Chapter 75

After getting in contact with Akira, Yoru and Amelia were running all over town .

They were helping the elderly who were not able to evacuate by themselves and had them ride on top of Yoru so that he could carry them to safety .

Initially, they wanted nothing to do with Yoru upon seeing him, but they obediently, albeit reluctantly, climbed onto Yoru’s back . It’s likely the fear of death or the looming waves of monsters prompted them to make this decision .

『Miss Amelia, hurry and get on!』

After the last person got on, Yoru motioned with his tail for Amelia to do so as well, but she shook her head .

「The people over there haven’t evacuated yet . Besides, the adventurers have yet to arrive, so someone has to stay and hold them back . 」

The monsters were almost here .

Yoru hesitated .

If he separated from Amelia right now and something happened to her, he would never know since he’d lose all contact with her and there was no way to determine her location either .

This is the one scenario that Akira was most afraid of

「Hurry up and go!」

Haa, when he came to his senses, the monsters were that much closer .

They were so weak that one wouldn’t think that the silver-ranked Amelia would be done in by them .

However, an indescribable uneasiness flitted across his heart .

『…I’ll be back immediately . 』

Recalling the lives of the group of people on his back, Yoru kicked off of the ground .

Though his hands were sullied by his past deeds, that didn’t stop Yoru from wanting to save lives right now .

He did not want any more victims .

「Perhaps I will follow you afterwards . 」

Amelia held her hand towards the monsters that were coming towards them .

「Gravity . 」

Amelia’s hair flew upwards as the magic was released .

On her chest, the silver dog tag was rattling for the first time in a long while .

—

「Now, turn everything in my grasp into ashes! …Hand of Incineration . 」

As Sena chanted this, I gathered the monsters and withdrew just as the chanting was about to be finished .

The spell was completed, and an enormous hand made of flames extended out from his hand that he held out, and burnt the monster directly in front of him .

But the monsters came together to fill in that gap .

It had been almost an hour since the battle on the front lines first began, but it was unknown if the number of monsters had decreased .

Just like what Yamato and the others had said at the Adventurer Guild, the weaknesses of the monsters of Brute Dungeon were different, so cooperation with others was a must .

Even so, the overall style of party compositions gathered here might be unique to the beastmen .

Beastmen had the blood of beasts .

Maa, that was something that everyone knew .

The problem was, if that blood would have a considerable impact on their temperament .

Beastmen of violent beasts were hot-tempered and quick to anger .

Beastmen of calm beasts were always quiet, and hated conflicts .

Beastmen of powerful beasts were, as expected, strong .

That was to say, beastmen of solitary beasts did not have pack mentality .

The fact that the composition of the parties was so dependent on the adventurers was probably because of these minor hereditary differences among beastfolk .

「Akira, can you hold the front lines for just a few minutes?」

I looked over my shoulder when I heard Sena’s frustrated voice, and Sena was carrying two adventurers who had been fighting on the front lines over his shoulders .

The both of them were at death’s door, and if they had withdrew just a little later, they might have been dead .

I nodded and borrowed a dagger from that adventurer .

As soon as I turned around, the dagger I borrowed from the guild had completely shattered into pieces . It would seem that it was worn out from the numerous monsters I sliced apart .

I confirmed that the dagger that that adventurer had showed no signs of growing blunt no matter how much time passed, so…I became somewhat interested in it, and I took advantage of this opportunity .

I swung it a little .

The length was about as long as my forearm, the weight was just right, and it’s quite sharp .

「…th, at, dagger, was made, by Kurou, so, make sure to, return it to me . 」

I see, no wonder it was so easy to use .

I nodded at the adventurer who could hardly speak, and committed that face to memory .

If this was something forged by Kurou, the one who even the former right-hand of the demon king had recommended, then it was definitely quite pricey .

For me who didn’t have that kind of money, I’m grateful to him for merely lending it to me .

「Sorry, I’ll give it back in a few minutes . 」

I said that and Sena left the front lines .

I grinned .

With this, I could fight without holding back .

There were still dozens of adventurers on the front lines, but they could not be seen from here .

On that side as well, it was impossible for the yellow-ranked adventurers to completely annihilate the monsters .

I gently held out my hand .

「Shadow Magic . 」

I had followed Commander Saran’s instructions, and did not use shadow magic in a place where it could be seen .

Maa, even if it was seen, I could gloss it over and say that it’s a derivation of darkness magic, and in case I lose control, I had Perception on at full power at all times so that it doesn’t attack people if I lost control .

Dying the ground a darker shade of black than the fog in the sky, the shadows that manifested themselves into the real world, happily nuzzled against me,

I could not feel anything, but it was behaving just like a dog .

「Good boy, eat . Maa, I don’t think that it would taste very good though . 」

The first thing that this fellow ate was the Minotaur .

After that, it had eaten nothing but rare-grade meats such as the Fenrir and the Chimera, so it may have a very refined palate .

After the shadow passed by, not even a drop of blood would be left . The monsters disappeared, and the other monsters who saw that grew fearful of it and were scrambling to run away .

