Data.123 – Old Bowman, Escaping the Shadows

The black hands that stretched out from the ground continued to grow on the road.
Having to defeat them before moving forward was really slowing us down.
And so we would have to cut through them while moving, but neither Anne or I were particularly good with fighting and moving at the same time…!

“Windcloud Blast!”

And so I made a wind to push us.
Perhaps it would help increase my speed a little.

“Ah! That’s great, Mr. Kyuji! I can use this skill if there is wind at my back! Rolling Star!”

Anne’s iron ball was enlarged, and then cut off from the chains.
The spikes also retracted, so that the giant ball looked like a…

“It’s a big rolling ball! If we push this and advance, we can crush all of the hands that are in front of us! Now, let’s push it together!”

“A-alright.”

And so we stood together and pushed the ball.
Gggg…it was just as heavy as it looked…!
Indeed, no one would even think of trying to push it if they weren’t getting some help by the wind.
However, that also meant that it did plenty of damage.
And so the black hands were easily crushed!

“Mr. Kyuji! There is a sharp turn to the right up ahead!”

“The right…got it…!”

It was difficult to turn once you gained some momentum.
The winding tunnel meant that we couldn’t move in a straight line.
It wasn’t just I’m Arrow, but Warp Arrow would also not let me travel too far in this place.
Well, Warp Arrow only allowed me to warp, so I wouldn’t have been able to use it anyway.
There was no point if only I escaped and left Anne.

“Mr. Kyuji! There is a turn to the left!”

“Lefttt…! Wha…?!”

Something grabbed my foot as it dug into the ground!
We were not able to turn in time, and the ball crashed into the wall.

“Above…!?”

When I looked up, I saw that there was a strange creature stuck to the ceiling.
My first impression was that it was a scorpion… This was the Snake and Scorpion tunnel, after all.
Everyone tended to hate those two creatures.

However, when I looked more closely, I saw that it was like no scorpion that I knew of.
It’s pincers looked more like over-sized human hands, and the stinger that was at the end of its long tail was also in the shape of a hand.
It had extended it to grab me…!

Furthermore, there was also a human face where its head should be.
It looked like a death mask…and was very unpleasant!
These kinds of monsters, where they had human parts mixed in, were particularly disgusting to me…!

“Mr. Kyuji! Don’t just stand there!”

“Ah, ahh…! But don’t you tend to freeze up when seeing stuff like this…? Like, you can’t take your eyes off of it…”

“No, I’m actually completely fine! Humans, bugs or snakes!”

She wasn’t just brave. She wasn’t scared of anything!
I’m not sure if liking the occult and horror was really a fitting hobby for her…
Well, maybe that’s why she jumped into the world of VR. She needed some new stimulation.

“Just erase whatever scares you…! Demonbane Attack Blade!”

And then the scorpion on the ceiling was shredded to pieces.
Alright, with this skill, I could kill them with one hit!
…However, the scorpions kept appearing, just like the black hands.

“Burning Arrow Storm!”

With the numerous exploding arrows, I scorched the ceiling over a wide area.
It would be safe for a while now, but I’m sure they would return before the cool down was finished.
And so I would have to think of a different countermeasure…

“In any case, let’s go!”

We pushed the metal ball and hurried on.
The hissing of the snake was getting closer…!

“Exorcism Barrier!”

Instead of throwing the arrow at my feet, I shot it in the direction of the snake.
As the snake was very big, the tunnel would feel quite cramped.
If I set a dome-shaped barrier as an obstacle, it would be more than enough to slow it down.
The Exorcism Barrier had resistance against evil enemies like ghosts and demons, so it shouldn’t break too easily!

I returned to pushing the iron ball immediately after shooting.
And every once in a while, I would turn around and create another obstacle with Exorcism Barrier.
And then return to pushing the ball…!
By repeating this, we should be able to gain some distance…!

“Mr. Kyuji! The enemies on the ceiling are back!”

“Already…! In that case…Floating Cloud Herd! Cluster Formation!”

Floating Cloud Herd, the skill that created 9 clouds.
I brought them together to create one big cloud.
And with Windcloud Blast pushing it, we dove underneath.

“Alright. The scorpions above are not that smart. They won’t attack us if we are hidden in the clouds!”

