200

Making an excuse like “It was perfect for measuring the enemy’s attack power” did not change the fact that it hurt quite a lot.

On top of that, my foot had taken one step back, and my posture had also been thrown off slightly, so I could give them a passing grade in attack power, at least.

“…I see. So this is all.”

Though I had a slight nosebleed, I pressed one side of my nose with my finger and forcefully sprayed out the blood.

My regenerative ability stopped the bleeding safely, so it should have been a decent way to show it off.

I decided to additionally display my observational ability.

It came from my knowledge of games and manga, but my plan was to deliberately reveal that I had “thinking intelligence and knowledge,” thereby increasing the enemy’s caution and limiting their actions.

Or rather, what I had learned from being punched was that it had been an attack properly making use of weight, so I judged that continuing to take those hits head-on would honestly be bad.

Playing these sorts of little tricks was not what I truly wanted, but if they all abandoned defense and attacked at once, there was a risk that I would fall before I could defeat them all.

Until that numerical advantage disappeared, I would have them accompany me in a depletion of combat strength under the name of “probing each other.”

“Just like the first strike, only when attacking do you stop moving sluggishly, don’t you? Is it a reproduction of recorded actions? Or support from mages? You should not be autonomous. If you were moving according to commands given in advance, there are far too many unnatural points.”

While I was laying out my lengthy analysis, a golem came swinging at me.

Since it was the same unit that had punched me earlier, I mercilessly drove a counter kick into its abdomen, but it did not break, merely flying back a few meters and falling over.

Even an almost full-power kick only did that, I thought, clicking my tongue inwardly.

“Ah, I will crush repeated attacks without mercy. Now, show me your next card. Opportunities to have a full-power contest of strength are not easy to come by. I have high expectations.”

With the naked Boobs Lady still in one hand, I enthusiastically kept up the role-play.

My words seemed to unsettle some of those who understood the Canaan language, but the nobleman settled them down with one sharp shout.

The golems’ movements had also stopped, so during that time, I glanced at Boobs Lady sitting in my palm.

As expected, she was frequently looking in Rena’s direction, worried about her.

Seeing them up close, they really were splendid… no, that was wrong. The stab wound in her thigh looked painful.

Then a brilliant idea suddenly came to me, so I looked at Boobs Lady and spoke as though I had just thought of it.

“If you do something about the magic from the mages in the back… I may show consideration to the woman hanging over there. Though, whatever the reason, I do not think you have any path to survival except using me to remove the threat before you.”

I gave her a reason to cooperate in the form of a threat.

Perhaps she noticed my intent, because Boobs Lady glared at me bitterly.

“…Give me any catalyst you have. Barehanded, my efficiency is far too poor.”

Unfortunately, I had left my luggage behind at the underground base.

I thought cooperation might be difficult, but then I remembered what I had around my own neck, tore off the cord section I had added, and tossed her the amulet.

The moment she caught it, she wrapped the chain section around her arm, and when Boobs Lady chanted something quietly, the amulet I had handed her began to glow faintly.

Immediately afterward, a pillar of water appeared from the river, bent, and came toward us.

Since Boobs Lady was still chanting, I realized this was an enemy attack and pulled the palm she was riding on toward my chest.

Then a thin column of water attacked in a trajectory like a cracking whip.

Its target was not me, but Boobs Lady in my palm.

Just before I instinctively tried to interpose my body, Boobs Lady finished her chant, twisted only her upper body, and slashed upward through the water pillar.

“Good enough.”

Boobs Lady muttered a brief evaluation of the catalyst in her hand.

And then the amulet safely class-changed into a sword of light… or so I thought, but the glow soon stopped.

Apparently, energy saving was necessary.

Between that and her greatly swaying boobs, it had been quite a sight.

Mages usually hid cards I could not even imagine, I thought, remembering the people I had met so far as I focused on the enemies before me.

These guys probably had one or two trump cards hidden as well.

(It’s frustrating that I have to move carefully. I also need to be careful that if I rescue Rena in an unnatural way, their target might switch to her.)

I sighed inwardly at how strict the clear conditions for this side quest were.

As an overall evaluation, this golem’s combat ability was dangerous to fight while holding back.

One-on-one, there would be no problem.

Even if that increased to two, I would be fine.

But if it increased to three or four, the story changed.

Much less ten of them, with mage support on top of that.

If I moved without a plan, in the worst case, I might have to choose to abandon the two of them.

That would be seriously uncool, so I wanted to keep it to a retreat at worst, and proceed carefully yet boldly.

Fortunately, perhaps because my statement had raised their caution, the mages apparently intended to conserve their magical power and did not attack actively.

For the time being, I began a contest of strength against a golem that approached.

Conveniently, it came to grapple with me, so I locked one hand with it and competed with all my strength.

The golem stepped forward, trying to push me down, but naturally, even my fully extended arm did not move.

I won the contest of arm strength, but it was not an overwhelming victory.

At this rate, I could not overturn their numerical advantage, so as a first step, I tried aiming for part destruction.

Of course, I aimed for the leg, but the sensation when I kicked it was strange.

“Ah, this is being defended by magic,” I realized through magical power detection, but I could not think of a way to break through it.

Boobs Lady, the key to dealing with magic, was busy offsetting and shooting down various spells flying in for the purpose of restraint.

Since her injured leg forced her to deal with them using only the movement of her upper body, and since I was firmly confirming from the corner of my eye the parts swaying wildly, I could not rely on her.

As I gradually advanced, I ended up crossing the river together with the golem.

The fact that the others had not interfered until then was anticlimactic.

