The Spearmaster and the Black Cat

I planned to assist Higlia and the others fighting with my Wave Gourd, but――

"Reinforcements, huh?"

An irregular, humanoid shape with two slender torsos overlapping in the front and back and a helmet with small antlers. It's holding wooden stakes in the four arms growing out of the torsos that are divided into front and rear parts.

I interrupt my sprint, and stab Baldok's spearhead into the ground. At the same time, I put the Wave Gourd down. As the gourd sinks into the soil, it releases sploshing sounds. The elephant-trunk-shaped, metal fixtures located at the bottom of the gourd sink into the ground.

I did feel like it had become heavier than initially, but it's now weighing even more, I guess.

Quiche and Kisara also stop moving upon the appearance of new enemy troops.

"This is our village! You won't be allowed to trespass any further!" Quiche yells, anger oozing out of her voice.

Folding her shield at her bosom, she adopts a stance of placing the shield under her longsword. Quiche scowls at the weird, crooked deer monster with the two split torsos through the gap between sword and shield.

I thought Quiche would keep her distance, but…as soon as she clads her legs with Magic Combat Style, she dashes like a fierce tiger. Quiche uses a unique step work, lightly closing the distance to the monster in an instant.

While faintly bending her upper body down, she thrusts out her blade with a flash of light. The sword's point drives into the base of the monster's neck before it can even react. Right after that, Quiche swiftly pulls the sword that pried open its foe's throat back towards herself.

Next, she bends forward while muttering, "Thrusting Sword - Twin Flame," before increasing her speed by another notch. Her longsword seems to blur. That's how fast she uses the sword to perform repeated thrusts.

Her sword thrusting technique penetrates the monster's middle forehead alongside its helmet.

However, another deer monster of the same type approaches Quiche from her right side. Kisara tries to use <Throw> on her witch spear, but I hold her back. I jerk my chin, implicitly instructing her, 『Look at the enemies approach from the other direction』.

"Yes! Please leave it to me. You mean that broad monster eating the uji bugs, right? It's a rare species in the desert that combines rat and weasel. I think it's a subspecies of reggmogg." Kisara mentions the name of a monster I've heard somewhere, and readies her spear.

I fire <Ice Sphere> in Kisara's stead, aiming at the feet of the monster that's closing in on Quiche.

"Gunuooo――"

While screaming in pain after getting hit in the legs, the monster swings its four arms ― the four stakes at Quiche, having them approach her shield from the side.

Quiche capitalizes on her long and smooth legs. Using her toes as axes to rotate her entire body, she dodges the stake attack by hair's breadth. The way she rotates resembles my rotation technique a bit. Did she possibly use me as a reference here? No, I think that'd be thinking too highly of myself, I think.

Quiche moves the shield in her left hand, and uses her shoulder protector. The monster's movements are dull after its legs suffer my magic attack, but its four arms are quick nonetheless. Quiche skillfully uses her shoulder protector to block the wooden stakes.

Immediately after splendidly parrying the barrage of stake thrusts with that, she mutters, "<Sword Kick - Shield Demolition>――"

That skill starts with a front kick that looks as if she's stretching out her knee. Right after the kick impacts on the front torso of the monster, Quiche takes some distance, and brandishes her slanted sword from the left to the right. The glaring blade sinks into the monster's front torso, and bisects it. Leaving the unhurt rear torso behind, the front torso slides downwards.

I can hear, "…Too fast――" from the fallen front torso. Blood gushes out of the cut section at its waist.

Meanwhile Quiche takes a step forward while holding up her shield so as to not get showered by blood spurts. The rear torso tries to attack her with its stakes, but its arms are severed by her sword. Moreover, she wields her shield upwards as if lifting it diagonally to the side. Her shield slams against the monster's head ― in other words, a shield bash.

The head of the rear torso is crushed alongside its helmet with the shield's shape imprinting itself on its head. Overwhelmed by the pressure, its skull explodes into smithereens.

I suppose <Sword Kick - Shield Demolition> is a skill that combines sword and shield techniques. Her initial skill specialized on a barrage of sword thrusts was very decent as well, but…the chain attack of kick and shield was even more amazing.

