Chapter 466: Reversed Roles
Chapter 466: Reversed Roles
“By the way, Matilda. How are you? Are you holding up? We talked about taking some time to get used to the ant nest, but we found the path forward much faster than I expected.”
Before leading the way, I checked on Matilda’s condition first.
Well, it wasn’t like we could turn back right away even if she was struggling.
Will she be okay? From here on out, Matilda will probably have to start participating in battles.
“Y-Yes? I-I’m fine. This much is… ah…”
But contrary to my expectations, Matilda answered that she was perfectly fine.
It was as if the dungeon’s atmosphere didn’t bother her at all. No, it was more like her mind was completely elsewhere.
“Hm? What’s wrong?”
“So, so cuuute…”
What? What’s gotten into her all of a sudden?
Don’t tell me she’s talking about me?
It was true that ever since she confessed her feelings for me a while back, the way she looked at me seemed to have changed a little.
Unless she was in her lovestruck mode, her tone and even her gaze had felt a bit arrogant and sharp. But after her confession, I’d noticed a subtle softness mixing into her gaze.
It was as if she had nothing left to hide.
But still. I could understand if she called me handsome, but cute?
First Leia, and now her. Maybe the religious folk in this world have a slightly different standard for cuteness?
“Kyaaah!”
On top of calling it cute, Matilda let out a shrill scream.
It was only then that I realized something was off. Matilda’s gaze wasn’t quite directed at me.
Following her line of sight, I turned my head and saw a single penguin waddling toward us.
Ah, right. I should have known.
Still, Matilda. The fact that you can admire a monster for being cute must mean you’re feeling pretty relaxed.
It seemed Matilda was gradually getting used to the dungeon’s atmosphere.
…Then again, she might just be so captivated by the penguin’s charm that she’s forgotten the oppressive pressure of the dungeon’s magic.
For now, I decided to stop worrying about Matilda and focus on the penguin.
It certainly did have a cute appearance.
Most of the animal-type monsters in this world had a somewhat more ferocious look than their counterparts from my original world.
That was true even for the rabbits on the 1st Floor.
But no matter how I looked at it, this penguin didn’t seem much different from the penguins of my world.
But no matter how cute it was, it was still a monster that had appeared here.
I corrected my posture and stood at the front of the party to face it.
But watching the penguin waddle toward us, I just couldn’t feel any animosity.
Is this really a monster?
Its movement speed was incredibly slow, and with that body, what could it do besides peck at us?
Just as my sense of hostility was fading, the penguin’s behavior changed.
Once they got within a certain distance, they suddenly dropped to their bellies and began sliding toward us.
Unlike before, their speed increased dramatically.
But no matter how fast they got, they couldn’t possibly attack in that state…
“Kyaaah! What is that?!”
No. Seriously, let’s try to focus.
I get that it’s cute, but come on.
Damn it. That monster. Trying to charm my girls with its adorable looks.
I have to be the one to keep a clear head.
The penguin, which had slid rapidly toward us, suddenly began flapping its wings when it was about three meters away.
And what do you know, their bodies lifted into the air.
They didn’t lose any of the speed they’d built up from sliding.
Right. They were the type to attack by pointing their sharp beaks forward and launching their bodies like missiles.
“Look out! Dodge!”
Of course, my defense stat was high enough that I could have blocked it.
But if I took an attack like that on this slippery floor, my posture would definitely break.
No, my posture breaking would be the least of our problems.
That wasn’t all.
Even if I blocked it, the penguin missile would only change its trajectory and shoot off somewhere else.
That would make things even more dangerous.
There was a chance my girls wouldn’t be able to react in time and get hit.
It might be better not to touch it at all, so its path remains predictable.
With that in mind, I gave up on blocking it with my body and hastily dodged to the side.
Fortunately, the penguin’s attack didn’t hit anyone.
But the problem was far from solved.
The penguin landed on the ground without losing any speed, slid from the floor to the wall, then up near the ceiling, and this time attacked from the air.
It was an attack that made perfect use of the ice cave’s terrain, where the floor, walls, and ceiling were rounded instead of having sharp corners.
Moreover, with it attacking from all directions, our formation of front-liners and back-liners became completely useless.
