CH 116.2

「How about we go to the river? It’s less dangerous over there.」

The one who suggested that constructive opinion was Nakai, the 『Warrior』.

Nakai was the tallest and had the best physique amongst the trio. The only factor that Higuchi lost to him was height and muscle mass. I mean, he had those six-packs abs.

As for his other noticeable feature, it’s his headband. It might be nothing more than simple fashion back in Japan, but it was a godsent item in the battle since it prevented his hair from covering his field of view. Well, the person himself might’ve yet to realize that though.

Anyhow, now, after I was told about each of the trio’s particular features, I guess I wouldn’t have any difficulties in differentiating them as long as I memorized each of their unique features.

「Could it be that you’re referring to the river where Ayase-san’s sacred beast of water insta-killed that crocodile-like monster?」

「Yea right, I thought we’re screwed for sure that time~」

「We’re basically done for if not for Reina-chan’s summon.」

Hahaha, look at them, to be able to wear such a carefree smile. My life in this damned dungeon wouldn’t have been this miserable if only I could be as optimistic as them.

「Is that crocodile powerful?」

「At least more powerful than Goma.」

「Its skin is protected with tough scales. It is agile in spite of its looks.」

「We can defeat it if there’s only one of them, but there’s no way we can win against dozens of them at once.」

I saw they’re classified as small fry monster of Gore’s level. I guess I could use them.

And speaking of crocodile, it reminded me of Tendou-kun’s solo fight against the boss of Underground lake area which was the only and biggest crocodile I’d ever see.

「Yup, let’s hunt those crocodiles. We just need to kill one of them anyway.」

Thus, we were heading toward the river where we could meet those crocodiles.

We encountered two Goma’s troops along the way which we avoided by using mist and soon, we arrived safely in our destination.

It was a fairly big river in the middle of thickets with rather muddy water and huge curves like the river Amazon. The water was too murky to the point that we couldn’t see what kind of creature was waiting for us inside.

「There’s no piranha in it, right?」

「Who knows, It’s supposed to be safe, right?」

Ueda’s baseless guarantee was something that I definitely couldn’t trust.

「Since there might be another dangerous monster similar to piranha in this river, let’s avoid entering this river in case there’s a bleeding wound in our body.」

It was said that living beings in this kind of muddy water had evolved their senses to track the smell of blood in place of their limited vision.

Though entering this dirty looking river with an open wound was exposed it to infection.

「Crocodi~le, where are yo~u?」

「This is doesn’t seem like their gathering place, right?」

Though we tried to located the said crocodile along the riverside, we couldn’t see any signs of something big moving under the muddy-brown river water.

「Then I guess we’ve to keep looking for a proper place to find those crocodiles.」

It might sound like a half-hearted suggestion, but we really had no choice. Thus, we went upstream with a light mood.

It seemed that we’d find a bridge made by those Goma if we kept heading downstream from our current position. But we’re currently trying our best to avoid any encounter with those guys.

Even though it’d been a while since we’re walking upstream while foraging for edible plants along the way, we’d yet to see any shadow of crocodile. All we saw so far was either the scene where a bird dove from the air and caught a fish or a fish leaping on the surface of water. It’d make for an amazing sight if we’re currently in the middle of school trip in the Amazon rainforest but unfortunately, we’re not.

Listen up you fucking crocodile, you’d better appear now! But please don’t appear all at once.

When I was in the middle of having fun with praying for those crocodiles to appear …

「――!? CRAAAP, something is comiiiing!」

Right after the swordsman, Ueda, warned us――

KYOAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

A monster raised up a war cry. It’s not coming from the river but the forest.

「DAMMIT!」

Though it was supposed to be a surprise attack since it decided to attack us when our attention was focused on the river, its biggest mistake was looking down on the people blessed with vocation.

Despite being surprised for a moment, Ueda had already drawn his sword in the next moment and then ambushed the monster that thought it had managed to surprise us.

