Escape From a Deserted Island With Enemy Female Soldiers

46 – The Price of Environmental Destruction (2)

I and the Engineer pulled out our axes.

The weak point of a tree is its base. Even for human-shaped trees, it’s the same. If we can chop at their legs and topple them, they should be easy to subdue.

[‘Can we do this?’]

[‘Their reach seems pretty long.’]

The problem was their hands. The fingers, long like branches, were unsettling. Even ghouls weren’t this long.

[‘It’ll be difficult to create an opening with a short hatchet.’]

[‘We desperately need a long-range countermeasure.’]

[‘What about throwing mana stones to confuse them?’]

[‘They seem quite intelligent. I don’t think they’ll be easy to hit.’]

I came to a conclusion.

[‘It’s best to fight moderately, and if things look bad, we run.’]

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The wisteria trees attacked first.

It was a simple body slam. Getting hit would be the end, but they weren’t that fast. Fast enough to see coming and dodge.

The Engineer and I split in opposite directions. *Thwack!* The monster slammed into the ground. A small crater formed where we had been.

[“How stupid!”]

[“That was a feint!”]

*Whirr-whir-whick!*

The wisteria monsters twisted their trunks. Leaves spun clockwise. *Thud-thud-thud,* fruits fell. The fruits burrowed into the earth upon impact.

Sprouts emerged. They grew quickly. Saplings, like mandrakes, pushed up through the soil.

*Caw-yaaak!*

The saplings screamed. Deafeningly loud. It felt like my mind was fraying.

But hesitating over something like this wasn’t the mark of a first-rate mage.

I steadied my heart.

A large step forward.

[“Ignite.”]

*Fwoosh,* the mana contained within the sea-firestone reacted.

I lowered my stance, pulled my shoulders back.

The charging wisteria trees braked all at once. Too late. The mana stone was already gone from my hand.

The fireball cleanly pierced the first tree. The mana stone flew through, almost losing no energy. Two, three, four, the fire spread.

Sea-fire was like the ocean, a circulating flame.

It held the property of rotation.

The bluish flames began devouring everything but ash. The trees screamed through their gaping wounds.

Having dealt with the wisteria, I hacked at the saplings one by one with my axe. The saplings, heads cleaved before they fully emerged from the soil, died, shrieking. Even their death cries were loud.

[“That man… he’s not bad, is he?”]

[“I want to taste him more.”]

[“The man’s not the only problem. Look at the fox.”]

The sapper was steadily clearing out the monsters. He looked much more skilled than on the first day.

[“One mage and a beastman using divine power.”]

[“Just powers from the Goddess of Creation. If there’s no one blessed by the Goddess of Battle, then Alraune-nim can deal with them.”]

[“But that beastman, doesn’t something seem off?”]

The dryads whispered amongst themselves.

[“Just now, for a split second, I felt both divine power and mana coming from that b*tch.”]

[“Huh? I didn’t feel anything like that?”]

[“Must’ve confused her with the mage.”]

Mana traces coming from the sapper? No way.

It was unheard of for someone blessed by a Goddess to also wield mana.

[“Maybe there are two souls in that one body?”]

[“Ughhh, then do we have to capture her too?”]

[“Let’s present her to Alraune-nim. She’s researching that kind of thing, so she’ll definitely be pleased.”]

[“Yeah, yeah.”]

Alraune.

That must be the name of the leader on this island.

Looking around, I saw more monsters had gathered than before. If we stayed here, we’d be surrounded.

I threw the firestones at the dryad group and ran away with the sapper.

[“aaah, it’s hot!”]

[“Where do you think you’re going!”]

[“I’ve already cast a sub-barrier! No matter how much you squirm, you’re rats in a trap!”]

AHAHAHA!

Leaving the monsters’ laughter behind, we plunged deeper into the forest.

*

Animalistic senses are advantageous for survival. Though Riyo hadn’t learned systematic combat, as a born beastkin, he could read the flow of a fight.

Outnumbered and cornered.

We had to run now.

There was no other choice.

“Hah, hah!”

Riyo and Erich ran and ran. They kept running until the dryads’ laughter faded away.

Before long, the wisteria forest disappeared, and we entered a forest thick with birch trees.

But something was strange.

While birch trees are white-barked, their leaves aren’t usually pure white. The birch trees here had leaves as white as snow.

Besides, birch trees grow in cold climates. They usually don’t thrive in warmer places, and wither and die.

And wasn’t this island in a tropical climate? Or at least a temperate one?

“Ugh, it’s cold.”

The cool sensation on my skin spoke for itself. It was chilly.

“Is this really a tropical island?”

“It’s the mana. The concentrated mana is causing a cooling reaction.”

