Micchi Versus the New World - Chapter 102

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Chapter 102

This neck of the woods was giving me the creeps. Ever since we passed through the weird barrier, the sky had turned dark and gloomy, every gnarled and twisted tree was dead, and skeletons kept popping up everywhere. I might not have minded if they put up a fight, but everything here was lame and weak.

Kawa was having the time of her life, pouncing at every shadow or shit that got too close to us. Our tag-along though…

"A little help, please!" Naka was quickly surrounded by skeletal monsters emerging from the ground. She clutched a pendant at her neck which briefly lit the place up and put a giant sword in her hand. One 360-degree cleave turned them into bonedust, but there were more coming out.

It wasn't until Kawa pounced into them, shattering the bones in every direction, did calm finally— at least temporarily— return. However, the beastling artifact-hunter curled up and dropped to the fetal position, rocking back and forth, from the giant elemental wolf licking her face.

"Naka's all good now, Kawa. Give her some space," I said, pulling the wolf off and sighing at the terrified beastling. "We ain't getting anywhere because you keep getting surrounded by being so far back."

"I'm sorry! I do want to help find the artifact, but… that wolf of yours is always on me like I'm some treat!" Naka cried.

I'd been wondering that myself. Sure, Kawa was an affectionate beast. We had Loraine to thank for spoiling the hell out of her. She was normally only like that with people she became close with. Naka, however, was pretty much a stranger.

The wolf in question pawed at the piles of bones, then picked up a femur that looked like a twig between her jaws. She dropped it in front of Naka like an offering, then transformed into her beastling form, still excitedly wagging her tail and nudging the bone forward.

"This is for Naka!" Kawa exclaimed.

"Sorry, girl. I don't think a bone's gonna help here." I scratched Kawa behind the ears.. "How about when Kawa's like this? Any good?"

Naka extended a trembling hand out to Kawa's head, but she ultimately retracted her arm and backed away several paces.

"I can't! Even though Kawa is in that form, I still know she's a wolf…" she said

"Kawa's sorry for scaring Naka. Only wanted to protect." The wolf's ears and tail drooped.

"Well, not a damn thing we could do about that. We're already out here, so we gotta see this through before leaving." I faced the barren road ahead, clenching and unclenching my fist, eager to get a new weapon.

According to the locals, the Clineredell family crypt should be nearby. Weird shit apparently started happening a couple of months back. When people tried to petition for help from Cynderace, Prince Kain and King Allo couldn't afford to send soldiers out this way. Members from the guild have been failing this quest and coming back badly injured.

It got to the point where Yui was forced to take down any notices of coming out here and planned to deal with it herself, but as luck would have it, she got swamped with office work.

We were about to continue onwards when Kawa's stomach growled like a monster from the depths.

"Uuu… Kawa's hungry," the beastling wolf said, clutching her belly.

"Guess it can't hurt to get a break in. You hungry, too?" I shot a look at Naka.

"Sure! Let me set up a fire, too. It's a strange kind of chilly out here, unlike in Mou'nan." Naka moved with the efficiency of a machine.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call her a swiss army knife. The knapsack on her back had plenty of traveling and camping gear. Whatever she needed was somehow available in the forest around us, between stone, kindling, and even using some of the bones to create a makeshift stand for a small cooking cauldron.

Right before my own eyes, Naka had set up a cozy little camp with a fire going and food cooking in the pot. Only because there was light from the campfire, we saw Kawa had sustained cuts all over her body.

"Kawa, you're hurt!" Naka gasped.

"Oh! Those tiny skeletons were swinging at Kawa a lot, but it doesn't hurt!" Kawa flashed a fanged smile that made Naka shudder.

"Small cuts and bruises like that ain't enough to do anything to her. Ain't that right?" I asked Kawa, who nuzzled her fuzzy head into my chest.

"I-I know you guys are something else, but that's no good." Naka rummaged through her bags, fishing out ointment and rolled bandages. "We should—"

Kawa glanced over her own body, then transformed on the spot to start licking the wounds with a fiery tongue to cauterize them with. The sudden act startled Naka, who dove into a tent she had raised earlier. Seeing the beastling scared, the wolf went back to her humanoid form.

"Kawa sorry…"

"No, it's… not your fault, Kawa…" Naka hung her head in shame.

