Chapter of Grim Reality: The Mountain of Flesh

“What in the blazes is that thing?”

“A roper.”

“I can see that.”

“Why are you asking then?”

“Because I want to know what that is…”

No, Merim, no matter how often you asked me, the answer wouldn’t change. That was a roper. Sure, it might be a little bit on the bigger side, but that’s all. Wouldn’t you say it was actually pretty well-fed? Wasn’t that a good thing? Whoever was the owner, they deserved some praise here. How many people could take care of a pet that was literally the size of a fucking mountain?

“Also, didn’t you see it when you were with the scouts?”

“There’s a difference to seeing it from up close compared to seeing it from the top of a building.”

“... Point taken.”

From the top of the pillar, I had a pretty decent overview over the village and towards the forest. But even so, it still took quite a while before I could actually see the roper with my own eyes.

“Merim. Is that really something you can beat?”

It was… gargantuan. It wasn’t the size of a skyscraper or a large building complex but if I had to compare it to a building… Well, probably as big as a decent-sized mansion or villa? Maybe even larger. It was hard to gauge its size from a distance.

“Mh… Honestly, I’d prefer to know a little more about that thing. But as long as it doesn’t cast large-scale magic, it should be fine.”

“And if it does?”

“If it does? If it does, then we’re goblin feed. Actually, there won’t be enough left of us to feed to the goblins.”

“...”

That wasn’t reassuring… At all…

“I doubt it can do that, though.”

“... Why?”

“There are extremely few creatures that can cast magic on that scale on their own. And the ones that can are well-documented. It seems that this case is a little irregular but it should still adhere to the basic abilities of a nest mother.”

“I see…”

“Either way, we have no intention of even allowing it to get that far.”

Not even allowing it, huh…

I glanced at the mercenaries around me. Now, from my elevated position, I had a better view of what they had been preparing all the while. Ropes. A lot of ropes. Mercenaries must love ropes, don’t they?

“Something wrong?”

“Nn? No, I was just looking around a bit… I see a lot of ropes…”

“We’ll need them, after all. Ropes are incredibly versatile. Especially the new ropes.”

Merim grinned as he crouched down and picked up a coil of rope that was nearby.

“Hard to believe when you know what it originally was, right?”

“... Nn.”

The coil of rope was… pink. As expected, most of the ropes were pink. The mercenaries were quite curious about them at first but they quickly realised that these ropes were pretty good. With that said, not all the ropes were the new kind. There were still many regular ropes. But considering the sheer amount they had brought… That would have been impossible for Wanda to prepare.

“How many of them do we have?”

“Err, I think fifty coils?”

“... That’s quite a lot.”

“Yes, quite surprised Wanda managed to prepare that many. Oh, and about eighty coils of regular rope.”

The fifty was in regards to the pink ones?!

“And we really need that many?”

Once more, I looked around at a group of mercenaries that was still preparing. They were tying the rope ends around heavy pieces of rubble and pillars and anything else that was heavy. The other ends were tied around short spears. A different group was tying both ends around rubble, stretching it out over the road.

“We do. Ropes are one of the greatest tools against large enemies. Especially, when you can prepare in advance. If we can tie it down in place and hinder its movements, then the rest will become pretty easy. But you can probably guess yourself just how much rubble we’d need to tie on that monster to hinder its movement.”

“... A lot.”

“Yes, a lot.”

So that’s how they were planning to deal with it… It was, in a way, similar to what they did with those spirit trees.

“There’s also one thing that we can’t use the pink rope for…”

“Nn? There is?”

“Yes… It doesn’t burn well.”

“... Excuse me?”

“It doesn’t burn well. Like, at all. Before we set out, Korwen told us to try a few things. It’s better than regular rope in nearly all aspects. Except, that it barely burns. Well, that can also be an advantage but...”

Merim frowned a little.

“So, either way we have to keep some regular rope around, you see?”

