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The Otherworld Conquest Method of a Reincarnated Porter Chapter 159 Part 2

The mantis stands in front of me, ready to fight. Ugh, the expressionlessness typical of insects and the murderous intent oozing from its body. My hand that’s holding the sword starts to tremble. I have no intention of fighting this guy. I’ll buy some time and then retreat from the battle… Ugh, so fast!

The mantis moves in front of me at high speed with instant movement, and then swings the blades of its four arms at me.

*Clink* A metallic sound echoes through the forest. Despite the fact that I’m using full strength body enhancement and increasing my agility with the correction of a magic tool, my sword can only block three of its scythes, and I get hit by its attack.

「Ouch…」

This guy, it’s attacking with frightening accuracy. It digs its scythe into the gap in my armor. I don’t have the leeway to check it, but it gives me a sharp pain. I must be bleeding.

「Haa!」

I immediately counterattack by repeatedly slashing sideways, but the mantis flies backwards as it blocks my sword strike with its scythes. This is bad, not only is it too strong, my compatibility with it is bad. It seems that I’m not good with agile monsters.

However, the mantis is wary of me and is keeping its distance. It doesn’t seem like it’s going to immediately unleash a follow up attack at me. This guy, perhaps it has high intelligence. I wonder if I will be able to get away from it.

What should I do, should I take out my shield from my storage and face it while focusing on defense? Nah, a shield will get in the way when I beat a retreat. However, with a sword held in both hands, it’s impossible to block all of its attacks.

Maintaining a certain distance, the mantis and I glare at each other. I take out an iron shield from my storage. If it’s this one, I don’t mind losing it.

The magical energy consumption is severe, but there’s no other way. I circulate my magical energy, create a large fireball, and shoot it towards the mantis’s eyes. I then throw the iron shield at it and retreat while using body enhancement.

*Shink* With the sound of the shield being sliced through behind me, I use instant step to retreat. Compared to the speed of the mantis’ movement, which makes use of its wings, my legs are faster. Just like this, I’ll run all the way to the town…

「Huh?」

At that moment, I spot the figures of Caliel and the others up ahead. Those idiots! Even though I’ve gone through so much trouble to buy them time. No, it’s not just Caliel and the others. The adventurers we passed earlier are also there.

It seems that a monster is blocking their way, and they’re in a state of combat. This is no time to be fighting, duh.

「Caliel! What are you doing? Let’s get out of here at once!」

「Yeah, but this guy’s in the way…」

The one blocking the way is the high-ranked monster we met before, the red-shelled beetle-like monster. I believe this guy’s rank was 46, so if we worked together with other adventurers, we would probably be able to deal with it one way or another, but there’s nothing we can do about the mantis coming at us from behind.

「At any rate, just run. Run up this slope!」

「G, got it.」

The place where Caliel and the others encountered the monster is like the bottom of a gentle valley, and the only way to escape is to run up the slope to the left or right. As Caliel runs up the slope to the left, Lynn, Maisy, and Mariette follow suit. In order to run after them, I kick the ground with instant step, and at that moment, countless spears sprout from the ground and hit the adventurers directly.

That was a close call. It seems that the monster has used earth magic. I run up the slope while hearing the screams of the adventurers behind me.

「Caliel, as it is, let’s make a detour and head towards the town…」

Suddenly, I hear the buzzing sound of wings flapping. When I look behind us, I see that the mantis has gotten so close to us. It seems to have followed us and run up from the bottom of the valley.

「Whuoooo!」

I launch an attack at the mantis flying over from below with my mithril sword, which is imbued with magical energy.

The mantis blocks it with its scythe, but it can’t put much strength into it midair. It falls towards the bottom of the valley again. It doesn’t do any damage at all, and the mantis has totally set its sights on us.

If I use this terrain well, I should be able to buy time for Caliel and the others to escape. Every time it flies toward me, I’ll push it down.

At that moment, the mantis spreads its wings again and, to my surprise, ignores me and stands in front of Caliel, who is trying to run away. This is bad, I won’t make it in time!

「Uwaaaaaaah!」

Caliel is blown away by the mantis’s flash of attack and ends up falling into the opposite direction of the valley we just came up from. The other side seems to be a valley as well. However, compared to being here, being down there might be safer.

