The Trap of the Dungeon
The moment they encountered the elf, the rescue party led by the village chief instinctively felt that something was terribly wrong. Why was an elf here? Wasn't this a dungeon? And looking at her ears, she was a High Elf. Was this the territory of the elves? Everyone was plunged into confusion, and the High Elf lowered her bow, her expression indifferent. "I am Ryun. What is your intention in coming here?"
"......We came to save people!" The village chief stepped forward first. He was the strongest among them, and the only one with experience facing an elf. 'Damn it, why are those bastards who should be in the forest here!' The village chief felt dizzy, realizing that things had gone completely sideways. If this cave were indeed the territory of the elves, it stood to reason that Richard’s little play-knight order and the mage, Mei, had gone missing.
'There are few things as obsessed with their territory as elves.' Still, they were known to have a shred of humanity and an attachment to their own kind. The village chief quickly racked his brain and waved his hands. "Have you perhaps seen the children?! We came to rescue young children!"
"Children?" Ryun frowned and shook her head. Then, lowering her bow, she pointed her thumb toward a wooden cage. "There were no children. The only humans here were these two." Ryun stepped aside, gesturing to the women lying on the floor. One of the two women, bound tightly with tree vines, was someone the village chief and the rescue party knew well.
"Mei!!" The mage Mei was stripped naked and tied up securely. The village chief was the first to rush forward to check on her condition.
"......." Mei opened her eyes with a dazed expression. A gag made of tree vines was stuffed into her mouth, and her eyes widened when she saw the village chief's face. "......Ugh?"
"Yes, it's me! Damn it!" The village chief tried to rip the vines binding Mei's mouth. However, the vines were incredibly tough and didn't tear easily by hand. "Ugh, ugh-ugh?" Her mouth was sealed, so she couldn't speak, but she could move her head. While the rescue party asked Mei various questions, trying to find the whereabouts of the children, Ryun slung the blonde woman over her shoulder.
"Ugh.... She's heavy."
"Who is that?"
"...That is none of your concern." Ryun glared at the village chief with cold eyes. The village chief raised both hands, fearing the elf might attack him. "I apologize."
"Hmph, whatever." Ryun scanned the cavern, then turned and walked toward the opposite side from where the rescue party had entered.
"...But, if I may," the village chief said, feeling a sense of déjà vu, and called out to stop Ryun. "By any chance, have you seen any strange monsters coming this way?"
"Monsters?"
"Yes, you know, the ones with incredibly long arms that move like this." The village chief mimicked the movements of the monster he didn't even know the name of—a ghoul. Ryun just frowned and shook her head.
"I don't know. I haven't seen any. I just came in from that side. I didn't see any monsters on the way here?" Ryun pointed to the opposite passage she had turned her back on. "Anyway, humans, don't even think about coming to the forest. I almost shot you just for what you saw here, but I held back."
"...I am truly grateful for your leniency."
Ryun turned around, taking the blonde woman with her. The village chief swallowed hard, looking at the elf's clothes, which were melted in places, and let out a sigh of relief. 'Even that elf had a rough time getting in here.' A dungeon so dangerous that even an elf's clothes were reduced to rags. The village chief gulped. 'We have to run away quickly.' It was fortunate that at least Mei was alive. The village chief woke Mei up, and she soon regained her senses.
"...?"
"Oh, yes. We were saved thanks to that elf." The village chief pointed to Ryun, who was disappearing into the opposite passage. Mei, who had been struggling under the rescue party's care, stared at Ryun's retreating back for a long time before she suddenly screamed in terror.
"Ugh! Ugh-ugh-ugh!" Mei was flailing her legs, trying to say something with her whole body. But because of that, her completely naked lower half was fully exposed, and several men couldn't hide their discomfort. "...Let's just go back to the village for now."
"Does anyone have a dagger? I think we can cut these off."
Snip, snip. The village chief immediately pulled out a small dagger and cut the vines that were tied like a gag. Having regained the freedom of her mouth, Mei screamed, pointing her chin at the disappearing elf. "That bitch is a monster too! She's a monster!!" A cry of rage filled the cavern.
Ryun, who had carried the blonde woman—Eila—to the opposite passage, handed Eila into the darkness. Grrr. A red ghoul took Eila and disappeared back into the shadows.
"This is insane...!" An elf working hand-in-hand with monsters? This wasn't just a problem for the slash-and-burn village. It was a problem that needed to be reported to the entire Human Alliance, and the hunters drew their weapons one by one.
"It's a trap...!"
