Chapter 31

〈 Episode 31 〉 Village Defense

Asha was so engrossed in the scenery that she lost track of time, as moving through the air tens of meters above the ground and looking down at the world was truly a special kind of fun. It was only after Georg called her that she came to her senses.

“Asha, we’re here.”

“Huh? Oh, already?”

“It’s been over an hour since we took off. And there’s the village.”

‘Right, the village?’

Asha, reminded of her purpose, could visually confirm the village in the direction they were flying.

“They’re already fighting. But it’s a relief… it’s not too late yet.”

Asha once again realized that Walter’s judgment was correct. The village had set up huge torches around the perimeter of the fence and was fending off the Tentacles that were swarming in from both sides. No Tentacles had made it inside the village yet, but the situation was precarious, as if it could be overrun at any moment.

“If you can’t deal with them immediately, push them back! Just get them out of here!”

“Ugh!”

The situation was that the militia was blocking the entrance and the villagers were joining in to fight fiercely. Some people were throwing rocks or logs down from the fence. The 20 militiamen and hundreds of people were fighting against the Tentacles, but they were nothing compared to the swarming Tentacles. Seeing this, Asha said to Walter,

“Let’s go, Uncle! Can you do a big one-shot?!”

“They’re coming from two directions, so if we detonate one place and Georg takes the west and Asha and I take the east, that should work. Let’s see…”

Walter took out orange powder from a pouch in his bag. As he flew over the Tentacles and sprinkled the powder, the powder swelled up like an explosion and fell as flames. Literally, fire rain began to pour down on the Tentacles.

Screech! Groan!

Although words were not spoken, it was easy to tell what kind of reaction they were having to the fiery baptism from the sky. Only Lucia among the group frowned as she watched the Tentacles burn.

“Wow! Reinforcements!”

The villagers also noticed Asha’s group and cheered. Perhaps because the performance when they first appeared was so impressive, some people were celebrating as if they had already won. Since the defense was not over yet, Walter dropped Georg off at the entrance and headed to the other side.

Screech!!

On the side where Georg arrived, not many Tentacles had died directly from the fire, but the Tentacles that were in the area where the fire rain had fallen stopped attacking the village and scattered around.

The people breathed a sigh of relief as the burden was much less than before. A militiaman who was about to talk to the Orc who had come to help in the emergency, stuttered as he belatedly saw the giant in full armor, several times larger than himself.

“Uh… um, you’re here to help the village, right?”

“That’s right. Don’t let your guard down, those things aren’t all dead yet!”

The humans around Georg momentarily flinched at his roar, but they remembered that the battle was not over and prepared to block the Tentacles again. Georg did not bother to join the unfamiliar human defense formation and rushed towards the Tentacles.

Crack!

The power that had sent Asha flying like a pebble with a single counterattack in the Labyrinth was poured out on the Tentacles. The trajectory of the Iron Spear that Georg wielded tore the Tentacles apart, creating an empty space where he stood for a moment. The Tentacles stopped being confused by the fire rain and began to pour towards the village again. Georg also broke through the Tentacles to meet them.

Meanwhile, Asha and Walter were flying towards the other entrance. The eastern militia was in a desperate situation where the gate was about to be breached.

“Ugh, ugh! My foot!”

“Tom?! Get the wounded to the back!”

“Those things, they’re pushing in again. Secure the space! Is there any more oil?”

Asha’s heart grew impatient at the sight of them looking like they were about to be breached at any moment.

“Walter, Uncle! Don’t you have anything?!”

“Do you think I’m a magic box! Ugh, here’s this for now…”

Walter, who had arrived above the gate, threw a black stone at the swarm of Tentacles. The stone fell with a thud and exploded with a loud noise.

Bang–!

“Ugh!”

The Tentacles, as well as the militia, staggered at the thunderous sound. As the battlefield temporarily calmed down, Asha and Walter were able to join the defense personnel in time.

“Jonathan! I’m here!”

“Ugh… Asha! I’m so glad to see you! But what the hell is that?”

“It’s just a loud noise, nothing special. I put the sound of a cave exploding in it a long time ago. Now, hurry up and reorganize!”

“Yes, thank you!”

At Walter’s shout, militia leader Jonathan followed his instructions, moving those who could not continue fighting to the back and procuring oil to maintain the burning torches.

The militiamen at the east gate retreated a little, but the villagers on the fence continued to attack the Tentacles. When children or the elderly brought something to throw, the people on the fence aimed at the Tentacles and threw stones.

The stone attacks were not very effective, but some Tentacles were hit by the stones and could not move, collapsing. The incapacitated Tentacles were soon crushed by their own kind, leaving no corpses behind.

However, the villagers were not safe just because they were on the fence. A woman who was bravely hitting the Tentacles with stones along with the men next to her was suddenly grabbed in the face by a Tentacle that popped up.

“Kya, kyaaa!”

As she began to suffocate with the sensation of something wriggling and sticking to her face, the woman lost her balance and staggered off the fence with the Tentacle attached to her face.

