Apocalypse Dark Elf Style -Magical Tribes Reincarnated in the Modern World - 8 - Chapter 2.2 Wanting Her Warmth
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- Apocalypse Dark Elf Style -Magical Tribes Reincarnated in the Modern World
- 8 - Chapter 2.2 Wanting Her Warmth
TL: Xean || ED: Cubic || PR: SevenTails
†
My long night finally came to an end as the new day arrived.
Nothing had changed, though it could be said that everything had changed for me.
I’ve already experienced things that defied common sense.
I witnessed the color of the world around me invert.
Anyway, I didn’t want to end this special night that had started with my encounter with her.
Perhaps it was because of my excitement, but I didn’t feel sleepy at all. The same went for my hunger, though I felt extremely thirsty. To hydrate myself, I took several sips from the water bottle as we walked.
” ’Wow, you’ve suddenly become a lot bolder’, is what I thought when you did that earlier.”
“Sorry about that. I made you worry.”
As I apologized honestly, Sheena pouted as she lifted the tip of her ears.
“I can read the mood too, you know. I can put up with a few annoying things if it’s for the sake of my precious meal.”
I don’t have much credibility huh. I nodded in agreement with her with a strange look on my face.
“And, just so you know, I’m not offended. You’re already my partner, my retainer. It’s nothing to have your arms around me. Rensuke is funny and I like you a lot… Being my only partner in this world is like family, right? So, depending on my mood, I won’t suddenly lose my temper even if Rensuke touches me anywhere on my body.”
“Anywhere on your body? Really, anywhere?”
“D-don’t say that with a straight face… Well, that’s what makes you so interesting…”
Sheena averted her gaze and grumbled as if she was under pressure. I smiled bitterly upon seeing that she could make a face like that, different from her usual happy and smug look.
Then we arrived at our destination. It was a construction site.
White sheets of dust and noise-reducing material hung down like walls and covered the entire area, making it impossible to see what was going on inside from the outside.
Trusting the words of the men in the alley that there were no security cameras, Sheena and I snuck into the construction site through the gaps in the sheets.
Apparently, it a reasonably large building that was under construction. The iron framework of the building towering over the ground was large enough to fit an entire baseball field. It gave off an eerie feel of an abandoned castle. Indirect lighting from a neighboring building shone down from overhead, dimly illuminating the clutter of construction equipment.
Everything will be just fine, I thought. It was convenient for both of us that we couldn’t see each other’s faces clearly.
A man in a suit stepped out from inside the steel framework structure as if he had been waiting to see what we were up to. Just from his silhouette, I could tell that he had the muscular physique of a wrestler.
“Let me confirm. Who did you hear it from?”
“Well, who was it? Yes, I believe it was Kazu-san and Yo-san… They told me I could meet you if I came here at this time.”
“I hope you have money. I only deal in cash only.”
“Of course I have.”
“Good. But before we make the deal, there’s one thing—”
As I got closer, I managed to get a glimpse of his strong scruffy face. His face was clearly different from the average person. He was wearing a fine suit, and an expensive-looking watch wrapped around his thick wrist. He was definitely a man with an unusual background.
The man continued to look at me with a piercing gaze.
“Don’t you use honorific language with your elders, young man?”
The pressure coming from him was quite something. He was clearly familiar with the threatening and blackmailing.
“S-sorry. I was just in high spirits, I’m really sorry…!”
I bowed my head many times. I wasn’t really scared, it was mostly an act. A yakuza dealer or a dark elf from another world. Who should I be more afraid of?
“Tsk— So, what do you want? There are grass vegetables and cold ice cream, but cold ice cream is a bit pricey.”
I looked at Sheena beside me, as if consulting her. But in fact, I wasn’t seeking consultation, but rather I was asking for a confirmation.
“He looks delicious. Go for it.”
Sheena smiled, showing her canine teeth.
That meant he passed. He was a bad guy with a lot of magic power that she could use to replenish her magic supply.
It was convenient that there were no security cameras in the place, probably why it was used as a bargaining place. Even if a dark elf pretending to be a customer knocked out the yakuza and stole away his energy, there would be no evidence left behind.
I turned around, letting Sheena do the rest.
I then saw that the yakuza man was dead.
“… Eh?”
No, this couldn’t be. What just happened? My eyes caught the exact moment it happened. At that moment, my ears received a heavy sound that pierced the ground. My brain belatedly recognized the visual information of that moment.
It was a steel frame.
A thick steel frame that weighed several tons fell vertically from above, straight down like a spearhead, and pierced the yakuza man’s body vertically.
