After advising Seto and his daughter to stay at home, I dashed outside.
It was pitch dark. But thankfully I had the "Night Vision"skill.
When I looked up to the source of the cries up in the sky, I saw dozens of villagers had been captured by the gargoyles. They were being eaten alive.
Occasionally, some liquid fell down like rain. It was the villagers' blood.
Those that had been captured could no longer be saved.
I drew the black sword Greed, intending to intercept a gargoyle that was about to swoop down from the sky. "Appraisal"skill quickly did its work.
?Gargoyle?Noir Lv27
Endurance: 890
Strength: 760
Magic: 1390
Spirit: 1230
Agility: 980
Ability: Flame Bullet Magic
This thing could even use fire magic. It can proof to be a problem if they stay midair. I instantly changed the sword in to bow form.
I preemptively attacked one of the Gargoyle?Noir who were chewing on a person's stomach. The magic arrow was not hindered by the dark of the night, accurately found its way penetrating between the eyes of the gargoyle.
"Gluttony skill activated"
"Durability+890, Strength+760, Magic+1390, Spirit+1230, Agility+980 will be applied to your stats"
"Flame Bullet Magic has been added to the ability list."
Oh, I acquired my first ever magic….but it's not the time to be happy.
That gargoyle noir that had been shot fell down along with the villager's corpse right in front of me in a wet sound. This villager....turned out to be the village chief who had ordered to make me into a sacrifice.
The man who could give evacuation order, and the only one who the other villagers will comply to had died. No matter what I or Seto said, they won't hear it for sure.
The other gargoyle didn't budge even if one of them was killed. On the contrary, they were already intoxicated by the taste of human flesh, and attack only so that they could have more.
At that moment, Greed warned me.
『Fate, rain of magic attack is incoming .Quickly change in to scythe form!』
I changed Greed into scythe form as told, and jumped to Seto's house roof in order to protect it.
At once, the sky was set ablaze. There were at least 30 flame bullets.
Aiming at the village, they fell like meteors.
Simultaneous use of 30 fire magics by the gargoyles――burned a wide range area. Such a frightening coordination.
Everything that was directly hit by it, burned so easily.
Not all of them landed though. I managed to block two that were about to hit Seto's house with my black scythe.
As soon as it touched the scythe, the magic disappeared without trace.
Greed had said so himself back then, that it can cut almost anything effortlessly. It even can cutdown an activated skill, something that it couldn't do before.
I could easily cut off the gargoyle's flame bullet, dispelling it entirely. But it's different case with the skill's indirect effects after it has successfully hit. For instance, I couldn't douse the burning house caused by the skill through cutting the flame with the scythe alone.
Anyways, with this kind of ability, I felt invincible while wielding this scythe.
After all, the scythe showed remarkable advantage against magic.
When I looked around, the village was ablaze, it had become bright like daylight. From inside those burning houses, villagers rolling out on the ground trying to put out the flames on their body.
Waiting for this opportunity, the gargoyles swooped down to attack.
No more than half of the total amount of villagers had survived the attack. Even so the gargoyles still greedy for more. They are now eyeing Seto's house which was the only one untouched by the flame.
This made it easier for me to settle.
The 30 gargoyle shot flame bullets simultaneously toward Seto's house where I stood guard.
I might be able to prevent two from hitting before, but 30 at once should be impossible for me to block, or so they thought.
The flame bullets converged, racing toward me directly.
Here, I'll show them what I have gained from having repeatedly hunting goblins in the capital.
[Greed, ready? I'll use that.]
『I can do it, what I'm worried about is you...let's try it.』
I threw the black scythe toward the flock of the gargoyle, spinning it with all my might.
Due to the curses on its blade, the 30 flame bullets were quickly dispelled as it blast through it. In addition, it also tore down the gargoyles standing by behind the magic.
The scythe who had finished its role returned back to me like a boomerang. This was it….the result of my repeated practice.
The 28 gargoyles who'd been torn apart fell over on the vicinity of Seto's house.
"Gluttony skill activated"
"Endurance+24920,Strength+21280,Magic+38920,Spirit+34440,Agility+27440 will be applied to your stats"
There were only 2 remaining. But, as a monster that liked to attack in a group, they took an expected action. They quickly turned tail and ran away.
[Trying to run?!]
I quickly changed the scythe into a bow, and promptly downed them with 1 shot.
While hearing the stats addition from devouring the 2 Gargoyle?Noirs, I switched my bow back to scythe form.
This kind of group, there must be a leader.
And yet, I hadn't seen it till now.
『Fate, above!』
[Yeah, I know]
While spewing fireballs at me, a big black shadow came down from the sky.
"Appraisal" skill quickly determine its identity.
?Gargoyle?Neo Lv47
Endurance: 12890
Strength: 11760
Magic: 23390
Spirit: 23230
Agility: 12980
Ability: Flame Bullet Magic, Fire resistance.
Different from the little ones, it even dared to launch its fire magic at close range to defeat me.
The magic power was also stronger than the gargoyle noir. I see, the fire resistance allowed for this kind of battle tactic.
However, it's still just a monster. It fought mainly out of instinct, yet still unaware of the black scythe's power?
The gargoyle neo attempted to burn down Seto's house. It approached in terminal velocity.
At zero distance, in that moment the black scythe is swung. The gargoyle neo was split in two before it could launch another fireball.
Its was split in two halves as it passed by me, and fell to ground rightafter.
"Gluttony skill activated"
"Endurance+12890,Strength+11760,Magic+23390,Spirit+23230,Agility+12980 will be applied to your stats"
"Fire Resistance has been added to the skill list"
With this I obtained my second flame-based skill. Through "Appraisal" I found out that Fire Resistance reduced the damage caused by Fire Magic by half. Too bad, since that meant it's only limited to magic damage.
Thanks to eating those gargoyles, the Gluttony skill had satiated. The hurting in my right eye vanished, and I felt that my condition was tip top.
Meanwhile the village itself was in miserable state. All other houses except for Seto's had been burnt down. The gargoyle's fireballs had burnt the land into charred black.
The cost of the fight was huge, the surviving villagers who managed to crawl out from the burnt houses were suffering from awful burns.
I could confirm 4 survivors from the roof where I stand. Including me, Seto, and his daughter, that's only 7 people left….it's impossible to maintain the village with only that amount of people.
Watching the still smoldering houses, I felt somewhat ashamed.
Those complex feelings from when I was a kid are burning out like those house, and what remained in me was only its ashes.
Somehow, I felt an empty hole in my chest.
While I was sitting on the roof watching the flame burns indiscriminately, Seto came out of his house. He then said when he saw me.
[Fate, what on earth is this...]
[We were attacked by a group of gargoyles. I barely able to fight while protecting this house, but I managed to fight them off. There was a wide ranged fire attack.]
I focused back to the village as I spoke. Hearing nothing else from Seto, I assumed that he was too surprised to say anything else. His daughter forgot to cry, she clung to her father's foot not wanting to be separated.
It was a bad village. But after it's gone, the pain in my chest disappeared. It was replaced by an unspeakable emptiness in my heart.
Perhaps, could I say this was me feeling nostalgic…..? No idea.
But there was one thing that was clear to me. Today, I had completely lost my hometown.
=====