Chương 69: Nice

I casually strolled directly toward the nearest towering Shambler, deciding it was the perfect tactical moment to switch out my current firearm for something with a lot more crowd-clearing audacity. With a quick mental command to my digital pockets, the unpainted frame of my Training Prototype-7 instantly dissolved into a shower of harmless pixels.

In its place, the heavy iron frame and simple wooden body of my Deck Sweeper Blunderbuss materialized right into my steady palms, adding a deeply comforting, front-heavy weight to my grip wraps. But before I could even find the perfect angle to start blasting, the walking pile of rotting logs and angry moss decided to completely ruin the pacing of my cool action-hero entrance.

The health-bloated beast abruptly lunged sideways like a rogue runaway train, violently tackling Aiko completely out of the defensive line and tossing her tiny frame straight into the dirt brush.

"Ah! Ar-Arthur-san... I am so terribly sorry for being an absolute burden to the team!" Aiko whimpered from the damp grass, her hyper-delicate, low-volume voice shivering with a massive wave of immediate existential dread as she let out a tiny, pain-filled groan from the hard impact. With our resident berserker temporarily cleared from the main tracks, the lumbering monstrosity unhinged its blind wooden face and immediately locked its undivided, hostile attention directly onto my highly vulnerable chest cavity.

The massive quadrupedal creature accelerated forward with terrifying speed, leaving a fresh trail of rapidly sprouting purple mushrooms in its wake as it charged straight toward my position. Seeing a wall of angry, health-bloated timber sprinting at me with absolute, unadulterated hostility, I threw all remaining logic completely out the window and firmly planted my boots into the mossy forest dirt.

"Arcane Discharge: Blunderbuss Style!" I barked right into the chilly forest air, my voice cracking slightly under the sheer, statistics-shattering pressure of the moment as I hoisted the iron-reinforced heavy stock straight to my shoulder. The distance between us completely evaporated in the blink of an eye, but I stood my ground like a highly stubborn sack of heavily armed laundry, waiting for the exact millisecond to pull the trigger.

The very second the monster's gaping, dark maw got close enough for me to smell the decaying soil and toxic rot clinging to its bark, I grinned and channeled a single, precious point of my remaining mana pool directly into the overloaded chamber.

"Mana Discharge!" I shouted point-blank into its wooden skull. The Deck Sweeper let out a catastrophic, deafening roar that shook the surrounding tree canopy, aggressively unleashing a spectacular double wave of absolute magical violence right into the center of its face. The initial execution of the active skill functioned perfectly, delivering a devastating, high-yield blast of concentrated magical energy that completely shredded through its dense magic defenses like a hot knife through butter.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. A fraction of a second later, the unique blunderbuss bonus effect triggered simultaneously, releasing a wide, sweeping arc of pure, light-absorbing mana that aggressively tore through the rest of its internal anatomy. The resulting physical impact was so utterly devastating that it completely defied the standard laws of biology.

The Shambler's entire head instantly exploded into a massive, smoking cloud of burning charcoal, shattered timber splinters, and purple ichor, its high vitality pool dropping straight down to flat zero in a single milestone. The heavy, headless trunk of the beast violently staggered forward under its own dead momentum, groaning loudly in absolute agony before it collapsed heavily onto the hard forest floor, slamming into the moss mere inches away from crushing me.

The giant crimson bear form that Fiona had been rocking suddenly began to dissolve, the massive wall of predatory muscle and fur shrinking down as she smoothly shifted back into her regular human self. Without missing a single beat, she raised her hands and immediately activated her Wildheart Surge skill. A soft, rhythmic hum instantly started to vibrate through the chilly forest air, and a soothing wave of glowing green spores and pure spirit-light drifted outward in a wide, shimmering radius.

Before I could even blink, the restorative mist seeped directly into my skin. A warm, brilliant light completely engulfed my entire body, and the effect was nothing short of a statistical miracle. I could physically feel the agonizing, jagged lacerations cutting across my spine and shoulder completely knitting themselves back together, while the deep, exhausting body aches from our high-velocity rolling log routine vanished entirely into thin air.

Feeling like a completely brand new person who hadn't just been used as a meat shield, I gave Fiona a deeply appreciative, respectful nod across the smoking clearing. She caught my eye and returned the nod with a warm, cheerful expression, clearly glad to see that my internal organs were no longer on the verge of becoming fertilizer. With my physical vitality officially topped off, our resident druid immediately turned her undivided attention toward the main wrestling match.

Clutching her gnarled silver birch staff, she quickly scrambled over the damp earth to help poor Dimitri, who was still thoroughly trapped and buried beneath the massive, squirming mountain of the remaining five health-bloated Shamblers. I turned away from the clearing and walked over to where Aiko was sitting on the damp earth, offering her my open hand. Our resident berserker looked up at me through her messy dark bangs, her face flushing slightly as she shyly accepted my grip.

Her tiny hand felt incredibly small against my palm wraps as I pulled her back up onto her feet, and I looked at her with genuine, unironic appreciation.

"You know, for someone who always calls herself a total coward, you are honestly incredibly brave to stand directly between me and a towering monster that is actively trying to turn me into mulch," I said, keeping my tone completely sincere. Aiko nervously looked down at her boots, her voice dropping to its usual low-volume whimper as she stuttered softly.

"Aiko-san... I only found the strength to move because I know with absolute certainty that you always have my back, Arthur-san." The sheer, unfiltered honesty of her words hit me like a physical blow. My jaw dropped slightly and I stood entirely frozen in place, my brain completely stalling out as I struggled to process how much she actually trusted me.

"As much as it deeply pains me to disturb your tedious little moment, I must inform you that I am about to release my attack," June suddenly announced, her thick, hyper-aristocratic British accent cutting straight through my daze with its usual layers of condescending grandeur. The exact second she delivered her threat, the Polished Pebble ceased its lazy orbit and violently snapped into a hyper-frenetic blur.

The air pressure instantly dropped as the tiny stone began to aggressively roar with white-hot friction, violently igniting a blistering aura of swirling sparks and localized heat waves that caused the chilly forest atmosphere to visibly warp and fracture into a shimmering, thermal distortion around her under a sudden, devastating tidal wave of raw fire mana.