Paradigm Parasite - Chapter 188: "The Ranger"

“Um, are you sure you’re OK?”

“No problem. Don’t make me repeat it, okay?”

I reply to Yonomori’s confirmation for the umpteenth time, somewhat disgusted.

The location has changed and we are now on the coast, a short distance from Uzbek Animos. The distance is about a dozen kilometres or so.

I am told that whatever happens here will not affect the town and that it can be dealt with.

The kids are standing at a distance from the beach.

We didn’t want them to know we were there, so the three of us stayed on the carpet.

Are we ready to go?

I give the order to Globster.

Lure them out.

The globsters who are parasites in the bodies of the kids who have received my orders are kneading and releasing magic inside their bodies.

It seems that they don’t build up well because their bodies are bestial, but it’s enough.

Well, it will take a little while because the amount of roots held is small, but if my prediction is correct, they should notice immediately if I do this -.

…That was quick.

The next moment, a tentacle reaches out of the sea with tremendous speed, entangles one of the kids and drags him into the sea.

It was really in the blink of an eye.

The movement is completely different from when we fought on land.

At any rate, I told the dragged globster to follow the instructions and instructed the others to move away from the sea.

The kids move away from the sea as fast as they can.

After a beat, the surface of the sea rises slightly and what appears to be the remains of the monster float up one after another.

This is because the Globster has self-destructed with the kids inside the demon’s body.

This is very useful.

I don’t have to brainwash them every time, and if you look at the results alone, it’s equally effective.

If I’m done with him, I can make him self-destruct and he’ll follow instructions without any problems.

The only drawback is that you can’t use your own skills.

It only takes away control of the body.

…To be frank, their movements are unnatural… hard or zombie-like…

If they succeed in mutating, which is their original ability, their shortcomings will disappear, but as long as there is a possibility that they will not succeed, they are not all-powerful.

When the kids are far enough away from the sea, the monsters come ashore one after another in pursuit of them.

Oh, I’ve caught a fish, I’ve caught a fish.

There’s a lot of them. Ten, no, there are more than twenty.

“Wow, I caught so many fish. What did you do to them?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they looked tasty?”

“Really?”

Yonomori looked at me suspiciously, but I ignored her.

“It doesn’t matter, I’ve done my job. Now it’s your job.”

“Yeah. Leave it to me.”

The aspizal lowers the carpet to the ground.

“Okay, Azusa. Give me the signal.”

“Yeah. I’ll take care of it.”

After confirming that no followers are coming, Aspizal takes up his position.

The monsters move faster than expected, and two kids are caught on the way, but they self-destruct the moment they are thrown into the mouth, taking them with them on the way.

The moment the kids, reduced in number, pass the set point, Aspizal manipulates the sand.

He restrains the monsters that have been chasing them.

Since there are so many of them, they can only be stopped for a few dozen seconds at best, but it’s enough.

At the same time, Yonomori throws a magic stone into the sky.

It bursts open, releasing the magic inside. A dry sound like something bursting is heard.

Immediately afterwards, the beastmen, who were a short distance away, shout and charge.

The beastmen throw Molotov cocktails all at once before colliding.

The monsters burst into flames one after the other, covered with burning oil.

The monsters screamed in pain and the beastmen attacked with ferocious smiles on their faces.

Since they are dealing with monsters who have done as they please in their own habitat for so long, there is no such thing as mercy in the attacks of the beastmen.

They are gleefully attacking flaming monsters indiscriminately.

“It was a classic move, but it worked.”

“Oh, I didn’t expect it to be so easy to catch.”

After I took the story to the Uzbek animos soldiers, one of their superiors came up and asked me to play a part in what I was going to do.

He was in a position to lead the soldiers, but there were a lot of mercenaries he knew personally, and he said he could get me a number of men, so I was happy to have as many as I could because I didn’t know how many I could catch.

I had no particular reason to refuse, so I decided to accept their proposal. It’s easier when you have a lot of people.

The guy said he was in a big hurry to gather a force and left, but within an hour he brought dozens of people with him.

I was surprised at how quickly they came, but what was even more surprising was that they were all unusually eager to fight.

It seems that most of the people who gathered here lost their homes and families during the attack, and most of them have a grudge against the monsters.

I see.

That’s why they’re so well organised.

I secured a reasonably spacious place with the guidance of the beastman I spoke to, and immediately began preparations.

Well, I only had to spread some bait in the sea where they were likely to be and wait for them to bite.

At that point, some complained that I was using the children as bait, but after twisting the issue by saying that they were slaves and I would have no problem with them doing what I wanted, I said, ‘So you want to take their place?’ The noisy people shushed them.

In this world, there are two types of people, except for the minority with a strong sense of ethics: those whose eyes are clouded by hatred, or those who are divided in that how they use their slaves is up to their masters.

