9. Ambush battle!

-o-

It had been half a day since we left the last town, and we were already more than halfway to the capital.

"So… Playa-dono has a spirit bound to him. His quest is to find a way to give Monika-sama a real body again."

"Yes," I retorted plainly. "That is indeed a way to summarize it."

Yae nodded and turned back to driving the horses. "A noble cause."

"Great! It's actually quite a surprise that you don't seem too surprised about this!" Monika said out loud.

"Eashen is the land of the Gods. There are many gods, large and small, and spirits may come from even the most humble of things. Ah, I do not mean that Monika-sama is a humble thing, I do not."

I nodded. "Humble is certainly something that Monika is… not."

"Hey! I'll have you know am the very epitome of humble," Monika sniffed and elegantly flipped her hair. "A bundle of it, even!"

"I guess Monika could be considered to be a minor kami, yes. So try to stay… whelmed, about the things you see happen. We can get a bit crazy."

"And how we're so relieved that we can't see what you two can get up to!" Elze shouted from near the front of the cart.

"That is not the purpose of Monika Points!" I shouted back.

That was totally the purpose of Monika Points.

With now three people that could handle the horses, I had even less to do other than laze around in the back. I was lying down occupying the full rear of the wagon, while Elze and Linze sat near the front, right behind Yae driving the pair of horses pulling the wagon. The girls could continue their conversations that way, with me contributing only now and then to things I overheard.

We had deployed the tent on poles to serve as a sun shade, and in the middle of the wagon was a large pot filled with magically-created ice cubes to keep things cool.

I had plenty to read inside my saved files, but for physical media there was still only the book of Null spells.

I paged through it idly. "So, Monika, what Null powers have you been able to decompile and reuse?" I pointed to a particular spell. "[Apport]. Say, isn't this just Kazuma's [Steal] skill?"

Monika nodded. "Yes, it is. But as useful as it may be, it is quite specific that it can teleport-grab things that can fit inside your hand. And….

"[Apport!]" Monika waved her hand out with fingers splayed open. "I don't exactly have hands, you know? We can't digitalize matter. It's the same thing with [Storage]."

"Nuts. An [Inventory] system would have been quite useful. In another world with mah Pip Girl!"

Yae whispered to Linze "So, do you understand what Playa-dono and Monika-sama are talking about?"

"Not at all!" Linze replied brightly.

"… mysterious indeed are the ways of spirits and their mediums, that is so."

"… you changed something," Linze noticed. "You were calling Mister Zah, Playa-san, earlier.. now it's Playa-dono? What does 'dono' mean?"

"It means milord, and ranks below 'sama' or 'master, esteemed superior, or great lord' in terms of respect," I explained idly, "but higher than 'san', or the generic 'sir', as a polite suffix."

"That is correct. I mean no disrespect, Playa-dono… but…"

"You don't know if I'm actually a lord of any standing, but Monika is an immortal spirit superior to humans, so 'sama' is quite to be expected."

"No. I refuse. I don't like it either. I'm just Monika. No sama, no san, no chan, no nothing! Just… Moni…ka..." Monika's words trailed off into a stunned realization.

J̶u̴s̴t̷ ̴M̸o̴n̵i̷k̴a.

"No, never Just Monika," I said, prodding her Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. "Never again! Not only Monika anymore, you can trust in that!"

Then I turned to Yae. "Just keep calling her Monika-sama. Clearly nothing could go wrong from this."

"… I… yes? I suppose I should?" Yae replied, nonplussed.

Then I pointed my face away and resumed talking towards the empty air. "Monika. Hello? Sorry about that. You all right, mah babecakes? Sweetumpies? Cocoalova-"

"Quiet."

I made a motion of zipping my lips. Even Linze was giving me a 'you're being super-annoying right now, Mister Zah' look.

"Player, something's wrong! I'm getting red blips about a kilometer away ahead!"

I snapped out of my lazy slump on the wagon and stood up. "Hostiles?!"

Elze tried to stand up as well, but she could only see the trees covering the bend ahead. "Enemies?! Where?"

Even zooming in, I couldn't see anything. There was the gentle rise in the terrain in the way. "Kokonoe, stop!"

