After a moment of hesitation, Greaves backs out and turns to run with the party. Lian remains at the rear, cautiously watching the emerging creature. The ground continues rumbling.

「Huh?…」

As they run, Greaves notices the earth rise beneath them. Or rather they, themselves, rise along with everything else. Trees begin toppling all around them.

「…What is going on!?」

He shouts towards Will, who noticed the ground rise with them as well.

「We might be already too late!…」

He replies, glancing over his shoulder. As dirt slides off, they realize that the creature emerging is actually merely its back. As they arrive at the edge, Greaves, Lian, and Will jump off.

「Jump! I'll catch you!」

Greaves turns around as he realizes Alicia hesitated to jump down to the lower, static ground with them. With every moment of further hesitation, Alicia rises to a threatening height.

Sheathing his sword, he holds his arms out for her to jump into. Alicia glances over her shoulder, then after a nervous look downward, she jumps down towards him before she can rise higher.

Ffffwap!

She drops into his grasp, clutching tight onto her wand for comfort. Greaves drops her to her feet and grabs her hand, rushing away from the rising earth with the rest of the party. As the earth rises more and more behind them, they are forced to jump over the felled trees. As Will glances over his shoulder, he notices the creature's side emerge from the ground.

THUD!

「Agh!」

Greaves shouts out in shocked surprise. An enormous, crab-like leg slams down on the path in front of them, blocking it entirly with its sheer size.

「…This way!」

He turns, running directly away from the living mountain with Alicia in tow.

The living mountain emerges fully, chunks of earth and trees slide off its back. A massive, crab-like creature with a name befitting its scale. Despite running at full speed, Greaves and the party can barely clear the living mountain's leg. They run up a hill and then down its slope away from the beast, before Greaves slides to a stop in front of a river's shore.

「Shit. There's no way we can cross here-」

He clenches his teeth while his head swivels around for an alternate path.

THUD!

Another leg lands on top of the hill behind them, nearly boxing them in between the river and the legs, leaving them only a relatively small gap roughly the size of a few buildings.

「We gotta go! Any way away from this thing is good enough!」

He glances at Will as he runs with Alicia. Lian and Will follow, cautiously watching the top of the hill. The living mountain rises up from the ground, and its black beady eyes open. Though they have no certainty that it's looking at them, and there is no proof that it is doing so, it seems to be tracking them. Greaves and his party manage to escape the legs boxing them in, and after a moment of running, they find their way back to the road running through the forest.

「Look! There's the road!」

Will shouts, pointing at the road ahead, panting heavily.

「Keep up, Alicia! I'll take you on my back if you can't keep running!」

「I'm fine!… Haah!… For now!…」

Greaves looks over his shoulder at Alicia, who is already out of breath and barely running. They run onto the road and towards the edge of the forest.

CRACKCRACK!… THUD!

Another leg slams down in front of them on the road, breaking tall trees in its path and turning them to wood chips and splinters. The living mountain is towering over them, appearing to be intentionally blocking their way back to the capital. Like an enormous hermit crab with a small mountain for its shell, its mandibles clack together. Greaves lets go of Alicia's hand and draws his sword again.

「Greaves, are you stupid!? What are you even going to do with a sword!?」

Will shouts at Greaves as he walks a few steps ahead of everyone else, he follows him, warily watching the living mountain and its next move.

「Nothing, but I'll distract at least… You roast off its eyes or something, you should be able to do that much.」

He replies with his gaze focused on the giant monster's face. Remaining close to Alicia, Lian's eyes dart around with her spear in hands

「Do you actually think you can win against that!?-」

Will points at the monster's face. Greaves clicks his tongue in response.

「Tsk… Of course not, stupid! I might not be smart, but that doesn't mean I'm clueless!」

Greaves replies, cutting in with his voice angrily raised.

「Then why!?」

Will quickly adjust his glasses, furrowing his brows.

「Take a hint, dumbass! At least Alicia and Lian might be able to get out of this!… You'd rather that than the party getting wiped out entirely, wouldn't you!?」

Greaves nods his head back at the two girls behind them, shouting angrily. Will doesn't as much calm, as his demeanor changes. Lowering his head, he adjusts his glasses.