Perhaps the bad footing had kept the golems from attacking aggressively.

As if that guess had been correct, every golem except the one I had blown away began running toward me at once.

“Are you poor with water? In that case, you should have crossed sooner.”

“Pardon me, pardon me,” I laughed, and the nobleman’s mouth trembled slightly.

Here, I forcibly carried out a position change for Boobs Lady, having her move to my shoulder.

Now that both my hands were usable, I asked the golem still in the middle of the strength contest to leave the stage as well.

When I quietly warned her, “Hold on,” a wonderful elasticity was pressed against my neck.

And what I released was a full-power blow—in other words, the first practical use of partial Assault Mode.

For comparison, I aimed at the abdomen.

However, this time as well, the same sensation as when I had kicked it earlier blocked my fist—and my black-stained fist smashed through it and drove into the golem’s abdomen.

The result was almost the same as the previous time.

The golem’s huge body floated into the air and flew several meters before landing on its back with a thunderous roar that echoed around the area.

The clear fist mark left behind told the story of its power.

“—…”

The nobleman was probably saying something like “Impossible,” I imagined, as I looked at him standing there speechless at the sight of the blown-away golem.

In any case, I had learned one thing.

(It’s way too hard! The burden on my elbow is no joke!)

Yes, only my fist had hardened.

The burden on my entire arm was far too great, and while wondering how to hide the numbness and pain remaining in my arm, I slowly advanced.

In its current state, I could not use partial Assault Mode many times.

If I was going to fight this many opponents with that… realistically, my choices were either to change my target to the mages or retreat.

Naturally, I was aiming for the former.

Striking the weak point was basic tactics—or so I wanted to say, but how should I break through this group of golems?

Feeling that I would likely end up having to smash them all after all, I looked at the unit suspending Rena.

Its movements were dull and thudding, but she swayed from the vibrations and let out a small scream.

Incidentally, she was the only thing swaying.

Ignoring Rena, I dashed toward the golem on the opposite side, the one slowly loading a ballista.

Boobs Lady, clinging to my neck, said something like, “Not that way!” but of course, I ignored her.

Please keep pressing your boobs squishily against me like that, I thought, as I caught a stone of suitable size, kicked up by my tail, in my right hand.

Then I threw it at the outrageous fellow who had brought tools into a man’s fight.

The target was a male mage.

Apparently, using the ballista required external orders, and since he was holding a wand in one hand and pointing it toward the golem, I targeted him with a thrown stone, but… another unit cut in and obstructed it.

Since it had been meant for a human target, the power was what you would expect.

The targeted mage let out a short “Hih!” scream, but after being yelled at by the nobleman, he resumed his work.

It was quite leisurely, but perhaps these were intended for use as siege weapons.

“Well, it is military technology,” I thought, accepting it, and made my second throw.

This time it was a full-power pitch, so when it struck the golem that had cut in, the thrown stone shattered with a loud sound.

Several people reflexively covered their ears, so this seemed usable for something, but it also damaged my hearing, so I could not use it at close range.

With no other choice, my third thrown stone targeted the ballista itself.

However, I aimed at the one farther away on the other side.

I would thoroughly crush their highly threatening long-range attack methods.

Boobs Lady complained at the sudden turn, but the stone safely hit one of the ballistae and succeeded in destroying it.

The fact that it hit in one shot was probably the fruit of my practice.

The golems came thudding toward me, but I did not do something stupid like take them all on at once. Instead, I punched the nearest units one by one, but as expected, unless I went at full power, it was difficult to damage them, and at this point, it began to seem like I needed to crush the supporting mages first.

However, perhaps sensing that, the nobleman gave appropriate instructions in response to my movements.

Surprisingly, he seemed to be quite accurately ordering the golems to move into unpleasant positions, and before I knew it, an encirclement was taking shape.

Then magic was released all at once.

“I can’t handle this!”

Boobs Lady shouted right next to my ear.

As expected, forcing herself against this many opponents alone seemed to have brought her to her limit.

Therefore, I also took action.

“Make sure you’re holding on tight,” I informed Boobs Lady, and then I began moving toward the winning path I had derived from all the information gathered so far.

I understood that they were trying to obstruct my movements with magic.

In fact, I perceived that my legs had grown heavy and difficult to move, and my arms had fallen into the same state.

However.

The effect was nowhere near enough to hinder my movements.

Compared to this, the old mage in Canaan who had challenged me alone had been far harsher to deal with.

That was why I ran in a way that showed it off.

I ran toward the golem suspending Rena, and right before reaching it, I braked, turned around, and intercepted multiple spells fired at me with my fists.

Then I kicked off the ground and flew.

At the same time, I used my tail to lift Rena’s legs and flick her upward.

As I somersaulted through the air, perfectly taking the golem’s back, I caught Rena and then landed with a thud.

Boobs Lady reached out to Rena, who was staring blankly, and just as I tried to take some distance, the wrist of the hand holding the rescued girl was grabbed.

The one gripping my arm was the golem that had been suspending Rena.

Its joint movement was clearly strange, but thinking about it, it merely imitated a human form, so it was not truly strange behavior.

Reflecting on how I had been a little too bound by common sense, I was just about to kick away the golem gripping my wrist when Boobs Lady shouted next to my ear.

“Get away from it, quickly!”

Wondering what was happening, I saw that the golem’s eye area was blinking, and it was emitting some ominous beeping sound.

And when I looked closely, the other golems had formed a line formation as if to protect the mages behind them.

Could this possibly be the kind that self-destructs?