Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 1 - Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Horror

The following day.

“Morning, Master.”

“...Morning.”

I ended up falling asleep in Rose’s arms. When I woke up, Lily greeted me with a strangely happy smile. It seemed she was pleased her little sister Rose was getting along with me. I had wondered how things would go when Rose started calling Lily her older sister, but it turned out she was an unexpectedly good big sister.

“We’re moving our base? Why?”

After finishing breakfast, I cut right to the chase. Lily, who was clinging to my arm as if that was where she belonged, looked up at me while blinking curiously.

“Is this about what you heard from... that senpai yesterday?” Unlike Lily, Katou immediately had an idea of what was going on.

Rose was listening to our conversation, but she didn’t show any signs of joining in. She just sat there carving away at wood as always.

I nodded back to Katou and then turned to Lily. “If what Kaga told us yesterday is true, then it’s possible there’s a monster powerful enough to kill a cheater in the area. It’ll be dangerous to stay here.”

“Oh, right. He did say something about an exploration team member being among those five torn up corpses, huh...? But is that really true? I can’t really trust that guy.”

“I don’t really trust him either,” I replied as I shrugged my shoulders. “But it’s not worth taking the risk.”

Lily was basically saying there was no evidence, but I judged that Kaga was speaking the truth regarding this matter. For example, Kaga’s other statement of knowing the details behind the first expeditionary force’s plans was surely a lie. He only made such a statement to get my interest. In contrast, he had nothing to gain from claiming he found a bunch of corpses and identified one of them as a cheater.

Kaga was an idiot who was faithful to his own desires, but he wasn’t a braggart who lied for no reason. Assuming one of those five corpses was in fact a cheater from the exploration team was our best course of action. Even if they were a completely common warrior, they were supposed to possess enough strength to easily kick about a large majority of the monsters in the forest. Just the thought of how powerful a monster had to be to kill them sent a chill down my spine. I wanted to get far away from that kind of danger as quickly as I could.

“But still, a monster that can kill even a cheater, huh?” Lily said.

It was quite unbelievable, but the truth was the truth. I had also considered the possibility they were surrounded by multiple monsters, but there weren’t any monsters corpses there. It was right to assume a single monster had carried out that massacre.

“Is it that strange?” Lily asked.

“Do you not find it strange, Lily? The cheaters who came to this world can defeat a dragon with their bare hands. I can’t even think of what kind of monster would be capable of killing them.”

“So you say, but even monsters have different grades and all.”

“Grades?”

“Mm.” Lily rubbed her cheek against my arm as she nodded.

“What do you mean?”

“Hmm, how to put it?” Lily thought it over for a moment before starting her explanation. “You know the beings the students who were transported to this world call monsters are said to be creatures who possess mana, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Fundamentally, the more mana a monster possesses, the stronger it is.”

This I knew. A regular bear could never win against a mouse with mana. That was an extreme example though.

“So, the average strength of a monster is proportional to the amount of mana in the land.”

“Hang on. What do you mean by mana in the land?”

“Hm? Oh, right. You can’t sense mana, can you, Master?” Lily playfully stuck out her tongue like she messed up. “That which we call mana comes from the earth. It moves with the flow of the atmosphere, soaks into the ground with the rain, and takes root within the earth. That’s mana. And the ones who absorb it from the earth into their bodies are called monsters. That’s what kind of creatures we are.”

“Uhhh... To put it simply, it’s something like harmful heavy metals discharged from factories?”

Lily scrunched up her face. “...You’re right. I reaaaally want to deny it. But you’re right.”

Well, it really was the worst way to imagine it, but it did explain the phenomenon itself. Heavy metals dissolved underwater; they were absorbed by plankton, which was eaten by small fishes, which were eaten by larger fishes. They gradually accumulated like that until they brought harm to humans.

“The small animals and vegetation of this forest also contain mana, though in minuscule quantities. It is, of course, also in the air. And monsters continuously accumulate the mana around them. Actually, it might be more accurate to say monsters are creatures who accumulate mana rather than just possess it. Mana is absorbed from the land, so naturally, lands which are overflowing with mana are home to monsters who possess that much more of it.”

“You sure are well-informed.”

“Well, yeah. This is a matter which concerns our own ecology, after all.”

“Your ecology?”

“Mm.” Lily nodded. “Certain specimens who can accumulate mana over a certain limit... or, more precisely, who have the capacity to endlessly accumulate mana, become able to start reproductive activities after living for a long period of time. Put simply, they begin giving birth to offspring.”

