CHAPTER 77
If only I could fly faster—I might reach him before Uncle gets hurt.
The wind kept slamming into her body, irritating her terribly.
Faster. Somehow, even faster!
At that moment—
Lyn suddenly found it cumbersome to keep moving the cloud that responded entirely to her will as if it were wings, mimicking a pegasus.
Strangely, the flying posture she had practiced since childhood felt awkward.
She drew back the legs she had stretched out to cut through the wind with as little resistance as possible.
Then, as if kicking off the ground, Lyn instinctively stepped onto empty air.
Tap!
As if it had always been that way, the scattered clouds naturally gathered around Lyn’s hooves.
And she ran.
Uncle!
She sprinted across the sky as if running atop the clouds—
Faster than anyone, to reach her beloved family.
Kuuuu—! Kwaaang!
With a chilling cry that seemed to scrape at the mind, the monster moved its massive arm.
From a mud-like form that vaguely resembled a human, several unnatural arms shot out and stabbed into the ground.
“……”
Thud.
After springing off a nearby tree to evade the monster’s attack, Theodore landed again and regripped his greatsword.
Letting out a short breath to steady himself, he gauged the size of the creature filling his vision.
It’s gotten bigger.
Earlier, the thorn-horn had seemed about the size of three wagons put together, but now it looked at least twice as large.
Even the number of crown-like spikes sprouting from its head had clearly increased.
Did the holy ritual fail to take effect?
If the priest sent by the Holy Empire had properly performed the purification rite, that monster should have vanished without a trace—core and all.
So why had the creature, which had seemed to disintegrate under the “purifying power” emitted from the staff raised on the ritual platform, reappeared perfectly intact—no, even stronger?
Or did the priest pull some kind of trick?
Either way, there weren’t enough clues yet to draw a conclusion.
Still, Theodore carefully committed every suspicious detail of this incident to memory.
Right now, even focusing solely on the monster before him wasn’t enough.
“If I really die… my parents won’t let this go…!”
“M-me too!”
“M-me as well…!”
There was no time to spare for the idiotic behavior of the Payne kids, who couldn’t even obey the simple instruction to stay put.
Unable to flee properly, Payne clung to the largest tree trunk he could find, spinning around it every time the monster moved—like a fool.
Eventually, no longer caring about the other children watching him, he stammered like the sister he usually mocked and shouted,
“W-where are the other knights?! Wh-why are they all so late…! They should save me first!”
Ignoring Payne’s terrified muttering, Theodore silently swung his greatsword once more.
There won’t be any reinforcements.
When they had first entered the forest, other knights had been with him, but only Theodore had reached the group of Payne children deep in the woods.
He had sent the others off along the way to rescue children who were about to be devoured by monsters.
Even the few knights who had stayed with him until the end were dispatched to protect the other scattered children after the giant monster appeared.
Theodore himself had run straight here to face the thorn-horn visible even from afar.
He had judged that he alone could handle a thorn-horn that large.
Is it too cruel a thought—to be glad that Lyn isn’t here?
As he swung his greatsword hard enough to stir up a fierce wind, Theodore quietly thought so.
He hoped that wherever Lyn was in the forest, a knight would reach her and protect her, just as he was doing here.
Kwa-ga-gak!
Knocking aside the spikes the monster fired with his blade, Theodore noticed a subtle change in its attack pattern.
The creature split apart the thick, fused masses it had used as arms—masses meant to avoid being cut by the greatsword—and instead hurled them far away, beyond the reach of the opponent right in front of it.
“!”
Realizing the thorn-horn’s intent, Theodore twisted his body halfway around and swiftly followed the extending tendrils, cutting them down.
“Hiiiii!”
Splat.
Seeing a chunk of the monster severed by the greatsword fall in front of him, Payne screamed in terror.
“Wh-why is it always me since earlier…! Go after someone else!”
Payne had been resentful ever since, thinking it was just his bad luck to be the one who encountered the biggest monster he’d ever seen.
When the others scattered and fled, he hadn’t even managed to escape properly, ending up marked by the monster like bait.
Should I have transformed earlier?
He regretted it briefly, but it was useless now.
The pegasus children who had transformed and tried to flee earlier had failed to catch the wind and crashed.
Freezing up in fear when they first encountered the monster had been fatal.
Compared to birds, a pegasus’s large body needed strong winds to fly properly—and once the monster sensed its prey fleeing, it obstructed the wind paths with its smoke so they couldn’t take off.
The children, unable to summon winds strong enough to dispel the smoke, had their aerial escape routes completely blocked.
After seeing those who transformed first fail to spread their wings and fall, Payne chose to remain in human form, crawling under trees or clinging to anything he could hide behind.
Human form was also better for finely controlling abilities.
If I can just get some strength back into my legs… I’ll bolt the moment that thing can’t see me…!
With the proxy from the Wingless race holding the monster’s attention, surely another chance to save his own skin would come—that was his only hope.
Looking down at his still-trembling legs after running for so long, Payne swallowed hard.
Ku-kwagaga—!
“Hii!”
For now, every loud noise still made him shove his head into the tree trunk like an ostrich.
Even though the sounds seemed to be getting closer and closer—ominously so—Payne could only mutter blame-shifting complaints under his breath.
Damn it.
After a few exchanges, Theodore grasped the monster’s new strategy and sighed.
It’s figured it out.
Now larger and stronger than before, the monster seemed to have grown more intelligent as well.
Instead of focusing solely on attacking the prey in front of it, the thorn-horn began firing new spikes at the surrounding children every time its attacks were blocked by Theodore and its body was carved away.
It had cleverly realized that attacking the weaker children would force the bothersome enemy in front of it to move to block those attacks.
“Aaah! Help me!”
“Please, save me!”
The children’s screams, overlapping with the monster’s cries, only made things worse.
Having survived long enough to earn the nickname “thorn-horn,” the creature had learned more effective ways to strike at humans.
Help me, Uncle Theo!
The monster’s cry mimicked the voice so vividly that it stabbed straight into his ears.
It knew well that hearing a loved one’s voice screaming in terror caused more pain than fear or revulsion alone.
Whoosh!
With his brow deeply furrowed, Theodore swung his greatsword without pause.
So far, he could still deflect and cut down the monster’s attacks—but each time, he could feel his grip on the sword tightening more and more.
As the fight dragged on, a human inevitably grew fatigued.
The monster, meanwhile, devoured the fear of the hidden children and continued to swell its power.
“Aaah! Please save me!”
“Ghk.”
And with the monster’s attacks targeting the children he had to protect, perilous moments kept piling up.
The white garments Theodore wore for the hunting ritual were gradually being stained red.
