Chapter 166: Horse and Deer Hooves are Hard 4
*
Alright, here’s a question: What happens when someone who can only properly use Physical Enhancement and Healing Magic fights in the narrow Sewers?
Answer: If you move carelessly, you’ll splat against the wall and get flattened, so you have to stop your feet and trade blows.
“Hey! Prince, don’t falter! Burn them!”
I held a tentacle clamped under my arm, lopped off the head of some kind of hairless rat-like Majin in front of me, and while I was at it, sliced off its upper body and kicked it into the squirming horde of Majin behind me.
Another Majin jumped into the gap created as I leaped back from the Kick’s recoil, but I cut it into four pieces before it could do anything.
Since I couldn’t split its head, it’ll probably regenerate from being cut into four, but it buys time.
I’d prefer to mince it, but if I do that, I’ll get beaten up badly.
So, delivering the finishing blow is the Prince’s job.
“Something like this won’t make me falter!”
After the third one, I quickly realized the futility of counting, so I stopped—the Prince incinerated the nth Majin I had dismembered.
It doesn’t have Erica’s power, but it’s quite something.
I’m the vanguard, the Prince is the rearguard.
For a makeshift team, I think we’re doing well.
But.
“Like I’d let you pass!”
Unfortunately, there are just too many of them.
While dodging tentacles stretching out from the side, I cut down a Majin trying to ignore me and go for the Prince.
The price was a direct hit to my Flank.
The impact and pain almost made me let out a weird sound.
But I was saved.
This one is one of the weaker Majin.
I figured it out soon after the fight started.
The strength of the Majin varies greatly.
I sliced off the arm of the Majin gripping my Flank with a human-like five-fingered hand.
I thought I saw an emotion like, “Why was my arm cut off?” flicker across its horse-like face.
While losing my balance from the arm still gripping my Flank, I spun halfway around and delivered a roundhouse Kick to its face.
Its head burst like a balloon.
The blood splatter stung my eyes, but I held back the tears with Guts.
Boys don’t cry just because some blood got in their eyes.
“Shin!”
Through my red-tinted vision, I saw Magicka flicker.
The moment I jumped back, a Wall of Flames spanning the width of the Sewers appeared with an explosion.
“Are you alright?”
The Prince, where I had jumped back to, asked.
Good judgment. It only buys time, but it gives us a breather.
I grabbed my broken and dislocated rib through my clothes, pushed it back into the correct position, and then cast Healing Magic.
It’s minuscule, but it saves Magicka.
For some reason, the Prince made a strange face looking at me like that.
What? Got a complaint or something?
“However, although we charged in vigorously, this number is truly sickening.”
The Prince said, ignoring my gaze.
Oh? What’s this? Whining?
At least these guys die if you crush their heads, so they’re merciful, you know.
Dragons come to kill you even without a head, you know?
Or has your spirit broken from this seemingly endless fight?
“Well, I don’t feel like we’ll lose, though.”
“Okay Prince, that makes sense.”
If his spirit isn’t broken, then it’s fine.
I said this while parrying a tentacle that stretched through the Wall of Flames with my Sword.
“I’ll show you how adventurers fight.”
I threw the Dagger hanging from my chest to the Prince and charged into the Wall of Flames.
*
I’ll show you how adventurers fight!
…is what I said, but what I’m doing hasn’t changed.
Thanks to these narrow Sewers, if I tried to go all out, I’d just keep slamming into the walls in a self-endurance test.
In that case, the only way is to carefully walk while slashing wildly so I don’t splat against the wall.
How adventurers fight?
It’s simple.
You believe in your comrades.
That’s my one and only brilliant solution, being utterly disadvantaged in narrow spaces.
“Whoaah!? Shin! Some are slipping past towards me!”
From behind me, much closer than before, the Prince raised a panicked voice.
“I gave you the Dagger, didn’t I! I’m entrusting my back to you, so do your best!”
Without relying on the Prince’s magic, I started mincing every Majin I saw.
Naturally, the number of hits I took increased.
Even brilliant solutions have some downsides.
But, since I don’t need to move around to cover the Prince, I can pretty much crank up Physical Enhancement.
Believing in your comrades is wonderful.
I minced two Majin that attacked, trying to pincer me from the left and right.
I crushed the fist of a Majin that leaped at me from the front, stepping on its comrades’ corpses, with a headbutt.
“I’m happy to be entrusted, but! Shin! Do you know!? Royalty isn’t built for fighting, you know!”
The Prince says that, but he’s fighting properly.
I’m handling the strong-looking ones over here, but he’s managing to fight with just one Dagger.
His occasional screw-ups are a slight flaw, but he’s probably excellent in combat too.
Just the fact that they exiled Erica makes me incredibly worried about our country’s future, but maybe it’ll work out somehow.
“Wait, wait! I can’t handle two at once!?”
“Selfish men are disliked, you know?”
I said while swinging a Majin with a face like… a frog? No, a lizard? around like a club.
“Does this look selfish to you!? Whoaah, the Dagger broke! Shin! It broke!”
Unfortunately, I don’t have eyes in the back of my head.
Ignoring the Prince’s protests, I continued advancing.
＊＊＊Author’s Note＊＊＊
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