A sword style that makes full use of her tall figure. She uses beautiful sword techniques as appropriate for an elf.

She quickly swings the bloody longsword sideways, getting rid of the blood clinging to her blade.

"There are still other deer monsters around. You're going to save the ancient wolfmen, right? Please go ahead, Shuuya." She says with a broad smile that shows off her white teeth.

"Yeah." I answer half-heartedly.

Did we hold such a conversation in the past as well? No, I didn't talk with her in that way, but…I recall having looked at her smile.

…Running together across Mt. Baldok in order to kill the Evil Dragon King…

Fond memories…of a time long past. At the same time, my chest pains as if the sadness of having parted with her back then is reviving in my heart.

It's not just my memories of Azola and Pau. Of course I'm happy to see that Quiche's sword techniques have improved remarkably. But, it also shows me that time is inevitably moving on.

Her face as a mother who thinks of her children, and her face as a woman who relies on me like now. Her discernment as commander-in-chief. Her approach of always striving at farming and trading.

For this reason, my bonds with Quiche are…even when we separated in the past…she's been properly alive within me. My treasure, which I desired to be inside the knapsack she carried, was also in me. I strongly recognize this anew.

The bee mark on Quiche's cheek doesn't look like Bakunoda, but…if she asks me to save her clan's souls, I'll do my best.

As if placing those feelings onto her, I pour mana into Holy Spear Arost, held by my <Magic Hand guided by Thought> while using <Throw>. Arost's cross-shaped spearhead that teems with my love towards Quiche looks like it is brightly shining. It plunges straight ahead while tearing through the night like a gleaming ray, running through the deer monsters that have amassed in the forest ahead of me. It passes through the swarm of monsters and the forest's trees, aiming for the boss that's slowly moving deeper inside the forest.

The aquatic monster screams, "Nununu! Block that spear!", while retreating.

In accordance with its barked order, the deer monsters around it begin to gather for the sake of protecting their boss, creating a distorted wall of monster flesh.

Holy Spear Arost clashes into that wall. However, countless monster corpses are already piled on top of each other on its cross spearhead. Therefore, despite the <Throw> being boosted by my physical strength and mana as Lucival…Arost has lost a lot of its power, albeit carrying the light attribute.

And yet, it still tears through the flesh wall formed by multiple layers of deer monsters.

In the end, it stops midway, unable to completely pierce through the wall.

Well, even if it contained my love towards Quiche, it'd be expecting too much for things to work out so easily. I consider retrieving Arost with <Chain>, but the Burning Knights as they fight against the bear monster enter my visual field.

Zemetas's sword――of which I forgot the name――is stabbed into the neck of the bear that has become immobile because its legs are paralyzed. Adomos's shield bash explodes into the bear's belly. The bear crumbles down while spouting blood from its neck.

The Burning Knights seem convinced of their victory. As if making use of the puff-puff smoke that's ever-shifting and spouting through the gaps in their armor, they engulf their bone swords with that puff-puff, and stab the fallen bear many times over. Next, they consecutively bring down their square shields that are also wrapped up in puff-puff.

They're going at it with a force as if to turn the bear into minced meat. Its skull, ribs, and thighbones get pulverized.

"――Your Excellency, we defeated it!"

"The big bear is doooown!!"

"Sure, but there's still plenty of enemies around, you two."

"We'll save Higlia-dono's brethren."

"Definitely."

"Roger! Adomos, let's go."

"Aye!!"

After having killed the bear, the Burning Knights head over to the ancient wolfmen as reinforcement. However, the wolfmen are still being overpowered. The number of deer monsters is strangely high.

Cydale + Ancient Wolfmen vs. Military Forces of the Tree King of Wonders, eh? I'd call this a smaller war.

Should I use Dusk of OriginBeginning Dusk? Or <Dusk's StakeDusk of Lancer>? I could also target them with <Blood Chain Banquet>, but we're in the Sea of Trees. I cannot discard the possibility of the Death Butterfly people and Hoffmann watching from somewhere.

Furthermore, the light illusion grandpa is closely following my every move with his cross Demonic Eyes. Besides, Dusk of Origin is way too powerful. It's not like Dusk of Origin is going to automatically exclude my allies from its attacks. Its mental disruption and such is too dangerous.

