Level Eater-Chapter 227

As they got closer, the identity of the small monsters became visible.

They were mosquito-like insect monsters, about ten centimeters in size.

Even regular mosquitoes would be threatening in such large numbers, but these being stronger and larger made them even more troublesome.

Before entering the mist, Tatsuro felt his back crawl at the bizarre sight as he began preparing magic in cooperation with Cardina and the others.

This time it was a combined magic of fire, earth, wind, poison, lightning, light, and darkness, creating a tornado with fire, wind, poison, and lightning boosted by light, mixed with blades made of earth hardened by dark magic.

They fired it at the mist of giant mosquitoes that had noticed them and were swarming to attack all at once.

And then there were the new types of grenades, developed through recent technological and research advances that spread explosions, flames, and lightning strikes more compactly and powerfully.

Leah used her staff sling to throw these new grenades into the monsters, following after the tornado.

"They're really strong indeed. Before, they would've disappeared without a trace the moment they were sucked into the tornado."

"Yes. Even though my grenades should have been considerably strengthened, only the monsters right at the blast center are affected while the others remain unfazed."

Despite their equipment being enhanced from before and using combined magic from all five of them including Tatsuro and Cardina, they had become tough enough to survive for several seconds in the midst of it.

And furthermore, particularly strong individuals among them crawled out on their own, and despite being severely injured, about three hundred of them came charging at Tatsuro's group.

"Quite a few are coming this way! What should we do?"

"They're wounded, but those blood-sucking needles look dangerous. Before they get close to us— What's that?"

"Isn't the footing getting tilted?"

When everyone looked down, the previously horizontal raft and water surface had tilted about ten degrees in the direction they were moving.

The tilt increased rapidly, and two seconds later it became an eighty-degree waterfall.

"Whoa!?"

"Tatsuro!"

"Peewee!"

"Neigh!"

"Over here!"

"Hyah!?"

"Oops!"

What happens to people when their footing suddenly changes from horizontal to an eighty-degree slope? 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

First, Tatsuro's group lost their footing and watched the raft sliding down along the water surface below them.

And at this rate, they would be heading straight down toward an unknown bottom.

So Ai first reached out with two giant monkey arms from her pole art beast technique to grab Tatsuro with one hand, and with the other caught Jeanne's fingertips as she transformed into her [True form] and reached out, quickly pulling her in.

And Leah and Athena, who couldn't fly, were secured by Nana and Cardina respectively, who had transformed into their [True form]'s.

Just when they thought the problem was over, of course, it wasn't...

Despite their situation, the army of ten-centimeter mosquito monsters was closing in right before their eyes.

"Everyone! Follow the raft downward while defeating the monsters! We might lose our way out if we lose sight of the raft!"

If there was a water current they could follow it, but this was truly a water surface without any landmarks.

If they lost sight of the raft, they might lose all sense of direction.

"That wouldn't be good. Well then, Tatsuro and I will handle the monsters, so Jeanne-chan, could you prioritize watching the raft and fight with whatever energy you have left?"

"Neigh!"

So they left tracking the raft to Jeanne, and Tatsuro and Ai, who had moved from Jeanne's large palm to her back, efficiently dealt with the monsters using lasers and whips before they could get too close.

Nana and Leah also joined in, participating in the monster extermination.

And Cardina with Athena on her back went to the opposite side from Tatsuro's group to defeat monsters.

As they followed the raft along the steep slope while finishing off all the monsters, the angle gradually returned to horizontal.

During this time, they had actually wanted to capture two or three specimens, but since they were tougher than expected and couldn't be stopped without killing them, this wasn't possible.

Then everyone landed together on the raft.

"Phew... Finally, we can catch our—"

"Peewee!"

"—or maybe not..."

"More monsters?"

"Yeah, they're coming soon so put up a shield. They're going to charge at us."

According to Tatsuro and Cardina's underwater detection, flat monsters from thirty centimeters to one meter in size were surrounding the raft on all sides, with hundreds charging toward them at tremendous speed.

