Nymphs and Greco-Roman Mythology #6
『AAAAAGH~』
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—.
Seed Shot hammered into the body of the S-ranker Hex.
According to my personal theory, Seed Shot packed more than enough firepower to knock down most B-rank or even A-rank monsters. It was a genuinely impressive technique.
But Hex's body seemed to radiate a remarkable resistance to magic, and he came through it looking completely unscathed—or at least, that was how it appeared on the surface.
It didn't matter either way. Seed Shot had never been meant as a finishing blow. It was a feint.
『You damned rodent—.』
All I needed was to keep his attention locked on me so he couldn't slip out of this overloaded rift before his condition stabilized, and by that measure, drawing his focus had worked exactly as planned.
『Before I go outside and carve this world apart, I'll warm up by tearing you lot to shreds!』
Ssssssssss—.
Hex wound a roaring gust of wind around his own body. If I remembered right, that technique was the Arrow-Blocking Blessing. Hex had always been the sort of man who loved bragging about his skills to reporters, magazine staff, and his social media followers.
The principle behind the Arrow-Blocking Blessing was simple: any arrow, bullet, or long-range monster technique fired from a distance got neutralized by the whirlwind cloaking his body.
"Hex—are you Hex? Or someone else?"
I asked while slowly closing the distance. I needed a precise read on his condition before I could form a plan.
『I am no mere Hex. My name is Typhon Apocalypse—the final wind, born in the deepest pits of the abyss to herald the end of the world.』
Hex let out a low, rumbling laugh. Huh-huh-huh—.
You've got to be kidding me.
I'd heard that in Britain, where the MeTuber Kira was based, monsters of a "possession type" made regular appearances. Whatever had hijacked Hex's body was probably one of those!
And surely there was a MeTube video somewhere on how to drive them out….
━You have to beat the snot out of them and subdue them by force!
Love her or hate her, Kira the MeTuber really did earn her keep helping awakeners out.
I steeled my resolve. Deep down, I could feel it—defeat this thing, and most of our problems would be solved.
"Mana Deployment!"
Pt—
I spread my mana out in every direction, trying to shape the battlefield into an environment where the animals fighting alongside me could operate at their best.
But this overloaded rift was saturated with the dense, rampaging mana of a gate gone berserk, and pushing my own mana into it was no easy feat. It felt like trying to pour white milk drop by drop into a pool of black ink and turn even a corner of it pale.
『This temple belongs to me alone, foolish mortal!』
So the whole space was under that eerie possessor's control, huh? Impressive spatial dominance. It had been a long time since I'd faced an opponent like this.
"No point panicking."
Which meant my strategy of buffing multiple animals at once and swarming him was off the table.
I decided to pour all of my mana into the most raring-to-go member of the team: Keongkeongi.
"Go, Keongkeongi!"
Pt—!
Keongkeongi shot forward, puffing his fur out with a fierce grrrr—. He looked utterly magnificent.
『What can one small, cute dog-squirrel possibly do?』
"Keongkeongi—Gale Fury!"
━Keong-keong…!
FWOOSH—!
Keongkeongi charged at Hex with the blistering agility only a rodent could boast. Hex didn't seem able to react to the speed at all, and true to the name I'd given the move, Keongkeongi in full Gale Fury mode slammed into him at terrifying velocity.
KABOOOOM—!
The impact echoed in every direction, like a compact car hitting full speed and ramming straight into an obstacle.
『Ughak!』
Hex floated up into the air—boong——then tumbled head over heels across the muddy ground churned to slop by wind and rain. My mana-empowered Keongkeongi's attack had landed, loud and clear.
『You rodent…! You're no ordinary rodent, are you…!』
"That's because he's not a rat at all—he's a squirrel!"
Grrrrrrr—.
Hex growled like an enraged dog-squirrel himself, then bellowed:
『I shall deliver divine punishment…!』
Pt—
Hex snapped his fingers. Instantly, a whirlwind of razor-sharp blades of wind erupted right where Keongkeongi stood, looking as if it would carve the very fabric of space apart.
Shashak—!
That was North Wind, one of Hex's signature techniques. Word was, a single snap of those fingers was enough to send even decent A-rank monsters to their graves.
━Grrrrung…!
But Keongkeongi had an animal's sixth sense, and he dodged—barely—just before the North Wind swept up from beneath his feet.
