The Hunter Becomes the Hunted
Being reduced from hunter to prey was a thoroughly unpleasant business.
The hunter of the flooded woods, Ekriki, was thoroughly irritated with the human before it.
Whatever trick she was using, its explosive powder had no effect. Its attacks rarely landed, and even when they did, she refused to topple like some withered tree.
The human was steadily cornering it.
Compared to a monster, a human was endlessly fragile. That was why they used anything and everything to protect themselves — even if that power had been taken from a monster.
Empower.
A red-and-black aura unique to the Luga-lac coiled around her greatsword and her entire body. Eyes flushed the color of a Luga-lac's pupils fixed on Ekriki.
Then came a True Charged Slash. The monster's borrowed power tore a long gash through the already-shredded hide of Ekriki's leg.
Its tough hide and scale-feathers kept the wound from going deep, but the shallow cuts stacked and stacked until, before long, they had become one enormous injury.
What good was a powerful strike if it never landed?
The moment Ekriki tried to fire its breath, she vanished behind the terrain. She never once came near the swirling explosive powder.
If nothing hit, it was worse than being weak.
This was the human's victory.
"Hoo."
I tightened my grip on the greatsword and poured every scrap of focus into Ekriki.
The world around us had gone silent. Only its breathing and mine circled in my ears.
Ekriki's breathing was something else. The rough, exhausted pants flung explosive powder in every direction, and the smell of burning hung thick in the air. I crushed ash-blackened grass underfoot as I moved.
The water soaking my body was starting to dry. I pulled a Waterburst Fruit from my secondary pack.
Splash—.
That made four. I tossed the crushed fruit aside.
Ekriki stomped the ground and drove its body forward. I rolled once to the side and dragged my blade across the earth.
The essence gauge drained at once, and a dark-crimson aura wrapped around me in its place, pouring strength into my limbs.
Skrrrk—.
The greatsword, gouging a path through the dirt, slammed hard into Ekriki's jaw. Its head snapped upward under the impact, unable to absorb the force.
Empower was a common skill for any greatsword essence. Using it let me unleash a greatsword's full-power smash at full charge in a single breath. The description said it flooded the body with a monster's strength so you could fire off maximum-power smashes without gathering force — in short, a skill that cut charge time. A good one.
Ekriki was far too quick and tricky for its size. If I wanted it down fast, I had to borrow the essence's power like this.
The second I let my guard slip even a little—
BOOM—!
—it would detonate its powder and make sure I couldn't think about anything else.
I rolled across the ground, planted the greatsword, and pushed myself up, breathing hard. I brushed the lightly scorched armor and reset my stance.
Ekriki still had energy to spare. It never staggered from exhaustion or strain. A body that size came with durability to match. The only difference was that a little irritation had started to creep into its roars.
I swept the hair from my face and raised the greatsword.
I still needed to use Berserk, but I'd been burning Empower so constantly that I hadn't managed to fill the essence all the way. Empower was just too much fun. Skipping the charge and launching a full-power smash — how was that not exhilarating? Of course, I wanted to feel Berserk's effects too.
Using only one skill got boring fast.
We clashed a little longer.
The stronger a monster was, the harder it was to bring down no matter how long you fought. Part breaks, stagger states — compared to the weaker ones, they simply didn't hand you openings. So I didn't usually go out of my way to force a stagger. Fight long enough and they'd drop on their own two or three times. And honestly, beating on something that lay there motionless was less satisfying than hitting something that was thrashing with everything it had.
That was the real taste of a hunt, wasn't it?
———aaaAAAaa!!
Ekriki roared — but it wasn't doing anything with it. It must have finally realized something was wrong with this fight.
For all its ferocious appearance, it turned and fled. Explosive powder swirled along its escape path, but that was nothing more than a defensive measure to keep enemies from giving chase.
Watching it tuck its tail and run was as good as an admission. It knew. It was no longer the hunter. It was the prey.
I planted the greatsword in the ground for a moment and caught my breath. Catching up to a fleeing monster wouldn't take long. It was leaving a trail of dripping blood and footprints — how could I possibly lose it?
Killing it was only a matter of time now.
"…Pina."
I called her name quietly. From the heap of underbrush where she'd been hiding, Pina finally emerged, her face drawn and wilted.
"We have to go after it."
"…R-Right. Of course."
Her voice trembled slightly.
"You okay?"
"N-No, it's not that. It's just…"
I bent my knees a little and looked up at her face. She couldn't bring herself to meet my eyes and kept her head bowed low. She was hesitating, so I simply waited for an answer.
"It's just… I feel so powerless. Like nothing's changed from before. I still… I'm still scared of monsters."
She mocked herself. The self-loathing in her words made me chew on my lip.
"It's fine. You're just not used to it yet."
I cut her off without hesitation.
Pina's condition was simple enough. Her first impression of monsters had just been too intense — trauma born from an overwhelming sense of helplessness. If monsters scared her that much, the answer was to keep showing her monsters. Keep drilling it into her that they weren't actually that horrific or terrifying.
