Chapter 18 - A Bad Feeling

[Starwing Bat - Lv 1] [Starwing Bat - Lv 1]

Two starwing bats came to our sight from pretty far. I took two pebbles from Yumemi’s handbag, and threw them to the bats to mark them. I almost missed, but both hit the bats on wings and feet.

“You two, do it!”

“Kyaun!” “Fire Laser!”

They both used the same magic, fire laser blasted off from in front of Kon’s mouth and Yumemi’s palm, piercing through the bats without giving them any chance to screech.

“We did it, Kon!”

“Kyaun!”

Yumemi and Kon did a small high five celebrating their success. Seeing them doing that brings me the memories with Lucky, filling my heart with warmth.

“I guess using magic is the correct answer to your problem, huh,” I said while tapping Yumemi’s shoulder.

“Yeah… the fact that I killed them still feels somewhat uncomfortable, but it is not to the point of puk…” She stopped her sentence, I think because she doesn’t want to let out the word. “Anyway, I think I’m fine now!”

“Kyaun…” Kon looked at Yumemi worriedly. He really represented my current concern.

I can’t really smile at Yumemi’s remark because I don’t think that’s her honest feelings, but it will hurt her determination to point that out, so I decided to keep out from commenting on that.

“Let’s dive deeper,” I said.

“Okay.” “Kyaun!”

And so, we went further on the path…

>x<

We have since long passed the Glowing Moss area, making me and Yumemi only rely on [Night Vision] skill.

It seems like Inari Fox is born good at seeing in the dark, looking at how Kon followed us fine. Well, I guess that’s a given since they are born in this cave after all.

After some time walking in Path A, the three of us stopped our steps and looked at each other…

…

“… Yuu-kun… why are there no Starwing Bats around…?”

Yeah, this is strange… The last time we saw any was those two bats we defeated.

I made sure path A still had some bats left before. I didn’t kill all of them.

I thought we were gonna have an easy time farming EXP here, but this turned out to be a waste of time not finding any after all this walk.

Still, that means there’s only two possibilities…

1. They’re hiding
2. Something got them

When I was thinking about that, I found a dismembered staring bat corpse lying on my feet…

“It’s the second possibility, huh…” I let out a mumble.

I crouched down to check up on it.

The scar on its body…

“It looks just like…”

“Yuu-kun, let’s get back to the safe zone!” Yumemi panicked and pulled my jacket. “Hurry up… huh?”

“Kyaurr…!!”

I turned my head to see what the two of them were seeing.

“GRRR…”

[Appraisal Error] [Appraisal Error] [Appraisal Error] [Appraisal Error] [Appraisal Error]

It is the big gray wolf… we were targeting to defeat. The same as before, my [Appraisal] won’t work on it since I haven’t leveled up yet.

I don’t want to believe it, but I feel like he looks stronger than we first met…!

“Damn it…”

How can he be on path A, and even sneak up onto us like this without being noticed!?

“Kyaun! Kyaun!” Kon glared at something behind it.

… I finally noticed, there’s a big unnatural hole behind him.

Did it dig through to move to another path!? I guess that explains why such a path full of Inari Foxes have to face such a monster…!

“Yuu-kun, what should we do!?” Yumemi’s hands that are holding onto my sleeve are trembling so hard.

This guy has mauled a lot of Starwing Bats, I suppose. That means this guy has gotten stronger for sure.

“We clearly are not ready to fight this monster…!” I said.

I took a glance at our party member list.

[Shindou Yuuma - Level 6]

[Mikazuki Yumemi - Level 6]

[Kon - Level 5]

Yeah, we are not gonna stand a chance against this guy. At least, not the current us.

If so… There's only one thing I can do.

“… my little sister, please forgive me,” I mumbled.

I grabbed Yumemi’s handbag and took out the stun gun.

“You two, run!” I said as I rushed towards the wolf.

“Yuu-kun!?” “Kyaun!”

By pure potential, I’m clearly the weakest one here. Yumemi and Kon can use magic after all. Also, I can’t let this monster get the chance to mutate by drinking Kon’s blood!

“Grr!” The wolf swung its paw pretty slow because it doesn’t have much free space to build momentum.

I dodged the swing by sliding down, and I ended up going under its body.

I found myself near its front leg, so I dashed and stabbed its left front leg from behind. “TAKE THIS!!!”

But…

*Thwack* “UGH…!” It’s so unbelievably hard I let the knife out of my hand.

I tried to get out from under its body to avoid getting crushed.

The wolf found the chance and hit the knife in the opposite direction of the hole.

I can’t grab that knife now…

“Hff!” The wolf sniffed at me.

This damn wolf…!

I’m left with only a stun gun, huh…

“Yuu-kun, use this!”

Yumemi threw her knife to the ground below me. Come to think of it, she got [Throwing] skill to lv 4, didn't she?

I grabbed the knife and put up a stance, dual wielding a stone knife and a stun gun… yeah, I bet this looks ridiculous visually.

“Wait, why are you two still here!? I told you to run, didn’t I!?

“No!” “Kyaun!” I bet Kon also said no.

Yumemi put her palm forward like she’s making a magic circle…

“What are you doing!?” I yelled at them.

“Yuu-kun, just shut up! Let me concentrate!”

The wolf faced my direction, looking all haughty.

I took a charge and tried to stab a toe this time.

The wolf sensed the danger, and moved its leg up in motion to crush me.

I tried to dodge that, while setting up the knife on the ground pointing upward to pierce the wolf.

Let alone damaging it, the stone knife was crushed to pieces…

“Kyaur!” Kon let out a small beam and hit one the wolf’s eye.

“Hrawr…” But it didn’t really do any damage…

Kuh…

“Damn it… you two, hurry up and run! My potential is none compared to the two of you, so it is a given that I should be the one to hold him back in order to let you two escape!”

“Yuu-kun! I’ve always disliked that part of you, always self-sacrificing yourself to protect others!”

In this situation, what choices do we have!?

I readied to use the stun gun, but the wolf learned of this thing’s existence already,

It took some distance and getting ready to charge at me.

“But that’s also the part that made me…!”

The wolf charged at me… wait, it’s too fast–

“TELEPORT!!!” The magic circle in front of Yumemi flashed the whole area, enveloping my vision.

… huh? That tree and river…

“We’re… back in the safe zone?”

We’re all here, except that wolf.

Wait, how? What just happened?

Or wait, did I Yumemi say teleport back there? Did she just make another magic…?

“Thank… goodness…” Yumemi smiled at me, and then collapsed.

“YUMEMI!” “KYAUN!”