WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Alyo
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◈ Surviving as a Warrior in a TRPG World ◈
Chapter 83: Kill or Be Killed (1)
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Except for Ruben and the two archers, who were relatively lightly armored, the other two Warriors were clad head to toe in heavy armor.
Even members of the same lightly armored party could differ in movement speed. Let alone heavily armored Warriors. That was all Gerik was aiming for.
He wanted to break up the enemy formation through a desperate escape and leave stragglers behind.
However, as he fled for his life, Gerik realized that Ruben had not been exaggerating when he called the companions he had brought masters of pursuit.
'You monsters...!'
A tracking spell was on him, sure, but Gerik was running in zigzags through the pitch-black Boundary Forest, even using Charge to flee.
And yet, the archers behind him were closing the distance at an astonishing speed, staying right on his heels.
'Where the hell are they?'
Even more absurdly, despite pursuing him so quickly, they made no sound at all.
Whiiing! Whiiing!!
"Kh...!!"
There was only one reason Gerik could be certain they were following him. Arrows kept raining down from behind like mad.
Every attack was vicious enough that Gerik had no choice but to desperately use Thought Barrier to protect his back.
"Huff... Huff...!!"
He was suffocating mentally and physically, but Gerik kept running.
Naturally, such an intense sprint under this much pressure rapidly drained his stamina. In the end, Gerik had to pull out a precious stamina potion and gulp it down just to endure the exhaustion.
'Please, let some of them fall behind...!'
Gerik ran for a long time, blocking the barrage of arrows with Perception and Thought Barrier.
Whiiing...!! Whiiing...!!
As the sound of incoming arrows grew closer, he realized, absurdly enough, that despite running himself ragged, the distance was not widening. It was slowly closing instead.
As the distance narrowed, the arrows also became more precise and more destructive.
'...Still, the Warrior definitely fell behind.'
The clanking sound unique to a heavily armored Warrior, which he had heard until recently, had vanished. It seemed one Warrior had fallen behind, just as Gerik intended.
'Unlike me, he won't have enhanced Perception... He must have been slowed naturally after getting caught on obstacles.'
Moreover, the Warrior class had no promotion skills. It only strengthened Strength, Dexterity, and Health evenly.
Even if that man possessed Charge just like Gerik, without enhanced Intelligence and Perception, he would have difficulty grasping his surroundings. His Charge could not possibly compare to Gerik's.
Thud!! Thud...!!
Just as arrows pounded against the Thought Barrier protecting Gerik's back hard enough to shatter it, Gerik sensed that Thought Whip's cooldown had ended.
'Now...!'
The opportunity he had been seeking while fleeing for his life had arrived. Gerik gritted his teeth and used Charge to dash sideways.
'Where are you...!!'
There was only one reason Gerik had fled to the side. He wanted to identify the origin of the attacks with a glance from the corner of his eye.
Whiiing...!!
Sure enough. An arrow shot toward him at terrifying speed from the direction Gerik turned his head.
'Eat this...!!'
The enemy seemed completely blended into their surroundings through a skill. Not a trace of their presence could be felt in the darkness.
But using the arrow's trajectory as a guide, Gerik hurled a leather pouch with all his strength in the direction it had come from.
Thud...!!
When the pouch hit the ground, it burst, spreading acrid powder thickly through the area.
"Kh...!"
Not long after the Fire-Eye Herb Powder, which caused pain to anyone who inhaled it, spread through the darkness, a short groan escaped from the shadows.
'Found you...!'
Having located the enemy who had harassed him without pause, Gerik gritted his teeth and unleashed Thought Whip at that spot.
Crack!!
Gerik's Thought Whip flew at horrifying speed and lashed the archer's body without mercy.
"Aaargh!!"
A terrible scream erupted from the darkness.
It had not been an ambush, so it did not cause unconsciousness or paralysis. Even so, its effect was excellent. The archer's concealment began to unravel.
'I'll kill you...!!'
As the outline of the enemy, who had blended perfectly into the darkness, slowly emerged, Gerik charged at the archer without hesitation, his eyes filled with murderous intent.
Whiiing...!!
A chilling sensation struck him while he charged. Gerik swiftly raised his left hand and spread Thought Barrier in the direction his Perception warned him about.
Boom!!
A powerful impact came through the barrier. Incredibly, another archer had loosed an arrow with perfect timing, just as Gerik charged forward at terrifying speed.
Gerik broke out in goosebumps at the thought that his head would have been pierced if he had reacted even a moment later.
