TEOCH 63

We decided to commence our operation immediately after the giant bird returned in two days.

If I had my way, I would have liked to explore the forest at least a little during those two days, but unfortunately, that wasn’t possible. It was because it was too dangerous. We went out on reconnaissance a few times to check the situation outside, but the forest was under such heavy guard that we couldn’t even set foot on our target, the coast. There were so many monsters that it was pointless for Damian to even use his detection magic.

Moreover, as time passed, most of the volcanic ash was blown away by the wind, making it difficult to even hide from the monsters’ sight. Not that it would be possible to avoid being seen by that many monsters even if we did sneak around.

In the end, we devised a bold strategy that assumed combat. If we couldn’t hide, we had no choice but to break through somehow.

“Be careful, Sir Rikiel. Your role is truly important.”

“You all be careful as well. Just in case, do not move until all the surrounding monsters have moved away.”

“Understood.”

In the early dawn, while darkness still lingered, Rikiel spread his wings and carefully approached the entrance of the shelter. Right now, instead of being weighed down by his usual heavy armor, he had removed all of it except for a few parts that needed protection. It was an unavoidable choice, as he was in a situation where he had to maximize mobility, even if it meant sacrificing stability.

While Rikiel was preparing to leave, Rehas tightly tied a cord around Damian’s upper right arm. Damian grimaced as if the blood flow was cut off, but he did not complain. However, when Rehas stuck a poison-coated arrowhead into his right arm, he let out a groan as if he could not bear it.

“Ugh, wait…! This hurts a lot more than I thought. Though I guess it’s meant to hurt in the first place.”

“I am sorry, Damian. Please bear with it at least until we escape this island. I have tied up your arm, so the poison will not spread throughout your body.”

“Yes, well, I can handle that much. By the way, Mr. Rohan, what is that you are holding?”

“It is a cloth soaked in explosive fluid. I would rather not use it if possible, but the situation is what it is.”

“Are you perhaps going to tie that to my arm?”

“Yes. If you feel you are short on demonic power, light the piece of cloth on fire. It will explode on its own.”

“I really would rather not use it if possible.”

I tied three pieces of cloth to Damian’s wrist, elbow, and shoulder, one by one. I’m sure it wasn’t originally meant to be used for this purpose, but rather to draw attention or escape a crisis using an explosion, but…

Damian gave a bitter smile and held his staff with his left hand, while Rehas piggybacked Damian with an expression as if an explosive was tied to his own neck.

Thinking about it again, it was a rather extreme strategy, but for the sake of survival, this was the best choice. In any case, we had to utilize all the power we could use right now, and the Masochism Parasite was one of the most powerful assets we had.

The strategy we devised to escape the island was similar to, yet different from, the one we used to escape from the bees in the tutorial stage. It was similar in that Rikiel would fly in the sky and provoke the monsters while Damian used magic, but there were some pretty big differences otherwise.

The bees we fought in the last stage were easily dispatched by even moderately hot flames, but most of the monsters on this island are resistant to fire-attribute attacks and won’t even flinch at ordinary temperatures. In the first place, it would be weirder for monsters living on a volcano to be afraid of fire.

Therefore, Damian’s ‘Flame’ magic was all but sealed, and to protect Rikiel, we had to use ‘Confusion’ on a much larger scale than before.

The number of uses is limited, but we have to deal with monsters flocking from all over the island, so we have to expand the duration and area of effect somehow. To do that, we have to stupidly pour in demonic power, and in the end, the amount of demonic power Damian had to use in this operation was bound to increase exponentially.

That wasn’t the only problem. Damian would be busy enough just protecting Rikiel, so Tristan and I had to deal with the monsters attacking from the ground somehow.

The situation would have been a little easier if Rehas could snipe the monsters, but it was too much to ask him to shoot a bow while carrying Damian, who had a poison arrowhead stuck in his right arm to quickly replenish demonic power. We on the ground are in just as much danger as Rikiel, who is in charge of provocation in the sky.

And finally, to achieve the goal of ‘pretending to have fallen to our deaths from the coast,’ a very important condition remained.

