Something similar to a bear cub is sitting on Rollodeen’s head? I can’t quite tell because of all the black fur growing on her head.
――Suddenly I feel a surge of bloodlust. Not from the small animal, nor from the witch spear.
It’s ing from the forest on the other side of the river. But, the instant I focus to pin down the source, the bloodlust disperses.
The treetops, giving one an impression of being a thick cloud because of the many trees, creak as they grate against each other. The rustling of the leaves is the only answer I get. The sound resembles that of Rollodeen’s rare meowing like when she says something along the lines of 『Can’t be helped nya～』.
Well, it’s dark so the visibility is bad, and the sensation teeming with bloodlust was outside the range of Grasping Perception. As it’s been too far away, it’s impossible to tell the magic source response apart.
I might have been able to spot something if I used the scope of the beam rifle to search, but…this place is a dense jungle overflowing with monsters, so there might be other strong enemies around besides Hoffmann.
I’ll ignore it.
Also, I’m curious about the reason for Rollodeen’s head fur to shake.
“…Rollo, get ready. I have no idea what’s going to happen with that extremely shady, dark red spear――” I focus on putting strength into my eyes after warning my partner, glaring at the witch spear that has swallowed Schmihazar.
Huh? I’m looking closely, but…what’s going on…? The witch spear has vanished?
I stare at the new being while shutting out everything around me. It’s a huge object. The head of a whale? I can’t see its front since it’s so gigantic, nor can I grasp its entirety. But, it seems to have a crooked form.
The surface is made out of smooth, black metal that’s filled with mana, I think. If Mysty or Eva were here…they might have been able to identify the metal’s name by looking at the whale.
I wonder what the back of that whale head looks like. The upper part is roundish. The lower part has repeated traces of having its fur trimmed. Filament-like, weird fur grows on its feet that resemble the hooves of a horse in their shape. And it also has the part Helme likes so much.
The hoofs remind me of Schmihazar’s.
Suddenly, a sound as if squeezing a house-cloth escapes from the whale head. Is that whale head object going to swallow something? Or is it going into action? While releasing that queer sound, it starts moving up and down in a suspicious way.
Eh? What’s that…?
As it bends and expands its abdomen, a dark brown, pixel-arts-like tetragon es out of its butt. The tetragon repeatedly expands and contracts as if breathing while slowly swaying, and acpanied by a gurgling one tetagron after the other is being born.
Exaggerated pixel art farts? Poop? Traces of energy emission that’s interfering with space?
The wine-colored tetragons bee transparent while sporadically blinking, and then vanish. A material that’s being emitted and vanishes is mysterious, but the same can be said for the huge body that also looks like a whale.
The length of the whale’s body exceeds 30 m, I think. It’s even bigger than Schmihazar’s coffin. So this time it’s a jet-black, gigantic whale, huh?
It’s not all that different from the wild whales flying in the skies. But, seeing how its shape is different, it might be another species.
Also, if Helme was here, she’d definitely ment on something. 『It’s a disaster! The butt isn’t cracked!』 or something like that…
Schmihazar’s huge coffin is still floating in the air, diagonally below the whale. Even though Schmihazar has vanished, the same doesn’t happen with the coffin…? That coffin isn’t spiritually linked with Schmihazar or something?
Well, it’s a fact that other monsters are also living inside that coffin. The one I managed to catch a glance of earlier was a black giant.
Schmihazar mentioned that 250 devils are obeying Hoffmann. So there should still be 249 devils lurking inside that coffin? Or…maybe the coffin itself is a monster?
The pictures on the coffin’s surface are moving as if animated, and I can also see letters on it.
『Oh brethren, the one you ought to protect in this world is only one – Vampire Angel of Death Melchior Hoffmann-sama』
Many other letters also appear and disappear. Dissonant music chords reach my ears. The coffin is bloody fishy, but I’ll leave it for later.
…Let’s concentrate on the whale head for now.
Rollodeen shakes her head. She’s aware of the whale head and the coffin.
“Nnn――” While purring throatily, she extends a tentacle towards me. That tentacle instantly coils itself around my waist with a rustling, making it look like a brand-new black belt of the New Evil Dragon King armor. And then she uses the tentacle to pull me over.
The sensation of being pulled with a jerk lasts but a moment. It’s as if a stretched rubber band has snapped back. In no time, Rollodeen carries me above her back. I can feel her soft fur through Arzen’s Boots.
Just like that I walk over to the back of her head, following the lie of her fur. Over there I find a rein tentacle bobbing back and forth.
――Thanks for always doing your job.
I tightly grasp the tentacle in front of me with my left hand.
“Nnn――”
Rollodeen purrs happily, seemingly enjoying the touch of my hand. Thereupon she transforms the tip of the tentacle, which has been protruding out between my thumb and index finger like a meatball into a flat shape, and slides the tip towards the lower part of my neck. Then the pad on the back side of the tentacle closely attaches itself to my neck. It feels like a suction pad, just a slightly cold one.
The sensation I obtain through the rein tentacle is nice, but I also love the feeling of the pad on my neck. The shared sensations with Rollodeen are special for me.
At that point,
『Head』『Meat』『Head』『Roll』『Happy』『Play』『Butt』『Black』『Defeat』『Black Candy』『Meat』『Meat meat~』
Rollo sends me her feelings, going beyond fluffy and joyful.
I don’t understand the 『Meat meat~』 part, but in short, she’s telling me that we should defeat that whale together.
Rollodeen unnaturally shakes her head, and approaches the whale with a few powerful strides as if stalking prey. Though I don’t get why she’s shaking her head.
Countless tentacles fan out to the front from her limbs. The swarms look like the plume of a peafowl. There’s so many of them that they actually darken my visual field.
