TEOCH 72

Agile attacks for stout dwarves surged from beneath my comrades’ feet. The gnomes burrowed into the ground and launched surprise attacks, making it difficult to time any offense against them. Furthermore, their bodies were so tough that attacks hardly landed. It was also quite troublesome that dealing proper damage was difficult until Tristan’s sword, imbued with the aura of purification, could smash their heads.

The bigger problem was the dryads that rushed in, joining forces with the gnomes. From above, the dryads’ long fingers and hair swooped down, aiming for my comrades’ heads. If they looked up to counter, it became difficult to avoid the gnomes’ surprise attacks.

Damian and Rehas blocked the dryads’ approach while Tristan and Rikiel defended against the gnomes’ attacks, but their efforts were barely enough to hold on. They were severely outnumbered from the start, but more importantly…

“Damn it! Rohan, are you okay?!”

“I’m fine! Damn it, if I could just move the upper half of my body, I could try to fight back somehow…!”

A dryad’s attack left a rather deep wound on my left arm, but not a single drop of blood came out, nor was there any pain. It was the effect of the ‘petrification.’ Normally, the parasite would have moved to repair the wound, but with all bodily functions halted by the petrification, even that was impossible.

Having been petrified the moment I touched the fake gem, I was stuck in the center of the clearing, unable to move properly, as if turned to stone. At least the area above my neck was unaffected, so I could speak and turn my head, but it was little consolation.

In my current state, I was not a help to my comrades but merely a hindrance. In truth, I had brought this upon myself. If only I had listened to Rehas’s words earlier, I wouldn’t be in this mess!

“I’m sorry, this is all because of me…!”

“This isn’t the time for that, my friend! You said you can’t move for an hour, right? I don’t know if we can hold out that long, but…!”

As he spoke, Rehas kicked a gnome’s head with all his might using the tip of his boot. Since it was essentially like kicking a rock, the gnome shouldn’t have budged, but Rehas’s kick, strengthened by Damian’s magic, sent the gnome flying helplessly. While it was a relief, that was practically the only damage the gnome sustained.

The gnome, after rolling on the ground, got up and charged at Rikiel again, shouting in a raspy, old-man-like voice. Rikiel, who was already dealing with four gnomes, let out a pained groan and had to fend off the new one. They were holding back the monsters swarming from all directions, but it looked incredibly taxing.

Tristan and Damian were in a bad situation as well. The dryads, who had been attacking only physically by swinging their hands for a while, suddenly opened their mouths wide. The two, having heard about their attack patterns, tried to back away as much as possible, but the gnomes got in their way, preventing them from retreating in time.

A large amount of gastric acid poured out from the dryads’ wide-open mouths. I ground my teeth as I watched the armor, doused in the acid, melt away with white smoke.

‘This can’t go on. There’s no way we can last for an hour in this situation!’

Enduring was a problem, but even if we did last for an hour, it wasn’t as if a brilliant solution would appear. Of course, once the hour was up, the ‘petrification’ would be undone, increasing the chances of escape, but that didn’t mean a clever plan to break through hundreds of monsters would magically materialize.

At least the island hadn’t started to collapse yet, so the situation was better for now. If the collapse were to suddenly begin, we would be trapped on this island without even being able to use the ‘return’ magic circle, forced to find the real gem. And we’d have to do it while breaking through their encirclement!

This was wrong. There had to be a way out, something, anything…!

“Are you okay, Rohan?! Are you hurt?!”

“Those dwarves, why do they keep targeting only Rohan instead of us?!”

A gnome that Rikiel failed to block rushed like an arrow and grabbed my leg, and Tristan barely managed to stop the other gnomes from grabbing and pulling me.

The gnomes, suddenly obstructed, immediately swung their clubs at Tristan, but it was a half-hearted attack, as if just to clear an obstacle, lacking the clear purpose they had moments before.

Instead of focusing on the leg that had just been grabbed, I carefully observed their movements. Wait, could it be that…!

‘Are these guys targeting only me?’

Why? There should be no reason for that. I was confused for a moment, but what was important now wasn’t reason or logic. It was the monsters’ actual actions.

Perhaps these monsters were never really interested in killing all the humans from the beginning. Come to think of it, I remembered the Harpyia we met on the volcanic island mentioning capture and giving orders to the monsters.

If these monsters were targeting only me, who was petrified, instead of defeating all of us…

‘Perhaps we can avoid a total wipeout. If we can just avoid a situation where everyone dies or gets captured, if that’s possible…!’

Gurgle, with a sound like phlegm rattling, the dryad in front of Rikiel opened its mouth. A panicked Rehas immediately activated the ‘hydration’ ability of his gauntlets and focused all his power into an arrow. The moment his arrow left the bowstring, the dryad’s head exploded with a loud bursting sound, but at the same time, a large amount of acidic liquid poured from its throat onto Rikiel’s head.

Rikiel immediately threw himself aside but couldn’t completely avoid it; the left part of his armor not only melted white but even had a hole pierced through it. It was a dangerous situation, no matter how you looked at it.

I can’t let this go on. A way to increase the chances of those people surviving, even by a little…!

“Damian, how much magic do you have left?!”

“I still have more than half! I don’t know if I can hold out until Mr. Rohan’s petrification wears off, though!”

“You don’t have to hold out! Damian, use half of your remaining magic right now to create a breakthrough!”

