Maruyama Kugane - The Invaders of the Large Tomb

“kILl TheM.”

“..…They need to die.”

“They don’t deserve a quick death. They need to suffer unimaginable pain before dying.”

A murderous aura whirled around the maids. The whirlpool of emotion was so strong, it made one wonder if the world might be collapsing around them.

“Now, now.”

The maid who looked to be the one in charge clapped lightly.

“We were ordered to let none return alive, so killing them is a given. But it’s nice to see everyone being so enthusiastic about it.”

Clack. Metallic sounds resounded down the stairs, which seemed to be made of marble. It was the maids’ high-heels, which resembled greaves.

Parupatra’s comrades backed off as if they had been pushed back. Considering their opponents carried no weapons, they were most likely magic casters. On top of that, the opponent held the advantage of the high ground. They could not afford to keep standing around in wide and open areas without any cover.

For Parupatra and his team, closing the distance was advantageous. For the maids, it was the opposite. But why were those maids coming down the stairs? Were they planning to use ‘Flight’ if the situation got dangerous for them?

Watching the maids, who appeared emotionless as if they were wearing masks as they regally descended the stairs, Parupatra’s team gathered behind the warrior’s shield and discussed the next step.

Clack. Making an even louder noise, the maids stopped about halfway down the stairs.

“Now, I’ll introduce myself first. I am the Pleiades’ sub-leader, Yuri Alpha. I think this will be a short meeting, but please take care of me. If we decided to deal with you ourselves, it would be over pretty fast, but due to certain circumstances, we can’t deal with you personally. How unfortunate.”

A lovely voice rolled out like a bell ringing in the wind. The unbelievably beautiful maids’ smiles were overflowing with an attractiveness that could make any man fall in love in an instant.

Parupatra was a former adventurer and had seen many things in his career as a worker. Amongst them were beings that possessed beauty beyond a human being, such as elves. Even so, he had never seen such beautiful women before. It was enough to make one’s jaw drop.

Their contemptuous tone and the sense of superiority which flowed through their words could only be the arrogance of the incredibly powerful people that hid underneath those pretty faces. It was an attitude that did not sit well with men who had braved countless dangers and were confident in their skills. It almost made them want to scold the maids.

But considering the circumstances, it was likely that the maids were stronger and nobody was keen on fighting them. Plus, one of their comrades had been stunned with killing intent and had yet to snap out of his fear.

Perhaps the best option was to retreat to the adventurers—especially Momon—and bring them in as reinforcements.

“Then I shall introduce your opponents.”

Yuri clapped her hands. As if responding to the clapping noise, which travelled surprisingly far, the cemetery shook.

“Come out, Nazarick Old Guarders.”

“What?”

The ground had split behind them and several skeletons showed up.

Is this a pincer attack?! Wha…

Looking up the stairs, the maids were hostile, but didn’t seem to want to fight in person. They appeared to be spectators. He couldn’t ignore them, but they didn’t seem to want to attack, just as they had announced.

Parupatra concluded that the true enemies were the skeletons at the rear and turned around to face them.

Skeletons by themselves weren’t really a difficult opponent. Even if hundreds of skeletons attacked Parupatra’s team, they would be able to clean them up easily. Compared to that, the eight skeletons that had sprouted from the ground were nothing.

But there was one problem.

Parupatra’s comrades gulped and unconsciously took a step back.

The atmosphere around them was different from regular skeletons. Even their equipment was different. They wore magnificent breastplates befitting of some country’s royal guard, held kite shields with an emblem in one hand and various kinds of weapons in the other. On their backs were composite long bows, and all their equipment had a magical glow to them.

There was no way skeletons armed with magical items would simply be regular skeletons.

“Just what is that?”

“Not even you know, elder? I’m not sure… but maybe it’s a sub-species of the ‘Skeleton Warrior’.”

“Sub-species? They don’t quite look like ‘Red Skeleton Warrior’, either…”

A never seen before and unknown opponent would always evoke fear. Especially if they were armed with magic weapons with special effects.

“—Considering how many of you there are, I believe this will be a sufficient number. Please put some effort into it, and show us how far you can run.”

“It’s an honour to face undead like these. But…”

Parupatra thought objectively.

It would be difficult to have too many undead armed with so many magic equipment. Their plan was probably to send out the strongest from the start. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have waited for everyone to come inside and split up.

“—This is the tomb’s ultimate strength, right? Do you really think you can stop us just with this?”

When Parupatra looked up, Yuri looked around as if she had been taken aback.

Bullseye. They had been setting up this trap ever since they started talking to us.

The smartest way to use their ultimate strength was to divide and conquer. Considering the chances they might not run into the enemy, the best strategy was to wait by the entrance, where everybody had to pass through when they were physically and mentally exhausted from searching the tomb.

The opponent’s plan was obvious as well. She probably said “let’s see how far you can run” to encourage them to start running away, so that she could strike from behind, which would be an advantageous position for her. The enemy would need to fight several more times even after this, so they would want to conserve their strength as much as possible. Then there was only one thing to do.

“If we take down all the skeletons here and break through, it’s all over. Am I wrong?”

For the sake of the teams that would come behind them, they needed to destroy the Nazarick Old Guarders. They might be rivals, but comrades on a mission were still comrades. Furthermore, if the other side had predicted that they would flee, staying and fighting would have the least chance of falling into a trap. If their opponents were too strong, they still had the option of calling over Momon as a last resort.

“To think we would become the canaries instead… How should I say, it gives me a headache. But do you guys think that’s all of them?”

“It’s hard to imagine any more undead armed with that kind of equipment lying around.”

“This is the place any intruder must go through. Tactically, it makes sense to position the strongest force here. They know more about this place than us, and I doubt they would make the mistake of splitting up too much of their force.”

“…No, there’s bound to be some more inside the grave itself. But what’s there would probably be lower class undead.”

“Elder… let’s run. They’re dangerous. Really, really dangerous.”

“Our escape route was closed the moment they pincer attacked us. Even if we fly, we’ll probably get shot down with arrows. We need to make our stand here! There is no other way than defeating them head on!”

Amidst Parupatra’s shouts, a voice, part surprised and part patronizing, came from above.

“Well, I guess there is that way of breaking through. We’ll cheer for you, so please start.”