Chapter 161 — Sacrifice
Ran avoided the leader’s incoming fist and grabbed him by the throat.
Before he could resist more violently, Ran threw him to the ground and pinned his arms and legs beneath him.
“Kweeek .....!”
The leader’s furious eyes turned toward Ran.
When Ran loosened his grip enough to keep him from suffocating to death, the creature immediately spat out his anger.
“Kweeek, do you think helping the humans will get you what you want?!”
Of course it would.
Ran possessed every condition necessary to obtain what he needed.
Ran silently looked down at the struggling leader.
“Kweeek, you intended to kill me from the very beginning.”
“Kweeek, so you knew! Kweeek, there has never been a single moment when you did not seem suspicious!”
Ran tilted his head at the face that plainly showed how desperately the creature wanted to tear him apart and kill him.
That was precisely what made it strange.
He could not understand how the leader could go this far for a dimwit who had repeatedly treated Ran as the new leader instead of him.
The leader knew that it would be better to keep his mouth shut and wait for Ratel to bring the dimwit back.
Ran felt the urge to confirm one last thing with him.
“Kweeek, do you know what you just did?”
“Kweeek!! Are you mocking me?! Kweeek!! I tried to kill you and failed!!”
The leader glared at Ran and shouted in frustration.
He still did not seem to understand what he had done.
He had abandoned his final opportunity to escape for the dimwit and risked his life to attack Ran.
The leader did not realize that he had made such an absurd choice.
“Kweeek, no. You weren’t trying to kill me.”
You were buying time for the dimwit to escape.
It could even be called a sacrifice.
The leader’s persistent sacrifice continued as he clung tenaciously to Ran, preventing him from checking on the dimwit who had fallen below.
The creature tried to drag Ran back with his one remaining arm.
Apparently deciding that it would be impossible to stop Ran that way, he soon sank his teeth into Ran’s leg and held on.
He did not even realize that it was all pointless.
As long as the leader remained in their hands, luring the dimwit back would not be difficult.
Swallowing the lengthy explanation, Ran forcibly tore the leader away.
Then he shoved him deeper into the passage.
The leader’s body was sent sprawling and rolled all the way to Ratel’s feet.
“Kweeek, keep an eye on that idiot. Kweeek, as long as we have the leader, the dimwit will come back eventually anyway. Kweeek, he must also know a way to climb back up from below.......”
There were two reasons Ran could not finish speaking.
The first was that his body lurched when the previously solid floor suddenly collapsed.
“Kweeek ......!”
The second was the pair of green hands that grabbed both his legs from behind.
Ran lowered his head as the crushing grip tightened until it nearly cut off his circulation, and his eyes met the dimwit’s venomous gaze.
The creature’s eyes held an intense determination to drag Ran down by any means necessary.
Ran saw Ratel charging toward him from the front to stop the dimwit.
However, as had always been the case, the number of times the god of this world had taken Ran’s side could be counted on one hand.
This time was no different.
No, it was precisely at moments like this that his misfortune tended to prove its existence.
Whooooooosh.
A massive torrent of water surged up from below, cutting Ran off from Ratel.
The upward-rushing current blocked his vision, but Ran no longer even felt annoyed.
Right. Things had been far too quiet.
He had no choice but to surrender himself to the force pulling at his ankles and the torrent shoving him from the front.
Ran’s fall was the result of a process far more complicated than expected.
Its beginning might have been nothing more than misfortune, just as someone had anticipated.
At the very least, however, it did not mean that Sierra’s power remaining in the cave had moved deliberately to torment Ran and Ratel.
Perhaps—
Dragging along a body that felt ready to collapse, a mind on the verge of unconsciousness, and a soul that seemed ready to give out, Lia trudged forward with difficulty.
No, at this point, it would be more accurate to say that she was being dragged onward.
It was because of the strange incidents that occurred whenever the feeble desire to rest for even a moment raised its head.
A sudden deluge would pour down from the tree beneath which she stopped, or the place where she sat to rest would inexplicably turn out to be a puddle.
It was enough to make her think that something refusing to permit her any rest was pursuing her from behind.
Almost as though the island itself were alive.
“That isn’t entirely impossible.”
Lia muttered as though agreeing with the hypothesis in her head.
When even the river was raging as though intent on swallowing people whole, what was so difficult about an entire island moving?
Supposing all of this truly was a whip urging her not to rest for even a moment, she could instead consider it to be on her side.
There was no reason to reject something that was forcibly raising her weakened body.
Lia willingly relied on the unknown master’s whipping and continued walking.
Before long, as she mechanically moved like a horse being led along, the next lash descended.
Squelch.
A patch of mud suddenly appeared beneath Lia’s feet, sending her pitching forward.
She could have sworn there had been nothing there.
No longer possessing even the energy to be surprised by these strange phenomena, Lia lay sprawled on the ground and stared blankly ahead.
Her body felt so comfortable lying there that even the chill rising from the earth felt warm and pleasant.
She desperately wanted to remain there and fall asleep, but this time, too, her comfort did not last long.
Crackle.
The sound of a leaf being crushed caused her relaxed body to tense again.
