Reincarnated as a Sword Vol. 2

by Yuu Tanaka

  Don’t you have any items or spells to keep them away? Maybe an anti-undead barrier?

  “Why would I waste them on trash mobs such as these?! And an anti-undead barrier would affect Andy, so that is out of the question.”

  Which meant charging through the flock was our only option. Dammit, I guess we would have to get violent!

  “Andy! Play to your heart’s content!”

  “Groaaaar!”

  “Teacher.”

  We have no choice! We’ll have to fight our way through!

  “Awoooo!”

  And so we began to charge through the Bone Bird flock that was blocking our way. They were individually weak at G-Threat. But they gathered around like clouds. No matter how many of them we cut down they just kept coming.

  Still, we managed to fend them off with Andy’s Breath Attack, Jean’s spells, Fran’s blade work, and Jet’s Air Hike. One Bone Bird after another dropped out of the sky. It was a good thing there was nothing in the fields below. We didn’t have to worry about collateral damage.

  “Reverse Undead!”

  “Fire Arrow!”

  “Grrr! Awoooo!”

  “Groaaargh!”

  And me? I had left Fran to fly around killing Bone Birds. Jean knew everything anyway. Might as well go all out.

  Fran was using the Enchanted Phantom Augite Blade she filched off Gyuran. It was imbued with the Illusion Element, a subset of Light Element, which made it highly effective against undead.

  I… didn’t like the idea of her using a blade other than myself. I hated it! It was the worst! I felt like a girl whose crush had begun talking to some hussy. My heart was broken into pieces.

  Fran, I can’t believe you’re using another blade that’s not me! Are you sick of me? Is that it?

  Now wasn’t the time to voice my complaints so I held it in… and took it out on those skeleton birds, instead.

  C’mere bird brains, I’ll grind you into bone meal!

  I took a sick kind of pleasure in this state to begin with.

  I haven’t had a buffet in a long time! Time to fill my belly with crystals!

  The swarm made it easier to get up close and personal. I cut each and every one of them as they came.

  It’s a crystal festival!

  “Hiss!”

  “Caaaw!”

  Not gonna work!

  The Bone Birds tried to Intimidate me but it was to no avail. Their level of intimidation was far too low.

  Gwahahahaha! Just stay still so I can eat your crystals!

  It felt like I had become a crystal Viking.

  After thirty minutes, we had broken through the great flock of Bone Birds and were now within arm’s reach of the floating island. It looked much more intimidating now that we were up close.

  “Big.”

  We’re finally here.

  “No, not yet.”

  What do you mean?

  “You’ll know soon enough… Here it comes!”

  Jean warned, pointing his finger at the mass of flying objects headed our way.

  “They’re like Andy?”

  “Hah! There is a similarity… but no! Andy is a skeleton of a great Wind Wyvern, while those flying bone masses were Lesser Wyverns! There is a huge difference in power!”

  I identified them and found that their stats were weaker compared to the Lesser Wyvern I once fought. However, they were tougher to kill since they had the Regeneration skill. Not to mention there were about thirty of them in formation.

  That wasn’t our only problem, either.

  There was a big kaboom followed by something whizzing past us. It would’ve been the end of us had it landed a direct hit. I had to concentrate.

  Whoa! Was that a cannonball?!

  “Artillery from the floating island. They use live cannonballs so you can, with great care, capture and deflect them. You must focus your efforts on mounting our counterattack, young Teacher!”

  Cannonballs. I didn’t know whether this world had gunpowder, but I was sure that you could replicate its effects with magic.

  What about the wyverns?

  “Leave that to me!”

  “What about me?”

  “Fran and Jet, you take care of the Bone Birds! We haven’t eliminated them all quite yet!”

  “On it.”

  “Woof!”

  We had entered the second half of our landing campaign.

  I defended us against the incoming cannon fire. At times I cut them in half, others I would deflect using magic. There were a lot of them with each volley; they must have lots of cannons lined up.

