Ch.96Chimera (3)

In the forest to the northeast of the village. In the woods where entry without the lord’s permission has once again been forbidden due to chimera appearances, someone in armor is moving about.

A hood is pulled down over a cheap helmet resembling an upturned bucket, concealing their appearance. Despite the sweltering summer heat, they wear a medieval gambeson and chain mail with plate armor parts on top, and if that weren’t enough, a red fur cloak as well.

At first glance, this outfit seems perfect for getting thoroughly cooked by heatstroke or sunstroke in this hot summer, but that only applies to ordinary folk.

For knights who have awakened supernatural powers called Aura and possess bodies that far transcend the limits of normal humans, the heat generated from wearing so many layers feels merely lukewarm.

And so he was strolling through the forest in this heavily armored state….

‘….It’s hot!’

Naturally, the protagonist was me, Camille de Alzar.

An intermediate-level body isn’t so weak as to succumb to the heat generated merely from wearing layers in midsummer.

However, that doesn’t mean I’m completely immune to heat or cold.

This year’s summer is already unbearable with its generally high humidity (though not as bad as K-summers), and wearing thick clothes plus armor on top of that means suffering through heat that could drive one insane.

‘….Gretel, thank you!’

To be honest, without the cooling belt (tentative name) that Gretel made for me, I might well have been steamed to death by now.

Anyway, the reason I’ve come out in full armor in this sweltering midsummer heat is… reconnaissance.

Given the current situation, we can’t recklessly send out scouts unless they’re trained dogs, and in these circumstances, only someone like me can move around for reconnaissance purposes.

Of course, considering Hannah’s werewolf characteristics, she would actually be more capable than me when it comes to scouting, but if Hannah were to leave the village while I’m out on reconnaissance, who would protect the village?

That’s why Hannah and I have been taking turns going on reconnaissance missions, and today happens to be my turn.

I thought it would be a bad move to act rashly until Corin returns and we have reliable reinforcements, so I came out to scout to assess the situation as much as possible, but….

‘….There really is nothing here.’

The fact that nothing has been discovered even after about four days since the emergency situation was declared was enough to plant a bit of dissatisfaction in my heart.

Although traces of what appear to be humans (or humanoid creatures) and chimeras are occasionally found, there hasn’t been even the slightest opportunity to properly understand the circumstances of the incident.

And…. it was around that time.

-Ding-a-ling!

‘….Oh.’

In a situation where I had felt nothing, my intuition finally sends me a warning.

Confirming that this warning indicates danger—specifically the presence of a trap—I could essentially be certain at this point that humans were involved in this incident.

A ‘trap warning’ is a phenomenon that only occurs with clearly artificial things. Keeping this firmly in mind, I drew the massive basilisk bone zweihander from my back to identify the ‘enemy.’

A master of iaido might use the power of ‘equivalent exchange’ to enhance attack power by taking on the risk of ‘drawing the sword,’ but unfortunately, I’ve had almost no training in that area.

Well, I’ve practiced quick-drawing in the sense of rapidly pulling a sword from its scabbard, but all that effort would likely be less effective than simply wielding the weapon normally.

Anyway, having assumed a combat stance in response to the sense of danger, I was about to move in the direction my intuition was pointing when… suddenly I felt that intuition amplifying like an inflating balloon.

-Ding, ding, ding, ding, dingdingdingdingding-!!!

‘Wh-what…?!’

A danger alarm more intense and explicit than any intuitive warning I’d ever felt in the material world. The sense of danger was so strong it involuntarily activated my petrification evil eye by triggering my survival instinct.

Something is there. Something is coming. As my mind boiled with these subtle yet explicit warnings, I sensed through my intuition that something was approaching this area without even trying to hide its presence—

-Whoosh!

-Ratatatatatatata-!!!!

-BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!!

The next moment, what came at me were numerous nets, bullets, and several cannonballs.

※ ※ ※

The identity of those nets shot at me was a kind of magical engineering weapon—a magical tool designed to capture magical beasts alive, incorporating alchemical technology as well.

A tool that compresses nets woven from metal threads extracted from ‘Iron Spiders’ into alchemical capsules, then fires them using the power of gunpowder.

The nets are sticky like spider webs but as tough and hard as iron, making them difficult to tear off easily. After being captured by these, dozens of bullets and three cannonballs came flying at me.

The bullets were lead balls fired from old-fashioned (civilian-grade) muskets, and the cannonballs were conical projectiles fired from ‘military direct-fire cannons’ diverted from the army.

Even for an Aura user, the impact of bullets would deliver considerable damage, and the conical projectiles from direct-fire cannons typically used for hunting medium-large magical beasts would have a force that even I couldn’t ignore if hit directly.

Thus, these unknown entities attacked me by surprise, determined to kill me or at least break me once before the battle properly began, but….

‘This much! This is nothing-!!’

I, who could anticipate the situation through my intuition, had already completed several preparations.

I easily cut through the iron nets as they flew toward me by swinging my zweihander coated with acidic solution and Aura.

I somehow endured the old-fashioned bullets that contained no magical power by relying on my ‘Ogre Skin’ factor and ‘Strong Bones,’ while I had to block the old-model direct-fire cannons somehow, as they would certainly pierce holes in my body if they hit.

Namely, by borrowing the power of the ‘Sword Demon.’

-Slash!

While normally I wouldn’t be able to cut through rotating conical shells, with the ‘Sword Demon’ awakened, enhancing my reflexes, dynamic vision, and skills to the extreme, it became entirely possible.

I simply extended my Aura-coated zweihander gently in the calculated trajectory of the shell, and with just that, the shell was cut in half by its own force and embedded somewhere in the forest.

‘It hurts…!!’

Of course, as a price for such an insane act, I felt an intense pain like burning muscle fibers as the muscle pain in my arm intensified, but nevertheless, cutting a shell in half head-on had quite a powerful impact, it seems.

‘….Oho, they’re terrified.’

The perpetrators of this attack, who had seemed poised to move immediately after attacking me, now stood watching me with dumbfounded (frightened) eyes, having paused in the middle of fixing bayonets or reloading their guns and cannons.

Those who had attacked me were, from what I could see, dozens of humans who looked like some kind of unsavory mercenaries.

Though quite disorganized, they all had at least gambeson-level armor, and besides the firearms they had used to shoot at me, they carried various cold weapons.

These included short one-handed weapons, which are quite advantageous in a forest environment where it’s difficult to wield polearms, and shields, which provide considerable advantage in close combat, all of which they had hung somewhere.

‘This doesn’t look good….’

In short, they were clearly not a ragtag bunch at first glance, so I was about to advance forward to capture them and extract information, but….

-Beep beep beep beep beep-!!!!

‘—What!!!’

Startled by the intuitive warning that seemed to peck at me frantically, I hurriedly retreated.

-BOOM!!!

After seeing a chimera charge into the exact spot where I had been standing just moments ago, I was about to intercept it when I was struck dumb by the enemies’ battle formation that followed.

Because I saw them.

[[[[Grrrrrr….]]]]

[[[[Grrrrrr….]]]]

[[[[Grrrrrr….]]]]

Three lion heads, three red dragon heads, three goat heads, three snake heads—a total of 12 heads belonging to three chimeras, all glaring at me.

And behind them, holding a staff with a fist-sized (living) eyeball attached to it, someone with trembling legs but eyes filled with madness staring at me.

Despite the aura I sensed being clearly no higher than low-grade, this mastermind(?) had attacked me using a staff that seemed to have some magical connection to the three chimeras.