Those sandworms were 20 meters on average, large-scale demonic beasts while the largest ones were around 100 meters in length. They lived in this «Guryuu-en Great Desert» and would usually submerge themselves underground and attack prey in their vicinity by opening their big, fangs filled mouths from below. They specialized in surprise attacks due to being hard to detect and were feared by people who crossed the large desert as the gods of death.
Fortunately, the sandworms themselves weren’t very perceptive, so as long as one wasn’t so unfortunate as to come near them by accident, they would neither notice nor aim at anyone who was far away. As such, it could be said that there was someone who was not that fortunate at that dune, but…
“? Why are they just squirming around?”
That’s right, Tio would have not made a doubtful face and asked Hajime if there were just sandworms appearing. With Hajime’s perception skills, he would have noticed any of the sandworms’ surprise attacks, and they’d be able to get out of the sandworm’s range with four-wheeler’s speed. What was abnormal was that if the sandworms were attacking someone, rather than attacking, the sandworms were squirming around in their surroundings.
“It’s as if, they art confused as to eat or not, right?”
“Well, from what I see, isn’t that so?”
“This one hath no knowledge of this place. But those art all-eaters, they shouldn’t be hesitating to eat anything…”
Although Tio was a masochist pervert, she had lived far longer than Yue and unlike the imprisoned Yue, her knowledge was pretty vast. That was why she owned reliable information about demonic beasts. For her to be looking doubtful must mean that something extraordinary is happening.
However, they didn’t have any reason to be involved with it. Hajime decided to get as far away as possible without confirming or getting involved in it.
And at that time,
“Kh!? Everyone, brace yourselves!”
Hajime shouted so and immediately accelerated the four-wheeler. Morrow, from behind the four-wheeler, starting with a small part of its body surfacing, a gigantic figure with the same color as the desert jumped out. With its mouth open, it was a sandworm. Apparently, Hajime’s party were also unfortunate ones.
Hajime further steered to the left and right, advancing through the sand at high speed. Under the four-wheeler that drew an “S” letter, a second and third sandworm jumped out.
“Kyaaaa!”
“Hiu!”
“Wawawa!”
In order of screams, there was Kaori, Myuu, and Shia. Met with a strong centrifugal force, Kaori turned behind, worrying about Myuu in the back seat. But her balance crumbled and she fell into Hajime’s lap with her hip on Yue’s lap.
Blinking her eyes, Kaori’s cheeks were flushed, and as she was, she clung tightly to Hajime’s waist. Her position was actually pretty bad. It made Hajime’s cheek cramp. Incidentally, the other half of Kaori’s body was crushing on Yue.
“Oi, Shira-… Kaori! What are you doing in such a situation!”
“It’s a dangerous! A dangerous situation! So, I’m just clinging to Hajime-kun!”
“…Damn you, Kaori. To pin me under, is it… a surprise attack?”
While receiving an ambush from the sandworms, Kaori used this chance to hug Hajime. Yue was slapping Kaori’s butt even now, but the blushing Kaori was still clinging to Hajime’s waist, not moving at all.
While they were like that, the three appearing sandworms, with their upper bodies out of the ground, were glaring at the four-wheeler that evaded all of their ambushes. This time, those gigantic figures came forward to attack from overhead.
If it was a normal carriage, everything would’ve ended with that attack. However, it was an artifact created with a portion of Hajime’s otaku soul. It wasn’t even daunted at being made out as prey.
Besides…
“Ah, this is the first time I am using THIS!”
Saying so, Hajime turned around the four-wheeler with a drift, advancing backwards, he poured his magic and activated the installed function.
CLANK! KA-THUNK! KA-THUNK!
At the same time the mechanical sound effect rang out, a part of the four-wheeler’s bonnet slided open and an arm with a set of four rockets came out. The arm moved as if looking for its’ prey and when it turned towards the incoming sandworms, wooosh!, such an sfx rang out accompanied by the deadly warheads scattering their sparks.
Shining in an orange color, the rockets entered right into the sandworms’ opened mouths and after a moment, they created great explosions as they destroyed the sandworms from the inside. The sandworms’ crimson blood and flesh poured down like a shower and some stuck on the windshield of the currently back running four-wheeler.
“Uhee… Shia, don’t let Myuu see it.”
“I did that already~. Anh! Myuu-chan, was it painful? But please hold on for a while.”
