The Ekriki Emerges
The floodplain after the rain was anything but cool — hot and stiflingly humid.
Pina trailed after Alice in quick little steps, sweat beading on her brow.
People weren't the same every day, of course, but Alice seemed especially out of sorts today. From the moment they'd met that morning, through breakfast, accepting the commission, and setting out, her mood had been sharp as a drawn blade.
Thud. Thud.
Alice's footsteps had the aimless quality of a wanderer with nowhere to go.
Ordinarily Pina would have been chattering away, but now she only watched Alice's back, reading the room. After a long stretch of silence, though, the awkwardness became unbearable.
Unable to hold it in any longer, Pina spoke up.
"A-Alice-nim."
"…Yeah?"
Alice turned her head late, as if only just registering the call. The profile that came into view looked terribly cold.
"Is something wrong? Did something bad happen?"
"No, just…"
She answered with a faint smile, but her shoulders still hung low.
Pina fretted over the sight of her. She'd thought she might be of some help.
"If something's going on, please tell me too. I am… Alice-nim's helper, after all."
Pina showed a rare streak of resolve. Her words made Alice pause. She blinked, looked at Pina, and reached out a hand.
Pina squeezed her eyes shut on reflex as the hand came closer.
Alice's palm settled gently on top of Pina's head and gave it a soft pat.
"Then let's hurry up and kill the Ekriki."
…So she wasn't going to say anything at all.
Pina chewed her lip, then nodded. She'd hoped Alice would open up about something, but Alice never did.
Something wrong, huh.
There wasn't really anything wrong.
Noah had left — that was that. Sending off a close friend had left me a little gloomy, but I'd shaken it off soon enough. While she was gone, I'd raise my rank high enough that we could reunite as better versions of ourselves.
The reason I felt so drained right now was the floodplain weather, pure and simple. Coming right after a heavy rain, the humidity was enough to steam a person alive. Even sprinkling Cooling Powder barely helped against the damp. I felt like a dumpling trapped in a steamer basket.
And my throat was dry…
I wanted nothing more than to bite into one of the Waterburst Fruits I'd brought for the hunt and burst it in my mouth — but those had a purpose. Wasting them was out of the question. The Waterburst Fruit was the most important item of the day. So I kept tipping my canteen, holding water in my mouth as I walked.
Pina must have noticed my suffering somehow, because she kept asking this and that — but I never could bring myself to admit I was just hot and irritable. She was walking without a word of complaint, and most of the gear was on her back alone. If anyone was having the hardest time, it was Pina. Out of sheer guilt, I needed to finish this job fast.
And so my private war began.
Tracking the Ekriki meant more than following the trail it left behind — enduring the heat was a trial all its own. The creature's tracks were unmistakable; there was no confusing them with any other monster's. Most of them were dusted with white powder.
I reached toward a white smear on a tree trunk. The bark was crushed and scored where the thing had rubbed its back against it.
I'd snagged this Ekriki subjugation commission before anyone else could take it. The catch was that I was taking it alone. No need to coordinate with anyone — just me, going head-to-head. That made it all the more exciting. I could finally put the Kakari-reinforced weapons through their paces, and properly test the power of the Essence as well.
Carrying that small wish to meet it soon, I followed the Ekriki's trail.
Pina and I walked all day. Despite our efforts, the Ekriki never showed itself. We pushed past one day and waited for the next. Then the day after that, and the day after that. The Ekriki refused to reveal itself so easily. For all my resolve to wrap this up quickly, we had already been living in the floodplain for a full week.
Irritation was starting to boil over. Walking left me clammy with sweat; insects swarmed and pestered; and now we had to forage our own food, which was a hassle on top of everything else. Long hunts were normal, sure — but stuck in this endless game of tag, anger was inevitable.
The heat never let up, and every so often some other monster would appear that wasn't the Ekriki. I wanted to kill whatever it was on the spot, but I couldn't go picking fights with monsters that weren't the target.
We kept up that open-ended search until we found a different kind of trail.
"This is… a Kakari."
Pina covered her mouth from behind me as she stared at the signs. Ash left behind by exploding powder. Brush scorched as if something had seared it. Here there were not only Ekriki marks, but Kakari claw prints as well.
An Ekriki and another monster had fought in this place, and the Ekriki had won. The Kakari's corpse, savaged by the Ekriki, lay strewn about in a brutal mess. Its neck was bent and broken, as if stomped flat under a foot. The flesh had been torn away so roughly that bone showed through.
I touched the corner of my mouth as I looked down at the body. It had died wretchedly, eyes still open. The carcass hadn't started to rot yet — only the metallic smell of blood, no stench of decay.
In heat and humidity like this, if it still hadn't spoiled…
Thud.
Right on cue, a footfall rolled through the floodplain.
Pina startled and spun, scanning the surroundings.
Thud. Thud.
