Ch. 111: Newcomer during Attack
As the undead continued to fall around the encampment, penetrated and crushed by the stones being thrown at them, Loren pulled out his great sword from his back and jumped over the dirt wall and the ditch and stretched.
He then ran towards the undead and with a wide arc of his great sword, he cut through a few of them and sent them flying.
“Travelling with you two, I’ve been wondering sometimes.”
“About what?”
10
Lapis, who was throwing stones as she saw Loren run out of the encampment, replied to Dia, who had stopped throwing them.
She continued to throw stones and crush whatever parts of the undead she hit.
“He’s a human, right?”
Dia was pointing at Loren, who had left the encampment and was swinging his great sword around.
In an open area with no allies or obstacles near him, Loren could make the most use of his reach and power, so as soon as a zombie or skeleton entered the reach of his great sword, they were immediately cut down or crushed.
With the momentum and casualness as if he were mowing grass, he immobilized a few undead with each swing, and along with Lapis’ stones, they were decreasing the number of enemies slowly but surely.
“He’s a human no matter where you look, isn’t he?”
At Lapis’ response, Dia crossed her arms and frowned.
From her expression, Lapis noticed that she wasn’t satisfied with her response, so she stopped throwing stones and looked at Loren, who was in close combat with the undead.
Although Lapis evaluated Loren as a very skilled mercenary, she never thought that his abilities were out of the boundaries of a human.
She did hear from him that there was something inhuman living within him, but even with putting that into consideration, there was no quiver in her judgment that Loren was a human.
“But he’s using such a weapon, you see? His strength must be extraordinary, don’t you think?”
“That’s so, but I believe he is human because he uses such a weapon.”
This time Dia couldn’t understand Lapis’ response, so as she wondered what she meant, Lapis threw a large stone at a group of undead that neared the encampment, and after crushing their heads with the weight of the stone, she started explaining.
“Elves could never use such a weapon in the first place, no matter how hard they try. Dwarves can’t either since they are too short.”
“That is true.”
“Any sane demon wouldn’t even think about using such a large and heavy weapon, then wouldn’t it be humans who would decide to use a weapon like that?”
Although her conclusion drawn by the process of elimination wasn’t the kindest, it was enough to convince Dia.
But then another question popped up, and Dia asked Lapis again, with a wondering look.
“But the only ones who could make a great sword out of magic steel like that one is demon kind, no? Why would demons make something that they wouldn’t use?”
“…You’re right, now that you mention it. I mean, not that I know the details of where it came from.”
As Lapis continued to press that she had no connection whatsoever to the great sword that Loren was currently using, Dia had no intention of pushing the matter further.
But since she didn’t get a proper answer, the mystery just got deeper.
“By the way, not trying to ask for details, but where on earth did you bring that from?”
“I’m not too sure, but I saw it in the back of the storehouse back home, so I took it thinking that it might be useful for something. It seems like it was going to be melted down and the materials were going to be used for something else. Not that I would know anything about it.”
Another stone launched from Lapis hand and turned more of the undead back to corpses.
As she glanced beneath her, she saw that her supply of stones were almost gone, and thought that it might be time she started using <<Turn Undead>>.
“If it was kept safely in the back of the storehouse, wouldn’t it have been something important? Your parents must be surprised when they find it gone.”
“They cut off my arms and legs, and on top of that gorged my eyes out, so this should be basically be part of my allowance. There shouldn’t be a problem.”
“You’re talking about your actual parents, right…?”
Dia’s voice quivered, as if she had heard a scary story, but to Lapis it was a true story, and was something that she didn’t want others to thing that it was nothing but a scary one.
To her, taking a bunch of things from the storehouse at home was nothing more than a child’s prank, but she wasn’t sure if others would agree, so she believed that it wasn’t something to tell others.
“I won’t ask any further. I feel like it would just be listening to a scary story.”
“It’ll be thankful if you don’t. It’s not like I have a scary story to tell, anyway.”
After replying, Lapis turned her attention back to Loren.
But his opponents were nothing more than zombies and skeletons, so as long as he could use his great sword, they posed no danger to him, so Lapis quickly switched from him to the dragon zombie that was slowly but surely getting closer.
The dragon zombie’s movements were very slow.
There was still quite a bit of distance between it and their encampment, so it was possible to hit it with magic.