“...I see.”

What’s this feeling?

Something about hearing a beautiful girl like Lily talk about “reproductive activities” felt kind of iffy. I knew she was being serious, though.

“I guess you would call it asexual reproduction. Oh, but monsters born like that have a slight difference in mana capacity, so maybe it’s a little different? Sorry, I don’t really know about that part. Anyway, slimes like me and magical puppets like Rose should fall under that category. I don’t know about more animal-like monsters like firefangs, though.”

“Meaning... depending on the amount of mana stored in the land, monsters with too large a capacity for mana can’t get enough of it to propagate?”

“Yup. That’s why the strength of monsters in a region is dependent on the amount of mana in the land. That only applies to normal monsters, though.”

“Normal monsters?” Meaning there were also abnormal monsters.

“To make things simpler, I’ll use Mizushima Miho’s knowledge about video games, but... For example, the monsters who can reproduce the way I just mentioned are something like queen monsters, I guess?”

“So, they’re obviously a bigger threat than normal monsters.”

“By a fair margin. However, they lose mana each time they reproduce. Their strength isn’t fixed. And next, there are monsters like me... Something like a unique monster?”

“By unique, you mean there aren’t any other monsters like you?”

“Yup. We’re irregulars born of asexual reproduction... so-called mutants. Well, you can just think of them as curiosities. Being unique doesn’t necessarily make them strong. Especially me. I’m just a unique monster on the level of a slime.”

It was true Lily’s original combat abilities weren’t high by any stretch of the imagination. On the other hand, her mimicry was incomparable to anything else. In that sense, the label of unique monster was truly fitting for her.

“So, Rose is something like a rare monster, I guess.”

“What? Rose isn’t a normal monster?” I reflexively shot a look over to Rose in surprise, and she modestly nodded back.

“Rose is just a little stronger than normal magical puppets. Haven’t you had that hunch before?”

“...Now that you mention it, yeah. I’ve admired how skilled she is.”

“They’re nothing compared to the skills of my elder sister.”

So Rose said, but I didn’t think so at all.

Lily smiled with a troubled look at her little sister but continued her explanation. “And then we have the ones beyond rare monsters... Maybe we should call them high monsters.”

“How are they different from rare monsters?”

“In every way possible,” Lily clearly declared. “I’m sorry to say this, but the ones I call rare monsters like Rose are nothing more than superior specimens among a large group of the same kind of monster. That in itself is rare enough to have pride in. Something like one in a thousand? For example, it’s enough that they’ll probably one day become queens... However, the very existence of a high monster is on an entirely different level to begin with.”

Lily was making a scarily serious expression.

“They exist outside the ecosystem. In other words, they’re specimens who don’t take up reproductive activities like queens do. It’s likely they’ve broken through the limits of accumulating mana.”

“And the amount of mana a monster stores determines their strength, huh?”

“Mm. That’s why we’d never be able to win against one. You can’t fight them. Opposing them is certain death. Even running away is a matter of luck. For example, the one I saw before annihilated a pack of nearly a hundred firefangs. It was truly a horror.”

“A high monster. A monster among monsters... A horror...”

It wouldn’t even be funny to have to fight something like that. Considering it was obvious to run away immediately upon finding one, it really was best to move the base to make sure we didn’t encounter one to begin with.

With our plans for the future determined, I suddenly realized something.

“Hey, Lily?”

“Mhm?”

“Those high monsters you mentioned... Could they kill cheaters?”

Our talks had gone a little off track, but this all started because a monster had killed a cheater among those mangled corpses we found.

“...Hmmm, that’s the thing,” Lily replied in a somewhat vague tone. “It really depends on the situation... But I think it’d be hard for the monster in a straight-up fight.”

“So it’d be hard...”

“Mhmm.”

I could do nothing but sigh at her answer. It gave a glimpse of how beyond the norm cheaters were. They truly were humans to be feared.

“But there might be powerful monsters I don’t know about. I’m just a slime. I didn’t have a very wide habitat. Rose might know more, though.”

“No. I’ve only seen these unique and rare monsters you mentioned, and only when you include the both of us.”

From what they were saying, the probability of encountering a high monster was fairly low. Despite that, it was safer to be careful. It was too late to regret it in hell after dying.

“In any case, we should get away from here as soon as we can, seeing that such a monster might be around. Sorry about that, Katou.”

