"Boom—!"
When the towering figure landed in the center of the battlefield like a meteor, a fierce gust immediately erupted, whipping sand and dust into a swirling cloud around him.
"You...!?"
"Damn it...!"
Several nearby knights and adventurers cried out in furious humiliation. Shouting as they charged forward, they rushed into the smoky curtain of dust.
"Wait...!"
"Stop...!"
Several higher-level companions noticed what was happening and turned pale with alarm.
But by then, it was already too late to stop them.
"Small fry! Get out of my way!"
With a savage roar, the figure moved.
Because of the dust, no one knew what had happened to the companions who had rushed inside.
Only one sound came from within.
"Psssh..."
It sounded as though something was being corroded.
"AAAAAAAH—!"
Then screams rang out from inside.
"W-What happened...!?"
"What's going on...!?"
"Quick! Use wind magic! Blow the smoke away!"
The Kingdom Army soldiers around the area all cried out in panic.
Then, someone used wind magic to blow away the dust, revealing the scene within to everyone's eyes.
But the instant they saw it, every face froze.
"Ugh..."
"Ah..."
Amid faint groans of pain, the knights and adventurers who had just charged in were all lying on the ground.
Some had their arms, some their thighs, and some other parts of their bodies covered in ugly purple bruises. That purple discoloration was rapidly spreading over their bodies at a visible rate.
And amid those knights and adventurers stood a burly, towering man.
Facing everyone's gazes, he grinned.
"I'm Hans! One of the Demon Lord's Army's commanders! A mutant breed of Deathly Poison Slime!"
The words spoken by the hulking man who called himself Hans made the entire Kingdom Army suck in a breath.
"So it really is him...!?"
On the mansion's open-air