Kaniel smiled brightly while grasping the lapels of the cloak he’d just received. At that, Taeyon frowned around his eyes as if he didn’t understand, then soon took his gaze off Kaniel and paid the stall owner.
It was probably because saying he wasn’t worried wasn’t meant as comfort. Kaniel also knew that Taeyon truly wasn’t worried. However, that’s exactly why he felt more at ease. Because Taeyon, who didn’t know how to say honeyed words, had said he would be helpful.
“Thank you for buying me the cloak.”
Kaniel thanked Taeyon, who’d come back after paying the stall owner, and took his hand again. Since humans couldn’t see through darkness, he had no choice but to rely on him here.
Taeyon, whose hand was suddenly grasped, flinched at his fingertips, but Kaniel didn’t notice.
“What are you buying next? Do you have a lot to buy?”
“I need to stock up on provisions. And you need a backpack too.”
“Please buy a big one. I’ll carry a lot of luggage.”
“…I wonder.”
It was a statement that conveyed the meaning of “Can you really do that?” Kaniel was somehow excited by the fact that he’d become able to understand the taciturn Taeyon’s meaning a bit better.
The two walked around various parts of the market and bought provisions, jerky, and travel essentials like a backpack and canteen for Kaniel to use. They each bought an unknown skewer to eat as well.
They’d finished their business and were just about to turn around to go find an inn.
“Kyaaaah—!”
A scream split the night sky. Following that, from far away came a rumbling sound like something collapsing, and a cloud of dust rose up.
“Taeyon.”
“Let’s observe for now.”
Taeyon perked up his wolf ears toward the direction of the sound.
Before long, the sound of beast-type monsters growling and barking drew closer. Over ten small badger monsters and a giant bear monster were approaching the market, destroying houses.
“…They’re not properly trained.”
Taeyon muttered in an ominous tone. The wooden fence collapsing from the monster attack was unavoidable. Because the bear monster’s bulk was formidable. But allowing entry all the way to the market inside the village was another story.
Oblyad Castle should send inspections once every six months, so how could they have become so lax?
Taeyon clicked his tongue and spoke to Kaniel.
“You stay here. If it’s dangerous, run away and hide.”
“What? What are you going to do?”
“Kill them.”
Saying that, Taeyon drew his sword. Taeyon’s expression facing the monsters was calm, but that made him feel all the more reliable.
However, Kaniel couldn’t hide his anxiety. All the monsters they’d encountered and disposed of in the forest until now had been four-legged beast-type monsters. But this time it was a bear that walked on two legs and used its front paws to haphazardly destroy surrounding buildings. Moreover, a tremendous monster that seemed to be 4 meters from head to toe.
What if, as Taeyon said, this village’s guards weren’t reliable and he got seriously hurt after stepping forward?
Paying no mind to Kaniel’s anxiety, Taeyon turned around.
“The knee!!”
Kaniel urgently grabbed Taeyon’s forearm.
“Bear monsters have weak knees. Their lower body is weak compared to their body, so if you destroy the knees they won’t be able to move properly.”
That’s why on the Floating Island, they fed them nutritional supplements or made them wear knee braces to compensate for their weak knees. Who knew that knowledge from back then would be used this way here.
If the monsters here were the cute ones he’d known, he would never have shared this information, but now he knew how different the monsters of the Floating Island and the surface were. If it raised Taeyon’s survival rate, he could say it readily.
“The knee. Got it.”
Taeyon made a slightly surprised expression, then nodded and ran toward the direction where the bear monster was.
“Be careful!”
Kaniel shouted at his back. Since there was no response, he didn’t know if Taeyon heard. Kaniel watched that retreating figure, then turned around while pressing down his hood firmly.
* * *
Taeyon ran to the scene where the guard members were struggling. Seven guard members were trying to obstruct the bear monster’s path, but they were often kicked and sent flying instead.
The guard members opposing the badger monsters weren’t much different either. They were barely holding on at best. He didn’t see anyone properly disposing of the monsters.
Taeyon launched his body and deeply slashed the paw of the bear monster that was trying to trample a guard member. And while the bear monster, which let out an irritated crying sound of “Grroowwn,” stepped back, he shouted.
“All of you, fall back.”
“What? But….”
