Chapter 87 – Surrounded (1)

Boom! Boom!

Coming up to the ground, tremendous collision sounds hit our ears first.

Though not different from the collision sounds heard before, they were louder and sharper than then.

Though it shouldn’t be possible, the collision sounds seemed somehow filled with emotion.

The octopus monster seemed angry that the holy power barrier it had worked to destroy was perfectly restored.

The octopus monster that had been pushed far back was frantically striking the newly created holy power barrier.

The holy power barrier Yerim had spread again was cracking with the collision sounds.

It seemed even Yerim’s holy power couldn’t stop the octopus monster.

Though slightly disappointing, it was expected, so I shook off the regret and checked equipment.

Since my usual longsword would be no better than a toothpick against such a huge creature, I took out the greatsword I had stuffed in my pouch,

And flowed mana into my armor to check for problems.

Though mana flow was blocked at the previously broken gauntlet and several joints, fortunately there seemed to be no major issues.

“Well, one direct hit would end it anyway.”

Actually, if directly hit by such a monster, even high-grade armor imbued with mana wouldn’t withstand it.

In the end, that meant there was little difference between shiny new armor and my worn armor to that monster.

Anyway, there were no equipment problems.

Same for Jahina.

She had grenades dangling on her chest, a North Korean sniper rifle on her shoulder, and a K2 rifle in each hand.

With weapons plastered all over her body, she looked like a muscular protagonist from an action movie.

“With these guns the firepower seems insufficient for proper support. Wish the machine gun hadn’t broken… What a shame.”

The one K3 machine gun had broken while shooting at the lich.

Though Jahina regretted that gun breaking, I was quite satisfied.

Because the K3 machine gun had fired properly even once and helped block the lich’s magic.

That was quite an impressive achievement for a K3.

Moreover, what I wanted from Jahina now wasn’t firepower.

“That’s enough.”

After checking Jahina, I looked up at the octopus monster striking the safe zone boundary.

Even standing in the middle of residential area hundreds of meters north rather than on the road by the forest, its enormity wasn’t hidden at all.

Watching apartment buildings getting smashed whenever it swung its tentacles, far from hiding the octopus monster, I wet my lips with my tongue.

My lips were dry, perhaps from being tense after a long time.

“First time facing one since coming to this world.”

Until now I had only fought battles that didn’t feel very dangerous.

I made them become such battles, or avoided them physically.

Running from the octopus monster rampaging in front now was for the same reason.

When seeing the octopus monster, signals kept coming that fighting it would endanger my life.

It was the same now.

My senses and mana detection that had completely changed since coming to this world were still frantically sending me warnings.

Honestly I wanted to avoid it like this, but couldn’t run away in the current situation.

As a knight, I couldn’t only fight safe battles.

I had to accept unreasonable fights and charges prepared for death.

I became a free knight because I disliked that unreasonableness, but even as a free knight I couldn’t completely throw away unreasonableness.

Sometimes contracted nobles would abuse power, and sometimes contracts and situations would change to become near-suicide battles.

The worst was when the Demon King appeared and we became part of the allied forces.

Having become part of the allied forces, even as a free knight I had to follow orders.

I had to go catch the lich in the Demon King’s legion, become bait for the hero’s party entering the dungeon where the Demon King was,

And had to go as advance party to another world where the Demon King fled,

And like this, even after the hero died, had to remain here waiting for the gate to open again.

Besides that, there were many times I nearly died.

So even with cold sweat running down my neck now and my senses frantically sending warnings, my mind was calm and sharp as usual.

I raised the greatsword and launched myself toward the octopus monster.

Springing up onto trees blocking the way, stepping on branches and leaping between trees, stepping on the next treetop and launching again.

I crossed the university’s northern forest in an instant.

The northern road that was the former safe zone boundary appeared before my eyes.

Since Yerim had spread the new safe zone much further north, the current safe zone boundary had pushed far northward.

Coming out to the road, the newly created safe zone boundary was clearly visible.

No, it couldn’t be invisible with the octopus monster enthusiastically beating it.

The cracked holy power barrier stretched across the northern residential area past the road.

When I landed on the road, the beating sounds stopped.

The tentacles beating the barrier stopped suspended in air, and the octopus monster’s head turned.

Toward me.

The octopus monster was clearly looking at me.

Its black eyes looking at me were burning.

“As expected, was I its target?”

Though Jahina quickly arrived beside me running between trees by moving wind, the octopus monster had seen me before that.

I brought Jahina just in case, but seems there was no need.

Well, since I had taken down the most corpse mermaids, it made sense for the octopus monster made of those corpse mermaids to chase me.

