Chapter 44
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: An Unforeseen Ambush
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Pitter-patter.
Tiny bits of debris landed on my shoulder. Anxiety and fear tingled at the edges of my nerves.
Before my brain could even process what the debris was, my body moved on its own, spurred by the anxiety and fear prickling my nerves.
Tug.
I followed my instincts, grabbing Rireu's shoulder and leaping to the side.
The powerful conviction that I would die if I didn’t act belatedly flooded my mind.
Thrown off balance by the sudden impact, Rireu lost her footing and fell with me, the tip of her staff pointing toward the sky.
The bolt of lightning that had been erupting from the tip of her staff shot straight into the ceiling.
On the ceiling, where the pure white flash struck, clung a spider with long fangs, like a vampire's, extending below its jaw. The monster was nearly twice the size of either me or Rireu.
As if crossing paths with the lightning, the spider leaped from the ceiling and crashed down on the spot where we had just been standing.
A sharp hole was gouged into the floor, and brick fragments flew in all directions.
“Damn it, Trian…!”
“I know! Just hold on a little longer, Rex! The mages are the priority!”
On the battlefield, a mage is the very definition of a glass cannon. Their powerful spells are destructive enough to turn the tide of battle, but apart from that magic, a mage's own survivability is utterly pathetic.
They lack the agility to react to sudden situations, and their stamina is so low that even a minor threat can easily kill them.
That's why combat in this world generally revolves around protecting the mage.
But this situation was far from typical.
Their numbers had dwindled, but at the start, the monsters had outnumbered us two to one. On top of that, each one was far from a pushover.
If we had placed Rex next to the mages to guard them, there was a high chance he wouldn't have been able to properly block the enemies pouring through the narrow doorway.
…So this was a sort of no-win situation.
If we positioned an infantryman next to the mages to protect them, we couldn't fight effectively. But if we placed the infantryman at the front to engage in combat, the mages were left vulnerable to a rear attack…
An absurd, unreasonable no-win situation.
Where did it all go wrong?
Was it a mistake not to consider the possibility of the wall collapsing?
In the game, beyond the monitor, a dungeon wall had never collapsed.
So I thought it was some kind of absolute barrier made of a special, indestructible material.
I was once again keenly reminded.
This isn't a damn game; it's reality.
A shitty reality with no system, no game mechanics, no invisible walls or glitches, and no such thing as experience points.
The spider, with its massive, vampire-like fangs, spread its long legs wide and lunged its teeth toward me and Rireu, who were sprawled on the floor.
Rireu quickly moved her staff past my back and calmly aimed it at the spider.
Too late.
There wasn't enough time for her mana to convert into lightning, for the lightning to gather into a single point and transform into the spell called ‘Bolt’.
No matter how agile elves were, that was purely ‘physical’ agility—swinging an arm, aiming a staff. ‘Magical’ agility, like casting speed, was a separate ability.
Moreover, in this sudden crisis, her staff was shaking violently. A clear sign her concentration was broken.
I'm losing my mind.
Oxygen wasn't reaching my brain, and my tongue wouldn't move as I willed it. This was an emergency where I needed to use Blooming right away, but my mouth was too busy gasping for air.
My tongue wouldn't obey.
I felt like I was going to lose my mind.
The Grim Reaper's scythe was at my carotid artery, its blade touching my skin, yet my body couldn't react.
What was even more terrifying was that, unlike my useless body, my brain was calmly and coolly analyzing the entire situation.
Death felt all the more vivid.
A foolish lament even surfaced: if only I didn't have the [Composure] trait, I wouldn't be feeling this terror so clearly.
…Shit.
‘If I use [Blooming] in this situation, Rireu will definitely get caught in it. She hasn't even deployed a barrier; it won't end with just a minor injury. On top of that, Rex and Trian could also be endangered. I have to rule it out.’
It wouldn't be strange if a giant fang pierced my neck at any moment. In less than a second, the light would leave my eyes, and Rireu, pinned beneath me, would surely suffer a fatal wound from the fang that impaled my throat.
Magic was not an option.
In that instant, unlike my tattered body, my mind made a calm and precise decision.
Click.
Pull the Mimic's doorknob.
In the midst of a chaotic battle where a split-second decision determined life or death, this was the only move I had left.
Creeaak…!
A pitch-black void peered out from the crack in the door, as if ready to suck me and Rireu in. I pulled Rireu, who was lying on the floor, into my arms and rolled to the side.
It was only possible because I had pushed my stamina to the very brink of collapse.
There was no time to worry about whether the Mimic would react or not.
