When Tsutomu returned, the shell club was still wielding its forceps as energetically as ever. Garum parried a side-nap with his hand shield and Amy slashed at the slender legs with her twin swords.

　About three of the slender legs have their shells and ore armor stripped off and the shells of the forceps and other parts of the forceps have been reduced in size. No trauma is seen other than the back armor that Amy stabbed into, but the two of them seem to have been thoroughly chipping away at their armor.

That and what looked like a white sphere with a transparent background could also be seen from Tsutomu's distant eyes. Behind the sphere, which was shaped like an eyeball, there was a 9 and a number on the back of the sphere, as if it were an eyeball.

　Tsutomu thought that that must be the camera that was showing the live-streaming video, since it matched the features that had been communicated to Garum.


(Disturbing.)


　Tsutomu guessed that it wasn't really there when he saw it slipping through the trees, but it seemed to him that it was just a hindrance as it flew around.

　Then the camera seemed to get a glimpse of Tsutomu's words and looked in his direction. It then moved to the edge of Tsutomu's field of view. Tsutomu frowned at the sensible camera.

　When they saw Tsutomu, Amy quickly pulled away from the shell club and moved closer to him.


'Heel. Protech.
I'm sorry. I used three potions.


　Amy said and bowed her head graciously as Tsutomu flew his skills at them. Tsutomu looked down at it, cracking a smile in annoyance, and then made her raise her head.


'That's perfectly fine. I'm glad you two held your own.'
Well for the most part, Garm was holding out.
'It was Amy who stripped you of your armour, wasn't it?　And it was Amy who inflicted that back armor wound as well, wasn't it?
Well, yeah.


　Tsutomu chuckles as Amy's face turns from guilty to smug as he applies the hazing to Amy.


'I've finished setting the trap. If we didn't find it, we'll head for the other nest, and if we still can't find it, we'll retreat.
Okay.

Yes, sir.


　As he said that, he approached the shell club, following Amy as she ran off.


'Mr. Garm!　Heist, I'm going!　In the meantime, please take over with Amy!


　Haste is a skill that increases your agility, unlike Protection, which increases your defense. You can move your body with or without Haste.

　So Haste will be cut off during battle. Or, if you want to apply it, Tsutomu decided that it would be better to call out to him, and he was thorough in calling out to him.

　Garum responded to Tsutomu's voice and slammed his sword into the forceps of the shell club. He then flew backwards several times to get close to Tsutomu, not taking his gaze off the shell club as he bathed his body in blue qi.

　As if to swap places with Garum, Amy went to the shell club and slashed her slender legs while sliding around the forceps that were swung from the side. She dodged the shellcrab, which flew shallowly to stomp on Amy, with the supple body language of a cat.

　Watching her, Garum turned to Tsutomu and bowed deeply. It's not long before Tsutomu wondered what was going on, and Garum pulled out two empty containers from under his armor.


''You have two potions to consume, I'm sorry.


　Tsutomu gave him an exasperated look, wondering if you were next in line for Amy's job. At that expression, Garum crinkled his big black tail, lowered the corners of his eyes, and lowered his head deeply again. Tsutomu hurriedly spoke up to clear up the misunderstanding.


''It's okay. I've heard from Amy. You've held up well on your own.'
I'm really sorry. You can deduct this amount from my personal reward. I was hit once for nothing.
No, no, no.
No, I don't like it.
''Well I don't have time to talk about the gains and losses of potions right now, so I'll ask later. Okay?


　Garum raised his lowered head as if he was satisfied with his words. Tsutomu continued to talk even though he thought it was a good idea to be too serious.


''The trap has been set. But this time, let's just be lucky if it happens. If it didn't happen, we'll look for another nest. If we still don't find it, we'll retreat this time.
Yes, sir.
'Then the armor is peeling off, so let's start chipping away in earnest. Oh, it's time for the hast to wear off, so let's head out while walking. When it runs out, conkla, please.
...Combat Cry is correct, right?
Oh, excuse me. Yes. It's fine.


