136-Chapter 135




By: Satsuki


I run along the road I chose.

From the front, a number of tentacles attack me.
Both arms and legs, thighs and arms, torso, chest, neck... I guess that's what they're trying to wrap around me.

It's pointless to try to dodge one or two of them, and if you try to dodge them all at once by jumping sideways, you'll be out of the way.
That's no good.

Then, yes.
Just head straight for it, and if you want to get wrapped up in it, go ahead, that's fine.
That's what I thought, and I pushed forward on my path.

Because I know that Will's magic will protect me.

As I do so, tentacles naturally begin to entwine around me.
On my arms and legs, on my body, on my neck.

And then...

Swoosh!
The sound of something burning and the smell of burning.

The tentacles rush away from my body.
The tentacles melted from the part that was wrapped around me, and furthermore, they were carbonizing and collapsing.

'Haha, you idiot! It's all in Will's hands!

I took the opportunity and rushed down the 'path'.
I ran towards the tunnel where the main body with the tentacles would be.

The fourth spell that Will cast on me is called Flame Body.

In short, it's a spell that applies a heat weapon to my entire body.
The amount of heat is not as great as that of a heat weapon, but the body and clothes of the target of the spell are protected by the magic of heat protection.

And what happens if you do that is that the tentacles that try to attach themselves to me will get burned badly.

So, do you understand me, tentacle?
The only one who can hug me is Will.
If you touch me, you'll get burned.

....... Actually, even Will gets burned, so he refused to hug me.

But that's beside the point.
The tentacles can't do anything to me if I'm like this.

Well, actually, they should be able to hit me.
The tentacles seemed to be unsure of how to move in the moment, and were making hesitant movements.

In the meantime, I quickly proceeded down the 'path'.
I sliced through the giant larvae on the path, and finally leapt into the tunnel in question.

The big tunnel - with a ceiling three times as high and wide as I am tall - and the monster lurking at the end of it was just as Will had said.

If I had to say it was close to the Yamata-no-orochi I had seen in picture books when I was a small child, it would be close.
But the fact that it was a rockworm, not a serpent's head, growing out of its body was very grotesque.

There are seven rockworms growing out of the body.
Each of them is about the same size as an adult rockworm, and the one in the middle is even bigger.

Such a monster was lurking face down in the tunnel.
It was like a bunch of rock worms, so it was huge.
The tunnel itself is wide, but it looks like it's lying tightly packed in that wide tunnel.

Incidentally, the tentacles seemed to be growing out from the sides of the body in groups.
There were more than ten tentacles on each side, and about thirty on both sides.

'Well... how do I cook this thing?

I paused at the entrance to the tunnel.
I'm only a few steps away from the tip of that monster, the Mother Rockworm.

The tentacle swarm seems to be wandering around me.
I guess they're having a hard time attacking me.
Well, they know they'll get burned if they touch it, so they can't attack too easily.

But at the same time, I realize.
You'll be able to find a lot more than just a few of these in the marketplace.

...... You can do anything you want.
I'm not sure if that's enough, but I think it's a good idea.

It might regenerate not only the tentacles, but the body as well.
But even if that's the case, we'll be fine.
We can probably kill it if we keep draining its life force faster than that.

I'll look over the whole enemy and find a way.

The Water Dance isn't just for use against a pack.
There's a flow even when you're dealing with a single enemy.

You look blankly for a second.
And then... I saw it.

I kicked the ground lightly and went with the flow.

It was only a moment later that a tentacle swung out and slapped me.
I strike out and hit the ground.
I'm not there anymore.

I move forward.
A little to the left at first, then a hard stop on the third step, then a right turn while reversing.
Two of the monster's necks extend and bite into the spot where I was just before.

I cut them off.
The skin was so thick that it was almost as if I was cutting the rock itself, but thanks to the heat weapon Will had given me, it was no problem.
It was easy to cut.

One, two, three.
After a total of three slashes, I jumped back lightly.

After a moment's delay, another head comes down and bites you where no one else is.
He slashes it with a split bamboo and moves forward toward the main body again.

When I sink down a little, a head passes over my head.
I stab it from below and push it away.
I move a little to the side and move forward again.

Well, the rest is pretty much the same.
Slash, move, slash, slash, move, slash.

I moved around the monster rather a lot.
I think I slashed it a total of 20 times or more.

It regenerated its body too.
But it couldn't keep up.
My slashing was much faster and the damage was much heavier.

Even so, it was tough because it was so big, but...

'......!

ZUN!
Eventually, the monster let out a desperate scream and finally ran out of energy and fell down.

And then, after twitching and twitching, it stops moving.
I thrust my sword into the head of the biggest rockworm, and even as the stabbed part melted away, it didn't wince.

Apparently, I've won.

'Hmm...'

Breathing in and out, I breathed a sigh of relief.

I was so focused. .......
I'm really tired mentally, if not physically.

The Rockworm's master sank without showing any good performance at all, but that doesn't mean it was a small fish.
If it hadn't been for Will's magic, I might not have been able to win even if I had mastered the Flowing Water Dance, and I might have been the one who got beaten.

Or perhaps I would have.


It would have been difficult to get close to it because of the tentacles, and even if I had been able to get close enough to fight the main body, the high defense and regenerative abilities would have prevented me from cutting it down, and I would have run out of breath first.

But we'd have won anyway.
With Will supporting us, there was no way we could lose to this guy.

Because this is my first time working with Will... well, not my first time.
Hee hee, hee hee, hee hee.

...... This is it.

'Well, now all that's left to do is...'

It's a great way to make sure you don't get caught in the middle of the action.

Just beyond my line of sight I saw a swarm of giant Rockworm larvae crawling towards me.
They seemed to be angry because their master (my mom) had been killed.

'I'm sorry... but I've been asked to do this by a dwarf who had his friends killed. If we run into each other, the stronger pack will survive.

Now, I've got some more work to do.
I swing my sword and head towards the swarm of giant larvae...