Chapter 27
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: Undead (2)
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'Think...! Think!'
Swinging my sword, I kept my mind racing without pause.
Trusting in the regenerative ability I'd gauged through weeks of training, I endured minor wounds and methodically cut down the undead one by one.
Individually, they weren't all that strong. The problem was...
"Their numbers have thinned out a bit."
-Clang!!
The Necromancer, who had been warily keeping his distance from me, snapped his fingers again. The undead I'd painstakingly taken down began to twitch and rise back to their feet.
'Damn it...!!'
No matter how many I felled, they kept coming back. Unless I completely pulverized their bodies into dust, they regenerated endlessly and charged again.
So far, I'd managed to avoid serious injuries while fighting back, but I couldn't keep this up forever.
"Grrr...!!"
Ricard, baring his fangs as he battled the undead, was gradually losing steam.
His ash-gray fur was caked in filth and blood, utterly filthy, and harsh breaths poured from between the sharp jaws that had once howled fiercely.
And though I wasn't showing it, I was feeling intense fatigue too.
'Stamina's holding up, but... every sword swing is building fatigue in my arms.'
I'd been swinging the blade as lightly as possible without wasting strength, but no matter how much I conserved energy, it wasn't enough against foes that kept reviving and swarming endlessly.
'Escape isn't an option.'
Even as I fought, I'd tried to secure a retreat route, but the Necromancer had deliberately placed more undead in that direction.
Forcing my way through would mean accumulating wounds no matter what.
And even if I took those injuries and fled, in this long, twisting sewer, they wouldn't take long to catch up.
'I have to take down the shaman.'
In the end, the only option left was to drop the Necromancer while we still had some strength.
But after I'd blown that golden opportunity earlier, he'd shed his carelessness and was methodically herding us into a corner like prey.
'Throwing axes from afar won't pierce that barrier. I need to get close at least...'
Even if closing in didn't guarantee breaking the barrier... I couldn't just sit here helplessly.
'Think. What means do I have right now?'
If I took light wounds, linking up with the isolated Ricard might be possible, even if retreat was out.
Could Ricard break through that barrier if it was him instead?
...No. My gut told me otherwise. Ricard's attacks were fast and sharp, but they lacked the weight to shatter that barrier.
The Duplication ability... The energy I'd spent duplicating the hand axe earlier had mostly recovered. Thank goodness duplicating Karen before had increased my energy capacity once more.
'That guy's... just reviving corpses as they appear from a distance.'
I observed the Necromancer's movements.
Other than summoning undead and shielding himself with the black veil, he seemed to have no other tricks—he was just hiding behind the veil, mechanically reviving every corpse that fell.
Unlike before, he'd placed two undead in my path to block my approach.
'...In the worst case, the Black Sacred Relic...'
I'd considered duplicating the Black Sacred Relic again if things got dire, but that was a last-resort-of-last-resorts.
I still didn't know why it had changed my body back then, and it might have just been luck— this time, it could devour me alive.
Duplicating something else would be better... Something else?
'...Wait. Come to think of it, on the way here...'
One possibility flashed in my mind. At the same time, I watched the Necromancer's expression and read his patterns.
'...It's possible, but to make it work, I need an opening. How?'
I'd found a slim chance, but turning it into reality required several prerequisites.
Especially now, with no openings in sight, executing the plan I'd devised was nearly impossible.
-Thud!!
Even as I pondered, my body moved busily, swinging the sword.
The fundamentals I'd learned from sparring with Karen were rapidly honing in this extreme situation, my movements growing fluid.
-Crack!!
I smashed the skull of an approaching undead with the pommel, then retracted the sword and thrust it backward at the presence closing in from behind—without even looking.
-Stab!!
Feeling the blade sink between ribs, I spun my body half a turn, cleaving one undead in half and severing the wrist of another that had sneakily reached out.
"Grrr!!!"
I was growing accustomed to real combat, holding out more easily than before. But Ricard across the way was in bad shape.
His movements were noticeably sluggish, and the arm bearing his claws trembled intermittently—likely a cracked bone.
'If Ricard falls, I'm next.'
It was easier to endure than before, but the moment Ricard went down and the undead turned on me, the balance would collapse.
Time was running out.
'...Hm?'
And at that moment, as if checking Ricard's status, the Necromancer's gaze shifted briefly toward him.
Yet without even looking, he swept his hand toward me, and the corpses I'd just desperately cut down rose again as undead.
In that mechanical motion of raising corpses without glancing...
'...One thing.'
I harbored one doubt and immediately tested it.
'Duplicate.'
I visualized one image in my mind and attempted duplication.
Right now, my understanding of the target I wanted to duplicate was overflowing.
At the same time, a fixed amount of energy drained from my body, and exactly what I'd envisioned materialized before my eyes.
-Rumble!!!
Fortunately, during that time, the Necromancer's attention was fixed on Ricard. He swept his hand, and the downed corpses repaired and revived as undead once more.
'...That's it.'
And in that process, I glimpsed a ray of hope.
I confirmed the prerequisites for executing that plan.
'Energy cost... lower than expected. So, five ahead... no, four including that.'
"Grng...! Grk...! Cough!!"
As I solidified the plan, Ricard began to falter.