The consumption of mental force and mana while using a technique requiring meticulous control should be limited to interpersonal combat or smaller skirmishes…anyway, now's not the time to use it. I should hold back on revealing my trump cards in this place.

Right now I ought to rely on my powerful partner and comrades. It'll be enough if I thoroughly annihilate the enemy individually.

While thinking of my reliable partner and my strong comrades, I activate <Tree of the Evil King>. After creating several wood spears, I ram them into the ground. A row of new spears lines up in front of my eyes. I grab one of them, and use <Throw>.

The target is a lion-shaped monster that's assaulting a wolfwoman. The sharp fangs growing in its huge muzzle are about to snap closed on the woman. My thrown spear embeds itself deeply into the monster's mouth, turning it into a skewered monster. It didn't penetrate all the way, but it looks like grilled chicken on a skewer.

The lion monster is blown away, crashing against a tall tree towering behind it. Its flight comes to a halt after it knocks the tree over. However, the falling tree buries other deer monsters underneath.

Lucky~

While satisfied with the outcome, I continue <Throwing> spears, saving one wolfman from being attacked after the other.

Of course, some of the wolfmen are powerful enough to not require my assistance. One of them must be the leader of the Higlia search part, though I don't know its name.

At that point, I notice Rollodeen, who's fighting nearby, in the corner of my eyes. It looks like she likes the wolfmen's scent. She's doing her utmost to rescue them. And then, maybe in an effort to increase the number of tentacles, she becomes slightly bigger while her body trembles. Not as big as her horse lion mode, but still a bigger panther version.

Her size is widely exceeding that of a panther, but she dashes ahead as if to bewitch everyone with her muscle strength. She rips through the torso of a deer monster with the claws of her front paw as if to gouge it out. And just when I think that she's going to leap on a tree diagonally above her, she rotates once in midair, kicks off the tree with her hind paws, performing a triangle jump, and, using the recoil, assaults yet another deer monster.

She makes her extended claws of the front paws sink into the monster like a falcon's talons, and crushes it alongside its head. Kicking away the smashed corpse, she jumps high up once more, and attacks the monsters, which are trying to flee in different directions, once more from above.

I wondered whether she was going to aim for the head again, but this time she spouted flames from a close distance. Within an instant, the fire breath, which is precisely aimed, carbonizes only the monster's head.

Forced to witness that gruesome scene, the deer monsters run away. But Rollodeen doesn't permit that. She chases an escaping monster as if being on a hunt, and mows it down with her fore paws, then she pounces its exposed backs with a barrage of tentacle bone swords from short range, turning it into ground meat in the blink of an eye. Lastly, she devours the meat pulp.

Alray and Hueremy follow her while loudly meowing. It kinda feels like a mother giving her prey to her children after finishing the hunt.

It's a terrifying spectacle of slaughter, but for the beast god's family members it might be a heartwarming scene.

The Burning Knights have been actively participating in the battles as well, but as expected, the presence of my partner is nothing to scoff at.

The ancient wolfmen were overwhelmed by numbers, but thanks to the efforts of the Burning Knights and the Rollo Squad, it eases up the pressure on the wolfmen in the battles all over.

Higlia rejoices as she tightly hugs a beastwoman who's called her name. Thereupon Higlia notices my look.

"――Shuuya! Sorry, it looks like my brethren have drawn the forces of the Tree King of Wonders to this place."

So that's the reason. But, we already repelled an orc army. If a new power――albeit extremely small――comes into existence in this Sea of Trees, others should take notice of it sooner or later anyway.

Helme has spoken about the foundation of a Lucival Empire or some such.

But no, absolutely no…

After shaking my head in denial, "――Don't mind it, or rather, I think you should direct your apologies to Quiche instead."

"No need. I mean I've been the one who chose to rebuild the village in a place like this." Quiche answers while dealing with a new deer monster.

I nod and then look at Ebe, asking Quiche, "Is he okay? Did the blood mostly belong to blood spurts?"

