Three Against One
The status window updated with a chime, and at the same moment the underbrush shook violently. A tree bent sharply. The cause was the body of a B-rank swordsman that had just been hurled through the air. He landed right beside us.
“This can’t be… Are you all right?”
Seti helped the fallen man to his feet. He let out an unfinished groan. Bright red blood trickled from his mouth.
“S-save…”
The man who had been spitting out broken syllables suddenly went limp. Seti checked his pulse.
“Ah, damn it.” She lowered her head. “He’s dead.”
— ‘Mental Stabilization’ effect applied. You remain calm.
Seti hung her head completely. A person dying right in front of her, and on a battlefield no less. It was far too brutal a sight for a sixteen-year-old girl to witness.
The monster gave her no time to steady herself.
— ‘Lenaniai’ uses Dust Storm.
It thrashed its forelegs wildly, kicking up a sandstorm. Weeds were ripped out by the roots. A whirlwind formed above the gouged pit. The sky turned murky.
While Seti stared up at it with dazed eyes, I scooped her into my arms.
“What the hell are you doing, you lunatic!”
“You want to die? Then we run to somewhere safe!”
Rumble—!
The whirlwind was already hurtling toward where we had been standing. I broke into a full sprint ahead of it.
I ran, and ran, and kept running. The sandstorm chased after us in a wide arc. My stamina was absolute garbage. There was no way I could outrun it like this. Damn it. Was I going to die here?
A-rank Conversion: Piercing Thrust
Whoosh! A streak of starlight drew itself from the side.
“Students!”
Two A-rank swordsmen charged in and drove their blades into the storm. The whirlwind lost its rotational force and gradually died down. I smoothed down my disheveled hair and stared blankly at the sight.
“Hey, kid. You okay?”
They guided us into a safe thicket. Fortunately, Lenaniai had shifted its attention to another swordsman and was no longer focused on us. I wet my throat and answered.
“Ah, yes… I’m fine, but my little sister doesn’t look so good.”
“Is she hurt?”
“No, she’s not injured, but she just watched a person die right in front of her.”
“…I see.”
The female swordsman drew a holy sign and knelt. Beyond her shoulder, shaded by sunlight, a deep-blue epaulette was visible.
“Are you A-rank?”
“That’s right. So don’t worry. We’ll take care of that monster somehow.”
“No. Even with your skill, it won’t be enough.”
“I’m not saying I’ll fight it alone. Every A-rank knight here is going to join in.”
“It will still be difficult.”
“What?”
I followed the monster with my eyes as it tried to flee in another direction. Having gotten closer than before, I could now see the finer details.
Its entire body was covered in scales like a serpent, while its forelegs resembled those of a lizard.
The tail rose upward and split into three segments. Two of them looked like a scorpion’s venomous stingers, and the last one was shaped like a tentacle.
Spores like mushrooms sprouted from its head, faintly forming the shapes of arms and legs.
Was it human? A snake? A scorpion? Or something else entirely?
“Do you know what that is?”
“I don’t.”
“Can you win?”
“You can’t know until you fight.”
“If you think you can’t win, you shouldn’t fight.”
“…”
The female swordsman gripped her blade tightly.
In truth, she already knew.
That monster was strong. But—
“I am a swordsman. Capturing things like that is our duty.”
She was reckless, yet faithful to her mission. If soldiers ran away, who would protect the students here? It was as if the Constellation she contracted with was whispering those very words.
Defeat the S-rank Monster ‘Lenaniai’
📍 Progress: (0/1)
My Outer God really does love handing out quests, huh.
The swordsmen moved out first. After finishing my preparations, I took out the caliper and examined the estimates. If I could just get this thing to touch its body, our odds of victory would skyrocket.
Just as I was about to stand, I felt resistance at the hem of my pants.
“Where are you going, brother?”
Seti, who had been spacing out, asked me.
I pointed straight ahead.
“To save our friends.”
“You think you can actually do that with your strength?”
“It’ll be easier without you tagging along.”
To be honest, I had better combat sense than Seti. I still remembered fighting a dozen or so B-rank golems, so if I could recapture that feeling, it should work.
“Stop talking bullshit and stay with me.”
“It’s fine. I won’t die.”
“Don’t raise death flags and just stay here like I asked.”
Seti grabbed my collar as if she meant to tackle me. It seemed the earlier incident had shaken her badly. Shaking her off wouldn’t be hard.
“If you go, you’ll die. No.”
“You know Rustilla is over there too.”
“Uh…”
“Don’t worry. We’ll both come back alive.”
I caught Seti as she nearly collapsed, then picked up the caliper the Outer God had given me.
The monster, which had been heading east, now turned northwest. Looking closely, two streaks of lightning were blazing from the northwest, scorching the creature’s scorpion-like hide.
Even so, it only let out weak roars. It wasn’t screaming like it was on the verge of death. Most beast-type monsters raised their voices when they were about to die, which meant the attacks still hadn’t landed any decisive blows.
I whispered to Cartesia.
“Hey. About the Ether…”
> “Solve it yourself, brat.”
A cold chuckle echoed inside my head. Was it because it came from an Outer God? A chill ran down my spine.
Still, it was worth a shot.
At the very least, I was starting to get a feel for what kind of creature that thing was.
“Ugh…!”
Kristin felt a jolt run through her hand. A scorpion stinger had stabbed into the rod-shaped sword she was holding like a wedge.
