Random Encounter (5)
I had no way of knowing which of the six servers on the sixth floor held Faye.
The only option was to check each one, and if she wasn't there, leave and re-enter the dungeon. Repeating that process over and over.
Each attempt would eat up an insane amount of time.
The academy alone possessed the technique for entering the exact server you wanted. If I'd known this would happen, I should have found some way to learn it. But I'd brushed it off, thinking the academy dungeon wasn't that important. That carelessness was on me.
There was nothing I could do about a skill I didn't have right now. All I could do was trust my luck and keep trying until it worked.
And then.
Luck smiled on me.
The moment I set foot on the sixth floor, a nauseating stench hit me.
At the very least, it confirmed there were black mages on this floor.
"Claire! Can you tell where they are?"
"This way!"
To a former holy knight like Claire, the presence of black mages was like a beacon.
No matter how carefully they hid, the instant she sensed them she could immediately tell which direction they were in and how far away.
We sprinted after Claire as she took the lead. Before long, I felt a wave of black magic so powerful it made everything we'd faced until now feel like child's play.
This time, even I could sense it clearly.
The situation looked bad. Still, the fact that someone was using magic this strong meant at least one person was holding their own against the black mage.
"Claire! Cast a protection blessing on me!"
"Yes ma'am!"
Even I had to admit the order was a little sudden.
The enemy wasn't even in sight yet, so why use holy magic already? And why cast it on me instead of herself?
She must have had plenty of questions, but once Claire switched into holy knight mode, she didn't voice a single doubt. She simply cast the protection blessing on me as ordered.
Thanks to that, I could save one precious breath.
"I'll go on ahead!"
Until now I'd matched my pace to Theo and Claire's.
If I charged in first, I might end up putting myself in danger too.
Even a black mage on the sixth floor was only around seventh-floor level, so I wouldn't fall that easily. But with people to protect, you could never be too sure.
Still, judging by the situation, I had to take that risk and go first.
I confirmed the soft white aura unique to holy magic shimmering around my body, then poured every ounce of strength into my legs!
Thud!
With every step, a heavy crater formed in the ground. My body accelerated at terrifying speed.
I'd never pushed myself to this velocity before. If I'd run like this at the academy, I would've torn up the neatly maintained floors. And the training grounds with their sturdy floors were too narrow for me to really cut loose.
Leaves whipped past like lashes, stinging my arms and legs. If not for Claire's protection blessing, I might have arrived with my limbs shredded and bleeding.
The forest, which shouldn't have been short in distance, ended abruptly. A swamp opened up before me, and my view suddenly cleared.
There was Faye's party, surrounded by a horde of undead.
A dome-shaped barrier was being besieged by zombies and other undead, and beyond them stood a grotesque flesh golem that looked like someone had played with clay using butcher shop scraps.
One figure stood facing the flesh golem.
Her bright orange hair was caked in mud from struggling through the swamp, but I couldn't see any other life-threatening injuries.
Still, the situation wasn't entirely positive. It wouldn't have been strange if the fight with the flesh golem had already begun.
I needed to join them quickly.
Luckily, the distance between me and Faye's party wasn't too great. It looked like they'd tried to escape the swamp as well.
In the end they'd failed to break free before getting surrounded, but their efforts hadn't been completely in vain.
By my estimate, about fifty meters.
Stepping into the swamp would inevitably slow me down. So I simply wouldn't step in it.
I spotted a rock jutting out at the swamp's edge and used it as a springboard.
Whoooosh!
My rabbit ears couldn't fight the wind and streamed behind me. The roar of rushing air shook my skull.
I need to come up with a countermeasure for the sound next time, I thought as I calculated my landing point.
The propulsion I'd gained from shattering the rock I'd used as a foothold was greater than I'd expected.
I'd planned to land between Faye and the flesh golem, but it looked like I'd collide with the golem instead.
Which meant...
It was actually perfect.
"Don't you dare mess with our Faye—!!"
I shouted to keep it from making any sudden moves.
Just as I'd expected, the sudden voice made both Faye and the flesh golem freeze for a split second.
A split second was all I needed.
As the distance closed, the flesh golem's form swelled in my vision.
The moment of impact.
I timed it perfectly and thrust my leg forward, pouring every bit of kinetic energy I'd built up into the kick.
The grotesque surface of the flesh golem met the sole of my boot.
In that instant, an overwhelming shock slammed through my body.
It felt like getting hit by the truck that sends people to another world—the sheer force of it.
Claire's protection blessing shattered in a single blow and scattered. Still, thanks to it, my body only suffered a slight twinge in my knees.
But the flesh golem, which had no such shield, had to take that massive impact head-on.
KWAAAAANG!!!
The strangely drawn-out moment of impact finally ended. A beat later, a deafening roar erupted as the flesh golem's upper body exploded.
