Reincarnated Vampire Princess and Former Hero, Trample Over Mankind - CH 57

Former Hero vs. Magical Beasts

Translated by AmaLynne

『…I’m sorry, but I can’t keep up with you at your speed. All the members who can barely keep up with you are on the battlefield…I’m afraid you’re going to have to go alone. I am sorry.』

It can’t be helped.

My speed status is over 30,000. There are only two people in the Demon King’s army who can keep up with this speed.

Only Gray-san, who taught me body enhancement magic and how to use my body, and my partner Lean. Moreover, Lean is limited to when the moon’s blessing is working.

The situation is time sensitive. Leaving the report to the Demon King-sama to Zedd-san, I was heading at maximum speed to the area where the antidote to neutralize the deadly poison Misel,『Suzune』, was growing in colonies.

It would be two days, forty-eight hours at the earliest before the Misel poison would turn and take her life. According to Zedd-san, it is about eight hours after being poisoned that she becomes immobile. She was said to have been in good health until 10:00 pm last night, so she probably received the poison around 5:00 pm yesterday. It must have been just before she came back.

That means more than a day has already passed. About twenty-two hours left to go. Even though it took me five or six hours on my feet, it would take me eight hours on the way back, taking into account the physical exhaustion on the way there and the battle with the magical beasts.

In addition, I heard that it takes two hours to make an antidote from flowers.

In other words, I must destroy the magical beasts and collect the flower within six hours at the latest.

I was out of breath, but I had reached the cluster of trees that Zedd-san had told me about.

The time was 1 a.m. Six hours after departure. Right on schedule.

(Ugh…Even though my eyes were accustomed to it, it was still pitch dark and hard to see…If only Leanne were here…)

No, there’s no point in asking for something I don’t have.

For now, relying on the slightest sight and sound…

――The next moment, I reflexively jumped back.

Where I was a tenth of a second ago, a flame of tremendous firepower was burning.

That was close, I would have been hurt if I had been hit by that.

Relieved, I heard a rather loud thud from the ground in the vicinity, accompanied by a rumbling of the earth.

…I was surrounded.

Almost certainly the magical beasts Mr. Zedd had mentioned.

And more than one of them. As far as I know, they breathe fire and have the ability to fly.

The figure is…It is too dark to see. Worse, the moon is hidden by clouds.

Calm down, me. Analyze the situation calmly.

Breathing fire? Lucky for me, this will give me some visibility.

Then, until they let out the flames, my weak vision is a hindrance. Close my eyes. Figure out their movements by sound alone.

…Four-legged. Weighs about four tons. About five meters long. There are five of them. But there are probably more in the back.

「…I’m sorry, but I don’t have time for this. I’d slay you all if I had to.」

As if on cue…They attacked me.

◆◇◆◇◆

「…Haa!」

「GAANNN!」

I felt a cut on the neck. No sound of movement again…This is the third body.

But it’s not good. It took me an hour to kill just three of them.

And the number has continued to grow since then, and now there are twelve of them around.

It seems that they have recognized me as a threat.

I have learned a few things in the past hour. First, they are magical beasts that look like black panthers.

They instinctively use group tactics, and if you try to cut one of them down, another one will attack you, so you have no choice but to stop attacking and go on the defensive.

But repeatedly with the occasional hole in the tactic…This is how I finally got three of them.

This is bad. At this rate, it’s doubtful I’ll be able to eradicate them within the next five hours.

At least if I could get my vision back…!

If my vision were normal, I would be able to cut better, more accurately, and faster.

At the very least, it would be much better than the current situation where I am wielding a sword with only my hearing and some sense of smell.

I was thinking of using the flames that this magic beast breathes out as a light…It seemed to have figured out that my eyesight doesn’t work at night, so it didn’t use it at all.

「GAAAAH!」

「Oops…! Phew!」

「GOOOOOOO!」

I cut…But it’s shallow.

The trouble with these guys is that each one is strong enough.

Their average status is just under 10,000.

If it is a cadre below the strongest class or Lean without the blessing of the moon, it is so strong that its limit is two opponents.

That’s 12 more bodies.

