As Long as You Have the [Shop] Skill, the Dungeonized World Is a Breeze ~The Bullied Youth’s Payback

Chapter 283 – Intruder From the Skies

Still holding me in his arms, Shiki moved rapidly, dodging the wild barrage of bullets.

Oi. oi, that’s already at least 20 shots! How come he isn’t running out of ammo?!

At least from the looks of it, there wasn’t a large magazine attached to his gun, so I thought he would be limited to around 10 shots at most. But there didn’t seem to be any end to his shots so far.

“Shiki, pincer attack!” (Bouchi)
“Understood!” (Shiki)
I separated from Shiki and dashed towards Duarte from the right, while Shiki approached from the left.

Duarte started to fire at Shiki, thinking that he was a greater threat than me.

…He’s looking down on me…!

Since that was the case, I decided to give him a taste of my [Spirit Katana・Kuro-Ichimonji]. I pressed in and swung with all my might, but…

“Tch… One-handed!” (Bouchi)
Duarte turned and easily caught my swing with his machete with a single-handed grip.

I immediately unleashed a flurry of blows, but he blocked each one. All while he was facing Shiki, too. It was frustrating, to say the least.

It seemed that I was enough to be dealt with single-handedly.

―Don’t look down on me! I’ll mess up your bony face!

I pulled a small bottle of [Holy Water] out from my pocket and lobbed it at him.

He naturally sliced the bottle in half with his machete, but he wasn’t able to prevent the contents from splashing onto his face.

“GYAAAGGH!!” (Duarte)
Just as I thought, he took a considerable amount of damage. A sizzling sound rang out as smoke rose from his face.

[Holy Water] was effective against evil spirits, demons, and undead beings. Since he was a spirit demon, he was much like an evil spirit in many ways. I thought it would work, and, much as I expected, it did.

“Shiki, now!” (Bouchi)
“As you command, milord!” (Shiki)
I called out to Shiki, who was still dodging the bullets, and then—

““HAAAAH!””
Both of us simultaneously swung our weapons at Duarte, who was still reeling from the damage of the [Holy Water].

As a result, I successfully severed his right arm, while Shiki took his left. The skeletal arms fell to the floor and disappeared in a puff of smoke, weapons included. The materialization of his spirit seemed to have come undone for those parts of his body.

All that remained was his main body, but Duarte was glaring at us through a face heavily damaged by the [Holy Water].

“…Are…you… going to… steal from me… again?” (Duarte)
For the first time, Duarte spoke a coherent sentence.

“Captain! Captain, it’s me! Do you recognize me?!” (Oz)
“Uuuooghh… Who… are you…?” (Duarte)
“I am the Oz Freedom… Captain’s ship!” (Oz)
“…Hah… Even at this point… you’re still… trying to… make fun of… my ship……?” (Duarte)
“Eh?” (Oz)
“I will… make it back… Don’t get in… my way… If you do… I will eliminate… everything in my path…!” (Duarte)
At that moment, new arms sprouted from his body—one made out of lightning and the other made out of ice. Then, he extended both arms and unleashed a lightning strike and a blast of ice at me and Shiki at the same time.

““Uwaaaah!!?””
Both of us were caught off guard by the attack and were blasted backward.

“…Gah… My body is frozen…” (Bouchi)
Shiki took a lightning strike and seemed to be paralyzed by the shock. He also seemed to have suffered burns from the heat generated by the lightning.

…My goodness, this guy is outrageously strong…

He might be considered nearly S-Rank in terms of strength.

“I… will make it back… Those guys… are waiting… for meeeee!!” (Duarte)
Duarte once again let out a roar towards the sky. With each word, the lightning became even more powerful, and the ice and snow blowing about intensified. Under its effects, the shelter created by Ior was slowly disappearing.

Eventually, the ocean surrounding us was visible once more. There were tornadoes of water rising up into the sky, spiraling about violently in the ocean. Countless bolts of lightning were striking down from the heavens, piercing down to the depths. It was no different from being in the middle of a natural disaster. We couldn’t run away, but we couldn’t approach carelessly either.

It was absurd. All of this was happening because of one single person.

Thinking back, I heard that Duarte went berserk from the shock when his only remaining father figure was killed, and he destroyed an entire town. I didn’t understand back then, but now that I was seeing this scene, it made sense.

“Captain…!” (Oz)
In the midst of all this, Oz was only looking at Duarte. Her voice was filled with sorrow.

When Duarte was alive, Oz had never appeared before him in the form she was in now, a little girl. That was why when she told him that she was the Oz Freedom, he didn’t believe her. Especially when he was rampaging and out of control like he was now.

Oz definitely knew that her words wouldn’t reach him, but she continued to scream desperately at him.

Come to think of it, he’s been saying a while that he was going to make it back… But make it back where?

I thought he had gone berserk because of the hatred he felt for those who had killed his friends and companions, but I wasn’t sensing any strong hatred towards the Empire coming from him.

Rather than that, there was something he wanted.

‘Those guys… are waiting for me’?

That was indeed what Duarte had said. In other words, Duarte didn’t turn into a spirit demon because he wanted to settle his grudge with the Empire. Instead, he ended up in this altered state so he could return to them—his friends and companions.

But that was impossible now. His friends… and family… none of them were alive anymore.

“Captain Duarte! Please! Please wake up!” (Oz)
Oz continued to cry out to her beloved master. But her words weren’t reaching his ears, and he only continued to run berserk.

I turned to Oz and asked her a question.

“Oz, does Duarte know that his friends and companions are all dead?!” (Bouchi)
“Eh…?” (Oz)
“Does he?!” (Bouchi)
“Ummm… At the time, our companions were dying from poison… But before they died, they wanted to make sure the captain would live, so they left the captain with me and had me sail away!” (Oz)
Does that mean that Duarte still thinks that there’s a chance his crew is alive?

He was set out to sea before he could see them all die. He wanted to save his crew, but he died from the poison that had also ended up afflicting him as well.

All of his companions died. But Duarte must still think that his crew was still alive and waiting for him to come back and save him.

So that’s why he said that just now…

“Oz, that island… the one that you guys were ambushed on… is it in this world?!” (Bouchi)
“T-This world? Uhh… What do you mean?” (Oz)
She… Does she not know that she’s in another world?

Well, on the seas, it might be difficult to know you were in another world unless you saw a city.

It was a lack of information. But at least now I knew what Duarte’s goal was.

If the need to go save his companions was what was keeping him moving, then actually arriving there might make his obsession with that idea fade, and he might come back to his senses.

But on the other hand, there was a danger that he wouldn’t be able to accept the death of his friends and he would go even more berserk.

Either way, continuing to duke it out with him didn’t seem like it was going to work. For now, it would be better to retreat and wait for him to calm down—

“―Hohoh, isn’t this quite the splendid offering?”
Just as we were about to make a temporary retreat, a bold voice resonated from the skies.