"What about the Galori? Were you scared then? The Kakari?"
"…N-No. Neither of those was that bad…"
"Then Ekriki's no different."
I straightened my knees and turned my back.
"They're all the same monsters."
All the same prey.
Tracking the fleeing Ekriki wasn't difficult. I followed the blood, the explosive powder, and the footprints it left behind. Not far off, the creature was taking a rest.
It must have been tired — sitting demurely in place, just breathing. It was almost funny.
I leaned my back against a tree where it wouldn't notice me and chewed slowly on some jerky as a meal substitute.
"……"
Pina stood beside me, stealing glances at Ekriki. The way her eyelids fluttered told me she was trying to overcome her fear. It was so endearing that I plopped my hand on top of her head.
Pina ducked awkwardly and looked up at me, tilting her head as if to ask what that was about. I just smiled softly and didn't answer.
I finished chewing and swallowed the jerky. Meal over — time to get ready to fight.
I burst a Waterburst Fruit over my head. My body was starting to feel chilly.
I looked at the essence set in the greatsword's socket. The Luga-lac essence was fully charged, its distinctive dark-crimson aura rippling.
What does Berserk feel like?
Its in-game performance was simple. Activate it and for a set duration, attack power rose slightly and action speed rose with it. As a bonus, you got glowing eyes with no actual effect.
Performance aside, the eye glow was the most important part.
Wait. Thinking about it, even if I use the eye glow, it's not like I can see myself in third person.
I blinked. An unexpected problem.
Still, Pina will see it. I should ask her how it looked later. If she says it's lame, I just won't use it…
I lifted the greatsword and pushed off from the tree. Then I stepped back out onto the plain where Ekriki was resting.
Sensing my presence, Ekriki rose. Its long, slit yellow pupils were packed with a murderous intent that made the body tremble. It raised its scale-feathers and kicked up a cloud of explosive powder, draping itself in white once more as it faced me.
I'd hurt it this badly. Of course it hated me. Of course it wanted me dead.
Sorry, but I had no intention of dying easily.
I raised the greatsword. Eyes half-closed, I gripped the hilt tight. The moment I poured my will into it, the essence's power surged outward and swept through my entire body. A tingling heat climbed from the fingertips holding the blade, and my head swam.
W-Wait a second. This feels weird.
My consciousness is…
Pina swallowed hard, kept herself hidden, and watched Alice.
Having observed Alice's fights until now, she knew that nothing Alice did was ever wasted. The way she had fought Ekriki — every movement stripped of excess, clean and precise.
Yes. Just as Alice had said, Ekriki was ultimately the same as any other monster. It would fall to Alice the way the Kakari and Galori had. There was no reason to be afraid.
She would show her again — the sight of a monster collapsing beneath her blade.
Pina clenched her fists tight.
But contrary to every expectation, Alice stood before Ekriki and did not move at all.
She hadn't even raised a dual-blade guard. Mid-grip on the greatsword, her head suddenly dropped forward, limp.
Could she parry with a greatsword too? Stranger still was the black something born of the essence, rippling and coiling around her body.
Pina chewed her nails. She believed in Alice — of course she did — but she couldn't do anything about the anxiety.
What's happening?
Ekriki eyed the motionless Alice warily, then took a step forward.
"…Ah."
Alice, head bowed, finally lifted her face.
"Aaa…"
Her arms hung loose. Only the hand gripping the greatsword remained firm.
Her eyes met Ekriki's.
In that instant, Ekriki recoiled from whatever it saw, jaws falling open as it blasted explosive powder outward.
Alice drove off the ground, scraping the greatsword through the dirt to catch her balance. She planted the blade and rose slowly to her feet. Then she looked once at her own hand, and once at Ekriki.
Dragging the greatsword in one hand, she walked forward.
This was different from before.
Ekriki backed away from the hunter approaching it. Fire bloomed again and again from its mouth in warning, but the hunter's steps never stopped.
Skrrrk—.
The trailing greatsword carved a long line across the earth.
Where had the human she'd been fighting gone? Had a monster taken her place?
"I still… haven't killed them."
The hunter murmured.
"I have to find them."
The voice held no emotion at all. Her posture was completely open.
Ekriki did not miss the opening. It reared its head at once and brought it down to crush the hunter — intending, after all the pain it had suffered, to kill her cleanly and immediately.
CLANG—!
A crisp, ringing sound cut through the air.
Flowing Water.
Ekriki's jaw collided with the greatsword and bounced upward. The hunter absorbed the force, then settled into her stance. She twisted at the waist, coiled her body, and raised the greatsword high.
The blade carved a massive arc.
It left a deep wound across the monster's bare chest, where no scale-feathers grew. Blood sprayed. Ekriki roared in agony.
It could not die like this. It thrashed, scattering explosive powder in every direction.
"If you're going to get in my way," the hunter said in a voice sharp as a blade, rendering the thrashing meaningless, "then die."