Chapter 1061 – Whoa, Whoa Relax
000
“An arena for monsters? Besides, they were eating the corpses of those they killed?”
After the three men who had left for reconnaissance returned, Artis, who received the report, looked as if he could not hide his bewilderment and embarrassment at the same time.
She had been excavating her remains throughout the Eastern countries, but she had never heard of monsters gathering in one place to kill each other and eat the corpses.
However, Lila, on the other hand, would ask the three people with her eyes sparkling with interest.
“What kind of monsters were they? Sub-races like orcs or goblins? Building a society using an arena or a building requires a certain level of intelligence to be able to use tools…”
“Layla…”
Kuon lightly stops Lila, who is trying to think about things with a slightly excited face.
Lila also came to her senses with a ‘Hot’, her face blushing, and she cleared her throat lightly.
“Well, either way, there’s no need to enter such a barbaric place directly. Let’s take a detour.”
When Lila says that, Aine, Sasha, and Schrödinger look at each other with a slightly troubled expression.
“We thought that might be a good idea, so we looked around a little more, but… There doesn’t seem to be a route from this mountain to the next mountain without passing through the arena.”
“That’s right. The roads were all cut off and blocked by cliffs.”
At Aine and Sasha’s words, Laila closed her mouth for a moment.
This is because I felt that what had been an ‘interesting situation’ just a moment ago was turning into a direct threat and obstacle.
“There is a high probability that it is related to the guardian.”
“Amelia thinks so too? Me too.”
If Schrödinger agrees with Amelia’s words, the group ponders for a moment what to do.
“… Can you tell me what kind of monsters were there?”
Kuon ended up asking the scouts what Lila had tried to ask but had stopped her.
“What should I say… It was my first time seeing a monster.”
Then, Sasha will respond with an attitude that she has no confidence.
“It’s my first time seeing a monster… Well, it could be because it’s the Evil Dragon Mountain Range. What does it look like?”
Lila nods her head as if she understands Sasha’s words, but Schrödinger shakes her head and continues.
“The guys gathered there were not of one race. Rather, I should say that I doubt whether they are really monsters…”
And Aine represents the scouting party and explains to them the characteristics of the monsters they witnessed.
First of all, its form was different from any monsters they knew.
It had a dark blue body, a hard shell that looked like an exoskeleton, and looked like an insect, and it had a pair of triangular horns on top of its head.
The part that could be assumed to be the face had a ‘mouth’ for chewing the corpses they had knocked down and killed, and countless sharp teeth had grown out of it.
However, the similarities ended there.
In fact, except for the skin color, exoskeleton body, and mouth with sharp teeth, the monsters gathered there all had different forms.
A bipedal creature with sharp protrusions growing like blades on both arms.
A guy with a human-shaped upper body with two arms on top of a four-legged lower body like a centaur.
I don’t know how it works, but it’s in the shape of a slightly floating disc, with only a head growing out, etc…
They had so much in common and looked so separate that the party couldn’t figure out what race they were.
“Is that really a monster?”
And Lila, after hearing their explanation, will look like she doesn’t know what’s going on.
“Maybe not…”
And Sasha answered in a voice as if she still wasn’t confident, and Lila let out a small sigh in response.
“No, it must be a monster. At least I don’t know of such animals.”
Monster.
The definition of a monster varies depending on history and culture.
For example, dwarves and elves, who are now classified as demihumans, were treated as ‘humanoid monsters’ in the past when they were hostile to humans.
On the contrary, they classified humans as ‘inferior subspecies monsters’.
In short, monsters were sometimes referred to as a general term for ‘hostile creatures’, and even beings that are now classified as ‘animals’ were also considered ‘monsters’ in the past.
However, even if time changes, there are some who do not come out of the realm of ‘monsters’.
For example, goblins or orcs.
Races that are so barbaric that you wonder, ‘How does this race exist?’ And are impatient because they cannot kill humans.
In the past, they competed with humans for the right to survive and caused numerous casualties, but these days, they can only be found in dungeons or deep remote areas where human foot traffic is cut off.
‘And the Sarong Mountains are one of those remote areas.’
