CH 26

“Burushaaaaaah!!”

“Ugh!?”

Toki-san moves forward and raises her strengthened shield in Brush’s head before it can shake it off and allow enough velocity to reach its fangs.

Then, a furious collision between Brush’s fangs and Toki-san’s shield sends a metallic rumbling sound accompanied by sparks.

“Tajikarao-sama! Hmph.”

“Bu…”

Sora-san slams her hammer down at Brush’s head to destroy it after it has ceased moving.

“Alrig…”

“Be on your guard!”

“What, argh!?”

“Rashaa!”

“Damn!”

From the standpoint of common biological sense, it would appear that we have killed it because its head has been crushed.

I nonetheless seize Sora-san by the neck and drag her back up to behind Toki-san’s shield because Brush’s body hasn’t yet been transformed into clay and from the meaning of that, I could see where this is heading.

Following that, a new head and fangs instantly sprouted from the tip of Brush’s neck, which has already been reduced in length due to the amount of crushing. Another metallic sound is produced when Toki-san’s shield and Brush’s fangs cross paths as it swings out as though tracing the trajectory of the previous blow from the opposite direction.

“Hit it!”

“Burasha!”

“Tsk!”

I fire a sling bullet at the red crystal connected to Brush’s tail’s tip.

But right before the bullet hits, Brush turns itself around to distance itself from us and simultaneously evades my attack.

As expected, it won’t let me hit the vital spot so easily.

“Monsters really are out of the ordinary, aren’t they?”

“If you’ve got time for idle chatter, brace yourself.”

“Let’s take it down as soon as possible. The cacophony of the noisemaker floor should soon cause the other monsters to react.”

“Bububububu….”

Toki-san and I both readjust our equipment while Sora-san rises and moves her hammer into a new position.

On the other hand, Brush begins to scrape the ground with his right foreleg as he did the first time as well.

“So, how do we actually beat it? I can’t handle that kind of movement because it’s too fast for me.”

“I’ll use my right eye to deal with the movement.”

“Then, please do it right after I block it.”

I further intensify the amount of power I am gathering in my right eye.

“Burashaaaah!”

“Ggh!?”

“Freeze!”

Just as Brush launches its strike and Toki-san defends it, I run past Toki-san’s left side and reach Brush’s side, directing the power of my right eye into Brush’s torso.

“Burashiaaa!?”

The force of my right eye freezes Brush’s torso and two legs, and when it struggles to move in that position, its frozen legs fracture in bits and start to fall heavily out of its posture.

“Take this!”

“Aaaaaaah!?”

The red crystal that represents Brush’s life is shattered at that precise moment by Sora-san, who leaps out of the other direction a split second after me, swinging her hammer with acceleration by movement towards the tip of Brush’s tail before it can get up and initiate its next action, after which its body turned into clay.

“Alright… ahh!?”

“Phew… eh!?”

“We have managed somehow. But the next one is already on the way.”

Once the fearsome foe called rush has been dispatched, they both relax momentarily.

But in the midst of it, I sight two arrows advancing slowly in their direction; one of them freezes and bursts, while I extend my left fingernail to repel the other.

The current arrows induce a cold sweat to internally break out on me.

Thanks to Ys’ eyes, I could perceive and respond to it, but if it had not been for Ys’ eyes, it would have been a surprise attack that definitely killed the two of them.

“Toki-san, keep your shield up towards the direction the arrow came from! Sora-san, check for enemy activity in the surrounding area! I’ll deal with them from the opposite direction!”

“Y-Yes!”

“This is… three Bows and three Hands each coming from the direction where Brush came from! There are no other signs of enemy activity!”

As soon as I and Sora-san cover behind Toki-san’s shield, we can hear many impacts being delivered to the shield.

Sora-san then reports the names of two types of monsters: Bow and Hand.

If my memory serves me right, Bow is a monster consisting of only a bow, a quiver, and a hand to handle the arrow, whereas Hand is a monster that takes the form of a hand.

While Hand strikes by firing spherical bullets at the opponent, both of these creatures are attached to the ground or a wall, moving slowly and hurling arrows at the target.

The area just below the surface of contact would be the weak point for both of them.

“Do you know how far away they are?”

“They are about 100 meters away, but they are steadily closing in on us. It seems that only Bow is attacking now. Akira onee-sama.”

“I get it. In that case, Toki-san, is your shield sturdy enough?”

“No problem. Their assaults have less force because of the distance.”

“I understand. Then, both of you, fall back like this and move to the corner.”

[[Yes!]]

With a clear grasp of the situation, the three of us slowly retreat to a place where there is a corner.

Toki-san restores the durability of her shield, which was damaged by Brush attacks, while Sora-san monitors the surroundings, and I begin to draw more strength into my right eye after reaching the corner.

Fortunately, no additional foes from the other passageways have surfaced.

However, according to Sora-san’s far-sightedness, monsters other than the six mentioned earlier are congregating around the corner, bringing the total number of monsters to more than 20, even if they are all small.

“Akira onee-sama. I’ll begin the count since it won’t be long until the first adversary crosses the marked line.”

“Please do so.”

“5… 4… 3… 2… 1…”

It goes without saying that it is not a sensible move to underestimate them because they are small monsters. All of us, including myself, have a solid understanding of the prospect that arrow our lives can be reaped in the moment when we are caught off guard by an arrow.

On top of that, since small monsters are typically slow-moving, there is a high likelihood that we can easily beat them if we initiate contact; nevertheless, if we fight them in a melee, they can easily slip into our blind spots and catch us off guard.

Consequently, we should avoid confrontation in a melee with a horde of monsters that are approaching as much as possible.

So what should we do?

“0!”

“Divinity released!”

When Sora-san’s count goes down to zero, I spring out of the corner and unrestrainedly focus the power of my right eye onto the swarm of monsters that are heading at us from a distance that I can see.

On the dungeon’s floor and walls, each and every monster in my field of vision turns to ice.

“Argh!?”

“Akira onee-sama!?”

“Akira-san!?”

“Ouch… but it went well.”

The minute I lose control of my momentum and crash fleetingly against the wall and the floor across from me, I know for sure that all the monsters have frozen to ice and have perished.

“Wow… there’s no sign of any enemies in the surroundings.”

“Amazing…”

“There is a drawback, though. Ys told me that if I freeze them like this, they can’t be used as material.”

Through the power of Ys, my fingernails are extended as I approach the creatures who have transformed into ice statues and touch them.

Along with the small creatures that were advancing on us, all of the frozen monsters shatter.

Regrettably, no materials could be retrieved; yet, this is inevitable given the significance centered on safety and certainty.

“Anyway, let’s move towards the direction where the monsters were attempting to gather once we’ve examined our equipment.”

“There are still sounds of combat.”

“That suggests our allies are there, right?”

After we have our gear in place, we run towards the direction where the sound of the battle is still in the background.