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Chapter 299 Part 1

《Your friend has sent you a message.》

I logged in at 6:30 AM.
It feels like I’ve been logging in a little later than usual, haven’t I?
The location is the Silent Bamboo Woods.
It’s really silent today.
It reminds me of when I first came here.

Hmm?
Wait a minute…
Isn’t it too quiet around here?

What about the tents?
There are some, but not a lot.
Considering the number of players who have probably set up base here, there’s too few of them, right?
What about the front of the temporary bamboo storehouse?
There is nothing.
The inside of the storehouse is empty as well.

Did something happen?

Ah, right.
The message!

『The group of monsters is approaching pretty quickly. Most of the players have already left to intercept it.』

Whoa.
Am I late?
Dammit.
I couldn’t get Kurama’s equipment ready in time!

『Please hurry to Fiona’s location before anything else! Her location is straight to the west, I think you’ll be able to find her easily.』

I’m actually late.
Well, it’s not like I have a working schedule here.
But everyone else is certainly ahead of me.
Gotta hurry up and summon my monsters.
I need to decide quickly.
My lineup will be… Volff, Zangetsu, Helix, Heather, and Oma.
Hurry up.
I can get ourselves buffed up while on the move.
Let’s also eat a Portable Meal on the go.

The weather is certainly sunny.
But that’s not how I’m feeling right now.
Am I missing out on the excitement of this event?

I can see the army that has been deployed ahead of me.
That’s right.
This is worthy of being called an army.
There’s some kind of structure set up in a line at the forefront.
Is that a line of defense?

Oh, right.
Let’s use Telepathy.
I’ll contact Fiona directly.

「Sorry, I’m late!」

『Keith? We’re okay here! Go south!』

「South?」

『A Slave Beast – Turtlesnake is approaching from the south!』

According to Fiona…
It seems like a group of monsters is approaching this place at full speed.
And according to the survey team, a Kim Kui Slave seems to be getting closer as well.

I can actually see it far away.
This is getting dangerous.
Can we kill it before it reaches the Silent Bamboo Woods?

『We’re asking all the Summoners to head south! So please join them!』

「Are you really going to be okay here?」

『We’ll be fine.』

「But you won’t…!」

『If this continues, I think we’ll have to give up on the area portal, but we’ll stand our ground here and defend this position for as much as we can!』

「Even more so!」

『Don’t worry about that! It will be more helpful for everyone if you guys could kill that Slave Beast – Turtlesnake. Go!』

After a brief moment of thinking…
I’ll follow her instructions.
I turn Zangetsu over towards the south.
I can see the Tri-horned Lizards and Garms rushing into the multi-layered defense line.
And the players defending it advance as well.
This really is a war.

I’ll do what I have to do.
Let’s stick to that.

Looks like Helix has found the Summoner army.
I follow his lead and head to the battlefield.
Then activate Telepathy once again.
This time, I’m contacting Irina.

「It’s me! I’m here!」

『Keith! 』

Her voice sounds calm enough.
Have I made it in time?

「Where are you?」

『Intercepting on the turtle’s rear end! We’re about to finish killing the train of monsters we’ve pulled!』

「I see, what about the Majins?」

『This is the same group from yesterday! The Majins atop the turtle’s head have already been defeated!』

「What about the Majin riders?」

『They’re coming this way!』

Oh!
That’s good news.
I don’t have to worry about my buffs being canceled.
Now, you can use them to my heart’s content.
A whole bunch of them.

「I’ll go over there. Can you wait for me?」

『Roger that!』

Let’s turn off Telepathy.
What’s next?
Call Monster.
What do we have around the Slave Beast – Turtlesnake?
Tri-horned Lizards.
There are still some of those around here, huh?
Obsidian Beasts surround the turtle.
And there’s still a lot of Garms.
Even then, it seems there’s less of them than before.

I also use Sense Magic.
I’m definitely not feeling the high magical power of a Majin.
Well then.
Let’s go ahead and meet up with the rest.
I have no intention of taking any detours.

