Chapter 17
Somewhere in the depths of the seemingly endless forest, a black-haired boy was walking with a sword in his hand.
The boy was wearing a typical Japanese student uniform, consisting of a jacket, pants, and black loafers. Although these were in a bad state, having dried blood and broken parts due to cuts and tears from both tree branches and cuts in the middle of a battle.
Originally it would have been something he would be reluctant to use, but considering his current situation, he didn't have much of a choice.
His sword was dull and chipped in several places due to poor maintenance. It's not like he had the right materials to maintain it considering they were in the middle of nowhere, and it's not like he put up maintenance from the start either.
He was walking in the woods fully aware of his surroundings. He didn't know where he was or how far he was from the camp, so he had to keep walking until he found a group that could help him.
It was then, that he suddenly turned to the side and swung the sword down.
The sound of metal colliding with metal echoed through the surroundings.
Looking at what he had hit, he found that his sword had collided with a stone-tipped arrow. Watching where the arrow came from cautiously, he could see the figure of a small being with slightly salamander features.
"Kobold Archers" He muttered while avoiding another arrow coming from another Kobold.
Looking at them, he could tell that there were a total of five Kobolds with bows, roughly three with spears, and another three with swords. It was a bad lineup for him.
The Kobold Archers were attacking at a long enough distance that it was difficult to attack from their side, so he had to close the distance as soon as possible, but due to the incessant barrage of arrows coming from them, it was difficult to get close.
At some point they will have to run out of arrows, right?
He thought as he cut another arrow and dodged another.
He was draining his stamina just by deflecting and dodging the arrows, so he had to take cover quickly to not exhaust himself quickly, but it was very difficult to do that with so many arrows flying at him and having to deflect them before they hit.
The original Kobolds weren't that annoying.
He thought as he remembered how easy it was to face off against the Kobolds that appeared in the first stage, not only did they not have great intelligence, but aside from using spears as their main weapon and their great throwing prowess, they were as weak as the Goblins themselves. .
But unlike them, These second stage Kobolds had so much knowledge of strategy and also had greater weapons, such as simple Bows with wooden arrows and stone tips, swords and spears made of a material close to wood but much more durable.
The original Kobolds were much more comfortable fighting than these bastards, which only made him annoy.
He deflected another arrow for the twelfth time.
I need to cover myself, but these bastards won't let me.
In a moment between dodging and defending himself from an arrow, he managed to find an optimal place to hide, so he quickly dashed towards the spot while dodging another arrow.
With a place to rest, he had to quickly think of what to do.
The group of Kobolds wasn't necessarily too big, but since he was alone it was a bit difficult to deal with them.
The best thing would be to escape,
but he doubted they would easily allow it. It's also not like he could take them on by himself if he was honest, if they were just Kobolds with Sword or Spear it wouldn't be that difficult, but this was an organized group, which would easily raise their difficulty to that of a normal Orc.
Which indicated the degree of danger they represented.
It was while he was thinking about what to do, that he saw the Kobolds with spears approaching him.
He couldn't help but smile, once they got close it would be incredibly easy to kill them before the Kobold Archers could force him to retreat.
When they were within a distance that was neither too far nor too close, the kobolds stopped. He doubtfully he couldn't help but wonder what they were doing, when one of them raised his spear in his direction.
Oh shit.
he screamed internally as he came out of the hideout.
The Kobold threw his spear towards where he was, easily breaking through the tree he was hiding in and going beyond where he could see.
That was close.
He thought with cold sweat running down his forehead, but he didn't have a moment's rest when he was almost struck by an arrow that he managed to avoid by an exceedingly short distance.
The arrows flew towards him again.
He couldn't help but wonder how the hell they had so many arrows, when he noticed that the arrows that were previously on the ground had disappeared.
He could deduce that at the time it was hidden some Kobolds retrieved the nearby unbroken arrows and returned them to the Kobold Archers, so even after shooting so many arrows, they had not run out.
"Shit," I mutter. "This is the problem with being in this fucking forest alone," I yell internally as I dodge another arrow.