But after all the trouble, Gerik finally succeeded in closing the distance to the archer he had targeted. The archer's eyes went wide as the prey suddenly turned around and hunted him instead.
"Tch...!!"
Even so, true to a veteran who had weathered every hardship, the archer did not lose his composure despite his surprise. He quickly raised a buckler he had prepared in advance to defend against Gerik's attack.
"Die...!!"
Reaching the archer with Charge, Gerik raised his longsword, enhanced by acceleration and Thought Blade, and unleashed a powerful Slash.
"Urgh...!!"
The buckler looked like a masterpiece, fitting for elite equipment. But it was useless against Gerik's proudest and strongest combination.
Crunch!!
A blue flash rippled through the darkness of the Boundary Forest, lighting it beautifully. Where that light passed, the man's arm, buckler and all, was cleanly severed and dropped to the ground.
"Aaargh!!"
A terrible scream burst from the man's mouth as his arm was cut off. Unconcerned, Gerik drove his longsword straight into the thrashing man's chest without the slightest hesitation, ending his life.
'One down...'
The relief of having eliminated one formidable enemy had barely crossed his mind when a sharp sense of danger struck the back of Gerik's head. He reflexively ducked his head to the side.
Thud...!!
This arrow was different from the others. Unlike the earlier attacks, which struck with crushing force as though to break through his barrier, this one cut through the darkness soundlessly and without any presence, approaching Gerik like a ghost.
His sharp Perception had only barely warned him right before it struck.
Perhaps because the skill focused all its power on stealth, it was less powerful than the earlier attacks. But an arrow was still an arrow.
Gerik desperately twisted his body and avoided a hit to the head, but the arrow sank into his left arm, delivering terrible pain.
"Aaargh...!!"
Agonizing pain surged through Gerik as his left arm was pierced. It was pain severe enough to make him faint when he had been a novice adventurer who knew nothing.
Ironically, after experiencing countless indescribable pains over the short years since his reincarnation into this world, Gerik could endure the pain now by gritting his teeth.
'I need to get out of here first...!!'
Gerik spread Thought Barrier broadly toward the direction the attack had come from and somehow blocked the arrows.
Enduring the pain, he pulled his longsword from the archer's corpse, sheathed it, and threw himself back into the darkness at full speed.
Whiiing!! Whiiing!!
As he fled, arrows erupted after him without fail.
As though they had figured out Gerik's pattern, the archer pursuing him abandoned stealth again and began madly raining down arrows that maximized destructive power.
Thud!! Thud!!
Gerik could feel psionic energy draining rapidly from the back of his head, but he did not care. Overuse or not, an arrow would lodge in his head if he let his guard down for even a moment.
As arrows struck his barrier one after another, Gerik brought his uninjured right hand to his left arm. Then, gritting his teeth, he firmly gripped the arrow embedded in his arm and yanked it out in one motion.
"Ugh...!!"
As the arrow came out with strips of flesh, a terrible sensation spread through his entire body. It hurt enough to make his mind go blank, but the adrenaline flooding through him amid battle and the threat of death barely kept Gerik going.
'A potion...!'
Gerik threw the arrow away without hesitation. He then pulled a healing potion from his clothes and gulped it down, pouring the rest generously over the wound in his left arm.
Crack...!!
The mage had not lied when they said its healing power was far stronger than the low-grade potions sold elsewhere. The pain in Gerik's pierced left arm rapidly subsided, and sensation returned as the wound closed.
"Huff... Huff..."
Cold sweat soaked his face like rain, but Gerik paid it no mind. He only kept repeating the same thing, running madly or using Charge to widen the distance.
'It's moving...!'
Once his arm could move to some extent, Gerik drew his longsword again. Moving in zigzags, he prepared to counterattack the enemy once more.
'I need to find the point of origin...'
Gerik ran like mad while deliberately conserving Charge. He needed to draw out the enemy's attacks and identify where they came from.
Sure enough, arrows meant to subdue him began to fly once more.
Thud!! Thud!!
Perhaps intending to destroy Gerik's Thought Barrier, the arrows coming from behind had changed from the stealthy attack that wounded him earlier to destructive ones.
'The damage is serious, but...'
As they focused on destructive force, every arrow that struck forced Thought Barrier to drain a tremendous amount of Psionics from the back of Gerik's head to repair itself.
'Still, I've roughly pinpointed where the origin must be.'
Naturally, that was possible because of the powerful memory granted by his enhanced Intelligence. Gerik carefully memorized the paths and directions of the incoming arrows, then calculated backward to determine where the enemy was likely standing.
