Hard Work Will Never Betray Me (WN) - Chapter 128

“Grrr!!’

—- found his prey.

The Jabberwock is not hiding his joyful gaze from us. He has been through so much pain himself, but he doesn’t seem to have learned his lesson at all. It seems that his desire to torture us to death is greater than the pain he feels when we fight him back. It is as if he is an alcoholic who cannot stop drinking even though he suffers from a hangover every time. There was nothing we could do to fix it.

“Why?”

Marx, with a face like he was about to cry, said weakly, No wonder. It was the first time he had ever faced such a powerful and unbeatable enemy. However, if you are despairing and feeling weak at this point, you will not be able to survive. If he cannot evade, he has no choice but to fight.

I don’t know if Marie was expecting this or not, but in any case, if she decides that we are too much for him, she will rush over to us. It may sound naive, but Marie is not a psychotic like a black supervisor who pushes people into a corner for no reason. Marie, who is probably monitoring the situation closely, will surely come to the rescue.

　She is …… but she is not able to use transition magic like Lily. Even if she had been aware of the situation from the time we started fighting the Jabberwock, it would have taken her a while to get here. In other words, we had to survive this crisis by stalling for time on our own until Marie arrived.

“Marcus!　You said yourself just now that you wanted to be strong!　If you don’t stand strong now, when will you stand strong?　We will survive!　We’re all will come home!”

I scold him loudly, out of character. I might not be able to spare myself in the biggest crisis of my life.

“That’s right, Markus!　My body hurts, but I still have some magic power left. I can at least stall for time!”

　Oscar is not giving up. Maybe this could be a way out.

“Markus, this is a task that only you can do. . Listen to me.”

“What?”

I tell him in slow, punctuated sentences, trying to build his confidence. The Jabberwock, perhaps pleased with itself for putting us on the spot, doesn’t attack yet.

Oscar and I attack in a similar fashion to earlier. Oscar will be out if he gets attacked again, so this time we’re going to shoot from a great distance and focus on hitting the enemy. I don’t care if the power is a little less at this point. I will continue to deal damage to him from the front with my magic sword, Raikiri. Marcus, you’re going to have to get around all of our attacks and the Jabberwock’s attacks and set a vicious trap that will be the decisive factor in the fight. I’ll leave the traps to you.”

‘Oh, no!　I can’t handle such a big job”!

“If you can”t do it, we”ll all die. Then we have to take a chance on the possibility that you can do it.”

　If I’m going to die, I want to die with my last breath. You can die gracefully only when you are old and have no regrets.

‘It may be true, but ……”

“Either way, it’s just live or die. If we die from lack of strength, we are all equally guilty. It’s not just Marcus’s fault. …… and I’m sure he’ll be fine. I’m sure of it, having watched him train for the past three months.”

　The Jabberwock didn’t fall for the trap set by Marx earlier, and that’s why he struggled so much. If all those traps were in working condition,……, I am sure it would not be impossible to beat him.

“Okay, let’s go!　Patience until Marie gets here!”

“Okay!”

“All right!”

I deployed ” Cloak ” with all my remaining magical power. I decided not to deploy the “Silver Armored Aegis”. If I were to use that skill, which requires a lot of magical power and is ridiculously inefficient, I am sure I would run out of magical power in a matter of minutes. If that is the case, then the only thing to do is to fully utilize “Shrinkage,” “,Cloak ” and “Impact” to attack the Jabberwock with all possible strength.

“!　Activate the magic Sword Raikiri!”

　I took out the magic sword Raikiri from my inventory and put magic power into it. “Raikiri” is a super weapon that contains Orihalcon and requires a non-negligible amount of magic power to use it , but it is better than the “silver armor. The raikiri is the most powerful weapon among all the means of attack I currently have . The attack range is relatively narrow, limited to the blade plus an alpha, but in terms of using its destructive power on target , it is nearly invincible. There is no way to avoid using it.

　And even the Jabberwock that it will danger if it repeatedly recovers. Even that magician, who seems to be a a lot of regenerative abilities, was forced to use up a considerable amount of magic in recovering his lost limbs.

　”—- kiiii ……!”

The raikiri absorbs my magical power and rumbles high in the air. The air around me trembles, and the dust that dances in the area cuts off those things just by touching the blade.

“Oscar!　Take over support!”

Ow!”

Oscar, who had moved away from the area, fires a large number of medium fire spell jabs . All of them hit the Jabberwock as they flew over my head, scorching the scales on his body surface.

“GAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!”

As I thought, the battle was indeed not in vain. He is clearly slowing down. If the Jabberwock had just met me, it would have easily avoided the magic I just used.

