What Magic Can Kill That Thing!?

The next day, Kikori and Kuon officially began their adventure as a proper team.

With Kuon—whose senses were said to be sharper than a human’s—walking in front… there still weren’t any goblins.

More than that, there weren’t even any hobgoblins.

“Nothing…”

“Yeah. Not even Horned Rabbits. This is a little strange…”

Even if veterans had hunted everything down, this still felt like something was off.

As he thought about the cause… what came back to Kikori was the orc he’d encountered before.

“Come to think of it, an orc was killing goblins earlier—could that be related…?”

“So that incident involved you too, Kikori…”

“Well… yeah.”

“But who knows. Monsters killing each other is abnormal in itself.”

Kikori had learned that yesterday too, reading a book at Aria’s place.

“‘All monsters are organized under unified control’… was it?”

“More precisely, ‘it’s possible.’ A lot of people reject the Demon King theory, but I think it’s pretty plausible.”

“A demonic king who commands monsters, huh… If it exists, it’s definitely humanity’s enemy.”

“True.”

Kuon laughed—then suddenly twitched his ears and swept his gaze around.

At that reaction, Kikori raised his axe and buckler and searched for signs around them.

“…Kikori, stay alert. Something’s coming.”

“What is that sound…?”

Sluuurp, splat. A wet sound like something dragging along.

It was clearly not anything normal, and it was a sound he’d never heard before.

And yet… to Kikori, it sounded like it was in a hurry.

“Kuon, run.”

“Huh?”

“Something’s bad. I have a feeling we shouldn’t fight it!”

Kikori grabbed Kuon’s arm and ran toward the edge of the forest.

A moment later—right where Kikori and Kuon had been only an instant before—a semi-transparent “something” surged in like a tidal wave.

“That’s… a slime!? No way—I’ve only ever seen it in books!?”

“I only saw it in a book yesterday too! Physical attacks barely work on it, right!?”

“Yeah, and… slimes are the creatures most specialized at killing living things. If you don’t erase it in one blow, it’ll melt you to death!”

A slime. A powerful monster, like it had been born for the sole purpose of killing living beings.

It had a way to capture its prey, and it could even inject digestive fluid through the gaps of a fully armored knight and dissolve them… in other words, it was a professional at “killing living things.”

Needless to say, it wasn’t a monster that should be anywhere near this place.

“…I’ll ask just in case, Kuon! What magic can kill that thing!?”

“None! You, Kikori!?”

“Probably won’t work!”

As they ran, Kikori and Kuon exchanged information.

Because—

“Why is it chasing us!?”

“I don’t know! But it’s insanely fast! This is bad—way too bad!”

The slime was chasing them.