"It's all his fault, if it wasn't for that fucking idiot I wouldn't be in this situation" He said angrily "Fuck that incompetent bastard, Once he gets out of here, I'm going to beat him until my hands break." I yell even louder as I remember how he got himself into all this shit.
He was originally in a small group of about five members who had reached level 7 with hard effort.
Everything was fine and his party had even managed to kill a few lone orcs with their strong lineup.
Probably even this group of Kobolds wouldn't be a problem for them, but due to some foolish thing done by their self-proclaimed leader, we were forced to escape from a small horde of ogres and ended up scattering in different directions.
It had already been around two days since the last time he had seen them. Probably at this point, they're all dead just like I will be if I don't think of something quick.
Again the group of kobolds with spears approached.
, one of them prepared to throw his spear at me, so I quickly left my hiding place a second after he threw it, it shot towards where he was, again destroying the place where he was.
Once he left the hideout, he was accosted by one of the spear-wielding Kobolds. He thought of killing him quickly, but the sound of something cutting through the air was heard near him so he quickly moved his body in an attempt to escape the range of the arrow, but before he could move the arrow had already hit his shoulder.
Enduring the pain and trying not to scream, he grabbed the arrow embedded in his shoulder and jerked it out of his body, causing a small torrent of blood to flow from it.
Shit, this hurts like hell.
She thought to herself as he tried to move her hand, but unlike before he was trembling due to the deep pain in her shoulder.
Before he could think of anything, he felt an arrow approaching, so he quickly raised his sword to deflect the arrow, but due to the pain in his arm, he was a second slower than he normally was, and this short time frame was enough for another arrow to embed himself into his body.
This time he couldn't suppress the pain and released a small, painful moan. This time the arrow entered her leg, which had practically negated the possibility of escape.
Pulling the arrow out of her body, he quickly hid behind a tree.
He couldn't stay there long or else he'd be skewered by one of the fucking spear-wielding Kobolds. But he had to take a breath or else he would be completely exhausted in a few seconds.
Use my Stigma? No,
even if i used it i doubt it would change anything.
Maybe escape, but now with this leg injury it's impossible. Before he could have had a chance, but that is already in the past.
She kept thinking of something, but nothing useful came to mind.
His exhausted body and his pain did not allow her to think properly.
It was then that as expected, one of the kobolds with spears prepared to throw its spear at him, so he had to abandon his position and hide somewhere else, but that would only be a momentary rest between attacks, a Once the Kobolds get irritated enough, they may start to attack with more ferocity than they already are.
That's why he had to think of something before that time came.
He again was forced to come out of hiding from him, only to be greeted by a hail of arrows.
SHIT.
He screamed internally as he dodged and tried to block the incoming arrows with his sword, but as expected, he couldn't deflect all of them so now he had several arrows stuck into his body.
Blood was gushing rapidly as his body fell to the ground.
He had avoided dying immediately due to avoiding the arrows that were aimed at his head, but that didn't mean he could avoid all of them.
At this point it didn't matter what he did anymore, it was impossible to get out of here alive.
Most ironic of all, he hadn't been able to kill a single one of them.
He could see how a few Kobolds were approaching him, probably to end his life.
The Kobolds were holding a spear pointed at his head.
With a look of hate and little desire to die, I shout "STIGMA"
The spear came down and through his head before he could finish his words.
He had died before he could even activate the last card he had left.
The Kobolds approached and searched his body, finding nothing useful, leaving the corpse there as if it were nothing more than garbage.
Minutes, hours or maybe days passed.
In a place where there was nothing but a highly decomposed corpse, a large number of bright light particles were accumulating around it.
The corpse was bathed in this light, rejuvenating it and healing all of its injuries at an extremely rapid rate. His white skin had turned pale, her black hair turned pure white, while her empty eyes turned a pitch black with white pupils.
Her eyes that seemed lifeless quickly became illuminated with a light of vitality.
She slowly got up from the ground and looked around her. He wasn't sure who he was or what he was doing there, but a feeling was calling him.
"Kill" was the only thing he said to her as he picked up the sword on the ground and walked in a completely random direction looking for something.
In this place, one of the countless calamities that would destroy the world in the future, also named as the Lord of the Undead or simply as The Undead, had been born.