"It's dangerous here, you should leave first."
Panda spoke.
At this moment, Panda knew that this person named Inoue had definitely misunderstood something.
Because Panda was far too familiar with that kind of misunderstanding.
Still, such fervent gazes were rare.
Panda took out his phone and called Akari.
Inoue's gaze became even more fervent.
Inoue recalled something that had happened in the Polish army in the last century.
During World War II, the Polish army had a bear raised by the soldiers.
This bear not only participated in World War II, but was also officially registered as a Polish soldier.
He was often responsible for transporting supplies, mainly heavy artillery shells, to places that were difficult to reach, such as mountainous areas.
After the war, the bear settled in a zoo and passed away at the age of twenty-two.
Clearly, Inoue had mistaken Panda for a war bear like Wojtek.
Just like that, even when Nitta Akari came to pick him up, Inoue was still thinking about how to become a Jujutsu Sorcerer and get a Panda of his own.
"Finally, he's gone."
Panda wiped the nonexistent sweat from his forehead.
"What, you can't handle it already?"
Maki smiled and patted Panda's soft belly.
"This proves that Panda is very popular."
Panda acted cute toward Maki.
Maki fell for it.
"Alright, the most important thing now is to exorcise the Cursed Spirits as quickly as possible."
Maki, whose face had turned red from the sudden cuteness attack, turned her head away, then tapped Panda with the Thousand Machine Umbrella.
Tsk, he's even acting cute.
Panda must watch panda videos all the time.
He was so cute that even Maki could not quite handle it.
Although the environment around them was still eerie and dangerous,
joking around with their companions still dispelled much of the discomfort in their hearts.
Now, what they needed to do was find and exorcise that Cthulhu-like imaginary Cursed Spirit.
"Did you find anything?"
After searching the surrounding area for a while, Maki went over to Panda, who was imitating Rodin's The Thinker.
"Although these footprints point in every direction, they should all have originally come from one direction."
Panda pointed at the sticky footprints on the ground.
Their flashlights followed the direction the footprints had come from.
In the end, they discovered that all the footprints had originally come from the north side of the village.
"So the Cursed Spirit is hiding north of the village, right?"
Maki rested the Thousand Machine Umbrella on her shoulder and headed toward the north side of the village.
Panda and Toge immediately followed.
Following the footprints, the group eventually arrived in front of a cave.
"This Cursed Spirit is very special. The longer we fight it, the more disadvantageous it becomes for us. So once we find it, we go all out immediately and use our strongest attacks to exorcise it at the first opportunity."
Maki recalled the curse on her arm that was already beginning to turn into an Octopus Person.
She also remembered Inoue's heavily mutated upper body, and could not help warning them.
"OK~"
Panda turned sideways and gave Maki an OK sign.
"Salmon."
Toge also nodded, agreeing with Maki's judgment.
"Then we're going in."
Maki drew the katana from the bottom of the Thousand Machine Umbrella, then adjusted the main body of the Thousand Machine Umbrella into rifle form.
If an enemy appeared after entering the cave, Maki would immediately cut it down with her katana.
If not, then after finding the Cursed Spirit, she would directly empty the Thousand Machine Umbrella's ammunition into it.
She would use the fastest method possible to heavily injure or even exorcise the Cursed Spirit.
Toge pulled down his collar.
Panda also took out a rocket launcher.
This was currently Panda's strongest long-range firepower.
Although Panda preferred the fighting technique taught by Masamichi,
Panda knew that Eichi was also doing this for his own good.
So Panda did not refuse the equipment Eichi gave him.
Besides, the slippery feel of this enemy really was not suitable for punching.
Because of that, Panda still picked up the rocket launcher, temporarily reclassifying himself as an artillery bear.
The group entered the cave, and in the next second, they were shocked by the scene inside.
"Hey, was this cave this tall from the outside?"
Maki looked at the massive passage. It had clearly not looked tall from the outside, yet after entering, it was dozens of meters high.
"No, absolutely not."
Panda's cute face showed the wild ferocity of a beast.
"Innate Domain."
Panda spoke those words in a solemn tone.
"Should we retreat?"
"Are you scared?"
"How could I be?"
"Then let's go."
After saying that, Maki took the lead.
Toge and Panda followed behind her, one on the left and one on the right.
The three kept enough distance between each other to support one another at any time while observing their surroundings.
Deep inside the cave, the originally sleeping Cthulhu-like Cursed Spirit seemed to sense the intrusion.
One eerie green eye after another opened.
In the darkness, they gave off a chilling ghostly glow.
Very soon, the Cursed Spirit sensed that more than half of its kin, transformed by its Technique, had disappeared.
"Hoh!"
A roar, like a fierce wind sweeping through the cave, instantly spread through the entire cavern.
The kin still sleeping inside the cave, as well as a large number of weaker Cursed Spirits gathered by this Cthulhu-like Cursed Spirit, were all awakened by that roar.
"It looks like the owner of this place is very angry."
Maki said with a smile.
"Be careful, Maki, there are a lot of enemies."
Compared to Maki, whose Battle Intent was rising, Panda was much more cautious.
"Salmon."
Toge stuck out his tongue slightly, revealing the cursed seal on its tip.
At the same time, he held a pistol in his hand.
Eichi had given this to Toge after he submitted an application to borrow a cursed tool.
After obtaining this pistol-type cursed tool, Toge had been practicing Cursed Speech with very minor costs, such as "sprained ankle," "fall down," or "slip."
Then, when the enemy exposed a weakness, he would immediately shoot them in the head.
It did not take long for Toge to buy several pistol-type cursed tools outright using the rewards from exorcising Cursed Spirits.
There was no other reason, it was simply very effective.
"Leave this to me."
Maki said this, then transformed the Thousand Machine Umbrella from a rifle into a war spear. Then, holding a katana in one hand and a spear in the other, she charged into the crowd of Cursed Spirits and Octopus People.
Maki's recovery ability was very strong, and her combat consumption was very low.
Because of that, this kind of overwhelming battle, cutting enemies down like mowing grass, suited Maki perfectly.
She could fight like this all day.
But Toge was different.
Toge did not have such strong physical recovery, and the backlash from his Technique was very obvious.
Toge, who could not use Reverse Cursed Technique, was a typical short-burst fighter.
He could not handle a prolonged battle.
So, knowing that an even stronger enemy was still present,
it was better to keep Toge in good condition and have him unleash his maximum output when they encountered that enemy.
With Maki leading the way as the strongest spear, the three quickly broke through the encirclement of Cursed Spirits and reached the deepest part of the cave.
The countless eyes of the Cthulhu-like Cursed Spirit, which had been curled up inside the cave, all turned toward the three of them.
In the next second, Toge and Maki felt their consciousness grow hazy, as though they were about to fall asleep.
"Oh da da da."
Panda immediately stepped in front of the two of them, then opened fire at the same time with both his rifle and rocket launcher.
Boom.
"Hoh!"
The Cthulhu-like Special Grade imaginary Cursed Spirit let out an enraged roar.
The giant tentacles that had originally been tucked beneath its body smashed down toward the three of them.
"Explode!"
(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.)