Let’s break through the middle of the group of monsters.
Then, I’ll use my Lion Sage’s Lance to chip away at the legs of the Slave Beast – Turtlesnake as I go!
If I don’t do that, I won’t be able to make up for being late.

I prepare for the attack while making Zangetsu run at full speed.
I also throw in some spells.
I’ve also started recording a video.
There’s no one around.
Let’s make it so that I can review the battle later, okay?
Well then.
Are we good to go?

「Rider-Horse Union!」 「Boosted Power!」

Garms are coming towards me.
But I ignore them.
Their pack is thrown out of control by Helix and Heathers’ attacks.
Well, it didn’t feel like they had any sort of control over itself from the beginning.
But still.
They’re not the ones I’m after.
First, I need to break through the Obsidian Beast’s defense.
And then there’s the Slave Beast – Turtlesnake itself.

I leave the Garms behind and approach the line of Obsidian Beasts.
But they’re on the way!
Oma takes the lead and heads towards the group of Obsidian Beasts.
Is he planning to run into them?
Right as I’m finishing that thought…
The Obsidian Beasts were blown away and sent rolling on the ground.
The same goes for their Dimension Mirrors.
Did the monsters try to intercept Oma’s attack and repel it?
Perfect timing.
And this created a pathway for me.
I was planning on attacking through this moment where we had caught them off guard, but…
I’m jumping on the bandwagon here.

However, there’s an Obsidian Beast up ahead.
What’s more, it’s rolled over, its stomach facing me.
It’s like it’s inviting me.
Is it inviting me?
It’s practically asking me to attack it.
There is no denying it.

Zangetsu and I charged at it.
Right after that, I turned around.
What happened?
I don’t know.
But some things are certain.

The legs of the Slave Beast – Turtlesnake are up ahead.

My target was its right front leg.
It clearly looks too thick to be broken in one blow.
But my plan is to chip away at its skin.
Or rather, its armor.
Yeah, I’ll strip that armor away!

Charge!
What’s the response?
It’s quite big.
It felt like something had blown off, but I didn’t have time to check.
More than half of my field of vision overhead is covered by the turtle’s belly.
Perhaps it’s just pestering it at this point, but Heather continued to launch lightning strikes at it over my head.

It didn’t take long for me to move on to the next leg.
The right hind leg.
Again, my goal is to chip away at its skin.

Charge!
Something definitely was blown away.
This time, there was a lump of something stuck in Zangetsu’s horn, but she shook her head and managed to fling it away.
What was that?
Was it the turtle’s skin?
It looked like a piece of meat of some sort.

But soon a line of Obsidian Beasts appeared.
Oma takes the lead again and charges in.
The Obsidian Beasts are blown away at the perfect time.
I can’t aim for their stomachs because they’re still rolling around on the ground.
Alright, let’s go!
Let’s do this!

Charge!
And the next moment, I can see the other side.
Again!
What’s going on?
Well, I’ve got it recorded, so let’s not worry about it for now.

Garms are still approaching from behind.
There’s a troublesome number of them, but I hurry forward while finishing off the guys that do catch up to my sides.
There was also a Tri-horned Lizard, but it seemed to have stopped chasing after me.
Slaughter Garms one after another as they chase after me, but Volff and the others are guarding me.
Naturally, I leave their corpses behind.
The probability of getting Magic Stones from them is low anyway.
So I don’t regret it.

More importantly…
Looks like we’ll be able to rendezvous soon.

The battle was over.
It seems that the others were in the middle of collecting items from the monster corpses.
Disappointing.

I received a union application, so I accepted it.
What’s the situation?

『I saw what you just did, but that was way too risky!』

『What are you doing?!』

『Wouldn’t anyone else have tried going around it?』

『That was way too reckless!』

Why?
I’m getting told off though I took the shortest route to try and rendezvous as quickly as possible…