Chapter 101 – Troubles Near the Capital
Chapter 101 – Troubles Near the Capital
Translator: ranzan
Unicorn. A magical beast like a horse with one large horn on its head.
It may look cute, and it is a magnificent beast, but it has the temperament of mass murderer.
Anything that’s not a virgin maiden…young or old, male or female, it tries to kill.
「WHOA!」
The unicorn was obviously coming at me as I rode on top of Femm.
Femm usually would dodge it easily, but this time Femm’s reaction was slow.
Perhaps Femm was too focused on the smell to notice.
「ryaaaaaaaaa!」
Shiggy popped out of my pocket. It cried out very loudly.
Maybe it was trying to threaten the unicorn.
Because of that, for an instant, the unicorn stopped before it hit us.
I couldn’t dodge it, so I grabbed its horn with my right hand. I flung myself of Femm and onto the back of the unicorn.
I saw that there wasn’t one unicorn, but 10.
「If it stabs you, you die!」
『Are you okay?』
「Forget about me! Get out of here!」
「Al, take them!」
The unicorn was a very strong magical beast. If we fought them here, the forest hermit would escape.
Maybe this was its plan. Luka didn’t slow down at all.
「Moofy! Take care of Vi-Vi!」
「Moo Mooo!」
「Be careful, Allll!」
Moofy slowed a bit with Vi-Vi riding her, but then took off after Luka again.
However, Femm went on a bit, stopped, and then started coming back.
I jumped to the unicorn so that Femm would keep running. There was no reason for Femm to stop.
「Femm, don’t worry about me, GO!」
『With me, you’re not going to be able to follow.』
「Without me, you can still follow the scent!」
『Moofy can do it for me!』
Moofy’s sense of smell was sharp.
But without Femm, they might lose track of the forest hermit.
「I see…then help.」
「Wuff!」
「ryaa ryaa」
While we were talking the other unicorns turned and began their attack on me.
The didn’t just attack with their horns either.
They could bite you or stop you or kick you, so they had a variety of attacks.
However, maybe because Shiggy screeched at the unicorn, the unicorn stopped their attack on my body.
If you knew where they were attacking, they were easy to fight.
I dodged the attack with a magical barrier, and then used a magic spear to attack the unicorn.
The unicorns didn’t try to flee. They simply kept charging in attempts to kill me.
The unicorn I was riding was flailing around in efforts to throw me off.
「GIVE IT UP, UNICORN!」
No way to get me off that easily. I squeezed my knees around the unicorn and held on to the unicorn…
「Whoa! Ahhggg!」
Another unicorn reared and stomped on my leg. My left knee, that was hit by the magic arrow, was filled with pain. I had to weaken my hold.
That second, the unicorn I was riding jumped wildly again.
I was thrown through the air.
「Whoaaaaaa!」
「ryaaaaaaaa!」
I tried to rebalance myself in the air, and I landed on my feet. The landing pulsated painfully through my legs…especially my knee. Extreme pain.
I was glad I softened the fall a bit with some gravity magic. It was too late though, as the pain was unrelenting.
My body was stiffened with the pain in my knee.
The unicorns saw their advantage, and all barreled at me, attacking.
「GAOOOOOONNN!」
「ryaaaaaaaaaaa!」
Femm cried out in a howl filled with magic power. The unicorns all froze.
Shiggy cried out at them too, but it probably had no effect.
The unicorns’ momentary jolt stopped them, then they began to attack again. The shock was only for a second.
However, it was all I needed to get my strength back.
「Hope you like these magic spears!」
As they leapt to attack, I struck them with magic spears.
Femm also lept and bit the necks of the unicorns near him…it seemed to relish it.
Since they were all focused on attack me, Femm simply jumped at them and chomped at their necks.
Femm and I quickly dispatched all 10 unicorns.
It took about five minutes to get rid of them all.
「ryaaaa」
Even Shiggy was making a proud pace after the fight.
「Those dangerous unicorns didn’t scare you at all, you really are a brave dragon.」
「ryaa」
「But since it was dangerous, from now on just let me take care of it.」
「rya ryaaa」
Shiggy had kept pretty quiet in the town up until now.
