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Chapter 65: S Rank Magic Beast【Nightmare】

~Drake’s Perspective~

Nelfie-neesan and I returned to the waiting room and immediately teleported to Foret Noir.

Barbaru-san and the others were already waiting at the destination, and so I immediately began collecting the information.

「We’re back! Is Nightmare still in the Forest of Everlasting Darkness?」

「Thank you for coming so soon! I think it’s probably still in the Forest of Everlasting Darkness, but it’s moving in the direction of Green Plains, towards Recuria!」

「How did you discover it?」

「It was really a coincidence. When I entered the forest to collect Unmindake mushrooms, I heard a loud noise. And when I went to check the source of the noise, I saw Nightmare advancing forward while knocking down the trees in its path. So I teleported back in a hurry and then contacted everyone via telepathy.」

「I see.」

「That was really dangerous. But Barbaru, you are not a fighter, are you?」Nelfie.

「No. But I am still a beastman and also a peddler. I can at least defeat the skeletons in the Forest of Everlasting Darkness.

Even before this, I’ve collected Unmindake by myself to make a potion when I had insomnia.

But I regret being conceited enough to think I can just teleport if it becomes dangerous…」

「I feel like it was indeed a pretty dangerous situation…but if Barbaru-san hadn’t discovered it, Recuria and the village could have suffered damage! Nelfie-neesan, do you have any information about Nightmare?」

「Nightmare is a horse-type monster with the darkness attribute. There are only a few that have been discovered so far, but it is said that a unicorn mutates into a Nightmare when left for a long time with its horn broken.」

「A Unicorn mutant, huh…that’s troublesome. But let’s head there for now!」

We left Foret Noir and used the teleportation magic circle to enter the Forest of Everlasting Darkness. A few minutes later, we found an area where the trees had been knocked down.

If we follow the path of the broken trees towards Recuria, it should be there.

「Drake, once we find it, I will first try to paralyze it with my arrows. Once Nightmare is paralyzed, take advantage of its slowed movement and take it down as soon as possible!」

「Roger!」

And as we were running, we found a medium-sized pitch black horse monster.

The sight of the monster mowing down the trees in the forest and going wild with its purple mane swaying in the wind, reminded me of myself when I was rampaging out of control.

(He might be suffering too…So we’ll stop him.)

Nelfie-neesan finished applying Poison Enchantment to three arrows and shot them.

The accurately shot arrows flew straight towards Nightmare.

However, Nightmare reacted immediately. And although one pierced into its buttocks, the remaining two were flipped off by kicking up its hind legs.

『Neighhhhh!』

As Nightmare lifted both his front legs high and neighed loudly, his body slipped into the shadows.

I tried to land a follow up attack, but he was already hidden in the shadows.

In the next moment, Nightmare’s head suddenly appeared from Nelfie-neesan’s shadow.

「Neesan! Behind you!」

Although she jumped back in response to my warning, she still took magic damage.

「Are you okay?」

「Yes. It’s more troublesome than I expected. There are too many trees here. Let’s fight on the Green Plains.」

「Understood.」

Although Nelfie-neesan took damage, she healed herself with potions. So her ability to fight shouldn’t be hindered.

We ran towards the Green Plains while avoiding Nightmare’s magic attacks.

As soon as we arrived at the plains, I turned around and cast a spell.

「[Wind Cutter].」

I fired the magic by trying to catch it off guard, but it immediately hid in the shadows.

A few seconds after I lost sight of Nightmare, he suddenly appeared from my shadow and hit me with magic from a short distance.

Shit! We are making no progress… We have to come up with a plan to land an effective hit soon.

I wonder what bro would do at a time like this.

I can find an opening to attack, but he hides in the shadows so quickly that I have yet to land a decisive attack.

……But I am now able to read its attack pattern.

「Drake, after slipping into the shadows, it seems that it can only come out of shadows that are of a certain size. Now that we’re out of the Forest of Eternal Darkness, there’s only yours and my shadow.」

「You’re right. Then, the next time it comes out of my shadow, please leave it to me.」

When I said that, Nelfie-neesan readied her bow and shot it at Nightmare.

Nightmare hid in its own shadow and dodged the arrow that flew at it. Right after, my shadow swayed.

(Now!)

「UOOOOOOHHH!!」

I grabbed Nightmare’s head as it emerged from the shadows and threw it up into the air.

Then I jumped up and slammed my right fist into Nightmare’s abdomen as it fell. As I punched it three more times in mid-air and 5 enchanted arrows pierced Nightmare’s body, it fell to the ground without resistance.

「What kind of enchantment was that just now?」

「Sleep. I don’t know if it’ll sleep or not, but the paralysis didn’t seem to work very well.」

After falling to the ground, Nightmare tried to get up but he couldn’t find the strength to stand up. And when he collapsed again, he fell asleep.

「Drake, what should we do with this Nightmare? We can finish it off now…」

「C-Can we wait for a while? …This guy somehow feels similar to me, and for some reason I can’t ignore him!」

「Then let’s have the Foret Noir dungeon remodeled and isolate it until we can contact Aun and the others. If it’s inside the dungeon, we might be able to do something about it.」

「Yes! I’ll take responsibility and monitor it.」

I immediately contacted Ars and asked him to create an isolation room in Foret Noir. They’ll surely create an entrance to the dungeon for us while we’re carrying Nightmare there.

Considering that bro could possibly be in the middle of fighting right now, I decided to report to him after isolating Nightmare.