Attack (2)

The morning sunlight was warm, and the cold wind had unusually subsided, making it a day that could be called warm for winter.

The dew on the grass leaves sparkled like jewels in that sunlight—

“Females, take the children and evacuate—!”

Startled by the shout, the dew drops fell and shattered.

The Lizardmen each took up their weapons.

While the males ran with well-maintained weapons, the females each hugged their children and ran to the shelter prepared on the hill behind Lizard Den.

The attack that started from the morning announced its beginning with mermaids rushing in without a moment’s respite.

The mermaids wielding tridents completely shattered the perception that they were creatures that moved in water, and rushed towards Lizard Den, running on two legs, albeit clumsily.

Lizard Den has only one entrance.

More precisely, there is only one entrance connecting to the outside, and where the mermaids are attacking now is none other than the path leading to the sacred place.

Usually, it wouldn’t be a problem to deploy a barrier at the entrance and block the attack, but an attack from the sacred place was unprecedented.

Yona, who happened to be out for a walk, was mixed in with them in the confusion.

Although she had only seen mermaids as monsters for the first time yesterday, a monster is still a monster, and her role hadn’t changed, so she was able to quickly calm down.

“Are, are you helping us again this time!?”

“…Y-yes.”

Yona nodded.

Although she didn’t know who it was, thinking it was probably one of the Lizardmen who had received help from her yesterday, Yona nodded and looked around.

She thought that if the village had become this noisy, Alec must have noticed and might be coming this way— and sure enough, in the distance, an exceptionally shiny head could be seen.

“Alec! Here, over here—! Aleeeec——!!”

Yona raised her hand high and waved it frantically.

Alec must have seen it, as he pushed through the Lizardmen and approached Yona.

“Yona, what are you doing here?”

“What do you mean, it’s an attack. Can’t you see?”

Yona retorted to Alec as if stating the obvious.

Alec silently nodded at Yona’s words and turned around, showing his back.

“Let’s go find Kaiyak first. That seems to be urgent.”

Yona naturally placed her hand on Alec’s shoulder.

A sensation felt after a truly long time.

Alec’s shoulder that fit perfectly in her hand.

She felt at peace.

Yona, surrendering herself to that inexplicable peace, moved in step with Alec to find Kaiyak.

Around the time they were looking around for Kaiyak, the Lizardmen who first encountered the mermaids at the front line were bravely holding their ground without retreating.

Each of the mermaids was larger than the Lizardmen, and they were pushing forward with fork-like weapons called tridents while letting out strange cries, but the Lizardmen stood their ground without retreating.

The Lizardmen’s bodies, packed with muscles befitting their size, overflowed with the dignity of warriors, and the explosive speed bursting from those muscles, supported by strength, made it difficult even for mermaids to easily deal with.

Kang!

The trident thrust by a mermaid clashed head-on with a Lizardman’s spear.

With a sharp friction sound, sparks flew, and the Lizardman’s spear, subtly twisting out of the collision, was enough to deflect the trident itself to the side.

Not missing the mermaid’s disrupted posture, another Lizardman thrust his spear, piercing the mermaid’s neck.

As the mermaid staggered, dropping its trident and dripping black blood, a Lizardman seized the opportunity and grabbed its neck with one hand.

“Die, you—!”

With a roar, the Lizardman began to saw off the mermaid’s head with a hunting saw.

The mermaid, unable to even scream due to its already pierced throat, struggled to shake off the Lizardman sawing its neck like a tree, but its hands, already drained of strength, flailed helplessly until finally, its head came off and it collapsed like a rotten old tree.

The Lizardmen were facing the mermaids in groups of three or four.

Although the mermaids had the advantage in terms of physique, they were relatively simple and had no strategy.

Moreover, although the mermaids, who usually live in water, somehow grew legs and were able to attack like this, the sense of moving on those legs couldn’t be the same as moving in water, so their movements weren’t as smooth as in water.

“Don’t retreat! They’re nothing!”

Kaiyak roared, raising his spear high.

Watching this scene, Yona and Alec somehow felt awkward, rather embarrassed that they had rushed here in tension.

“…Kaiyak isn’t strong for nothing, huh?”

“Lizardmen are originally a strong race. But they are really strong.”

While Yona and Alec were having this conversation, the number of mermaids, which had been over twenty, decreased exponentially.

Rather, having invaded from the direction of the sacred place, they were unable to advance much and were blocked by the Lizardmen’s resistance, without even inflicting any significant damage.

“Looks like we don’t even need to step in.”

“Seems so.”

Only then did Yona remove her hand from Alec’s shoulder and stretch.

As she stretched, her tense muscles relaxed, making cracking sounds as her bones aligned.

As she looked up at the sky like that, Yona suddenly saw something strange.

“…Alec, can you see that?”

“Huh?”

The moment Alec looked where Yona’s finger was pointing, that thing visible in the sky gradually increased in size and finally revealed its form.

An enormous size incomparable to the mermaids the Lizardmen were currently facing.

Six arms and countless tails.

And—

Legs.

“It’s… a mer-mermaid.”

Just as Yona muttered, that thing that fell from the sky finally—

Kwaaang!

It crashed to the ground.

That thing, which appeared crushing three or four Lizardmen at once, was the very mermaid that the Lizardmen had faced in the sacred place yesterday.

The reversal of the situation was instantaneous.

