Forest of the Mushroom Golems (3)
The subjugation force pressed forward toward the source of the malevolent energy that soared high into the sky.
What greeted them were countless Akusare Mushroom Golems.
And a massive, hideous monster.
The battle between the Akusare golems, the monster, and the subjugation force had long since settled into a brutal pattern—enemies trying to encircle them from every direction while the force fought to hold the line and strike back.
"Damn it! No wonder things had been so quiet lately!"
Aindelph, the dwarf warrior who had joined as part of the subjugation force, swung his axe and roared.
"A purge mission was never going to wrap up easy! But why the hell do these blasted golems smell so damn delicious?! I'm already starving to death over here!"
"Oh? Our little barbarian dwarf must be hungry. Planning to wash them down with cold beer and freshly grilled sausages, are we?"
Anyone listening would have recognized the pure sarcasm in the tone.
Aindelph bristled, but the situation left no room for bickering. Instead of answering his elven comrade Erika, he brought his axe down on the core of a mushroom golem that had just lumbered into view.
And he shouted,
"Somebody shut that sharp-tongued knife-eared woman up!"
"No time for that! Everyone, to me!"
Jurin, the party's leader and sole mage, barked the order.
Aindelph, Erika, and the rest of the party—who had been scattering and regrouping in a frantic cycle—half-rolled, half-stumbled their way to Jurin's side.
They weren't the only ones.
One warrior thrust forward a tower shield the size of a small fortress gate.
A mage finished a chant and stamped her foot; a massive wall of earth surged upward.
Jurin herself sheathed her longsword, raised her staff, and called forth a barrier of surging waves.
The moment those waves froze solid, the monster violently shook its body and wings—and hundreds, thousands of claws shot outward like a storm of shrapnel, blanketing the battlefield.
Aindelph grumbled from behind the frozen waves as they weathered yet another wide-area attack—he'd long since lost count of how many.
"Damn it, can't our great archmage senior throw up a proper defense spell like she did this morning?!"
"Hey, you greedy hairy-faced bastard! Look how hard she's working—have some conscience and shut up!"
Clink, the gnome thief, gave Aindelph a sharp kick in the shin while hastily wiping fragrant oil from her daggers.
Clink was right.
Catherine, the subjugation commander and archmage, was directing the adventurers, casting support magic wherever the front line faltered, and personally intercepting the giant Akusare Mushroom Golems the monster itself was hurling like living projectiles.
At her side, the necromancer Narke was hard at work as well.
Staff glowing with the same pale light as her eyes, Narke swept her hands through the air and began to chant.
It was nothing more than a simple motion of the fingers.
Yet at the tips of those fingers, fragments of Akusare Mushroom Golems the subjugation force had already slain rose up and turned on what had, moments earlier, been their own kin.
"Ah, damn."
"Wh-what is it, witch? You're making me nervous."
"The shield's durability is reaching its limit."
"What?"
Clink's dazed voice had barely finished when the ice-wave barrier, pushed past its breaking point, collapsed.
The good news: the monster's wide-area assault had ended.
The bad news: with no time to react, a massive Akusare Mushroom Golem was already swinging its fist.
In that dizzying instant, a woman in chainmail over priestly robes shot forward and smashed the fist with her mace.
Like ripples spreading across a pond, the fist shuddered violently—then shattered into fragments that scattered through the air.
The golem staggered backward from the impact. The moment it did, the party that had been sheltering behind Jurin's shield surged out and finished it off with ruthless speed.
"Anyone get hit by that monster's attack? Speak up if you did—I'll need to purify you."
"We're fine, thanks to our witch here."
"Hmph. Hmph. Is that so?"
Priestess Lumiere, who had silenced the approaching golem with a single mace strike, flicked her long ponytail and scanned the surroundings—then bristled the instant her eyes landed on Narke.
Or rather, she started to.
Then she flinched at the sight of Aindelph, who had somehow already pulled out a cooking pot.
The deep dent in that pot bore a striking resemblance to Lumiere's own face.
"Aindelph. Why do you have that?"
"Well, if you go charging at the corpse-fiddler again, I'll use this to—"
"It's not like I smash heretical heads every single day."
"So it's not just that the bigger, uglier monster over there ticks you off more?"
At Aindelph's jab, Lumiere clamped her mouth shut and turned her head away.
Silent agreement.
Monster or not, the heretic named Narke was still far more tolerable than the abomination before them—a creature covered in thousands of hands like scales.
"Hey! Chatterboxes! How long are you planning to stand around gossiping?!"
Clink, who had used Erika's knee as a springboard to leap clear of a golem's tentacles and latch onto an Akusare Mushroom Golem, shouted down at them.
"We've still got more of these things than we can count!"
"Well, there are fewer than at the start, so maybe it'll get a little easier."
