Chapter 33: If You Say You've Grown, Then Show the Results

This is our second episode today.

—My head is pounding.

Just as planned—despite the splitting headache attacking only me—we left Elna Village behind.

Come to think of it, I forgot to check whether Rizel planned to come with us, but she agreed without hesitation. Or rather, it seems she had always intended to.

"I'm definitely going to beat Myudy! No question about it!"

That’s what she declared.

...I get the feeling her objective has shifted a little.

The people of Elna Village were genuinely grateful to us. For putting up the barrier, for protecting the village over the past six months, for repelling the ogre... and much more.

To my delight, my cooking was a hit. After we defeat the "Demon Dragon," lots of people asked me to come back and cook again.

I just smiled at them vaguely.

Still, being able to sleep soundly in a real bed for the first time in ages was a blessing.

Even without the intense battle against the ogre, we were able to fully recharge.

Now, we continued through the miasma once more.

...Detection Sonar picked something up.

“They’re coming. Three of them. Their magic power is stronger than the Blood Ogre’s. Stay sharp.”

At my words, everyone immediately assumed battle stances.

This was clearly a real fight, but the three of them—aside from Myudy—were fighting under restrictions.

Raiga and Rizel were to fix one foot in place and focus only on defense. Miss Karen had to complete her incantations within five seconds.

This was what Myudy called “training during the journey.”

Of course, it didn’t take precedence over their lives.

But if they broke the rules, they’d be subjected to harsh extra training that night.

Pretty brutal conditions, honestly.

And yet, the three of them looked eager.

In fact, they seemed thrilled to test how far they’d come.

“Yuto, just sit back and watch us!”

“Easy peasy~!”

“Myudy-san, I’m counting on you to protect Yuto-san!”

And with that, the three of them took off running.

During that time, Myudy stayed behind to guard me. I wasn’t supposed to be on the battlefield, but she didn’t want to leave me alone either—so this was the compromise.

Even though I could detect threats using Detection Sonar, there was no guarantee a monster wouldn’t close the distance in an instant… or so Myudy said.

What appeared before us were three beasts. A lion’s head, a goat’s body, bird wings, and a snake tail—I'd seen them before. Chimeras.

“Those are... Chimeras?”

“You know them?”

“I’ve never seen monsters like that before~”

Apparently, the others hadn’t.

Looking closely, the three of them had subtle differences. The base structure was the same, but the details varied.

For example, one had eagle wings, while the other two had crow wings. One of them had a cobra-like tail with a spoon-shaped head. There was even one with a black-and-white torso—could that be... a cow?

They were already bizarre hybrid creatures, and now even their traits were inconsistently mixed.

...A theory came to mind.

Could these chimeras be the result of distorted evolution, absorbing surrounding organisms through the miasma? That would explain why the others didn’t recognize them.

Karen was well-read, having studied to become a traveling “Saint.” And Rizel had grown up on the Demon Continent, where monsters were commonplace.

“They probably each have the powers of the animals they’re made from! Watch out!”

Even so, what we had to do didn’t change.

To defeat the Demon Dragon, we needed to grow stronger—and eliminate any threats in our path. That’s all there was to it.

“GRUOAAHH!”

One of the chimeras roared like a lion.

That was the signal—the battle had begun.

—That said, we were on standby.

With only one foot allowed to move, we couldn’t rush in.

Instead, we lured the enemy in and prepared to counter.

Karen stood behind us, chanting her spell.

“Lightning, strike! Lightning Bolt!”

It was clearly faster than before.

The air split open, and lightning crashed down on one of the chimeras. It tried to twist away, but too late. The bolt struck cleanly, ripping off its crow wings.

“Freeze! Icicle Spear!”

A follow-up spell came in rapid succession.

Frozen spears materialized all around and attacked. One chimera was taken out just like that.

“A-Amazing…”

“I was planning to focus only on healing magic, but surprisingly, it looks like I’ve gotten good at other things too!”

Karen puffed out her chest with pride.

I couldn’t afford to fall behind, either.

I blocked the incoming strike from the second chimera with my Galatine, now enveloped in flames.

“Gyaaahn!”

The chimera, despite being the one who attacked, let out a shriek. No surprise there. My flame-infused Galatine was a blade of fire—it’s like it had slammed its body against a scorching-hot iron plate.

Not wasting the opening, I swiftly countered with a return slash.

The chimera twisted to dodge, but it was too late. My blade struck its cobra tail, severing it clean off.

“GUAAAH!”

Howling in pain, the chimera staggered backward.

And I wasn’t about to let it escape.

“You’re not getting away! Pierce it, flames! Fire Arrow!”

Focusing, I launched my first-ever offensive fire spell mid-combat.

Until now, I’d never had the leeway to cast magic during a fight. But thanks to all the training we’d done on gauging distance, I’d learned when it was safe to focus.

The chimera had already lost an ally, and the power gap between us was clear. At that moment, it began to hesitate, even consider retreating. From my perspective, it was practically begging to be hit.

That said, my magic wasn’t exactly powerful. The damage only amounted to a surface-level burn.

“Grrgh...!”

Still, it seemed the chimera had decided that retreat was no longer an option.

If it turned tail now, it’d just get finished off from behind. Apparently, my magic had done enough to convince it of that.

“GAAAH!”

It lunged at me in a desperate, all-or-nothing charge.

I twisted my body to dodge.

“You’re wide open!”

And as we passed each other, I cut it down in a single stroke.

The last chimera was Rizel’s opponent.

With its companions dead, the chimera was now completely on the back foot. But having witnessed their deaths, it must’ve concluded retreat was impossible.

It charged straight at Rizel.

Its path was a perfect line for hitting her center mass. There was no way to avoid it without moving both feet.

But—

“Rizel-chan, into Mini-Beast Form—Little Beast Mode!”

She casually caught the attack with a show of strength I wouldn’t have believed possible before.

Looking closer, I saw only one of her arms had transformed into a beast’s limb.

Exactly. This was Rizel’s newly developed combat method.

From now on, we’d be encountering more enemies as tough as the Lord Ogre. But her trump card—her half-beast form—consumed massive energy. So how to conserve it?

Her solution was to shrink the transformation area even further.

By focusing the beastification on a single body part, she reduced the magical power needed. And—what she considered just as important—it also helped preserve her clothes.

Yesterday at sunset, when she suddenly said, “I tried it, and it actually worked,” I nearly fell on my butt in shock.

“You’re kidding me!”

I shouted, and she just laughed.

Either way—

“Bye-bye~”

She transformed her other hand and ran it straight through the chimera.

Just like that, we defeated the chimeras—without breaking any of the restrictions.

“How did the three of them do?”

Now alone with Myudy, I asked her the question.

“…Honestly? It’s going to be tough,” she replied, a bitter look on her face.

“They’ve definitely got the ability. Just one day, and they’ve already grown tremendously. By normal human standards, they’re monsters in their own right.”

“So in the end, the ‘Unleashing’ is necessary…”

“There’s no way around it. The difference in class between a ‘Demon Dragon’ and a human is just too vast. That’s why we need the power of a ‘Hero.’”

Myudy’s words weighed heavily on me.