High School Girl Warrior: How to Save an Apocalyptic World - CH 58
Chapter 58 – Monster Hunt
Escaping from the sewers was surprisingly easy.
There was a manhole near the safety zone that Iroha used as a base, so after crawling out of the sewers, we hid back inside the Nerima station.
We then started our strategy meeting while replenishing our magical power by eating sweets.
The first thing we did was to share what skills each of us had.
Iroha skills were like:
——–
Basic Skills:
Fighting Technique (Advanced); Special Skill I-III
Natural Healing (Strong); Skin Strengthening; Bone Strengthening
Hunger Resistance (Strong)
—-
Magic Skills:
Fire Magic I
Thunder Magic I-III
—-
Job Skills:
Quick Step I
Iron Fist
——–
As for my skills, they were…
——–
Basic Skills:
Sword Technique (Advanced); Perfect Maintenance
Natural Healing (Strong); Skin Strengthening; Bone Strengthening
Hunger Resistance (Strong)
—-
Magic Skills:
Fire Magic III
—-
Job Skills:
Defense IV; Steel Clothes
Magic Resistance I
——–
“So Iroha is level 20, while I’m at level 23.” I commented.
But then, Iroha rubbed her temples with her fingers, “Uhn… I don’t think so? I’m fairly sure I’m at level 19.”
“Huh? But you have 20 skills total…” I replied.
“Ah, but I had Fighting Technique (Beginner) since the start.” She explained.
“Oh? I didn’t start with anything…” I said.
“Well, I didn’t know a Sword Technique skill existed.” Iroha replied.
“Eh? So it wasn’t available to you?” I asked just to be sure.
“It wasn’t.” She nodded.
Mmmm… I don’t have the time to think about it carefully right now, but it seems like there are some individual differences on what skills each person can acquire.
And coming to think of it, it would be a bit weird if everyone had access to a Sword Technique skill when not everyone has a sword.
Well, whatever. For now, the priority is to think on how to kill that tiger monster.
“Coming to think of it, I don’t know what this Quick Step skill does.” I told Iroha.
“Oh, it’s like this.” Then, Iroha kicked the ground.
Immediately after that, she disappeared and reappeared five meters behind her initial position.
“That’s basically it. I took it because I thought it was kinda cool, but when I think about it carefully, there isn’t any reason to use it against zombies. It’s totally unnecessary.” Iroha explained.
“Ooh… Can you pass through walls with it?” I asked.
“That’s impossible. If something hard is on the way, then you stop right in front of it.” She replied.
I see, I see…
“So, what strategy are we going to use?” She asked me.
I folded my arms and thought for a small bit, “… I have three ideas.”
“Oh, amazing! Three!?” Iroha exclaimed.
“One is high-risk and very cool, another is just high-risk, and the third one is an uninteresting, solid, low-key strategy.” I replied.
“Since we’re going at it! Let’s win in a cool manner!” Iroha instantly said.
“By the way, the cool idea was to get swallowed by the tiger monster, then to blow it up from inside.” I told her.
“Solid and low-key strategies are the best!” She exclaimed.
“They are, aren’t they?” I replied.
And so, let’s start our monster hunt.
***
In the end, I couldn’t think of any extraordinary idea to beat up a monster, so the plan we are going to go with is a simple surprise attack.
Iroha and I will split up and walk through the shopping district. Our goal is to get a pincer attack on the tiger monster.
If I find the monster first, then Iroha will attack from behind, and if Iroha finds it first, then I’ll attack from behind.
And if something goes wrong, we escape through the manhole entrance that we left half-open in advance.
That was the gist of it, so we started carefully moving towards our raid boss.
While walking through the mostly-deserted shopping street, I was killing the occasional zombie that got in my way, then kept on moving forward.
We already roughly knew the location of the monster, as we could see it from an apartment building that was right next to the station.
The tiger monster seemed to have given up on chasing us, so it was lying down on the ground, seemingly bored, on a three-way intersection.
So, by using only narrow roads as our path, we steadily moved towards our hunt target.
Animals are supposed to have a pretty sharp intuition, but this area has limited visibility available, and most of the noises come from zombies, so I think it won’t be easy for it to notice us… Probably.
Nothing in particular happened, and after proceeding along the planned route for a while, I saw it. The tiger monster was here.
Luckily, it seemed to be asleep, so I carefully and slowly moved forward, trying to be as quiet as possible.
The target is… The head.
With my enchanted sword, I might be able to kill it with a single blow.
Meanwhile, the monster was carefreely snoring.
That’s it… Almost there…
Sleeping animals tend to usually be fairly cute, but this monster isn’t cute in the slightest… Or rather, it gives off something akin to murderous intent even while sleeping.
It’s scary…
But I’m getting closer… I might really be able to kill it with one blow.
However, as soon as I thought that, a silhouette moved towards the tiger with an incredibly fast speed.
It was Iroha. She stood on the head of the tiger and screamed, “I got it! Exploding Hundred-”
Her fists started emanating a golden light.
But at the same time, the tiger monster opened its eyes wide.
It groaned and threw Iroha up in the air just by lifting its neck.
“Aah!?” She said.
Oh dear… Her half-activated Special Skill III was now raining down upon the area. The surroundings were quickly swallowed by the flying lights and quite a bit of destruction was caused.
I crouched down to dodge the dust that was raised by it.
And when I looked up, I could see that the monster had positioned itself on the location where Iroha, who was still up in the sky, was going to fall at.
The monster seemed to be wondering if it should kill her with its claws or fangs.
It will probably decide on the ‘weapon’ of choice on a whim.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, dangerous!” Even when faced with death, Iroha didn’t stop screaming.
If she lost her life here, it would be nothing short of a tragedy.
Of course, I’m not let that happen.
I Enchanted my sword, then ran straight towards the monster.
It noticed my presence and seemed to be quite surprised by the appearance of a new ‘prey’.
Especially because I had a fire sword in my hands, and animals seem to naturally fear fire. Even the pig monster was no exception.
Iroha is coming from above, and I am coming from the ground.
Can you dodge this attack!?
… I feel like a side character that is getting too full of herself.
And then, what happened next was, at least for a moment, beyond my comprehension.
But to put it simply, the monster suddenly jumped up and knocked down the airborne Iroha like a fly.
And in the direction that Iroha was sent towards… Was me.
“Agh! Sorry, sis!” Iroha exclaimed.
I couldn’t react in time, so both of our heads clashed, and for a few seconds, I was knocked unconscious.
I knew I woke up quickly, because I’d otherwise already be inside the belly of the monster.
“Ugh…” I groaned as used my sword as a cane to force myself to get up.
As for Iroha… She was muttering some incomprehensible things. She was right by my side, but seemed to be completely out of it.
I probably took less damage due to my Defense IV skill.
And now, in the midst of my confusion, the tiger monster landed right in front of me.
I looked up at it.
Iroha was unconscious.
The monster was groaning. It was almost as if it was laughing in joy.
I can’t run away from it while also carrying Iroha with me.
So… There’s no other choice.
The time has come for the riskiest strategy that I thought of.
A head-on combat.