29 - A close call?

He came forward with great vigor, but there was not much he could do, having only been an adventurer for less than ten days.

In the end, all he could do was wave Carles off at the back.

We waited for twenty minutes, guiding people back to the outer gate with tired faces.

Finally, the lumberjacks from the south logging camp emerged one after another from the back of the forest road.

All of them had grim expressions on their sweaty faces.

One of the lumberjacks, who had seen the green plate around Sola's neck, gave us a warning, breathing hard.

"Hahahaha ......, you girls get inside quickly."

"Is something wrong?"

"It's a big ...... boar. I thought I was going to ...... lose you."

After a little conversation, it seems that the delay in departure was due to the fact that the four adventurers who had come to warn us were not believed.

In the end, the hole in the circular shield and the fact that a warning had been sent from somewhere else were the deciding factors.

They left the logging camp in a hurry, but when they came to the outer wall, they were suddenly attacked by a big boar.

He escaped with his life while the four men who were escorting him attracted his attention.

"So, what happened?"

"I don't know. I passed the guard's brother, so I think I can handle it."

"Oh, no.

"Don't blame us. That's your job. Can we go now?

Sola watched the lumberjacks run into the gate, then turned around and looked into the face of the child sitting on the sled.

The purple eyes that looked up at her expressionlessly gave her no answer.

Frustrated, the girl gently stroked Moe's curly blonde hair.

"It's so frustrating not being able to do anything, isn't it?

"Moe is not like that. He's doing exactly what To-chan told him to do.

"Yeah, yeah, you're good, Moo-chan. I didn't know you had a whirlpool here.

Sola grizzled a section of swirling hair, and Moo let out a strange moan.

"What the hell is that?

"Sorry, did it hurt?"

"It doesn't hurt. It just feels weird!"

"Mmm-hmm. Maybe it feels good?

When Sola again kneaded the whiskers with her fingertips, Moe's eyes widened and he made a strange noise in his throat.

Sola couldn't help but let out a chuckle at the funny look in his eyes.

"You can do more!"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it. Oh, there's a whirlpool over here, too. Hey, Moo-chan.

"What?"

"We're pretty good friends, aren't we?"

"Yeah, I guess so..."

"Well, I guess it's time for you to join us now, isn't it?"

Sora, who is still ostracized from Moo's , makes a request in a casual manner.

"Look, if I can see Moo-chan's eyes, my will be even more effective!

The magic of is activated by sight.

Sola's assertion that the range of activation is increased by passing through a large number of vision is not necessarily wrong.

However, the child who had been in a good mood suddenly fell silent at Sola's sweet request.

Her glassy eyes begin to show a slight hint of uneasiness.

"What's wrong?"

"............ Sora-nee-chan, won't you hate Moo if we do this together?"

"No, I don't!　Why?"

"............ don't you get upset that you don't feel good?"

Sola was about to reply when she heard a scream from the other side of the path and looked up as if she had been shot.

She saw several figures coming toward her.

She also saw a huge beast approaching from behind them.

Sola lifts her staff just as she meets the fear-filled eyes and gaze of one of the figures at the head of the group.

The monster, chasing after the men's backs, quickly closes the distance between them, billowing up a cloud of dust with its six legs.　

Sola swallowed a small gulp of her drink as she saw the ugly face full of black bumps looming up ahead of her.

But the girl remains motionless with her cane at the ready.

Just as the boar catches up to the last man and is about to pounce on him...

--＜Reversal.

The monster tilts its head and tries to hook him with its tusks, its jaws instantly twisted at a funny angle.

The monster's huge body was caught by it and swayed at an angle.

The boar's body falls over, unable to withstand the sudden movement.

The monster, which had been knocked out of its position, slammed into a tree and came to a halt.

Sola, who had bought some time by brilliantly overturning the boar, shouted to the startled lumberjacks who had almost stopped in their tracks.

Hurry up while you still can!

Oh, oh!

"Thanks!　Girl."

Returning a head-on lunge as it is will only reduce its power by half.

But the moment the boar attacks someone, the attack is off the midline.

Sola had unconsciously calculated all of this in the short time he had before he unleashed his magic.

As the monster struggled to get up, Sola hurriedly turned around.

She runs toward the gate at once.

She is worried about those who have not returned yet, but she knows what she is capable of.

Following behind the lumberjacks, Sola looks wide-eyed again.

The gate, the only way into the safety of the city, was about to close.

"Hey, wait a little longer!　

Run, run, run!　We're almost there!

Hurry up!　They'll catch up with us."

Voices urging us to go on are echoing from inside the gate.

Sora hurries impatiently, but his speed does not increase much due to the fact that his sled has run out of magic stones before he knows it.

The men pulled her away from them, but she moved her legs as hard as she could.