The creature was also smart enough not to target just one person per attack.
It chose routes that would put two or more of us in a straight line, completely shattering our formation as it charged through.
“Tch!”
I managed to dodge again, but the monster simply slid across the floor again, changed direction, and came at us once more without a second thought.
Damn. If we just keep dodging, this will never end.
On top of that, as time went on, the monster seemed to be accelerating, getting faster and faster.
“Sara, Diana! Attack!”
“Y-You say attack, but in this situation…!”
Sara, however, was too busy desperately dodging the penguin’s attacks to do anything else.
She tried to fire her bow whenever she had a moment, but her arrows of spiritual energy only pierced the spot where the penguin had just been.
It seemed that even for Sara, balancing on the slippery ice floor while dodging the penguin’s attacks and trying to hit its fast-moving body was no easy task.
It was the same for Diana.
At first, Diana had used a shield to block the monster’s attacks, but after seeing it ride the shield to change its trajectory and launch a surprise attack on someone else, she immediately stopped using it.
Instead, she wrapped her body in wind and, whenever the monster attacked, she would let its momentum carry her toward an empty space.
She was probably using such a flashy method to protect not only herself but Leia as well.
Thanks to that, Diana didn’t seem to have the leeway for any follow-up attacks either.
Damn it. In that case!
“I’ll make it target only me! Predict its movements and attack!”
I decided to make the freely-moving creature attack only me.
That way, everyone else could focus solely on attacking.
The monster’s possible routes would also become naturally limited, which should drastically increase the accuracy of their attacks.
With that thought, I immediately used Holy Ground Proclamation.
I didn’t want to use a skill that would affect my girls too, but I had no choice.
Hitting it with Saint’s Wave was obviously impossible, and honestly, touching it with a hand enveloped in Saint’s Touch seemed just as difficult.
I was already at my limit just trying not to fall while dodging its attacks.
The moment I activated Holy Ground Proclamation, the monster, which had been moving randomly, instantly locked onto me as its target and began to move.
Good. With this, Sara and Diana’s attacks should…!
Just as I thought that, I heard the sharp crack of ice breaking right next to me.
It was the sound of Silvia, who had approached me at some point, slamming her shield into the ground.
Silvia planted her foot on the shield to steady herself, held her sword horizontally, and swung it powerfully to the side just as the penguin charged.
Sshhhhaaa!
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
With a clean sound, the penguin’s body was neatly split in two. As expected of Silvia. The skill of a level 180-plus knight.
Wait. Besides that clean sound, I think I heard something else.
“Are you alright?”
Silvia, who had sliced the penguin apart with an unfazed expression, looked at me with a slightly bashful look and spoke.
Oh, she’s not wearing her usual blank, dazed expression even though we’re in combat.
Just like how Matilda’s attitude changed a bit after her confession, I felt like Silvia’s resistance to me had weakened ever since we talked about her wish.
Normally, she never made an expression like that during a fight.
No, judging by her performance just now, she seems to be concentrating properly on the battle, so I guess it doesn’t matter.
“Uh, yeah. Of course, I’m fine.”
Seeing her like that gave me a strange feeling, and I reflexively placed my hand on Silvia’s head.
I mean, can you blame me? A girl who just cleanly sliced a penguin in two from head to toe was now looking at me with a bashful expression, drenched in blood. Of course I’d feel a little weird.
Come to think of it, my hand is covered in blood too. Is it okay to be touching her head so carelessly?
…Seeing her tremble, I guess it’s fine.
Well, the blood would disappear once I harvested the magic stone anyway.
Knights sure are tough.
Silvia often says she’s used to things because of her knightly training, but is this one of those things?
If so, what kind of training did she go through? I was starting to get a little curious.
Of course, I had absolutely no intention of trying it myself.
As I stood there lost in thought, I turned my gaze in the direction I’d heard the scream from earlier.
There was Matilda, collapsed on the ground with a completely devastated look on her face.
Given how she had made such a fuss about how cute it was when she first saw it, this sight must have been quite a shock.
Normally, I would have told her she wouldn’t get far if she made a face like that over killing a single monster, but this time, I didn’t feel like saying it.
