A Reincarnated Demon’s Tales of Wonder (Prototype) - Vol 2 Chapter 26.1

Garami has gotten her hands on a fortune.

Garami has gotten her hands on a fortune.

Garami has gotten her hands on a fortune…

Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! The bad feeling from before ain’t enough to stop this gold rush! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!

I’m so loaded now, that I can’t even take it all with me! All the stolen Item Bags are filled to the brim, so much that there’s no space left. I needed to prioritize the stuff related to the mastermind behind this temple, but even then, I’ve gotten enough Sol now to live a life of debauchery.

Now that I’m satisfied, meaning there’s nothing left to steal, time to-

“High priest! We need your help!” – ???

Bad feeling, spot on. And this guy is… a Shadow Guard? I don’t know any of the Shadow Guards’ voices, but, um, how should I describe it? Their presence is similar to what’s coming towards the door right now, I think. Not that any thieves with honor will let anyone see them during a heist. So, ta-da.

*Bang!*

“High Priest! High… what’s happened here?!?” – Shadow Guard?

Phew. Good thing I didn’t pack away the spider thread rope I used to climb down from the roof. Guess I can turn back from spider-demon to human now. I’ve gotten so used to that form now, that my true form feels more like one of those power-up transformations.

Now then, what to do? Should I wait for the bulls to come first, using the chaos as a smokescreen, or should I… hmm? That dust cloud, that’s the bulls…? It’s still some distance away, but they are closing in fast, even for the bulls I saw at the canyon.

There’s only been one hour since I activated the Attractor. Did the bulls take to rest soon after they passed us? No, in that case, they would have already arrived at the trample this whole temple to dust. Lucky me that they didn’t do so when I think about it.

The dust cloud is too far for the bulls to have been too close since I started the Attractor. Wait, this thing reached all the way to where the dust cloud is? No, the bulls have already traveled an hour, so they should have been even farther out… or is it the same bull flock from before? Mira said that these bulls have expanded their numbers by the years the Velantas forest has been gone, so maybe-

*CRASH!*

Owa, that scared me! The roof floor that’s right above the high priest’s office suddenly burst open.

*Thump.*

“There you are, damn pagan!” – Shadow Guard

Hey, humans shouldn’t be able to jump up a whole floor’s worth of height in full armor like that!

Jokes aside, I’m busted. This Guard isn’t all black, heavy armor, it seems.

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Plag Carn

Race: [Human]   | Level: 62

Karma Value: -79

Skills: 57

Titles: 8

Main Class: Shadow Guard LV35

Sub Class: Knight LV13

Sub Class: none

HP: 201/201   | MP: 81/81   | SP: 176/176

STR: 212   | VIT: 266   | MAG: 43

RES: 255   | SPD: 62  | DEX: 40

INT: 101   | LUC: 92

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Ugh, he’s strong as expected. And he doesn’t have that Mental Polution condition either. To top things off, he’s got two strong classes under his belt, and equipment to match. Including the black full plate armor, he’s holding a battle axe with matching colors, and worse stats, for me. An ATK of over 300, that’s just stupid!

“Say your prayers!” – Shadow Guard

“I don’t pray at all!” – Garami

Along with the witty comment, I side-stepped the slash of the ax. Even if this guy’s attack power is great, as long as it doesn’t hit, it’s like having an ATK of 0.

“Backstab.” – Garami

*Plink*

Yeah, I thought so. Like the ax, the armor doesn’t have any special ability either, but it’s damn hard to cover for the lack of skills. My Art didn’t put a dent in it, nor can I find any gaps in the armor to stick Orimaru into. The design is more ‘solid’ than knight-armors I saw on TV back on Earth, or I think I saw it there? It’s been a long time since then.

“Brutal Swing!” – Shadow Guard

The Shadow Guard used an Art that made him swing the ax like a windmill, but it was too slow to hit me. I jumped high with my legs curled up and gave him a kick to his face as payback.

*Clang!*

Ouch! Ouch, ouch, ouch! That was damn hard! And he headbutted in response to the kick to boot! So, despite him having low SPD, his head can work at a fast speed, and solid. I leaped backward to get some distance, and…

“Hmph. Take this!” – Shadow Guard

The Shadow Guard slammed the ax from over his shoulder to the ground, and some kind of aura-like slash shot out towards me. It’s a flying slash, like Levi’s Claw Art. The Shadow Guard’s slash was just a single one, unlike Levi’s quintuple slash, but the single slash was massive. It showed the difference between the different Art skills.

Big or not, the slash wasn’t too difficult to dodge, for those with accelerated mental prowess I mean. I jumped to the side and let the slash pass by. The Shadow Guard, who must have predicted that I would dodge the flying slash, ran towards me with his ax ready.

Before I could react, the Shadow Guard cut me down! Nah, just kiddin’. Does anybody remember the special ability of the Mirage Mantle?

That’s right. I had hidden behind the illusion created by the Mantle, and that’s what the Shadow Guard cut down, which made him wide open for some payback.

*Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!*

“Wha-?! A spider?!” – Shadow Guard

Tch, he’s durable enough to survive bullets at this close range? Fantasy can be such a pain in situations like this.

