Chapter 35
Steeling myself, I lifted the lid of the box—only for the hinges and latch to clatter loose and fall to the ground all at once.
Thanks to that, the box opened without resistance, and inside I found a pile of bombs.
“Good lord…”
This was insane. Did these even work?
The small, round bombs looked like grenades at first glance, but a closer look proved otherwise.
There was a safety pin stuck into the casing, but unlike a normal grenade, there was no safety lever.
WARNING
Pull the pin and throw at the target
Explodes upon impact
Throw and take cover
Those words were written on the surface in the language of the Langrid Empire.
Like the flare gun I’d picked up earlier, these too showed signs of artificial modification.
“Is this Alea’s doing…?”
Tilting my head, I closed the box for now and picked up what appeared to be a fire bomb.
I should head back to the cabin. I’d come farther than I thought, and the sun was already starting to set.
Cradling the large box in both arms, I headed back obediently.
Or rather… I tried to.
I froze in place when I saw the chaos unfolding around the cabin.
KWA—AAAANG!
A thunderous boom rolled across the cliffs and echoed through the sky. A massive anaconda smashed into the rock wall and collapsed.
Standing there with the wooden box in my arms, I stared blankly at the crumbling cliff.
Oh my god. What the hell is going on? I’ve never heard of an episode like this happening in the novel.
In front of the cabin were about three enormous anaconda-type monsters.
“Get back!”
KRAAAACK!
Enoch and Kaiden were practically flying through the air as they fought the monsters with their weapons, while Rusef hurriedly carried supplies in between them.
I looked up at the sky again. Just like the first time we encountered the wolf-type monsters, the sun was setting.
But the riverbank where the anacondas were had nothing blocking the sky—it was still bright.
Damn it, aren’t monsters only supposed to appear at night?!
One monster’s head was large enough to swallow Kaiden whole.
Kaiden climbed onto the creature’s body and drove a harpoon into its silver scales.
At the same time, another monster behind him opened its massive jaws wide. Enoch, who had been dealing with a different monster at a distance, noticed and rushed over.
He thrust his harpoon upward, piercing straight through the monster’s lower jaw.
It wasn’t even a sword—just a wooden harpoon. A pitiful weapon for fighting monsters, yet Kaiden and Enoch were making it work.
It was an utterly unbelievable sight.
As expected of the male leads in an R-rated, misery-filled novel—they really were built different.
After two anacondas fell, only one remained. But more anacondas began lifting their heads out of the river.
This is insane. Why are so many monsters suddenly swarming in? What went wrong? What did I miss?
Enoch and Kaiden were already covered in blood. Judging by how much Enoch had lost, he should’ve been having a seizure by now—which made things even worse.
I set the box down and opened it, counting the bombs. Thirteen in total.
I wasn’t a trained soldier—just a civilian. Could I even use these properly?
I’d watched plenty of military training variety shows, so I knew how grenades were used. Every time celebrities went through a new training segment, I’d end up looking it up out of curiosity.
But watching and actually doing it were completely different things. Even veteran soldiers got tense handling grenades.
And worse, these weren’t standard grenades—they were modified weapons, like my flare gun.
I pulled the flare gun from my pocket and checked the remaining rounds.
I had four flares left. The extra ammo was back at the cabin, so this was all I had for now.
Next, I gauged where I could throw the bombs.
The monsters, Kaiden, Enoch, and Rusef were all on the wide gravel bank near the river. I was on a slightly higher hill.
If I wasn’t careful, Kaiden and Enoch could get hurt. Even if I shouted for them to move, I wasn’t sure they’d hear me.
Then I saw Rusef, who had come closer while carrying supplies.
I loaded a flare and cocked the hammer. Holding a bomb in my other hand, I called out to him.
“Bishop!”
He spotted me and ran over, his face deathly pale.
“Lady Flone! This place is dangerous! You must flee at once!”
“Listen carefully! I’m going to give a signal—tell Kaiden and Enoch to get as far away from the monsters as possible!”
Rusef frowned in confusion and hesitated. I finally snapped.
“What are you waiting for?! Go!”
Startled by my shout, Rusef hurried toward Kaiden and Enoch.
Even as he ran, he kept glancing back at me, disbelief written all over his face.
Ignoring him, I raised the flare gun toward the sky.
From afar, I saw Rusef relay my words. Kaiden and Enoch noticed me at the same time, their faces filled with shock.
Then the two men began running toward me with Rusef.
It looked less like they were following instructions and more like they were trying to rescue me.
What amazed me most was that Enoch still seemed to be holding his seizure at bay.
Either way, they were moving away from the monsters—good enough.
I immediately pulled the trigger.
The red smoke shot into the sky and hovered for a moment.
Bang! BOOM!
A massive firework-like explosion lit up the heavens.
Startled, the anaconda monsters all turned their heads toward me at once.
There had to be at least five of them…
They spotted me, opened their massive jaws, and began slithering forward eagerly.
Inside their mouths were rows of teeth layered three deep. Their long, forked tongues stretched out, reaching toward Kaiden and Enoch as they ran toward me.
I yanked the safety pin from a bomb with my teeth, took aim, and hurled it in a wide arc before throwing myself to the ground.
With a normal grenade, it takes about seven seconds after releasing the lever before detonation.
The bomb exploded with a deafening roar among the advancing anacondas.
True to its name, a towering pillar of fire shot into the sky.
One monster was flung into the cliff, triggering another landslide. Another was burned alive in the flames.
The three men running toward me turned in shock to look back.
I didn’t hesitate—I threw two more bombs in quick succession.
“Margaret!”
Enoch reached me and pulled me into his arms.
At that moment, I saw three monsters still crawling toward us.
“Shit—just a second.”
I shoved Enoch and Kaiden away, ran down the hill, loaded another flare, and cocked the hammer.
“Margaret!”
Ignoring their shouts, I pulled the trigger.
Red smoke slipped between the three anacondas.
A few seconds later, a massive explosion tore through them, shredding their bodies into chunks that rained down like meat from the sky.
Covering my nose at the gruesome sight, I felt dizzy. Thick toxic gas poured from the monsters’ corpses, and breathing it in at close range made my legs give out.
Kaiden rushed up from behind, hoisted me over his shoulder, and ran with Enoch and Rusef as far away from the gas as possible.
“Margaret, are you insane?! That was dangerous!”
“Margaret, are you okay?! Stay with me!”
“What on earth was that?! I thought magic couldn’t be used on this island! Lady Flone—are you a mage?! Who are you really?!”
Enoch, Kaiden, and then Rusef shouted over one another.
“I’m fine, so could you stop yelling my name? You can say I’m amazing and thank me later. Right now my stomach is about to revolt.”
Hanging over Kaiden’s shoulder like a sack of grain, I clamped a hand over my mouth.
Only then did the three men finally relax and let out shaky breaths.
This wasn’t a romance novel.
It was a survival horror story.
In What Matters More Than Survival, the heroine Yooanna didn’t have to worry much about monsters. She lived a relatively peaceful life while falling in love with the male leads.
So why the hell is this happening to me?
Why is this getting more and more hardcore by the minute?!
