"Thanks to Rinos-sama's warding, Kailik and Tohotsu have not been damaged, but they are finely cracked, and it would be quite dangerous if they were attacked again."
It's quite a feat to crack my wards that I made so sturdy. Well, a couple of attacks should be enough to defend it without any problems.
How big are the demons? What kind of demons attacked you?"
Gurions. There were about 200 of them.
When was the attack?
Tohotsu was the day before yesterday and Kairikku was yesterday. If this is the trend...
"Next stop, the house of Krumfal."
Yes, I think they will do it today.
We have 50 harpies with us at Krumphal's mansion, but we do not stand a chance against 200 gurions, the kings of the forest.
"All right, all right. I'll go. I was just thinking of going to Krumphal today."
Then we left Peris and May at home and got on the transfer ward.
When we arrived at Krumfal, we were first transferred to Tohotsu. We talk to Karlos, the town manager.
"The day before yesterday, just after noon, we received a report from the guards at the gate that demons had attacked the town. The gates were tightly closed and the women and children were evacuated. Fortunately, the wards of Lord Rinos prevented any damage, but the assault of about a hundred gurions and the wind magic were quite a shock."
Looking at Tohotsu's wards, they were a little cracked, but there seemed to be no problem. After making some repairs, we then fly to the town of Kailik.
We ask Marcel, the chief of the town and the head of the Kaijinkai tribe, about the situation.
"We were attacked yesterday afternoon. I had received a report from Karlos in Tohotsu, so I thought I was prepared, but there were 200 gurions. We had no choice but to close the gates and defend ourselves.
When we went to the boundary, we found a rather large crack. We were so close to collapse. The warding was re-installed. We will make it even stronger than before.
"Why are these gurions attacking us?"
"Perhaps it's the smell of fish. We caught a lot of esarajal the other day, and we have been making smack and dried esarajal from them, so I think the smell of the fish has reached deep into the forest on the sea wind.
"Which means that Gurion is..."
"I think they will probably regroup and come at us."
I look at the map. As I look carefully, I see a large mass of magical power deep in the forest. This must be a gurion, since it is displayed in bright red. It stayed not far from the town of Kylique. Perhaps he is targeting Kailik.
"If they attack us again, we will have to fight them.
"But there are too many gurions. We can't take them on our own...
I'll be fine. I have an idea.
After a while, a group of gurions began to move. They are moving straight south. They are targeting Kyliak.
"Gurions! The gurions are out!"
Hearing the gatekeeper's shouts, we move to the gate. From the top of the ramparts, we see huge gurions moving slowly toward us, side by side. Moreover, we can see quite a few gurions in the sky above us. Looking closely, a gurion with a body more than one size larger than the others is at the head of the line.
That is the Gurion King. He is indeed the king of the forest! The strongest one seems to be leading the pack.
I equip myself with a sword and step out of the gate alone. I walk slowly to the Gurion King. I point a finger at him and wiggle it to provoke him.
The Geryon King, his pride severely wounded, makes a mad dash for me. I pull out my "black sword" and aim a thrust right between his eyes. But he leaps to the side and ducks. Then he swings his arm down to slice me open with his sharp-clawed paw. I duck and duck.
The gurion king cries as it flaps its wings. A green mist rises from my body. A few moments later, countless "wind blades" of wind magic are shot at me. I activate the same wind magic and resist the wind blades.
I thrust at him again. This time, he ducks and tries to dodge. But I stop my thrust halfway and swing my sword down at his left front leg.
"Boom!"
I feel a grip on my sword.
"Goaaaaaahhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
A terrible scream. I see his left leg is broken. I swing my sword down at his head.
"Gah!
His body falls with a clunk. In one fluid motion, I swing my sword at his right front leg and both back legs. His hands and feet are completely shattered, and he crawls to the ground.
"Are you still going for it?"
Breathing hard, he turns his murderous eyes on me. It looks like he's not done yet. I cast a restoration spell on him to heal his wounds.
I think he is going to attack me, but he slowly backs away while glaring at me. The other gurions watch with bated breath. I thought he was going to run away, but the moment he stopped moving, he disappeared.
