Translator: Nox

Erika: My Friend Is Obsessed with Me

Chapter 28

---

The Lekankan Great Jungle was composed of various forests.

Among them were a few forests bearing special designations, and the most famous was undoubtedly the Illusionary Forest at its center.

No adventurer ever dared to step foot inside that forest.

The Illusionary Forest.

A forest infamous as a breeding ground for mutated monstrosities.

Nothing that resided here was normal.

Downpours cascaded violently.

Erica’s shoulders ached with a stinging throb. Her body temperature plummeted against her freezing, soaked skin.

The rain fell in sheets so thick she could barely see what was in front of her.

“Whew.”

Squinting one eye shut, she drew back her bowstring.

Even with the torrential rain lashing against her eyelashes, her aim was unerring.

Twang!

Thud! Flump.

Though she landed direct hits on monster after monster, more beasts sprang forth from all around, trampling over the fallen carcasses.

“Grrrrr—!”

“Krrk—”

They were shapes she had never laid eyes on before.

“Kyaaaah—!”

Thud!

They were closer to demonic beasts than ordinary animals—there was no way one could call them mere wildlife.

“Kree…”

“Keeek—!”

Chilling, hideous figures.

Every time she locked eyes with one of them, a shudder ran down her spine at their sheer grotesque appearance.

Some had dozens of eyeballs clustered tightly across their heads, while others had their skin flayed entirely raw, flesh bulging with exposed veins.

Gazing with vertically slit pupils drowned in madness, some looked like they might once have been serpents, others stags.

The Illusionary Forest was also known as the Forest of Mutations.

She had heard that these beasts lost all reason and never acted in packs, so what on earth was with these numbers right now?

‘……Something’s definitely wrong.’

Having fought for so long, the moment she paused to catch her ragged breath, she felt it with absolute certainty.

There were too many of them.

Every single creature in the Illusionary Forest seemed to be swarming to this very spot.

“Chaud, did we do something wrong?”

Swish—

Thud—!

“Kweeeek—!”

Stab!

His reply only came a moment later.

“Who knows. There sure are a lot, though.”

Slash—!

Boom!

It was so chaotic they could barely exchange a few words.

With every rapid stride, icy rainwater splattered against her calves.

Swish—!

Thud!

“Kyaaaah—!”

Shooting an arrow at a monster leaping down from the treetops, she immediately swapped her weapon.

Twisting her waist swiftly, she drove her sword straight into the maw of a beast lunging from her flank.

Whoosh—

Whoosh—

Claws and fangs closed in within the span of a breath.

Dodging the attacks of the swarming pack, she slid across the bare ground several times.

Rolling repeatedly through the icy rainwater, she was coated head to toe in mud.

Yet her movements remained swift as light. In the pouring rain, it resembled a perilous, hair-raising acrobatic feat.

Her body moved on pure reflex.

The problem was that there was no end in sight. That was what baffled her.

‘Why are there so many?’

Even for the infamous Illusionary Forest, the population density was far too high.

On top of that, every single beast that sprang out was violently ferocious, as if they had ingested some kind of stimulant.

Did mutants naturally go madder when it rained? Did the harsh pelt of the rain hurt and sour their mood?

“Kweeerk—!”

“Grrrr!”

The stench of blood hung thick throughout the air.

Mingled with the damp forest musk and the smell of rain, it felt indistinguishable from a battlefield.

They were swarming in droves, rushing in endlessly.

There were enough of them to make one sick to the stomach. It was utterly grotesque.

“Hey! Whose idea was it to come in here?!”

“…….”

“I think taking the long way around would’ve been faster. There are so fucking many of them, seriously. We’ll be stuck here till sunrise.”

Swish—

Thud!

“Keeek!”

Thud!

“Keeeeeek!”

Reaching for the quiver at her back, Erica paused.

Her fingertips brushed over the remaining shafts. There weren’t many arrows left to the touch.

‘Already?’

The quiver had emptied far faster than expected.

It was because the number of monsters had vastly exceeded their estimates.

“Chaud! I think I need to save my arrows!”

“How many do you have left?”

“Six!”

Swish—!

Thud!

“Make that five!”

“Draw your sword and get beside me.”

“You come here!”

