Chapter 140: The Dice Have Already Been Thrown Part 2
Chapter 140: The Dice Have Already Been Thrown Part 2
Additionally, I activate “Utsuro Mikigami”, leaving the collected aggro on the spot while moving forward myself. Call it being overly cautious, but even without the help of skills my basic AGI would be more than enough to easily overtake all of those fish zombies.
「Rei, please take care of some of the small fries here!」
Rei nods shortly and then swiftly proceeds towards the place where a dozen fish people already started to gather.
The number of enemies wasn’t really that much of a problem, but I just wanted to switch places with her.
「Rust, think you can put some distance between yourself and the enemies?」
「My Stamina is about to be completely emptied, and once that happens I’ll need some time to let it recharge.」
「I see…… Stick close to Rei as she cleans the small fries and then get back into your position.」
「Understood…… Mold, maybe you start to help out as well!」
「I’m going to start applying buffs in a moment!」
「It’s good to have support like that……!」
With that, maybe it will be possible to have some breathing room in here, even amidst a situation like that.
It also seems that Rust will be able to get the stupid sh*thead out of here before he does something stupid by accident, even though he was still adamant on joining the fight himself.
Looking at our situation alone, the death of Strude should spell the failure of the quest. Fortunately, I had a plan. Long story short, we just need to watch out for the small fries to not increase their numbers too much while escorting the stupid idiot out of here and we should all be well set on the path towards victory.
「Just go around the deck, then go back and do this over and over again…… Same as before.」
This was even more of a war of attrition than ever before. What we need here is not the strength and stamina of bloodthirsty warriors, but rather patience and meticulousness of puzzle game gamers.
「Well, in that case……!」
I carefully select the items from my inventory and anticipate where the next group of monsters are going to come out from.
I end my preparation just as Rust starts to slow down and both Emul and Mold cast their buffs on us. With everything being ready, I could once more face the eel-captain in combat. Also, Rei was busy with clearing out the mobs. So with each and every single one of us having our own thing to do, it was a solid plan. And this was going to be the last push.
「I’m so sorry! I’m late because I needed to catch Sickle-san as he was rolling around the deck!」
Now, Akitsu Akane was the last piece that needed to fall into place. With that being done, we were all set to go. Also, for some reason I felt as though when Akitsu Akane and Sickle jumped on board the Crying Inssman, the time had stopped.
(No…… That’s not it, it must have really stopped……)
The raindrops have stopped right before my eyes. It went for a second or two, acting like a lag of some sorts within the game’s code, but then it all ended and the world continued to spin around as if nothing had happened. Also, the water pouring down from the sky fell in one swoop like a waterfall.
But that lag was more than enough to throw everyone off-balance on the things that they were all doing. The same thing applied to waves and the ships.
「Haah!?」
The water column fell down thanks to gravity, but there was something else inside it, something huge that started to spring upwards…… And once it emerged completely, we could see that it was in fact a huge octopus tentacle. Seeing that we all came to a halt, and we were not the only ones. The fishmen also came to a stop, watching the tentacle with a mixture of fear and adoration.
「Eh, eeh!?」
「Wha, what is that!?」
「Oh this is bad, this is so, so bad, Sanraku-san!」
The next words that Emul spoke sounded so clear and loud that there was no way for everyone to not hear them. They also made us freeze up as if the time had stopped once more.
「Kutanid! It’s Kutanid!! We’re doomed!」
「Haah!!!???」
Seven more water columns spring forth from under the sea’s surface and eight jet-black tentacles wrap themselves around the Crying Innsman. No matter how long I keep staring at them, my mind desperately tries to deny the current situation even though it was more than real.
Stories like that are aplenty in games these days. Stories about no matter how well-prepared or high-level the party is, they get instantly wiped out the moment they enter battle. But I thought that ShanFro was free of such things.
Does that mean that the condition to trigger the appearance of “Kutanid of the Abyss” was actually for all of us to be present on board the Ghost Ship at the same time? What is that supposed to mean? Where are we going to fight it? Some sort of special area?
「Could it be, that the moment we started this quest it shifted into EX without any one of us noticing!?」
The tentacles wrapped around the ghost ship and started to pull it down underwater, trying to sink it. No, this was not sinking, it was something else……!
「I can’t believe that something like that is actually happening……!!!」
It didn’t seem that Kutanid would be nice enough to let us all go. Just like that, we were dragged underwater, into the deep and dark abyss, alongside the Crying Innsman with an unnatural strength that defied every single law of gravity and buoyancy.
「STARTED THE UNIQUE QUEST EX “HUMANS, GAZE UPON THE ENDLESS ABYSS, THE REVERSED WORLD”.」
And then everything got turned upside down.