So when Ai put up a dome-shaped spirit shield, they jumped straight out of the water's surface like flying fish and charged.

"Are those... fish shaped like swords?"

"Doesn't look like they're for eating though."

"Rather than food, they look more like they could be weapons."

What appeared before Tatsuro and the others' eyes were sharp-looking scaled swords bouncing around on the raft, blocked by the black spirit shield.

And their numbers increased by the second, covering the entire raft and threatening to sink it into the water.

"This is bad. If we don't get rid of them quickly, the raft will be completely submerged."

"Yeah. Well then, let's try this approach this time. First, Jeanne will—"

Tatsuro quickly explained the magic plan to Cardina and the others verbally, and they immediately got to work.

"So Ai, change this shield from dome-shaped to chimney-shaped."

"Aye aye, sir!"

Along with Ai's acknowledgment, the shape changed into a chimney-like structure about ten meters high made of multiple layers of spirit shields.

After confirming this, Tatsuro, together with Cardina, created a light but sturdy funnel-shaped object using combined earth and darkness magic and placed it on top of the chimney.

Then they mixed fire and light combined magic into the earth magic funnel, heating it until it glowed red hot.

Once that was done, this time together with Jeanne, they created a tornado boosted by light magic around the shield chimney to lift the swordfish on the raft and place them in the earth magic funnel.

The swordfish that landed on the high-temperature funnel began to melt, flowing down through the tube into the shield chimney where Tatsuro and the others were.

There, Tatsuro prepared a bathtub-like container made of earth and darkness magic and waited for a decent amount of the bright red former monster liquid to collect.

Once enough had been collected, he flash-froze it using ice magic boosted by light magic.

The resulting grayish-black metal-like mass with impurities was then stored in the [Infinite Item Field].

This process continued, melting down the monster swords like casting metal and storing them in Tatsuro's [Infinite Item Field], reducing their numbers.

And with this, the raft rose back to its original height, escaping the danger of sinking.

"Can those monster materials be used for something?"

"Who knows? But looking at them, their bodies seem metallic, so if we separate the organs, magic stones, and metal using component extraction later, we should be able to use them for something— oh."

"What's wrong, Father?"

"No, I was wondering about some that weren't melting up there, and when I checked, it seems they're using water magic skills to release water from their bodies to lower their temperature."

"Is it okay to leave them alone?"

"Yeah. That skill can only be used by high-level ones that are left. Even if we leave them alone, they won't sink us with their numbers, and they'll probably meet the same fate as the others when their magic power runs out first."

Making this judgment, Tatsuro continued melting down the mass of swordfish without concern, when the raft began tilting again in the direction they were moving.

Everyone prepared to jump, but this time it settled at about a thirty-degree slope, so it wasn't steep enough to prevent them from standing.

"This time seems okay— What!? Something incredibly huge is coming from below!"

"Huh, huge?"

A few seconds after Tatsuro detected the reaction, a monster with a flat ray-like shape measuring 15 meters appeared, moving with surprising speed for its massive body, equipped with two arm-like swords about ten meters long.

And simultaneously, it crossed its two giant sword arms and tried to slash at Tatsuro's group on the raft like scissors.

"Ugh—. This one's quite strong! It cracked my shield with that attack."

The monster's single scissor attack had cracked Ai's spirit shield, which hadn't budged against the continuing assault of the swordfish.

However, since Ai quickly repaired the crack, it seemed there was no problem.

But that attack was apparently just a greeting from this monster.

The ray-type monster began channeling spirit power into its arms, preparing to unleash some kind of slash-type skill.

Even to Tatsuro's spirit eyes, it was clear this attack held considerable power.

And the assault continued.

Suddenly, the raft that Tatsuro's group was riding began shaking back and forth and then started spinning in that state.

As a result, they had to focus on planting their feet firmly and maintaining balance to avoid being thrown off by centrifugal force.

However, for some reason, the swordfish weren't affected by this, neither getting thrown off nor stopping their attempt to sink the raft by piling onto it.

