WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Alyo

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◈ Surviving as a Warrior in a TRPG World ◈

Chapter 26: Swarm (3)

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Bruno considered Tarian's words, debating whether to keep following the Rat Men or retreat.

As they deliberated, the Rat Men seemed to notice something off about the party. They stopped fleeing, came back within sight, and glared at Bruno's group.

"...Would you look at these bastards?"

The Rat Men were being painfully obvious. Bruno spat on the ground and gritted his teeth at the sight of the rats, who clearly had some sort of scheme.

"How about we pull back for now?"

Just as Jensen, the Gnome, suggested a temporary retreat in case of trouble, another chilling rat cry rang out ahead.

"...They definitely have at least a medium-sized colony."

Perhaps they had noticed something off about Bruno's party, because nearly twenty Rat Men rushed out from ahead to threaten them.

Seeing that, Tarian, the Half-elf, became certain a Rat Man colony had settled in Stonecreek's underground sewer system.

Screech!! Squeak!!

"...!!"

As Bruno's group stared at the Rat Men ahead and prepared for battle, familiar animal noises began coming from behind them.

Before long, Bruno and the others realized that around ten Rat Men were approaching from the rear.

"These rat bastards... They tricked us so they could surround us?"

Bruno frowned as he realized why the fleeing Rat Men had kept stopping to wait for them.

Getting lured in by stupid rats must have been a serious blow to his pride, because for the first time, he looked genuinely agitated.

"Goddamn rat bastards...!!"

After cursing, Bruno began rearranging their formation with their backs to a wall.

Bruno remained on the left and Kagosh on the right, but Jensen, the smaller Gnome, stood in the middle with a shortsword and buckler to support them.

They formed a semicircle around Gerik. Unlike before, their line had been forced to widen, and tension finally began to hang over the Copper Plate adventurers.

Twang!! Twang!!

Tarian fired arrows madly at the Rat Men ahead, trying to thin their numbers before they closed in.

It was rapid fire, so her accuracy should have suffered. But because the Rat Men were packed so densely together, most of her longbow arrows struck their targets.

Kyaak!!

Just as two or three Rat Men fell to the arrows, dozens surged in from both sides and began surrounding them.

"Kwoooar!! Come on, you rat bastards!!"

Anyone would have been frightened by those overwhelming numbers, but Kagosh, the Half-orc, roared fiercely and swung his sword.

Gerik normally would have laughed at him for being barbaric, but hearing Kagosh's roar in such a desperate situation strangely gave him courage.

Kiek!!

As if Kagosh's roar had signaled the start of the battle, the Rat Men all charged at once.

To protect his lightly armored allies, Bruno planted his steel tower shield into the ground, braced himself with his entire body, and began swinging his mace.

"Die!!"

Thanks to his steel chainmail and shield, Bruno rendered the Rat Men's claws and fangs useless. Keeping his vital points covered as much as possible, he swung his mace with all his strength.

"Kwoar!!"

Supporting Bruno, Kagosh swung his bastard sword wildly as well, trying to keep the Rat Men from closing in.

Still, Kagosh fought without a shield, relying on studded leather armor. That left him with plenty of openings, and several Rat Man attacks landed cleanly.

Stab!!

To protect Kagosh, Jensen, standing in the middle, stabbed a Rat Man attacking Kagosh's left flank in the thigh with his shortsword.

As the creature faltered from the intense pain, Kagosh shook off the Rat Man in front of him and swung his bastard sword at another, splitting its head apart.

Kyaak!!

The Rat Men seemed to realize that Kagosh, who was less heavily armored than the iron-walled Bruno, was easier to break through. They began raining relentless attacks down on him.

This time, Tarian moved to the right with her spear and began keeping the Rat Men at bay to help Kagosh.

"Urgh... Damn rat bastard...!!"

Unlike Bruno and Kagosh, who were somehow holding on, Jensen was struggling. He was not a Warrior meant to serve as a frontliner, and he was smaller than the Rat Men to begin with.

Normally, Tarian should have reduced the pressure on Jensen with her spear, but she was busy blocking the waves of attacks aimed at Kagosh. Her support came too late.

"Urgh!!"

A problem finally arose. Jensen was holding the line while wrestling with a Rat Man when a rear-rank Rat Man slipped through an opening and slashed his head with its claws, breaking his stance.

The thick leather helmet he wore spared him from injury, but the Rat Man in front of him was the real problem.

When Jensen froze for a moment from the impact, it shoved him with all its strength. Jensen was pushed over by the Rat Man.

"Fuck...!!"

Two Rat Men slipped through that opening and broke through the line. Tarian realized what had happened too late, fiercely shoving one Rat Man away before quickly moving to reinforce the fractured defense.

"Nngh...!!"

Even with Tarian's support, the pressure on Jensen remained fierce. Determined not to let this chance go, the Rat Men opened their mouths and tried to bring their huge incisors down on the fallen Jensen.

'...I have to step in!'

Gerik sensed that something truly serious might happen if he did not act now.

He dropped the party's packs onto the ground, raised his longsword, and charged at the Rat Men trying to bite Jensen.

'Slash...!!'

Gerik's longsword shot forward at terrifying speed, scattering a silver flash through the air.

