/
“Gross, gross, gross, gross! I’m going to burn them right now–“
“Wha-!? Don’t mess around! If we start a fire here, we’ll be the ones who die first!”
A swarm of young Rockworms crawled towards us. Rouge was about to start chanting a spell, but I quickly grabbed her arm to stop her.
Indeed, the hole dug by the Rockworm was deep. However, it only continued deep on the side from which the young Rockworms were emerging, and behind us was a wall that had become a dead end due to the collapse. If we start a fire right in front of us in this situation, we’ll be steamed to death.
“Then what should we do?!”
“What do you mean, what… shouldn’t we just leave them alone, and they’ll eventually pass us by?”
Rockworms primarily ate minerals, and while they might accidentally swallow a human in the process, they didn’t actively attack and eat humans. My idea was that if we leave them alone, they will just disappear. However, Rouge glared at me as if I was an idiot.
“Do you seriously believe that?! It’s one thing if there are one or two Rockworms, but do you really think a swarm like that will politely avoid us and move on?!”
“…Ah, yeah, that makes sense.”
Rockworms can gnaw through even hard rocks with their mouths and burrow holes. Therefore, even if there’s something softer in front of them, they would likely gnaw through it without a second thought.
(So, what should we do? How do we get through this?)
A swarm of Rockworm younglings, about ten centimeters in mouth size and fifty centimeters in total length, filled about a third of the circular tunnel with a diameter of two meters. They kept crawling out from the depths of the hole, showing no signs of stopping.
Defeating all of them was impossible. And there’s nowhere to run in such a narrow space…!?
“That’s it! Rouge, the wall! Stick to the wall!”
“Wall? What do you mean by wall…?”
“Just stick to the wall! Then, like this…just like this!”
“Huh…?”
I pressed my foot against the center of the circular wall and used my arms to push myself against the ceiling, securing myself in place. This way, even if the Rockworms crawl underneath us, they can’t touch us. Although Rouge made a face that showed she didn’t like the idea, she couldn’t think of any other options and soon adopted the same pose.
As the two of us struggled in an absurd and desperate situation, the Rockworm younglings, just as I had predicted, passed under us, gnawing a hole in the collapsed part of the tunnel and disappearing to the other side.
“We did it, Rouge! Once these guys are gone, we can go through that hole and get out!”
“That’s true, but…this is actually quite tough…”
“No, no, no, let’s hang in there!”
Rouge’s limbs were trembling. It seemed her physical strength wasn’t enough to maintain this posture for a long period of time. Sweat dripped from her face, and her expression was one of agony.
“Hasn’t it been about an hour?”
“It’s not even been five minutes yet! Hang in there! Hang in there, Rouge! Genius beautiful young magician Rouge-sama!”
“You… I’m definitely going to punch you…!”
At my desperate cheering, Rouge glared at me. It seemed she didn’t appreciate my heartfelt support. I thought it might distract her a little, though…
“I…I can’t… anymore…!”
“Rouge!”
Rouge’s body floated as her strength gave out, and she fell onto the still-crawling Rockworms. Even though their mature bodies wouldn’t be pierced by a sword, the young ones seemed fragile, and the impact squashed a few of them.
“GYUAAAA!?”
In that instant, the atmosphere in the place changed. Rockworms don’t actively attack humans, but that doesn’t mean they won’t resist if they’re attacked. At this very moment, Rouge had transformed from a mere backdrop into an enemy who hurt their comrades.
“Damn it!”
I immediately let go of the wall, stomping on countless Rockworms as I rushed over to Rouge. I held her small body in my left arm and kicked away the surrounding Rockworms with my right foot. But given the sheer number of Rockworms covering the entire area, my efforts were like a drop in the bucket.
If we stay here, we’ll be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers in no time. With my concentration at its limit, I looked around for anything useful, and my eyes landed on a wall where small stones were rolling down.
“Please, crumble!”
With all my strength, I hit the wall that was blocking our retreat with the hilt of my sword. The wall, which had become unstable due to the large hole below it, crumbled with a rumbling sound, and a gap just wide enough for a person to pass through was created.
“We can go! Come on, Rouge! Go!”
“Hey, where are you touching, pervert!”
“Who cares! Just go! Hurry!”
I pushed Rouge’s head into the gap, and then shoved her rear-end hard. After Rouge disappeared to the other side of the wall, I twisted my body into the hole and slipped through to the other side.