But sour thoughts crossed Lapis’ head.
Although undead, with the size and hardness of a dragon still present, it was hard to believe that weak spells would do any damage.
“I guess I’ll leave the small ones to Loren.”
Lapis’ eyes narrowed, and took aim at the dragon zombie across the sea of undead.
In her hand was a stone the size of a baby’s head.
As she held the heavy stone with one hand, she drew her arm back and threw it towards the dragon zombie.
The stone flew towards its head in a straight line, and when it hit, along with a loud crack, the stone shattered, along with skin, scales, flesh, and blood scattering everywhere as well.
“I was hoping it would do more…”
The next stone she threw barely peeled off a part of the dragon zombie’s head as well, and although some bone showed from the injury, it wasn’t even close to stopping it in its tracks.
Although it was obvious that her attacks weren’t effective, Lapis continued to throw stone after stone at the dragon zombie’s head.
Every time, it would shred its rotten flesh and skin, but didn’t do any meaningful damage.
“Wouldn’t it be better to attack it with spells after shredding its surface a bit further?”
A few more stones were thrown at its head, but each one of them shattered after only taking a bit of its skin and scales off.
Seeing that, Dia raised her palm towards the dragon zombie.
“You can leave the magic attacks to me.”
Losing its outer flesh and skin, the dragon zombie’s defenses had decreased by quite a bit, so Dia thought that if she used a spell, she could defeat it easily.
As she decided to use a high damage spell, her expression then turned to one of surprise, and from her lips, escaped a weak mutter.
“What…impossible…”
She had a feeling she heard something.
Lapis didn’t know what it was, but it sounded like Dia’s name, so she thought that someone had called her.
As soon as Lapis heard it, Dia’s expression changed.
“Dia?”
Lapis called out to her in confusion, as Dia was confidently about to use a spell, but didn’’t.
But Dia didn’t answer and lowered her palm and brought it up to her face and stared at it in disbelief.
Although she didn’t know what happened, Lapis stopped thinking about her.
“Swirl before me, crimson flames <<Fire Storm>>”
Since she understood that Dia couldn’t move, there was no reason for her to hesitate.
The fire magic created a storm of red flames around the dragon zombie, burning all the undead within its range.
When there was nothing else to burn, and the spell lost its effect, the flames died and the burnt corpses dropped to the ground, but within it, the dragon zombie continued to move slowly towards them, even with a large portion of its body burnt.
“What is going on…”
“That’s what I would like to ask. Why a priestess could use such a magic spell. Very interesting.”
As soon as she heard the voice near her, Lapis steeled herself as she grabbed Dia and jumped out of the encampment.
Jumping over the dirt wall and landing in front of Lapis and DIa was a young-looking man dressed like a butler, with red eyes and long white hair.
“I am a True that serves the Elder Stoos. My name is…I don’t really have one. But I was the first to serve Master Stoos, so please call me First.”
“Okay then First. What did you do to Dia?”
Lapis asked the True that called himself First as she put down Dia and pushed her behind her back.
Judging from the timing that he appeared and Dia started acting weird, Lapis guessed that First had done something to her, and as a result, rendered her unable to use her powers, but First didn’t answer her easily.
“What in the world would you be talking about? Even if I did do something, why would I have to tell you?”
“You’ve got a point.”
“Rather than her, shouldn’t you be more worried about yourself? I was ordered by my master to eliminate the adventurers assisting Dia.”
As First, who had his hand resting on his chest and had been bowing, lifted his head and looked at her, Lapis scoffed at his words and called out in a loud voice.
“Loren! I’ll be fighting a True. Can you deal with the dragon zombie?”
“Sounds like a lot more than I could handle, but alright! Do something about him before I die!”
“Leave it to me.”
After hearing Loren’s response, Lapis hit her left palm with her right fist, and cracking her joints.
“I’ll think about things later. I’ve decided that getting rid of the danger is top priority.”
“What a violent young lady. But do you believe that you have even the slightest chance of defeating me?”
Neither of the two had any weapons.
But since one was a True, a high rank vampire, and the other was a priestess, one would think that the priestess would be at a disadvantage.
But although the one standing there was a priestess, Lapis was no ordinary priestess, so with no hint of fear in her eyes, she stretched her right arm out, and as First wondered what she was doing, she flicked her fingers, taunting him to attack.