The Sanctuary of Lizard Den (2)
Questions filled Kayak's mind.
Why was Yona here?
That thought came to him before anything else. He was glad to see her, of course — but surely Yona was the one person who couldn't be here.
And yet there she was in the flesh, and thanks to her support, Kayak felt far lighter on his feet.
"Here it comes, left! Get down!"
At Yona's shout, Kayak flattened himself against the ground without hesitation. The moment his body hit the dirt, the Mermaidon's tail came whistling through the empty air where he'd been standing.
Once he confirmed that Yona, retreating several steps back, wasn't calling out another warning, Kayak angled his spear and launched himself off the ground.
The Mermaidon shrieked, slamming its fists down at random and lashing its tail about.
Most monsters were like this — creatures with little in the way of actual intelligence. Kayak and the other lizardmen facing it, however, were thinking beings, and so long as they could overcome the Mermaidon's overwhelming physical strength, this was a fight they could win.
Best of all, they had a healer on their side now.
A healer whose skill was beyond any question or doubt.
When Kayak stole a glance over his shoulder, he saw Yona already weaving between the other lizardmen, scattering healing in her wake. He could see it all too clearly — his exhausted, wounded kin drawing fresh strength from the sight, each of them raising their weapons anew.
The Mermaidon rolled its sickly yellow eyes as it surveyed its surroundings.
This battle had already dragged on for hours, and it had been certain that a little more pressure would be enough to wipe out these wretched lizards entirely.
After all, this was deep water, and the Mermaidon hadn't even needed to crawl ashore.
Besides, the black mucus coating its body kept pouring vitality into it without end — dealing with these pests was tiresome and annoying, yes, but there was no way it could lose.
Then the Mermaidon's gaze fell upon the white-haired human weaving among the lizardmen.
That one. Ever since that creature had appeared, the lizards had found their vigor again.
Which meant the source of the problem was that human.
The Mermaidon raised its fists high.
Of its six arms, it lifted four fists skyward, aiming at every direction the human might flee — then brought them crashing down with tremendous force.
Yona's body froze on the spot.
Was it because she'd briefly forgotten that Alec, who was always at her side, wasn't here? Or was there some other reason?
She couldn't tell. All she knew was that she stood rooted, staring up at the massive, pitch-black fist plunging down toward her — and the splayed palm flying in alongside it.
She thought she heard a voice she couldn't possibly have heard.
— Yona!
And the instant she realized it was only an illusion, Yona was already wrapped in someone's arms, tumbling head over heels across the gravel.
"Yona, are you alright?"
It was Kayak.
Carrying the full momentum of his sprint, Kayak had clutched her to his chest and rolled across the stony ground several times over — and in the process, fresh wounds opened up all over his own body.
"Ah — yeah. I'm, I'm fine."
Yona rose slowly, scanning the area.
She could have sworn she'd heard Alec's voice. Alec's voice, from someone who wasn't even here.
- KRuuuuaaaaAAA——!!!
With a maddened roar, the Mermaidon vomited out its fury, hammering the sanctuary's current again and again with its tail. But layered into that rage was pain as well — for in the moments it had spared to fixate on Yona, the lizardmen had swarmed in from all sides, landing blow after concentrated blow.
The lizardmen no longer retreated.
Their kind had never known much fear of death to begin with; they had only grown passive from their wounds. Now that Yona moved among them scattering healing, their fighting spirit blazed anew, all of it directed at the intruders of the sanctuary.
Kayak charged.
His spear gleamed sharp, and where he ran, a kinsman was in the middle of wrenching free a spear the Mermaidon had left embedded in another warrior's body.
"I'm jumping!"
The instant Kayak's shout rang out, the lizardman dropped flat without so much as a backward glance. Kayak planted his foot on the warrior's back and leapt.
His launching foot found its next stepping stone in the very palm that came swinging down at him. Up into the air once more, he drove the shaft of his spear against the Mermaidon's tail and used the rebound to soar higher.
With a resonant twang of straining wood, Kayak shot skyward.
He unfurled his coiled body, winding the spear back with every ounce of strength he had—
And thrust.
The spearhead hissed through the air and closed the distance in an instant, bursting one of the Mermaidon's eyeballs before punching deep with a wet crunch.
- ………!!!
With an indescribable shriek, the Mermaidon thrashed in agony — and Kayak flung himself backward off one of its wildly swinging fists, riding the motion into the air.
An elegant curve.
Tracing a gentle arc like a perfect parabola, Kayak sailed back down to the gravel and landed lightly on his feet.
"Kayak!"
One of his kinsmen ran over with a spare spear, and Kayak took it at once.
"I'd like to finish this, but… hm."
Kayak glared at the Mermaidon with a dissatisfied eye. If an opening presented itself, he would dive straight in and strangle the life out of it.
