Let's Have a Birthday Party

<Happy birthday, Emi!!>

With those words of blessing from Omake-sama, my day began!

......Birthday?

Birthday.

Birthday!

Oh, right! Today's my birthday! It is autumn, after all!

<Yes, that's right, it's your birthday, Emi! You've lived your life with all your might for a whole year, grown stronger, and now you're 8 years old!>

I see, I seeee!

Man...... I think this every time my birthday comes around, but it really gets to me.

Honestly, I'm just glad I could get one year older this year.

My life is a total mess, but I've actually managed to survive, haven't I?

<Ufufu! Let's keep growing stronger from here on, and grow older together, for 10 years, 20 years, 100 years, 1000 years!>

Ahaha! It's been a while since that came out, Omake-sama, your god's sense of scale!

Humans can't live for 1000 years!

Even if we try our hardest, it's only a little over 100!

<......Ufufu>

Now then.

Today is my birthday.

That said, what I do in the morning, stays the same.

Gugyuuuuuuuuururururu......

That is, I have to somehow get this stomach of mine, which has already started acting up, back in a good mood.

In other words, breakfast.

The morning hunt.

<But what shall we do, Emi? I feel like we've already hunted this area clean of monsters, and you've picked up every last Kirkree nut, too, haven't you?>

That's the thing, Omake-sama.

Maybe it's about time I moved on from here and set out for new frontiers.

<Want to just attack Liheid or something, to save time?>

Stop suggesting the enemy-of-humanity route like it's the most natural thing!?

I told you before, didn't I? I still have reservations about eating human flesh!

<No, I didn't go that far. I just thought it might be good to plunder their winter stores of food and such......>

I don't want to do either!!

Anyway, first things first.

I'll check if there's really no prey nearby.

Surely there's at least one mouse or something?

Though one wouldn't be nearly enough.

Suuuuu......

I take a deep breath through my nose.

I check my surroundings by smell.

Is there prey anywhere, anywhere, anywhere......?

............Hm?

<What's wrong? Did you find something?>

Hmm......?

I'll check, from somewhere a bit higher up.

I hop from the Kirkree branch I'd been using as a bed and leap to an even higher branch.

After that, I use 【Silverfish】 to climb the trunk, moving higher and higher.

I push through a thicket of large leaves, pop my head out from the top of the tree with a gasari, and look down toward the fortress city of Liheid.

The weather is cloudy.

A gentle wind is blowing from the southern plains, in other words, from the direction of Liheid.

But.

Hmm......?

That's weird.

<What is?>

Well, you see?

Mixed into the wind from the south is the smell of unfamiliar beasts.

It was clearly different from the human smell that always drifts over from the town...... what is this?

Yeah, no mistake.

Something's there.

A lot of them.

The smell is pretty strong.

<Haah. I thought we were sharing senses, but I can't tell at all...... you're saying there are beasts inside the town of Liheid?>

No...... that's not it, no, no......

It's...... over there!

What I pointed at as I said that was a small forest located to the east of the fortress city of Liheid.

The source of the smell is there.

Right now, for some reason I don't know, a huge number of beasts must be lurking in that forest!

<My, that really is amazing, Emi. You can tell all that?>

I've been spending a long time in the wild, after all......

By now, my sense of smell is a super fantasy sense of smell!

Sniffing out something like this is no trouble at all......!

Well, putting that aside.

<......Shall we head there immediately?>

Of course!

If there's meat over there, there can be no reason not to go, now can there!

I put strength into my legs and send magic power into the trunk of the Kirkree tree to strengthen it.

Then, I activate 【Grasshopper】 and, with a byun, leap powerfully toward the forest spreading at the foot of the mountain!

Wait for me! My little meats!

I'm going to eat every single one of you!

Now, LET THE BIRTHDAY PARTY BEGIIIIN!

◇ ◇ ◇

The Dark Magic Wolf.

It was a giant gray wolf originally native to the Dark Continent, where the demons lived.

By nature it was cunning and cruel. It attacked humans with glee.

Its intelligence was high enough to fully understand human speech, and because it was easy to train, rear and breed, it was a type of monster that had long served as a mainstay of the Demon Lord's Army.

When the demons once attacked Fenoben Village, the hero's home, these Dark Magic Wolves were the primary fighting force.

Now, about 400 of these Dark Magic Wolves were on standby in a nameless forest to the east of the fortress city of Liheid.

They had been brought there via teleportation magic by Deogandai, a middle-ranked commander of the Demon Lord's Army.

The order given to them this time was the capture of the fortress city of Liheid.

In a little while, Deogandai would take the remaining 100 Dark Magic Wolves and begin a diversion on Liheid's north side...... in the grasslands at the foot of the Ranrananga Mountains.

The fireworks set off at that time would be the signal to start the operation for the Dark Magic Wolves waiting in the forest.

After waiting about 15 minutes from the signal, once Liheid's forces had been sufficiently drawn to the north, the Dark Magic Wolves in the east would begin their move.

“Fugoga...... fugoga......”

The big lug dozing off in the same place as the Dark Magic Wolves...... the Huge Red Boar, would be sent charging into Liheid's east gate to smash through it.

The Huge Red Boar was an incredibly huge boar, created by demons through the selective breeding of a boar once called the Hill Boar.

Its massive body, red fur and giant tusks were intimidating, and it could even breathe fire.

Its intelligence wasn't very high, but it was easy to manipulate.

When the time came, one bite on its rear would send it running in surprise, and it would charge all the way to the east gate.

Once the gate was broken, the rest would be in their hands.

According to Deogandai, he had already carried out several operations, and by the time the Dark Magic Wolves began their attack, the town should be in total chaos due to mushroom monsters and tadpole monsters.

The Dark Magic Wolves just had to swarm in and bite humans to death as they pleased.