Shhk...!!

The chilling sound of tearing flesh echoed through the sewer. At the same time, the head of the Rat Man trying to bite Jensen's side flew into the air.

"...!!"

Jensen and Tarian, who saw it from nearby, stared with wide eyes.

Gerik was too busy preventing the Rat Men that had broken through from widening the gap in the line to care. He swung his sword madly, attacking them one after another.

Screech!! Kiek!!

Just as he had learned in his dream, Gerik unleashed Slash wildly without worrying about accuracy, wearing down the Rat Men that had broken through by sheer attrition.

The pressure on the line eased for a brief moment. Taking that opening, Tarian subdued one Rat Man, then drove her spear into the head of the Rat Man on top of Jensen.

"Thanks..."

"Jensen! Get up instead of wasting time talking! Are you a rookie?!"

Bruno, whose face was red from holding back the Rat Men by himself, shouted at Jensen when he tried to look away to offer his thanks.

Jensen hurriedly picked up his buckler and shortsword, then took his place on the line again.

'Slash...!!'

To support them, Gerik moved along the line like Tarian and began unleashing Slash wildly.

He had reduced the force of his strikes to avoid hurting his allies, so most only inflicted shallow cuts. Even so, that was a great help to the experienced Warriors on the front line.

Until then, all their support had gone to Kagosh, the relatively lightly armored frontliner. Bruno had only been able to hold out, but Gerik's cover gave him some breathing room.

Finally breaking out of his defensive position, Bruno drove the heavy chunk of metal at the end of his vicious mace into the head of a Rat Man in front of him.

'An opening...!!'

When the iron-walled Warrior swung his shield and mace, creating a gap in the Rat Men's line, Gerik did not miss it. He swung his longsword and sent the head of a Rat Man that had left itself wide open flying.

"...!!"

Bruno's eyes filled with surprise as he finally got a clear look at Slash's fierce power.

Once he realized that the "rookie" behind him was a fairly reliable attacker, he stopped focusing on landing fatal blows himself. Instead, he deliberately exposed openings, luring the enemies into reckless attacks that left them vulnerable.

Shhk...!! Shhk!!

Thanks to Bruno's experienced tactics, the Rat Men exposed many openings. Gerik did not let any of them go, unleashing sharp Slashes one after another until Rat Man heads began flying through the air.

"We've got this! Hold on a little longer! It's almost over!!"

The unexpected appearance of such a powerful backline attacker dealt the Rat Men devastating damage, and before long, many of them had been taken down.

Bruno read the shift in the battle caused by Gerik and shouted fiercely to encourage his allies.

"Uwoooar!! I'll kill you!!"

Kagosh's leather armor seemed to have taken severe damage after enduring the Rat Men's relentless attacks.

Still, aside from a few scratches, he had thankfully avoided major injuries. Roaring fiercely, he swung his bastard sword again and split a Rat Man's skull apart.

"Tch...!!"

Not wanting to be outdone by the sudden performance of a rookie, Jensen, who had made a major mistake in this battle, gritted his teeth and fought the Rat Men with his shortsword.

With their morale restored, the Copper Plate adventurers began slaughtering the Rat Men one by one. In the end, they succeeded in wiping them out without suffering any serious injuries.

"Huff... Huff... Damn it... We almost died... Is anyone hurt?!"

Fighting while surrounded by more than thirty Rat Men had been a terrifying experience even for experienced Copper Plate adventurers.

That was why Bruno, their leader, stayed alert for serious injuries or infection with the beastification curse.

"Kagosh isn't hurt! But my armor's pretty wrecked..."

Surprisingly, despite enduring the fiercest assault, Kagosh had not suffered any major injuries apart from scratches.

His studded leather armor, however, seemed to have suffered significant damage in the intense battle, even though it had been specially treated to be nearly as hard as metal.

"Tarian! You got holy water, right? Sprinkle some."

It seemed they had obtained some precious holy water from the Guild. That amount would never have been enough to cure an infection curse if they had been seriously injured, but for minor wounds, it appeared sufficient to prevent the beastification curse.

"Jensen. What about you?"

"I'm fine. I almost died, but that rookie... no, that young man back there came to support me in time and saved me."

Even an arrogant Copper Plate adventurer apparently felt guilty about calling the person who had saved his life a rookie. Jensen instinctively tried to put Gerik down, then quickly trailed off and changed his wording.

Thanks to Jensen, everyone's attention naturally shifted to Gerik. Bruno and the other Copper Plate adventurers all looked at him with interest.

"Hey, young man. You're really a beginner who only started doing this recently?"

"Yes. That's right. It hasn't even been fifteen days."

"Are you perhaps the bastard child of some knightly family...?"

No matter how Bruno thought about it, Gerik's swordsmanship was not something a rookie could display.

His youthful face did not look like someone who had spent a long time in this line of work, so Bruno wondered if he might have some hidden background.

"How could that be? If I were a knightly family's bastard child, I would've gotten a little money and gone to become a squire. Or joined a monastery..."

"...How does a 'farmer' like you know so much about that?"

Gerik was young, yet he casually spoke in suspiciously specific terms about bastard children of noble families. Jensen's expression subtly changed as he listened.

Footnotes:

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