Once we had a way to escape the city prepared, I told the team.
“We’ll have to pass through somewhere else, but we can return to the terraforming ruins.”
At my words, the team members let out sighs of relief.
I was looking at them and thinking about what to say next when Magreta smiled strangely and asked me.
“So, are we leaving right away?”
It was clearly a question she asked while already knowing my answer.
I felt like giving a different answer, but I had already made up my mind.
I told everyone.
“There’s one thing we need to do before we leave.”
At my words, every team member except Tom clenched their fists.
“Yes!”
“I knew it!”
“I told you this would happen.”
When I stared blankly at their unexpected reaction, Tom sighed and said,
“The team made a bet on whether this operation would go according to plan. Everyone bet on one side, so I made a reverse bet… It was a pointless thing to do.”
Since it was indeed my fault, I had nothing to say.
Still, thanks to that, it was easier to speak.
“Now that we have a way to escape, I’m thinking of causing a bit of a commotion.”
Honestly, after coming this far, I couldn’t just walk away from a table already set for me.
Besides, if we left through spatial movement, there would be no need to worry about being pursued.
Now, as long as we didn’t create a dangerous situation…
Thinking that, I looked over the team members and met Magreta’s eyes.
Magreta’s eyes narrowed.
“If you say you’re staying behind alone again, I’ll break the spatial movement device.”
Troubled by her words, I turned my gaze to the others.
Sergeant Woo was checking his equipment, and Tom was sighing as he picked up his spear.
Lastly, Hanna tied a bowstring to her bow and said,
“I’m staying no matter what.”
I couldn’t tell whether she was saying that because she had seen that light, or whether she was simply being stubborn.
Still, I decided to think it would be fine.
This time, we had decided to do it together.
“Then let’s do this. You all set traps around this area. I’ll lure them here.”
“But…”
At my order, Magreta tried to protest again.
I raised a hand and cut her off.
“If you’re not going to go ahead first, then follow my orders.”
In my opinion, this was the safest and best method.
When I spoke firmly, everyone nodded.
After retrieving the spear standing atop the altar, I went up to the surface with the team.
I looked around.
Piles of stones scattered everywhere, a half-destroyed tower standing alone, and wall-like remnants that didn’t even reach the waist.
Unlike other areas where some buildings still remained, there was almost nothing left here.
However, there were plenty of points suitable for fighting.
I gave instructions to the team.
“Magreta, make traps from here to over there with Tom and Sergeant Woo.”
I raised my hand and drew a line from the stairway entrance toward the direction we had come from.
Magreta understood my words immediately.
“Ah, we can use this. Leave it to me.”
She took the team members and began making traps.
Once Magreta moved, I took an armful of arrows out of the box and gave them to Hanna.
“Hanna, climb that tower and snipe the ones following behind me. You don’t need to retrieve the arrows, so you can throw away whatever’s left.”
We still had plenty of arrows.
“Yes.”
At my words, Hanna nodded, and I gave the most important instruction.
“Keep watch around us, and if it looks dangerous, signal me with an arrow.”
“I’ll shoot a whistling arrow.”
Hanna took out an arrowhead that made a sound from her clothes.
It was something I had asked the blacksmith to make while I was on Earth.
I gave another warning to Hanna, whose eyes were sparkling as she held the arrowhead.
“You have to run right away too, without trying to save anyone else. Got it?”
Hanna had disobeyed my orders and run into the ruins to help me. No matter how many times I made her promise, I couldn’t help but worry.
At my words, Hanna smiled and nodded.
“Yes. Don’t worry.”
Well, when I thought about it, Hanna was the safest.
[The one in the most danger is you.]
Soph’s nagging voice rang out again.
This time as well, I pretended not to hear Soph.
I saw Hanna climb the tower with her bow.
It was a dangerous-looking tower, with no stairs and only half its walls remaining. But Hanna climbed the wall like a flying squirrel.
She reached the top floor of what must once have been a bell tower and waved at me.
After waving back, I checked on the other team members.
Magreta and the two male team members were running around the ruins, setting traps.
Everyone was doing well.
Now it was my turn.
I began retracing the path we had come from.
My destination was the building where we had first found a cocoon. I planned to burst the cocoon there first.
Since it was a path I had taken once before, going back was not difficult.
I knew the routes the monsters took, and I knew how to move so I wouldn’t be discovered.
I passed through the city ruins more than twice as fast as when I had moved with the team.
The building where I had first discovered the cocoon was quiet.
The humanoid monsters that had been entering the building were no longer in sight either.
I entered the building through a half-broken window.
Inside the building was the cocoon.
Grrrrrrr.
The monster cocoon expanded and contracted, filling the interior.
‘Don’t tell me it’s sleeping.’
[It’s digesting its prey. Even if you said it was sleeping, it wouldn’t be wrong.]
Even without Soph’s words, the cocoon had grown larger than when I had seen it before.
However, now was not the time to confirm that.
I gripped the spear with both hands and pushed energy into it.
According to Soph, magic didn’t seem to work well on monster cocoons.
It was probably a defensive measure the monsters had against mages.
However, he said it could be pierced with enough physical force.
By physical means, he meant nothing special.
It meant loading energy into the spear and stabbing with all my might, just like now.