The fallen woman was buried in the swarm of Tentacles and soon disappeared from sight. The villagers who were fighting flinched for a moment at the gruesome screams, but they fought back against the Tentacles again, determined not to suffer the same fate. The Tentacles began to swarm towards Asha and Walter, who were blocking the gate.

At that moment, Eva was still lying unconscious in Walter’s house. Eva was lying on the bed with her eyes closed, but Walter’s regeneration spell was still working. Walter could not tell because the brain was recovering and it was not visible on the outside, but Eva had been recovering for several days.

After Asha left and Walter was also away, Eva was lying alone on the bed for several hours. Suddenly, Eva’s eyelids began to twitch and Eva regained consciousness after several days.

When Eva first opened her eyes, she was not fully aware of the situation.

‘Where is this? Why am I here…’

Then she remembered that this was a place she had visited before.

‘Walter… it’s Walter’s house.’

Eva, recalling where she was, was finally able to remember what she had been doing all along.

‘I had a fight with a Slime, got caught by a Tentacle, got poked and prodded, and gave birth to all sorts of things. Amazing. My body has completely changed, but my Mana seems to have increased?’

“Hoo… hoo…”

Eva tried to make a sound with her mouth, but it was still difficult to even speak.

Boom-Crack!

She closed her eyes again and violently moved the Mana from all over her body to pass through her entire body. Around Eva, the bed was shattered into pieces as if sucked into a storm, but the room was enveloped in silence except for where Eva was.

As Eva circulated Mana throughout her body, her breasts, which were so full that they were about to overflow, gradually shrank, and her body, which had become plump from giving birth to hundreds of Tentacles, also tightened and became slender. Her skin smoked as it repeatedly created and shed dead skin cells.

‘Hmm…’

Eva paused for a moment when she recognized the Tentacles remaining in her body, but soon burned them all away with Mana.

After moving Mana for over an hour, Eva’s body changed back to the state it was in when the Tentacles first created it.

“Hoo…”

Eva, who had been floating in the air while lying down, breathed out and stepped on the floor. The thin clothes she was wearing disappeared without a trace, and Eva was naked again. Eva, who had been more accustomed to being naked for a while, could not walk around naked even in the village, so she took out clothes from the room and put them on. Fortunately, thanks to Walter’s consideration, Eva was able to find clothes that fit her body and put them on.

“I need to check the situation. Where are the others now?”

Eva, who had fully recovered her condition, took out a long Iron Spear from Walter’s laboratory and stepped out of the door.

When Eva came out of Walter’s house, the village was in a mess. Orcs carrying something or Orcs running somewhere, the whole village was in an uproar. Eva saw a familiar face and approached him.

“Otto, what’s going on right now?”

“Are you talking to me now? Have we met before?”

He, who had previously delivered Asha’s greetings, was puzzled when a being he had never seen before spoke to him as if he knew him. Eva thought again about how her body had changed.

“Ah, my body has changed. It’s me, Eva.”

“What? I heard that Walter has been treating someone for days… Eva, is that really you? No, no matter how you look at it…”

Otto was half-doubtful. Her actions and speech were the same as Eva’s in the past, but her appearance, which had even become petite and had no trace of an Orc left, was hard to believe for a normal person. Eva, annoyed that Otto still doubted her, swung the Iron Spear in the air.

Rumble–!

With a chilling sound, a shockwave burst along the trajectory, and the stones nearby crumbled like sand. Otto’s face turned blue when he saw Eva’s strike. It was one of Eva’s techniques that had slaughtered dozens of monsters in one move. He nodded.

“I think it’s really Eva… How is this possible? How did you get smaller but stronger?”

Otto knew it was Eva and glossed over her changed appearance. It was a habit unique to Orcs, who seemed indifferent at first glance but were actually too lazy to think.

“Well, after experiencing this and that… But what’s going on now? The village is rarely this noisy.”

“Tentacles came from the Labyrinth. Fortunately, there were no deaths in the battle, but some who went out on patrol without knowing the facts have not returned… Now the battle is over and we are cleaning up and preparing for a follow-up attack.”

“Hmm… that’s what happened. Do you know where Walter went?”

“Walter received a request for support from humans and went with Georg. They said that the Tentacles attacked there too.”

“I see. I have to go there.”

Eva, who had heard the news of Walter from Otto, realized what she had to finish herself.

“I wouldn’t mind if they were only in the Labyrinth, but if they’re causing harm to the surroundings like this, I have to deal with them…”

“Ugh! Damn it! What, who?”

Eva found the smithy. There was a commotion in the smithy when Eva returned, but she quickly calmed them down and was able to receive the Iron Spear she would use.

It was a more modest size compared to the one that the 10-foot Eva used to use, but it was a heavy weapon over 7 feet long, which was large enough for her height of about 6 feet. She swung the Iron Spear a few times to get a feel for it, then left the village and ran straight towards the Labyrinth, creating a whirlwind.