Being mentioned, Even nods several times with a frantic expression. It looks like he can use the ax he received from Quiche without a problem. Sticky blood clots cling to the magic ax that belonged to an orc squad leader according to Quiche. And going by the amount of blood plastering his orc-made thigh protector and burly body, his ability as an ax user might actually be as high as Raglen's?

That's the idea I got, but I suspect most of it is thanks to the performance of his weapon and armor.

So as to protect Ebe…I use <Tree of the Evil King>, and create a small and simple, fan-shaped fortress with the image of piled shields. A <Chain> fortress with its Sanskrit characters would be sturdier and wouldn't break, but well, I think this should do.

"Ebe, hide in here."

"――Thanks, thanks so much, hero-sama!"

Ebe seems deeply moved. Once I look at his expression which is peeking out from a small hole between two shields, he's crying.

In order to hide my embarrassment, I deliberately raise my voice, thundering, "It's okay, it's okay! Just stay low until it becomes quiet again!"

At the same time, I pick up the Wave Gourd again. A thick sloshing sound reaches my ears from the ground that has sunken in around the bottom of the gourd.

Alright, I think it's about time to use this baby here, I motivate myself, but…to be honest, I don't know how to use this gourd.

But――its weight should get the job done. I throw the heavy gourd at the monsters that are split into rear and front torso as they're charging towards me while at the same time running away from Kisara's attacks. The gourd flies straight ahead while furiously spinning around its own axis.

The monster that is hit first resists it with all four arms, but to no avail. Its arms are bent and crushed in an instant, followed by the monster's death. The next monster encountering the gourd screams, "Abeshi――" before getting blown away. The following monster has its torso pulverized in no time, giving it no time to shout, "Hidebu", but they get squashed with that kind of feeling while turning into lumps of meat. 1

The Wave Gourd simply crushes the monsters in its path to death. Its color has turned dusky after getting basked in blood and flesh, but it gleams. It seems to suck up the blood…its surface is being automatically kept clean.

And each time it crushes a new monster, it's showered by blood, and immediately becomes clean again, rinse and repeat. Eventually it runs into some trees. After bouncing back, it stabs itself into the ground, and finally comes to a halt.

The Wave Gourd is lurching to the side while embedded in the soil. I shoot <Chain> from my wrist towards the gourd, make the chain twine itself the protruding handle of the gourd, and return the <Chain> alongside the gourd to myself by reeling the chain back into the factor mark. Getting pulled out of the ground, flies back through the air while making sounds like a gong.

It's slightly scary, but I grab the gourd with a hand. Simultaneously I have the chain entangle itself from the gourd's handle, and let it contract back into its factor mark. While at it, I have the <Chain> of my other wrist head for Arost. After returning the spear into my hand in no time, I get rid of the meat chunks clinging to it by swinging the holy spear, let <Magic Hand guided by Thought> grab it, and make them disappear together.

Then I turn towards Rollodeen who's chewing deer meat together with Alray and Hueremy, "――Keep eating all the small fry in the vicinity!"

"Nn, nyaa――"

While hurling that instruction at my partner, I shoot a <Chain> at a bipedal monster. I operate the chain that penetrated its torso and make it head straight for a four-legged beast close to Rollo. The chain pierces that monster's torso as well.

Keeping going, the chain penetrates the tree behind the four-legged monster, and delivers several headshots against the deer monsters which hid behind the tree, causing their brain matter to burst and scatter.

At that moment, I yell, "Kisara, come with me――"

I stab Baldok into the ground and use it as a scaffold to jump. Immediately after, I kick the Wave Gourd in midair while facing in Kisara's direction. Currently Kisara is continuing to throw her witch spear at deer monsters while cooperating with Rotalz, who unleashes a series of farts, in helping the ancient wolfmen.

She has already gotten rid of the monkey locust monster and the reggmogg subspecies. I had thought that we'd need to be careful about the monkey locusts since they looked strong, but…that's the Four Heavenly Witch Kisara for you.

"Eh? Oh, okay――"

Kisara's voice doesn't sound surprised. As the Wave Gourd heads for Kisara, I shoot <Chain> from my right hand as well within milliseconds. Entangling it around the torso of a wolfman in front who's surrounded, I allow him to escape by pulling him towards me.

"…You have my gratitude, human…" I'm thanked by the wolfman.