'There...!!'
After running wildly for some time, Gerik finally threw a pouch of Fire-Eye Herb Powder at the exact point his enhanced Intelligence had identified.
Poof...!!
The leather pouch he had thrown with all his strength burst, spreading acrid powder in every direction. But this time, the enemy reacted differently.
"..."
The instant the sound of the pouch bursting was heard, the archer's relentless attacks against Gerik stopped.
'...Damn it.'
The archer had probably watched their companion get caught by the Fire-Eye Herb Powder earlier and quickly moved away to avoid falling for the same trick.
'Well, they're not an idiot.'
The enemy was a veteran skilled enough for Ruben to boast about. Gerik swallowed his disappointment and used Charge toward the front, quickly leaving the area.
The moment Gerik arrived at a new spot after repeatedly using Charge, a terrifying sense of danger covered his whole body.
'...?!'
There was clearly nothing there, but Gerik instinctively raised Thought Barrier toward the direction the killing intent came from, blocking the front as he threw his head back with all his strength.
Thud! Slash!!
A sharp successive attack. Two faint blades from the darkness struck Gerik's Thought Barrier hard, then grazed across his forehead by a hair.
'Fast...!!'
If Gerik had reacted even a little later, those blades would surely have cut his throat and eyes.
"Kh...!!"
Ignoring the blood flowing down from his forehead, Gerik swiftly swung Slash at the empty space before him.
Flash!!
Astonishingly, when he swung Slash into the darkness ahead where the attack had emerged, a faint figure appeared where nothing should have been. It stood in the darkness, holding shortswords in both hands.
'Ruben?!'
The enemy was blended faintly into the darkness, so Gerik could only make out their silhouette. But based on the appearance he had seen during their earlier conversation, he instinctively knew it was Ruben.
Meanwhile, the figure Gerik judged to be Ruben deflected Gerik's Slash with astonishing reflexes, then darted into close range like an infighter and swung his shortswords wildly.
Thud! Clang!
Gerik desperately stepped backward, blocking the enemy's attacks with Thought Barrier summoned in his left hand and the vambraces on his right arm.
'The reach...!!'
He wanted to use Slash again to break the enemy's momentum, but Ruben had moved too close, leaving the distance awkward. So Gerik tried to endure somehow while waiting for Charge's cooldown to end.
"...!?"
As he struggled backward while blocking the unrelenting assault, a sharp sense of danger suddenly struck the back of Gerik's head. He reflexively ducked again and turned his barrier.
Whiiing...!!
Sure enough, a stealthy arrow narrowly passed by the back of Gerik's head. It seemed the archer who had troubled him for so long had dealt with the Fire-Eye Herb Powder, closed the distance, and resumed their attack.
Clang!! Clang!!
Sharp arrows poured from behind while Ruben's fierce assault surged from the front. Under normal circumstances, Gerik should have died dozens of times over, but Grimdal's masterwork armor kept him alive.
'What the hell is that black energy...!!'
The problem was that even the sturdy armor made from Red Iron was being gradually worn away with a sharp destructive sound each time Ruben's shortswords cut it.
Gerik thought that the black shadows rippling over those shortswords might be giving them their extraordinary destructive power.
Slash!
No matter how stubbornly he defended, the sharp chained attacks from both sides eventually created an opening. Ruben's blade cut Gerik's relatively unprotected shoulder.
"Urgh...!!"
The armor made from Grizzly Owl hide kept the wound from becoming deep.
But for some reason, even though he had only been lightly cut, extreme pain surged through him. Gerik could even feel the sensation and responses around the grazed area becoming slightly dull.
'Poison!!'
He was certain. As though the shadows rippling over his blades were not enough, Ruben had apparently coated them with poison as well.
As Gerik shuddered at the enemy's thoroughness, a heavy metallic clanking entered the battlefield.
'This is insane.'
He recognized it as the sound made by the two-handed sword Warrior who had attacked him first, and it felt as though his blood were running dry.
Gerik was already struggling just to withstand the archer's and Ruben's attacks. If a Warrior joined them as well?
'I'll definitely die...!!'
Even if he had ten lives, Gerik keenly understood there was no answer if this continued.
As he gritted his teeth and searched for a way to survive, he finally sensed that Charge's cooldown had ended.
'I have no choice but to risk my life...!!'
Holding Thought Barrier toward the direction the arrows came from, Gerik swung Slash at Ruben before him with the resolve to take them both down.