But the opening of the gate was getting narrower and narrower.

At the same time, a violent rumbling of the earth approached from behind.

A few more steps.

Just a few seconds away.

With all her might, Sola kicked the ground.

Instantly, her body feels light as if it has been released from its weight.

Sola slides into the gap that is left just in time.

Behind the girl, the gate slammed completely shut, and the sound of a canuki being lowered rang out.

At about the same time, a loud crash rumbled from the nearby stone wall, shaking the gate.

"Hah, hah! I've found it!"

Sola smiles with joy at being saved, as she rushes to take in air into her lungs.

Relaxing her shoulders, she looks back at the sled behind her.

She looks back to the sled behind her, her shoulders relaxed, to shake hands with Mu in triumph.

But there it is, an empty sled with no one on it.

Just a few moments earlier.

The young adventurers were fleeing through the trees.

"Come on, come on!"

A red-haired rascal emerged from behind a trunk and threw a stone at the same time as a challenge.

The big boar let out a ferocious roar and rushed forward at once.

The sound of a violent collision resounded, and a thin tree was pushed down with its roots floating.

But the boy is already gone.

The boar sniffs in frustration at the loss of its prey, and arrows continue to fly into its torso.

The monster turns its head and runs in the direction from which the arrows came.

"That's good! That's it."

Sisan, lurking in the shade of a tree on the other side, muttered to himself as he held up a stone he had picked up.

As Thor had taught me along the way, the armored boars in the swarm phase have more legs and their charging power is greatly increased.

However, it is said that this causes the boars to lose much of their natural ability to turn in small groups.

So, if they use an obstacle as a shield like this, they can lose their way with a surprisingly comfortable margin.

However, this would have been impossible for Sisan and the others until yesterday.

The boys, their fear having been shaken off by their near-death experience, went about their roles without a care in the world.

When Sisang sees that the tree in which Hink was hiding is knocked down, he gets up and throws a stone at the monster's buttocks.

The boy looks at the monster for a moment and then runs like a hare to find a new tree.

Of course, it is absolutely impossible to defeat the boar as it is now, since he has only inflicted a few scratches.

Their aim was to buy time for the lumberjacks to escape.

And one more thing...

Suddenly, someone stepped through the underbrush and appeared.

He is tall and slender, with a tight-fitting body wrapped in red leather armor.

He has soft blond hair, slightly droopy purple eyes, a high bridge of the nose, and is quite handsome.

The man thrusts his long, slender spears dexterously into the ground, puts his hands on his hips, and says

"Hey, thanks for waiting, guys. I'll take care of the rest.

Next to her, a girl breathes on her shoulder and waves her hand.

It seems that they have managed to achieve their goal of staying alive until the arrival of Alethea, who went to call for help.

The boys breathed a deep sigh of relief at the appearance of a familiar face with a throwing spear.

The gate guard holds one of the spears propped up on the ground with one hand, and sits down lightly.

The slender diamond-shaped tip of the spear is too unreliable to face a huge monster.

However, Carles has a smile on his face.

The boar, perhaps noticing this, growls furiously, his anger flaring on his huge frame.

As the three men gasp for breath in the trees, the battle rages on.

It was Carles who made the first move.

Just before the boar made his move, his left foot stepped down hard, and his muscles, drawn from his bulging dorsal muscles, converged into a spear in his right hand.

The conical spear shot out with lightning speed, pierced through the knee of the boar's front leg, and sewn it to the ground.

Carles quickly pulls out a new spear, exhales lightly, and fires it again with great force.

The monster howled, drooling from the corners of its mouth as it was shot through both of its paws.

The third shot pierces the monster's mouth without mercy.

The boar, deeply damaged, stomped on its four remaining legs, and forcefully lifted its upper body.

Swinging its paw, still pierced by the spear, the monster closes the distance between it and Carles in a single breath.

But the gatekeeper, with the fourth spear in his hand, had already finished his preparations.

The heightened fighting spirit manifests itself as purple lightning, coiling around the conical spear like a snake and shaking the air.

Aiming at the boar's head that was approaching so close, he threw his all-out thrust.

The air deflects for a moment, and then the boar is pushed in all directions.

.

The conical spear, clad in intense electricity, pierces the monster's head with tremendous force, and immediately unleashes its power.

The top of the beast's head is blown off, and at the same time, a thick electric current runs through the boar's body surface.

The huge boar, which had lost its head, jerked and shuddered, and then slowly fell over on its side.

The smell of burning flesh and thin plumes of black smoke rise from everywhere on the boar's body.

The boys all cheer at the sight of the ex-high-ranked man who has killed the monster with only four blows.

However, the person himself muttered to himself with a frown on his face.

"So the 'outbreak' wasn't a hoax. If we don't get back soon, we'll miss the festival.