Instant step. I don’t know what’s become of Caliel, but I want to at least save Lynn, Maisy, and Mariette. I move to the front of the mantis and launch an attack at it. It seems the mantis has narrowed its target down to the three of them, and it is unable to avoid my surprise attack, so I succeed in blowing it away. Damn it, I landed a hit on its torso, but it’s far from a fatal wound. As I thought, I don’t want to fight this guy.

「Caliel-sama───」

「Huh, hey!」

Marriette runs off in the direction where Caliel fell. Lynn and Maisy seem to follow suit as well. Damn it, it can’t be helped. Let’s hope it’s a safe zone down there. I decide to follow the four of them and run down the slope.

Down the slope appears to be another bottom of a valley, which is a rugged rocky area. Caliel seems to be safe. He wasn’t hit directly by the scythe, but was just blown away, so I can’t see any external injuries either.

Ugh, this is bad, I have nothing but a bad feeling about this. A strange presence is spreading all over the area. I want to get out of this place right away. But there’s the praying mantis at the top of the slope, and I get the feeling that no matter where we decide to move to, it would be dangerous.

There are definitely monsters lurking in this area. Rather than moving, I wonder if we should search for enemies first. If it’s the current me, I think I can search for enemies using earth or wind magic, but it will consume most of my magical energy, and I will be completely defenseless while searching. It’s impossible for Caliel and the others to serve as my guards, and even if I do find the enemies, I won’t be able to do anything if I run out of magical energy.

At that moment, centipedes crawl out of every crack and hole in this rocky area. Appraisal!

Hard-shelled Stone Centipede, Rank 26

This is bad, not only are they strong enemies, there are a lot of them. There are twenty, thirty, no, maybe more than that.

「Caliel.」

「Y, yeah, that way is the only way now. Let’s run away.」

The moment we are about to head in the direction with fewer centipedes, we spot a huge lizard ahead. Appraisal!

Large-mouthed Armored Lizard, Rank 41

This is bad, there’s not just one lizard, there are two or three of them. I can also sense more behind them.

Damn it, it’s checkmate. There is no longer any way for Caliel and the others to survive. If it’s only me, if I use full strength body enhancement to run up this slope, and then head straight for the town while taking some attacks, I’ll probably be able to manage one way or another. I’ll at least take Mariette with me. I wonder if she will choose to leave Caliel behind and run away.

At that moment, the buzzing sound of wings flapping can be heard from the sky, and the praying mantis lands in front of Caliel.

「Mariette, let’s run!」

「No, let go! Caliel-sama!… Kyaaaaah!」

Forcibly shaking my hand off, Mariette stands between the praying mantis and Caliel to protect him, and gets hit by its scythe attack on her back, causing her to bleed.

Ah, damn it, there’s no longer any way to save them. Even if it’s only me, I have to run away…

The praying mantis readies its blades to finish off Mariette and Caliel.

「This is a lie, this isn’t reality. I, I’m going to become a knight and restore the Craigdyne family…」

「Caliel-sama…」

*Clink* A metallic sound echoes through the air.

Damn it, my body moved on its own. I block the mantis’ series of attacks with my sword. Ah, why didn’t I run away? Losing my life for such hypocrisy won’t accomplish anything. I ought to beat a retreat right this instant, and yet…

I use body enhancement to increase my brain’s processing power. Using full strength body enhancement, the sword strikes of the mantis and I echo through the area. With my continuous attacks that ignore the magical energy consumption, I succeed in landing a hit on the mantis. The mantis takes some distance again.

I face the mantis. Behind the mantis, I can see four lizards with ranks over 40. Behind me, countless centipedes are closing in. Not good, I can’t come up with any ingenious ideas at all. It’s meaningless to fight any longer. It’s reached a point where even if it’s only me, it’s unclear whether I’ll be able to survive. Even if I were to abandon Caliel and the others, who could blame me? Run, I have to run.

At that moment, the heavens and the earth flicker violently. What in the world is… *Boom* Immediately following that is a deafening, violent explosion. Dust flies around the area. Ugh, what’s that, what’s going on?

I lower my posture and search for presences in the surrounding area. Ugh, what’s that, the silhouette of a large monster on the slope. There stands the symbol of despair, the figure of a demonic dragon.