The steel frame impaled his neck, roughly piercing through the chest and abdomen where the vital organs were. It split through the lower half of his body, cutting through the thighs and groin, only to crush his toes with the pierced tip. In an instant, the man’s body was gruesomely mutilated. The still-fresh pieces of flesh were splattered in all directions upon impact, mixing the night’s darkness with the pungent smell of bloody flesh.
I remembered a similar scene from my movie collection. There were many spectacular scenes of tragedy worse than this. There were plenty of shocking scenes too.
But there was no smell coming from the movie. I have never felt a drop of blood on my cheek.
I stood there with my eyes wide open in face of the greatest replication of fiction.
An architectural weapon, thrust almost vertically into the ground by the force of the fall. The body of the man who was pierced with the simple violent force of the weapon was slightly bent, but he was still standing, looking like a skewered frog. It was a strange sculpture that was suddenly created before me.
“Get back, Rensuke!”
Sheena grabbed me by the collar and forcefully pulled me backwards without regard to me being strangled.
She narrowed her eyes as she peered through the darkness, looking at a spot in the building above us.
“Tsk… does it suck magical power after killing its prey? Well, it’s true that you can still suck the magic out even if they’re dead as long as they’re fresh enough, but it’s a pain in the ass to clean up afterwards.”
She said this in a tone that was a little more violent than before. I realized that she was in battle mode.
In other words, that thing was an enemy.
A unique shadow fell beside the man’s steel-skewered corpse. A loud sound like before echoed through the night, but this one was from something landing on its two feet.
“Clean up… you say? Bwahaha, I don’t care about trivial things like that. Be wise and avoid the darkness… suitable for a race with a small appetite… what silly concerns. Dark elf!”
The words were delivered with a strange, muffled chuckle that seemed to be coiled from the back of his throat.
It was the shadow of a giant. He must be over two meters tall. The body was swollen like a sumo wrestler’s, not even the Yakuza man from earlier could compare. He was covered by a very large hooded raincoat. The material seems to be stretchy, but it still seemed to be bulging from the inside. Rather than an inverted triangle, he looks more like a vessel for replenishing inkstone water.
In addition, a large round, puffy cloth bag was held next to his waist. Combined with his comical shape, he looked like an exaggerated modern Santa Claus.
Yet underneath the hood was the face of a very slippery—or slimy— and untrustworthy man. There was nothing comical about him at all.
Just malice and bloodlust.
“Sheena. Maybe he’s…”
“Ah, you’re a magical species in the same position as me. It seems like you know who I am.”
“It’s weird for me to ask this, but how did he know who Sheena is?”
“Each race’s magical power has a unique scent. Especially now, since there’s only one person left in the world for each race with that magic power… that is the root of our magic. If you have a good nose, you can smell it from the outside without the use of magic. Well, to put it another way, if you remember the smell of magic power, you can identify it…!”
Sheena quickly generated her bow and arrow from the void and fired two shots in a row. The one aimed at his head was dodged with a slight head tilt, but the other one pierced his shoulder.
The man twisted his mouth under his hood and pulled out the arrow. No blood was spilled.
“Did it work…?”
“I thought it was just acting tough. That arrow is made from a lump of magical power, I’m sure it hurts when that saggy body of yours is pierced. I’m right aren’t I, 《Slime》?”
“Buhaha… you know your stuff well, Dark Elf! I anticipated that surprise attack, but your attack is as puny as your appetite!”
I could comprehend what he was. However, my mind refused to believe that it was the right word.
“Slime…?”
“Yeah. Just out of curiosity, what kind of image do you have of it?”
“It’s a weak enemy in games. I can’t imagine them using magic, but I feel like they could. Though I can understand, given he’s a magical species from another world.”
“Weak small enemies? And easy to deal with? It’s actually rather troublesome to deal with them, you know?”
“When it comes to amoeba slimes that aren’t small fries, physical attacks don’t work well and they just melt everything.”
“That’s it. That’s close enough. It seems that a certain amount of fine-tuning has been done to make it more humanoid so that it doesn’t float around much when it is reincarnated in this world… but the basic nature of the body itself has not changed.”
The giant man, called 《Slime》 took a quick look at Sheena’s pulled arrow and narrowed his eyes as if he had thought of something.
He brought the arrow to his mouth and swallowed it as if performing a magic trick.
Sheena spat out, “Yes, that’s them. They’ll eat anything. That’s what they are—gluttonous, evil, and nasty.”
