Probably Underneath Here

Kikori did not chase the remaining kobolds as they fled in a panic.

No, he could not chase them. He pulled out the arrows stuck in him and drank a potion.

He had already used two potions. That was not a very good rate of consumption.

“So they run when things turn against them… Yeah, that makes sense.”

The kobolds were already out of sight, but Kikori had seen that they had not seemed to suddenly vanish.

No, they had not vanished. They had “fallen.” And what that meant was—

“A hole, huh. There’s probably a burrow underneath here.”

He had read in a book that some rabbits behaved that way, so perhaps kobolds did the same.

Certainly, there would be times when hiding was better than fighting hostile creatures, and times when it was better to come out and launch a surprise attack.

However, if that was not the case and they were simply trying to wage guerrilla warfare, that would be troublesome.

He did not want to do something like that with kobolds when he did not even know how many of them were hiding.

He also had a feeling that if he did something like take out the kobolds’ mana stones here, they would attack him.

With a sigh, Kikori started walking onward.

“I hope they don’t attack me anymore…”

But that was nothing more than wishful thinking.

When a Horned Rabbit attacked him, he struck it away with his round shield and knocked it down, then finished it off with his Magic Axe.

Thinking that Horned Rabbits probably would not attack him even if he took out their mana stones, he dropped to one knee… and met the eyes of a kobold peeking out from a hole and watching him.

“…I see, so Horned Rabbits are your staple food, huh?”

When he tried tossing it over, more arms stretched out from the hole, caught the Horned Rabbit, and pulled it back in.

It could not be helped. He did not want kobolds attacking him over fighting for Horned Rabbits.

When Kikori started walking again just like that, he heard a “Gii.”

When he turned around, it was that kobold from earlier… probably that same kobold.

It was looking at him, but what was it? Was it thanking him or something?

The moment he thought that, Kikori leaped “sideways.”

In that instant, an arrow flying from behind Kikori stabbed straight into the place where he had been standing.

“Mjolnir.”

When he turned around, there was a bow kobold.

The thrown Magic Axe smashed the bow kobold, and in that instant a kobold sprang out of the hole, leveled its sword, and charged at him.

Thud. He smashed the other Magic Axe into its face and killed the kobold in a single blow.

Gripping the first Magic Axe that had returned to his hand, Kikori let out another sigh.

“So instead of thanks, it was mugging me…? Like, ‘you’ve got more on you,’ that kind of thing…?”

Monsters really were incompatible with humans.

Reconfirming that, Kikori walked on through the grassland.