"Alright, give it here." I snatched the stuff she had dropped on the ground. "I'll patch her up."

We rested for a few hours, sitting near the fire and eating the slop that Naka had made. It didn't taste the best, but we were full and that's all that mattered.

Crows, drawn in by the scent of food, cawed from the dead trees around us. An ankle-high fog rolled in and blanketed the ground. Occasionally, we would hear the clattering bones of skeletal monsters from a distance, but they didn't approach us.

"If you don't mind me asking, how did you and Kawa meet?" Naka suddenly asked.

Kawa glanced up at me and her tail immediately started wagging again.

"A couple of people and I were supposed to hunt Kawa, but this dumb dog jumped out of nowhere and wanted to play instead. Never really liked dogs until I met Kawa," I said, patting her on the head.

"Hehe… Master and everyone is fun to be around!" Kawa exclaimed with her mouth a mess from eating like a sloppy animal. Her stomach rumbled again, and she looked at me as if to expect more, but I'd unfortunately already eaten my share.

"It's all over your face if you want more." I rolled my eyes.

"Uhm!" Naka made herself known, then extended her unfinished wooden bowl of stew to Kawa. "If… If you want some more…"

Kawa turned to me again to ask for permission, so I nodded to give her the okay. She took the bowl from Naka's hands— which no one except me noticed that the beastling didn't freak out about— and finished it all in one go.

"I know you're scared shitless about dogs and wolves, but why don't you try petting Kawa as she is right now?" I suggested.

"Naka is nice to share food with Kawa! Kawa won't bite!" the elemental wolf assured Naka, leaning forward to let her do so.

"I… If you promise not to, then…" Naka slowly reached out, fighting against the deep seeded fear of canines.

However, a column of purplish light rising into the sky put a stop to their moment. Hundreds of things like puffs of cloud were flying down within it with faint, ghostly wails echoing from afar.

"Ain't that the direction of the Clineredell crypt?" I squinted at the beam of light.

"I don't like the looks of that," Naka said. "We should hurry!"

Kawa changed into wolf form for me to jump onto her back. When I held a hand out to Naka, she hesitated to take it.

"I'll c-catch up, so you guys go first!" Naka insisted.

"You heard the lady. Let's go, Kawa!" I ordered, but she hesitated to leave Naka. "What? You worried about her?"

"Kawa is… worried about me? I-I'll be fine! Despite how I look, I'm an A-ranked member of the Cynderance Branch," she said, drawing out the large sword from her pendant to prove it.

Seemingly satisfied, Kawa sprinted off to the source of the light and came to an enormous cemetery on a hill. The cast-iron gates were broken at the hinges. Skeletal and undead monsters were roaming all over the place. Towards the center and at the top of the hill was a run down chapel with statues leading up to the entrance and gargoyles on the rooftops.

"Okay, what the fuck is going on around here?" I interrupted a group of men in black robes arranged in a large circle, surrounding the purple light, inside of which were runes and an ornate coffin.

"Huhuhu… ahahaha!" One of them, who was more finely dressed than the others and held a magic staff, cackled loudly. "Foolish adventurer, you have only come to add to the armies of the dead. Soon, we will blanket this world in a fog of necromantic death!"

I scratched my head in confusion. "Necro— what?"

The group of glorified D&D nerds traded glances with each other.

"N-Necromantic. Necromancy. You know, death magic and the raising of the dead. How did someone like you who doesn't know what necromancy is made it past our horde of undead?" the robed figure asked.

"I don't give a shit if you guys like getting fucked by skeletons for fun or whatever, but I'm here to look for an artifact. You corpsefuckers can get outta my way, or I'm boning you with the shit you dug up." I hopped off of Kawa and cracked my knuckles, each snap igniting flames up my arms.

"We're necromancers! Not necrophiliacs, you bitch! Kill them and raise them from the dead!"

The ground shuddered. From all over the cemetery, bones flew into the purple light and began to take shape, forming much larger skeletal monsters. The undeads that were wandering about had gathered into an army behind us.

"Tch. Kawa, take care of the small fries. I'm gonna knock the big ones down to size," I said.

One behemoth finished forming and charged out of the light to attack, but a single hit knocked a leg right off, and the rest of it tumbled forward. I grabbed the limb and started wailing into the thing until it was in shambles.

