CHAPTER 261.2 - THE BEAST THAT CRIES OUT FOR LOVE

Yokomichi was laughing, his face became even more twisted and grotesque than a goma’s, he opened his mouth wide. It was opened wide to the point it looked as if his jaw might have snapped from its' sockets, and something emerged from within his mouth.

「Dammit, that tongue skill is coming aga————」

When that thing shot out of Yokomichi's mouth, I thought it was an attack using that long, extending tongue.

However, I saw right away that I was mistaken. The extending tongue, which he seemed to have acquired by eating a frog monster, was a disgusting technique on its own, but what I’m seeing now was a horror that far surpassed even that.

「Shaaaaaaaaa…」

「Creaaaak.」

「Screeech!」

It was a monstrous worm. Each one let out groaning, alien-like noises, drooling from their round mouths lined with spike-like fangs.

They were about 30 centimeters in diameter. I had no idea how many meters long they could stretch. Worms the size of a giant anaconda came slithering out of Yokomichi’s gaping mouth—three, four, five…You’ve gotta be kidding me! How many of these things can he spit out!?

「DEPLOY SMOKE SCREEN, RUN!」

When Yokomichi who was just as the grotesque worm he spit was about to rear their heads and lunge at me, I fired the air launcher.

Hinagiku's smokescreen exploded, billowing thick white smoke instantly obscured my vision. In the spacious hall that looked like a boss room, the smoke spread in no time, filling the entire space.

Still, I doubt those worm-like tentacles rely on vision to hunt their prey. But even if the smokescreen was only obscuring Yokomichi’s own line of sight, I wanted to believe that alone makes this worthwhile right now.

「Take this, 『Terra Blast(Rock Cannon)』!」

As soon as I deployed the smoke screen, Randou-san unleashed an AoE attack magic, firing it in conical-like trajectory like a shotgun.

On the other side of the smoke, I heard the worm's scream, "Giiiii!", followed by the sound of flesh being torn. This indicated that Kyouko's attack had at least partially hit, and it served as a decent deterrent.

In this kind of situation, being able to land a strike in the heat of the moment might be due to the difference in combat experience between Randou-san and Hayama-kun.

The same goes for Hayama-kun though, he's quickly shifting into a proper escape stance, so he might be more capable in terms of agility.

He had already made a beeline toward the entrance of the boss room and was letting Kinako through first.

「MOMOKAWA, RANDOU, HURRY UP!」

「Don't worry Hayama-kun, you go first————」

We should've enough leeway to escape.

However, I would soon regret such naive thought. I should have left this place as soon as possible.

「———— HAYAMA-KUN WATCH OUT!」

A worm's head, dripping with drool, shot out from beyond the smoky white haze. It appeared was right next to Hayama-kun. Why on earth would something appeared from that place, as if it deliberately circling around. ṙΑ𝐍ỗ𝐁ÊŠ

A chill ran down my spine. At the same time, I cursed my own carelessness.

I shouldn't have used the smokescreen to block vision, there were probably more worms than I had seen, and they were likely operating autonomously, reacting to sound to hunt for enemies.

However, it was too late to regret for that blunder.

The moment Hayama-kun turned around, the worm had already arrived right before him, opened its wide mouth.

Splat————

The sound of flesh being bitten off could be heard in the next moment.

The grotesque, circular mouth of the worm tore through what Hayama-kun instinctively raised in reflexively at that moment, his right arm.

It swallowed his arm up to the middle of the upper arm. Then, with those circularly arranged fangs, the worm crushed it. So easily to the point that his arm was torn off effortlessly.

The spray of blood bursting from the cross-section of his arm, and the way the worm's mouth writhed grotesquely as it devoured the fresh flesh, all of it seemed to move in strangely slow motion.

「E— AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!?」

Hayama-kun's anguished scream echoed through the air.

He had lost almost an entire arm. It was only natural he'd scream from the shock.

However, the enemy wasn’t going to wait patiently for him to calm down. Just thinking about how many of those worm-like tentacles might be writhing beyond the smokescreen was enough to make me shudder.

「Rem, carry Hayama-kun and retreat! Kyouko, seal the entrance!」

「Everyone is already outside of the boss room right!? 『Terra Alma Shield』!」

The Dark Knight Rem ran while carrying the screaming, crying Hayama-kun, and just as I dashed through the entrance, Kyoko cast her defensive spell. A wall of jagged rock shot up, sealing off the entrance.

Sound of gnawing and scratching could be heard from the other side of the thick stone wall. He might be baring his fangs, still searching for his prey.

But by sealing off the only entrance, we’d bought ourselves some time, even if just a little. Praying that it would be enough, we wasted no time to retreat back to our base.

「Kotaro, are we going straight back to the fairy plaza just like this!?」

「Wait, we need to stop Hayama-kun's bleeding first or it'll be too late.」

We stopped once we returned to the entrance of the boss room's facility. I wanted to at least take care of the first aid for Hayama-kun here.

