Author Notes:
Well, well, well... It seems that I am finally back to the waking world!!!
Many, many thanks to all of you, my Patrons and readers, the ones who have helped Mom and I to move to our proper, new home!!! Really, we literally wouldn't have any place to go or to turn to have none of you reach out and render us aid, compassion, and well-wishes. That has done a lot to our morale, and more than that, your efforts earned us a well and truly liveable place!
I can go on and on about the new places, but to keep it simply, it's a 59 squared meters apartment room for higher-than-average income and lawful citizens. Obviously, I am not a part of that higher-than-average income group, at least not without you guys and girls pitching in each month to help us, so I am basically gambling here. Yet, for the first time in a while, I am actually content, Mom is finally staying at a place that won't demand anymore on her health, and that makes everything worth it.
No matter where this part of our journey diverts to next from here on out, knows that you all have achieved a good deed this day. It may not be big or impactful, but it is still something that save my Mom. For that, I am grateful from the bottom of my heart.
Now, without further ado, please enjoy the newest OBOM chapter, and do check out the ongoing discount on Patreon if you want to help me procure a bed for my Mom. Thank you.
https://www.patreon.com/Heartbreak117
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/Heartbreak117
https://discord.gg/cVZxJ29ruh
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rushing down the aisles of the cavernous labyrinth, Reizen finds her mood sinking even lower when the commotion from behind her gets closer and closer. Reizen is being chased, and unfortunately, her admirers aren't of the cute and cuddly kind as the blue-haired girl would like. As a Raven cadet, Reizen has undergone extensive training and conditioning, and even supersoldier enhancement procedures a few times. Reizen is more than capable of losing her pursuers in this maze-like cave system long ago, but out of fear that the hostiles, having lost their targets, may turn on her dear partner instead, the blue-haired girl has consistently taken all the aggro herself.
Sensing that the nearest enemy is dashing closer and closer to melee distance, Reizen slams one foot against the cavern floor, using the force to pivot herself, turning 180 degrees. Using the momentum, Reizen swings the weapon in her left hand, a perfectly functional and perfectly sharp shovel, in a wide arc that decapitates not one, but two heads belonging to the living dead Reizen, Umbra, and Aurea have come across in their most recent island venture. The headless corpses, still under the force behind their wrathful pursuit, come to a sliding collapse by Reizen's sides, leaking greenish liquid everywhere on the ground.
Although Reizen pegged them as living dead, they aren't of the human kind most people are familiar with. The two, now truly dead corpses, belong to a race of fishmen, with their decapitated heads sporting octopus features. However, the others, a bit behind them, yet to be taken care of by Reizen, display a myriad of different aquatic appearances. The bulkiest among them is a hammerhead shark fishman, albeit the hammer part is vertical instead of horizontal. All of the fishmen, being zombified, have necrotic features, albeit none of the decomposing aspect. The ominous glowing green veins on their bodies denote the fact that these are living dead crafted by supernatural means instead of traditional biological containment, which may explain why they are able to overcome some of the physical limitations of, well, being dead.
With something closer to a small horde now in front of her, Reizen decides to confront and eliminate them all, again. This is not the first time Reizen has been chased like this, but hopefully, this will be the last.
Umbra's trusty shovel in hand, Reizen shoves its sharp edge directly on the biggest threat, the hammerhead fishman. The shovel easily tears through the skin and bone of the vertical hammerhead, piercing directly into the zombified fishman's brain and splitting it in two perfect halves. Fortunately, much like traditional living dead, a destruction of the nerve center still guarantees true demise to the zombies Reizen encountered. Reizen then kicks the bulky frame of the hammerhead fishman; her foot connects with the tattered tribal-esque leather armor that wraps around its belly. The kick frees the shovel, leaking green liquid, and sends the corpse back toward its living dead compatriots, hitting them and causing them to stumble and fall midrush toward Reizen.
Seeing their number and finding herself quite pressed for time, Reizen lowers her left arm and the shovel with it, before raising the ranged weapon that has been left slinging on her shoulder thus far. It's Umbra's STV-410 assault rifle, a weapon that should have been in the hand of Reizen's partner. Due to a variety of reasons, Reizen has to leave behind her designated weapon, the Angel Break shotgun, for Umbra to wield, while she herself picks up the assault rifle for mob clearing. Although the Tactical Artefact would make some fine killings here, considering the threats are positively unnatural undead and are blasphemies toward the living world, the STV-410 will serve just fine in Reizen's employ.
After all...