It was a strike carrying his desperate will to drag Ruben to the afterlife with him, even if the attack killed him.
"Tch...!!"
Sure enough, Ruben had no intention of suffering a fatal injury together when he held the advantage. He briefly stopped his assault, dodged Gerik's Slash, and quickly retreated.
'Now...!!'
It was a tiny opening. But Gerik did not miss it. Using Charge, he escaped the battlefield in an instant.
Boom!!
As he raced through the darkness, Gerik suddenly felt intense dizziness. He gritted his teeth and endured it as Ruben's sinister voice drifted softly from behind him.
"Gerik! My blade is coated in paralysis poison. Can you endure it?"
'Just as I thought...!!'
Gerik was certain that was no bluff. He could feel its effects throughout his body even now. Without hesitation, he pulled an antidote potion from his clothes and gulped it down.
'Whew...!'
It worked. The dullness in his senses and the dizziness quickly faded, and his body returned to normal.
Just as Gerik steadied himself and began fleeing again, Ruben's voice rang out from behind him once more.
"Good grief! For a mere Copper Plate, you certainly carry plenty of expensive items. But do you know this? The more healing potions you drink in succession, the less effective they become. So, how many more times do you think you can endure?"
The mockery pierced Gerik to the core. It sounded like a taunt, but it was also an undeniable fact. He could not help feeling crushing pressure.
'This won't work!'
Gerik ran through the darkness with all his might, frantically turning over ways to eliminate the enemies before him.
'In the end, it seems the only way is to take out the archer...'
That was the conclusion Gerik reached while desperately fleeing and devising a plan.
'If I can just get rid of those damned arrows, the pressure will be cut in half.'
Gerik drank a stamina potion to calm his heart, which felt ready to burst.
If he could eliminate only the archer firing arrows from behind, he was confident he could reduce his Psionics consumption and somehow widen the distance between them.
Unlike the Warrior or Ruben, whom he could not guarantee defeating in close combat, the archer only made their position difficult to identify by thoroughly concealing their presence. Gerik was certain he could eliminate them somehow if he could get close.
'The problem is finding out where they are...!!'
If he could calmly observe the incoming arrows, he could infer their location through his memory. Unfortunately, time was not on Gerik's side.
There were more enemies than him, and they stood in the pitch-black Boundary Forest, where it was hard to see even an inch ahead.
It was a battlefield overwhelmingly favorable to the enemy. Anyone watching this bloody battle would have applauded Gerik for surviving this long.
'There really isn't much left now...'
Even after drinking a stamina potion, Gerik saw the clearly weakened output of Thought Barrier and sensed that his final moment was near.
'What should I do? Think... Think...!!'
The countless trials he had experienced over a short time at least allowed Gerik, whose breath was coming in ragged gasps, to stay calm.
So, enduring the pain that made his heart feel ready to burst, he desperately wracked his brain again and again.
'There is no way unless I get right up close and feel around with my hands...'
But that was all. This place was pitch-black, and the enemy had concealed their body with a skill. Visually, there was no answer at all. Unless he could touch them.
'Wait. Touch?'
The word touch naturally brought one idea to Gerik's mind. He could use Telekinesis.
'Telekinesis... It has the nature of changing according to my will.'
Of course, giving Telekinesis complex properties was still beyond Gerik's ability.
But he thought he could at least minimize its physical force, maximize only its sensing ability, and spread it broadly.
'It might work...!!'
It was not a method he was used to, so there was no guarantee it would succeed completely. But no other solution came to mind.
So Gerik prepared himself to be sniped by the enemy, dismissed Thought Barrier, and spread thin but broad Telekinesis in every direction toward where the arrows had come from.
'I can feel it...!'
A faint irregularity caught in the net of Telekinesis spreading around him. Using that subtle sensation, Gerik finally succeeded in locating the archer.
Whiiing!!
Unexpectedly, that sensation also made the incoming arrows easier to evade.
Even without Thought Barrier, Gerik could easily predict the direction of attack and avoid it without taking any notable damage.
'Thought Whip!'
Crack!
When Gerik lashed Thought Whip at the enemy's location as identified through Telekinesis, a terrible scream erupted from the empty darkness.
"Aaargh!!"
Astonishingly, the archer's concealment skill unraveled helplessly after taking Thought Whip head-on. It was an unexpected triumph, and color returned to Gerik's face for the first time in a while.
'Now...!!'
It was an opportunity that would never come again. Gerik did not hesitate and used Charge toward the enemy.
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