Yae pulled on the reins and the horses neighed and reared back, slowly bringing the wagon to a halt. I jumped off. "I'm going to scout for a bit!"

"Hey, Playa! Don't rush off ahead!" Elze warned.

"I won't!" I promised. I held my palms down and open towards the ground and chanted "Come, Wind! Silent bell, [Form Verniers]!" Stiff winds spiraled around my ankles. Then I leaped and shouted "Come, Wind! Push against everything, [Boost Rocket!]"

A noisome blast of air burst out from under my boots and flung me high up into the air. Then higher up I began to make a pushing motion with my palms, lowering the heavily rotating air current to past my boot soles. There was a moment of unsteady terror fearing I would fling myself out of control and jackknife back into the ground like a top-attack anti-tank missile.

Healing magic was great, but it won't fix a broken neck.

But the counter-rotating thrust bells held, and focused the reaction against the wind force created ex nihilo, forcing me higher and higher up like a rocket.

It was stepping closer to true flight, but still the need to use both hands for control meant that it was still not very useful. I looked north, towards the red dots showed by the minimap, and Monika overlaid the hostile markers onto my normal view. She zoomed in optically, expanding picture boxes inside picture boxes until I could see the distinctive shape of a tall carriage, surrounded by enemies. People in armor were fighting larger beings with green skin and thick tails.

"Are those… lizardmen?"

Monika zoomed in on one, just in time to see a lizardman stab at a guard with his spear. The point went into the human's neck, he tried to make a desperate last clawing swing at the enemy with his sword, but the lizardman pulled back – pulling the spearhead out of the guards' neck – and the dying guard collapsed face down into a puddle of blood.

Lizardman archers peppered the carriage and the guards to keep them off balance. The guards were dressed in half plate, resistant enough to arrows, but if the guards had to raise their arms to protect their face this left them less able to deflect more spear thrusts.

I turned off all magic and dropped straight down like a rock.

"Come, Wind! Desperate cushion! [Down Draft!]" I cried out just before I smashed myself like an egg on a hot boulder.

The horses neighed in terror again at the sudden gale force winds, but Yae managed to get them back under control. She rubbed at their flanks and made soothing noises.

"There's lizardmen attacking a carriage ahead! They're killing people! No time, I'll have to go ahead!"

"I'll come with you!" Elze shouted back, leaping off the wagon.

"She can do this."

Right. Stacked legs boosts. "All right!" I looked up towards Linze still on the wagon then pointed to Yae. "Get moving as fast as you can! Yae! Once you arrive, join me at the fast front line as Elze withdraws to defend her sister as she provides supporting fire!"

"Hai!"

I crouched down and clenched my fists. Elze nodded grimly back at me and copied my stance. She whispered "[Boost!] [Boost!] [Boost!] [Boost!]"

"Come, Wind! Runner's flowing steps! [Burst Bound!]"

The ground burst into splinters around us, and soon the world was nothing but a green blur as we rushed forth, our feet pounding holes into the road with each powerful swinging step. We were ninja-running, leaning forward with our arms held straight out behind us as a counterweight, each step at least two human-lengths away from the previous.

True, sustained, superhuman speed.

And we crashed that lizardman ambush like a hurricane!

Elze turned her running into a two-footed dropkick. The lizardman that took the brunt of her arrival towered over the human guards, a powerful muscular reptilian creature with thick pebbled green skin and wore a thick metal breastplate. He never had a chance to stand up to Elze, but instead was flung down into the ground and dragged along as she skidded to a stop.

Elze left a ribbon-trail of mangled red meat on the ground from her braking maneuver.

All combatants there temporarily paused to stare in shock.

Which was when I dropped down from above, yelling "AIR! DRILL! [SLAM]!"

The ground crumpled into a shallow crater under my feet, the winds spiraling around the edge of my drawn spear-sword. The twisting winds around Zanzibar not only broke my fall, but threw away all enemies around me. The gusty winds nearly toppled over the carriage. I heard a young girl scream.

Elze kicked blood off her metal boots and raised her gauntleted fists. She stomped one foot on the ground, and bent one knee ready to rush forth again. Her grin was full of bloody violent brilliance.

I slashed out with my sword and held Zanzibar straight out. My hold was just right behind the hilt, halfway down its real length. The shining white of my helmet and gloves made the lizardmen squint in pain. Served them right for trying this shite in the middle of day! Just before noon, even!

