Chapter 88 – Surrounded (2)

Bang!

The bullet struck the wall of the building where I was hiding.

Being an anti-materiel round, it shattered the concrete wall with loud cracks.

It was impressive power, but meaningless if it didn’t hit.

If there was just one sniper like at the DMZ, I could dodge bullets while running and catch the shooting undead.

But that wasn’t possible here.

Crack!

I had to take down the undead charging from behind the wall.

The zombies and skeletons that appeared launched themselves at me in turn.

Though it was a suicide attack without system or tactics, it was quite effective given the troops used were undead.

Though I was crushing the charging skeletons and zombies with my greatsword, I was pinned down behind this building by the undead and sniper.

“Never thought attacks without mana would be more troublesome.”

Unlike Zahina who could imbue bullets with mana, the bullets shot by the Demon King’s army sniper didn’t contain a single grain of mana.

It was natural.

Even if called a sniper, they were just this world’s soldiers who became undead after dying.

Not being ghouls but ordinary undead, there’s no way they could handle mana.

But now it would have been better if the bullets had mana.

Because with mana I could sense them in advance and dodge.

The reason knights could handle mages capable of ranged attacks in the other world was because knights could detect mana.

When mages used magic, knights sensed the mana in the magic to dodge it.

Of course, not having definite mana detection ability like me, few knights could notice magic’s mana during battle.

Even that much was enough to fight mages.

Especially I who had awakened to mana detection was known as a mage specialist knight.

That’s why I became somewhat famous as a free knight without many years of experience, and why I was dragged into the allied forces. Damn!

The reason I, a free knight, was put in the special attack unit against liches was because of my ability to sense mages’ mana.

But bullets without mana.

Without the ‘enhanced senses’ gained in this world, blocking would have been impossible.

However, the newly gained ‘senses’ only activated in crisis situations or at close range, so anticipating and dodging like when using ‘mana detection’ was impossible.

Even so, if not for the undead pouring in now, I could have easily caught the sniper.

Perhaps noticing my predicament, Zahina fighting alongside me said.

“I’ll handle the sniper.”

After sending another charging skeleton flying, I looked at Zahina.

There was no need to ask if she could do it.

Though her eyes weren’t different from before, she wouldn’t volunteer for something she couldn’t do.

I nodded, and Zahina immediately climbed up the building wall.

Though this meant more undead charging at me, I could handle this much sufficiently.

The problem was the octopus monster that had now approached right in front.

Zahina needed to handle the sniper before the octopus monster intervened so I could move again.

If late, I would have to directly grapple with the octopus monster using this greatsword.

While thinking that and swinging my sword, another voice rang in my head.

[I never expected to see Sorbia Kingdom armor in this world.]

It was the lich’s voice.

Seems it cast voice magic across the entire area again.

Though mages would hate such mana waste, being a lich it wouldn’t be constrained by such things.

“So my senses weren’t going crazy for nothing. The octopus monster wasn’t the only problem.”

The complications and trap were all the lich’s doing.

[You were the ones who came south scouting days ago too, right? I was careful after seeing you deflect bullets, but never thought I’d be hit by mana-imbued bullets.]

The voice resonating in my head clearly contained anger.

No, what anger from something already dead.

Moreover, the bullet wounds all healed completely in less than a day, right? Yet you’re sulking about that and setting up traps to wait.

“For a mage called an archmage in life, you’re too petty.”

[Petty? You’re the petty ones! People who did everything to catch me saying that! Because of you I was sent to this world and went through all sorts of hardship!]

The lich seemed to have spread sound detection magic along with the voice magic.

Though I had muttered quietly, the lich understood immediately.

It was good I hadn’t given instructions to Zahina out loud.

Anyway, the lich being sent to this world seemed to be a kind of demotion.

Well, getting beaten by the special attack unit and fleeing multiple times had stopped the Demon King’s army’s advance more than once.

Thanks to that, compared to other undead legions that advanced recklessly, it was an easier unit to handle.

“Even on our side, it was definitely demotion-worthy.”

[How dare! Ah! Right. I remember. Your armor! Definitely the armor I saw then! Could you be! One of those who were there then!]

The lich seemed to have just recognized me.

It was pathetic memory unworthy of a former archmage. No wonder mages didn’t acknowledge liches.

“Long time no see. Thought you’d be rolling around as dog bones, but you’re alive?”

[Ha.ha.ha. Perfect! To think you’d come to this world. Did you follow the hero too. Thought everyone ran away after the hero died but there was one left. Perfect. Really perfect.]

Still petty. Even after being demoted and coming to another world, that pettiness remained unchanged.

The charging undead’s speed increased too.

While before they seemed intent on buying time, now they tried to kill me recklessly.

Though more troublesome, I could still hold out. Then another voice rang in my head.

It was Zahina’s voice.

[I’ve taken position on the rooftop. I’ll handle them right when they shoot.]

Zahina seemed to have taken out the North Korean sniper rifle after a while.

Perhaps because they were a sniper in life too? The sniper stopped firing before Zahina could take position.

Though I didn’t know how, they seemed to realize they had become a target.

