Chapter 104 – She"s Like a Bright Red Flame That Burns Quietly (4)I was fiddling with my smartphone that was low on battery on top of Rouge"s shoulder.
Rouge was still carrying me with plenty of room to spare, and she was also jogging.
“Rouge, it seems like Aoi and the kids are at the place where we"re currently going to.”
“Really? Yay. I"m looking forward to it.”
It didn"t sound that way because I couldn"t feel any intonation in her voice, but she must really be looking forward to it.
Her running speed increased.
It"s partly because of the swaying, but I"m also not accustomed to using it, so I"m having a hard time operating the smartphone.
10 of the 14 texts were from my father.
The previous text was the latest one, and the first text was concern for Shouhei and my safety.
Since I didn"t reply, it seems he sent several confirmation texts.
With my father"s situation at that time, I could tell that he was gradually moving away from the workplace.
The remaining four were from Yuri-san.
Since she couldn"t get in touch with me, it was about how they were evacuated to the community center as directed by the fire department and that they were with Shouhei with the twins and they were safe.
And also about how Aoi was very worried.
She reported everything in four separate texts: the incident, Shouhei returning home, the start of the evacuation, and the arrival at the community center.
I did a bad thing.
If I had remained calm and quietly stayed in the cla.s.sroom, I might have been able to reply to this email.
Aoi must still be worried.
I hope she"s not crying.
Shortsighted thinking as usual.
I hate myself.
On top of that, my back is full of wounds.
There"s so much to reflect on.
But because we were there, Hinchan and the children were saved.
That was the only good thing that came out of it.
“Has Makio and them already arrived?”
I said out loud for some reason.
“It"s okay. We"re almost there, right?
Gasaraio, who was running behind Rouge, worried for me.
“Hey, that"s it right? The community center.”
Gasaraio"s arm came out from the side of my field of view.
He was pointing straight in front of us.
I raised my neck and followed his finger.
There was a T-junction at the end of a wide tunnel of trees, and the community center was just in front of it.
It was designed to be entered from a small parking lot, and there were several people standing in the parking lot.
“Rouge, over there.”
“Yeah. I"ll be meeting the twins soon. Let"s start with a greeting. I have to be careful, what if they dislike me.”
“That won"t happen.”
Nana may be a little shy, but Jaja will definitely be pleased.
If you play with them properly, my daughters shouldn"t hate people for no reason.
The only option is to communicate patiently with Nana, but it should be okay.
But what a day it"s been.
It felt very long.
Like Rouge, I can"t wait to see the twins.
As long as I can see Jaja and Nana"s faces, the wounds on my back are nothing to worry about.
Shouhei will be pretty p.i.s.sed though.
“H-huh. Isn"t that Aniki?”
I looked carefully at the community center again in response to Gasaraio"s words.
Looking closely, there was a large man with familiar gray fur and a bird tribe woman with multicolored feathers.
There were rocks laying around that area.
“I knew they were around here. There are some monster-like bodies around, so they must have been sent to guard the evacuation center. That"s why I couldn"t get in touch with them.”
Gasaraio"s siblings seemed to notice us and waved their hands.
“Oh Aniki!”
“Lion! Behind!”
Rouge raised her voice and interrupted Gasaraio.
“Hah?”
I can"t see behind me from the way I"m being carried.
“Hey, hey, hey! Are you joking!
“What is it! Hey Gasaraio! What is it!”
I twisted around at the sound of Gasaraio"s panicked voice and tried to look behind me, but I couldn"t turn around due to my limited mobility of my joints and the pain in my body.
“Watch out! Dodge!”
“Kunpei, hold on tight.”
“What? Woah!”
Suddenly, Rouge took a huge leap to the right.
A large and heavy crushing sound was heard immediately after the sound of rustling and tree branches breaking.
“Guh!”
My neck shook from the impact of Rouge"s landing, and pain ran down my back.
I didn"t have time to worry about the pain, I quickly braced my head and looked at the asphalt road we"ve been running on.
There was a huge rock that was sunk into the ground.
“That bird monster was still alive?”
Gasaraio was a little behind Rouge.
“Hm. Irritating.”
I could finally see the sky when Rouge turned.
It was in the middle of the empty s.p.a.ce where the branches were broken.
“Ruten?”
It was Ruten.
While flapping its rock wings, the half-bird, half-beast deformity was looking down at us.
But something felt off.
“…Isn"t he kind of small?”