「It’s the raptor!!」

「Look out in case it came in group!!」

The one that appeared was a dinosaur type monster. It was a small, bipedal, Gore-like dinosaur, or rather, its appearance was basically the carbon copy of the one from dinosaur’s picture book. If the Gore appearance was prominent due to its huge head and protruding horn, this guy had a sleeker and neater appearance.

The color of its scale was dark green which might’ve something to do with the fact that it lived in this jungle. There’s also dark-red strips mixed in some of of those scales, overall, their scales resembled camouflage suit. And though this one was equipped with sharp tusk and claws, its defense seemed to be weaker compared to Gore whose whole body was covered with bulky-thick scales.

Yamajun described the 『Raptor』 as a small-sized land dragon who might suddenly appeared from behind the thickets.

「ORAA!」

「DEYAAAH!」

Maybe because they’re used to this kind of opponent, the vanguard Ueda and Nakai launched a counterattack almost at the same time. Though their blades easily tore through the green scales, the wound was too light.

「『Blackhair Bind』, 『Spiderweb Twine』」

Just like the Gore, the raptor was also hunting in group. When one of them appeared, the second, third, and so on appeared in succession. Seeing that their number was superior, we’re basically done for if they managed to surround us.

That’s why I invoked my curse, aiming to hit any of them was good enough.

「GIYAAOOOOO!」

Despite its shriek, the raptor’s legs were forced to a stop.

Great, both my 『Blackhair Bind』 and 『Spiderweb Twine』 managed to halt the raptor’s leg. Without enough power to tear all of the restrain at once, the bundles of black hair and sticky spiderwebs were proven to be an extremely annoying skill.

「――『Aqua Shield』！」

It seems Shimokawa was also reaching the same conclusion as me, he used defensive magic to disturb the movement of our opponent whose number was superior than us.

「GJ, NOW IT’S MY TURN――『SLASH』!」

「DON’T FORGET ABOUT ME BABE――『SMASH』!」

Our party’s warrior and swordsman landed a critical hit with their skill instantly killing two raptors whose movement got sealed.

The rest of the raptors couldn’t charge to attack our two vanguards since their path was blocked by Shimokawa’s barrier. But, as soon as they tried to circling around the barrier――

「GAGA!」

Their movement was blocked by Rem who wielded her sharp spear.

「 Spread 『Rotten Bog』」

Meanwhile, I made 『Rotten Bog』 and using black hair bind’s tentacle to catch the raptor’s legs, dragged it toward the acid bog.

「KYOAAA! KUE-KUEEE!」

And there, another warcry with a different rhythm resounded from inside of the forest.

Soon after, the rest of raptors turned around and ran back into the jungle.

It might be an order to withdraw from the leader of the packs seeing that they’re at a disadvantage. They executed the order immediately and darted to their pack.

「Tch, they got away huh.」

「And here I was just getting started. Now, I lost the chance to test this awesome axe.」

Our vanguard duo loosened their vigilance since the battle had ended for now.

The axe that was currently being used by Nakai-san was originally a gift from Yoshizaki-san to Rem the 1st who got done in by that shitty bitch summoned beast’s breath attack. But Rem threw away both of her axe and spear given by JuriMari so as to not damage it.

Since Rem had returned to her base, the skeleton’s form did not have enough power to utilize the axe for warrior. I decided to lend the axe to Nakai. Rem herself was currently using Nonomiya-san’s spear.

「That was rather unexpected but, it’s also unexpected gift for us.」

Though those raptors had retreated right away, here, we’d two raptors insta-killed by our vanguard’s skill.

「What about the crocodile?」

「Uhm, let’s make use these raptors first.」

They might not be powerful, but the raptors just showed me that they had incredible mobility despite moving in this jungle. Since it was originally similar to carnivorous dinosaurs equipped with sharp claws and fangs, there’s no doubt about its offensive ability. For all you know, it could be even more useful than crocodile in this jungle.

In short, I decided to use raptor as Arachne’s replacement.

Great, now I could use this guy for the return journey. I mean, humans won’t be able to forget a comfort once they experienced it themself.