It was a good thing that they were small fry AI…
If this was a strong boss AI, it would have arrived at the simple solution of crushing the entire cloud.

“Ah, look over there! Thanks to the cloud, the black hands aren’t appearing in the ground anymore!”

As Anne said, they went back into the ground as the cloud passed over them.
On the other hand, the ones that weren’t covered were moving around just fine.
Apparently, it was the orange light of the tunnel that made them come out.
And if you blocked the orange light, the monsters would not come out.

In other words, if I shot down all the lights…
No, I could test that after I used up Floating Cloud Herd.
Besides, with the lights, it would be completely dark, and that wouldn’t make things much better for us.

Even though I had a good torch, it wasn’t enough in this long tunnel.
Furthermore, we didn’t know how long this tunnel was, or what gimmicks awaited us up ahead.
It would be unwise to rob ourselves of vision just to get rid of some weak enemies.

And so we hid in the cloud and ran.
Floating Cloud Herd could be activated 3 times every hour, and the clouds would disappear after 5 minutes.
In other words, we could run safely without rolling the ball for 15 minutes.
Surely that would be enough to reach the exit…

“Hmm…we’re still not there!”

There was nothing worse than running a marathon and not being able to see the goal…!
Just how long was this tunnel…!

Shaaaaa!!!

The hissing was really close now.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was right behind the last corner…
Also, the snake was likely getting faster over time.
We had reached our limit in terms of running away… In that case!

“Anne. Let’s use our charge attacks here and stop it! Once the cloud disappears, we’ll have to stop and deal with the weak enemies. And so it would be best to deal a lot of damage to the snake and slow it down as much as possible!”

“Understood!”

The time that the snake stopped was proportional to how much damage you inflicted.
If we unleashed all of our charge attacks at it here, we might be able to buy ourselves a few minutes!

SHHHHAAAAA!!

The snake’s head appeared from around the corner…!

“Saint Cross Star! Giant Daybreak Star!”

“Exploding Sky Tear! Burning Arrow Storm! Meteor Bow! And for good measure… Miracle Effect! Southern Cross Ballista!!”

Charge attack, fused charge attack, combination charge attack and miracle effect…!
I…could do all kinds of things now.
The names were long and reminded me of a battle manga… I couldn’t help but think this in spite of being in a pinch.
We hadn’t even defeated the enemy… Huh?

Shaaa…

The giant black snake turned into light and disappeared.
The drop items were automatically sucked into our item boxes.

“…So the snake can be defeated.”

I thought that it wasn’t supposed to be… Had we dealt too much damage to it?
There were bosses that you were supposed to lose to, but if you somehow won, you would hear special dialogue or acquire secret items.
Perhaps this snake was like that.

“In any case, what a relief…”

“Indeed! I was getting a little annoyed by how much it chased us! Enemies must be defeated!”

“I agree!”

Now that the weak enemies no longer appeared, we could walk through the tunnel leisurely.
The light for the exit was visible now, but we just walked without using I’m Arrow.
I felt like doing that.

“Ah, there is a table near the exit!”

They had thoughtfully placed a table in the center, and the stamp was on top of it.
This might be the only time I ever stamped something on a table that was in the middle of the road… I thought as I picked up the 3rd stamp.

“3rd one down!”

I stamped the card. It depicted the tunnel and the black snake and shadowy hands within.
Now Exorcism Bow Arts 2 marks turned into Exorcism Bow Arts 3 marks, and I acquired the new skill, Seal Demon Bind.
Surely this skill would also make me stronger.

“Now! That’s enough adventure for today! We gathered 3 in just one day!”

“Yes. It’s a good time to stop.”

The Ghost Float was always dark, so it was easy to lose track of time.
Besides, she had used up Southern Cross Ballista, which could only be used three times a day.
So it was the perfect time to bring this adventure to an end.

“By the way, the last terror spot is the Z Hospital! I wonder what it will be like…I just can’t wait!”

Z Hospital…?
If it’s horror and set in a hospital with the letter ‘Z’…then I think I know what the enemy will be.
And I was probably right…!
I really don’t like things that are grotesque…
However, I had such things turned off in the settings in my status window, so I would just have to trust it…!

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