Chapter 21. Wood Revenge II
Episode 21.
Wood Revenge II
Graaaaaah.......
At that moment, I sensed a presence behind us.
In the direction opposite from where Laurent was, a pack of Woodmen was rising from beneath the dirt mounds.
'Fuck.'
You bastards. This game is such bullshit.
I'd done <Wood Revenge> at least dozens of times, but this was the first time I'd ever seen mobs spawn from the rear.
At the same time, I felt it once again.
That my experience as a gamer was something to reference, but never to trust blindly.
"Grab my hand!"
"Huh? Huh?"
I snatched Seigrena's wrist while she was still out of it, then hauled her upward.
"Eek!"
With a feeble scream that made even the danger forgettable, Seigrena's body floated upward. She could handle her own landing; I dropped to the ground as if crossing paths with her.
"Weasel!"
Squeeeeeak—!
With a thunderous roar, the party's ace revealed itself.
"A, a Magical Beast?!"
Seigrena, who had somehow managed to cling to a branch, was horrified, but this was no time for hiding things.
I decided to think of excuses later and immediately raised my shield, beginning combat with the Woodmen.
[Lv.30 'Woodman Guardian']
Fortunately, these weren't Avengers.
Judging by the name Guardian, they were probably beings that protected the trees, something like that.
'This is probably the best option against these things too.'
Since Laurent would be holding onto the Avenger that had already appeared.
Anyway, seeing a new pattern emerge gave more weight to my theory.
Groooooo!
I fought the level 30 Woodman Guardians.
The basic tactic was the same.
While I defended and held the enemy in place, the Blade Weasel finished them off.
My level was lower, but combat was still viable.
For two reasons.
One, Woodmen are weak compared to Magical Beasts of the same level.
Two, I was receiving additional stat bonuses through the <Taming> skill.
......Of course, that didn't mean the situation was optimistic.
For one thing, these bastards were too numerous.
'Fuck.'
How much longer did I have to hold out?
If I could at least know the exact remaining time, it would help, but this game, unfriendly as ever, didn't even display that kind of message.
The only way to guess was...... the size of the gray branch, maybe?
"Th, this thing! It keeps growing, is that really okay?!"
Well...... I don't really know.
Maybe that thing would absorb all the tree's nutrients, wipe out the Woodmen, and then try to kill us too.
'Though the probability of that is low.'
It was a reasonably sound guess.
After all, the Woodman Habitat was at the entrance of the forest. No matter how malicious the <FoS> developers were, they wouldn't suddenly drop a high-level monster in a place like this.
The absolute worst case was probably the Woodman Avenger I'd seen earlier.
'So in the end, the probability isn't that low.'
A chuckle escaped me.
I know, but what can you do.
My policy is always the same.
In any situation, move toward the option with even slightly higher odds of survival.
[Magical Beast, 'Blade Weasel' has been afflicted with the status condition, <Poison>.]
[Magical Beast, 'Blade Weasel's' health is continuously decreasing.]
In the fierce battle, several cuts appeared on both my body and the weasel's.
As if luck wasn't on our side, the weasel even got poisoned.
The unfortunate part was that I didn't have the luxury to help it.
'This hurts like hell.......'
The pain and stinging after so long made it hard to focus.
Even if I wanted to check my wounds, I didn't have the time.
Because the number of Woodmen hadn't decreased, to an almost unnatural degree.
Rrrrrrumble......!
"Aaaah!"
At that moment, the ground suddenly shook and Seigrena screamed.
An earthquake? No. I glanced back and saw two creatures clinging to the tree like monkeys.
'The tree?'
The Black Tree was trembling like an aspen.
Grooooooan—!
At the same time, the Woodmen began to frenzy.
Come to think of it, the lore said all Woodmen were connected to the <Black Tree>.
The main body was in distress, so the pain must have been transmitted to them as well.
"Kaindel! The, the branch......!"
At Kria's shout, I focused on the gray branch.
It had grown much larger than before, but what caught my eye was the shape, which had become far more distinct.
'A lizard?'
It was coiled up,
but its overall appearance was definitely close to a lizard.
