Escape From a Deserted Island With Enemy Female Soldiers

48 – One Body, Two Souls (1)

“I’m the vanguard, you’re the rearguard.”

I sent the combat engineer behind me.

Both of us are glass cannons. Still, I can take more of a hit than him, and he’s more mobile than me. This formation is the best.

“Remember when we fought that dryad earlier?”

“Huh? Uhm.”

“I’ll be the anvil. You get back behind me.”

The engineer nodded. Her trembling slowly subsided. Did my intention get across?

It must have. There was a spark in her eyes.

The engineer, axe in hand, moved away from me. She slipped into the undergrowth, taking cover. The monsters laughed like it was all a joke.

[“What’s this, some pathetic strategy you cooked up?”]

[“You think you can beat us?”]

[“We are many, we are one.”]

[“Just the two of you? You can’t win against us.”]

No need to listen to what they say. In a life-or-death battle, there’s only one thing that matters: focus.

[“How pitiful.”]

[“We’ll leave you with no bones to pick!”]

*Thud-thud-thud!*

The engineer gripped her dual axes, completing a wide half-turn. The large-hipped monster’s head followed the motion. It began attacking where the engineer had been.

*Rustle, rustle,* the sounds continued. She’s dodging well.

[“Where do you think you’re looking?”]

The monster with the unusually prominent chest was still watching me.

[“I’m your opponent, wizard runt.”]

[“Thanks for calling me a runt, lady.”]

[“Lady, what?”]

The monster swung a mangrove-like hand. A thorny whip blossomed outward, target the ground. But considering the angle of deflection, it was paint. The real intention was to smash my face.

[“Cocky brat, break!”]

[“Flip over.”]

*Thwang!*

A sound like a gunshot cracked, a shockwave. Magic slammed into magic, forming a vortex.

[“Darkness, devour it!”]

[“Lantern, light the way.”]

I scattered glowstones on the floor. I poured on maximum output to blind the monster, then loaded my slingshot with a hellflower stone and pulled back.

[“Burn.”]

I released the string as I chanted the spell. The stone flew toward the monster’s brow. But it didn’t hit. Not because my aim was pathetic. The monster yanked its whip, batting the projectile away.

I was taken aback, a bit.

[“…Not bad for a snot-nosed punk, kid.”]

[“Looks like *you’re* not experiencing that aging curve, ma’am.”]

[“So talkative. Today is your death day.”]

[“Yeah, please put out some alraune greens for the feast, though.”]

*Whir,* the monster gathered its whip. I also began gathering magic. I used this split second to normalize my mana.

Optimization complete. I’d scraped up every last bit. I could fight a little longer with this.

[“You little shit! I’ll turn you into a slab of meat!”]

[“I’ll make you into a seaweed broth.”]

The mana density in this space is excessive.

Maybe, like when I was roasting, I could use more mana.

I tracked the fox engineer’s movements. She was darting in and out, hacking at the monster with her axe repeatedly. Each attack sparked flames from the Sephiroth-ignition.

[“Hmph, that tickles.”]

[“You think you’ll bring us down with axe swings like that?”]

“Ugh, the shell is too tough…”

To take down the enemy before me, small attacks wouldn’t cut it. I needed to prepare a truly big one. Just like all the bosses I’d faced so far. I quickly racked my brain.

Honestly, what was there to even think about? A plant’s weakness is always fire. If weak fire won’t do, I just need to prepare a stronger one. And.

For fire to catch easily, the surrounding air needs to be dry.

I grinned.

The chill on my skin had never felt so welcome.

I pulled out all the mana stones from my pocket.

[“Hmm? What kind of trick are you planning now? I’ve told you repeatedly, attacks like that are useless. I am from the 3rd legion, once favored by the Dark Lord…”]

[“Earth, gather. Consume my lungs and bloom a flower.”]

*

Liyo analyzed her opponent while dodging.

The plant monster before her was a singular entity, yet composed of multiple individuals. They would definitely share the same senses. A tricky opponent. Teamwork with a mage was essential.

There was another reason the monster was tricky.

[“Hey, hey, who’s inside you?”]

It kept talking to her.

[“The mixture of souls is exquisite. Truly a beautiful body. Just what kind of sorcerer made you like this?”]

She couldn’t understand a word, not a single one. For Liyo, who was blessed with the power of the goddess, Hui-eon was a forbidden language—something she shouldn’t even hear, much less comprehend.

That’s what the creature was pointing to.

[“Yes, you. I mean you.”]

The other soul burrowed inside her.

[“Neither living nor dead, you pitiful fox.”]

[‘…….’]

A twitch.

Liyo’s heart seized. Her head throbbed as if jolted by electricity.

Still, she couldn’t stop. The moment she slowed her movements, the vine whips and tree roots would come crashing down.

Dodge what she could, shatter what she couldn’t.

In an instant, Liyo scrambled up the tree, leaping into the air. She buried both axes into the creature’s head, then cleaved down to its shoulder. The hide was so thick, they didn’t sink in as deep as she’d hoped.