I wrapped things up and shot a look over to Katou. If we waited here, we’d probably encounter the exploration team. Once we moved base, though, we’d be right back to where we started regarding this matter.

Katou quietly looked down to the floor and twiddled her hair. She didn’t look all that dejected. Or rather, she wasn’t showing any emotion at all, just as usual. It did appear she had recovered a fair bit, but she was still far away from being back to normal. It was doubtful whether she would even be able to completely recover her spirit to begin with. It would’ve been nice if there was some sort of chance to help her do so, but it didn’t seem like I would be able to offer such a thing.

“I don’t really mind... Please prioritize your safety.”

“I’m grateful you’d say that. Alright, let’s get out of here quickly then.”

Now that things were decided, the rest went by quickly. We gathered together all of our stuff. Rose handled the equipment she had been making: swords, spears, axes, shields, and armor. She kept her battleaxe in one hand and a spare on her back, and she passed Lily the spear she had been using. I had the sword she made me before at my hip and my large shield in hand to protect my body.

We were all wearing a breastplate, and everyone other than me had a small buckler that wouldn’t get in the way of fighting. I did actually want to give Katou a large shield like mine so she could use it as a wall, but even though the wood was light, it wasn’t something she could make practical use of with her physical strength, so we had to give up on it.

I had Rose make all sorts of other tools which would be useful for everyday life, but it would’ve been troublesome to take them all along, so we decided to leave them. Rose could just make them again. It would end up consuming her time, but she didn’t really seem to mind and approved of this plan.

We stored all of our spare clothes in the backpack we stole from Kaga and the handbag Katou had with her, and we packed our dried meat in a leather bag made from the firefang’s hide. Rose’s spare parts and equipment were also wrapped up in leather.

“Anything we forgot? Okay, let’s get going.”

Thus, we left the cave that we had grown accustomed to behind.

◆ ◆ ◆

A tree branch vigorously struck the ground. It was like a whip cracking with enough force to greatly gouge out the earth. It could have destroyed an entire passenger vehicle even. I would’ve been nothing but a red stain on the ground.

The reason I managed to barely evade such a blood-chilling attack was because of the wooden puppet running through the forest—Rose.

“Haah!”

The instant she landed, Rose charged with tremendous spirit toward the majestically large monster called a treant. Simply put, it was a walking tree. At well over four meters tall, it was a fair bit larger than Lily even when she was in her original form. Watching it mow down the trees around it was like watching a building collapse and cause a chain reaction.

However, Rose charged such an enormous enemy without hesitation. She severed the branch which swooped in on her flank with her axe, and she evaded the other by greatly swaying her body.

“?!”

But just as she did, the branch, hot on her heels, chased her like a snake.

“Hngh!”

Rose just barely managed to block it with her shield. But even though she managed to defend against the attack, her posture was now broken. The treant’s countless roots, which it used instead of legs, wriggled about as if to take chase.

“Lily!” Rose yelled.

“I know!”

Lily had completed her preparations while Rose stalled for time. She had a glowing glyph in the palm of her hand, ready to fire her specialty magic from the rear. Its attribute was wind; its nature was that of a bullet. The mana she poured into it made it a grade 3 spell. It possessed enough force to rival a high caliber rifle.

An eardrum-shattering roar broke out, and a portion of the treant’s body tore apart.

“Graah?!”

Its thick trunk was so large that two adults wouldn’t be able to wrap their arms around it, and half of it had been blown away entirely. Unable to bear such a severe attack, it halted its surging onslaught of strikes.

Rose didn’t overlook this chance and brandished her battleaxe overhead.

“Haah!”

She drove her axe into the large hole Lily created. In place of a death cry, the treant’s wood creaked apart, and its enormous body splendidly smashed into two as it fell to the ground with a thud.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Our battles have stabilized a fair bit, huh?” I muttered as I pushed away the branches in my face. The gallant figures of my servants handily defeating the treant remained in my mind.

“Our first battle was pretty harsh, wasn’t it? I was totally ready to die,” Lily said as she walked next to me. She had a distant look as she recalled the same scene I was thinking of.

“Yeah, me too. My heart pretty much stopped the moment Rose showed up.”

“I’m sorry I frightened you.”

“Oh, it’s fine. I’m not blaming you or anything. We managed to get out of there alive thanks to you. Good work in the battle just now too.”

“You honor me.”

“That obviously goes for you too, Lily.”

