TEOCH 83

“What should we do, Rohan?”

“For now, we have no choice but to run! Until we figure out that thing’s attack patterns and where its weaknesses are, that’s the only way!”

I shouted my reply to Rehas’s question as I ran through the forest. Right now, not knowing the exact attack patterns of that monster—the Human Centipede—we had to get out of its sight as much as possible. The forest, with its densely tangled branches, would surely hide our movements.

Of course, it would be troublesome if that thing could detect our location by means other than sight, but this was the best I could do at the moment.

—Humans, run. How pathetic…….

Huuu, the monster’s mocking voice clung cloyingly to my ears even from a distance. It seemed we had succeeded in creating some distance, as there was some reward for running away, but the creature was completely unconcerned and relaxed, even though it was quite far from us. It didn’t even try to chase us. As if it didn’t matter how far we ran.

‘Could it be the type that mainly uses long-range attacks?’

After all, no matter how many of those scrawny arms it had, they didn’t seem like they would be helpful in a fight. Besides, that monster had definitely been creating a strange-looking magic circle since earlier. Perhaps it intended to summon something using that magic circle or unleash a wide-area attack.

Please, I just hope the first attack is at least somewhat gentle. No matter how hard the mode is, there should be some mercy in the first attack……!

“Mr. Rohan, an immense amount of magical power is gathering around that monster! I think it’s a summoning spell!”

—Melt……. Everything, melt away, and disappear!

Damn it, what was I thinking, expecting any mercy from this game! Damian’s scream was almost completely buried by the creature’s roar. The next moment, with the sound of massive wingbeats, the sky suddenly darkened. The moment we looked up at the sky to figure out what on earth had been summoned with the first spell, we all gasped at once.

“E-eyeballs?!”

Eyeballs the size of a person’s head covered the sky in black. The eyeballs, with their heavily bloodshot whites and grotesquely rolling black pupils, were disgusting enough just to look at, but with what must have been at least several hundred of them covering the open air, a physiological sense of revulsion couldn’t help but well up.

We tried to hide from the eyeballs as much as possible, but it was virtually impossible to escape the sight of several hundred of them. The moment one of the eyeballs rummaging through the forest found us and stopped. All the gazes that had been aimlessly drifting here and there in the air turned towards us in an instant.

‘Damn it, are they sharing their vision?!’

My companions faltered under the momentary pressure. As if not to miss the opportunity, they fixed their gazes on us and began to flock toward us all at once. It was too late to hide or run now. Forget the Human Centipede, we had to deal with those eyeballs somehow……!

“Damian, fire!”

Finally snapping back to his senses at my shout, Damian hastily threw up a barrier of fire in the air. The eyeballs that had been mindlessly rushing towards us began to get defenselessly seared by the fire. Sizzle, with a disgusting sound like meat burning, dozens of eyeballs boiled up.

I thought they would hesitate at least a little, but even while watching the others get taken down so helplessly, they charged forward recklessly. Seeing them not even put up any real resistance as they burned, it seemed they were specialized in close-range attacks rather than long-range ones.

That’s a relief. As expected of a first attack, it isn’t that powerful. It looks as reckless as a suicide bomb, but still…….

‘Huh, wait. A suicide bomb?’

While I hesitated with a sense of foreboding, the outer part of the burning eyeballs cracked open, and an unidentifiable liquid began to flow out from between the cracks. Only then did I remember the monster’s cry.

Everything, melt away, and disappear.

The meaning behind those words was all too clear.

“Everyone, get back! It’s acid!”

I shouted as if to tear my throat out and led my companions into a run. Boom, with a series of tremendous roars, the half-burnt eyeballs began to explode in a chain reaction, and the bright yellow acid that filled them burst out in all directions.

When the acid was generously poured onto the leafy tree branches, the leaves and branches melted away with white smoke. Since those trees were also monsters, it would have been normal for them to regenerate quickly even if they were broken or melted to some extent, but the acidity was so strong that the tree trunks couldn’t even regenerate properly and just twitched.

If those had exploded above our heads, we too might have melted away horribly like those tree branches. We ran desperately to put as much distance as possible between us and the eyeballs. Rikiel’s face was completely contorted at the bizarre sight he had never seen before in his life.

“What kind of disgusting things are those……!”

