The White-Haired Legend
The monster hunter training center had a legend.
Once, there was a hunter who slew so many beasts he could stand shoulder to shoulder with a mage. Time wore on and he retired, but even now people still spoke of him as a living myth. After hanging up his weapons, he returned to his hometown and opened a training center. Hunters flocked to it in droves, and before long it had become the largest of its kind in the kingdom.
Having a place like that in my hometown was an enormous stroke of luck. While hunters from every corner of the kingdom had to travel for days, mine sat right on my doorstep.
Provided, of course, I didn't get thrown out for failing to meet the bar.
And so, after a long and winding detour, I found myself back at the training center. I'd taken down several mid-sized monsters. My weight class had gone up. I figured I could at least handle the training this time.
"A dojo challenge, huh. Something interesting just walked in."
"Whoa, the rookies making names for themselves these days have some real guts!"
Sorry, but I'm not a rookie. I'd been a monster hunter for five years. That said, I was no match for the instructors here. They'd all walked the hunter's path themselves and taken jobs at the training center after retiring. In their eyes, I was still a greenhorn.
A sigh slipped from my lips. How had things gotten this blown out of proportion? I'd even tried to correct them midway — this was not a dojo challenge — but nobody would listen. The atmosphere had already gotten too heated. When the person involved is telling you, maybe listen.
"The director is arriving."
Every instructor in the place had gathered. The director of the training center walked out.
This was my first time seeing him in person. Everyone described his appearance differently. Some said he looked like a tiger. Some said he was a giant. No two accounts agreed. I'd never had reason to come to the training center, so I'd had even less opportunity to see him myself.
The director, Dreygan.
Was I waiting with a slightly racing heart to finally meet him?
Then he walked out through the door.
And I blinked. I had to, because I wasn't sure what I'd just seen was real.
Standing there was a small boy. His hair was snow-white, aged as winter — but the face beneath it was unmistakably a child's.
The boy's gaze found me, slow and unhurried.
"Hmmm."
He looked me up and down.
"You took down a mid-sized monster all by yourself?"
"Yes. His name is Haren."
An instructor bowed his head as he answered.
Is that person really the legendary director Dreygan?
The boy studied me through half-lidded eyes, then opened his mouth.
"You a mage?"
Mage. The moment I heard that word, I froze. I had never in my life met someone who could say mage that casually. Most people were too busy worshipping them.
"No, sir."
"Then why can I feel mana coming off your body."
This boy really was Dreygan. I had no idea why his appearance had grown so young, but his eye was sharp.
"After I was attacked by a monster, mana started flowing through my body. Because of that, I have Mana Stone Sclerosis."
"A dead man walking, then."
He clicked his tongue and trudged forward until he stood in front of me.
"But for someone with Mana Stone Sclerosis, you look surprisingly hale."
"I have my methods."
"Fine. We'll leave it at that. You want to live as a monster hunter, you'd better have at least one card you keep close to the chest."
Dreygan took his place at the center of the training ground with his hands clasped behind his back. Then he jerked his chin.
"Get over here. Let's have a look at what the rookies these days are made of."
"...You'll be disappointed."
I'd never even received proper training. The only thing I could boast about was my monster-cleaning skills. When I said so honestly, Dreygan snorted.
"Everyone's a disappointment to my eyes. Makes no difference."
If he said so.
"What weapon do you use?"
Weapon. My strongest weapon was my bare hands.
When I casually raised them, his face twisted into something between disbelief and exasperation.
"Bare hands against a monster? You're in a hurry to die."
"I'm already dying. What's the harm?"
"Guts. I like that. A man staring down death hasn't got a thing left to fear. Show me that spirit."
Dreygan stomped his foot into the floor.
That was the signal.
I drove my left foot into the earth and coiled the power in my legs. My body shot forward like a cannonball.
"He's fast."
"Oh."
I let the instructors' voices wash past me and closed the distance. Even then, Dreygan stood exactly as he had — hands behind his back, utterly still. No matter where I looked, he was nothing but openings.
Is he going easy on me?
If so, no hesitation. Attack.
The instant I was about to swing my fist at his face—
A chill ran down my spine.
A bad feeling made me pull the punch. Dreygan's eyebrow twitched.
Correct. If I'd gone for his face, I would have been the one to pay.
Keeping the withdrawn-fist stance, I snapped a kick at his leg.
THUD!
A heavy sensation landed on my shin. I flinched and looked up — and there was Dreygan, perched on top of my foot. Hands still clasped behind his back, standing on my leg like it was a circus trick.
I yanked the leg back in a hurry. Dreygan flipped through the air and landed as lightly as a falling leaf.
"Good instincts. Reflexes too. Best I've seen in quite a while."
