“Nyahahaha! Here we go!” Sarasa spins her daggers before jumping at the enemy in front of her, one of the clones created by the pumpkin head. The clone’s roots move around in a panic, trying to block Sarasa’s attacks and hit her. Sarasa nimbly dodges every single one of the monster’s attacks and dances around it while chipping away at its body.

Wow… she’s strong… The six clones don’t seem like that much of a threat anymore. If she’s able to keep this up, she might defeat the monster by herself. A second nearby clone noticed how Sarasa’s fight was going and decided to interfere. Its face lit up, and it spewed out its breath attack at Sarasa and the clone she was fighting. Sarasa noticed the incoming danger and quickly climbed up the monster, doing a handstand on its head before leaping towards the meddler. It was too late to stop the breath attack, and with Sarasa out of the way, the battered-up clone got hit by its ally. Ally? Are they allies, or are the clones connected? Maybe it would be more accurate to say it hit itself.

On my other side, Flanne was fighting two different clones. Flanne swatted the roots lunging at her from the two monsters with her claymore. When they realized how futile their attempts were, they switched tactics. The two monsters’ mouths started glowing in preparation to unleash their breath attack. Flanne barely reacted, and she calmly held up her sword in a defensive position.

Is she going to be alright? Her sword is not going to block all the magic fireflies, right? The barrage of magical critters flew directly at Flanne, but a circular pulse of light emanating from her sword completely dispersed both their breath attacks. A magical shield? Flanne held up her sword with both hands in front of her face, and the blade started glowing. She moved her sword around in preparation for a powerful swing, but the clones were too far away for the blade to reach them. Flanne swung her sword through the air regardless, and the glow from her sword shot out in an arc towards them. The monsters didn’t react in time, and the slash cut through both their bodies, slicing through their roots and causing one of them to collapse. More roots approached them from the tree, and their bodies started to repair. Are they thinner now? One of them can barely stand straight. I see now… It looks like the monster can regenerate, but the number of vines and roots at its disposal is not infinite. Every single one we cut brings us one step closer to defeating it.

“Wawawawa- what? Was that magic I saw? I didn’t know normal soldiers were able to do that… What else are you hiding, I wonder?” Sarasa was chipping away at the second clone, but that didn’t stop her gaze from wandering. She had a hunch from the beginning that Flanne had some kind of hidden ability, so she spoke with a mocking tone, like this was all a joke to her.

“This is nothing impressive. It’s just a little magic, hardly worth bringing up.” Flanne dashed forward and swung down her sword on the weakest of the two clones. She cut through the pumpkin, and the image of the pumpkin disappeared, revealing only a big ball of roots. Was that just an illusion? What does that mean? These clones… They’re all just roots being controlled by the original one, aren’t they? Either way, it’s only a matter of time before she finishes off the other one. Flanne’s really strong too.

The last two monsters were in front of the tree where Carol was being held. Carol was worried the monster would prove too much for the three of us, but now she was looking between Sarasa and Flanne, struggling to keep up. She’s no stranger to seeing monsters and their ridiculous properties, but people using magic is a different story for her. Even Katja’s superhuman physique doesn’t match up to what Flanne just did.

Of the two monsters in front of me, one of them was standing completely still in the back. I see… That one must be the real pumpkin head… I know what I have to do then. As if sensing my hostility, the clone guarding the real one extended its limbs to attack. I don’t wanna do anything dumb, but I can’t sit still while it attacks me. We’ve seen more or less all that it can do, so I should be able to manage. I paid close attention to its attacks, and I was able to weave and duck under the flying tendrils. It’s not that fast… It’s nothing I can’t handle… I have the Evasion skill now. This is nothing to me.

Staying true to itself, when the monster saw it couldn’t hit me with its roots, it went for the breath attack. Its mouth lit up once again, and I closed the gap in an instant with Agility Burst. You’re not gonna get me with that a second time… I cut through the roots overlapping the image of the pumpkin with a flurry of slashes, causing the clone to lose its life and collapse. “I- Iroha too… It’s impossible for her to move like that… She hasn’t been matched yet… She’s just like me, so how?”

That was easy… Turns out all I needed was to not give it a chance to attack. The other two finished as well, and they joined me to defeat the real pumpkin monster once and for all.

“Nyahahahaha! After killing all the others, it’s easy to tell which one is the real one. Hurry up, you two, or I’m going to steal all the glory!” Sarasa ran off on her own, but before she could get to the monster, it let out a disturbing cry, and the ground started shaking.