While the Shadow Guard was busy playing with the mirage I had set up, I used the time to transform back into demon-mode again, and at the same time, armed each spider-limb with handheld guns that I had stolen from the first warehouse.

All the guns had some kind of restriction to be used, for reasons unknown, but most of them only needed the [Shooting] skill, one of my most faithful skills. The guns work like on Earth, when looking away from the restrictions. It didn’t make them into magic guns, unfortunately. The most they could do was to dent the armor a little, plus pushing the Shadow Guard backward due to the impact. …That’s an idea.

I continued to fire at the Shadow Guard until the guns were emptied. The Guard, probably familiar with the guns, noticed me being empty of ammo, charged in again with the same pattern as to when he attacked the mirage.

“Hydra!” – Garami

The move does make him open for attacks, and my best is pretty much an insta-cast one. The dragon of poison appeared from my free left hand, and struck the Shadow Guard straight in their solar plexus, along with the rest of his body. A single hydra-head is as big as a grown-up adult after all.

The Shadow Guard was hit with all three of the Hydra-heads and was pushed off the roof by the force of the attack. The armor must have had some weight-reduction added to it since even gunshots had some effect on him. But I didn’t think he would be sent flying like that. Sorry?

=====================================================================

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

EXP has reached the required amount.

Garami has reached LV6

Life attributes have been recovered.

All basic attributes have increased.

0.5 skill point(s) acquired.

=====================================================================

Yup, yup, yup. That deserves an level-up alright.

*SPLASH!*

=====================================================================

Karma Value has fallen.

=====================================================================

Oh, come on! That was a bad guy, so why does my karma need to be dropped to the floor like that just because I pushed him off the roof with a poisonous substance in the shape of a dragon?! Oh, that does sound nasty enough… When I looked down from the roof, I saw that the Hydra had landed on a group of cultists as well. My bad.

*CRASH!!*

Wh-whoa, the temple’s sh-shaking! No, it’s collapsiiiiiiing-!

—

Mira’s side

” ‘Stampede Bloodbull’?” – Mira

“That’s it. They are the evolutions of the biggest, baddest, and short fused Bloodrush Bulls ever. And the Stampedes ain’t only about charging power; they can sense the distress of their breathern over a mile away.” – Driver

Big, bad, but kind to their family. These ‘Stampede’-bulls doesn’t sound all that bad. The driver must have figured out what I was thinking, as he continiued his explonation.

“My point is, if the Stampedes are able to notice if one of their own is bullied, they would notice that device you mentioned before.” – Driver

“Meaning, at least one will arrive at the temple. That’s good, all according to plan.” – Mira

“Except that they are the worst bulls in the area that can’t handle a single provocation.” – Driver

…… Won’t that be worse than the whole cult-thingy?

—

Garami’s side

“…Ouch. My head…” – Garami

Before I noticed, the temple had started to collapse. And I went down with the roof. I got up a safety web so that I didn’t follow the Shadow Guard’s example, but a piece of the building fell down on my head.

Said head is hurting too much to think straight at the moment. Damn, my eyes are spinning, and the world with them. When I look up at the sky, I see seven different moons up there. Huh, this must be the first time I’ve been sky-gazing in my life.

…The moons don’t disappear. Wait, there’s seriously seven moons in this world? And I didn’t notice it till now? I know that I’ve been busy traveling the wasteland and that I’m not used to seeing the sky since I’ve lived all my life inside an underground Dungeon, but to not notice this until now… damn, that’s depressing.

*Moooo!*

Just as I was wishing to be in a hole instead of a web, a sound came from below me. Ehm, according to the distance to the roof, I should be between the third and second floor now, so the sound came from the ground floor then.

I turned around to see what was below me, and… who ordered the bison?!

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Nameless

Race: [Stampede Bloodbull]   | Level: 31

Karma Value: -52

Skills: 15

HP: 412/420   | MP: 15/15   | SP: 635/671

STR: 338   | VIT: 445   | MAG: 11

RES: 340   | SPD: 551  | DEX: 75

INT: 46   | LUC: 99

=====================================================================

Confirmed. It’s an evolved bull. There’s too much stuff to point out as to why I figured that out, but the biggest reason is all the bulls that’s around the bison, with the scientific name Stampede Bloodbull.

My questionable luck has struck again. This guy is more than enough to destroy (or ‘stampede’?) the temple. Along with any living being close by. Don’t monsters know that there’s a limit to everything?

The bulls have stopped in their track inside the temple. As I looked up to the roof, I saw the Attractor, half-destroyed, and incapable of working anymore. That explains the sudden stop to the bulls’ charge. And, it was a great opportunity for me.

From my experience as a rat hunter in the Dungeon, I know that flock-skills such as [Swarm], and the bulls’ [Flock], can be disturbed when giving the skill user a scare.

With that in mind, I started to climb out of the web and jumped on the remains of the second floor. The bulls noticed me when I landed, but they weren’t that aggressive at the moment.