"...Thank you."
I hadn't expected praise.
"But your movements are too linear. Feels like you haven't the faintest idea what weight class you're in."
That was also true. I didn't currently know how strong I'd become. Every time I absorbed a mid-sized monster my weight class jumped, so of course I didn't.
"Keep going."
Dreygan jerked his chin, and I moved again. Punches. Kicks. I trusted the instinct of each moment and checked myself when I shouldn't press. Dreygan either slipped every blow or stopped it cold.
For reasons I couldn't name, I gradually felt as though I were throwing fists at a massive wall. Of course I did — no matter what I threw, nothing even thought about landing.
"This rookie's got some pretty good movement."
"Push him harder!"
"Land just one hit!"
The instructors' voices rang out, bright with excitement. Their director was under attack and they were treating it like a festival. It was also an evaluation I had never received in my life.
Watching Dreygan slip this way and that, I gradually changed my thinking. However much my weight class had risen, the gap between us felt impossibly vast. This was not a difference a few mid-sized monsters could close.
It was the same hopelessness I felt when I faced a mage. Dreygan was a powerhouse of that caliber.
And he still had not attacked even once. He was clearly trying to drain every last drop of my stamina and let me wear myself out.
I understood his intent. I was also certain he wouldn't throw a punch.
So I changed my approach.
Instant Death Magic. To plant it, all I needed was a single touch.
I had no intention of using Instant Death Magic on Dreygan. But I would fight with the single-minded resolve to end it in one move.
Just once. Just once, I touch Dreygan. That would be enough.
My eyes flashed. I poured more speed into the barrage, forcibly shoving past the limit of what my body could produce. My extending arms trembled. In exchange, the space my fists occupied grew tighter and tighter.
A curtain of punches poured down — a wall of knuckles. I deliberately shrank the space, driving Dreygan into a corner. His evasive movement grew smaller and smaller. He was slipping everything right in front of my nose with nothing but footwork and the tilt of his head.
But once it came to this—
THUD!
I could press him with the difference in our physiques. I took a long stride and threw my entire body forward. It was nothing but a raw body slam — but I was far bigger than Dreygan. To get out of the way, he would have to leap well back.
Sure enough, his small frame left the ground.
The instant I saw it, I thrust both arms out. They shot up like striking snakes, reaching for him and him alone.
Just before they closed, his hands moved. Dreygan's palms pressed down on both my wrists — and from that same locked position, a compact knee drove upward.
The knee itself was small. The force inside it was not. A blow to the jaw and I would be gone.
Even so, I poured everything I had into my hands. I drove my body still further forward and wrenched my wrists back with all my strength.
His arms were yanked. The knee slammed into my gut instead.
A massive shock rattled through me from head to heel. I took it. I endured it.
Dreygan's eyes went wide for a fraction of a second.
Last chance.
I smashed my head into him with everything I had left.
CRACK!
A crisp sound rang across the training ground.
"Gahk!"
At some point Dreygan's fist had risen and smashed into my forehead.
Damn it. I'd been sure he would hold back until the end.
I never even saw the punch. My reflexes didn't kick in the way they had before. It was an attack that came from a completely different realm.
My mind scattered. The consciousness I'd been clinging to with sheer stubbornness was shaken apart by a single blow. Even accounting for taking a hit to the head, the impact felt like being struck by a monster.
"Oof."
"Clean hit."
The instructors shook their heads in sympathy. I landed hard on my rear, then collapsed face-first onto the floor. The world spun. My brain had been rattled and my sense of balance was gone.
"Feels just like fighting a monster, this does. You don't know the first thing about sparing your own hide. I was trying to let you wear yourself out, and my hand went up before I knew it."
Dreygan's voice drew closer. He came up in front of me and clicked his tongue.
"You lot — from now on, don't go stirring up a dojo challenge just because some rookie walked in."
The instructors swallowed dry coughs. Those bastards had ignored what I said on purpose and egged it on. I'd gotten played for nothing.
"You too, that's enou—"
Dreygan stopped mid-sentence and looked down.
There was my hand, locked around his ankle.
I'd pulled out every trick I had, but the gap between us was what it was. So I chose the best move available to me, even if it was underhanded.
A pale smile touched my lips.
Dreygan looked at me for a moment, then let out a hollow laugh.
"Looks like you had some kind of trick up your sleeve. Did I just get hit with something?"
I can't tell him that. Instant Death Magic was my trump card. If it got out, the broken nature of the spell would lose its edge.
"Come find me again when you can stand."
My consciousness began to slip. This was the limit. I could feel my forehead swelling into a lump. Once I got up, I'd have to apply medicine religiously for a while.
With that, my consciousness came to an end.