Escape From a Deserted Island With Enemy Female Soldiers - Chapter 85



84 – Acting (2)

I grabbed Valkyrie’s wrist. A dazed sound escaped Valkyrie’s lips as she stared blankly into the air.

“Huh?”

“What are you doing? We need to leave.”

“Leave…?”

“We were supposed to explore today. Are you sick?”

Looking closer, her face did seem a little red. Maybe she has a fever? That would mess up the exploration.

I touched Valkyrie’s forehead and checked her shoulders too.

Nothing unusual. Just a red face, no fever. The wound from the poisonous needle was completely healed thanks to the Saintess’s treatment.

Valkyrie shrugged her coat up to her shoulders and shook her head.

“…Sorry, let’s go.”

A shallow sigh slipped from her lips.

*

A soldier needs to be able to clearly separate duty from personal life.

Even though Valkyrie and I had *that* kind of thing, we were all serious during the exploration. As always, we excluded personal feelings, maintained perimeter security, and watched each other’s blind spots.

We had one goal.

Finding an escape.

I checked the mana compass. The origin stone was still spinning wildly, lost. The speed was faster than when we were on the sand. Faster spin meant the barrier entrance was closer.

“Mage.”

“Over here.”

The Saintess called, and Riyo waved. Valkyrie and I prepared our weapons.

Bwooonng.

Dark, muddy-colored wasps were flying around.

“Looks like scouts.”

These things were twice the size of the yellow honeybees that usually raided us at night. The stingers on their tails also looked longer and sharper. Just by looking at them, you could tell they weren’t pushovers.

Ignore them and move on?

Or deal with them decisively and then move on?

We chose the latter.

Riyo fired the net gun he’d just finished this morning.

The spread net trapped the wasp. The bee thrashed, trying to get out, but the engineering of the net structure was very strong. It wouldn’t be torn or rolled up by that much.

Thwack!

The Valkyrie brought the wasp down to the ground and finished it off with her spear. A precise strike to the vital point. The bee monster made a phlegmy noise and then went limp. Killed in one hit. I didn’t even need to step in.

“Won’t this attract others?”

“If they come, we’ll just catch them too.”

We moved forward, taking down the scattered monsters little by little.

It was a laborious task, but necessary. The bee monsters had wings. If we encountered the leader, the ones on patrol would quickly fly in to protect their boss. We had to prevent getting our escape route blocked, no matter what.

We continued our adventure, following the direction where the mana compass wavered most strongly.

Finally, we managed to discover something… significant.

“…That’s one hell of a tree.”

“There are so many beehives stuck to it, huh?”

“And those weird-looking flowers too.”

While other trees were around 10m, this one alone stretched out to over 30m.

It wasn’t just tall, but the thickness and number of branches were overwhelming.

No way it’s just a few decades old. At least a few hundred years.

The beehives hanging from every branch were another thing that bothered me. Something felt uneasy. Was this area a boss monster’s lair or something?

[“You lot.”]

My ominous premonitions were never wrong.

Whooosh.

A large beetle with long horns appeared with a loud flapping of wings.

[“You’ve come all this way when I’m not yet ready.”]

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It smelled of something like leaf mold. Maybe it was because of that smell, but dozens of black wasps quickly gathered around.

Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

The frantic sound of flight was enough to steal your soul.

“Ugh, it’s so gross.”

The saintess grabbed my collar and groaned. But it wasn’t like she couldn’t do anything.

[“Attack, my children!”]

“——.”

The moment the wasps swarmed in, the Saintess uttered an incantation.

Divine Authority, the weight of light.

The Saintess’s declaration interfered with the wasps’ souls. The fiercely flying wasps faltered. Some were crushed by an invisible weight, falling to the ground.

Liyo also fired her net and raised her crossbow. Reload speed was slow, but there were so many wasps she could hit them as she shot.

While Liyo and the Saintess kept watch of the sky, Valkyrie intercepted wasps crawling or flying at low altitude. Her spear skills were still amazing. When she was the enemy, I was too scared to sleep every night, but now that we’re cooperating, I couldn’t feel more secure.

[“Unbelievable!”]

The Beetle shouted.

[“Target the mage first! He’s the most dangerous one!”]

These bugs seem to really like me. Seriously, why do they always try to attack me first?

Of course, strategically, targeting me first makes sense. The Saintess’s holy magic only interferes with souls, and Liyo and Valkyrie’s attacks can only kill one at a time.

But me.

[“River, unleash your scales.”]

I can do area-of-effect attacks.

This is Red Phosphor Stone I just synthesized yesterday. Not quite White Phosphor Stone, but it’s famous for starting a nice fire in front of you based on flammable mana. Because of this characteristic, it’s used as the main ingredient in flamethrowers in the Magic Kingdom.