“Go deal with the small ones! You’re in the way.”
At the harsh rebuke, the guard members finally fell back.
The bear monster also seemed to realize who the most threatening existence in this group was and fixed its gaze on Taeyon. Thanks to the bear paw being thick, even though he’d slashed it quite deeply, there was no reaction like limping from the wound.
Taeyon clicked his tongue and checked the bear monster’s short and fat legs and knees compared to its body.
“The knee, you say….”
The one to charge first between the two was the bear monster. At its movement rushing in an instant while touching the ground with all fours, Taeyon dodged to the side while leaning his upper body back. The bear monster’s claws grazed past through the air just above his belly.
Taeyon, who sprang up his body by bouncing his waist elastically, this time jumped up high to widen the distance.
Crack!
The bear monster’s upper and lower teeth clashed roughly where Taeyon had been standing just moments ago. If he hadn’t dodged, Taeyon’s waist might have been severed in two.
Despite passing such a dangerous situation, Taeyon’s expression remained calm.
Hot breath filled with heat spewed out from the excited bear monster’s mouth. The bear monster made a growling sound as if unable to bear it, struck and destroyed an innocent stall structure, then crouched down again.
And this time it charged at a speed incomparable to before. Taeyon recognized his reaction was too late to dodge to the side, grabbed a nearby stall pillar and sprang his body up. Then he spun a couple times in the air, went over to behind the bear monster’s back, and landed smoothly without a trace of presence.
The bear monster looked confused as if it couldn’t understand why Taeyon’s remains weren’t in its hands. Taeyon stabbed his blade into the back of the bear’s knee just like that.
Keeeeek—!
The bear monster spun its body around and swung its front paw toward Taeyon. This time Taeyon dodged by lowering his body until his chin almost touched the ground, then immediately bounced his knee and charged. The sword dug into the front of the bear’s knee, below the kneecap. It was exquisite skill that cut only the muscle without catching on bone.
After immediately pulling out and checking, the bear monster tried to charge this way while dragging its leg, then tumbled forward.
Normally monsters had strong resistance to pain. With wounds of the degree of simply being slashed and stabbed, they would attack while crushing their own legs without caring what happened later.
However, when he attacked the bear monster’s knee, perhaps because of the short legs unsuited to the large upper body, the balance didn’t match properly and it became unable to run.
Needless to say, that process was simpler than attacking other places.
“It really was the knee.”
That was proof that Kaniel’s knowledge was truly useful. Taeyon smiled with raised corners of his mouth and raised his sword up again. Disposing of a monster that couldn’t move wasn’t difficult.
A short while later, the bear monster went limp and then disappeared, turning into black smoke.
Taeyon confirmed that even the blood on his sword had turned to black smoke and turned his body toward the inside of the market where Kaniel should be. While he dealt with the giant bear monster, the guards had only succeeded in killing three or four badger monsters at most.
It’s a mess. Just as Taeyon, who muttered lowly, clicked his tongue, a gray wolf monster that had run from beyond the castle wall charged at him. At the sudden ambush, the moment Taeyon raised his sword to block its claws and pushed it away, another one charged toward where the beastkin who’d taken shelter were gathered inside the market.
There was no one who could fight left over there.
“Damn…!”
The moment Taeyon turned his body that way, the gray wolf monster charged at him again. Taeyon, who nimbly sprang his body and climbed to the second floor of a side building, urgently checked where the civilians were.
Kaniel had spread both arms and was blocking the front of the beastkin.
“Kaniel!”
* * *
Kaniel moved his steps toward where the beastkin were taking shelter. The beastkin there seemed to be those with almost no combat ability.
So not all beastkin are strong.
Looking closely, the ones on this side were herbivore animal beastkin like rabbits, deer, and sheep. It seemed beastkin’s personalities and abilities varied greatly depending on which animal was their basis.
“Wait, don’t come close.”
Surprised by the flustered restraint, he looked up to see it was that deer beastkin from before. The large-bodied deer beastkin with huge antlers. He had a displeased expression as if recognizing that Kaniel was the person he’d bumped into earlier, even though Kaniel was wearing a hooded cloak.
Cursed one. As Kaniel hesitated, recalling that contemptuous reaction, other beastkin looked at the deer beastkin as if they didn’t understand what was going on.
