The Spearmaster and the Black Cat

『Helme, deploy <Spirit Ball Conception>. We’re going to use <Elixir Law – Catfish Conception> once more』

I poured mana into Helme.

『――Ahnnn』

Helme’s heavy panting reverberated through my mind.

I don’t think it’s because of Helme’s <Spirit Ball Conception>, but while being excited, Rotalz flew at a low altitude with a trajectory reminiscent of a catfish. While wielding his horn, he blew away many tree demons.

Eva had her swarm of metal pieces take on the form of an orca, before attacking the demons. She kept obliterating the tree demons which were continuously created.

Rollodeen had stopped her fire, but still attacked them with her claws.

Matobe, who was protecting Hina-san and Sana-san, and the Burning Knights cooperated, knocking down tall trees alongside the tree demons.

Overall, the speed of annihilation was overwhelming. It looked like all of them went at it with such a force that even the landscape got transformed.

But, the ones spawning from the roots in the ground kept coming.

The area on the left side, where my friends were going on a rampage, had countless trees destroyed and its soil up-heaved on a grand scale.

Maybe that patch of land will be later arable as a natural field.

But, I shelved that carefree pondering for the moment. My <Shining Chain Lances> didn’t show much of an effect against Sardyne. She might have simply avoided the light spears by reverting from being a giant to her previous state, though.

Either way, she’s probably going to be tough enough since she has the blood of Spirit World gods running through her veins. Maybe she also got a resistance against the light attribute. No, I suppose thinking that Spirit World automatically means weak to light is way too rash.

Even right now, Sardyne was…continuing to create huge numbers of ant-like tree demons from the ground.

Maybe she’s procuring power from the Sea of Trees?

As she glared at Kisara who had fled into the air, Sardyne spoke up, “…Originally, the roots of Kyulha-sama, you say? Still, one with the magic symbol of Mephalla, it looks like your nose and eyes are as effective as mine, huh?”

“――One creed of the Black Witch Church states, “Don’t forget the smell of the divine will and blessing of the great King Tree of Wisdom Storage Kyulha-sama’s roots,” after all.”

“I’ve never heard of such humans. I only used the Sea of Tree paths to come here, you see? In addition, not much time has passed since I was ejected into Sela, so I doubt any churches took notice of me. Ah, but your blood smell is different. Unlike the kin on the wheelchair over there, you aren’t the spearmaster’s kin, are you!?”

Leaving a short pause after Sardyne’s speech, Kisara looked at me miserably, and then answered, “…That’s right. Queen who has inherited the Blood of Destruction, if you oppose Shuuya-sama, the messiah of our church as Damo’Anun Bringer, I shall exterminate you, even if you might carry the blood of Kyulha-sama or the Blood of Destruction in you.”

“Haha, you’re going to exterminate me? Don’t make me laugh, cheeky, black chick. Also, the hair bundles, or whatever they are, protruding out of your spear are certainly pretty, but they’re weird…I wonder are demonic spirits, miasma, or maliciousness contained in them?” Sardyne sneered while narrowing her eyes.

She seemed to be vigilant of the filaments extending from Kisara’s witch spear.

“…It’s miasma. Your Demonic Eyes seem to possess a fairly high quality. Anyway. Thou becomest piercing, Desert Crow. Hyureya.” Kisara also intensified her scowl, and used her supernatural <Magic Breath>.

While making a kind of ancient song resound, she caused great numbers of crows to manifest from the rosaries on both her wrists. Dancing paper dolls were also blended in among the crows. And then her black mask transformed into a helmet imitating a condor. The helmet consisted of a brainpan and visor, but didn’t have a jaw protector.

As the grimoire at her waist shone, the pattern on its front cover changed as well.

Her dignified appearance as Heavenly Four Witch exuded the aura of a strong warrior. It was very promising to see her not being outdone by Queen Sardyne.

She’s an amazing woman, considering she isn’t even a Light Demon Lucival <Head Servant Leader> yet.

After deploying the crows and paper dolls in a defensive formation in the air, Kisara pointed the spearhead of her witch spear at Sardyne.

“Hmm, what a nice song. But, do you really think I’d get gold feet from Mephalla’s scent and you haughtily pointing your spear at me?” Sardyne asked provokingly.

Kisara ignored her question. Instead, she manipulated the crows and paper dolls. The flock of paper dolls formed a defense encampment in a flash.

The upper half of Kisara’s face was hidden beneath her condor-styled helmet, so it was hard for me to tell her expression, but the sharp glint in her blue eyes was apparent. Her wariness was currently at maximum. The edge of her magic garment, which covered a part of her nun’s garb, was fluttering in the wind. Black mana particles were dispersed from the swaying edge.

She kept flying like a fairy.

“――New demons have appeared on the left and right side of Sardyne. I’m bothered by them strangely not emitting any mana,” warned Kisara.