“Ah…. what a nasty thing to eat. This arrow is a lump of magic power… it has no actual form. Although it can be eaten, it has no taste and… does not fill me up. It’s like water, it can’t be eaten at all.”
The slime complained.
He then placed his hand into the bag at his waist and rustled around before pulling something out. I saw the familiar logo of a chain restaurant and knew it was a paper-wrapped hamburger. The slime threw it straight into his mouth without ripping off the wrapper and started chewing. He then ate another one and another one.
“Still, human food is great… The meat of another species is kneaded together, baked, and then eaten, although it tastes bizarre more than anything else. Buhahaha!”
“I-Is that ‘hamburger’? I’ve eaten it myself, and it was delicious. Now that you’ve mentioned it, it’s a bit odd… Hmm, the slime race has become more gourmet than when they were lurking in the dark and swallowing adventurers as a whole.”
Sheena picked up her bow without aiming and started to walk quietly. She gave me a look that said “stay there”.
The sight of a tanned gal in a neatly dressed high school uniform, holding a primitive bow and arrow like a barbarian, slowly moving forward as if to measure the distance between her and her prey, seemed out of proportion to this world. But it miraculously blended with the darkness of the night, together with the skewered corpse in the background, looking like a kind of avant-garde art.
“You… you’ve fought with us before. Isn’t that right, Dark Elf?”
“Yes, I have, though they didn’t look like a fat human like you do now. Isn’t it difficult to move holding that around? Don’t blame me if you get hit by my arrows because of the meat you’re carrying. Make it easy and give up now.”
“Burp, burp, chirp, chirp, black elf. Even in this form, our nature remains unchanged.”
“Just look at the disgusting food you’re eating. Also, I know about your magic. It’s 『Gluttony Magic』. It’s a fusion magic that transforms the act of eating into magic.”
“Bwahaha… Exactly! We are the ones who eat everything. The ones who chew, bite, swallow, dissolve and digest everything,taking it all as their own. Taste the ultimate 『Gluttony Magic. I am the one who tears and devours,《Growth Rip Slime》!
A moment later, the man’s form changed.
The area from the elbow to the tip of the arm swelled immediately.
The transformation was a thick, fleshy, oddly shaped arm. Animal hair grew all over its skin, and sharp, arcing claws peeked out from the tips of its short, rounded fingers. It seemed to be the arm of a feline beast.
I had seen those somewhere in funny masquerade costumes that fit stuffed cat hands on the arms. The transformation reminded me of that, but I couldn’t smile due to the murderous intent and intimidation that filled this area.
The dark elf Sheena, however, saw things differently. She snickered at him in a blatantly ridiculing manner.
“Yes, you 『incorporate the traits of what you eat』, and your irregularly shaped body can reproduce those traits. It’s a predatory pattern that allows you to mimic and then attack your lured prey again. What is that, a cat…? It’s cute and cuddly. Are you aiming to ditch that sloppy appearance and aim for a more lovable look?”
“Laugh and mock all you want! I am the one who devours with my fangs,《Growth Bite Slime》.”
Another transformation. The man’s mouth underneath the hood turned into a bizarre shape again, growing fangs of a superfluous size. The fangs were sharp and long enough to bite into a person’s head, easily penetrating the skull and reaching the brain.
“And this time, it’s a dog. You’re really funny. Have you only ever been able to eat cats and dogs? No— in this world, there are restrictions on the magic all races could use. Is that the reason for this?”
“That goes for you too. It seems that you are planning to fight me with your bow and arrow, which are not even enough to pierce my stomach… why not use magic? Buhaha, in this world, your magic has been weakened so much…? I don’t know about dark elf magic, but it’s not even close to a forest elf spirit’s elemental magic or northern elf’s engraved rune magic.”
It was a very obvious provocation from Slime. Sheena’s ears twitched.
“It’s the first time I’ve met a magical species here, but I’m really glad that you don’t seem like a big deal. I’ve always believed that the best warriors among the races are not those who worked with their mouth but those who moved with their hands.”
“Bwahaha You really are funny! I am 『Aguyanuba』, Weaving Dregs of the Western World! The fate of the slime race has been entrusted to me… as I’m the most powerful being! For the pride and prosperity of my species, I will eat the magic power of your dark elf race…!”
Sheena shot an arrow so fast that I didn’t even see her lift her bow, it was like she was pulling a pistol. At the same time, Aguyanuba’s incredible agility, which did not match his huge body, allowed him to dodge the arrows and close the gap.
—The battle for survival between the magical species was about to begin.
It was the beginning of a new world for them, a world dominated by the power of robotic science.