Death March — Fixed

“Tek here, although I do have pending plans, Death Marches don’t seem to exist in this world--and will stay that way, as long as I make sure to schedule well enough.”

“Yiss! Ten straight victories!” Arisa’s proud voice echoes, she is quite pleased.

“It’s only Arisa who wins, unfair. Pochi also wants to win.”

“Tama too!”

 

I can hear voices behind me, who have been playing with the learning cards for the last two hours or so--I couldn’t be bothered to look back, but from what I could hear, Arisa has been winning a lot.

Normally Arisa just teaches them, getting enough ‘wins’ to not be the loser; but she could already read, so it would be both easy and incredibly unfair for her to win.

“Arisa, since you--‘won’, read this to the girls. Pochi and Tama dislike losing all the time and are probably getting bored--this will spice things up for them.” I reach backwards and give her one of the picture books that I had bought.

“Aye aye, sir!” Arisa said in a joking tone, taking the book and then slapping it down on the wooden floor, opening it up. Pochi and Tama, who had been complaining since a while ago, sat quietly and listened as the story began--I could visualize the way they would sit straight, as though soldiers at attention, their ears twitching.

With Arisa reading a picture book as background music, the wagon continues rattling along the highway.

I ask for Lulu to take the reins, since I need to focus and search for a good location for our campsite tonight on my map. At first, I wanted to ask Liza, but she is sitting upright and listening intently to Arisa reading the book behind us.

“Please handle the wagon for a bit,” I say to Lulu as I pass the reins over, which she accepts carefully.

 

“Yes, master.”

 

I want to sit on bench next to Lulu, but from her point of view, I would look like a master who sits silently beside her and judge her--I don’t want that.

Since Liza is also distracted, I get her to follow me as I migrate to the wooden board that separates the driving bench and the wagon, leaning back against it; Liza looks at the book on the floor, and then sits back against the board, next to me--her tail subconsciously twitches in my direction a few times, but she doesn’t seem to notice.

With a quick glance at Liza, I then stare into the air and open up the map, to select a camping ground. I’d thought of several candidates before we started the journey, but unfortunately, the distance we managed to travel was much shorter than I expected--making them unusable.

There are only about four hours until the night falls.

If we continue along this hill for three more hours, then we’ll be quite close to the valley that runs between the east and west mountains. According to the book ‘Journey to the Royal Capital’, the valley up ahead is a difficult place to traverse normally, let alone at night; so I want to make camp before we reach it.

From what I’ve seen on the map, there are two locations that we could use. Since the place up ahead has a nearby pond, I think we should camp there.

Usually, something like Water Spirits or Aquatic Monsters would appear in such a fantastic setting, but according to the map, there are only Big Frogs, so it should be okay. Big Frogs are different from the Giant Frogs from the labyrinth--they’re not Monsters, just common amphibians.

I wonder where you draw the line between Monsters and normal creatures?

If this was like a normal fantasy, then the difference would be that Monsters have Magic Cores, while normal creatures don’t. But this world, while similar to a lot of fantasy books and games, is actually reality--and different--I need to not depend too much on knowledge from Earth.

***

“Master,” Lulu calls out to me--which is really rare.

Since her voice sounds a bit bewildered, I move the Map to the edge of my view.

 

“What’s wrong, Lulu?”

 

“U-um, please, look at that.”

 

I stand up and look over the board, following the direction that Lulu’s slim finger points--black mist is moving from one side of the southeast mountain, coming this way.

Still, it’s quite far away.

She did well to see it.

Lulu glanced up at me, her face going slightly pink from how close my face was to hers, she quickly looked down before speaking, “Just a bit ago, I saw birds flying away from the side of that mountain, so I was curious. Then, that black mist appeared.”

“I wonder what it is.” I say, before praising Lulu for her sight, and gently stroking her hair--primarily out of instinct, because I did that when praising the girls; but also, because I wanted to.

Lulu let out a squeak, seeming to shrink into herself--but she neither dodged my hand, nor did she ask me to stop.

The location of the black mist is beyond the scope of the map, even though I look closely at it, squinting. The Heads-Up-Display indicates that it’s a large swarm of ‘Unidentified Flying Insect Monsters’. However, no more details don’t appear because the Heads-Up-Display seems to get its information from the map.

Appraisal doesn’t work either, because it’s obviously way out of range--even though I put the full ten points into it.

My attention gets pulled back as my hand starts to feel strangely hot--when I look, I notice that I’m still stroking Lulu’s head, and it seems to be overheating; her skin is so red that she looks like a tomato, like steam is about to come from her ears.

I quickly stop, I didn’t want her to pass out, or have a heart attack--

She relaxed when I stopped, though her shoulders drooped slightly.

“What’s what? Is there something?” Arisa seems to have walked up behind me and stands next to me with her face peeking over the board as well.

“Arisa, continue?” Tama stands behind Arisa, wrapping her arms around her neck, and pressing her chest against Arisa’s back--even though Arisa squirms a bit, like she is trying to escape the embrace. Tama grins and rests her chin on the top of Arisa’s head.

 

“Something?”

 

I can only picture this because of my radar, their presences, and the soft thud following the words--but it seems that Pochi also wanted to see, but she seems to have been pushed to the side, I can see her peeking over the board from next to Tama and Arisa. 

“There’s a black mist-looking thing over there.” I point towards the swarm.

Liza has stood up as well, she glares intently at the black mist. Her body is tense, but her eyes seem to radiate a wish to fight, and her tail is swaying slowly, like a cat on the hunt.

