Chapter 23
After lunch, we once again walked around the forest.
We continued encountering monsters and defeating them.
The monster we encountered most often was the Violet Boar; I think we took down five.
“Tonight’s going to be a meat festival,” one of the knights said happily.
Yeah, I understand. Knights really love meat, don’t they? I do too.
The Saints continued their routine: sitting at a distance whenever combat began, then healing the injured once it was over.
Then, when the sun had moved just west of its highest point, I spoke to Hector for the first time.
“I’m tired. I’m going back.”
“Understood! We shall return as quickly as possible!”
And so, we began our return from the monster hunt.
Unlike on the way there, we didn’t actively seek out monsters on the way back, only hunting any we happened to encounter.
The knights around me seemed relieved, their shoulders relaxing just a little.
But disasters have a way of striking when your guard is down.
“Monsters approaching!”
The scout suddenly cried out in a panicked voice.
He was an offensive-magic user and could use magic detection to get a rough idea of where monsters were.
“W-what?! Which direction?! Stay alert—”
Hector, who had started to say something, was blasted away.
I gasped and turned around. A deer-like monster about three meters tall stood there, its blue eyes shining fiercely.
Flowerhorn Deer. A deer-type monster whose horns spread out like a flower as it grows, and a species endemic to this forest.
It was a B-rank monster said to require thirty knights to defeat, and was clearly stronger than any of the other monsters we’d hunted today.
The stronger a monster, the deeper in the forest it lurks, and a B-rank monster should live deeper still. It wasn’t the sort of monster you’d encounter within day-trip range.
In the first place, no one should have expected to encounter one during today’s hunt. The fact that our platoons were made up of twenty knights was proof of that.
The worst misfortune was that our platoon leader had been blown away and was unconscious.
But I couldn’t believe this was a coincidence.
B-rank monsters were intelligent. It must have instantly identified who was in command and deliberately targeted the platoon leader to throw us into disarray.
The knights were standing scattered in an oval formation, and the monster had barged into one side of it.
At one end of the oval, the acting platoon leader stood rigidly.
“Fabian, can you take command?”
At my question, Fabian blinked as if coming back to his senses.
“No... I’ve never seen that monster before. I don’t know anything about its characteristics, so I can’t.”
I thought so...
It was a monster endemic to this forest that usually lived deep within it. No one would normally know its characteristics.
Perhaps our voices had brought them back to their senses, because the knights around us began drawing their swords.
But they didn’t know what kind of attacks the monster had, so they couldn’t risk moving, and we were at a standstill.
“Kyaaaaaa—!”
In the midst of it all, the three Saints suddenly screamed and ran off in different directions.
“Ah, no!”
Flowerhorn Deer have a habit of chasing anything that moves.
I instinctively drew my sword and stood in the Flowerhorn Deer’s path as it started to chase after the Saints.
“Physical Enhancement! Attack power, three times! Speed, three times!”
I muttered under my breath, held my drawn sword horizontally, and blocked the horns as they came down.
“Ugh...!”
I managed to block them, but the impact drove me backward.
“I’ve fought a Flowerhorn Deer before! I’ll take command!”
As I shouted, I stared into the monster’s blue eyes and braced with all my strength to keep from being pushed back.
That went on for a few seconds, perhaps. Suddenly, the monster’s eyes changed from blue to red.
In an instant, I leaped backward.
“Get back!!”
As I shouted, an area about three meters in radius centered on the monster was engulfed in flames.
“Wha—?! Flames just appeared out of nowhere!”
“Look out! Fall back!”
The knights shouted in alarm and retreated.
“There’s only one thing you need to watch out for when fighting a Flowerhorn Deer! Look at its eyes: attack when they’re blue, and move away at once if they turn red! That’s all!”
This monster only controls fire when its eyes turn red. And while it’s controlling fire, it won’t attack, so we’ll be fine as long as we keep our distance.
“However, this monster’s hide is hard, so it’ll take time to finish it off! Fabian, blow the emergency whistle and call for reinforcements! We don’t have enough people to fight a B-rank monster!”
Fabian and the other knights who were free immediately began blowing their emergency whistles.
I hope another platoon is nearby.
We were only twenty to begin with, and now that our platoon leader was down, we clearly didn’t have enough people.
The flames around the Flowerhorn Deer began to shrink.
The fire would die down soon, and the monster’s eyes would turn blue. Then its attack would begin.
“Of the attack team, three of you take the horns head-on with your shields! The rest, surround the monster! This creature can jump extraordinarily high. If there’s even the smallest gap in the circle, it’ll jump through and escape. And once it’s outside the circle, it’ll attack us one by one! So don’t let it escape, no matter what!”
The trained knights immediately responded to my voice and formed a formation around the Flowerhorn Deer.
“When you attack, aim for the white part of its belly as much as possible! Its back is hard, so your swords probably won’t pierce it!”
―――――A few minutes passed.
As we struggled, unable to get our swords through the monster’s tough hide, a voice spoke up, far too leisurely for the situation.
“Oh, I heard the emergency whistle and wondered what was happening. What a rare monster...”
I turned around in surprise and saw a knight who had no business being there—the one called the “Kingdom’s Dragon.”