Shota is surrounded by monsters!

"Snapped."

I stepped on a trash can and smashed it...

Shota scratched his head helplessly, hid his already hardened tail inside his oversized jacket, sniffed the air, and ran straight toward the source of the scent.

The distance was a bit far, but this undisguised aura was as bright as a lighthouse in the darkness for Shota, blatantly teasing his senses.

I'll eat you.

Exhaling a scorching breath, a faint, eerie light flashed in Shota's pupils as he traversed the city's darkness, beginning his hunt.

"Sigh... I feel like there have been a lot more supernatural disasters lately."

Sitting in the jeep, the girl yawned while clutching her weapon and said, "Being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night..."

"Click".

The shutter clicked.

"Oh, I got Kagura's yawn photo." The slightly older girl with long black hair next to her put her phone away with satisfaction.

"The Underworld~"

The girl, whose "humiliating" photo was taken, blushed immediately and tried to snatch the phone from the other person's hand.

The girl, known as Yomi, held her phone high in one hand and took a POCKY cigarette from Kagura's hand with the other, putting it in her mouth and laughing as she said, "The POCKY is mine too."

"Honestly... they're always taking pictures without my knowledge."

Kagura sighed somewhat dejectedly, and then had no choice but to continue eating her Pocky.

"Well, those evil spirits sometimes go quiet for a while. But judging from the signs these past few days, things might get busy for a while."

Huang Quan glanced at the scenery along the roadside and asked the driver, "Iwabata-san, how much longer until we arrive?"

"About twenty minutes."

The driver was a burly middle-aged man with a mohawk hairstyle. He tapped the steering wheel and said, "Iizuna has already gone to the scene."

"Xiao Ji?"

Kagura nodded, and was about to ask something else when she noticed Iwabata, who was driving, pointing to the headset on his ear. After a while, he said, "Category B, Human-faced Tree."

"B?" Huang Quan patted Kagura's head beside him, then suddenly hugged her and rubbed his head against her face twice, saying, "Same as always, the support is in your hands."

"Ouch, it itches so much~ I want to fight too..."

"No, wait until you've completely mastered your Dance Kick No. 12."

"How could this be..."

Shota stood on the side of the highway, below which was a dense forest, and in the distance, a huge tree-man-like evil spirit was rampaging.

"So it turned out to be vegetarian? Oh well, evil spirits don't have physical forms anyway... It would be so much better if it were a real monster. But what are those little foxes? Spirit beasts?"

Aside from sensing the presence of that evil spirit, there were also quite a few foxes in this forest, but judging from their scent, they were likely tusk foxes. It seemed that someone was secretly controlling them, using them to gather information.

The Guanhu is not a demon, but a spirit beast created by humans using the soul of a fox. The method involves burying a fox's body in the ground, leaving only its head above ground, then severely beating and starving the fox for several days, while placing a large amount of food nearby. When its desires and resentments reach their peak, it can be cruelly killed. After the fox dies, its soul is immediately sealed in an artifact using a soul-sealing spell. Once tamed, the original fox's soul becomes the obedient spirit beast Guanhu.

If you find yourself in it, just eat it... As long as you eat it clean and wipe your mouth dry, there shouldn't be any problem.

With that thought in mind, Shota no longer hesitated and jumped off the road.

"Bam—"

Shota, who had transformed into the Taotie prototype, knocked down two trees. He shook his huge head, spread his limbs, and started running.

Ok?

Sensing something was wrong, the Taotie suddenly changed direction, opened its huge mouth, and pounced on a tree.

A small fox was devoured before it could even find the gluttonous beast.

The taste... is so-so. But it contains significantly more energy than compressed biscuits.

After tasting it, Shota figured that the person controlling the tube fox must have realized something was wrong, so he stopped hiding it and charged directly at the tree-shaped evil spirit that seemed to be trapped.

"How is the situation, Ji Zhi?"

After getting out of the jeep, Huang Quan asked Iitsuna Noriyuki, who was communicating with Kanko.

"It's under control now, but it's a really big one."

The young man known as Iizuna Noriyuki—also known as Kanuki-shi—looked at the tree-shaped evil spirit from afar and asked, "What do we do?"

"I'm counting on you for support."

Huang Quan drew his treasured sword, Lion King, and said, "Just use the Crimson Lotus to finish him off in one go, Crimson Lotus!"

At the girl's command, a gigantic spirit beast with the body of a lion but twelve eyes and many snakes on its tail materialized before her.

The Great Sword Lion King is a family heirloom of the Isayama family, a clan of exorcists. It sealed the top-tier spirit beast, the Crimson Lotus. Yomi, whose full name is Isayama Yomi, is the designated next head of the Isayama family.

The Tsuchimiya family is the head of the exorcist families, while the branch family, the Isayama family, is also a very powerful family. Their spirit beast, Ranguren, is second only to the strongest spirit beast, Byakuei.

This group of people are members of the Ministry of the Environment's Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Office. And Yomi Isayama, who has been hailed as a genius since childhood, is one of the most powerful exorcists among them.

