This Novel is not my Novel

Two monsters unleashed a relentless barrage of attacks at Yor.

Yor twisted, flipped, and contorted her body, barely evading the seeds flying at her and the stems lashing in her direction.

It was an exceedingly dangerous and precarious display of aerial acrobatics.

Even amid all this, Yor gathered Ether into a single mass and shaped it.

Once the concentrated Ether had assumed the form of a spike, she hurled it at the monsters.

However, merely evading the monsters' attacks was already pushing Yor to her limits, leaving her no time to aim properly.

And because the monsters were wary of the Ether spikes Yor created, nothing like before happened. The spikes did not pierce their bodies and ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) pin them to the ground.

They did not even graze a leaf.

Nevertheless, Yor continued her precarious aerial acrobatics, creating and launching Ether spikes without pause.

If she wanted to ease even a little of Reisir's burden as he fought while protecting her master, she had to divide the monsters' attention.

If she stopped trying to attack, the monsters other than the two attacking her would pay her no mind whatsoever.

Instead of devoting all her attention to evading the enemies' attacks, she deliberately divided her concentration.

Thanks to Yor's efforts, Reisir managed to kill one more monster.

Even so, the situation did not improve much.

The reason was simple. Reisir was exhausted.

Every time he knocked aside a 【Seed Bomb】, the explosive force traveled through his spear, and he had to withstand the impact with his right arm alone.

Karvaldr might have been relatively light, but how light could the body of a man over six feet tall possibly be?

Reisir's Strength stat was fairly high, so he could lift Karvaldr effortlessly with one arm.

But continuing to fight like this for any length of time was extraordinarily taxing.

No, it was simply reckless.

Moreover, Karvaldr's weight was not the only burden Reisir had to bear.

Karvaldr's life was also his responsibility.

As was the guilt of believing this entire situation was his fault.

Reisir was clearly pushing himself too hard.

There was no way he would not tire quickly.

Both physically and mentally.

For some reason, it feels like the monsters' attacks are relentlessly targeting Karv...

Most of the 【Seed Bombs】 had flown toward Reisir's thighs, shoulders, sides, and other parts of his body.

Every so often, however, one would fly toward Karvaldr's head or torso.

Instead of snatching at Reisir's ankles, the roots rising from the ground had occasionally stretched toward Karvaldr's heart as well.

Am I only imagining it? If I'm not, are they doing this because they've calculated that I'll take an attack meant for Karv while trying to protect him?

If the latter was true, it meant the monsters here were extraordinarily intelligent.

Their coordinated assault already made it seem that way, so Reisir heightened his vigilance even further.

Part of him hoped it was merely his imagination.

Even if it is, that changes nothing.

Karvaldr had fallen asleep after protecting him and being covered in pollen from a plant grown from one of the monsters' seeds.

This accident had happened because Reisir had let his guard down.

He could not rid himself of that thought.

He could not let his guard down again. Nor could he permit himself another mistake.

That compulsion gnawed away at Reisir's mental strength.

Unfortunately, humans were creatures more prone to mistakes the more physically exhausted and mentally cornered they became.

Reisir failed to evade one of the stems lashing toward him. It struck him squarely in the back, making him stagger violently.

When he reflexively drove the tip of his spear into the ground to regain his balance without falling, a monster's roots burst from the earth as though they had been waiting for that very moment, coiling around the shaft and clinging tightly to it.

At the same time, a seed flew toward Karvaldr's head.

There was not enough time to pull the spear free and knock it aside.

Reisir released the spear and retreated, only for a bombardment of seeds to rain down over a wide area.

Evading all of them was impossible.

Reisir embraced Karvaldr with both arms, turned his back to the attack, and curled over him.

Then he poured out silver Ether without restraint, forming a hemispherical barrier.

Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!!!

Calling it a "barrier" was generous. All he had done was spread Ether across a wide area.

No skill effects had been applied, so despite the amount of Ether he had invested, its durability was abysmal.

The only consolation was that it prevented the seeds from embedding themselves in his body before exploding.

The barrier failed to absorb even a quarter of the shock wave generated by the numerous 【Seed Bombs】 detonating.

Reisir had to withstand the rest of the explosive force himself.

Pressure like the foot of a giant crushing him bore down on his back.

His insides shook violently as if being churned.

"Guhk!"

A mouthful of blood burst from his lips.

Reisir's consciousness receded beneath the tremendous impact, but he did not pass out.

The excruciating pain wracking his entire body would not allow him to lose consciousness.

But Reisir could take no hope from that fact.

All he felt was despair.

His body was in no condition to continue fighting.

He could not even contemplate getting back to his feet.

