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Chapter 24 – Ruins and a Black Shadow
“–Is that a ruin?”
Standing on the thread, Clare checks the situation from a distance.
There are definitely traces of a cliff collapse, and she can see something exposed on the collapsed slope – a stone structure.
There is a black hole that looks like it could be used to enter the structure. She can’t see the whole structure, but it’s not an entrance, but rather it looks like a part of the wall has collapsed along with the cliff, creating a hole there. The strange magical reaction she sensed was definitely coming from there.
There were several adventurers near the hole.
Clare came to stop the adventurers from contacting the cliff, but she was too late. The number of people she sensed didn’t match the number she could see. It meant that some people had already been sent inside as scouts.
She judges that the people outside are either on guard duty, or are there to rescue their companions if they don’t return, or to contact them for rescue requests.
She uses the thread she left with Rona and Selena to relay information to them. The principle is simple: just make a letter with the thread in one stroke.
“What should I do…”
The adventurers are already inside. Clare thought it would be a bad move to go inside the ruins without knowing what they were.
The changes in the situation after this are also unpredictable. In that case, it would be better to refrain from acting with the adventurers. The adventurers have predicted a certain degree of danger and left people outside. There is nothing Clare can say. On the contrary, if they approach the ruins carelessly and stay in the same place, there is a risk that they will be wiped out by an explosion or something.
Since she has given the information to Rona and Selena, she decides that she should keep her distance and watch the situation progress, so she hangs from the thread above her head and lowers her altitude a little.
She is not “flying” at the moment, but Clare has no way of knowing the criteria for the King of the Sky to safe out. She takes a position on a high tree where she can see the situation, and throws and stretches threads around her.
(I hope the advance party returns safely…)
Below Clare, the adventurers were talking about something, still excited.
They were the first to find an undiscovered ruin. Not only was it a matter of honor, but if they could bring back something valuable, it would bring them wealth. So it was only natural that they were happy.
As Clare watched the adventurers, she was praying that it would end without incident, but…
“Uh…”
Clare let out an unconscious voice, and the girl doll on her shoulder made a gesture as if to turn her face away.
The quality of the magical power leaking out of the ruins had changed. It had seemed to have changed from a quiet, standing still state to something that seemed to be gushing out from a dark hole. It was an aggressive, dangerous magical power.
Clare didn’t know what had happened inside the ruins. But there was no doubt that the ruins had woken up.
The adventurers seemed to sense the gushing magical power, and stopped chatting and peered into the dark hole.
While contacting the rear, Clare pondered what to do. She couldn’t step in carelessly. Even if she tried to rescue them, it would be terrible if they ended up in a double accident. That would put Rona and Selena in danger.
Even if she was thinking about rescuing the adventurers, she should continue to relay information while waiting for Rona and the others to arrive.
“Exit! Run! Run, run, run!”
“Ugh, oh!”
A scream-like voice, hurried footsteps, and intermittent metallic sounds could be heard from inside the ruins. Immediately after, several figures jumped out of the dark hole.
The adventurers were covered in blood and had lacerations all over their bodies. They rolled out to lend their shoulders to their companions who were losing consciousness.
“Hey! Are you okay!?”
The people who remained outside catch their fallen companions. Outside is a slope that has just collapsed.
“It’s a monster I’ve never seen before! They’re chasing me!”
“Jenna’s gone! She’s bleeding badly!”
“Damn! Hey, pull yourself together! I’ll treat her right away!”
The men call out to the lightly-clad female adventurer who is bleeding from her back and looking dizzy, but the wound is deep. There is a lot of bleeding.
The adventurers immediately try to take out potions from their waist pouches and administer first aid, but then a heavily-armored warrior with armor and a shield retreats to the location of the hole, holding his shield in front of him. The heavily-armored warrior is also bleeding quite a bit from various parts of his body.
The warrior glances back over his shoulder for a moment, grits his teeth, and stops at the entrance to the hole. He probably decided that if he didn’t hold it back, it would attack his comrades behind him as it was chasing him.
The next moment, something like a black shadow shot out of the hole, slamming into the warrior’s shield, armor, and the gaps between them. Its tip sparkled. Something like a whip-like blade. A metallic sound and blood splattered. A rain of slashes at incredible speed, rain, rain.
“No, no, no! I can’t take it!”
The warrior tried to avoid a fatal blow, but a stab was thrown into the gap in his defense. A black tentacle pierced the shoulder of the warrior who was desperately supporting his shield, and as if aiming for the moment he lost his strength, the shield was lifted up.
“Shit–”
The heavily armored warrior cried out. The slash was approaching.
In the blink of an eye.
“Whoa … “Ah, yeah…”
“I, I don’t really get it. You helped me… I, thank you.”
As if remembering something, the adventurers used potions to treat him.
While they were treating him, something emerged from the ruins.
Appearing in the sunlight was a silhouette like a human figure. Something jet black and human-shaped. It looked like an upside-down teardrop with a round head on top. However, it had no eyes, nose, mouth, or limbs.
While everyone was captivated by the unidentified thing, a wide single eye peeked out from its head, as if a crack had opened.
The sound of someone swallowing saliva.
Its eyes looked in the wrong direction for a moment, but then it looked around, glaring at Clare and the adventurers, before opening its fanged mouth and roaring. It looked straight at Clare, perhaps because it saw her as a threat.
Was it because they had made a move, or was it going to attack anyone they saw? A dangerous magical force blew towards Clare and the others, as if to show its intention to attack.
“Oh… it seems they won’t forgive us just because we left the ruins. Was that the one that was chasing us?”
“Oh, yeah. If there was a second one, maybe… no, definitely we wouldn’t survive.”
“Okay. I’ll put you on the ground when the time is right, so you guys run away when you’re done healing. Potions won’t bring back all the blood that was lost. Also, it’s important that someone survives and relays the message.”
The girl doll on Clare’s shoulder pointed in the direction they should run – the direction of the main survey team.
“Oh, what are you going to do?”
“I’ll buy some time. Actually, it seems like… they’ve got their eye on me.”
“Oh, hey!”
Clare landed away from the men, leaving them with a final word. The black shadow followed only Clare’s movements with its single large eye.
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