Had they been fortified to resist magic? I looked over at Ariya, who was slashing through the bugs with Shadow Zekkinotachi. She couldn’t blow any of them away with magic, though, so they were beginning to surround her. She was also much less efficient at using the blade than Aegiana had been, so she was exhausting a lot of mana. She’d run out sooner rather than later. I guess they may be magic resistant, but not enough to block the magic of an Artifact.
Ariya sliced off part of a bug, then devoured it using Vampirism to recover her mana. She looked utterly disgusted as she did this. Yeah, I doubt that tastes good. But at least with this strategy, she could make sure she never ran out of mana. Also, she should go on Fear Factor or something. I’m seriously impressed she can eat them so easily.
As for me, I used strings to tie up their legs, leaving them immobilized, then I beat them to death with my long sword. I began experimenting a bit and found that, although they had hard exteriors, the parts where their joints met were much softer. With that in mind, I decided to test some things out with my long sword.
I glanced at Fenrir. He was simply kicking the bugs around, biting them, trampling them—he was handling them with ease. This made sense given how high his STR was, especially compared to the bugs’. Apparently, he’d resorted to this because his ranged attack wasn’t enough to insta-kill them. At best, it could wound them a little. So he’d given up on long-range attacks and was instead using the wolves to herd the bugs towards him so that he could kill them. An effective strategy. This was a good first step towards formulating better strategies. Luckily these enemies have low intelligence.
“Heya, Inori,” Sylph called out to me, having completed the job I asked her to do.
“You found them?”
“Yep.”
“Good job. Where?”
“Up there.” Sylph pointed towards a small cliff. Okay, let’s do a quick raid, I thought, before teleporting there.
“Hey, what’re you doing here?” I called out playfully.
“Wha—”
Apparently this was the individual that Sylph had found. There wasn’t anyone else around, anyway. There was just a brown-haired woman cloaked in a black robe. She was probably another beauty. She also had a horn growing from her head.
“Wh-Where did you come from?!” At once, she pointed her staff at me.
“Me? I’m just passing by.”
“Yeah, right!”
“Well, if you don’t believe me, that’s fine. Anyway, there’s a huge horde of monsters heading to Regin.” I shot a look towards the field. “I can’t help but find it really suspicious that you’re watching all of this from up here.”
“Hmph. Stop beating around the bush!” She raised her staff. “Yeah, I was the one who summoned those monsters.”
Chris Chamsel / Demon Sorcerer (Hypnosis Contract)
HP: 57/57 / MP: 5023/15300 / STR: 1020
VIT: 980 / DEX: 870 / AGI: 58 / INT: 5900
Divine Blessing(s): Grace of the Demon King
Titles: Summoner, Avenger
A demon...sorcerer? This was the first time I’d seen this. Also, was this the same person I’d seen at the church that one time? She was wearing the same clothes, but she looked a lot less pale than she had back then. Oh—and then there was the horn growing out of her head too. Her race had also apparently changed from human to demon. Maybe that had something to do with it. She didn’t seem like she remembered me. Maybe she’d remember Sister Sensei, though?
“So what’s your plan? Are you going to turn me over to the Regin Church?” she asked as I swung my long sword diagonally in front of me, getting into a fighting stance. “Or do you plan to kill me? If so, I have bad news for you...” Suddenly, a magic circle formed and a purple light began to shine from it. In the next moment, I was surrounded by bug monsters. “You’re going to die here. Did you really think I couldn’t summon any more? I prepared a magic circle in advance for something like this.” She put her hand to her mouth and began to laugh. “How about this? If you put your weapon down, I’ll spare you. Regardless, I won’t let you get in my way.” She glared at me, and the bugs around her began to hiss as they approached me. So gross. “You don’t really think you can win, do you?”
I clicked my tongue in annoyance and began to act as though I felt threatened. “I know when I’m outmatched. I’ll surrender.”
“Good instincts. Now throw your weapon away.”
As instructed, I threw it. Right at her.
“Hey! Why’d you throw it at me?!”
“Sorry—my hand slipped.”
My long sword landed a little to the left of her. She glanced at it and then at me. “I commend you for your grace in defeat. However, now that you’ve seen me, I can’t let you live. Sorry for deceiving you.” Wow, that was short-lived. “I’ll make sure your death is painless.”
“So, just to be clear...you’re breaking your promise?”
“I have something I must accomplish. I have no time to waste on you.”
“Okay, then I’m gonna break my promise too.”
“Huh?”
It was time to test out what I’d been wanting to try. I snapped my fingers and, in the next moment, the sword I’d thrown at her feet leapt up and sliced her feet clean off, making her fall to the ground. It had all happened so fast, she didn’t even register it. Her face was frozen in confusion. I took advantage of that to tie up all the monsters with my strings, sealing their movements.