　When Garum looked at him, Tsutomu hurriedly affirmed it while he stepped forward into the shell club. And as the blue qi disappeared from Garum's body, he moved away from Tsutomu and activated his Combat Cry. The shell club, which had been facing Amy, quickly moved its thin legs and walked sideways to Garum.

　Forceps wielded with such force that Tsutomu's forelock, which was a little farther away, flew up. Garum catches it with his shield and pulls his body back and flushes it to the side. The smaller forceps on the left are wide open to pinch Garum, but he immediately senses it and pulls back. Gachin. The forceps clipped the sky.

　Amy is looking for an opportunity to get on the back armor while it's open, but she's wary of being wounded and wary of being behind her. As soon as Amy tries to get closer, she either turns her body around or stops moving and fires water bullets from her dorsal armor.

　Can we manage to gouge out that wound? Amy thought of one means as she recalled memories from her time as an explorer. As soon as the shell club's attention turned to Garum, she put away her twin swords and put her feet on the trunk of the tree beside her.


''Garmu!


　When Garum turned his side eye toward the loud voice, he saw Amy waving at him as she clambered up the tree. Seeing what Amy wanted to do, Garm kicked the sand up towards the ticking mouth to guide the Shellcrab there.

　Then the shell club suddenly began to turn its back on Garum. For a moment, Garum thought that the Hate had turned to Tsutomu, and in a brief moment of impatience, the Shellcrab lowered its posture to sit down and fired a sharp needle of water from its dorsal armor.

　As soon as he saw that action, two years ago he would have been able to detect the attack and avoid it. However, the idea of playing a role in attracting the enemy that had sprouted in Garum. That thought slowed his thinking and delayed his judgment.

　Garum took an evasive stance, but the sharp water fired with vigor easily penetrated the iron armor, piercing Garum's belly and thighs.

　The pain is as if a thick needle is piercing his belly and thighs. The blood that flowed out of the empty hole dyed the sand red-black.


''Ugh.''


　Garum's movements didn't stop despite his distressed voice. In his experience as an explorer, there were a number of things he had to move in worse situations than this.

　Avoiding the forceps wielded at an angle to stop the weakened prey, Garum headed to where Amy was. Along the way, a green chi enveloped Garum's feet. Tsutomu's high heel flies into his belly after it as well, stopping the blood from flowing out and beginning to repair his internal organs.

　Grateful for the fading pain, Garum runs straight to the bottom of the tree where Amy is. Along the way, Garum notices that the shell club is still, not following him.

　Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Shellcrab's antennae move. To Tsutomu with his staff at the ready.

　As if it were a tank, moving its slender legs while rolling up sand, the shell club quickly closed in on Tsutomu. By the time Tsutomu finishes applying the heist to himself, the forceps are already raised. A shadow appeared above Tsutomu's head.

　Tsutomu looked up at it for a moment and then immediately flew to the side as fast as he could. The wind-driven grains of sand hit Tsutomu's cheeks as he rolled over, unable to get a good passive response. The sandbox from which the forceps were swung down was deeply dented.

　If it hits, it will definitely kill you. Tsutomu forced his cowering legs to move and crawl, and managed to avoid the forceps swung like a cleave that followed. The wind pressure that gave a sense of death was blowing on Tsutomu's back.


''Combat Cry!''


　Tsutomu's recovering Garum's voice comes to his ears as he rolls through the sandbox, puffed up by the wind pressure. Immediately turning around and relieved to be off the shell club's target, Tsutomu raises his wand to stop his tickling and shaking jaw and shouts.


''Pro-Tech!''


　An ochre aura dwells on Garum and Amy's bodies. Feeling weary after using his high heels twice, Tsutomu wobbled a little and shook his head to remove the grains of sand that had stuck to him.

　Tsutomu pulled a thin bottle of blue potion from his waist and drank its contents. A cool, minty taste spread in his mouth.

　Then, using his clear mind, Tsutomu inserted the empty container into his waistband and caught the shell club with his eyes to assess the current situation.

