The Broken Horn
The plains city of Ampianura was, in my personal opinion, closer to a village than a city.
But the village itself was thoroughly charming.
Colorful buildings draped in soft, cascading flowers and cobblestones laid neatly underfoot all quietly declared that this place — Ampianura — was alive and breathing.
Ampianura was famous for its Uvaberries as well. A promenade thick with Uvaberry bushes, their sweet, delicious fruit hanging in heavy clusters, was one of the town's loveliest attractions.
It wasn't so different from the Ampianura I knew from the game, but the cool wind sweeping across the plains and the sweet scent of flowers made me feel, in my bones, that this was a reality — and a thoroughly captivating one at that.
"What a wide-open view. It just clears your chest right out."
Pina chimed in. She was right — set in the middle of a vast plain, Ampianura was a place that made freedom easy to feel.
But there was only so long we could linger in the scenery. We had work to do.
The cart that had brought us to Ampianura would wait here until we returned. We parted ways with the driver who had carried us this far.
Before getting down to business, we needed to look around Ampianura itself. We decided to stop by the local Hunter Association branch and gather information on the Kespilatos.
The Ampianura Association branch was a modest affair. You could count the hunters wandering about on one hand, and there was only a single attendant on duty.
That didn't mean there was anything strange about Ampianura. Antico was simply such a massive city — and an unexplored frontier at that — that it drew crowds. A place like this was the norm.
"Oh my, faces I don't recognize! You're not from around here, are you?!"
The Ampianura reception attendant was remarkably cheerful. Whether she was simply glad to see outsiders, every one of her movements was big and bustling.
"We're here to take down the Broken-Horned Kespilatos."
"Ah! So you're the two who came in place of the royal army! White hair and pink eyes… are you the Slaughterer?!"
"…Slaughterer?"
"It's the name they stick on hunters who've hit the subjugation request limit. Really, hunters like that are rare enough to count on one hand, you know?"
What a bizarre title.
Still, I'd only taken down what fell within a normal range, hadn't I? Slaughterer or whatever — it didn't suit me at all.
Besides, what was there to call "slaughter" about killing monsters? I'd killed them because they were requests. That was all.
This is all because of the requests.
"For the Kespilatos, you can ask that hunter over there! The one sitting there is Ampianura's pride and joy."
The attendant stretched out her hand.
At the end of her pointing finger sat a scruffy-looking man. He was slumped in a chair in his armor, radiating the air of someone thoroughly worn down by life.
"Khhhrr…"
"…Is he sleeping?"
He really was. Sound asleep.
That was Ampianura's pride?
We approached the thoroughly uninspiring man.
He was nodding off, head bobbing, until he saw me and gave it a shake.
"Ah, um, who are you…?"
"I've got some questions."
"Ah… um… yes…"
The hunter answered half-asleep.
It turned out the reason he was so exhausted was that he'd been keeping watch on the Broken-Horned Kespilatos for so long he hadn't gotten a proper night's sleep.
Thanks to that, though, the amount of investigating we needed to do dropped sharply.
"So… you're the hunters who came to kill the Kespilatos, right?"
"Yeah."
"I-I'm finally free…!"
With a face full of pure joy, the hunter handed over everything he'd investigated.
Papers crammed with notes on the creature's ecology, its range of movement, and all sorts of miscellaneous details. I roughly sorted through them and took them in hand.
"Please, I'm begging you…! Because of that thing, monsters have been fleeing into town, and I haven't slept in three days…. Ah, I need more sleep."
With that, the hunter went limp in his chair.
Apparently he'd been camping out in the Association's quarters, never knowing when he might have to scramble because of the Kespilatos.
If a creature like that came near the village, it would be a disaster.
All in all, he was a hunter you couldn't help but feel sorry for.
We rented a room at a lodging house and unpacked our gear.
This was already settled land, so there weren't many hunters around, and no dedicated hunter lodgings either.
The moment I set my things down, I sat at the desk and went through the records the hunter had given me.