“Nn…”

That was a bit unexpected. But, I never thought about burning it either. That said, it made me recall how they had burnt down the spirit trees. If these ropes didn’t burn well, then that wouldn’t have been possible.

“It’s still a boon, let me tell you that. The worst part of these types of subjugations is the beginning. When the damn ropes snap… Hopefully, this won’t happen this time.”

“Ahhh…”

Right, that could happen too, couldn’t it? With a monster that size, a few single ropes probably wouldn’t be able to immediately withstand its enormous strength.

“Well, enough of that. Let’s see, how is it looking?”

“Nn? Uhm…”

I lifted my gaze and directed it towards the forest. The large roper was slowly making its progress here. The trees in its way got crushed without mercy, creating a rather nerve-racking background noise.

“Nn… I guess it is making progress…”

“It sure is. Thank the gods for that forest or they would’ve been here long ago.”

With that said, it wouldn’t take long anymore. Maybe fifteen minutes at most. Probably even less…

“Well then, I’ll wake up the other members from the scout team now,“ said Merim.

“Nn.”

“Good luck and stay alive.”

“You too.”

He turned around and left to wake up the other mercenaries that had gone to take a rest.

“Now then…”

There wasn’t really anything else for me to do except to wait. Karen was nearby, helping Bolard with the preparations for the crossbow. As for the Elder, she was at the edge of the village, keeping watch over the forest.

And I’m only standing here, looking pretty… Well, I get that it is my job but… It’s a little frustrating.

Everyone was busy with something and I was just… overlooking everything. Honestly, it was pretty hard not to come down and ask for something I could help with. The itch for it was pretty strong. Even though I knew better…

“Haaa…”

All I could do was to endure…

“Yumi.”

“... Nn? Ah? Oh… Captain.”

No, he didn’t catch me lost in thoughts. He didn’t…

“You can come down now. Karen! Help Yumi get down.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Err…”

He didn’t want me to stay up here? Why did I get up in the first place then?

“Yumi.”

“Ah, sorry, Sis. I’m coming.”

First, I handed Karen the banner. Very slowly, of course. Then I sat on the pillar, coming down with Karen’s help.

“Good. Come with me. We’ll need to find a good spot.”

“Err, a good spot?”

“To watch, of course.”

He wanted to watch?

Well, either way. Slightly confused we followed him. Seemed that Bolard also got his stuff and followed behind us.

“Mr Captain. Weren’t we going to stay there?”

“No, of course not. We’d be too conspicuous.”

“Conspicuous? Aren’t we… rather conspicuous already?”

Karen tilted her head as she asked him.

“Sure we are. But that doesn’t mean we have to show ourselves immediately. Think of it as an ambush.”

“I see.”

An ambush… Well, it kind of was an ambush, yes.

“Mm, here is good. Let’s get up there.”

Korwen pointed at a collapsed building. The rubble wasn’t that high but it was piled up on one side. If I had to guess, he wanted us to hide behind that wall of rubble.

“Well then, I guess you two will need a bit of a rundown of how we will proceed now. Bolard, you can set yourself up here, can you?”

“Of course, Captain! No problem ‘bout that.”

“Good.”

Having gotten his orders, Bollard immediately prepared to set himself up at the small wall of rubble.

“Okay. There’s not much time left so I’ll keep it short. When Yumelia leaves the forest, there’s a few situations that could happen. Mhm… Karen, what do you think she will do?”

“Uhm… Probably come to the village and look at what is wrong?”

“Mhm. And how will she do that?”

“How?”

“Yes, how.”

Korwen positioned himself behind the wall and looked over it, probably confirming what he could see from here.

“... I am not quite sure what that means, Mr Captain.”

“Mh, I see. Yumi, what about you?”

“Err… I don’t know either.”

“I see. Well, I guess it is a bit of a weird question for someone not used to this.”

He glanced back at us for a moment, grinning.

