#220
Lycanthrope (5)
How can I describe this sensation?
It’s boundless and endlessly distant.
Like a vast prairie, the universe unfolds, and stars flow like rivers.
They quietly observe the continent from great heights, watching the happenings on the ground.
Even Harris, who spies this scene, looks down like a deity surveying a model garden…
“Cough!”
But this feeling of omnipotence is fleeting.
In an instant, he is thrown back, clutching his aching head, staggering, and soon finds himself sitting on the branches of the World Tree.
He hadn’t even realized it, but at some point, he had started to breathe heavily and roughly.
Whoosh—
A gentle breeze caresses him, soothing his sweat-drenched body.
As his racing heart slowly calms after being overwhelmed by a tidal wave of information that exceeded his mental limits, he finally perceives the situation fully.
‘Wow, I’m surprised.’
Harris takes a deep breath and slowly looks around.
He’s on a high branch of the World Tree.
Below, the ongoing war in Drasha unfolds.
‘…Well, I don’t have time to be standing around like this.’
He grips his still trembling legs and stands up.
Although the shock is significant enough that recovery will take time, he can’t afford to act leisurely in this situation.
His brief glimpse of the World Tree’s perspective was just that—a fleeting moment—and all he retained was fragmentary abstraction due to his lack of capability.
Yet, he managed to recognize a considerable part of the initial scene he saw.
This place, where the World Tree resides, the vicinity of Drasha.
‘Thanks to that, I think I have a rough idea of what they want.’
A plan so significant that a transcendent leader personally led the elite of a race to invade.
It was to ensure that the World Tree could no longer intervene in this Enamel Continent—or even in Auterica itself.
‘What exactly they’re trying to gain from all this is still unclear, though.’
The World Tree has overly intervened on the ground, creating a continent through an avatar and protecting various races, thereby shouldering greater limitations.
The avatar rooted in Drasha is both proof of its power and a liability.
‘I can’t let that happen as they intended.’
The World Tree is the root and pillar of the Enamel Continent.
If things proceed as they wish, all but the area that was originally an island in the center would slowly sink into the sea as the ground collapses.
A continent that has existed for thousands of years would be wholly annihilated.
“Hoo—”
Harris takes a deep breath and uses 「Observer of the Milky Way.」
Simultaneously, information from the entire area of Drasha is pulled into his mind, as if he is analyzing satellite data.
From the battle between the Lycanthrope King and the High Elves, to the multiple skirmishes happening in the cities, to the stealth squads quietly approaching here amidst the chaos, and…
‘Shall I start from there?’
Eeeek—
A bow made from the branches of the World Tree, Temis, bends, and natural forces gather from all around, forming into a single arrow.
Perhaps influenced by the still-faint connection to the World Tree, the spirits’ power imbues the arrow with greater intensity than usual.
‘Now that I think about it, it seems I need to give this technique a fitting name.’
As that thought arises, suggestions of names like ‘Elemental Sniper’ or ‘Judgment in Silence’ flood his mind…
‘…Well, it seems annoying to think about. I’ll just casually call it Spirit Arrow.’
Given the increased things to be concerned about, spending energy to come up with a cool name felt unnecessary, so he brushed it aside.
And just as that pointless thought concluded.
An arrow, silent and unnoticed by anyone due to the World Tree’s overwhelming presence—
Like a beam of light, shot towards a single destination.
*
“Gurgle.”
“Hah, hah… what the heck…”
In just five seconds.
Shapiron and Timer, along with the spirits summoned by Quri, were torn apart and forcefully unsummoned, and each of them fell one by one.
They were top students even in the Academy, yet as mere mid-level spirits, they were incapable of meaningful resistance against the Lycanthrope general.
“Hmm, I was thinking of killing them right away, but… Isn’t it better to have fresh elf blood instead?”
Despite the disparity in power, their survival was purely due to the enemy pondering the situation while withholding their strength.
‘A way… I need to find a way…’
Was it the dire situation?
Shapiron’s thoughts began to race faster than ever.
But no matter how much she wracked her brain, she couldn’t see a way out.