When Erica yelled in exasperation, Chaud immediately dropped down from a tree.

Landing firmly on the ground, Chaud swept his sword in a wide arc.

Perhaps owing to his long limbs, the range of his Aura was immense.

The surrounding rain seemed to halt for a split second before being blasted away.

“Phew.”

“Haah, haah…… haah.”

Erica and Chaud stood back-to-back. Catching their breath for a moment, they rotated their wrists.

The roaring sound of the rain swallowed even the sound of their ragged breathing.

Erica squinted and glanced up at the sky.

Just what kind of rain poured down this relentlessly? Irritation began to simmer within her.

Cold rainwater invaded her upturned eyes and seeped into her open mouth as she tried to catch her breath.

‘I should’ve brought more arrows.’

Having seen with her own eyes how Chaud could run wild with far greater ease when she provided long-range covering fire, she couldn’t help feeling regretful.

Now, however, they had to abandon that approach; both needed to draw their blades for close-quarters combat.

She could feel Chaud drawing his Aura up to its absolute peak.

“……Erica. Do you remember the map?”

“Vaguely.”

“Was the Illusionary Forest always this vast?”

“I don’t know.”

Something felt distinctly off.

“It’s different from the map. It feels like the forest changed.”

In truth, it went beyond just feeling off.

The path was gone; they had lost their way entirely. Both of them had already realized it.

“Kweeeek!”

Slash.

Splatter—!

Green blood sprayed out.

“Dammit, Chaud! Didn’t I tell you to break that habit of killing things by making their blood burst everywhere?”

“No, that wasn’t me. It just burst on its own.”

Chaud defended himself as he slashed his blade across a one-eyed monster lunging at his side.

Splatter—!

When green blood erupted violently once more, both of them froze.

“……?”

A chill instantly shot down their spines.

The sensation of being under something’s absolute control. The feeling that the very air in the world had frozen solid.

Rumble! Crash!

A sudden crack of thunder roared overhead. Only the harsh rush of the rain held dominion over the Illusionary Forest.

Beyond that, not a single sound could be heard.

That was the most terrifying part.

The multitude of mutant beasts was no longer advancing.

The grotesque howls and screeches vanished in a heartbeat.

An eerie stillness fell, filled only with the sound of falling rain.

Though it was daytime, darkness swallowed them in an instant. Their vision was engulfed in pitch-black shadow.

Erica looked up toward the sky.

‘……What is that?’

Something pitch-black was blanketing the sky like a roof.

They were being smothered beneath its shadow.

‘A… tail?’

The moment that thought crossed her mind—

BOOM—!!!

In a fraction of a second, the earth caved in.

Though she dodged swiftly, her heart plummeted. A chill ran down her spine, making every hair on her body stand on end.

The colossal mass lifted once more.

‘A ta~il?!’

It was an actual tail. They had nearly been crushed beneath a tail the size of a house.

The massive crater that had been carved out quickly filled to the brim with pouring rainwater.

She couldn’t make sense of the situation.

She craned her neck so far back it felt ready to snap.

A presence as colossal as a mountain.

How could something like that have approached so close without them even noticing?

“What on earth is that?! Where did it come from?!”

A colossal… python? Serpent?

Because of its sheer, immense scale, it was difficult to even grasp its full silhouette.

She craned her neck endlessly to look up.

Six eyes set into the beast’s head gleamed with vivid luminescence.

Scales of an impossible, impenetrable blackness wrapped snugly around its bulging muscles.

It was glaringly obvious that an arrow would never pierce it.

“Erica, it’s Space Distortion.”

“What?! Argh!”

There was no room to argue.

Space Distortion.

An authority wielded only by the sovereign of a territory among top-tier monsters.

It was the ability to twist one’s territory like a labyrinth and fold space freely to move at will.

If that was the case, this forest was that serpent’s domain, and they had just stepped foot into its twisted space.

“I had no idea!”

“For now.”

Chaud remained calm. He took a measured breath to steady himself.

“That monster looks like a Mutant Black Species. It’s going to be troublesome.”

Neither of them had ever witnessed a monster of such gargantuan proportions.

Even for two seasoned S-rank mercenaries, this was an opponent beyond all expectation.