“Ahaha. I had the easy job, though.”

“What are you saying, Sister? I was able to relax and fight at the front precisely because you were there to protect our master to the rear. That role is far larger than anything I did.”

After our battle with the treant ended, we continued walking through the forest while discussing what had happened. We were going in the direction of the sun. For convenience’s sake, we had decided this way was east. To be more precise, we were heading in the opposite direction of the Colony.

I think. Probably. Maybe... My sense of direction isn’t great, but Rose is leading us, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

We were walking through a forest where the sky was barely visible, but depending on changes in elevation, we could sometimes see a mountain range in the distance. Apparently, the first expeditionary force had used a conspicuously large mountain, reminiscent of Mount Fuji, among those as a landmark as they marched on.

We heard this from Katou, which she had gotten from the exploration team member Takaya. Going the same direction as the expeditionary force meant we were distancing ourselves from the Colony. In other words, we were getting away from the region around that cave, the region which showed signs of an atrocious high monster lurking about.

Five days had quickly passed since we left the cave. It felt like we had covered quite a distance. It would’ve been impossible for us humans to so easily traverse such a dense forest, but because Lily and Rose, whose physical strength and endurance couldn’t even be compared to a human’s, were making the path for us, we had it easy. Even Katou, who had the least endurance among us, was giving it her best. It actually felt like she was pushing herself too hard, to the point where we needed to show her some consideration.

Our biggest concern was having to sleep outside in the forest. Lily and Rose didn’t require sleep, so they stood on watch. I slept in Lily’s arms, while Katou slept close to Rose, who silently worked away at making herself spare parts. Fortunately for us, we had yet to be attacked by monsters in the middle of the night.

“Let’s call it a day here.”

Evenings in the forest came quickly. With no sense of night vision, we humans lost our footholds the moment the sky darkened, and the danger of having an accident escalated quickly. As such, we began our preparations to camp for the night while it was still light out, just as we had been doing for the past few days.

We started by finding an appropriate place. Then, Lily turned back into a slime and ate the small vegetation around us. After securing enough of an open space within the dense forest, Rose immediately went to work to set up a campfire.

Starting a fire came with the major risk of attracting attention. Nonetheless, we decided it was far more dangerous for the two humans to be completely blind in the dark. We were of course careful to select locations where the light wouldn’t leak out as much. The forest had many obstructions, and we never knew where danger lurked, but it was useful in situations like these.

Having gotten fairly accustomed to it, we managed to acquire some food without spending too much time. Thus, we formed a circle around the crackling fire and began eating.

Incidentally, the wood Rose cut down for us burned very well. Green wood was supposed to burn pretty poorly, but hers ignited rather easily. This was evidently also some sort of magical power she possessed. It was quite convenient.

“...Okay. Fortunately, all of us are still safe. Let’s continue being careful and keep it up,” I said after our meal.

“You’re right. This may actually be where it really begins,” Lily replied with a nod.

Up until now, we had only ever encountered single monsters, but this was mostly because the exploration team had hunted the monsters in the area to near extinction. That was actually another reason we were heading in the same direction as the first expeditionary force. We hoped their efforts to kick out the monsters meant we would encounter fewer monsters ourselves.

“It’s fine and all that we ran away from the cave ’cause there might be some dangerous monster about, but we do have to consider how far is far enough,” Lily added.

“You’re right. Things have been going smoother than planned. We’ll have to start thinking about settling down.”

“How about keeping up the pace and following the expeditionary force out of the forest?”

“That works if it’s doable, but wouldn’t it actually be pretty hard for us?”

My sense of futility weighed heavier than my fatigue from spending several days walking through this ever-unchanging forest. I didn’t know how it was for Lily and Rose, but this was quite a mental burden for humans.

And with a weakened spirit, the journey was all the more dangerous. My fatigue was, of course, also accumulating. Even without being attacked by monsters, humans could easily die just from taking a wrong step on a sloped surface here. We couldn’t be too careful.

“It’s only been five days since we left the cave, but maybe it’s about time for us to set up a new base.”

“If that’s what you’ve decided, Master, then I’ll comply.”

“At the very least, we should rest a bit before continuing. I’m actually quite exhausted. I’m well aware I’m dragging you guys down. I don’t want to cause any fatal mistakes.” I grilled the dried lizard and monster meat we had over the fire once more and took another bite.

