Yukine made sure everyone was on the same page. “Got it then, that’ll be our strategy.”
Then right as we had wrapped everything up…
“Sorry to bring this up after we’ve settled on a plan, but I have a favor to ask all of you.”
…Ludie chimed in.
“What sort of favor?”
“If I can’t awaken my High Elf power, even if we’re still in battle, I want you to leave me behind and escape.”
“Ludie…,” Yuika murmured.
I patted Ludie on the shoulder.
“What is it, Kousuke?”
“You’ll make it happen. I guarantee it.”
“But Father tried all sorts of things to awaken it in himself, and even then, he couldn’t do it. So there’s a really high chance that I won’t be able to eith—”
Was her anxiety making her overly talkative? I calmed her down as she hastily continued. And then…
“Your dad’s your dad, and you’re you,” I said. “I don’t know anyone more capable of pulling this off than you, Ludie.”
“But—”
“No buts. Believe me, I know you. Besides, you’ve eaten something His Majesty hasn’t, right?”
“Eaten? Eaten what? Ramen?”
Okay seriously, just how much did she like ramen? C’mon, that wasn’t it.
“The Seed of Possibility, duh. You’re overflowing with potential. So I know you can do it.”
Though, even if she hadn’t eaten it, she would have been able to awaken just fine. I figured framing it like this would make her a bit more relieved and give her the confidence to pull it off. The placebo effect was a real thing and all.
“I’ll block every attack that’s sent your way. So just focus on yourself, Ludie.”
She nodded, still wearing an uneasy look on her face.
Shortly after that, the Arch Elf appeared. We didn’t need to go to him; he came to us.
“Here he is.”
I felt an ominous power unlike what I had been feeling until now. When I looked at him, the first thought to come to mind was…
“Hmmm. A handsome dark elf guy, huh.”
Elves really didn’t play fair. I wanted to be born beautiful, too, y’know.
“He’s hot, but I don’t want to get anywhere near him. If I had to choose, I’d say you’re the tiiiiiny bit better option, Takioto.”
Yuika was absolutely right. The Arch Elf’s aura was frightening stuff. If you mixed together enmity, anger, and an all-consuming grudge, this was probably what would come out. Though, I didn’t really like hearing I was only slightly better than a guy like that.
“His mana feels like it’s gone berserk. Also, you were right, Takioto. I can tell there’s a faint barrier around him.”
Yukine sternly sized him up, naginata in hand.
As he walked toward us, the Arch Elf placed his hand out in front of his chest and built up mana. The instant he swung it downward, something resembling a swirling black whirlpool appeared on the ground. That was summoning magic, all right. He was going to attack us with his zombie underlings. The same zombies as alwa— Um?
“Huh?”
A confused sound escaped my lips.
“This is a bit different from what you told us, Takioto. That, and, how can I put it? Those things he’s bringing along? They look reeeeeeeeally familiar, don’t you think?”
“Oh yes, I’ve seen them before,” said Ludie.
“Yup, same here. Look pretty familiar all right,” I said.
Of course they looked familiar. We had been fighting against them just a few moments ago.
“What do you think the Church of the Malevolent Lord, and the Diamond Cross Knights at that, are doing here?”
Yuika brought up a damn good point. In the game, the Arch Elf summons some random zombies for you to fight, but no one ever mentions anything about him controlling the Church followers, too.
If I thought about it realistically…
The squad of followers who had revived the Arch Elf must have been killed.
And then, Diamond Cross Knights we’d fought must have encountered the Arch Elf and been defeated, too.
Now, they were all the Arch Elf’s servants.
That sounded about right. I couldn’t really think of any other explanation, and the logic was sound. It made me want to ask what the hell those idiots were even thinking in the first place.
“Well, I get that the Diamond Cross Knights must’ve provoked the Arch Elf and gotten themselves here, but they left us with a real big headache to deal with.”
I mean, these guys were clearly waaaaay stronger than any old zombies.
“So, should we change up our strategy? Leave Takioto behind while we all high tail it out of here?” Yuika joked.
“If I know you, Miss Yuika, I am sure that despite what you may say, you’ll fight together with Master right until the end.”
Nanami had voiced what Yuika would actually do. Yeah, that sounded like the girl I was familiar with.
“Thanks. I knew I could count on you, pal,” I said.