“What’s going on?” Were we wrong? Does it still have another trick up its sleeve?

“Get back, Sarasa. It’s too dangerous!” Sarasa had to watch her step because of the tremors. She held hands up while taking a few steps back, like she was trying to show the monster she was harmless. One of its roots shot up from the ground in front of her face and started flailing around wildly. It was faster than all the monster’s previous attacks, so Sarasa was forced to block with her daggers and got knocked away, landing right next to us. After the first one, many other roots rose up from the ground around the monster, flailing wildly, while the monster let out another disturbing cry.

“What is that? Are you okay, Sarasa?”

“I’m good I’m good. Don’t worry, Iroha. Damn… This has gotten complicated now all of a sudden.” Sarasa sighed at the sight of the rampaging creature.

“What do you mean?”

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“It’s playing defensively now. Instead of trying to attack us, it’s just flailing around at random to prevent us from getting close. I can’t get close to it anymore. Maybe Flanne can reach it with some of her magic?”

“No… It’s too far away… I guess we’ll have to wait until it tires itself out.”

“We can’t do that! Look at Carol. She’s going limp. She’s about to lose consciousness. We won’t be able to save her if we wait for it to get tired.” Not to mention, the tree and the monster have to be connected somehow. It’s a plant monster that’s holding Carol hostage, so it might be using her for sustenance. If that’s the case, it’s only going to stop once Carol’s dead.

“Iroha’s right. We have to do something. Maybe it’s time to ask Ririna for help? No… Her explosions would hit Carol as well. But she’s smart. She might figure something out.” Ririna huh…? What Sarasa is saying made sense. From the extensive lesson Ririna gave me about alchemy, I learned alchemists have a lot of options to deal with plants and plant monsters by extension. The problem is that without the right ingredients on hand, we’re gonna run into the same issue as before. Carol’s gonna be dead long before Ririna can finish creating her solution. We need something right now—something that would allow us to kill the monster immediately…

Isn’t there something I can use? A skill? Anything? There are roots coming out from the ground everywhere around the monster, but nothing too close to the ruins… That’s weird… If it’s flailing at random, why are there still walls standing? Is it trying to avoid hitting them? Or does it have something to do with the foundation of the house? Hmm…

“Iroha? Where are you-” I ran towards the closest wall with Agility Burst. Even with all my speed, one of the roots still hit me on the side of my stomach, but I endured it and kept going. When I got close enough, I jumped onto the wall and latched onto it with Wall Artist. I can do this… It’s gonna work! I combined both skills to run and jump along the various wall fragments until I got to where the monster was. This it… It’s right in front of me now. Its bright, orange head is right in my sights. I shot out of the wall with Agility Burst aiming straight for its head. A single powerful thrust attack that partially ignores enemies’ defenses, Heart Piercer! No… Head Piercer… No no no no, more like Pumpkin Obliterator! As soon as my sword stabbed into its head, it exploded into a million pieces!

With its head gone, the roots stopped flailing one by one, and they all started to wilt away. This is it… I guess I did it. Although I’m covered in pumpkin juice now. Ughh… Gross…

“Huhh?!? Damn you, Iroha! You stole the spotlight from me!” With the roots out of the way, Sarasa and Flanne made their way to me. “You’re clever… Running along the walls… Why didn’t I think of that? I could have done that! Well, I guess it’s fine. I’m more of the quiet-get-in-get-out-without-anyone-noticing kind of character.” Are you? That’s not what you were saying the other day…

“Seriously, Iroha… That was too reckless. Didn’t I tell you to be more careful?” Flanne put her hands on her hips and furrowed her brows. “Still, it worked out, so I’m not gonna complain. Well done.”

“Thanks… Sorry for worrying you… I just couldn’t sit around doing nothing when I saw an opportunity.”

“It’s fine. Everyone has their own way of doing things. Considering you were crazy enough to fight hundreds of monsters on your own, I shouldn’t have expected anything else…”

“Hahaha… Thanks…?” Why is she bringing that up now? That was more of a fluke than anything else. Isn’t her image of me kinda warped? I’m not that amazing. Don’t expect so much from me.

“Hey hey, are you sure you’re a normal human, Iroha? How the hell did you cling to the wall like that? I mean, I could easily do it, of course, but that’s because of who I am.” Sarasa flicked her ears back and forth to explain what she meant.