Watching him slip away made Hex even angrier, and he snapped his fingers again.
Snap, snap—, snap—!
With every snap, Keongkeongi hopped this way and that, evading beautifully. But if all he did was keep dodging, his stamina was bound to run dry.
━Keong-keong…!
Darting away from one attack, Keongkeongi leaped high into the air.
『There!』
Snap!
Fwhooooo—.
The North Wind slammed into Keongkeongi's airborne body, helpless mid-flight with no control over his movement.
━Kyekyeng—!
Keongkeongi let out a piteous yelp like a puppy that had been smacked, spinning round and round as he flew. I sprinted after him and caught him safely in my arms before he could hit the ground.
"You okay?!"
━Grrrrung…!
Getting hit had made Keongkeongi absolutely livid. His fur had acted like armor, so he seemed to have avoided any serious injury—but his pride and joy, that magnificent tail of his, had been sheared down to a ragged stump. Blood dripped here and there where the wind had grazed him.
Swoop—.
Keongkeongi opened his mouth and pulled a single small strawberry out of his Squirrel Storage.
Chomp-chomp—chomp.
He devoured the strawberry, and as if it had fully restored his stamina, he puffed his fur up with a raring grrrr—, ready for more.
"No, Keongkeongi. You rest!"
I figured the best thing was to bench him for now. Just as I was thinking I'd have to take this guy on myself, something rustled and bolted out of my arms.
━Myo-ong…!
It was Myeong-i, the mechanical spider!
Hex burst into loud, mocking laughter at the sight.
『You think a mere bug can defeat me? What a strange war these so-called heroes of this age wage. North Wind!』
Pashook—.
A blade of razor wind crashed down on Myeong-i.
Shashook—!
But Myeong-i's body was built from a superalloy rumored not to bend even under a dinosaur's footstep, and the wind blade left barely a scratch on it.
『What? Not even a wound from my wind?』
No—quite the opposite. The external impacts and ambient mana had actually charged Myeong-i's battery to full.
Bzzt, crackle—. Crackle-crackle-crack—!
Myeong-i whirled streams of brilliant sparks around its body.
"That's it, Myeong-i! Electric Net!"
━Myo-ong…!
Myeong-i thrust its front legs forward—pt——and from them a web of intricate, spider-silk-like electrical currents shot toward Hex.
Bzzt, crackle-crackle-crack—!
The technique's name was, quite literally, Electric Net.
『GAAAAGH…!』
Electrocuted, Hex froze up as if paralyzed, unable to move his body at all.
I once remembered reading an interview where Hex said, "I got struck by lightning once and was laid up in bed for days." As a wind shaman, Hex spent a lot of time floating at high altitudes, and one of those lightning strikes had apparently done him some serious damage.
In other words, Hex had a critical weakness to electricity and lightning—and this moment was the proof!
『I— I can't move…!』
━Myo-ong…!
Myeong-i practically glowed with pride at the technique's success. But I could see the light in it slowly dimming. The Electric Net had devoured a huge chunk of its power in one go.
"Myeong-i, come back!"
Pt—
Myeong-i answered my call and perched itself on my shoulder. I was just about to step in myself in place of the drained little spider—when Kalinoi, who had been watching all of this unfold, fluttered her wings and shot forward with a pt—.
━Hwoo, hwoo…!
I projected my mana toward her.
"All right, Kalinoi! Full-on Wing Flurry!"
━Hwoo, hwoo…!
『You think a mere bird could wound the demon-dragon Typhon?!』
Thwacka-thwacka-thwacka-thwacka—.
Kalinoi hammered Hex with her wings again and again. For all his grand declarations, Hex, still bound by the Electric Net, howled in raw agony.
『Th—this aura is a nymph's…! This crooow…! Not an ordinary bird—a nymph! Fairies still walk this world…?! GAAAGH…!』
The demon-dragon Typhon.
He had been fated to be called the Destroyer of Worlds. But thanks to the exploits of heroes, gods, and nymphs alike, he had ultimately been sealed away in the deepest trenches of the sea.
For a dragon born in defiance of nature itself, the essence of nature's own order carried by the fairies had been, to Typhon, nothing short of pure poison.
But in this strange world he'd awakened into, there seemed to be no fairy essence, no gods, no heroes at all—and for Typhon, that was a windfall of the highest order.