  A volley of five came rapidly at us.

  Flare Blast!

  That was close. The spell had managed to deflect them to the side but if I had delayed even slightly, we would’ve taken a hit or two. My tactic worked this time, but we’d be in a dangerous position if the shelling continued.

  Jean! How did you get through this last time?!

  “I had the assistance of the Skeleton Griffon, Milco! Cannon fire was useless against Milco’s Wind Armor! We charged through the ranks and landed!”

  So he bruteforced it! He hadn’t summoned the Skeleton Griffon, so I guess it was gone forever. Jean must have done an Overspec summoning.

  “Gyooo!!”

  Damn it, these Lesser Wyvern Skeletons were annoying! But I couldn’t do anything to them since my “hands” were full defending us against cannonballs!

  They were fast, so fast that Jean had trouble landing a hit. Thankfully, a hit was all it needed to take them down.

  Oh boy, this looks bad.

  A wyvern had gone after Fran. It opened its skeletal mouth to bite her but Andy smashed it with his chin before it could get the chance. Good job, Andy! Half of the Lesser Wyvern flock was still flying around, however. We weren’t out of the woods yet.

  “Thanks, Andy.”

  Even with Andy’s strength, he wouldn’t be able to handle that many wyverns. He was beginning to get roughed up in spite of his Regeneration.

  Jean, what the hell are we gonna do?!

  “Silence! Be patient and let me focus!”

  I turned to see Jean charging a softball-sized sphere with mana. The sphere was a special magical item made of undead crystal. It allowed its user to summon undead minions. Jean had called it a Summon Sphere. It was among the items he had us shove into our Pocket Dimension the other day.

  Was this his ace in the hole?

  “All right, it’s ready. Teacher, Jet, fall back!”

  Got it.

  “Woof!”

  “Fran, you stay right there! Trust me on this one!”

  “Hm!”

  The way Jean put it made me worry even more. I was amazed Fran could nod in agreement!

  “Mwahaha! Good answer!”

  So, what now?

  “Now is time for this! Andy, do it!”

  “Groaaargh!”

  “Whoa.”

  He’s changing?

  At Jean’s command, Andy’s bones began to shift. His skeletal rearrangement was accompanied by a dull grinding noise. The wyvern’s ribs and sternum rose to cover Fran and Jean. More layers of bone were added to provide protection for the people inside it.

  His wings folded to cover his body, too; although it had no bearing on his flight since he flew with magic. Andy now looked like a skeleton ball with a wyvern’s skull peeking on top of it.

  “Instant Summon!”

  As we were still reeling from Andy’s transformation, Jean summoned something new. Instant Summon allowed its user to summon a part of a minion’s body for a short period of time. It was much weaker compared to a full summon, but the catalyst would suffer no damage even if the part of the minion were to die.

  “A slime?”

  Wh-what?! Damn it!

  “It’s on our side! Just stay still!”

  Jean had summoned a blood-red slime. I would’ve killed it if Jean hadn’t stopped me. The slime began crawling towards and covered our bodies.


  Jean?

  “It’ll be fine!”

  Jean told us to stay still. Was this thing going to melt us? The undead slime called Undead Ooze assisted Andy in protecting us.

  All this happened while Andy was still getting bombarded by cannon fire. He was still holding on somehow, though for how much longer I didn’t know. What on earth was Jean’s plan?

  “Andy, you’ve done well!”

  “Roar!”

  “Now, do it!”

  Upon Jean’s command, Andy turned around. His head was pointed away from the floating island.

  “BLAAARGH!”

  Andy loosed his charged-up attack. The bright beam of light painted a line across the empty sky. It took down close to thirty of the Bone Birds who had the misfortune of fluttering in the way. It was without a doubt the greatest display of force we had seen today.

  Now a cannonball propelled by his breath attack, Andy charged towards the floating island, crashing through the bone wyverns which stood in his way.

  “Mwahaha! Perfect, Andy! All according to plan!”

