WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Order

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Chapter 130: Parent of the Elves (7)

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There was one thing Rombel had overlooked. Elves had exceptionally sharp hearing.

Looks filled with shock and contempt turned toward Rombel.

A few Pre-Sentinels even whispered among themselves.

"Wow. We called them here to get rid of demons, and the first thing they want to do is lure in another demon?"

"Is that what the average dwarf is like?"

"Dwarves really are..."

Their reaction was so intense that even Rombel, who was rarely shaken by anything, looked quite flustered.

Seeing Rombel's reaction, Elbridge offered some subtle advice.

"Rombel. Are you just going to let them insult your people like that?"

"...What am I supposed to do by myself in this atmosphere?"

"For the sake of other dwarves, you should at least set the facts straight. Say something like, 'I'm clearly a below-average dwarf, so don't judge the average dwarf by me.'"

Rombel grumbled.

"Don't talk nonsense. And this is unfair. It's not like I said I was going to lure Starwave into Thornbush Forest."

"You didn't?"

"I was just wondering what would happen. Starwave is one of the very few demons whose movement can be controlled..."

Elbridge had been curious as well.

When Starwave had appeared near Norens City, the elves had chosen to burn down the forest and live off Norens City as dependents.

If Starwave approached Thornbush Forest, would the elves here burn their forest too?

'If they burn the forest and Jin and Bella leave Thornbush Forest, wouldn't that more or less accomplish Orion and the goddess's goal...?'

While Elbridge was thinking that, Starwave disappeared somewhere beyond the horizon.

* * *

The next day, the atmosphere had been unusual even before noon.

The ash-gray amorphous demon that had quietly vanished the previous night had appeared near Thornbush Forest again and was circling around it.

Sonia covered her nose and muttered,

"...It looks even more disgusting in daylight. And it smells awful."

The night before, it had been dark enough that they could only tell something was moving nearby.

Now that it was bright outside, its sticky appearance was clearly visible.

Marcus assessed the demon.

"It looks just like a mudpit beside a tanner's house."

Tanners commonly used urine to remove grease from hides and soften them.

As a result, foul-smelling mudpits inevitably formed around tanners' homes, mixed with rotten urine, impurities from the hides, dirt, and mud.

That demon's appearance and smell resembled one of those mudpits near a tanner's house.

"I think I'll call that thing Mudpit from now on."

"It doesn't seem to have any other name, so sure..."

The demon still showed no particular hostility.

It would have been nice if they could have remained indifferent to each other, but shortly after noon, a Sentinel summoned them.

When they arrived by the sacred tree, Jin, Bella, and Orion were waiting for Elbridge's party.

Naturally, Orion acted as though he had never met Elbridge's party separately.

"You've come. You saw the demon near the forest, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"Can you deal with it?"

"We can try. But it doesn't seem like a demon that will cause serious harm right away. Is there really a need to provoke it? It could create more trouble than it solves."

Elbridge answered calmly, but Bella shook her head.

"There's no guarantee it will stay that way. And if one demon remains near the forest, then if even one more appears, we'd have to deal with two or more demons at once. You know how troublesome that can be."

Elbridge nodded.

Each demon contained its own chaos, so it was hard to predict what would happen when two or more gathered together.

And anything involving demons tended to go in a troublesome direction. Facing two demons at the same time might require taking fivefold, tenfold, or even greater risks.

"If that's how you see it, there's nothing we can do. Still, that demon seems to have appeared several times before. Do you know anything about its abilities?"

"It has a foul odor. Its mucus also dissolves whatever it touches."

"Ugh."

Elbridge and Rombel both grimaced.

They had faced demons with unusual bodily fluids that dissolved whatever they touched before.

Those demons had three things in common. They were difficult to fight, difficult to defeat, and even if they were defeated, their weapons and armor ended up in ruins.

This time, though, things were different.

"I can cast a protection spell."

"What kind of protection spell?"

"I normally use it when experimenting with acidic solutions, but I can cast it on people too. It's quite effective and stable."

Having a mage in the party really was useful in many ways. That was even more true when the mage was reasonably skilled, like Sonia.

The Sentinels were not planning to stand back and watch either.

Jin said,

"I can't leave Thornbush Forest because of my circumstances. But if the fight happens close to the forest, I'll help. My Weapon is a bow."

If they had to do this one way or another, it was better to act while help was available.

With Jin's help, they should be able to defeat the demon fairly safely.

Elbridge nodded.

"All right. Let's go now."

* * *

The ash-gray amorphous demon, tentatively named Mudpit, was sprawled about two hundred steps away from the forest.

It did not move at all, as if it were taking a nap.

Sonia tapped the ground with the end of her staff, drawing everyone's attention.

"I can only cast the protection spell on five people. Let's choose who goes."

Jin handled the selection.

Elbridge and Rombel were naturally included, along with the two most capable Pre-Sentinels.

What was interesting was that Marcus was included as well.

"Right. There's no need to give the job to one of our own when we've brought in an outside hand."

Marcus grumbled for show, but he looked quite pleased. A Sentinel had acknowledged that he was qualified to fight a demon.

Elbridge nodded to himself.

'Marcus really has improved a lot.'

Marcus's current skill was slightly below that of the average Pre-Sentinel.

There was no guarantee he would survive, but he was at least capable enough not to hold everyone else back.

What Elbridge found stranger was Marcus's positive attitude and cheerful expression.

The old Marcus would have made every excuse possible to avoid fighting a demon.

"Marcus, why are you so calm today?"

"It's not my first time seeing a demon... And that thing, whether it's a sewer or a mudpit, looks like the easiest demon I've ever seen."

Elbridge saw it the same way.