「…I guess I’ll just have to give up.」

I have no choice.

I can’t slay all these guys with my hearing alone now.

Then I have no choice but to give up…

◆◇◆◇◆

I gave up.

I gave up on settling the matter early.

I had six hours to settle the score and collect the flowers. But now that it’s late at night and there’s no moonlight, I can’t finish them off.

Then, wait until it gets bright.

I put all my energy into defense and evasion.

――And four hours later… In other words, five hours after the encounter with the black panther.

「It’s finally getting brighter… Finally, I can use my eyes.」

One more hour and this magic beast…I think that’s all the ones gathered in the last four hours…A total of twenty-three.

I will slay all of these in one hour.

「…I didn’t use the reinforcement because I was afraid that it might create an opening if I couldn’t use my eyes…I’m sorry, but let me go at once, okay?」

「《Physical Enhancement――Improved Evasion, Improved Strength, Enhanced Destruction, Super Acceleration, Mental Acceleration, Pursuit》.」

…I guess I screwed up. I was relying too much on Lean. I also thought I was overconfident. I thought that if my hearing was intact, I could cut my enemies in the dark.

I should have learned the night-vision body enhancement magic first.

「I am limited to six different kinds of body enhancement magic. Well…If I could be serious, I could slay all of these guys.」

Body enhancement magic.

The only magic that I am suited for is the magic that is limited to my own body.

The main advantage of this magic is that it can pinpoint the part of the body that you want to strengthen.

Although it can only be used on oneself, many different types of enhancements cannot be compared to enhance magic, and one can enhance more than several of them.

For《Warrior》, it is the magic of their dreams, said Demon King-sama and Gray-san.

「GAAAAHHH!」

「…You’re slow.」

「GGAAAAAAAH!」

With《Super Evasion》, I evaded with the minimum movement, and with《Improved Strength》and《Enhanced Destruction》, inflict more damage than I could do.

「…Let’s get started――it’s time to lay waste.」

From this moment on, forty minutes.

In that amount of time――I slew all the magical beasts in the place.

◆◇◆◇◆

「Haa…Haa…! Damn it, make it…in time!」

The battle with the magic beasts took longer than expected, and the mental and physical exhaustion that came with it was greater than I expected.

I was able to collect the flowers, but this was two days from contamination…I might not have made it in time for 5 pm.

I didn’t want to use it if possible because the recoil after use would be too much, but I continued to use《Physical Enhancement――Speed Increase, Super Acceleration, Nullify Fatigue》at full force.

Seven hours later.

「Good, I can see the city now…!」

I used the body enhancement magic at full force, temporarily forgetting the concept of fatigue, and it still took long.

The current time――two o’clock in the afternoon.

Even if it takes two hours to produce the potion from here, it will still be 4:00 PM.

Don’t worry, I’ll get there in time…

「Ah…!」

However, I fell on the spot, right in front of the city.

I rushed to get up…

「Why, my, legs, they won’t move…」

My legs are stuck.

The fatigue should have been temporarily nullified.

But instantly I realized what happened.

…I ran out of magic power.

The magic to strengthen my body has run out.

The《Nullify Fatigue》is a physical enhancement that doesn’t make you tired, but rather makes you temporarily forget your fatigue, and the moment you undo it, you will feel the equivalent amount of fatigue all at once.

In addition to that, both《Speed Increase》and《Super Acceleration》cause more fatigue instead of more speed.

…I’ve long since reached my limit, it seems.

「I’m…! Haah…Haah…! Almost there…almost there, but why…!」

No…I have to stay conscious…I have to save them…

「I have to save…I’ve made up my mind, I’m going to save…! Hah…hahhh…must…!」

I have to stand up…If you can’t, crawl, I need to go…

「I have to go…! Haa…haa…AAHHHH…」

Ah…oh……the end, huh…?

「Hey, there she is! Over here!」

…eh……?

「Yomi, you okay? Are you okay!?」

「Yomi-chan! You did good! We’ll take care of the flowers here…! Don’t worry, we’ll definitely get them there in time!」

「Demon, King-sama…Vinel, san…」

Seeing the shadow…I finally let go of my consciousness.