While being cautious of the surroundings, the two people were still not as tense as they were inside Kalkia.
“Let’s run from here on out. Both of us are upper class Chosen Ones. Rather than looking for a village to procure a horse, running by ourselves is better and we can arrive faster.”
“Yeah, I have no objection. Balmel is at the eastside of the Melt Mountains, so if we run while making the mountains into landmarks, we should be fine.”
Balmel was a fort city that was built in order to respond when the monsters overflowed from Kalkia. It faced both the sea and mountains, and seemed to be a convenient place to live if only there was no mass monster outbreak.
Since there was also the promise with Schnee, he decided to go toward Balmel as Rionne said. They ran at a speed that would leave horses behind.
After 15 minutes of running while ignoring the monsters which were seen occasionally, Shin perceived an abnormal number of monsters’ presences in his sensing range.
“…Hey Rionne, is Balmel further ahead?”
“Yes, is there something wrong?”
“There is a large amount of monsters ahead, is that alright?”
Rionne, who heard the information which Shin perceived, made a stiffened expression all of a sudden.
“Don’t tell me, the ‘Flood’ is happening!?”
“‘Flood’?”
“Around the Sacred Place, the demon essence accumulates, which overflows from the Sacred Place. Though it doesn’t have influence on the human body, when the demon essence gathers to a certain amount, all of it manifests into monsters and is unleashed into the surroundings. We call that the ‘Flood’.”
Shin, by chance, had previously read about the description of the phenomenon in the library of Bayreuth.
In the content written in the book, it was a story of emergence of the low-level monsters. However no matter how much he looked, the number of monsters would cause numerous resources to be destroyed.
“If the end of the monster line is still here, the front may not arrive at Balmel immediately. I’ll overtake it and support Balmel.”
“Roger. As expected, in this situation, you won’t just leave them alone, Shin.”
A commoner would have simply run away, but unfortunately, these two people were far from commoners.
Balmel wouldn’t fall easily; there would be enough countermeasures as it was the only purpose of the town. However the scale of the ‘Flood’ was not fixed, ‘there’s no knowing what may happen’, was also written.
It was not a thing he could ignore when he heard about it; that’s the character of the man called Shin.
“It seems going home will take longer.”
The running Rionne, who took a detour to chase after the group of monsters, Shin also raised his pace of running.
After a little while, a huge group of monsters were confirmed by sight.
In every ‘Flood’, there seemed to be a trend in the emerging monsters. This time it was humanoid monsters, such as goblins and orcs that became the majority.
Was it a blessing of God? Compared to the high physical ability beast type and the tirelessly golem type, their pace was considerably slow. However, the large crowd of monsters was certainly headed to Balmel.
“Hmm? Hey Rionne, there’s smoke rising over there, do you know what it is?”
At the right front of the running Shin, a big cloud of smoke that appeared suddenly was visible.
When he listened carefully, explosive sounds were audible, too. Apparently, there was something going on in the vicinity of the boundary between the forest in the plain and the Melt Mountains.
“Perhaps, the Mist Garuda have descended the mountains. Melt Mountains is in the territory of the Mist Garuda after all. When the monsters that were born, in the ‘Flood’, were about to enter the mountains, I heard they were reduced to ashes. That’s why the monsters have no choice but to advance toward Balmel.”
The Mist Garuda may not have had the intention, but they seemed to have become the figure that guided the monsters toward Balmel in a good way.
On top of that, since it killed the monsters which trespassed on the mountains, it had reduced the numbers that reached Balmel. Therefore, it was said that the act of trying to hunt the Mist Garuda in Melt Mountains was prohibited in a treaty. Because it reduced the damage of the ‘Flood’, it was outrageous to fight against each other.
“That’s the Mist Garuda, huh?”
A big shadow flying in the sky was reflected in Shin’s eyes as he ran while watching the mountains.
The Mist Garuda was flying leisurely while leaving an arc like a vapour trail. The mist was shaped like a bird, as shown in its name, and its level was high, ranged between 700 – 800. It had a lot of special attacks, and was a very powerful monster.
“Oh, that is..”
From the Mist Garuda which was dancing in the sky, a red mist was sprayed.
The goblins and ogres started to roll over with their whole bodies covered in flames the moment the mist touched them.
It was one of the special attacks of the Mist Garuda, ‘Fog of Flare’.
If you didn’t have resistance to