom.
The sharpened javelin flew toward the enemy.