Chapter 245
"There's something strange about this sound, isn't there?"
We proceeded by following the sounds of a battle unfolding nearby, but Toji seemed to have noticed something odd along the way. I had no idea what was strange about it, but I couldn't take something one of my companions noticed lightly. I decided to ask what was wrong.
"Strange how?"
I had asked, but Toji seemed to have reached a conclusion before answering. Since Toji instructed us to listen, we obediently stopped and pricked up our ears.
"Wait a moment... Yes, I knew it. You all stop too and listen carefully."
Hmm... Even after being told it was strange, I couldn't figure out what was strange about it at all. If I had to name something, it was odd that the battle had continued at exactly the same intensity the entire time we had been approaching. However, it was possible that the monsters were extremely tough, so I wouldn't call it an actual discrepancy. All right, I give up!
"Huh? Doesn't that voice... loop?"
"It does, doesn't it? It's looping, isn't it?"
Unlike me, Iris had apparently noticed the oddity Toji had sensed. It was looping? Once she pointed it out, I listened to the sound and realized that the exact same noise was indeed repeating over and over!
Suspicious. Far too suspicious. It was bizarre for the sounds of monsters fighting to loop inside a cave. There had to be something ahead.
"All right, let's try it. Summon, Skeleton."
"Clatter-clatter."
I summoned a Skeleton, the weakest Undead. The human bones continued rattling their teeth as usual, but I decided to use it as a decoy rather than as a combatant.
We set off toward the sound again with the Skeleton at the front. Once we were close enough, I sent only the Skeleton ahead. The moment it turned the bend in the cave, something happened.
Rumble rumble rumble!!!
The instant the Skeleton stepped into that passage, something like a spear came flying at high speed from beyond it. The Skeleton, being nothing more than a low-level monster, was torn apart and vanished in an instant.
"Gwooh!?"
"A trap for an opportunist trying to profit from a battle between others, perhaps? Who could have made something like this?"
"Who else could it be? Right, Leader?"
"Someone with the expertise and intelligence to create such an elaborate trap... It was probably the Metallica."
We had nearly been killed by the very beings we had been searching for. If that trap had remained undetected, Cal, who had been walking at the front, would have been impaled. It would have been terribly cruel to impale him again when he had only just suffered heavy damage from his fall. I had to thank Toji.
But this was a problem. There was a good chance the Metallica were ahead, yet we had effectively sprung their trap. We wanted to establish friendly relations, but wouldn't this make a terrible first impression?
"What should we do...? If only there were some way to check what's beyond that passage safely..."
"Leave it to me, Izamu-sama."
The one who said this respectfully was Mikero. Of course—his eyes were attached to the ends of his tentacles. If he extended them to the entrance of the passage, he could look beyond it. He would be using them much like a gastroscope used in an endoscopic examination.
Mikero immediately floated toward the passage where the sounds of the monsters fighting continued to loop, extending his tentacles to peer beyond it. After observing the area for a while, he returned to us.
"Unfortunately, I didn't see anything resembling a person. The only thing there was a large crossbow—what's commonly called a siege crossbow or ballista."
A-a ballista? So the thing that destroyed the Skeleton earlier was a projectile fired from it? Using something that dangerous in a narrow passage with nowhere to escape would be a nightmare. Perhaps the Metallica were more aggressive than I had imagined.
The closer we got to them, the more vicious their traps would probably become. There was no guarantee someone would notice them every time, either. We would have to keep a decoy created by 【Summoning Magic】 at the front at all times.
"By the way, what was making that sound? There weren't any devices that seemed capable of it..."
"Now that you mention it, you're right. It would be reasonable to assume they were using some machine like a CD player, a record player, or a phonograph."
"Huh. Ancient technology, huh?"
"The Metallica might have invented it, right?"
"We won't know anything until we meet them, will we?"
Wool was right. We wouldn't know anything until we met the Metallica. All I could do was pray that the encounter would be as peaceful as our encounters with the other Races had been.
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Rattle-rattle-rattle!
"This place is like a ninja mansion."
After that, we continued through the cave, and it turned out to be exactly the murderous deathtrap we had expected. Spears shot out of the walls, iron balls dropped from above, flames and lightning burst from the floor, and there were pitfalls with beds of spikes at the bottom, among many other kinds of traps.
Just now, several Skeletons serving as decoys stepped on a trap right in front of us. Oil jars with fuses attached fell from the ceiling, setting them ablaze and reducing them to ash in an instant.
"It would have been easier if Ruby were here..."
"The one who set these traps might be angry that we're using a method that feels like cheating. Or perhaps they feel threatened. We should be careful."
As Iris said, we were making considerable use of brute force to overcome the traps. We lined up several Skeletons as decoys, deliberately made them trigger the traps, and then proceeded along the path once it was safe. It was only natural for someone to call that underhanded, and we should expect them to become more wary of us.
However, our opponent seemed to have anticipated that as well. Some of the trap switches were set to activate multiple times. After making us think that a trap was finished when we stepped on it once, stepping on the switch again activated a different trap.
