207 - - the weasel of the front gate-the dog of the back gate

"You don't think it's Shiraitachi?　What the hell are you doing here?

Despite his cowering voice, Hinck stepped into the room quickly.

With his bow at the ready, he takes aim at the white beast.

It was a check move, but the sight of his best friend bleeding made Hinck's hand tighten involuntarily.

Perhaps reading his intent, the monster's form fades away without a single blink of an eye.

The beast overtook Sisan in an instant, and before he knew it, he was baring his fangs at the archer boy's feet.

It was so fast that no one could react, and just when it looked as if there would be a second victim...

As if it had hit an invisible wall, the white beast suddenly bounced back.

Its small body easily floats in the air, revealing its black abdomen and legs.

It seems that only its back, head, and tail are white.

The monster, which had been sent flying through the air, lightly turns itself around, spins around, and lands with a brilliant touch.

"What?"

The momentum of its run was more than doubled and back to its head.

If it had been a normal monster, the force would have been strong enough to break its head off.

However, the monster lifted its face nonchalantly and, perhaps recognizing the culprit who had immediately blocked its attack, growled low and menacingly at Sola.

"This way then!"

The beast disappeared again from Sola's sight as she lifted her staff again.

At the same time, a white flash of light, leaving a zigzag afterimage, rushed across the ground.

The beast, which had been closing in on the girl with tremendous speed, came to an abrupt halt again, leaving just a finger-sized gap between them.

The monster's torso, with only its head fixed, is naturally unable to kill its speed and tries to move forward.

As a result, its upper body should be crushed by its own weight, and its spine should be snapped.

However, contrary to our expectations, the body covered with white fur shrinks for a moment, but then quickly returns to its original size.

Then, with its mouth wide open, it stares at Sora with fighting eyes and begins to squirm madly.　

Apparently, this beast is unbelievably flexible.

"While you still can!"　

Sola cowered at the sight of the sharp fangs lining its jaws, but quickly regained her composure and called out to those around her.

Alethea and Ecclesia came to their senses and rushed toward Riccar, who was cowering with a panicked look on his face.

Moe, who had sensed the danger and put the beetle back in the basket, followed suit.

"Riccar, are you all right?

"The wound is deep, be safe!"

"It ain't that bad!　It's just a little gash. Heal fast, or I'll smash it, too!

Come on, let's get you to a safe place first. It's not safe here.

"Well, that way. We can go that way.

Riccar and the others begin to move under Mu's guidance, while Sissan and the others surround the monster so as not to miss it.

The beast, which has been restricted from moving, shakes itself violently, but its head does not budge even a little.　

Sisang raises his hooked club at it, and Hinck draws his bow again.

No matter how quick he is, he is nothing more than a pathetic figment in this situation.

But the tip of the thorn cudgel, which was swung down without mercy, slid off the end of the hook as soon as it hit the fur.

Arrows shot from a distance that would have been difficult to miss, however, follow the body to the ground without piercing the flesh.

"What!

Sisang shouted in confusion, but then turned around to strike a blow to the head, which was stuck.

The beast's toe sliced through the shieldman boy's knee.

Sisan jumps back in surprise as the cast-iron kneepad is easily dented.

"This thing is dangerous if you get too close!"

d*mn, my arrows don't work!

Then the body too!

Just as Sora lifts his staff to the moving torso part...

Suddenly, the white beast lifts its tail and thrusts its butt toward the sky.

The next moment, a mist of liquid spurts out from it.

"Ghee!"

Sora let out an unladylike scream and staggered greatly, holding her nose.

Sisang and Hink also coughed, and tried desperately to get away from the monster.

What pierced their noses was an extraordinary smell.

Sobbing tears at the unbearable smell, Sora and the others run for cover, trying their best to keep their distance.

"Over here!　Sola, come here!

At Alethea's call, the girl runs in the direction of the voice.

Sisan and the others, their vision blocked by tears, managed to follow.

They were buried under a large white mushroom, but there seemed to be a passage hidden at the back of the room.

Riccar has already been brought in.

As the three men rush in, Eckria hurriedly piles up mushrooms to block the entrance.

After washing their faces with water from the leather bag offered to them, the three finally exhale deeply.

But there is no way to get rid of the smell on their clothes.

Mu, holding his nose, frowned and said to Sora and the others.

"You can't fart in the middle of the night!

"No, it wasn't me."

"Oh, it wasn't me either!"

"So, you're Sora's girlfriend, huh? What did you eat that smells so bad?

When Moe looked at Sola with suspicion, she froze for a moment, then waved her hands and raised her voice.

"What, me?　No, no... It's true that I ate a lot of beans for lunch today. But!

"Calm down, Sora. It was that monster, wasn't it?

"Yes, it was!"

I hurriedly peeked through the gaps in the mushrooms, but it seemed that the anchorage had already been broken, and the free monster was stooping low and looking around.

Then, with a small sniff, it returns to where it was.

Sola exhaled deeply once more at the sight of the monster, which did not seem to be following her.

"What the hell...? What is it?　This is not a good idea."

It was a revitalized Riccar who asked the very same question that Sola had been thinking.

The wound that Alethea had treated him for was closed, but there was still a painful hole in his leather shoe.

"That's probably a white weasel. They say it's a monster that rarely appears. ......"

"Yeah, I think he called it something like that."

Hinck nodded and gave them a brief description.

The white weasel is a close relative of the angry badger, but it has a different name because it is smaller and has a white back and tail.

Because of their small size and adorable appearance, they are often underestimated by those who do not know what they are, but it is said that their strength and aggressiveness are incomparable to that of cave bears.

Its blinding speed is also a nuisance, but the most formidable feature is the skin on its back.

It is flexible, hard, and slippery, making direct attacks almost impossible.

On top of that, it also has very strong fangs and claws, so it seems that it has no choice but to be offensive and defensive.

Moreover, when cornered, they even have a technique of spewing out a very smelly liquid from their buttock glands.

"Oh, that. Ugh, it stinks, it stinks too much."

"Hmm, look, the narrow hole we went through. You know, maybe..."

"Oh, so that thing in the den above wandered in and settled here!"

It is good to know the cause of the problem, but that does not mean that a solution can be found.

Sisan scratched his chin in annoyance at the white weasel that had gotten mixed up with the mushrooms near the hole he had entered.

He was imitating Thor.

"Our attacks won't be enough to take them down, but that doesn't mean we can't ......"

The only thing that might work is Eckria's fire magic, but using it in a room full of exploding mushrooms would surely be suicide.

There is a way to have Sora us and slip through, but then he would release the stench that I mentioned earlier.

The shieldman boy, who sees no chance for victory, looks around for something.

Once again, he notices that their location is tilted at an angle.

"Where am I?"

"Oh, no, Moo has found it."

When Sisang placed a baked good in his outstretched hand, the child, who had devoured it in one bite, pointed to the end of the aisle.

"There are a lot of nasty-looking people over there, too.

"Maybe this is ......."

The group descends into the back of the corridor in groups.

What we found there was a space one size larger than the mushroom room above.

At the back of the room, there was a black fountain emitting an eerie atmosphere, and several kobolds stood guarding it.

One of them was about two times taller than the others, and it had an air of something terrible about it.

Sisang and the others look at each other as more monsters appear.

Then they let out a slow breath of relief.

"...... what, a Kobold?"