“—- ‘Instantaneous Flutter’!　The “Running Water”!　Hana-hi Hanabi!”

I took advantage of the gap Oscar had created and proceeded to wield the swordsmanship of the Hokusho Bujin-ryu. Cutting mainly at the Jabberwock’s unusually long tail, Ken of the legs, and other parts. The Jabberwock’s movement slows down even more, and the powerful weapon of its great massed tail is lost, albeit temporarily.

And that momentary reprieve was enough for Markus. Marcus, who had already finished setting up several traps around , succeeds in setting the first trap on the Jabberwock’s body in order to catch it in all the traps in succession.

‘…… Eberhard!　Get away from him!　The traps are activating!”

“Roger!”

　It seems that Marx has finally done it. I use “Shrink” and “Impact” together to distance myself from the Jabberwock in one fell swoop.

“Ah!”

　I unintentionally let out a cheer. The first of Marx’s traps had been activated.

The Jabberwock’s right leg, which had finally regained a healthy tail and leg, shifted and came off. It is a super-hard magic steel wire that cuts through the iron that Marx had put up. The Jabberwock, which had lost its balance, fell into a trap, and was pierced through one eye and its neck by a poisoned spear that had been placed at the bottom of the trap, and was trembling. Then, poisoned arrows and knives fly from the branches of the surrounding trees, piercing the Jabberwock’s back, wings, and arms one after another.

　It’s unbelievable. The Jabberwock sprawled with the loudest scream ever.

　He was —- but his stubbornness was beyond our imagination. The Jabberwock stood up even as it took on all of Markus’s traps.

It’s a joke. ……. How many times do I have to pull you up and drop you ……?”

Eberhard ……. I don’t have any more tools left to set traps,I’ ve used up all my poison and it will take me at least a few dozen minutes to procure a new one.”

‘…… I, too, have no more magic power.’”

　My magic power had finally run out after the previous series of attacks. It was probably the first time in my life that I had run out of magic in a fight. I felt like I was about to pass out. Even during the fight against Felix in “Wind Slayer,” I had a little more magic left in my tank. I’m not sure I can even use magic as far as I’m concerned right now.

　We gave it our all. We had cornered the Jabberwock to this point. However, we were unable to defeat the Jabberwock, an insane beast that attacked unpredictably due to its distorted body structure, extraordinary regenerative ability, and aggressive instincts.

　Marie has not gotten there yet, either.

　——–This could be the end.

　That was the next moment it’s happened

“What?”

　An unusually bright light leaks from the inventory bag on my waist.

“What, Eberhard?”

　Markus asks, forgetting the fear of being on the verge of death. The Jabberwock is also dazzled, standing there with his face turned away,

Whoa!”

　Something comes flying out of the inventory. It was glowing brightly, and while floating, it landed right in front of our eyes.

“Is this a …… egg?”

“Tama-chan!”

　The glowing object that flew out of my inventory was my divine beast, the egg Tama, which had been sucking in my magical power for the past several months and showed no sign of hatching.

　The egg, which had been gradually losing its light, cracked with a “snap.

“No way!”

What will be be born now? I don’t know if the timing was good or bad, but I just understood that it was impossible.

　—-piccicciccicciccic

　The fissure grew bigger and bigger. And then, when I thought the egg shook for a few seconds,…….

　A small dragon hatchling with silver scales was born from inside.

“Wow ！！！！！！！　Tama-chan！！！！

“Such a touching birth scene at a time like this,……. Eh, it’s very Eberhardt-like, kind of . ……”

I can feel Oscar’s stunned gaze from a distance. Perhaps the Jabberwock’s gaze was also a little dismayed, as if it were from …….

　The Jabberwock, however, may have quickly regained his composure, or perhaps he was happy to have one more prey, and although he still has wounds all over his body, he began to lick his tongue.

“Pyu?””

‘Tama-chan?”

　A beautiful – it shines like my “white silver armor” – silver-colored juvenile dragon looks up at me. Even at a time like this, I can’t help but be comforted by its dull eyes.

　I’m sad that Tama will die too,……, but I’m glad that this was the last sight I got to see. It would have been too bad if the fight with the Jabberwock was the last.

　I don’t know if Tama-chan sensed that thought, but ……

“Pyu!”

Tama-chan turns toward the Jabberwock and begins to glare at him with a grim look in eyes. It seems that she has recognized my enemy as her enemy as well. Cute fellow.

　Then Tama-chan takes a deep breath, turns head back and —-

“Pyyy!!”

He shot a beam of destruction with a ridiculous amount of heat at the Jabberwock.

“What happened ………………………?”

　It was no wonder that Marx and I couldn’t help but hum.