Promise (8)
The monster standing before me was a yeti, covered head to toe in white fur.
A legendary-grade monster: the Snow Giant.
As far as I knew, that thing had no business being here.
Because it isn't the kind of monster that attacks humans.
Humans are far too small to even qualify as a snack for it. Under normal circumstances, it lived far from any Zone, hunting large-class monsters, and it was known to control the weather through the jewel set dead-center in its forehead.
So this sudden blizzard was its doing, too?
A creature with weather-manipulating ability — less a monster than a spirit beast. Why would something like that come all the way out here to go after a bunch of freshly commissioned officers?
Is it actually a player?
Just in case, I activated Character Inspection on the Snow Giant. If it were a player, the skill should have worked — but the system didn't respond at all.
Which means it isn't a player…
Even as the distance closed, the creature stood perfectly still, not so much as twitching.
It's looking at something.
If it had spotted anything out on this snowfield, it had to be the new officers.
Without slowing the bike, I leapt off. My legs were too short to bring it to a safe stop anyway. The bike kept going and slammed straight into the creature's backside — and the thing barely seemed to notice, just scratching the impact site a couple of times with a densely furred hand.
Still, I didn't need to worry about not being able to hurt it.
It's still just a monster, after all.
I tumbled twice across the snowfield, found my footing, and pulled the largest firearm from my inventory. The gun couldn't fire in bursts, but its rounds were specialized for melting monster flesh and hide. A clean hit would punch straight through even a thick monster torso.
Snow Giant or not, as long as its body was a monster's, any place those rounds hit would melt without resistance. Of course, even that kind of firepower was useless if you didn't hit the jewel — which was why, for all the weapons they'd developed, large-scale subjugation campaigns had still been necessary. I hadn't expected that, even with identification methods for locating the jewels, almost no one but a shut-in like Yeobom would actually be able to use them. The good news was that this one's jewel sat on its forehead. The bad news was that its forehead sat impossibly high overhead.
"Get down!"
I shouted and squeezed the trigger, aiming for its abdomen. A massive, nail-like round tore through its hide, melting flesh as it punched clean out the other side.
"Uwaaah!"
This time the creature felt it — its whole body shuddered hard. Through the hole gaping in the middle of its torso, I could see Lucas's startled face and Bones's tear-streaked one.
The moment I saw Bones's face, I had to swallow a dry laugh. Lucas shouted toward me.
"Heydam! Above you!"
The gun I was holding couldn't fire again without reloading, so I dropped it without a second thought and pulled a smoke grenade from my inventory, launching it above my head. A thick cloud bloomed overhead and cut off the monster's vision; the enormous hand that came plunging down through the smoke clawed empty air instead of me.
In that opening I pressed flat against its body and sprinted for the far side to regroup with the new officers. And while I ran, I figured out why the thing had been drawn this far in the first place.
Those… from earlier?
Through the organs still melting from my shot, the half-digested carcasses of large-class monsters came spilling out in a wet cascade. The strange monsters had fled across the crevasse zone — and run straight into the Snow Giant waiting on the other side. To keep from being eaten, they'd turned and fled back toward our Zone, and the Snow Giant, feeding as it moved, had followed them all the way here.
So in the end, I won't be learning anything more about those weird monsters.
The one thing I had confirmed was that this Snow Giant was definitely not a player. If it had been, there wouldn't still be food sitting in its stomach. But as if to prove it really was an otherworldly monster, the hole I'd blown through it was sealing over at high speed.
Even after I circled behind it, the creature was still thrashing around inside the smoke cloud, searching for me. While its attention was elsewhere, I put everything I had into a sprint and joined the new officers.
"Heydam!"
Lucas greeted me with a bizarre expression — relief and despair tangled together. At least he was still holding a gun. Bones, on the other hand, was flat on the ground, blood running from his shoulder.
"Why is that bastard still sprawled out like that?"
"Ah, well…"
Looking awkward, Lucas shot Bones a sidelong glance. Bones mumbled in a voice that barely made it out of his throat.
"Just… leave me and—"
Before he could finish telling us to run, I slapped him across the face. Lucas stared at me, aghast that I'd struck a wounded man.
"Heydam!"
"Stop acting. Bones. You can still move."
Even after taking the hit, Bones didn't look angry or indignant. He just hung his head.
"I'm this kind of person. That's why my father abandoned me, isn't it."
"Bones."
This time, instead of hitting him, I set a hand on his shoulder.
"Do you actually believe Lieutenant General Max — your father — tried to have you killed?"
At that, Bones's head snapped up, eyes suddenly sharp.
"You're going to take some maniac's word for it and start doubting your own father?"
"Th-then…"
"I don't know the truth either. But at the very least, I'm going to confirm it myself. Whether my father really abandoned me."
