Chapter 171

Meanwhile, Liner, who was on the opposite side, made a very annoyed expression as he looked at the radio that had suddenly cut off. It had been unstable, and finally, saying it wasn't listening, he hit it a few times with his palm.

Charlotte, who had been staring at his behavior, quietly let out a sigh. Eventually, she stopped her superior's rough handling and opened her mouth.

"Will that fix it? Please wait a bit."

Liner retorted in an irritated tone.

"Do we have time to wait now? The commander will be waiting."

"These devices break faster if they're subjected to shock. Besides, we don't have many spare radios, will you take responsibility if it breaks?"

"What are you talking about, I saw at least three more in the artifact? And these things usually work better when you hit them."

"Those aren't fully charged yet-"

Liner, who had been making strange arguments, continued to hit around the sensor of the radio despite Charlotte's dissuasion. After about four hits, the sensor light that had been dimly lit went out with a "pik-" sound.

"..."

He reflexively stopped and silently looked down at the radio. Then, as he withdrew his hand and turned his head with a disgruntled face, eyes that seemed to find him utterly pathetic were glaring at him.

"What did I tell you?"

At the ice-cold voice, Liner remained silent. His embarrassed hand idly flicked the antenna of the radio.

As the silent confrontation between the two continued in the silence, suddenly someone's voice echoed from the narrow cave behind them.

"Battalion Commander, Deputy Commander!"

Liner and Charlotte turned around as they heard the voice calling them along with rough breathing. A member belonging to the same 9th Battalion of the Southern Branch was running towards them with an urgent look.

Sensing something was not right, Liner immediately handed the broken radio to Charlotte and took two steps forward. At the same time, his eyes quickly scanned the member's appearance.

"What is it, what's going on?"

The approaching member didn't appear to be injured but was panting excessively. Moreover, his steps were slow for someone in a hurry, making his body look quite heavy.

"Ha, ha- that, there's a problem."

At the word 'problem', the two were puzzled for a moment, but Charlotte quickly floated a light ball to illuminate the inside of the cave. Then, they belatedly noticed something unidentifiable that the member had been struggling to drag.

The thing sprawled on the floor and being dragged along gave off a faint smell of stale blood. Moreover, it was soaked in a suspicious liquid, leaving wet tracks on the path it had come from. Its size seemed similar to that of a person.

Liner's face noticeably stiffened as he stared at the dark form. It was because the image of his subordinate's corpse, which he had sent off covered with a white cloth a few days ago, suddenly overlapped.

Liner, who had instantly turned pale with tension, unknowingly swallowed and covered his mouth with the back of his hand. He felt nauseous for no reason, and the terrible scene and the tattered combat uniform flickered before his eyes.

Charlotte, who had been glancing at him, grabbed Liner's forearm and pushed him aside. Then, she went to the entrance of the cave first to greet the member coming out.

As he completely emerged from the narrow passage, the true nature of what he was holding in his hand was starkly revealed.

What the member had brought was a leg of a Dermocas with its hide in tatters, barely maintaining its shape, tightly wrapped with broken ropes and sealing stones.

Charlotte alternately looked at the thing that had almost become a lump of meat and the sweat-drenched face of the member. Soon, she frowned and asked the member.

"Isn't this the one our group was in charge of? Why is it in this state?"

The 4th Group led by Liner was also in charge of transporting one of the three Dermocas that the subjugation force had captured alive. To avoid the risk of unexpected situations if they were gathered in one place, the commanders had agreed to take one each.

However, the fact that the creature to be used for the operation had ended up like this was a serious problem that would lead to the responsibility of the group representative. Knowing this well, the member who had lowered his gas mask answered with a somewhat embarrassed look.

"That... I'm sorry. We were exploring the surroundings, so we tied it to a pillar and moved, but when we came back after being away for a moment, only this one leg was left like this."

Liner let out a sigh of relief at the fact that the blood-covered thing was not a person. As if the incident from that time had unknowingly spread into trauma, the image of his subordinate, whose form had been difficult to recognize, was still vivid in his mind.