Puaaak!
The shining spear pierced through the cocoon.
White blood gushed out around the spear.
“Eeegh!”
I grabbed the embedded spear and pushed with all my strength.
Crunch, crackle.
With the sound of leather crumpling, the cocoon began to be sliced open.
White blood poured out like a waterfall.
Slosh, slosh.
As the wound grew larger, the cocoon began to go berserk.
Rumble, rumble.
The walls shook, and parts of the cocoon bulged out here and there.
The monster inside was clearly thrashing about.
I ignored the cocoon’s frenzy and continued cutting it open with the spear.
I was drenched in white blood, but what covered me was only a small portion of it.
The floor of the building filled with white blood.
When I had cut away about a third of it, the white blood that had been pouring out gradually decreased.
As the blood decreased, I began to see inside the cocoon.
Inside was a giant monster drenched in white blood.
The monster looked like a beetle with more than ten legs.
[It’s a Shaman. A defensive combatant. It has an incredibly tough shell. It guarded control entities and nests, but it also used its hard body to smash cities and fortresses.]
‘If it went around destroying buildings with its body, then it seems like a tank type?’
Or perhaps it could be called a tank or a bulldozer.
In any case, if its only strong point was a sturdy body, then it shouldn’t be as impressive as I expected.
[If its body is simply tough, wouldn’t a scout be scarier?]
Scouts had tough bodies as well as tentacles.
An enemy whose body was simply tough wasn’t difficult to deal with.
[That is not so. It isn’t just hard. It would be fair to say it deflects all ordinary attacks and magic.]
If so, that was truly troublesome.
I had struggled so much just to pierce a scout’s shell, and now there was a shell even harder than that.
There was no way to pierce a shell like that.
“But it shouldn’t be that hard right now, should it?”
The shell of the monster crawling out while drenched in white blood didn’t look hard. It looked soft and pliable.
A translucent monster shell smeared with white blood.
Right now, I could even see inside the shell.
[It looks weaker than the cocoon.]
“Then that’s enough.”
I raised the spear.
There was no need to enter the cocoon.
The rampaging creature had half its body sticking out of the cocoon.
I thrust the spear with all my might toward the black stone visible beyond the translucent shell.
Puaaak!
White blood splattered again, and the monster thrashed.
I couldn’t hear any sound, but it felt as though I could hear the monster’s scream.
Still, I did not let go of the spear.
I only drove it in even harder.
The spear continued piercing through the monster’s shell and finally reached the black stone.
Grrrrrrr.
The moment the spear touched the black stone, the creature stopped moving.
“Huh? I didn’t even pull out the black stone.”
As I frowned at the unexpected situation, Soph’s voice sounded.
[It isn’t dead. Since it isn’t complete yet, it merely fainted from the shock. You’ll have to remove the black stone to kill it for certain.]
Even if it had only fainted, that was fine.
This would make the work several times easier.
Even if the creature had died, I had planned to take the black stone anyway.
Fortunately, the black stone was located toward the outside of its body.
[Right now, the black stone is protruding outward because the body still needs to be formed. Once it leaves the cocoon, it will settle in the center of the body.]
Soph poured cold water on my satisfaction, but I decided to think about that later.
I pulled the spear out of the monster, then shoved my hand into the hole.
The black stone touched my hand.
I grabbed the black stone and pulled with all my strength.
Wriggle.
As the black stone came out, the monster’s body sloshed once more.
Psssssh.
Then the monster went limp like a deflated balloon.
[It’s dead.]
“Yes. It’s dead.”
Just by looking, and through my senses as well, I could tell the monster was dead.
I examined the black stone I had pulled out.
This black stone had a slightly strange shape.
I was about to ask Soph about it.
But another sound stopped the words from leaving my mouth.
—Wheeeeeeeeeeeng!
A sound resembling a siren rang out from far away.
It was a sound that was somehow gloomy and made the heart uneasy.
[It has noticed.]
I immediately understood what Soph meant.
He was talking about the control entity.
At some point, the tube that had stretched underground had been severed.
It must have severed it after realizing the enemy had attacked.
The control entity had noticed me, but we had not yet deviated from the plan.
I put the black stone into the box and picked up the spear.
Now that I had taken the black stone as well, I had no more business here.
Leaving the half-cut cocoon and the monster corpse inside, I went outside.
Once I stepped out, I could tell.
The air had changed.
The movements of the humanoid monsters I sensed had also changed.
Monsters were rushing toward this place.
Their numbers were still manageable, but I turned around.
This was not the time to wrestle with those things.
Right now, I had to burst even one more cocoon.
I ran toward the next cocoon.
Kuaaaaaaaa!
A roar rang out from far away.
It was the roar of the scout I had seen before.
That creature was coming this way too.
Hundreds of humanoid monsters closing in to surround me, a scout approaching from afar, and an enraged control entity.
It was as if the entire city was moving to catch me.
It was an extremely dangerous situation, but I felt no sense of crisis. I wasn’t worried either.
Running through a city and causing chaos was my specialty.
The enemies approached. Killing intent poured in.
Along with beads of sweat, tension surged up.
The corners of my mouth lifted slightly as well.
[Madman.]
Listening to Soph’s praise, I excitedly sprinted down the alley.