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The snow had lightened.
But the slaughter hadn't stopped.
At the edge of the forest, sword winds tore through the remains of monsters. Paul's figure darted across the ground like a meat grinder, carving through the snowdrifts.
"The net's been destroyed!"
"Over here too!"
"The monsters are gnawing on the trees!"
An hour ago, the monster horde had given up on charging the net. To avoid Paul's relentless slaughter, they had turned their attention to gnawing at the tree trunks that supported the barrier. The net was anchored to the thick trees at the forest's edge, and as the trees fell, the barrier collapsed.
Fortunately, many of the monsters were still attacking each other. This behavior was a small-scale result of their animal instincts.
But even so, Paul was exhausted.
On the other side of the net, he was alone. Unlike during his adventurer days, when he could rely on Ghyslaine for offense and Elinalise for defense, forming a tactical formation with support from the flanks and healing from his wife...
Now, holding the entire line by himself was too much.
Paul slashed through the snowdrifts around the net, and the air filled with the screams of monsters. But behind him, the villagers' cries of panic rang out again!
Paul was about to turn and rush to their aid when he saw the holes he had just created in the snowdrift fill with glowing red eyes once more.
"Damn it..."
Paul stopped in his tracks and swung his sword, cutting down the monsters that surged toward him. He stumbled, nearly falling to the ground.
His combat aura was running out!
Paul's face twisted in frustration as he felt the strain on his body. After nearly three hours of continuous slaughter against wave after wave of monsters, he needed a break...
He truly missed Ghyslaine and Zenith at that moment.
Suddenly, a long, creaking sound and the panicked screams of villagers reached his ears. His pupils contracted as he turned toward the source of the cries.
The scene that greeted him was etched into his mind.
A tree trunk as thick as a man's embrace was covered in giant gnawing rats and saw-toothed rabbits. The tree was splitting at the base, and the net attached to it was slowly collapsing toward the south. The monsters on the tree leaped off, raining down from the sky like a shower of death.
Below them were the horrified faces of the villagers.
"Get out of the way!"
Paul roared, ready to charge in with his Sword God style. But in the next moment, he suddenly stopped himself, a relieved smile spreading across his face. He turned his sword and instead slashed at the monsters near the tree.
As he turned, the tree hadn't yet fallen, and the monsters were still suspended in mid-air.
A figure seemed to "squeeze" out of the air in front of the villagers beneath the tree.
Allen, his hand on his sword, narrowed his eyes at the monsters falling from the sky. The teeth of the rabbits and rats glinted coldly in his gaze. The wind whipped around him, carrying the stench of monster saliva. The only sound was a ringing in his ears, the result of the air rippling violently around him.
Snowflakes unfolded their six-pointed wings before his eyes, welcoming his arrival.
Although his participation points in the major events of Mushoku Tensei hadn't increased over the past year, Allen's own strength had never stagnated.
One of the Five Great Secrets of the Water God Style—Flow Sense.
In this state of ultimate "perception," Allen had already made the most appropriate choice.
A lazy voice sounded, slow and deliberate.
'Twenty Slashes.'
But by the time the voice faded, accompanied by a series of sharp, buzzing sounds, the monsters falling from the sky were like a thin layer of frost, swept away by the dim yet rapidly flickering sunlight after the snowfall...
They dissolved into the air, splattering like water droplets. The view, previously obscured by the monsters, suddenly cleared.
Allen saw the tree trunk above the bloody rain.
The Flow Sense was still active, and the world around him moved in slow motion. The tree trunk was still slowly falling, and the monsters, tireless, were swarming up the trunk toward him.
His eyes shifted to the slowly descending tree trunk.
His figure pierced through the bloody rain and "climbed" onto it.
'Four-Limbed Form.'
The battle had been "planned." Allen emerged from the Flow Sense!
His hands moved in a blur as he "touched" the side of the falling tree trunk. In the next instant, like a squirrel, he clung to the trunk with all four limbs.
Before the trunk hit the ground, he shot forward like a ferocious leopard, the monsters around him popping like balloons as he passed, their blood and flesh spraying into the air.
With a loud thud, the broken tree trunk finally hit the ground, but there were no monsters left on it.
Allen didn't fall with the trunk. His "limbs" sprang up like a leopard's, launching him high into the air.
He plummeted like a cannonball into the monster horde near the tree roots!
'Dragon Saint Aura Amplification—Avalanche Crash!'
The wind pressure from his combat aura radiated outward from him! The snowdrifts rippled like waves in a wheat field, surging into the distance.
Allen's landing point was like a drop of crimson ink falling into a lake of white water. The wind pressure carried a wave of blood, instantly staining the pure white snow within a twenty-meter radius into a lifeless sea of blood!
At the center of the blood lake, Allen stood up, blood streaming down his arms and shoulders like water.
He looked around and kicked at the snowdrift by his feet.
A few limp rabbit and rat skins were hooked out by his foot, their bodies leaking blood as they flopped onto the blood-stained snow.
The Dragon Saint Aura's shockwave had shattered the monsters' bones.
From the moment Allen appeared to the end of the slaughter, less than ten seconds had passed.
This was the power of a Saint-rank.
As if announcing Allen's arrival, the smell of blood spread through the snow, carried by the gaps in the snowdrifts and the monster burrows, reaching deep into the forest.
If a small amount of blood could excite the monsters, making them more aggressive, then a massive, sudden wave of blood from their own kind could only fill them with fear.
It was a biological instinct, making them think of a natural disaster.
How could they fight against a natural disaster?
In the blink of an eye, the monsters made their decision. In the eyes of the panicked humans, the snowdrifts in the distance rippled as the monsters fled deep into the forest.
A natural disaster was unstoppable.
The monsters fled in terror.
...
From a distance, Paul watched as the monsters he had been fighting suddenly ran away. He was stunned for a moment, then caught the thick scent of blood in the air and immediately understood what had happened.
He let out a long sigh of relief and leaned against a tree, exhausted.
He turned to look at the center of the "blood lake."
Allen, standing in the center, met his gaze.
The two exchanged a smile.
The crowd erupted in cheers.
Amid the blood-soaked crowd, Allen was pulled out of the "blood lake" and tossed into the air, then caught and thrown again.
He didn't resist, but as he floated in the air, he glanced toward the direction he had come from.
Outside the "blood lake," the other three members of his group finally arrived, panting heavily.
Laws looked helpless.
Sylphie pouted.
And Rudeus looked resentful.
"Allen!!"
The man being called was tossed into the air again, blood and snow flying around him. The crimson scene resembled a cult sacrificing to a demon lord.
The "Demon Lord" floated in the air, his clothes fluttering. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, avoiding Sylphie's gaze, looking rather embarrassed and disheveled.
'...Why did I run earlier? My body just moved on instinct... Weird. I admit I miss Roxy—I think about her every time I write a letter. So Rudeus's expression makes sense. And Sylphie... maybe she's jealous that I exchange letters with her teacher so often? But what's with Laws's expression? Why do I feel like he wants to kill me??'
'This is so confusing.'
'Good thing I ran fast.'
Note: So far this story is published up to chapter 115 on my patreon, go check it out and remember that if we reach the goal of 80 power stones I will publish the next chapter.