Iron Blooded Hound

There was nothing Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, and Bianca could do.

With all their health and mana gone, they're just 18-year-old kids.

The weight of the ant-shaped golems that were crushing them was too much for them to bear.

"Ugh. I can't believe I'm stuck here like this, and I haven't even become a hero yet."

"I didn't think my end would be like this."

"I'm going to be a hero..."

"Hey, Piggy! Why isn't this guy talking? Isn't he dead already!?"

Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, and Bianca were paralyzed with despair.

They were just about to let go of their last hope.

...BAM!

With a loud, booming sound, the pressure on their bodies disappeared.

As if the weight of the ants had been temporarily lifted, a rush of fresh air swept in, clearing away the suffocating, poisonous fog.

"...?"

Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, and Bianca gulped and looked up.

There was a black cloud of blood swirling around them.

"...stay away."

A familiar figure stood behind them: Vikir.

Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, and Bianca could only stare in disbelief.

"Vi, Vikir! How did you get here?"

Tudor, who still had some energy left, stammered, but Vikir didn't say much.

Just.

"It's okay now."

With those words, he raised his bow.

At the same time.

POP!

A black aura rose from Vikir's bow.

An arrow flew out with a red trajectory.

Quack, quack, quack!

It smashed the head of the giant army ant that was charging in front of him with a single blow.

...!?

Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, and Bianca's jaws dropped.

* * *

A few minutes ago.

Vikir stuck to the magic wall that surrounded the arena and looked inside.

He saw a small ball of fur in the corner of the arena.

A cub. It was hiding among the rubble of the collapse, whimpering.

It was too small and insignificant for anyone to notice, but it was clearly being detected by the life response of the magic stone.

'When I took the test, the life response wasn't detected... Was that because it was overly starved?'

During Vikir's test, the starving cub had ingested a lot of poison all at once and had even shed skin in the process.

It must have gotten quite a bit of life force into it and had been caught in the magic stone's life detection magic net.

Vikir covered his face with his hands.

In the end, it was the greed of the little bastard to eat more poison that caused this.

And so it ate and ate and ate, until suddenly it realized that its master, Vikir, was gone, and it hid in a corner of the magic wall and wept like that.

In the distance, he sees the professors scrambling.

"No, well, who's going to be in charge?"

"Let's divide up the jurisdiction first, then!"

"Alright, let's dismantle the magic wall first! Can't we get a hold of Professor Sady yet?"

"These people! Didn't you hear that there's an imperial family among the first years? What a disgrace!"

Dolores even stamped her foot and glared at the magic stone in the distance.

If this continues, I'm really going to have an accident.

Vikir stroked his chin.

'If the magic wall is dismantled and a full search begins, they'll find the cub. It can't be allowed to happen.'

This is why spider education must be straightforward.

Vikir headed for the edge of the stadium, out of sight of the crowd, thinking that he would have to give the cub a good scolding later.

Tsutsutsutsuts...

Vikir wore a picaresque mask on his face.

Black steam billowed out of it, and Vikir's body shrank.

Vikir looks up into the puddle of water on the floor and sees a black puppy, wrapped in a black cloak, pacing around.

Hodadak.

Turned into a dog, Vikir scooped up his clothes and ran, heading northwest of the Magic Wall.

Before regression, Vikir had stayed at the academy as a bodyguard and messenger to assist Highbro, Midbro, and Lowbro, and through that experience, he gained some knowledge of this magic wall.

'There is a gap in the lower northwest corner of the magic wall.'

I've been to Baskerville a lot.

The triplets, Highbro, Midbro, and Lowbro, were also the type of people who held a lot of personal grudges here and there for fear of being recognized as Baskerville.

As a result, they were often attacked when they were at the academy, even when they were taking tests in the arena.

At the time, an assassin had dug a tunnel to the bottom of the magic wall and slipped through a threadlike gap in the lower northwest corner, targeting the Highbro, Mibro, and Lowbro.

