From the river emerged a giant head.

It was shaped like a torpedo, with a sharp nose and narrow facial features. A snake or maybe a worm. It was honestly quite difficult to tell. As the creature stepped onto the shore, Ellis noticed that it had more than one tail.

Like a traditional serpent, it had no limbs, but as if to make up for that, it had several tails. More than a thousand, in fact. Of course, Ellis had difficulty counting, what with all the wriggling and nonstop movement going on.

The creature had pink, flesh-colored skin, but the skin itself was not the texture of regular skin nor was it the texture of scales. It was odd. It shimmered like the water’s surface but moved as if it was a hotdog coated in honey.

Despite the somewhat stuffy aura that threatened to suffocate him. Ellis couldn’t help but gawk at the thing. He had never seen anything so odd before. Even amidst the myriad of monsters that this world had to offer, this thing was certainly one of the weirder ones.

Everyone stood in frozen shock. It wasn’t that they did not want to move, but rather, they couldn’t. It was the natural suppression of a higher-tiered existence. Even Ellis found it a bit difficult to breathe, much less these guys.

The creature soon reached the shore. It slithered on the ground in an S-shaped motion. It moved like an eel swimming within the depths of the ocean.

It raised its ugly head high. For the first time, Ellis noticed its eyes. Again, it was weird. There was no clear distinction of where its eyes ended and its face began. It vaguely reminded him of a half-melted wax sculpture that he had once seen at an open-air museum.

Ugly… this thing is so damn ugly… He silently thought to himself.

It was like a walking, bending, slippery skyscraper brought to life.

For a split second, the creature met eyes with him. Or at least, that’s what it felt like. Ellis reflexively tensed his body.

One, two, ten seconds of silence passed.

Then, chaos broke out.

****

Rewinding the clock back by a few minutes, fear and tension permeated throughout the cave prison.

After Ellis had left, Grisella hid the bodies within her spatial satchel. She even went as far as to clean the cavern using magic. By the end of it, the cavern looked spick and spotless, almost as if three Majins had not just suffered a gruesome death at the hands of a single grey-haired youth.

A little while later, the Squirrels also came back out from hiding, although their return was not met with the type of quiet fanfare that they had wanted.

The faint tremors of the first explosion still haunted their minds. It was gone now, but their imaginations couldn’t help but concoct various scenarios and speculations.

What had happened out there? What was that explosion? Did something happen to the Majins?

Amidst all the dreary faces and trembling shoulders, only one person showed a different reaction.

Hal-Wrynn’s expression eased. The little boy breathed out a sigh of relief. “It’s my aunt! That was definitely her. She probably just arrived. Maybe it’s not too late to save Ellis!”

The little boy had been especially down in the dumps after noticing Ellis’s absence. The sudden revelation of his aunt’s revival brought him back to normal.

Grisella nodded her head in agreement. Like him, she too was not overly concerned about the threat that the Majins possessed. Still, her brow remained locked in a deep crease. Her lips frowned while her grip on her broomstick tightened until her knuckles turned pale. A deep worry had overtaken her rational mind.

I can feel it… a giant wave of magical power. It’s drawing closer and closer…

Unbeknownst to anyone within this campsite, the face of true danger was rapidly approaching.

Inspired by Hal’s excited words, the elderly woman, Mela-Lock, excitedly moved closer to the entrance. For the first time, a little bit of color returned to her cheeks. “A-are you serious? Farma— your aunt, is she really here?”

The excitement in her voice was almost palpable.

Hal-Wrynn hesitated. He was not used to communicating with the other villagers. Aside from his aunt and Ama-Lear, nobody really bothered to talk to him. The stigma that hung over his head was simply too strong.

Of course, his current situation was somewhat different from his usual routine.

“… Yes.” The boy eventually nodded. “She’s here. Without a doubt, she’s here.”

Mela-Lock nodded her head. Her shoulders still shook, but this time, it was not because of fear. “Then, should we launch our own counter-attack and stage a rebellion? At the very least, we need to prevent ourselves from becoming a liability.”