But the Mermaidon simply had too many arms and that tail, and with the thing flailing in its frenzy the way it was now, even that would be no easy task.
Two choices remained for the Mermaidon now: plunge back into battle in a rage, or retreat.
Furious, the Mermaidon began pounding the surface of the sanctuary with its fists. Black water splashed violently in every direction, and the lizardmen hurriedly fell back to keep it from touching them.
- Kruuua, kuuaaa, kruaaaaAAA——!!!!
With one last ghastly shriek, the Mermaidon melted smoothly into the depths of the sanctuary.
The lizardmen scrambled to give chase, but Kayak held them back with a shake of his head. The sanctuary's water was clearly abnormal, as its color showed — the same waters that had granted the lizardmen endless vigor and life might well prove poison to whatever entered it now.
Moreover, they had wounded the creature badly; its retaliation would be savage. A reckless pursuit could easily cost them more than it gained.
Having settled his thoughts, Kayak at last turned to look at Yona.
"…Ah. My apologies."
"No… well, I'm fine, but…"
The wave of black water had been simple enough for the lizardmen to dodge — but Yona, not being a lizardman, had caught the full brunt of it and stood there drenched and utterly bedraggled.
"So why did you come alone? Is Alec dead?"
Yona's footsteps through the underbrush faltered for just a moment.
Alec. And death.
With those two words laid side by side, a distinctly unpleasant feeling settled over her. But she carried on as if nothing had happened, shaking her head.
"They said I — they said humans can't get in. It sounded like a place humans aren't allowed to enter."
"That is true enough. Though then again, you're no longer an ordinary human, Yona — which is presumably how you got in."
It was said in a calm, offhand voice, tossed out without a second thought — but Yona didn't snap at him. Kayak had only stated a fact, and there was nothing worth flaring up over.
"Come to think of it, why are you still a female? Did the procedure fail or something?"
"Huh?"
Truthfully, it was a fair question from Kayak's standpoint. They'd parted ways at the entrance to the Wizard Community, and he knew perfectly well why Yona and Alec had gone there.
Had she told him she was going in as a man? Or hadn't she?
She couldn't remember that far back — but either way, she'd shown up exactly as she was, still a woman, so it was only natural for Kayak to ask.
"Uh… yeah. It… failed."
Failed was the right word for it, wasn't it?
Yona nodded to herself as she thought it. It had failed — it really had failed, and yet…
"Yona."
Kayak's footsteps stopped short.
And with them, Yona's steps stopped too — the steps that had been carrying her forward, toward where Alec was waiting.
"Is something wrong? Why are you so drained?"
The Yona Kayak remembered had been full of vinegar right up to the moment they'd parted. A female who insisted she was male at heart, who swore she'd return to being a man someday and flew into a rage whenever anyone treated her like a woman — that insane healer. And now she seemed to have no energy at all. It didn't look right.
"…Nothing's wrong. Alec's waiting. Let's hurry."
Yona shook her head and resumed walking in silence, and Kayak, watching her retreating figure, closed his mouth and fell in behind her.
"What took you so long? Did something happ… huh? Kayak?"
"Well, if it isn't the baldy. It's been a while. Keeping well?"
Alec's face lit up at the sight of Kayak. He was a comrade he hadn't seen in far too long — and beyond that, there was the relief of knowing he'd come through unharmed.
Kayak felt much the same. He waved a hand at Alec and tipped his chin toward the direction of Lizard Den.
"Let's head to our village first. The greetings can wait until after — I imagine we all have a great deal to say to one another."
With that, Kayak turned and started walking.
Cutting straight across the sanctuary would have been the fastest route, but a barrier kept humans from entering — and only days ago, a single human adventurer had wriggled in through a hairline crack in that barrier, only to be knocked unconscious and thrown out. That option was off the table. They would have to go around, and with the sun not far from setting, they needed to move quickly.
"What happened?"
"A monster showed up in the sanctuary. Your lizardmen were fighting it, so I was helping."
At Yona's answer, Alec nodded. It was an absurdly clipped summary with every bit of context sanded off — but Alec had no trouble understanding. So that was why she'd taken so long.
Still, she'd come back in one piece, and that was what counted.
"You're not hurt anywhere?"
Alec's hand came to rest on Yona's shoulder, stroking it gently.
For no particular reason, with no particular meaning behind it. Just worry, plain and simple — that was all.
"Hk—!"
Yona flinched and jerked away from his touch.
When Alec's hand found itself stroking empty air, he looked at her in bewilderment — and Yona wore an equally baffled expression, as if she couldn't explain her own reaction either.
"I — I'm not hurt. Let's get going. We'll lose Kayak."
Kayak's broad figure was already striding away into the distance. Yona, hiding her fluster not even a little, hurried after him.
Alec glanced down at his own palm — inexplicably awkward now — and started walking after her too.