-----

The Gazer, enraged by having its raid ruined by the Squirrel-kin being stronger than he had expected, emerged from within his army and decided to kill the strongest women by itself so its little army could kidnap the rest easily. ​​

However, before it could vaporize the chief of the Squirrel-kin, Veronica and Ervas's party had finally arrived at the location of the Squirrel-kin through Pekorina's instruction and feeling of smell.

"This smell… There are not only Squirrel-kin but Orcs, Goblins, Kobolds… and a strange monster…" muttered Pekorina.

Ervas and Veronica then felt the presence of a slightly strong monster amongst the group, which appeared from within and floated in midair.

Veronica carried Ervas with her arms as she received his Mana with 'Mana Transfer' and used it to conjure 'Flight' alongside 'Charge' multiple times, flying at the speed of a bullet and reaching the village in time.

Veronica saw how the Gazer was about to fire a strange crimson laser from within its spherical eyeball body.

"Not so fast!"

Veronica sent her shield flying through the air while manipulating it with the 'Telekinesis' spell and the 'Long-Distance Control' Skill.

Flash!

The shield received the crimson laser head-on, as Veronica activated several Shield Techniques to enhance its sturdiness, managing to protect the Squirrel-kin that was about to be vaporized.

The laser reflected through the shield and flew to the sky, dissipating.

"Phew, we almost didn't make it," said Veronica, sighing in relief while entering the battlefield.

"A floating eyeball… that's a Gazer," said Ervas, pointing at the floating eyeball in the sky with his little hand.

"Indeed, we were right about the one controlling everything being a Gazer it seems… though this is a small fry, there must be a Gazer King around," analyzed Veronica.

"Should I introduce ourselves?" asked Ervas to Veronica telepathically.

"Of course!" said Veronica.

Ervas nodded as he flew towards Ismene, the chief of the Squirrel-kin tribe.

"Ah, hello, my name is Ervas, we have come to give you a hand,"

Ismene seemed too surprised by what she saw, a floating shield appeared out of nowhere and saved her life. Although she was thankful for that, she couldn't help but feel a bit frightened… even more, when Ervas, who was a toddler that shouldn't be capable of controlling magic to such an extent was peacefully floating right beside her.

"H-Hello…" she said.

However, the Gazer did not seem to like how someone came out of nowhere and rescued his prey.

"Griishiii! Don't dare interrupt my conquest, lowly demi-humans!" roared the Gazer, using a voice that resonated through the minds of everyone.

Its tentacles revealed tiny eyes connected to their ends, which began to flash with a menacing red light just as its main eyeball.

The lasers produced by the tiny eyes converged with the one created by the larger one, firing a powerful beam towards Ervas and Ismene.

Flash!

However, Veronica's shield floated around the sky and flew towards Ervas, protecting him once again from the powerful laser.

Clash!

"Grishiii! I am going to melt your stupid little toy!" roared the Gazer.

The Gazer kept charging mana into his laser until the shield itself began to melt. However, Veronica had brought enough time for Ervas and Ismene to escape, while Aqua, Charlotte, and Cthulhu appeared behind the Gazer.

Aqua released large cannonball-sized water bullets, alongside slicing wind blades, Charlotte fired venom bullets and metallic thread and Cthulhu unleashed mental waves that disrupted the Gazer's thought process.

"Uugh!"

The water bullets and slicing wind blades directly hit the large eyeball body of the Gazer, who began bleeding all over. The poisonous bullets then hit its eyeballs and made them momentarily blind, while the thread wrapped it and the mental waves made it get dizzy and confused.

The giant eyeball fell over the ground, bleeding, and groaning.

"Ggrryyaa… grriishii! Y-You!"

"Nice teamwork guys!" said Veronica, walking towards the struggling Gazer as Jason, Pekorina, Nick, and the rest of Ervas's plants were taking care of the remaining Orcs, Goblins, Kobolds, and Lizardmen.

Ismene and the rest of the Squirrel huntresses and mages glanced with surprise at how easily everyone took care of things.

"Are they monster tamers?"

"That knight is not alive!"

"Those are spirits with them?! So many!"

"I cannot sit here and let you all get rid of the invaders, let me give you a hand as well. We can introduce ourselves later… but you can call me… mommy for now," said Ismene while glancing at Ervas with a gentle smile, she seemed to have been captivated by Ervas adorableness despite him resembling a doll.

"…Eh? Mommy? No wait, I already have a mother…" muttered Ervas, however, Ismene was already battling the last Orcs and Goblins that were struggling in the ground while being attacked by the plants.

"Are these plants your tamed monsters?" asked Ismene.

Ervas flew at her side while firing Mana Cannonballs towards two Orcs, Ismene conjured a blade of fire as she pierced the almost-dead Orc's heads with them, setting them ablaze… the delicious smell of grilled pork filled the environment.

"Yes, they're friendly so please don't attack them," said Ervas, manipulating the weapons that the Orcs dropped with Telekinesis and then sending them flying towards a group of Goblins and Kobolds that were trying to run away, he pierced their knees and the Squirrel huntresses finished them off with their blades and spears.

