Taming The Villainesses novel Chapter 423

Everyone stopped relaxing and immediately drew their weapons. The first to shout was Elga.

“Move into the formation we planned for!”

At her command, we swiftly gathered around Elga in perfect unison. As we aimed our weapons in every direction, Stella spoke up.

“I didn’t hear any approaching footsteps at all, though?”

Though she may have looked like she was leisurely soaking her feet in the cold stream, Stella—who had recently begun learning pre-spell techniques—now had a sensitivity that far surpassed mine.

The fact that she hadn’t noticed something approaching was strange.

When something suddenly burst out of the underbrush, I immediately understood why there had been no sound of footsteps.

—GRRAAAHH...!!!

It was a beast, feline in nature.

Its wide-open jaws revealed fangs longer than my fingers—absolutely terrifying. But what was even more bizarre was that only its head was floating in midair.

Of course we hadn’t heard any footsteps.

“What the hell is that supposed to be now?”

Elga frowned in disgust. Even for her, it seemed this was her first time seeing a floating predator head.

But there was no time for wonder.

“Stick to the plan!”

We had no time to gawk. Whatever kind of monster this was, we could study it once we took it down.

“Unni, it’s coming your way!”

Narmee shouted. Just as she said, the floating beast’s head bared its menacing fangs and lunged straight toward Mirna.

—KRRRRRAHHH!!!

It let out a thunderous roar.

Shhhk—

Mirna calmly drew her sword and brought it down hard upon the beast’s head.

“Crescent Slash.”

The sword traced a half-moon arc and split the beast’s head clean in two.

SPLAT.

Thud—thump.

As the neatly bisected head fell to the ground, we all breathed a slight sigh of relief. At least they could be taken down.

But the situation wasn’t over yet.

Elga shouted:

“Hey—more of ‘em are coming out over there...!”

Through the underbrush emerged more heads—floating in midair. Deer, rabbit, dog, bear—there was no consistent type. A grotesque, disjointed swarm.

As they charged toward us, I quickly expanded my mana shield to protect our formation.

—No Entry!

A Sixth Rank defensive spell: No Entry. It enhanced the physical protection of the mana shield with a simple additional effect, just as the name implied—it blocked approach itself.

Thanks to that, the flying heads that had charged at us bounced off the barrier and scattered to the ground, rolling away.

The problem was that even more of them kept coming. Dozens. Maybe hundreds.

Tsk—Stella clicked her tongue.

“So that’s why there weren’t any animals in the forest. They were all turned into this? I don’t know what’s going on, but... Narmee, any thoughts? Zombies? Ghosts?”

“If it’s just heads moving after death... I don’t know. I’d like to study them more closely after we take them down...!”

Even Narmee, with her deep knowledge of necromancy, didn’t seem to understand what was happening. None of us said it aloud, but we were all tense—the surreal horror of the scene had us rattled.

The atmosphere was growing increasingly surreal—like ice cream melting under a blazing sun. Maybe we’d have to use large-scale magic to wipe them out?

But then the pursuers would immediately figure out our location.

It was at that moment—

Elga shouted.

“Hey, Mirna! Look at the ground...!”

Her finger pointed at the beast’s head that Mirna had bisected earlier. It was now floating again—still in two halves—and lunging toward us.

And not just that—the heads that had bounced off my No Entry barrier were also beginning to rise again and come at us once more.

Thud-thud-thud—

They slammed against the barrier like a horde of zombies attacking a survivors’ shelter, completely indifferent to the fact that their own skulls were being smashed.

From this, we could draw a single conclusion.

“These things revive even after being taken down!”

Just as Elga said.

They revived. Were they immortals? No, that couldn’t be. Such a thing shouldn’t exist. My 《Calm Thinking》 didn’t activate, so I was caught off guard—but I forced myself to stay composed.

And then—

“Something’s coming.”

Ayra, who until just now had been relatively calm beside us, raised her wand and shouted.

“Something outrageous—!”

If even Ayra looked this tense, the situation must’ve been dire. Her pale pink lips opened, ready to chant something...

Ssshhh—

Suddenly, from somewhere in the trees above, something scattered outward in every direction.

With my 《Clairvoyance》-enhanced vision, I recognized them immediately—arrows.

No, more accurately—bolts, the kind fired from a crossbow rather than a bow.

Fwoosh-fwoosh-fwoosh-fwoosh—!

The bolts embedded themselves into the left eyes of the floating heads. Dozens of heads fell to the ground, twitching violently.

Shff.

A long, distorted figure lightly stepped onto the earth.

At the same time, I felt something shift inside me—the paper spider Bael stirred restlessly within.

—Hiooong...

Yeah. I know, Bael. That one’s not normal.

He was probably a man.

His entire body was wrapped in a ragged black cloak and layers of dark bandages, so it was hard to tell who he was—but the visible muscle and tall frame under the wrappings made it clear.

“You...”

Ayra was the first to react. Naturally so—she had some history with him.

The man approached us, his snow-white hair flowing like a cloak behind him.

He picked up one of the fallen beast heads, and with his long fingers, grabbed the bolt and plucked out the left eye.

SQUELCH.

The eyeball came out with a spray of blood. But what was even more disturbing... was what squirmed inside it. Something like a shrimp or a lobster, a wriggling, insectoid creature.