Chapter 204 - See?

See?

I'm not weak, Bigger Monster, Shabby Guild Instructor, or whatever's your name.

It was as if I just brokered a peace treaty. Or rather, it was as if that peace treaty got to broker itself on its own. Without any exterior help whatsoever. It came around, and it decided to stay.

A peace treaty, though, huh? It isn't really that. Obviously it isn't.

Making your enemy run away after it threatened to kill you wasn't really about peace. Or I guess it somewhat was when it also simply somewhat wasn't.

The flesh statues–they were my friends.

Once their foes showed up and menaced to wipe off their existence out of the earth, they all froze on the spot, as if unable to cope with this one reality they hadn't even thought of.

And so they became statues.

Naturally, now, as they were my friends, I sided with them against the imminent threat. That, or I don't really know. Doing things this way felt more interesting, maybe.

Showing off my monsterrific aura, heh, it didn't take long for the enemies to turn their heels on us.

Seeing how that last goblin pissed itself on the spot, I wished I could pee, too.

But anyway–the enemies ran: it happened so fast I wouldn't even have time to see them off. That was a shame as I wanted to play along with them for a bit more … but that was that.

Right after none of them was to be seen; that is to say, only a few seconds after they showed up; the flesh statues weren't statues anymore.

I broke the spell that was cast on them: "Woah-hah-hah!!" the loudest one cried out in victory, "Tremendous shit!–they actually afraid of us?!"

I broke the spell–but they didn't know about it.

"And would you look–at–them!–my gosh!" and it was only another second after that first statue came back alive that the others deigned address that reality … but Bumped still spoke alone, "Only are the shitty shitting shits, now, hah! And even them are afraid to … well … to shit, man!"

He was the closest one to the saber wolves. They were indeed still here. I didn't directly direct my killing intent towards them. So that's why. And even then, they seemed to be so much docile and calm, all of a sudden.

The Party's attention shifted from these 'thoughts' to the speaking man.

"I mean, yo, dogs!" he somehow stepped hesitantly towards them, still in unsure about this all, "Ugh!–cower away, cower away, that's right! That's what you be doing, eh, eh!"

And they cowered away. And they lied down. And they whined, planting their muzzles into the ground, undaring to do otherwise.

This was for most of them.

They subdued.

And Leader had moved too, by now. Breathing in and out very methodically, the first thing he did was analyze his whole party.

Was anyone not believing 'that' too? Surely, there were many of those. Was anyone wounded? Not that the eye could see. Was anyone having any problem at all? Yeah, well, that was a good one.

Was anyone even slightly being discomforted at all? The man … simply didn't know.

He had heard Bumped's ideas being spoken out loud. And he had heard his own ideas, too, going all shaking and wild within the inside of his skull.

And while the former ideas weren't so much believable to himself, the latter ideas couldn't even be referred to as 'ideas' at all.

A spark sparkled–and he chose to believe what actually made the least but most sense.

Breathing in and out methodically as he often did in order to keep his calm was great–but it didn't get shit done.

Calmy getting his lungs full again, in a very rapid blow, he blew it all out–his fists clenched themselves even harder–bringing his sword and shield up, he approached the wild dogs.

His walk was neither slow nor fast. But he carried himself efficiently and swiftly.

As he arrived at Bumped, his decisive eyes fell onto the wild dogs–and tapping the earth with both boots, "<Aerial Smackdown>, <Shield Attack>, <Hunting Horn>"–he dealt with three of them at once.

"O– oi, these were mine–"

Jumping off from the ground, he first fell back onto them, stirring the air and lacerating them a little.

The beasts growled and backed away–but he followed with a heavy push of his shield.

Though none of them did he touch, this attack was just a subterfuge to get them back off a little more … when, even more heavily, he charged at them with his sword in the air, jumped again, and fell back onto the three fatigued ones.

They yelped and died.

The other beasts, then, knew how to survive … or maybe they didn't.

Instead of fleeing too, what seemed to be the alpha of this pack growled to his loudest and attacked the damage-dealer.

By then, though, the tank already had come back at the fight, too.

Following him, there were the priestess and the sorceress, still a bit afar.

With only three other beasts to deal with, they were prompt into getting it done.

Ring!

And it was at this time that I leveled up again:

❮ The Player has reached the level 42! ❯

And then … happiness settled in!

Woah, woah, woah~

What a great day today was~

I mean it for real, real, real~

The fight was over. It was theirs. They were happy about it. Oh, and this fight also was the world's. And so the world became happy, too!

So far, it'd only been gray and ashes.

But when the last puppy fell down under the raging human's blows, "Hahaha!!"–everything became green, yellow, and blue.

The Party noticed the living vegetations, the bright sun, and the full-blue sky.

It was all about life and death any longer. It was about life only.

Every pup was to be dealt with, and only then did the talking actually rose between each other.

"Guys, we made it!" laughed Leader.

"I … I can't believe they just … are we even going to talk about how–" commented Clumsy.

"I mean, to be fair … I … woah," confusingly hesitated Sorceress.

"Mhmm…" groaned Slug.

"Tell you what!–They were just afraid of us! … And they were right, the scoundrels!"

The Party was so much powerful that their enemies just couldn't handle it anymore. They couldn't handle them.

Man, the poor guys, when we actually think about it: they–the monsters–must've been so proud–so, so, so very much proud, my goodness!–but when they saw the Party at work, well, of course, they could only fear for their lives, then!

And that's how they turned their heels and ran!

Yeah. It was sweet to believe that.

But the world just felt happy and relieved, then.

Could you blame it?