Just as she mentioned, some of the demons, who were kneeling towards Sardyne, were different from the tree-based ones. It seemed as though plant demons with auras, resembling those of the strong fighters that fought in the sky earlier, had been created.

“What, these guys are――”

“――They aren’t counterattacking and their numbers are abnormal!”

The members of 【Sea of Trees Hunt】 yelled.

It looks like they survived the multi-staged attack of stakes and flamberges by the Sardyne giant. The adventurer party drew closer to us while continuously attacking the newly spawned tree demons.

Then they shifted their attention to the lake’s shore where I had abandoned the silver coffin that sealed Kizeleg away.

“What’s that silver coffin? The design on it is fairly interesting.”

“――No magic elements are coming out of it, so let’s leave the treasure chest alone. Right now, we got that diadem-wearing demon to deal with, right?” Aleyza lopped off the head of a demon by swinging her glowing sword sideways.

At the same time, the warrior illusion that floated above her head brandished a glittering sword with a terrifying speed, carving a dazzling sword trace into the air. It caused the heads of the demons in front of her to fly off into the air.

Aleyza was fighting like a warrior. Because of the Amazon-like outfit cladding her body, she reminded me of War Priestess Ivanka.

“――Roger. It’s clear that the plant demon with the diadem isn’t just some new species. But, is the spearmaster a kin of a water god? His movements as he defeated the giant was so fast that I couldn’t follow it with my eyes. A catfish-shaped liquid inhabits his left eye. And the liquid connecting his eyes with the catfish has become a magic water armor protecting one of his body halves, hasn’t it?” The hunk called Ricks commented on my appearance.

But what does he mean with the liquid armor part?

Wondering, I looked down at myself, just to notice something looking like an armor attached to Hal’Konk.

I think its shape is close to a belt like they’d extend from a trench coat. At least its width was similar to that of a belt. It was shining blue and black while connected to buttons and metallic fasteners which were alternatively glittering in black and blue as well. It seems to be liquid, but maybe it’s solid? Is this proof of Helme having grown after absorbing a part of Golgonshura?

It appeared as though <Spirit Ball Conception> had evolved, too.

“And, I thought that gale-like spearmaster had defeated that gigantic plant demon, but…”

“Yep. The plethora of ranged, tree-based attacks she scattered, and now the creation of countless new kin…”

“Her amount of mana is tremendous, too. She’s definitely an S-Class target.”

The dual-spear wielder, Malega, reacted to Ricks’s words, “No way. For her to be related to someone like the Tree King of Wonder――”

Even as he spoke, Malega unleashed a technique that looked just like a Touro stance. 1

He rotated the two twin-bladed spears vertically at a tremendous speed, bisecting the demons’ bodies in the process. Next, after firmly stepping as if extending his left leg diagonally to the front, he tilted his body to the left with the force of hitting the inside of his right elbow against the temple of his own head. Malega thrust out the two spears to the left while also extending his right body half. It was a pose as if he was creating a triangle with his body and spears.

It looks like some yoga pose, but I guess it’s a technique of his dual-spear style.

His spearheads stabbed through the back of a demon diagonally at the front left.

“Malega, those are nice moves. But, the plant demon with the diadem in the center is a completely different type compared to the noble youth, isn’t she?”

“Yeah, but, what should I do? ――I used up my anti-vampire equipment. Even my favorite Pearlhanma Daggers vanished…”

Even as Ricks spoke to Uno, the leader of their party, he extended silver sword blades from his wrists and used them to attack the demons. The silver blades were slender. But, their gleaming points appeared to be sharp.

Just now, he pierced the head of a bulky-looking tree demon with them.

And then, after shaking off the blood or whatever it was of the blades, he moved his wrists as if to draw silver lines in the air, cutting a demon on his left apart.

Is he also using a secret art like Saraten?

His somersaults and cartwheels were fast.

I guess he’s someone with assassin-like abilities who’s mastered a unique sword style.

“My skill stakes didn’t work either. <Orness’s Strings>――! As part of 【Savage Land Skill Exploration Church】, I’d love to catch her, but…”

With her golden eyes gleaming, Uno expanded string clad in reddish violet flames into the vicinity from both her hands. The parts of the demons touched by those strings changed their color into reddish violet. Immediately following, the demons stopped moving.

“――You mean it’s also Skill God Reford’s wish?”

Ricks’s daggers, connected to him through magic lines, stabbed into the demons that stopped moving. Ricks shifted from an elastic movement like that of a swaying willow to a forward-bent posture, and closed in on a demon he had stabbed with his daggers while somersaulting. And then he thrust out the silver swords growing out his wrists at the demon’s head.

The silver blades sank into the demon’s head, penetrating it as if cutting through butter.

His exclusive helmet on top of the expressions and motions displayed by him as a handsome guy were, honestly speaking, pretty cool.