Jurin finished off the golem thrashing about trying to shake Clink free with a clean thrust of her longsword, then flicked the oil from the blade.
At that same moment, Catherine intercepted a golem catapulted by the monster with a lance of ice. She gathered the shattering fragments midair and launched them back as a log-thick pillar of ice, firing it like a missile.
KUUUUGOOOONG—!!!
The soaring ice log slammed into the monster, shattering three of the forelegs that supported its nightmare-inducing body and embedding itself deep in the creature's undercarriage.
A giant monster that lost three legs in a single blow.
Naturally, it could no longer keep its balance.
The monster toppled forward.
HIIIIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—!!!
A bone-chilling scream that froze the heart.
From every hole in the humanoid silhouette dangling from the monster's head—swaying like reeds with every movement—pale light erupted.
The malevolent energy that had been rising into the sky began to settle over the ground instead.
It was a sight every member of the subjugation force could see at a glance.
The experienced ones, Catherine among them, immediately understood: the monster was finally about to get serious.
While the adventurers tensed, Jurin's party healer—Lumiere—did the opposite and shouted,
"That's it!"
"What? What are you suddenly—"
"Can't you tell just by looking?! That head is obviously the weak point!"
Lumiere yelled at the baffled Aindelph, then gripped her shield and mace and charged the monster alone.
"Hahaha, this is a complete mess. Everyone, follow Lumiere!"
"I'm going crazy. Dwarf! Keep up!"
"Damn it all!"
No one was truly surprised by the party's sudden charge.
With expressions that said of course she did, they each spat out a curse and sprinted after the path Lumiere was carving through the mushroom golems like a living grinder.
Of course, the Akusare Mushroom Golems didn't just stand there.
The scream that tore across the battlefield, and the malevolent energy that followed, sent the golems into a frenzy—faster, more violent than before.
Even fiercer attacks crashed down on Lumiere and the party racing after her.
But—
"What the hell are they doing?"
"Isn't it obvious? They must've found some kind of weak point!"
Herd mentality.
When not just one but a whole group suddenly broke ranks and charged, the veteran adventurers felt the shift in the battlefield through pure experience and began following the party's lead.
Soon that mood spread to the rest of the adventurers as well.
The battle naturally flipped from defense and holding ground into a full offensive.
"Good gods. It's even more grotesque up close."
"Looks like some twisted hybrid of maggots and slime."
Everyone in the party agreed with Erika and Aindelph's assessment—right before they scattered to avoid the oncoming wings made of countless hands.
They looked like a pack of rats fleeing a predator, or cockroaches scattering under a light, but Jurin and her party quickly recovered and began attacking in perfect coordination.
Lumiere braced with shield and raw strength to shove aside the massive bulk that tried to crush Jurin.
Erika used Lumiere as a springboard, launching herself upward; Clink, tossed up by Aindelph, joined her in carving a bloody path down the monster's torso.
From a blind spot, countless hands reached for Lumiere—only for Jurin to freeze them solid. Aindelph smashed the ice and continued the slaughter along the creature's body.
Then Lumiere used Aindelph and the descending Erika as stepping stones, vaulting higher still, and swung her mace at the monster's head.
"Ah, I can't hit it! You filthy thing! Stop resisting and just—"
"Hey, shield up front!"
Sensing the threat on pure instinct, the monster headbutted Lumiere away.
Golems surged toward the fallen priestess even faster.
But Jurin's party was not the only force on the field.
"I cannot stand idle while a sister of the Pantheon pours out her strength like that!"
"Even that necromancer is fighting for the people—move! Blades of Tyr who cry out for justice!"
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHH!!!"
Greater heretics than the heretics, and greater still than them.
Priests of different gods who had arrived ahead of the other adventurers—already willing to tolerate a necromancer in the ranks—were inspired by Lumiere's stand against the far more horrific monster. They charged in.
Pure hatred and fury toward the heresies and monsters that threatened civilization.
Under that pressure the monster launched the claws—no, the countless hands—on its body like a storm of thorns.
Catherine, reading the move instantly, seized the opening.
"You dare, you abomination!"
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK! BOOOOM!
At Catherine's gesture, a wall of ice formed in the blink of an eye.
It blocked the monster's ranged assault—then charged forward itself, slamming into the creature's body.
Using the time the archmage had bought them, every combat priest who had followed Jurin's party charged the monster like cannonballs.
"Good gods, what even is that."
"Faith this pure… I think I'm going to cry."
"That?"
Aindelph reflexively shot back at Lumiere, who was genuinely tearing up with emotion.
To his eyes they were nothing more than a swarm of humans whose eyes had rolled back with pure hatred.
But Lumiere didn't answer his retort.
CLANG! BABABABAK!
"No."
"Hm? Dwarf. Where'd the fanatic go?"
