Ep. 322 Heading for the Summit Part 2 (Patreon)

Kechara is right behind me as I enter the cave, but so far I don't see any driders. Following the cave I soon reach where the barrier is, but it is barely a few shreds of black floating around. I can see that it is already starting to recover now that Kechara is close by but I won't relax until it is fully repaired.

Watching the black pieces of the barrier slowly grow and start joining together is fascinating. Even being able to see the mana flow I don't understand how the barrier even works. The elves who made this were far beyond my understanding of magic, which makes me wonder how they lost to the driders.

So far I haven't really had any trouble fighting the driders other than when they far outnumbered me. Even then I was able to kill a lot of them as I was escaping, so how were they able to defeat the elves? Maybe it has to do with whatever is controlling them, or they have other forces that I haven't seen yet.

There was a visible difference in power between the undead and the living driders. So it only makes sense that there might be something above the living driders. They might be all I saw because they were the fastest to wake up, but quite some time has passed now.

This is the second breach we have found and it is possible for there to be more, I will have to send Kechara out scouting again. I make sure she knows I am not mad at her, after all the mountain is huge. Besides, Kechara is still young and has no experience in this sort of thing.

Suddenly I start to hear skittering sounds, but I can hear it from both ahead and behind us. Telling Kechara to focus on repairing the barrier I get ready to face those coming from the front and summon Bones to guard our backs. When the driders come in sight I quickly count them, two dozen undead driders with around thirty undead in front of them.

Wanting to prevent the barrier from taking any more damage I step through it and start throwing out wind blades. It is so nice that I finally have a ranged attack and can hurt things before they reach me. Not to mention every time a wind blade takes down an undead the fallen body slows those behind.

*DING*

Congratulations! Skill Wind Blade has progressed to level 4!

Wind Blade

Level: 4

SP Cost: 40

Blades fired: 2 Damage per blade: Int x2.5

In the end I am able to take out all the undead using the wind blades, in a narrow tunnel with no room to dodge they are even more dangerous. Now all that is left is the driders, with the melee type leading the charge, rather than wait I move forward to meet them.

The first drider is cut in half before it even has a chance to swing its blades, the second falls just as easily. Knowing their weak spot and how they fight makes it no challenge at all for me to kill them. The next two die as they are climbing over the first two's bodies and now I have a wall to fight behind.

Defending is always easier than attacking and a wall just adds to that, even if it is a wall of corpses. The fact is it is very hard to defend yourself while climbing, even I would have trouble. They are basically sitting ducks and I am able to cut them down easily as soon as they get in range.

Even when they are out of Blitz' reach I can cut them down using my wind blades. I am having such an easy time killing them that I almost feel bad, but I try to think of it as more ending their suffering since they are undead. Soon the last one is cut down and for the moment no more are coming, looking behind me I can see the barrier is about half repaired.

There have been sounds of combat coming from the back but I trust Bones to handle whatever is there. Even if he has more trouble dealing damage I know he will be able to hold them in place. Just as I am thinking that I hear a crackling roar and looking back I can see Kechara using her breath weapon.

From where I am I can't see the driders that are hit but I doubt they are doing well at this point. I never got around to helping Kechara figure out her breath weapon but it looks like her instincts are all she needs in that regard. Feeling movement on my back I turn to see Asuna has stuck her head out of the hood to watch the light show.

The show only lasts for around thirty seconds, but that is still enough to do a lot of damage. As if to prove that I suddenly get a whiff of burned bug, that is going to make camping in the tunnel unpleasant. As soon as the barrier is repaired I will need to clear out the corpses on that side and maybe figure out how to air out the tunnel.

Bones has gained a level!

From that I guess some of the driders survived the breath weapon and Bones was able to finish them off. Soon everything is quiet again, I turn and watch down the tunnel expecting more driders to appear. It takes about an hour for the barrier to become solid once again, driders attack two more times but only from my side.

While I don't have any problems dealing with the attacks, I am more than ready for a rest by the time the barrier is fixed. Kechara has to reach through and pull me through the barrier since I can't pass on my own when it is repaired. As soon as I am through I head down the tunnel to where Bones is, there are around twenty drider corpses most of which are burned.

Grebbing two of the corpses I start dragging them out of the tunnel, once outside I toss them a good ways away. As I am turning to go back into the cave I spot the bodies of a couple of beasts. They certainly weren't there when we entered so the driders must have dropped them there.

The question is why, were the driders out hunting for food for the living ones? Or were they gathering food for something else? Since I don't really know enough I can't even guess what they are doing. The fact that gathering food is important to them is a surprise, I thought the ones escaping would be trying to get off the mountain.

The history book still hasn't said anything about them but I am not quite halfway through. I am still hoping that they are mentioned in the book, or one of the others I picked up. Even if they don't manage to escape I still would like to know more about them.