497 Leave your cute younger sister to me (1/2)
After experiencing many battles, Seiji and his companions were still completely unscathed.
Apart from their combat tactics, careful way of fighting, and luck, there was one other factor: Miyabi Ishihara had indeed become much stronger.
Her skill with the magic crossbow… her aiming had become incredibly accurate at an unbelievable rate. By the fourth battle, she managed to accurately shoot down a zombie girl that was moving at high speed. By the seventh battle, she was able to make a headshot with every single bolt fired. By the ninth battle, she even became capable of wielding a magic crossbow in each hand, scoring two headshots at once!
Nomura did his best and created some magical bolt quivers so that Miyabi could have a continuous supply of bolts for her magical crossbows. This helped to improve Miyabi's overall sustained damage and suppression, helping to make this speedily improving magic archer even more powerful than before.
Miyabi even successfully headshot many zombie girls that were charging at high speed!
With such a powerful archer supporting them from the rear, Seiji who was fighting as the vanguard on the front lines felt that the battles had gotten noticeably easier. To use a game comparison, it was as if the DPS in the back had gotten a wonderful boost! He could now focus more on tanking and protecting everyone.
As for why Miyabi suddenly became this powerful? She herself didn't know. She could only tell everyone that when she was firing the bolts that she was able to keep up an excellent state of concentration that somehow managed to help her accomplish such a feat.
Everyone could only interpret it as part of the authors' power of creation in this realm.
However, Seiji personally believed that this was Miyabi Ishihara's true potential. This seemingly ordinary student librarian had been able to summon Ya-chan unknowingly even before this incident that reunited them. He considered Miyabi Ishihara to be an Awakened, one of the ”Neo Humans”!
Seiji's team entered deep into the castle.
When they reached a place that was filled with blooming cluster amaryllis flowers, they managed to scout out a huge number of enemies waiting for them.
”I detected more than ten zombie girls, including three that are wearing helmets.” Matsutani had a very serious expression as he informed everyone.
The helmet-wearing zombie girls were the main characters. They only met one other zombie girl with a helmet on their way here. With everyone's help, Seiji sprung an ambush and managed to surprise and slay it before it had been able to fight at its full power.
However, just Matsutani's scouting alone revealed three main character-level zombie girls waiting for them! It was also possible that there were more that Matsutani was unable to detect… and even if there were only three, that would still be a tough enemy to deal with.
With so many strong enemies waiting for them, Seiji decided upon using a common game tactic: to attract the attention and aggro of only one or a few enemies at a time. Of course, Seiji himself would undertake the most dangerous job here: the person designated as the one who would attract the enemies' attention.
Seiji smiled to reassure everyone who faced him with worried expressions.
”I think that we'll probably be able to find Maishi-san after winning this battle that seems like a final battle. Well, since I feel that anything I say might accidentally raise a flag of some sort, I'll avoid saying anything at all… Everyone, let's do this!”
”Not saying anything at all might be even worse than raising flags. Why don't you just say something?” Matsutani acted all serious. ”For example, that you're leaving your cute younger sister to me. I'll make sure to take good care of her.”
Seiji's smile instantly became much darker.
His expression didn't noticeably change. However, everyone felt a sudden chill!
”Matsutani-senpai, I realize that you intentionally said this for me to retort to. However…”
*Pound!* Seiji delivered his iron fist of justice to the top of the pudgy middle-aged man's head.
”I won't respond only with a verbal retort for anything that goes too overboard! Please understand.”
”I apologize, ribbit…”
Matsutani collapsed on the ground and stuck out all his limbs in midair, seeming like an upside-down frog.
Miyabi and everyone else were all rendered speechless by the scene.
But right as everyone was still in a speechless state, Matsutani suddenly jumped back up to his feet and looked to the side.
”Be careful!”
A sharp arrow had already arrived before Matsutani even finished speaking!
[Bullet Time], activate!
Thanks to [Bullet Time], Seiji saw an arrow approaching his face. He hurried ducked and dodged this arrow.
*Schtick!* The arrow landed in the wall and lodged deeply with an incredible amount of force.
Everyone looked in the direction the arrow came from to see a zombie girl who was wearing a black-feathered helmet and holding a longbow. This zombie girl retreated into the shadows in a black mist, and completely disappeared.
'This zombie girl must be a main character type… she's a powerful archer that has the ability to go invisible!'
Seiji sensed danger.
”We've already been discovered. Hurry and retreat!” He instantly commanded his small team.
Seiji's team immediately assembled into their retreating formation. Seiji was the last to retreat and acted as the rearguard to cover everyone else's retreat.
Before long, more sharp arrows arrived for them!
This time, there were three arrows that shot towards Miyabi, Yuuko, and Ya-chan!
”Nomura!”
Seiji blocked the arrow that shot towards Yuuko. Upon hearing Seiji's reminder, Nomura activated his magical shield's barrier and successfully blocked the arrow aimed at Miyabi.
Ya-chan summoned a demon to use as fodder to block the arrow. The demon which received the arrow was heavily injured and greatly weakened.
Miyabi counterattacked with her magical crossbow.
However, she missed as the longbow-wielding zombie girl once again went invisible.
They also saw numerous zombie girls arriving and chasing after them.