　The shellcrab's target, Garum, had scrambled up a tree and was heading down to Amy, who was hiding in the leaves. He dexterously backstepped and moved around to get past the shell club's attack.

　When Garum reached Amy's bottom, he tried to trigger the shell club's attack while backing up against the tree. Then, just as Garum had intended, Shellcrab opened his left forceps and tried to pin him down.

　Garum went around the back of the tree and used the tree trunk as a stepping stone and flew backwards. The tree was easily shattered by the forceps instead of Garum, and the tree was easily shattered. The tree fell to the side as it was. From that tree, Amy jumped onto her back armor.


''Rock splitting blade!''


　Amy shouted the name of the skill and slammed the twin swords in both hands into the two wounds. The slash to the place where the shell was destroyed and the white flesh was visible did enormous damage to the shell club.


''Bikiiiiiiiii!


　The shell club let out a scream loud enough for Tsutomu, who was away, to hear, and bobbed his body as if he was going crazy. Amy twisted and pulled out her twin swords as if she were locking them up and quickly broke away.

　Hearing Amy's voice blurting out that it was a good one in the middle, Garum thrust his long sword into the joints of his slender legs to follow up. The thin, black, cracked shell crumbled, exposing its white flesh. Garum retreated once as the shell club's onslaught was laced with anger.

　Even after Garum broke away, the shellcrab continued to flail in place for a while. It spat transparent foam from its mouth, wielding its forceps carelessly and sending countless water bullets flying from its back armor. The two of them checked its condition and moved back quickly, avoiding the water bullets.


''That one can't get any closer. Let's try to avoid it for a while. Until that one subsides, I'll put the Haste on Garum-san as well.''


　Since there were many water bullet attacks, Tsutomu made sure that Haste was given to Garum at all times. For a while, the three of them avoided the water bullets, keeping their distance so that they wouldn't hit each other.

　Garum activated Combat Cry, but the Haste was not directed at him alone. Shellcrab is in a kind of madness, and the attacks are indiscriminate, so Tsutomu needs to avoid them as well.

　If you hasten to increase your agility and stay a little farther away from him, you can see the water bullets. The initial speed of the water bullets is fast and they can easily penetrate a human body, but the distance between them is so great that they will only be blown away if you are far away.

　Tsutomu was blown away four times by water bullets and dropped from his face into a tide pool or rolled around in a sandbox, leaving him covered in sand. Amy gave him a look like he was a badly made child, and Tsutomu paid off the sand in his white robe to fool him.

　And when the shell club's behavior slowed down a bit, Tsutomu stopped hazing Garum. As usual, he put on the protection and let her drink the blue potion before hitting her with the Combat Cry.

　Then Amy went for the scarred back armor. Garum poked her bare body while the shell club attacked her. Tsutomu continues his support skills and recovers. If the hate seems to be directed at him, he unleashes an airblade.

　The Shell Crab is now flying water bullets from its back armor less frequently, probably due to the large number of shots it fired earlier. After that, Amy got better and started tearing the back armor to shreds. She attacked a little too much and Garum wasn't getting any hate, so Tsutomu told her to reduce the frequency of her attacks.


'Err, he said it's okay.'
''If you have a magician, though, we can cut them off at once. If Amy-san should die here by any chance, the PT will collapse, so please be patient.
Okay.


　The shell club has weakened and our attacks are now able to get through, but a direct hit from the forceps would still kill Amy and Tsutomu instantly. Garum is also a former attacker, so he won't be a total disaster, but there's no need to risk it.

　Amy's lips twitched in a boring manner as she looked at Garum, who was standing around with the shell club despite being granted two support skills.

　Garum is solidly poking at the fine legs while avoiding the forceps' attacks. That left three of the slender legs also bare, with their shells destroyed and their bodies exposed, and one of them was intensively attacked, tearing the muscle fibers to shreds.

　Tsutomu unleashes his airblade on the slender leg and it cuts through the white meat in an interesting way. Garm breaks down the Shellcrab's thin legs even more as he loses his stance a bit.


'Mystic Blade!'


