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CHAPTER 237: THE THIRD FORM OF THE RAGING TIGER

CHAPTER 237: THE THIRD FORM OF THE RAGING TIGER

When we opened the door that seemed to be leading to the Boss room, we found a dimly lit and vast space.

Unlike the wilderness of floors one to nine, this was a room-shaped floor with thick pillars arranged in a regular pattern, like the inside of a temple of some sort.

As we walked further into the center of the room, we saw another door at the very back that was different from the entrance, and many monsters lined up in front of it.

「Is this perhaps a spawning room? The monsters themselves are B Rank Mad Bears and Killing Leos, and the rest are Red Goblins.」

It seems that Calvados was occupying this floor to earn experience points in addition to dropping items.

Well, if it was only this much, then……

As I thought that, Nelfie, who was walking behind me, muttered in a voice just loud enough for me to be heard,

「We are surrounded.」

I immediately activated my 「Detection」 Skill, and faintly sensed more than twenty different presences in the shadows of the pillars. The fact that even Nelfie was slow to notice them suggested that they had used some kind of magic to make their presence less noticeable. Considering how well prepared they were, the people occupying the area in front of the tower were merely standing guard, their purpose being to contact the task force and buy time until the next group of monsters would make their appearance.

In the next moment, several arrows were fired towards us from the shadows.

Everyone intercepted them with ease, but some of the arrows passed through us and pierced the legs of the gathered monsters, causing them to react to the attack and move in all at once.

「So Calvados is using monsters to launch a pincer attack here on the unsuspecting targets, huh? This way they certainly can get by with a bare minimum of personnel…… But they are pretty used to it, huh?」

「That’s pretty cunning of them……」

「Hmm. What’s the division of roles this time around?」

「Kinu and Nelfie will eliminate the monsters, Drake and Cinque will take care of neutralizing the Adventurers. I will change between the two groups of targets depending on the situation at hand.」

「Understood!」

「Aun-sama, how should we go easy on them?」

「No need to hold back! Go wild as wild as you want!」

With my words given as a sign, Kinu and Nelfie began attacking the monsters at once, while Cinque and Drake ran towards the Adventurers approaching us from behind.

There were five of us, and Calvados had about thirty Adventurers on their side. There were also about forty monsters approaching us at a glance. Considering their position, it was clear that the monsters’ target was coming towards us. If we just looked at the numbers, there was a difference of easily more than ten times between our two forces.

It was a clever plan to split up the party and confuse us at the same time with a pincer attack using a three-way battle tactic.

「But aren’t you underestimating us a little bit too much?」

If we were to annihilate the monsters, not only would our fighting forces be undivided, but we would also have Kinu’s high-powered, wide-range magic and recovery magic at our disposal, and Nelfie’s long-range attacks.

Having made that decision, I prioritized the annihilation of the monsters first, activating 「Swift Wind and Lightning」 and 「Thunder Drum」 to mow down the approaching Mad Bears and Red Goblins with Shironuemaru.

Meanwhile, Kinu’s blue flames engulfed the monsters, and Nelfie was sure to finish off those that barely avoided fatal injuries. If their numbers were reduced this much in just a few minutes, they would have no problem with the monsters, even without me being here.

(Well, I guess I will join Drake and Cinque as well.)

I turned around and saw Drake blowing away a heavy warrior along with his armor. Drake did not appear to have any visible injuries on him, so there did not seem to be anything to worry about. ……But then I looked at Cinque and was so surprised that I stopped moving.

The pillars nearby were splattered with blood, and pools of blood had formed here and there on the floor. The scene was just like the one you would see on the execution ground.

Furthermore, the executioner Cinque was holding a giant knife-like weapon in his hands, and it was clear at a glance that the Adventurers who had been chopped up by it were definitely no longer alive.

However, the way they died was far too abnormal for such a chaotic battlefield.

Corpses that looked like they had been cut into cubes, corpses with their spines removed and their upper bodies cut open as if they had been cut into three pieces, corpses whose upper and lower halves had been cut in half and placed on the floor as if they were growing out of a pool of blood… Not only were there nearly ten of these at a glance, but at the edge of the room, their disemboweled innards were lined up neatly.

「W-What’s going on……?」

The Adventurer facing Cinque was breathing quickly and shallowly, “Haa haa haa…” and his knees were visibly shaking. It was clear that he was no longer in a mental state to fight, but he still desperately swung his weapon and, while screaming “Aaaaah!!”, launched a bold attack towards Cinque.

But of course, not only was his attack blocked by the Dorenkoi Dosukoi that he had transformed into a large shield, but the enemy’s weapon was also deflected by 「Guard Impact」, and he raised both of his hands as if in a cheer and froze in place.

Cinque then quickly transformed his weapon into a large kitchen knife with one hand, slicing the enemy’s torso vertically, and with his left hand he grabbed the innards from inside the body and pulled them out with one swift move.

He then spun the kitchen knife in his right hand, cutting off the base of the innards and separating them from the rest of the body, before throwing them to the side of the room.

Even at this point, the Adventurer was already confirmed dead…… but he then used the kitchen knife to chop up the adventurer’s body, and just a few seconds after deflecting the attack, a cube-shaped mass of flesh was completed.

The bizarre sight and the devilish actions of Cinque, who did not even consider Humans to be living and breathing people, threw the other Adventurers into a state of confusion. One by one, they broke their Labyrinth Escape Stones and fled the scene in a fit of panic.

The two men and women who remained were stunned, eyes wide open, drooling from their mouths, and unable to make an accurate judgment.

(We can’t kill these guys, since we can get some information from them.)

≪Cinque, leave it at that. Also, Drake, knock the remaining female Adventurer unconscious.≫

As I said this telepathically, I moved behind the Adventurer sitting on the floor with the 「Eternal Darkness Gate」 and struck her in the neck, knocking her unconscious.

I could not even wrap my head around this outcome, which I had not imagined just a few minutes before I was surprised by the pincer attack.

I was also surprised to see that Cinque’s weapon had taken on a different form, but the fact that he was “cutting up humans” with such a blank expression, as if he was cooking something, was far beyond my wildest expectations.

(I will have to talk to Cinque about this before we start grilling that Adventurer from Calvados……)