Chapter 57: Dungeon Practice (7)
Chapter 57: Dungeon Practice (7)
The start was smooth.
Vincent stepped to the vanguard, drawing his sword with confidence, while Helena gripped her rosary from the rear, casting blessings upon us.
I took my position in the middle, holding the Shining Lion Dagger in one hand and my recently purchased staff in the other.
It was a simple, single-file line, but... considering there were only three of us and our roles were clearly defined, this was actually the better approach.
It was a model formation, one you might find in a textbook.
"Hmph... I was a bit tense since it's a dungeon, but this is no different from an ordinary forest."
"Yes. It is essentially a section of a normal forest that was sealed away along with the monsters living inside."
Vincent muttered as if he were losing interest, and Helena replied in her usual gentle tone.
Taking their brief exchange as a signal, we began to advance slowly along the forest path.
About five minutes had passed.
We finally encountered our first monster.
Rustle.
"Wait."
To me, it sounded like a simple breeze, but I suppose it was different for an Aura User. Vincent brought us to a halt, his voice low and serious.
"Over there. Something's there."
He pointed his sword toward a patch of bushes a short distance away.
Rustle, rustle.
As if aware it had been spotted, the leaves shook. Then, something popped out from behind them.
Brown fur. Long ears. Red eyes. And a plump little body.
"...A rabbit?"
Seeing a creature that looked like a rabbit by any definition, Vincent lowered his sword, his tension evaporating. However...
"Get your sword back up! That's a monster!"
There was no way a normal animal would be in a dungeon.
Perhaps the rabbit realized it was no use trying to fool me, seeing as I was already on guard and preparing a spell.
"Pwee."
The rabbit let out a long sigh and instantly shed its facade of a docile herbivore.
"Screeeeeech!"
It let out a shriek that sounded eerily like a human scream. Its body swelled to the size of a medium-sized dog, and a sharp horn sprouted from its forehead.
"An Evil Rabbit...!"
Only then did Vincent realize what it was. He hurriedly corrected his stance and lunged forward.
"I'll cut you down right now!"
A good call.
There was no reason to wait for the enemy to finish its transformation. You should always take them out during their most vulnerable moment.
Slash!
"Kreeeee!"
The Evil Rabbit, unable to react to the superhuman speed of an Aura User, was left in tatters.
It was quite grotesque to see its entrails spilling out from a gash in its side that looked more like it had been torn open than cut.
Yet, it wasn't dead. It was barely clinging to life.
The incantation for the spell I was preparing was just about finished.
Just as I was about to finish it off cleanly before things got annoying—
"...Huh?"
Vincent let out a dumbfounded sound and froze. His gaze was fixed on the near-dead Evil Rabbit. And for good reason.
Squirm.
"Kyahhhhh!"
Suddenly, the creature's jaw split into four segments, and a bundle of thick tentacles burst forth from its mouth.
It was a completely different sight from moments ago when it was just a large, horned rabbit.
The reason an Evil Rabbit—which has the combat power of a medium-sized dog at best—is classified as a monster is because of this form.
Despite being a bottom-tier monster, the damn thing actually has a Berserk pattern!
Well, even so, it's only slightly stronger than a goblin.
I had intended to end it before the Berserk pattern triggered... but my magic was a bit slow.
No matter.
Its appearance, looking like it had been infested by some alien parasite, was hideous, but the fact remained that it was on the verge of death.
Zzap.
I felt the current at the tip of my staff. Sensing the completion of Thunderbolt, a low-grade lightning spell I had recently learned, I shouted:
"Move, Vincent! My spell is ready!"
I was warning him not to be surprised since a spell was about to fly right past him. But my consideration turned out to be useless.
Because...
"Aaaagh! Tentacles... The tentacles...!"
Vincent was already in a state of total panic.
Well, yeah. That scene just now was pretty gruesome.
Vincent leaped to the side to avoid the bundle of tentacles the Evil Rabbit lunged at him.
But of all places, he jumped exactly into the path of my Thunderbolt.
Crackle!
"Gah! An ambush! It's an ambush!! There are more of them hiding!"
"You... you idiot!"
That happened because you blocked my spell with your body!
The only silver lining was that thanks to my Shield magic and Helena's blessing, he only flinched a bit and seemed fine despite taking a direct hit.
"H-Help me, everyone! Aren't we a party?! Even if we're surrounded by monsters, we have to become one and break through...!"
