<purga> shaman 44

The Shaman can't become a Hero
Act 5: Worst Harem Party
Chapter 44: Zombie Area Capture
=================

"*Kyaa!* W-what *is* this!?"

With a scream from Futaba-san, I was released from sleep.

"<Mnah>— W-what happened Futaba-san"

Still half asleep, I make the attempt to get up while rubbing my eyes.

"It's terrible Kotarou-kun! There's a monster in this fairy square! Also, first name please!"

"Eehh! Monster!? Where!"

That's an emergency alright. Fairy squares are our only safe location. And if it came to be that some monsters could invade this space, we'd have to set up watch.

"Look, it's over there! That black Skeleton!"

"Uwah, you're right! What *is* that, a new type of Skeleton!?"

It had the structure of a child, with bones giving off a dark, metallic sheen, a jet black Skeleton. At one corner of the square, it was single-mindedly swinging around a spear like a Knight focusing on training.

"Ah, sorry Mei-chan, that's one of mine, it's a mud doll"

"Eh, it is?"

My head wasn't working right just after waking up. Obviously, that over there is the <Vile Mud Doll> I made last night.

For now, I'll go ahead and explain.

"Huh, so that's it"

"Yeah, I was thinking it could work as bit of support for you"

"Thankyou, Kotarou-kun"

The perfect smile she shoots back rivals any bishoujo. Man, so nice, a date in the dungeon.

"So, what'd you name her?"

"Eh, name?"

"You didn't?"

"Nope?"

Name, a name huh. It should be useful to have one I guess. If Mei-chan wants to give it orders, calling it by name should be easier.

"Got it, let's go with Rem"

It's a mud doll, Golem, so <Rem>. Looks like a Skeleton though.[Note 1]
=================
*Note 1:  Rem will hereby be pronouned female... until I'm forced to make it male due to raws. Also, in jap, L and R are kinda interchangeable.
=================

Basic naming done and over with, I will now start calling this nice and loyal mud doll as Rem. When I mentally commanded *come back*, she stopped her training as if hearing me by telepathy, and began heading this way rattling her bones.

Standing in front of us, her back, or rather, spine was straight, standing at attention. Holding the spear in a perfect vertical, if I gave her some armor, she'd look just like one of those antique knight displays.

"She has great manners"

"Yup, she's sure not like those soulless Skeletons and Zombies you find all over"

Saying that, it's not like I told her to stand at attention, so this pattern of actions must mean that she's got some form of ego. There's also the possibility that she comes preprogrammed with some level of independant activity.

"From now on, your name will be Rem"

"Nice to meet you, Rem-chan"

"<Gaga>"

Replying with a clap of her jaws, Rem nodded no show understanding by rigidly lowering her skull.

And like that, we got a new and improved Rem as a new ally(?), and ventured once more into the dungeon.

"— Yup, she fights pretty well"

We're still in the same old Zombie area, and the genre of monsters appearing show no signs of change. Stone passages and the occasional tunnel. And with varying sizes, there were some graveyeard forests as well.

The first thing I confirmed was Rem's solo fighting ability. Whether Skeleton or Zombie, if it's 1v1, she can win without much trouble.

Skeletons are dumb and not paying much attention, so if I give her the correct image on how to attack, she'll go for it without an ounce of hesitation, and smash her spear into its bones. Once it falls to the ground, she'll finish it by breaking the skull with the butt of the spear.

Zombies are a bit tougher than Skeletons. There's ones that flinch when stabbed and ones that don't. Most of the smaller, Goma Zombies do flinch, so with a few more stabs it's dead. Ones that don't flinch, they just bite on and she has to wrestle them down most of the time.

That being said, Rem's body is only black bones. Even if Zombies gnaw into her with their rotten teeth, she'll only get minor scratches. Rem doesn't get hurt, and there's nothing like damage feedback to me either.

So even when they bite on, Rem uses her sub weapon, the Goma's knife, that was originally mine, to stab away. After enough times, the Zombie'll stop moving. Whether it's after losing a good bit of its meat, or after shedding too much of its decayed blood, I don't know the exact conditions for its death, but that's how she's been killing the Zombies. The only tough part is that would be that they keep moving right until death unlike non dead humans.