　A long sword wrapped in a mystical blue color along with Galm's words. When he swings it diagonally, the fourth shell is destroyed after a sound like air breaking, and the shell club crunches back with a small scream.

　He had instructed Garum not to use much other than Combat Cry and Enchantment, mainly to devote his mental power to his hate-making skills. Mystic Blade is an intense attack skill, but using it here is not a good idea from Tsutomu's point of view. Even if you do use it, it's best to use it after the shell club has moved to the nest.

　Tsutomu put that information in the corner of his mind, wondering if Garum was getting a little heightened as well as Amy. As long as he knew that, he could follow through.

　Then the shell club retreated after the fourth shell was broken, and after fumbling with its mouth, it spat out a white, sticky liquid towards Garum. The liquid, which was used to adhere shells and ores to its own body, would undoubtedly block its movements if it was hit.

　Garum, who has been granted a Haste, dodged it without danger. And that attack is also a sign that he has fallen below fifty percent of his strength. Amy is itching to hold her twin swords.


''Well then, shall we go now?''
We've been waiting for you.


　When Tsutomu gave her the go-ahead, Amy jumped out like a cat chasing a rat. She immediately jumped on her back armor and swung her twin swords to spread the two scars. The shell club stops moving with a snap and tries to get the water bullets out of the gun, but no bullets come out of the unloaded gun.

　He had tried several times to refill the tide pools with water, but that was prevented by Tsutomu shooting his airblade into the white-faced slender legs to scare them away. Good thing there were no water bullets, Amy was thrusting her twin swords all she wanted on her back armor.

　The shell club screams and swings her body around as the twin swords dig into her back. Amy is laughing and clinging to her twin swords, laughing as if she's on an attraction, even as she sticks the twin swords into her white body and gets blue blood on her face. She's getting a little too high, Tsutomu thought appreciatively, trying to pay attention to her.

　And as the battle continued with the upper hand, the shell club thrust both forceps into the ground as hard as it could. He thrust his forceps into the ground repeatedly as if he were plowing the ground. White foam shot out of his mouth.


'Tsutomu!　It's a sign of movement!
"Yes, sir. The bubbles are white. The shells are peeling and will move on.


　Garum shouted even as he caught the flying grains of sand with his shield. Tsutomu heard Garum's voice and released his airblade while checking on the shell club. Amy jumped off her back armor and ran towards Tsutomu.

　Shellcrab then jumped upwards with great vigor after flailing for a while. It pivoted its body like a drill, thrusting both forceps into the ground as it dug in and disappeared as if it were falling away after rolling up the sand all over the ground. The rumbling sound of the earth quickly faded away.

　Hmph, Tsutomu breathed and stabbed his white cane into the sandbox. Garum also quietly sheathed the long sword that had paid off the blood, and Amy roughly tucked the twin swords away as if to control her rage.



Do you need me to chase you?　I felt pretty good about it, and we might be able to take it down as soon as we find it!


　Amy's blue blood-stained cat ears bleeped with excitement as she felt a better response than expected. When she blew out a white bubble, her remaining strength was 30 percent. The purple bubbles are twenty percent. Blue foam is ten percent. Knowing this, Tsutomu slowly shook his head at Amy's suggestion.


''No, let's go check the traps this time. We'll look at the two nests from a distance and if we can't confirm their presence, we'll retreat.''
"...but!　They've obviously gone that way!　It's backwards, right?　Then it's better to go after them...
"Amy,


　Garm grabbed Amy by the scruff of her neck as she pulled back, and she flapped her feet in the air. Amy looked resentfully at Garm, but he put Amy down in the air, looking like she was nowhere to be found.


'The PT leader now is Tsutomu. Follow my instructions.
''Well I don't know if the leader is giving the right instructions. Giving wrong instructions is a common occurrence even in major clans. And this is the first time Tsutomu has been to the beach. No matter how much you say you've seen him live, I've been here many times and seen him in person.


　Amy squeezed out the words with a plop. Garum crossed his arms.


