Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi

I groan in pain from bumping my head on something hard.

But this kind of mound is like a lump of earth to the hydra.
It rams into the mound without slowing down and its body emerges in front of us.

「Cannoneers, fire.」

I hear Leopolt’s cold voice come from behind me before I know it.

「Wait a second, this hard thing is……」

Booms from six cannons prevent me from finishing my question.

There is no more than a few meters between us and the hydra.

I should be hearing the anguished squeals and the collapsing sound of the hydra following the tremendous roar and consecutive sounds of shots landing on target, but unfortunately my head is dizzy and the cannons are drowning everything out.

「Dammit Leopolt, I’ll sneak a centipede in your bed later.」

After shaking my head and looking up, Leopolt shouts.
Although I can’t hear his voice, it’s rare to see him open his mouth so wide.
Of course I understand the meaning.

「Forget your bed, I’ll put it in your collar!」

I cross my sword and spear in front of my chest and jump to the rear.
Almost at the same time, I receive an enormous impact to my chest that knocks me up into the air.

What spreads across my field of vision is the insect hydra that stained my chest with purple liquid.
Six cannons firing at close range didn’t work either.

I think rather calmly as I drop from a height of 50 meters and fall on my back.

「――!!」

My bones creak, my organs shake, and I see stars.

I twist my body as I bounce like a rock skipping on the water surface and roll as I kill the impact of being blown away.
I send several allied soldiers flying along the way and crash into the earthen mound, finally coming to a stop.

「Aegir-sama――!!」

「Lord Hardlett was taken out!?」

「W-we’re done for……」

I want to say I haven’t died yet, but I can’t move my body or speak.

A few seconds’ time would be nice, but it doesn’t look like it’ll be given to me.

「It’s coming this way!」

The insect hydra is persistently targeting me.
If I don’t stand up, I’ll be crushed.

「Gu……guh.」

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I use the Dual Crater as a cane to prop myself up, yet I don’t feel I can attack, let alone roll.

「Now then……what……am I going to do?」

It happened right as I looked up and let out a winded monologue.

「Take this, trash insect.」

A few bottles were thrown from the top of a crumbling watchtower.
The bottles accurately hit the insect hydra in the face, exploded with a roar, and burnt its antennae to a crisp.
The monster’s body that endured the blast from six cannons at close range trembles in pain.

「Danger to administrator detected.
Emergency shooting mode――activating.」

Light starts shining from behind.
The light threads between me and the soldiers and catches one of the hydra’s heads.

The head seems to withstand the light briefly, but then expands from the inside and bursts.
All the other heads wave around separately and its body writhes from left to right.
It’s the first time the insect hydra has clearly shown signs of pain.

「High resistance to physical and thermal weapons confirmed.
Attacks from electromagnetic or radiation weapons recommended.」

Tikuku appears, saying things I don’t understand.
A torn worm is in her right hand, a spider’s head is in her left hand, and a spider is hanging over her back.

The spider behind her tries to insert its tube into Tikuku’s forehead, but it is repelled with a dull thud.

「Potent toxin confirmed.
Evacuation recommended.」

After covering her forehead with her hands, Tikuku grabs the spider’s forelegs and pulls them in opposite directions, tearing them off.

The stars disappear from my vision and my hearing is restored.

「Thanks.」

I smile at Sekrit, who jumps down from the watchtower and Tikuku, who hands the dismembered spider to fellow soldiers.

But it’s not over.

The hydra, now reduced to eight heads, slowly stands up.

「How much easier will it be with one less head?」

When I assume a stance with my Dual Crater, thinking not much will change, something else interferes.

「Gusting wind, become sharp blades and cut that wicked creature.」

I feel a strange wind pressure and then about ten of the insect hydra’s legs fly off.
Losing balance, the hydra tilts to one side.

A wind scythe, oh wind magic?

