Sleeping with the Enemy (4)

The third night arrived.

After settling the Valkyrie down to rest, I threw everything I had into fighting the monsters that came swarming in.

I swung a club at the walkers and fired Chamcheongseok at the abalone-shelled beasts. Using a magic stone raw like that was hardly efficient, but I had no other options left.

Crack!

"Kaaaargh!"

The last one.

I slumped against a rock, my body a wreck.

"Tch."

A bitter taste lingered on my tongue.

The monsters seemed to have fully locked onto our position by now. Their numbers were growing, and the variety was expanding too. I'd even spotted one that looked like an octopus — and the thing was surprisingly quick.

I'd managed to get through today somehow. Whether I could hold out tomorrow was another question entirely.

We might have to relocate our base sooner rather than later.

Perched on the edge of the life raft, I checked on the Valkyrie's condition.

"Still hurting?"

"Huuuuh…"

"Alright. Get some rest. Don't try to do anything."

No field medic. No emergency medical kit. Eating well and sleeping well was the best treatment available. I decided to keep brewing Peredi tea for her at regular intervals and monitor her condition that way.

Whether she'd grown used to my nursing or not, the Valkyrie was more cooperative today than yesterday. The proof was hanging off her shoulders — my military uniform. She still looked like she resented it, though.

I glanced at her sidelong.

A woman I'd tried to kill. A woman who'd tried to kill me.

And now I was trying to keep that same woman alive.

I told myself it was for survival, but a hollow laugh still escaped me. Life really was a mystery you never quite figured out.

There was no time for even a nap. After moving all night, I was starving. I caught a couple of frogs from a nearby thicket and set them over the campfire.

"Hmm."

Could you eat monster meat, though?

Judging by appearance alone, I doubted it.

For all I knew, it could be poisonous like a pufferfish.

If I came down with food poisoning out here, that would be the end of me. Better not to risk it.

Still, curiosity tugged at me.

Monsters.

What even were they, really?

Almost nothing was known about them. The prevailing theory held that they were minions created by the Demon King of old — living creatures corrupted and reshaped by twisted magical power into something other.

Either way, there was a connection to magic. There might be something useful in the corpses.

After finishing my meal, I decided to dissect the octopus monster — the one that still most closely resembled its original fish form.

And I found something I hadn't expected.

"This is…"

There was a stone inside.

A stone that held mana. A magic stone. And one of a kind I'd never seen before.

On a hunch, I cracked open the skulls of the other monsters as well. The revulsion of getting their alien blood on my hands was considerable, but even that couldn't suppress my intellectual hunger. Holding my breath against the stench of fish, I went through every single corpse.

Without exception, a magic stone was found in every monster's brain.

I couldn't contain my astonishment. A magic stone existing inside a living creature's nervous system?

"David, look at this! This is paper ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠material!"

And that wasn't even the half of it.

A new magic stone had appeared.

"As someone who majored in magic stone studies, I can hardly just let this pass."

My heart began to pound.

One more reason to make it home alive.

Beyond that, there was nothing else of note. I gathered the stones harvested from the monsters and returned to our shelter.

And then, as if the heavens themselves were toying with us, it started to rain.

"Ugh."

It had been about time for rain, sure. Still wasn't glad to see it. Getting soaked always put me in a foul mood.

As that thought crossed my mind, a dry cough slipped from my lips.

"…What."

Had I caught it from the Valkyrie?

Days without proper sleep and constant overexertion had left my body creaking. I might come down with something serious before long.

She needed to recover before my own condition got any worse.

The rain came down in sheets. I took shelter under the overhang. Clouds blotted out the sun, and the day grew steadily darker. There was nothing useful I could do in this weather.

With the sound of rain as my backdrop, I threw myself into breath-weaving. I crafted additional magic stones as well — I'd used up all my Chamcheongseok and needed to restock.

I was deep in maintenance when it happened.

"Grrrk."

An unpleasant sound, like grinding teeth, reached my ears. I rose from my seat and scanned the base of the hill. The fish monsters I'd been fighting every night were coming — in packs of three and four.

"It's still daytime."

"Damn it."

This was bad.

But I still had to stop them. Fail, and death was the only outcome.

"What's going on?"

"It's them. I'll handle it — just watch my back and rest."

Leading the pack was an octopus monster. Its skin wasn't particularly tough, but it was fast, could regenerate, and had a ranged attack — the kind of enemy you prioritized the moment you saw it.

I fired a heat ray from a Chamcheongseok with a light flick.

But the thing dodged it.

"…!"

The octopus closed the distance in a flash and settled into a ready stance. Ranged attack. If I waited to see it and then tried to dodge, I'd be too late.

I threw myself aside on pure instinct.

Hisssss!

It spat a jet of ink. The moment the ink hit the ground, it boiled and seared the air. Heat haze shimmered upward. A fraction of a second slower and I would have been in serious trouble.

I hurled three Chamcheongseok at once and spoke the Whieon. Caught in the crossfire, the octopus monster was snared by the beams of light and toppled backward. Splatter! Purple blood sprayed in every direction.

"Hah."

I exhaled a dry, heavy breath.

"It definitely wasn't that fast when I fought it last night…"

David seemed to be right. The other creatures' movements were anything but ordinary as well. Even those walkers that normally lumbered along at a crawl were closing in at a considerable clip.

