Death March — Fixed

“Tek here, if you travel to a foreign country without learning the customs there, you will get yourself in a lot of trouble--it’s even more severe in a fantasy world.”

I hear Pochi say, “Bones are chasing after people.”, while she’s still being hugged by Soruna.

“Bones? Are there Skeletons inside the city?” Arisa asked me.

“Yeah, it seems that there are some people who can use Necromancy. The elderly seem to be terrified of the undead, probably because of their experiences with the No-Life King’s army and the events during the time of Marquis Muno.”

“It can’t be helped then, it’s not like we can help them from here.”

“Since there are only 20 Skeletons inside the city, I’ll do something about them with Remote Arrow. I will make sure to kill the Necromancy users.”

I came out onto the balcony through a different door than the one that the Baron and the others used.

The Magic called Magic Arrow, from which Remote Arrow is derived, is written in the Beginner Magic books that I bought.

It said that Magic Arrow is the most basic, and ultimate, form of Magic. The more you master it, the further away it could travel and the more you could fire. If you master it to the limit, and have unlimited Magic Power, you could destroy the entire army of an entire country only with Magic Arrow.

Of course, that’s probably exaggerated; but still, when I, who have it at level 10, use it, I can use my map to lock-on to the enemies and shoot them--since the power of one Remote Arrow is still far weaker than one of my punches, one Remote Arrows could only defeat a single level 5 enemy.

I could shoot anywhere between 1 and 125 Arrows at once.

Each Arrow consumes at least 10 Magic Power, and the consumption increases as the number of fired Arrows increases, and again as they exceed a certain range.

To be frank, as an anti-army Magic, it looks inferior compared to something like Explosion or Fireball.

“Wa-Wait, don’t tell me you’re going to use Remote Arrow?”

“Yeah, I’ll shoot it secretly, of course.”

I grab my short staff and stretch it out, standing in a position where the Baron couldn’t see, and generate Remote Arrows to fire at the Skeleton. The Remote Arrows look like wedges made from glass, or clear crystal.

The marks that signify the Skeletons on my map are covered with lock-on marks that look like glowing purple cross-hairs.

Lock-on is nice--no matter how many times I see it, it makes me want to select a lot of targets and unless a rain of death from the skies--no, not the Meteor Shower.

Using another function of Lock-on, I adjust the trajectories of the Remote Arrows, so that they wouldn’t be visible to the Baron and the others, and launch them. Soon enough, the Skeletons in the city are annihilated.

Magic sure is convenient, huh.

“Hey, hey.” Arisa’s voice is trembling.

Damn, is this kind of long-distance shooting normally impossible?

“Don’t tell me you could only shoot 20? How could someone your level only shoot out that few?” Arisa rolls her eyes at me.

Was the number of Remote Arrows too low?

But when I look at the Arrow’s power, I see that I could easily win just by shooting 20 Arrows--but I wonder if since the opponent is a Demon, it’d be easy for it to resist Elementary Magic.

The Arrow’s number depends on the skill level, according to the textbook--so I choose to tell Arisa the truth.

“I can actually fire 125 Remote Arrows, the number depends on my skill level, and I maxed it out.”

“Right, of course you did--” Arisa rolls her eyes, then begins to mutter, questioning why she even tries--her eyes are slightly teary.

With a smile, I wrap an arm around her shoulders, causing her to lean into my embrace.

“It’s not fair--you have only been here for a few weeks, and you can obliterate the Royal Capital as easily as slapping a blind, slow, mosquito.” She looks up at me.

“Some day, I will let you all level up, and be as powerful as me.”

“Thank you.” She smiles, I can see her slowly relax and her mood perk up again, “How difficult is it for you to fire 125 Remote Arrows?”

I laugh and stroke her head, “Are you sure you want to know?”

“Only if you make me feel better later.” She forces a smile onto her face.

“When I get the chance,” I respond, pausing, allowing Arisa to brace herself, “Well, 125 MP for 125 Arrows, is there anything wrong with that?”

Her face freezes--then she sighs and facepalms, “Please, try to know this world’s common sense?”

“Which part of that is outside common sense? Even the Magic books say that the Arrow can be shot infinitely, you know?”

“That’s only the Theory, right now, the best Mage--which is also the founder of this country--can only shoot 50 at most.”

It’s that few, huh?

Let’s only shoot a maximum of 30 a time in front of people from now on.

“Not only that, it’s impossible to only use 1 MP for 1 Arrow.”

“Well, it costs 10MP per Arrow, but the cost is completely the same for each Arrow.”

“Normal people don’t have anywhere near that Mana Pool, and the cost usually fluctuates between 10 - 15 for normal people--and you aren’t even using a good staff, just a cheap short staff.” Arisa just rolls her eyes this time, clinging tightly to me.

“Then, let’s make it so I need 12 MP per shot, with a Mana Pool of 300--which means I should only be able to fire between 12 - 16 shots before I drink a Mana Potion.”

