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Chapter 10 - Integrity Knight Alice.
"Looks like we"l have to fight here. Prioritize not falling over everything else!"
However, I didn"t hear any immediate reply from the integrity knight. Upon taking a brief glance below, I saw nothing show up on Alice"s pale face, standing out in the twilight, except astonishment. How could it be, why are those-that murmur reached my ears via the updraft.
Why was the integrity knight, who should have known everything about the Axiom Church, this shocked? I knew nothing more than hearsay, but the highest minister, Administrator, apparently had a predisposition towards vigilance to an eccentric extent. It wouldn"t very much of a surprise for her to deploy guardians to repel intruders forcibly climbing the walls, not gaining enough calm of mind by simply setting the upper portion of the tower as an area beyond flight.
That guardian-a monster that resembled the "gargoyles"
that frequently appeared in games of the real world, if ignoring its head, grasped the terrace"s edge with its clawed hands, then expel ed air from its circular mouth with a loud "bushuu". I noticed the gargoyles on the left and right of the first one that began moving were changing in body color as well, making me shiver. If those were to be stationed across all four sides of the cathedral"s outer walls, it wouldn"t be strange if their total numbers exceed a hundred.
"Dammit...!"
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Chapter 10 - Integrity Knight Alice.
After turning my body while cursing, I brandished my sword with my back leaned onto the wall, which already made me lose much of my balance. Well, my foothold was only a single, thin metal rod. I had no experience of fighting in such conditions, even when considering my old SAO days.
What do we do-I heard the flapping noise of wings without even given the time to ponder on that thought. I looked up and there the gargoyle hovering with the dark blue skies as its backdrop was, glaring at me with the round eyebal s attached to the sides of its long and narrow head.
The monster was large beyond expectations, likely close to two meters, from head to toe. In addition, its tail with a length close to its body was languidly stretching out from behind its waist.
"Bushaa!!"
I stared fixedly at the gargoyle that let out a bizarre voice like steam escaping a valve and closed in with a backwards nose dive. Fortunately, it didn"t seem to possess long range attack potential, so its attack should be any of its four clawed limbs.
Right, left, up, or down- "-Uoohh!?"
What soared this way while growling like a whip was its tail with the tip sharpened to a knife-like point. Caught completely unguarded, I screamed while twisting my head. The sharp
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Chapter 10 - Integrity Knight Alice.
pointed end made a shallow tear in my cheek, but I somehow avoided a direct hit.
However, with my balance lost from that excessive motion, my body lurched atop the piton.
Targeting me, desperately trying to brace myself, the gargoyle still hovering before my eyes thrust its tail forth continuously.
I supported my body with my left hand and guarded the tail attacks with the sword in my right, but it took my al just to raise it as a shield"s subst.i.tute. I didn"t have the composure to swing my sword and sever the tail at al .
"Kuh..."
I concluded this was no situation to hesitate and took my left hand off the wall, then pulled out one of the pitons stuffed in my belt. While making a mental image of the throwing skill"s motion I trained back in SAO, I threw it with the gargoyle"s core as my target.
I hadn"t put that much strength into it, but it appeared the piton made from Alice"s gauntlet possessed quite a high priority as the short javelin drew a golden arc in the dim light, stabbing deep into the gargoyle"s abdomen.
"Bushii!"
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Chapter 10 - Integrity Knight Alice.
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Chapter 10 - Integrity Knight Alice.
Dusky blood spewed out from its round mouth and scattered, and the monster unsteadily flapped its wings, taking a higher position. It seems to have dealt a moderate amount of damage, but unfortunately, that was not enough to make it retreat. A hint of rage mixed into its pitch-black simple eyes, heavily resembling those of insects, and the gargoyle glared at me.
I understood this wasn"t the time for it, but the thought unconsciously came to me at a corner of my mind. Was it a program manipulating that grotesque monster? Or perhaps, that, too, was an artificial fluctlight like the people of the Underworld...?
"Bushuuuu!!"
The new, strange cry threw my thoughts into disarray. Two new gargoyles leapt off the terrace and were flying around in circles as though they were awaiting a gap in my guard.
"Alice! Draw your sword, those monsters are going for you too!"
I glanced straight down while crying out, but the knight apparently had yet to recover from her distress of unknown origin. She would either be skewered on a tail or fall off the piton if she were to get attack as she was now.
Should I climb up to the terrace four meters above while the gargoyles observe the situation? However, there was only one
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Chapter 10 - Integrity Knight Alice.
piton left in my belt. It would probably be impossible to ask that enraged gargoyle to return the one stabbed in its stomach.
Perhaps the three monstrosities trying to intimidate me with their strange spewing noises had final y decided to resume their offensive, but noticeably shril screams surged out from them.
Now that it had come to this, I could only remove the lifeline and jump at any enemies targeting Alice.
Thinking thusly, I searched for the chain connected to my waist with my left hand. And my two eyes opened wide with realization.
The chain was approximately five meters long. The terrace overhead was four meters- "Alice... Alice!!"
While sheathing my sword, I shouted as loud as I could.
The integrity knight"s body trembled with a start and those blue eyes finally looked in this direction.
"Grip onto the chain tightly!!"
Just what are you thinking; Alice frowned as I grasped the chain attached to her sword belt with both hands. I pulled it hard and Alice"s body floated off the foothold. Catching hold of the chain in a fl.u.s.ter, the knight let a hoa.r.s.e voice escape.
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Chapter 10 - Integrity Knight Alice.
"...Don"t tell me you..."
"I"ll apologize as much as you want if we both live through this!!"
Inhaling a deep breath, I mustered all my strength and pulled up the chain, that the magnificent knight was dangling off, with it-no, I flung it straight up. Her golden, long hair and pure white skirt fluttering, Alice soared while following the trajectory of a semi-circle.
"Kyaaaaa!!"
A surprisingly girlish shriek rang out as the integrity knight pa.s.sed in between the gargoyles and landed on the terrace four meters above. To put it more accurately, perhaps I should instead say that she crashed. Maybe I should take it as if I hadn"t heard that "mugyuu", unappropriate for a cultivated female knight, that came before the shriek ended.
My body was thrown off the piton, my foothold, by the recoil from the overly drastic throw. If Alice didn"t support me from the terrace above, we would both be diving down to the ground far below.
As expected, my courage froze over immediately after falling, but the integrity knight responded to my hope, getting up on the narrow terrace and holding the chain with both hands. Her two legs stood firmly and stopped my descent before "You... uuuuu!!"