"I think it's better to keep Rem-chan beside you, she seems more suited for defending"

The great thing about Rem is that she won't melt in <Rotten Bog>. Thinking back on <Blackhair Bind>, my curses may just be made to be non-interfering, or maybe they just have the nullification effects built in.

Anyway, Rem who I can place smack dab in the middle of the bog, is best suited as my bodyguard.

Rem holding my old spear and knife, and me being unarmed— would be a bad idea so I have that sheathless knife, I kept in my bag, hung at my waist with a cloth around it. That and, though it may be considered the most basic level of armament in the whole dungeon, but since it's better than nothing, I'm carrying one of those clubs used by Skeletons.

It would seem like my weapons went down a rank, but thinking of our roles, this kind of distribution is actually better.

"I really thought it'd help you out at front you know... sorry, I couldn't make it strong enough to go into the frontlines."

"*Awawa*, don't worry. I just thought if I accidentally hit Rem-chan, she could break"

Could break, or rather, will definitely break. Just as MEi-chan has been destroying all those Skeletons, Rem would be in shambles no doubt.

"We'll have to practice so they can handle the vanguard as a team some day"

The next time we get allys, we'll have to at least keep up on that front.

And with Rem now acting as my shield, we advance the dungeon. With Mei-chan wielding so much raw power, our progress is steady as can be. There's the Goars that often appear in the graveyard forests which she can take care of. Our first encounter with them was in the largest numbers to date, so the two or three coming out now are easy.

And though small, we can get cores from these Goars. I don't know how much we'll need to escape, but gradually pilling up on them should help. Collecting materials now and not when you need them at which point it becomes a chore is gaming 101.

With the first objective of cores, we also collect the Goars' scales and carapace to occasionally repair Rem. Letting Rem sleep, I use <Vile Mud Doll> again, which is when Rei's black chaos, and bog appears, swallowing up the materials and Rem, and spitting out a shiny new Rem.

It's a pretty simple procedure, so I'm glad I can make good use of her. Even if I'm a bit rough, and her arm and leg bones break off, I have the confidence to use Goars and Skeletons and heal her up right away. It's just, if she get's completely broken apart, I'd have to rebuild her from scratch though.

And it's about time I stop feeling guilty about that *lookout* incident. Though I can't say with confidence I can hold off on *that* in the future...

And as if recieving divine punishment from these vulgar thoughts, we ended up in quite a bind.

This happened as we were walking along a normal passage. Suddenly, a large horde of Zombies came from the front and back, as if initiating a pincer attack.

"Mei-chan take care out front! I'll made the bog behind us, and me and Rem will hold out here"

"Yeah, I'll kill them quick, and come over right away!"

It was a pretty harsh defensive battle. There were much more Zombies than I thought.

"— *Kuh*, the bog is full damnit"

Less than a minute after I manifested my <Rotten Bog>, it was filled with Zombie corpses. The Zombies that would advance even after falling over were stabbed at and forced back by Rem and her spear. And with my weak ass Skeleton's club, I also pushed Zombies from the pool's edge.

I was attacking with the tentacles at the same time, so dumb stuff like letting my club slip, it falling into the bog, and melting down to nothing, also happened.

Though by the time I lost the club, I'd already sunk a number of Zombies in the blood colored pool... but there's still a lot.

I don't have any space to step back and make another <Rotten Bog>. Mei-chan has been ending the Zombies out front at a rapid pace, but with the path full of corpses, a new bog won't do shit.

"*Kuh*, it doesn't end..."

There's around 10 more Zombies left. Not a number Rem can take on. And me going head to head with just one will lead to game over. If it bites my neck, It'll be completely hopeless. At worst, I'll become one of them like in those zombie flicks.

I can't expand the <Rotten Bog>. But I don't have any other way of beating them. I gotta make a new <Rotten Bog> any way I ca—

"No, there's still there!!"

I raise both my arms and call out <Black Bloodline>. On the back of both my hands, the same eye-like crest appears.

I swing both hands to the side, and cursed blood sprays and sticks on the walls around me. That's right, walls. If the floor's useless, I can just use the walls.