'I'm sure that's true for me, too. But I don't know what you're thinking, either. I've felt a response.
Right?　I'm pretty sure that thing is dying!　I can take you down in a minute!


　Amy's eyes, which turned back to Garum, have clearly lost their calmness. Garum is also unusually restless, perhaps because he is bonded to it. Tsutomu thought that perhaps the two of them were losing their composure because they might be able to defeat the Hierarchical Lord of the Beach for the first time.


''Well, the consumption potion is five, so even if we let them escape at worst, we can try again soon. And it's profitable with the wilderness curse magic stone.''
What?　You're too weak!


　For better or worse, Amy, who is honest about her greed, immediately refuted Tsutomu. When Garum heard Tsutomu's words, he unclasped his arms.


'.........Hmm. It's true that Tsutomu is right. I'm sure you'll be able to find five bottles of the forest apothecary's potion, though. It's not a bad idea to try the trap that Tsutomu drew up this time.
'To the Garm... You missed your chance!　It doesn't take a trap because the big clans are failing!
Hm. So you're gonna do God a favor again?　That would be the result of your clan's end.
"...that's it!　It's his fault!


　Amy's golden eyes widened into a gasp and she was so enraged that she was ready to jump on him now. Her long white hair seemed to be shimmering slightly, and Tsutomu had the illusion that a monster was right in front of him. The first thing that comes to mind is that something like hatred oozing out of Amy makes Tsutomu flinch and back away involuntarily.

　Garum's face pulled back a bit in surprise at Amy, but he immediately opened his mouth without seeming to shy away from it.


I don't know the details of your clan's inner workings, but me and you both have similar results. The absence of an attacker who can unleash a powerful blow at once. That's why we couldn't break through this hierarchy.
I'm not with you.
'Tsutomu's strategy of setting a trap has certainly been done several times by major clans and failed. But at least my clan had never tried it. I was lucky enough to find a shell club right away, and all I could do was dream up a clan that was lucky enough to find a shell club that escaped, and God help me. It sounds silly now, but that was then.
..........


　At that time, a gossip was spreading within the guild that only the clan chosen by God could find the Shell Club. It's the saying that only if you find it on your own will the gods will recognize you and your subsequent search will go well.

　The two clans collapsed after letting it happen. There is no other way.


I'm not sure if our LUK is high enough to ask God for help. Then following Tsutomu's plan is what I--''
'Hmmm, I guess so. We couldn't do it. But now there's a lucky boy.


　Amy said that with a half-smile and a sense of desperation.

　Giggle. Tsutomu's hand holding his staff strengthened and closed his eyes, which had been open like a thread, as if sewing them shut.

　The hand that Garum tried to grab Amy's chest with his eyes dulled, Tsutomu, who opened his eyes, controlled her from the side with his cane.


''Hmmm, have you noticed that, Amy? That's also factored into this strategy. My LUK went up to D+ the other day. It's higher than Amy's.


　Hmph, Tsutomu mouthed in a good mood and put his hand on Amy's shoulder. When she was tapped on the shoulder, she rolled her eyes and looked back at Tsutomu, and was horrified by the look in his eyes.

　Tsutomu is still smiling, as usual. A smile that seems to be the same as always. However, the gaze she was giving Amy was like she was looking at a kitten. It's similar to the eyes of the searcher in the guild who calls Tsutomu a lucky person - an insect.

　They are not that cold of eyes. However, Amy could certainly feel a cold sweat running down her face as she looked at him as if he was looking at an animal instead of a human being.

　Tsutomu let go of Amy's hand, who stiffened like a borrowed cat, and began to walk ahead of her, stepping on the sand.


'Well, leave it to the lucky ones (lucky boy) to take care of things here. If we don't do it quickly, the shell club will recover rapidly, and we should act for now. The time for the signposts will be running out soon.


　Tsutomu, who looked the same as usual, also popped Garum's shoulder and started to run a little bit. Garum gave Amy a momentary glance with a blank expression, then followed Tsutomu. Amy followed with an indescribable expression on her face. The camera, which had been watching from the sidelines from afar, didn't mind following along.