My options now are either to lit the web that saved me before ablaze, scaring the bulls with that, or due it the fun way, which would reduce the bulls to a more durable level, for me.

…One vote for fun!

“Hydra!” – Garami

While pronouncing the skill and slamming my hand to the ground, the three-headed dragon appeared from the magic circle, The bulls understood the danger that the hydra posed for them the moment they saw it, but before they could act, the dragon had already landed on them.

Many of the bulls died in moments of contact with the poisonous liquid, with the survivours starting to trash about. Taking this chance, I jumped down from the second floor, and onto a free bull. The stampeding one.

Using the spider-limbs for all they were worth for, I grasped the fur of the Stampede Bloodbull and stabbed him with Orimaru. The bull roared out in pain and re-started its charge. The other bulls were preoccupied with the sea of poison, and I gave them an extra dose with Deadly Poison Dust.

The bull rushed towards the wall and busted itself out. Now that we’re outside, I made more poison dust, trying to kill off the Stampede bull before running away. Or, that was the plan, but the bull suddenly started to run off towards the horizon.

He-hey! Stop that! Let me off! Watch the speed limit! And hot! The bull started to heat up for no reason! Grr, then Dark Drain then! You won’t be able to throw me off that easily, you rodeo bull!

—

Mira’s side

We needed to stop when we reached the canyon the bulls from before had passed through. The elf, Carion, started to use Earth magic to create a makeshift bridge, solid enough to let the wagons travel over the canyon. All the hostages had jumped out of the wagons in order to stretch their legs.

“Within the short amount of time I’ve spent with her, my bet is that Garami will be confronted by either that bull you were talking about or that tar-undead.” – Jack

“What’s up suddenly?” – Mira

“A little bored while waiting for the bridge. Even if feeling bored is a luxury for us right now.” – Jack

Yeah, sure. The real reason must be that all the kids were scared out of their minds when they saw him. It was the same for the three summoned Skeletons, but Levi was for some reason well-liked by the kids, and are now playing with her.

“Why do you think that? Garami looks more like the kind that tries to sneak around anything too strong instead of facing them.” – Mira

“She told us herself. That her luck was ‘questionable good’.” – Jack

She did say that, but where’s the proof then?

“The bridge is finished now. Is everyone ready to leave?” – Carion

And with Carion’s well-timed announcement, people started to get on to the wagons again. Some of the kids looked like they wanted to ride on Levi, but their tiredness from being kidnapped, for then escaping from the kidnappers in the middle of the night, made them chose the wagons they could sleep on while on the move.

“Okay, then let’s-” – Carion

“Wait! There’s something coming towards us from the temple!” – Felton

With the warning, all of us looked towards where the dwarfen leader of the adventurer party pointed out. A dust cloud came toward us, at a breakneck speed.

“Didn’t you say there were no other wagons?!” – Jack

“There wasn’t! They must have hidden some-” – Carion

“Hey. Isn’t that too fast to be a wagon?” – Mira

The guys that heard my question started to look closer at the dust cloud and started to agree with me. And the closer the cloud came, the more did we see that we weren’t its target.

The dust cloud passed by us, not even bothering to use the new bridge as it jumped over the canyon, and continued to run when landing on the other side.

“…Wasn’t that one of the bulls? Just a little bigger?” – Carion

It was too fast for me to take a good look, but Carion must have seen it.

“I think so too, but wasn’t there some kind of grey cloth on top of it as well?” – Driver

The guy that had driven the wagon I jumped on during the escape must have an even better dynamic vision than Carion. Grey cloth? Like the mantle that she was wearing all the time?

…Yeah. Her luck is questionable. Garami’s, I mean.

Greydra

Kigal-Note/Monsters/Beasts: Stampede Bloodbull

A Fire/Earth hybrid, beast-type monster. The evolved form of the Bloodrush Bull.

Is 1.4 the size of their previous form, and share the same skin-, fur-, and horn-color, the Stampede Bloodbull looks more like the animal called the bison. The Stampede Bloodbull has two pairs of horns instead of the bison’s single pair.

The Stampede Bloodbull is the evolution of the strongest Bloodrush Bull in a pack, and it will become the leader of the pack when evolved. In the case of a pack containing several Stampede Bloodbulls, they will duel with each other, with the winner becoming the leader of the pack, and the loser becoming the direct subordinate of the leader.

Like their previous evolution, the Stampede Bloodbulls are practically impossible to stop when they start running. Due to several Leadership skills the Stampede Bloodbull obtained when evolving, they are capable of increasing the abilities of the pack they lead, to incredible levels. The famous incident where a Bloodrush Bull pack having sent a Fortress Dragon flying is speculated to have been lead by a Stampede Bull.

Including the [Bloodrush Assault] and the [Bloodstained Path] skills, the Stampede Bloodbull also has the [Burning Blood] skill, which increases its physical abilities, reduced fire- and cold-damage, and increasing its body temperature without hurting it.

The bulls are classified as C- rank monsters, but a Stampede Bloodbull leading a pack can easily reach A rank.

Felton’s comment: Unlike the Bloodrushes, the meat of Stampedes are known to be some of the highest quality meat ever discovered!