SEWER BATTLE ③

“Haa haa.”

*Slurp*…*slurp*…

I wonder how long I was running for.
A greywolf would have given up by now, but that slime was still after me.

The passage continued in a straight line, and the torch in my left hand was my only respite.
I just noticed, but the necklace was also flickering faintly.
Normally it only gave a faint glow, so could it be broken?
No, this isn’t the time to think about that.

Either way, this necklace’s light alone wouldn’t have gotten me anywhere.
I’m really grateful for this torch.

This place was supposed to be a sewer, but there was no water running here.
The only ones allowed to use the sewer were aristocrats, so this must be where common citizens lived.
Since the entrance to the sewer from where the general public lived was blocked, I had to escape to the aristocrat sector somehow.

I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it, but the noise created by the slime seemed to be getting closer.
It might be closing the gap between us gradually, but I didn’t have the luxury to look back.

Its attention moved on from Rigul and Ruko quickly, as it entered the passageway to chase after me.
The silver-lining was that it didn’t seem to attack while it was moving, as I couldn’t sense its tentacles behind me while running.
Although, it might just be unable to swing them around in the narrow passage.

Either way, if it was really closing our distance, then I might not be able to get away from it.

Even so, I couldn’t let my guard down.
Regardless of whether it could move its tentacles or not, I didn’t know what would happen if that thing got close to me.

It might ingest me, or crush me under it.

Either way, death was inevitable.

(I don’t want to die in such a place!)

I kept running while desperately thinking of my next step.

However, I didn’t have the leisure to arrive at a conclusion.
Right then, a change occurred in the situation.

As I kept running, I arrived at another hall.
Unlike the last one, this one did not have a hole in its ceiling.

Byun!

When I reached the center of the hall, the slime came in as well and swung its tentacle at me.

“Wa!?”

As I had heard it, I jumped to the side without even looking back.
I avoided it in the nick of time.
There was a vertical hole on the ground where I was running a few moments ago.

As I turned around to face it, the slime continued to make its way towards me.
So it couldn’t use its tentacles because of the narrowness of the passage after all.

(It’s a bit far)

Since I leaped back to avoid the tentacle, the next passageway was still quite far.
If it couldn’t use its tentacles in narrow passages, I wanted to slide into one as soon as possible.

I glared at the slime then started moving ahead.

Byun!

“Eh!?”

As I tried getting closer to the passage, the slime swung its tentacle in that direction.
I had no choice but to dodge in the direction away from the passage.

It seems that it won’t let let me escape.
It had more wisdom for a monster than I expected it to.

Under the uneasy light of the torch, I decided to face the slime head-on.
I then started observing it.

(…It’s strong)

The magical power I felt from it was nothing compared to Lain’s, yet leagues above a greywolf’s.
I had no chance of winning, is what I felt.

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But there was no other way around it, except defeating it.

(My only saving grace is that doesn’t attack with more than one tentacle at a time)

Several tentacles were growing out of the slime’s surface.
Yet it never swung more than one at me.
That must be its limit, surely.

If it had wielded two at a time, I wouldn’t have been able to dodge them.

But if it’s only one tentacle, then I could keep dodging it as long as I poured all my concentration on it.

Although, if it got close and crushed me then it wouldn’t matter if I dodged it or not.

(Its weakness, is probably that red ball, right?)

I continued observing it while dodging.

There was one more thing I realized while doing that.
Inside the slime’s mucus was a beautiful red jewel.
I could even feel magical power from it.
That must be its real body.

(Though there’s nothing I can achieve by knowing that)

I couldn’t even get closer to the slime.
I couldn’t use emission-type magic either, so I had no means of long-ranged attacks.

(But if I keep avoiding it, I’ll surely find an opportunity to win. I have this sword after all!)

That’s when I let my guard down.
Or rather than letting my guard down, I got too distracted by the slime.

No, this was inevitable because I needed to pour all my nerves onto the slime’s tentacle.

“Ah!”

My foot get caught in a hole.
It was made by the slime’s tentacle.

(This is bad)

I couldn’t avoid its tentacles while I was unbalanced.
The slime swung its tentacle down as if it was aiming for this.

“Ku!”

I used my sword as a shield to deflect its tentacle.
Since my shield-using left hand was currently holding the torch.

But this was a big mistake.

*Kiin*…

“Eh?”

For a moment, I couldn’t comprehend what had happened.

It was only when then shining tip of the sword entered my vision that I realized.
The sword made a shrill sound and had broken in half.

“N-no way…”

Then I remembered.
This sword wasn’t made sturdy in order to let magic pass through it easily.
I was told, clearly, to hand it to Kili for maintenance whenever I used it.

Before coming to the royal capital, I had used it to hunt the monster that village had requested me to, as well as in my battle against Dale today.
I hadn’t repaired my sword at all in that time.

“With a broken swo-KYA!”

There’s no way the slime would wait for me while I reeled from the shock of breaking my sword.
I took its tentacle head-on.

I then crashed into the wall of the sewer.

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