BSS 112

Chapter 112

The moment she was summoned, Undine flew to the water’s edge, and I leisurely trudged behind her.

“Come too! Ry!”

[Huh? Me too?]

“Yes!”

[You could just call the others! Ador or Gryufain!]

“Uh-uh, you need to get used to that body. Run.”

Ry, who had lived as a snake for a long time, needed practice fighting in a wolf’s body.

[This isn’t really my thing! I’m a spirit, not a wolf!]

“Do it because I said so.”

I kicked Ry’s reluctant behind—he clearly thought he didn’t have to participate in this battle.

Maybe just in my head, but I did it with a lot of affection.

“Go! Ry-Ry!”

Ry grudgingly went into action.

At the same moment, the hostility of the Lizard Men shifted toward me, as if they noticed my sneer.

Out of all the people here, they chose to hiss at me—proof that their instincts were far sharper than humans’.

They were the most wary of me.

Not bad—they could identify a dangerous individual.

“Hello, friends.”

To all appearances, I was the most fragile and harmless person here.

And I even greeted them politely!

The Lizard Men noticed me approaching and became wary, but the water behind them suddenly surged, catching them helplessly and pulling them back underwater.

I gestured with my chin at the struggling creatures who had no idea what was happening.

Undine dragged them deeper, spinning them in the water. A small but powerful whirlpool formed in the river.

Except for the one Ry was fighting, every Lizard Man was sucked in.

“…Good grief!”

“We might need to change your bath spot, sister. The Lizard Men are targeting you.”

“Are you doing that?”

“Technically, Undine is doing it.”

Although the opponents were Lizard Men skilled in underwater combat, Undine was water itself.

For me, a water spirit summoner, there was no better battlefield.

This was why I felt calm rather than anxious.

“I can’t believe it! Was Undine always this powerful?”

“The strength of a spirit depends on its master.”

“Wow… I didn’t realize summoners could be this amazing.”

I smoothed my chin at the riverbank instead of basking in pride at her praise.

Something didn’t sit right with me.

Undine was holding dozens of Lizard Men in the water, but this alone wouldn’t decide the battle.

Because the Lizard Men could breathe underwater, they couldn’t simply be drowned.

It was natural that fighting water-dwelling creatures in water wouldn’t end quickly.

I had never encountered a situation like this before.

And then I realized—my specialty, “Unbreeding,” wouldn’t work on them either.

“akq jqt kduTdj?”

“clfytk dlswnf dkfdkTsmsep!”

Meanwhile, members of the tribe who had gone into battle gathered around me.

They were pointing at the whirlpool and the struggling Lizard Men, yelling something at me—but I had no idea what they were saying.

[Huff, huff! Master!]

“Hmm?”

Ry, the only Lizard Man left on land, was calling to me frantically amid the melee.

He was biting a Lizard Man’s tail while the Lizard Man coiled around him with its claws raised.

The Lizard Men’s claws carried deadly poison, but Ry wouldn’t be harmed, so I remained calm.

[I can’t do it! I’m a spirit! A spirit! Not a wolf!]

“Practice.”

[Let’s just turn it all to diamond!]

“No. Diamonds are expensive.”

[Argh!]

Ry’s defense was excellent, but his offense was weak.

He had been better as a snake, but in his wolf form, he struggled with proper technique.

For example, his main attack was coating the opponent in diamond to immobilize them—a terribly inefficient tactic.

It was too expensive to call that combat and hardly befitting a wolf.

[Then let me turn back into a snake! I can finish this in one go!]

[No. A wolf that turns into a snake? People will think I’m a real witch.]

Would anyone really want me burned alive?

[Argh! This is unfair! Do you know how hard it is to fight in this body!]

[I don’t.]

[It’s ten times more chaotic! You have to control four legs, two ears, the tail, and your teeth!]

[Exactly why I said practice.]

Ry thought he was extremely capable, but to me, aside from brute defense, he had nothing to brag about.

Passing by, some tribe members helped Ry.