Food was also another problem. I wanted to maintain as much of an emergency store as we could, but it was hard to procure more stores of food as we traveled. We really needed to settle down somewhere, stockpile some food, and recover our stamina sufficiently. The best situation would be finding somewhere similar to the cave we were using before.

“Now that I think of it, Majima-senpai, there’s something that’s been on my mind...” Katou held a lizard in her hands that was burnt to a crisp and spoke.

Katou was fundamentally taciturn. I didn’t know whether she was always like that or whether she ended up like that, but she largely sat to the side and simply listened to me talk with Lily. Even though Rose finally gained the ability to speak, she didn’t like to assert herself by nature, so it was the norm for Lily and I to do most of the talking.

Seeing it was so unusual for Katou to speak, Lily and I turned to her at the same time.

“What is it?”

“What’s up?”

“Aah, um...” Katou was wrapped up in the sheets we took from the hut while cradling her knees and fidgeting awkwardly. “It crossed my mind a little hearing you talk about your plans from now on...”

“What?”

“...Have you ever thought of going back to our world, Senpai?”

In a certain sense, that question was a bomb. Lily, who was leaning up against me, trembled with a small jolt. Rose looked up from the wood she was carving and directed her gaze toward me. They were both easy-to-understand reactions. That was just how important this topic was.

“Not really.” In contrast to the seriousness of the topic, my reply was remarkably unenthusiastic.

Perhaps finding this unexpected, Katou, who usually didn’t show much expression, opened her eyes wide in shock. “Is... that so?”

“Yeah.” I bit off the leg of the cooked lizard in my hand and chewed it down before continuing. “I guess when we first came to this world, it was pretty much all I thought about.”

“So...”

“However, now I have these two with me.” I gently brushed Lily’s head.

“...Master,” Lily called me in an unusually reserved voice, “if you wish to return, then we...”

“Aah, no, that’s not what I’m getting at. Sorry, I put it the wrong way.” I pulled Lily’s upper body toward me as she sat there with a worried look. “I want to be with both of you.”

“Master...”

“That kind of supposition is useless to begin with, isn’t it? Deciding whether to return is futile until after we actually know there’s a way back. We don’t have a single clue as to whether it’s possible right now, and before that, it’s taking everything we have just to survive through each day. We don’t have the room to search for such means.”

It wasn’t like I never thought of my parents or siblings I had left behind in that world. I wanted to at least inform them I was alright. Yet that didn’t mean I ever thought of letting go of that which was dear to me over here either.

It was a pretty serious dilemma, but fortunately enough, it was nothing but a “what if” in the current situation. Finding a way to survive in this world was absolutely more of a priority than searching for the potentially non-existent possibility of being able to go back to our world. That said, even if I accepted having to live here, living in this dangerous forest was a different problem altogether. I feared we would eventually reach a limit.

There was in fact a danger of being killed by monsters at any moment, but the problem of food was also severe. We were just barely able to eke out a living as it was, but lately the problem of nutrition had been on my mind. Back in the Colony, we had berries and such that we confirmed were edible, but it really felt like we had a shortage of vitamins in our diet.

Based on Mizushima Miho’s memories, Lily said if we were to keep up this lifestyle for too long, our bodies would likely break down. I wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about such things, but when she explained it to me using the extreme case of scurvy, I more or less understood the severity of the situation.

All things considered, we would have to go through the forest and make contact with the human world at least once. What to do after that was something to consider when it actually happened. I had no idea whether or not the people of this world would accept a monster tamer like me. I sometimes worried whether there truly was a safe place for us in the world...

“...Master. Please be careful.”

Just then, Rose, who had been keeping silent all this time, warned me in a hushed voice. At the same time, Lily, who was snuggling against me, tensed up and raised a brow. She sniffed at the air. She was searching the area by mimicking the sense of smell of a firefang.

“I sense the presence of multiple monsters. We’re surrounded,” Rose said.

“Got it.”

I immediately rose halfway to my feet and grabbed the large shield I had laying nearby. I was already wearing all my protective gear. As a precautionary step, we had been sleeping with them on.

Lily took her spear in one hand and prepared to deploy magic, while Katou came over to me. Rose was already standing at the ready with her battleaxe. This much we were used to. It took us only a few seconds to prepare ourselves for battle.

“...Grrr.”

Two firefangs appeared through the sea of trees.

“Please keep an eye out. There’s one more out there.”

Rose carefully remained on guard and pointed her featureless face in the opposite direction of the two wolves. She had said we were surrounded earlier. And just as she implied, one more firefang crawled out of the bush it was hiding in.

