==
"What the h.e.l.l is that!?"
"This…extremely ugly one appeared."
"I haven"t seen any record on this one. I can"t tell whether this is an evil spirit, a demon, or a mineral life-form."
"And it also possible it is neither. After all there are many Demon Kings which defy common sense."
"Lisa can at least make out it is form, but Lisa also is troubled in differentiating it."

Alfilis was confused, and so was the rest of them. Well that was to be expected. Why is that, well, first, the monster in front of them walked with its hands. It seemed in exchange for the absence of legs, it has ten arms. Additionally, despite it having a similar form with a human"s arm, the length and the thickness were all different with no sense of unity at all. The biggest one was even bigger than gigantes body.
And its body, well it is hard to differentiate with its head though, was black l.u.s.tre like an obsidian pillar. And it was even thicker than the treant Anorun fought before. At its base were ten hands, wait, it was eleven. The odd number added even more feeling of asymmetry. And then on the body, or the head, well let"s just call it trunk, eyes and mouths were placed disorderly. The number of eyes and mouths was unclear, and the sizes were also all over the place.
The height was also unclear. It was considerably bigger than the gigantes. The trunk was around 5m long. The shape alone already made Alfilis and co. grimace, but more than that, this monster smelled like all h.e.l.l.

"What is this smell, Lisa feels nauseous."
"Perhaps it ate something bad? It is not weird if its mouth smells."
"This is not in that kind level of smell."
"This is really the demon king, right?"
"I don"t know. The ones I met were still close to living things. Or at least not something like a creature jumped straight out from nightmare like this one."

While Alfilis and co. stepped back slowly and took some distance, this monster walked forward and crushed the gigantes body in its wake. In an instant, all the eyes it had moved towards the gigantes" dead body. And then the hands grasped the gigantes body, and it looked at the corpse in wonder. "What happened?" Right after that question crossed Alfilis and co. heads,

"Hii!"

Alfilis unintentionally let out a shriek. The monster mineral-like trunk suddenly split into two an became a giant mouth, and started to consume the gigantes.

Crack crack Clang! Crauk Crauk…

Alfilis and co. couldn"t do anything except watch the gigantes being consumed by the monster. Gigantes blood and meat flew all over the place. What a gruesome spectacle. No one said anything, no, no one could say anything. This monster was way past their expectations.
The moment the monster finished eating the gigantes, its closed eyes suddenly opened "BAATT!" and then tears of blood started to flow. At the same time the mouths on all over its body started to open and started to laugh eerily. Gehyahyahyahya! The demon king was delighted—the far surreal scene made Alfilis and co. dizzy.

"…It"s coming!"
"Eh?"

And then after it finished laughing, all of its eyes simultaneously looked at Alfilis and co.

"Move!"

At Anorun"s signal, everyone scattered. The demon king headed toward them while letting strange voices which hard to describe.
Just like before, Anorun and Albert took the left and right respectively, while Alfilis and Lisa retreated to the rear, taking some distance. The Demon King"s eyes busily moved around, seizing each of them.

"It can see with all of its eyes?"

While retreating, Alfilis nocked her arrows, aiming at its eyes. One among the three arrows she fired hit the eyes and yet at the time it hit, the demon king once again laughed maniacally as if it was something enjoyable. And then in the place where there was no eye, a new one appeared.

"What the! It has no effect?"
"So the eyes are not its weak point!"
"Alfilis, buy Lisa some time! Lisa will look for that ugly one weakness with Lisa"s power!"
"Roger!"

Lisa concentrated, while Alfilis fired more arrows while protecting Lisa. Albert and Anorun moved forward to attack it. Albert swung his sword sideway to cut it, however,

Bam!

Together with a conspicuous sound, the demon king body…flew.

"What the h.e.l.l!?"
"It can fly with its large build?"

It flew higher than the trees in the surrounding. They thought it will fall down just like that, however it used its surprisingly dexterous hands and clung onto the treetop. The large tree bent because of the demon king"s weight.

"Kuh! What a nimble one!"
"My sword won"t reach it."
"-! Evade!"

Hearing Alfilis" words, all of them backed off. At the same time, something fell soundlessly. And then after the splashing sound, from the place that thing fell on a sizzling sound can be heard and smoke rose.

"Acid!?"
"No wonder its mouth stinks. It has too much gastric acid."
"This is not the time to joke around."

All of them continued to evade the monster"s sputum. Or rather, only Albert was able to advance while evading. Albert swung his sword towards the tree the demon king climbed, and in an instant the tree fell down. His power and technique was incredible.

Even the demon king can"t evade falling down after having its balance broken. Albert tried to cut the fallen demon king, but the demon king tried to stop his slash with its arms. Wait, it is not trying to stop the slash, it tried to fight back. In a moment, the other hands withered while the hand used to fight back thickened many folds.

Albert who tried to cut down its arm, made a sudden turn to evade the counter attack.

Crak! Crak!

The demon king’s arm which was swung around broke trees in its path. What an incredible attack power. However, Albert"s reflex was also not inferior. After turning around once, using the recoil he advanced forward and cut three withered arms simultaneously.

"You"re wide open!"