The opponent was a master-level opponent.
One of the esteemed forest guardians even in elven society.
How could mere students like them hope to compete?
‘…Aaah! Why is such a behemoth here?!’
The gaping difference felt absurd enough to make her lose her temper.
If only she could summon even an advanced spirit, they might have had a chance to attempt an escape.
‘…Harris is already waiting up there! After saying he’d surpass me so confidently, is it really going to end with me lagging behind like this? I, Shapiron Silvesty?!’
She fiddled with the ring on her left middle finger, biting her lip.
A ring made from the branches of the World Tree bestowed upon her father, Laforey, upon becoming a High Elf.
Thanks to this treasure that had aided her growth, she had quickly reached a wall and had been making various efforts to overcome it recently…
It seemed that now there was no time for her to choose only safe methods.
‘This might not be enough, but…’
Calming her inner turmoil, she subtly began to gather natural energy and slowly pushed it into the ring to stimulate its internal energy.
The previously stable energy began to writhe slowly in response to her probing offensive.
‘If I draw this into my body and detonate it all at once…’
Her parents would probably scold her fiercely, but even if the best outcome occurred, there was a dangerous risk that her insides would be wrecked to the point she couldn’t move for a while.
Still, wasn’t it better than just doing nothing and dying?
“…Tsk, what a pointless act. It seems better to just have fun with it and end it here. If needed, I could use the gardeners’ blood.”
However, her covert rebellion was detected almost immediately by the opponent.
No matter how different their energy systems might be, such a gap rendered even that meaningless.
“Then goodbye.”
With those words, a suffocating killing intent surged forth.
As she swung her sharpened right hand towards her back.
Ka-boooom—!
An intense explosion erupted in an instant.
However, since the energy used for the attack was all concentrated in one point, the shockwave that spread outwards wasn’t very large.
“Gah! What the hell is this all of a sudden!”
Just barely, truly narrowly reacting before the attack reached her, she gazed at the cut in her body that extended from her right hand to her right lung, cursing herself.
Had her reaction been slightly delayed, her entire head and heart would likely have been obliterated!
‘A long-range shot with such power that I couldn’t even sense the presence. Is it a High Elf?’
The enemies here were all preoccupied with the King, so perhaps an outsider who had been outside had returned.
Now she truly had no time to waste.
Crack crack!
Her body, which had taken on a human appearance for stealth, was instantly covered in fur, transforming into a massive wolf-human nearly three meters tall in the blink of an eye.
Though her upper body was still empty, with her regeneration power, she would surely recover in no time.
The slight imbalance wouldn’t pose much of a problem for her.
‘The attack direction is towards the World Tree. Damn it, this means sneaking in is out of the question. Since it’s come to this, it’s better for me to attract attention so that the others can approach smoothly.’
In an instant, complex thoughts raced through her mind.
Though she had been deployed for this task because she was relatively less impulsive than other generals, she felt unsure even about stealth actions.
Of course, alternate strategies had been prepared, and logically, it was something manageable.
‘But.’
As the internal force mixed with dark energy and madness roared through her body to recover from the injury of losing half her upper body,
A rage she could no longer suppress began to rise.
‘…Yes, I must deal with those damn elves, the reason for this situation.’
Having been on guard for the origin of the sniper attack, she turned her gaze to the fleeing elves with a cruel smile playing on her lips.
As they were elites, they reacted and acted swiftly, each formulating a countermeasure in this crisis.
With less internal injury, Timer rushed forward, quickly taking the other two women along, while Quri, despite spitting blood, used supporting magic for him.
Meanwhile, Shapiron remained with her eyes closed, seemingly doing nothing.
‘They can’t shoot that many shots so quickly! Once I take care of those elves, I can head towards the World Tree!’
If she could brutally eliminate those elves, she might be able to provoke the sniper as well.
If she could unsettle the sniper’s emotions, it would help in hunting them down.
With calculations swiftly completed, her legs swelled with power.
Boom—!
She quickly dashed to follow behind the increasingly distanced group.
