I Was Nearly Killed by My Fellow A-Rank Party, but Now I Fed a Nine-Tailed Fox Deep in the Dungeon. ~ “My Master, I Shall Never Leave Your Side for All Eternity,” the Legendary Monsters Said While Doting on Me. Before I Knew It, I Had Become the World’s Strongest Lord of the Demon Realm~ - Chapter 36

Taking Down Yamata no Orochi to Avoid Overtime

“Gugyaaaaah!”

Yamata no Orochi let out a terrifying roar.

“W-wait, that thing’s a yokai too!?”

“That’s a ‘yoma.’ We call any ayakashi that doesn’t take a human shape and instead takes the form of a monster a yoma. Most of ’em are vicious and go around attacking people and yokai alike.”

Right away, two of its heads lunged at us with their jaws wide open.

“Everybody, get behind me! Fox fire—【Crimson Lotus Blade】!”

The moment Tamamo finished her hand seals, two blades of flame sliced through Yamata no Orochi’s heads and sent them flying.

“Yes! That’s two down already!”

“…Nope, no good.”

Tamamo shook her head.

When we looked, the two heads we’d just chopped off stretched out, and the heads regenerated right before our eyes.

“So it really does have it… ‘Super Regeneration.’ That’s one of its youjutsu.”

“The heads grow back!? Then maybe if we go for the body…!”

“No, you gotta cut off ‘all the heads at the exact same time’ or the body’ll just regenerate too. Man, what a pain in the neck.”

“Ugh…”

Tamamo sighed like she was totally fed up.

Yukime listened to all that and started thinking.

“Lady Nine-Tails, leave this to me. Kuon, I need your help.”

The very next second, Yamata no Orochi stretched out another head and came charging.

“Kuon, hit me with that youki boost!”

“Got it, Yukime!”

As soon as I cast the youki reinforcement, Yukime’s whole body started glowing a little.

“Oooh… that’s some serious power! Here I go—yojutsu—【Absolute Zero】!”

The instant Yukime touched the incoming head, it froze rock-solid in a flash.

“Kuon, I froze this thing’s head all the way to the core! With your strength you can do it!”

“Leave it to me! Uraaaaah!”

I poured my youki into my fist and slammed it straight into the frozen head.

It shattered into a million tiny pieces.

“Now the cut’s frozen too, so it shouldn’t be able to re—”

But right after that, another one of Yamata no Orochi’s heads bit clean through the base of the frozen neck.

A new neck shot out from the wound and the head regenerated like nothing happened.

“This thing totally knows its own tricks inside and out!”

“New plan! Nurara, give us a wall!”

“R-right! I’ll put up some see-through walls so we can watch the enemy easier!”

With that, Nurara used my youki boost and created transparent walls all around us and on the ceiling too.

Looked like the strength stayed the same even if they were see-through—Yamata no Orochi kept biting at them trying to break through, but they didn’t budge an inch.

Tamamo thought for a second, then raised her index finger.

“Alright, let’s go with the ‘Three Arrows Strategy.’”

“Three arrows?”

“Yep, there’s this super famous story about three arrows.”

Right in front of a confused-looking Suzu, Tamamo made some arrows with her youjutsu.

She grabbed both ends of one arrow and put all her strength into it.

“One arrow, you do this—”

With a sharp crack, the arrow snapped clean in half.

“It breaks super easy. But with three arrows—”

Next she made three arrows, grabbed both ends again, and squeezed hard.

And just like that, all three arrows snapped again.

“That’s the story—‘if you bundle ’em together, they break all at once.’”

“Wait, was that really how the three-arrows thing went?”

“So basically, we gotta bundle all those heads together and slice ’em off in one go?”

“Exactly.”

“How though?”

“…Well, first we use Yukime as bait—er, as a decoy.”

“…Huh?”

So we started hashing out a plan to take down Yamata no Orochi.

◇◇◇

Meanwhile, over at the Adventurers’ Guild in Looseworth…

“Haaah~, finally done with today’s work… I just wanna sleep. I’m gonna choke down that mediocre guild cafeteria food, wipe myself off, then crawl into my thin blanket on that hard bed.”

The second Mike flopped face-first onto the guild counter, a panicked adventurer burst in.

“Hey! A ‘Yamata no Orochi’ just showed up in the north! It’s not even that far from town! We’re in serious trouble!”

“…Eh?”

That shout set off soldiers yelling all over town.

“Everyone! A Yamata no Orochi has appeared in the north! It’s a terrifying monster that’s already wiped out several towns! All adventurers who can fight, please stand by at the Adventurers’ Guild! Let’s protect our town together!”

Then Kenny, the boss from the back, came out.

“Hey, you lot! You heard ’em! Stay right here at the guild on standby! Handle the adventurers!”

“…Huh?”

Before she could stop herself, Mike’s real voice slipped out.

She hadn’t slept properly last night either, and now she was about to get dragged into overtime that might never end?

Was this a death sentence or what?

“Hey you! Stop slacking! Look at that dead-eyed face! If the adventurers here don’t protect us, we’re all gonna die!”

The senior guild receptionist, Saria, was yelling right in her ear.

(Why did it end up like this… how did things get this bad…)

With her brain all foggy from overwork, Mike thought hard.

(That’s right… it’s all because of that ‘Yamata no Orochi’ thing that I’m stuck with overtime. So if I wanna finish this overtime quick and go home…)

Mike called over to Saria.

“Um… I’m gonna run to the bathroom real quick.”

“Get back here fast! We’re already short-handed!”

“Yeah… I’ll wrap it up quick.”

And with that, Mike walked right out of the Adventurers’ Guild.