"You, who the hell are you!!" The village chief shouted, trying to shake off his own paralyzing fear. Ryun shrugged once, then lifted her black bow and drew the string.
"Ryun. Master's property."
Twang!! Ryun released the string, which she had drawn without an arrow. At the same time, a sharp whistling sound rang out, and something grazed the village chief's cheek.
"Wind Arrow...?" The power unique to High Elves. The technique of borrowing the power of wind spirits to create and fire arrows made of wind was clearly imbued with the intent to kill humans. "Tsk, I thought I'd hit you." Ryun twisted the corners of her mouth and lifted her bow again, drawing the string.
"Damn it! The elf has gone mad! Everyone run-"
"That bitch is just a subordinate! A lackey! The real one is-"
*Sniff.* A rough, heavy breathing sound echoed from somewhere. They looked up toward the source of the sound—the ceiling, several meters high. There—
"Gyaaaaaa!!" A green pig-monster was letting out a screech, and the monster let go of the ceiling it had been clinging to and fell to the floor. Thud! An orc fell from the sky.
"Uh...." The spot where the orc landed was right in front of the village chief. Mei screamed and tried to lift her legs, but because her upper body was tied up tightly, she quickly fell flat on the floor. "What is this...."
"Ah. This, you see." *Sniff.* With a sound of sniffling, the orc grabbed the village chief by the collar. "It is called an airstrike."
Kkeureureuk! A rain of slimes poured down from the sky.
Squish, squish! The slimes pressed down on the hunters' bodies. They spread their bodies as wide as possible to pin them down, and the ambushed hunters struggled, trying to escape the slimes' restraint.
"Ugh, it's too big!" One male hunter, pinned under a Big Slime, struggled with his lower half completely consumed. In his hand was a sharply honed dagger. "Die, just die!" Stab, stab-stab. But even as it was struck by the dagger, the Big Slime stubbornly devoured the hunter's body up to his neck.
"Kyaaaak!! Crazy, what are these things!!" A female hunter, covered by a regular slime, tried her best to claw at the slime's skin with her hands. The slime, relatively weaker than the Big Slime, was pushed back in the struggle with the hunters.
Kkeureuk! At that moment, the ghouls moved. The five ghouls that had rushed from behind Ryun joined the slimes that were being pushed back, attacking in pairs. Kyaaaak!! The ghouls pressed down hard on the hunters' hands, preventing them from moving. The hunters, with their lower bodies held by slimes and their upper bodies held by ghouls, were unable to budge an inch.
"Th-these bastards are trying to suppress us!!"
"Ugh-aaaak!!" Several hunters turned their bodies in terror. A total of 10 hunters had been suppressed by the raid of slimes, ghouls, and Big Slimes. Half of their combat power was already neutralized, and the village chief, the leader of the rescue party, was on the verge of being murdered by a large, hulking monster.
"Ugh, ugh-ugh!"
"......"
The monster was holding the village chief by the collar without a word. The village chief felt as if the monster was contemplating how to eat him, and to survive, he pulled something small from his pocket. "Ugh, ugh-ugh...!"
"......!!"
The village chief closed his eyes. And he pressed the button on the magical tool he cherished like his own life. Fwoosh! As a white light burst forth, the monster let go of the hand that had been gripping the village chief's collar. Thanks to the magical flashbang detonated right in front of the monster, the village chief was able to escape its grasp.
"Ugh-aaaak!!" Even though his vision hadn't recovered, the village chief ran in the opposite direction of the monster. The hunters, who had been drawing a circle from a distance and trying to escape, shouted, guiding the village chief. "Here!" One hunter grabbed the village chief's wrist and pulled him along. The monsters' pursuit of the fleeing hunters was sluggish, and the hunters escaped in a hurry.
"Ugh!"
"Save me!"
"Don't run away amongst yourselves—-!!" Those caught by the monsters screamed in betrayal, but the hunters turned their bodies with tears in their eyes. "Just run! Let's think after we survive!"
"...I'll definitely come back to save you! Wait!"
The hunters fled. The dungeon passage was a straight line, making it too easy to escape, and the monsters no longer pursued them. "Ugh, ugh-ugh...." Mei, carried on the back of one of the hunters, shed tears at the fact that she could escape this monster-like dungeon. The events that had occurred inside the dungeon were simply too shocking to ever tell anyone else.
"Now, if we just run-" Boom. Suddenly, the passage collapsed. The entrance they had entered through crumbled from the ceiling, and they were suddenly cornered in a dead end.
".....We're trapped?"
Despair settled into the hunters' eyes.