Despite playing captive for several months, Mela-Lock showed a surprising amount of boldness. In the first place, no matter what, she was still a squirrel. Her village’s warrior spirit still lingered within her damaged heart. In the past, she was drowned by the feeling of crushing inevitability. Now, something had changed. Hope. Small as it may be, there was finally a light at the end of her tunnel.

The rest of the captives mirrored her reaction. They enthusiastically agreed to her plan. Like Mela, they too had seen the light and they were not about to let it slip away.

Mela-Lock turned to Grisella. “Miss Lorelei, please, you have to help us.” Having the will to do something was different from having the ability to act on it. No matter how motivated she may be, breaking free from this prison was still a nigh-impossible task for her.

Just as the solitary witch was about to say something, the ground once again trembled.

“This is?” A sudden sense of unease welled up within her heart.

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The second tremor was noticeably stronger than the first and with each passing second, it only seemed to grow stronger. Panic quickly ensued within the tunnel.

CRACK!

A dreadfully foreboding sound echoed through her ears. She looked up. Grisella watched in horror as the cavern walls cracked and splintered. After a few seconds, the entire roof collapsed in on itself!

BOOM!

They were all buried underneath all the dirt and debris. Luckily, the squirrels were a rather resilient race. A collection of hardened earth was far from enough to kill. After the dust had settled, they quickly dug themselves out.

Their heads poked out from the ground like disheveled meerkats. They looked around their surroundings with great fear and confusion. Their earlier enthusiasm had all but dwindled.

“What’s happening?”

“Another earthquake?”

“Why so suddenly?”

Amidst their panic, Grisella eventually excavated her way out from the destroyed tunnel.

Unlike the rest of the prisoners, there was no dirt on her face nor were there pebbles in her hair. In fact, she looked as prim and proper as the moment the Majins had thrown her into the cavern.

Her magic artifact had certainly been put to work. Before the initial collapse, she somehow managed to cocoon herself within a layer of straw. As a result, she had escaped danger relatively unharmed.

She breathed out a shaky sigh. Her mind was rapidly spinning with all sorts of thoughts and calculations. Did the calamity-class monster finally arrive? What sort of countermeasures should she prepare? Should she contact Ellis? In the first place, where the hell was he right now?

Those sorts of questions buzzed around within her skull.

Amidst all of this, she abruptly raised her head.

Nobody knew who, but somebody suddenly shouted, “Look, over there!”

The crowd turned towards the river.

They immediately saw it. The face of true danger. The face of true fear. The face of real, unrivaled power.

It was an incongruous sight. An ugly snake with over a thousand tails. Its skin was flesh and a small layer of gelatinous liquid coated its entire body.

Grisella had never seen something quite so horrific.

Not even a second later, an oppressive aura spread throughout the surroundings.

Her shoulders instinctively trembled in fear. Outside of its grotesque appearance, the pressure that it exuded was enough to turn her legs into jelly.

Can Ellis really handle such a creature? Despite asking herself that question, deep down, she already knew the answer.

No. No, he could not.

****

The creature’s tentacle-like tails rushed forward.

They moved erratically, independent of the main body. It was as if they had a life of their own.

One tail, in particular, approached him. It maneuvered through the air with the speed of a bullet. A blurry pink bullet as thick as a log.

BANG!

Ellis jumped back as a rush of wind buffeted against his body. The tail slammed into the ground like a hammer against an anvil. He had barely avoided the hit.

The grey-haired homunculus breathed out a sigh. He subconsciously narrowed his eyes. In that brief exchange, Ellis had noticed many things.

The tails really were like tentacles. Unlike what you might expect, they were not covered in a layer of scales like a lizard’s. Instead, they came off as wet and elastic. It was more akin to a worm, but calling it that would also be inaccurate. A thin layer of transparent film coated its entire body. What’s more, the tails could extend far past what should normally be possible.

That attack just now, it had happened while the main body was still close to the river. The tail alone had traveled a distance of more than seven hundred meters just to get to him!

As Ellis scrutinized his new opponent, the tails continued to wreak havoc all over the campsite. The Majins took the brunt of the violence. They were swatted and stomped; the creature treated them no differently than a bunch of buzzing house flies.

So much for Grisella’s original plan…

Rather than serve as a distraction, the Majins were more akin to an afterthought than anything else.