  We’re going too fast!

  “Unnh…”

  G-forces pressed on Fran and Jean from how fast we were accelerating. Fran held on to Andy’s bones in a desperate attempt to stay in place.

  Would Andy be all right after using such a breath attack? Andy’s mana began depleting, and fast. Undead sustained themselves with mana and would expire once their mana stores were emptied. Things didn’t look good for him.

  Andy never ceased firing his beam, and because of it we were fast approaching the floating island.

  Crash!

  We felt a light impact which turned out to be the island’s wall. It was no match for Andy in his current state.

  Jean turned to Fran before taking cover.

  “Fran, be careful so you don’t bite your tongue off!”

  “Mm!”

  Kaboom!

  “Hrrghh!”

  “Ow.”

  “Ruff!”

  Whoa!

  Andy the Cannonball had successfully crash-landed into the floating island and formed a giant crater.

  Fran let go of the bone she had held on to during the crash and began dusting bone bits and pieces off herself. She would’ve suffered massive injuries if the Undead Ooze hadn’t absorbed most of the shock.

  The crater creating impact proved too much for the Undead Ooze to handle. There was not much left of it now; its Physical Resistance skill was unable to completely nullify the shock of the impact.

  Andy was in shambles and could not return to his original shape. His shell and crystal were both shattered. There were bits of bone around him, though I couldn’t tell if they belonged to our Undead Wyvern or not.

  The only thing we could recognize was half of his skull.

  After Fran and the others had crawled out of Andy’s remains, they went to his side to give him words of appreciation and thanks. That was the least we could do. His bones were already beginning to turn to dust.

  “Andy, I shall never forget your loyalty.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Woof!”

  That was a hell of a show.

  “Groar…”

  “I shall send you off myself. Rest in peace, friend. Ascension.”

  Andy let out a final rumble.

  Jean’s spell had a warmth which you would never guess came from a necromancer. The warm light shone out of the necromancer’s hand to envelop his undead comrade. Andy’s remains began shining and rose. His body began breaking down into shards of light which were then taken into the great sky.

  It was a beautiful sight.

  “Goodbye.”

  Fran watched and waved her hand until the last of the light had gone.

  It had been two hours since we landed on the island thanks to Andy’s sacrifice.

  “I see it. There’s the entrance to the dungeon proper!”

  We had passed a forest filled with prowling skeletons and zombies and were now in sight of some kind of ancient ruins.

  Our trip through the forest had been uneventful. The monsters inhabiting it were weak, and although they could conceal their presence, they were nothing special. They weren’t much of a threat, even in large numbers. About the only noteworthy thing that happened was my getting excited during crystal absorption. Trash mobs as they were, I still got a significant boost to my crystal counter from their sheer number.

  Jean had pointed to a small ruined building. Vines had crept all over it and the rock surface was covered with moss. No one had been here in months, if not years. It reminded me of the ruins surrounding my pedestal. My home had looked like a shrine, whereas this had a more temple-like feel to it.

  At the center of the temple ruins was a stairwell leading down.

  “Here we are! The last time I was here, just looking for this place had left me exhausted, but it is not the case today! Haha! We can explore to our hearts’ content!”

  Anything we need to look out for? There must be dangerous traps around here. You said you had some secret plan the other night?

  “I shall lead the way. You take care of the fighting.”

  “All right.”

  “Woof, woof!”

  “Now, could you take out the first of the Summon Spheres?”

  “Sure. This one?”

  Fran took out a summon sphere which had the number “one” written on it out of her Pocket Dimension.

  “Indeed. Hold on.”

  Jean began chanting his summoning spell.

  “Summon High Undead!”

  The spell allowed him to summon a stronger minion at the cost of more mana.

  He summoned a humanoid undead this time. It looked like a straightforward zombie, or perhaps an armored mummy. From a distance it looked like a brown-skinned, emaciated human being. It was even wearing fancy red clothes.

  “Your name is Selkan!”

