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–Arena Chapter 75 – Explosive Growth (Part 2)"How did you do that?"
"I shot at it."
"What weapon is that?"
Derrick showed interest in my Neilson H2.
"It is a weapon called a gun. A small pellet shoots out at the target."
"I thought I saw something kind of fly by. I thought I saw wrong but I guess not."
Wait, this guy, did he just say he saw a flying bullet?
Rather, I should be the alarmed one.
A bullet that whizzes by faster than the speed of sound, he reflexively saw it, that"s some beastlike vision.
"Do humans use those kinds of weapons nowadays?"
"No. This is a weapon that only I have. You see, there is only one person who can make this."
"That is a relief. If humans were to all use that kind of weapon, that would be too much of a threat to us."
"I don"t think you have to worry about such. But, what do you think? With this much, don"t you think I can partake in the fighting?"
"Hmm…"
"If it becomes dangerous, I"ll remove myself immediately and run for it."
"Then fine. On one condition."
"What is it?"
"Do not be apart from me for even a moment."
"Huk!"
"Mm? What is it?"
"Oh, it"s nothing. I"ll do as you say."
That stately charisma, please stop. I really think I"ll fall for you!
At this rate, I really may become the eldest mother"s love rival.
At Derrick"s suggestion that I return for the day, I came back to the village.
During the afternoon game of tag training, I bragged about this to Jake.
"With Derrick ajusshi?!"
"Yep."
"No way!"
"What"s the big deal?"
"Derrick ajusshi is our hero! Everyone wants to battle with Derrick ajusshi!"
Jake was ablaze with jealousy.
Ah, the eldest mothers" rivals in love number many. Derrick really is a devil man.
"We want to fight the undead with the ajusshis in the southwest area too. The ajusshis said no which is why we have the safe northeast side."
"They"re worried because it is dangerous."
"Then why is it that he takes you to that dangerous place!"
"That"s right!"
"Is he discriminating against us!"
Huh?
Suddenly, I"m surrounded my elf men.
"Shouldn"t this be discussed?"
"He can"t think we"re weaker than Kim?"
"No way!"
I really hoped that the elf village didn"t come into discord because of me?
I was tense like this when.
"Oh, by the way, Kim, you"re it."
A guy tapped me on the back.
The guys scattered like arrows. My face became terribly distorted.
That evening, Derrick and several other older elves returned, and the young male elves gathered round them.
"What is it."
Derrick"s face was showing suspicion.
"Ajusshi, we can fight the undead too."
"Why do you not allow us but allow Kim?"
"We"re confident too!"
The girl elves and mothers wondered what was going on and started to gather around too.
Having caught everyone"s attention, Derrick open his mouth.
"The reason I gave permission to Kim to fight with us is because it is a part of his training. Under my guidance, he will grow his fighting sense."
Derrick looked straight on at the male elves and continued to speak.
"What do you think. Do you too need my guidance? I believe you guys to be trustworthy and respectable warriors."
The young elves have nothing to say.
"I request of you, as I always have, to remain in the northeast."
Then Derrick leisurely pa.s.sed through and by the young elves.
The now solemn young elves scattered and I was moved with emotion. Why are you so cool, Mr. Derrick!
Starting the next day, I moved with Derrick.
First of all, I blew a flame of life into the village"s Tree of Life, and then gave another to the pine tree that Derrick and I had arrived at.
"From now on, you will have to be careful."
"Yes, sir."
I summoned my two guns and moved on with Derrick.
We kept heading in the southwest direction.
Then, when we had arrived at some cliff, we could see some other elves.
"Is that you, Derrick?"
"Ah."
Based on their appearance, middle aged looking elves greeted him. I"m sure they are all actually over 200 years old.
16 older elf men were lined up along the cliff.
"Has it started?"
Asked Derrick.
"It has, they haven"t let up today either, they keep climbing."
At those words, I looked below the cliff.
"Huk!"
It was like a scene from a horror movie.
Here and there, corpses were tenaciously climbing up the cliff.
They were human corpses.
"Kululuk!"
"Kuuuuh!"
"Uhahhhh!"
The yelling zombies.
As if they were deeply craving something. The zombies were climbing up the cliff, headed this way.
"The undead are neither a living nor a dead existence. They have the black majeong so they live and move, but they have no life."
Explained Derrick, who had approached me.
"The way a starved man searches for food, these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds are greedy for the life they lack. They are jealous of and greedy of all those who have life."
At his words, a thought crossed my mind.
"The Tree of Life!"
"Yes. The b.a.s.t.a.r.ds instinctively come here for their search of the most ample life force."
"Then let"s begin."
Derrick lifted his bow and took out his arrow and demonstrated.
The other elves, likewise, began to shoot the zombies with their arrows.
Swiswiswik-
The arrows flew and shot the zombies one at a time. The zombies who had been hit in the head crashed to the ground along with the zombies who were trailing underneath them.
I couldn"t just stand there.
First, I put away my guns and summoned the Mosin-Nagant.
"Sylph."
-Meow?
"Shoot those things."
Sylph nodded her head and then lifted the Mosin-Nagant and aimed. She took the bullet I handed to her and loaded, then began to shoot.
Tang, tang! Tang, tang!
"Kekk!"
"k.a.w.k!"
With every shot, the zombies crashed.
"You use an interesting weapon."
"Is that that thing you called a gun?"
"It is indeed a scary weapon."
"Thank goodness no other human but him has it."
