4
He swung his left arm forcefully once, checking the condition of his broken fingers.
There was…a fair amount of pain. A throbbing sensation clawed at the back of his skull, but he steeled his nerves so they wouldn’t distract him while he was running.
And then…
“Hiiyah!”
He pushed a smaller tree trunk out of the hole. The part that emerged was instantly pierced by a terrifyingly fast arrow. The impact ripped it out of Subaru’s arms and sent it flying.
“Uoooooh!!!”
Ignoring that, Subaru climbed out of the hole and stepped onto the rough ground.
No matter how good the hunter was with a bow, there was still a limit on how fast they could shoot. Unlike a gun, a bow needed to be nocked and aimed again. That opening was his only path to survi—
“—It’s coming!”
Subaru heard those words right as he took his first step after having climbed out of the hole. Only two seconds had passed since the first arrow had blown away the decoy—but that was enough time for the skilled hunter to loose their next arrow.
“Ngh!”
Right after he’d heard Rem’s voice, the ground behind him erupted.
He had managed not to freeze up or drop into a defensive crouch when he’d heard her voice. Perhaps it would have been more apt to say that he was lucky his reaction time wasn’t fast enough to respond to Rem’s warning, but that was still good enough.
As he ran straight for the tree, another arrow came at Subaru two seconds later. If this continued, it wouldn’t be long before Subaru looked like a porcupine.
However…
“I don’t think so…!”
The hunter’s next attack was interrupted by a clod of dirt and a valiant shout.
Sitting with her back against the side of the hole, with a muddy stone in hand, Rem had hurled a missile—or more like a cannonball.
“It’d be better if she remembered how to use magic…!”
When Subaru had been going over what tools they had to fight with, Rem had mentioned that it would be difficult for her to use magic or her oni horn’s strength. More precisely, she couldn’t remember exactly how to use them. And there was no time now to help her remember. What Subaru suggested instead was taking advantage of her raw physical strength—throwing stones in order to attack the hunter that had underestimated them and not changed positions earlier.
“A cornered rat can still bite back! Hope you enjoy the feeling!!!”
Evading the shock wave from the arrow’s impact, Subaru shouted these words as he watched Rem’s big rock fly in the direction where the arrow had come from.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
Not ever knowing how to hold back was one of the things that made Rem so charming.
The rocks he had gathered just in case they might be useful now transformed into deadly projectiles in her dainty hands.
“And while Rem is buying me time…”
Now that the sniper had been momentarily silenced by artillery fire, Subaru reached the tree. Circling around it, he peered inside a hollowed-out cavity and saw Louis sleeping in a blanket of her own blond hair.
“Please do not stop moving!!!”
“Ngh!”
Noticing his moment of hesitation, Rem shouted and put an end to Subaru’s indecisiveness.
Somehow managing to tamp down on the fierce reluctance he felt, Subaru picked up Louis and jumped from the tree.
“Huh?”
Just as he leaped out and was about to start heading back to Rem, however, a black shadow suddenly appeared, blocking his path.
The plan had been to go back to the hole in the ground the same way he’d come. There wasn’t anything here before. Then, looking up at the shadow, he was struck speechless.
“ !!!”
The enormous shadow that had slipped silently through the rainforest and appeared right in his path was a giant snake, maybe thirty feet long. The creature had yellow eyes and green scales. Then Subaru noticed a twisted, white horn on its forehead, and realized what it was.
“A demon beast…!”
Subaru regretted overlooking such an obvious danger.
He should have known. He was currently emitting the scent of the Witch more strongly than he had at any other point since he’d arrived in this world. That meant demon beasts would surely be drawn to him, just like in the Auguria dunes and so many other places before.
This dark, deserted jungle was the perfect place for them.
“ ”
Opening its big mouth, the snake took aim at Subaru.
It was big enough to swallow him whole, and Louis with him. Seeing it up close and personal, he felt time slow down.
Hmm, that’s not good.
It almost felt like it was happening to someone else.
As he cursed himself for reflexively trying to protect Louis, the snake’s mouth—
“ ?!”
“Uwah?!”
Subaru had instinctively closed his eyes, so when something wet dripped on him from above, he panicked.
At first, he’d assumed the snake was the type of monster that sprayed its prey with digestive fluids before eating them, but that wasn’t it. What had drenched him was pitch-black blood spilling from the mouth of a snake that had been pierced through the torso with a sharp arrow.
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