In the game, Mimics were programmed to attack only the target that touched them.
But this was damn reality.
So, this should work too.
If not, we die.
Skrrrt!
Seeing me and Rireu roll to the side, the spider with the long, vampire-like fangs immediately slammed its sharp, blade-like legs into the floor and changed its trajectory.
I pulled Rireu as close as I could into my arms to make sure she wouldn't touch the Mimic's range.
“Hah… hah….”
My vision blurred.
The fight wasn't even over, yet I felt like I was about to pass out from hyperventilating.
Hah…
A sticky, damp, and foul breath, like one from the maw of a giant monster, seeped through the crack in the door and caressed my cheek.
From the void beyond the slightly ajar door, dozens of eyeballs glinted simultaneously.
Clang!
The Mimic, disguised as a door, threw its slightly open maw wide. The doorknob slammed against the wall and bounced back from the impact.
Whoosh—
A wrinkled, reddish-brown tongue, its tip sharpened like an awl, shot out in an instant.
The Mimic's tongue pierced straight through the spider's torso.
With a large hole suddenly punched through its body, the spider couldn't bear the pain and began to convulse violently.
The Mimic's wrinkled tongue slowly wrapped around its struggling prey and, like a giant hook, dragged the spider into the abyss.
The spider tried to stab the Mimic's tongue with its fangs and legs to escape, but the Mimic didn't even flinch.
Thud!
After dragging the spider into the abyss, the Mimic closed its door-like mouth, as if the battle raging in the room had nothing to do with it.
The sound of the spider's body being crushed flowed clearly through the wall.
My stomach churned, and my head spun. The thought that if I had timed it wrong, we, not the spider, might have been sucked in there was enough to make my mind go blank.
“Get up, you morons! It’s not over yet!”
Trian's urgent curse jolted my dazed mind.
Only then did I see Rex's back as he held off two spiders all by himself.
“A little… help… here!”
Rex looked quite overwhelmed, fending off the attacks of two spiders at once.
The two spiders were lunging at Rex's head, fangs first.
Rireu quickly got up, swinging her staff and shooting sparks of lightning, while Trian also let fly his few remaining arrows. With an opening created, Rex began to slowly back away.
I left Rex's cover to the two of them and was the first to open the door and retreat into the back room.
My control over the red crystal was already clumsy. If I tried to support Rex in his bloody struggle against the spiders, I might make a mistake and cause a disaster where Rex himself got caught in the attack.
“Hurry!”
At my signal, Rireu stopped shooting lightning, retrieved her staff, and ran toward the door where I was.
“I-I’m here!”
She pressed her body tightly against the other side of the door and shouted to Trian, and only then did Trian also start running into the room with us.
Rireu, who had already entered the room and taken position, resumed providing cover fire for Rex.
Soon, Trian also managed to hide behind the doorway. He immediately nocked an arrow to his bowstring and shouted.
“Run, Rex!”
Rex, who had been fighting a difficult battle against the spiders, heard Trian's shout and immediately turned and started running in our direction.
The spiders Rex had been holding back stretched their legs toward their fleeing prey, but each time, Rireu's bolts and Trian's arrows stopped them.
Rex practically tumbled into the room and immediately pressed his back against the wall, preparing for the fight to come.
As soon as Rex was inside, Rireu and Trian ceased their cover fire and spread to opposite ends of the room, preparing to focus their firepower on the entrance.
Thud!
Two giant spiders slammed into the wall at almost the same time. They were shoving their legs and heads through the doorway, each trying to be the first to get inside.
“Hoo…!”
Clearly exhausted, Rex took a deep breath and raised his axe high once more.
Like a condemned prisoner with their head in a guillotine, the green spider had its nape completely exposed. Rex's axe swung toward it. The green spider's head flew high into the air in an arc.
The second spider, which had only its legs inside the room, pushed aside the green spider's corpse and began to shove its own body through the doorway.
Whirr!
The sound of machinery engaging was heard. Rex, having separated the green spider's head from its body, immediately fell back and moved out of the line of fire.
Whoosh!
The sound of burning air echoed in my ears. A crimson line pierced straight through the spider's head, burning its chest and abdomen from the inside out.
Because the spider's torso was stuck in the doorway, even with my clumsy aim, I had no problem hitting its vital spot.
The second spider soon became a corpse as well, sprawling on the floor. Only then could we finally catch our breath.
“Is it… really… over….”
I collapsed on the spot, nearly fainting.
Breath.
The chance to catch my damned breath had finally arrived.
Ah.
My vision started to go black.
The price for pushing this cursed body too hard had come due.