Chapter 209: The Struggle of the Impostors, and the Beginning of the Slaughter

* * *

"Hey hey... what the heck is that?"

Now, let's go back in time a bit.

Patchino, who had left the branch office in exchange for Emi, frowned as he looked towards the fields inside the base.

The reason was because he noticed smoke rising from the fields.

...And not just one, but several trails of smoke.

"Is it a field burn?"

"No, we haven't finished harvesting the beans yet. There's no way we'd do a field burn."

Modokin, walking next to him, gave an appropriate response.

Before being asked by Earthcell to call Emi, he had been working on carrying in materials along with Darmacy.

Since Darmacy's work is sloppy, he was worried that the warehouse might be a mess if left alone by himself.

"Let's go check it out."

"Huh? But I have other work to do."

"Shut up. It's a leader's order."

Grabbing the collar of Modokin who was trying to escape, Patchino entered the soboro bean field.

Pushing through the bean vines with a rustle, what they found at the end was... the remains of a bonfire that was already dying out.

"What the heck is this... ugh, it stinks!?"

Approaching the bonfire remains, Patchino involuntarily held his nose and shouted!

What assaulted him was a stench that made him want to run away.

A sour smell that stung the nose was drifting from the bonfire remains that still had a little fire smoldering.

Looking to the side, Modokin also had a pale face.

"Hahaha! What a terrible face, Modokin! If you're going to throw up, do it where I can't see!"

"...This is bad, Patchino."

However, Modokin's reaction to Patchino, who was laughing, was strange.

He didn't seem to be joking around.

Patchino also immediately tightened his guard.

"What do you mean?"

"This is bad, I might be wrong, but this smell... if you burn something like this in the demon realm...!"

"Hey! Don't get scared alone! What is this smell? What was being burned in this bonfire? Tell me, Modokin!"

Lightly slapping the trembling Modokin's cheeks a few times, Patchino brought the dirty man back to his senses.

Startled, Modokin turned towards Patchino and shouted!

"This is monster lure! They were burning monster lure!"

"Wha...!?"

At the same time as that!

Boom!!

Boom, boom boom!!

BOOOOOOM!!

Such tremendous roaring sounds and vibrations shook their bodies!

* * *

"Hieee!?"

"What the hell is this...!!"

Patchino and Modokin immediately ran towards the direction of the sound after the shaking had settled, pushing through the bean field.

And there they saw it.

The miserable sight of the defensive wall destroyed and collapsed by some kind of explosion!

"Migyaaa!"

"Migya! Migyaaaaa!"

""!!""

However, there was no time to be dumbfounded.

Monsters were trying to enter the base one after another from outside the collapsed defensive wall!

"Well... of course they'd be attracted! With such a loud noise..."

Drawing the sword at his waist, Patchino cursed as he effortlessly cut down two Forest Topopolocks that leaped at him.

Modokin also quickly stabbed with his knife, stopping the breath of the following Noshteruketch.

"Oh, it might not just be because of the sound..."

"Huh?"

"In the forest... this smell... they might have burned stimulants..."

"What did you say!?"

In the direction Modokin pointed with a tremble, there were numerous trails of red smoke rising towards the sky from within the forest.

Both monster lure and stimulants are common drugs used by adventurers for monster hunting.

Therefore, as a scout, Modokin also had enough knowledge to identify them by smell.

"Burning monster lure inside the base, and stimulants in the forest!? Blowing up the defensive wall!? What kind of idiot would do such a thing! Are they trying to destroy this base!?"

"That's the only thing I can think of!"

Even as they were having this conversation, monsters that had lost their reason due to the stimulants were rushing one after another, trying to cross over the collapsed defensive wall towards the base!

Patchino and Modokin were cutting them down one by one, somehow holding back the invasion, but... outnumbered, their fatigue was gradually building up, and the sharpness of their movements was starting to dull.

In the midst of that... despair appeared.

"Migyaaa..."

What emerged from the depths of the forest with a low growl was a three-eyed creature with brown scales.

Its back was covered with countless spikes.

Its shape resembled the Forest Topopolock they had cut down many times until now, but its size was on a different level.

It was as big as a bear.

"Mountain... Topopolock...!"

Cold sweat ran down Patchino's forehead.

A Mountain Topopolock is a monster that a fully prepared party can defeat, or maybe not, only by working together properly.

He had also heard stories of careless, foolish soldiers being wiped out by just one of them.

A magic swordsman alone and a scout alone were too much to handle.

"M-M-M-Migyaaa..."

"Migyaagyaa!"

And there were three of them!

Swaying their heavy bodies, they were approaching this way...!

The demon-repelling herbs planted around the base probably had no effect on them under the influence of the stimulants.

With a thud, a Mountain Topopolock crushed the demon-repelling herbs.

"...Should we run?"

Modokin muttered in a low voice.

That's how the "Tea Dragon's Heel" had been living up until now.

They were drifters.

Whenever something unpleasant happened or a problem arose, they would turn tail and run away each time.

Until now, that had been fine.