Was my seal not supposed to be eternal, binding through all future ages? Doesn't matter! Give me a suitable vessel, and I can escape this sealed temple and paint the world in wind!
Fortune had smiled on him, too—he'd managed to claim the body of a wind shaman. A vessel whose affinity with a typhoon-wielding dragon was surprisingly decent.
And yet nothing was going quite the way he'd imagined.
『No matter how paltry a vessel my soul was poured into, do you truly think I, Typhon, could be bested like this…?!』
Thwacka-thwacka-thwacka-thwacka—!
Bludgeoned by wings of hardened steel, Typhon struggled to gather his wits.
I've been wasting my attention on those bizarre animals, but my strategy has been wrong from the start!
"Good, Kalinoi! One more time—full-on Wing Flurry!"
The main body that buffed and commanded all the animals. In truth, that bizarre man was the very first target Typhon should have been bringing down!
A coward who fights from behind his beasts—his true skill must be pathetic! That's always how hiding commanders are!
Summoners who commanded summoned beasts usually had negligible personal abilities of their own, and that weakness often became their undoing. Such was the common wisdom of the Age of Gods. And so Typhon, dwelling in Hex's body while being beaten about by a bizarre nymph-bird, clenched everything he had and detonated his mana in a furious explosion.
KWAAAAAAA—!
A violent waterspout of wind spiraled up around Typhon-Hex's body as its center.
━Hwoo, hwoo…!
Kalinoi, cheerfully pummeling away with her wings, got caught in the blast and sent tumbling through the air.
That was when the man shouted:
"Kalinoi! Come back now!"
『You fool! This is no time to worry about a bird!』
And Typhon-Hex hurled the swirling waterspout he'd wrapped around himself straight at the man.
Kwagagagak—.
The waterspout advanced by upending the earth and ground beneath it as it went, looking for all the world like the apocalypse itself—and like something no one alive could stop.
"Angangi! Your turn!"
━Zjeuji…!
That was the moment.
A strange golden ant sprang out in front of the man. Typhon took one look at it and roared with laughter.
『You think an ant can stop a typhoon!』
His laughter didn't last long. The bizarre ant shimmered, wrapped in light—and then evolved into something enormous, hardened, and radiating raw power.
『Wh—what is that?!』
Even Typhon, the Destroyer of the Age of Gods, had never seen such a thing.
The man called out to the golden, gleaming honey ant that had evolved before his eyes.
"Angangi! Zjeuji Hardening!"
━Zjeuji…!
The golden honey ant's body became hard as bedrock itself. With his godlike senses, Typhon could perceive that the ant's carapace, even if only temporarily empowered, was harder than diamond.
『Ant or not, an ant is still an ant! Do you truly believe some worthless vermin can stand against me, Typhon, the wrath of earth and wind?!』
━Zjeuji…!
The Waterspout Apocalypse Typhon unleashed struck the hardened honey ant's body and spat out a shrieking metallic shriek—kagak——then, failing to hold its form, scattered into nothing.
Watching it dissolve, Typhon felt the world go black before his eyes!
『GRAAAGH! Just how many animals do you command?! You coward! You craven wretch! Fight me fairly! Face me one-on-one, damn you!』
Typhon goaded him, choked with fury and indignation. Memories of being beaten black and blue by every god, hero, and fairy of the old age came flooding back; it felt like his guts were twisting inside out, like blood-tears were spraying from his eyes.
But the man didn't take the bait. Instead, shouting as though he'd just spotted his opening, he called out:
"Angangi! Hyper Zjeuji Slice!"
The honey ant spread its wings and streaked in like a flash of lightning.
Hyper Zjeuji Slice. Typhon had no idea what it was—but he knew with utter certainty that it had to be a horrific technique, and fear seized him!
『GRAAAGH! Wind-Blocking Blessing!』
Typhon hastily cocooned himself in a suit of wind, like armor.
But Angangi's razor-sharp horn, having become a hyper-chimera ant, was many times sharper and sturdier than any blade forged by a master craftsman's desperate hand.
These were, quite literally, Kaiser Blades—wielding the ultimate destructive power, sharp enough to cut down any existence in creation.
KAGAK—!
At last, Angangi's horn punched straight through the armor of wind wrapped around Typhon-Hex's body—and.
Shashak.
—it sliced clean through his Zjeuji.
『GUAAAAAAAAAGH…!!!!』