“What?!”

“These monsters are after me! If you try to escape, not all of them will follow you! No, maybe after they capture me, they won’t even care about your existence!”

“Wa-wait, Mr. Rohan…?”

“Create a breakthrough and escape right now, then activate the magic circle we made earlier and return to the ‘Island of Trees’! Wait for me there!”

At first, Damian tilted his head as if he didn’t understand what I meant, but as I continued speaking, his expression slowly hardened. Of course, Damian wasn’t the only one whose expression hardened. Rehas and Tristan stared at me with pale faces, and Rikiel glared at me with a look that said he wanted to slap my cheek right then and there.

“So, you’re telling us to run away!”

“Yes, wasn’t that our goal from the start?! To get the gem as quickly as possible and escape! We may not have gotten the gem, but since things turned out this way, we have to at least escape properly!”

“That’s ridiculous…!”

CRASH, Rikiel’s face contorted as he struck down the gnomes’ attacks with all his might. Of course, I was not unaware of the feelings behind his anger. If he had been in my situation and said something like this, I would have been angry too.

Even knowing it couldn’t be helped, I wouldn’t have obediently followed. Especially not the words of someone who had just endangered the entire party by being recklessly stubborn.

“You have to do it if you want to live! We can’t waste any more time here!”

“What about you?! How are you supposed to live! What you’re doing right now is no different from suicide!”

“I might be able to live! If these monsters don’t kill me and take me to the Harpyia as I am…!”

“Where’s the guarantee of that! And even if that’s the case, there’s no guarantee the Harpyia won’t kill you either!”

“I don’t know! But at least, I think this is the best way! And if you don’t do it right now, you won’t be able to escape either!”

“Then wouldn’t it be better if we were all captured together!”

“If those monsters intended to do that, they would have tied us up and dragged us to the Harpyia already! In the first place, these things have no intention of taking you! I don’t know why, but it seems like they want to get rid of you and take only me!”

Rikiel must have been thinking the same thing. I knew full well that he was being stubborn after coming to the same conclusion as me. But it couldn’t be helped.

Choosing the path with a high probability of at least one person surviving—no, of someone surviving—was the best judgment I could make right now. I knew that since everything would reset if I died, sacrifices were meaningless, but even knowing that, still…

Therefore, I…

“Damian, listen to me! Take His Majesty and the others and run!”

Watching Damian’s back flinch as he spewed flames toward a dryad, I swallowed hard. I knew that no one else would follow my decision. Not Rikiel, not Rehas, not even Tristan would follow my will if they were in their right minds.

But Damian was different. Whether to describe that as Damian’s strength or as a strange part of him, I still didn’t know.

“You think my decision is right, don’t you! Am I wrong?! If you take the lead, the others will follow!”

“I, I, Mr. Rohan…!”

“The others may not, but you have to listen to me!”

Gasp, with a strained, panting breath, Damian’s back began to shake unsteadily. Of course, I had no intention of backing down one bit.

The only thing I could do in this place was to persuade Damian, and indeed, Damian seemed to be slowly wavering. He repeated his breaths with difficulty, as if wanting to escape the pressure crushing him, and Rikiel, while fending off gnomes, glanced anxiously toward Damian.

But there was no more time to wait. If we kept holding on like this, Damian’s magic would run out, and he might not even have enough magic to create a breakthrough, leaving us unable to do anything…!

“Go now, Damian! Right now!”

Damian, who had his back to me the whole time, turned around. I realized he wasn’t trying to look at me, but to head in the opposite direction from before.

Damian grabbed a stunned Tristan’s arm and started running toward Rikiel and Rehas. While the bewildered Rikiel and Rehas hesitated, Damian immediately swung his staff and incinerated the monsters in a straight line. And then…

He erected a wall of roaring flames between me and my comrades.

“Let’s go, Your Majesty! I will guide you to the magic circle!”

“D-Damian?!”

“What in the world are you doing! Cancel the magic at once!”

“Mr. Rohan is right for now, Sir Rikiel! If we keep holding on like this, we’ll all die for nothing!”

“You, you…!”

“You must follow me, for Mr. Rohan’s sake! Your Majesty, you said you gained the ability to emit an aura of purification in emergencies, right? Can you use it now?”

I wanted to hear more of the conversation happening beyond the wall, but I didn’t have the luxury. Several dryads and gnomes approached me as if they had been waiting, grabbing my limbs and pulling.

A grotesque smile bloomed fully on the wrinkled face of the gnome and on the bark-covered face of the dryad. Although it was a smile that made me feel sick on a physiological level, I decided to interpret that expression as favorably as possible. For instance, that since I didn’t put up a futile resistance, they would let those people go safely.

A dryad’s palm, covered in sticky sap, covered my face. Recognizing the pungent smell piercing my nose, I felt relieved for two reasons.

First, the fact that it was emitting a sap that knocked people out meant they weren’t going to kill me right now. And second, if I lost consciousness in this situation, Tristan would be able to use the ‘Pristine World’ skill to look after the other comrades so they wouldn’t suffocate.

Ah, right. Come to think of it, there seemed to be a third reason too. In any case, hadn’t I ensured that at least Tristan escaped safely? If I were to die here, thinking that he would be ‘reset’ in an instant without suffering any pain seemed to make me feel a little more at ease.

With that thought, I slowly inhaled.

In an instant, my consciousness was dyed black.