Flipping the Kalashnikov-style safety, a feature Reizen recognized as belonging on firearms lovingly wielded by Belkans of Rusviet heritage in recreational activities, the blue-haired girl starts hip firing the STV-410 in semi-auto. Although Reizen isn't aiming down the sight, thus potentially limiting her accuracy, she still manages to score accurate hits on the heads of the undead fishmen, destroying their brains in an easy manner. This close of a distance, less than five meters away, the highly-trained Reizen doesn't really need to shoulder her rifle to score good hits. In the confined cavern, the length of the STV-410 may even limit her vision instead, causing her to miss something she shouldn't.
For a few seconds afterward, the reports of the assault rifle boom across the cavern system. The flashes from the gun even drown out the bluish natural lighting provided by the strange mosses on the wall and ceiling of the cavern.
BANGBANGBANGBANG
It takes no time at all for Reizen to dispatch the small horde into a heap of immobile carcasses. The cavernous ground beneath Reizen is now sipping freely the greenish blood that flows out of the corpses. Not counting the zombies Reizen dispatched with Umbra's trusty shovel, there had been a dozen living dead in total. However, Reizen only pulled the trigger eight times, meaning eight bullets were all it took to kill them all, for good. The discrepancy in the number comes from the fact that the STV-410, although a relatively normal 7.62 x 39 mm rifle, is loaded with Lapua Armor Piercing Tungsten Core ammo. The name of the round type alone should be enough to understand what just happened. However, for those that don't, a simple explanation will be:
The zombies didn't have armored heads that could stop purpose-built armor-penetrating rounds. In fact, a few of the living dead had so squishy heads and brains that the bullets overpenetrated and hit the zombies behind them, thus achieving multi-kills.
Of course, true armor-piercing ammo doesn't have quite the nasty post-penetration effect of something like Joint Hollow Point ammo, but a brain doesn't discriminate. If the brain gets hit by either of them, the body to which the brain belongs perishes with it.
Reizen, confirming the dead here are truly dead, flips on the safety of the STV-410. She then resumes her journey out of the cave system, now breaking into a full-on inhuman sprint as there is nothing left to chase her. While sprinting, Reizen reaffirms the weight of the spoil in the satchel slung near her hip. Contained in the satchel is her spoil of war, and something that, according to Sapientia's note on a map she gave, would be massively useful as a power source. It's also the sole reason why Reizen, Umbra, and Aurea decided to poke the undead horde that was marauding around this covetous object, with mixed results thus far.
Putting a lid on her mounting concern over the two persons that shared one body that she's left behind in their collective quest on this island, Reizen doubles her already breakneck pace, soon arriving at a wide opening in the cavern system where sunlight streams in. Reizen comes to a full stop on the familiar ledge that leads downward and outward of the cave system at around the same time as two other presences. Reizen immediately notes with obvious distaste that a ragged figure: a fishman with a gaunt body and eight flaming eight sockets for eyes, wearing a tattered robe and a scepter made out of twisting octopus tentacles with a murky pearl on top, has appeared on the same level directly in front of her. If this thing isn't a Lich and the reason why there have been so many zombies, Reizen will wear that very revealing microbikini that Umbra managed to get, thanks to the System.
However, Reizen's senses blare with alarm when the figure below the ledge is none other than a very, very confused-looking Umbra. While a part of Reizen questions the why, as to Umbra, and by extension Aurea, can find and venture into this place, the Angel Break Custom, wielded by Umbra and aimed rapidly between the Lich and Reizen, caused the blue-haired girl to raise her hands in a swift, calming gesture.
It's obvious that Umbra, and potentially Aurea, are under the influence of some strange force, for neither of them will so easily raise a mighty weapon like the Angel Break against Reizen. But then again, there's the time when Reizen first woke up as a precedent, so... Anyway, happy thoughts, Reizen. Happy thoughts.
"No no no no!" Reizen has never spoken so rapidly in cold sweat before her hands turn inward, pointing at herself, affirming. "Partner!"
Very righteously, and with a burning wish of not to be on the receiving end of either the blessed buckshot or the Holy Laser that Reizen knows full well that Umbra can now employ after days of psionic tutelage, Reizen points an accusing finger at the monster in the shape of a fishman on the other end of the ledge.
"Lich!"
The Lich turns to give Reizen a wetty snarl, but before it can brandish any of its foul magic with its tentacle staff, it's showered with three full shots of double-aught buck. And because each individual pellet, and even the flight-controlled wads, are blessed, the Lich receives critical damage on a massive multiplier. Subsequently, its body is completely disintegrated even before it can let out a full wail of pain, and the tentacle staff breaks apart, shriveling and curling until it too turns to ashes and dust.
It's only when Umbra slowly lowers the Angel Break shotgun, now empty in the chamber, that Reizen dares to exhale a turbid breath she has been holding in. However, seeing Umbra using a hand to hold her in discomfort, Reizen immediately asks in concern.
"Umbra, Aurea, are you ok!?"
Reizen would have appeared by Umbra's side had she not been afraid of spooking the girl. It's a legitimate concern, as she fears Umbra's affliction will cause the girl to act out in an unwanted manner for either of them.
