Looking around, you could see countless fluffy creatures about a meter tall wandering about. Some carried weapons made of stone or bone, some wore crude armor fashioned from wooden blocks, and others had a string of pups trailing behind them as they were tackled to the ground and playfully pounced on.
Their bodies were covered in black fur, with white stripes only on their chests, bellies, shoulders, hands, or feet. Among the white fur on their stomachs was a red, cat-paw-shaped marking. To be precise, every one of these fluffy creatures looked like a cat that could walk upright.
Detel. If Xingyan had seen these little critters, he would have recognized the adorable little guys at a glance.
They were native Beastmen who lived in the New World. The Detel tribe in the Great Sand Sea called themselves the Wasteland Guardian Tribe.
"Something terrible has happened, meow!!"
A Detel warrior who had just returned from outside didn't even stop to give his own fluffy little furballs a couple of pets. Instead, he ran on all fours straight to the chief, who was sitting by the campfire, and shouted.
(Given that, after all these years, the Felynes in the wilderness have started speaking like people, the setting is that the Beastmen have their own culture and language too. So I won't have them meowing and then translate everything in parentheses.)
"Don't panic like that, Shanshan." The long-whiskered Detel chief turned his head. "How can I feel comfortable leaving the tribe in your hands if you act like this?"
"Yes! Shanshan knows he was wrong, meow!" The young Detel warrior immediately straightened his back, trying to look more serious. "How about now, meow?"
"Much better. Now that's more like it." The Detel chief stroked his whiskers with satisfaction. "You're the best warrior in the tribe, and you'll be the next chief. No matter what happens, you have to stay calm, or everyone will panic."
"I understand, meow!"
"Mm-hmm. So, what were you about to tell me?"
"It's like this, Chief." Shanshan's face turned serious. "That Great Monster Dragon is almost at the tribe. At the latest, it'll be here the day after tomorrow. We'll probably be able to see it if we peek out from here!"
"What?!!" The Detel chief, who had just been smiling peacefully, suddenly sprang up from beside the campfire. "Th-this—this is terrible news, meow!!!"
"Huh? Weren't you supposed to stay calm, meow?" Shanshan asked, his face full of confusion as he watched the old chief leap three feet into the air.
"You idiot! Is this the time to worry about little things like that?!" The chief rapped Shanshan on the head with his cane, then hurriedly paced back and forth twice. "You should have told me as soon as you arrived! We can't waste time, meow!!"
Shanshan: "..."
Fine, fine. Your whiskers are longer than mine. I wouldn't dare say anything.
I'm furious, but I can't say a word, meow!
"...Let me think. What should we do? Let me think, meow... Should we move away? We finally found such a good place..."
The Detel chief began circling the campfire. He couldn't stay calm in the face of a life-or-death crisis like this.
Many Wasteland Guardian Tribe Detel clans lived in the underground world beneath the Great Sand Sea. After years of living and exploring, each had claimed its own territory. They survived by hunting small creatures and fish from underground rivers, and gathering plants and mushrooms.
That food supply meant each territory could support only a limited number of tribe members. If they moved now, there was no telling whether another territory could provide for so many people. And that didn't even account for how many members might die along the way.
The surface of the Great Sand Sea was rife with danger, and the underground world wasn't exactly peaceful or welcoming either.
The Detels hunted and fought together, setting traps and ganging up on their foes. They could even defeat some small monsters. But they weren't especially strong fighters, and their weapons were quite ordinary—mostly spears made from branches, stones, and bones.
Different Detel clans also had different hunting styles. For example, the Wasteland Guardian Tribe Detels used shields. But the truth was, they just weren't very strong in a fight.
To put it this way, even the Kulu-Ya-Ku brothers could peck the Detels into a panic. The Kulu-Ya-Ku brothers might seem like Xingyan's little lackeys, as if anyone could come along and kick them around, but Kulu-Ya-Ku could grow to over three meters tall and more than nine meters long. Compare that to the Detels' average height of one meter... You get the picture.