It’s less efficient than shooting it through a flamethrower, but even a small spark is lethal to the monsters now.

Because they’re wasps.

No matter how hard an exoskeleton they wear, they’re still bugs, so they’re vulnerable to heat. Burning them is more effective than dealing with them one by one.

The flames emitted by the Red Phosphor Stone swept through the wasps, extending to the trees behind them. Wasps directly exposed to the fire burned to death on the spot, and those nearby had their exoskeletons and wings melted, falling to the ground one by one.

And the tree presumed to be their base began to burn from the roots.

“No!”

The Beetle screamed.

“You b*stard! What the hell have you done?!”

The Beetle shouted, then abandoned the fight and flew upwards. The beehives hanging all over the trees were melting. It tried to put out the fire with its wing flaps, but it was no use. Fire emitted from magic stones with indium additives couldn’t be extinguished easily.

“Ah.”

Fucking mana depletion.

I felt dizzy for a moment, but soon I was fine. The two golems on my shoulders were replenishing my mana. I could probably cast one or two more powerful spells at this point.

“Ugh!”

Valkyrie, who had been at the front, quickly backed away. Because of the trauma. Before I could even try to take Valkyrie’s hand, she ran and hugged me.

“……”

“……”

I was honestly a little flustered.

Before long, the Beetle gave up on putting out the fire and flew higher. We cleaned up the remaining bees and moved a little away from the tree. We decided to carefully replenish our magic power and divine power, watch for a bit longer, and then move on.

That’s when a huge bee descended from the sky.

“You lot, you really did it, didn’t you. How dare you set fire to my nest.”

Stripes of yellow and black. It had antennae, and two legs like a human, but four arms. Its face was like a beauty, but its eyes were compound eyes, like an insect.

What would it look like if you mixed a person and a bee half and half?

Mixing the disgustingness of an insect with the appearance of a beauty made it neither one thing nor the other. I wondered if this was what people meant by the uncanny valley.

“Human, male mage.”

Ah, why me again?

[“I am Virzonehda, queen who rules this island. What is your name, whelp?”]

[“Erich Ronstein.”]

[“…Ronstein?”]

The bee demon who introduced herself as queen gave a hollow laugh.

[“You b*stard, a descendant of *that* one, are you.”]

[“That one?”]

[“The way you use magic stones, too, completely the spitting image.”]

Whoever that one is, I don’t give a damn right now.

The demon in front of me said she was queen and ruled this island. Which meant this b*tch was the head honcho here. If I take her down, maybe I can get the magic stone I need to escape.

“Look, David. The boss is a woman. You haven’t forgotten the bet we made a few days ago, have you?”

“Ah, damn it. There’s nothing else to be done now, is there.”

David started twerking on my shoulder.

“Why are you doing it *now*!”

“Because, that demon, looks, strong. Just in case, getting it, done beforehand, might not be, so bad. ooo.”

The queen bee took out a tentacle-like thing from her tail end that looked like an ovipositor. It was long and slender like an earthworm and the end was structured like a flower. Not unlike any other bee, the tip had a stinger embedded in it.

[“I have always loved handsome and strong males. You meet that criteria. Burning down the hive is something to be atoned for, but if you promise to provide me with semen for the rest of your life, I will only kill the women there and let you live.”]

[“I refuse.”]

[“I thought it was an alluring offer.”]

[“I’m not easy enough to mix bodies with the likes of you.”]

[“I like it. I like it even more!”]

The queen bee with her grotesque smile flicked a hand.

Pat! Pat! Pat!

Red flowers fell between the burning trees. A sweet honey scent filled the air. At the same time, yellow pollen swirled like sleet. My head began to throb fiercely.

[“I am not strong, nor is my venom potent, but I possess the power to enthrall all within my radius, be they male or female. With this power, I have raised my elite troops into a loyal legion, one that would readily die for me.”]

It seemed her boast was no empty one.

“Huuuh…”

My breath came in ragged gasps.

It wasn’t just me. The Saintess, the fox sisters, even the Valkyrie beside me. Everyone’s eyes were glazed over with that strange, unearthly scent.

[“It is the perfume of allure. Already your bodies begin to burn, do they not? It cannot be cleansed by ordinary means. I wonder how long you can maintain your sanity.”]

If this continued, we’d be defeated without even putting up a fight.

This needed to end swiftly.

But against a queen with the power of flight, approaching and landing a critical blow had too many variables.

And, more importantly, if the attack failed, it could lead to dire consequences. Perhaps a future more terrible than death itself awaited us.

[“Now, shed your clothes and come to my embrace.”]

Just then, a good idea struck me.

Feigning nausea, I collapsed forward, slipping two mana stones under my tongue.