Though I kept ignoring it until now, I absolutely couldn’t ignore it like this.

There was no need to ignore it. Rather, this worked out well.

Roar!

The octopus monster glaring at me with burning black eyes thrust its suspended tentacles toward me.

Whoosh!

Though the tentacles were engulfed in flames the moment they crossed the boundary, unlike before the octopus didn’t withdraw them.

Roar!

The tentacles kept advancing while burning in holy power.

Destroying buildings blocking the way, crushing roadside trees and reaching the road.

But the tentacles couldn’t go further.

The burning tentacles twisted trying to grab me from about ten meters in front.

Even like that the tentacles couldn’t come forward more.

When the tentacles stopped, the octopus monster pressed right against the safe zone boundary until flames rose on its main body, but couldn’t advance further.

I hung the greatsword on my shoulder and wiggled my finger at the octopus monster.

I wasn’t standing on this road for nothing.

I had observed the octopus monster’s leg length and tentacle length sufficiently.

Though it had incredibly long tentacles befitting an undead monster, there was still a limit.

That limit was right here.

It would be good to provoke it and make it burn, but unfortunately this undead monster could think unlike ordinary undead.

After trying to throw a severed burning tentacle at me one last time, seeing the severed tentacle burn away the octopus monster immediately withdrew.

And swung its tentacles in the air again.

Faster and more powerfully than before, it struck the barrier as if not caring about the tentacles being damaged.

Cracks spread wildly in the air. The barrier seemed about to break any moment.

“Seems I’ve drawn its attention enough.”

More than enough, too much even.

“Now let’s try luring it.”

I and Jahina started running again.

This time we ran west along the road, not north where the octopus monster was.

Growl.

When we ran, one of the tentacles striking the barrier slid sideways and destroyed a house.

The other tentacles became tangled with each other.

Then the tentacles withdrew and started moving the octopus monster’s body.

Boom

The octopus monster started following us while destroying buildings.

Running along the road, we quickly left the safe zone.

Being close to where the octopus monster was, there weren’t many undead blocking the way.

With no time to behead them with the greatsword, I just struck them whole as we passed.

The undead flew away cleanly, and we kept running west with the octopus monster following behind.

The original plan was, if the octopus monster followed well, to control our speed and lure it as far as possible from the safe zone,

Then increase speed, shake off the octopus monster, and return to the safe zone.

If shaking it off wasn’t easy, we could also buy time by keeping moving.

Of course, for this plan to succeed, several prerequisites were needed.

First, we needed to make the octopus monster follow and be fast enough to shake it off.

Of course, that wasn’t a problem.

I was quite fast, and Jahina could move as fast as me using her abilities.

The octopus monster was slow enough to fall far behind us.

I brought Jahina to prevent the octopus monster from finding us after shaking it off.

With Jahina’s miscellaneous abilities, she could sufficiently hide us from the octopus monster.

The second prerequisite was that no one should block our way.

That wasn’t much worry either.

We could easily handle ordinary undead like just now, and the lich leading the Demon King’s army seemed preoccupied with the octopus monster.

It would be difficult for that lich to move the Demon King’s army surrounding the safe zone to block us.

“Even undead couldn’t move an army that easily. Physically impossible.”

Though there were other minor conditions, if those two were solved there wouldn’t be major problems.

That’s why I could move confidently even with my senses sending danger signals.

“But as expected, nothing goes according to plan.”

The saying that plans are discarded the moment they’re executed was proven once again before me.

We got our feet tied up before even reaching the government complex.

It wasn’t because of the octopus monster.

Though the octopus monster that discovered me was much faster than I thought, it still wasn’t faster than us.

It wasn’t the hidden Demon King’s army forces blocking our way either.

The problem was the sniper.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A hidden sniper started shooting at me as I ran.

Though I could deflect incoming bullets with a longsword, doing it with a greatsword wasn’t easy. Moreover, performing such techniques while running was impossible.

The sniper rifle the undead used was the anti-materiel rifle Jahina had wanted so much.

I couldn’t run taking anti-materiel rounds just trusting my armor.

When we stopped running, the following octopus monster quickly drew near.

Plus, undead revealed themselves from buildings on both sides of the road.

And a voice was heard.

“Hahaha, I’ve been waiting. Did you think I would leave those who attacked me alone? I knew you would pop out when the corpse monster knocked on the safe zone.”

A voice resonating in my head, the lich’s voice.

The lich’s form wasn’t visible, only his voice was heard.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bullets flying from somewhere continuously.

Undead surrounding from all directions.

The octopus monster approaching rapidly.

Seems I had fallen into a trap this time.