The look of profound disgust she gave me was very like her as well. If things didn’t end up working out, we were going to hell together. As long as Yuika was there, anywhere seemed like a fun time.
“That said, this isn’t really a fight we can run from. We flee now, and this enemy’s just gonna get stronger and stronger, right?” Yukine said as she cast enhance magic on herself.
A necromancer’s basic tactic was to use the dead to rapidly grow stronger and stronger. If they had a powerful corpse to manipulate, then their overall fighting power would significantly increase, and even if the corpses it controlled were individually weaker, they could just command more and more of them to attack with the brute force of sheer numbers.
Without a doubt, the easiest time to fight the Arch Elf was now, while he still had relatively few allies with him. Should we flee, we’d lose any hope of besting him.
“They’re almost like totally different people, huh,” Yukine said, looking at the church followers near the Arch Elf.
Exhibiting none of the refined, polished movements they had displayed before, the followers shambled along like listless zombies, or as if they were dragging something along with them.
The Arch Elf put his hand up over his head, and the Church followers attacked us all at once.
Coming for Yukine was the long sword and shield wielding follower she and Claris had just battled against. She barely managed to dodge her opponent’s slash. She didn’t attack, though, and limited herself to parrying their blade. She seemed to be taking stock of her foe’s skills.
“Gotten faster and stronger, it looks like.”
“Hm, but aren’t they being controlled right now?” Claris asked. The “why” was actually pretty simple.
“It’s because the Arch Elf has removed their mental inhibitions,” I said, outlining the reason. The Arch Elf kept the follower’s combat instincts intact while removing all the limits their brain put on their body. The ogre I had fought a long time ago to save Ludie had been in a similar state. That ogre had possessed self-healing abilities, but these guys were already dead to begin with, so it didn’t matter what happened to their bodies.
“His minions are gonna attack with suicidal abandon. Like with the Matango, they may not be totally invincible, but they’re stubborn as all hell, so be careful when you’re reducing their numbers,” I loudly informed everyone.
“Pesky bunch,” Yukine said before pushing back the longsword-wielding follower. She could have immediately delivered a follow-up attack, but she didn’t, as another one of the followers was coming for her.
“Easy to guess the sort of tremendous power this guy’s packing.”
He was one of the followers we hadn’t fought against earlier, from the squad who had revived the necromancer. There was a specific reason Yukine had used the word “tremendous”; the weapon he wielded was plain madness. The man was already a giant as it was, but the large one-sided ax in his hand had a blade the size of a fifty-inch TV.
“If you told me he was a dungeon boss, I’d probably believe you,” Ludie murmured, looking at him.
He must have originally been a bear beastfolk or something, since he was very tall, and the amount of muscle on his body made me look puny in comparison. He was dragging the ax along behind him right now, but there was no doubt…
“Yup, sure can lift that ax up like it’s nothing, can’t he?”
The ax-wielding follower slammed his weapon down on Yukine.
Fortunately, she dodged the attack with ease. However…
A roaring explosion. A blustering gust of wind. Small rock debris scattered everywhere, even reaching Ludie, who was farther back.
“…You gotta be kidding me.”
I couldn’t restrain my shock. The area where the man’s ax landed had actually exploded.
Having been right beside the blast, Yukine got caught up in the burst of pebbles and wind, and was very literally blown away.
The next instant, she regained her balance and landed on the ground, gazing at the ax-wielder while heaving a big sigh. Still, she couldn’t afford to stand there observing him for long. There were still other followers to worry about.
This time, the long-sword-wielder closed in. She managed to dodge his attack as well and opened up even more space between her and her foes. That very moment, Claris ran in to support Yukine, drawing the sword and shield user to herself.
In an impressive feat, she also managed to entice another follower at the same time, a dagger wielder who hadn’t been part of the squad we’d fought initially. If Claris put all her focus into blocking, her defensive capabilities were probably the same as mine.
Yukine, meanwhile, didn’t just stand there and take it either.
Moving with amazing speed, far faster than the ax-wielding beastfolk, she launched at him one of the rare power-focused techniques in her repertoire, Cascade.
I heard the loud clang of steel meeting steel. The sound was so ridiculously shrill and loud, being next to it probably would’ve ruptured my eardrums.
“Even with this move, it’s still just a draw, eh?” Yukine murmured.