Someone was moving.
No, something was moving.
Lia held her breath and listened. Her acutely heightened hearing intensified her tension.
Crackle, crackle.
The sound of dry leaves crumbling grated against Lia’s nerves, but she struggled to regain her composure.
Human effort, however, was generally not particularly effective at preventing incidents.
Crackle, thud.
Crackle, thud.
Feeling the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, Lia swallowed her breath.
Crackle, thud.
Crackle, thud.
The sound of something pushing through the undergrowth and something heavy striking the ground soon became vibrations that reached Lia.
Thump, thump.
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.
Lia’s body was already moving before her mind could issue the command. This was no longer the time to worry about the sound of her own footsteps.
Springing to her feet, Lia ran with all her strength.
It soon became clear that her judgment had not been premature.
“Kuweeeek!!!!”
A skin-crawling roar followed from behind her.
Clinging to the consciousness that felt ready to abandon her at any moment, Lia covered her mouth with both hands.
She had never been this close to a monster before.
The unbearable stench, the ragged breathing, and those blazing eyes.
The difference in their physical size was not the only problem.
The orc’s eyes contained enough murderous intent to tear its opponent limb from limb at any moment.
It was an emotion Lia had never possessed even once.
No, it was an emotion she had never even imagined herself possessing.
There was no conceivable way she could defeat it.
Feeling goosebumps rise along the back of her neck, Lia desperately suppressed the breath surging up to her chin.
However, she knew that such a temporary measure would be useless.
She had been told that their noses were sensitive. It would not take long for the creature to notice her scent.
Lia’s mind began spinning as rapidly as her pounding heart.
The scent.
What was she supposed to do to erase her scent?
Should she enter the water?
But she had already traveled far away from the river.
When she could not block her scent, what else could she do?
Should she cover it with something stronger?
What among her belongings possessed the strongest smell?
Among the list of items in her bag flashing through her mind, there was one that met the necessary condition.
Orc’s Pool.
It was used to treat wounds, but its smell was so overpowering compared with its effectiveness that .......
“They said it was unpopular because of its overpowering smell.......”
Unconsciously muttering to herself, Lia climbed the tallest tree nearby with the thickest trunk, her hands trembling violently.
She then rummaged through her bag as quietly as possible.
Her trembling caused her hands to slip several times, but Lia eventually found the small pouch she had buried deep inside the bag.
It will also find it strange if the smell suddenly becomes stronger.
She had been told that orcs were not an intelligent race, but there was no harm in being careful.
Calmly opening the pouch, Lia removed a small amount of Orc’s Pool powder.
Then, beginning with her neck and hair, she carefully sprinkled the powder across her entire body.
Just as she was reaching toward her legs, Lia stopped moving.
The orc that had pursued Lia through the undergrowth appeared once again.
Every time the orc flared its nostrils and turned its head from side to side, Lia’s heart beat faster.
However, in the next instant, Lia, who had remained perfectly still, involuntarily released her breath from the shock that made her heart feel ready to burst.
“Kweeek, human...... I smell a human......”
The orc was speaking clumsily.
Its appearance was every bit as grotesque as the murderous intent contained in its metallic voice, and Lia stopped both her breathing and movement.
“Kweeek, human...... I smell a human.......”
Words continued to emerge from the orc’s mouth.
It was different from the other orcs that had moved purely according to instinct. It was moving with both the will and the intention to kill a human.
Lia trembled at the grotesque impression created by that intelligence.
Did being capable of speaking the human language not mean that it was equally intelligent?
Her ominous premonition soon proved correct.
The orc, which had been looking around, suddenly jerked its head upward and glared at the tree from which Lia was hanging.
The orc’s murderous eyes were fixed precisely upon Lia.
It was the first time she had encountered such a fierce gaze, packed tightly with malice and an obsession with tearing its opponent apart, from such a close distance.
Momentarily overwhelmed by the intense bloodlust, Lia made the mistake of plainly revealing her terrified expression.
That helped the orc decide that it would capture and devour the human before it.
“Kweeeeeek!!!”
Lia regained her senses one step too late when the orc charged.
She instinctively gripped her only weapon tightly.
Thud!
At the same moment, the orc slammed into the tree Lia had climbed.
The tree shook violently.
Both Lia and the orc knew that it would not endure for long.
Seeing the orc’s face filled with delight at the prospect of soon devouring a human, Lia felt all the blood drain from her body.
Even so, she could not simply remain still and allow herself to be devoured.
She had not rescued Jing, she had yet to find Ran and Ratel, and more than anything else, she simply did not want to die.
An orc would die if its neck was severed.
Lia knew the sole method of killing the monster before her.
She was not particularly confident, though.
Thud!
The orc rammed the tree again.
As the trunk tilted beneath her, Lia concluded that she no longer had the luxury of standing there and thinking.
Gripping her sword firmly with both hands, Lia leaped down.
The target of the sword’s tip was the orc’s neck.
Please.
Please let me sever its neck in a single strike.
With that desperate wish, Lia put the full weight of her body behind the blade and swung her sword with all her strength.
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