The creature reached out. Liyo retreated quickly. She panted.

[“Stamina’s impressive. Not even touched by the battle goddess and still that agile. Guess beasts are just built different?”]

She had fought her best. She’d already hacked at the creature’s main body multiple times.

And yet, the creature was yawning, all too casual.

[“But you lack experience. You’re unrefined. Relying on raw strength alone, you can’t beat me, little girl.”]

Liyo bit her lip. She watched the mage’s movements.

Whooosh.

The flow of divine power was reversing. Consequently, mana was beginning to shift.

[‘Huh?’]

The mana, swirling like an eddy, was gathering around the mage.

[‘N-no way. I’ve never seen such precise mana manipulation!’]

This was the deepest part of the monster-infested forest. The mana wasn’t just overflowing; it was supersaturated, making the air heavy.

Then?

Liyo pulled together every engineering thought she had. She quickly grasped what the mage was trying to do. It was a conclusion reached through logic.

“Hehehe.”

[“…He’s laughing?”]

“To think of applying mana supercooling in a place like this… he’s the enemy, but what an interesting man.”

Liyo gripped her axe and charged in again. Her eyes were filled with certainty.

The mage was an engineer. She was an engineer too.

Languages might differ, but their thoughts must be aligned.

The mage, having synthesized a magic stone on the spot, fired it like a slingshot. It was peony stone, a magic stone beyond sunstone.

[“That’s just a… just a stone.”]

[“I told you it wouldn’t work, didn’t I?”]

The two monsters raised tree roots. They intended to deflect the stone like before.

A misjudgment.

It shouldn’t have made contact in the first place.

KWooo!

Red flames devoured the roots. And as if that wasn’t enough, they leapt like frogs, enveloping Al and Ne’s upper bodies.

The peony (exploding leap) stone. It was a stone that detonated and leapt. It pierced through the hard outer shell, burrowing in and urging the carbonization of fragile fibers.

Two monsters roared, their screams tearing the air. The vines they used as weapons were charred black, losing their original shape.

This was the chance.

“Hyaaah!”

Riyo, leaping up, swatted their arms aside, then cleaved off their heads.

Thud, thud, roll.

The burnt and mangled heads of the monsters landed on the ground.

“Got it!”

“…Is it over?”

Riyo landed lightly on the ground. The mage approached. The two slapped hands in a high-five.

“What, for a boss monster or whatever, that was ridiculously easy, right?”

“Yeah.”

“By the way, mage, you’re really smart.”

Riyo chuckled.

“To connect the temperature drop with the dense mana to the arid climate right away. Plus, drawing the surrounding mana to strengthen the magic stone, what the heck are you?”

Riyo’s right tail swished gently.

[‘Good at both theory and practice. Must be a first-class mage, obviously. And to be able to optimize mana like that… could it be, Professor?’]

Riyo’s left tail swung back and forth.

[‘I, I originally wanted to learn magic! Everyone was against it, but maybe… just maybe. If I learned from a mage like this, I could become a mage without the side effect of selling my soul to a demon…’]

Riyo forcefully ignored the hallucination. That day, her sister had been killed by mages. For that sister, even in death, to long for magic? It was impossible.

In other words, the sister speaking inside Riyo’s mind was the sister who had died. The pure sister, before she was tortured by the mages.

A brief, blue mood washed over her. But Liyo shook it off quickly, lifting her chin.

“Alright, so we caught the big boss, which means we just need the mana stone, right? Then we can escape this island!”

Just escaping would be good. It’d be a godsend if the war ended at the same time.

Liyo couldn’t care less about the Goddess’ teachings or the Holy Spirit Church’s doctrines. She’d enlisted for the sake of her clan’s revival, to make money doing what she liked, and to pay her university tuition.

Also, marriage.

Fox-kin traditionally find a partner around the time they come of age. Liyo was barely an adult herself, but since she’d been abandoned by her clan, the pressure to marry was intense.

Finding a suitable match wasn’t easy. Fox-kin are naturally meticulous. The wall between a casual relationship and a serious one is thicker than it is for humans.

The mage before her was no different. Sharing common interests or even teaming up to take down monsters wasn’t enough to break down that wall.

[‘Just in case. If I get my life saved, maybe.’]

The mage sighed, “Huu,” and slumped to the ground.

“Mana depletion.”

He sat up straight.

“I’ll have to do a breathing weave for a while. The mana density here is high, so it shouldn’t take too long. You rest for a bit too.”

Severe mana depletion apparently caused symptoms similar to exhaustion. For the time being, the mage wouldn’t be able to lift a finger.

The forest was silent. Liyo gathered her tools and approached the monster’s corpse. She glanced back to see the mage nod weakly, giving her the go-ahead to dismantle it.

“Now, where would that mana stone be…?”

Just as Liyo was about to bring her axe down on the monster’s torso—

Her body was sent flying through the air.