My grip tightened around the iron club.

Today might be the breaking point.

"Huuuuh…"

Rachel let out a slow breath. She touched her own face. The heat was still there.

Even so, she felt a little better than yesterday. Thanks to the man's nursing.

She hated to admit it, but the care he showed her rivaled that of family — or a lover.

In the torrential downpour, flames flashed. Thwick. Thwick. The sound of monsters collapsing reached her ears. Rachel knew what those heat rays were.

"That's… Chamcheongseok."

A magic stone used in the Magic Kingdom's anti-air weaponry.

How many dragon knights had fallen to that stone? How many souls had never returned to their flight wings?

Rachel swallowed dryly. She herself had nearly been shot down by that magic once. Not a pleasant memory.

And now that same magic was protecting her.

"Heh."

Ironic.

Erihi Ronshstein.

Rachel had already figured out that his kindness was calculated through and through. That was why she felt no genuine gratitude. Of course not. The moment they met again on a battlefield, they'd try to kill each other all over again.

More than anything, the man was a mage — the kind of being she hated with every fiber of her being.

Someday, once she was rescued from this island and returned to her unit, Rachel would hunt that mage down. She would find him and kill him. The man who had murdered Daisy and Olivia. He had to pay.

But.

Not now.

Rachel picked up a crude wooden spear and moved in behind the man. Then she drove the tip straight into the throat of a sea-bream-shaped monster that had been angling for his back.

"Kiiiii!"

She gripped the shaft, twisted, and flipped the creature over her shoulder. The ground shuddered, and so did her head. Rachel felt the world spin — a wave of dizziness washing over her.

The impaled monster collapsed and did not rise again. The man holding the front line heard the commotion and turned in alarm.

The mage said something, but she couldn't understand a word of it.

"I have no idea what you're saying."

The man sighed. Somehow, that face of his looked petty and ridiculous.

"Hey."

Rachel sorted through her thoughts. Whatever his reasons for treating her well — she decided it didn't matter right now.

Hypocrisy was still a form of good. An unjust law was still the law.

And calculated kindness was still kindness.

"Don't you dare die to trash like this. I'm the one who's going to kill you."

Her body was still in rough shape, but she had to fight. No one survived this island alone. Rachel gripped her spear and took her place at the man's back.

If the Valkyrie hadn't covered my rear, I would have died. I gave her a brief nod of acknowledgment and turned my attention forward again.

"Don't overdo it. If we both go down, it's completely over."

The rain kept visibility short. The fog was thickening too.

"Cough."

"Standing around like this, I'm going to catch a cold myself."

Not something to worry about right now. Drive off the monsters first, then frett about the rest.

And so we fought with everything we had.

But unlike before, there was no end in sight.

"Grrrrrk!"

"Kak, kak."

"Tick, tick, tick-tick."

The longer it went on, the more of them poured in.

"Damn it, this isn't working."

"We're going to have to run."

My eyes met the Valkyrie's. We both nodded.

"Go!"

We ran. Before the encirclement could close, we punched through in a single direction — away from the shoreline. I took the lead, and the Valkyrie followed close behind.

But.

"Hah… hah…!"

A Valkyrie still sick with fever was never going to keep up a full sprint. When she started to fall behind, I raised my voice and yanked her by the wrist.

"If you can't run — say so — first!"

And then I hoisted her onto my back. She let out a sharp yelp, but quickly found her balance and settled her weight against me. The pace picked back up almost immediately. Good — at least she had the sense for that.

I was already planning on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it.

I ran for all I was worth. After finally losing the monsters, I descended a hillside where a flat stone jutted out — looking for cover from the rain beneath the rock face.

But then.

"This is…"

The place radiated an eerie atmosphere. Honestly, I had no desire to go inside. But ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it seemed to be the only spot nearby that could keep the rain off us.

"Hoo."

I took a deep breath and stepped into the cave.

"Hey. You alright?"

"Huuuh… huuuh…"

"Yeah, you don't look alright."

Both of us were soaked to the bone. We'd shaken the monsters, but one mountain after another.

The Valkyrie's condition, especially, was dire. I'd felt it when I carried her — a human body had no business being that hot.

I needed to get a fire going, fast.

A tropical rainforest cave wasn't going to have dry kindling lying around. All I could see was moss, a few rotting scraps of wood, and some bat droppings…

"Hah."

I set the Valkyrie down. Whether from getting rained on again or not, she was trembling hard.

And so was I. A chill had settled deep into my bones.

Was this how we died? This pointlessly?

No. That wasn't happening.

I stripped off my clothes in a hurry and wrung out the water. Then I told the Valkyrie to do the same.

"Get undressed and dry off however you can."

She must have realized there was no other choice — she started peeling off not only my uniform jacket she'd been wearing, but her own clothes as well. We wrung every last drop from our trousers and boots.

What came next, we both already knew.

We laid our pants on the ground and sat on top of them. Then, backs against the cave wall, we wrapped our arms around each other. Heat transferred between us — past warm, bordering on scorching.

"…"

"…"

The first woman I'd ever held in my arms was an enemy. What a miserable life.

At least we were in the tropics. Even a short while like this was enough to raise our body temperature. The chill from the rain was starting to ease, just a little.

But it still wasn't enough.

"Damn it. If only we could get a fire going…"

I was still cursing under my breath when David spoke.