"STAND DOWN OR DIE!" I roared out, Monika amplifying my voice.

"Kill them! Kiiilll theeem!" a shrill voice ordered from behind the lizardmen. "Kill them but leave the child! I want only that girl alive!"

"OKAY THEN YOU'RE DEAD!"

-x-

-o-

There was no time to hesitate, no time to ponder about the morals of killing other sapient beings. There was only time to fight and survive.

The lizardmen had archers, but some well-timed gusts of wind kept their arrows away from Elze. They stabbed at me with their spears, but I could duck and slap away their points – and unlike swords Zanzibar was almost the same length, and unlike spear vs spear where the shafts would slide past each other, my follow-through could chop into their arms.

Elze punched out and caved in a lizardman's breastplate. He died gasping and drowning on dry land, red foam coming out of his mouth and his lungs unable to expand from the dented metal.

Whereas Elze unexpectedly flitted from one position to another with deceptively powerful small kicks off the ground, I slid in and out of position as if my boots were rollerskates.

Zanzibar chopped at a knee, and as the lizardman blocked it with his spear I pushed closer almost face to face to hook my blade under his guard and then up toward his pale unprotected neck. Blood spurted against my face as I tore open his throat.

Fortunately I was already legally blind so getting blood in the eyes would never prove a distraction in battle.

"To your left! Block!"

By instinct I obeyed Monika's shout, pulling Zanzibar out with my left hand and blocked the strike of a lizardman scimitar with its extra-long handle.

"[Fire]."

As that lizardman flinched from the sudden wave of fire that appeared in front of its eyes, I pulled back on my sword, carving open his neck too.

It was like my sword was magnetic, attracted towards exposed necks!

Stab towards my midsection. Step back, turn to the side, dip Zanzibar to block. Every stab could become a cut very quickly – lizardman spears had these smaller perpendicular blades to the main spearhead that gave it a triangular leaf-like appearance. Slap it away in a circle and stab.

Another throat opened.

Simultaneous spear thrusts from left and right. Move forward into their zone, and the spears crossed behind my back. Before they could pull into a cut, stab. Stab.

An arrow clanged off my helmet from the side.

"[Amplify: IR Emitter!]

[Stack!]

[Amplify: IR Emitter!]

[Stack!]

[Amplify: IR Emitter!]

[Stack…!]" In a command-line window at the corner of my vision I saw these rapidly scroll away.

"[Compile: Eye Laser!] [MONIKA BEAM!]"

I turned my head and Monika returned fire with a hot needle-thin beam of light that went into the offending lizardman's eyes, effectively burning out his corneas and then popping his eyeballs. He let out a warbling cry and clutched at his bloody face.

Move and cut. Dodge and stab. Fight and kill. All noise, all concerns faded out into this numb haze of battle. Until Elze and I realized we were now fighting back to back and our hips bumped together.

"There's no end to them!" Elze hissed.

"… where are they coming from?" I gasped out, now that there was a lull in the fighting my exertions were rapidly catching up to me. Unlike Elze's general [Boost] and its automatic damage resistance for whatever limb is boosted, [Amplify] needed to improve my endurance as one part over three, the other two being Nerve Impulse and Strength. "If this gets down to attrition, we can't last for much longer."

"Th-there's a summoner behind them!" one of the guards replied. "We can't break through! Adventurers! If you could just open a path-!"

"Come forth, Fire! Whirling Spiral! [Fire Storm!]"

We shielded our eyes from the sudden glare of a fire tornado erupting in the middle of the pack of lizardmen.

Oh yeah! Now the lizardman formations were shot to hell. Linze and Yae had arrived. Our fire support is better than your fire support!

"Playa-dono! Monika-samaaaa!" Yae shouted, leaping off the wagon and into the fray. She slashed through lizardmen until she reached our side. "Also Elze-san. Are you unhurt?"

Elze made an out-of-place amused snort. "Why am I an afterthought? Why do you get to be called out to first?"

"Team leader. Pays the bills."

"Yeah, I can accept that."

