Chapter 265: Walker Remnant
———Kenni———
<12: 22 pm (20: 22 pm)>
*Smash* *Claw* *Splat*
“Hah! Another one down.” I said to myself while the corpse dissipates into nothing. These ones are quite weak. I think I have killed… six? No. It’s eight. I have killed eight demons so far. They all look kinda generic and don’t say too much. All of them went down in two or three attacks if I was feeling generous.
“A bunch of small fry demons. These things are surprisingly not that tough.” Qyunda remarked. She has already killed a few of these herself. It doesn’t seem like anyone is having trouble with these weak demons.
“It’s already getting quite boring fighting these things. Doesn’t look like there are any big monsters to hunt either. At least those monster habitats got quite a visual to it.” I can’t help but complain with how anticlimactic this whole trip has been. I think watching people going on a riot would’ve been a lot more fun.
“Those generic-looking things really aren’t up to snuff. Hey. Gregori, you know anything about that?” Qyunda asked.
“If I were to hazard a guess. Those are the most generic type of demons which translated to being among the weakest of the bunch. The public consciousness of what a demon generally looked like became a type of demon in itself. Not only do they lack a unique form and identity compared to most demons, but they also don’t persist after their form in this plane is killed. They are called Shade Demons, I believe.” He began explaining. “They are like infant demons, you could say. They are pretty abundant and don’t really grow into actual demons except for the very few. From my understanding, most established demons with their own identity had manifested a long time ago or were born from corrupted humans.”
“Is that so… Most of those are probably several orders of magnitude tougher than these, I’d imagine.” We’ve only been fighting literal toddlers. No wonder they’re not any fun.
“I wouldn’t really complain though. I bet those demons are way above us in terms of raw power. Considering they probably have some sort of specialized technique that punch above their weight class as well, it’s best for us to not even think about trying to find one.” Gregori said as we continued moving. Aside from some gross-looking monsters there hadn’t been much happening since we started exploring. Sure there are those baby demons, but they didn’t turn out to much fun to fight or torture. All it does is churning out random noises. I was hoping for them to make screams more reminiscent of a human’s with how their nature works.
“They were boring as hell though.” I can’t help but put my opinion out there. “Anyway, based on what I sensed in the opposite direction, it looks like the others ran into these toddlers as well.”
“Please don’t call them that.” Qyunda complained. “But speaking of the others. I am feeling a massive burst of mana from over there… That’s Emmie, right?”
“Who else could it be? Karra isn’t even here today, and Jennla is too much of a wuss to try an attack on that scale.” Honestly that monkey girl is already feeling lacking despite the advantage she got. Admittedly I never saw her as someone that enthusiastic about battle, but I would’ve thought the time she spent being whisked away would’ve provided a bigger result.
“I see… Guess she isn’t holding back much. She’s been at it for a while, it looks like.” Qyunda continue to comment while looking in the direction of the power spike. Unfortunately with all the haze and the lack of sunlight means we can’t really see what’s going on even vaguely from all the way here. She must’ve walked in the complete opposite direction of us for there to not even be some dots in the distance to signify a battle happening.
“Just leave her to do her own thing. The last thing we wanna do is run in and end up as collateral damage.” Gregori said before he kept moving. A fair point, and it’s not like I’ll get much fun out of spectating in an area with shoddy visibility anyway. “I want to see if there is anything left that I could even make out. I’ve only seen some random debris and nothing else. Kind of annoying how little there is left.”
“I mean how else are they gonna make sure they’re demilitarized? Just blasting them a little bit?” I asked while shrugging my shoulders. I think it’s quite clear that whoever did this is being very thorough and even threw in a few extra gory shows just to show that she could.
“...Why are you even following me anyway? I thought you’d run off and go do your own thing.” He replied with a question.
“And go where? This wasteland doesn’t really have anything interesting happening, and going outside to check on the riots wouldn’t be of that much value, honestly.” I could’ve just looked it up online or something and gotten a similar level of enjoyment.
“...Really? I thought you’d want to watch screaming matches and scuffles.” He replied with a chuckle.
“I could go to any part of the world for that if I really wanted to. The only reason I care about the riot is going to be what the end result looks like. The process as it is isn’t all that interesting to watch.” We’ve seen a fair share of them in our country at this point. These won’t be much different. “Besides, I can’t even tell what they would be saying and planning anyway. I don’t speak Russian, you know?”
“Would it be that different if you do know how to speak Russian?” Qyunda asked while Gregori continued to search for any remnants of what this place used to look like.
“Of course it would. Knowing what they’re talking about is half the fun you know? What good would pretty pictures be without a story?” Does she think I’m the type to not read?
“Huh.” She muttered as if conceding that she does see me that way.
“What? You really think I’m one of those tasteless audiences? Just looking at pretty pictures with zero attention span? If I was like that I think I would’ve snapped and turned evil way ahead of schedule.” Not saying that it’ll happen for certain one way or another, but being shallow does lead to you doing or saying bad things.