“You see, what I want to know is the following: Will she come alone, leaving the roper behind? Will she come together with the roper? Will she send the roper ahead and stay behind herself? Will she abandon the idea altogether and return to the forest? Or will she straight out attack the village from there? Do you understand what I mean now?”

“Nn.”

“I think so.”

In other words, he wanted to know her course of action when she left the forest… That was… pretty hard to say.

“So, what do you think she will do? Karen?”

“Eh? Uhh… I guess she’ll… watch?”

“Hoo… I didn’t list that one, good thinking. That might happen, too. Then, Yumi?”

“... Coming together with the roper, I guess?”

“I see.”

Korwen nodded to himself, having heard our answers. He still was looking over the wall, watching the village.

“The thing is, we don’t know what she will do. With that in mind, we have to prepare for several likely outcomes. The best case would be her leaving the roper behind and coming alone. Then we can shoot her before she even knows what happened. Afterwards, we can deal with the roper. Clean and simple. Best case.”

“Then, the worst case?”

“Her coming together with the roper. We’d have to deal with both. Furthermore, we can’t have Yumelia near us. She’s too dangerous for the mercenaries without a magic tool to protect themselves. Worst case, she could turn the entire situation around with little effort. If they both come together, we’ll have to separate her from the mother roper as soon as possible. I can only hope she will take the bait that is you, Yumi. If she doesn’t, we’ll have to retreat.”

“Ahaha…”

Retreat. So, in the worst case he wasn’t going to take the chance and instead retreat as early as he could, was it?

“All other cases, while not optimal, should be easy enough to handle. It’ll be problematic if she decides to run away but it is better than us having to retreat. But...”

Korwen suddenly paused, his eyes narrowing.

“But?”

“... That all still assumes she really comes.”

“Huh? The roper is coming, though?”

“Then, Yumi, can you spot Yumelia?”

“Nn? Well… I can take a look.”

I turned around to face where the forest was. A nice thing about being able to see souls was that apparently, obstacles didn’t really matter. After I closed my eyes, I tried to search for the muddy pink soul of hers.

“Nn… I can’t really make out anything that looks like her, sorry…”

“Mhm... “

The forest was full of animals and their souls were, honestly, in the way. I could make out the general area where the mother roper was, due to the animals escaping, but it was still not enough to see Yumelia. Then again, Korwen hinted that she might not even come…

“Mr Captain, isn’t it pretty assured that Yumelia is coming?”

“No. Only the roper is assured to come. We haven’t spotted Yumelia yet, have we?”

“But…”

Karen stopped, most likely to think about what to say.

“Nn… Captain, you think she won’t come?”

“At this point, seeing how you are still unable to spot her, yes. The roper will come out any moment. You could make out the assailants from quite a distance, too.”

“I see… It is true that I can’t spot her… Why wouldn’t she come, though?”

“I’ll return that question: Why should she come?”

“Eh?”

Why should she come? Because her comrades, the other worshippers, were here, right? And they wanted to… do something, with that drug. There were enough reasons for her to come back, right? It wasn’t like she knew we were here. Right?

“... Captain. Do you think she knows about us?”

“Probably.”

“But… How?”

“That’s pretty simple, actually. Remember? There was one other magician.”

“... Ah.”

He suggested that that magician warned her?

“Of course, she could still decide to appear from somewhere. I ordered a few men to look out in other directions for her. But if it was me in her situation, I’d escape. So, let’s see… I’d say seven out of ten she’s gone. No, seeing how you still haven’t spotted her, eight out of ten.”

So that’s what it was…

“Then, what about the roper?”

“Something like a final payback? She can’t really take that thing with her so she probably ordered it to do a suicide attack. Or she hopes it kills us all and retrieves it later. In fact, she might be watching from afar how it plays out.”

“...”

Watching, huh… So, in the end I wouldn’t meet her again?