“This is troublesome.”

More than the lich rambling now, that sniper seemed much more similar to when they were alive.

Of course, outwardly they’d be a skull or zombie, but they were clearly a proper sniper.

Though more troublesome, that was all.

If they won’t shoot, just make them shoot.

Instead of swinging the greatsword, I thrust it deeply.

The sword broke through the charging zombie’s ribs and plunged deep.

I swung the sword forcefully with the zombie impaled.

The impaled zombie flew off the sword toward the building side.

Thud!

As the zombie left the building wall, a bullet struck its flying body.

The opponent was a more impressive sniper than expected.

“Did they bring an Olympic gold medalist or something.”

Of course, now they were just a moving corpse, and even that would soon be just a corpse.

Bang!

A gunshot rang from above.

Zahina had fired.

Then her voice came.

[Got them.]

I threw another zombie again.

Thump.

The zombie that left the building just tumbled to the ground.

No bullets came.

As Zahina said, the sniper had been handled.

To think someone not even a professional sniper would take out a sniper.

My praise for the undead sniper felt embarrassing now.

But unfortunately I couldn’t give praise.

Because it was a bit too late for praise.

[Hahaha. Already too late.]

The lich’s voice rang in my head.

And a giant tentacle crossed the sky above.

The octopus monster had arrived.

“Dodge!”

I shouted to Zahina while throwing myself sideways.

The tentacle falling while blocking the sky looked like a giant temple pillar coming down.

Though black and horrific with sticky death energy flowing instead of beautiful decorations, it was similar to a temple pillar in how it overwhelmed people.

If I were an ordinary person, I would have been crushed while staring stupidly.

Of course, even after dodging, I still couldn’t escape the tentacle’s range.

Because that giant tentacle curved toward the direction I dodged.

Though I deliberately made noise to save Zahina, to think it would follow me this accurately.

As expected, the octopus monster was targeting me.

I desperately raised the greatsword.

Bringing a greatsword against such a giant tentacle – I never thought I’d use the greatsword like this.

But there was no choice if I wanted to live.

I desperately gathered mana and swung the greatsword diagonally at the exact moment the tentacle fell.

Boom!

Everything went white with the explosion.

Simultaneously I briefly lost and regained consciousness.

The white world returned to normal. At the same time I felt my body flying through the air.

My body seemed to have gone numb in an instant.

Buildings and ground whizzed past before my eyes, but I couldn’t move my body.

Funny thing was the sword felt light even in this state.

Though I habitually circulated mana to confirm no parts were cut off, that didn’t mean I could move my body.

Flying like this, I’d take another impact when hitting the ground.

But there was no choice.

I gathered remaining mana and spread it throughout my body.

I braced for impact hoping the mana would reduce the shock even a little.

It felt like I flew for a while, but actually the time bouncing was short.

The ground quickly approached, and I closed my eyes.

I collided with the ground.

Splat.

‘Splat? Huh?’

“I caught you as best I could, are you okay?”

Opening my eyes at the unexpected voice, where I had fallen was a small flower bed.

Amusingly, the flower bed had turned into mud.

And I was half-buried in that mud.

I could immediately tell what happened.

Luckily I seemed to have flown in the direction Zahina fled.

Seeing me flying, Zahina had turned the ground to mud to catch me.

While pulling me out of the mud, Zahina said.

“Can’t you move? What should we do? It’s not easy to heal others in this world…”

I barely moved my mouth to answer her question.

“Take out a potion and put it in my mouth.”

“Ah, right, potions.”

Being from another world with self-healing ability, she seemed to have forgotten about potions.

She immediately took a potion from her pouch and put it in my mouth.

I could feel my body loosening as the potion entered.

At this rate my body would return to normal soon.

If there was no interference.

“Ah… the tentacle.”

Zahina let out an uncharacteristically distressed voice looking at the sky.

A tentacle was falling again.

It wasn’t the tentacle that had sent me flying.

Of course, since the octopus monster didn’t have just one leg, it wasn’t strange for another tentacle to attack again.

However, I still couldn’t move my body.

There wasn’t enough time.

With the potion in my mouth I couldn’t tell Zahina to run away.

Though it didn’t seem like Zahina could run away anyway.

It was absurd. To face death so suddenly in a place like this.

Seems I was paying for ignoring my senses all this time.

Damn, just hope I don’t die.

If I didn’t die there would be a way.

While thinking that watching the falling tentacle,

Whoosh!

An unexpected sound came from the sky.

This was definitely a sound I’d heard in my previous life, in movies.

“A missile?”

Then a missile trailing smoke flew and hit the falling tentacle.

Boom!

Flames erupted and the tentacle stopped.

Though clearly a missile without mana couldn’t destroy the tentacle, it had enough firepower to stop it.

Whoosh.

An aircraft passed below the stopped tentacle.

It was a uniquely shaped aircraft.

An aircraft with long wings and propellers in the back.

Definitely an aircraft I’d seen in my previous life.

“Was it a Reaper?”

That aircraft was definitely a drone, an unmanned aircraft used by the US military.