But even in the face of a dangerous foe like the unicorns, it didn’t scare.
Very brave and smart…maybe even genius.
I rode on Femm again.
「Femm, let’s go.」
『Aren’t you going to go through the spoils?』
That was an adventurer’s job…after all.
But, the real quest was finding the forest hermit.
「No, not now.」
「Ruff」
I repressed my instincts to search for treasure and went ahead, leaving the unicorns behind.
It was still painful to leave all of that behind.
『We’ll catch up quickly.』
「Thanks.」
I rode on Femm’s back at full speed while thinking about the unicorns.
I heard that unicorns were spotted near the capital lately.
Cruz had taken care of all of them.
「There shouldn’t be types of monsters like unicorns around here in this big of numbers.」
「Ruff?」
「Femm, were those unicorns zombies?」
Femm had bitten them, so I guess it would know what the zombie tastes like.
『No.』
「I see. Thanks.」
Femm had determined they weren’t. Then they must not be zombies.
But if that’s the case, then that means they’re unrelated.
「I guess them not being related is even more trouble…」
「Wuff?」
As we ran along, I saw more dead beasts by the side of the road.
They were freshly cut and killed.
The bodies weren’t unicorns…just smaller, weaker creatures.
「Luka’s work.」
「Wuff」
And it wasn’t just one beast either…there were quite a few.
This wasn’t deep in a forest either. It was the high road. And near the capital.
「Too many monsters.」
『Quite dangerous.』
Then we started getting attacked by monsters…but they were weak.
We killed them as we ran along.
「If there’s weak beasts by the road, then something must be here.」
『Maybe something scarier than we’ve seen so far.』
Normally, the smaller beasts don’t approach roads or human settlements. Humans are too on guard.
However, when there’s a much stronger beast nearby, it’s not strange that they’ll come close to the road.
Just like the way Shiggy’s parent scared all the monsters into the wolves’ forest.
『We need to get off the road.』
Femm said to itself, as it went from the road into the forest.
This must be where the forest hermit Vallimie lived.
We continued a bit more, and we finally saw Luka, Vi-Vi, and Moofy again.
They were all facing a great dragon, on the other side of a river.
There was one already dead, but one was still flying in the air.
And behind Luka were three other adventurers, heavily injured.
「I see. That’s why they stopped.」
Luka and the others stopped to defend and help the adventurers before they were destroyed.
It would have been easy to Luka to just blow past the great dragon.
However…then the adventurers would have been killed.
「Even so, for a great dragon to be this close to the capital…」
Someone at the guild would be responsible for not getting rid of this dragon.
As I thought it over, Luka shouted,
「Hurry up and kill it! I can’t attack something in the sky!」
「Sure. Another magic spear coming up!」
The positions from the river was the river, which the injured adventurers were next to, which Luka was defending, who the dragon was attacking, and then us.
We were standing behind the great dragon.
I began conjuring up the magic.
The dragon felt the magic behind it and turned.
It then spiraled down in an attack.
I used two magic spears – one to break through its magic barrier, and another to break through its head.
The great dragon then fell dead to the ground.
「Are you okay?」
「We are…but they…」
Luka said, turning to the injured adventurers.
They had really taken a beating. Deep wounds and burns. The dragon had spewed flame all over them, I bet.
We were still trying to chase the forest hermit.
However, if we left these adventurers here, they’d die.
No time to think it over.
「Back to the capital.」
「Right.」
Luka nodded.
We quickly put the adventurers on Femm and Moofy. Luka carried one of them on her back.
「…ugh…」
「Relax, you’ll be safe soon.」
She tried to cheer up the groaning adventurer, and we raced back to the capital.
As we ran, Femm said,
『…that great dragon was a zombie…』
「I see.」
Maybe the unicorns were just fleeing from the great dragons.
I glanced over at Vi-Vi.
It was clear that Vi-Vi was pondering deeply over something as her cow mask stayed fixed, staring into the distance.