In the meantime, Kisara perceives the approaching Wave Gourd while blowing a monster away, and while smiling, she jumps as she rotates her body with a speed that would actually allow her to catch a sparrow. Next she performs a right turning kick in midair, directly hitting the center of the gourd with the right instep of her thick boots, and thus kicking the gourd back towards me.

A kicking volleyball, err, a kicking similar to sepak takraw.

The Wave Gourd, which is quickly flying back my way, flies straight ahead while crushing the deer monsters that were trying to attack me.

"Hahaha, well played, Kisara."

As expected, a Four Heavenly Witch is quite capable of ad libbing. I land while praising her, and once again jump high into the air by kicking off Baldok. While twisting my body in the air, I wait for the Wave Gourd. The gourd is coming my way with a trajectory like a miracle ball that bobs in the air while mowing down another monster.

Once again, I'm struck by fear, but psyching myself up so as to enjoy the thrill, I extend my left hand and firmly catch the gourd.

――Uff, heavy.

My arm is pushed sideways. However, using that force, I continue the rotation and mount the gourd, sitting down on it while imitating Kisara as she sits on Rotalz with my pose. My visual field goes around in circles.

It's got to be that…right, that: when you ride a toy "coffee cup" in an amusement park. Though I think its use is slightly different…

This is a toy-like, new weapon, I'd say.

"What's that weird thing!?" A huge deer monster yells.

A light brown bristle covers its whole body. It holds a magic spear in its long and slender hand with its trident spearhead glowing purple. The antlers growing on its head are majestic. Moreover, it even got multiple legs…

It's different from the aquatic monster giving orders inside the forest, but this one might be the leader of the humanoid monsters with deer helmets which are following it.

As I keep observing while using Magic Hand guided by Thought and rotating like a spin-top in the air alongside the Wave Gourd, the huge deer monster yells, "Tree of Wonders Battle Spear Gijyedeah, here I come!"

It whirls its spear around, then turns its spearhead in my direction, and begins to scrabble with its multiple legs. I can also see a humanoid deer monster with a split chin behind the big monster. That one doesn't move? Are the humanoid ones higher in ranking?

The charging big deer monster's multiple legs look like those of a spider. Those legs are powerful enough to make the ground cave in and raise a cloud of dust. It approaches me from below.

Then it thrusts out the magic spear towards the sky as if to launch an anti-aircraft technique. I can easily read the trajectory of the spear from the monster's eye movements, its step-work, and its muscles. It appears to aim for my torso while I'm still rotating.

Making <Magic Hand guided by Thought> disappear, I begin to fall down alongside the heavy gourd. Of course, it must look like I'm full of openings since I've been relaxing atop the gourd.

I'm not going to use the Wave Gourd to defend, but instead this here. It's also endowed with a physical attribute, so it should work to some extent. Eat this darkness――

I shoot <Dusk's Stake> at the multi-legged deer monster. The stake shots are parried by the monster's magic spear. Accordingly I resolve myself to invest some mana, and activate <Thousand Palms of Darkness>.

Darkness stakes keep manifesting in the empty space right in front of me. A thousand-armed Kannon consisting of stakes that were created with my huge mana after kneading it takes shape. The stakes, now transformed into a thousand hands, rain down on the deer monster like a downpour of darkness.

The monster attempts to repel the rain of stakes with its magic spear, but it's swallowed up by the flood of palms instead. Each time a palm impacts on the monster's body, a loud thunk reverberates. The monsters arms alongside the magic spear are whittled down.

As the dull, smashing thuds reach me with a delay, its huge torso gets crushed flat. Its multiple legs are also severed and sent flying. While blood and chunks of meat are scattering into the vicinity, it gets completely squashed.

After the palms of darkness within milliseconds, all that remains on the ground is…countless stakes and bloody hand-prints. Transient darkness stakes from a dimensional world of darkness. The area I specified was limited to what I could see, but it's powerful――

The Wave Gourd crashes down on the spot with the hand-prints, destroying their shapes and causing a wave of blood to splash all around.

I also land there while rotating. Using <Blood Path - Open Third Gate>, I suck up all the blood in an instant.

