Chapter 34: Fierce Battle

                                    

                                          
From the hole in the castle's second floor, a rope was thrown out and dangled down to the ground.
Then Stella appeared. Clad in heavy chainmail, she clung to the rope as she slid down, her legs flailing. Just before reaching the ground, she released the rope and landed with a thud.
Next came Sean, carrying a longbow on his back and a hardwood crossbow in his right hand. After firing a few arrows into the hole, he wrapped his left hand and legs around the rope, swiftly sliding down to the ground.
Sean helped Stella up and quickly led her away from the castle, heading toward the birch forest behind it.
The last to emerge was the burly Barrett. He stowed a large shield into his spatial ring, then grabbed a black, can-shaped object and threw it into the castle. He then seized the rope and, with agile movements, slid down to the ground in a second.
Barrett pulled out a throwing axe and severed the rope from the second floor before running off toward the birch forest without looking back.
A loud "bang!" erupted from the wall hole, as if the castle had sneezed. A cloud of gray dust burst from the hole, suggesting that the object Barrett had thrown into the castle had exploded.
Soon after, several long tentacles emerged from the hole, followed by a massive pair of pincers. Giant cockroach-like creatures crawled out, and behind them, mantises the size of adults pushed through the hole. Their razor-sharp forelimbs swung as their compound eyes scanned around, with powerful hind legs propelling them toward the direction the three humans had fled. Iron beetles wriggled out of the castle and headed toward the birch forest.
Following them, a swarm of countless insects surrounded a short, maid-like figure, slowly emerging from the hole...
Entoma Vasilissa Zeta stood on the back of an iron beetle, rapidly advancing toward the birch forest. Her mask-insect face showed no expression.
She was also a member of the Great Tomb of Nazarick's combat maid squad, of the Arachnoid race, skilled in commanding insects.
Barrett sprinted desperately ahead. In front of him, Sean was running at full speed, carrying Stella on his back. To their dismay, the cleric girl was terrified of insects. As the massive bugs swarmed from all directions, her legs went weak, forcing Sean to carry her.
They headed toward EeDeChi's location, intending to warn the battling adventurer captain that another terrifying foe had arrived. They hoped EeDeChi would quickly flee and avoid further entanglements with the iron fist maid.
"What's the situation over there?" EeDeChi asked Barrett and the others while pushing back the iron fist maid with a swing of her sword. She had also noticed the swarm of insects and the sounds of numerous creatures crawling on the ground.
"Captain, another maid has shown up, and she controls insects! There are too many bugs for us to handle! Fuck! I've been an adventurer for twenty years, and I've never seen anything like this!" Barrett gasped, cursing for once.
The sound of the crawling insects grew closer. EeDeChi looked up and saw a bizarre girl in a maid outfit standing among the black swarm of wings and antennae, rapidly approaching.
"The Justice Value is -100, close to 'evil'," EeDeChi observed the Insect maid's Justice Value above her head. She swung her sword to deflect a heavy iron fist punch coming from behind, then nodded and said, "Let's take out this insect controller first, and then we'll deal with the one with the gauntlets."
She twisted her body, quickly turning around. Her left foot scraped a large trench into the ground as she ignored the menacing iron fist maid beside her and charged toward the Insect maid with her sword raised.