Each individual tail contained a tremendous amount of power. One hit was enough to kill and cripple. In addition, to their horror, those who came in contact with a tail would start to melt. The slimy film that covered the snake’s body was actually acidic! Judging by the trail of destruction that it left behind, the acid only worked on biological life forms. The ground and the tents were unaffected.

Unperturbed by all the horrific screams around him, the flesh-colored serpent continued forward. It moved lethargically, with the same sort of enthusiasm as a slug. All the while, its tails recklessly attacked with abandon.

In a blink of an eye, nearly half of the Majins had died.

Nevertheless, it kept moving. Slowly, inch by inch, the Calamity-class monster approached. Its destination? Ellis.

How the hell should I do this? Ellis mumbled to himself. After the first initial attack, the creature did not try again. Instead, it was biding its time. Was it observing him? Or did it already make a prior judgment based on that one interaction alone?

Whether this creature really had such foresight, Ellis did not know. As for him, to the surprise of no one around, he had not made any prior preparations. Should I just… run up and punch it to death?

That… that did not sound like a good idea. Such an easy solution would not possibly work, right? Then again, that’s always been how he operated and up until now, his method of doing things had never once failed.

Well, there’s really only one way to find out.

He tightly clenched his fists.

He hesitated for a split second before he sprinted forward. The ground beneath his feet splintered from the force.

In a blink of an eye, no, even faster than that, he was already in front of it. He reared his arm back and aimed directly for its head. Ellis punched out.

“…”

The wind scraped against his knuckles. The earth once again shattered beneath his feet. He had made sure to put his all into that blow, but much to his dismay, Ellis did not feel the familiar satisfaction of punching against tangible flesh.

He couldn’t help but frown. He looked down. His frown only deepened. To his surprise, his hand had fully penetrated through its skin. Unfortunately, it did not bleed, crack, or show any signs of damage. Aside from a large ripple that traveled across the surface of its skin, there was virtually no other change.

What the…

Water. It felt like he had punched a thicker, more viscous version of water!

Before he could think any further, a terrifying force suddenly slammed into him. It had been one of the tails. Fortunately, he was able to retract his hand and block the incoming blow. Still, the force was strong enough to lift him off his feet. He zipped through the air for a few seconds before he skidded along the ground like a skipped pebble on a lake.

BANG!

He came to a stop roughly two hundred meters away. There was a small crater around him. His entire back was firmly embedded into the ground.

“How the hell am I supposed to fight this thing?” Ellis mumbled to himself. That had definitely been his strongest punch, but it went through the creature like it was nothing. He shook his head. “If this keeps up, no matter how hard I hit it, it won’t matter!”

If that thing’s constitution really was like water, then his brute strength was useless!

It was comparable to firing a pistol at the bottom of the ocean. No matter how fast or how much force is behind the shot, it won’t affect the water. The water might get displaced for a few seconds, but it will eventually come back together and return to normal.

Useless! His brand of cheat was utterly useless against this thing!

Ellis was quite thoroughly stumped.

Just then, he suddenly noticed something. There was a slight tingling sensation on his arm. He looked down.

His skin was melting

“Fuck!” He exclaimed in shock. It was the same arm that he had punched and blocked with! The creature’s acid was melting his flesh at around the same speed as his body was regenerating. It did not cause damage per se, but it definitely wasn’t a pleasant experience.

He thought for a moment. Without hesitation, he suddenly grabbed his upper arm and pulled!

From the shoulder down, Ellis tore off his entire arm and discarded it on the ground beside him. In the blink of an eye, the acid ate away at the arm. It melted into a pool of pink gush.

As for the stump on his shoulder, bone and muscle quickly regenerated.

His cheat-like regeneration once again proved its convenience, but Ellis was not at all happy.

“… If that shit were to get on my head, would I have to cut off my own head? In the first place, can I even regrow a head?” All sorts of worries plagued his heart.

Ellis’s shoulders sagged.

Fighting this thing was next to impossible. At the very least, for him it was. Still, he wasn’t one to give up so easily. After one last tired sigh, Ellis promptly picked himself back up.

He readied himself for another bothersome battle.