"We don't need to take this head-on. Everyone, let's temporarily evacuate upward!"

Saying this, Tatsuro was held by Ai, while Leah was held by Nana as they jumped onto Jeanne's back as she took flight.

Cardina flew up on her own, and Athena jumped onto Jeanne's back under her own power.

The moment everyone escaped from the raft, the ray-type monster's attack passed horizontally over the raft.

That spirit power-charged slash had enough power to rival the strength of Ai's shield and was a dangerous technique that could even wound Jeanne's super-hardened outer skin.

Realizing it had missed, the ray-type monster dove once into the water's depths.

"Did it run away?"

"No. It's getting a running start to charge at us."

"What!?"

"Jeanne! Gain more altitude while keeping the raft in sight!"

"Neigh!"

Just as Jeanne began gaining altitude, the ray-type monster burst from the water surface and soared higher than where they were flying.

Then, while gliding with its flat, large body, it crossed its two ten-meter giant swords like scissors and came rushing in to try to cut Jeanne in half.

That strike showed even more skill than before, and Tatsuro with his spirit eyes, and Ai with her Crisis Detection sensed it would be dangerous even for Jeanne to take a direct hit, so they immediately moved to counter it.

"Leave one right arm to me!"

"Then I'll take the left arm!"

Ai held the jeweled sword in her right hand and the heavenly spear Justina in her left. Furthermore, she activated Gundari Myoo and had it hold a whip and staff.

Tatsuro readied his staff and began generating magic bullets together with Cardina.

First, Ai, who finished preparations fastest, kicked off the air and closed in instantly, leaping in front of the base of the right blade.

Then bright red spirit power flowed from the sword in her right hand, taking the form of a giant lion's right arm, while yellow spirit power flowed from the spear in her left hand, taking the form of a tiger.

Furthermore, light brown spirit power flowed from the staff held by Gundari Myoo becoming a giant monkey arm, and yellow-green spirit power flowed from the whip, becoming the head of a boar from the throwing skill beast spirit.

"Teryaaaah!"

Ai unleashed all these beast spirit techniques simultaneously.

First, the monkey's giant arm from the staff held by Gundari Myoo and the boar's head from the whip tip charged at the blade, reducing its momentum.

Then, watching for the moment its movement slowed, Ai unleashed the lion's giant arm and tiger's huge jaws at the base of the arm, trying to tear it from the body with spirit claws and fangs.

But the bones and flesh were hard, and even all that wasn't enough to sever it.

"Not done yet!"

So Ai, as a finishing blow, brought out the white dragon's fang on her right foot and the black dragon's fang on her left heel, then did a front flip in the air to strike with both heels simultaneously.

That finally completely severed the right arm, which fell downward.

Meanwhile, on Tatsuro's side dealing with the left hand, he first hit the base of the left arm with magic bullets imbued with explosive attributes boosted by light magic for a powerful strike.

This created a huge hole while exploding spectacularly.

Then Nana used curse magic to enhance Athena and Jeanne's magic power, and the two of them used double wind magic to widen the hole in the arm like drilling into it.

And at what seemed like the final push, Tatsuro and Cardina fired two more explosive attribute magic bullets in quick succession using [Rapid Fire] to tear off the left arm as well.

Having lost both weapon arms, the monster was now just a giant ray.

However, it still had plenty of fighting spirit left.

Meanwhile, Leah, being carried by Nana, had slipped under the monster and taken out her enhanced rocket launcher, taking aim and firing into its large mouth.

It was sucked perfectly into its mouth, causing a massive explosion inside its body while spreading poison through the wounds.

But it was still conscious and continued gliding its huge body toward Jeanne.

"I'll blast another one in!"

"We don't have many of these in stock though."

While saying this, Leah had already loaded the next round and pulled the trigger, and it too was beautifully sucked into its mouth, delivering a second massive explosion and dose of poison.

Finally, as the poison began to take effect, the ray-type giant monster fell powerlessly toward the water surface.