I guess I’ll try to imitate him by extending Saraten halfway from my wrist.

『Vessel, don’t come up with unnecessary stuff. Rather than that, offer the blood of that plant demon to me』

Saraten retorted after having read my mind.

『If you bicker about it like that, you won’t get a turn instead』

『Uuughhh! You stupid vessel!!』

Saraten suddenly lost her nerve, screaming out with an adorable voice.

“――Ricks! I’m part of the exploration church, but I have no memory of ever becoming Reford-sama’s kin!” Aleyza yelled while wielding her sword.

Ricks was in the middle of a backward somersault after cartwheeling. After delivering a drop kick against a demon with both feet, he spread his arms to the sides while standing up, stabbing the heads of the demons on his left and right side with his silver blades.

Then, just like that, Ricks rotated his body sideways so as to face Aleyza. While twisting his blades through the heads of two demons.

“――Don’t be so upset, Aleyza. We’re comrades who have connections to gods of the divine domain, aren’t we? I’m well aware that you’re a war priestess of the War God Faith.”

“I’m a war priestess of War Goddess Ishlur. You know that it’s a denomination of the War God Faith, don’t you?”

So there exists a War Goddess Ishlur besides War God Vice, huh?

“Leaving that aside, the demons, which keep spawning from the tree roots, don’t fight back at all. Most of them keep bowing their heads, don’t they?”

With a broad grin, Ricks sent a wink in Aleyza’s direction.

He’s probably in the middle of putting the moves on her or something like that.

“Ricks, you’ve stopped moving. Just like the spearmaster and his friends are cleaning up, we must also secure a path of retreat! We’re going to continue getting rid of the enemies just like this――”

Intensifying her glare, Uno tossed a scroll behind her. An explosion followed a flash of light from that scroll. In addition to the explosion, small, solid toruses manifested in the air. Those small toruses pinned down the demons, which appeared from the ground like bugs, from above, creating an escape route.

“Aye.”

They headed towards their escape route while purging the demons around them with splendid teamwork.

“But, their spawn rate sure is fast. These mysterious tree demons are essential as information for the Left Leader.”

The instant Ricks said so, a demon different from the tree-types, threw a fist at him who let his guard down. But, Malega dealt with the attack by blowing away the punching demon with a rotational kick into its belly.

“――Thanks, Malega.”

“Don’t mention it. But, that diadem-wearing demon isn’t normal. We have to hurry with the retreat.”

“What’s the spearmaster going to do?”

“I’m extremely curious about that as well, but you know that he’s no opponent we could seize on the fly, right? That’s why I agree with Malega’s view. We must report about this and the matter of the noble youth to the Left Leader.”

Sardyne detected the members of 【Sea of Trees Hunt】 retreating, and summoned flamberge-shaped swords from both her hands, pointing them at the adventurers.

The tree demons, which continued to spawn anew, withdrew to the sides as if to enact Moses’s ocean-splitting, creating a path for Sardyne.

“You tiny, impudent humans! Don’t expect that I’ll allow you to escape after you’ve been slaughtering my kin――”

Sardyne shouted, starting to dash through the newly-created path in a forward-bent posture. The members of 【Sea of Trees Hunt】 had meddled in our fight, but the party had some beauties within its ranks.

I’m going to save them――

Making that decision, I clad my whole body in Magic Combat Style, and started to run with Magic Combat Step after covering my feet with blood. At the same time, I manipulated my <Chain>.

The two chains, which crossed each other paths as they advanced at a terrifying speed, bisected the torsos of the small-fry demons who stood in my way while bowing their heads. Then I erased the two <Chains> and <Threw> Baldok while jumping towards Sardyne.

I succeeded in taking her by surprise as the red spear stabbed into her belly.

“――Gyaaaaah!”

Without caring about her screaming, I closed the distance, and delivered a kick against Baldok’s butt end, pushing it even further through her body.

While confirming that the new red spear and ax blade had drilled into her abdomen, I pulled out Baldok.

The round wound in her belly closed up in an instant. And she hurled the flamberge around her right shoulder at me while intensifying her glare.

I met the flamberge by hitting it from below with a compact swing of Baldok. The red ax blade, with its new shape, clashed against the flamberge, causing a dissonant, metallic clang to toll into the vicinity.

“――That weapon chipped my sword. But――”

She attempted to cut my leg with the flamberge in her other hand. In response, I jumped, dodging her lower slash.

But, Sardyne matched my motions, swinging down her flamberge while rotating her body. While landing, I held up Baldok diagonally, warding her flamberge off to the left. In the same motion, I delivered a mid-tier kick at Sardyne’s torso while focusing on keeping my balance with my pivot leg and Baldok’s butt end.

However, Sardyne reacted to the kick. She parried the kick by drawing a semicircle with her flamberge from below to above.

Next I targeted Sardyne’s head. I’m going to chop that diadem once more!