Pioneering the Apocalyptic World - Chapter 21
Chapter 15: The Mad King of the Plains
“Dammit… It became worse than when we ran away…!”
“… By any chance, the monsters that were attacking together were also…?”
Regulus clenched his teeth as if he were about to grind them to dust and Lise muttered in a hoarse voice, making her face turn pale.
It became worse.
Yes, this is certainly worse. No, the word worse is not enough to describe it.
(it was more like, messy and there’s a lot of strange things attached to it)
Perhaps I should have paid a little more attention to this explanation of Regulus. No, even if i paid more attention to it, in the end, my reaction would be the same.
After all, It was so unrealistic scene.
(??I thought it was disgusting……!)
I couldn’t help but think he thought correctly.
It’s a little hard to recognize because it’s wrapped in a black aura, but since it’s daytime, I can’t help but see its sinister form.
In the center of the village, which has been reduced to rubble, standing above a cloud of death, which does not allow the existence of any living beings. There was a being with a body of a lion??to be exact, a centaur-like body, with a lion-beastman’s torso attached to a four-legged beast’s head?? a goat head and a snake tail.
……and not only that.
There were a large number of parts that clearly belonged to the beastman sticking from it.
A horse’s leg, a hand that doesn’t retain its original shape, a bone, a cat’s head moaning in pain.
“The victims” were not only the beastman.
In addition to goblins and kobolds, there are also monsters like parts such as Sahagin-like finned arms and raven wings attached to it.
At this moment, I was thinking this in the corner of my head.
??It seems to be an overly ugly artwork that would blaspheme not only The God of Creation, but even The God of Destruction.
I felt like I was able to see through a evil, childish idea like, taking a lot of clay figurines apart and just sticking them together for fun.
I had a feeling that the creator of it hadn’t gone insane, but that he was in his right mind while doing this crazy, devilish act.
“To make it, break it and make from it again” I felt, like, It was twisting and mocking all of my actions that i taken until now.
Guruaaaaaaaaa! !
This roar sounded like the sorrow of “them” who can’t even realize that their way of being has become distorted and crazy.
Before the disgust, suspicion and anger welled up in me.
However, the one who was more angry than I was…surprisingly Uru.
“Who is… Who is the one! The idiot who created such a thing!!”
With a rage that seems to spout fire from her eyes, she looked like her fangs growed a little and her claws also became more sharper, I was stunned by her change.
I thought she would show disgust, but I honestly I didn’t expect to her show this much anger.
But it’s not the time to be surprised. When she was about to jump out, i grabbed her arm in a panic and stopped her.
“Wait! I’m begging you, please hold back!!”
“Why!? Don’t stop me, Rion!”
“That ‘thing’ is no good! Let’s withdraw because we will have to re-prepare!!”
What!? Not just Uru, but even Regulus and Lieze also opened their eyes.
“Look carefully! The black haze around it is miasma! We haven’t taken countermeasures against miasma, so it’s too dangerous to rush to it like this!”
Yes, that chimera was covered in miasma.
It’s not so dark that you can’t see the body, but it’s definitely there. The surrounding rotten earth and houses prove its existence.
It’s also probably the majority of the reason why the beastmans were killed. If you don’t have a countermeasure to it, unless there’s a big difference in ability you can’t even fight with it.
“Things like that, won’t work to me!”
However, it was such line that was spoke back to me who complained about the danger.
To that baseless confidence, this time I thought that my patience bag’s cord would snap.
“…Hey, Uru. You remember what i did tell you, right?”
“…Eh? Huh? Wh-what are you talking about?”
All the various emotions that I had been holding until now fell out, leaving me only with a blank expression.
Luckily, perhaps because of my expression was scary, Uru face changed from anger to confusion.
“That I can’t do anything about the lives that were lost. I can’t make zero into one.”
I stare at Uru. And with a gulp her throat moved.
