"Guh!"
Senna nearly stumbled over as he stepped down from the ATV.
"Sir Senna, what's wrong?!"
"No… Don't worry, just got a bit lightheaded."
It was in reality something to be genuinely worried about. They had arrived at a stage of carnage, everyone seemingly being subjected to attacks from ferocious beasts.
Or monsters, as it seemed more fitting due to the uncannily savage behaviors coming from these ordinarily looking animals.
Running out of mana in this situation was one of the worst possible events.
"Sen, watch out!"
Cybele warned as she leaped from Ran's arm, intercepting a wild boar with huge tusks jutting out of its mouth as it charged toward the kneeling Senna.
*Swipe* The Husky clawed at the pig using her front paws. It staggered back from the attack, blood sputtering from the resulting gashes.
"Stupid swine!" This time, Cybele was the one who rushed to it. Using her sharp teeth, she chopped at the boar's neck, her victim having no chance to evade the rapid attack.
It then collapsed to the ground, vomiting blood from its slack mouth.
"Peh! Thought it was a good match at first."
"…You're actually one scary pup, you know that?"
Thanks to Cybele, Senna was spared from being impaled by a charging boar. However, the circumstances were still dire.
"Ran, come over here," he impelled the receptionist. Unfastening the Bumper Sword from his back, he then held it ready.
Senna preferred if he could continue riding the ATV, but his diminished mana count wouldn't let it. He wondered if he could still summon a cheaper-to-use alternative.
'Think, think… Is there one I can—Ah, that!' An inspiration surfaced in his mind before too long.
"Vehicle Manifestation!" Without any theatrics, he chanted the magic words.
«Succesful. Divine Vessel: Skateboard manifested.»
The glowing light that appeared this time was extremely tiny, even smaller than the first one which spawned the stupid training bicycle.
< Mana: 14/180 >
True enough, his tank was dangerously in the red. Fortunately, Senna had a brain. He expected it and so chose one which was engineless and had high mobility.
Though, it was a bit suspect whether he could ride it well or not. This taxi driver, you see, wasn't one who had experience in skateboarding.
'…It sounded great when the idea get in my head, but… Maybe this isn't as good an idea as it seemed?'
'Trial by fire.' Currently, a motto fully embraced by the driver in bold lettering.
Stepping on the board with apprehension, Senna found out that it wasn't as unbalanced as he expected. He at least managed not to slip on the first step.
Now, about whether he could move it around…
"Where's your family, Ran?"
"Eh? …Um, near the central square. You can see the roof of our house up there," she pointed to a distant two-story house that could be seen from their present position.
"Alright… Wait here a bit. Bel, please guard her against those monsters."
"Sure!"
Senna then began to skate. He decided to approach the battle between the axeman and the oversized cobra. That way, if something went wrong, he at least would have a backup.
The awareness that he could become a burden when he was supposed to be a reinforcement was lost on the first-time skater.
"Coming along!" Raising the Bumper Sword, he swung it toward the cobra just as it was about to bite the axeman. "Unnggh!" Senna grunted, using all his might and taking advantage of his momentum to push the reptile back.
"Who are you?!" the axeman asked.
"No time for that, man! It's still alive!"
Slithering backward, the snake glared at him with ferocity. That was all it took for Senna to realize the cobra had marked him as a target.
"Gosh, that eyes freaking me out. Sir Stranger, you got any plan for how to kill this thing?"
"Cut off its neck!"
"Figured as much!"
That was far easier said than done. However, the axeman seemed to be experienced in dealing with this fight.
"Alright, I'm gonna try at least. Back me up, sir!"
"What are you—"
Without letting him finish, Senna skated toward the snake while brandishing the Bumper Sword in his right hand. Looking at his unhesitant approach, the cobra lowered its head in wariness, readying itself to attack the skater whenever the chance presented itself.
"Nope, try again!" Unexpectedly, Senna jumped from the board just before he got into the reptilian's strike range. Bewildered, the cobra nevertheless lunged at the now riderless skateboard, its bestial instinct automatically reacted to an unknown object drawing closer.
Running behind the board, Senna avoided the snake's pounce and managed to get to the area behind its head. "Rah!" he yelled to rid himself of any reluctance, jumping over to its body and stabbing the pointy tip of the Bumper Sword deep into its neck.
The cobra flailed around in pain, and Senna had to cling to his greatsword in order to not get thrown off. "Axy, help me out, man!"
As if his shout freed him from a stupor, the axeman hurriedly ran toward them, axe in hand.
With a mighty blow, he decapitated the bizarrely wide neck of the cobra. A massive sputter of blood gushed out of the stump as if it was a fountain.
"Ugh, dang it." Jumping back down, Senna annoyedly tried to wipe the stains off. He had to clean his jacket and jeans quickly before the blood dried.
"You're crazy, charging a Woodland Cobra like that." The even more blood-soaked axeman called out to him. "You didn't get any venom on you, did you?"
His question reminded him that cobras were, indeed, venomous. "…How would I know that? I didn't get bites or scratches, at least."
Senna was sure of that fact. After all, considering the size of the reptilian's fang, any wound he received would have to be ghastly.
"Then good. That's the worst thing to happen when fighting this monster. Don't worry, the blood is fine."
It was relieving to hear that reassurance.
"Brad! What is happening?!"
Turning around to the voice, the two men saw Ran running at them with Cybele in tow. It seemed they decided it was safe to approach seeing the snake's dead.
"Ran? You came back from Kyllian? Worst time to return, to be honest." It seemed the axeman and Ran were acquaintances.
"I don't care, is everybody alright? You know where my parents are?!"
"The village hall, probably. They barricaded the frails and the children inside since this morning when the monsters started attacking."
"Then I'll go there!"
"Woah, woah! Calm down, girl. You're going straight to becoming a lunch snack if you just strolled there." The axeman, named Brad, stopped Ran as she was about to scram off.
"I need to check on them!"
As the two of them argued, Senna trudged among the cobra's corpse looking for his missing skateboard.
"That was a good one, Sen. These slippery bastards are one of the most annoying critters living in the forest," Cybele stated.
"Yeah? Then such a shame I wasn't the one who finished it…"
Since it was Brad the Axeman who finished the job, he didn't get any PP this time.
«Quest Update: Delivering Ran the Receptionist to Randel has been changed to delivering her to her family. The reward will be appropriately increased.»
Hearing her voice, Senna stood up before he managed to locate the board.
"…Dang it, Sis. I don't know if I should be happy or disappointed."