Arisa wraps both arms around me and rubs her head on my chest, “Finally--your range is strange too! The Mage I mentioned earlier is able to shoot enemies that are 2 kilometers away, but that’s only in a grassland with a good field of view. I’ve never heard of anything like sniping enemies with pinpoint accuracy in the kind of urban area.”

“The sniping is done because of a function of my Map: Lock-on.”

“Ahh, your Unique Skill--I knew that you were incredibly high-leveled, but seeing it--well, I feel like I am in the presence of a god.” She poked her tongue out at me.

To make her feel better, I promised that she could join me on watch every night for a week, when we next travel--and when we got some private time--we would have some fun.

***

The Skeletons are dead, but the citizens are still gathering near the two gates.

“I-It’s terrible! Undead Monsters are attacking!” The butler from earlier barged into the room with a worried expression on his face.

“Calm yourself, Meyer. If it’s the Skeletons that have appeared inside the city, it looks like they’ve been exterminated by the townspeople.”

“No, it’s different. Swarms of Zombies have appeared from the giant forest.”

“My, it’s scary.” Soruna says.

Are you really scared though?

“It’s alright, Soruna, I will protect you!”

“Yes, my Hero!”

I ignore the couple.

The Baron and the others walk around the balcony and look out towards the forest.

“They’re coming faster than expected, huh. Let’s quickly escape from the city--we’re too outnumbered. Your Magic could do something to hundreds of Zombies, but if there are thousands of them, it’s impossible--right?” Arisa looked up at me, sounding worried at first, before her tone trailed off at the end.

“Wouldn’t it be easy if we just slaughter them steadily from inside the wall?”

“There’s no way the Demon would wait for that, there must be some of its minions among the people who will open the gate from the inside, no mistake ‘bout it.”

Looks like Arisa’s prediction is correct.

People begin fleeing from the main gate.

It seems that someone had opened it from the inside, and I mention it to manner.

“The Demon and its group are heading here.”

“Right, it’s finally the decisive battle, huh?”

“Before that, the Split Body would get here first. The knight Eral, from back then, is together with him.”

“Who’s that?”

“It’s the knight who was going to kill Hayuna when she was being held hostage.”

“Eww, that guy, huh? Then won’t he attack you if you attack the Split Body?”

“Perhaps, but I’ll prevent him.”

“Let’s leave it to Pochi--if it’s that girl, she could easily handle attacks from that level of knight. You’ll be watching the Baron’s family for any ambushes aimed at them.” I said to Arisa.

I call Pochi over, giving her a dagger from Storage, and brief her about the situation--well, by situation, I only said, “If the knight attacks, ward him off.” to her.

Then, as if waiting for out preparations to be complete, the door opens without even a courtesy knock.

“Baron! The Consul is coming in.” Eral shouts out rudely.

The Baron comes back from the balcony and see the two who have entered, “Ah, we’ve been waiting for you, Consul. It’s terrible--Undead Monsters are attack from outside the wall. Maybe the No-Life King has been revived?”

“Baron, I’ve arranged a high-speed carriage, please go with the hero outside the territory?” The one they call Consul said.

“But, then, the people will--”

“It’s alright, I’m going to stay in the castle and do something about it.”

It’d be troubling if it gets too close to the Baron--I should act soon.

“Then, you’ll turn all the citizens into Undead Monsters in the end, right? Short-Horn Demon, Consul?”

When the Consul (Demon) turns around with a startled face, Arisa hits it with a Shockwave.

The Demon helplessly crumples to the floor.

Its figure is that of a human with pitch-black skin and bat-like wings, truly the figure of a Demon.

But, even after seeing the Demon’s true form, the knight Eral shouts, “You bastard! What are you doing to the Consul?”--he draws his sword.

The Split Body rises.

Soruna screams when she sees it.

The Baron and Toruma can’t even stand up.

The fake hero steps in front of Soruna and covers her, pulling his sword from its fancy blue sheath in one movement.

And Pochi, with only her dagger, skillfully deflects Eral’s great sword, which was aimed at me.

Though this may sound like it takes a while, they all happen virtually at the same time--with the Space Grasp Skill though, it seems as though they happen in a measurable sequence; which combines well with my accelerated perception.

Right when Eral’s great sword hits the floor, I kick the flat of the blade,  shattering it. Since his big body is a nuisance, I knock him unconscious with a punch--which slams him into one of the walls.

At the present, it doesn’t seem like anyone is planning on ambushing the Baron or his family.

Arisa has taken out a long staff and is pointing it at the Demon.

But, it seems that she hesitating to attack, because the fake hero is fighting the Split Body.

“Uuu, since they’re moving all around the place, I can’t aim with Light Dagger.” Arisa groaned in irritation.]

Really?

They’re stopping quite a lot, you know?

The Split Body stops the fake hero’s sword with its claws--it’s fairly strong, even though it’s just a level 1.

“O Holy Sword Gjallarhorn! Now is the time to grant me the power to defeat this Demon!”

I almost unintentionally burst into laughter; of all the Holy Swords to imitate--it has to be this one, huh?

The fake hero cuts the Split Body with his Magic Sword, which let’s out an indigo light. He succeeded in cutting through its claws, but the Demon is still going strong.