「You seem to be in trouble.」

I turn around to the sight of the chieftess of the forest elves, Yularen, holding a cheap-looking umbrella.
If she’s here, then――

「Raindrops, gather and become a gigantic ball.
Smash these evil insects.」

Rain stops falling around the source of the voice and concentrates in a spherical shape in midair.
It then moves above the wobbling insect hydra and drops.
Water is heavy, and when it accumulates into something of that size, it most likely possesses power incomparable to a catapult.

The impact makes a thump and one of the heads splits.

「Ijaris.」

「Yes.」

Ijaris, the chieftess of the black elves, fans herself with a cheap-looking paper fan as she poses rather seductively, the water on her brown skin further enhancing her sexiness.
The two of them must have gone shopping together at some market.

「Thanks.
I honestly thought there was no hope left.」

「Fufu, glad I made it on time.」

「Yes, however we can’t relax just yet.」

The insect hydra slowly stands up.

It lost two heads, ten legs and antennae.
That’s far from being fatal damage.

「Haa, haa……made it!」

A set of dodgy stumbling footsteps stops beside me.

「Hiih!」

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A small shriek follows.
The voice belongs to Alice.

Fear washes over her face when she sees the insect hydra and the spiders and worms approaching, but she stands strong, shakes her head, and takes a deep breath while closing her eyes.

「All troops, evacuate!」

Hearing me shout and also sensing danger, allied soldiers stop fighting and clear out of the area.

Dingus yells to retreat as well, punches the dumbfounded Rinuga on his way and drags him along.

「Burn!!」

Fireballs the size of human bodies fly from both of Alice’s hands.

They float at a walking pace and drop at the feet of the insect hydra.

One, two, three seconds――

「Wooah!?」
「Hot!」
「Uwaaaaaaaah!!」

It exploded, no, the fire expanded instantly.

「Did it work!!?」

Irijina shouts.

The insect hydra is engulfed by the flames, and the raging fire also swallows the nearby spiders and worms, as well as scorches the hair and eyebrows of allied soldiers, before eventually disappearing into the air.

The bugs close to the fireball are completely carbonized.
Others sensed the danger of the fire and distant themselves from the fort.

Black smoke rises from the body of the insect hydra located in the center of the flames, which remains still like a statue.
Pieces of the burnt outer shell clatters softly to the ground.

All of a sudden, the rain stops, the clouds clear, and light shines down.

「Is it dead?」
「Of course it is.
Look around, the bugs can’t even maintain their shape.」
「It became charcoal……right?」

The soldiers whisper among each other.

「Christoph.」

I call out to Christoph and point at the hydra.

「Eh?」

「Hurry up.」

Urged by Celia, Christoph inches forward timidly and uses the sword he holds between his index finger and thumb to poke the hydra.

Immediately, the lump of charcoal shakes violently.

「Uwaaaaaaah!!」

「You’re kidding……」

The insect hydra shakes off the charcoal from its body and begins moving again.
The surface of its body was definitely carbonized, judging by the fragments of the outer shell that were scattered about.
One of the chunks hits Christoph, and he faints with both of his arms folded across his chest.

Two more heads, completely burnt, fall off with a thud.
But still, that thing is alive and well.

「What tremendous vitality.」

Despite occasionally staggering and slamming its head on the ground as it scans its surroundings, the insect hydra leaves to the south, keeping its body low to hide from the sun.

「Don’t chase.
We don’t have the strength to continue fighting.
Prioritize reorganizing the troops and repairing the fort.
There is a few more hours until night, they’ll come again.」

I stare at the fleeing insect hydra and hug the exhausted Alice.

「Yularen and Ijaris……the elves are here too.
I’m going to give them a brief explanation so come with me.」

I calmly say as I call out to Rinuga.

「Hey, that’s the thing that assaulted your fortress, right?」

「Of course……however, the size seems somewhat different, now that I think about it……」

That makes sense.
I mean, there are plenty of spiders, so there must be more than one of those too.

I heave a sigh and turn around.

「Leopolt, we’re racing against time.
Leave the aftermath to Dingus and think only about how to sever the source.
Imagine if ten or twenty of those things emerged.
Not just this place, but all of Goldonia won’t last three days.」

We either eliminate them soon or we fail and get eaten.