“She also retreated extremely fast when she… visited us… Well, we’ll see how it is. For now… It seems it is here.”

“...”

Huh? Did time pass that quickly already? Wow… But, it is better for my nerves…

“Quiet now.”

“Nn.”

“Understood.”

Karen and I affirmed his order and kept quiet. I could feel my body tensing up, nervous of what was going to happen now. In the meantime, Korwen was watching a mercenary on the other side of the road. The man was signaling with his hands. Although, I had no idea what he was signaling.

Probably, what they were seeing…

The sound of the trees being crushed was still audible for a few seconds and then… it suddenly stopped.

Are they out of the forest?

Nobody said anything. On the other side of the road, the man was still giving signals. I clutched the banner that was in front of me, trying to calm myself. Somehow, I was even more nervous than with the assault on this very village. Even the mana crystal in my own body felt tense. If it could beat like a heart, it would probably do so really fast now.

“... They seem to be waiting.”

“Waiting?”

“Yes… Mm… They can only spot the mother roper but it definitely has left the forest and is now waiting there.”

I’d like it more if it wasn’t waiting, to be honest. The tension was killing me…

“They can’t seem to see Yumelia.”

“... Then she’s not here?”

“... I wonder.”

“Nn?”

Korwen frowned, his gaze still locked onto the mercenary giving signals. I was a little surprised they could convey that much information with only hand signals.

“I hope this won’t turn into a battle of endura— Mh? I see.”

“Captain?”

“They found Yumelia.”

“... That so.”

“I guess the Elder found her. Surprised she spotted her before you could. Guess I shouldn’t underestimate her.”

Korwen lifted his body up a little and began to signal back to the other man. Once he was done, he went back down, hiding behind the wall and only peeking over it.

And after that… pretty much nothing happened for a while. The men didn’t give any other signals, probably because there was no change to the situation, nor did Korwen give out any other orders. This inactivity… was killing me. It was seriously killing me, just sitting down, waiting for the inevitable change, the signal for the fight to begin. All this nervousness was probably why I didn’t hear someone approaching from behind.

“Mr Korwen.”

“Hii?!”

My body jumped and a whole bunch of eyes laid their gaze on me immediately… Nobody said anything… and I could feel the heat rising up to my face.

“... Sorry.”

Korwen rolled his eyes at me but didn’t comment, instead turning to the person behind us.

“Miss Elder. Report.”

“... I’ve found Yumelia. She’s watching from within the forest, together with someone else.”

“I see.... With someone else… Good job. Stay with Yumi and Karen now.”

“Yes.”

He turned back forwards, watching the mercenary for signals. The Elder sat down next to Karen and me, nodding shortly. We returned the nod and focused our attention back to Korwen and the other mercenary.

Still nothing… What is Yumelia doing?

The Elder said she was watching and there was someone else with her… The other magician, huh… So they actually found each other.

So much to our ambush…

Well, they still didn’t know if we actually were in the village or not, unless Yumelia had a similar ability available like mine.

“Mm?”

Korwen lifted his head all of a sudden. There was a signal.

“Get ready! It’s coming!”

“Eh? Ah, yes.”

It was coming. The mother roper was coming… I clutched the banner in my arms and took a deep breath. It was time. And I had to calm down. But even so, my body was tense, showing no sign of loosening up.

“Bolard, Yumi. Get ready. When the roper gets into your sight, shoot without hesitation. No need to wait for my signal.”

“Got it, Captain”

“... Understood.”

Bolard was completely calm. Even in this situation he readied his crossbow with no hint of nervousness.

“Yumi, you can do it.”

“Sis…”

“I believe in you.”

“Nn. Thank you.”

After taking a deep breath for the last time, I scurried over to Bolard. The bolt was already inserted, the mana crystal peeking over the edge a little in place of the regular tip.

“When I give the ready, give me the signal when to shoot.”

“Nn, what kind of signal?”

“From three to zero fine?”

