The Villainess and I, her Zombie

*SHIN-*

*CLANG*

The first cleave that Zombie unleashed upon the hydra's middle head got stopped immediately as Kopia's blade bounced off of the jadeites.

The gem did crack, but the monster was otherwise unharmed, showing that the gems were just more of armor than an actual part of the monster's body.

"Tsk...!"

Zombie clicked his tongue, landing beneath the hydra.

The giant multiheaded snake glared down at the little blue undead with all of its multiple heads - not seeming angry at all, more like unimpressed.

It struck out its red tongue from the head covered with diamonds, and....

"Ssssss... (A quite peculiar situation, isn't it, little undead...)"

The middle, jadeites-covered head spread its jaws a little bit and let out a low, concerned hiss.

"Ssssss. (I don't think that I will eat you first, I can't imagine the flesh of your kind tasting well.)"

It added on it,s own, coiling lazily, as if not actually interested in anything that it was hissing about - if not counting the keen five pairs of eyes, each pair staring at one of the other beings inside the barrier.

"Sssssss... (The dragon will be the main course, that weird creature that you are using as a sword should go well pretty well with it...) Sssssss... (I think that it will be best for me to eat that living boy first, then I will eat you, little undead, and go for the dragon to kill off the awful aftertaste that you will leave in my mouth...) Ssss. (Oh, but the red girl will definitely be a dessert, she looks like she would taste sweet like a berry.)"

The huge monster had absolutely no doubt about the outcome of the battle, actually, it sounded like this situation wasn't a battle for it at all either - merely an open buffet, and it was taking its time to leisurely pick the available dishes.

Also...

|Huh, what does it mean by the red girl? Where is she supposed to b...?|

Zombie thought to himself, frowning in confusion, glancing back at Baron and Roan...

...the red-haired girl who was technically his owner, whom he asked to stay behind.

"...?!"

He flinched in shock seeing Cranberry, holding up her black baseball bat with blue ribbon, making a stubborn expression, ready to pick up a fight with the monster the size of an average house.

|Zombie, try to stay...|

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?! I ASKED YOU TO STAY BACK WITH CLAYMORE!"

|...calm, oh dear...|

Patience tried to ease up Zombie's nerves, but the blue undead blew up regardless, screaming his lungs out at the frowning red-haired girl not very happy with him raising his voice at her.

"Ha?! And what else?! I refuse to be left behind all the time!"

Cranberry frowned and clenched her hands on the baseball bat.

"You...!"

Zombie gasped, taken aback by the reckless response - that honestly should not be that surprising to him.

After all, despite a vastly different experience shaping her personality, at the core of all of that was still the extremely proud Cranberry Pride, it's just that the priorities of this one had changed compared to the one from the first playthrough.

"..."

Zombie glared back at her for a few seconds anyway.

"Fine! Just stay back with Roan! Baron, keep those two safe!"

He ended up shaking his head at the red-haired girl and then turned to the red dragon by his side and commanded him.

"(Master, this guy looks strong... wouldn't it be better to team up...?)"

Baron asked timidly, even though he already was backing off to assume the defensive position in front of the feisty Cranberry and pale as a sheet Roan.

"You will be helping me from back there."

Zombie declared, pointing at the spot where Baron was going for anyway and raised Kopia with a very Grimm expression.

|I can't see any other way out of this, but I'll ask anyway - so can I kill this creature, Pati? Will you answer that question at least, or is it something that I am not ready to know either? Huh?|

He asked in his thoughts, masking how upset he was with an unhealthy amount of sarcasm.

|...|

|Oh, I see how it is. I trust you completely but you don't trust me at all. Sure. Fine.|

With absolutely no response from the sealed overseer, the blue undead tensed up.

"Sssss? (Oh, are you actually willing to try to fight me, little undead?)"

The hydra lowered its sapphires-covered head and hissed mockingly, just as Zombie's body began glowing with vibrant violet light.

"...I am not in the mood for banter - SO FUCK OFF!"

*SWING*

The blu undead growled completely overtaken by fury and he swung Kopia in her greatsword form straight at the head that mocked him...

*RIIIP*

"SSSSSSSSS! (AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGHHHH!)"

The blade had not only cut into the beast's scales but cleanly shaved off the whole upper half of the sapphires-covered head - leaving only the lower jaw and the exposed throat and the gaping wound spraying black blood everywhere, as the hydra coiled back and hissed in terrible pain with the rest of its head.

"..."

Zombie glared down at the upper half of the snake's head that he had just cleaved off, and it looked back at him somehow still alive despite being detached from the rest of its body.

"What are you looking at?"

*SMASH*

Zombie scoffed with disgust and kicked it with enough power to make it disintegrate in mid-air together with the sapphires growing out of it before it could even reach the wall of the red and black half-transparent barrier.

The blue undead's face twisted with even more anger, rested part of the Kopia's blade on his shoulder, and walked forward, towards the monster in agony.

"Don't give me that bullshit, you're a sigil monster, you can't be this easy to beat - at least let me went out a little bit."

He growled, glaring at the remnant of Happy.

"Did you go deaf? You got four more heads! Bring it on!"

Zombie roared and took another step forward.

"Ssssss. (Actually, I still got all five.)"

Suddenly the monster froze still and hissed in a completely calm manner.

"Wha...?"

*SLAM*

*thump*

Zombie gasped in shock right before the hydra's tail struck him and slammed him all the way up to the ceiling of the red and black barrier.

"..."

The blue undead stayed up there for a second or two before straight-up falling down and crushing against the ground with no signs of life.

"Sssss. (That was unexpected.) Sssssssss? (just a tiny undead possessing so much strength... was it superbia?) Sssss? (Are you my fellow remnant of the god, by any chance?)"

Hydra asked, untangling itself from a knot and rose up just like it did before.

The wound in place of its missing head was no longer spraying out blood, instead, sapphires were growing out of it at an incredible rate, like a fungus growing on a speed-up video, and after barely a few seconds it reformed into exactly the same head that Zombie kicked into nothingness a few moments earlier.

"Sssss... (Now then... since the little nuisance has been dealt with...)"

The hydra stuck out all of its tongues and hissed excitedly.

"Sssss! (It's time to enjoy my first meal!)"