Manuke FPS Chapter 207

Published at 10th of August 2022 01:24:34 PM

Two weeks have passed since the Mine labyrinth subjugation was started. It took a long time to get here. Even beyond the clean spring after the underground lake, the open field section continued deeper. But, that will be over soon. In front of me blocking the passage over the underground lake was a white gate supported by white pillars――a labyrinth gate.

Similar to the labyrinth gate that I have seen many times, it had a carved sculpture and a throne placed in the upper center. A battle between those who live in the natural world against the monsters and demihumans created by the labyrinth. A monster sat on the throne, looking down. The snake-long body dances as if wrapped around a throne, flowing from the back to the front.

However, I saw no head whatsoever. It has no eye, ear, or nostril――just one extremely large maw, almost as large as its torso. A worm… It was a high-ranking worm called Lambton Worm. I can’t tell from the sculpture of the small throne on the gate, but according to the information in the museum, it should be a huge earthworm-shaped monster that is several tens of meters long.

If this is the master of the Mine labyrinth, I wonder what is waiting at the end of this gate? The gatekeeper room is usually pretty spacy, but nobody can see anything behind the gate. A mysterious purple smoke drifted up like a wall that blocked the view, obviously acting as a border.

Then there is no choice but to proceed. I pushed the gate open and stepped inside.

This gatekeeper room was much larger than usual. Then, as soon as I stepped in, I felt a sense of discomfort. Looking at my feet, I found that the entire gatekeeper room was submerged. The water level is soaked up to the ankles, but I don’t know if it’s the whole room. It reminded me of Wolf labyrinth. The gatekeeper of that labyrinth was also a water-based monster. However, I didn’t see anything here no matter where I looked.

Keeping the UMP 45 ready, I carefully proceeded while looking around. The water level, initially only ankle deep, got deeper the further I went. Right――the map showed a dot wandering around the gatekeeper room. But it’s nowhere to be seen. Maybe an invisibility skill?

Thinking so, I switched to FLIR mode, and――still nothing.

Something with a clear amount of heat is moving around in the water, which is only high enough to immerse the knees. It’s small… perhaps the size of a puppy?

Returning back to normal view mode and observing, I could see slight splashes on the water. Following the movement closely with UMP45 sight set on it, I fired a three-round burst as a greeting. At the same time as the muzzle flashes, a water column spouted around the moving gatekeeper.

However, the movement speed of the gatekeeper did not change. Did it evade the bullets? And when I put my finger on the trigger again, the direction of the gatekeeper changed.

　――it’s coming at me.

The speed at which the gatekeeper moved underwater further increased, and a small amount of water splashes violently bounces off as it’s heading straight toward me. Was it a small aquatic monster――if it is, it would be difficult to shoot at it accurately by aiming from chest height.

It’s a different story if I can see it, but I couldn’t at this moment.

While matching the crosshairs to the approaching water droplets, I lowered my posture and increased the area where the rays overlap as much as possible.

If I keep this low-profile stance, I should be able to hit it――again I aimed at the hidden gatekeeper and fired a short burst. However, once again, the UMP45 .45 ACP bullet did not hit the gatekeeper directly. It didn’t evade it――a number of fast-spinning water shields appeared in front of the gatekeeper as it swam.

Those circular shields repelled the bullets.

Does that mean it’s immune to bullets? No, if it does, then it won’t repel it. It simply recognizes the bullet as dangerous enough to be repelled.

It didn’t matter if it was repelled by the water shield, I continued to shoot in controlled bursts. At the same time, the gatekeeper prevented the ammunition with its circular shield, changing its linear movement into a meandering movement as it approached me.

The number of remaining bullets of UMP45 in my virtual interface reached zero――I turned the sling――the band attached to the UMP45, to quickly put it on my back, I pulled out the grenade ax and swung it down. I swung down a blow that blew off the water at my feet, but just before that, the gatekeeper jumped out of the water and passed by me, and I dodged backward. 

And I saw it――the puppy sized gatekeeper.

The gatekeeper was――a frog? Not exactly. The head resembled a frog, but it had no legs. Instead, it has a finned tail and small bat-like wings. The body was covered with slimy black and fine spots, like a tadpole. The moment the gatekeeper passed by me, its red eyes that popped out of its head seemed to scream at me. 

What’s with this fellow?

I willed the TSS to activate, accessing, and operate the display monitor at high speed. While looking back and following the movement of the gatekeeper, select the demon beast pictorial book that was screen-captured at the museum and find out what that flying frog is――. This is… aquaripper? A carnivorous aquatic monster that could control water at will. It’s intelligent and has many dangerous skills, fighting it alone would be suicidal. is what was written on the note.

The aquaripper was swimming in the water around me, keeping its distance from me.

It pretty much stayed underwater all the time, and once it became wary of an attack, it would form the water shields. There were four shields. The circular shield that rotates at high speed, while flying water droplets lay parallel to the water surface stretched over the floor, suddenly accelerated and flew. This attack was similar to the water magic ≪Aqua Dance≫ that I’ve seen before… in any case, it might be dangerous if I don’t evade――.