They smashed the Lizard Man’s head with a rock and poked its eyes with sticks, allowing Ry to bite the creature’s neck and escape.

Covered in the monster’s green blood, he whined like a spoiled child.

[It’s too much! Who makes a spirit fight hand-to-hand!]

[A master with a corporeal spirit.]

[Master, you’re doing this on purpose! You only make me do things I can’t!]

So now he realized.

[Master! Master!]

Undine fluttered in front of me. I quickly smoothed the frown from my forehead.

“Oh my, Undine! Wonderful. Amazing. You caught twenty of them, Undine! You’re the best.”

[Discrimination! Discrimination! Master is a two-faced pervert who only likes cute things!]

“Ugh, so noisy.”

My expression certainly changed drastically between Ry and Undine.

[The monsters swim too well! They’re trying to escape!]

“Is that so? Want me to burst them?”

How should I end this water-and-fish style battle?

Should I drain the Lizard Men of their blood? Or increase the water pressure to explode them? Or…

“Oh, Gryufain.”

Right, I had him.

I clapped and summoned the ice spirit, Gryufain.

I could have called Ador, but that risked electrocuting everyone, so Gryufain was suitable.

Since we’d only contracted a year ago, it was good to summon him often to synchronize.

“…Gryufain?”

But he was extremely rebellious.

There had been many times he didn’t appear when called.

“Pain!”

Grinding his teeth, he reluctantly appeared on my shoulder, exuding cold.

Three calls, and finally!

[So bothersome.]

“Hey! It’s been months since you were summoned!”

[Bothersome.]

“Then hurry and freeze them!”

The ice spirit Gryufain lazily flew over the river.

He had zero motivation—completely opposite of Ador.

[These guys?]

I nodded, and Gryufain lazily dropped massive chunks of ice onto the whirlpool—about forty pieces as thick as thirty-year-old trees.

“Pff.”

The chunks were so huge that my mana was halved instantly, and the impact thundered each time they struck the riverbank.

The river quickly turned green with blood, and the bank was littered with floating Lizard Men encased in ice.

That… that… damn brat.

Using my mana recklessly like it wasn’t his own!

“Pain! I said freeze them, not smash them to pieces! This is almost crushed…”

[Bothersome.]

Gryufain spoke as if extremely annoyed and then disappeared—returning to the spirit realm on his own.

“That insolent brat! I’ll…!”

So arrogant!

Ugh, if it weren’t my spirit, I’d…

Ry laughed, holding the back of my neck.

[See? I told you to leave that one alone. There were gentler spirits too, so why insist on contracting that stubborn one?]

“Damn it!”

Gryufain had previously refused to contract with me.

I persistently summoned him over thirty times until he finally appeared.

It took two years in real time.

I thought I had succeeded… I had no idea I would regret it so much.

[Master digs their own grave sometimes…]

“You can’t go back to the spirit world, Ry.” I glared, and he quickly changed his tune.

[Digging graves early is a good thing! Be prepared for anything!]

Some spirits always tease their master, others fail at every task…

No wonder I adored Undine so much.

[Argh! No, Master! That’s Dragon Heart territory!]

Another perk of Ry as a wolf—he could bite and tear whenever he wanted.

I lay down in a breezy pavilion, leisurely eating freshly picked fruit from the field.

“Ry, Aini… how can you hear your voice?”

I rested my head on Ry’s back, rolling around lazily.

“Wasn’t that impossible?”

[It’s possible. If your affinity is abnormally high for a human.]

“Hmmm… Mage couldn’t hear your voice either, right? He’s a dragon.”

Before Ry absorbed the Dragon Heart of an unknown Gold Dragon given by Mage’s mother, their resonance had not aligned.

Ry’s voice had been audible to me alone for a long time.

[Dragons aren’t about high affinity. They’re a dominant species. Totally different.]

“So Aini has higher affinity than a dragon?”

[Not that extreme—more like an elf-level affinity.]

“That’s pretty extreme enough.”