The wight’s attack method is similar to a scorpion’s.
In that it swings its forelegs, which are modified arms, and thrusts with its ‘leg’ that has transformed into something resembling a scorpion’s tail.
“Cyaaaaa-!”
Of course, real scorpions don’t swing their pincers like whips or spew venom that melts flesh on contact.
…Or are the scorpions in this world different?
Anyway, since it mainly fights in close combat, the way to deal with it was very simple.
“Just don’t get hit!”
That’s right. Just watch carefully and dodge.
Whoosh!
The foreleg flies in with a fierce sound of cutting air. I lowered my upper body sharply and charged forward, letting it pass over my head.
The missed claw left deep scars on the dungeon wall. Shattered brick fragments sprayed like a fountain.
“Kyak!”
The tail attack follows. The wight’s sharply keratinized foot tip aims for my crown. I swung my sword overhead to deflect the descending tail.
Screeech!
An unpleasant friction sound. Steel and carapace lick each other’s flesh, sparking violently. A heavy impact shook my shoulder.
“Haaaah!”
I add rotation to the sword tip while turning my body half a turn. The creature’s tail slides along the blade and plunges into the dungeon floor.
After deflecting the tail like that, I immediately pulled back my sword and thrust it towards the wight’s exposed flank.
Splat!
With a sensation like stabbing a fork into a tomato, the holy light imbued in the blade burst and blew away chunks of the wight’s flesh.
The wight now had a fist-sized hole punctured in its side. Rotten blood sprayed up like a fountain, soaking my armor.
“Gyaaaak!”
A hate-filled roar echoed throughout the corridor.
“Ugh…!”
Feeling like my ears were going numb, I frowned and bit my lip slightly.
What a general-like roar, indeed.
It was so loud that my helmet was practically ringing.
“Krieaaac!”
The enraged wight unleashed an even fiercer onslaught.
It started wildly swinging both arms in all directions like a child throwing a tantrum, and simultaneously its tail came crashing down madly.
The ground, walls, and ceiling shattered and exploded, shooting dust-mixed fragments like shotgun pellets.
“This much is nothing…!”
I stepped continuously without pause to avoid its tail, while swinging my longsword left and right to block the barrage of foreleg attacks coming like whips.
“Haaaah!”
And when I saw an opening, I thrust my sword like lightning, punching large holes in the creature’s body.
It wasn’t an easy fight.
Among mediocre ones, weight class is king. I was still in a position where I couldn’t escape that truth.
“Kuuk…!”
Every time I block a foreleg, my whole body is pushed back.
I was deflecting the impacts as much as possible, but even the remaining force was enough to make my waist bend.
“Tch. This isn’t easy…”
A sigh escapes involuntarily.
Two arms flying in like whips with the power of maces. A tail that could pierce from crown to abdomen if allowed even one hit.
And on top of that, the highly toxic venom it occasionally spits out.
…I understand why copper token adventurers are reluctant to subjugate these alone.
It’s fortunate that I’m at least dealing good damage thanks to Bolton’s buff, otherwise I’d be struggling desperately while bleeding profusely.
Crack!
“My shield!!”
“Why are you blocking that! You should dodge!”
“Fast! Dodging difficult!”
Like my party members who were having a hard time dealing with one wight a dozen meters away.
They too were engaged in a fierce battle no less intense than mine.
Kikel threw away his shield that had been split in two by the wight’s tail, rolled on the ground while swinging his claws and axe, while Amy behind him pounded the creature’s entire body with the 『Invisible Hammer』 spell.
“Kaaak!”
“Poison coming! Help!”
“Oh Elianelle! Grant us light!”
Bolton, having perhaps used up all his 「Arrows of Punishment」, was focusing on defending against the venom with a holy barrier.
Tssssss…!
The venom blocked by the dazzling light barrier burns away, emitting black smoke. It was quite an impressive sight.
I was rolling on the ground, covered in dirt trying to avoid that, while they seemed to be blocking it so easily.
Booom!
Of course, what can be blocked is limited to just the venom.
When the wight’s foreleg struck the light barrier hard, the entire barrier shook violently and cracks spread all over.
“Kyaaah! Is this really safe?!”
Amy, who was inside, cried out in surprise.
“No problem! Such maggots can’t possibly break the holy barrier blessed by Elianelle…”
Bolton tried to reassure Amy by saying so, but—
“Kriaaaaac!”
Crash!
As the wight roared and slammed down its tail, the holy barrier shattered with a sound like breaking glass, scattering fragments of light in all directions.
“It broke!!”
“Oh my, it seems my training was insufficient!”
Amy and Bolton shouted as they hurriedly retreated.
“Kriririeec…!”
The wight that had shattered the holy barrier let out a roar like laughter and stretched out its forelegs. To grab and dismember Amy and Bolton.
However.
“Look at me-!”
Kikel, who had sprung up and charged in, buried his axe in the creature’s tail with a thunderous shout.
Twack!
Flesh and bone fragments sprayed up like a fountain. The enraged wight twisted its body with a roar and swung its right arm to strike Kikel’s body.
“Kahak…!”
Kikel bent at the waist, letting out a deflated groan.
Thanks to his heavy weight, he wasn’t thrown back but only pushed, but the impact must have been quite significant as his eyes and mouth were contorted in pain.
“Mr. Kikel! Are you alright?!”
Bolton urgently tried to cast a healing miracle.
