Chapter 39 (2/2)
However by escaping the thorns and ivy, they were swallowed by the mud golem who recognized them as intruders.
As the guardian of the castle and the magic seal, the mud golem that stood in front of Adelle looked like nothing more than a ruthless ent.i.ty that destroyed everything, soldiers and intruders alike.
「UOOOOOOOO……!!」
The mud golem noticed their presence. It groaned with a loud voice, probably loud enough to be heard from the surface. It moved forward and slowly extended its muddy arm. But the golem launches with speed that seemed impossible considering the golem's size.
Everyone managed to dodge it by jumping to the sides, but by doing so, the golem dashed right into the iron door and blew it away.
「Tch! I thought it was slow like a dumb sloth but it's certainly fast!」
「As expected of something that is guarding this place. But……!」
Nemea wielded his fist against its elongated arm. The mud did its job at reducing the damage and got scattered but it didn't stop there. An unexpected strong resilience force reduced the impact and rebounded Nemea's fist.
「Umu? I think there's something inside」
Nemea yanked the thing inside the golem's arm, exposing what's inside the layer of mud and corpses. A large amount of vines intertwined with each other and formed a skeleton that reinforces the golem.
The vines then pulled back quickly like a thick rubber-band.
「Seems like the gigantic tree also affects this mud golem. The mud reduces impact and the core is protected by resilient plant… such a troublesome opponent indeed」
「But we still have to defeat it. We can't use magic if we can't kill this thing. It will be hard to kill the gigantic tree without magic helping us」
「Masaki-san is relying on us for this task. Let's do it」
「Resilient or not makes no difference to me. I'll just… hack! And slas.h.!.+ It! Until it dies!!!」
Hayato roared and charges towards the golem, followed by the others as well.
The mud golem hardened its mud and vines like a fist and accepted their challenge.
***
「Akiha just contacted me. Her team was almost at the lowest floor. There's a wall blocking their path, but they should be able to do something about it」
The content of Akiha's whisper message surely helped to ease the tension surrounding us.
Their team consists of excellent members with high-endurance and healing capabilities. They could adapt in uncertain situations where we didn't know what could happen.
「I'm so glaad~ Akihchan seemed to be safe. Let's do our best too~♪」
Haruka ignored the dangerous territory they're in and distributed fresh yellow fruits. This fruit was called PowerPine. It looked similar to regular pineapples. She grew it using the soil from the nearby decorative plant and forced its growth with her Light of Bountiful Harvest.
The sweet and slightly sour taste really helped alleviating tiredness. As a fruit with high fatigue recovery effect, this fruit was very expensive. Back in the game, even the seeds were traded at high price. Since the effect also applies in this world, when we finished eating it, our fatigue were completely gone.
With this, we can even fight for the whole 24 hours!
Err…
No…
Let's not do that!
Both prince Leon and Tatsuma hesitated when they first saw the fruit, but after the first bite, their hands didn't stop shoving the fruits into their mouths. Now that we've recovered our energy and strength, we continue our mission to the royal residence.
However, the gate that lead to the royal residence was protected by a thorn monster, a humanoid carrying a luxurious-looking sword.
I've seen that outfit before.
Those attire…
That crown…
He was…
「Emperor Aldebaran……」
Tatsuma clenched his spear.
To me, he was nothing but an enemy that I despised, but to Tatsuma, the emperor was one of the most important people in his life. Looking such a man turned into such a miserable figure must've left a bitter taste in his mouth.
Even if prince Leon also held hostility against him, looking at the enemy's emperor reduced to such figure was really… disheartening.
Prince Leon drew his sword to face the emperor, but Tatsuma's spear stopped him.
「I'll do it myself」
Prince Leon acknowledge his will and stepped down. Looking at that kind of determination, I took Haruka and went with Prince Leon to the back.
Tatsuma directed his spear towards the emperor. The emperor also aimed his sword towards Tatsuma.
That was not the face of a crippling old man trotting and waiting for my fist to bash his skull in. That was the face of a man with enough intimidating aura to prove that he had climbed all the way to the seat of the emperor just by relying on his sword.
He was too good to be reduced into this state.
Tension filled the air.
No one could interrupt the two of them.
A hundredth of a second pa.s.sed. Both of them moved at the same time. Sounds of explosions from their footsteps were thundering throughout the area.
And the fight ended in an instant.
Tatsuma split the Emperor's body from shoulder to waist with a slash, which then fell to the red carpet.
We couldn't see Tatsuma's expression from here, but he certainly wasn't happy.
I took a step forward and picked up the Emperor's last words from the distance.
「………Tatsuma… pro………… ved loya………ty…
Fuiri………a…… plea………………」
His voiced bordered between a human and a monster. Along with that final wish, the fire of his life went out and he vanished from this world.
The only thing remained was his once-extravagant clothes and his sword.
Tatsuma picked up the sword.
He grasped it strongly before hanging it on his waist.
「Tatsuma. About Fuiria, there's still a chance that she's still alive. I will definitely help you」
「Yeah……」
Tatsuma glared at the gate leading the throne room.
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