"Your Excellency～ I wanted to dance over there, but I shall hold back on it――"

It sounds like Helme wanted to skate in the pool of blood. Just as she said that she'd endure, she begins to attack with a barrage of ice spears. It'd be too exaggerated to call it weather manipulation, but it definitely looks like a storm of ice spears, I'd say.

Helme destroys nature on a wide range by knocking down countless trees with her spears. The best part is how the troops of the Tree King of wonders end up stabbed to death in succession.

But, I think Helme separating from Rollodeen like that is also charming. I mean she's obviously running away from Rollodeen's flames which are released every now and then.

At that moment, a magic voice's chant reaches my ears.

"Hyureya――"

"Gyaaaaaaa."

The blood-smeared spearhead of the witch spear pries open the torso of a four-armed deer monster. It looks like she's hit it with a kind of <Thrust> skill.

"――Superior crow." Kisara mutters a prayer with a magic whisper while instantly pulling out her spear.

Next she hold her spear with both hands, and uses <Throw>. The witch spear with its filaments tears straight to the air while spiraling fiercely. It's a trajectory like that of a beam cannon exceeding close and middle range.

The several dozen monsters in its path have their bellies, legs, and heads penetrated by the witch spear, and die. In the end the spear stabs into the trunk of a huge tree, and stops after causing the tree to incline.

At that point Quiche charges after a thrust as if performing a fencing flash. After hitting an enemy's solar plexus with a knee strike, she enters my visual field at the point when unleashing a chain attack of sword slashes. She deals with it the monster closing in from behind without looking back at it, using a motion as if she's going to sheathe her sword in the scabbard at he waist.

She stabs the monster's belly by jutting out the sword towards her back, then whirls around just like that, carrying out a back turning kick that blows the monster away.

Another deer monster targets the opening of her having finished her kick. I don't think that Quiche has been careless, but it doesn't look very likely that she'll be in time with evasion. That's why I assist her by shooting several ice spheres at the monster that's approaching her.

"――Thanks, Shuuya!"

"Don't mention it――"

At that moment, I see Kisara. While moving as if she's dancing, she makes a different prayer as if blowing her magic breath on her own wrists.

Several darkness crows are born from her wrists. Seeing how those crows were flapping their wings, I thought they'd fly off into the sky, but they transformed into daggers. Daggers with mana blades. Silver fixtures are visible at the pommels of the daggers. Silver chains are hanging down from those pommels. Cross ornaments, similar to a cellphone strap, are affixed to the tips of those chains.

Kisara grasps those daggers with both hands.

"On my name as Four Heavenly Witch Kisara, I shall annihilate the remaining monsters and save the ancient wolfmen――" She declares with a smile on her lips.

After readying the daggers in her hands as if to extend them diagonally below, she advances. She appears to head for a wolfwoman who's struggling with a 2 vs. 1. After dashing like a gale, Kisara hits the ground with both her knees, and while gliding across the moist grass covering the soil, she swiftly swings her left and right hand with her body bent back as if doing a limbo dance.

The dagger blades grow their bluish-green mana blades by several sizes. The mana blades, which have suddenly closed the distance by extending, sever the waist of a distorted deer monster with legs that have three feet, cutting the monster in two.

Kisara uses the momentum of sliding, making her body turn as if doing breakdance. Then she nimbly stands up while flashing her panties by spreading her legs to the sides.

Following that, she unleashes a chain of kicks that capitalize on her thick boots in a capoeira style. The crooked monster with the severed waist and dislocated spine receives those kicks on its head and torso, getting blown away. Due to the kicks' impacts, the torso gets twisted and rips apart. The pieces of its torso clash against many monsters, knocking them down in the aftermath.

Kisara lends a hand to the wolfwoman who's fallen on the ground.

Awesome work, Kisara.

Having separated from the Wave Gourd, I borrow Quiche's back while pulling out Baldok. While rotating sideways, making sure to match my back with Kisara's, I swing down Ganghis, which I've summoned into my left hand, from an overhead position. Ganghis bisects the head of a monster on the left.

Then, as I ready Ganghis and Baldok, I check my surroundings. No deer monsters are heading for us. There's still some left deeper in the forest, but as might be expected, they stay away from the open area.