“This is unusable now…”
Kristin gritted her teeth. Her sword was already riddled with cracks; two or three more swings and it would snap. The ether-charging amplifier section was completely beyond repair.
“I really wasn’t built for combat!”
“Is now the time to talk about your constitution?!”
Her childhood friend Mezlen, standing beside her, yanked her collar while shouting.
“We’re all going to die at this rate! Our spines are about to snap in half! Don’t you have any better ideas than just splitting its attention?!”
“I’m just a student! If I had the insight to figure that out, I would’ve enlisted ages ago…!”
“Aaaargh, I’m losing my mind! It feels like my cerebral cortex is being gnawed away!”
That was when it happened.
Boom! A tremendous crash rang out.
Several swordsmen were sent flying by the monster’s descending tail. Among them was a familiar face.
“Isn’t that Yusford?”
“Vitaling from the military academy is there too.”
The two boys who had stood out in many ways within the elite class. By now, Kristin and Mezlen had seen them often enough that their faces were starting to become familiar.
Not exactly close friends, but acquaintances at least.
What would it mean for someone like that to die?
It would probably be hundreds of times more painful than watching a complete stranger die.
The two girls’ eyes trembled.
“We have to save them…”
But their feet wouldn’t move.
Simply staring straight at that monster’s body was already an exhausting task. Just looking at it made their stomachs churn, their insides twist, and their vision spin.
The thought that moving carelessly might get them killed too filled them with fear rather than courage.
Meanwhile—
“Ugh, shit.”
“…This hurts like hell.”
Welton Yusford and Matus Vitaling.
The two boys who had been sent flying by the gale and briefly lost consciousness dramatically lifted their heads. They were face-down on the ground.
Rumble rumble.
A shadow filled the sky above them.
A massive, razor-sharp shadow.
“Ugh, damn it.”
“I can’t move my body…”
No matter how desperately they struggled, it was useless. All they felt was helplessness and despair.
It wasn’t that they couldn’t move at all, but there was nothing they could do beyond flailing their limbs.
Welton and Matus let out simultaneous sighs as if they had rehearsed it.
“Fuck. I haven’t even had sex yet.”
“Same. I haven’t made my parents happy yet… wait, what the hell?”
Swooosh!
The two-pronged tail descended slowly like a meteor shower.
If it hit, they would die.
A terror akin to death itself flooded their minds.
Matus strained with all his might to get up again, while Welton pulled out a blue grape candy he had stashed in his pocket and popped it into his mouth.
Welton said,
“At this point, there’s no helping it. Before I die, I should at least watch some porn.”
Matus’s thoughts froze for a second.
“What the hell is this bastard suddenly saying…!”
“Hey. Want to watch together?”
“Stop talking nonsense and put that watch screen away!”
“Kwaaaaaah—!!”
Matus thought that the death cry he had just let out would surely become his last words. And that it would never even reach his family and relatives still living on that remote planet.
Thinking that made his eyes fill with strength, yet his body refused to move. Reality was different from novels.
“Idel von Rheinland.”
Such a voice rang out.
The sudden shift from a woman’s voice to a man’s made Welton curse. At the same time, Matus quickly assessed the situation.
Reinforcements had arrived.
Their bodies were lifted up. Idel had grabbed them by the scruffs of their necks and yanked them backward.
“Uwaaaaaah!”
“Guhhhk!”
Because of that, their backs scraped against the ground and their school uniform jackets nearly tore off… but it was a hundred, a thousand times better than being impaled by that tail.
Idel turned off Welton’s screen and gripped his sword.
But at that moment, the monster quickly retreated and vanished into the distance.
“What? Did it run away?”
“Yeah, we survived, you idiot!”
Matus slapped Welton hard on the back. They weren’t particularly close, but he couldn’t understand the mindset of someone who, on the verge of death, had tried to watch porn in peace.
In short, Matus was furious beyond words.
Suppressing his anger, he turned around.
“Thanks. I almost died… Wait, you’re Rheinland?”
“Yeah, it’s me.”
Matus ground his teeth.
He was grateful for being saved, but he couldn’t bow his head to a notorious rich kid who did whatever he wanted. His pride wouldn’t allow it.
“Excuse me, is everyone all right?!”
“No broken spines?”
Kristin and Mezlen, their classmates, came running over and asked about their condition. The two girls supported Welton and Matus respectively.
With no time to chat, Idel pointed southeast and said,
“Take shelter that way. My sister should be there too. Link up with her, and when support arrives, follow their instructions.”
“Who the hell are you to give orders… Aaaargh! You brat! What are you doing?!”
“Does it hurt here? That means your spine is in pretty bad shape.”
“Don’t just touch someone else’s body!”
Mezlen tilted her head and pressed on his shoulder.
“What about here?”
“Ow! Ow! Ow!”
“Your scapula is badly out of alignment. Is it dislocated? Hold on, I’ll fix it right away with the chiropractic technique passed down in my family for generations…”
“I said don’t!”
Matus barely managed to pry Mezlen off. As much as it annoyed him, she was right. His lower back was tingling and his shoulder was stiff; he couldn’t move properly.
“Can’t be helped. I guess I’ll have to take it easy here.”
“Um… what about you?”
Kristin asked Idel with concern.
“Aren’t you coming with us to a safe place?”
“I still have work to do.”
“…What?”
Idel turned his gaze northwest and gave a small nod.
“Two more people are still caught by that monster.”
With those words, he left the four students behind without so much as a backward glance.