Episode 7 – Insects
There are no monsters inside a dragon.
At least, that’s what they all thought.
Nada, Dan, Serena, Bramia, Clarisse, Amarelo—and even Corvo.
“What the hell! What is that thing!?”
Bramia’s scream echoed through the dragon’s insides.
What appeared before the seven of them was an army.
Not beasts.
—It was an insect.
Their bodies were divided into a fore-body and hind-body, both plump and swollen. Two sickle-like sharp legs jutted out from the fore-body, and four from the hind-body. Two short antennae sprouted from their heads. Their color was a nauseating dark green, which stood out vividly against the pink interior surrounding them.
And the part that seemed to be the mouth writhed with countless tentacles, behind which sharp, fang-like structures could be seen.
Their body length was around two meters. Compared to insects on the surface, they were incomparably massive.
Dozens of such “insects” were closing in, as if hunting down the seven of them.
“Now that I think about it, living creatures often have parasites inside them. Maybe these are a type of that?”
Dan said calmly while watching the swarm.
Possibly because, as someone blessed by the God of Healing, he was familiar with the interior of living beings, he recalled something he once heard about non-human biology.
“Living creatures—? This is a dragon’s insides we’re talking about!”
Bramia shouted. He simply couldn’t accept what was happening.
“That is why the dragon is also one kind of living creature. Now that you mention it, this is the first time for me as well. In all my memory, I have never seen a record of humans entering the inside of a monster’s body. It seems we might be accomplishing a historic feat for mankind—”
Amarelo placed his hand on the object at his waist, lifting the guard slightly from its sheath as he spoke, then chuckled.
“This is not the time to be saying that!”
Bramia yelled at him this time, but Amarelo only laughed, unperturbed.
“I agree with Bramia-senpai, and it annoys me to admit it, but isn’t this situation kind of bad?”
Clarisse looked at the insect army, her face slightly pale.
“—So? What do we do?”
Serena, despite being displeased that Corvo had become the leader, still turned to him for a decision.
“…Anyone here actually wants to fight that head-on? If so, be my guest. How about you guys?”
Of course, no one agreed with Corvo’s suggestion.
“Then it’s settled—”
Right as Nada spoke, the seven of them bolted at once.
—In the opposite direction of the insect army.
Just like their earlier formation, the seven ran as if fleeing from the swarm.
At the front, running lightly, were the three: Bramia, Amarelo, and Corvo. Except for Bramia, they were lightly equipped and therefore fast. Bramia kept up thanks to his own abilities.
A little behind them were Dan, Clarisse, and Serena. Serena’s gear was neither fully heavy nor fully light, so compared to the front three, she was slower. Dan and Clarisse, despite wearing loose clothing typical of Gift-users, actually had steel threads woven into their garments, making them heavier than they looked. Both of them relied heavily on their gifts and weren’t very confident in their stamina.
And trailing behind those six—running alone with significantly heavy equipment—was Nada.
Nada had no Abilities. Because he had none, the weight pressed down on him all the more.
First, the several-dozen-kilogram Green Dragon Crescent Blade he carried in his right hand even while running. The chainmail, gauntlets, and other gear he wore likely outweighed even the weapon’s mass. On his hip were several-kilogram kukri knives, along with pouches containing Calvaon and recovery potions—all adding to the burden Nada had to carry.
“The total weight was something an ordinary adventurer wouldn’t even be able to run with.
Yet despite carrying all of that, Nada still managed to keep up—only slightly behind the other six.
“Where the hell are we even heading!?”
Bramia shouted while the seven of them ran. His tone made it clear he was fed up with the unchanging scenery, no matter how long they sprinted.
“Come to think of it, we entered through the dragon’s mouth, didn’t we? In that case, the place where we come out would be—”
Amarelo, still not having drawn his blade, ran lightly over the flesh.
“Ughhh, in that case, there’s only one place where we’d come out. I don’t even want to think about it.”
Claris shuddered.
“Hmph. Then we should just cut open its belly and get out.”
Serena said coldly, sword in hand.
“But dragon flesh is supposed to be harder to cut than any monster, right?”
Dan interjected, as if to spoil Serena’s idea.