TN: actually, it says ‘shadow magic’ here, but it would be weird to say that the shadow magic did this and did that, so I just shortened it to just ‘shadow’

However, because it did not even take a minute for them to be swallowed up, even if they wanted to, they couldn’t escape .

「It’s pretty gruesome, but it’s quite the scene . 」

The monsters who had invaded the beastmen and continued to instill fear into them up until now finally experienced true terror from a completely unknown enemy .

As I observed the shadow, I thought about the beastmen who were crushed by the buildings and separated from their children and the humans that came to find work only to be torn apart by the monsters .

This made the sight of the shadow’s massacre extremely satisfying .

My Perception skill caught the presence of people, so I quickly asked the shadow to return .

I thanked the shadow as it went back into my shadow, and I cut up the nearby monsters .

It would take up too much time if I did it one by one and it would be pretty tiresome, so I thoroughly wiped them all out in one swing of the dagger .

「Sorry, Akira!」

I raised an arm and responded to Sena who came out of the shadow of the building .

「The number of monsters have decreased quite a bit eh?」

I languidly responded to Sena who said that after he looked around .

I retracted my hand and swiped at the neck of an ox-shaped monster .

「Saa, I didn’t pay attention . Isn’t it because the defenses here are too strong, so they went over there?」

Maa, though the truth was, my magic swallowed them up .

As expected, getting rid of all of them was impossible, and there were a few hundred of them remaining, but we could defeat them with two people .

If that’s the case, we could go to other places as well .

I kept my composure and looked around .

Balls of flames flew past me .

「For you to look away, how calm of you . 」

「Isn’t that obvious? Who do you think held down the front lines . 」

For him to be cracking jokes, it seems that Sena was pretty calm as well .

Oh, I raised my voice .

In front of me, was a monster that was on the list of materials that I received from Kurou .

「…hey, I’ve found the material . 」

I closed the distance and swung my dagger .

If I remember correctly, the thing that I needed to collect was the claws .

I stuffed the monster’s claws into my bag .

「It seems that it’ll be over soon . …then, why don’t I keep some magic power in reserve . 」

Sena laughed mischievously and started chanting .

It was obvious that it was different compared to other magics, I could tell that he was overly concerned about the chanting as well .

Seeing that Sena had a serious look on his face, I was on full alert so that the monsters wouldn’t go toward Sena .

「Show your power, flames of purgatory, manifest, and return everything into ashes…Flame Eruption . 」

After he finished the chant, even when I looked around nearby, I didn’t see anything .

When I tilted my head in confusion, wondering if he misfired, the ground started shaking a little .

「Akira, come here . 」

With a mysterious smile hanging on his lips, Sena beckoned me, who had cold sweat at the shaking gradually getting more and more violent, over .

When I looked closely, only the ground that the monsters were standing on was shaking .

「Oi, what is this?」

In the end, I was curious and I asked him, but Sena put a finger against his lips . ???

Gopori, gopori, a sound came out of nowhere, and the shaking of the ground under the monster turned intense .

It would’ve been better if they ran away, but the monsters’ legs did not move .

All of a sudden, something shot out, and the monsters disappeared in an instant .

Thump, what’s left of the monsters, the magic stones, fell down onto the ground .

The monsters shook with fear .

My eye, that was no longer that of a human’s, saw exactly what that was .

「That’s…magma」

When I was in Japan, I had gone to Aso before, but if I remember correctly, I think that I had watched a video about this there .

TN: Aso is a city in Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu and just south of the city, there is an active volcano

Moving slowly, the red and thick liquid will surely, little by little, engulf the trees .

「Ooh, you’re surprisingly knowledgeable . That’s right, I used magic to forcibly bring it up to the surface, and then return it underground . That is what this magic does . 」

How frightening .

The sight of their comrades disappearing due to a seemingly invisible force was enough to make their eyes widen in overwhelming fear . .

Although they were the enemy, there were also idiots who were pleading with me through their eyes .

Wondering why they weren’t running away, when I looked down at the monsters feet, their feet had melted due to the high temperatures .

That explained why they couldn’t move .

The cells within their legs had begun to dissolve and they were clinging onto the fellows next to them .

If they could feel pain, then they would be agony until they die, and they would be incessantly attacked with the fear that they would be next, that was the kind of magic it was .

「How nasty . 」

The hot wind had reached us as well .

If Yoru and Amelia who knew about my shadow magic were here, they would definitely retort with, “As if you’re one to talk” .

However, my shadow magic would eat them up completely, and an assassination would be from behind, so they wouldn’t even have the time to feel fear .

To use this kind of magic on a large-scale, it was no different from torture .

If this was used on human opponents…

When I thought that, a chill ran down my spine .

I narrowed my eyes and looked at the monsters that were disappearing and the magic stones that were left behind .

It was also thanks to Sena’s nasty cheat magic, but the area that we were entrusted with was, for the large part, fine now .

I could finally let out a sigh of relief .

Suddenly, a frantic Yoru called out to me through telepathy .

『Master-dono! Miss Amelia, Miss Amelia was kidnapped!!』

My mind went blank .