Antagonist Protection Service-Chapter 179 - The Augury Tower (6)

179: The Augury Tower (6)

179: The Augury Tower (6)

Casting a glance in the direction the dart came from, I picked up numerous life signals.

I could sense their presences, but not see them, realising instantly that they were hiding in various brushes, though probably not with stealth abilities of their own.

In the following moments as I pondered what action to take, the world seemed to slow down to a halt, giving me exactly the time I needed.

It certainly wasn’t the first time I had experienced such a sensation, but at the same time, it was uniquely different in the fact that I was keenly self-aware of how slow time seemed to be passing all of a sudden.

So much so that I thought it must be related to Heightened Senses somehow.

‘My thinking speed…

Or rather, the speed of my cognitive processing itself.’

Testing that hypothesis out, I moved my arm, watching it move distinctly sluggishly.

‘”You will not lag behind the competition, and that fire in your blood makes you strong”, huh…

That must be it.’

Recalling the final line in the Trait’s description, I suspected it might have had something to do with being in the middle of combat, but either way, it was a tremendous boon.

Focusing my attention back on the situation at hand, I sensed about seven unique life signals hiding in the trees and brushes roughly a couple dozen metres away.

Considering the circumstances of them hiding so far away shooting poison darts, and in accordance with what my instincts were telling me, I was convinced that the enemy was weaker than me, even if there were so many of them outnumbering me.

Judging by the size and power of the first dart, I also doubted it possessed the penetrative ability to pierce my Draconic Shadow, and although it wasn’t yet made clear how durable the Villain’s Vizard was, I was certain the black material had to be some kind of bizarre stone, meaning that too should do well enough to defend against the tiny wooden projectiles, even in the event that I failed to dodge in time.

My whole body, from the tip of my head to the bottom of my feet and toes, was covered in armour.

Opponents like these wouldn’t be able to do a thing.

Tk, tk tk tk-!

Deflecting a flurry of darts that came flying, I knew it was only thanks to Heightened Senses that I could perceive and act in time.

Inwardly relieved that I made such a worthwhile purchase, I put strength into my legs and jumped off the ground, sprinting towards the origin of the projectiles, and where I could sense the life signals hiding, with the Holy Sword in my firm grasp.

Evading and deflecting more darts with the sword while I dashed, those I couldn’t move fast enough to swat away simply hit and bounced off my body without impact, including one stray dart that hit my right cheek just below the eye, blocked fortuitously by the Villain’s Vizard.

‘Perfect.’

Confirming my hopes like that, I no longer had anything to worry about.

Arriving at the first enemy, I brought the Holy Sword down from high up, cleaving an entire brush in twain, revealing the now-bisected, furry body of a miniature humanoid creature hidden within.

Before I had a chance to properly examine the corpse, more darts came my way, which I didn’t bother to deflect, letting them lightly hit the Draconic Shadow’s cloak and fall to the ground.

Among the many small projectiles, however, a new one was smuggled in.

At my feet, I noticed a little brown ball smack the ground, but right as I realised it was something strange―

Pfssssh…!

―Purple gas exploded from it like a grenade, causing me to instinctively cover my face over the mask and get away from the area.

‘Little bastards…’

With an immense amount of rustling heard in all the surrounding area, I could sense them moving about, rushing to perhaps distract me and flee.

‘You’re not getting away that easily.’

For a while, I spent time chasing them down one-by-one, hunting each of the bestial midget monsters individually.

They were small, but they weren’t slow, and they certainly knew what they were doing.

Throwing smoke bombs and poison gas grenades, shooting what felt like pails upon pails of darts, all the whilst continuously kiting me around the uneven, impossibly dense jungle, its ground level arduous and incredibly exhausting to traverse.

Still, because their attempts at harm were in complete vain, I didn’t have to mind their futile efforts so long as I kept out of the way of those gaseous clouds, and because they were small, I could cut down every obstacle, every vine and every brush that got in my way, eventually catching up to them with time.

The rest could only be described as a slaughter.

“――Haa…

haa…

haa…”

Eventually, I got all of them.

I wasn’t sure how long it took exactly, but it was, at the very least, the better half of an hour, if not two or even three.

The most exhausting part was dealing with the irritating terrain that seemed to block every path I wanted to take.

Still, I knew that group could probably only be considered relatively small, and definitely wasn’t the only one that existed in this endless expanse of a Floor.

With the threat of a Time Limit looming in the back of my mind, I didn’t have the luxury to spend half a day resting, so after giving myself just ten minutes to catch my breath, I reoriented myself and continued on.

For the rest of the day, surprisingly, I luckily didn’t come across any more of those furry little humanoid creatures…

Well, either that, or they were now purposefully avoiding me.

Whichever the case, it was good for me since it meant no more disturbances, leaving me to focus all my efforts on finding the Objective’s ancient relic.

By the time night fell, I made what I thought was a decent amount of progress as I looked with a smile at the simple map I was carving out.

Regrettably, I was too far away from the temple to make it back in time to sleep there, so I decided to create a sort of makeshift tent area to camp out and spend the night.

On the bright side, I did have practically everything I needed in the Storage, such as basic sleeping bags used by the Beast Tamer Protagonist’s party, and cloth I could tie together to some trees for some overhead protection.

Alas, after all that time spent setting up camp, tiring myself out, what happened was just the worst.

Rustle~

I was attacked.