The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

Ch. 113: Moving after Results

 

“I thought I was going to die…”

It was a long while after he had started battle with the dragon zombie, that Loren stopped and stuck his great sword into the ground, muttering as he leaned against it.

Loren, who had been repeatedly hitting back the dragon zombie’s simple attacks from its forelegs and bites with enhanced blows and putting in some of his own attacks when he saw opportunities, managed to cut off one of its legs, and a few more attacks later, managed to immobilize the dragon by cutting of another, then another few attacks later, he managed to get close and get a blow on its neck, and as its movements grew slower, he pummeled his sword onto its head and managed to succeed in defeating it.

But during that whole sequence of events, some of the dragon’s attacks had scraped him, and some had hit him head on, blowing him away, so there were injuries all over his body, and his leather armor and coat were in shambles, in no shape to be used.

“This is bad. I’ll have to get new ones.”

It was the coat that Lapis went through all the trouble to get him, but with all the holes and rips in it, it seemed impossible to sew back together, he took it off, folded it, and threw it in his other belongings, and he ripped the leather armor which was barely hanging onto his body, and threw it away.

“The smell got onto my clothes too, huh.”

He didn’t pay attention during the fight, but while he was blocking, dodging, or parrying the dragon zombie’s attacks at close range, its fluids had seeped into his clothes, and now had the rank stench of rotten flesh on them.

Loren sighed as the thought of getting new clothes crossed his mind.

Clothes weren’t the cheapest.

Used ones could be bought for a somewhat cheaper price, but Loren’s body was muscular, and there was quite a bit of muscle on his arms and legs as well.

Normal clothing would be too tight and hinder his movements, so it was difficult for Loren to find clothing that fit him.

He had an extra change of clothes in his bag so he was good for now, but when he got back, he would need to get a new change to make up for the ruined one, and the thought of going through clothing stores gave him a feeling of dread.

His body wasn’t in good shape either.

Zombie were obviously rotten, which meant their claws and teeth were very unclean, and Loren knew that, so he knew that the injuries he got could get contaminated worse than other kinds of injuries.

To prevent that, he needed to clean his wounds with clean water, or alcohol with high concentration if needed.

If he didn’t, viruses would seep into his body from his wounds, and would cause the flesh around them to rot, or even lead to illnesses that could kill him.

Loren guessed it would be the same for the claws and fangs of a dragon zombie, so he urged his tired body and took a steel bottle filled with alcohol from his bag, uncorked it, and without thinking, he took a mouthful.

“I shouldn’t be drinking it.”

Some of his fellow mercenaries drank it saying they were getting clean from the inside, but Loren wasn’t sure if it had any effect.

He had unthinkingly drunk it since he was very thirsty, but a larger part of him thought that it was a waste to use it to clean wounds.

Telling himself that it was a necessity, Loren filled his mouth with alcohol again and after rolling up his sleeves, sprayed it on his arms, and then dripped the contents of the bottle on his neck and back.

He now smelled like alcohol but deciding that it was better than the smell of rotting flesh, he finished pouring quite an amount onto himself, then gulped the rest down his throat, and closed the bottle, feeling slightly better.

“Lapis, how’s your side?”

As he put the bottle back, Loren then took out bandages, and started wrapping it around his arms.

It was something he had done since his days as a mercenary, so he skillfully bandaged a large wound and cut it, completing first aid.

As Loren moved his arm lightly, checking the tightness of the bandages, the silence around him told him that Lapis had finished her fight with the True, so as he looked around looking for her, he found her a distance away staring from behind with her mouth open.

From the looks of it, it didn’t seem like she was injured at all.

Her white priest clothing was clean, with no signs of tears or blood.

“Hey Lapis? What’s wrong? That stupid look is ruining your beautiful face, you know?”

“Umm, well. Thank you? I mean, Loren! Did you…defeat the dragon zombie?”

“It didn’t use its breath, so I managed to do it somehow…Sorry Lapis, the coat you got me is ruined.”

Since he attacked the hard dragon zombie many times, Loren thought that his great sword could be ruined as well, but unlike the coat, it wasn’t chipped at all and wasn’t bent or cracked either, and had done its job completely.

Loren was thinking he should thank Lapis for preparing such a sharp sword.

“Coat…I mean, I can care less about it being ruined, but are you saying you managed to defeat it with just ruining the coat and leather armor?”

