Ch.170Awakened NPC. (3)

A silver line slices through the old woman’s neck.

“Hoi!”

“Hmm?”

No, I thought it had sliced through. The beastfolk elder Perna charged straight ahead. Her approach to the elven Grand Elder happened in an instant, and the silver line that traced where her neck was appeared in a flash.

Because of this, everyone followed her movement with their eyes without even uttering a word, thinking she would die. However.

“Yap!”

-Ting!!

“What? I’m sure I just severed her neck?”

Visually, it seemed like an impossible distance to reach. Yet, simultaneously with her playful battle cry, the Grand Elder’s sword had to parry an invisible attack.

Of course, the Grand Elder didn’t seem particularly flustered by the invisible attack, but she let out a curious voice, finding it slightly strange that her sword hadn’t reached the other woman.

“Hoho, perhaps it didn’t reach because your skills are insignificant?”

“Hehe, is that so? Certainly, it has been thousands of years since I last wielded a sword.”

After an exchange that would be invisible to ordinary eyes, Perna and the Grand Elder chuckled on the spot as if finding each other’s words amusing. Both the elves who had come to attack the village and the beastfolk on the village walls were stunned, and after a few seconds, they shouted simultaneously in surprise.

“The, the Grand Elder was attacked!! Those beastfolk who sided with the evil humans!! Kill all the traitors!!!”

“Pro-protect the Elder at all costs!! Avoid killing them if possible, but don’t get yourself killed either!! Stop those foolish elves who still act stupidly even after hearing what that senile pointy-ear said!!!”

With thunderous roars from both sides, the beastfolk warriors on the village walls jumped down, and the elves drew their weapons and began to charge. At that moment.

“Beasts, stay still.”

“Hoho, pointy-ears, don’t get so excited.”

At the soft voices of the Grand Elder and the beastfolk elder, both sides froze in place without anyone being able to tell who or where first.

A chilling bloodlust that pierced through the spine. The sticky killing intent emanating from the kindly smiling old women made the elves, who had lived peacefully in the forest for thousands of years, momentarily envision their heads being torn off in the jaws of predators.

The beastfolk also suddenly experienced hallucinations of their necks touching silver lines and falling to the ground.

“Quite a useful beast. With your skills, you would surely be helpful when exterminating humans in the future. What do you say? There are quite a few vacant elder positions since many have died.”

“Hohoho~ It’s not for nothing they say the old should die quickly. If you’re going to go mad, do it gracefully. Exterminating humans with such meager skills? Pah! The only thing you could exterminate is that pathetic fungus between your legs~!”

The two women, looking at each other and laughing in the frozen battlefield, suddenly burst into uproarious laughter, and at this sight, both the beastfolk and elves could only silently swallow without making a sound.

And then. After the laughter abruptly stopped.

“If you die here, all female beastfolk will become breeding stock for beastfolk soldiers.”

“Hohoho! You claim to have lived for ten thousand years, but it seems the fungus in your groin has infected your brain?”

With voices delivered as if in casual conversation, the two women’s figures disappeared. And then.

-Tatatata!! Kigigigigik!!! Bang bang!! Twang!! Kiiiiik!! King!!

Sparks began to fly as if someone was striking flint to create fire, and both elves and beastfolk stepped back in surprise.

An invisible battle and contest of skills. Everyone was overwhelmed and unable to move, only catching glimpses of the Grand Elder and beastfolk elder when they briefly clashed.

However. Among them.

“Sister, can you see?”

“Yes. I can see clearly. What about you, Miho?”

“I can’t quite see the Grand Elder’s sword.”

“…It’s truly astonishing that you sisters, barely twenty years old, can follow this. Others, including elves, can’t even track it properly.”

A white tiger, a vermilion fox, and an elf with black-dyed hair were watching the fight with serious eyes, far from being overwhelmed by the scene before them.

And then.

“Elder Perna is being pushed back.”

As Green Stone quietly spoke those words.

-Pit!!

“Egugu!!”

“Hehe, how interesting. To think you could block my sword this far.”

Perna, who had been pushed back as if bounced, had a shallow line of blood spurting from her neck, and the Grand Elder, lightly dusting off her sword, smiled with genuine pleasure, her eyes crinkling.

“You bastard!! Is it fun to cut an unarmed old woman with a sword?!”

“To call you old, wouldn’t I be too old myself?”

“That’s true indeed!”

Though raising her voice as if angry, Perna coolly maintained her distance. Seeing her, the Grand Elder opened her mouth curiously.

“You look human on the outside, but what kind of beastfolk are you? In my memory, I don’t recall any beast that resembles humans so closely yet moves in such a peculiar way.”

“You bastard. Pointing a sword at an unarmed female, and now trying to steal my one trick?”

“Ah, is that how it is? I apologize. Yes, don’t tell me. If I find out, this rare warm-up will end too quickly.”

As if to say the small talk was over, the Grand Elder pointed her sword at her again, and Perna, unlike before, took a stance with less composure.

And, just as the Grand Elder kicked off the ground again to conceal her movements.

“Now! This is it!!”

“…?!”