“Hmm, yeah. This might be just my baseless worry. Just like Uru declared, that miasma could not work on Uru and there’s no need to take countermeasures, so it might not be a problem to attack right now….But…”
“Without any preparation, I’m don’t want to put your life in danger. If you still insist, I’ll tie you up and take you home.”
“…”
Uru’s anger seems to have completely gone somewhere, but her eyes wander as if she’s still not convinced.
“Um… I was about to hit it directly just now, but… just like the time with the Sharks, I can’t just throw a spear from here and kill it?”
“Ah, if you don’t know about it, it’s not strange to believe that will work like that… I’m sorry, I didn’t explain enough.”
I think she will have to experience this once, how problematic miasma is. The others problems beyond just the continuous damage.
“Shall we try to throw a spear just once?”
“Huh? Umu?”
But with a condition.
You have to secretly move from here, the hill where we are, to another place and after throwing the spear once, immediately leave that place and return secretly.
I repeat it about three times and send out Uru who twists her neck in confusion, then I asked the remaining Regulus and Lieze to observe while waiting.
“Both of you, please remember properly. Miasma is to a monster… Ah, I’m sorry if I was being offensive, Miasma is also a protective barrier to the being that wear it.”
Don! With the sound of Uru kicking the ground strongly, the spear cut through the wind and flew toward the Chimera.
However, just before it was able to pierce the Chimera… it hit a wall of miasma and shattered.
The Chimera counterattacks by throwing out a poisonous breath that contains miasma, but Uru was moving as I instructed, so she didn’t get hit by it.
“”What…?””
I let out a small sigh while watching the two of them who opened their eyes wide in surprise.
Long-range attacks that were not enchanted with the holy attribute were blocked by the miasma and cause no effect to the enemy.
While taking miasma countermeasures, we have to deal damage with short-range attacks.
That’s one of the only few ways to defeat an enemy that is clad in miasma.
To be precise, it’s not like the attacks don’t cause damage.
However, it is impossible to cause damage with the weapons I can make at the present time, their durability will be completely lost before the wall of miasma is destroyed.
In addition, even if i give them a holy attribute enchant, the power will be reduced considerably by the wall of miasma, so if we tried to defeat it with only long-range attacks, it will take a lot of time.
I still have some doubts about why short-range attacks work, but talking about the game era reason. Well, it was probably a limit placed on it, to not be easy to defeat a higher-ranked enemy by killing it from a safe distance.
If in Asteria, close-range attacks weren’t effective, I will have no choice but to run away before the miasma countermeasure wears off, I muttered to myself in my heart.
After that, without any objection, it was decided that we will withdraw temporarily.
I built a statue of the creator god in a little further away place, made a return stone and then returned to my base. Regulus and Lieze showed a slightly relieved look at being able to move in an instant.
Later, Uru muttered with a distant look “You’re scary when you’re angry…” Come to think of it, I never once been angry with Uru until before.
“No matter how much I destroyed things, it only ended with your wry smile or a troubled face, so I was wondering if you can even get angry.”
“No, there are times when I get angry too, you know? It’s just that you didn’t do things that made me angry.”
Was something wrong with my reply? Uru blinked her eyes in confusion.
“…Even if I break so many things?”
“If was not on purpose”
No, well, I think that is a matter that would made other people get angry, but even if she break anything, I can just fix them, so it’s not a problem that will make me angry.
Should I have been angry and said “Don’t break it!” Hmm?
“By the way Uru, I want to ask you one thing.”
“… Huh? What is it?”
“Why did you got so angry when you saw the chimera?”
At my question, Uru makes a somewhat confused face and started to mumbling like she was with difficulty to speak.
Rather than saying that she is just embarrassed, I guess it’s the usual “difficult to put into words” intuition thing.
“That’s… somehow, umm, I felt like someone is picking a fight with me in on a ridiculous scale…”
“I see…? I think that i understand?”
Well, I also felt angry seeing that, I wonder if it’s something similar, probably.