"Putrefy, in the depths of vile red — <Rotten Bog>!!"

The blood drops sticking on the walls transform into pools of blood in the blink of an eye. It works. Even vertical walls can be used as deadly pools of acid.

At this point, I got uncomfortably close to the Zombie horde that is running full speed.

"Sink into hell!"

<Blackhair Bind> leaps out from inside the bog like great serpents that found prey, moving nimbly, they capture the running Zombies.

"<BuaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaa!!>"

Maybe their pain receptors are still working. Forcefully slammed into the poison bog in the walls, the Zombies raise harsh screams.

The maximum amount of braided blackhair tentacles I can release currently is four. Wth that many, I can catch multiple Zombies at once.



"<Tch!> It's still too much, <but—!>"

Zombies would keep moving if they're not well melted, but the ones slammed into the walls are pretty much all done; I can let go of them from the tentacles, and they won't be attacking anymore. They've been highly damaged, and can't attack anymore so I no longer need to hold them is what I mean.

I release those 4 bodies, and capture another 4. With that, 8 of the Zombies are defeated.

But I started off with 10. No, there was actually 12.

Two of those had their feet stick in the acid mud, and we're melting down. But the other two were stepping over their dead friends and using the sacrifice of those last four, avoided Blackhair Bind, and really closed in on me.

"<Gagaaa!!>"

Right there, came in Rem full verve. Her technique much sharper than I've ever seen, Rem pierced through a Zombie's chest. But these Zombies we're all the large type. They can't be killed with just that.

Its chest pierced through, the Zombie just kept coming, lodging the blade further into itself, and closing in on Rem. This being the case, she can't take it out and attacks anymore.

"You can do it! Push it away!"

Rem followed and, letting go of the spear, she grabbed the encroaching Zombie around the waist. In terms of pure power, the Zombie would win, but maybe because it was weakened from that stab, the Zombie certainly staggered. Even the small Rem, using every ounce of power in her body, was able to somehow, some way, push the Zombie into the bog along the wall.

"The Zombie screams piercingly, and also—"

"<AaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!>"

The last Zombie, was already here.

Twelve in all. Eight defeated by tentacles. Two died stuck. One held off by Rem. One more, the last remaining one, I had not one way of stopping it.

My spear is with Rem, the club, I lost just a moment ago, I had not one good weapon. My sub, the knife, that I had drawn was so short, it wouldn't serve as any defense against a raging Zombie. Also, I really don't think I can score a miraculous critical hit on its vitals with these shaky as fuck hands.

Dead, I'm sooo fucking dead—

"**Don't touch <my Kotarou-kuunnNAAAAAAa!!>**"

Man that's a scary roar, is what I thought when the Zombie's head burst.

An instant later, my slightly long bangs dance from the tremendous pressure.

Ignoring the crumbling Zombie that was releasing decayed blood and brain entrails, I turned around.

And there I instantly saw Mei-chan's left hand swung to the back. A pose like she just threw something behind her without even looking. Incidentally, her right hand was using her axe as a shield against a Zombie, and before I noticed, her left hand had made it back to the handle, whence she restarted making mince meat of the still remaining Zombies.

Looking at the state of the Zombie's head and considering Mei-chan's hand movements, I'm guessing, she threw a stone behind her, and achieved a brilliant head shot.

"Mei-chan, you're... just epic..."

I can't imagine calling her something so over-familiar like *Mei-chan* anymore. With that much god-level skill, I'd much rather go with Mei-chan-san.[Note 2]
=================
*Note 2:  -san = mad respect
=================

Thanks to her, the Zombies on our tail end are done. I also finish off the half dead one's with tentacles.

"*Haa... Haah... M-man, that was close...*"

So we had that genre of danger in the Zombie area as well. Which just goes to show, you can't let down your guard anywhere in this dungeon.

Since something like this happened, Mei-chan started badgering me to carry Hirano-kun's sword with me as a last means of defense... So for now, untill we get something good next time, I'll be borrowing the sword.

So we switched up our gear, took care of the occasional Skeletons, Zombies, and Goars, and arrived at a clearing completely different from the other ones around here.

Hmmm, doesn't look like a boss room... but please, please don't let this be trouble!