However, Kikel shook his head as if nothing was wrong and shouted towards them.
“Now, is time!”
He was telling them to try to hit something while he was holding onto one of the creature’s legs.
“Alright, keep holding it like that! Ignis Sagitta!”
“It’s our chance! Haaap!”
Amy, brightening up, shot a flame arrow to set the wight’s tail on fire, and following that, Bolton thrust forward the long spear he was holding to pierce the slug’s head.
“Kyaaak! Keigaak!”
The wight shrieked in what sounded like dialect and trembled like an epileptic patient.
The tail that had been half-severed by Kikel’s axe melted in the flames and fell off with a thud, and the slug head pierced by the spear leaked green fluid like tears.
“Kachak, kachak! Hot. Good!”
Kikel, in high spirits from the flames, laughed and drove his harpoon into the wight’s forearm, then used it as leverage to completely rip off the arm.
The grasshopper-like foreleg was torn out with a crack, spraying rotten blood in all directions.
Having lost an arm and its tail in an instant, the wight writhed and wailed miserably like a starving child.
…At this rate, they’ll manage to catch it somehow.
Indeed, when three face one, there’s no enemy that can’t be defeated.
* * *
We fought like that for almost ten minutes.
Boom…!
“Kachak! Done, killed it!”
“Finally!”
“We won…!”
We were finally able to achieve victory.
Three people… no, two people and a lizardman managed to take down one wight after a hard-fought battle, and without time to catch their breath, they immediately joined me.
What followed was a scene of terrible group violence that words cannot describe.
The wight, already full of holes from being stabbed and slashed by my sword, couldn’t hold out much longer when the violence of the other three party members was added, and it collapsed and met its end.
“Haah…. Haah….”
Right after confirming its death, I plopped down on the ground and gasped for breath.
It had been a tough fight.
Both arms were not just aching but felt hot, and it felt like there was fire in my lungs.
‘Water, I need to drink some water first….’
I searched around my waist, took out a water pouch, removed the mouth part of my helmet, and gulped it down.
Gulp. Gulp.
The drinking water in the pouch was disgustingly lukewarm, probably warmed by body heat, but to me right now, it felt as cold and sweet as ice water.
I drank water like that for a while. Until the water pouch was completely empty.
“Whew… I feel like I can live now.”
“Looks like you were really thirsty? Want some of mine too?”
Amy held out her share of the water pouch.
“Ah, thanks.”
There was no reason to decline.
I took her water pouch and put my mouth to the spout, gulping it down.
Perhaps she carried magical tools befitting a magician. The water Amy handed over was surprisingly cold despite being right after an intense battle.
It wasn’t just a subjective feeling, but actually cold.
A pouch that allows you to drink cold beverages anytime, anywhere. If the price wasn’t too expensive, I was tempted to get one for myself.
“Here, I drank well.”
“It’s nothing.”
I emptied about a quarter of the cold water in the pouch, then handed it back to Amy.
I wanted to empty it all completely, but I held back as it wouldn’t be polite to drink more than half of someone else’s drinking water.
“Are you alright, Miss Hilde? If you have any injuries, please let me know. I still have some healing miracles left.”
Bolton, who had been treating Kikel’s injuries with the holy miracle of 「Minor Healing」, approached me and asked about my condition.
“Does that heal muscle pain too?”
The muscle pain was so severe that it felt like my arms might fall off.
“Hmm… yes? Muscle pain is also pain caused by partial muscle rupture, after all.”
That’s fortunate.
“Then my two arms and… here, can you see this tear on my side? Could you please heal these areas?”
I pointed to the stab wound on my side as I spoke.
Inside the tattered quilted armor, the pure white flesh was torn long, steadily dripping fresh blood.
It was a wound grazed by the tip of the wight’s claw.
I couldn’t dodge properly because I was too tired and reacted slowly. If I had been just a bit more tired, my side might have been completely split open.
“Ah, yes. I’ll heal you right away.”
Bolton muttered a low prayer and placed his left hand near my side.
As the beam of light emitted from his hand seeped into the wound on my side, the pain began to subside rapidly.
Then, Bolton infused the same healing power into the two arms I held out, just as he did with my side.
“That’s done. It will take about half an hour for the stab wound on your side to heal completely, but ten minutes should be enough for your arms. If you massage them moderately, it might speed up even more.”
“Thank you.”
Half an hour, huh. I guess the recovery speed is pretty slow because it’s minor healing.
I nodded to express my gratitude, then rested while massaging my two arms crosswise as he advised.
The party members also huddled together, catching their breath and passing time.
“My shield…. Shield died….”
“You can just buy a new one with the request reward, can’t you? With that money, you could buy shields for both hands and feet and still have some left over.”
Kikel was depressed, stroking the remains of his shattered shield, while Amy comforted him from the side, saying it’s just a shield, can’t you just buy a new one?
…Is that really comforting? Anyway.
“Oh Elianelle, this glory to you… protect us… unbreakable indomitable courage…”
Bolton was kneeling in a corner, muttering prayers. With parts of the wight’s corpse neatly arranged in front of him.
…A priest praying over collected parts of a rotten corpse. It was no ordinary crazy sight.
He seems to be doing this to express gratitude in a pious manner, attributing this victory to the goddess’s grace…
Pious my ass. Perhaps due to the overwhelming visual of the wight pieces, far from being pious, he looked no different from a cultist showing off trophies.