Chapter 107
Chapter 107
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 107
Chapter Title: The Giant Leewish
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The long stalactites vibrated irregularly.
And the ominous thudding sounds grew steadily closer: thump, thump, thump.
"Be careful."
With Florian's low warning, something enormous revealed itself from the darkness.
It stretched out long antennae, waving them as if gauging our position. Its massive bulk nearly filled the entire stalactite cavern.
Even in the dim light, its exoskeleton gleamed vividly, a mix of green and red.
Screeeeech!
The Giant Leewish roared as it gazed at its tiny kin trapped inside the glass jars.
'Why the hell is that here?!'
Leewish were famous as ultra-tiny magical beasts.
There were tales of rare giant mutants born occasionally.
But who would've thought one of those rare variants would be in a place like this—right near a human city, in a cave people constantly came and went from...!
'Just why did the Morten Trading Company set up shop in a dump like this?'
Ssssk, screeeeech!
Every time the Giant Leewish shuddered, its wings vibrated, sending sharp noises piercing into our ears.
"Leewish live in darkness, so their eyesight is weak. We need to move as quietly as possible."
Florian whispered lowly, positioning me behind his back.
Right now, the Giant Leewish's full attention was fixed on its kin inside the glass jars, trembling desperately.
Moonlight poured in through a small hole in the stalactite cavern's ceiling above the struggling Leewish.
Watching them dance like that under the moonlight, Lavinia's tale of the Leewish beauties suddenly came to mind.
Even though this wasn't the time for idle thoughts.
'First things first, we need to escape.'
There was no need for us to fight the Giant Leewish here.
We just had to grab the evidence and get out.
Florian and I began moving cautiously, muffling our footsteps as much as possible.
Just as hope flickered that we'd soon slip out of the Giant Leewish's line of sight...
Screeeeech!
While the moonlight spilling from deeper in the cave was briefly blocked by clouds, the Giant Leewish slammed its body full-force against the glass jars.
With a deafening crash, the glass shattered, and thousands of tiny Leewish swarmed upward viciously.
We exchanged glances simultaneously.
"Run!"
We bolted, our feet pounding the damp, dark cave floor.
Divine Grace was lethal to magical beasts, and they hated humans who wielded it with extreme prejudice.
So we ran barehanded, without using even a speck of it.
Even so, moments later, the Leewish caught our human scent and pursued us with a sound like rattling blades.
"Baby!"
The instant the Leewish closed right in behind us, Florian shoved me aside.
I hit the hard ground butt-first, and before I could even register the pain, I looked up.
Florian, who'd pushed me, was now swarmed by the Leewish instead.
"Florian!"
Flames of Divine Grace erupted with a deafening boom.
The Leewish clinging to his body turned to ash and scattered.
Yet the survivors ignored it, screeching threateningly as they endlessly piled onto him.
I tried to help him somehow, but the moment I reached out, Leewish latched onto me too.
I'd brought a dagger just in case, but against bugs this small, a blade was utterly useless.
A stinging sensation crept up my arm around then.
Then my neck, the back of my hand, my shoulder...
'Bitten?'
The question resolved itself quickly.
Dizziness hit before I could even process it.
I shook my head desperately to stay conscious, but my knees were already buckling to the ground.
The Leewish venom had already spread through my veins.
If I was like this with just a few clinging to me, then Florian...
I gritted my teeth and barely lifted my head. Around his body swirled a pitch-black, ominous energy.
It was a color utterly unlike his usual refined flames.
'Argh, Teacher. I can walk now. Thought I was a goner at first.'
'Teacher, wanna see my shoulder? It's all better. Thinking of restarting training next week. Won't overdo it.'
Staring at those flames, voices I'd long forgotten rang sharply in my ears.
The Leewish venom's hallmark effect—hyper-awakening—had begun.
The moment my senses sharpened all over, the voices swirling in my head slowly morphed into Mark's.
'How dare a branch family bitch throw fruit at me?'
I saw a wooden sword falling toward my head.
I knew it was a hallucination from the excessive awakening, yet my body instinctively shrank back.
I rolled across the ground to dodge, my knee slamming into something, but I felt no pain.
Just a horrifying rage surging up.
'Kill them.'
A voice like mine whispered that in my head.
The hallucination before my eyes shifted repeatedly—from Mark to my uncle, to my aunt...
Then Knight Stipe from my childhood, then Giantea...
"You go first."
The one grabbing my arm as I slumped on the ground was Florian.
Even wrapped in flames teetering on the edge of rampage, he clenched his teeth and held on somehow.
His gaze on the Leewish—crackling as they burned and fell, yet charging endlessly—blurred and sharpened in turns.
"If I go alone, what about you?"
"I've got Divine Grace. I can handle it somehow."
"Don't bullshit me. Your condition's serious too. Better to target the Leewish weakness and..."
That was when it happened.
Seeing its kin engulfed in flames, the Giant Leewish thrashed wildly to avoid the fire.
The massive beast, slamming with cave-shaking force, stamped its steel-like legs on the ground and charged toward us.
"Get back!"
The dark crimson flames swirling around Florian as he stepped in front of me surged even fiercer.
Screeeeech!
Exposing its raw hatred for humans wielding Divine Grace, the Giant Leewish beat its wings.
The vibration from its enormous body sent stalactites raining down from the ceiling.
Divine Grace flames flared up, but the Giant Leewish's exoskeleton was far thicker than normal ones—attacks barely scratched it.
'And Florian's state...'
The pitch-black darkness began burning stronger than the reddish glow.
Like the black flames I'd seen around Dietrich during his rampage—looking just like a magical beast's toxic smoke—the Giant Leewish actually gained power from it, ramping up its momentum.
I felt intense helplessness.
'Why can't I use Divine Grace?'
Dietrich could. Lavinia could.
If either had been here instead of me, they could've helped Florian somehow.
My presence here was Florian's misfortune.
'What do I do? How do I...'
What were Leewish truly afraid of?
How could we effectively fight the Giant Leewish?
Amid the whirlwind of thoughts, what surfaced was—hilariously—Lavinia's Leewish beauty legend.
'The moment their eyes met her husband, the wife's body dissolved like a lie, and hundreds of Leewish fled from the moonlight.'
A legend passed down for ages in the Devier County.
Sometimes, secrets hid within such tales.
I looked up at the cave ceiling, where stalactites had fallen and punched small holes.
Thin beams of moonlight trickled down like raindrops, and the Giant Leewish seemed to subtly avoid those spots.
What if that story wasn't mere folklore, but rooted in actual Leewish biology?
Even the Morten people covering the glass jars with black cloth...
"Florian!"
Florian glanced back at me coolly, having finally snapped off one of the Giant Leewish's wings despite the dire odds.
I raised my voice to cut through the Giant Leewish's frantic screeches.
"Collapse the ceiling over there!"
Screeeeech!
Trembling its remaining wing, the Giant Leewish lunged at Florian.