“One, two, three…… hm, so 17 overall”

Pointing my index finger, I count the number of Lithuvar people in the area.
I could just pour all my magic into this to kill them with certainty, but unfortunately, my wounds are deeper than I anticipated.
If I use it now, there’s a high chance that I’ll get caught in the carnage.
I also used up too much magic power.
Considering the possibility that I might get attacked by a random monster during my getaway, I’ll have to reduce their numbers and reserve as much magic power as I can.
If I leave behind about twenty here, it should be just enough for me to escape.

“That man is a commander! Don’t hesitate! Stop him before he makes another move!”

There were a few among them who were just standing by and carefully watching me, but when someone shouted that, one of them finally rushed towards me.
You shall be the first victim then.

“〖Wide Summon〗! Appear before me, Trell Ratons!”

A yellow light spreads around me.

From the light, twenty large yellow rats appear.
Their limbs and tail aren’t covered in yellow fur, exposing their pink skin.
On their foreheads are large white horns. Those white horns are making a zapping sound.

“Chuuu” “Chuu”
“Chuu” “Chua” “Chuu”

Lightning Rats, Trell Raton.
Their length is about the size of an average child, and even as a group, they have low combat abilities, although they’re quite agile.
They have this suicidal trait that, when they sense danger, they become agitated and will jump to the nearest moving lifeform then self-destruct.

Right now, the Trell Ratons are just roaming around me.

“Wha-…… what are these things……?”

The Lithuvar warrior, who rushed towards me, stops in place after seeing the pack of Trell Ratons.

“Now,〖Berserk〗”

I cast〖Berserk〗on the Trell Raton near the Lithuvar warrior.
The Trell Raton’s expression changes and leaps at the man.

“Tsk! A magical beast of this level is no threat……!”

The Lithuvar warrior moves in to slay the Trell Raton.

“Fall to pieces”

The Trell Raton accumulates lightning zaps on its horn.

“〖Clay〗!”

The red-eyed girl chants a spell.
A wall of earth pops up from the ground in between the Lithuvar warrior and the Trell Raton.

Hm…… how tedious.
But, strange that she used〖Clay〗instead of〖Clay Wall〗.
〖Clay〗can take in the form of anything, be it deadly spikes or a defensive wall, but it consumes a lot of magic power, and with how versatile it is, it’s not as sturdy as a〖Clay Wall〗 that’s used for defense, so it’s even more fragile.
If she can only use〖Clay〗, then she won’t last long against a pack of Trell Ratons.

The Trell Raton points its horn at the wall of earth and it sticks on it.
Then, its horn glows red, its head starts to swell, and it explodes with a blast of lightning.
The Trell Raton’s body scatters from the explosion, destroying the earth wall and blowing away the Lithuvar man who’s on the other side.

Black smoke sizzles from the Lithuvar man’s charred body as he crashes on the ground.
Hm…… wait, he’s not dead yet?
Well, that’s fine.

Some screamed, while others hurriedly aid the man who got blown away.

“Don’t approach them carelessly! It’s a trap!”

An older Lithuvar warrior said, warning the others, but you’re too late.
The horns of the other Trell Ratons glow red one after another.

When they feel their life being threatened, they all enter a state of agitation and become effective suicide bombers.
Since they saw one of their kind explode, they assume that danger is near and every one of them starts switching gears to explosion mode.
In other words, by agitating even one of them with〖Berserk〗, the rest will follow suit and cause a chain explosion.

The Trell Raton swarm towards the Lithuvar warriors ahead.
When a few of them saw me, they approached me as well.

Of course, I expected this would happen.
That’s why I even summoned them.
I raise my sword upwards and gather magic power at the tip.

“〖Lightning Dispersion〗!”

A thunderbolt releases from my sword and scatters around me.
The Trell Ratons that were heading towards me turn and divert themselves to the Lithuvar warriors.
When something releases lightning, similar to their zapping horns, Trell Ratons often mistake them as their ally and remove them as a suicide bombing target.

“Hehe…… consider this a present from me to you who have confirmed the likes of me, Thunder Sword Rapal, despite having the intelligence level of a flea. Do your best to run around like animals, you barbaric brutes”

“U-Urgh…… Rapal-sama…… help……”

One of my subordinates who was attacked by the spiders is now being assaulted by a Trell Raton.
When that Trell Raton exploded, my subordinate’s body parts also blew apart.

“One Raton was wasted…… good grief ”

Witnessing the horrifying scene of bodies being blown up, the expression of the Lithuvar warriors turn pale and they start running while screaming for their lives.
I laugh at their pitiful condition with a snort and proceed to make my getaway.
But then, I heard loud footsteps heading this way and immediately turned around.

“You’re not getting away from me!”

The large man from before comes at me with a spear on hand.
I thought he was unarmed. He must’ve picked up a weapon when the others dropped theirs.
A Trell Raton chasing after him from behind.

“So, you intend to commit a double suicide with me…… however”

I deflect his spear with the side of my sword and follow it up by slashing him diagonally.
Although he managed to avoid a direct hit with his arms, I was still able to deeply slice his right arm along with his hip.
The large man collapses on the spot.

“Guh…… guh, damn you……”

“Even though we’re both wounded, the reason you stood no chance against me is purely due to skills. I don’t want you barbarians to think that I’ve beaten you just because I can use magic”

I say that as I look down on the man with hateful eyes on me, then when I divert my gaze to the Trell Raton behind him, I make haste and distance myself from him.
The Trell Raton approaches the large man with tremendous speed.