Hearing Dan’s words, Serena pouted silently. Perhaps wanting to put some distance between herself and him, she sped up just a little.
“Nada—are you keeping up all right?”
From up ahead, Corvo called back to him, despite being at the front. It seemed Corvo was paying attention to all of his party members even while running.
“Tch! Someone like him—we should just leave him behind!”
Bramia yelled from the front.
Nada snorted at that, speaking quietly—but loud enough for all six to hear.
“If only it were that simple—”
Nada wasn’t looking behind him at the horde of insects closing in.
He was staring ahead—far beyond Bramia and the others.
A new enemy closed in almost immediately.
—It was an insect.
This time, they appeared as though they had burst forth from the ground ahead of them.
But unlike the ones behind, their numbers were fewer. Perhaps a little over a dozen. Still, even that number—when the creatures were something they had never seen before—was a threat. Unlike dungeon monsters, whose weak points, ecology, and combat patterns they all knew well, these creatures were entirely unknown.
“What the hell is wrong with these rotten creatures!? They’re coming from the front now too!”
Bramia shouted as he drew his silver longsword.
Its blade was truly beautiful. Made of the same material as his armor, it bore no clouding, no imperfections. With the light from the scattered stones inside the dragon’s body, the sword reflected a dazzling brilliance.
First, one of them. He delivered a frontal strike to the insect charging straight at him.
Soft.
Softer than it looked. Lacking the hardness expected of a carapace, the creature split easily under the blade, splattering green fluid everywhere.
But—
“This stuff—acid!?”
The droplets that hit the ground made a shhh, like meat dissolving. The flesh beneath really was melting.
Bramia’s sword was a high-grade weapon, so it was unharmed—but these parasites’ bodily fluids were clearly acidic. Getting splashed would be dangerous.
Bramia kept to hit-and-run strikes. Slash, step back. Slash, step back. Doing whatever he could to avoid letting the acid touch his armor. But even so, droplets occasionally landed on him.
Even for a top-tier suit of armor, it produced an unpleasant sound whenever hit, and the spot warmed from the contact.
“Hmm. That is troublesome indeed—”
Next to Bramia, Amarelo also cut through the insects blocking their path.
His weapon—a katana. Drawn from his waist.
From his calm, upright stance, he took a single step forward toward an approaching insect and unleashed a flash-like iai strike. Like a streak of lightning dancing across the air, the cut cleanly bisected the creature in an instant.
And perhaps due to the nature of Amarelo’s technique, the blade itself was never visible.
Each time he delivered a slash, the sword returned to its sheath with the same speed, then another iai strike followed. His movements held absolutely no waste; it was almost like watching a dance. And indeed, he never once let the insects’ acidic fluids touch him. Dressed only in a light yukata-like garment, Amarelo should have been in extreme danger against such corrosive liquid—yet without changing expression, he continued cutting down the monsters.
Amarelo’s blade also came into contact with that acid, but perhaps because his strikes were far too fast, the acid never had time to eat into the steel, and he continued slicing through the monsters with ease. It was as if he were leaving sound itself behind.
Another unusual point about him—He wasn’t using any Abilities.
To anyone watching, it was clear he wasn’t relying on them.
In other words, Amarelo was overwhelming the swarm purely through swordsmanship.
“Tch, looks like you’ve at least got some skill…,” Bramia muttered, cutting down monsters beside him.
“No, no, that’s far too generous. I’ve still got a long way to go—” Amarelo replied.
The two of them wiped out nearly all the bugs in front of them. It took no more than a few minutes—an instant, really.
“Hmph. So even monkeys like you have a bit of skill, it seems—” Serena said sharply.
A moment later, the rest of the party arrived, slightly behind Bramia and Amarelo.
“So, what now? This looks like a dead end, you know?” Clarisse spoke with a face steeped in despair.
Beyond the area Bramia and Amarelo had cleared was a tall wall of flesh. There were passage-like paths to the left and right, but both were blocked off by debris. And behind them, the swarm of insects was still closing in.
Even if the insects were weak, there were too many of them. Trying to kill them all would take too much time, and more importantly, they’d run out of stamina.
“What do we do…?”
