Chapter 25

Summary of the previous chapter:

I can now use magic.

――I'm not afraid of anything anymore (ry

7

The Balloon Fox's escape speed seemed slightly faster than the Fire Fang I tracked yesterday.

Or perhaps, should I say it was more agile.

Due to its smaller build, the Balloon Fox was more nimble. While the Fire Fang might win in a straight line, in a forest with many obstacles, the Balloon Fox would likely have the upper hand.

Still, it was a matter of degree. It wasn't enough to escape from Gerbera.

"...I won't let you join your companions."

After a few minutes of pursuit, Gerbera muttered.

"‘Stray’?"

I was careful not to bite my tongue as I whispered to Gerbera's beautiful face, which was just a nose away from mine.

"Perhaps."

Gerbera leaned in another three centimeters and whispered back.

"If that's the case, there's no point in pursuing any further."

"Right. It might be about time. If there's another opportunity, will you set the trap for me?"

"Agreed. ...However, since we're advancing through the underbrush, it will be difficult to capture you with spider silk. I can't move very fast while carrying you. ...Hmm?"

Gerbera, who had nodded at my request, suddenly raised an eyebrow.

"Gotcha."

Her red eyes narrowed.

"That guy. He made a mistake. He's out in the open."

Sure enough, as Gerbera said, I could see a clearing in the forest a few dozen meters ahead.

Sometimes, while exploring the forest, you come across such places.

This one was about ten meters in diameter, an irregularly shaped circle where the forest opened up.

Through the sparse undergrowth, I could see the reddish-brown ground.

Perhaps there had been a forest fire recently.

In the second it took me to think this, Gerbera had already arrived at the spot.

Almost simultaneously with Gerbera emerging from the forest, the Balloon Fox re-entered the underbrush on the opposite side.

"I won't let you escape!"

Gerbera, who was carrying me, landed in the small clearing in the forest with a nimble leap that showed no sign of the handicap of carrying me.

And that was the trigger for the crisis.

***

Let me tell you a hypothetical story here.

The method we used to increase the efficiency of encountering monsters, which involved dealing with a group, was something we were doing.

If I had talked about this to someone else, how would it have turned out?

If I had talked to Lily, she would probably have been worried and come here.

If I had talked to Rose, she would have opposed it, and we wouldn't have come here at all.

And if I had consulted with Kato, she would have surely noticed the big pitfall that I didn't.

If that had happened, the disaster that was about to occur would have been avoided.

The pitfall was in my own perception.

I had thought before:

---Ordinary monsters are no match for Gerbera. Rare monsters and above are within the range of my abilities. If there is a threat, it would be from High Monsters, but they are not something you encounter easily...

This was not wrong.

However, I had overlooked one element.

It was the fatal element of my own vulnerability.

I thought I was aware that this was the greatest weakness of my cheat ability.

But my awareness was too lenient.

I hadn't forgotten, but I hadn't considered it enough. I hadn't thought enough.

...No, I didn't have the time to think.

Resolving the tension between Gerbera and Rose.

My sense of guilt towards Kato.

Various things I knew and didn't know.

There were countless things to think about, none of which could be resolved quickly.

Therefore, there were inevitably some oversights.

For example, the fact that I hadn't noticed the issue with the dismembered corpse that Kato pointed out last night was one such example.

At this moment, I had judged that there was no existence that could surpass Gerbera in combat.

It was true, but stopping my thinking there was a mistake.

Indeed, the white Arachne boasts overwhelming strength.

If they were to clash head-on, no monster in this forest could defeat her.

However, that doesn't mean everything is fine.

Because, after all, she is just one individual.

It's a matter of course, but humans can only carry what they can hold with their two arms and support with their two legs.

Gerbera has eight legs, but there is still a limit.

To put it simply, there is a limit to what one person can do.

"...What!?"

I opened my eyes wide.

In place of the Balloon Fox that had just entered the underbrush, another individual, already inflated to a large size, rose from the underbrush.

The number surrounding the clearing we had just arrived at exceeded thirty.

And so, I realized.

What I truly needed to be wary of was not the existence of High Monsters, which might or might not be encountered.

What I truly needed to be wary of was the overwhelming number of ordinary monsters that even Gerbera couldn't handle.

---At that moment, the roles of hunter and prey were reversed.

By the time I regretted my shallowness, the trigger had already been pulled.

"Uaaaaah!?"

Over a hundred fireballs rushed towards us.

It was almost like a wall of fire.

With 360 degrees of the area surrounded, there was no place to run.

The scene, illuminated by the red flames, turned pitch black with despair.

It was nothing but carelessness.

Monsters don't have human emotions or will, but they do have the intelligence of animals.

On Earth, where I used to live, there were many wild animals known to hunt strategically in groups, such as wolves, lions, and hyenas.