I guess clinging onto walls is something a catgirl would find easy to do, so how did I do it? By cheating, of course! “I’m not sure… It’s just a little trick I learned.”

“Ehh? You learned it from me? You must have been paying really close attention to me. Oh no… That’s embarrassing. Nyehehe…” Sarasa brought her hands to her cheeks and wiggled her body with a goofy expression. That’s not at all what I said, but at least she’s not asking about the VISS Driver.

While we were talking, the roots holding up the barely conscious Carol weakened, thus lowering her. The tree itself looked fine, but the roots and vines covering it were disappearing along with the monster. “Carol!” It didn’t take long for her to slide to the base of the tree. I ran up to her and checked her condition.

“Ngnghh…” Her eyes were closed, and she was groaning in pain, but her breathing was somewhat normal. I’m so glad… We should be able to save her one way or another. If I can take her back to the House of Imaginary Boundaries, they should be able to take her to a hospital and save her. Hang in there, Carol. It won’t be long until you-

“Can you step aside, Iroha? It’s my turn now, so let me handle this.”

“Eh?” The fight was finally over, and now that it was safe, Ririna regrouped us and came straight for Carol. She crouched down next to me, pushing me slightly to the side.

“While you’re taking care of that, we… I guess we’ll stand guard.” Sarasa took a few steps away from us, turning her back to us. Flanne nodded to Sarasa and ended up doing the same.

“Please do try to hurry up. The sooner we leave this accursed place, the better. *Sigh…* I could really go for some tea right about now.”

Ririna took Carol off my hands and checked her condition with a serious face. “What are you doing?” I couldn’t do anything but watch. Ririna quickly assessed the situation and had Carol drink a couple of her potions. It didn’t take long for Carol to stop groaning, and she fell into a peaceful slumber.

“Okay, that should do it. She just needs some rest now.” Ririna gently rested Carol up against the tree and cleaned up her medical supplies.

“Is she good now? Why isn’t she waking up?”

“Like I said, she needs some rest, but other than that, she should be perfectly fine. I saw her looking confused during your fight, so I also gave her a potion to treat any mental ailments the monster might have inflicted. She’ll be fine.” Ririna touched my shoulder and smiled to reassure me.

“I see… Thanks, Ririna.” The reason Carol was confused was probably not because of the monster… But it doesn’t hurt to make sure.

“Don’t mention it. What about you, Iroha? Are you hurt? Tired? Hungry? I made some food for us if you want.” Ririna enthusiastically showed me a basket with sandwiches and other food items inside.

“I think I’m fine. Thank you… But… We’re like an hour away from town, aren’t we? We should probably eat before we go.”

“Denied!” Flanne was overhearing the conversation and turned to us while holding her arms in front of her in the shape of an X. “If you’re done, grab Carol, and let’s get out of here as soon as possible. We can eat before we get to town, just not in here!”

“Okay… Let’s do that.” Flanne clearly didn’t want to be in the Forest of Illusion any longer than she had to, and since she made the sacrifice to help me, it was only fair not to dwindle around.

I lifted up Carol, and the four of us headed back to town, following Flanne’s lead. I remember picking up things around the house and feeling like they were getting lighter when I first got some levels, and now I’m able to lift a table without breaking a sweat. Carol’s already small, and she always looked light, so I’m able to lift her up without any issues. Carol… She looks so peaceful right now. I’m carrying her princess style, so I’m able to get a clear look at her peaceful sleeping face. Remind me of when Katja carried me after she first started training me. How the tides have turned… Mhmm… Remembering that is making me embarrassed now. I should think about something else…

She’s really cute… It comes as no surprise, though. She’s always been cute. Even while scowling and lashing out at me, I still thought that, but seeing her now is totally different. I guess it’s just easier to appreciate how cute she is when she keeps her mouth shut… What am I going to do with her? Could I carry her back to the real world and try to play everything off as a dream? Would that work? But I can’t exactly disappear into the forest with an injured girl in my arms. Ririna and the others would find that really suspicious.

“Why are you carrying her like that, Iroha? Wouldn’t it be easier to carry her on your back?” Ririna asked while walking next to me. Why is she asking this question? Her expression is hard to read for some reason…

“Would it? She’s pretty light, so this is easy for me. Besides, isn’t it more comfortable for her this way?”

“Hmm… You’re a kind one too, aren’t you?” Ririna picked up her pace and walked ahead of me. What was that supposed to mean? Eh? Could it be… Nah… I’m just imagining things, right?