By Zephyria Hugo thought that there were no more demon beasts that would come out in this area, so he dispelled the greatsword that he had plunged into the demon beast’s eye. Just as he fastened the fixing button of the new glove he had put on, another one of the squad members who had come with him flew urgently from the top of the cliff and shouted to Hugo.
“Squad Leader, you need to come and see this for a moment!”
At his urgent demeanor, which seemed unusual, Hugo and the squad member who was with him immediately followed him.
He led Hugo to the entrance of a cave hidden on the cliff’s edge. The cave was in a fairly inconspicuous place, and since the wind did not pass through, it seemed that there was only one entrance without a path leading to the back.
As they lit the way and went further inside, the stench worsened, and insects swarmed. Hugo recalled the muddy puddle of blood he had seen near the entrance and narrowed his brows. It was a different blood from the black blood he had just eliminated.
When they reached the innermost cave, the squad member who had led them stopped. Hugo raised the brightness of the light ball a little more and illuminated the inside of the cave.
Before their eyes, the source of the blood that had been pooling on the floor all along was revealed. The other squad member grimaced as if he was about to vomit at the sight, covering his mouth and nose with the back of his hand.
Inside the cave, there were piles of grotesque lumps of flesh.
They looked like the corpses of demon beasts or animals, rotten and revealing all red skin, but occasionally human arms and legs could be seen.
Maggots were laying eggs and parasitizing inside the belly of something with wrinkled intestines protruding, and a spinal bone with a bright red fascia attached protruded over the crushed flesh, as if it had been deliberately peeled off.
One of the dark, murky eyeballs with the optic nerve attached had flowed out of the horse’s head lying at his feet, and since the muscles inside were still twitching, it seemed that it had not been dead for long.
But none of them could be recognized in their original form.
“It can’t be a tomb, is the demon beast collecting food?”
“It seems so.”
It looked like a food storage where they had piled up food.
Hugo created a long ice spear in his hand and approached the pile of corpses. Every time he walked, the blood pooled on the floor froze, creating a space for him to step on. The two squad members made uncomfortable expressions as the Squad Leader approached it, but soon they too followed the path Hugo had made.
Hugo poked several places in the pile of corpses with the ice spear. An unpleasant feeling of being stabbed deeply was transmitted to his fingertips. It felt like it would collapse into a liquid if he stirred it a few more times, so he dispelled the ice spear from his hand and said.
“Some of them died relatively recently, and some of them have been rotting for a long time and crumble easily.”
“It seems to be about 2 or 3 weeks old at the longest.”
The squad member who had guided them here added, examining the corpses from the side. Then, the squad member who had been frowning and covering his nose asked.
“Do the guys who live on the peninsula also have the habit of collecting food?”
Demon beasts in cold or temperate climates often collect food to survive the coldest periods. On the other hand, the guys who live on the peninsula can roam around at any time, so there was no need to collect food. If so, excluding the climate, there was usually only one reason why demon beasts collected food.
The squad member who was examining the corpses turned around and answered the question.
“It’s either for gestation or the spawning season.”
At the same time as he answered, he glared at his junior who was standing there covering his nose. The junior squad member hurriedly lowered his hand and smiled awkwardly before opening his mouth as if he had remembered something.
“But when I searched the nest, there were no traces of chicks or eggs hatching.”
Certainly, Hugo had not seen any small chicks while hunting the guys just now. It could be that they were malformed, so even if they were chicks, they might not be distinguishable.
As they were speculating about the cause of this pile of corpses, a crackling sound came from the radio that the junior squad member was holding, and someone’s voice was heard intermittently. Their gazes turned to the radio, and the squad member holding it said to Hugo.
“It seems that the exploration team has approached nearby.”
Hugo glanced over the pile of rotten flesh stacked in front of him one more time before turning around and saying.
“Let’s leave this place to the exploration team first, and we’ll return to the ranks.”
“Yes, I understand.”
Although it was quite unsettling, Hugo thought that he had been away from the ranks for too long, so he thought that returning was the top priority.
They immediately turned back the way they had come and went outside. As soon as they faced the open air again, they were able to escape the piercing stench. The squad member who had been covering his nose earlier finally took a deep breath as if he was relieved.
Soon, they heard voices calling for them, as if the exploration team had arrived nearby. Hugo and the squad members went back down to the valley below to make contact with the exploration team.
At that moment, Hugo’s radio made a sound this time. The voice that was heard intermittently from there was Flynn’s.
* * *
Leonardo went up to the water’s surface, barely took a few breaths, and went back into the water. He wondered how much lung capacity Squad Leader 8, who was still fighting underwater, had, as he hardly saw her come up even when he was watching from outside.
As he went back down to the deep depths, Squad Leader 8 created another explosion of air around the demon beast’s body.