Unlike an ordinary Kespilatos, the tip of this one's horn was stained red. It looked as though it drained the life force of any monster it gored. Its overall coloring was different too, making it easy to tell apart from a normal Kespilatos. Ordinary ones were green; this one was a duller, murkier shade.
A bit like spoiled spinach.
Memo: I wonder if this one's meat tastes good too?
Its territory was fixed, but having turned into an aggressive monster, it would occasionally leave its range to patrol and clear the surroundings. Constant vigilance was required in case it headed toward Ampianura.
Its range of activity was marked separately on the map.
Memo: Dozed off and almost got gored to death~.
The moment it spotted a monster, it had developed the habit of charging straight in with its horn, no fear at all. Extremely proactive. Upon encounter, either flee at full speed or close in tight and fight — those were the recommended options.
But I don't run. Come at me, world!
Memo: What kind of herbivore is this? Don't lie to me!!!
The hunter had left a more systematic record than I'd expected.
Plenty of personal opinions had found their way in, but those opinions weren't wrong.
The Broken-Horned Kespilatos was a creature whose charge was especially dangerous.
If it had a gimmick, it was this: take a direct hit that drove the horn clean through your body, and you died on the spot, unable to do a thing. Anything with something thicker than a forearm punching through it would die, of course — and the creature itself knew that, which was why so many of its patterns revolved around the horn.
Well, the patterns could wait. What mattered to me was this thing's territory.
According to the map, it was out on the Brivido Plains west of Ampianura. It seemed to live there with a herd of other Kespilatos. The Broken Horn was almost certainly the leader of the pack.
If we failed to take it down, Ampianura would be in trouble in more ways than one.
Predator monsters that couldn't hunt the Kespilatos might wander in search of prey and end up at the village — or the Broken Horn itself might invade.
"Pina, get ready."
"Eh, we're going right now?"
"Yeah."
…Time to get to work.
A fight with the Broken Horn would hinge on how well you could dodge and block its charges.
In that sense, a greatsword was a thoroughly terrible weapon.
It wasn't that any particular weapon was strictly good or bad against monsters, but matchups still existed.
A greatsword was slow on mobility, and while it did have a parry, a parry couldn't stop a charge meant to skewer you clean through.
I hadn't planned on fighting with a greatsword this time anyway.
The weapons I'd brought were a staff, and a sword and shield.
A staff — a weapon that channeled a monster's power into strange sorcery.
The concept was fun, but managing the gauge was a pain in all sorts of ways.
That said, it was more than enough to kill a Kespilatos.
You had to know how to use every weapon if you wanted a truly entertaining hunt.
Let's enjoy this.
…Though, bitterly enough, the day was unusually dark.
Thick, dense clouds blanketed the sky. The collaboration between the far-spreading plains and the clouds made for a sight worth looking at. But weather this heavy left both body and mind feeling damp and sluggish.
Times like these, the right move was to keep your body moving so the edge didn't dull.
A lone tree stood tall in the middle of the plain. Watching its leaves thrash, you could tell today's weather was nothing ordinary.
But whatever the weather, it was nothing more than a sweet backdrop to me. This was a moment I couldn't back down from.
Adelaide's business, the prince's business — none of that was my concern. This was a matter between me and myself. As far as I was concerned, I simply wanted to kill a monster. An Elder Species, the first I'd faced since the One-Eyed. More than enough of an enemy to get my blood up.
Ampianura — Brivido Plains.
"Urgh—."
Pina, surveying the Brivido Plains, gagged. Even I found the sight hard to look at.
This bleak, dark plain was littered with monster corpses. The stench of rotting flesh hung thick in the air, and small insects and flies swarmed everywhere.
Every corpse here had been run through by something, sprawled out with its guts spilled. All of them the Broken Horn's handiwork.
When an Elder Species appeared, the ecosystem flipped like this — an entire stretch of land turning grim and desolate in an instant.
No life remained in the surroundings. Even the monsters that had lived here had fled.
Before these corpses became human ones — before the damage spread any further — we had to bring it down, and fast.