If the noisy ones shut up, there is no obstacle to getting started.

That’s how I started the operation, but I’m a bit worried about what if they don’t come, even though it’s become such a big deal.

If they don’t bite – that’s the thing, I’m the one who started it and I’ll just take over the bait role and wait.

If it catches, the rest is easy. Once you’ve lured them in properly, the aspizal manipulates the sand to restrain them.

He said it was impossible to restrain them for a long time if there are too many of them, but if they stop moving completely, even for a few seconds, it’s enough for the motivated beastmen to attack first.

…The result was evident in the scene in front of me, and I patted my chest in relief.

More than half of the bait kids were taken, but it didn’t cost me much anyway, and I’ll use the rest for the next time.

But still, I can only catch …… small fish.

I was hoping that I could also catch the guy who seems to be the master, but I guess It wasn’t that naive.

“No big fish.”

“Oh, they’re simply not there, or they’re too wary–”

“After all, it’s hard to move, even if it wanted to. ……?”

“Then why not make it easy? If we destroy all the small fry, then we won’t have to deal with the big boy.”

Even as I said it, I was thinking inwardly, vaguely, that it wouldn’t come to that.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the beastmen finishing off the weakened monsters with a flamboyant blaze, but my consciousness turned to the main body of the enemy, which I had yet to see.

“It looks like it’s almost over over there. What about after this?”

“There’s still some bait left, and if we can try the same move and get to it, we’ll continue until we’ve used it up. If we can’t, we’ll wait and see.”

“Okay. Same procedure, right?”

“I’ll leave it to you.”

I’ll just watch from the back.

After taking care of the monsters that were caught, we took a break at a remote location and practised fishing for the second time.

We placed the bait kids on the beach and finished preparations…

“They’re not coming.”

“They’re not coming.”

We went up to the sky on the carpet so that the monsters wouldn’t notice us again, but they didn’t bite the bait.

“Is this alarmed?”

“Well, he seemed to have a certain amount of wits in him, so I guess he learnt quickly.”

“It doesn’t seem …… likely that they were wiped out.”

I agree with you on that.

I think we’ve reduced it a lot now, but I don’t think we’ve eradicated it.

“Yeah, I think we should move on the assumption that they’re still there…”

I cut off my speech when my ears suddenly pick up a sound.

A ground rumble? A heavy, low sound echoed from the ground.

I look down and see the remaining kids wobbling around.

“Earthquake?”

“Pretty big.”

It certainly looks like an earthquake.

It seems to be shaking so violently that it’s hard to stand up, and the beastmen below are trying to get over the shaking by crawling on their knees.

To be honest, I have a bad feeling about this.

I don’t know what to think about earthquakes at this point in time…

The change happened immediately.

The ground around the bait suddenly caved in and they were swallowed by the ground.

The kids were sucked in like ants caught in an ant lion’s nest before they had time to resist.

I sent out instructions for them to self-destruct if they were caught, and turned my gaze towards the beastmen.

… the bait is wiped out?

“Shouldn’t we let those guys go?”

“Yeah, I guess so. Azusa.”

Yonomori immediately throws the crushed magic stone, which bounces in the sky as before, scattering light and sound all around.

The beastmen notice this and all turn on their heels and leave the scene.

Aspizal manipulates the carpet to approach the running beastmen.

“What’s going on? I was told to retreat…”

“They found out. They’re probably coming from underground.”

“What!? I see. Hurry up, you guys! We’re in trouble here!”

When he said this to the beastman who approached him, he immediately urged those around him to retreat in a hurry, as if he had sensed it.

“Oh, first of all–”

The ground, or rather the carpet, is suddenly impacted.

Because Aspizal made it soar.

I didn’t do anything to blame him.

A moment later, a large number of tentacles protruded from the ground.

Although they had been warned, the beastmen who took the surprise attack were dragged to the ground one after another.

Those that tried to fight back were suddenly swallowed by the sinking sand.

“I think I underestimated this one a bit.”

“…maybe.”

Surprise.

I expected a certain amount of wisdom, given his ability to manipulate language, but I didn’t expect this much…

“Could this mean that the master is nearby and giving direct orders?”

I see.

That makes sense.

In fact, no matter how you look at it, their movements are completely different from earlier, when they were all about assaulting.

The beastmen are fighting well, but the monsters don’t come out of the ground, so it’s almost a one-sided battle.

It’s troublesome. Sigh.

It’s fine to cut them down, but if we don’t help them, it will affect us later on.

“I’m going down. Yonomori-san. Will you help me?”

“Yes. It would be bad to abandon them.”

“What about me?”

“You’re on standby. Pick me up if things go wrong.”

“All right. Good luck.”

Me and Yonomori jumped off the carpet as it was.