I couldn’t help but wish we had a real potion. With that, the bleeding could have been stopped instantly just by applying it to the wound. Although, I doubt it would be able to regrow Hayama-kun's arm.

In any case, there's no use wishing for things we didn’t have. He had already lost significant amount of blood just by carrying him all the way to this place. The floor was stained with a trail of fresh blood.

「Hurry up Kotaro, the wall won't be able to hold for long time.」

「Got it, Rem. Just place Hayama-kun here.」

「Pugaga, Pugaa!」

「S-Stop it Kinako. I understand your worry, but let Kotaro to take care of Hayama-kun for now.」

Randou-san stopped the restless Kinako. Whether it was because he understood what she said words or sensed the meaning behind her words. Kinako, looking very anxious and flustered, silently allowed me to proceed with my actions.

「Black Hair Bind」

The most basic first aid for stopping bleeding was to tie it off. The same principle applied whether it was a finger lost or an arm severed.

If it was only for tying up his upper arm, black hair bind was more than enough.

「This will stop the bleeding for the time being, so bear with this for now.」

After that, I sprinkled about half of the healing potion onto the cross-section.

The healing potion, which was remade from the lite potion, thanks to Shimokawa's effort, might be not as effective as the real deal, but it still had healing properties. It was even useful during the battle against the Yamata-no-Orochi.

This was all the first aid I could do for the time being.

We had to head back to the fairy plaza to give Hayama-kun a proper treatment. Yokomichi aside, we couldn't predict when monsters would be drawn by the scent of blood and appeared outside.

「Hey, Momokawa… Am I, going to die?」

「Get a grip already, humans won't die that easily just because they're losing an arm. Now do as I say, raise your right arm higher than your heart.」

Hayama-kun, whose face was a mess due to tears and snot, let out a weak cry, but I firmly told him what he needed to hear. He lost his composure from the shock of having his arm bitten off. Giving him clear, commanding orders was the best way to get through to him right now.

「It's going to shake a bit, but hang in there, Hayama-kun.」

「Damn it, Momokawa… You're still a slave driver even in this situation…」

「Can you walk back to the plaza on your own?」

「I-I don't think so…」

As we exchanged those words, I got Hayama-kun onto the back of the roirops. Well, rather than “got him on,” it was more like I strapped him on.

To transport the severely injured Hayama-kun, who had lost an arm, safely and quickly, the best option among us was the roirops, with its large body that allowed him to lie down flat on its back.

「Well then, let's go!」

「WAIT A MINUTE!!」

Though I did stop him, lingering here any longer was suicidal. At any moment, Yokomichi could come leaping out of the lake, screaming something gross at any moment.

However, even if we retreat to the Fairy Plaza like this, it was by no means the solution to our current situation.

We could focus on giving proper treatment to Hayama-kun, but Yokomichi was still wandering out there. And he was not a wild monster; technically, he was still considered a human classmate. Which means he could freely enter the Fairy Plaza just like anyone else.

Moreover, Yokomichi most likely had considerable tracking abilities as well. I had no way to know how many monsters he had eaten, but there was probably at least one or two among them with keen senses of smell. Even just acquiring a dog-like keen sense of smell would make it easier for him to track us from here to the Fairy Plaza. After all, there was a strong scent of blood.

Furthermore, if he had other detection abilities or enhanced mobility, the worst-case scenario would be getting caught while we were in the process of retreating.

Since we’ve encountered him in this place, it's all too clear that we couldn’t escape from Yokomichi.

No, there was a teleportation magic circle at the Fairy Plaza, so it was not impossible to escape from this area… However, the destination of that teleportation was set to be random. It was not fully random within the dungeon, but rather limited to areas with a magic power density of 2 or lower, basically, areas from the early to mid stages.

As far as I’ve deciphered the teleportation magic circle, that was the kind of teleportation setting it had.

If I were to use this teleportation casually to escape, the effort of crossing the mountain and taking all the trouble to take a shortcut through the dungeon would be wasted. If we were sent back from here, the chance of catching up with everyone would be completely ruined.

「…I have to somehow deal with Yokomichi here.」

I got this feeling that he would chase me to the end of the earth. Given that Yokomichi had likely eaten quite a lot of monsters, it was hard to imagine him dying by getting defeated by a wild monster somewhere. On the other hand, there was also the possibility that he was guided by that bi*ch called goddess Elysion, and he could be sent right back to me.

Yokomichi had to be dealt with. There was no room for negotiation when facing a mindless monster that just wants to devour me.

「Kotaro, are you serious about fighting Yokomichi?」

「I’ll do everything I can. But if push comes to shove, we’ll escape using teleportation.」

Alright, I’ve made up my mind. Yokomichi extermination battle begins.

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My first CN project, why waifu though? Well, coz the main heroine's job is buying soy sauce till the end of act 1

New Project:

Something like Chirem, my other project with similar genre, Isekai, shitty hero, anti-hero mc, reincarnated as villain, predatory female leads, I'll drop breastfeeding here.

More and Cheaper(10/$10) Advance Chapter :

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