Mikero had been caught once when we weren't on guard. Several of his tentacles were torn off, and treating him took a fair amount of time. The murderous intent here was overwhelming. It was quite educational, yes.
"Um... Oh? It looks like there's a large chamber ahead."
Mikero, whom we had continued to entrust with gastroscope-style reconnaissance, said that he had found a large chamber. Based on our experience so far, it had to be a trap. Charging in recklessly would be dangerous, so we sent the Skeletons forward as usual.
Since it was a large chamber, we didn't know where the trap switches were. I had the Skeletons wander around randomly, but no trap activated at all.
"There are no traps...? There's no way that can be true after coming this far."
"I think so too."
"I agree. But there's no other path, so I guess we'll have to continue."
"Yes. We'll have to get through this one on our own."
Everyone seemed to realize it, but this felt like a kind of kill zone. If there was a trap here, it had to be designed to kill us. It might be manually operated, or perhaps they had prepared some powerful weapon.
It was frightening not to know what was going on. Even so, once we'd steeled ourselves, we stepped into the hall. Now, what would happen!?
"...Nothing happened. Have we been imagining things?"
"Maybe we were just being overly cautious because the entire route here was filled with traps."
Clunk!
As if it had been waiting for us to relax our guard, metal bars descended over the passage we had come from. When we hurriedly looked around, we found that bars had also fallen over the passage that seemed to connect the hall to the outside!
So we were trapped, but that wasn't the end of it. Since this was a trap, I didn't think it was the sort of place where they would simply leave us to starve to death. My unpleasant premonition became reality in a far worse form than I had imagined.
"The walls?!"
"A-a ballista?! And this many of them...!"
With a loud crack, the walls of the hall fell away, revealing enormous ballistas. Worse, they were aimed at us from every direction in the hall.
"Activate Magic Formation! Spell Adju..."
The ballistas fired without mercy. Apparently, the projectiles had even been thoughtfully imbued with 【Explosive Magic】, because they exploded on impact and scattered their fragments everywhere. The barrage continued for about a minute, and the explosions reverberated and echoed through the cave.
When the explosions stopped, the metal bars rose, and something came through from the other side. It was making a noisy clanking sound, so it must have been wearing metal armor. The sound grew louder, so it was probably drawing closer while pushing through the strangely large amount of dust stirred up by the explosions. It would be coming out any moment now.
"Phew, that was close."
"!?"
Apparently, the figure beyond the dust hadn't expected us to be alive, because it recoiled in surprise. In truth, our dodge had been incredibly close.
Judging by the power of the ballistas I had seen earlier, I decided that no matter what I did, a magical barrier could never stop them. So I had instinctively used Earth Hole. I created a hole as deep as possible beneath our feet and hid inside it until the barrage passed.
To make the hole harder to notice, I used 【Dust Magic】 to increase the amount of dust kicked up and create a smokescreen. Fortunately, it had worked.
I experienced what it must feel like to be a soldier holding his breath in a trench. Between the blast, the fragments of the projectiles, and the impact of falling into the hole, not one of us came away unscathed. However, not one of us had died, either.
"If you're going to do that, you could've warned me first... Though I suppose that's asking too much."
"As expected of you, Izamu-sama!"
"That was scary~"
I climbed out first with the aid of my flight equipment, followed by agile Toji, floating Mikero, and Wool, who deftly used four legs to climb up from the bottom of the hole. Sorry, Toji. I hadn't had any time to warn you. I hoped there wouldn't be a next time, but if there was, I probably wouldn't have any time to warn you then, either.
"M-my head is spinning... Ah, Cal-chan. Thanks~"
"Gwooon!"
Iris had apparently been flipped over when she fell into the hole, leaving her dizzy as well. Cal gently picked her up and carried her out of the hole. I was so happy that he had grown into such a kind child!
The cloud of dust quickly thinned once I stopped using 【Dust Magic】, revealing the figure on the other side. The sight made all of us say the same thing.
"A combat robot?"
What stood before us was, without a doubt, a robot. Its upper body was humanoid; from the elbow down, its right arm was a sword, while its left arm was equipped with a crossbow. Each shoulder had a different mysterious weapon mounted on it, and I couldn't even imagine what might emerge from them.
Its lower body consisted of four legs spreading out radially from its waist. The legs didn't appear to have any weapons, but I couldn't say for certain that they had none. There was no harm in being cautious.
To be honest, it was cool! Really cool! It brought back how I had felt as a child watching robot anime. I wasn't the only one excited, either. Mikero, Wool, and even Iris seemed thrilled.
Cal, who didn't see what was so special about robots, was confused by our reaction while threatening it. Toji, meanwhile, watched it warily as if it were something suspicious. That's right—get a grip! This wasn't a giant figure in real life; it was a bona fide enemy!
The opponent had already entered combat mode. A purple light leaked from a slit in its head with a high-pitched whine. Grrr... Don't make such a cool move when I need to concentrate!
Fine! Then I'll destroy it, take the parts home, and have Iris assemble it! For that very purpose, I'll fight it with everything I have!