  “Vargh.”

  Name: Selkan (Custom Revenant)

  Race: Undead

  Status: Contract, Undead

  Level: 14

  HP: 69; Magic: 165; Strength: 33; Agility: 56

  Skills: Regeneration 10; Instant Regen 4; Disarm Trap 5; Sense Trap 4; Dexterous; Enhanced Regeneration

  “Heheh! I have prepared this Custom Undead for this day! His special abilities will serve us well!”

  The Revenant was customized specifically to take point in a party. He had great regenerative ability in exchange for his weak combat capabilities. He would go ahead of us to spot traps and disarm them when possible. If not, he would go ahead and trigger the trap and act as our meat shield. He was as useful as he was pitiful.

  “Bwahaha. Onwards, Selkan!”

  “Vargh!”

  Jean pointed Selkan to the entrance. The revenant proved his worth immediately. He could disarm most traps and the ones he was forced to trigger had little effect on him.

  “Vargh!”

  Spikes came out of the ceiling and stabbed Selkan. He wasn’t able to disarm this trap so he had to take its punishment. It didn’t take long for his Regeneration to trigger and soon he was back at full health. Jean covered for the mana cost of Regeneration so he was in no risk of running out. Selkan didn’t get lost either, since Jean had passed on knowledge of his previous run. He was doing good work.

  We smoothly carried out our exploration, barely stopping at all. Fran and I took down whatever zombies that happened to come from behind. They went down before they got close.

  So far so good.

  “Yes, so far…”

  There was a hint of worry in Jean’s voice.

  What’s wrong?

  “I was forced to turn back here last time because I ran out of supplies. I don’t know what awaits us in this hall.”

  “Is there something in the hall?”

  “It is something of a monster closet. Middle-tier monsters tend to spawn there.”

  There was another staircase leading down at the far end of the hall.

  We slowed dow
n our pace. We had to take into account the chances of running into new trap and gimmicks, not to mention stronger monsters.

  We started by entering the so-called monster hall.

  Let’s start the battle with some magic.

  “Hm.”

  “Bark!”

  And so, our annihilation began.

  Tri Explosion!

  “Fire Javelin.”

  “Hell Storm!”

  “Awooo!”

  Our initial volley of spells took down a good thirty undead in the room. About fifty of them were left now.

  But that wasn’t to be the end of it. One undead monster after another crawled out of the magic circle. Mid-tier armored monsters like the Zombie Soldier, Skeleton Warrior, and Armored Ghoul were thrown into the mix. Their armor increased their already ghoulish strength.

  Let’s go!

  “Hm!”

  “Grrr!”

  They were still no match for us. Fran found it much easier to fight monster hordes in a trapless room. Flame Magic was also particularly effective against the undead.

  We took down all the undead after a good twenty minutes of fighting.

  “Bwahaha! Splendid!”

  That was easy.

  “Super easy.”

  “Munch, munch.”

  Jet was chowing down as usual. Would his stomach be alright after eating zombies? If yogurt is slightly off milk then maybe…? The zombies did look a bit like jerky. No, it couldn’t be. Well, as long as Jet was enjoying his meal, then I was all right with it.

  “Let’s take a short break here.”

  I took a certain magical tool and passed it to Jean, per his request. It looked like an ordinary rock, but he said it was imbued with Cleansing Magic. When combined with Jean’s Necromancy, the Cleansing Rock set up a barrier that would send any undead that got near us to the afterlife.

  We sat in the protection of the barrier for about an hour. It was now lunchtime, so I took out a serving of curry upon Fran’s special request.

  “Mm. Supreme.”

  I’m surprised you haven’t gotten sick of that thing.

  She would compliment me on its taste despite having curry every other day. Her tail stood at attention which told me she wasn’t lying.

  I offered Jean some curry, as well, and he enjoyed the stuff so much, he had three servings in total. Seeing the dark master of the undead mixing a plate of curry was a surreal sight to behold.