Expecting another barrage from the monsters, Reisir tightened his embrace around Karvaldr.

"GRRRAAAAAAA──!!!"

Yor roared and activated 【Dragon Fear】.

The monsters were stricken with terror and froze so completely that they could not move even a single stem.

"M-Meow."

Yor hurried over to Reisir and handed him a top-grade healing Potion.

Using the skill early in the battle to help reduce the number of monsters would have been pointless, since the original author would obviously have rendered it futile by introducing even more of them.

Yor had therefore decided it would be better to use it like this and secure an opportunity to recover.

There was no chance Reisir fully understood Yor's profound intentions.

But he could at least realize that it was still too early to despair and give up on everything.

"Thank you."

Reisir quickly opened the Potion bottle and drained its contents in one gulp.

A healing Potion did not restore stamina, but having his injuries healed made his body feel so much lighter that it seemed as though strength were surging through him.

Reisir lifted Karvaldr into one arm again and hurried to his feet.

Then he swiftly retrieved his spear and gripped it in his hand.

Meanwhile, Yor created two Ether spikes.

One monster recovered from its stiffness before the spike could fully pierce its body and twisted aside to evade it.

Even so, Yor managed to pin the other monster in place, and Reisir killed it with a lightning strike, successfully reducing the enemy's numbers by one more.

A considerable amount of his stamina had already been depleted, so he could not claim to be in peak condition.

However, the top-grade healing Potion had completely erased every injury, leaving his body in excellent shape.

There aren't that many enemies left now...

Reisir allowed himself to hope, but he did not lower his guard. He maintained his tension and continued fighting calmly.

By the time they had reduced the monsters' numbers to three—

Rustle, swish, whisper...

The very situation Yor had feared finally came to pass.

More monsters appeared.

Fortunately, there were not well over ten of them as there had been before.

Five monsters appeared this time.

Combined with the three remaining from before, there were eight in total.

Reisir targeted the newly arrived monsters and launched a surprise attack with lightning strikes.

Three bolts of lightning fell, but only one monster was hit.

That left seven monsters.

If more monsters keep swarming in like this before we can even finish the battle...

A seed of pessimism was planted in Reisir's mind.

It soon germinated, sending the stems of anxiety spreading far and wide.

In the real world, the seeds spat out by the monsters embedded themselves in the earth, took root, and grew.

As though the monsters had decided that injuring them with 【Seed Bombs】 alone would not be enough to settle this, flower buds of two different colors emerged simultaneously all around them.

White and... blue?

Reisir immediately put distance between himself and the plants, then activated 【Truth-Reading Eye】.

The plants with white buds were [Seed Bloom's Sleeping Flowers], the same plants that had put Karvaldr to sleep.

The only difference in the description was that the past-tense sentence ending in "had" now used the present-tense "has."

As for the plants bearing blue buds—

==========

[Seed Bloom's Poisonous Flowers]

: Plants grown by the monster "Seed Bloom" using the 【Germination】 skill. Their pollen is fairly toxic.

==========

Poisonous... flowers...?!

Reisir felt a chill run up his spine.

Karvaldr had been fortunate that the powder he had taken in Reisir's place was a sleeping agent. What would have happened if it had been poison?

Had Karvaldr not even revealed that he had nearly died after ingesting poison at the very beginning of last year's summer vacation?

Reisir had never examined any other poisonous plants with 【Truth-Reading Eye】.

Therefore, he did not know exactly how potent "fairly toxic" meant the poison was.

He could only assume it was not potent enough to kill someone instantly in a small quantity, since the description did not use an adverb like "extremely" or "highly."

But what if a large amount of the toxin entered the body?

Karvaldr might die on the spot.

I can at least hold my breath for a moment when the buds bloom and release their pollen. But Karv is unconscious...

Reisir could not dispel his anxiety.

He had no idea how much pollen the handkerchief covering Karvaldr's nose and mouth would filter out.

Perhaps the flowers opened their petals and released pollen only when someone entered a certain range, because the white and blue buds remained closed and motionless.

That made them feel even more threatening.

Even now, the monsters were hurling 【Seed Bombs】 while simultaneously scattering seeds with 【Germination】.

If those buds were left alone, it would take no time at all for the area to become a flower garden.

While evading or knocking aside the monsters' direct attacks, Reisir scattered the power of lightning and reduced every white and blue bud to ash.

But those revolting plants would soon grow and form buds again.

He realized that this battle of attrition could only continue until he collapsed from exhaustion.

Ah...? No. Karv's buff will expire first... Hm...?

As Reisir corrected his own thought, he realized something strange.

As he remembered it, Karvaldr had cast the buff on him in Chapter 332, just before the first battle here began.

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