When I came to, his face was on my head. He opened his big mouth and was about to bite me. I reflexively avoid his body, but I can't avoid him in time and he bites me on my left shoulder.
The screams and exclamations of Rico and the others echoed through the air. I don't move an inch. A moment later, the head of the Gurion King slips off my shoulder.
"Cuahhh...!"
His magnificent fangs were completely shattered, blocked by my warding. He continues to moan inaudibly, his mouth bleeding. I draw my Holy Sword from my back and flash it at him. I slash both of the Gurion King's eyes, taking the light out of them. I slash the wings on his back, his front legs, and his back legs in turn, and he crawls to the ground again.
"You move pretty fast," he said. I give him credit for disappearing from my sight, even if only for a moment. Well, I say third time's a charm! Let's try again with your quickness and assault power. Well, as they say, what happens twice will happen thrice.
I cast a restorative spell again to heal the Gurion King.
He was no longer willing to fight. With its tail between its hind legs, it backed up little by little, and when it got some distance from me, it ran away like a hare.
"Don't run away, you idiot!"
I fired a "scorching bullet" and took away the right rear leg of the Gurion King. Suddenly one of his hind legs is blown off, knocking him off balance and causing him to fall. Immediately after that, fire erupts from the blown leg, and at the same time, a huge explosion occurs in front of him. He was blown near me by the blast, and he was in a near-death state with severe burns all over his body.
I heal him three times.
The Gurion King does not move an inch. I sheathe my Holy Sword, pull out my Onikiri, and stand in front of him.
"Shall we do it again? This time I'm going to give you more hell than ever before, okay?"
"Kooaaaaaaaah!"
His eyes were tightly closed and he struck a pose of surrender, showing his stomach. In this position, I talk to him.
"What, you're not going to do it again?"
"Please. Please don't kill me.
"You attacked our village and now you beg for your life? Isn't this a little too good to be true?"
"...maybe so. And if so, I want you to kill me at once.
While we were having this conversation, about 10 gurions came running toward me. They seemed to be trying to bite me. Didn't you see the fight earlier? I thought to myself, "I'm going to have to do it again," as I smashed them one by one with my "Oni-kiri" (a kind of devil's cut).
Ten gurions are sprawled out. Seeing this scene, the other gurions seem to have completely lost their will to fight.
"I see you are the Gurion King. Surrender to the gurions you have with you. If you can do that, I will spare your life. If you cannot, I will kill you all! You will be given the choice of dying madly like these men, or dying in a firestorm like the one you suffered.
The Gurion King stood up, spun around, and let out a tremendous roar. Then the gurions in the sky and the ones in the forest gathered around me, all sitting down and bowing their heads to show me their willingness to surrender.
I confirm this and heal the others who are still limping around. The moment the healing was finished, they struck a pose of showing their stomachs and stopped moving. I'll leave it at that.
"You have been defeated and are now under my command. My orders are absolute. Disobedience or even refusal will mean your death.
"...Okay."
The Gurion King replies on behalf of his flock.
"I protect those under my command. I'll let the harpies explain how I protect them. First, why did you attack our town?
"To secure food. The smell of delicious fish from the sea comes to us every day. There is no way I can stand it. The men I sent to get a few fish were easily repulsed, and I was about to attack with my whole clan in the name of the King of the Forest, but here we are.
"I see, you guys look like cats, maybe you like fish? If you promise to stay under my command, I will share the fish with you. What do you say?"
"We have surrendered and will obey our master's orders."
"All right, all right. Marcel! Give them Esalahar. And give them some of the beatings too.
"Wow, okay."
A great number of esarahals were given to the gurions, who devoured them as if they had forgotten themselves.
We returned to the house and sent the harpies to Gurion's place, explaining to them my relationship with the harpies under my command and ordering them to bring them back to the house.
A short time later, 200 gurions appeared in front of the pavilion. For some reason, they all showed their bellies when they saw me and posed as if they were surrendering to me. The chance to see the bellies of 200 gurions, who were sung to be the kings of the forest, was probably unprecedented. But what explanation did the harpies have for this?
On this day, the "rulers of the forest" changed from magical beasts to human beings.