The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

Ch. 95: Excavating after Continuing

“Don’t just stare at it!”

As Lapis started up at the chunk of flesh coming towards her, Loren put his arm around her waist and dove sideways.

A moment later, the part of the chief’s body that had been thrown at them landed where Lapis had been standing, splattering blood everywhere.

And when Loren swung his great sword with his left hand, more of the chief’s body was dug out, and when the piece fell to the floor, it turned into a large number of fairies that started attacking Loren and Lapis.

‘Energy drain…Ugh, I really don’t like this…’

When Shayna activated her energy drain, even as she complained, it killed the fairies quickly and they fell to the ground, but when they did, the chief’s body covered them and immediately consumed them.

“He finally started eating himself.”

“This is getting more pointless by the second.”

Lapis muttered like it wasn’t their problem as she was still being carried under Loren’s arm, but Loren didn’t have the time to respond.

He was too busy slashing away the fleshy arms that were being slammed down at them with the great sword that he was holding with just his left hand.

On top of that, if he cut off a part, it would change into fairies and attack them like the rounds of a shot gun, so the situation was out of his control.

‘I know I can’t throw up, but I still feel like I’m going to throw up…’

Since Shayna didn’t have a physical body, she couldn’t throw up even if she felt like it.

She could cough out all the chief’s life energy she had sucked up, but even if she did, it wouldn’t get rid of her discomfort.

“We won’t get anywhere if we don’t think of something!”

The chief, who was attacking over and over as if he didn’t feel the pain of his body being ripped away, was quite considerable, but Loren’s skill with the great sword, parrying and cutting away at them with the heavy weapon using one arm, was incredible as well.

The sound of flesh hitting steel rang continuously, and in the midst of pieces of flesh and blood flying everywhere, Lapis sighed as red stains started appearing on her clothes.

“I’m going to have to buy a new pair of these clothes when I get back…”

“Now’s not the time to be saying something like that!”

“Priest’s clothes are expensive you know? The fabric is quite good as well.”

“Worry about your life rather than your clothes!”

Loren wanted to back off for a moment, put Lapis down, and use his great sword with both hands, but the chief’s attacks didn’t stop, so he couldn’t retreat even if he wanted to.

He had considered letting go of Lapis, but if he let her go while the chief’s attacks were still continuing, the he would start targeting her as well, and with the overwhelming mass he possessed, Loren didn’t think that her delicate body would be able to take the blows.

Of course, since she was a demon, there was a chance that she could take them like they were nothing, but Loren wasn’t going to take any chances.

He didn’t want to when it was a situation where one mistake could mean death.

“Do you mind slowing down a bit!?”

The sensation of something clicking into place in his mind.

If it came, Loren would start showing greater strength, but once it did, it would put him on a timer.

He just had to defeat the chief before that limit, but if he couldn’t, he would just be lying on the ground, waiting to be eaten.

“Loren, could you do as I say?”

Lapis said, looking up at him from under his arm.

When Loren turned his eyes toward her, still partying the chief’s attacks, Lapis twisted her body into a strained position and put her hand on his chest.

“I’m going to do something reckless. But if you remember this sensation, your fighting capabilities will rise exponentially.”

“What are you trying to do!? Don’t alter me or anything, alright?”

“Of course not. There’s no way I could without a facility or equipment.”

Even as she complained about what Loren thought she was, her hand felt about his chest.

As he felt ticklish at her movements, after a while he realized that Lapis’ palm started getting warmer on his chest.

With the warmth, which seemed too hot to be body heat, piercing through his skin and muscle and spreading throughout his body, and the sensation of something being pulled out of a deep place, Loren shook slightly, even as he continued fighting the chief.

“This…”

“I believe that Loren’s berserk converts your life energy or health into strength. But that will exhaust you quickly and it’s dangerous for your body as well.”

The grip of Loren’s great sword creaked.

It was the sound d of Loren gripping it with more strength than ever.

At the same time, the next blow against the chief’s attack was faster and stronger than any of those before.

As if showing off that it was different than the ones before, the chief’s body tore deeply, and the chief, who hadn’t even flinched no matter how much he had been cut, started backing away from Loren, as if it was felt fear at the first sensation of pain.

“Oh.”

“This is self enhancement that all demons can do. It’s not as good as Gifts since you can only use it on yourself, though.”

With the chief flinching at Loren’s attack, Lapis used the chance to slip out from under Loren’s arm and jump backwards.

She decided to do so because she knew Loren couldn’t use his strength to it’s fullest if she was there.

“If you remember the sensation of mana manipulation, you could use it at will. This time I forced it out, but don’t forget the feeling of it.”

As he listened to Lapis’ explanation, he stepped towards the chief, who was trying to get away from him, and brought his great sword in an upwards swing.

Whether he had too much momentum or he miscalculated the distance, the tip of the sword dug into the ground, raising Sparks as it sunk into the chief’s body, engraving a deep wound and causing the chief to scream.

“V-vooouuunnnddd!?”

“Shut up! Stop running so I could cut you to pieces!”

He forced the upwards slash to a stop with brute strength, then brought it back down.

The two deep wounds caused the part of the body to rip off, and when it hits the floor it turned into fairies, but Loren swung at them with the flat of the blade.

After swatting them away like flies, Loren took another step forward and thrust his sword deep into the chief’s body and twisted it.