The mage mumbled something. Riyo tilted his head, wondering what he was on about. It was, rather, that *he* understood what he’d said.

[‘Yeah. I guess you could see it that way.’]

Another presence occupying Rio’s mind.

[‘Sephiron, when it’s too much, causes an exothermic reaction. Mana’s the opposite. It’s completely different in its physical properties, the more it condenses, the more it lowers the surrounding temperature.’]

That voice was definitely, the voice of her older sister, who had died at the young age of eleven.

But there was no way it was actually her sister’s voice.

Right. This was a mental illness that Rio herself had been suffering from for a long time. The shock from that day must have caused some kind of problem with her mind.

If she went to a hospital, she could get treatment, but she hadn’t wanted to, so she’d just left it unattended. At least, at least in her mind, she wanted her sister to keep living.

Rio gasped for breath. She turned around. The pursuers were far gone now, vanished into the distance.

Instead, rain began to fall. The already cold weather grew even chillier.

“Let’s get out of the rain and move again.”

Erich pointed ahead. There was a hollowed out space under a rock. It was too small to be called a cave, but the two of them could manage to squeeze inside.

And, it was narrower than she’d thought.

“What do we do…”

They couldn’t even sit side-by-side. One person would have to sit hugging the other to have any space left.

The rain was coming down harder, it was too late to look for another spot. If they wandered around any longer, they’d definitely get sick.

It was time to make a decision.

Erich went in first, and Rio sat facing him.

“Ooh, that male scent.”

Rio chuckled.

“If it were mating season, we’d be in a little bit of trouble.”

Beasts usually have distinct breeding seasons.

“Of course, I’d never marry *you*. Heehee.”

Riyo forced a laugh. Rainy days like this always dredged up the memories, leaving him inexplicably depressed. He couldn’t handle it without cracking a joke.

“Hoo, it’s cold!”

“This is definitely enough to bring on hypothermia.”

Both Riyo and the mage were in summer fatigues. Obviously. They’d been shipwrecked in the tropical waters of Tatangkul, who the hell would wear thick winter gear?

“…….”

The Saint could probably handle it, being here.

“This is so uncomfortable. Can I turn around?”

Riyo used every hand gesture he could muster to make the mage understand. The mage hesitated for a moment, but then nodded.

“Oof.”

Turning 180 degrees made finding a comfortable position a little easier.

“Ah, don’t touch my tail, okay? I’ll seriously hate you.”

“I won’t touch it.”

“Hehe, you have good manners.”

The mage raised both hands. Riyo smiled contentedly and took some materials from his pocket.

A Y-shaped stick, some caoutchouc vine to use as rubber bands, and pieces of tanned leather.

Riyo quickly assembled the materials, creating a slingshot.

*

Right now, I’m in a really shitty situation.

We huddled under the narrow rock, me and Empty Bottle, to escape the rain. The space was so tight, I practically had to hold her like I was hugging her.

It wasn’t so bad when we were facing each other.

Empty Bottle gestured, asking if she could make something, and I nodded. Then she just up and turned around, didn’t she?

If it had been just a regular person, it wouldn’t have been a big deal.

The problem was, she’s a fox beastkin with, like, *two* tails.

Warm.

So fluffy.

She warned me so many times not to touch her, but here she is, tickling my face with her own tails. I barely managed to hold back a sneeze.

[‘Oh my god, is this b*tch crazy? Is her heat coming on, has she lost her mind?’]

[‘Reprehensible! Erich, as a mage you must endure. This is Jerem’s trial!’]

Being touched by a tail.

It’s not as bad as I thought it would be, though.

“……”

Am I finally losing it?

“Look! Look! I finished!”

Empty Bottle turned her head and looked at me. She held something out.

“……A slingshot?”

“You use rocks and magic when you fight monsters, right? I’ve been watching you fight that way. I’ve been meaning to make one for you.”

I took the slingshot without really thinking about it. Empty Bottle grinned and continued.

“This is a gift I can give within our limited relationship. You know we each have our own positions, right? I’m sorry, but Liyo can’t offer a favor of this level or higher to you, a mage.”

And the next moment.

Gongbyeong’s eyes shifted entirely.

Her irises, beginning to tinge red, stared directly at me. It was the first time the consistently innocent Gongbyeong possessed a seductive air. Her lips parted slightly.

“But, you know, just maybe, if you can show me more genuine feeling here, Miyoh might want to form a deeper connection with you. Because I see potential in you.”

The tone was heavy. As if someone else were speaking through Gongbyeong’s lips.

“So… try not to disappoint me, okay?”

One of Gongbyeong’s two tails brushed against my cheek.

I swallowed unconsciously.

[-Maybe there are two souls in that one body?]

What the dryads had said earlier began to bother me.