“What’s that?” Arisa says as she follows my pointing.

“Black lumpy is moving.” Pochi sounds slightly grossed out.

Oh, that’s rather amazing, she can see at this distance--I could see a little more clearly because my Heads-Up-Display allows for magnitudes of zoom and enhance.

Since they are flying-type Monsters, then they should probably get here in ten minutes.

 

“Lulu, please stop the wagon for a moment.”

 

“Yes, master.” Lulu stops the horses and I direct Arisa to climb around to the driving seat.

The reason I had the wagon stop first was because Arisa can be a little clumsy, and I wasn’t there to help steady her like I was when I had Lulu come out originally.

 

“Arisa, observer the black mist’s movements, stay there for now; since that black mist can’t be Monsters, get ready for a battle--Lulu, start the wagon and go towards that forest over there.” I speak calmly.

 

Liza reacts even more to the word ‘Monsters’, she has bent down and retrieved her spear--her eyes glimmered even brighter.

 

“Pochi, Tama, get ready for battle.”

 

“Aye, aye, sir!”

“Roger!”

 

I wonder who taught them to speak like that--nah I don’t even need to wonder--it was obviously Arisa. Though, I do admit, it is adorable; so, good going Arisa!

Tapping Arisa on the shoulder to get her attention, I give her a thumbs up, which she responds to with a smile.

Even though I said to get ready for battle, it’s only really telling Liza to hold her spear, which she is doing anyway, and for Pochi and Tama to get their swords ready.

Tama picks up one of the bags, reaching in and taking out some golf-ball sized rocks, passing them to Pochi and Liza. When Liza receives the stones, she quickly puts them into a small bag tied at her waist.

I take out a crossbow from one of the boxes, set the bow string, drawing it back in preparation. I haven’t set the bolts, because with the wagon moving like this, it’s likely that there might be a misfire.

After I made sure that the three Beastkin girls have finished their preparations--I take out three additional crossbows and around two hundred bolts.

***

“Whatever they are, they’re coming master, a part of the black mist is moving,”

 

At Arisa’s words, I look over the board and see that she is correct, a part of the black mist that has reached the foot of the mountain is certainly moving--they’re still not in map range though.

I quickly move along the skirting board and over to the driver’s bench, taking over for Lulu. I take Arisa’s hand and help her back into the wagon; Lulu stays by my side, she leans a little closer to me, seeming worried, but she doesn’t touch me.

After making sure that they are in, and braced, I accelerate.

“Master, couldn’t you see their level with Menu or something?” Arisa asks in a low voice.

“They’re out of range, once we get around ten kilometers from them, then I will know.”

“I wish for permission to use Magic if the Monsters get close. I want to use Dodge Field too--as well as Sleep Wave, Sleep Field, and Ennui Field.” Arisa asks.

I give her permission to use her Magic, after she tells me the Magic’s description; well, beside her Unique spells.

“If there are many enemies, then make them sleep with the Sleep Magic.”

“It’s ineffective if the opponents are too agitated.” Arisa smiles wryly.

Doesn’t that mean that there is no use for them in battle?

“That’s why I want to combine it with Ennui Field.”

“Although you don’t use it too often, you seem to really have the knack for it.”

“Yep! But unfortunately, since it doesn’t distinguish between friend or foe, it’s only for a last resort.”

“Don’t you have any Magic for direct attack?”

“I could use Mind-Shock Bullet, and Mind Shockwave, but at the most--it would only stun the opponents.

“If you cooperate with Liza, then those two attacks could be quite usable.” I smile at, then pause--I had decided to trust her, “You don’t need to ask permission, I give you permission to use any of your Magic, just don’t use it on me or any other slaves or companions.”

“Thank you, master.” Arisa smiles relaxedly up at me, I can see some happiness glint in her eyes as she knows that this means I trust her to a degree.

When they get closer, I can see that the black mist seems to be chasing something.

It was then that Monsters emerge from the edge of the Map.

“Dash Boar?” I ask when I see the Monster’s names, then--I see that Ratmen are in the same position. Their luminous points on the Map are moving together, and they aren’t red either. It seems that they’re cavalry beasts--their speed is near fifty kilometers an hour, and there are five of them.

“What are those?” Arisa looks over the board and sees the approaching Monsters.

“They are beasts, ridden by the Ratmen, and they seem to be running away from that black mist.”

The Dash Boars are between levels five and six, the Ratmen riding them are between levels three and seven. They are coming in this direction, quickly.

A few minutes after the Boars, the black mist enters the range of the Map.

“The Monsters that make up the black mist are called Flying Ants, they’re only around level two to four, but their Poison and Acid attacks are really troublesome.”

“Geh, are the Poison and Acid lethal?” Arisa asks with a strangely disgusted tone.

“It seems that the Acid can burn pretty badly--but the Poison is the paralyzing type, so it’s be fine if you only get bitten by one; but any more than that--”

Arisa shudders behind me, obviously imaging being paralyzed in the middle of a swarm of ants--being eaten alive.

There are already fifty flying ants, which have appeared chasing the Ratmen.

As we finish our talk, the Rat cavalry break through the forest two hundred meters away from us, then cross the highway in front of us.

Alright, it seems that they won’t come here.

Around eighty-nine total Flying Ants chasing the rats, soon entering the forest behind them; then I can hear the loud clashing of weapons and mandibles.

Soon most of the Rats and some of the Flying Ants die, but the Map shows that one of the Flying Ants has turned around and is coming towards us.