“Sir Rikiel, when I give the signal, you must fly down from the island with all your speed. If you are even a little late, we might really fall into the sea and die.”

“I understand. I will keep it in mind.”

“And Damian, as I said before, you cannot use up all of your ‘Confusion’ magic. You must leave one use. Understood?”

“Yes, I understand.”

Finally, all preparations were complete, and Rikiel cautiously lowered his body and went outside the shelter. Those of us left inside the shelter carefully hid near the entrance and listened to the sounds from outside. Before long, with a loud flapping of wings, Rikiel’s shouts echoed everywhere, and the monsters loitering in the forest began to roar in unison and run somewhere. For now, at least, it seemed Rikiel had succeeded in drawing the attention of all the monsters.

My companions all looked as if they wanted to run out right away, but I waited a little longer until Rikiel had lured the monsters sufficiently. After about a minute, the commotion around the once-noisy forest had subsided to some extent, and the cries of the pterodactyls and monsters had also become noticeably more distant. Good, this should be enough…!

“Now, let’s go!”

My companions immediately rushed out of the shelter and ran through the forest. I lifted my head and looked at the sky. In the far sky, a huge number of pterodactyls were gathered like a cloud, and Rikiel was struggling desperately to escape from them. Compared to the massive swarm of pterodactyls, the lone Rikiel looked as precarious as a fly.

“Damian, cast the Confusion spell!”

As Damian raised his staff with all his might, the pterodactyls that had been clustered in the far sky staggered and fell, and Rikiel was barely able to put some distance between himself and the pterodactyls. Having secured enough safety, Rikiel let out a shout and used ‘Taunt.’

Thanks to Damian’s magic, Rikiel was safe, but in return, we now had to face a crisis. It was because a few monsters on the ground that hadn’t fallen for Rikiel’s taunt immediately rushed toward us. I shouted to my companions with all my strength.

“I will clear a path! Your Majesty, please protect Rehas and Damian!”

After confirming that Tristan was blocking the monsters’ attacks by swinging his sword, I immediately imbued my sword with the energy of purification and thrust it into the throat of a velociraptor that was charging to bite my head off.

After blowing its head off using the ‘Bombardment’ embedded in the sword, I immediately swung the sword, and the sharp claws swung by another one were caught on the tip of my blade. The number of monsters blocking our path was at least seven, but this was only the beginning. We would have to face many more monsters for the next few hours.

‘Bring it on, I’ll break through as many as you want!’

I let out a yell with all my might and swung my sword.

This was nothing yet.

“Kh, ugh…!”

A tail swung from the left struck my head hard. Thanks to my helmet absorbing some of the impact, I wasn’t seriously injured, but other velociraptors took advantage of my staggered posture and thrust their claws and teeth at me.

Dodging the claws aimed at my side, I activated the ‘Swiftness’ on my right leg and kicked the head of the one charging from the front. The parasite wasn’t originally meant to be used for this purpose, but in any case, thanks to ‘Swiftness,’ the strength of my leg was dramatically enhanced. The velociraptor that took the kick head-on screamed and was sent flying. After striking the foreleg of the one attacking from the right with my armguard, I turned to check on my companions.

“Is everyone alright?!”

“His Majesty and I are fine! But Damian is…!”

“I’m fine for now, too! Mr. Rehas, watch your head!”

Boom! With the sound of something exploding, Damian let out a sharp scream. He said he was fine, but his voice was already trembling uncontrollably, and his pale, bloodless face was a mess of cold sweat and tears.

It was already the second ‘Demonic Power Recovery.’ The cloth tied to his wrist had already been used and was long gone, and because he had just detonated the cloth on his elbow, Damian now only had half of his right arm. Thanks to the parasite’s recovery ability, the wound itself was regenerating at a rapid pace, but I couldn’t even begin to guess how much pain Damian was feeling right now. But the situation was so urgent that we had no choice but to do so.

“You’re not fine!”

“To be honest, I’m not, but I can’t say that in this situation!”

“Be careful, both of you!”

Hearing Tristan’s shout, Rehas hastily dodged, and a velociraptor’s sharp claw grazed past where he had been. Tristan swung his sword with all his might to block another of the velociraptor’s attacks. It seemed Tristan would protect those two for now, so I immediately raised my head to check on Rikiel’s condition.

