Chapter 11 - Another World (1)
Now familiar battles with the monstrous ants. After sending the young elves back to safety in their home, she prepared to fight alone once more. She surely knew she was in danger and lacking on her own, so as an exile, she must have returned to her homeland to ask for help. But in the end, she was alone again. The young elves who had come with her still couldn't assist her.
Watching her, I felt glad I'd bought Battle Bot 001. I didn't want to just stand by and watch—I wanted to help her in the moment of crisis, to show her she wasn't fighting alone.
'Missed.'
She drew her compound bow to the limit and loosed shot after shot of strikes so powerful they could hardly be called arrows anymore, sniping the approaching mana beast ants one by one. But taking down all three was impossible. As she leaped aside to dodge a bite from an injured ant, one broke through and charged straight for the World Tree.
She barely finished off the other two and hurriedly raised her bow again, but at this rate, the World Tree would be wounded and tainted once more.
"---!"
Just when I thought she'd have to purify mana again this time—
A boy burst out of the miniature house, firing his bow at the mana beast ant and drawing its attention to himself. Her face went pale in an instant. In that split-second hesitation, the ant shifted its target from the World Tree to the much frailer young elf.
"Oh."
In the tense scene that had me gripping my hands in suspense, the elf boy—who now faced a mana beast ant far larger than himself—gnashed his teeth and charged. He scrambled up the outer wall of the miniature house. The ant's jaws grazed his body by a hair's breadth, and he barely reached the second-floor balcony, panting for breath.
Right then, a blue flash streaked in and slammed into the ant's torso, toppling the beast as it tried to climb to the second floor. She had rushed in to finish it off.
Wave 2 Ended
'It's over. For now.'
With the announcement that Wave 2 had ended, the ant's breathing finally stopped. But the waves wouldn't cease. If that ant den was truly a dungeon like the ones I knew, it would keep spawning monsters until the core inside was destroyed.
Letting a dungeon go until waves—a kind of shock event—started was taboo among taboos in this era.
"She's scolding him, as expected."
After the battle with the mana beast ants, I slurped down some cup ramen while watching her kneel the boy and vent her fury. I didn't know their exact relationship, but I could roughly understand their feelings. She must have been worried he'd get hurt, being so young still, and he probably just wanted to help.
It was the inevitable clash between veteran and rookie—a scene all too familiar to me.
'What will she do next?'
As the scolding ended and an awkward silence settled in, she climbed up onto the World Tree alone. Reaching the highest branches, she came up to about eye level with me, who was sitting on the floor. Of course, I could admire her beautiful figure with her hair fluttering in the wind, but she couldn't see me.
Her face was filled with worry and concern. Not a pleasant expression.
But she'd already done everything she could, so I wondered how she'd tackle the problems still to come. She was the kind of being who'd overcome every crisis so far, somehow.
'Gotta lighten the mood.'
I couldn't bear seeing the elf boy sulking in the corner or her with that frustrated, heavy-hearted look frozen on her face. I picked up my empty cup ramen container and stood, grabbing the sandals I'd gotten via delivery as gifts for the new arrivals.
If these could ease the tension and brighten their moods even a little, they'd be worth every penny.
Object Sent
I sent the new shoes from the box into the pot. At the same moment, she—who was still atop the World Tree, watching the ant den—turned toward us with a startled face at something falling from the sky.
Our eyes met for an instant, but hers quickly dropped downward. The shoes thudded onto the ground, and the elf girl nearby crept closer out of curiosity.
"--!"
She leaped straight down to the ground, picked up the fallen shoes, and gathered the young elves. The girl's eyes sparkled with curiosity, and even the boy, who still looked down in the dumps, widened his eyes at the shoes in her hands.
"-- ---."
Pointing at the shoes on her own feet, she smiled once more and looked up at the sky. Soon, they all tilted their heads back, and their gazes met mine exactly as I looked down.
They all greeted me at once. Looked like my mood-lightening plan had worked perfectly.
The young elves hurriedly kicked off their old shoes and tried on the new ones, marveling at them. The girl especially chattered nonstop and bounced around excitedly.
'If I can protect them.'
I knew how hard it was to protect something. But even if it seemed impossible, some things had to be done. She seemed to know that too.
That evening, she stepped out alone into the night beyond the darkened house and began preparations. She firmly bound a hand axe to the iron pipe she used as a melee weapon to make something stronger, restocked her arrows in the quiver she'd made herself, and packed what looked like torches into her gear.
It was as if she were setting off somewhere.
'She's going to raid the dungeon.'
I realized her intent. Staying put like this meant they'd just keep getting attacked. She knew she had to strike first, smash the dungeon core, and stop the endless invasions.
"...--."
But soon, her hands trembled and stopped as she crafted wooden arrows the same size as the steel ones for her compound bow. Fear. Terror. Unless you were some psycho, it was unavoidable.
Heading into an endless tunnel alone, to fight who-knew-how-many enemies. A proper dungeon raid needed at least six people. Going solo without backup was suicidal stupidity—you'd get ripped apart horribly, and no one would praise you for it.
Of course, there was no guarantee that ant den was a real dungeon, but by my common sense, she was basically walking to her death.
'Even knowing that.'
Yet she moved her hands again. Sometimes, in the most extreme situations, you had to fight even knowing you'd die. She knew that, and she had no choices left. With so much she wanted to protect on those small, narrow shoulders, she had to fight even the impossible.
If she only got hurt, that'd be lucky. High chance she'd die, and her end could be even more gruesome.
The Ant Den is Vibrating
Object Sent
That went for me too—things I wanted to protect. This time, without fail.
The next day, late Sunday afternoon, after she'd finished preparing for the dungeon raid. Her determined eyes fixed on the four incoming mana beast ants—ones she'd have to fell quickly before charging the den—widened in shock at the massive something plummeting from the void.
"---!!!"
"--!"
The young elves waiting tensely on the miniature house roof reacted the same way. To my eyes, it was just a drop, but to them, it must have shaken the whole area.
"Will this really work? Ha."
Grinning, I grabbed the controller before they could panic more and activated Battle Bot 001, fresh from its packaging. I sent its massive body charging toward the mana beast ants.
Honestly, it could only be called a disaster. Compared to the things that had fallen from the sky before, this unknown thing was enormous—big enough to blot out the miniature house—pitch black, and moving on its own. Its hard, black body even resembled the mana beast insects' carapaces, so at first she thought it was an enemy and nocked an arrow.
She didn't fire right away only because it had come from the sky, like all the other gifts and aids she'd received.
"..."
But she soon dispelled her hostility toward the thing rumbling forward, crushing the earth with its massive wheels. A bright yellow scrap of paper was stuck crookedly to its hideous face.
The huge letters on that paper matched exactly the writing on the note she treasured.
'I'll help you.'
She couldn't read those angular, alien characters. But she understood the meaning. In fact, the black monster emitting thunderous roars rolled its wheels not toward her, but toward the mana beast ants approaching the area. Dazed, she stared at its back as it charged.