Wounds multiplied on his body, blood spewed from his mouth as if he'd taken internal damage, and focus faded from his eyes.
"Tch. Still putting up pointless resistance. If you'd given up sooner, I could've used that corpse in as pristine condition as possible."
Seeming to sense Ricard nearing his limit, the Necromancer's focus shifted to him, and a few undead peeled off from me toward Ricard.
As if intent on finishing Ricard first, then me.
'Now.'
With the Necromancer's attention on Ricard. I squeezed every ounce of energy in my body and activated my lifeline ability, 'Duplication,' repeatedly.
Each duplication produced an item before my eyes, which I hurled toward my desired spots.
I reached for my waist. The feel of the hand axe, still not fully familiar, met my hand.
No duplication this time. I needed to conserve energy for duplications.
I hefted the original axe and threw it.
The target wasn't the Necromancer, but the undead blocking the path between us.
-Splatter!!!
The axe, thrown with all my might, instantly burst the undead's skull. Hearing it, the Necromancer turned back to me and clicked his tongue.
"Tch. Still pulling the same trick..."
"Raaah!!!!"
Roaring, I summoned strength from my entire body to bat away the nearby undead.
Using hands and feet to forcibly shake them off, my limbs got bitten, wounds piling up.
Undeterred, I focused solely on breaking free, regaining freedom of movement for a brief moment.
Bleeding profusely, I seized the opportunity bought with wounds and charged straight at the Necromancer.
"Where do you think you're...!!"
The Necromancer grimaced and thrust out his hand urgently.
His rolling eyes spotted the corpses between us.
Black energy extended from his body, and the fallen corpses rose, blocking my path.
"Hmph. You think I'd let you approach again..."
Four new undead sprang up instantly, barring the way between us.
As the briefly panicked look on his face started to ease into smugness, I muttered one word inwardly.
'Duplication release.'
The keyword to vanish the duplicates I'd created. An ability I hadn't used during training, as I'd pushed to maintain them to my limit.
I whispered the keyword to make my duplicates disappear.
Then.
-Whoosh!!
"What!!"
The undead blocking my path vanished like bubbles in an instant.
'As expected... He revives the closest corpses first.'
The target I'd been duplicating: none other than 'corpses.'
On the way here, I'd spotted one, poked it out of suspicion.
If I could duplicate living people, what reason was there not to duplicate a corpse now?
Especially while grappling with corpses in combat, my 'understanding' had piled up steeper than ever.
'Maybe living beings are judged differently—energy cost was lower than expected.'
Far less energy than duplicating Karen or Laila, allowing me to briefly duplicate four corpses at once.
And I'd tossed those duplicated corpses into the path between me and the Necromancer.
'From what I checked earlier, he revives the nearest corpses first.'
Even if they were corpses I'd duplicated, he could still turn them into undead.
But even his controlled undead, if made from my duplicated corpses, vanished upon 'Duplication release.'
This was confirmed earlier while he mechanically raised corpses without looking, his gaze elsewhere.
Once I realized that, I'd duplicated as many corpses as possible, then during the fight, pretended to push back undead while flinging the duplicates close to him.
So that when I approached, he'd instinctively raise the nearest ones as a meat shield.
"What the—why are the corpses...!!"
And now. The meat shield between us vanished in a flash.
All that remained was the pitch-black barrier.
Greatly flustered by the sudden disappearance, he glanced at my empty hand as I charged and quickly regained composure.
'F-Fine. I don't know what trick he pulled... but charging barehanded like an idiot!'
As he hurriedly tried to pull over distant undead to replace them.
I summoned all remaining energy after duplicating the corpses and envisioned it.
The heavy weight. Nearly human-height size. The might that crushed a slime in one blow. The feel when I'd touched and swung it myself.
'Duplicate.'
I poured every bit of energy into the Duplication ability.
A faint glow gathered in my hand, soon forming a massive shape.
"Gr-Greatsword?"
And in my grasp was a massive greatsword.
The greatsword that Coron, after slaying the variant slime upon entering this sewer, had boastfully offered for me to try holding.
A greatsword worlds apart in weight from the longsword I'd wielded before now filled my hands.
"A weapon appearing...! Could it be a mongrel of the Forger of All Things?!"
The Necromancer's face twisted as he thrust out his veil with all his might.
But that was it. A bottom-tier Necromancer, talentless and scavenging sewers for corpses denied even his share, bereft of blessings beyond the pitch-black veil.
Normally, that would suffice. The veil regenerated endlessly unless shattered.
And its sturdiness wasn't something a mana-less wretch could break.
However...
-Kagagagak!!!!
The greatsword clashed against his raised veil.
At a speed I couldn't have managed holding it normally, I brought the greatsword down from above.
-Kwang!!
A horrific roar echoed. The barrier that had shrugged off hand axes and longswords before screamed and crumbled.
"This is impossible...!!"
No mana was detectable.
Yet, through sheer overwhelming physical prowess and the greatsword's weight, the veil tore apart.
"Gr-Great Crooked Life, grant me your blessing..."
"Shut up and die."
-Thwack!!
Forcing the Necromancer's mouth shut as he invoked his god's name, I cleaved him from crown to groin with all my strength.