The Grand Elder turned around in surprise at the sight of her shouting with wide eyes.

‘Could it be a trap?!’

Her senses, enhanced by demonic power, were honed sharper than before. The thought that someone had approached her undetected made her slightly chilled, causing her to overreact to the woman’s words and actions.

‘There’s no on…?!’

“Hoho, you actually fell for that?”

-Thwack!!!

“Kuk?!! Such a cheap trick…!”

“No, how is this a cheap trick? You just fell for a prank that’s hardly worth calling a contest of skills.”

In the brief moment she turned her head, Perna seized the opportunity, truly breaking through all of the Grand Elder’s senses to get close and strike her solar plexus hard. The Grand Elder immediately regained her posture and kicked off the ground again to charge at her.

‘What an absurd trick, I thought I’d found a worthy opponent after so long. Such a vile act!!’

As if guided by the anger emanating from the demonic flesh, she swung her sword with all her might, intending to kill the woman with this strike.

“Now, this is it!!”

“Foolish woman, die.”

Seeing her shout with the same posture, the same voice, and the same eyes as before, the Grand Elder, truly unable to contain her anger, was about to cleave her in h…

“Hup!!”

“Spirit Sword.”

“Wind Riding. First Form.”

“What?!!”

Before she could cut, she helplessly exposed her back to the surprise attack of three people who had truly arrived.

“Hohoho, you should know better than to trust people’s words.”

With Perna’s mischievous voice, her fist also landed squarely on the Grand Elder’s face.

*

When consciousness returned, the first emotion I felt was irritation.

‘…They blocked it properly, right?’

That tentacle. No, that status window bastard. Playing dead so cowardly? With no HP or level showing, I couldn’t tell if I was alive or dead, and I was completely blindsided.

Given the situation, if I hadn’t blocked it, my ancestors’ group would have met a terrible end, skewered like tanghulu.

-Squeeze.

I slowly put strength into my fingers, toes, arms, and legs, and find that all my limbs are still attached.

Hmm, it seems our ancestors didn’t die.

So, as I slowly move my body and open my eyes…

[We’re going up.]

“Burulrup?!”

I involuntarily exhaled when I saw a beautiful face as large as my body!! Oh shit, what a shock…?!! Wait, we’re underwater…!!!

[Breathe slowly. You won’t die.]

Naiad, the highest-level water elemental. The enormous woman holds me against her chest as she rapidly ascends to the water’s surface, and I immediately take slow, deep breaths.

Phew. It feels strange. Like breathing through a woman’s breast. Hmm, is this why they make moe versions of the eight-foot ghost?

After just a few seconds, we emerge above the pond’s surface and immediately settle on the cave floor.

[How did the trial go.]

“Cough! Cough! I, well. It seems I succeeded.”

[…Yes, the weight of your karma has decreased.]

The weight of karma? After mentioning something I didn’t understand, she quietly looked down at me and continued.

[You must be tired from completing the trial, but you need to move immediately. Can you fight?]

“What?”

Why? Already? I thought I was only gone for about half a day? Don’t tell me the elves have already arrived?

[No, a full day has passed since you left. The flow of time is different during the trial.]

“…What? Then, today is…”

[What would have been tomorrow for you. And right now, the Grand Elder and the elves are fighting with our children at the entrance to the village.]

Feeling as if I’d been hit on the head with a hammer at her words, I instinctively turned my head.

[Overprotection: Allows you to locate those you wish to protect regardless of distance. (Registered: Ira. Ray Sol. Gor. Ragni Bluemoon Ottoman. Miho. Chikuyo.)]

[Checking the location of targets: Miho, Chikuyo.]

[-Job Striker-: Level 149 Name: Miho. Age 19.]

[HP: 1,824]

[-Job Magic Swordsman-: Level 185 Name: Chikuyo. Age 22.]

[HP: 2,199]

I feel as if I’m seeing them marked on a GPS on a blurry map without scale. Is it less visible than a veteran ranger’s detection, but makes up for it with range?

But wait, wasn’t Miho’s HP around 4,000, and Chikuyo’s in the early 3,000s? Damn, they’re already fighting?!

[There’s no time to explain more. I’m sorry, but I can’t leave here. Please, our beastfolk children…]

“Don’t worry. I’m the type who would rather die than see ‘what’s mine’ get hurt.”

Her pupils dilate slightly at the words I reflexively blurted out. They were already big, but getting bigger makes them a bit scary.

[…Heheh. Very well. Then, I’ll send you there. Please be careful.]

“What? You’ll send me?”

As I was putting strength in my legs to run at full speed, I tilted my head at her words.

-Swoosh.

“Uh, huh? What?!!”

[Don’t worry. You’ll be able to breathe.]

Suddenly, water droplets begin to envelop me. What, what is this now?!

[You’ll have to land on your own, so don’t let your guard down]

“W-wait?! L-land?!! What do you me…!!!”

-Splooooosh!!!!

My voice was erased by the hydro pump that burst from her hands, and I was expelled from the cave at a speed far faster than I could ever run.

Really, for some reason, my life involves a lot of flying through the air.