Later, the professors inspecting the magic wall were speechless as to how they had found this gap, which required digging about seven meters underground.

Whatever. Vikir had turned into a dog and was digging a tunnel into the lower part of the magic wall.

As he dug, he saw a small crack at the end of the wall. It was as he remembered.

Vikir squeezed through and was able to enter the magic wall with ease.

'The dog's small size is an advantage.'

Once through the magic wall, the rest was easy.

Vikir removed his mask and returned to his human form.

Woodduck.

A scream echoes through his body as he grows larger in the narrow cave.

But Vikir's body, strengthened by the protection of the River Styx and his immense mana, pushes through the dirt to gain space.

Vikir, who quickly got dressed, pushed off the ground with his legs and came out onto the ground, breaking the stone floor of the stadium.

"...."

As he poked his head out of the ground, his vision was bathed in green. It was the paralyzing poison from the ant golem.

'With a fog this thick, it's hard to see in from the outside.'

Vikir was glad he couldn't see much beyond the magic wall.

If he couldn't see out from here, he probably couldn't see in from there either.

'Okay, then....'

The first thing Vikir did in the green, poisonous haze that surrounded him was to catch the hatchling.

But he didn't have to go looking for it.

[...!]

When the cub spotted Vikir, it ran to him and clung to the back of his hand.

Boo-boo-boo- swish-

Vikir couldn't help but furrow his brow as he asked where it had been.

"Look at this asshole's ass. Shameless little bastard."

Retrieving the cub, Vikir took a step forward, knowing that he would have to give it a solid education later.

For now, the immediate need was to rescue Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, and Bianca.

Vikir realized that the dense, poisonous fog made it difficult to see from the outside.

He immediately fed an arrow to his bow.

It was only a supply of bows and arrows, but with Balak's archery skills and Vikir's mana, it would be a siege weapon.

Puff-puff-puff!

Vikir's rapid-fire arrows began to swat away the ants.

Whether they're worker ants or soldier ants, Vikir's arrows crush them in an instant.

After a few strokes, the path opened up, and Vikir could see Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, and Bianca in the depths ahead.

"...V, Vikir?"

Tudor's face is blank, like he's seen a ghost.

So did Sancho, Piggy, and Bianca.

Vikir didn't say anything; he just walked to the front of his friends.

'You all look so weak.'

I want to tell them to get out through the tunnel, but they're too exhausted to move.

Piggy, in particular, has been poisoned with paralyzing poison and can barely lift a finger.

In the meantime, the giant ants began to surround Vikir.

<Killer Ant (Worker Ant)

Danger Rating: C

Size: 1 meter

Found in: large colonies

name 'worker ant'

The most common form of the killer ant species.

They are the foremost burrowers and perform a variety of duties, including scouting, assault, and nursery.

Armed with a hard and durable exoskeleton and powerful pincer jaws, they are known to dig deep burrows that extend from the human realm to Hell.

<Killer Ants (Soldier Ants)

Danger Rating: B+.

Size: 5 meters

Found in: Large Colonies, Filthy Spawning Grounds

also known as the'soldier ant'

It was found that some individuals of this species have mutated, resulting in a massive body size and a more sturdy exoskeleton.

They are the ultimate manifestation of killer ant colony evolution and are not found in normal anthills but in very large anthills or colonies of killer ants that have been left unattended for too long.

Countless worker ants clink their jaws, which are like large garden shears.

In between, there are soldier ants that can take on up to a thousand worker ants.

Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, and Bianca shouted at Vikir's back in the face of this army of ants.

"Vikir, it's reckless! You're not going to win!"

" ... Thanks for coming with us, but we're screwed."

"For God's sake, run, Vikir!"

"You idiot, you'll get yourself killed!"

Everyone's attitude is one of despair and near hopelessness.

But Vikir didn't move from his spot.

Kirik.

He merely pulled away from the protest.

And then.

"...uh!?"

Everyone's eyes began to turn in astonishment.

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