"Don't be ridiculous."

But Patchino immediately said that and laughed roughly while breathing heavily.

Running, running, running.

In the end, even resorting to hero fraud, the shameless ones had finally found a place to belong.

And that was this base.

"...Yeah, you're right..."

Sighing with slumped shoulders, Modokin also showed a smile.

He held a knife in his right hand, and in his left hand, he gripped a round pill made by Niese, containing paralysis powder he had taken out from his pocket.

"...We'll do what we can."

"Yeah."

As the two steeled their resolve to face death and took a step towards the confronting despair... that's when it happened.

With a roar and a gust of wind, something small and black passed between them!

That something, with that momentum... punched one of the Mountain Topopolocks with all its might at a speed too fast for the eye to see!

With just that, with just that single blow, the monster burst away and became a mere lump of flesh.

"Miss...!!"

The true identity of that black something.

It was, of course, Emi!

Patchino and Modokin knew the strength of this black-haired, black-eyed girl.

So they involuntarily clenched their fists in joy!

The strongest reinforcement had come for them.

Naturally, they tried to call out to her.

But they couldn't.

Because Emi was angry.

"..."

Emi, who glanced at the collapsed defensive wall, was expressionless as usual.

No emotion could be read from her expression.

But Patchino and the others knew.

Right now, Emi, in response to the situation where her base was being attacked, the defensive wall was collapsed, and it was in a crisis.

Her precious things were being hurt.

She was intensely, furiously angry!

Emi's anger was so tremendous that even the "dull" Patchino and Modokin could understand it.

In her rage, the magic power she usually suppressed was leaking out, [Intimidating] in all directions.

That magic power was strongly condensed, black enough to be visible even to ordinary people, and now Emi's small body was enveloped in an ominous swirling black haze.

Patchino and the others had been unreasonably [Intimidated] by this girl when they first met Emi.

However, the presence Emi was emitting now was incomparably more intense than that.

The emotion of too intense anger, and genuine killing intent.

The two were overwhelmed by it.

To the point of forgetting to breathe and being unable to move.

"..."

Still growling, the Mountain Topopolocks, and the various monsters squirming behind them, Emi glared at them in silence.

"Migya...!"

However, the Mountain Topopolocks, who had lost their reason due to the stimulants, did not even flinch upon receiving Emi's [Intimidation]!

"MIGYAAAAA!!"

One of the remaining two Mountain Topopolocks let out a wild roar and ran towards Emi with all its might!

This was their special move, the charge!

Hard scales, and the speed generated by strong muscles, in other words, pure mass of a huge body!

In addition to those, the power of the charge, which was greatly boosted by [Body Strengthening] using magic power, was terrifying to say the least!

Until now, these Mountain Topopolocks had used this charge to crush through armor and scales without regard for defense, and smash the bodies of hostile creatures into a pulp!

It was simple and straightforward violence by kinetic energy with no means of defense...!

"..."

But Emi showed no sign of panic at all.

Of course.

Because for her, this level was not a threat at all.

The Mountain Topopolock approached Emi with the momentum of a huge cannonball.

Emi, to that.

Casually, with irritation, simply and purely.

Punched it!

It was simple violence that anyone could unleash if they felt like it.

But it was an absurdity unleashed by something that had absorbed numerous monsters, black dragon's blood, and even the remnants of a god.

There was no way a wild creature like a Mountain Topopolock, which was just about the size of a bear and somewhat strong, could get away with being exposed to such absurdity.

Like the individual that died earlier, this individual that also charged at her was blown away by Emi's fist, scattering blood and flesh, and died.

"MI-"

The remaining one Mountain Topopolock, upon seeing that sight, became enraged!

And the moment it tried to let out an angry cry!

Before it knew it, Emi was on its back and severed its head with a chop, killing it!

Emi picked up the rolled head, raised it, and showed it to the monsters squirming in the forest.

Then, she carelessly threw it at her feet and stomped on it with all her might.

The Mountain Topopolock's head was crushed with a squelching sound!

"...You want to do it?"

And Emi muttered, low and low, while continuing to emit a strong [Intimidation].

That voice, which should have been small, strangely echoed well in the surroundings.

It clearly reached the ears of Patchino and Modokin, and it should have been the same for the monsters.

But, however.

"Migyaaa! Migya! Migyaaa!"

"Gyaooo!"

"Goheh! Goheh!"

"Chiwawa! Chiwawawa!"

That [Intimidation] did not reach the monsters whose reason had been destroyed by the stimulants.

The monsters misunderstood Emi's intimidation as a provocation, each getting worked up and began to charge at Emi all at once while raising cries!

"...I see."

Seeing that, Emi closed her eyes lightly once.

"Then."

Then, lowering her hips, taking a fighting stance with her fists, and opening her eyes.

She shouted!

"...I'LL KILL YOU ALL!!!"

The slaughter begins!!

Emi is in a fit of rage after her territory was messed with.

But during the final intimidation, she had calmed down a bit.

Next time, it will be delivered from someone else's point of view.