Chapter 88 - An Ominous Sign (2/2)

“All right, catch you later.”

Tsutomu saw Leon off as he went to report to the nobility and the Security Team. The takeaway from the news was that the Stampede had dwindled in numbers, and some among them were injured. It would be good news if the monsters had cannibalized one another, but if one considered the involvement of Dragons, this was more often than not a bad sign.

Of the various types of Dragons out there, only a few would directly injure monsters like that. Dragons that manipulated natural phenomena could be crossed out, since there would have been signs of freezing or burning instead. Upon hearing that the monsters were ‘already bloody,’ three candidates had come to Tsutomu’s mind, with one in particular being the most likely.

[It might be the Devourer Dragon.]

This Dragon was infamous for its gimmick of preying on other monsters in the combat area, growing stronger the more it ate. In the game, it would strengthen itself by devouring the hordes of mooks that spawned alongside it, so the key to beating this boss monster was to quickly clear out the mooks before it could eat too much.

If the Devourer Dragon’s mechanics were to be applied to this world, however, things could turn very bad very fast. Assuming that the Dragon had eaten all of the monsters in its Dungeon and had come outside to prey on the Stampede, the situation was already as bad as it could get.

But of course, there were other Dragons that could injure the monsters in a similar way, and there could be other factors worth considering. As such, Tsutomu began checking his equipment immediately, hoping that the next thing he had to face was anything but the Devourer Dragon.

――▽▽――

Leon’s reports into the evening were largely the same, but with the key difference being that the Stampede’s numbers had greatly decreased again. The Explorers, having gotten to rest for four hours since noon, were a little too relaxed by this point. The same went for most of the nobility and the Security Team.

This was only inevitable. Normal monster Stampede had never been expected to claim any casualty from Dungeon City in the first place, and this time, they had made it safely through the much more dangerous Dragon invasion. It was natural for them to let themselves loose afterward.

Tsutomu saw that the Guild members around him had become quite optimistic. Camille was pretty much the only one among them that still had her focus.

“You don’t need to worry so much, Tsutomu~~ Everything all right now!” Amy said to Tsutomu and sat next to him, while the latter pondered over things while waiting for Leon. Garm came along as well, and proceeded to do some stretching, his silver armor clinking with his movement.

“C’mon, let’s go back to the square. We can ride the Fire Dragon together or something!”

Amy jumped around Tsutomu like an obnoxious attention-seeker, prompting the latter to cast <<Haste>> and direct the energy sphere to fly past her eyes. Amy was totally distracted by it, as apparent from how her cat ears instantly perked up, so he quickly directed the sphere away for her to chase it.

“Gah! Gotcha–!”

Amy seemed to be having fun trying to swat the <<Haste>> sphere down, as if she was playing tag with it. But that chase did not last long. Just a few moments later, something suddenly smashed into the barrier; Tsutomu was startled and ended up stopping the sphere, enabling Amy to slap it with both hands, popping it and boosting her own AGI.

As it turned out, it was Leon that had hit the barrier, having rushed back from his reconnaissance. His wolf ears were held up despite him usually bending them down due to his dislike of their appearance, and the golden hairs on his tail were standing on end. Something was clearly wrong.

Once the oldest Babenberg daughter saw that it was Leon, she immediately opened a person-sized hole in the barrier for him to get through. Her training had enabled her to link her senses with the barrier, so she could immediately notice whenever something unusual happened to it.

Leon’s face was pale as he staggered to his feet and walked inside. His Clan members tried speaking to him, worried, but he looked too stunned to even reply. Tsutomu shook off Amy and ran over to Leon.

“Leon! What happened!?” Tsutomu asked, grabbing Leon by the shoulders and shaking him.

Leon’s Clan members stopped Tsutomu, but that shaking did help the wolfman regain his focus. He proceeded to explain,

“Found something. Looked dangerous as hell… And it was eating the monsters.”

“…Did it walk on two legs and have a big head?”

“Y-yeah, it definitely was like that. Looked kinda like the Earth Dragon… but it was totally different. Looked too strong,” Leon said, his breath short and his composure lost.

It ate monsters, had a big head, and walked on two legs — the description fit the Devourer Dragon.

“Leon, please hurry and report to the rulers. I’ll talk with the Guild,” Tsutomu said calmly.

“…Yeah,” Leon replied and nodded firmly, his composure regained thanks in part to Tsutomu. He proceeded to immediately leave the scene.

Tsutomu turned around and saw that Amy and Garm were waiting for him. They were now in serious mode, having seen Leon’s unusual discomposure.

“Let’s go find Camille.”

“Yup.”

“Right.”

The two nodded. Together with them, Tsutomu headed back to the central square and started checking out places where Camille could be.