Starting from Zero Volume 4 Chapter 13

Book 4, Chapter 13

Tail

Sorry but, I don't know what this title means.

        "No! Ah....!" Red Moon moved back in horror.

        Of course I won't stop my movement. "Come on. Cry! Louder! This is the worst red-name zone, only the most terrible criminals would come here! No one will help you no matter how you try! If anyone comes they will be as bad as myself! Haa-hahaha!     

        I tried to imitate a villain laugh. My plan is to force her into triggering that female protection mechanism so she would get sent to a nearby city, which means I can finally get rid of this troublesome woman without her realizing that I'm letting her go on purpose.

        Ha! I'm a genius.

       "Now now dear, you'd better not resist..." I approached her while carrying a wicked smile.

　    I pulled on her robe. She struggled but didn't use the protection--she isn't trying to teleport either of us away. She didn't even use any wizard powers but is just pushing me with her weak fists.

        Does she want to escape at all??

　    No I can't go on like this. Time for my ultimate move--I pinched her face into facing me head-on and began to move us closer.

        I stopped after several seconds. I tried to push us as slow as possible but obviously I can't prolong this movement forever, since we were pretty near from the start. Now our lips are only about a millimeter away. She stopped her struggling when she realized what I'm trying to do. The problem is, she closed her eyes and relaxed as if she's waiting for it!

        So now I either have to keep going and make the kiss, or drop her down to break her ego.

　    The choice is obvious. I released my grip. Red Moon lost support and crash-sat on the ground. The pain on the bottom caused her to open her eyes.

        I'm re-equipping my armor. She stood up and...went towards me?

       "What are you doing??"

　　"Oh, I just found that you aren't very attractive. So...I gave up!"

　    "But but but--"

　　"No buts. Or are you actually hoping I would bust you right here?" I finished my equipment and hopped onto Night Shade. "I apologize for bringing you here, and I won't be accusing for what you did today anymore. You can leave."

　　I asked Night Shade to leave the city gate. Then I felt a weight behind me. I turned back to check--

       "How did you get here again??"

　   "By jumping, duh." Red Moon is looking at me with a big smile.

　   "Ugh! Please, miss, can you leave me alone?" I took off my bracelet. "I'm never going near any system cities from now on. Come on, you can take it. Now do me a favor and let me play my game!"

　　"No!" She smile again, an evil smile. "I'm following you, so you'll always be a terrible kidnapper, every time someone see you they'll just try to take you down right away. I never let my enemies go for free. You're no exception!"

　　"Sigh. So you will stick no matter how?" I failed to suppress the hint of threatening in my voice.

　　"Yes I will!" She just nods.

　    "Lucky!" I don't believe she dares to go through so more aerobatic shows.

　　"Ah, where are we going?"

        She jumped onto Lucky first!

　    I un-summoned Night Shade and climbed on. Now I just need to keep going with my plan.  

        "Let's fly. Higher this time."

　　"Sure." Lucky kept going up until I began to feel faint myself. I wonder what kind of fear I would bring her.

　    The first move, is our signature barrel roll which was pretty effective. I forgot how many rounds we went through. The only thing I knew is that Lucky was a little dizzy himself, as he told me.

        Red Moon just hang on tightly on Lucky's back spike without giving out anything I would expect.

        So that failed.

        I got more tricks though! I'm going to throw her off and catch her before she reaches the ground again. That should be frightening enough.

　　I went over the scene where Red Moon would scream like a kid in my mind while walking towards her.

       She noticed my terrible expression. "...What are you planning?"

　    I didn't say a word. I just held her up by force and walked to the edge.

       "Enjoy the principle of gravity!"

        I threw.

        However!

        She managed to catch my armor which caused me to lose balance as well. Now we're both falling down!

        Why is this happening to me??

　    "Luuuuucky heeeeelp!"

        I asked him to fly particularly high just to scare Red Moon harder, now I hit my own feet with it! It seems Lucky didn't hear my last call at such height, he didn't even notice two people have gone off his back.

　    I need to think of something! I'm dead for sure if I reach the ground like this.

        Maybe summon another flying companion?

        No. I need to give them orders using words, and if I summon anyone now they will be out of hearing range before I can say anything.

        Right, my wing blades. I can fly on myself! They can't help me fly such high up, but I can still use them to keep a better balance, instead of rolling over like a broken doll.

　    The problem is still this stupid girl who is hanging on my back tightly. I can't open my wings like this! Her last action is to hold onto something out of instinct, and that something is me!

        Now I know why you need to knock out someone you want to save in the water before you actually try to reach for them! This is what happens if you don't--they'll drag you to hell along!

