Chapter 74
"Now, let's begin—the slaughter."
Blood drips from the Deathbone Sword Rinka holds out before her.
The ferocity of a starving beast.
Rinka plunges into the horde of Mega Ants and begins rampaging like a hurricane.
Mega Ants are slashed and sent flying.
Rinka unleashes all her might.
It must be unbearable from the enemies' perspective, but there's no one more reliable to have on your side.
My eyes are drawn to her movements.
It's like a beautiful dance—.
Rinka's movements create a rhythm.
Strong, then soft, strong, then soft—.
Riding the tempo, a Mega Ant's head falls with every beat.
Caught up in Rinka's rhythm, swept along by it,
the Mega Ants fall one after another as if being sucked in.
It's a sight I'd like to watch forever, but today I have a role to play, too.
If our only goal were to level Rinka up, I'd leave everything to her.
She could wipe out the nest all by herself without any trouble.
But today's ant hunt is also practice for working together.
We'll need to do that without fail in the future, so I want us to get used to it early.
The rhythm created by Rinka's sword forms a great vortex that swallows the Mega Ants.
Most of the Mega Ants are sucked into it, but a handful manage to escape the vortex.
A syncopation that disrupts the rhythm.
A discordant note that throws the melody into disarray.
A noise that disrupts the dance.
Like a dragon whose eye the painter forgot to draw, the dance falls just short of perfection.
My job is the final brushstroke: adding the eye.
"—Fireball."
I launch a fireball at the Mega Ants trying to disrupt the flow, keeping them in check.
It doesn't do much damage, but it can throw off their movements.
Distracted for a beat, the Mega Ant is swallowed by the torrent Rinka creates and becomes part of her performance.
Like a moth flying into a blazing flame.
"—Wind Cutter."
I behead the ones I can finish, removing one obstacle at a time.
To bring Rinka's dance closer to perfection.
"—【Intimidation】."
I make them falter, delaying them by a beat.
My body moves on its own.
I understand what to do next without having to think about it.
As if I, too, were part of Rinka.
"—Earth Wall."
I split the swarm with a wall of earth.
An exhilaration unlike anything I'd ever felt before envelops my whole body.
I can fight. I can fight without end.
Until every last enemy has been defeated.
—I was completely lost in the moment.
I kept casting spells, letting my body guide me, and when I came to my senses, only a few remained.
All the others had been turned into lifeless corpses by Rinka.
But the survivors weren't ordinary Mega Ants.
They were the generals commanding the Mega Ants—the General Mega Ants.
They were a size larger than the Mega Ants, standing upright with long spears in their hands.
There were six of them.
Half of them huddled close together in a defensive stance, desperately protecting the queen.
The other three thrust their spears toward us.
Rinka stepped forward, standing between me and them as if to shield me.
"Be careful."
"I will."
Keeping their distance, the generals simultaneously spat purple liquid—formic acid—from their mouths.
The highly toxic liquid leaves the skin purple and raw wherever it touches.
But Rinka didn't panic.
She swung her Deathbone Sword and cut aside the formic acid flying at her from three directions.
But some of the spray landed on Rinka's face.
I immediately—
"—Cure Poison."
I chanted the detoxification spell from 【Healing Magic Lv. 1】.
Rinka's cheek, which had begun turning purple, returned to its normal color.
I cured her right away, so she seemed to have taken no damage.
I was splashed, too, but I took no damage thanks to 【Poison Resistance】.
Rinka charged forward.
In step with her, I—
"—【Intimidation】."
The generals froze for an instant.
Against Rinka, that instant was fatal.
One.
Two.
Three.
Three of the generals' heads rolled across the ground.
The three remaining Mega Ants let out warning screeches.
And then—the queen rose to her feet on two legs.
She held a long, two-pronged spear in her hands.
The Queen Mega Ant raised her spear high and let out a ghastly cry of "Riririririri!"—
Twenty Mega Ants and three generals appeared out of thin air.
The Queen Mega Ant has no direct means of attack.
The only thing she can do is produce Mega Ants like this.
When the number of Mega Ants guarding her dwindles, the queen summons new ones.
That's why we chose this place as our hunting ground.
The queen will keep producing Mega Ants until she runs out of mana.
In other words, our prey won't run out until then.
Rinka's 【First Sword】 would slaughter everyone in a Goblin Colony in a little over ten minutes.
That wouldn't make for good practice using the Skill for an extended period.
But here, we can keep hunting as long as we like, until the queen runs out of mana.
Now, let's begin the second act—