“This is not the time to waste energy shouting! Shut your mouth and run as fast as you can!”

“Mr. Rehas, please help me! I can’t block all of those by myself!”

During that time, Damian did his best to spread a curtain of fire, and Rehas shot down and burst a few of the eyeballs that flew at them even while on fire, but the eyeballs pouring in from beyond the forest were too numerous to even count. Due to their overwhelming numbers, no matter how hard the two of them tried to block them, the distance between the eyeballs and us inevitably narrowed. Damn it, how can there be so many summoned creatures? This is the first attack?!

“Rohan, I must lure them away to create some distance! If this goes on, those eyeballs will explode right over our heads!”

“You can’t, Sir Rikiel! If the eyeballs swarm towards you, you could be doused in acid! Besides, if you enter that human centipede’s line of sight, we don’t know what kind of attack will come flying!”

“But we can’t just stand by and do nothing! In this situation, neither His Majesty nor I can be of any help!”

Rikiel glared at the eyeballs, his face completely distorted. Apart from the recklessness of the suggestion he had just made, his assessment of the situation was quite accurate.

Right now, the only people who could somehow stop those eyeballs were Rehas and Damian, who were capable of long-range attacks, because if we carelessly swung our swords at close range, we would be the ones getting doused in acid. In this situation, not only Tristan and Rikiel but even I was useless.

‘Damn it, the balance has gone to hell since starting the second playthrough!’

In the first playthrough, boss battles could always only be overcome by using the full combat power of all companions. But now, against those eyeballs, the possibility of close-quarters combat was completely blocked off, so Damian and Rehas were the only ones who had to struggle.

What the hell is with this balance? Did they just slap it together thinking no one would enter a second playthrough?! They should at least make it possible for us to fight those things……!

However, I soon came to regret having had such a thought.

“This is……!”

“What is it, Your Majesty!”

“Look over there, Rohan! The eyeballs are regenerating, but that’s……!”

Rikiel and I, who had checked the direction Tristan was pointing, froze on the spot. Maybe I was wrong. Even in the second playthrough, this game was trying to maintain a balance between the classes. To be honest, I also thought it would have been better if they hadn’t made such an effort…….

The empty shells that had fallen to the ground after spewing out acid began to regenerate slowly with bubbling foam. However, it would be more accurate to call it a transformation rather than regeneration, because their appearance after regenerating was completely different from their original form.

What emerged from inside the already burst shells were two legs and two arms. They looked very similar to the Human Centipede’s arms, but with dozens of sharp, long thorns sprouting from them, they looked much larger and more threatening. The inside of the completely turned-over eyeball shell now served as a torso instead of an eye, and its red, shiny surface even had things that looked like blood vessels stuck to it, making it as grotesque as looking at a person with all their skin peeled off.

‘Damn it, they’re pulling out all the stops!’

The monster design is in completely bad taste! While grumbling inwardly, I readjusted my grip on my sword to face the monsters. Rikiel, Tristan, and I formed a protective formation so that Damian and Rehas could concentrate on their long-range attacks as much as possible, and prepared for battle. Of course, I had no idea how long we could hold out…….

“They’ve spit out all their acid just now, so it should be fine to attack them! We have to hold them off somehow!”

The transformed monsters ran towards us at a speed that was unbelievable for those emaciated legs. We aimed our swords at the thorny arms of the monsters. The real battle was just beginning.

“Now, Your Majesty!”

While Rikiel used ‘Taunt’ to momentarily distract the monsters, Tristan and I sliced the bodies of the monsters that showed an opening in half. Their bodies, which were practically empty, were cut apart without much resistance.

Tristan, who had not yet fully recovered from his injuries, was quite unsteady in his movements, but the purifying energy he emitted was a great help in defeating the monsters. Moreover, because of the ‘Paralysis’ effect on Tristan’s sword, the monsters that received his attacks had their movements slowed, making them easier to deal with.

The problem was their arms. Despite looking like they would break, they were actually as hard as lumps of iron. Besides, the thorns were so dense that my sword would sometimes get entangled between them. Whenever Tristan or I struggled to pull out our entangled swords, Rikiel had to draw the attention of other monsters to himself to get us out of the crisis.

“Damian, are you alright?! You’re bleeding too much!”