For the first time, Corvo looked uneasy.
The seven had been running from the insects, but this was the inside of a dragon. There was no proper exit. They had simply charged forward blindly.
Reaching a dead end was inevitable.
“If there’s no path, then we make one, don’t we—” In that moment, Nada stared at the wall before him with a determined expression.
He tightened his grip on the Green Dragon Crescent Blade.
“It pisses me off that I agree with that overgrown Vinya Tree, but I’m in on that plan,” Bramia said, the first to support Nada’s idea.
Like Nada, he ignored the insects behind them and looked only at the wall, gripping his platinum longsword tightly.
“Hm. It appears that’s the only option. I shall lend my strength as well. My blade is somewhat shorter than Nada-dono’s weapon, but—well, this much flesh shouldn’t be an issue.”
Amarelo lowered his stance and reached for the weapon at his hip.
“Well, it seems that’s the only choice. I’ll leave it to you three.”
Corvo, the party leader, offered no objection.
“Nada, do your best.”
Dan added, apparently also agreeing.
“I won’t take responsibility for whatever’s waiting on the other side, okay—?”
Clarisse said weakly, stepping back.
“Hmph. Do as you please—”
Serena snorted.
Nada smirked boldly at her words.
“Yeah. I will.”
And with that, the three of them moved.
The first to strike was Bramia. He swung his blade with full force, slicing into the spot where the other two were likely to follow up. The cut was shallow, but the flesh parted, and a little red blood seeped out.
Next came Amarelo. He followed Bramia’s strike with a drawn-blade iai slash.
The wound deepened.
Finally, Nada raised his massive Green Dragon Crescent Blade high overhead and brought it down with all his strength.
From the cuts made by Bramia and Amarelo, the flesh tore apart, ripping open a hole wide enough for several people to pass through.
A torrent of blood poured out, dyeing Nada’s entire body red.
But that wasn’t all.
From the space beyond the area Nada had slashed open, another liquid lunged toward Nada and Bramia. Amarelo had already pulled back quickly, avoiding getting splashed.
The liquid was yellow, and it splattered heavily across Nada’s chainmail and Bramia’s armor.
At first, nothing seemed to happen where it landed—but its effect showed itself almost immediately.
Their armor started heating up.
Reacting with the yellow liquid that had landed on them, the armor scorched their bodies with heat.
“Hot!”
Shouting that, the two of them hurriedly stripped off their armor.
Once removed, the surfaces of the armor pieces were already melting, releasing gray smoke. Both sets of armor immediately began changing shape, their volume shrinking rapidly.
“Acid, damn…”
Bramia muttered in a low growl.
He had already removed all of his armor—his helmet too, of course. His revealed appearance was that of a man whose short red hair shone strikingly. He wore a single earring of the same color near one ear, and a flame-like tattoo stretched from his right eye down to his jaw.
His sharp, narrow eyes were distinctive, yet his face looked unexpectedly youthful.
His body, too, was laid bare—most of his clothing had melted away. The acid had splashed across his exposed upper body, leaving the flesh inflamed and rotten. The wounds weren’t fatal, but the surface was a mess of ravaged tissue. Even so, Bramia didn’t let out a single scream—perhaps because years of adventuring had numbed him to pain.
“Tch… this is a serious wound. This is—”
Nada’s condition was just as bad.
Actually, since he wasn’t wearing plate armor like Bramia but chainmail, the acid had hit Nada’s skin directly. After removing the chainmail, he discarded the clothing underneath as well, preventing further damage, but his chest, stomach, and even his entire back were burnt and dissolved. The marks looked as if worms had crawled all through his body from the inside.
The injuries seemed to extend down to his legs too; it looked even worse than it seemed at first glance.
But despite those horrific wounds, Nada stared sorrowfully—not at his injuries, but at his armor, now rendered useless by the acid.
“That liquid is probably… ‘stomach acid,’ don’t you think? Dragon stomach acid seems to be extremely potent—”
Standing a bit away from the two, Dan spoke while casting a healing Gift on them, restoring the damage caused by the acid.
Once they recovered, the seven of them entered the area where the acid had been flying around, hoping to escape the swarm of insects.
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