That mermaid that appeared crushing both its subordinate mermaids and Lizardmen at the same time—

That mermaid, probably the leader, let out a long roar as soon as it appeared, pounding its chest.

Kururururuooooooo——!!

At that roar, not only the Lizardmen but also Yona and Alec involuntarily covered their ears.

“Everyone, fall back!”

Kaiyak was the first to come to his senses.

At that shout, the Lizardmen near the mermaid tried to quickly retreat, but at that moment, fins on the mermaid’s back spread out with a swish.

Pyopyopyopyopyo!

With a somewhat ridiculous sound, something shot out from the fins as if spraying.

And those things that shot out flew towards the nearby Lizardmen, drawing parabolas like arrows.

“Kuaaaak!”

“Kkeuk!”

“Euhuk…!”

Finally, they could be recognized.

Each one was a sharp spine.

These spines were about the size of arrows for a longbow, and they were piercing through the Lizardmen as they glided down.

And another one, a spine that had flown towards Kaiyak, was now stuck in Alec’s shield, who had suddenly rushed in front of Kaiyak, trembling and showing its presence.

“Alec!”

“Kaiyak, what the hell is that?!”

“I don’t know. It’s a monster that appeared from the sacred place!”

“Damn it all…”

Leaving Alec’s curse behind, Yona ran towards the Lizardmen.

While some Lizardmen were single-mindedly turning to face and confront the mermaid, others were moving the Lizardmen pierced by spines to the rear.

‘This is…’

Black fluid was spreading profusely from the spines.

Black fluid, not red blood, was flowing from the wounds where the spines had been pulled out, and no matter how much holy power Yona infused into those places, the wounds wouldn’t heal.

‘What on earth is this…’

Wounds that don’t respond to the Cheonsin’s holy power.

This was another first for her.

“Dodge, dodge!”

A Lizardman pushed Yona with all his might.

And as soon as Yona tumbled backward, the Lizardman who had pushed her slowly collapsed, looking down at the hand of his companion that had pierced his neck with an incomprehensible gaze.

“What, what… is this…”

The Lizardmen who had been pierced by spines were slowly getting up.

Black fluid was dripping from their mouths, and their eyes were already rolled back, showing no sign of reason.

‘Contamination…?’

The black fluid flowing from the Lizardmen’s wounds.

And now the black fluid dripping from that Lizardman’s mouth.

The contaminated Lizardman approached Yona, who had tumbled down.

He raised his hand, and sharp claws that had somehow replaced his blunt hands glinted in the morning sunlight— and plunged towards her.

“Woaah…!”

Yona quickly rolled to dodge.

Using the momentum of rolling to spring up from that spot, Yona, thanks to her experience as an adventurer, wasn’t just helplessly enduring, so she pulled out the hunting knife attached to her left thigh.

The confrontation between Yona, who had drawn the hunting knife with her left hand, and the Lizardman was not long.

Just as the Lizardman charged towards her with a strange cry, someone rushed in from the side.

“You madman!”

Alec, who rushed towards him, immediately struck his chin with his shield.

As soon as he lost balance and staggered, Alec grabbed his neck, and as the Lizardman raised his claws, Alec raised his hammer with his other hand and struck his head several times.

“Yona, are you okay?”

“Ah, y-yeah… I’m fine.”

Although she had drawn the hunting knife, Yona hadn’t actually used it. She nodded and put the knife back in its sheath.

“It’s strange, healing doesn’t work at all.”

“There’s nothing strange about it. I’ve roughly grasped the situation. More importantly, that side is more urgent.”

Where Alec was pointing, a fierce battle was already in full swing.

The Lizardmen, led by Kaiyak, were fiercely attacking the mermaid,

Meanwhile, other Lizardmen were throwing oil bottles at the mermaid, and bringing thick ropes soaked in oil to throw at the mermaid.

As soon as the ropes caught, they quickly set them on fire.

The fire spread where the oil had hit, and the flames that suddenly flared up burned quite fiercely, but they weren’t causing any significant damage to the mermaid.

Kurururuaaak!

The mermaid skillfully wielded its six arms, pushing back the Lizardmen.

With each swing, one or two Lizardmen flew off somewhere with screams, making crashing sounds.

Yona couldn’t bear to watch the scene and turned her head away.

“What should we do?”

“We have no choice but to fight. What else can we do?”

It wasn’t a matter of reward or anything.

That was talk for when they were subjugating, but now they were in a situation of being attacked, so it became a matter of survival before discussing rewards.

“Oil bottles, are there no more?!”

At Kaiyak’s shout, other Lizardmen shook their heads.

Most of the stored oil had already been poured out.

Fire, which is a weakness for most monsters, didn’t seem to bother the mermaid much.

Kururuooo!

As the mermaid brought down its arm, one Lizardman rolled to the side to avoid it.

And as soon as he dodged, the mermaid’s tail struck him down.

Where the tail struck, blood spread along with flesh.

The Lizardman who couldn’t avoid the tail crashed into and demolished the wall of his house.

A Lizardman caught in its hand struggled to escape, but with a cracking sound, a stream of blood flowed down.

A Lizardman who couldn’t avoid the spines fell, then soon got up spewing black fluid and began to attack his own kind.

As Lizardmen who seemed to have become the mermaid’s subordinates started joining the attack, now even the numbers were about to be reversed.

An overwhelming difference that could not be overcome by individual strength was weighing down on the Lizardmen.