Is she holding a grudge over having them bunched up into a bundle earlier?
Due to the shadow of the tentacle swarm…my visual field looks like it’d do during night. Well, it’s not like I particularly mind since my eyes color the magic sources for me.
Beautiful wings spread to the sides from Rollodeen’s flanks. They expand with movements giving one the impression that the number of primary feathers is continuously growing. And she also opens her muzzle wide as if to expose all her fangs. Making her head point upwards a bit, a small breath tinged with flames escapes her throat.
Rollo has also finished her preparations for battle. She’s assuming that the battle will also take place in the air.
But, what’s that light suddenly shining in the fur close to me? No, the fur is restlessly stirring. And then a small animal appears from within while acpanied by a glow.
“Puyuyu～”
Puyu? Oh, that’s the guy who’s made the fur move since earlier!
…It has big and round eyes with a color similar to hyacinth. A small head that’s engulfed by light brown fur which looks rather fluffy. That head also possesses two small and cute ears.
Going by the matching ears, it truly looks like the very definition of a plush toy.
The animal smiles pleasantly. A beastman? A bear cub? It has many gaps between its teeth, but…the teeth themselves are white.
The lower half of that animal keeps appearing and disappearing in the fur growing out of Rollo’s forehead.
…Adorable.
It extends its small hand, also covered in fluffy fur, to the front, and moves Rollo’s fur aside. With the other cute hand it’s grasping a small, twisted wand like they are used in ceremonies. Many withered branches looking like Christmas trees are visible at the tip of the wand. They have no leaves, but instead, all kinds of decorations. The tips of the branches are ornamented with butterflies I remember having seen somewhere and dinosaurs. Something resembling white figs and wooden bells shaped like mangos are dangling down from the branches. There’s also tiny cloth banners at the branches’ lower parts.
Firefly-like bugs, which are blinking with a silver glow, have gathered around that wand. The wand itself releases a faint mana light. A dim silver gleam…
Since it’s bee dark because of Rollo’s tentacles, it fits perfectly and feels bright. That bear cub or whatever draws close to me while crying, “Puyuyu! Puyuyu!”
It exposes its full body after moving Rollodeen’s fur aside. The cub is wearing shell armor with small leather patches and carved bones pasted to it. It also has a leather belt, but it’s even storing mana inside its small body?
It lifts up the wand towards me with its eyes gleaming.
“Puyuyu～n!”, it cries with a voice that sounds awfully self-important.
Its gender is unclear, but the cub releases magic with the wand at its center. It’s no attack against Rollo or me, but rather a spell directed at itself. Lustrous, silver waves expand in the air while creating unique ripples.
While the waves sway, they wrap up each part of the cub’s body like a membrane. The silver waves then vanish as if having blended into its fluffy plush. But, in the next instant, its body wears a magic robe. The robe emits a faint, silver light. Next, a bluish-white, thin film covers its body as if tails and fins have been attached to the robe.
Given that it covers its body including its two small feet, it might be some kind of . Or maybe it’s plainly a defense field of sorts. The fur that has been cladding it to begin with is also bluish-white. A mark similar to a clan emblem shines on the surface of the shell armor. Even the leather belt is wrapped up by the film, and the small bag attached to the belt also changes its color. The wild oat-like catgrass protruding out of the bag is covered by a blue membrane, too.
Because its fluffy fur stands out, it looked like it wouldn’t need any clothing. Is it surprisingly sensitive to cold temperatures or something?
But rather than that, I think I’ll ask about its magic.
“…So you can use magic.”
“Puyu?”
Oiii, e on, what’s with that questioning look…though it looks adorable when staring at me.
Still, I don’t understand its words. The translation doesn’t kick in either.
Is the cub an aborigine living in this area?
“…Rollo, did you bee friends with this bear cub?”
“Nn, nya, nyaa～” Rollodeen shakes her head, obviously denying.
Her velvet-like mane shakes furiously. Even I’m shaken by her motion. Well, since we share our senses, it’s all cool, though.
And while we’re still sharing senses…Rollodeen would usually dabble with me, using her tentacles to poke my cheeks, rub the bare skin of my right hand, entwine and pull my legs, and mess up my hair…
But as might be expected, she doesn’t do such pranks in this situation. But, she uses her tentacles to support my body by coiling them around various parts.
“――Puyuyu!”
On the hand, the cub starts to scream around. It’s frantic to not be thrown off Rollodeen’s shaking head.
“Hahaha,” I laugh.
Sorry, but it’s extremely funny.
It’s grabbing Rollodeen’s head fur with its small hand. But, the cub doesn’t run away, huh? Is it obsessed with Rollo?
“…I don’t quite get the nature of your relationship with the cub, but…”
“Nnn――” Rollodeen fervently shakes her head while answering with a deep purr, but then stops.
It looks like she fancies the small cub talking in a mysterious Puyuyu language on her head. And, it’s not that she sees the cub as a bug, but she brings up one of her hind paws to her head, seemingly feeling itchy on her head thanks to the cub. But then she stops the paw, which she tried to use to scratch her head, right above my head.
It seems the gentle Rollo doesn’t want to kill the small cub, seeing how sharp claws are protruding out of her paw. Though I believe the movements that almost threw the cub off were plenty of a menace for the small bear cub race.
I resummon Baldok into my right hand and Ganghis into my left, rotating them in the air as if to make them cross. Just like that I draw a 卍 and then ∞. It’s a display of a dual-spear-styled rotation technique ― handling the two spears as if having them pete against each other.
Since Rollodeen’s tentacles have pulled back in concert with my spear movements, they don’t bump against each other. Then, I focus on my shoulder, but…
“Puyuyuyu!”
The bear cub Taro
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