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Inside a cave, there was a smallish Huge Crawler being attacked by some kind of dark mist. Albeit on the smaller end, that caterpillar was still huge, but that mist was coiled around it and seemed like it was actively attacking it.

Each time it attacked, the Huge Crawler was squirming and rubbing its body while raising shrieks.

“That looks like a group of Ghast Hornets.”
“Ghast and Hornets? Quite a strange combination there.”

Ghasts were a species of Undead, their special trait being bodies made of mist. Physical attacks had no effect on them, so I remember having a hard time against them before.

If you had a weapon wrapped in magic power you could deal with them without a problem, so they were not an enemy to me now since I had bestowal magic at my disposal.

As for Hornets, they were, well, hornets. But since they were monster hornets, their sizes varied from 10 cm to 1 meter, as well as their species.

But this time, I couldn’t figure out what kind of monster the combination of these two would be.

“Ghasts are mist monsters. They are called as such because the group of those hornets is so big it looks like mist. Their individual strength as a monster is practically insignificant, but they move in huge groups. Even if you punch it, you can take out a few of them at most, which wouldn’t be a significant damage from the group’s perspective. They are a troublesome foe to defeat in close quarters combat.”
“In that case, it seems like it is my turn now!”

Maxwell didn’t have much of a chance to show off so far, so he was pretty excited now. But this old man was forgetting something. It was the caterpillar that was being attacked by those hornets.

If Maxwell hits them with his prided fire magic, he’ll be turning them both into charcoal.

“Wait, wait. Let’s pull them apart from the caterpillar first!”
“And how do we do that?”
“It’s your job to think about that… Well, fine. I’ll do something about it.”

With such a huge number of them, my threads wouldn’t be effective much. However, if I get in the way of their meal, they wouldn’t stay quiet. The goal would be to redirect them towards me. Even if I fail to do that, I’d still be able to deal some damage so there was no loss.

“Anyway, I’ll go attack them. If they start chasing me, burn them down.”
“Understood.”

Maxwell couldn’t cast magic as fast as Maria. Regardless, he was a master magician, so he wouldn’t mistake his timing.

I coiled my thread on the protrusion near the ceiling and lifted myself up. Since this labyrinth was made of wood in every direction, it thankfully had many places to hook onto. This labyrinth might’ve actually been quite compatible with me.

After I lifted myself up to the ceiling, I wrapped the thread around my body. I coiled several layers.

After that, I switched my dagger into the spear mode, fixed it in place… And swooped down on the hornets.

Naturally, the thread unwinded along with my fall, so in response, my body started to spin. The more I accelerated in my fall, the faster I started spinning, and the faster the spearhead that I held in place rotated.

As I dived into the Ghast Hornet group, the said spear mercilessly and indiscriminately sliced and crushed the hornets.

Along with a disgusting sound, dozens of them got crushed in one go… After which I landed on the back of the Huge Crawler. Its rubber-like, elastic skin repelled me without dealing any damage and allowed me to land safely on the ground.

When I looked up with my spinning eyes to check the situation, I saw the pissed-off army of hornets glaring at me.

“Oh, it was a success?”

I tried to take a step and flee at once… Only to fall over. My semicircular canals that couldn’t even handle a carriage were not expected to handle something as crazy as accelerated rotation while falling down.

“Huh, hold on!? Wait, s̲h̲i̲t̲, oh s̲h̲i̲t̲! My legs, my eyes…”

While I was flapping left and right, the Ghast Hornets rushed towards me. The distance between us was too small for Maxwell to use his magic. I still tried to flee like a drunkard, but my steps were all over the place. They would most certainly get me at this rate.

“This is ba-”

I fully realized the danger I was currently facing. But something suddenly started furiously dragging me along. It was the Huge Crawler himself(?).

Was it because it realized I saved its life, or was it just a pure coincidence… Its small nails hooked onto my nape as it fled from the hornets.

Naturally, it also pulled me along, dragging me on the ground as it fled. That action took the Ghast Hornets by surprise. Their target escaped from their sight and they simply charged at the empty ground.

The moment there was a perfectly “safe distance” between us… Maxwell’s magic blew them up.

He probably used a simple Fireball magic. But with his magic power, even that held more than enough destructive power to thoroughly burn the group of Ghast Hornets.

If I had to add, insects, in general, tended to burn quite well. That single shot was enough to completely obliterate the Ghast Hornets.