Not as someone who had just watched a penguin get split in two right in front of me and been showered in its blood and guts.
“Matilda. Are you okay? Can you handle this?”
I pulled the magic stone from the penguin’s remains, and after my body was clean, I approached Matilda.
“Y-Yes… I’ll do my best.”
“Right. Let’s find the path to the 3rd Floor as quickly as possible.”
Her answer was completely different from before, but I decided to be understanding.
“Hmm. But to struggle this much against a single one… It seems we should come up with a countermeasure before proceeding. If we continue like this, the moment three or four of them appear at once, someone is bound to get seriously hurt,” Diana said.
“Hoo… you’re right. It would have been manageable if the floor wasn’t so slippery. Isn’t there some way to deal with this?”
“Hmm… I doubt it will be easy to devise a countermeasure here.”
“How about we ambush them first?” Sara suggested. “When we first saw it, it was just waddling around. We could aim for that moment.”
“Hmm. Indeed. It appears to be a monster specialized in attack power and speed. Its defense didn’t seem very high, so it might be possible to kill it in a single blow with a surprise attack. Lady Silvia, what do you think? Your impression from cutting it down yourself.”
“Yes. I believe an attack from you, Lady Diana, or Lady Sara would be more than enough to finish it in one strike.”
“In that case, couldn’t I do it too?” I chimed in. “I took down that male ant in one hit. I think an assassination would work.”
Well, the male ant was a bit of a special case.
In any case, that male ant was probably stronger than the fake boss of the 2.5th Floor.
That would make it stronger than a regular monster on the 3.5th Floor.
Which means my assassination combo should be effective enough.
I mean, even the boss of the 3rd Floor went down pathetically to my Saint’s Touch.
“Hmm. Then let us do that. My magic is not suited for ambushes. If there is one opponent, you shall handle it. If there are two, Lady Sara will join you. If there are more, we shall quickly eliminate two and then deal with the rest.”
“Yeah, let’s do that. And if I’m the one going ahead to assassinate it, I can use Holy Ground Proclamation without you guys getting caught in it. Even if three or more appear, it’ll be much easier to handle than before.”
Part of the problem earlier was that the distance between me and the others was too small.
If I’m drawing aggro from far away by myself, I won’t have to worry about ricochets and dodge every single one of their attacks.
Having made our decision, we reformed our ranks and prepared to move forward.
But before that.
“Leia? What’s wrong?”
“…I’m sorry. I wasn’t any help at all…”
I looked at Leia, who had been quiet for a while, and saw her with a rare, downcast expression.
“What are you talking about? Not being any help.”
“But if I hadn’t been there, Lady Diana could have…”
Ah, I see. She had a point. If Diana hadn’t been focused on defense, we might not have had such a sloppy fight just now.
And since Leia had been clinging to Diana, half-frozen with fear, she probably felt even more guilty.
“But if you weren’t here, Leia, who would heal us if someone got hurt? Matilda’s healing magic is less efficient than yours. Don’t worry. I’ll be taking the lead from now on. There will be plenty for you to do.”
“Oh, Guwon… If it means you getting hurt, I’d rather just be dead weight…”
When I put on a smooth act to comfort her, Leia’s expression finally softened a little. She gave me a gentle glare and patted me lightly with her tail.
“There you go. That’s the spirit. The fact that you have nothing to do is a good thing for everyone. Don’t be so down.”
“Hmph. It is as this man says.”
Just then, Diana slowly flew over to us, stopped in front of Leia, and gently turned her back to her.
“L-Lady Diana?”
“…It is difficult for this body to walk and maintain balance on its own.”
Honestly, Diana.
She acted like she hated it so much, but when she saw Leia looking dejected, she was the one to step up and offer herself like this.
Honestly, why is every single one of my girls so kind?
“L-Lady Diana!”
“Whoa! I told you not to put your breasts on my head! At least put them on the back of my head! There’s no need to put them on top, is there?! Ugh… H-Having them on the back of my head is its own kind of humiliation…”
…Well, it seemed her aversion to Leia’s chest hadn’t changed one bit.
Well, good luck with that.
Seeing Leia’s smile fully restored, I gave her a grin in return, and we resumed our exploration.