"W-What the… just how strong are you?!" The cult leader staggered away.

"We'll see how much you like fucking skeletons after I shove this up your ass!" I pointed the leg in their direction.

"I told you, we're not necrophiliacs!"

More emerged from the light. They were endless. I'd destroy one and the broken pieces would come together again. If only I could get to the guys in robes, but there was just so much fodder in the way.

"Stop!" Another one of them was dragging Naka up the hill with a dagger pressed to her neck.

"I'm sorry…" Naka groaned.

Kawa froze and stopped fighting the undeads that were quickly overwhelming. The cinders in her fur were no longer on fire even as she was getting attacked.

"You bone-fuckers sure play dirty," I growled.

A large monster slammed its hammer onto my head. I was too strong to get hurt, but Kawa and Naka were a different story. How was I going to get them out safely?

"Forget about me!" Naka cried. "Kawa, Micchi! Protect yourselves—"

"Shut up, you!" The man holding Naka hostage put a hand over her mouth.

Since they realized I couldn't be hurt, the giants sauntered over to Kawa to hurt her instead. One raised a massive bone-axe, preparing to decapitate her. I gritted my teeth and was about to try something crazy until Naka did something first.

"Aahhh! Get away from her!" Naka shouted, headbutting her captor and getting cut in the process. She summoned the giant sword and raced up to them in time to parry the blow.

Upon seeing Naka freed, Kawa went into a rampage and pulverized the giants into a pile of bones.

The cultists' jaws dropped, then turned to me in fear. I picked up another bone, this one much larger than the others I found earlier.

"You shits have a choice: bend over, or I'll make you bend over. Either way, I'm finding a bone for each of your asses," I said.

After defeating them, the pillar of purple light and the bubble surrounding the land vanished. Clear, blue skies and cool winds welcomed us as soon as it was gone. Having held true to my word, a bone had been jammed into the ass of each cultist.

"Naka!" I raced over to the beastling, who was lying on the ground, clutching her bloody neck.

"I'm good. It was only a shallow cut," Naka said, drinking a potion to quickly heal herself of the cut.

"You got my respect for risking your neck like that. Literally. Saved Kawa's life." I helped Naka to her feet.

"Is Kawa okay?" she asked

Kawa was still viciously attacking a bone giant, unaware that Naka was fine. When I whistled to her, a furious glare flicked toward me, then softened once she saw the beastling unhurt. The wolf ran over to us, but then stopped short so as to not scare her.

"Well, Naka. Looks like you're fine if you ain't flinching from a giant wolf racing up to us," I said.

"I… I am? I think I am—" Much to Naka's dismay, Kawa pounced on top of her and started licking her cheeks. "Aaahh! By the eighteen gods! I still can't handle dogs! Stop, stop!"

Then, as if it was supposed to make it any better, Kawa returned to beastling form and continued to lick Naka that way.

"From now on, Naka is Kawa's best friend, too!" Kawa exclaimed.

"I-I'm glad we're friends, Kawa… Now please, get off and stop licking me! This form is problematic for me in more ways than one!" the beastling cried, turning beet red.

While they were having fun, I went to investigate the coffin. The cult leader was trying to crawl away until I grinded a foot into the arm bone sticking out of his ass.

"Hiiieeee! Stop, I beg of you! No more— aaahhh!"

"Next thing going up your ass is a skull if you don't tell me what you guys were doing out here," I warned.

"We… had sensed… a latent power hidden inside the Clinerdell family crypt… We wanted to summon an army to attack Cynderace with," he croaked, wincing with each word.

Power, huh. Maybe…

I went over to the coffin and ripped away the lid. It wasn't a body or skeleton inside that was lying inside, only a sword resting on a bed of flowers long dead. The long, thin blade was pristine and glinted like it had never seen use. It had a hilt made of gold and encrusted with jewels.

This was the artifact?

"Too bad swords ain't my style." I picked the blade up and flung it behind me, accidentally plunging into the guy as it fell down.

There was more underneath. I was only able to sense it due to my elementalist subclass. Reaching inside, I found a jagged, glowing crystal which I recognized instantly. Although it was shaped differently, this was similar to what Chika took from inside Sacchan.

"What did you find?" Naka asked, walking up to me covered in drool with Kawa nibbling on her head like some gremlin.

"Something better," I said.