“It’s fine since it will regenerate anyway! But, at this rate, I think there might be a problem with my right arm again……!”

Damian panted with difficulty and pulled out the dagger he had plunged into his right arm. Even though he had leveled up once with the experience points gained from killing the transformed monsters, Damian’s magic power was already at rock bottom.

Feeling anxious, I brought up the experience point window into my view. Since the transformed monsters gave a decent amount of experience points, it seemed I could level up if I held out for about 10 more minutes, but in the meantime, Damian’s right arm might be in trouble. I gritted my teeth and cut off the arm of an attacking transformed monster. The thorny arm was still twitching even though it had been clearly severed.

It had already been 30 minutes since we started fighting the monsters pouring down from the sky. The situation was not good. For now, we were managing to hold them off, but the eyeballs filling the sky came endlessly, and the monsters that were created when those eyeballs transformed were also spawning endlessly. The number of monsters we had to block had already surpassed several hundred and was now over a thousand, so at this rate, we were in danger of being crushed to death by monsters before we could even face the boss.

There was a separate reason why we were able to endure while fighting so many monsters. Perhaps it was because the summoner, the Human Centipede, was a young monster that had just been born, or maybe its intelligence was inherently low, but……. Those things couldn’t distinguish between friend and foe at all.

—Screech, screeeech!

The island’s spirits, which had threatened us until just a few days ago, now had to struggle to protect themselves from the unidentified intruders. The eyeballs would approach any moving target and attempt a suicide attack, and the dryads, who were very tall and stood out, became victims of that attack. The monsters that transformed after using up all their acid began to attack the gnomes loitering right in front of them first. The chaotic screams of the spirits filled the entire island.

—What are you doing now, why are you attacking those monsters too?! This is going too far!

—Island, messy. Obstacles, remove…….

—Don’t tell me you intend to annihilate all the monsters on this island?!

—Annoying……. Don’t bother me! Other island, won’t fix!

—……!

I could hear the bewildered harpies’ flustered voices from here, but that monster didn’t even pretend to listen to them. For the harpies, who had lent this island solely on the promise that it would fix their collapsed island, it was truly a bolt from the blue. Of course, it seemed they had no intention of helping us now.

‘Anyway, what kind of pattern is the next attack? This is probably phase one, I think……!’

While swinging my sword without rest, I broke into a cold sweat over that question. Speculating based on the patterns of the guardians I fought in the first playthrough, it’s highly likely that the eyeballs currently covering the sky are not that monster’s full power. Probably after we defeat all these monsters, that monster that has been just watching from the back will step forward and unleash an even more incredible attack.

Of course, I can’t be sure yet, but if it’s a creature that can use such a large-scale summoning spell, it wouldn’t be strange for it to have one or two wide-area attacks. Just like the instant-death magic the harpies have.

If my assumption is correct, it is highly likely that we won’t even be able to survive the next phase, let alone escape from that monster.

‘Even if we take care of all these damn eyeballs, if that thing uses a wide-area magic, we can never block it with our strength! Besides, if one of that thing’s attack patterns is an instant-death skill……!’

Instant-death skill, the moment those three words passed through my mind, my vision went dark. There is no way out just by holding on like this. Before that thing uses a wide-area attack that will kill us all, we have to find a way to escape somehow. There must be some way, but in this situation, I’m struggling just to survive, let alone find a way……!

—Lethe unnie, what should we do? Should we move this island’s monsters to another island for now?!

—That’s the only way for now! Iren, Scathach! You two create a net of magic to move the monsters! Hezel, you and I will go gather the surviving monsters!

The voices of the harpies chattering amongst themselves in the sky made my irritation flare up. Damn it, we’re about to die because of you, and you’re just going to take care of your own monsters? Leaving us on this island just like that!

I grunted as I tried to somehow push away the boiling anger. Right, now is not the time to be angry at them. They and we are nothing more than enemies, and we should be thankful that they aren’t joining forces with that monster under the pretext of ‘getting this mess over with quickly’. I won’t expect anything. I won’t expect anything, ever…….

—Damn it, where did Charon unnie suddenly disappear to! Even if she was disappointed in us, still……!

Having decided not to pay any more attention to the harpies’ voices, I gritted my teeth and swung my sword. Right now, just dealing with these monsters was overwhelming enough.