The monsters bent forward onto their sharp hands. Those crystalline arms were one and a half times the size of their legs. They worked well both for attacks and movement.

The monsters would charge their prey, running on all fours like a gorilla. When close enough, they would raise their arms, aim at the prey’s torso, and attack as if their hands were large pink spears.

They charged Tanuki with the same plan, however, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a leather wristband. As he put it on, metal grew out from the band in the blink of an eye and blocked the monster’s attack.

Maduka saw this happen and was left utterly confused.

“What is dat?” She pointed at the shield attached to Tanuki’s hand, which blocked two more of the monster’s attacks.

“Beginners’ Shield!” The metal cried out pain under the monster’s savage attacks. “I realized it can be stored as a simple wristband, so it doesn’t take up much space!”

Despite how fast the monster moved, its heavy arms took time to raise, and there was a long second between every one of its attacks. Tanuki wanted to punish that.

Using Kurohyou, he drew a line across the monster’s chest between its two attacks.

“Kurohyou, detonate!”

The ink burst through the monster’s chest, cutting it into two halves. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to kill it, and the arm remaining on its head-half struck Tanuki in the shoulder.

“Gaah!” Tanuki pulled back and covered his wound.

The monster crawled towards Tanuki with its arm for a second attack, but Maduka stepped onto it and struck the monster through its eyehole.

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More yellow gas filled the cave and flew towards the ceiling. Tanuki coughed loudly.

Now that there was space, another one of the monsters attacked. But because it focused on Tanuki, Maduka could push the monster to the side and strike it through its mouth.

Crack-crack-crack!

She made a grim mistake. She was so focused on saving Tanuki, that she didn’t see the third monster. It was already too close, aiming its sharp hand at her stomach.

“N-No!” Maduka screamed.

Tanuki put his arms around Maduka and deflected the attack with his Beginners’ Shield. This allowed time for the shocked Maduka to come to her senses and retaliate with an attack.

It missed the monster’s head.

The monster raised its arm for another attack, but Tanuki stepped forward and bashed his wooden bat against the side of its head. The monster’s head cracked by the massive blow, then broke apart into little pieces as it hit the wall.

“Phew.” The two of them exhaled in relief.

Though the monster’s head shattered, the yellow ball on the inside remained unharmed. Upon closer inspection, it revealed itself to be a thick larva. It squirmed as its naked body met the cave’s cold air.

“Were these bugs controlling the crystal people?” Tanuki reached out to touch the larva.

He couldn’t really inspect the bug, because as soon as his hand met its warm fat, the larva let out a high-pitched cry and began to burrow itself into the ground.

“What the–– ?!”

Before Tanuki could’ve stopped it, the bug returned to the ground, leaving no trace to follow. He and Maduka dropped to the ground and pulled their balloons close to look where it went.

“Da bug just… disappeared?”

“If we would try to escape now, they would come after us and hunt us down in one of the tight passages! We need to find and kill these bugs, Maduka!”

They frantically searched the ground, looking everywhere they could. Unfortunately for them, what they saw was incredibly bad.

Everywhere they looked, crystalline monsters began to charge them from the walls, ground, and even the ceiling. In less than a few seconds, an army of monsters appeared inside the crystals.

“S-Shit!” Tanuki recoiled.

“There are too many of them! How will we kill so many?!”

While all of this was happening, something came back into Tanuki’s mind. He remembered the trophy he earned for accepting Maduka’s surrender.

[ Name: ‘The Forgiving’ ]

[ Conditions: ‘Spare an invading Enemy’ ]

[ Unlocks: ]

[ Pink Flower variants ]

[ 100 Creature Points ]

[ 200 Kingdom Points ]

[ Creature’s Race now available through the #### ]

[ ‘Terrible monster lurks in pink clothes…’ ]

“Terrible monster…” He repeated the words displayed under the trophy.