Published at 27th of June 2021 01:47:48 PM

349 Death Throes

I land next to the basilisks head.

My partner looks around restlessly and then upon seeing the face-up nightmare, cries out Gaah. The nightmare is wrapped in the light of [High Rest]. Its legs stop squirming, then after a few seconds, gets up. Great, it looks like its fine.

Still in the same posture that it fell in, poison dribbles from the basilisks mouth as its body convulses. Only its deep red eyeballs move freely, glaring at me.

Now then, how do you feel about returning my treant-san to normal? My foreleg is fine. I can cut it off later and grow a new one.

I feel something wriggling inside my mouth. Its Aro. To be on the safe side, Id prefer it if you stayed there a bit longer

Nomore, Im at my limit

I hear her feeble voice. I-I see Well, the basilisk shouldnt be able to do anything any more.

While my partner watches over the basilisk, I lower my head away from it and open my mouth and stick out my tongue. Aro rolls out, covered in saliva. She gets to her feet, her expression loose with relief.

She stinks of dragon. I grimace.

Dragon-god-sama!?

I quickly turn back to the basilisk. Now then, Ill have you restore treant-san! You wouldnt be able to eat it even if you cooked it! There are plenty of better things to eat around!

Perhaps realising that it cant survive, it raises its head as though prepared for the worst and glares at me one more time before facing the sky.

AaaAahaaaaAaAah!

A grating scream spreads out from the crushed old man face. Its a weird shriek that makes me shudder despite myself. Magic power is packed into the sound. Is it maybe the [Sinister Voice] skill?

I-is it trying to do something? But I dont feel any new status condition affecting me.

The basilisks face laughs at my suspiciousness. Although its face is crushed, a gentle expression appears. Thinking it impossible, I look up to see the colour returning to the treant. It seems to still be hardened, but upon noticing my gaze, it moves its branches and twists its trunk towards me slightly. It appears to notice that its movements are slowed.

B-basilisk You! Is this that, the fabled friendship at the end of a battle? To admit its defeat and realise that its on the verge of death, but then use its last moments to heal the treant, I cant help but admire its spirit. What should I do? Its quite dangerous, so I was certain I wanted to kill it, but its suddenly become hard to do.

Cant we have basilisk-sensei join us? No, but having it adventure with us would be a bit difficult, visually speaking No, I dont mean to discriminate based on appearance, but there has to be limits

Hey! Its doing something!

I notice the basilisks face is twisted into an evil smile and sense its magic power quickly surging. I hastily chop its head off. Blood scatters, and its head falls to the ground.

Th-that scared me Without thinking, I reflexively swung my claw with all my strength. Im glad I was able to kill it before it was able to do anything

Avaaaah! Vavava! Va, vaAAaaaaah!

The basilisks head screams in a strange, loud voice. After the scream, its stiff expression relaxes as though satisfied, then it blackens as though all its strength has been used up. Its an unpleasant voice that feels as though it is directly echoing inside my skull.

3168 experience points have been acquired.

Due to the Title Skill [Walking Egg: Lv -], an additional 3168 experience points have been acquired.

The level of [Ouroboros] has risen from 96 to 97.

I-Im happy about the level up, but Perhaps because of that strange scream, my vision is blurry. I dont understand, but I feel nauseous.

Gaah! Aaaahah!

My partner howls madly. Th-this is no good, it looks like it gave us some kind of negative status effect. I need to pull myself together. I control my breathing and calm myself down.

Gaaaah!

My partner turns her fangs towards me, so I headbutt her.

Ogoh!

She takes my headbutt directly, and her neck hangs limply.

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J-just a bitof confusion, it seems.

So it seems I also feel a bit better off after the headbutt, but I stagger slightly.

It looks like it was a triple threat of [Illusion], [Confusion] and [Berserk]. That must have been [Shrill Voice] earlier. Did the decapitated head use the [Death Throes] skill? To be able to continue harassment even after death, it sure is a nasty skill.

Im only glad that a monster like that would cure treant-san. I see the it moving towards me. At any rate, Im glad that treant-san is safe Ah, was it also affected?

The treant is charging towards me with its branches held in front of itself. Just as I notice a light forming in front of its mouth, a sphere of red light flies towards me. Its the [Fire Sphere] skill.

I-it got completely dominated by the status condition!

[Gale]!

Aros voice resounds. A violent tornado extinguishes the ball of fire, then goes on to shake the treants body, scattering leaves. Then, her left hand enlarged with a coating of earth, she hits the treant. It pitches forwards.

Aro! She has the [Status Condition Nullification] skill, so that shrill voice probably did nothing to her. High-ranking undead really are incredible.

B-basilisk. If you though treant-san was enough to kill me, youre way too naive. If you want to defeat me, prepare fifty treant-sans.

Shiih! Shiih!

The nightmare rushes towards me, agitated. Its clearly different from normal. It seems it was also affected by the scream. Its eyes are fixed on me Or rather, on my partner.

I finally have a legitimate reason to punish the stupidly cheeky nightmare. Ill hit it juuust light enough to restore its sanity. As light as possible, as light as possible. I cant use enough force to crush it, after all.

From behind the nightmare, I see new monsters staggering towards me. Theres the buff bipedal cow, the three headed tortoise These guys, thats right, they were petrified by the basilisk. Mixed into the pack of monsters, I see the figure of an adam. Oi you! Whyd you go and let yourself get petrified by the lower rank basilisk!? Youre a disgrace to A ranks! No, it wont be a joke to fight though!?

It seems after restoring them all, it planned on starting having them all kill each other as a result of the wide area status condition. I was confused about why the skill to undo the petrification was called [Sinister Voice], but now I finally understand. After it has another monster hear that voice, that monster will then be crushed under the weight of monsters that return from petrification. Its a ridiculous combo.

My partner calmly places the incoming nightmare in her mouth, then urges me with her eyes. I nod, picking up Aro with my mouth and grasping treant-san with my forelegs, then kick off the ground to enter low-altitude flight. My partner looks back wistfully.

B-bird meat Fruit

Give up on it! That things not edible, and theres no chance to pick up the bucket!

The nightmare peeks out of her mouth and spits out thread towards the bucket and basilisk. Pulled by the threads, the basilisks body and the bucket drag behind us.

As dextrous as always It seems its confusion went away after being thrown in my partners mouth. It puts on airs in front of me, but it seems to really like my partner and was probably able to pull itself together inside her mouth. Huh, is it maybe a pervert?

Its head still poking out of her mouth, the nightmare glares at me. I look back to the front.

Anyway, once we shake off the monsters, well find someplace to gather ourselves. Aro should also be able to evolve now. The contents of the bucket is spilling out, and the basilisks body is getting beat up No, I dont care about the latter though.