No one knows how they would have evolved in special environments, places where humans rarely reach.
Even, in a world where slaughter is so prevalent, the monsters may have become more ferocious and more powerful – turning into something that is different from any other living thing.
“Let’s go.”
“Are you going to go!?”
And when Lila came to that conclusion, Sasha raised her voice in surprise.
“Then you should go. You said that’s the only road open? Whether you like it or not, you have to pass by the arena you found. And… Even if it’s a place where such monsters are running rampant, it would make sense with the ‘Guardian’.”
“… That’s right. I don’t know if it’s an arena or something. It’s probably said that someone is taking the lead in the actions of the corpse-eating guys. And that guy is at least intelligent enough to lead the other guys. There is a high probability that he is the ‘commander.'”
Attis adds her own evidence to Laila’s words.
“However, there is no need for everyone on the expedition to go together. Let’s ask them to let us pass, open a path, and the rest will follow.”
“… I think it is the right decision.”
If Aine also agrees with Artis’ thoughts, the party will quickly be divided into ‘those who will stay and guard the expedition’ and ‘those who will go to the arena and face the guardian’.
As a result, Lila decided to join the side going to the arena, and Artis decided to stay with the expedition team.
The reason was that if the two people, the leader and deputy leader, disappeared together, it would be difficult to control the remaining group –
“If something happens, we have to minimize the damage.”
“Gyo, professor, sound ominous…”
“It’s not ominous, it’s prediction and preparation.”
He dismisses the words of his disciple, who seems a bit frightened.
“So, who are you taking Lila with?”
Schrödinger asks a question.
“If possible, I want to stay here~”
Add a little wish and Lila will sigh.
“It’s not that I’m scared, it’s just my nose! It’s because the smell is so bad!”
“Okay, okay, okay.”
No matter how you say it, Schrödinger’s words sounded like excuses, and Lila waved her hands as if she was annoyed.
“The party needs to be balanced. Amelia, Sasha, and Kuon.”
“Ugh…”
When her own name is called, Sasha becomes tearful for similar reasons to Schrödinger.
“In the end, it’s a normal party. … Except there’s no Cleon.”
The vacancy of Cleon, who is an all-purpose magic swordsman who can act as a tank, dealer, blocker, and healer when necessary (however, he is inferior to experts), feels even bigger.
“It’s okay. I’ll stand on the battlefield with you.”
Kuon stands next to Amelia as if comforting her.
Then, the moment I thought her body was surrounded by red flames, there was Kuon, not wearing his usual monk’s attire, but wearing pure white armor similar to Amelia’s, and holding a heated greatsword in her hand.
“Well, if the circumstances allow it, me and Sasha can engage in close combat.”
As Lila spoke, turning her wand like a baton, Sasha spoke with her shoulders hunched.
“Well, I’m not that confident…?”
Of course it’s cowardly.
The sound of Ruben clicking his tongue could be heard from inside.
“Everyone is willing to fight…”
Looking at the group like that, Aine would say that she was a little worried.
“This is why adventurers… Are hot-tempered and cannot be stopped.”
When Artis speaks to Layla as if teasing her, Layla responds.
“Ha! It’s only now that I can say that. Look carefully. I’ll make sure you have a clean passage!”
─, He said confidently.
‘… ─Ugh…’
And everyone around her who heard Laila’s words thought the same thing.
”’I’m most worried about Laila…”’
001
Kwaang!
“Hey! The owner, come out!!”
Well, with Lila on this side, a peaceful solution was close to impossible.
Lila’s loud voice rang out like an echo behind the heavy drinking.
Of course, the explosion was the sound of the fireball created by Lila exploding on the ground and blowing away the surrounding monsters.
“Ahh! Why! Why like this!!”
As Sasha lets out her screams, she runs away from the monsters chasing her.
The sight of Amela and Kuon calmly facing each other and dealing with the approaching monsters one by one was like a party showing skilled teamwork.
The only problem is that as soon as Laila, who had promised to enter without blood, came down to the bottom of the cliff with her group, her monsters rushed towards her group.