"I am not a mercenary, that I am not. Could I not simply be concerned about my comrades?" Yae responded, faintly insulted. "Oh. This is a joke, yes?" She faced the enemy, brandishing her sword, and asked without looking back "Playa-dono! I have arrived! What now?! Do we strike?!"

I bumped Elze's hips again. "Elze!"

"Right! Pulling back to guard! Go on then!"

"Kokonoe! Summoner behind all of this! Let's clear us a path!"

"Hai!"

"Come forth, Water! Become a clear blade, [AQUA CUTTER!]" I screamed out and waved my open palm at the lizardman troops before us. A long spinning blade of ice almost ten meters long sliced into them. Lizardmen fell apart in screaming, bloody halves.

Someone shrieked, and as the last few lizardmen in the way collapsed with the Aqua Cutter ice shard still stuck into them, briefly we saw someone far on the opposite side of clearing. He wore black robes and a glowing purple ritual circle in front of him produced more lizardmen. The newcomers didn't even blink at the carnage they found themselves entering.

Were they just that 'cold blooded' inured to losses, did summoning just create simple programmed fighting beings ex nihilo as well, or were they mind-controlled battle slaves?

Regardless, as long as the magician was there, we could think the enemy numbers as essentially unlimited!

"Yae! Break through! Now!"

Yae surged forth. Slashing and stabbing, nimbly evading strikes and making perfect returning blows. While the lizardmen had breastplates, they left their arms and necks exposed, perfect weak points to her swift slashing katana. She was killing them much faster than I could with my longer blade.

"Yae! Dodge left!"

"Penetrate, Flame! Glowing giant spear, [BURNING LANCE!]" Linze shouted from behind us.

And then this massive immolating spear just punched right through the lizardmen group to our right.

"Yae! To the right!"

Yae nimbly skipped back to the other direction, her elevated wooden sandals allowing her to step somewhat safely over still scorching ground.

"Come forth, Water! Become a clear blade – Monika, stack these for a [Blade Tornado] please – [AQUA CUTTER…]!" Then I drove my left palm out forward "[BLADE TORNADO!]"

A narrow cone in front of me was filled with nothing but flashing ice blades and bloody chunks, a zone of total death, the perfected murderblender.

The summoner at the far end screamed and dropped to his knees trying to avoid the flying blades that were not even aimed at him anyway.

By the time he dared to look up again, Yae was right at his face.

Her blade flashed, and his neck flew off his body.

"YAE! NO!" I cried out.

No hesitation whatsoever. Clearly Yae had killed before. Elze and Linze may be more accomplished adventurers, but Yae was the more seasoned traveler and fighter.

As the summoner died, the dark magic circle faded away, and so did the summoned lizardmen decompose into dark wisps of smoke dispersed by the ambient wind.

"Yae. Why. Why, Yae?" I groaned out as I approached.

Yae looked puzzled. "Was I not supposed to… kill?"

"NO!"

She looked towards the blood spatters and torn ground that remained after the battle. "I do not understand. Is it because he was human? Mercy is not something that can easily be afforded in-"

"Now who are we going to interrogate to know what the frek this was all about?!"

"… ah. Of course. I had forgotten. My deepest apologies, Playa-dono! I was only thinking about removing the threat as fast as possible before he could cast a spell or more of the enemy could arrive to overwhelm our defense, I was! I had forgotten there was more to victory than just slaying the enemy!"

She looked towards the armored guards standing with exhausted relief behind us, and dropped to one knee. "I have shamed you and Monika-sama!"

I sighed. Yeah, maybe because she was so used to fending for herself, removing threats asap was always the best solution. Knocking someone out with the flat of the blade still had all the risk of breaking their neck and fracturing their skull, you know.

Even fighting against those thugs back in Amanesque, Yae chose not to draw her blade unless she really needed to.

Safely immobilizing someone was harder than it looked, and it was not like she could let go of her sword as long as that summoning circle could bring in more enemy reinforcements.

"Well what's done is done. Kokonoe, come on... Get up, there's no need for that! Now all we can do is help the survivors."

"Hai!"

And then I realized that young girl from earlier was still screaming.

-x-

AN: Killing the summoner actually is what Yae did in the LN.

They captured the summoner in the anime, but that plot point never really went anywhere so all it did was to make sure the waifu's hands were clean. More interesting to make mistakes.