It was drawing closer. Birds that had been chirping in the dead trees took flight; beasts moving through the undergrowth fled. The atmosphere grew heavier by the second.
I reached toward the trembling Pina.
"…Pina. Shields."
"Y-yes! Yes!"
She hurriedly unstrapped the two shields bound to her back and handed them over. I gripped both hard and swept the area with my eyes.
Thud-thud-thud.
"Ah… aah…"
The footsteps grew louder; breathing turned ragged. Pina, crushed under the pressure, couldn't even move — she stood frozen in place, her feet lost, unable to choose a direction.
"…Pina!"
I grabbed her at once and shook her by the shoulders. Her face was deathly pale.
"Snap out of it. That way — where the animals were running. Go."
"Y-yes."
"Hide well."
Pina exhaled in rough gasps and ran the way I'd told her. I raised the shields and settled into stance, covering my body. I scanned the surroundings. The sweltering, oppressive heat had long since vanished into the floodplain's suddenly frigid air.
A single breath of wind stirred. It skimmed across my sweat-soaked skin — and riding that wind came a billow of white powder.
I threw myself sideways at once.
BOOM!
The powder detonated in an instant and was gone.
————……
The Blast Powder Dragon, Ekriki.
It emerged slowly from behind a dead tree. A theropod — a bipedal dinosaur, you could say. But stiff, scale-like feathers bristled along its arms, back, neck, and legs, putting it at a distance from any ordinary dinosaur. The white powder, though, flowed only from its neck. With every movement the powder spilled free, and every so often a red spark flickered from the Ekriki's mouth and set the powder crackling away into nothing.
Its slit-pupiled violet eyes fixed on me and drew nearer, slow and deliberate. The red spots framing those eyes made it look almost demonic.
I did not run. I held its gaze and issued my challenge in silence.
Thud. Thud.
Its footfalls shook the ground. The vibration climbed into my body and set me trembling. The Ekriki came right up to me, rolled its eyes, and looked me over once. It bared its sharp teeth, ran its tongue across its mouth as if savoring the taste — then,
————…aaaAAAAAA!!
It threw its head back and roared, jaws wide open.
The roar that marked the opening of battle rolled out so loud it seemed to fill the entire floodplain.
Pina clamped both hands over her ears and curled into a ball in the brush. Her whole body shook with fear.
When Alice had killed the Galori, the fear had drained away and left Pina's heart at ease. But the Ekriki was on another level entirely. Even with Alice standing before it, the terror did not fade. From that roar onward, the sheer presence the creature radiated was something else. Pina was crushed beneath it; she couldn't endure.
Among mid-grade monsters, the Ekriki ranked on the strong side. Like the Kakari that had died so brutally, every low-grade monster of the floodplain they'd hunted so far would have fallen to an Ekriki without putting up a fight. Its strength was in a different class from low-grade prey. Hunters died to it as often as monsters did. It had the bulk to match its toughness and did not go down easily. Those jagged teeth tore enemies apart without mercy, and from time to time a threatening flame spilled from its maw. Fighters who kept trading blows without knowing better would get blanketed in the white powder streaming from its neck — and the moment that powder met the Ekriki's fire, they would simply explode and die.
But it was not without weaknesses. There was no monster that could not be hunted.
Alice held her shields and kept her mind calm. Hunting an Ekriki meant never rushing, never growing impatient. With dual shields in hand, the better approach was to let the creature attack freely.
She yielded the first move to the Ekriki.
Toward the motionless Alice, the Ekriki stretched out its head. Its spark-lit jaws yawned wide, ready to bite down and swallow her whole. Heat rolled off as that mouth closed in — large enough to devour a human in a single gulp.
But the human facing it was anything but ordinary.
Alice met the monster's maw with eyes that held not a trace of fear. And in the moment of death, she raised her shields.
The shields, hardened with Kakari hide, met the Ekriki's teeth.
Krrrk-!
Just Guard.
The Ekriki's body lurched sideways. Its jaws, flung along with the shields' motion, snapped shut on empty air.
Thwack!
Guard Chaser.
The same shield that had knocked the mouth aside slammed straight into the Ekriki's head as a follow-up. Reeling from the sudden impact, the creature jerked its head back and steadied itself, then gave its neck a slight side-to-side shake and flung powder into the air.
Seeing the white dust close in, Alice kicked off the ground and backstepped. The powder was instantly caught by the flame spilling from its mouth and detonated. The heat that bloomed around her made Alice's body flush hot. The blast radius wasn't wide, but it was a chilling explosion — get caught in it and it was over on the spot.
Her senses stood on end. Strength flooded into the hands gripping the shields. The thrill of combat wrapped around her body. Stray thoughts vanished; her heart pounded. In this moment, the only thing that mattered was the enemy right in front of her.
There was nothing in her mind but the will to kill.