If that's the case, it wouldn't be strange for monsters to use such methods.

This open clearing in the forest was their hunting ground, and for us, who had been lured in, it was nothing but an execution ground.

...There was nothing that could be done.

I genuinely thought that, and even saw my life flash before my eyes.

But then.

Gerbera, who was carrying me, let out a defiant cry.

"I won't let you!"

Gerbera swung her hand, and the dozen or so spider threads she shot out whipped around like a whip.

Almost unconsciously, I followed the direction her hand swung.

There were fireballs approaching.

The spider threads, which danced like a whip, collided with some of the incoming fireballs.

I remembered the trees that had exploded and caught fire from the Balloon Fox's fireballs I had seen earlier.

If they hit something with a certain hardness, the Balloon Fox's fireballs would burst.

This was true even if the spider threads were swung with the brute strength of a High Monster.

---If it can't be avoided, it might as well explode first.

That must have been what Gerbera thought.

The fireballs embedded in the spider threads exploded one after another in mid-air.

It was a brutally simple decision, and at the same time, the shortest and only way to avoid the situation.

The explosions occurred at a distance of just a few meters. Although it was better than being directly caught in the blast, the heat wave inevitably came rushing in.

Gerbera tightly hugged me to her chest, using her body as a shield, but the heat wave still scorched my skin mercilessly.

All I could do was endure with my eyes closed.

The scream I had raised was lost in the explosion, not even reaching my own ears.

Endure. Endure.

The moment a gust of wind passed felt like several minutes.

And so, the heat wave passed over my skin.

Just as I was about to lose consciousness, I could barely hear Gerbera's voice.

"Forgive me, my lord!"

Before I could even think about what was happening, the situation changed.

"Uuuuuhhhhhh!?"

Without knowing what was happening, I found myself in a burning heat.

Gerbera, who was carrying me, had plunged into a low-density area where some of the fireballs had been burst by the spider threads.

The ground, heated by the compressed fireballs, was still scorching hot.

Fortunately, with Gerbera's jumping ability, the entry and exit were almost instantaneous.

I found myself in the moist air of the forest.

Almost simultaneously, a huge explosion occurred behind us.

I opened my eyes and saw the rising red flames.

The numerous fireballs spewed by the Balloon Fox had landed where we had been just a moment ago and exploded all at once.

I shuddered.

If Gerbera's decision had been even a second later, we would have been caught in that explosion.

Gerbera might have survived alone.

But I wouldn't have come out unscathed.

It was questionable whether my body would have remained intact.

Even during the escape, I had suffered severe burns on my exposed face and limbs.

If I hadn't been given the spider silk clothing by Gerbera before we set out, I might have died from shock due to severe burns all over my body.

"We're retreating!"

Gerbera, looking desperate, shouted and repeated her leaps.

Twice, three times.

Leaping to escape from the group of Balloon Foxes.

Gerbera, crouching to prepare for the third leap... but she suddenly stopped, digging the hooks at the ends of her spider legs into the ground to brake sharply.

She had no choice but to do so.

"Impossible... It can't be!"

The groan, as if she were spitting blood, was uncharacteristic of her.

I could see, in my increasingly blurry vision, what had made her speechless.

Huge lilies were hanging from the trees, blooming.

I knew these were monsters that resembled vines.

I had hunted one of these monsters, the Cannon Vine, as a gift for Lily yesterday.

The Cannon Vine is a monster that parasitizes trees, stealing nutrients while actively attacking animals.

Gerbera, carrying me, had fled into a dense area of trees where these Cannon Vines were attached.

The reaction was intense.

The Cannon Vine's attack method, the source of its name, involved shooting countless seeds from its lily-like flowers.

I could only feel the first shot hitting the back of my left hand.

After that, it was just a series of impacts.

"Gah, ah! Ah!"

The seeds hit my shoulder, embedded in my stomach, and blood spurted from my thigh.

The pain from the burns I had suffered earlier, which had partially numbed my body, might have been a fortunate thing for me.

Except for the worst of the misfortune, of course.

No, perhaps it was inappropriate to call this 'bad luck.'

Because thinking that 'it was bad luck to run into a dense area of Cannon Vines while fleeing' was missing the point.

No matter how unlucky I might be, such a coincidence was unlikely.

It was more natural to consider this as part of the Balloon Fox's deadly trap.

Gerbera didn't choose this direction randomly. She must have chosen the direction with the highest chance of escape, the weakest point in the Balloon Fox's encirclement.

There was a trap there.

The Balloon Fox used the Cannon Vines.

In this world, monsters don't attack in a coordinated manner like in a computer RPG battle scene.

But a 'cooperative' attack, where one uses the other, is possible.

That's what it was.

After creating such a deadly situation, they would give a sure death to anything that managed to break through the net.

Perhaps this was