They were presumably planning a surprise attack but had determined that it had failed. Nevertheless, the firefangs didn’t show any signs of withdrawing. They judged they had the upper hand in this situation.

“Three in total. This is a little bad,” I muttered.

This was our first encounter with multiple monsters at once. We had fought firefangs on multiple occasions, but each time we did, we only had to fight one of them. And now there were three. I had assumed this would happen one day, but it was difficult to retain my composure with the situation thrust before me like this.

“We need to somehow get rid of one of them as fast as possible...”

With that, it would end up being an even field in terms of numbers. It was easy to say but difficult to accomplish. If we were capable of doing so, then this wouldn’t be so tough.

I held my breath and watched the wolves steadily circle around us like sharks.

Looks like they’ve picked their target... Shit, it’s clearly me and Katou.

It seemed their predatory senses could sense our weakness. In which case, the situation was pretty bad. It was standard in a fight to prod at the weakest point.

I gulped loudly. We only had Lily and Rose on our side. Were they able to make it through this critical situation? It would be one thing if they weren’t shackled with two dead weights, but the current predicament really did appear too much for them to bear.

My anxieties passed to them.

“It’s alright, Master.”

“Please be at ease, Master.”

“We’ll keep you safe, even if we die.”

“I shall protect your life with mine.”

Lily and Rose could sense my fear through our mental path. That’s why they reassured me so. And their feelings also got through to me—their sense of absolute resolve to protect me no matter what and their strong will to do anything to accomplish that.

The feelings they bore washed away the cowardice dominating my heart. In its stead, I was suddenly inspired with the courage to face the dire situation before me.

“Lily... Rose...”

I tightly clenched my fist and made a show of forcing my stiffened lips to smile. It was far too awkward to be called a bold smile, but this was the most I could do to make a show of courage and the only way for me to answer their consideration.

“Don’t be ridiculous, we’re all going to survive,” I declared.

“Mm!”

“Acknowledged!”

We wouldn’t lose, no matter the foe. That’s what I believed. My belief was decidedly passed to them through our mental path and granted them power.

“Lily, take care of one of them as fast as you can. Rose, I’d like you to protect us while somehow keeping the other two at bay. Katou, stay close to me!”

Nothing would come from waiting. I made my decision and gave out my orders. If all three of them were to target myself or Katou, it would surely be difficult to protect us. As such, I decided to have our strongest combatant, Lily, take the initiative and defeat one of them as quickly as possible. During that time, Rose could stall using her excellent combat skills. I believed in them and was going to do everything I could not to be a hindrance. That was about all I could do, after all.

“Alright, go!”

At my command, Lily charged forth with a glyph in her palm. Rose stood on guard in front of us as our shield and refused to yield an inch.

“Graaargh!”

It wasn’t like the wolves waited for my command or anything, but one of them moved to intercept Lily while the other two came charging at myself and Katou.

“Haah!”

“Hyah!”

“Graaawr!”

And the instant the five monsters collided...

“...Huh?”

An ominous white shadow crossed my field of vision.

“Grawh?!”

I witnessed something unbelievable. One of the firefangs that leapt in the air toward us, jaws wide open and ready to spit out flames, lost its posture in a completely unnatural way. In the next instant, the giant body of the two-meter-tall wolf suddenly flew away to the side.

The wolf in question undoubtedly had no idea what happened to its own body. It flew off toward a large tree with the speed of a bullet and crashed headfirst. An eerie red flower blossomed in the night, and unable to withstand the impact, the tree fell to the ground with a tremor.

Nobody had a grasp of what exactly just happened.

“Grrr...?”

Everyone came to a complete stop. The other firefang who was charging forward noticed something and looked straight up. But it was too late.

“Grah?!”

“Something” fell down on top of it. The wolf let out an agonizing cry as it was crushed. It didn’t even twitch after that.

“What... the...?” I muttered as the “thing which fell down” stared me in the eyes. It was a pure white spider. An enormous spider with bushy white hair covering its entire body. It had sharp talons at the ends of its eight legs, and one such talon was skewering the head of the firefang it landed on.

“No way... is this...?”

The giant white spider, who could surpass three meters in height if it stretched out its legs, had something fantastical atop its thorax that shouldn’t have been there. It was the upper body of a young woman. She had long, thin hair which resembled spider silk, and she stared right at us with a sweet smile on her face.