At Erika's question, Aindelph simply pointed with his axe.
Erika followed the gesture and immediately slapped her own forehead.
Unable to contain the passion of fellow professionals brimming with faith, Lumiere was already sprinting to join them.
"Haaah… this party has way too many people with decorations on their shoulders."
"Erika. I'll support you with magic—please cover Lumiere's back."
Erika clicked her tongue lightly and took off like the wind, stepping on priests, adventurers, and Akusare Mushroom Golems alike.
Contrary to her expectations, however, the combat priests whose eyes had rolled back with faith were fighting with terrifying efficiency.
The monster thrashed its wings and legs, rolling its body as if swatting away clinging gnats. But its sheer size made every preparatory motion painfully clear.
Priests who had retreated or dodged its attacks simply resumed their assault moments later.
By the time Erika arrived, some of the subjugation force's adventurers were already linking up with the combat priests one after another.
"Fanatic! Hey! Lumiere!"
"Hm, Erika? When did you catch up?"
"I followed right after you charged out like a wild boar. The witch said she'd cover us with magic, so I was told to help you."
"In that case—"
In that instant,
Lumiere and Erika both felt a chill race down their spines.
Not just them—every member of the subjugation force felt it.
GOOOOOOOOH—!!!
"This is—"
"Erika! Below!"
At her warning Erika looked down—then whipped her head around in shock.
The dense malevolent energy that had been lying across the ground like fog was being sucked toward the monster's head, concentrating there.
Whatever it was preparing, anyone could tell it was a threat.
Lumiere and Erika launched themselves forward at the exact same moment.
The combat priests poured out the holy power they had been conserving and charged as well, but most were blocked by mushroom golems whipped into a frenzy by the monster.
The adventurers fared no better.
Harder, faster, more lethal than before—each blow from the enhanced mushroom golems was enough to make even mana-wielding adventurers stagger.
Yet Lumiere, flooded with a power she couldn't explain, smashed through a mushroom golem in a single strike with a mace that had somehow frozen over, and howled.
She could feel it—this was different from any physical enhancement of mana or holy power she had used before.
A cold rage like a frozen glacier.
And a force rising from a heart burning white-hot.
And the frozen mace that carried a holy power she had never felt before.
And she understood.
The goddess was watching her.
Unable to contain the surging power and emotion, Lumiere roared—completely unaware of the strange look Erika was giving her.
"Yustitia!!!"
Uh, uh… that's not me.
For a fleeting moment a warm voice seemed to whisper in Lumiere's ear, sounding flustered. But Lumiere, drunk on the knowledge that a goddess was watching her, never heard it.
"Hey, Lumiere! Lumiere!"
"Watch over me! Lady Yustitia! I dedicate this battle to youuuuuu!!!"
Leaving the panicked Erika behind, Lumiere shot forward in a blur of afterimages.
With every step the unfamiliar power threw her balance into chaos, yet Lumiere forced her body onward through sheer will and that borrowed strength.
A water cannon unleashed by party leader Jurin blasted the mushroom golems blocking Lumiere's path, and adventurers who had heard her battle cry were already joining the charge.
Naturally the monster sensed it. It twisted the head that had been concentrating malevolent energy and turned the now-spherical mass of energy toward Lumiere and the adventurers.
"Oh, no."
"Don't tell me—breath attack?!"
One adventurer shouted.
Even Lumiere, whose eyes had rolled back, snapped back to her senses in that instant.
A breath attack carried that kind of power.
Then the writhing sphere of malevolent energy suddenly lost its cohesion and scattered.
Not only that—the monster twisted its body as if in agony, spewing mashed mushroom fragments and fluid from its maw.
Lumiere had seen something similar before.
She whipped her head toward the very rear of the subjugation force.
Necromancer Narke, leaning heavily on her pale-glowing staff, blood streaming from her eyes as if her insides had been turned inside out, was muttering something under her breath.
"What's she saying? Revenge of the chicken leg?"
A bewildering experience and equally bewildering words that cut off mid-sentence.
But Lumiere turned her head back and focused on the monster thrashing on the ground in pain.
Whatever it was, dealing with the monster came first.
A critically wounded monster or beast was usually extremely dangerous—but that hardly mattered to Lumiere right now.
In this state she could see and sense even the drift of a single fluff of down on the wind.
Lumiere poured every ounce of power into herself and launched her body like a cannonball.
She lightly slipped past the monster's strike as it stretched out hundreds of hands and swept its wings.
Ice walls that had erupted from the ground and the shield on her left arm she sacrificed without hesitation, blocking the monster's claws and hands that rained down like a storm.
Forcing her reeling balance back under control, she sprinted straight for the monster's head.
Toward the black-mage-like entity dangling from the tip of that head, swaying, light pouring from its eyes and mouth—she swung her mace.