Ihoujin, Dungeon ni Moguru-Chapter 160: The Battle Against Pride III

I couldn't move.

Not even a single finger.

The translucent slime encasing me from the neck down did nothing but tremble and wobble after restraining me.

「Fuuhahahaha! Look at that, Nanassy! That moronic face! You lost so easily even though you were so confident. Are you frustrated? Huh? Areーyouーfrustrated?」

（Agathion）

I whispered stealthily to the magic sword, but it only tugged a few times on my back.

The current Agathion doesn't have the power to break free of this slime's restraints. The downside of its weakening has come back to bite me all of a sudden.

「Hey, answer me. You're frustrated, right? It's frustrating, right?」

Arcane came swaggering towards us. But he was still too far away for me to bite him.

Hmm, should I just admit defeat and be done with it?

We might get hurt if we don't. I feel bad for Evetta-san, but I don't think it would be a problem to have her accompany us on an adventure after these guys.

Though it's not a lot, I do have some leeway in terms of time anyway.

「Oh, then―――」

When I was about to admit defeat………

「O flames, flames. Great is thy―――――Kyaa!」

Rana started to chant, but suddenly let out a sexy yelp.

Upon closer inspection, I saw that the slime encasing her was wriggling and writhing. And each time it did, the shape of Rana's big boobs would change as well.

「What? No way! Eh, hyaa!」

Rana slammed her legs shut. It seemed that it wasn't just her breasts that were being groped.

「What the heck is this?!」

Hey! I demand an explanation!

「Oh, about that……」

The otter beastkin stepped forward. From the fact that she was continuing to wave her staff around, it seemed that she was the one controlling these slimes.

「These "Blobs" that I've selectively bred are very fond of magic power. They usually eat the magic power that I release, but if they find magic power that's more powerful than mine, they'll try to devour it. It would be best for you to avoid chanting magic」

「………………urgh」

Red-faced, Rana fell silent. When she did, the slime calmed down as well.

It's frustrating. But I got excited by it.

「Eh, what?!」

This time, it was my sister who cried out. Just like Rana, well, her breasts got ignored, but her shapely limbs were being caressed by the slime.

「Fuhyahyahyahyahya! St, stop it! That tickles!」

「Huh? That's weird」

She was laughing at the top of her lungs. There was zero sex appeal.

「Hey, Kakyua, why is it doing that to her?」

The otter beastkin cocked her head at Arcane's question.

「Hmm. This elf-san. Maybe her latent magic power is more powerful than the magic power I usually release?」

「W, well, just make it stop. I didn't pay for this, so I feel bad. This isn't something that an unmarried man should see」

Arcane was covering his face with both hands. Ever since he saw the lewd things happening to Rana, he had been red up to his ears.

Are you that innocent!?

「Umm, stop it right away. Huh?」

There was something wrong with the slime encasing Ea.

Ea's belongings must have fallen out when she was being groped. Miscellaneous things and various seasonings were floating about inside the slime. Among them was Ea's signature spicy spice mix.

The moment it melted and dissolved into the slime………

『Pygyaayyyy!』

The translucent slime turned bright red for a moment, then burst like a balloon, turning into water.

「Oh, shoot」

Having regained her freedom, Ea was quick as a flash.

「Nanassy! Capture her!」

She vanished from sight before the silver-haired young woman could react to Arcane's order.

Without a sound, trace or presence, she disappeared completely from the world.

「Nanassy!」

「You're too loud. I can't detect the enemy」

Nanassy focused her senses.

Even if she’s invisible thanks to the cloak, there are puddles of water everywhere, so her footprints will be visible.

What will Ea do?

And then………

「Tsk」

Nanassy grabbed Arcane's collar and yanked him to the ground.

If she hadn't done that, he would have gotten an arrow in the forehead.

「Wakyaaa!」

The otter beastkin was struck down by something invisible.

At the same time, Nanassy caught an arrow that had appeared out of thin air. Her reaction time was impressive.

But has Ea forgotten about the rule against killing? Her arrows were all aimed at vitals.

A barrage of arrows assaulted Nanassy.

She knocked them all away with her two machetes, and some of the arrows got knocked towards Rana and me.

One of the arrows got lodged in the slime and just happened to snag on the piece of cloth on my shoulder.

「Onii-chan, Onee-chan, I'll be right back」

Ea appeared, twisted the arrow to entangle the piece of cloth around it, and then yanked it out.

After retrieving our pieces of red cloth, Ea vanished from sight once again.

「H, hey. What the heck was that? No one told me about this!」

「There's no way anyone would have told you, isn't it?」

I was taken aback by Arcane's far too moronic comment.

「One of them got away, but we've captured two of them. This Arcane-sama has won the――――――」

「No, you haven't」

It appeared that Nanassy understood the situation.

「She took the pieces of cloth from these guys. If she hides them somewhere, we'll never recover them」

I'd bet. If she burns and disposes of those pieces of cloth, there will be no danger of them being taken from us. With this, we no longer have to worry about our pieces of cloth being taken.

And the otter beastkin has been knocked utterly unconscious.

It's still a two-on-one situation, but trudging through the dungeon in pursuit of the completely invisible Ea is going to be a huge pain in the ass.

Ea can lay traps and lure monsters towards them. She's free to do whatever she wants.

Hmm. As expected of my sister. She's turned the tables on them completely.

「Hey, hey! Kakyua!」

Arcane shook the otter beastkin, but she showed no signs of rousing.

「Wh, what are we to do, Nanassy? We can't track someone who can vanish like that」

「No problem」

What?

「We only need to make her come out on her own」

「Hey, wait!」

Ignoring me, Nanassy walked towards Rana.

