Chapter 237: The Forest's Pruner

237 – The Forest’s Pruner

I run back the way I came. With how large my body is, I’m way too big to roll around without altering the local terrain. I can run fast enough, so it’s not so bad, but my body is itching to roll around. I miss the desert, where I could roll as much as I wanted.

One day, I’d like to compete with the black lizard in another [Rolling] competition. That girl, I wonder how she’s doing now…

As I draw closer to where I left the wight, I use [Presence Detection]. In that location, I feel an intense bloodlust, as well as the presences of three demon beasts. Probably, two of them correspond to the wight and treant. The third must be a stray.

They’re in battle. Shit, this is bad. No, I should be glad I was able to get back before it was too late. I’m almost there.

Going by the presences, one of the sides isn’t moving around much. It seems they’re moving in such away as to keep their opponent in check. Which means it must be around the same rank as them. It would be great if it’s a good level to for them to gain experience.

“Guuouh!”

With a roar, I jump towards the three presences, mowing down a tree as I land. The shock of my landing reverberates through the area.

As expected, I see the wight and treant. Fighting the two of them, there’s a yellow-ochre coloured giant crab. It’s a little smaller than a human.

The crab’s carapace is covered in barnacle-like things, making for a rather weird appearance. There’s an extreme mismatch in size between its left and right pincers.

Judging from their positions, the treant is acting as the front line, while the wight is providing covering fire from the rear. The treant has a few scratch wounds, but the wight is undamaged. Shocked by my brash entrance, the three of them are frozen in place.

I’ll take this opportunity to check its race. If it looks dangerous, I’ll move to kill it right away. Although the treant has been wounded, so looking at it the other way, its attack strength must be low enough for the treant to survive being hit several times. Besides, at this distance I can kill it in an instant. The danger to the wight or treant is minimal.

【[Giant Forest Crab]: D-rank monster. 】

【It uses its differently-sized pincers to unleash an irregular stream of attacks. 】

【Its carapace is parasitised by a colony of doranks, which, in exchange for sucking out magic power, fortify its carapace. 】

【There are some individuals on which the doranks have multiplied too freely, resulting in death through magic power exhaustion. 】

Doranks? Ah, those barnacle things. It doesn’t sound like it has any particularly dangerous traits, and its rank’s not all that high.

Seeing me, it must have decided it’s at a disadvantage, as it’s side-stepping away. I think it’s trying to run away. We can’t be having that. The wight is only level 1 now. She could die in a heartbeat. Sorry, but there’s no way I can let such juicy prey get away. I swiftly circle around to cut it off.

Seeing my movement, the wight nods her head with a sound. She seems to have understood my intent.

The giant forest crab turns on the spot, rotating 90 degrees.

“Gishaaaah!”

The treant swings a branch down at the crab. But, the crab cut the branch with its giant pincer, then darts past the treant towards the wight. It’ll be planning to escape by pushing past the wight, I suppose.

The wight raises her arm towards the oncoming crab. The wind stirs around her, creating a mini tornado. The tornado moves towards the crab, sending fallen leaves and bits of earth flying. By elimination, I guess this must be her [Gale] skill. It’s wind-manipulation magic, it seems.

The crab swings it’s giant pincer into the oncoming whirlwind. The whirlwind is violently snuffed out. Surprised by her attack being cancelled out so easily, the wight takes a step back.

I can’t tell from her expression, but judging by her movements, she wanted to end this fight in a hurry. To beat the D-rank giant forest crab as an E-rank herself, she’s under a lot of pressure.

Turning its body, the crab wards off the impact of the whirlwind without slowing down. It rotates its body again as it draws closer to the wight, swinging its giant pincer.

The wight jumps up, neatly landing on top of the pincer. Before the crab can shake her off, she jumps again. She’s nimble. She’s able to do stunts like that because she has no flesh to weigh her down I suppose.

Towards the wight still in midair, the crab swings with its smaller pincer. It suddenly pauses mid-swing. Falling for the feint, the wight raises her arm to guard, but the pincer darts below to pierce her abdomen. Compared to the large pincer, the smaller one can move much faster.

That’s enough. I flap my wings, stirring up the wind with magic. It’s the standard [Wind Slash], the skill I’m most comfortable with.

The blade of wind many times faster than the crab. The smaller pincer that it had extended is sent flying. The crab pushes its stump of an arm with towards the wight, but loses its balance and falls over. Upside down, the crab’s legs wriggle in the air. That’s the battle over.

Landing on her back, the wight falls into a backwards roll and springs back up. Upon seeing the defeated crab, she leans against a nearby tree and sink down.

She must be quite exhausted. With her MP total, a single use of magic is enough for her to run out.

“Gaah!”

With my partner’s cry, the treant is enveloped in light, its wounds gradually closing.

As for the wight… It doesn’t look like she’s injured. I move closer to check on her. Noticing my approach, she turns her head to look up at me with her empty eye sockets. It seems she’s feeling released from the mental strain of battle.

Well done, you did a good job holding out. The treant also protected the wight nicely. If the wight was by herself, she might have been killed.

Well then, we should finish off the giant forest crab. I look towards where I left it. But it’s not there any more.

Huh? Did it get away? But that sound I’m hearing is… I hear a crunching sound coming from beside me. Looking to the side, I see my partner eating the crab, shell and all. As she faces the sky to gulp it down, its giant pincer falls and sticks into the ground.

I-mean, I don’t particularly mind. But I do wish you’d talked to me first… If the treant or wight were to deal the finishing blow, they might have gained more experience points.

【14 experience points have been acquired. 】

【Due to the Title Skill [Walking Egg: Lv -], an additional 14 experience points have been acquired. 】

…Ah, it was in the range for me to acquire experience points. I’d thought D-rank would be too weak by now. It really is a tiny amount, but it’s better than nothing.

Though what I care more about now is the wight’s and treant’s statuses. They fought it to some extent, so they should have gained some experience points too.