"Ah, hello, I am Jason, father of Ervas, nice to meet you," said Jason, introducing himself while fighting against an Orc. He called upon Gnome who conjured a small boulder over the head of the Orc, while Jason covered his club (made by Veronica's armor material) with fire, fitting the orc head, which gave a 360° twist, the Orc died and fell over the ground motionless.

"Eh? You are his father? Oh my, ~ Does the little boy has a mother? It is often rare to see a strong man around here," said Ismene, analyzing Jason's physique, which was rather attractive. She was already captivated by his appearance and strength; in her eyes, he was already the perfect mate.

"Ah? Y-Yes, I am married!" said Jason with a slight flush on his face, while smashing the skulls of two Goblins that tried to stab him from behind with rusty daggers as if nothing.

Meanwhile, Veronica sent Aqua, Charlotte, and Cthulhu to help the rest, as she glanced at the Gazer in the ground.

"Hm~ What should I do with you? I suppose you will be surviving a few more minutes until Ervas extracts you all the info," she said.

"I-Info?! And how are you supposed to… do that?! Agh! No matter if you kill me, my soul shall go back to the Great Oggoth- Gyaaaaahh!"

Veronica kicked the giant eyeball until it only cried in pain instead of spitting nonsense. Then, it seemingly fell unconscious due to its bleeding.

Ervas sent Gaia towards Veronica, as Gaia healed a bit of the wound of the Gazer so it could still be alive when everything was to be over.

"Thanks, little Gaia, I guess I went a bit overboard on it," laughed Veronica.

"Muh…"

Veronica produced thin metallic threads and gave the Gazer a double wrap in them.

"Well, this should do it for him~," said Veronica, as she joined the party and slew the remaining Orcs and Lizardmen resilient enough to survive up until now.

Orcs, Goblins, Lizardmen, or even Kobolds were monsters and considered nuisances by all of the intelligent races, even Demons who seemed to resemble them in some ways.

They were monstrous and had different mindsets and natures than most of the intelligent races, making them savage and hard to understand for the rest of the intelligent races. Due to this, none of such beings were considered to be Demi-humans.

Although there were intelligent tribes that were capable of living alongside other races, they were not accepted by almost anyone except in the demon continents, where Veronica and Ervas lived in their previous life as Anastacia, as they were too rare and the majority of the time, despite living peacefully on their own settlements if not provoked, these races of monsters were far too dangerous to be left simply alone.

Even when Anastacia met a few tribes of these intelligent monsters, they had been mostly been exterminated through the wars, and were very few in numbers, the rest of their race only being those that were wild and savage just like monsters.

Veronica and Ervas, who had experienced meeting such monsters that had reached a similar intelligence to the intelligent races, knew deep down that slaying them could be wrong. But due to the circumstances that they were in, it was the right thing to do to let the beast-people survive.

Being brainwashed by such a strong being as the hypothetical Gazer King, it could be extremely hard to catch every single one of such monsters to release them from the brainwashing, and Veronica and Ervas had to prioritize those more important to them.

Although they considered the possibility that these Lizardmen were from the 'peaceful' village that once existed, which Pekorina talked about, they were now completely different than before, showing their true colors through the brainwashing of the Gazers, and being used as tools.

Due to the hard task of healing their brainwashing, Ervas and Veronica decided to quickly kill them instead of trying to worthlessly save them, their souls would not be broken, giving them an opportunity for reincarnation.

Both of them were in the middle of a fight while trying to protect the lives of beast-people, so it was obvious that they needed to be taken out. Ervas and Veronica were willing to lift the weight of such sins without faltering for a second.

Practicing her Javelin technique, Veronica produced multiple javelins and threw them around.

Crack!

However, a larger Lizardmen with an armor made out of its own scales seemed to have resisted the javelins, while rushing towards Veronica.

"Graaakk!" it roared.

"Well, I guess these spears are too weak…" she muttered, as the Rank 4 Lizardman Warrior raised its wooden club and smashed it against Veronica's body, the wooden club then was destroyed by the force of the impact and Veronica remained there without having taken any damage.

"Graak?!"

"Why are you surprised? I am made of metal, of course, a wooden club will not work on me" said Veronica, nonchalantly. She generated another Javelin as she jumped towards the Lizardman's head, enhancing the Javelin with her Shadow Soul, and repetitively piercing the beast's eyes.

"GRAAAAA!"

Boom!

Its eyes and brains were pierced, even with its large Health Points, brains were still a vital area of the body of a monster, and the damage inflicted upon it would always be greater than others.

Although the bones and scales were hard, the eye sockets only had frail eyes. Veronica used these areas to pierce right through the brains. As the result, the three meters tall Lizardmen died almost instantly.

"Monsters above Rank 4 are pretty rare around here, it is a nice amount of Experience Points," said Veronica, cleansing her spear.

"Hey, did you need to be so savage? You could have just told me, and I would have killed it with a Light Ray," said Shade.

"And what's fun about that, Shade? There is a need to be some thrill in battles, isn't it?" laughed Veronica.

"I think that goes against you wanting to have a peaceful life…" muttered Shade.

"Sigh… can't an old woman have a little fun?" discussed Veronica.

"Well… Ah, never mind," said Shade. It was useless to discuss with Veronica, she was too obstinate.

-----