27 - trampling

As usual, it was Riccar, who prided himself on being a cut-throat, who made the first move.

He quickly drew his two swords and flanked the monster.

The boar slips quietly through the trees and keeps moving forward without stopping.

The red-haired boy, stepping forward with great momentum, thrusts his sword into the flank of the beast, which is difficult to avoid and hard to counterattack.

The iron blade rips shallowly through the hide, turning the brown fur slightly red.

The next moment, the boar's middle leg lifted up and kicked Riccar away carelessly.

With a dull thud, the boy's body slides across the ground.

Riccar hits the base of the tree hard and lets out a gasp mixed with a scream.

Letting out a groan, the boy struggles to stand up, somehow supporting himself with his sword.

But he is unable to do so. Leaning against the trunk, he sucks in his breath like a bellows.

Riccar's body was so hollowed out that even through his leather armor one could clearly see his chest.

"Go ...... to ......!"

Riccar barely managed to utter a word as he spat out blood mixed with air bubbles.

His voice finally brought Sisan and the others back to their senses.

Sisan, who had quickly readied his round shield, rushed forward in front of the monster to protect the others.

If the monster catches the attacker a few times, its fighting spirit will build up and it will be able to perform a "Ishin" (stone body) attack.

This would surely buy him some time.

It would not help to buy time, but Sisan's thoughts stopped there in the face of the staggering difference in size.

The boy, who had been trained to stay low, waited for the giant body to approach him.

"Hey, hey!　Answer me!"

Behind her, a tearful Alesia was trying her best to call out to Riccar.

Checking her pulse as she had learned in the temple, the girl worked her magic on the sternum, which had lost its shape.

However, her level 1 is only slightly better than a blood-preventing ointment.

Staring at the pursed lips and the boy's eyes that are losing their light, Alethea struggles to hold back the sobs that well up inside her.

Hinck stands still as he watches his friends move out of the way.

He had not even put an arrow to his bow.

Riccar was right, there was no choice but to run.

Hinck had fought the urge to flee many times before, whenever the party seemed to be falling apart.

And now, in a situation where he is sure to die if he does not escape, for some reason his body does not want to move.

His eyes darting from place to place, the boy spends the remaining time in a daze.

"Come on, come on!"

Sisan called out to the monster in front of him in a hushed voice.

He may have thought he was shouting, but his voice was so small that it sounded as if it was about to disappear.

However, the boar seems to have heard him.

The distance of a few steps was lost in an instant.

The boy was helplessly caught in front of the huge body that hit him at a tremendous speed.

Normally, it would have been the theory that the boy should tilt his shield to pass the boar, but there was no room for such a maneuver.

The boar's extended tusks pierced through the shield like paper, reaching the shoulder of the wielder.

Sissan's body, which should have been easily blown away by the tusks, stayed at the tips of the tusks as if sewn in place.

The boar shook its head sharply from side to side on the spot, as if it felt that the boy caught in its tusks was in its way.

Sisang, who was swung around like a puppet, lost consciousness several times, but each time he was brought back by unimaginable pain.

The boy, bleeding and hanging limply by his tusks, no longer had the strength to speak, only breathing heavily.

Sisang saw that the boar was once again in the motion of shaking its head, and he spoke from the back of his throat as if he were trying to squeeze out a few words.

"............Yes, stop ......, I've ........."

Unrelentingly, the second time did not seem to reach him.

Sissan's body was swung around so violently that his flesh was shredded to pieces, unable to withstand the violence.

The boy, whose shoulder had been gouged out, flew through the air and crashed into one of the trees, then fell to the ground with a thud.

The boar growls in relief, though the shield is still in place.

The eyes of the inorganic beast move around and fix on the girl who had been calling out to the dying boy.

For the first time Alethea realizes that she could be the target.

The girl's eyes reflect the monster's huge body as it turns toward her.

Normally, Alethea had never experienced the hostility of a monster directly, since she was usually in the back of the pack.

The cowering girl's teeth clatter as she rushes to hold them in place with her hands.

Her arm was pushed from the side.

When she turns her head in surprise, she sees Riccar trying to stand up.

With half-empty eyes, he struggled weakly to push Alethea out of the way.

The girl gritted her teeth and covered Riccar, who was trying to defend himself.

Just as the boar is about to strike the sobbing girl, an arrow flies out unexpectedly and pierces her face, which is covered with bumps.

Another followed.

The head of the attacked monster turns and black eyes look at the archer.

Hinck still could not move an inch.

But the moment he saw Alethea trying to protect Riccar, his hand lifted the bow and he finished shooting the arrow.

The boar turns around, its six legs moving alternately, showing a kicking motion on the ground.