“〖Gale〗!”

“Wha-?!”

The voice of the red-eyed girl is heard and I turn towards her.
A small horizontal hurricane follows after the Trell Raton.
The hurricane then blows away the Trell Raton, while also rolling the body of the large man.
Because I heard it coming, and since I was at a fair distance from it, I was out of range from the hurricane.

The Trell Raton that got blown away by the wind explodes in mid-air.
Its blood and flesh rains down on the forest.

“Urg-…… urgh……”

Since the large man received〖Gale〗, he is now groaning in pain, but unfortunately, he wasn’t caught in the Trell Raton’s explosion.
So, saving the man from the explosion was the girl’s aim all along.

“…… Mm?”

Wait a minute, that girl can still use magic?
She should’ve run out of it a while ago already.
Just how many times did she use magic exactly?

I couldn’t understand so I turned to look at the red-eyed girl once again.

There are traces of wind and earth magic used around the girl.
Not to mention, there isn’t a single corpse from those Lithuvar warriors that indicate they’ve been caught in the Trell Raton’s explosions.

“Tha-…… T-That can’t be…… I-It’s impossible……”

Don’t tell me just one person protected everyone from the twenty Trell Ratons that I summoned.
No matter how you look at it, her magic capacity is way too strange. It’s incomprehensible.

I check the appearance of the girl again.
Her skin is darkening and cracking, and her hair is getting drier and rougher.
It looked as if a few minutes of fighting aged her to several decades in time, and only her red eyes remained to exert a sinister glare.

“S-She wasn’t human all along?!”

I always thought it was odd.
Back when she grabbed hold of one of my subordinates and crushed him to death.
Her unseemingly high magical capacity.
And, how her wounds instantly healed like it never happened.
I should’ve suspected as much when I first sensed her ominous presence.

“She’s an undead……! Tsk, accursed blighter!”

However, it would look like that undead has reached her limit at last.
Perhaps due to her overuse of magic that she’s unable to keep her body together and now she’s looking more and more like a corpse by the minute.
With her current state, she won’t be able to chase after me.
I’m frustrated that I couldn’t even kill one of them, let alone a single undead brat, but at least my efforts were enough to stall them so I can make my escape.

“…… Hm?”

“Urgh…… uurgh……”

One last Trell Raton remains, and it’s heading towards a downed Lithuvar man.
It’s the man in-charge of the whistle, the one who ran back to the village and warned everyone.
Come to think of it, that man tried to talk with the undead before.
They must have a special relationship together.
Judging from their difference in age, are they parent and child?

“Hehe…… this is very good. I was able to discover a secret from their Dragon God just before my escape”

That undead is in no condition to cast another spell now.

“A~a…… wa~aaaa~argh!”

The undead screams as he runs to the man.
Her left arm becomes more earth-like and it grows in size, turning into a demonic arm with claws. She jumps, about to land between the Lithuvar man and the Trell Raton.
She lands her large hand between them, leaving it to act as a shield.

“Chu……”

The Trell Raton detonates itself.
Undead gets directly caught up in the huge blast, scraping off most of her flesh-like skin, and exposing her bones underneath.
After getting blasted away, her body rolls on the ground and stops face-up, revealing the bones under her chin.

“…………”

That scene was too much to behold that I ended up in a daze without realizing it.

“Alo! Alo, are you there? Alo!”

A cry is heard in the distance.

“Aino! Calm down! Alo has long been sacrificed to the Manticore! Tatarc must’ve seen things! I’m begging you, think this through! Tatarc even warned us not to come here because it’s dangerous!”

“I don’t care! Let me go!”

Another group of Lithuvars have arrived, it seems.
There are five of them this time.
Reinforcements, perhaps…… though, they don’t look like the fighting type.
I eventually come back to my senses and return to prioritizing my escape.

“Kya aa a~a! A monster!”

One of them screamed when they saw the undead lying on the ground.

“A-…… Are you… Alo?”

“Aino! Don’t approach it! Ee~ek! Let’s get away from here!”

One woman was about to touch the undead when another woman grabbed her hand and stopped her.
The undead raises her arms in a weak manner, but then a man walks in between them, protecting the two women.
The undead then drops her arm and grabs the man’s ankles instead.
An eerie light starts to glow from the undead’s hand and the man falls on his knees as he shoves the hand away.

“J-…… Just now, it felt like it was trying to absorb something from me! I slowly felt myself getting weaker!”

“It’s an undead! Kill it!”

“Don’t! This girl tried to save us……!”

“It’s Alo! There’s no mistaking it! Because we sacrificed her, she became an undead and has come back to haunt us! She’s going to kill us!”

I shake my head and immediately run away, using my sword as a cane to support me.

”*huff*…… *huff*. Fools. It’s a shame that I couldn’t finish her off myself, but I guess this is a fitting end for a monster such as her…… hm?”

A loud rumbling sound is heard up ahead.
The sound continues to get louder and louder.

If it’s coming from a creature, then it’s approaching this place at a terrifying speed.
Thinking about everything that happened so far, I have this foreboding feeling.

This path will lead me to doom.
I must go to another path.

But then, just when I was about to go to a different path, a giant boulder is heading this way and it’s knocking down trees in its path.
[T.N: Ey Ralag, where u at? Our dragon boi is wrecking your food stock again]