I scanned the monster carcasses as I pressed forward. None of the bodies here were recent. Every last one had been rotting for a long time.
Past the corpses, I stepped into its territory.
Was the reason it guarded this zone so fiercely to protect its own kind?
No. I knew instinctively that wasn't it. This creature killed even monsters that fled, and fought monsters it had no need to fight. Protecting its kin had already become an afterthought.
It was the same as me.
Right now, the Broken Horn simply enjoyed killing.
Even now, its aggression wouldn't let it stay still — it would be wandering here and there, searching for life.
I checked the map.
Walking the paths cut through the plain, I tracked toward the places it was likely to roam.
I was genuinely grateful for the hunter's records — no need for a separate investigation. The route was already set, so there was no need to establish a safe base either. Commuting between Ampianura and here, day and night, would be enough.
It was the most comfortable scouting I'd ever done, but the gloomy sky offered us no help.
Shaaaa—.
Rain began to fall.
"Ah…. I'll get the rain gear out for now."
Pina hurriedly pulled rain cloaks from her pack. They were made from processed waterproof monster materials. We carried them against the possibility of our bodies getting soaked and heavy, and they turned out to be quite useful.
I pulled the cloak on. The rain settled the rotting stench and the smell of blood from the corpses.
The rain showed no sign of stopping while we searched for the creature. It wasn't coming down hard, but the drops were thick. I considered heading back to resupply, but a roar from far off snapped me back to attention.
———!!!
"…Pina. This time, you really have to be careful."
This request was more dangerous than any monster we'd faced.
And because it was open plains, aside from the sparse trees, there was barely anywhere for her to hide. That was a position I had to keep in mind.
For Pina's safety, I decided I would carry all the weapons from here on. I'd toss them down beside me during the fight and switch naturally as needed.
"Watch from a distance. Carefully."
"…I could provide cover with a bow or a repeating crossbow."
"No. It's genuinely dangerous. If that horn runs you through, you're just dead."
I couldn't create something I'd regret.
"…Is Alice-nim going to be all right?"
"Hm?"
"If Alice-nim gets run through by that horn, I…"
Pina mumbled, trailing off. But it was a needless worry.
As if that horn was going to pierce me.
I reached out over her rain cloak, set my hand firmly on top of her head, and nodded with a small smile.
"Trust me."
"…All right."
My meaning seemed to have gotten across.
Pina was a good kid who listened well and took things seriously. Trusting me, she handed over the staff, the sword, and the shield.
I left Pina behind and walked on slowly. There were no other monsters in the area, so I only needed to watch for the Kespilatos. That way, there was no chance of Pina being in danger.
I pressed forward, splashing through rain-filled puddles.
In the distance, I could see the form of a Kespilatos with a grotesque horn.
It was fighting another monster.
———!!
The monster was a Caricare — one of the representative carnivorous monsters that lived on these plains.
It was a mid-tier monster, but grade differences meant nothing in front of an Elder Species. The Broken Horn charged. The Caricare twisted its body aside, but the Kespilatos kicked off the ground, whipped around in a sharp turn, and drove into its exposed flank.
———Kyaaaaa!!
The Caricare screamed. It tried somehow to counterattack, but the moment the horn pierced it, it was already too late.
The horn drank blood, steadily draining the creature's life force. The blood-aura clinging to the horn grew denser and denser. Strength left the Caricare's body; it shuddered, then went limp.
I stepped out in front of it.
———….
"……."
I met the Kespilatos's red eyes.
Those eyes were filled with the thrill of combat. Snorting hard, it slowly pulled its horn free. Thick blood beaded at the tip, dripped onto the ground, and was washed away by the rain.
I tossed the sword and shield down beside me.
I took up the staff, spun it once, and settled into my stance.
———KAAAaaaaa!!
The Kespilatos roared. Its deafening cry was loud enough to swallow every sound of the rain.
As if it had been waiting for this fight, the Luga-lac's essence glowed with a sinister light at the tip of my staff.