Easy, and fun.

Honestly, this is the best job ever!

The Dark Magic Wolf leader sneered nastily, drooling.

......It was then!

ZUGAAAAAAAN!!!

Such an explosion echoed through the clearing in the forest where the Dark Magic Wolves were waiting!

Startled, the leader turned toward the source of the sound.

It was right in the center of their pack, and clouds of dust were billowing up.

After a gust of wind from the south blew it away, what appeared there was a small crater, the corpses of fallen comrades, and...... a lone, human girl.

The girl was black-haired and black-eyed.

She wore tattered clothes, and her frame was far too small compared to a Dark Magic Wolf.

He had never seen someone black-haired and black-eyed before, but she should have been a human child, the kind they usually killed for fun.

At least, in appearance.

......And yet.

In the next instant!

That girl took what she had kept hidden until then, her magic power, her murderous intent, her hostility, her appetite!

She unleashed them all at once!!

“!!!”

Bathed in the girl's hideous killing intent that surged like a blast wave, the leader realized!

It's no use, we can't win!!

An opponent we can beat, she is not!!

That is a hideous monster that just happens to be in human shape!!

“AOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!”

The leader's next action was extremely swift.

On reflex, he let out a single howl and gave his comrades an order.

Retreat with everything you've got, he told them!!

Now that their lives were at stake, who cared about Deogandai's orders anymore!!

Upon receiving that instruction, the pack immediately began to move.

The Dark Magic Wolves closest to the girl leaped at her with a suicidal resolve!

They were the ones buying time to let the other comrades escape.

“............”

The girl didn't move a single facial muscle as she dealt with the suicidal Dark Magic Wolves.

Fingertips held straight, she lashed out with a knife-hand strike.

Spinning round and round, she lashed out with a kick.

Her movements were fluid, as if she were dancing, but every single one was a fatal blow.

The bodies of the comrades that touched the girl's slender white fingertips, and then her feet, were sliced apart like paper and crushed like clods of earth.

That wasn't all.

There were many comrades who, terrified by the girl's killing intent, hesitated to leap.

Those ones, too.

Even the ones that should have been keeping some distance from the girl!

The girl made a motion as if sweeping sideways through the empty air, and in the very next instant!

They were sliced clean in half horizontally, and their lives were extinguished!

The Dark Magic Wolves on the outer edge of the pack had all begun fleeing toward the north side of the fortress city of Liheid.

Why the north side?

It was because they had an instinctive certainty that the Ranrananga Mountains lay that way, and that if they could flee into those mountains with their tangled trees, their chances of survival would rise, and because Deogandai was there.

Deogandai was a demon, and a stronger being than a Dark Magic Wolf.

He couldn't say which was stronger, Deogandai or that monster, but if they could push that thing off on Deogandai, the pack's chances of survival should rise at least a little.

Paan! Pan, paaan!

At this point, the sound of fireworks rang out.

It seemed Deogandai had begun the diversion, but they couldn't afford to worry about such things anymore!!

“F, f, FUGOGAAAAAAA!!”

The Huge Red Boar, a big, cowardly lump, also began fleeing toward the north along with the pack of Dark Magic Wolves.

The Dark Magic Wolf leader had also remained as the rear guard, but now was the time to run.

That monster, who had slaughtered all the surrounding Dark Magic Wolves in a few seconds, fortunately showed no sign of chasing those who had fled.

Right now, she was greedily devouring the remains of the comrades scattered around with a bori bori.

Bones and all, fur and all, she took them into her belly.

The speed was abnormal; the bodies of the Dark Magic Wolves, which should have been larger than adult human men, were being eaten at a pace of less than 10 seconds per wolf.

And yet, for some reason, that monster's belly didn't bulge at all.

“Kyaun!?”

And in the next instant, in spite of himself, the Dark Magic Wolf leader let slip a scream he hadn't let out since he was a pup.

He had made eye contact with the monster.

Those eyes were still burning with murderous intent, overflowing with hostility, and speaking eloquently.

That this was still not enough.

She had conveyed a hideous appetite to the Dark Magic Wolf leader!

“AOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!”

Clinging desperately, by his sense of responsibility as leader, to the reins of a mind about to be driven mad by terror, the Dark Magic Wolf leader let out a howl to steel himself and fled the scene.

Dark Magic Wolves were fast.

In an instant, he cleared the forest and ran through the grasslands toward the Ranrananga Mountains.

“Kyain!”

“Kyain, kyain!”

“Kyain!”

Running and yelping as they went, the pack of Dark Magic Wolves was, any way you looked at it, nothing but a pack of beaten dogs.

Nowhere in them was there any of the dignity of ferocious monsters feared by humans.

The presence of the monster gradually receded.

Those running at the front of the pack gradually began to slow their speed.

“AOOOOOOOOON!!”

Seeing this, the Dark Magic Wolf leader was enraged.

Don't let your guard down!

Run, run, run, run, run!!

As the leader who had faced that monster for the longest time, he knew its horror better than any other Dark Magic Wolf!

They had to escape!

Quickly, quickly, they had to hide in the mountains!!

Or else, or else......!!

......It was, the next instant.

Hyun!

Making such a light sound, something flew from behind, grazing the leader's ear.

That something hit the head of a comrade running ahead.

It burst apart.

The comrade, was dead.

“!!?”

In spite of himself, the leader looked back.

There, coming toward them from the direction of the forest at a tremendous speed...... was the figure of the monster!!

“KYAIIIIIIIIIN!!?”

The leader let out the loudest scream of the day, and forgetting all about being the rear guard or anything like that, he began a full-speed flight!!

Birthday party (massacre).

Emi in monster mode, off the leash due to her birthday high, is nothing but a nightmare for the prey.