At first, Lila was annoyed, but she was able to avoid battle by creating a path with a wall of flames and sprinting to the center of the arena.
However, as soon as she arrived at the center, she saw many monsters running ravenously, which was incomparable to the number of monsters she saw on her way.
Lila eventually got angry – no, as a fire mage, she couldn’t stand the sight of many enemies.
He threw his specialty, a fireball, and cheated the damage meter.
“—What are you doing!”
Kuon must have immediately tried to argue with Laila, but the monsters’ movements became a little more passive based on her instincts, perhaps because the intense firepower of the fireball was effective.
That’s why the ones attacking the group now are the type of guys who don’t have any sense of what’s right or wrong, and are easy to deal with due to their relatively low intelligence.
“Sasha! Don’t run away, actively fight back!”
“B-but! If you defeat the monsters, the results will be different from what Lila said earlier!?!?”
“Because that doesn’t matter anymore!”
“Ugh!?!”
What kind of unreasonable order is this?
Eventually Sasha also stops running and jumps high into the air, using her hopping as help.
And in that state, she fired several arrows at once at the fast-moving guys who were chasing her, neutralizing them on the spot.
‘… Good.’
After seeing that Sasha was relatively safe, Laila quickly parallelized her thoughts.
Half of her brain was used to move her body so that she could automatically intercept the monsters coming towards them, and the other half was to examine the place introduced as the arena.
‘Hmm… I’m sure it would be better to call this an arena (colosseum)…’
As Aine said, the terrain surrounding the group was a pit created by a huge cliff turning in a circle.
Inside that pit, monsters were killing and killing each other.
However, monsters are not born or created in this pit.
There were endless ‘holes’ on the cliff, like beehives, and monsters were constantly crawling out of them and falling into the pit.
If you say that the appearance resembles a gladiator walking out of the waiting room, you may understand it even if the impression is a little different.
‘I would like to use flight magic to fly, but…’
Unfortunately, flight magic cannot be used here.
Like the ‘fall magic’ used when coming down, it may be possible to limit the speed of falling, but this spatial restraint is still suppressing it from flying towards the sky.
“—Well, okay. I don’t know for what purpose this place was created, but for now, I’ll do my best!”
“Laila!?”
When Lila declared that, Kuon, who heard the sound, once again let out a confused voice.
“I’m stressed because I’ve been getting bullied repeatedly since I came here! I don’t know if it’s a guardian garden or something, but if you don’t want to see your precious ‘garden’ ruined, you’d better get out quickly!”
Bang! Bang! Kwakwang!
Continuous explosion sounds are heard.
No one could stop Laila.
“Was the purpose… To relieve stress…?”
And Amelia heard Lila’s words and stopped her hand and-
“Kyaaak!”
Before he knew it, he saw a monster approaching him, and boom! She did and swung her own hammer loudly.
Pow! Her voice rang out and the monster’s head exploded and fell to the ground.
“…”
And a moment of silence.
Amelia would move her back away from Kuon and take a step forward.
“Oh, Amelia?”
Kuon looked behind her in embarrassment when she saw Amelia, who had been maintaining her formation, widening the distance between her and her.
“—I’m sorry, Kuon. I also want to relieve some stress.”
“Amelia!?”
Then, she jumped into the crowd of monsters and started swinging her hammer continuously, breaking the monsters’ bodies over and over again.
“What, what, how…”
Kuon is embarrassed to see Amelia’s usual appearance.
“Oh!! Really! Sasha! Don’t show her unnecessary affection and kill her in one go!”
And Sasha’s voice comes from next to me again.
However, if you look at her hair rising slightly due to magic, the ears on her head and the tail growing from her back have grown larger.
It was clear that it was Ruben and not Sasha.
It seems that Sasha was tired of stopping her movement by missing her vital point when he fired his arrow earlier, so Ruben came out to finish her off himself.
Like Sasha, she created magical arrows, and instead of attaching them to her bow and shooting them, she walked up to the fallen monsters and drove them deep into vital areas such as the neck or heart.
The monsters are taken aback and unable to follow the rough and quick movements like a wild beast.