The boy with the bow gulped and swallowed hard, and at the same time, a huge body sprinted toward him.

Hinck's fear reaches its limit with the approaching mass, and his hips buckle.

This brings the boy luck.

But only for a moment.

The boy's lowered posture allows the boar's snout to just barely snag and pass by.

But the six legs that followed trampled Hink's body like a raging storm.

The huge body runs through and plunges violently into a grove of overlapping trees.

After a pause, the thick tree that had taken the full force of the impact fell to the ground with a muffled thud.

What was left after the boar had passed through was a boy whose arms and legs had been twisted at a strange angle.

He seems to still be breathing, as his chest is slightly elevated.

"Ah......aah,......uuh......"

Alethea looked up and let out an inarticulate cry as she saw the devastation spread out before her.

Just a few minutes ago, they had been spending their time as usual, arguing a little.

Now, her three friends lay bleeding on the ground.

I really couldn't do anything about it, my helplessness and naivete.

And the girl bit her lip tightly at the sheer unreasonableness of it all.

Staring at the monster in front of her, Alethea slowly said her last prayer to the boy next to her.

O Lord of the tree of life! Give me a drop of your water to the children who seek for a place to stay--.

The girl's consciousness was filled with despair as she lost what little magic power she had left.

Still, Alethea looked up.

She looked straight ahead, her face crumpled in tears, without looking away.

Just as the girl was about to accept the end...

"You have endured well. It's all right now."

With a snap, someone's hand was placed on my shoulder.

At that moment, the sense of loss that had covered Alethea suddenly disappears.

She looked around in surprise, and her eyes met Riccar's, who had a surprised look on his face.

The look of death on his face was gone.

"Take care of these children, Sora. Moo, please help Tor-chan."

I got it!　Tall girl."

"Lai!"

Alethea blinked a few times, and the middle-aged adventurer suddenly appeared, and before she knew it, he was holding out his hand to Hinck, who was lying on the ground.

The boy, who should have been unable to move due to his bent limbs, is pulled to his feet by the hand with his eyes wide open.

He came running toward us, surprise still on his face.

The monster, recognizing the new intruder, slowly moves his body and turns around.

Alethea gasps once again at the mountain-like bulk of the monster.

But the man walks up to her.

A few steps.

For a six-legged beast, this is a gap that can be closed in a single breath.

Alesia could not tell which of the two had made the first move.

The boar was in front of her and the man was standing beside her.

Taking advantage of the shadow of the shield, which was still caught in the tusks of the monster, the man went around to the side of the boar and slipped through.

The man's target was a shieldman boy who was bleeding profusely at the base of a tree.

When a middle-aged adventurer approaches and picks him up, Sisan stands up easily with a stunned look on his face.

His leather armor is cruelly torn at the shoulder, but there is nothing wrong with his body that can be seen from underneath.

In front of Alethea, a boar snarls and stomps irritably on the ground with its six legs.

Again the man moves without a sound, keeping his distance from Sissan.

Perhaps thinking that the boar would hinder his rush, the boar blundered into a grove of trees.

But to the girl who witnessed the boar's rush, which easily snapped one of the trees, it seems like a foolish thing to do.

Just as she was about to issue a warning, she was lightly touched on the shoulder from behind.

"I'm sure you'll be fine, Thor-chan."

Despite the disarming tone of her voice, Alethea noticed that the hand on her shoulder was tense.

She was so distracted that she missed the important part of the conversation.

A loud noise makes Alethea turn around in a hurry and she stops to catch her breath at the scene in front of her.

The man's position seems to have moved slightly to the side.

The problem is next to him.

For some reason, the boar is lying on its side between two trees.

He is breathing heavily and moving his legs recklessly, but he seems to be completely trapped and unable to get out.

The girl exhaled deeply, not knowing what had happened to her.

Alethea's mind was occupied with only one thing.

She was relieved that the crisis was over.

"............Ugh,......Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...."

Tears streamed down Alethea's cheeks.

Voices started to pour out from the back of her throat, and her chest became bitter.

Somehow a young child came up to her and patted her on the head, which helped her to breathe a little easier.

Beside Alethea, whose tears had subsided a little, a boy with red hair, who still did not understand what was happening, continued to speak in a questioning voice.

"What, hey, what happened to me?　What?　What's going on?

"...... I don't know."

"What?　Hinck, you didn't see that!　What do you know about Alethea?"

"Gussh...... no, I don't know either......"

"What?　What's going on?"

The fussing boy and girl miss a curious point because of it.

The fact that the tree, which had been overturned (・・・・) before, is nowhere (・・・・・・) to be found.

With the trio at his side, the middle-aged adventurer plunges his sword into the anus of the immobilized boar and begins to lay waste to it mercilessly.