“Damn it, Sir Rikiel! You can’t fly too low!”

I shouted with all my might, but it was of little use as Rikiel was too far away. Of course, I could somewhat guess why he was flying so perilously.

Rikiel, flying a short distance from us, was maintaining a precarious trajectory, almost within reach of the velociraptors’ attacks on the ground, and whenever the opportunity arose, he used ‘Taunt’ to draw all the monsters from the ground and air to himself.

Thanks to that, we only had to deal with about a dozen monsters at a time, making it relatively safe for us, but Rikiel himself was repeatedly facing extremely narrow crises because of that strategy.

“Ugh…!”

A velociraptor’s claw, narrowly grazing by, brushed the tip of Rikiel’s foot, and Rikiel, looking flustered, immediately gained altitude. But perhaps because he moved too hastily, he failed to notice the presence of a pterodactyl approaching from above him.

The pterodactyl, with a sharp cry, tried to slash his wing with its claws, and Rikiel dodged the claws by a hair’s breadth, but his posture became unstable as a result.

If Damian, having recovered his demonic power in the next moment, hadn’t used ‘Flame’ to obstruct the pterodactyl’s vision, Rikiel’s wing would have been torn, and he would have plummeted to the ground. The pterodactyls’ hides were so tough that they wouldn’t be harmed by mere flames, but even such a pterodactyl couldn’t help but be flustered if its vision was suddenly enveloped in a blazing light. Even in this situation, Damian was doing his best in his own way.

“Sir Rikiel, be careful!”

“He won’t hear you anyway, Rohan! Right now, we have no choice but to trust him and run to the coast!”

Knowing that Rehas was right, I gritted my teeth and swung my sword at a velociraptor again. When the velociraptor’s foreleg was severed by the sword strike filled with the energy of purification, I used the momentum to cut off its neck. Running through the gap that had barely opened, I brought up the map window to check our current location. Fortunately…

“Mr. Rohan, I can’t use ‘Confusion’ anymore! There’s only one use left!”

“It’s alright! The coast is just a little further!”

The faces of my sweating companions finally brightened. It seemed our hardship had paid off, as we could safely reach the coast if we ran for just a few more minutes. It would be a bit tough for the next few minutes since Damian couldn’t use ‘Confusion,’ but if we could just hold out for those few minutes…!

“Ugh!”

“Are you alright, Your Majesty?!”

“Don’t worry! This is nothing…!”

Hearing a scream from behind me, I hastily turned my head and witnessed blood pouring from Tristan’s left arm. Under normal circumstances, I would have checked the wound immediately, but there was no time for that now.

It’s fine. Damian is enduring even more pain. It’s not like he can’t use his sword right now because his right arm is injured, and besides, we just have to run a little further!

“We’ve finally arrived! Hurry up!”

After finally shaking off the last pursuing velociraptor, the forest ended, and a wide coast spread out before our eyes. I had expected a considerable number of monsters to be waiting, but fortunately, the coast was empty. It seemed that thanks to Rikiel flying around in the sky and causing a commotion, most of the monsters on the coast had followed him into the forest.

It was a little different from what I had expected, but it turned out well in the end since we didn’t have to fight a bloody battle on the coast. I immediately shot the energy of purification into the sky to send a signal to Rikiel, and Rikiel, who spotted my signal, flew fiercely toward the coast with numerous pterodactyls in tow. Not long after we came out to the coast, numerous velociraptors began to pour out from the forest.

“A-a huge number of monsters are flocking here…, will we be okay?!”

“That number is within the expected range! Damian, when the time comes, pour all your remaining demonic power and cast ‘Confusion’ on those monsters!”

“O-okay! When is that ‘time’?!”

“When we jump!”

“Pardon? What did you say?!”

“I mean, right now!”

The moment Rikiel’s flight path, which had been soaring high into the sky, bent into a perfect vertical dive, I grabbed Tristan and Rehas’s arms and immediately started running toward the outside of the island. Having lost our footing, we fell into the endless void. The staff held in Damian’s left hand sprayed a bizarre purple light.