        Wait, knock her out? Maybe I can make her release me if I stun her.

        ...But I can't! She's BEHIND me, I can reach her head but there's no way I can hit her hard enough in such a position.

　　 I need tools. Yes, I need to hit her using something with long reach, like a stick.

        In the end I decided to take my sword sheath off my waist and use this thing as a staff. The handle part can easily act as as hammer. So how much force do I use? I don't like her, but that's no reason for me to crack a girl's head open.

        Argh why is this so complicated?? I don't have time. I can already see the mother land reaching for me at an alarming speed. Well, the other way round!

        Oh Fuc it. I'd rather leave a big bump on your head than dying with you anyway.

　　 I smashed her head with the most proper strength I can think of. There is a muffled BAM. Hope I don't damage her brain or cause some mental issues.

        I know I succeeded because her screaming stopped. I struggled only to find my terrible fate didn't let me free yet. I did knock her out but she's still locked up on my back. Her body is still following the last order from her brain, which is grabbing onto the last straw no matter what happens. And she's going to kill that "last straw" at this rate!

　　"AHHHHGH!" 

        I'm done! Screw this damn woman! She won't leave me alone and now she's going to pull me to death! Worst day ever!

　　    

            ————————————————————————————————————————

        Not far below us, is the most famous leveling site outside the Cold Jadeite, and thousands of people are witnessing our fall.

　　 A warrior is sitting together with a pretty female archer. The warrior pointed at the sky. "Hey look, a shooting star!"

　　 "Wow really!"

         They leaned close to each other. "I never knew we can find shooting stars in this game. It's beautiful!"

　     Somewhere else, a small team is taking a break from their grinding campaign. A warrior shouted. "Boss, I see a shooting star over there."

　     A berserker looked up. "Ohh wow. Now this game's more realistic than I think."

　　 A priestess spoke: "Maybe it's a hidden quest! We should check it out."

　　 "Nah forget it. You know how hard those quests can be, we'll just wipe in an instant. Stay patient and let's get some more levels first!"

　　    ————————————————————————————————————————

　　  I'm trying to look at our landing point using my Star Gaze. I can clearly see five people just below us. That's...five ninjas! And the one standing in the middle is that Chinese-Japanese mix I saw the other day. They don't look like a team. The other four ninjas are attacking the one I know. What the hell? They are fighting among themselves?

　　  Though that's nothing I should be worrying about now, cause I'm heading down towards them! The one in the middle noticed me first, then the other four all followed his gaze. But the mixed ninja has already dashed away before the other realized what's going on.

          He got down to the ground and covered his head and ears.

　      Shit. I'm not a carpet bomb or something. Do you really have to do that??

　　    ————————————————————————————————————————

　　    Razor (name of the mixed ninja) is in the middle of the fight when he saw something falling down from the sky. A human, actually.

           He's already losing, so he did hope that whoever it is can become his helper. But he soon noticed that...maybe that's not a proper way to land. So he decided to get out of the dangerous zone and dropped to the ground.

           Ka-BOOOM!

           He felt a shock wave going over his back. He thought the danger is gone when he tried to get up. But he was showered by a bunch of broken equipment pieces and ... fallen human parts.

　　    ————————————————————————————————————————

　　    I watched as I crashed into the ground. The impact caused me to lose conscious for a while, though not very long.

           Now this is no football match so I'm not gonna earn any points by this "touch down". But...my EXP and Evilness increased!

           I brought a dust cloud into the air, plus some random unknown flying objects mixed inside it. The whole scene looks like a missile just exploded inside a crowd. Yes, I see the human parts as well.

　       "Uhhhh..." Red Moon groaned, still on my back. I opened my wings in the last moment and became a damping cushion for her. She's still hurt, badly.

　　   She realized she's sitting on me and rolled aside. She's in no condition to stand up though.

           I hit the ground first but my condition is actually better, since I'm wearing full Artifact armor here. This thing is way stronger than her paper wizard robe.

　        It took some effort for me to pull my hands out of the ground. I landed limbs-first, and they stuck solid into the dirt like wooden construction stakes. I struggled to get up on me feet, only to find there are two other people under me!

           Aha, so I'm not the bottom. Someone else is even more unfortunate.

           We caused a small meteorite crater where we landed. No, not quite, since there are two human-shaped hollows that really stand out.

　　    I needed to use my lance to pry the two "volunteers" out of the dirt. They turned out to be two ninjas from that small group.

           "Thanks mate. But I'm not paying you. I didn't ask for your help anyway."

           They wouldn't mind me saying that at all because they're already dead cold.

　       "A little help here!" Red Moon yelled.