As a result, the leg blocking the front of the body was cut off, and the demon beast’s speed slowed down a little. In the meantime, it kept trying to defend its body with its legs, so it seemed that the body was the weak point rather than the legs.
Taking advantage of the demon beast’s slowed speed, Leonardo immediately plunged into the center of the demon beast and fed a fireball directly into dozens of its millet-like eyeballs. The demon beast twisted its body and stretched all the legs it had towards the center to grab him, but the Squad Leader 8 members were positioned around him and quickly cut off those legs.
In the midst of this, Leonardo, who suddenly sensed an ominous feeling, turned around. Then, he saw the demon beast with its legs cut off unable to change direction and heading straight towards the wall of the lake, and the wall was getting closer and closer.
Without even having time to panic, he quickly put up a barrier, but the demon beast continued to move forward at a high speed and eventually collided strongly with the wall. The impact caused rocks to collapse, and one of the squad members was thrown out as if he had been bounced off. He seemed to have lost consciousness.
To catch the squad member, Squad Leader 8 stepped on the demon beast’s torso and leaped towards him.
At that time, two strands of the demon beast’s regenerated legs were twisted together, and a sharp poisonous stinger was created at the end, aimed at Squad Leader 8, who was heading towards the squad member.
Leonardo reflexively reached out his hand without even realizing it. A blazing flame was created in his hand and flew towards the poisonous stinger faster than he could even think. But at that moment, he realized he had made a mistake.
Leonardo immediately put up a barrier in front of the squad member and Squad Leader 8. Immediately after, the flame he had launched heated the water, increasing the pressure and causing an explosion that was even larger than its original size.
At the same time, not only the demon beast’s stinger-attached tail but also about 1/4 of its body was blown away, and the floating objects that had been lying on the bottom floated around chaotically, blurring the vision.
As a result of the aftermath, the unconscious squad member was caught in a violent spray of water, and Squad Leader 8 also lost her balance for a moment. Fortunately, she quickly regained her posture and lifted the squad member with one arm.
Leonardo paused momentarily. And he looked at his hand once. Because something was strange.
‘It should never be this big.’
He stood still in the water, which was surging due to his mana, and then raised his head and looked up towards the surface. His golden eyes moved here and there as if searching for something.
Then, his gaze stopped at one point, and he narrowed his eyes as if sensing a strange current. Soon, bubbles suddenly formed around Leonardo’s arm and boiled violently, causing his arm to heat up to an extremely high temperature.
He plunged his arm into the demon beast’s torso, which was staggering from the impact of hitting the wall, in one swift motion. As if he didn’t care whether there was acid inside or not, he shoved it in deeply with the momentum to melt everything, and the demon beast writhed, trying to shake him off.
Leonardo firmly grabbed the demon beast, crushed its squishy and unpleasant-feeling insides, pushed his arm in, and gathered powerful mana within it.
Sensing his extraordinary mana, Squad Leader 8 put the unconscious squad member under her arm and signaled the squad members who were pushing back the sawtoothes to all go up. The squad members also felt the energy and hurriedly began to swim up after seeing the Squad Leader’s signal.
Destructive mana, which was even more intensely chaotic due to instability, surged from Leonardo’s hand. And the moment he detonated it all at once, the condensed mana spread out in all directions underwater, creating a violent vortex along with an unprecedentedly vast explosion.
Due to the shockwave, Leonardo was also caught in the vortex and violently thrown around inside it.
His body was swallowed by the currents at will, and he almost lost consciousness for a moment, but he shook his head to regain his senses and stared at the scene before him.
The demon beast’s flesh, torn to the point where it could not regenerate due to his mana, surged. And around the floating objects, the sawtoothes began to rush in madly to eat the flesh.
Leonardo tried to create a spray of water again to disperse the guys, but he was helplessly dragged away by a force that suddenly grabbed the collar of his nape. As soon as he exhaled due to the resistance, he immediately turned his head and saw Squad Leader 8 pulling him while launching attacks at the sawtoothes to buy time.
He had thought that she had unusual strength since she had crushed the canteen, but Leonardo was inwardly amazed by her strength, which was able to pull his body at once, even though it was underwater.
But that was only for a moment, as the light balls of the other squad members were faintly visible above the Squad Leader’s head. Estimating their approximate location, they had almost reached the surface.
Leonardo, having confirmed that, thought there was no reason to remain in the water any longer. He immediately grabbed Squad Leader 8’s arm and teleported as close to the surface as possible, then quickly flew out of the water.
Squad Leader 8, who was suddenly pulled to the surface with him, was momentarily deafened and flustered by the pressure difference caused by Leonardo’s formidable speed. However, he quickly assessed the situation and shouted to his squad members waiting in the air.
“Now!”