And Kulu-Ya-Ku were the largest monsters the Detels could defeat, even if they pooled the strength of the entire tribe. To the Detels, a creature Xingyan's size was like Godzilla to an ordinary person.
Both were the sort of creature that could crush you with a single step. You wouldn't even feel like fighting; digging a hole and fleeing was the only sensible choice.
And now these two had ended up together...
"We really do have to move, meow!"
After circling the campfire three times one way and three times the other, the Detel chief made a momentous declaration with what he considered astonishing wisdom.
With the power of a single cat, the Detel chief had successfully spread panic among all the Detels still at the settlement.
"W-we really have to move, meow?! I just finished building my nest, meow!"
"Where are we supposed to go, meow? It's so dangerous out there, meow!"
"Why did things turn out this way, meow? We'd just gathered so much food for the first time. We could have stayed home and toasted by the fire for ages. Two happy things had come together, bringing us even more happiness. It should have been a time of dreamlike bliss, meow... But why? Why did it have to turn out this way, meow..."
"No, meow..."
"..."
For a while, cries of despair filled the Detel settlement.
Any people who had developed a civilization and culture felt attached to the land where they had lived for so long. This Detel tribe had lived here for hundreds of years. Their ancestors had been born, grown up, and died here.
They knew everything about this place, from every nearby cave where mushrooms grew in abundance to every underground pool where large fish appeared, and even the slopes where the little furballs could play safely...
The enormous bones of prey hunted by their ancestors adorned the cave walls, and generations of Detels had recorded their history there in murals. There were too many precious things stored up here to leave behind—and too many to take with them.
If they could stay, no one wanted to leave their homeland.
Beastmen were people too. Who could they tell about the pain in their hearts?
"E-everyone, don't be sad yet, meow! There might still be a way to turn things around!" Seeing his tribe members all in tears, Shanshan hurried to comfort them.
"Hm? What do you mean, meow?" The old chief stroked his whiskers. "Is that Great Monster Dragon going to leave?"
"Not that, meow." Shanshan scratched his head. "We've been following that Great Monster Dragon for days now, haven't we, meow? It really did make its nest over at the Luminous Cave... Um, what I mean is, there's another monster with it! That egg-stealing scoundrel, meow!"
"That fellow..." The old chief understood who Shanshan meant. "Why are they together, meow?"
"I don't know, meow." Shanshan shook his head. "But I saw the egg thief hand the stolen eggs over to the Great Monster Dragon, meow! It happened several times! The Great Monster Dragon never attacked him, meow!"
According to the Detel tribe's generations of experience, this was highly unusual. The egg thief was only a small monster, while the Great Monster Dragon, by their classification, was a giant monster. Giant and small monsters almost never traveled together, and many giant monsters hunted smaller ones for food.
"Something like that happened, meow?!" The old chief's eyes widened in surprise. "You mean—?!"
"Exactly, meow!" Shanshan nodded vigorously. "We can steal eggs too, meow! We can give eggs to the Great Monster Dragon too, meow! And there are more of us! We can steal faster and get more eggs, meow!! The Great Monster Dragon will definitely be happy, meow!!"
"What you're saying... makes sense, meow!" The old chief slapped a paw down and patted Shanshan's shoulder with an approving look. "In that case, we old-timers will go."
"Huh?!" Shanshan's eyes widened. "How can that be, meow?! Chief! Those of us who can run fast should go, meow!"
"You idiot! I told you to stay calm when something happens! Don't shout!" The chief rapped Shanshan on the head with his cane. As Shanshan clutched his head and his eyes began to spin, the old chief cleared his throat and said sternly, "From this moment on, Shanshan is the new chief! Everyone is to follow his orders from now on!"
"How can that be?!" Shanshan gaped, too stunned even to meow.