Ah, his panic just got worse. He was swinging his sword in every direction, treating a minor situation like a life-or-death crisis while screaming for help.
Is this what it looks like when someone flails around in a pool that only comes up to their waist?
The most amazing part was that he wasn't getting hit even once during all this.
In H&A, when Vincent fell into a panic, he became uncontrollable and his accuracy plummeted... so this was why.
Anyway, I couldn't just leave Vincent like that, so I had to help.
It was too late to chant another low-grade spell. I'd just have to whack it. The thing was half-dead anyway; one hit should do it.
"Terra."
A clump of earth gathered at the tip of my staff. I injected a bit more mana to harden it.
If I swung it like this, it would be no different from a long mace.
...Not exactly the proper way to use a staff.
Just as I was about to kick off the ground with a smirk, someone else charged in faster than me.
"You vermin-like monster! How dare you reveal those filthy tentacles!"
With her eyes rolled back halfway and her tied-up blonde hair fluttering behind her, Helena charged.
She was so fast it was hard to follow with the naked eye.
On top of that, her body was glowing to an almost excessive degree.
Don't tell me she stayed still since the start of the fight just to stack blessings on herself?
Helena, who had always radiated a soft and gentle aura, was now exuding a murderous intent so fierce it was terrifying.
Perhaps sensing the threat of her headlong charge, the Evil Rabbit, which had been reaching for Vincent with its tentacles, desperately fired its horn with a shriek.
"Kreeeeee!"
Yes, fired. It's a one-time move, but when an Evil Rabbit feels threatened, it can launch its horn like an arrow.
Of course, it wasn't enough to stop the current Helena.
"Did you think something like this could stop me, one who has received the Lord's grace?"
Helena dodged the horn with a slight tilt of her head.
Her movements were fluid, clearly not those of an amateur.
"Eek! Hieeeeek!"
There was a minor accident where the horn Helena dodged grazed Vincent's cheek, but regardless, no one was seriously hurt.
In the end, the Evil Rabbit failed to retract its tentacles and lost its only horn. Helena, arriving right in front of the creature, used her momentum to deliver a devastating kick to its head.
CRACK!
It was a sickening thud, like hitting a leather pouch full of water.
The Evil Rabbit's corpse, its head and entire upper body obliterated, tumbled across the ground.
Standing before the remains of the Evil Rabbit scattered in a fan shape, Helena took a breath and turned around.
"Are you hurt anywhere, Brother Vincent?"
She gave a bright smile, as if she hadn't just brutally exploded a monster like a maniac.
It was only then that I remembered.
The Church of Righteous Light was a group of fanatics who would dive headfirst into anything related to evil gods without a second thought...
Even I was startled; imagine how it looked to a cultist.
No wonder they get targeted and destroyed or corrupted by cultists in the late game.
I nodded to myself, recalling how the cultists in H&A absolutely loathed the followers of Light, but my thoughts were cut short.
"Hyaaaaaaaagh!"
"Eh? Brother? Brother Vincent?!"
Had the excessive brutality finally broken his mental state? Vincent screamed and bolted away from Helena.
...Give me a break.
Up until now, I'd only seen Vincent's issue as a simple line of text: 'Unable to show true skill due to combat nerves.' I didn't realize it would be this much of a headache.
Since Vincent was a recruitable character, he had his own side story.
If I recall, the setting was that he had only ever trained against illusions that left no corpses, or against his father, a powerhouse he couldn't even scratch.
Because of that, he was pathologically terrified of actual combat where blood splattered and bones broke.
Overcoming that was the main plot of Vincent's story.
But it wasn't something that could be fixed right this second. For now, I had to bring him back and hold him down by force if necessary.
I tapped the shoulder of Helena, who was staring blankly at Vincent's retreating figure.
"Don't take it too personally, Priestess Helena. I think he was just startled."
"Yes... I am fine. More importantly, we must follow Brother Vincent."
Despite her words, Helena looked a bit dejected as we headed in the direction Vincent had run.
Since Vincent's physical abilities were unnecessarily high, we had to run for quite a while before we found him sitting on the ground with a vacant expression.
...I also discovered that there was a trap right under Vincent's feet.
And of all things, it was a monster-luring trap.
WREEEEEEEEEEE—
A piercing sound echoed loudly throughout the entire forest.
And just like that, we were screwed.