It had grown completely dark, so we hurriedly set up camp. Since Beere-san was traveling with us, we decided against using the Magic House. It did have guest rooms, and I could have invited him to stay in one, but since we hadn't used it during the journey from the Zephyrson checkpoint to Welno, it felt awkward to bring it up now. So, we stuck to the old-fashioned way.
The former bandits handled the heavy lifting for the camp preparations. They had already become Beere-san’s de facto subordinates—mostly because Pino stood smiling behind them, a blunt weapon gripped casually in one hand.
After finishing dinner, we had nothing left to do but sleep. The Petit Golems and the Normal Golem handled the watch, allowing the rest of us to drift off with peace of mind.
“Master, enemy attack!”
The warning shout jerked me awake. I was surrounded by pitch-black darkness. The sound of rustling nearby told me my companions were waking up as well.
“Status?” I asked.
“Monsters,” Allen replied concisely. “A mixed pack of about ten Windolfs and Malicefoxes. We’re handling them, but something’s wrong. They’re those abnormal ones.”
It must have been Allen who gave the first shout. While the sentry golems seemed to be holding their own for now, his voice lacked its usual composure.
First, we needed light. The campfire was still burning, but it only illuminated the immediate area. The golems were fine in the dark, but it certainly wasn't enough for us.
I cast Night Vision on myself. While it wasn't quite as clear as broad daylight, my vision sharpened enough to make out the surroundings.
As I ran toward Allen and the others, I began manifesting Floating Light orbs. It was a low-level light magic, so a single orb wasn't particularly bright, but enough of them together did the trick. Ideally, I would have cast Night Vision on everyone, but that would have taken too long.
“Is everyone okay?”
“Master! Sorry, but two golems are down!” Allen shouted.
“We let our guard down because we thought we’d finished them off!” Milly added.
The battle was at a stalemate. From their reports, I gathered the Petit Golems were safe, but of the five Haniwa Golems that had been on guard, only three remained.
Opposing them were six Windolfs—wolves that manipulated the wind—and four Malicefoxes—fox-type monsters that attacked from a distance with magic.
The monsters had the numerical advantage, but Allen’s group seemed to be fighting well. The loss of the two golems had been purely due to an unexpected recovery from the enemies. Under normal circumstances, Allen and the others could have handled this easily.
The reason things weren't going according to plan became clear almost immediately.
“Hah!”
With a focused shout, Lowell lunged forward. His sword carved through a Windolf’s torso. Even for a monster with high vitality, that should have been a fatal blow.
“I see... this is going to be troublesome,” Lowell said, putting some distance between himself and the wolf.
The upper half of the severed Windolf was still snapping its jaws at him. It didn't look like a final, desperate struggle; it was glaring at us with bared fangs, full of active malice despite being in two pieces.
That was shocking enough, but there was more to come. From the wounds of both halves of the split Windolf, silver threads began to spill out like metallic wire.
The threads emerging from one half sought out the other, intertwining and pulling the pieces back together. The Windolf’s upper and lower halves fused as if they were being crudely sutured. It was a messy, distorted fix—the wolf looked like it had trouble walking—but it was back on its feet.
Moving nonchalantly after receiving a fatal wound was a massive threat in itself. Beyond that, the sheer gruesomeness of the sight was a blow to morale. I could hear the former bandits watching from a distance, their voices trembling with disgust.
“Hey, that silver stuff...” Halfa murmured beside me. I knew what she was thinking. Between the silver threads and the abnormal toughness, they bore a striking resemblance to the Abomination Soldiers.
“Garna, what’s the verdict?”
“...I detect a faint, alien presence,” Garna replied. “Is this a form of erosion?”
She didn't have a definitive answer, but she was sensing interference from the Outer World.
Well, if that was the case, the solution was simple. The silver Abomination Soldiers were weak to attacks on their cores. My attacks almost always hit the core, so I should be able to neutralize them.
“Threading Storm!”
I waited for the distance between the Petit Golems and the monsters to open up before unleashing the spell. I kept the storm on a smaller scale, but the swirling winds still battered the monsters. However...
“They’re not dead!”
“Even Tort-kun’s magic didn't work?” Halfa and Spira cried out.
They were right. Though the monsters were battered and scarred, they hadn't stopped moving. Unlike the Abomination Soldiers, my attacks couldn't just delete them.
“...Likely, these creatures are manifesting by using the monsters as vessels,” Garna speculated. “In a sense, the monster’s entire body acts as the core.”
“I see. Then we just have to keep destroying the physical body until it gives out,” Lowell said, nodding.
If that was true, they didn't have a single, clear weak point to target, but they would eventually die if we dealt enough damage. It was an annoyance for me, but in a way, it made the fight more straightforward.
“It's going to be a pain, though...” Shiroru added.
She was right. It was going to be incredibly tedious to fight things that could just stitch themselves back together and keep coming no matter how hard we hit them.