GO! GO! GO!

"...as weakly as possible… just like with landing…"

"...?"

She then muttered to herself while frowning as she concentrated, making Zane raise his brows at the rather curious choice of words.

"Ei~!"

*WHA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

She cheered out and barely moved her hand with utmost precision, but somehow, the shockwave she released ended up a cataclysm!

Instead of blowing through the tunnels and returning with the geyser of pollen, the pressurized air…

…blew up the mountain…

Its very peak ended up disappearing while the bulk of the mountain ended up shattering into pieces that shot out into the air for a good few moments, creating a dark cloud covering the skies!

"...!"

"...!"

Both Melinda and Zane stared at the girl's hand before looking at each other and…

"EVERYONE! GET BACK INTO COVER!"

The white-haired man picked up the girl and rushed away from their spot as she shouted back at the group, frozen solid at the bone-chilling sight.

"GO! GO! GO! Miss Adrianna, you too!"

The first one besides the main pair to come to his senses was Ace. He hurriedly turned around and began pushing back the Kobolds, stopping for only a second to grab onto the maid's apron and pull her with them.

"GRAB AS MANY AS YOU CAN AND RUN FOR IT, PLAYBOY!"

"!?!?"

Zane roared, throwing Melinda - who picked up a gray-scaled Kobold along the way - over his shoulder and leaning down to cheeze his skill, significantly increasing in size and scooping two armfuls of flabbergasted Kobolds before bolting to the closest tunnel.

"Y-young Zane! Can't our lady…?!"

"THE SHOCKWAVE WILL KILL THE KOBOLDS! TAKE THEM AND RUN!"

The maid regained some of her composure and called after the disappearing monstrous man, which only got her shouted at.

"You heard the Champion! Grab onto me!"

"A-and me too!"

The green-haired young man started to pick up the confused Kobolds, calling out, while the maid joined his efforts.

As the blown-up rubble began to descend, the monarch and the maid holding piles of Kobolds rushed after the monstrous man, who was already shoving others to safety without taking his eyes off the descending rocks.

And the rocks weren't just some dust and fine gravel…

*WHAM*

"...!"

Ace jumped away from a rock the size of an average Kobold.

He was giving it his all, using skills and spells to increase his speed, but he was by far the slowest of the humans.

With the deadly rock-storm riddling Kobolds' quarry with holes, the green-haired youngster gritted his teeth, weaving his way through the outpouring barrage.

"WAH!?"

"!!!"

Suddenly, one of the Kobolds Ace carried cried out and fell off, causing the green-haired man's stomach to churn.

"FOLLOW ME! AFTER ME!"

"E-eh...!? Ah…!"

Ace didn't stop but did roar, getting the sandy-yellow-scaled creature's attention and making them follow him with a scared screech.

"...wah…!

"THIS KING FORBIDS YOU FROM GIVING UP! JuST ROLL WITH IT!"

But after merely a few steps, the Kobold - one of the ones with plate-like scales that looked as if they were wearing armor - tripped and fell, making Ace roar before gritting his teeth and looking away, putting his all in, assuring the safety of the rest of the Kobolds he carried.

"...!?"

Because of that, Ace wasn't able to see how the plate-scaled Kobold curls up as she fell and how her scales interlock together, locking her in into an almost ball-like spiked armored wheel figure and starts rolling after him.

Not only following after but overtaking him!"

"Charge…?"

"Battle charge!?"

Two more Kobolds whom Ace carried flinched and gasped as their eyes widened at the sight of their brethren's feat.

"H-hey! STOP! What are you…!?"

The next moment, both of the plate-scaled Kobolds dropped off the Ace, causing the green-haired human to cry out in panic until the words got stuck in his throat as he saw them curl up and roll by his side!

"!!!"

The moment he looked forward, away from the speeding Kobolds, he desperately dodged to the side as something was flying straight at his face.

*WHAM*

"!?!?"

Only for that, something to turn up to be the first of the plate-scaled Kobolds, uncurling momentarily to jump up and then curling up again to intercept and break through a boulder that would otherwise hit the green-haired monarch.

"...wha…? ALRIGHT! GO! GO! GO!"

After a second to comprehend what happened, Ace gulped down his saliva and called out while the three plate-scaled Kobolds circled around him as he ran like conscious sentinels intercepting the descending debris.

"ACE! HERE!"

"!"

With the surroundings more and more into a hellscape the voice of the maid reached Ace's ears, making him drastically change the direction in which he was running as it became clear that he lost the way.

"HERE!"

"!!!"

All of a sudden, something shaded the green-haired human and the Kobolds from the debris, and a crater-covered path to a mine entrance opened, creating a chance that Ace took without sparing even a second to look around properly.

"HUAAAAAAAAAH!"

The green-haired monarch roared and dived into the cave just to get out of the field of death just a second earlier.

Making sure that the Kobolds he carried were safe, Ace slid inside the tunnel on his stomach while the monstrous white-haired man stayed by the entrance, helping a few plate-scaled Kobolds block it.

In the dim light provided by an artifact carried by the maid, the ground was shaking. The seemingly unceasing tremors were causing dust and gravel to drop from the walls and ceiling of the tunnel, and most of the Kobolds were huddling together around the sitting pitiful-looking gold-haired girl hugging one of their brethren like an emotional-support plushie.

"I don't understand… I could swear that I controlled my strength and didn't use enough of it to do that… I'm sorry…"

Melinda mumbled apologetically, hiding her face behind the gray-scaled Kobold's head.

"Hey, hey, friend. You… are you good? Umm.. are you okay…?"

"Y-yeah. I'm fine, thank you. I'm okay."

The Kobolds brought in by Ace stepped to his sides nad even started to dust him off.

Even though he responded to them, his eyes were focused solely on the disheartened Melinda.

"..."

While the remains of the mountain were raining down on the outside world, Ace ended up breathing out and started to look between Melinda, Zane, and the maid, before shaking his head, sighing and lowering his head.

As he leaned against the wall, he slowly slid down its surface and eventually sat down, straightening one leg while pulling his other knee to rest his arm on it…

*plop*

"...?"

...only that the last part could not happen because one of the plate-scaled Kobolds shuffled over to him, plopped down, and rested her chin on the said knee while curiously observing Ace's face.

"It's worse than I thought. Mister playboy pulls in even girls from different species."

"...huh…?"

Out of nowhere, Zane, who had started watching Ace, pointed out with a scoff, causing the green-haired man to gasp.

"All Kobolds are female. Their species was able to survive devolving and losing huge chunks of instincts and knowledge solely because of the fact that they were able to reproduce asexually. The developers took inspiration for that from the actual real-life species of gecko that… Oh, umm... Actually, forget that last part."

Melinda spoke up, explaining the part that she thought stumped Ace, before stopping herself and hiding behind the gray-scaled Kobold again.

"...hmph…"

On the side, the maid holding the item illuminating the tunnel looked away with her cheeks all puffy from pouting for some reason, but her actions were not noticed - or at least they weren't pointed out because it was hard to say where Melinda was looking from behind the gray-scaled Kobold's back.

"How… How much knowledge does the Empire hold onto exactly…?"

Ace blinked a few times before shaking his head and asking, connecting the dots and coming to the most logical outcome of the knowledge about Kobolds' originating from the same spot as the knowledge about his ability, Veto Rex.

…in a way, he was correct…