“Ugh! I got through… but…”
What spread out on the other side of the hole was naturally the original passage. And the path ahead had also collapsed, so running away was impossible. Fortunately, the Rockworm larvae had dug a hole in the wall and were moving in a different direction from the regular route, so there was some room in the space…
“Ouch… What are we going to do?”
“No choice, we burn it.”
“You were the one who said not to burn it just now, right?!”
“That was then, this is now. The situation and our positions are different… I want to think they’re different.”
Before, the wall was about a meter away, but now we can run away to the back of the regular route for about five meters. We don’t know how much this difference in space will save our lives… but now it’s the only option we can bet on.
“I’ll stand in front. Rouge, can you do it?”
“Hmph, who do you think I am! Buy me ten seconds!”
“Understood!”
“GYUAAAAAAAA!!!”
I pushed Rouge to the back of the passage, and I stood in front. Against me, the young Rockworms that had left their course were swarming in one after another.
“Ugh! You! You’re disgusting!”
“Flickering flame, laying flames. The red-hued curtain of burning heat–“
I swung my sword desperately, but the opponents were small and numerous. But whether it’s one or many, if we let them pass to the back, our defeat was certain. That’s why I was stopping the Rockworms with my own body.
“Guhhhhhhh…!”
On my arm, foot, stomach, chest, the strong teeth of the Rockworms sinked in, tearing the flesh. My vision flickered due to the intense pain, and my arms and legs started to twitch as if convulsing, but still I didn’t stop moving.
“Like this… in a place like this…! I’m not… going to dieeeeeeeeeee!!!”
In a moment that felt like eternity, I screamed and mustered all my strength. And at that moment, the long-awaited red light spread out in front of me.
""
“Burn up! [Flare Screen]!”
“GYUAAAAAAAA!!!”
A thin flame spread across the floor in front of me. It burned all the Rockworms that tried to come over it, not letting a single one through to this side.
“Over here! You’re always so reckless!”
As I gaped at the scene, Rouge’s hand grabbed and pulled my collar, knocking me down. She quickly burned the still-attached Rockworms, and then doused me with a healing potion as if bathing my entire body.
“How is it?”
“Yeah, I’m okay… What about the Rockworms?”
“I’m fine. There’s no way my magic can be endured by those worms or caterpillars or whatever they are.”
True to Rouge’s confident words, the Rockworms didn’t break through to us afterwards. After a while, the Rockworms seemed to lose interest in us and stopped coming out of the formation.
“They’ve retreated, huh…”
To the Rockworms, our existence must have shifted from “enemies to be defeated” to “threats to be avoided”. Even after the flames on the floor disappeared, the Rockworms no longer attacked us, and after about twenty minutes, they all finished moving and disappeared from our sight.
“We survived.”
“Looks like it. Though we’re probably going to get scolded when we report this.”
“Don’t be stupid, there’s no way we could’ve defeated that many. Even if we fought to the death, it would’ve been nothing more than a blip in natural selection.”
Deliberately overlooking demonic beasts that would become threats when they grow was an act close to a crime, but there’s no point in fighting to the death in this situation. We might get reprimanded officially, but I don’t care about that.
“Haaaaa… I’m so done. Super tired. Super sleepy.”
“Wait a minute, you’re not planning on sleeping before me, are you? It’s customary for ladies to go first, you know?”
“Eh? I lost quite a bit of blood, so it’s actually pretty hard for me, you know?”
“You’re so weak. In that case…”
Rouge’s voice, as always, was sharp, but I could feel some kindness in it. I looked up at her face as I slumped down onto the ground… and that’s when I noticed.
The ridiculous amount of Rockworm movement and the accompanying shock and vibration, coupled with the effect of Rouge’s magic, made the ground in this mine extremely unstable… A small stone dropped from above Rouge’s head, and the next moment, a rock larger than my head fell from the same place.
“Eh!?”
“Rouge!”
I pushed Rouge away in an instant, and at the same time, an incredible shock ran through the back of my head. As I kissed the ground, my whole body was wrapped in a chill and an unbearable sleepiness came over me.
“No way! Ed, Ed!”
(Ah, she finally said my name…)
In her panic, Rouge was calling my name. Feeling a strange satisfaction about that, my consciousness sank into the darkness.