“I wouldn’t say I think of you that lowly.” She said while seemingly avoiding making a direct answer. Guess she doesn’t have the guts to say that out loud.
“Hmm… Weird.” Gregori muttered as he picked up a small debris with something written on it.
“Why? Did you find something important?” Qyunda asked as both of us walked up to him.
“Yeah. This piece of debris here looked… weirdly archaic? Like it had been here for a few decades and not only a few days.” He muttered while analyzing it.
“Probably rubbles from older buildings?” Qyunda gave him her guess. “They must’ve renovated and cleared out some outdated stuff more than a few times, right?”
“That’s not really my problem with it. It’s just that this place is…” He still seems quite bothered about something. “I don’t know. I got a weird feeling that something happened here in the past, unrelated to the attack on Monday. This place feels weirdly…”
*Creak* *Tumble* *Roll*
Suddenly a sound of heavy machinery can be heard. No way there’s any technology operating in this kind of environment. What’s going on?
“Tch. Seems like something unexpected waltz in.” Qyunda said as she walked forward towards the sound of metal with her twin swords out.
*Vroom* *Vroom*
The thing causing the commotion finally came into view and it’s a… wow what the heck is that?
“That is one impractical-looking tank. What the hell is that?” Gregori remarked as it moved closer to us. It does look like a tank, but it has some long sections sprouted out of its main body with tank wheels attached to them, it looks to be six in total. The main body has a giant cannon attached to it. It’s massive, bigger than any tank I’ve ever seen.
“T… T… T… T…” Something from its body is muttering that letter over and over. Getting a better look at it while we are still out of its sight shows a face in front of the tank. Half of its head looked like it had been hit by fire or lightning, and it only had one eye that was poking out of its socket. Is this thing a demon or what? I don’t think it’s a monster, right?
“Yeesh. The pressure exuding from that thing. Think we can beat that?” Qyunda asked as we kept ourselves at a safe distance.
“Of course we can. From my own estimate it doesn’t look like it has the power of two Kennis. We should be able to beat it.” Gregori confidently said before his face suddenly contorted in shock and dread. “She’s coming.”
*Zip* *Strike* *Crash*
A red dot in the sky flew towards the demon tank like a heat-seeking missile and slammed right into it and sent the bulky metal creature away.
“THoraAAHH!!!” The tank screamed out while Emmie quickly brandished her scythe and ran towards it to continue the fight she started. I guess we won’t get the opportunity to fight it. Just from raw stats alone Emmie clear that hulking thing.
*Slash* *Swerve* *Swing* *Evade*
Emmie began attacking it and avoided the surprisingly agile tank with its limbs moving and rotating quite gracefully despite its size. That thing is freakishly fast the more we get to see it in action. You definitely wouldn’t expect it from its weird impractical design. Just goes to show how deceiving the appearance of something in the world of magic can be.
*Boom* *Boom* *Boom*
“Holy crap…” Qyunda remarked as the tank began shooting out projectiles that caused a massive explosion upon contact. One of those could easily demolish a house in one fell swoop and Emmie just chooses to play it risky and barely dodges each bullet.
*Slash* *Slice*
She began dismantling the giant tank and cut off one of its limbs. Quite an entertaining visual of a rather petite woman dismantling a massive tank with multiple weird limbs.
*Boom* *Boom* *Boom*
“That thing just won’t stop shooting would it!?” Gregori said loudly as to not be drowned out by all the explosions happening in the area.
*Swing* *Stab* *Creak*
Emmie then stabbed the face of the tank with the tip of her scythe and then swung it upward to cut and mangled it into half.
*Slash* *Stab* *Slice* *Slash*
She then continued with the barrages of attack that the tank cannot keep up with as more and more of its limbs were torn off and more damage were accumulated on its body.
*Sizz* *BOOM*
Suddenly its entire body ignited and caused Emmie to stop her current approach and retreat in response. Despite the explosion that came afterward engulfing its entire body, the desperation attack doesn’t seem to cause any real damage to it. It’s more like a combo breaker, I guess.
*Slash* *BLAST* *Slice*
Emmie wasn’t having any of it and suddenly performed a slash right towards its direction and launched a massive energy blade that cut it cleanly in half.
Did she even have to do everything else prior or can she just one-tapped it from that start?
“Phew. Good thing we’re nowhere near the action there.” Qyunda said, sounding way less enthusiastic than she was earlier.
The tank then dissipates much like those demons earlier. So it had to be a demon as well then.
“That seems to be a genuine demon, if I were to guess.” Gregori said after witnessing the scene. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it comes back here soon. I don’t really know the limit the demons have to reappear in our world, but I know it’s not instant.”
“...So there is probably only one of those roaming around then. What a shame.” Of course there is also a chance of Emmie just stealing our prey again. We didn’t even get to lift a finger for that fight.
Speaking of Emmie. She simply walked away wordlessly without even greeting us.
Heh. What a great friend.