After rubbing his face with his hands for a while, he composed his expression appropriately, but thinking about it, it wasn't something to be entirely relieved about.

Liner immediately sent a signal to the commander who would be on the opposite side, indicating that there was a problem. Then, he immediately turned around and looked down at the severed leg, asking the member,

"You say it was like this when you came back?"

"...Yes."

"What were those in charge of surveillance doing? Don't you know how this happened?"

At the successive questioning, the member looked around nervously before opening his mouth.

"Our search personnel are currently... quite lacking as quite a few have dropped out midway due to breathing difficulties. Because of that, we couldn't specifically designate guards or sentries, so at the time of the incident, there were... no witnesses. I'm sorry."

The member bowed his head deeply after explaining the situation. Seeing this, Liner let out a short sigh, "Huh-."

Currently, the 9th Battalion of the Southern Branch was also exploring the tangled and narrow caves inside Peak 118 under Liner's orders. It was to find monsters and the mother body that might be hiding anywhere.

But the fact that the Dermocas had ended up like this while they weren't looking suggested the possibility that the creatures had been watching the humans from unseen places. If that was the case, it might have been fortunate that no one was there, as the few remaining members might have been ambushed.

Seeing the member who looked ashamed, Liner softened his hardened expression. Then, he patted the member's back somewhat roughly, meaning not to blame himself.

"Well, it's not good, but it's fine as long as you're not hurt. There are two more with other groups besides this one, so it shouldn't be a big problem."

At the unexpected encouragement, the member carefully raised his head. At that moment, Charlotte, who had been watching their conversation, opened her mouth.

"When did the incident occur? Approximate location?"

"Ah, it occurred about 20 minutes ago. The location is similar to here... but probably a bit lower."

The member immediately approached the railing and stretched out his hand, pointing downwards.

The two commanders followed the member's fingertip with their gaze. Then, Liner, whose eyes had widened, abruptly asked him,

"Wait, does that mean you were already here 20 minutes ago?"

"Yes, that's right. We heard the cry of an Ilaptor and kept following it, and we arrived here."

The member briefly recounted the situation at that time.

The members of the 27th and 28th teams of the 4th Group, who were moving while dragging the unconscious Dermocas, like Hugo and Leonardo, encountered a mysterious being while wandering through the dark cave.

The subsequent cry of an Ilaptor lured them somewhere, and as they chased after it, which kept hiding and revealing itself, they found themselves stepping into this strange and mysterious space, he said.

The place where the members had arrived was located about 30 m below where Liner was currently, but it was no longer visible, obscured by the yellow fog that had risen in water level. The member explained that they had tied the Dermocas to a pillar that looked exactly like the one next to them.

"At first, we laid its body on the ground and tied it to the pillar with just a short rope. But when we discovered it, the rope was hanging down there with the leg attached to the end. There were drag marks on the floor as if it had been pulled away."

The member, who was briefing the scene in detail, added that this part of the railing was broken with a gap in front, and that they couldn't report immediately because the radio signal wasn't working.

Charlotte, who had been listening quietly, asked back with a rather serious expression.

"You say the leg was hanging down there, attached to the rope?"

"Yes. It seems that another individual tried to pull it away, but when it didn't work, it just cut off the leg and took the rest away in its mouth."

Charlotte, who had taken two steps forward following the explanation, fixed her gaze on the yellow fog-filled area below. It was because she couldn't understand why the rope was hanging towards a cliff, not some other path.

Meanwhile, Liner approached the Dermocas's leg and knelt down. There was no time to be doing this with the radio cut off, but hearing the story, there was something he needed to check.

Liner, holding the creature's long claws in his hand, began to lift and turn over the massive leg. Because the hide was so thick and tough, there were no particular clues on the epidermis, but the shape of the cut cross-section was quite worth noting.

It definitely wasn't a trace of being cut with a knife, nor was it torn off by tension. It was also difficult to be certain that another individual had bitten it off... as there were no fine tooth marks on the cut surface. Rather, the expression that it had been cut off by hitting the leg with a sharp and large stone seemed more fitting.