Through the chunks of flesh flying everywhere, I saw the murky, dark-brown swamp... Huh?
With the flesh golem destroyed, nothing stood in my way anymore.
"Bunnyyyy!!"
I plunged straight into the swamp.
Splat.
Squelch, squelch, squelch...
"......"
An awkward silence stung more than anything.
Getting slammed into the swamp didn't hurt. The impact against the golem had slowed me down a lot, and the water was shallow enough that I was fine.
But this silence... it really hurt my pride somehow.
In times like this, it was probably better to just act shameless.
I stood up immediately. Wiping the mud off my face, I flashed Faye a bright smile.
"Faye! I'm here to help!"
Faye, who had been staring in blank amazement, quickly snapped out of it and smiled back.
"...Yeah!"
There were so many things I wanted to say to her. She probably had just as many questions for me.
But we didn't have the luxury of chatting right now.
"Catch."
I took off the pouch I'd been carrying and tossed it to her.
"You're out of potions, right? Use the recovery potions yourself and give the mana potions to the others."
A few might have broken when I collided with the golem and crashed into the swamp, but most of them should still be intact.
"Got it! Thank you!"
Faye checked the pouch's contents, gave a quick word of thanks, and ran back to her party members.
"Alright. Then I guess I'll buy us some time until they recover."
I looked at the shattered remains of the flesh golem.
The golem, which had lost everything above the waist in the explosion, had already regenerated up to its chest. The scattered chunks of meat writhed and crawled on their own, reattaching to the main body.
Ugh. What the hell is that? It's gross.
There seemed to be a limit to its regeneration—fragments that were too small didn't return. Once it finished regenerating, the flesh golem was about two heads shorter than its original size.
Even so, it was still big enough that I had to look up at it.
Squelch! Squelch!
With wet, sticky sounds of meat slapping against the water's surface, the flesh golem charged at me.
It raised its log-thick arms high and brought them crashing down.
If that hit, it would pulverize every bone in my body, but all I had to do was not get hit.
I kicked off the ground and leaped sideways, dodging the descending arms.
BAAAAANG...!
A sound like a bursting balloon rang out as a spray of water shot upward. I used the muddy splash as cover and closed the distance.
"Haa!"
I slammed a full-power kick into the flesh golem's side. I didn't hold back even a little—this was a sincere rabbit kick.
Thud!
The golem's flesh caved in deeply and burst apart.
Kicking with the leg strength of a rabbit beastman while wearing boots reinforced with thick iron plates wasn't just like swinging a mace—it was a mace.
"Tch. As expected, not very effective."
Unfortunately, the result wasn't satisfying.
Against a normal person, that strike would have torn off an entire limb or at the very least shattered every bone.
But against an undead flesh golem, it was nothing more than damage that could be healed by pumping in a bit of dark mana.
This wasn't because I was weak.
Unless it was holy power, which was the natural enemy of black magic, or fire-attribute attacks—the classic weakness of undead—my strikes just wouldn't land properly.
Actually, if I could finish it off in one hit even with attacks that weren't very effective, then maybe it wasn't entirely wrong to say I was weak.
Either way, since I didn't have holy power or elemental magic right now, I'd have to use a different method.
"Hey, you three!"
I called out to the noble young ladies' party behind me.
The three young ladies, who had been hurriedly drinking the potions Faye brought them, looked up.
"Is there a mage among you who can do attribute enchantments?"
One of them answered quickly.
"Y-yes! I can do it!"
"Fire attribute, please."
"U-um, where should I enchant?"
"My feet. The boots."
The mage girl seemed flustered at the request to enchant my shoes instead of a sword or spear.
Still, she didn't argue. She obediently began chanting.
A moment later, a red glow seeped into my boots. I guess that meant the enchantment was complete? This was my first time receiving one, so I wasn't entirely sure.
'Fire attribute' and 'fire' were different things. Thanks to that, I could receive the enchantment without issue even in the shallow waters of the swamp.
Squelch, squelch.
I stomped a few times to test it. Good. No problems.
Even in that short time while I received the enchantment, the impatient flesh golem charged at me, swinging its arms wildly.
Whoosh, whoooosh!
Even its random swings were followed by menacing gusts of wind. If I froze up in fear, that would be the end.
Conversely, as long as I didn't panic, dodging wasn't that difficult. The wild punches of a neighborhood thug would honestly be more threatening.
I lightly ducked under the horizontal swing aimed at my upper body.
The follow-up downward smash only hit empty air after I took a few casual steps to the side.
My turn, right?
I stepped on the fist embedded in the swamp, leaped up, and twisted at the waist.
"Uryaaa!"
My kick, packed with every ounce of strength in my body, slammed into the flesh golem's head.
