Swoosh— After a considerable amount of time had passed, Kayden’s sword finally severed the neck of the last monster.
Screeech! The monster, as large as a house, let out a tremendous scream. With a heavy thud, the giant worm-like monster with deer antlers collapsed to the ground, lifeless.
A brief silence followed. The knights, who had been keeping a vigilant eye on the situation, only relaxed and sank to the ground once they confirmed that the monster had breathed its last.
“Haa…”
“Goodness, that was close.”
“Are you okay, Antar?”
“I’m fine.”
“Look at all that sweat. Are you sure you’re okay?” As the knights, one by one, groaned and collapsed onto the ground, an older knight patted Antar on the shoulder and asked.
It was only then that Antar realized his limbs were trembling. He sighed, lowering his upper body. Sweat was pouring from him like rain.
The older knight patted Antar’s shoulder again. “You did well. When we return, you should be the first to wash up.”
“Thank you.”
“No need to thank me. Thanks to you, we managed to wrap things up without much damage. It’s only right.”
“No, it’s not just because of me…”
Antar shook his head and turned his gaze forward. He saw Kayden, still standing and silently inspecting each monster’s corpse, making sure they were truly dead, even as the other knights had already collapsed.
Antar bit his lip. Even though the monsters grew weaker over time, they were still far more formidable than ordinary monsters.
Antar had initially suspected Duke Findlay’s intentions when he assigned the fourth order to exterminate a small number of monsters. But the monsters they faced were each extremely dangerous.
When the monsters first charged at the wall Antar had created, his spirit had almost been forced into reverse summoning. Moreover, as time passed, the monsters remained strong, making him doubt whether they were really weakening. Even after Antar exhausted his magic and fell back, the knights continued to struggle for a long time.
If it weren’t for Kayden…
…If His Highness hadn’t been there. There would have been much greater losses and certainly casualties.
Antar already knew that Kayden was strong, even before the defense battle. But lately, Kayden had become so powerful that he seemed almost beyond the realm of ordinary elementalists. Perhaps it was due to his sword training, but more than that, his magic felt colder and sharper than before.
That difference brought a new wave of despair to Antar. Here he was, barely holding himself together, while Kayden walked alone among the monster corpses.
“…”
Antar lowered his head, clenching his fists tightly, and remained still for a moment before slowly rising to his feet.
As other knights began to catch their breath and get up, Patrasche approached Kayden.
“We’ve confirmed this area, Your Highness.”
“…”
“Your Highness?”
Patrasche called out to Kayden several times, but Kayden remained motionless, standing among the monster corpses. Just as Patrasche tilted his head in confusion, Kayden lifted part of a bisected monster with his sword and motioned for Patrasche to come closer.
“Pat.”
“Yes?”
“What do you think this is?”
“What… Gasp.” Patrasche peeked over Kayden’s shoulder and recoiled in shock.
Inside the split-open worm-like monster’s belly was a smaller monster, curled up, resembling a slime. Kayden and Patrasche frowned as they stared at the two monster corpses. After a moment of silence, they both murmured.
“Looks like a baby monster, doesn’t it?”
“…Yes, it does. Damn it. No wonder things seemed to be going too smoothly.” Patrasche cursed under his breath and sighed, but he examined the monster carefully with sharp eyes. “It seems likely that some of the eastern variant monsters crossed over. Or these ones went east, devoured their kind, and came back.”
“It looks like this is the only one that ate a baby monster, but just in case, search the remaining area thoroughly. Make sure to eliminate them before they can multiply.”
“Yes, yes. Of course, Your Highness. You all heard that! Get up!”
Patrasche yelled at the knights still lying on the ground, and they quickly got up and readied themselves. They resumed their search of the northern forest.
As they reached the edge of the forest near a cliff, the knights found a small cluster of slimes hidden among the bushes and whispered to each other.
“…They’re small, right?”
“Very small…”
“Really small.”
Based on what Kayden had told them before the hunt, they knew that the variant monsters appearing in the eastern forest were small slimes. But seeing them in person, the monsters seemed almost cute and harmless.
Patrasche turned to Kayden and asked. “They don’t have any particular traits, right?”
“Right. They’re just faster than usual monsters and can surround themselves with lightning when threatened.”
“Then let’s take care of them quickly and head back. Your Highness, you’ve already worked hard leading the charge, so please rest in the rear with Sir Antar.” Patrasche patted Kayden on the shoulder.
Kayden hesitated for a moment but decided to stay with Antar, who seemed to be growing weaker and stepped back to the rear of the formation.
“Once we finish off these guys, we can go home!”
“Let’s go back!”
“Watch out for lightning! If you get fried, you won’t be going home!”
The knights exchanged light-hearted jokes as they gripped their swords, bows, or other weapons. Lights flickered in the air, and spirits appeared.
Piik! Noticing the presence of the knights, the monsters all turned and shrieked. That was the signal for the knights to charge at them.
Slash! Someone’s sword sliced a monster in half. The monster was cleanly cut, which left some of the knights a bit puzzled.
“What? I thought they were supposed to be tougher since they’re variants, but they’re so weak…”
But at that moment—Piik! Piiiik! The surrounding monsters shrieked loudly. As lightning began to flicker around them, the body of the split monster wriggled and reformed into a new creature.
“What the…!”
The knights tried to retreat, but it was too late; arrows and daggers had already been shot at other monsters.
Thud! Squish! The monster hit by the arrow shattered into pieces. Each of those pieces soon reformed into dozens of monsters, swarming the knights. The knights’ faces turned pale at the sight of this unprecedented scene.
“What are you doing?! Stop cutting them and just burn them!”
As the situation changed, Kayden didn’t hesitate to draw his sword and leap over the knights. Hearing his command, the fire elementalists hurriedly set the monsters on fire.
Whoosh! Piiiiik!
“W-We did it!” The knights cheered as the flames engulfed the monsters.
But instead of turning to ash and disappearing, the monsters reformed from the smoke and landed back on the ground.
“Hu, Huaaack!”
“They won’t die! Damn it, they won’t die!”
The knights began to scream in terror as the scene turned into a nightmare.
“Stay calm! Put away your blades and burn them, then disperse the smoke with wind…!”
“Aaagh!”
A terrifying scream echoed through the air. Kayden reflexively turned his head to see a monster stretching its body, viciously biting into the corner of Patrasche’s eye.
Kayden shouted in horror. “Pat!”
Hi, now you can purchase 5 advance chapters in here.