A lizard parasitizing a tree?
I'd never heard of such a creature in my life, but it was clear that this thing held our lives in its hands.
Screeeech—!
The moment the shriek snapped me back to my senses, I thrust my shield forward.
My jaw clenched on its own.
Every time they hammered the shield, my knees creaked as if they were about to shatter.
'Shit.......'
These bastards. Their strength had increased significantly compared to before.
Did they get some kind of buff when they went berserk?
Fortunately, even in this situation, the shield Kazen had made held up well.
Crunch!
[<Tattered Shield> has been destroyed.]
Fuck.
I tossed aside the completely shattered shield and immediately drew the scythe from my back, swinging it.
Slice!
The Woodmen were easier to cut than I'd expected.
Of course, there was a trick to it: instead of thick areas like the waist or neck, I aimed for legs and arms to strip away their combat ability immediately.
The weasel finished off the Woodmen that fell that way.
It was certainly going smoothly, but.......
"Huff, huff......."
My body was heavy.
Health, mental strength, even stamina. Everything was running on empty. The same went for the weasel.
Even so, the number of Woodmen showed no sign of decreasing.
I realized the reason in the middle of fighting.
Bulge.
Woodmen were continuously surging up from beneath the ground.
Fuck. Don't these bastards have a population cap? No, there should be one.
"Ah! Sir Laurent!"
It was Seigrena's voice.
'Laurent?'
I couldn't see him from my position.
I quickly asked Seigrena.
"What's the situation over there?"
"Sir Laurent defeated all the red Woodmen! As expected of Sir Laurent! Amazing!"
Defeated all of them?
Hard to believe. Not that I underestimated the White Knight, but Woodman Avengers weren't easy opponents.
'Did the Black Tree directly cancel the summoning?'
That was the first possibility that came to mind. There had to be a limit to the number of Woodmen it could summon.
That's how this game's system works.
Classes that can command armies—Spiritists, Conjurers, Necromancers, and the like—have limits on the minions they can control.
'The same applies to mobs.'
And the number of slots each individual occupied would vary depending on its combat power.
To use a famous RTS game as an example.......
Some units only take up 1 population even if you combine two of them, while higher-tier units fill 6 or more population with just one.
'Obviously an Avenger would be much higher than a level 30 Guardian.'
And now the Black Tree, sensing danger, had canceled the summoning of the Avenger pack and brought out Guardians instead.
'Not bad.'
Now the cause and effect were becoming clearer, and to state the conclusion, this was a misjudgment on the tree's part.
Because this development actually gave the White Knight wings.
Slice!
Just as I cut the leg of a Woodman standing in front of me, I spotted Laurent's group in the distance.
As Seigrena had said, there wasn't a single Woodman around them.
I didn't have the leisure to relay our situation, but the circumstances were clear at a glance.
"Sir Laurent! Over here!"
Seigrena was helpful for the first time. She shouted loudly and even waved her hand.
But.
'What's he doing?'
Why wasn't he moving?
Unlike us, who were in a desperate rush, there was an unsettling calm to the way he stood motionless.
Only one person, Kazen, was shouting violently, his whole body shaking.
But then—
"......!"
Laurent's fist drove into Kazen's abdomen.
Then Kazen's body went limp, and I saw the others catch him.
"......."
Laurent looked at me.
His emotionless eyes had taken on a look I'd seen several times before.
A chill ran down my spine.
I knew that was the look he got whenever he was weighing someone's value.
'No way?'
The moment a strange, hollow laugh escaped me, Laurent turned away with his companions.
I clenched my teeth and shouted.
"Laurent Lefebvre!"
I'd forced the shout out despite having no breath to spare, but the bastard didn't even pretend to hear.
It took less than ten seconds for those turned backs to vanish completely from sight.
"Si, Sir Laurent......? Where are you going? If, if you leave me behind, my father will......."
Did this guy still not grasp the situation?
Still, they'd been companions, so I'd thought she'd at least have some idea of the White Knight Laurent's personality.
That's right. That bastard had had that <Trait> from the very beginning.
'......The Trait, <Utilitarian>.'