Liner, with narrowed eyes, habitually tried to touch the cut surface but stopped. It was because he noticed the creature's body fluid that had flowed down mixed with blood.

The liquid pooled on the floor seemed to be acidic, as it was melting the rock and burrowing into the ground. Suddenly, Liner's eyes flashed sharply.

"Hey, Deputy Commander."

Charlotte, who had been looking down beyond the railing, raised her head half a beat late.

"Yes?"

"Can an Ilaptor eat a Dermocas?"

At the sudden question, Charlotte blinked for a moment. Fortunately, she was one of the few commanders who had fully understood the investigator's briefing, so she quickly came up with an answer.

"It shouldn't be able to. I heard that an Ilaptor's stomach wall isn't strong enough to withstand the acidity in a Dermocas's body fluid. That's why Dermocas is the top predator on the peninsula."

"Is that so?"

Liner looked down at the creature's leg and tapped it with his combat boot. Then he raised his head again and asked for confirmation.

"Then what about the mother body?"

"..."

"Can the mother body eat a Dermocas?"

Charlotte remained silent at the more specific question that followed.

Eventually, her gaze, which seemed to be thinking about something, moved back beyond the railing.

Since the mother body could be considered the progenitor of all monsters existing on this peninsula, its genetic traits would certainly include the acid component that was unique to Dermocas. If so, its stomach should also be considered to have a resistance that could withstand that acid component.

"It should be possible. No, it is possible."

As her confident answer came back immediately, Liner nodded lightly as if he had expected it. Then, his amber eyes turned back to the cross-section of the leg.

Drag marks, a hanging leg, traces of being cut off.

As he retraced the situation one by one, following the body fluid that had flowed down, the traces of the melted floor led to the cliff next to the pillar. Liner's eyes gradually narrowed.

The holes in the wall were narrow enough for only one or two monsters to pass through. But the mother body described in the records was said to be as big as a mountain, with some exaggeration from the people of the past. There was no way it could move through such narrow paths.

So if he were to guess where it might be hiding in here, there was only one place that came to mind immediately.

Liner, with his gaze fixed, said to Charlotte,

"I think it would be good to report to the Commander about the Dermocas and also that we need to search this lower area. Seeing that there's the same space down there, it seems that this interior is much deeper than we expected."

Charlotte nodded and replied,

"Then shall we withdraw the members who are down there for now?"

"We should. It's perfect for an ambush when you can't see ahead."

After saying that, Liner slightly stuck his face out beyond the railing.

Enduring the hot air, he stretched his neck long and tried to gauge the density of the yellow gas rippling below. In such thick fog, even with light, it would probably be pitch-black darkness right in front of them.

'...But, was it originally this high?'

Liner's forehead twitched slightly. The rippling gas had already risen to the vicinity, and it was clearly visible that the water level had significantly changed from when he first saw it.

Finding it strange, he immediately turned around to look at the two people who should be behind him to confirm the fact.

And at that moment, a faint fishy smell brushed his nose.

It didn't take long to recognize that it was the smell of blood.

Aaaaaah-!

A stream of screams filled the vast space, bringing a chilling tension.

It was certainly a human voice, but it was also something utterly unbelievable to have flowed from a human mouth.

The sharp voice, as if tearing vocal cords, bounced off all directions, making it impossible to know the exact source. However, Liner instinctively sensed that it had come from where the members had been.

With his pupils fully contracted, he had no time to grasp the situation and forcefully inserted his fingers into the crack of the pillar. The pillar, which opened without resistance, made a cracking sound and was miserably torn out by his grip.

The long rock fragment with a sharpened tip, like a thick spear, became even harder as his mana flowed in, emitting a bright light. It had been reborn as a powerful weapon that couldn't be broken by any ordinary impact.

"Battalion Commander!"

Charlotte tried to stop him from rushing in without thinking. However, Liner could no longer hear her voice. The chill that had penetrated his skin and his violently beating heart were constricting his breath.

Before his brain could recognize it, his body, dominated by trauma, moved first.