16 – Toin
[G, Gaul! What are you going to do?]
I racked my brain desperately.
I pushed away the excitement caused by mana breathing, and tried to think as calmly as possible.
The fact that the person who was kidnapped was not an elf but a rabbit beastman was not that important.
I couldn’t give up on the rescue just because she was not an elf, because the role of a druid was so heavy.
“I have to save her.”
[Ooh! Of course, right?]
Druids were guardians of nature and wildness, so they had to act friendly to beastmen as well.
So saving the toin who was taken hostage was not a choice, but a necessity.
Once I decided to save her, I had to quickly assess the situation and make a plan.
Bee’s safety. My safety. The rescue of the Toins. The odds of winning the battle.
I started to look for the best way to survive by combining all the possible scenarios that came to my mind.
But then, a scream that tore apart my plan echoed through the cave.
“Kyaaak!!”
A Toin with long ears was shrieking to get away.
It was because the hobgoblin had lifted her ears even higher.
As I frowned at the sight, the hobgoblin looked at me and sneered.
He was mocking me, who was smaller than him, with a provocative gesture.
I didn’t know whether to call him smart or stupid.
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His contempt for me was so dumb that it was ridiculous, but his taunts were really effective.
“Bee, hold on tight.”
I didn’t bother to hold back.
I just grabbed the starter cord of the chainsaw and ran with full power.
[I’ll drop you and fight――]
Bee seemed to shout something, but I couldn’t hear it as I ran.
I pulled the starter cord of the chainsaw hard.
That hobgoblin bastard looked too tough to handle with just the motor power.
Vroom!
The dormant engine woke up and the chainsaw roared.
I squeezed the trigger and raised the rotation speed of the blade to the maximum.
――――――!!
I didn’t know how to effectively rescue the hostage.
I also didn’t know what the best course of action was right now.
But there was one thing I was sure of.
If I didn’t kill that monster right away, I would someday regret it bitterly.
“Grrr!!”
“Kyaa!!”
As I ran at full speed, the hobgoblin bastard threw the dwarf he was holding at me.
Then he lifted his huge club, apparently intending to smash us both while I was distracted by the hostage.
He was smart enough to do such a provoking action.
I gritted my teeth and dodged the flying dwarf, rolling on the ground once.
“Ugh!!”
A painful groan came from the dwarf who fell behind me.
I was worried that he might be seriously injured, but I ignored it and ran straight towards the hobgoblin.
The hobgoblin must have thought he could confuse me and create an opening, but his action was nothing but the worst choice.
After all, he had thrown away the best shield he had, the hostage.
Now I was in between the hobgoblin and the hostage.
This way, I could fight while securing the hostage’s safety to some extent.
I breathed in mana as hard as I could and raised my physical abilities to the maximum.
Then I collided head-on with the hobgoblin.
“Ugh!!”
“Krrgh!!”
He swung his club from above to below with great force.
If I got hit even once, it would be fatal, so I bit my lip and desperately dodged it.
The club barely grazed me by a paper-thin margin and hit the cave floor with a loud thud.
At the same time, a momentary gap opened up in his defense.
I didn’t miss it and roughly swept his club with my chainsaw.
“Graaah!!”
His thick fingers were sliced and torn apart by the saw blade.
He roared like a scream and hastily retreated.
I didn’t bother to chase him.
There were three other goblins around, and I also had to protect the Toan tribe behind me.
But I didn’t stay still.
I swung my chainsaw at the goblin next to me.
―――!!
The saw blade ripped through the goblin’s neck, who was caught off guard.
The wound caused by the chainsaw was fatal even with a slight touch.
The goblin’s crude handiwork couldn’t dream of stopping the bleeding.
I immediately rushed to the next goblin.
The small goblins were already terrified and couldn’t put up a proper fight.
“Kaaak!!”
I grabbed the neck of the fleeing goblin.
Without bothering to cut it with the chainsaw, I threw it to the ground and started stomping on it.
Once, twice, three times.
The arm that blocked my foot broke and pierced into the creature’s chest.
It must have died from that, seeing as the resistance was gone.
I immediately turned my head to look for the next prey.
At that moment, a scream came from the direction where the hobgoblin was.
“Kieek!!”
The last remaining small goblin was flying at me from the air.
From the way it was falling headfirst, it wasn’t jumping by itself, but thrown by the hobgoblin bastard.
It was too late to dodge.
I hastily twisted my body and took the flying thing on my back.
There was Pii inside the breastplate, so the best way to minimize the impact was to take it on the back.