The White Knight is a man who would willingly discard one life to save ten.
Even so, his identity was that of a knight. I'd thought he wouldn't abandon even his escort target.
'There must be another reason.'
I barely escaped the grasp of the persistently clinging Woodmen, then climbed up the Black Tree.
"......Th, this is a dream....... A terrible nightmare. It was strange for me to come to the forest in the first place......? Right. I, I am of House Montrier......."
I examined Seigrena's overall appearance as she sat there, out of her mind.
Her outfit was awkward and ill-fitting, like a child wearing an adult's clothes, but the strangest part was the glove on only one hand.
......No way.
"Wh, what are you doing!"
Just in case, I snatched off the glove, revealing the pale back of her hand.
Along with the ominous mark stamped there.
'The Brand of Sacrifice.'
I looked at Seigrena and spoke.
"Did Laurent tell you to hide that?"
"Wh, what?"
"Answer me."
Seigrena flinched, watching my expression as she gave a weak nod.
"Ha......."
A hollow laugh came out on its own.
'Laurent, you son of a bitch.......'
So you knew about Wood Revenge.
* * *
Seigrena asked, watching my expression.
"Th, this thing, you called it a brand just now, right? What kind of brand is it, exactly......?"
"Didn't Laurent explain it to you?"
"He just told me to hide it no matter what......."
Seigrena, who had been mumbling, hung her head deeply.
Seeing that, I calmed down.
"A brand marking you as the sacrifice."
"A sacrifice......?"
"Simply put, if your life is offered as a sacrifice, the rest of us can survive."
"Th, that can't be."
I looked down for a moment.
The Woodman Guardians were gathering at the base of the tree, trying to crawl up.
For now, they kept getting tangled with each other, colliding and falling, but they wouldn't keep doing that forever.
"A, are you going to throw me? Down there?"
What was she talking about?
Ignoring Seigrena, who looked as if her world had collapsed, I shouted.
"Weasel! Come back!"
The Blade Weasel leaped and returned to me. It was covered in blood, and its health bar was barely hanging on.
If it had been any later, it might have been incapacitated again.
"......Good work."
As if it didn't even have the strength to respond, the weasel collapsed limply.
I draped the weasel over my shoulder and looked down.
It was a desperate situation, but I couldn't give up on survival.
So think. What to do from here on.
"......How can you be so calm?"
Seigrena's words drew a sneer from me.
Calm, my ass.
Of course, my mind was unexpectedly cool, and emotionally I was accepting the current situation with composure.
If you asked why, well.
"Because I considered the possibility that this would happen."
"What......?"
Seigrena, realizing the meaning of my words, asked with a startled expression.
"So, you mean you knew Sir Laurent would abandon me?"
"To be precise, he didn't abandon you. He abandoned us."
"That's the same thing......."
It was completely different.
Anyway, with the cause and effect now clear, several of the White Knight's puzzling actions made sense.
'So he'd noticed that Kria was the sacrifice too.'
After all, she'd been openly hiding the nape of her neck from the start.
And in the middle of that, Kazen had volunteered to join, which must have made things easier.
From Kazen's perspective, it was a decision made to send his younger sister somewhere safe...... but in the end, he'd helped Laurent.
"What are you going to do now?"
"Huh......?"
"Do you want to live? Or will you obediently become the sacrifice and die as a noble sacrifice? Well, if you do, the White Knight you so revere might just survive."
"......."
Seigrena gritted her teeth.
"...D, don't make me laugh. I, I can't die here."
Good. That was the answer I wanted.
The current situation seemed hopeless at first glance, but it actually wasn't.
In a sense, I even felt more at ease.
The situation had worsened, but with the variable called Laurent gone, the circumstances themselves had become much clearer.
'This is better, honestly.'
If the only problem was that the difficulty was absolute bullshit, I was confident I could fight through it.
"Then from now on, follow my orders."
"If I follow your orders? Then I can survive?"
"Yes. I promise."
Seigrena hesitated, then nodded.
"Good. Then, first order."
I took out the item I'd purchased from the <Achievement Shop> and spoke.
"Give me your hair."