“Eek! No, what did we do wrong to be chased like this?!”
Shouting in fear, Timer exclaimed as the massive wolf-human merely approached with blood-red eyes, charging fiercely.
“Kra-ha-ha! Die, insects!”
And that was when Shapiron’s eyes snapped open wide.
Ignoring the torrent of blood pouring from her throat as she shouted desperately, the name of the intermediate wind spirit she had contracted, which had been shaken from the impact of unsummoning.
“Anemos!”
But the shining ring of the World Tree on her left finger easily disregarded such trivial concerns—
Whooooosh—!
Summoning a high-level wind spirit, resplendent like emerald, right there.
“Blow them away!”
Whoosh—!
The fierce wind that arose from her will rushed towards the wolf-human that had closed in.
“Hah! This is nothing! Waaah?!”
It wasn’t an attack but merely a physical disturbance to hinder movement.
No matter how advanced the spirit, it wouldn’t be enough to deliver a meaningful blow to a general head-on.
At best, the most she could do was briefly lift him into the air and disrupt his stance.
However, in the current situation, that brief moment was…
“Huh? Wait a moment! How could this happen so fast?!”
For the wolf-human disrupted, the beam of light projected from the World Tree arrived just in time for the silent grim reaper.
Whoooooooooosh—!
This time, with precision sharp enough to obliterate both head and heart.
*
“…What is this? Is he an idiot?”
With a bemused expression, Harris lowered his bow while monitoring the enemy in real-time with 「Observer of the Milky Way.」
He never expected that in just two attacks, he would take down a general-level enemy.
If hit with such a powerful sniper shot, it would be expected for them to conceal themselves and focus on evasion, yet the idea of spreading their attention elsewhere never entered his mind.
‘…Then again, it is a Lycanthrope.’
Their temperamental tendencies were notoriously well-known.
Whether breaths were cut off or not, they wouldn’t allow the prey before them to escape.
This time, they had ended up truly dead.
‘It wouldn’t have been this easy to take them out without Shapiron’s help. I didn’t expect her to summon a high-level spirit.’
If he hadn’t managed to finish them off with this attack, the academy peers fleeing would have been in quite a dangerous situation.
While it was a demanding task for him to fight while also protecting others from this distance.
‘At least for now…’
Feeling the grace of the World Tree permeating his body after taking down the enemy, he instinctively sensed it.
That it wouldn’t be long now.
‘First, let’s deal with the risk factors approaching stealthily.’
Those hiding with something deadly, which were lethal merely by approaching the World Tree.
They had prepared so thoroughly that he could have easily missed them without a sync with the World Tree.
While he could have notified the gardeners protecting this place and handed over the problem, he couldn’t leave a three-fold public achievement event to someone else!
Feeling the energy within his body quickly recovering due to the influence of the World Tree, Harris continued to shoot spirit arrows.
‘Ah, it still feels slightly lacking.’
He could intercept all incoming threats as he enthusiastically shot arrows, yet it seemed he still needed fulfillment to break through the wall.
‘Then I’ll have to steel… No, I should support the others and deal with the generals. The faster we eliminate the strong ones, the more favorable the situation will become.’
With that thought in mind, Harris again used 「Observer of the Milky Way」 to analyze the chaotic battlefield in one glance.
Now, he saw the High Elven four in danger of collapsing completely, master-level powers engaging in fierce battles on both sides, and the ongoing casualties of the elves.
‘…I need to hurry before the High Elves completely collapse. They are quite agile, so a large-area attack using spirits wouldn’t be very effective. It’s best to eliminate threats one by one with sniping… huh?’
In that moment, a sense of discomfort suddenly flashed through his mind.
He had always regarded himself simply as a spiritual archer, but hadn’t he had a skill that shone in large-scale battles?
The harmony he had steadily empowered every time he shot spirit arrows, the 「Harmony Melody.」
‘No, wait. This could actually work! If I can amplify it just a bit more…’
In less than a second, his gaze slowly shifted sideways.
To this battlefield, the entire expanse of Drasha… No, toward the World Tree.
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