Without me noticing, our surroundings have become littered with tons of monster corpses. Despite that situation, the ghosts are continuing to sing.

Wait, are they possibly planning to keep singing forever if I don't agree to their request? If that's true, they'll be much more of a pain than the monsters. In such a case, I guess I'll simply accept their plea.

I might get some kind of reward out of this, and as long as it doesn't cause me any special harm…I guess I can accept their request, if it's only that. Besides, that holy ground of theirs might be close…to a destination of the mirrors I haven't explored yet.

Yeah, as if. I doubt things will go as smoothly as that.

Oops, I'm still in the middle of battle. Higlia and the ancient wolfmen also have won their fights. The only enemies left are the boss and the humanoid monsters with a torn mouth and spears in both their hands.

"Quiche, Kisara, I'll handle the rest. Rollo, come back!"

"Nnn――"

Rollodeen has been devouring deer meat as if still not having sated her hunger. After jerking her head my way, she makes her ears twitch. In the next moment, Rollodeen starts to run. While changing from the big panther version into a horse-like form, she gallops through the forest.

Her approaching while stepping on the deer monster corpses and blowing them away is a sight for sore eyes. All the wolfmen we saved gasp.

I run up to Rollodeen after she's come back, mount her, grab the rein tentacle, and make her gallop once more. We're heading straight for the boss. The rein tentacle attaches itself to my neck, allowing me to actually experience <Divine Beast Serene Mind ・ Soaring> that allows me to share her senses.

The spear-using monsters respond to our approach by fanning out and attacking from the sides. Using that moment, I activate four instances of <Chain Spear of the Ray System> which I haven't exhibited in this battle so far.

The two monsters are taken aback by the sudden appearance of light spears. They aim their bone and bamboo spears at my torso, but my <Chain Spear of the Ray System> hit their spears first. Furthermore, the <Chain Spear of the Ray System> directly hit the heads of the monsters on both sides, causing both of them to explode.

Next I fire two <Chain Spear of the Ray System> at the boss. It opposes the light spears with a net of tentacles as if to show off its huge mana, but the light spears easily penetrate that tentacle net. One of them stabs the humanoid upper body half, and with a slight delay, the other one pierces the planarian lower body.

A crack appears on the butt ends of both spears. Those cracks divide radially, forming light nets in no time. The light nets wrap up the two body halves. Caught by the net, the lower body melts away like a slug that's sprinkled by salt.

"Hiaaaaaa――" The womanly upper body screams.

The light net cuts corrode her skin color that's close to a human's in a mesh shape. I thought that the monster would get defeated by the light net just like that, but it doesn't want to go down.

Understanding my intent, Rollodeen extends her tentacle bone swords. At the same time, I unleash <Water Pierce> with Ganghis while we run past the monster.

Within the blink of an eye, I pour mana into Baldok as usual, and release my certain death technique: <Darkness Drill - Demonic Destruction Lance>.

The vibrating, crescent-moon shaped spearhead of Ganghis that's clad in water mana is added to that. <Water Pierce> penetrates a part of the humanoid upper body. Once its small water membrane bursts apart, the drops create small holes while expanding those holes as if destroying the cells around them.

On top of that, Baldok's red spear, clad in the darkness of <Darkness Drill>, pierces through the monster's womanly face. The head explodes.

And then Destruction Lance Gladopalus makes its entry while emanating an overwhelming presence. Gladopalus, which is releasing an aura as if coming straight out of hell, swallows the lower body, which has been in the middle of regenerating, and the upper body, destroying both. Gladopalus then plunges onwards as if to pierce through space behind the monster.

Befitting of its name, Gladopalus possesses a force similar to a Spirit World's Demolition Arrow. A part of the woodland and surrounding trees are drawn towards Gladopalus mother-of-pearl-inlay, and get destroyed. The ground is being gouged out. Just like that Gladopalus creates a vortex while messily involving the surroundings, before fading.

In no time, Gladopalus and the mana vortex become hard to distinguish, but…Gladopalus sure is devastating. A tremendous destruction of nature that puts Rollodeen to shame.

At that time, silence falls upon the forest. Only Rollodeen's excited, rough snorting can be heard.