TLN*: This is a reference to a Japanese short story called "The Spider's Thread." There's a Wikipedia article on the story, so you can look it up if you're curious. A similar reference was made in chapter 22, actually. If you can't be bothered to look it up, "spider's thread" is roughly equivalent to "lifeline" in this context.
The Scylla women stared at Haj and his companions with a vacant expression for a while before answering with a lethargic tone.
"Resis... tance... will help."
The faces of Haj and his companions shone with hope at this response.
"Ah, thank you," said Haj. "We owe you our lives, Goddess-sa...ma...?"
Right before his eyes, the branches of the thicket began to snap and break. The top half of the beautiful Scylla woman's body drew closer.
But the lower half of its body was not made of the tentacles of an octopus, but the body of a serpent, thicker than a log.
"A-a Lamia? No, it's not a Lamia or a Scylla?!"
For a moment, Haj had thought that she was a member of one of Vida's races that possessed the lower bodies of serpents, but immediately realized that he had made an unthinkable misunderstanding.
The beautiful woman's lower half was connected to the body of an even thicker snake. And this woman's lower half wasn't the only one attached to the root of this snake.
A Dark Elf with pointed ears, a Merfolk with gills in her sides, a Harpy with wings for arms, an Arachne with compound eyes on her forehead, a small Dwarf, a Drakonid with wings growing from her back, a purple-skinned Majin and a Centaur with a long mane – the upper half of these women, who were so beautiful that they would be praised if they were judged on their appearance alone, were attached to the necks of snakes.
"A-a-a mutant Hydraaaa?!"
To be more precise, it was a Hydra Zombie created by replacing all of its severed heads with the upper halves of nine beautiful women of different races, but this was of little importance to Haj and his companions.
"Resistance~♪"
The important thing for them was that the creature before them was unmistakably a monster.
"R-run!"
Three of the beautiful women were singing while the other six closed in on Haj and his companions. They screamed and tried to flee as fast as their legs would allow, but they had pushed their stamina to their utmost limits just moments earlier. Most of them were struggling to walk, let alone run.
And then there was an ear-splitting scream, the sound of someone dying.
Haj and his companions stopped in surprise and looked up... to see a sensual-looking woman with abnormally large arms and legs, membranous wings extending from her back and a snake-like tail with a stinger attached to the end stretching from her waist, flying above them.
There was an unfamiliar man wearing dark green clothes, white smoke rising from his body with a hissing sound as he dangled from one of the woman's hands.
Letting out a terrified noise, Haj sank to the ground with tears running down his face. "M-Mommy..."
Some of the other fake members of the resistance fell to their knees as well, while the others had fallen onto their backs with their limbs still flailing in an attempt to scramble away.
"Resis... da...?"
"Resistance~♪"
"Will... help?"
"Shelter, chased, being chased, shelter."
Yamata and Rapiéçage conversed in faltering words that were impossible for Haj and his companions to make any sense of as they began capturing them.
"HYAAAAAAH!"
"HELP MEEEE!"
"I don't want to die, I don't wait to die. Please, don't kill me..."
"Will help."
"Shelter, shelt? Shell. Ter... ter..."
The two of them, who had come out to guard the surrounding area, captured Haj and his companions who were crying, screaming and begging for their lives. And then they returned to the camp.
Name: Yamata
Rank: 6
Race: Patchwork Hydra Zombie
Level: 0
Passive skills:
Dark Vision
Superhuman Strength: Level 3
Deadly Venom Secretion (Fangs): Level 6
Magic Resistance: Level 1
Underwater Adaptation
Dragon Scales: Level 1
Rapid Regeneration: Level 7
Body Extension (Neck): Level 3
Active skills:
Singing: Level 3
Dancing: Level 3
Parallel Thought Processing: Level 4
Scream: Level 3
Monster explanation:
【Patchwork Hydra Zombie】
A work of art (Zombie) created by Ternecia by severing the heads of the corpse of a nine-headed mutant Hydra and attaching the upper halves of the bodies of beautiful women of different races.
Its modeling is spectacular; it is an embodiment of grotesque beauty.
However, its ability in combat is drastically inferior to a regular Hydra. The venomous fangs that are supposed to be its weapons are absent, and most of the upper bodies that have replaced the heads are lacking in defense.
It is Rank 6, but it only possesses the strength of a Rank 4 monster.
However, this is unlikely to have caused any problems, as Ternecia originally created it as a moving form of interior decoration.
Naturally, as it is an artificially-created creature, it is a type of Undead that has not been discovered in Lambda. As long as there are no others with the same terrible tastes as Ternecia, there will be no two identical specimens.
As a result of the numerous remodeling procedures that Vandalieu carried out after retrieving it from Ternecia's hideout, it has become able to use its numerous mouths to produce words, use its canine teeth as venomous fangs and hold objects with its arms.
In other words, it was not able to do these things before undergoing surgery.
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