The elves that had been shooting with me showed a momentary interest in me and Sylph but then refocused their attentions on the fight.
But doesn"t this seem too easy?
I just had to shoot the zombies before they made their way to the top?
… is what I thought but I was thinking foolishly.
Derrick put his bow back on his back and spoke.
"Time for us to really get started."
"Huh? Start what?"
"How many do you think there are that we can keep shooting? Doing that would only be a waste of our arrows."
"Then…?"
"You shall see."
From the sheath belt around his hips, he drew two swords.
They were very light and slender swords.
Derrick held one in each hand…
"What?!"
I was completely shocked. That was because Derrick jumped down the cliff!
Making a perfect landing below, Derrick spun round and round in circles.
The two swords that were spinning with him were like a whirlwind, hitting all the zombies clinging to the cliff.
Chwajajajachwak!
Dozens of zombies rained down in an instant, Derrick hung from the cliffside with his sword stabbed into its side.
He pulled his sword out and at the same time, stepped on a protruding rock and began to climb up.
Scarily wielding a sword in each hann and using just his two feet to climb up the cliffside, Derrick"s acrobatics!
Chwa-chwa-ch-w-a-k!
"Kuak!"
"Ahhh!"
"Kuruk!"
"Dear Derrick!"
Even his swordsmanship was the epitome of male romance!
"Whew, there"s no way at all that I can copy that."
"Fighting with double swords off a cliffside can only be done my Derrick."
"Let"s start too."
The elves, one by one, pulled out their swords. Different from Derrick, they all had one sword each.
Then they all jumped at once.
Chwachwachwak-
Chwachwak!
"Kururkuk!"
"Kuah!"
"Aghh!"
At the elves" blow, the zombies rained down.
They clung to the cliff with one hand and held their swords in the other and, as if pulling weeds, cut down the zombies.
-Meow.
I was left all alone on top of the cliff with Sylph, staring blankly at the scene below.
"I, uh, have my pride."
-Meow?
"I"m not who I used to be. I mean, my physical strength buff is intermediate level 5."
-Meow……
Sylph had an expression of telling me not to overdo myself.
Despite that, I pulled out my double guns. Right, the goal is to do it like Derrick.
"Kim, you come with Sylph!"
"… okay."
Hmph.
I unsummoned the Mosin-Nagant and spoke to Sylph.
"If it looks like I am losing my balance and about to fall, catch me."
-Meow.
Sylph nodded her head.
For now, I decided to use one gun. With the other hand, I grabbed the crevices and began to make my way down.
Paat, pat!
Using easy and grippable points, I climbed down.
The fruits of my labor from playing tag on the Tree of Life. Who knew that that game would have made the perfect training for this!
To a zombie that had come close, I aimed my gun and pulled the trigger.
"Kuak!"
Its head exploded and the zombie fell. With the zombies trailing behind it, it got tangled and, seeing that, I got a sharp delight. One shot, two kills!
"You did well."
Without my knowledge, Derrick was beside me and gave me a compliment.
Ah, happiness.
Like a child getting complimented by his mother, I was uplifted and fought even harder.
I"m not just using the gun.
I kicked with my feet and grabbed ankles with my hand and pulled, I concentrated on dropping zombies.
During games of tag, it wasn"t just using hands. Rather, it was more often that you would hang from a limb with both hands and tag with the feet.
That effect was being shown now.
"Should I go for it?"
I summoned another gun and held it in the other hand.
I took a deep breath and began to run along the cliffside.
"Uh la cha!"
As if I was attached to a wire, I raced down the cliffside and recklessly shot my guns.
Ta ta ta tang!
It looked like I was just aimlessly shooting, but thanks to the sense from the shooting skill, I shot four zombies accurately.
Having shot four consecutively, I eventually lost my balance and fell, and Sylph grabbed me.
"Okay, thank you."
-Meow.
I, again, safely clung to the cliffside.
"You are doing well. If you keep practicing like that you will be able to do as I do."
With his compliment, this time, Derrick began to chase.
Racing alongside the cliff, Derrick crazily swung his swords.
Every time he swung his sword, it would seem like it had an influence on his balance but it also seemed impossible how he did that without falling.
Derrick stabbed the cliff with his sword in his left hand and while maintaining his position, he haphazardly swung the sword in his right hand and dropped the five zombies around him.
"I want to be like that someday."
Even without Sylph"s help, there will be a day when I can move freely along a cliffside as if it was flat ground.
I tried out lots of battle techniques.
Shooting with double guns felt good but it did seem like a waste of bullets.
The best thing was the Divine Protection of the Wind.
I kicked off with all my might with both feet and used the wind to push away the zombies, that fighting style was the best.
When the Divine Protection of the Wind was used up after 15 minutes, I used both hands to grab the cliff and kicked with both feet.
Pat!
"Kuak!"
Pa pa pat!
"Kururuk!"
"Gguhu!"
The wind pressure coming from my feet dropped the zombies.
I think altogether, we got 1000 zombies.
After the fighting, we rested and the elves complimented me.
"You were quite good."
"You kept very good balance along the cliffside, it wasn"t like a human."
"A human cannot use his full power if his feet aren"t planted on the ground, but Kim, you are different."
I replied that it was the results of playing tag and Derrick nodded his head.
"Is that so. I saw that many were working hard with that. It might not be a bad idea to give the opportunity to the young ones."
It was news that would make Jake very happy.