ZAP – Chapter 116: Great Demonic Beast Expedition – Part 3

TLN: Two chapters today! Make sure you didn’t miss the previous one!

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The decoy ship was slowly guided by the tides and approached the turf of Vepar in the deserted island called the Grave of the Seas.

—Kusukusu.

—Kusukusukusu.

—Fufufufu!

The ship is being surrounded by many black mermaids.

The black mermaids should know that the sailors have been evacuated with flying magic.

Even with that, the black mermaids’ attention is directed at the decoy ship… More precisely, the human dolls that are packed up in the ship and have a massive amount of mana.

“Eugene, where do we strike?” (Soran)

Soran has aura oozing out from his whole body by my side.

“Let’s see… Once we get closer to the island.” (Eugene)

I grabbed the handle of the white katana and prepared myself to draw it at any moment.

*……Creak……Creak……Creak……Creak……*

The decoy ship slowly advanced.

The mist slowly cleared up.

“Shaaaaa!!”

A single black mermaid jumped out from the water surface.

(Twin Heavenly Sword Style…) (Eugene)

I was about to unleash a sword technique…

“Hmph!”

And the fist of Soran wearing knuckles pierced through the body of the black mermaid.

A heavy sound rang as the black mermaid’s body trembled and stopped moving.

“Nice, Soran.” (Eugene)

“Fuh… With this, we each have 1. We have the same score now.” (Soran)

The moment he said that.

““Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!””

I heard several screams.

Two arrows shot by Leonhart pierced through the hearts of the black mermaids that came at us.

“You two won’t be able to count each one of them anyways.” (Leonhart)

He said with a baffled face.

—A while after that, we continued hunting the black mermaids that came up to the decoy ship.

I forgot how many I slashed down, but another black mermaid’s head was lopped off.

It fell flat and the body of the black mermaid slowly crumbled while leaking black blood.

“The corpse of a black mermaid becomes soot when it dies.” (Eugene)

The deck of the ship has turned pitch black from the black soot.

“Eugene, I have hunted 100 black mermaids now! How about you?!” (Soran)

“…Sorry, I wasn’t counting.” (Eugene)

“What?!” (Soran)

I was so concentrated on cutting them down, I forgot.

“……You two…are so…energetic…” (Leonhart)

Leonhart is breathing pretty roughly.

Looks like he doesn’t have as much stamina as us.

(Should I cover for him?) (Eugene)

The moment I thought this and was about to get close to him…

““““Shaaaaaaaa!””””

Tens of black mermaids attacked us at once.

This is the biggest number that has attacked us at once.

“Twin Heavenly Sword Style – Wind Form: [Kamaitachi].” (Eugene)

I sliced off the head of 3 black mermaids in a breath.

“Explosive Fist!!” (Soran)

The punch of Soran blew up the heads of two black mermaids.

“Kuh!”

The arrow of Leonhart pierced the heart of one black mermaid.

But there’s still tens of black mermaids on their way up.

“Leon!” (Soran)

Soran’s impatient voice was because black mermaids were approaching Leonhart.

The moment Soran and I were going to go save him…

“Woop.”

Someone landed on board with a carefree tone.

And then, they blew away close to ten black mermaids.

That person was a man with sky blue armor and a red spear.

“Are you okay, Leon?” (Claude)

“Claude…huh.” (Leonhart)

Claude was the one who came to the rescue.

The wyvern of Claude is circling above us.

“Let’s switch. Please retreat first, Leon.” (Claude)

“I can’t just…” (Leonhart)

“The plan is to carry the decoy ship to the Grave of the Seas. We have already accomplished that objective.” (Claude)

The decoy ship…made a dull sound and stopped just as he said this.

Looks like it has reached land.

“But look at that! The number of black mermaids…!” (Leonhart)

There were thousands of eyes looking at us like predators in the direction Leonhart pointed at.

“Yeah… There’s a lot more than we imagined.” (Claude)

“That’s why we need to reduce their numbers as much as possible…or it will affect the success of the plan…” (Leonhart)

“Wait, Leon. This is different from the original plan. There’s no need to cover to such a degree. The black mermaids are definitely showing interest in the human dolls. They have fulfilled their roles as bait.” (Claude)

“Right. After that, it would be great if they were to carry the human dolls to the queen. Let’s do as Claude says.” (Eugene)

Looks like Soran agrees with the opinion of Claude too.

“Got it…” (Leonhart)

It seemed like Leonhart was reluctant, but he escaped from the decoy ship here.

The ones remaining on board are me, Soran, and Claude.

Black mermaids were getting on the ship one after the other.

“It will be hard to fight all of them.” (Claude)

“Claude, how about stepping on the island instead of staying here?” (Eugene)

“The island…?” (Claude)

I proposed this and Claude made a dubious face.

“There’s way too much terrain advantage for the black mermaids on the ship. We would have an advantage if we are on land, right?” (Eugene)

“But how are we going to move all the way to land?” (Soran)

Soran asked me this and I activated the Magic Wing by using the mana that I borrowed from Sara.

A single shining wing showed up on my back.

“I will be moving with this.” (Eugene)

“Then, Soran and I will move by riding the wyvern.” (Claude)

Claude said this and our opinions match now.