　　   "What now?"

　　   "Pull me up!"

           I held her straight so she can try to move her waist. She recovered after a some cricks and cracks.

          "Better. My bones were in the wrong places."

　　   "Find a tree and rest. I see someone alive over there. I'm go check."

           I released her without waiting for answer. She fell on her hips again. "Oof!"

           I walked to the player who's still lying on his stomach. It's a ninja too, the one who was attacked by the others.

　　    He bounced up when I tried to flip him over.

           "WHO ARE YOU??" He looked at me with horror in his eyes.

           "Calm it."   I raised my hands (in front of my chest, not over my head). "Just checking if you're alive or not."

　       He stepped back with caution. "Did you see the four people who's been attacking me?"

　　   I pointed at the mess around us. "You mean these. Oh and, Another two, at the bottom over there."

　　   "But you were---" He pointed upwards, then at me, with his mouth agape.

　       "Eh, heheh. It's just, an air accident."

　       "I thought you were some helper who came to save me!" He put his katana behind his back. Seems he believed me. "If I'm a Chinese player I would just help kill the other four, then finish off the last one. Now you're strange."

　       "Save you? Huh. I wouldn't play skydiving like that without a parachute! As for killing you, yeah it's totally legit, considering where you are. Because that's what most players will do--eliminate Japanese invaders in the fastest way possible."

           I picked up my sword from the ground. The ninja immediately drew his katana again.

　       I waved it, showing him that it's still sheathed. "Oh don't worry, I was using it as a hammer--- Owwww!" I turned around. "What the fuc??"

　       As expected, Red Moon is standing behind me, with one hand rubbing her head and another hand holding her staff, which is probably the weapon she used to hit my head just now.

         "So YOU were the one who hit me! I thought I bumped my head on the ground!"

　     "You asked for it! Had I not knock you like that to get you off myself we'd already be in the resurrection hall now!"

　　  "I don't care! You hit me and you should apologize for it! Join our guild!"

　　  "Oh for the-- Please please my good lady, forget it already! That's not how you recruit people!"

　　  "Well I'm not forcing you! I'm negotiating!"

          How is she still acting as if she's the justified one?? I saw a comment somewhere and now I believe it: Women are like computers, no one ever knows how their brains function, except for their producers (their parents)!

　     "You call that negotiating?? Then 'forcing' doesn't exist in this world anymore!"

　　 "You---!" Her gaze suddenly shifted towards behind me. "An intruder!!"

         She pushed me aside. "Outta way! [Floating Thunder]!"

         A lightning ball went from her hand towards the ninja, who obviously didn't have enough time to make out the situation and took the attack head-on. He's now bouncing on ground like a Magikarp using "Splash", which is of course, not effective.

         I just recalled Red Moon is the second place on the ranking list in China region. That's was impressive. She threw that spell without taking much time to prepare.

        Why didn't she use anything like this when she was fighting with me?

　    The ninja is still numbed by the electric attack but he managed to bring out his katana. I think this class has really high Dexterity, wizards will have a hard time hitting him at all once he starts moving.

        I was wrong.

        Red Moon crossed her arms. "[Fire Blast]!"

　    Whooopm! The ground below the ninja's feet began to erupt flames like a volcano. He evaded aside but the flaming crater followed him as if it's alive. He ran around for a while before he realized he needs to take care of Red Moon who's actually controlling the fire pit.

        The ninja put away his kanata and jumped high up. "Ninpo! [Doton]!"

        Poof. He disappeared into the ground like water.

　     A bump began to slide towards Red Moon with high speed. The ninja jumped out of the dirt in front of Red Moon, who activated her wizard shield in time but was still knocked back for some distance.

        She crouched and pressed both her hands on the ground. "Fire converge, [Burning Sky]!"

        Countless fireballs and flame pillars appeared and began to fly around everywhere. I realized what's happening and dodged around together with the ninja, or I'll become barbecued meat too!

　    The ninja used his skill and went underground again. Now the whole scene is total chaos, with raising dirt bumps here and there plus all kinds of fire attacks dancing all over our heads.

　    This is wasting my time!

        "STOP IT!!" I yelled. All companions and servants came out, including Lucky, who's still flying somewhere just a moment ago.

        "Get these two under control!"

　    "Yes sir!" Everyone answered in unite.

　　 Phiona reached her original size, all the flames began to fly towards her and then absorbed. The burnings immediately died out.

        Then the ground shook violently. Rosa pushed the ninja out with a strong vine strike. The ninja still tried to escape, but a series of tentacles blocked his path, before the Phantom Knights locked up his neck using their lances.

　    "Now that's a lot better."

Chapter end