The relatively weak monsters may be proving that they are not a threat to the party, but as expected, Kuon will be embarrassed by Ruben’s appearance, which is much more aggressive than usual.
‘… Huh?’
And before she knew it.
As she covered herself, she noticed that the ‘smell of rotting corpse’ had changed to ‘the smell of sweet flesh’, and she put one hand over her mouth.
‘What the hell is this…’
She was a Kuon who couldn’t hide her embarrassment, but then.
“Wow haha-!!”
And I heard a loud, stereotypical villain laugh.
When the party turns towards that place – the opposite side of the cliff they came from.
Someone was standing at the top of the cliff, looking down at this place.
‘It’s so far away I can’t see it…’
Because it was quite far away, Kuon frowned and looked at the place, but he couldn’t see anything.
“Ah! Guardian!”
Sasha, who has good eyesight, pointed in that direction, and when she realized that the target was a guardian, she raised her voice.
“Taaa!”
And then, the guardian jumped from a high cliff – spun around in the air like a diver and then landed lightly on the ground –
It was a landing with a fall.
“Heh.”
Having landed cleanly, the guardian smiled in self-praise and walked towards us with a confident gait.
The monsters did not even think of rushing towards such a guardian, but rather retreated in fear.
Meanwhile, the monsters that Amelia, Laila, and Sasha were dealing with also retreated, perhaps to avoid the guardian.
Naturally, the gaze of the party was able to focus on the guardian.
“Oh my gosh, you’ve caused trouble in my garden! Intruders!”
Her appearance as she approaches-
She has a small body that appears to be about Sasha’s height, and her black hair is down long.
She wears a visor on her face and has cat-like ears on her head.
And from under her back, a long, thin tail like a cat was flowing and waving.
“I am Guardian-S! There is a guy with the same code name as me on another mountain, but I am the original Guardian-S!”
Covering her face with one hand and bending her waist slightly to the side, she struck a ‘bizarre’ pose and was a strange person who answered questions that no one asked.
‘… Schrödinger?’
Kuon felt that her voice resembled her somehow.
The same is true of cats.
“And the reason you’re excited now is that I sprayed this place-“
“Fireball!”
Bang!
“Gyaaaaa!”
The moment she continued her words, Lila’s fireball suddenly exploded.
Dust rose, and smoke enveloped the guardian.
“La, Laila!?”
Of course, Kuon was surprised when he saw her.
“It’s a long story!”
“You’ve only said two words yet!? Calm down a little!!”
Kuon is busy trying to stop Laila and checking what happened to the guardian.
“Kkkk…”
There was a guardian walking out of the explosion, laughing.
… With the whole body tanned.
“It looks like you’re so excited that you can’t make a proper decision… That’s right. I sprayed this place—”
“Ha!”
The next moment, with a short shout, a huge hammer struck the guardian’s body and blew it away.
“Gyaaaaa!”
“Amelia!?”
Kuon alternately looks at the guardian who flew dozens of meters and was thrown onto a cliff, and at Amelia, who did it.
“You’re so despicable that you’re leading us into a trap!”
“I haven’t told you everything yet… Ugh…!?”
Kuon, who was yelling at the two people who were so excited, suddenly felt his body getting hot and almost dropped the holy sword he was holding in his hand.
‘This is…!’
Even though I felt something was wrong, in a dizzy state of mind.
I see the guardian who was stuck on the cliff running towards me and coming back.
“S-Stop it! I’m just talking! Listen carefully! The reason you’re so excited right now is that I sprayed this place—!”
And.
Before the words were finished, the guardian’s body rose in the air.
“Huh?”
A guardian who didn’t really understand what happened to him.
When she looked down at her ground, her stumbling Kuon had stuck her holy sword into the ground.
Magical power flowed through the ground, melting the ground as it was, and intense flames erupted, levitating the guardian.
And Kuon – pulled out the holy sword he had inserted and swung it towards the guardian floating in the air –
He shouted as he hit the target with a slash of flying flames.
“—Please listen to people—!!!”
Then, the guardian looks at the slash of flame flying towards him-
“─What are you saying!?!”
He was caught in a slash and exploded, shouting out the final words.