Hajime asked Shia to do so at the time the rockets were fired into the incoming sandworms because the stimulation might be too strong for Myuu. Like that, in synchronization with Hajime, Shia was already embracing Myuu closely to her chest so as she would not see it. However, maybe because she could not breath from her face being buried in Shia’s breasts, Myuu tried to sip out and inadvertently touched a part of Shia’s body. Inadvertently, Shia moaned. Hajime decided that he did not hear anything.
Currently, although Kaori was clinging onto Hajime’s waist, Yue was finally able to fix her seatbelt. Indeed it was not a situation where he could be defeated by his own impulse, even though his ears were dyed in red with his face cramped.
“E-Excuse me, Hajime-kun. I am sorry. That, that I impulsively… there’s no perverted meaning to it. That is, for a bit, I just wanted to hug…”
“… then if things go well, are you going to satisfy Hajime like that?”
“Un, that is so… wait, no! Yue, don’t put such strange things into my mouth. I am not as lewd as Yue.”
“…You said I am lewd… certainly, I can’t refute that when I am alone with Hajime.”
“…Girls, please shut it already. Also, Yue, please don’t talk about night activities because it’s embarrassing.”
With the three sandworms crushed by the rockets installed in the four-wheeler, Hajime sharpened his gaze because the sandworms on the dune before could be seen moving due to perceiving the explosive sound and impact.
However, on his side, Kaori and Yue were conversing just as usual which reduced his tension. Inadvertently, he admonished them due to him being embarrassed.
To begin with, in his mind, the “night” Yue was certainly a lewd one and, when he was alone with her, he thought of her as pretty erotic. Kaori who seemed to have seen through him was teary eyed. Yue, with a bewitching smile, was looking at Hajime while licking her lip. Kaori, who saw that, raised a cute groan. Unconsciously, her fighting spirit blazed further.
From the back seat, Shia said, “I understand your feelings, Kaori-san. We are comrades here,” while patting Kaori’s shoulder with sympathetic eyes.
Hajime ignored them and the moved four-wheeler above another dune. He could see the group of sandworms on the lower side of the ground with their lower parts still underground. They didn’t hide anything as they slightly raised the sand. They might have guessed that they had been noticed by Hajime’s party, so they chose speed over another surprise attack.
Hajime put the rocket launcher away and activated another piece of weaponry in its stead. The center of the bonnet slid apart and a rectangular machine appeared from inside. Following that, the rectangular box extended its barrel with kashun! sound effect, and it became a rifle was similar to Schlagen.
Next, bright red sparks gushed out from the four-wheeler’s Schlagen. With its arm adjusting the angle, DUuuoo!!, came a roaring, firing sound as a line flashing line tore through the brown world.
The bullet, which was fired at a high-velocity, advanced as it raised the sand on the ground upon impact and grandly raised a dust storm. On the sand column that was raised just like an eruption was, of course, a lot of sand colored meat and red blood.
The Schlagen installed on four-wheeler continued to fire bright red flashes, one after another. The sandworms that were hunting their prey exploded on the ground and became small bits of nourishment for the barren ground.
“Hajime-kun! Look at that!”
“…A white person?”
When four-wheeler’s Schlagen, which was trailing white smoke, was stored back, Kaori let out a surprised voice and pointed her finger. In the place Kaori pointed at, just as Yue muttered, was a collapsed person who was wrapped in white clothing. It was probably the one the previous sandworms were looking at. However, from their distance, it was unknown as to why it wasn’t eaten.
“Please, Hajime-kun. Let’s go there… I am a “healer” after all.”
Kaori looked at Hajime, petitioning. Even Hajime was interested as to why that person was not attacked by the demonic beasts of the desert in such a situation, so he accepted Kaori’s request. It was possible that the person carried a method or item capable of keeping demonic beasts away. And in actuality, there was a mineral called the Faeadren crystal that carried such an effect in the sea of trees. The crystal only made it difficult for demonic beasts to approach, but there’s a possibility that even stronger items exist.
As such, the four-wheeler came near the collapsed person. The person wore clothing that was similar to galabeya (egyptian clothing), and it wore a hood that was large enough to hide its’ face. Its’ face couldn’t be seen. Falling prone, the hood hid it.
Getting off the four-wheeler, Kaori ran with short steps towards the fallen person.
“!… This is…”