First Outer World Story Series: The Black Mist that Devours - Chapter 94
Translator: MadHatter Editor: MadHatter
(Third person POV)
At the former Lake Turkana, situated in Kenya.
This lake was located in the Great Rift Valley of Africa and had an area of 6405 km². That was to say, it was the largest alkaline lake in the world, about 10 times the size of Lake Biwa.
“Hah… hah…”
And Ichiko was running along the lakeside of such a place.
“Damn!”
Ichiko’s present speed was not that of a marathoner advancing at her own pace over a long distance, but rather that of someone fleeing from an attack. Here and there, her ?Sword of the Formless King?Weak? was also utilized for teleportation.
At the point when Ichiko was teleported, a pillar of fire erupted at the place where she was standing.
“Haa haa… what exactly is that… no, I know their true identity. That is…”
While regulating her respiration under the shadows of her new position, Ichiko confirmed the enemy’s appearance.
The foe was a steel giant that towered roughly 20 meters in height. Or, to put it bluntly,
“It’s a robot.”
————–
(Ichiko POV)
Indeed. For goodness sake, I should just acknowledge reality. That is a robot. A robot for combat use, and one that a human or someone could ride in.
It was armed with missiles and beam cannons. On its back was a flying unit. The range of its attack was definitely over 100 meters, and when one of them spotted an adversary, whether they were exchanging information or not, they charged towards the target in tandem. Considering its physique and materials, its durability must be quite extraordinary.
However, concerning the classification, I was not familiar with it, therefore, I had no notion. But somehow, I didn’t have a feeling that it was related to the national robot animation.
“Even so, why is there a robot at Lake Turkana? I don’t see the relevance at all.”
As I observed the giant robots circling above me, I searched for a way to swiftly depart from this place.
“That path looks like a good one.”
I then rushed to one of the paths.
————–
This was the border between the territory under the reign of the Demon King who ruled over Lake Turkana and the outside world.
Behind me, the golden slab which was the dungeon of that Demon King floated in the air emitting luminescence.
And…
“Right. I guess this means they’re not so naive.”
In front of me now stood two robots.
On one side was a full-body white female robot with enormous artillery weapons on her back. The other was a black-clad male robot with a sword in each hand (albeit it is categorized as a gigantic sword from a human perspective owing to its sheer size) and many spare swords at his waist.
They showed no signs of letting me go and were already poised for combat.
“I understand. If you are so bent on doing this, I’ll just force my way through!”
I produced a sword in my right hand that was much wider than I normally would wield, and began to dash out.
As I rushed, approaching the black robot, he swung the sword in his right hand at me. I leaped to the right to avoid it, but as expected from the black robot’s appearance, the moment the sword impacted the ground, a blast and a massive cloud of dust and smoke erupted, propelling me flying into the air.
When I was knocked into the air and rendered immobile, the white robot launched barrages of missiles at me from her back. These missiles were most likely equipped with a tracking system. All of them were aimed specifically at me.
“Please don’t underestimate me.”
However, since the missiles were within 25 meters, in other words, the instant they entered the range of the ?Sword of the Formless King?Weak?, I teleported the blades to engage the tips of the missiles and cause them to misfire.
The black robot then proceeded to cleave me in half, slashing me horizontally with his left-hand sword. Apparently, this was a two-stage attack.
But it posed no problem as long as I can see it. Right before the attack struck, I evaded it by teleporting to a position slightly upper than where I was now.
[[?????]]
As predicted, it may have been unforeseeable that I would avoid this coordination, so the two robots exhibited a shocked expression… I assumed.
Ugh, I can’t decipher their expressions because of their metallic features.
And I must counterattack too.
“Now it’s my turn. ?Decapitation?!”
I teleported myself to the black robot’s front and generated a massive sword to smash his head, then swung the sword to the side and beheaded the black robot’s head.
“!!?”
But, ultimately, a robot was a robot.
Even after having his head severed off, the black robot was only mildly startled and unaffectedly brandished his sword at me.
And as if to punctuate the interval between the black robot’s attacks, even the white robot turned the tip of the weapon on her back towards me and delivered a beam attack?
I directed a sword fashioned from the metal I had amassed at the joints of the black robot, sending it hurtling towards the target, while evading the onslaught with a mixture of transitions and maneuvers.
“Damage sustained is severe. Function will be deactivated.”
The black robot slumped down when the number of swords penetrating it surpassed 20.
With the black robot down, the white robot took flight and whizzed up into the sky.
From an overpowering out-of-range position, the robot was likely to have switched to a one-sided saturation bombing strategy.
“But that is naive.”
Taking the black robot’s body as a material, I created a sword. It was a more immense version of the black robot’s sword. Not only the giant robot, but even a building can be torn apart with a single cut.
After reinforcing it with ?Keen Edge? and ?Durable Edge?, I continuously employed ?Sword of the Formless King?Weak? and moved to the back of the white robot that had fled into the sky above me.
“Here it comes!”
“!!?”
With a strike of my gigantic sword, I split the white robot from the waist up and down, and the white robot burst into flames as if something in her internal system had been detonated by the damage.
When the explosion occurred, I blocked it by teleporting behind the colossal sword, creating an incredibly thin and light sword while preserving its power, and descending to the ground using it as a parachute.
“Phew. I guess that worked out somehow.”
In the midst of making the parachute sword and descending slowly, I could catch a glimpse of the sun setting on the horizon.
Then I saw the Star Castle drawing closer in the distance…
“! ?Sword of the Formless King?Weak?!!”
I hastily performed continuous teleportation to the ground and searched for a place to hide. And after I had discovered a hiding area and abruptly glanced above my head…
Hundreds of demons were passing by at breakneck speed where I was just a moment ago.
On top of that, muscular demonic beings were also present.
If I had been too late to escape… I don’t even want to ponder on it.
For the time being, I would wait for the hostiles to leave before heading further north.