「…What a shit luck, huh?」

Greaves scoffs with a grim smirk as he turns his attention back to the living mountain. It turns its body slightly to face them directly, mandibles clicking.

「Yeah. This one is really not on you.」

Will nods, side-glancing at Lian with a serious, gloomy face before looking at the giant beast.

「I'll distract it for as long as I can, you try and blind it. Make sure the two get away. Don't get distracted.」

「Yeah.」

Will nods again, adjusting his glasses as Greaves dashes towards the beast. With the relative sizes involved, his pace appears sluggish despite his sprint.

「Lian! We'll distract it, get back to the city with Alicia! The guild has to know there's a living mountain here!」

Looking at the two over his shoulder, he points his staff in the general direction of the capital, shouting.

「What about you two!?」

Lian asks as her gaze turns to Will. His eyes drop to the leaf-covered ground for a moment.

「…I'll think of something!」

He returns a weak, gloomy smile that's poorly feigning confidence before turning his attention back to the living mountain. He raises his staff up towards its face and begins casting.

Meanwhile, Greaves reaches the bottom of its body, where the beast left an enormous hole in the ground caused by its rise. He leaps towards an exposed joint near the base of its leg, jumping in the air again to reach it. He slashes at the exposed flesh with all his might, carving into it and leaving a tiny, weakly bleeding cut. He drops down to the ground and rolls to break the fall. Though barely injured, the beast reacts by raising one of its eight legs.

「Alicia, that thing we've discussed… This might be it, but we have to leave.」

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Lian grabs Alicia's robed shoulder and takes a step towards the now cleared path on the road.

「Huh? What about Greaves and Will!?」

Clutching onto her wand, she asks with her brows furrowed.

「Alicia… Don't make me be blunt. Just come with me.」

Lian grabs onto Alicia's arm, gently tugging her towards the way to the city.

「No! You go to the guild and get us help, I'm not leaving without those two!」

Alicia shouts back, ripping her arm out of her grasp much to Lian's consternation. She lets out a troubled sigh, furrowing her brows at Alicia with a gloomy face.

「…Hup.」

Lian wraps her arm around Alicia's waist and heaves her over her shoulder.

「Lian! Let go! I'm not leaving!」

Alicia shouts, wriggling and writhing in her tight grasp.

「Alicia, there's two universal concepts between our people. I'll tell you about the other one when we're back…」

Lian replies while avoiding looking in the general direction of Greaves and Will, though she glances at them for a split second while preparing to dash away with Alicia on her shoulder.

Greaves has spent the last minute dodging vicious pokes from the monster's leg, each gouging out the earth and leaving massive craters spanning multiple men's height. While none draw even close due to the beast's sluggish reactions, Greaves is panting heavily, getting weary from all the jumping and running at a breakneck pace. Focused entirely on the monster's head, Will continues casting, his wooden staff pointed directly at the monster's beady black eyes. However, he is momentarily distracted when the monster raises two of its front legs to slam them both down at Greaves. Combined, they're far too wide for him to evade.

「Shit. Figured it out, huh?…」

Greaves looks up at the menacing crab-like legs while they trickle dirt down all around him.

「At least it wasn't goblins…」

He remarks, grinning nervously. Though there is no doubt the attack is inescapable, he is unwilling to simply let it happen, and his eyes dart around for even a momentary gap.

FWWOOOOOM!

Something blurry sails past the living mountain's raised legs with a terrible sound that echoes through the trees.

「Lian, let go!-」

Alicia shouts, hammering Lian's back. She slides to a stop at the edge of the forest, furrowing her brows as she looks for the source of the peculiar noise.

「Eh?…」

Greaves furrows his brows as the monster's legs detach from the body, spilling cyan-blue blood everywhere.

「…Ah!」

Getting over his initial confusion, he realizes that the two legs, being detached, are now falling towards him, though not quite in the same way as the monster would slam them down.

THUD-THUD!

The legs drop down to the ground, and Greaves manages to slip to a narrow safe spot right between them, though the rumbling ground causes him to fall over.

「Greaves!… Greaves!」

Will shouts towards the tangled legs while the beast stumbles backwards, aborting his spell with a powerful flick of his staff sideways.