Anorun also tried to charge, however the many mouths demon king have suddenly opened and it sprayed something like thick fog.

"Breath!?"

"Tch!"

The two of them quickly stepped back, while the trees which were hit slowly rot away. Corrosion-type breath. It has yet to pa.s.s one minute after the demon king appeared, yet they felt like they have been fighting for hours, this was truly life or death battle. Alfilis hasn"t experienced a battle like this before.

"(What an incredible battle. It seems my power is indeed insufficient.)"

Alfilis even forgot to fire her arrows, and could only stare in wonder. And behind her, Lisa muttered.

"……No way."
"What is it, Lisa?"
"That monster, I didn"t find any weakness on it."
"What do you mean?"
"Normally, all living thing will have frail section in their body. Either physically, or presence or rather, atmosphere. According to its flow and how it defends itself, I can sense where its weak point is…. However, that monster"s interior is always moving and I can"t find a definite weak point."
"What did you say!?"

Lisa was shaking. It seems the demon king in front of them is more monstrous than they expected. However, since Albert able to cut three of its arms, that mean that monster should not immortal. And yet,

[Summon]

An eerie voice resounded, and from around the monster magic circle appeared. And then from there, goblins and orcs flowed out. To be able to do something like that, the monster in front of them is indeed the demon king.

"I see, so this is it is why to summon subordinates huh."
"This is not the time to admire that! We don"t have any leeway to fight those demon beasts!"
"Well, the small fry won"t be a prob… what?"

Anorun"s voice stopped because of shock. That was because the monsters the demon king summoned were not for helping it fight, instead the demon king grabbed them and ate them head first. Even Albert was dumbfounded by the scene, however what make him more shocked was, the arms he cut were regenerated proportionally as the demon king eat.
Even the monsters which were summoned felt the abnormality, and tried to run away with their dulled body from the side effect of summoning while screaming. However the demon king doesn"t seem like it would let any of them escape, as it continuously ate the monsters one after another. It ignored Alfilis and co. and focused in eating the monsters it just summoned.
Even Alfilis and co. dumbfounded and forgot about fighting.

"…No wonder no one from investigation team came back. If they were chased by this monster they had no chance of returning alive."
"Anorun, Anorun. Is a demon king always like this?"
"No. I have experience fighting against lowlifes but none of them this ugly. Actually I also feel disgusted."
"It doesn"t have any weakness. What to do? I think this situation prompts us to retreat though."

Even Lisa felt restless. However Anorun"s answer after hesitating for a bit was,

"…I have a way. It is dangerous though."
"Additionally whether we can overrun it is still unclear. From some time ago one of its eyes is always looking at us. Once we start running it will instantly chase after us. It seems it has reasonably high intelligence."

Albert who charged forward after finding an opportunity also returned to Alfilis and co. And at the place he pointed to where Alfilis could see, other than the eyes used to chase the goblins and the other monsters, there was one eye which looked at them without blinking.

"But it will still come after it is finished with its meal right?"
"Of course. Then let"s make a plan to fight it. Lisa, can you draw its attention with Sensor"s power?"
"I can, but…do you plan using Lisa as decoy?"

Her face showed disbelief, however Anorun still looked serious.

"I feel bad about it, but that"s correct. In exchange I will put Alfilis as your guard. Around 300 meters behind us there is an open plain right, can you lead it to that place?"
"I don"t feel safe even with this giant woman as a guard but…there"s no other choice, I will do it."
"Alright. After you brought it there I will bring us some time. Albert, focus only on cutting its trunk into two. If it still doesn"t die, we will instantly retreat. Any objection?"

No one objected.

"Alright, then, Lisa, do it 30 seconds from now. Me and Albert will going first, may fortune of war befall upon us!"

After nodding at each other, the two of them ran off first. Lisa who was left behind sighed.

"I was prepared for a difficult commission, however I didn"t expect any of this development… Please do your job properly, Alfi?"
"Leave it to me! ….Is what I want to say but I will try my best to protect Lisa."
"Rather than words full of confidence, I feel the latter one more dependable. Let Lisa give you a perfect score."
"Oh, that unusual."

Lisa remembered, at the guild, she didn"t take Anorun"s nor Albert"s hand, but this female fencer"s. Despite she felt overwhelming power from the other two, her instincts said this female fencer was the most reliable. In the first place, why did she accept the request without asking of its contents — only by talking with this female fencer in front her. There was a part of her actions that even she couldn"t explain.
However, even after rethinking it again later, despite recognizing it as a dangerous request, her instincts still told her to go. Lisa, who never gambled with her instincts when accepting requests, somehow for this time only, she felt she must do it.
And then after accepting that request, despite only being together with Alfilis for a short amount of time, in the first day she already felt some kind of conviction. That in the future this female fencer will deeply be involved with her. She won"t die here. And more than that, Lisa has reason she must return to Mishia. And then Lisa"s determination solidified.

"Joking time end here, here we go Alfi!"
"Anytime, Lisa!"

Lisa"s sense flared out like sonar and drew the demon king"s attention, and in an instant, all of its eyes looked towards Alfilis and Lisa. After that, was a game of tag with their lives on the line.