"Why not, meow?" The old chief hugged him, looking pleased. "You're already the strongest in the tribe, and now, when faced with danger, you've thought of a solution. That's enough to make you a capable chief, meow! Keep doing your best, meow!"
"B-but... what about you, Chief?" Shanshan still wouldn't give up. "If Shanshan is the chief now, you have to listen to him too, right, meow?"
He understood why the old chief wanted to personally deliver the eggs as an offering—and why he had handed over the position of chief before leaving.
In the past, they had only watched from hiding and fled as soon as danger appeared. This time, the ones who went would have to reveal themselves and risk communicating with a large monster. One careless mistake, and they could end up in its jaws.
Shanshan's eyes filled with tears.
"You idiot! Not this time, meow!!" The old chief rapped him on the head again and scolded him. "You have your own job to do! Don't forget what I taught you... Now hurry and help us steal some eggs! We have to be waiting there before the Great Monster Dragon leaves its nest tomorrow."
Despite the old chief's insistence, the newly appointed chief, Shanshan, ultimately couldn't talk him out of it. He could only lead a Detel hunting party to steal several eggs from the Diablos.
Well, in a sense, it wasn't really stealing. The Wasteland Guardian Tribe Detels had a way to tame Diablos. They could use them to transport supplies or ride them into battle to some extent... though their combat strength was extremely poor.
After all, Diablos were a kind of Herbivore Species monster. And when it came to herbivores, well, you get the picture.
During years when the Detel tribe ran short of supplies, Diablos eggs also became one of their food sources.
It was a frantic night. Even the most clueless little furball in the tribe could tell that something was wrong. The big cats all seemed tense and sad.
They didn't even feel like celebrating the new chief's appointment. Many Detels sat motionless on the ground, staring blankly at the crackling campfire. They didn't even know when they had fallen asleep.
Before dawn the next day, the old chief stood at the cave entrance with a few old friends. Each cat carried a Diablos egg on their back. They might be old, but they were still fairly nimble.
"Chief, meow!" Shanshan had personally secured the egg on the old chief's back. Tears and snot were almost matting his fur as he choked out, "Maybe Shanshan should go instead."
"Idiot! Don't cry!" The old chief rapped Shanshan on the head again and grinned. "A chief has to act like a chief, meow! Hurry up and wipe your face!"
"But—"
"No buts, meow! We're going!"
The old chief was a decisive sort. He rappelled down into the underground cavern, dropping smoothly on a rope. Though no sunlight reached this place, visibility was surprisingly good. The glowing moss growing overhead and in the cracks along both sides of the rocks lit up the surroundings, so they didn't even need torches.
They followed a route they had scouted beforehand. By the time the Detel squad reached the entrance to Xingyan's nest, Xingyan was still asleep.
Carefully, carefully, they inched along the edge of the entrance toward the interior—a little at a time, as if moving too far at once would get their heads chopped off. The old chief hadn't felt this nervous in a long time.
The Detel hunting party had brought back all the information about the Great Monster Dragon, as was their responsibility. So this was the first time the old chief had seen for himself what the Great Monster Dragon Shanshan had described looked like.
Huge, fearsome, missing bits here and there, with a bald-looking tail and an enormous mouth. It could eat both dirt and ore, and it ate fast. To be honest, with all those traits combined, the old chief had searched for a long time through the tribe's murals and records without finding out what sort of monster it was.
But now...
He immediately twisted around to look behind him, wanting nothing more than to grab Shanshan and give him a hard smack on the butt as soon as possible.
What an idiot! He'd never paid attention to the tribe's stories!
This wasn't a Great Monster Dragon at all. It was a Great Sword Dragon! The reason its tail looked bald now was simply that the blade there had broken off!
"Chief?" Shanshan had followed all the way behind, still worried. When he saw the old chief turn around, he came closer and whispered, "Maybe we should just forget it, meow?"
Shanshan, you've got a death wish.
Before you continue