With blood splitting out of the wound, the chief wriggled around to try to dislodge the sword from his body, but Loren drove it further in.

“Hmm?”

The tip of the sword that was pushed in deeply.

Loren’s brows furrowed at the weird feeling he felt from it.

While feeling that the screaming was too loud, Loren twisted the sword left and right to check it.

Every time he did, the screams got louder, and after a while, he pulled out the sword and almost let go of it in surprise as he saw a hand grabbing the middle part of the blade.

“What the hell!?”

From its size, he could tell that it was a being that was around his or Lapis’ size, not a fairy.

Shuddering that it was grabbing onto the great sword’s blade, Loren slowly started pulling it out of the body.

Usually, the fingers wouldn’t be unscathed, but for some reason, the blade didn’t dig into the fingers that were grabbing it at all, and the arm started coming out slowly and slowly from the wound along with the blade.

“…Disgusting.”

“Loren, what did you pull out of the chief’s body?”

A right arm that was protruding from the body of the chief, who had stopped attacking for some reason.

Judging from the smooth skin and small amount of muscle, it looked like the arm of a woman, but the sight of it sticking out of the chief’s body was abnormal in every way possible.

“What should we do with this?”

“Well…what else can we do other than pull it out?”

At Lapis’ reply, Loren looked at the chief.

The flesh that made up his body was unmoving, making the attacks a moment ago seem like a lie.

He wondered for a moment, looking at the female arm dangling from the flesh, but he eventually stuck the great sword into the ground, reluctantly grabbed the arm with both hands, and started pulling.

Because the body wasn’t that hard, with the owner of the arm trying to crawl out as well, the chief’s body ripped open soon enough, revealing the head and shoulders of the arm’s owner.

Blonde hair close to white wet with blood and fat, and a set face.

As soon as the head was pulled out completely from the body, it started coughing, throwing up something thick with blood mixed in it, and Loren quickly let go of its arm, grabbed his great sword, and ran back to where Lapis was watching.

In the meantime, after continuing to throw up, making disgusting sounds, it stopped and wiped its mouth with its free hand, breathing hard, and then suddenly pulled itself out up to its waist.

Of course, it was completely naked.

And it was the body of a young woman.

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Not even trying to cover her chest, the girl wiped her face with her arm for a while and sniffed her hands, then pulled the rest of her body out and set her bare feet onto the ground.

“Aww, this is bad. It stinks and it’s slimy and I’m covered in blood and it’s ruining my looks.”

The girl, who was checking her naked body, eventually turned towards Loren and Lapis, who were looking on at her from a distance, and called out to them with a smile that contained no hostility at all.

“Thanks a lot, you two. I was worried when I was released by him. These guys don’t seem to cook and eat everything raw, even if it’s a bit rotten, so I thought I was going to die being fed all this garbage.”

When she looked at them with a smile, Loren raised his great sword without thinking.

Her eyes looked exactly like a person’s, but the pupils were purple.

“I’m not going to do anything, so you don’t have to be so tense. I’m thankful for you, after all. If you didn’t pull me out, I would’ve been with this big guy forever.”

“Can I ask your name?”

Lapis asked the girl instead of Loren, who couldn’t speak a word.

After looking at Lapis like she was looking at something strange, the girl answered her question.

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“Looks like there’s a pretty one, but whatever. I’m Gura Gluttony. I used to be called the evil god of gluttony a long time ago, and some adventurer sealed me, but I’ve been revived. Is that good for an answer?”

Lapis nodded and asked another question.

“You don’t have any intentions of getting sealed again, don’t you?”

“Nope. I want to fix my mouth after being fed such horrible things. And I’ve been sealed for long enough, right? It shouldn’t be a problem if I go stretch my legs a bit.”

As the girl named Gura suggested to her, Lapis started at her for a while, but eventually lowered her gaze and told her.

“As you please.”

“Alright. I guess I’ll be going then. Oh yeah, hey mister, what’s your name?”

Loren, who hadn’t been expecting her to call out to him, answered honestly out of surprise.

“It’s Loren.”

“I see, you’re called Loren. Alright Loren. I’m really thankful for what you did for me today. I’ll pay you back somehow. Bye.”

Before Loren could say anything, Gura waved at them with a smile still on her face and kicked off the ground, like she was diving underwater, and disappeared under the ground headfirst.

The body of the chief that was left behind started rotting away, as if many days had passed, and the rotten flesh that was turning into liquid started trickling onto the ground.

“What was that?”

“I don’t know. It seems that because the chief released the evil god, and they’ve been combined together until now, and since the evil god isn’t there anymore, he died.”

As Lapis had said, the chief had become a giant blob of dead flesh.

Realizing that if they didn’t flee from the spot, they would see and start smelling something they wouldn’t want to, they decided to leave the thinking for later and hurry back the way they came.

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Hey guys Kaoto here.

So in the original, Gura talks in Kansai dialect, if I’m not mistaken.
I wasn’t sure what kind of dialogue I should use in English, and I’m not really good at separating ways of talking either, so I thought I’ll just do it normally and make a note at the end.

We’re almost done with volume/arc four, with the next chapter being the last one.
This one went by pretty quickly.

Since I haven’t touched Hero of Black for a while, even thought I said I would, I’ll try to do something like work on this series one day, and the other on the next, and so on.
Hopefully I don’t forget and it works smoothly.

Hope you enjoy and I’ll see you guys in the next chapter!