I'd been suspicious from the moment I'd heard the Team 2 leader's story. As the one who had cleared every Zone, I knew full well that the Team 2 leader had never done anything that would give Lieutenant General Max leverage to blackmail him — and that during my own run through the Cola Area, he had been a thoroughly loyal officer of the pro-Hayden faction. My read was that the Team 2 leader had gone after Bones while name-dropping Max in order to frame the general. Max was so well-liked that even the rank-and-file trusted him deeply. If a man like that had tried to kill Bones just for refusing to fall in line, the other sponsored cadets would turn on him — so this had to be a scheme cooked up by the pro-Hayden faction. And something like this was far beyond what a mere colonel would cook up on his own…
Looks like Yosef has no intention of retiring quietly, either.
Either way, as I'd told Bones, the fastest path was to go back and confirm it ourselves.
"Use this for first aid for now."
I pulled a first-aid kit from my inventory and held it out. Lucas stared at me, looking almost frightened.
"Where on earth did you pull that from?"
As if he'd believe me if I said I had an inventory.
"Just treat him. We have to go save the Commander."
"What?!"
Both of them shouted that time. Bones, who seemed to have mostly recovered his wits, stopped mid-reach for a gun and looked at me.
"You mean the Commander is in danger too?"
"He fell into a crevasse over that way. Fortunately it wasn't a deep drop, so he isn't badly hurt. We have to go pull him out."
"I'll treat him right away."
"Hurry. Our lives are on the line too."
Even with a Snow Giant right in front of us, the news that the Commander was in danger turned Lucas white as a sheet. He practically poured disinfectant over Bones's wound — and Bones screamed.
"Son of a—! Are you trying to kill me?!"
"Weren't you just telling us to leave you to die?!"
Watching them bicker, I figured both of them had their mental footing back, at least to some degree.
The problem is the Snow Giant in front of us…
Lucas and Bones didn't know what a Snow Giant was, which was probably why they could stay this calm. They'd seen me take down large-class monsters the way a cat takes mice, so they seemed to think that even if the thing in front of us was a little oversized, I could still kill it.
But… that's not happening.
Unless the thing bowed its head for me, hitting the jewel on its forehead from down here was nearly impossible. I could try shooting out a leg and toppling it, but there was no guarantee we wouldn't get crushed under the falling body. More than that — I could punch holes in it, but landing a blow heavy enough to throw it off balance was another matter entirely. Even if I aimed for a leg, the first wound would heal over long before I could finish severing the limb.
What now…
Then something unexpected happened. The Snow Giant, which had been thrashing through the snowfield inside the smoke trying to catch me, ignored us completely and started hauling its massive body in the direction I had come from.
"It must think you ran that way, Heydam."
"Shit. That took ten years off my life."
Bones was already back to his usual self, swearing under his breath like he was glad the thing had gone somewhere else. My expression, though, had gone hard. A monster that big usually had low intelligence, so it was good that it had simply walked past us. But the fact that it was heading the way I'd come meant the Commander was at the end of that path.
The other two read my face and understood at once.
"Don't tell me… the direction it's going is where the Commander is?"
I nodded — and the instant I did, Bones took off running. He hauled the bike out of the snow where it had been buried after bouncing off the Snow Giant.
"What are you standing around for?! We have to follow it!"
That bastard Bones. A minute ago he'd been crawling on the ground. Still, as long as his head was on straight, he pulled his weight — and that was a relief. Otherwise, risking my neck to come find them would have been a waste.
I left the driving to Lucas, climbed on in front of him, and Bones squeezed on behind. The bike took off at once. The Snow Giant was already some distance ahead.
"So what the hell is that thing?!"
Bones bellowed the question over the wind as we rode.
"A Snow Giant! Legendary-grade monster!"
"Legendary-grade? Those exist?!"
"It's not even native to this area!"
"My eardrums are going to burst! Both of you, shut up!"
With Lucas stuck between us while we shouted at the top of our lungs, he finally lost it and roared.
The Snow Giant's strides were long, but its actual movement speed was slow, so we caught up quickly. The problem was that catching up didn't give us much of a plan. We stopped the bike a little ways off the path the creature was walking and watched it go.
"…How do we stop that?"
Lucas asked, craning his neck all the way back just to see the thing's head.
"Ram it with the bike?"
"I already tried that."
I answered Bones and kept my eyes fixed on the creature. At this rate it would reach the crevasse where the Commander was any moment. It was possible nothing would happen. I'd raced after it because I was afraid the tremors of its footsteps would collapse the crevasse further — but the creature had slowed considerably, scanning the snowfield as if it were still looking for me.
It'd be nice if it just wandered back to its own territory without incident…
We followed at a careful distance. Better to pray it left quietly than risk provoking it into bringing the crevasse down.
But as if mocking that hope, the moment it reached the crevasse it began reaching a hand down toward the cliff below.
"What's it doing right now?"
Lucas and Bones looked puzzled by the sudden move. I knew exactly what it was doing.
Because I knew exactly who was at the end of that outstretched hand.