Without any chance or means of stopping her, I watched as she drove her machete through the slime and into Rana's abdomen.

「urgh」

「Stop!」

It probably wasn't in response to my yell, but the machete was pulled out.

「Hey elf, call for the other elf」

The wound wasn't that deep. The regeneration point healed it and the wound disappeared without a trace.

「I'll stab deeper next time」

「If you're gonna do this, stab me instead!」

「Dear, I'll be fine. I've trained for this」

「That so?」

Nanassy then pushed her blade under Rana's collarbone.

「mnurgh」

The tip of the machete sank deeper and deeper into her flesh.

「I'm going to snap your collarbone and rip it out. It won't matter one whit if you've trained for this or not. I'll say it one more time. Scream and call for that elf」

「I refuse」

Rana was completely undaunted.

I've made a big mistake.

Torturing someone who can't move. These people aren’t adventurers. They don't have any pride as adventurers.

I've completely misjudged the true nature of my opponents.

「Dear?!」

Though she was the one on the receiving end of the blade, Rana was conversely worried about me. I ignored her and dove into the slime.

There's one thing that I've learned through observation.

These slimes don't offer much resistance when something enters them, but they resist strongly when something tries to get out. They probably have this kind of behavior because they capture their prey by restraining them inside themselves.

That's how it looked to me when the machete was pulled out.

If I'm wrong about this, I'll probably drown. But I'd rather die than be helpless in front of the woman I love.

I strained to open one eye and observed.

There's always a spot somewhere inside slimes where bubbles appear unnaturally. And the colorless and transparent core of these things, which is their weakness, will be in the vicinity of these bubbles.

I've killed more than enough slimes, a byproduct of Rana's cooking, to last me a lifetime. It's not a stretch to say that I'm a specialist in slaying slimes. I never imagined that such a proficiency would ever come in handy. The world sure is a strange place.

I located the bubbles.

From here on out, it's all intuition, but it's intuition based on experience. If I'm a moron who misses at this juncture, I'm better off dead.

I opened my mouth as wide as I could and took a bite out of empty space.

I felt a jelly-like texture between my teeth, and although there was no taste, I bit down.

Right when I was reaching the limit of how long I could hold my breath, the slime burst apart.

「Urgh, koff, koff」

Once the core has been destroyed, slimes revert back to water.

「Hey, you're kidding me」

I ignored the astonished Arcane.

「Hey, you little bitch, get away from Rana」

Nanassy didn’t pull her machete out of Rana. I spat out the water from the slime and steadied my breathing.

「What makes you think I'd listen to you?」

「Before you can stab Rana's vitals, I'll kill "both of you"」

If I take two steps forward, I can cut Nanassy in two with an iai-draw and then kill Arcane with the return swing.

I'm completely serious.

「If you kill Arcane, I'll kill this elf. And I’ll track down the other elf, even to the ends of the earth, and kill every last person with a drop of her blood in their veins」

「What a strange coincidence. I was about to say the exact same thing to you」

If you hurt Rana any more, I'll kill everyone and everything. Each and every person in my sight, I'll kill.

I’ll cut you all down.

「Na, Nanassy. Calm down for a moment」

The moment I saw Arcane's moronic face and heard his moronic voice, I made my decision.

I'm going to kill.

I lowered my stance and took a preparatory step forward――――――when a gust of wind whipped by.

That gust of wind slammed Nanassy into the wall.

It was Evetta-san, who had moved so fast that I mistook her for a gust of wind.

In her right hand was the blade of the machete that had been plunged into Rana. In her left hand, Nanassy's head.

「Shame on you!」

She swung Nanassy around and slammed her forcefully into the wall again. A loud crash, like two boulders colliding into each other, filled the space.

Evetta-san yelled just as loudly.

「Hurting someone who can't move! And threatening to kill her on top of it!」

She crushed the machete in her hand.

I had thought that it was quite the masterwork weapon, but it got all bent and snapped like it was made of candy.

「You're no adventurer! You're not even human!」

「You're no better. Stop pretending to be human」

Nanassy grabbed Evetta-san's arm and pushed her back.

A red horn glowed brightly on her left chest.

I had thought that it was just a part of her equipment, but could it be that it's the same as Evetta-san's horns? What's more, it looks like it has been broken off.

「Nanassy, that's enough! Stop! Stop, stop!」

「Understood」

When Arcane intervened, she stopped immediately.

What a baffling person.

「Why are you fighting with someone from the Adventurers' Guild?! You'll get us kicked out!」

「That was foolish. I apologize」

「Wrong. Not to me」

Arcane pointed to Evetta-san.

「I don't want to」

「Come on, I'm begging you. Really」

「An opening」

Nanassy and Arcane's pieces of red cloth were snatched away in a flash. Unnoticed by anyone, Ea had also taken the otter beastkin's piece of red cloth. f𝓇𝘦e𝑤𝘦𝚋𝒏૦ѵℯ𝒍.c𝐨𝒎

「Huh?」

I had gotten used to seeing that moronic look on Arcane's face.

「Here you go, Evetta」

Ea handed the pieces of cloth to Evetta-san and the match was settled.

Oh, we've won.

Seriously, complete invisibility is so OP. Also, Evetta just crushed and snapped a masterwork weapon with her bare hand……are you starting to get why her nickname when she was an adventurer was “Pulverizer”? And we’ve finally learned what kind of enemy it is that Souya said he specialized in a few chapters back……

After the funny start, things got serious all of a sudden, huh? Yeah, as you’ve probably realized, things aren’t as simple as they look when it comes to the members of Argancia.

Well, the next chapter is going to be a fun read in a lot of ways, so stay tuned!