“Nn.”

The signal. From three to zero. A simple countdown. But first, there was a small… issue that I had overlooked. I had to be near the mana crystal to activate. And, well… I couldn’t touch the mana crystal while the crossbow was loaded, obviously. Or, well, we probably could but I’d rather not take that chance. But…

I think I can do this.

Stretching out my hand, I touched the crystal, taking hold of the mana. Then, I separated my hand. I knew I could take control of mana from a short distance, of course, but I never activated one of these grenades without directly touching them. Or rather, I only ever used them twice anyway. With that said… It should be fine. I knew what to do. I had to make the mana rampage, just like back then, with the trolls. But not yet, not yet. We had to wait. Wait...

“Calm down, girl. Take a deep breath. A deep breath. No need to tense up.”

“... Nn.”

I followed his advice and once more started to take deep breaths. The mana was already under my control. There was no need to worry, no need to worry.

“Good, good. Think you can do it?”

“Nn. I can.”

“Now, that’s what I like to hear.”

Bolard chuckled, showing me the white of his teeth. Then he returned his attention to the front, the open road, waiting for the roper to come. I followed his gaze, cautious to keep the mana under my control. The man signaling was waving his hands, then he lifted his hand high up, all five fingers stretched out.

“That’s…”

“The countdown. It begins.”

The man’s pinky retracted, leaving four fingers stretched out. The ring finger joined, leaving three. The middle finger, then the index finger. And finally… dozens of crossbows shot their small payload at once, going straight towards our enemy, the mother roper.

“GYEEEE!!!”

An ear-piercing scream resounded through the village, followed by the sound of something heavy hitting the ground with tremendous force. Hearing those sounds, Korwen broke out into a smile.

“It felt that one, huh. That’s good. That’s good.”

He signaled something to the other side again. The mercenaries that were in my field of view reloaded their crossbows and took aim once more. A few seconds later, they started a new countdown.

But, will this work?

The enemy was huge. And the crossbow bolts were tiny. I had my doubts whether they would inflict much damage. On the other hand, they were probably not intended to kill it anyway.

I glanced towards Korwen who was watching the countdown, quietly muttering to himself.

“—ve… Four… Three… Two...One…”

Once more, the bolts sailed through the air, disappearing out of my view.

“GYEEEEEEEE!!! GYEEE!!!”

And just like before, it was followed by a scream from the mother roper.

It’s angry…

That was what my guts told me. It was angry. Angry at being hurt…

Suddenly, the other side signaled something, looking a little panicked.

“It’s rushing towards. Get ready. It’ll come into view any moment now.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Nn… Yes, Captain.”

It’d come into view soon, he said.  From our position, we could look over the entrance of the village but not much further. I could only see partly the tentacle growth that had been hidden behind rubble.

“There it is.”

Something large, something incredibly large entered our view. It was a single, giant tentacle, lifted high up into the air.

“What is it do—”

The tentacle sped down, smashing into a building right next to the road. The sound of the impact and the collapsing building was deafening, and a large dust cloud obstructed our view. But not for long… Because no matter how much dust it could whirl up into the air, it would never fully hide the monstrosity that entered our view immediately after.

“What in the great spirits’ name… That’s… huge…” muttered Bolard, looking at the roper.

His astonishment was relatable. Even from this distance with several buildings between us, I had to crane my neck back a little just to look up at it. Yet, I still couldn’t see the roper in its entirety, hidden by the buildings. Hundreds, if not thousands, of tentacles, wriggling and moving around. A veritable mass of flesh and tentacles. Several large eyeballs poked out in between them, covered in crossbow bolts. And in the middle of it all was a large crystal, glowing and illuminating the night.

“Yumi! Bolard! Do it!”

“Ah, yes!”

Snapping back to reality, I turned around to look at the crossbow right next to me. The mana was still under my control. Thankfully, I didn’t lose control over it despite forgetting myself for a moment.