There’s more than a hundred black mermaids on the decoy ship.

“Let’s go!” (Claude)

The wyvern descended sharply onto the ship.

And then, it raised a loud intimidating roar and the black mermaids stopped moving.

I saw Soran and Claude jumped and got on the wyvern.

They flew off to the island just like that.

I am the only one remaining in the decoy ship.

The big guest room has the human dolls lined up.

There are already black mermaids who have invaded the inside of the ship.

I saw just now how one of the human dolls was wrapped with the long hair of a black mermaid and carried away.

(We have at least fulfilled the bare minimum objective…) (Eugene)

I observe the black mermaid horde slowly approach me.

I also use flying magic to retreat into the sky.

If I increase the altitude, the chances of getting attacked by black mermaids drops sharply just like the wyvern of Claude.

But the magic wings I have are more mobile than the wyvern.

However, it is a waste to use it just to fly in the sky.

(…Twin Heavenly Sword Style – Wind Form: [Wind Step].) (Eugene)

It is originally a technique to move quickly like wind on land, but now I can move in the same fashion even on the surface of the water.

I propelled by kicking the surface of the water and sliced off the head of the black mermaids that poked their head out from the water as I aimed at the horde that’s at the shore of the island.

(If the queen is here…she would definitely be within that.) (Eugene)

The queen of the horde is giving orders from behind -is what the tactician explained to us.

I narrow down my aim to the place where there’s the most black mermaids and head there.

(Let’s not stay for long. The instant I find one that looks like the queen, I will hunt it.) (Eugene)

I decide this and arrive at the shore where there’s countless black mermaids…and that’s when I noticed something off.

(The black mermaids are fighting each other…?” (Eugene)

I didn’t notice from the ship, but the black mermaids on the shore are fighting each other.

Not all the black mermaids.

Only a part of them.

Most of the black mermaids are observing this fight.

The fight of the black mermaids was extremely intense. They would wrap their hair around their opponents with a ghastly expression, tear off each other’s skins with their long nails and sharp fangs.

There are even some black mermaids who have died in this.

There’s around 200 black mermaids fighting.

(Could it be that the new queen and old queen are present here…?) (Eugene)

The fight is at the very least in order to decide the boss of the school.

But I couldn’t see any who would fit the bill of a queen.

(It would be dangerous to jump into that…) (Eugene)

A horde of extremely aggressive black mermaids.

I go above them with flying magic so I am not noticed as the foreign substance I am.

◇◇

“You took too long, Eugene.”

“I was worried you got killed on the way or something.”

Soran and Claude had arrived first at the center of the island, at the top of a hill, and said this to me.

“Sorry. I was confirming whether the queen was in the horde at the shore. I unfortunately couldn’t find any that could fit this.” (Eugene)

“…I see.” (Claude)

Claude looked at me with anticipation for an instant, but was saddened by my response.

“But it seems like the fight to decide the new queen is happening on this island. Fighting was happening between black mermaids.” (Eugene)

“Really?!” (Claude)

“I saw it myself, so there’s no doubt about it.” (Eugene)

“It would be great if we could subjugate both of them…” (Soran)

Soran said this vexed.

“I don’t see the issue. The human dolls will most likely be carried to the new top of the group for consumption. Let’s wait for the new queen to be decided.” (Eugene)

“Will it go that well…?” (Claude)

Claude seems uneasy.

Well, the plan itself is pretty different from the original one after all…

*……Dwooon*

I heard that sound in the distance.

I looked over there and there was the decoy ship torn to pieces.

The human dolls have probably been carried to their nest.

In other words, somewhere on this island.

Now, if the explosion magic activates inside their nest…

At that moment, I remembered something that was bothering me.

“Hey, Claude.” (Eugene)

“What, Eugene?” (Claude)

“Did the 1st party really get wiped out by the black mermaids?” (Eugene)

“What do you mean by that?” (Claude)

“I just thought the black mermaids are far weaker than I imagined.” (Eugene)

“That certainly bothered me.” (Soran)

Soran seems to have the same opinion.

“This…is also my first time fighting them myself. I didn’t pay much mind to that though…” (Claude)

Claude crossed his arms and fell in thought.

There was no answer in the end.

The summit of the island fortunately didn’t have black mermaids coming, so we managed to spend the time without much danger.

A big fire pillar should rise when the explosion magic activates, so we are on standby to see this happen.

We were on standby for around an hour, but nothing strange happened.

At that moment…

There was a big shadow flying our way.

I thought at first that it was a monster, but I quickly noticed this was a dragon knight from the Dragon Country.

“Ralph-san?” (Eugene)

The commander of the 2nd party.

He should be giving orders on the flagship, but his state is not normal.

He has a desperate face as if he were being chased by something.

I could tell the reason pretty quickly.

Ralph-san shouted in a loud voice.

“Escape from there at once! We have been informed that the Darkness Dragon, Glasya Labolas, is approaching!!” (Ralph)

The one called the oldest and strongest Great Demonic Beast was coming here.

■Comment Response:

>Aah, he(protagonist) really is the son of that sword maniac, lol.

-He is slowly resembling his dad more and more.

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