Just as Huang Quan jumped onto Ran Honglian's neck, Izuna Noriyuki, who was controlling the fox spirit, suddenly changed his expression and quickly stopped him, saying, "Wait."

"how?"

"One of the tube foxes is dead, no, another one is dead, something else exists! Its true form is unknown, its strength is unknown..."

"Go and investigate. Take out that B-rank guy first."

Upon hearing Izuna Noriyuki's words, Yomi had a bad feeling, but sitting and waiting for death was never her principle. So she directly commanded Ran Honglian to pounce on the B-rank evil spirit.

"Another spirit beast? This tastes... even better."

Taotie stopped in its tracks, slowly inhaled, and breathed back the gradually spreading demonic energy. Then it looked up at the source of the scent.

A giant with a lion's body and a serpent's tail...

It looks incredibly delicious!

"Luan Honglian, Roaring Bomb!" Huang Quan, standing on the head of Luan Honglian, issued a command. The spirit beast Luan Honglian opened its blood-red maw and fired a pale golden energy cannon directly at the bewildered tree-shaped evil spirit.

"Ow~"

The treant spirit screamed in panic, then swung its thick upper arm and slapped directly at the person who attacked it!

The spirit beast Luan Honglian bit the treant's attacking arm, while Isayama Huangquan jumped off the spirit beast's head and ran towards the treant's trunk with its human face on its back!

Realizing something was wrong, the evil spirit shuddered, and the leaves on its body shot towards the enemy like darts.

ding ding ding-

Huang Quan brandished his treasured sword, deflecting all the leaves that were shooting at him. Then, he suddenly leaped towards the evil spirit's face with a powerful leap.

Realizing something was wrong, the evil spirit tried to swat the human away with its other arm. However, the spirit beast Luan Honglian, after biting off one of its arms, fired a roaring bullet at the evil spirit's other arm and sent it flying.

Huang Quan, hovering in mid-air, raised his treasured sword high, its sharp blade reflecting a chilling gleam in the moonlight...

She swung her sword and slashed straight down!

It's cut in two!

This pretty girl seems quite powerful. The Taotie observed the almost one-sided battle; with the combined efforts of the human exorcist and the spirit beast, the evil spirit was almost instantly killed. Its body was sliced ​​in two and slowly began to disappear, seemingly purified by the exorcist's spiritual power…

WAIT, now that I've cleaned up, what am I going to eat?

"Disordered Red Lotus".

As she called the spirit beast's name, the lion-shaped Luan Honglian caught Huang Quan. After she steadied herself, she was about to continue searching for the monster hidden in the darkness when…

A hurricane—no, not a hurricane, but a powerful suction force—suddenly nearly pulled her down.

"That is……"

Huang Quan, holding onto Luan Honglian's fur, had already steadied himself. Luan Honglian, in turn, stuck her limbs into the ground to resist the suction force. The source of this suction force was a strange monster the size of a burly ox.

Golden fur... its open mouth was even larger than its own body.

And now, it is devouring the soul of that evil spirit that has not yet dissipated!

It was very strong. The exorcist's intuition told her that this monster was at least on par with her own spirit beast, Luan Honglian. In other words... a powerful monster around Rank A.

"Hiccup".

The gluttonous beast, having almost finished the scraps, closed its mouth. The food, which could have lasted two days, would probably only last a day after being broken down, but it couldn't afford to complain now. Because…

"Haa!"

A girl, about the age of a middle school student, swung her weapon and slashed at it!

"when."

The Taotie blocked the attack with its iron tail and looked at the human girl who attacked it with its huge pupils.

"whispering sound……"

Seemingly frightened by Taotie's gaze, the girl took a step back, gathering her strength to launch another attack. This time, Taotie blew a powerful breath, creating a hurricane that made the girl lose her balance, forcing her to plant her sword in the ground to maintain her equilibrium.

Having already eaten something, the gluttonous beast became more rational. Shota completely suppressed his desire to devour everything around him and prepared to turn around and run away.

But at this moment, countless tube foxes had already surrounded it, their small, cold-looking pupils staring at the Taotie in the very center.

I was so focused on eating that I forgot to be on guard.

"Roaring Bomb!"

Upon hearing this sound, Taotie instinctively jumped away from his original spot, and a devastating energy blast struck the place where he had been standing.

Is it absolutely necessary to fight?

Taotie wasn't sure if it was a match for this group. After all, it had practically never fought anyone since it started growing up. Back in Europa, it had encountered some strange opponents, but Taotie had eaten them all. So, aside from bullying Slime Girl, it had mostly just followed Taotie around, freeloading off him.

Thinking of this, it gave up the idea of ​​fighting. Winning or losing was not a matter for the time being, but the energy consumed by fighting would probably be enough to make all the food it had eaten today disappear—and even make it lose a lot of the food it had eaten before.

The Taotie glanced around and noticed a girl very close to it. Without saying a word, it used its tail to tie the girl's waist and ran away.

Taking a hostage can prevent the enemy from using any large-scale area-of-effect (AOE) attack spells.

"Huh?"

Before the girl could even react or pick up her weapon, she was kidnapped by the Taotie.

"Kagura!"