“Ready when you are.”

“Nn… I’ll start the countdown.”

“Got it.”

I took a deep breath, focusing on the mana crystal serving as a grenade.

“Three…”

I stirred the mana in the crystal, making it whirl around a little.

“Two…”

The intensity increased, but it was still under control.

“One…”

Any moment now… Any moment now…

“Zero!”

I let go of the mana, letting it whirl and rampage out of my control. And not even a moment later, the bolt with the crystal disappeared.

“Payload on the way, Captain!”

“Then, let’s see if it worked.”

Turning around, I looked at the giant roper. Bolts from every direction rained down on it. They had stopped coordinating their fire, and instead hailed it with an incessant rain of bolts. Somewhere, the bolt that Bolard had shot was there too. Alas, I couldn’t locate it. Nor could I see the mana.

“...Did it fail? Yumi?”

“Uhm… I’m sure I did it ri—“GYEEE!!!”

A pink light and another scream interrupted me. The light was subdued, but it came from inside the roper, likely damaging whatever was inside..

“Now, that’s what I like to see. Yumi, continue with the barrage.”

“...”

“Yumi.”

“Ah, yes! Understood!”

It had actually worked. It had really and actually worked! The explosion was by no means large, but it hurt the roper without a doubt.

“Still reloading.”

“Understood.”

Bolard forced the string back, snapping it into position. Then he inserted the prepared crossbow bolt. After a final check to see if everything was in order, he readied the crossbow and got into position, aiming at the roper.

“Ready when you are!”

“Nn, got it.”

Another attempt. I stretched out my hand, touching the mana crystal and taking control of the mana. Then I retracted my hand, making sure to keep my control. After a deep breath for the umpteenth time, I began counting down.

“Three… Two… One… Zero!”

“Payload on the way!”

This time, I followed the bolt with my eyes as… good as I could. The bolt was so fast that I lost track of it within a second… For several seconds, nothing happened. Nothing at all except for the roper being attacked by the other mercenaries. It had covered the large eyeballs, protecting them from the bolts. Then—

“GYEEEEE!!! GYEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

A scream and a pink light coming from inside its body.

“Good! It’s working. Next one!”

“Got it!”

“Understood!”

Bollard was already half-finished with reloading by the time the mana crystal had actually exploded. He didn’t even waste time to check if he had hit or not. Then again, missing a target as large as this was probably harder than hitting it.

“Ready when you are!”

“Nn, then...”

“Wait!”

“Eh?”

Suddenly, Korwen stopped us, his gaze still fixated on the roper. I followed his eyes and… The roper had uncovered one of its large eyeballs. And it was staring… right at us.

“Into cover! Quickly!”

“Eh?”

“Yumi!”

Korwen jumped up and ran down, Karen grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and dragged me away, Bolard abandoned his supplies and jumped to the side, down the building we were on, the Elder followed behind us.

“Cover! Into cover!”

Similar shouts could be heard from the nearby mercenaries, everyone scrambling away, getting away from whatever was going to happen.

“GYEEEEEE!”

Something was crushed… With enormous strength, the roper had swiped away the building between the road and us, debris flying through the air, crashing into other buildings and damaging them.

“Shoot! Shoot it!”

”Don’t let it leave the road!”

”Throw the spears! The spears!”

The mercenaries were shouting, screaming and doing all they could to stop the roper. They threw their spears, connected to the ropes. They attempted to shoot the eyeball, staring straight at us. To no avail. The mana was stirring. A tremendous amount of mana.

“Captain! Captain! It’s using magic!”

“Shit… disperse! Disperse!”

Korwen ran to the side, splitting up from us, the Elder following right behind him. Karen decided on the other direction, running around a building and obstructing my view. But I could still feel it. The mana, it was moving. Something was happening.

“GYEEEEEEE!!!”

The next moment, my vision was covered in a muddy pink light. A light devouring everything.