Volume 5 - CH 40

Act 5-40: Escape II―― A Chance of Encounter Amidst The Despair[Side: Gobuza]

What’s the meaning of this? Why aren’t we meeting any demon race in guard duty? The place was filled with black fog, our surroundings were dead silent, and we weren’t even seeing one demon race guard along the way out of the research facility.

The northern part of the North Grand had been conquered by them and had already turned into a living hell. So their only escape route was towards the south.

In the south, there’re many powerful races with high combat power such as red minotaurs, high ogre, superior race of one-eyed giant, the cyclops and the high-orc.

Though those races wouldn’t work together under the normal circumstances, Gobuza knew that once Aldebaran’s army moved to the south, those races would see the same living hell as Gobuza’s tribe. Thus laid the possibilities to form a temporary alliance against the same enemy.

「I almost reached my limit…」

He took Gobumi’s hand and,

「Just a bit more! We’ll find a hiding place and take a break after the sunrise! Just a bit more!」

He said those encouragement. For them, being able to escape from that hell was already a miracle. But, he knew that the pursuer would come after them. What waited for them once they were caught was a certain death. That’s why their best choice for now was to escape as far as possible.

「Y-Yes!」

Gobumi regained the will to walk for a bit more upn hearing his encouragement.

After who knows how long they had been walking, when everyone had literally reached their limit and couldn’t walk anymore, they finally left the thicket into a place resembling that of a plaza.

In the middle of the plaza stood a giant tree, the morning light dyed the area under the tree with scarlet colour, was the exact expression for that situation.

「Let’s take a break in this place.」

Their enemy wasn’t just their pursuer from the demon race. The beast who wandered inside the forest itself was already a huge threat for Gobuza and co. In that situation, resting in the relatively safe spot for a while was much a better choice than wandering aimlessly inside the forest.

And then, when everyone sat under the shade of the tree――

「What the heck is this?」

The muscular hob goblin suddenly raised a bewildered voice upon seeing a vein twined around his leg. The next moment―― He was suddenly pulled up, swinging upside down in the air by the vine around his leg.

「Oh no! It’s Madagascar! Everyone get away from this place!」

The moment the old hobgoblin warned, the trunk of the giant tree split up, showing a huge mouth with rows of sharp fangs.

「KYAAA!」

Another vine twined around the hobgoblin beside Gobumi and Gobumi herself, pulling their bodies to the air.

「Goburo! Gobumi!」

Gobuza rushed toward the two to safe them but,

「Stop! They’re going to eat you too, Young Master!」

The old hob goblin hugged him from behind to stop him.

「But, Gobumi and everyone are in danger too!」

The madagascar raised the body of the hob goblins till it was right above the opening that resembled a giant mouth.

（WHYYYYYYYYYY!?）

“Why must we encounter a madagascar of all! Just what kind of sin we committed to deserve all of this!” was the nightmare that kept haunting Gobuza and co ever since the demon race destroyed their peaceful village.

（Is asking for peace too much?）

Surely, they’ve been living a boring, unchanged live until the invasion. Even Gobuza felt so. That’s why he always yearns to become the legendary hero of the monster in his mother’s bedtime story.

It was common story among the monsters, the story of the hero fighting against the evil god.

But, that naive aspiration had already broken to pieces when he saw the true, cruel nature of the demon race who invaded his peaceful village.

―― I know that!

He knew that there was no hero who would save them from this pinch. He knew that he was living in an extremely cruel world in which the strong eat the weak. The weak could only submit to the strong!

―― I know that!

The powerful tribe in the north had been captured one after another and became feed for the lump of flesh in the demon laboratory. Gobuza and co were nothing more than powerless ants in the current North Grand.

（But, I refuse to accept this outcome!）

Gobuza might be saved if he chose to abandon his childhood friend. But――

――That wasn’t the future that Gobuza wished for!

「Gobuza!」

That voice resounded in his eardrum, he wanted to save Gobumi,

（Yes! Like hell I can do that!）

His boiling wrath erupted like a volcano.

He couldn’t accept this unreasonable situation anymore. He refuse to lost his dearest people again!

「Oi, Young Master!」

He shook the old man’s hand, and grabbed the pole that he picked along the way,

「Let go of them dammit!」

And rushed toward the Madagascar as he raised such warcry.

The feeler-like vine swung to the side, hitting Gobuza’s abdomen and sending him flying like a small ball, only stopping after it crashed against the trunk of the tree behind him.

That strike just now made Gobuza lose his breath, his body felt like it was creaking nonstop. During that time, Gobuza tried to prop himself with the pole in his hand.

In his dimmed view, he saw that the madagascar was about to eat his childhoodfriend.

「OOOOOOOOOOOH!」

When he tried to rush again with a bestial roar, he tripped and fell flat on his face.

He raised his face, only to see his childhood friends thrown into the mouth of the madagascar.

「STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!!」

The moment he raised such cries, several lines ran along the body of Madagascar, and his childhood friend dropped into its mouth.

「Dammit…」

He failed to save those dear to him again.

His clenched fist struck the ground before him because his sense of loss and helplessness.

「Y-Young master!」

When he raised his face again upon hearing the old man’s scream,

「Eh?」

A man with a dog head seized the nape of the neck of his two childhood friends, behind him was the wreckage of madagascar.

The man seemed like a kobold, he wore strange attire which combined both trousers and shirt into one.

The man with dog head then dropped Gobuza’s childhoodfriend to the ground,

「Nice fight! Don’t worry, these two are safe and sound.」

The man declared so. Gobuza’s consciousness descended into the darkness hearing those reassuring words.