“Just as you see it. There were a few times I thought I was a goner, but I guess it’s possible if you try.”

As Loren pointed to the remains of the dragon zombie with no forelegs and a crushed head that was a formless pulp, Lapis sighed deeply and shook her head, holding her forehead with her palm.

“You said something about coming to save you before you die, but you defeated it before I could even try. What even are you Loren?”

“That’s…I tried it and did it, you know?”

It wasn’t like he did something wrong, but Loren felt kind of sorry.

Lapis glared at the remains of the dragon zombie and muttered disappointedly.

“My plan to coolly come in and save Loren when he is struggling to improve my image…”

“Does that really matter?”

“I saved up my strength so I could defeat it in one blow too.”

“Don’t do that. What if you didn’t make it in time and I died?”

Loren was slightly upset that Lapis had been going easy on their opponents, but he remembered that Lapis was a demon, so when he thought that it was common for her to think in such a way, it seemed silly to be angry, so he dropped his shoulders weakly.

On the other hand, Lapis, although she was acting as usual by saying such things, inside, she was so surprised she was worried that she had said something weird.

It was true that dragon zombies were way weaker than dragons themselves.

But even so, it was still way stronger than a human, so Lapis didn’t think it was something a human could defeat alone.

“Well, we could call it a job well done, I guess.”

“Something doesn’t feel right, but whatever. What happened to the True?”

As Lapis thought that Loren would have a difficult time with the dragon zombie, Loren thought that a True would be enough to give Lapis some trouble.

After all, Trues were high class among vampires, and were powerful among undead in general.

Therefore, Loren thought that although demons were also powerful, the fight would be difficult and would be injured, but judging by Lapis’ appearance, it didn’t seem that she was injured, and her clothes were clean.

For a moment, the thought that maybe the True had run away crossed Loren’s mind, but Lapis let out a troubled laugh as she scratched her head.

“Well, umm, about that. I might have let my wild side out of control…”

“You what?”

“I got carried away and went full strength, something like that.”

“Hey?”

“I-it can’t be helped, don’t you think? I’ve finally got my real arms back, and an opponent that wouldn’t break even if I go a bit hard appeared. And on top of that, its an opponent that will heal even if I break it, so I couldn’t stop myself…”

“You forget that you’re a priestess sometimes, don’t you Lapis?”

When Loren glared at Lapis, Lapis’ mouth opened and closed, trying to find an excuse, but she seemed to conclude that nothing she said would be an excuse, so she hung her head and shoulders.

“So, what happened to the victim?”

“I was twisting him up, and he suddenly turned to ashes and blew away in the wind.”

Lapis explained that when vampires died, they didn’t leave behind a physical body.

Vampires themselves were beings that strayed off from the laws of nature, and the price showed when they died, as they melted into ashes.

Stubborn ones could regenerate from such a state, but in order to do so, the ashes must be in one place, and if it was scattered in the wind, only very powerful vampires could come back from that.

“I’m not sure about Elders, but that’s what happens up to Trues.”

“Speaking of Elders, where’s Dia?”

While he was talking to Lapis, Loren noticed that he couldn’t see Dia anywhere.

When he asked Lapis, Lapis pointed in a direction.

When he looked that way, he cocked his head as he saw Dia with a knee on the ground, unmoving.

“Did she get hit by something”

“It doesn’t seem so…but she suddenly became like that.”

“And you couldn’t get the reason out of the True, am I right?”

“I did try really hard squeeze it out of him.”

Lapis indeed did squeeze very hard, both mentally and physically, but in the end, the True died without even saying anything much of use.

Lapis did feel like she went too far, but since she was dealing with a vampire, which was dense against pain and regenerated, half-hearted measures were useless, so she thought that it couldn’t be helped that he had died.

With the appropriate preparations and instruments, it was possible to make even vampires to talk, and Lapis knew most of the skills, but making them talk with just her hands proved very difficult.

“It looks like Dia seems to know something though.”

Lapis guessed that she knew at least what had happened to herself.

What she had said before she had frozen led Lapis to believe that.

“Hopefully she tells us when everything settles down.”

“Can we start with either moving or doing something about that? It stinks.”

The stench was mostly from the remains of the dragon zombie, but it also came from the shards of skeletons and pieces of zombie all over the place, and it didn’t look pleasant either.

Gazing around them, Lapis nodded, agreeing with Loren and started thinking about how they should move Dia, who was still frozen.