Mudpit was large, but not especially large by demon standards.

It had never displayed quick movements, and it had no sharp claws or teeth. Sonia's magic would also protect them from some of the danger. Their matchup against it was fairly favorable.

Rombel spun his axe and asked,

"We just need to find its demon core while fighting, right?"

"That's the most important part."

They could find the demon core and destroy it themselves, but even if they could not, it would not be a major problem.

If they gave the signal, Jin would finish it with an arrow.

Sonia muttered an incantation, and a faint light wrapped around the five of them before quickly fading away.

"Let's go."

The five spread out at a suitable distance and approached slowly from five directions.

Once Elbridge's party came within about twenty steps, Mudpit finally reacted.

Its body seemed to contract slightly, then,

Pshht!

It transformed part of its body into a sharp, harpoon-like shape and fired it.

Mudpit's first attack targeted Marcus.

Clang!

Marcus calmly swung his sword and blocked the attack.

Mudpit appeared able to control its hardness. Despite its soft appearance, the sound of hard objects colliding rang from Marcus's sword.

"Oh, not bad..."

Rombel grinned in admiration, and Marcus replied excitedly,

"I figured it might do something like this. I prepared beforehand."

As the five slowly moved closer, sharp shapes formed throughout Mudpit's body and attacks came flying one after another.

The five fighting Mudpit deflected the attacks with considerable skill. Marcus looked a little unsteady, but he was not in immediate danger.

Elbridge had reached his own conclusion.

'It's weak for a demon. Its attacks have obvious signs, and it isn't unpredictable.'

Rombel swung his axe with force.

Slash!

Mudpit's outer layer split open, spraying fluid.

Sizzle-

A few drops landed on Rombel's forearm, and smoke rose from it. But the skin touched by the fluid only turned slightly red. It did not become a deep wound, thanks to Sonia's protection spell.

Elbridge called out energetically.

"Good. Don't let your guard down. Let's shave it down little by little!"

The five did not attempt reckless deep strikes. Instead, they gradually built up wounds by cutting away at the demon's surface.

'Its outer layer is tougher than it looks, but it's soft inside. Even Marcus can handle it without much trouble.'

Sure enough, Marcus swung his sword with an excited expression.

Pieces cut off Mudpit were absorbed back into its main body, but the five were cutting it away faster than it could recover.

'It's going smoothly. No unexpected variables yet...'

After some time passed, Marcus shouted,

"Over here!"

It was the signal that he had found the demon core.

Mudpit wriggled, trying to hide its demon core, but it was too late. Jin's arrow was already nocked.

Jin looked up at the sky and released the bowstring.

'The sky?'

Of course, Jin had not fired the arrow thoughtlessly.

The arrow Jin fired vanished into the sky, then was soon covered in bluish divinity and changed direction.

Like lightning striking, it accelerated toward the ground at an unbelievable speed.

"..."

The arrow's strange speed and destructive power felt less like a Sentinel's attack and more like a god's divine power.

It was so fast that the sound of it cutting through the wind only reached them after it had pierced Mudpit's demon core.

Shiiiiiiing-!

Jin's attack cleanly pierced Mudpit's demon core.

Of the many demons Elbridge had faced, few had ended this easily.

"Sonia!"

"I'm coming!"

At Elbridge's call, Sonia hurried over.

A battle with a demon usually ended with a mage sealing it.

But things went in a slightly different direction than expected.

Though it was amorphous, Mudpit had maintained a rough shape until then. Now it collapsed.

Ash-gray fluid from inside Mudpit's body flowed onto the ground and soaked the surrounding area. Smoke rose with a sound like something boiling or burning beneath the earth.

Sizzle-

The five who had fought Mudpit covered their mouths and noses and stepped back.

The ground was melting.

The problem was that it was melting at an extraordinary speed and depth.

After some time, Mudpit's form disappeared completely and the smoke subsided.

The party looked into the melted ground, both to see how deeply it had melted and to confirm where the buried demon core was.

Then they saw a strange sight below the ground.

Sizzle-

'The demon core... is melting?'

Like Mudpit's body, the demon core slowly melted and seeped into the earth.

Before long, a large dark-red well formed underground.

Something was slowly but unmistakably swirling inside that dark-red well.

"This..."

Rombel muttered.

The words held no particular meaning.

Still, the five understood instinctively. Mudpit's true worth was not its acidic fluid or its harpoon-like attacks. It was that sight before them.

'It's ominous. It looks like a passageway.'

What came to Marcus's mind was the distortion-type demonic beast they had seen in Mountain City Barquntol.

That demonic beast had pulled part of a demon's body from a distant place into this space.

If a mere distortion-type demonic beast could bring part of a demon's body into this space, what could a similar demon bring here?

One thing was certain.

It would not be only a part of a demon.

At that moment, a well-dressed man who looked like a nobleman appeared beneath the dark-red well.

He looked up from underground at the surface and smiled.

"...!"

Unlike the other three, who could not understand what was happening, Elbridge and Rombel reacted immediately as if struck by lightning.

"It's the Owner of the Index Finger!"

Elbridge shouted.

At the same time, Elbridge swung his sword, and Rombel swung his double-bladed axe.

They were not targeting the well-dressed man underground.

Elbridge and Rombel each cut off their own index fingers.

Caught off guard, Marcus thought,

'The Owner of the Index Finger... I think I've heard that somewhere before.'

At that moment, Marcus's index finger bent in a strange direction.

The tip of his index finger hooked slightly past his little finger.

The two Pre-Sentinels' fingers did the same.

And then-

Crunch.

The index fingers moving on their own broke the rest of their fingers.

Footnotes:

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