"It's really strange."
Perched on a tree in the small courtyard, Panda held his forehead and carefully observed everything around him.
During the day, it was slightly better.
Although the village felt somewhat eerie, at least there was still some life energy.
Once night fell, the entire village sank into a deathly silence that made one's heart race.
In this silent village, not a single light was lit.
Not a single insect made a sound.
It was as if there truly was not a single living thing here.
No, there were still living things.
Panda looked at the big tree beneath him.
Blown by the wind, the branches swayed wildly, and their tips cast eerie shadows on the ground.
Panda suddenly shivered, then gently climbed down from the tree.
"Seriously, even Masamichi's warehouse has more life energy than this place."
Although Panda felt Masamichi's taste was a bit strange, and some of the cursed tools in the warehouse were quite frightening for a panda, even that cursed tool warehouse, which had no living beings, had more life energy than this silent village.
"How can you two sleep so soundly in a place like this?"
Panda scratched his head and looked enviously at the two inside the house who had fallen asleep immediately.
However, what Panda did not notice was this.
Even in deep sleep, Maki's muscles remained tense.
Toge's Cursed Energy had also not settled down.
"Hmm?"
Panda looked back toward the room.
He was not sure if it had been an illusion, but Panda felt as if Toge's Cursed Energy had fluctuated slightly.
"Was he dreaming? Speaking of which, what does dreaming feel like?"
Panda, a cursed corpse that could not dream, pondered this question while continuing to observe his surroundings.
"Maybe it's similar to how I usually interact with my older brother and sister."
Panda thought about the siblings within him.
Pat, pat.
A sudden sound drew Panda's attention.
Panda immediately curled up, rolled over, then grabbed a tree trunk and climbed to a higher position.
Pat, pat, pat...
Footsteps continued to sound, getting closer and closer to the courtyard.
"What is that?"
Panda looked in the direction of the footsteps. In the pitch-black night, several indistinct figures approached the courtyard, moving in an eerie manner.
"It's too dark, I can't see clearly."
Panda frowned and chose not to wait for the unknown enemies to come close enough.
He decided to wake Maki and Toge first.
"Wake up."
Those footsteps clearly did not sound like something a human would make.
"Hey, don't sleep, hey."
Panda began shaking the two of them vigorously, even using his hands to slap their faces.
"No, this is?"
Panda noticed Maki's tightly furrowed brows even in her sleep.
The footsteps were getting closer, clearly heading toward the courtyard.
At this moment, Panda could not care about anything else and directly took out a flashlight.
Click.
The bright white light pierced the starless night.
The cautious Panda immediately noticed something wrong with Maki.
"A curse? When?"
The abnormal discoloration of Maki's skin, spreading from her right hand up her arm, caught Panda's attention.
Panda's gaze sharpened. He immediately picked Maki up, carried Toge on his back, and moved them into a nearby warehouse that had only one door and a small, high window.
He placed the Thousand Machine Umbrella within Maki's reach, then took out his gauntlets and stood solemnly in front of the warehouse.
Judging from the sound, the enemy's speed was very fast.
In such a dark night, with extremely poor visibility and unfamiliar terrain, Panda was not confident in escorting the two of them to safety.
So all he could do now was hold his ground, defeat the enemy, or wait for his companions to wake up.
Pat, pat.
The enemies had already entered the courtyard, their many eerie green eyes staring fixedly at Panda.
Under the beam of the flashlight, all Panda could see were countless wildly writhing tentacles.
"Hey, hey, is this some kind of horror movie set?"
Panda felt that if he were a real panda, he would already have goosebumps.
Puff.
His right fist, infused with Cursed Energy, struck the figure rushing toward him.
Slap.
The enemy was knocked back, but Panda could not smile.
'The feel is terrible. Their bodies are slippery and covered in disgusting slime. Close combat isn't effective.'
The enemy attacked again.
"Ora ora ora!"
Panda used the boxing techniques taught by Masamichi to repel all the approaching enemies.
"Now I finally understand how Maki and the others feel when they spar with me."
Because Panda's body was filled with a large amount of cotton, hitting him did not feel good at all.
After sparring with Panda a few times, Maki had said that hitting cotton felt awful and stopped sparring with him.
"No, Panda's feel isn't that bad."
Realizing that his fists were not very effective, Panda switched to a cursed tool.
It was a cleaver-like cursed tool, the slayer demon.
Before Maki obtained the Thousand Machine Umbrella, Panda often helped her carry spare cursed tools during missions.
This habit had remained.
A cold flash appeared, and the enemy that rushed in front of Panda was instantly cut in half at the waist.
Tentacles that appeared from nowhere lashed toward Panda's body.
Panda immediately blocked the attack with Cursed Energy.
"Effective."
Seeing the enemy split in two, Panda nodded in satisfaction.
As long as it could deal effective damage.
The next second, a large number of writhing tentacles wrapped around Panda's body.
"Seriously, Panda isn't a magical girl, why does he have to fight things like this?"
Swish, swish.
A large number of tentacles were cut off by Panda.
Pat, pat.
The dense sound rang out again.
Panda knew these footsteps meant more enemies were arriving.
"This can't continue."
The next moment, Panda put away the slayer demon and took out another cursed tool.
A dark gun barrel pointed toward the source of the sounds.
Da da da!
Panda dual-wielded rifles, firing wildly at the enemies around him.
"Eichi was right, this thing is much more effective."
Originally, it took several shots to take down one enemy.
But now, entire groups were falling within seconds.
However, just as Panda turned to leave with his two companions,
a tentacle suddenly wrapped around his leg.
"Oh no!"
An Octopus Person, hiding beneath the corpses of its companions, suddenly lunged at Panda.
Panda immediately surged with Cursed Energy and prepared to defend.
Swish.
A cold flash cut through the air.
The Octopus Person tightly wrapped around Panda was instantly split in half vertically.
"Saved."
Panda let out a breath of relief.
Although he could have dealt with that Octopus Person himself, being tightly entangled and touched by something so disgusting was unacceptable.
Low physical damage, full mental damage.
"You're awake, Maki."
"Yes, sorry to keep you waiting."
Maki smiled as she rotated the umbrella disk.
The Thousand Machine Umbrella transformed into a scythe, beginning to reap the enemies' lives.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)