「…I told you to not get distracted!… What was that!?」

Greaves shouts back, though he's entirely encircled by the living mountain's front legs.

「…Aren't you thankful, mongrel!?」

Clad in a golden set of armor sans a helmet, Straf chuckles with his arms spread as he emerges from amidst the trees.

「…Straf!? What are you doing here!?」

Will adjusts his glasses, shocked and in disbelief.

「What!? That guy is here!?」

Greaves's voice asks from beyond his prison of crab legs.

「…I've been looking for a piece of cursed armor, but then I heard all this ruckus and thought I'd check it out. Who knew I'd run into my favorite mongrels?」

Straf nonchalantly replies as the beast's attention seems to shift to him. Missing two of its front legs, it turns to face him. Its mandibles clack together.

…RRRRRRRRRROAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGHHHHHH!!…

The living mountain bellows out a deafening roar, causing Will and Greaves to cover his ears while Straf winces. A purple vortex appears over his shoulder.

「…You're annoyingly loud, mongrel.」

Straf comments with a displeased expression on his face. The very next second, a sword shoots out at supersonic speed towards the living mountain.

THUNK!

It pierces deep right next to its face, embedding itself in its body. It recoils backwards while Straf furrows his brows while rubbing his chin.

「Weird… I thought I was aiming for its head.」

He casually throws his hand up while the beast bleeds its unique blue blood all over the forest. After it's done staggering, the living mountain skitters out of its hole and rushes towards Straf.

「…Don't get ahead of yourself, mongrel.」

With a disdainful smirk and one fist on his hip, Straf points his golden gauntlet at the charging giant crab. [Portable Storage] opens again, and swords shoot out one after another.

THUNK-thunk! Thunk! Clank! Clunk! Thud! Thunk!…

The beast's charge is quickly beaten back by a blizzard of swords impacting it. While a grand majority bounces off its rock-hard shell and spins off wildly into the sky, some strike true and hard, visibly making the living mountain flinch. The flinching appears to be from the sheer force involved, rather than pain, however. Straf's barrage of swords continues unabated with no end in sight.

「…We're heading back.」

Lian declares when she sees dozens of swords fly through the air in the distance. She turns around and rushes back to Will and Greaves. Confused, Alicia stops hammering her back.

「Huuuuh? You're still alive, mongrel? Obviously, I was missing on purpose, mongrel!… But I grow tired of your existence, mongrel! Your entertainment value has run dry, mongrel!…」

With the living mountain's charge brought to a halt, Straf tilts his head with a giant smug grin on his face.

The beast staggers wildly, toppling trees in its path, struggling to readjust to the missing legs and the amount of damage it has taken in such a quick time span. Its mandibles click again. Will nervously adjusts his glasses with his brows greatly furrowed, quietly watching the man in golden armor seemingly play with the massive beast that they, themselves had no chance to beat.

「…I'm going to give you a parting gift, mongrel. Ahhh, it's true, you don't deserve it!… But witness my magnanimity, mongrel!… You better be thankful!」

Straf raises his arm and points his golden finger at the beast again, chuckling to himself with a massive smirk on his face. A large whirling vortex appears above him.

「…Die, mongrel.」

He adds, and an enormous sword leaves the whirl with a supersonic crack, its black blade as wide and as tall as a man.

FWOOOP-CRACK!

In a mere sliver of a second, the sword's tip slams right into the beast's forehead, and drives itself further with ease due to the sword's immense speed and mass.

The living mountain stumbles backwards, toppling more trees. The forest cleared around the hole caused by the giant beast could fit a small village in at this point.

The beast appears to freeze, standing like a statue for a few seconds while Straf leisurely lowers his arm with a faint clatter of his golden armor's plates.

…CRASH!… Rrrrrrrumbbbble!

Then, the living mountain collapses directly downward, rumbling the ground again, quaking it, and causing an enormous crater beneath its crab-like body. Straf scoffs.

「Next time live in a way that won't get a noise complaint on your ass, mongrel. Forests are supposed to be a quiet place, mongrel…」

Straf casually remarks towards the collapsed beast, then walks up to Will while Greaves is climbing over the monster's dismembered legs.

Will adjusts his glasses, in awe and shock at the timing and the manner in which they were saved…