Once we were done registering the teleportation circle by the entrance of the village, the bear-hybrid NPC came back. Behind him was a tiger-hybrid man with a large build. Just like the hidden village in the cave, this village was also entirely populated with beast hybrids.
The bear hybrid greeted us first. “Hello again! Could we have a moment of your time?”
“We’d like to discuss something with you,” the tiger hybrid followed up.
“Um, just me?” I asked.
Both NPCs were looking only at me, just like when we had first entered the village. Why was that?
“Hmm, yes, the others cannot help us right now.”
“What he said. They won’t be able to help.”
The NPCs looked at Kokuten and KTK and shook their heads. They were pretty blunt about it, but it didn’t seem like they were refusing the others’ help out of any feeling of dislike. However, they did have something to say to one person standing near me.
“Ah, that young lady is one of us!”
“Yes, she is. But she’s not ready yet.”
The bear and tiger hybrids stared at Kurumi as they muttered disappointedly to one another.
“M-Me?”
“Kin, come back to visit us once you are qualified. It won’t be much longer now.”
Based on what they said, it seemed that they accepted Kurumi as a fellow beast hybrid. But then why was I getting a warmer welcome than she was? And what did they mean by being qualified? I couldn’t puzzle it out.
“I wonder if this has something to do with your favorability score, Silver-Haired,” Kokuten said thoughtfully.
“Even if it does, I’m not sure why mine would be so much higher than everyone else’s?”
“Well, I think that the requirements for being able to find the village in Zone Ten also had to do with favorability. It seems plausible that for some reason, you have a high favorability with beast-hybrid NPCs.”
“Hmm...”
Honestly, I was stumped. I had no memory of befriending beast hybrids in particular. But it was clear that I had triggered some sort of event.
“Maybe I should listen to what they have to say before we go grab the rest of the group?”
“I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I’m sure everyone else would want us to prioritize learning this new information as well.”
“Okay then, I’ll see what these villagers have to say.”
Once I gave my consent to the NPCs, they guided me farther into the village. Even though they only addressed me, the rest of my party members were able to follow us too.
After a few minutes of walking, we came upon a narrow path surrounded by trees. When I saw what was obviously a path leading into the forest, I got a little worried that we’d encounter monsters, but apparently this area was considered part of the village too. The beast hybrids smiled and told me we were safe.
However, that didn’t mean everything was smooth sailing.
“Silver-Haired! This is as far as we can go!”
“Huh?”
Kokuten and his party were blocked from moving any farther by an invisible wall. Although my party members were able to accompany me, the same courtesy wasn’t extended to the rest of our team members.
“We’ll go back for our respawned members! You guys find out what you can here!”
“Roger!”
Other than my monsters, the only other people in my party were Akari and KTK. But we weren’t going to have to fight anything, right? Or had I been right to be anxious?
The trail led to a small clearing which was obviously the site of some sort of abnormality. In the center of the ten-meter-wide clearing stood a giant, swaying dark shadow. I felt nothing but ominous energy from the shadow. Is this what we came here to see? Wait, is this a boss fight?
“Wh-What in the world is that?!” the tiger hybrid exclaimed. Apparently, this was a shock to him too.
Ah, now I understood what was happening. This was one of those missions where I had to solve a problem for the village, huh? And with a boss fight thrown in.
“Maybe we should turn back—”
“Blast it! What’s the meaning of this?!”
“Ah!”
The tiger ran off! Do we have to chase after him now?
“Wh-What should we do?” I sputtered.
Akari was quick to decide. “We have to go after him.”
“We can’t abandon Mr. Kitty.”
KTK! He’s not a kitty, he’s a tiger! But they were right. If we turned our back on him now, there was no telling what would happen with the event. Our only option was to pursue him, even if it meant dying.
We all stepped forward into the clearing, and as soon as we did, we were enclosed in a translucent barrier that was unmistakably a boss wall. Not only that, but our bodies became frozen in place, and only the tiger NPC was able to keep moving. We were in the middle of a cutscene.
“No... What’s happened to our idol?”
“Mwa ha ha ha! It is I, the Curse Man. Your sacred ground now belongs to me!”
The giant shadow spoke in a high, piercing voice. Apparently, this place was originally the location of some sort of religious idol. And the Curse Man was trying to steal it away.
“I won’t let you get away with that! You pawn of the devil!”
“You dare defy me? Very well! Woe be upon ye!”
Clearly, stepping into the clearing was the final trigger to start the battle. So did that mean we could have turned back before walking in? Hmm, maybe we should have turned back. This boss looked super strong!
It looked similar to the Shadow Man monster that I had fought previously. Like the Shadow Man, this monster had a penetrating gaze and a closely packed row of abnormally white teeth set in a crescent-shaped mouth. But there were also some clear differences.
Multiple eyes and mouths floated within the Curse Man’s amorphous, shadowy form. I’d even go so far as to say it was even creepier looking than the Shadow Man. I was certain this monster was an even stronger version of the Shadow Man. Did we really stand a chance of beating it on our own?
While I stood there quaking like a leaf, Akari and KTK were on top of things. The second we were able to move again, they got into position.
“A demon-related event? This is my first time seeing one.”
“We can get some good information from this.”
They were both completely composed. They couldn’t be any more different from me. I was too panicked to do anything.
“We’ll handle attacking, so please support us, Yuto,” Akari said.
“G-Got it!”
Since I could no longer summon new monsters into my party after the raid boss fight, I actually was hoping that they wouldn’t expect my monsters and me to do much attacking.
While we were working out our strategy, the tiger man sprang into action.
“Ahhh! Be gone, demon!”
The NPC leaped at the Curse Man, swiping at the shadow with his sharp claws. It was a perfect melee attack, and it even dealt some damage.
“Grrrr! How dare you!”
“You’ll have to do better than that!”
No! Mr. Tiger, don’t be reckless! Usually if NPCs die in events like these, it’s counted as a failure! As the Curse Man raised an angry shout, black rays of light shot out from its many eyes and mouths. But despite my worry, the tiger NPC nimbly avoided the Curse Man’s attack. Evidently, he was here to support us in battle. I was glad we wouldn’t have to protect him.
“Insolent vermin! Cease your rebellion or die!”
“As if we would ever relinquish our sanctuary to a demon like you!”
Although the tiger NPC was helping us out, that didn’t guarantee that we would have the advantage in this fight. The Curse Man stood still in the center of the clearing, but it was launching attacks from its entire body—attacks which took up most of the area. If we were on the regular playing field, we could fall back to evade, but fighting in such a small clearing made dodging very difficult. It was only thanks to Drimo and Eine covering me from the attacks coming in all directions that I was able to avoid getting hit.
“Squeak squeak!”
“Tra-laaa!”
Although, that meant my monsters were getting hit fairly often, so I had to work hard to keep up with healing them.
The Curse Man’s ray beams weren’t just powerful; they could inflict a random status abnormality, including Poison, Burn, and Blind. Thankfully, I still had some healing items that I had prepared for the raid boss fight that should last through this battle. I was lucky that I had a way to heal.
“I should...summon Kettle!”
“Poko!”
“Heal everyone up! And if you get a chance, use Calling Blessing!”
“Poko pom!”