That"s right. Ruten, which was probably at an alt.i.tude of about 20m above the ground, appeared much smaller.
I don"t know if my perspective is out of whack or if there is some kind of optical illusion, but from what I saw, it looks like it"s only about half the size of the one before.
Now that I think about it, that"s something to think about… It"s not a good idea to let him near the rec center! If it was just you and your brothers, you"d be fine, but there are some people over there who have taken refuge and can"t fight! I"m the only one who has equipment for long range! It"s the wrong opponent to fight a defensive battle in close quarters equipment!
“Now that you mention it, it does feel like that… more importantly! It"s bad to let it get any closer to the community center! It"s okay if only my siblings are there, but there are people who can"t fight! I"m the only one with long distance equipment! The opponent is bad for a defense battle with melee equipment!”
Oh, I see.
Rock wolves don"t have any means of attacking from a distance, so if we can fortify the area around the community center, as long as we can destroy each of them, we might be able to manage it.
However, there is no way to prevent an attack aimed at the building"s interior from the sky, and even more so from directly above.
Ruten"s specialty is wind breath.
And now even rock-like projectiles.
The only way to prevent this is to shoot before you get hit.
I mean, where the h.e.l.l did it get those rocks from!
“It"s okay. That uncute bird is mine.”
Saying that, Rouge lightly waved the hand that wasn"t carrying me.
A thick pillar of flame instantly appeared and Rouge held it in her hand like a sword.
If looked hot, and I turned my face away from it.
What came into view was the rock that was stuck into the ground.
That rock that Ruten threw somehow bothered me.
“Huh?”
I looked carefully at the rock.
Its size is a little bigger than my body. It was definitely heavy enough to crush a human, and it was shaking slightly.
It"s not good, I thought.
“"Gasaraio! Destroy that rock! Something"s wrong!
“Ahh!?”
Gasaraio, who responded to my voice, instantly aimed the magic cannon at the rock.
It was at that moment.
“Kuoooooooooooooooooo!”
It exploded and scattered sharp, fine fragments around it with great force.
“Owww!”
Gasaraio screamed.
As for me, I was safe thanks to being protected by Rouge"s long tail.
“Kunpei. Are you hurt?”
“Ah, I… Gasaraio!”
I forced my head, which was too dazed to keep up with the situation, and looked at Ga.s.sara, who screamed.
“Ah, I"m fine. It just a cut above my nose and shoulders a little.”
Gasaraio grunted while holding his right shoulder.
How is that a little?
“You idiot! You"ve got a big one pierced in there!”
There was a fist-sized rock stuck in his right shoulder that he was holding. It"s that big as far as I can see, so it must actually be much larger.
“…Sorry, I messed up.”
“What the h.e.l.l…”
“The birds have increased.”
“What?”
Rouge pointed to where the rock was.
“Kuoooooooooo!”
“L-little Ruten"s…?”
What was there was a ruten, no bigger than a human.
The upper body and wings was formed from rocks. The lower half of the body was covered with brown hair.
The small Rutens, which look exactly the same as the one still in the sky, was there threatening us.
“Did it split…”
What a load of bulls.h.i.t.
Hmm?
Think about it for a moment.
The Ruten in the sky felt small, could the rock that fell earlier be a part of its own body?
The lost part will be revived as another Ruten.
What is that? I"ve heard of that.
But that one didn"t seem to get any smaller.
But that"s right.
The characteristics are similar to those of the small fry I first met in Tusk Crag.
An ugly looking lump of flesh that looks like it came out of a nightmare.
It resembles the characteristics of Dark Meat.
Huh?
The lost part becomes Ruten?
Ruten in front of me now and Ruten in the sky above me.
It seems that even if you add them together, they won"t be the same size as the original.
The original monster bird, Ruten, should have been a bird of nearly 10 meters in size.
“No way.”
I looked around me in a hurry.
Right, left, and up.
“…Seriously?”
I found it.
It was further behind the Ruten that was in the sky threatening us.
It was there arrogantly.
Rouge first cut Ruten into "two halves".
The one piece is revived and is attacking us now. And it split the body further and another Ruten was born.
Then what happened to the other piece of Ruten that was cut out of the first Ruten?
The answer was obvious.
“Three of them… that"s cheating, right?”
Yes, Ruten in the sky and the Ruten in front of us.
And a Ruten larger than that, half of the original ruten.
Now their threats were politely offered in three pieces: large, medium, and small. Was it customer appreciation day?