“Kuhuk!!”
I was breathless from the shock. It must have flown very hard.
But at least I avoided the situation of being tossed around like the goblin.
I first bowed my head and checked on Pii’s safety.
Inside the loosely tightened breastplate, I saw Pii curling up.
Thankfully, it didn’t seem to be hurt anywhere.
I got up, shoving the chainsaw into the goblin that had fallen next to me.
“Kwak!”
I had killed all three small goblins, so now only the hobgoblin was left.
As I confirmed that fact, an inappropriate laugh escaped from me.
It seemed that the excessive excitement from using mana breathing had started.
The hobgoblin, who met my eyes, began to back away in fear.
He looked around hastily, as if he was looking for the hostage he had thrown earlier.
Did he think of using the hostage as a shield now?
I pointed to my back and spoke to him calmly.
“The hostage you’re looking for is behind me, you bastard.”
Everything went exactly as I intended.
I glared at him as if I was going to kill him and smirked.
Then, the guy who was backing away from me started to run towards the entrance of the cave.
The thumping sound of his feet quickly faded away, as if he really wanted to escape the cave by avoiding me.
“Crazy bastard.”
I didn’t bother chasing the guy.
To be exact, there was no need to chase him.
This cave had only one entrance and one passage.
The elves had told me that, but I had also confirmed it myself on my way here.
And outside the cave, there were high elves who were much scarier than me.
If I keep going up this corridor, he’ll either attack me or die by the high elf’s hand. It’s a choice between two evils.
I didn’t want to be the only one suffering, so I hoped he would choose the latter.
“Piya, are you okay?”
[No!!]
After confirming that the battle was over, I took Piya out of my breastplate.
Then, Piya, whose hair was all messed up, touched the leaves above his head and shouted loudly.
[You! Youuu!!]
He seemed to want to say something very nasty, but he couldn’t because he didn’t know any swear words.
I lightly fixed Piya’s hair and pointed behind me.
I had made Piya angry because of my lack of consideration, but there was one thing I had to do before I calmed him down.
“Let’s check on that toin first.”
[Ooh! You’ll pay for this later!]
The toin I looked at closely was in a pretty bad shape.
His ear, which had been grabbed by the hobgoblin, was bloody as if it had burst, and there were many other wounds that couldn’t be ignored.
He was unconscious now, but he seemed like he would open his eyes in extreme pain if I touched him a little.
I asked Piya, just in case.
“Piya, can you use any healing magic?”
There was magic, so I thought there would be healing magic too.
But Piya, who was looking at the toin’s condition, shook his small head and showed a negative meaning.
[Natural magic doesn’t have any dramatic healing magic. I’ll cast a magic that boosts his recovery for now… but he needs to get treatment as soon as possible.]
“`
After finishing his words, Pii started to cast magic on the unconscious Toink.
A faint green mana spread around, and a warm energy slowly seeped into the Toink.
Did he regain some strength?
The Toink who had lost consciousness opened his eyes with a faint moan.
“Ugh….”
His blurry brown eyes looked at me and Pii.
Then, after a moment of wandering, his eyes fixed on me.
“…Human?”
His gaze had many meanings.
Why was a human here? Why did a human save me?
Most of them seemed to be questions starting with ‘why human’.
If I left it like this, there might be a misunderstanding.
I spoke to her bluntly, as if I was hammering a nail.
“I’m a druid candidate.”
“…Yes?”
“I’m not just a human, I’m a druid candidate.”
He looked at me as if he was saying ‘what are you talking about?’
He seemed to need some solid evidence.
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Then I had to show him some.
I lifted Pii, who was next to me, and continued.
“`
“Look at this. I’m even bringing the tree spirit with me.”
[Hey, won’t you put that down?]
“I told you not to worry. I’m not the kind of human who would harm you.”
With the face of a human, the expression “Then what are you trying to do?” came to mind.
It wasn’t the reaction I was hoping for, but it seemed okay for now.
I smiled as kindly as possible and spoke to the human.
“So, let’s consider this a mutual agreement.”
I then placed the chainsaw on top of her and lifted her up in one breath.
“Gyahh!!”
From somewhere, I could hear a faint groan of pain coming from her.
It must have been incredibly painful.
But it was a choice I couldn’t avoid either.
Could I really leave her alone here and go?
I began to leave the cave, still holding onto the human.
Fortunately, I didn’t encounter that hop goblin again.
However,
“Haah!”
Inside the cave filled with goblin corpses, only the faint groan of the rabbit lady echoed.