Fortunately for all of them...
"O-Ow..." A meek, quite uncharacteristic reply comes from Umbra, or more specifically, Aurea. "This headache... I-Is this what Umbra felt before passing over the control of our body to me? A-And she has stomach through the worst of it as well. Umbra, are you really ok...?"
Hearing the way she spoke and the soft mannerisms, Reizen immediately figured out that she was looking at Aurea, the Other Me that Umbra always seemed to put above herself.
"Hello, Aurea." Reizen puts on a disarming smile as she slowly gets down the ledge. "We finally meet in person, but I wish it were under better circumstances."
"O-Oh!" Aurea stands ramrod straight before nodding rapidly at Reizen in greeting. There's this expectant and worried look on her face that Reizen finds quite cute; no wonder Umbra tends to speak fondly of Aurea whenever she can. "H-Hello there, Reizen! And yes! I-I am sorry that we see each other like this! And I apologize for being unable to... W-Well, calm Umbra down back then?"
Reizen raises a hand in a calming gesture, maintaining her smile and eyes devoid of any blame.
"It's not your fault, Aurea. If anything, it should have been mine... I failed my duty for not protecting you two well enough, even though I pledged my everything to do so..."
Aurea, however, shakes her head. "No, Reizen. Before Umbra went to rest, she and I had made it clear you are not to be blamed for anything. It's all the monster's doing!"
Reizen smiles wryly. "You don't get it, Aurea. My dereliction of duty has-"
"Nuh uh! Reizen is not at fault!" Aurea once again shakes her head, pouting slightly as she tries to assert Umbra and her own acknowledgement of Reizen's innocence in the recent ordeal.
Feeling the girl's cute stubbornness, Reizen relents, but still, she chastises herself for her own insufficiency. Reizen will strive to improve, but for now...
"Understood, it's the Lich's fault... How is Umbra feeling?"
Aurea sighs softly in relief, patting her chest as Reizen doesn't seem to beat herself up anymore, at least not outwardly. It's something both Umbra and Aurea will tackle once the former wakes up from a brief nap.
"Umbra is resting..." Aurea replies with a piece of good news, though she can't hide the concern in her voice. "W-When the Lich cast that confusion spell on you, Umbra took the brunt of it by physically pushing you away and me mentally into the deepest part of our shared mental space. Her spirit was affected heavily by it to the point of experiencing amnesia temporarily, and because I was so deep in the mental space, my voice couldn't reach her until recently..."
Aurea bites her lower lip, feeling anguish over Umbra's sudden sacrifice upon their first few steps into this cave system. Reizen too finds her fist clenched white. Both of them collectively sigh to calm their emotions, with Aurea continuing.
"F-Fortunately, Umbra's instinct and emotion still acted as her guiding beacon. After you carried her away when she fell unconscious and parked the White Pearl at a safe distance, she woke up and still managed to pilot the boat back to the shoreline and backtracked to the cave system out of fear that she might lose something important. I-I think that something important was none other than you, Reizen."
"That is..." Reizen suddenly finds that words failed her. "I understand." It's all that Reizen can say.
Still, Aurea can sense that Reizen is struggling to maintain her composure. Guilt and adoration go hand in hand in Reizen's inner being right now. And, it's not like Aurea isn't feeling the same. What could have been a cautious exploration and scavenging trip has nearly turned into a tragic story due to Umbra's selfless sacrifice. Luckily for them all, Umbra has tided through the worst effects and only needs recuperation.
Aurea adds softly.
"The effect of the confusion spell went away after Umbra purged the monster. However, due to her spell affecting her spirit, she required immediate rest to restore her mental state. I-It's why Umbra passed the baton of our body to me now after exchanging a few reassuring words and instructions..."
Aurea then bows at Reizen, meekly saying. "W-We will be in your care for a while, Reizen!"
Reizen, being entrusted with this duty by an unconscious Umbra, steps forward while pulling Aurea into a one-handed hug, saying.
"I underestimated the denizens of this world. Never again." Reizen vows seriously. "If you would have me, let me protect you two, Aurea."
Blushing in Reizen's embrace, Aurea nods shyly. "U-Un! We will count on you, Reizen!"
Noticing the heavy satchel near Reizen's hip, Aurea gasps softly.
"D-Did you...?"
Reizen, looking at it, nods. "Yes. My solo trip here was to both deal with the Lich and to recover the power source for our future Base of Operations. Despite the hiccups, we have accomplished all objectives together."
Aurea smiles expectantly. "Umbra will no doubt be jumping on her feet when she wakes up... If it's her, I think she will say..."
Aurea tries to put on her best Umbra expression, which is surprisingly easy, considering both are Same-Same, but Different.
"Worth it!"