I tried to move sideways one step to avoid the incoming water circle, but the water caught my foot and slowed my movement down.

One bit into my left hand, cutting through the riot shield. The shield durability instantly went down to zero, just from that one blow. The riot shield that has been cut in two immediately dispersed into light particles.

That’s some powerful attack there――

While catching the situation on the edge of my sight, I stopped, then avoided the remaining three discs that flew towards me by jumping――still in reverse in the air, I aimed the grenade ax and matched the trajectory to the aquaripper. It swam very fast, so I had to predict where it was going to go before pulling the trigger. Deviation shooting――A shooting technique where one predicts the moving position from the opponent’s speed and direction, and shoots on it in advance. It’s an indispensable technique for landing slow-moving shots such as grenades, and it’s also a basic FPS technique used to shoot invisible enemies through walls.

I aligned the parabola and the circle indicating the landing point with the predicted movement position and pulled the trigger. Along with a faint sound of air coming out, I landed back on the water while watching the grenade fired at the target position, then I jumped again without killing my momentum.

In the air, I reloaded the grenade ax grenade and aimed――I could see the spouting water column and the blast-launched aquaripper in front of me.

Judging the situation in a short time while staying in the air――the first shot seems to have hit as intended. The Aquaripper was screaming and flying in the air due to an unexpected explosion and severe pain. Its slimy black body was splattered with black blood, and the sharp fangs were lined up as its mouth was left open, but its long tongue stuck out as it spews body fluid.

This is it!

Predicting where the aquaripper would land back, I lined up the trajectory again and fired another grenade.

The grenade landed right on top of the falling aquaripper, striking it like a beanbag shell――then exploded in a blooming blaze. Once I landed back on the solid surface, I immediately did a slide jump to close the gap with the aquaripper. The two bombings had erased the water shield that floats around the aquaripper, exposing its unprotected body. I aimed at its torso――the moment I found the right distance with a second slide jump and was readying to attack, the aquaripper suddenly halted itself in the air while sprinkling fresh blood, flapping wings that resembled bat’s. I made a sudden stop. 

“～～～～～～～!!”

It’s seemingly shouting something, I could tell that much, but there’s no sound coming out. Aquaripper’s strange shout was probably magical in nature, and it was directed at me. 

But that’s it.

Perhaps the shout was some sort of magical attack――but it didn’t work on me, unfortunately. I swore I could see the confusion in the aquaripper’s red eyes when its magic roar didn’t do anything to me. I landed from my slide jump a moment later and swung the grenade ax at the exposed belly. But I saw the aquaripper swelling its cheeks.

Something’s coming.

At that moment, what jumped from its mouth was a long tongue that turned purple――a spear with steel-like hardness, piercing my right hand as I swung the grenade ax.

“Kuh!”

The blow pierced right through my palm and shattered the grenade ax handle. In addition to that, a strong electric current coursed through my body from the stricken spot. But, now it’s right in front of me――with the aquaripper releasing its tongue from my right palm, I reached out with my free left hand, grabbing its throat and choking it so that it couldn’t open its mouth.

I only noticed now that our battle had brought us near the border wall. I can’t afford to let the aquaripper get in contact with water again, else it will recover its shields. This means I have to attack as is――but I haven’t reloaded the UMP45, and the grenade ax was lost after the handle was shattered. Even if I try to use the Phase Rifle, its size is not suitable to engage the enemy at such a close range. Meanwhile the combat knife is not that strong, and my right hand was wounded. I had no means to attack it――when that realization dawned on me, I chose to slam the aquaripper against the border wall.

And dragged it across.

The aquaripper dexterously wrapped its tail around my left arm, tightening the grip with each passing moment. However, my current body was that of a skeleton. No matter how hard it tries, it won’t be able to tighten itself too much on my thin arm. I slammed the aquaripper against the wall once more, then ran while dragging its head against the wall. Its outer skin was harder than I expected, but I pressed on. The border wall was not that flat after all.

The rugged, undulating walls scraped down the aquaripper’s outer skin like a natural grater, leaving bright red streaks along my path. The aquaripper still tried to strangle my left arm with its tail, in addition to making many low-pitched growls. No matter how resentful its red eyes were, I would never stop. My skeleton face, which laughed back while continuing the wall run, would probably look considerably distorted.

The glaring aquarlipper’s head began to give off heat and sparks from friction. Sparks … Seeing that I came up with an idea. As I ran, I reached for the pouch on my waist and took out a TH3 incendiary grenade with my right hand. Pulled out the pin and shoved it into the aquaripper’s mouth which opened slightly. A long time ago――remembering the play of childhood-feeding frogs with firecrackers …

Three…. Two… one… 

Three seconds after pulling the pin, I tossed the aquaripper to the ceiling, while at the same time jumping away from my current position. At the same time as I landed on the water, the black body surface of the aqua lipper turned red from the inside near the ceiling, and from both protruding eyes――a flame of 2000 degrees Celsius spewed out from the big mouth. It became a big fireball as it fell back down.

Chapter end