Beast Hunt, Part 3
Pale light and dark red flames clashed, scattering shreds of flesh.
Sounds of cutting, slashing, and tearing filled the air.
Between them, an unpleasant, metallic grinding noise filled the gaps.
Skrrrch—
The nameless knight's armor was reduced to tatters,
and the limbs that had been thrashing inside went limp, dangling uselessly.
"Aaaaargh!"
Along with the beast's shriek, its closed eyes snapped open one by one.
Newly sprouted, tender arms fused with the knight's ankles. Snapping off the neck it had been devouring, the beast began to swing the corpse toward us.
Thud, crash.
Dust billowed from the dirt ground as the knight's body flailed wildly.
The flesh newly swelling inside the armor puffed up, no longer tearing away.
It all happened in an instant.
Rosia looked half out of her mind at the sight of the crushed soldiers' corpses being smeared together, and the headless knight being swung around like a wooden puppet.
"S-save me..."
I blocked the knight's torso as it came crashing down toward her.
I channeled my energy to flow from my hands down to my arms and legs, a numbing pain grinding against my joints.
"No! Stay back! Stay away!!"
Cowering, Rosia began to gather light around her. Along with her scream, the concentrated light swept across the ground, exploding outward in all directions.
Severed flesh and limbs squirmed on the ground, crawling back toward the beast.
Panicked by the sight, Rosia kept waving her arms, but there was no way formless light could block the beast's physical onslaught.
"Please, calm down!"
The beast kept advancing toward Rosia, whose legs had given out.
If she retreated even a fraction of a second too late, she would surely be turned into mush and absorbed.
With an explosive boom, the earth overturned.
The armored knight.
Now serving as the beast's arm, it was no different from a metal mace.
I could dodge or parry it, but with my current level of strength, I couldn't cut through it.
If I had been using an ordinary iron sword, it would have shattered instantly.
Clang!
Just then, Gyal's blazing greatsword intercepted the blow, giving me a narrow window to pull back.
I quickly rushed behind Rosia to push her out of the way.
She was a complete mess.
Her slender limbs trembled violently as she desperately tried to get away from the beast, but her body refused to listen.
The light she was shooting was also losing its initial intensity, gradually fading.
She seemed to have exhausted her energy.
At this rate, it would have been better if only Gyal and I had come.
Actually, Rosia herself wasn't the main issue.
Just like our first encounter, she could have blinded the beast while Gyal and I carved away its flesh.
Even the soldiers were within my expectations.
It was a shame they had ruined all the spears that could pierce the heart in one go, but we had said from the beginning that we wouldn't need many people. That would have been true even if our opponent wasn't a skin-beast.
Perhaps one or two of them might have been useful, but in a situation where we had to go straight into live combat, soldiers who only knew how to blindly follow orders were of little help.
But above all, the biggest problem was...
My energy consumption has spiked.
The knight's trained body, and the thick armor covering it.
A skin-beast wasn't originally this difficult to deal with.
It just took time; all you had to do was distract it, dodge its attacks, and shave away its soft flesh.
But now that its primary weapon—its long, thick arm—was entirely encased in armor, approaching it had suddenly become a massive burden.
"Damn it..."
Even Gyal, who had absorbed enough of the beast's power to coat his weapon, could block it easily but was struggling to close the distance.
Orange lines were spreading like scars across the armor wrapped around the beast's arm.
The areas struck by Gyal's sword were glowing red-hot.
In that case...
"I'll strike the other side!"
I kicked off the ground with all my strength.
Stopping at the perfect distance, I swung my sword in a single motion, slicing into the beast's body.
Thud-thud-thud-thud.
A heavy vibration traveled up the blade.
As if it had been waiting for this, countless hands reached out, trying to grab my sword.
Boom!
The moment I achieved my goal and retreated, the thick arm Gyal had been fighting swung toward me.
Gyal thrust his greatsword forward, unleashing a blast of fire. A dizzying heat scorched the creature's flesh.
Listening to the beast's agonizing shrieks, I adjusted my grip on my sword.
Writhing from the burning pain, all of its limbs reached toward the spot where the greatsword was embedded.
...Good.
I could do this now.
Without a moment's hesitation, I leaped forward, channeling the energy I drew from the earth straight into my eyes.
My target was the joint connecting its arm to its torso.
Though it was covered by other flailing limbs, the beast, currently thrashing in agony, would have neither the strength nor the focus to grab me.
Aiming precisely at the joint where the bones separated,
I drove my sword home.
Thud!
A beat later, the beast's last remaining thick arm fell to the ground.
The beast's arm—the torso that had originally belonged to the knight—was charring black, still clutching Gyal's flaming greatsword with both hands.
"Well done,"
Gyal said, swinging his sword to fling the knight's corpse off.
The knight's corpse, now distorted beyond recognition, rolled across the ground, spewing white smoke.
"Aaaah! Aaaaaargh!!"
The enraged beast's scream shook the forest.
Its eyes, embedded in its body like hives, flared with a crimson glow.
Even on the brink of death, the creature showed no fear.
Instead, it leaned its massive bulk toward me, attempting to crush me under its weight.
I threw myself backward, swinging my sword in the widest arc I could manage.
Squelch.
I felt the blade pierce the beast's hide.
Feeling a slight resistance, I gathered every ounce of energy I possessed and forced it into my arms and hands.
Riiiiiip—!
The sounds of muscles, tendons, tough organs, and small bones snapping echoed in rapid succession.
Even in that split second, I pressed forward, raising my sword.
As high and as far as possible.
The cutting power was there, but my shoulders, back, and waist throbbed with pain as they bore the brunt of the recoil.
I aimed to slice through at least half of its body. Naturally, the beast's tentacle-like limbs squirmed along the deeply embedded blade, reaching out for me.
"...!"
The beast's hands tore at me mercilessly.
First, they twisted my wrists, then clawed at my hair, ears, and neck as if trying to rip them apart.
But if I redirected my energy to heal my wounds now, everything would go to waste.
Now that even my legs were pinned, preventing me from moving forward, I pushed my raised arms forward in a final effort to split the creature in half.
But my tightly bound body was dragged backward, and amidst the bone-crushing pain, it seemed impossible to cut any deeper.
...
If so, I had to try everything I could.
I gripped the sword even tighter, continuously channeling the energy I had pushed into my arms.
Something that would be a mere pipe dream with this meager amount of energy—yet something only I could pull off.
As the energy reaching the end of the pathway repeatedly surged back and forth, a faint aura began to seep through the gaps of my fingers.
I drew more energy from my heart to replace what had been spent, forcing it in once more.
Twice, thrice, repeating the process countless times, a dim crimson light finally erupted from the hilt.
The beast twisted my wrist.
I couldn't tell if it was trying to make me drop the sword or rip my arm off entirely.
But the light leaking out was growing more intense. Squinting its dozens of eyes, the beast reached out with several more hands, trying to smother the glowing blade.
The sword sank into the thick hide, and the beast's claws began to tear at my skin.
Suddenly, the beast's eyes curved into crescents as it let out a sickening chuckle.
As if sensing the massive reservoir of energy within me, drool dripped from its barely visible maw.
If it swallowed me whole, it would likely gain an unimaginably horrific level of power.
Or perhaps, like me, it wouldn't be able to control the energy properly and suffer a fatal backlash.
But one thing was certain: that would never happen as long as I was alive.
Riding the rising light, the energy exploded.
💥 KABOOM! 💥
The flesh covering the blade blew apart, and the grip pinning my body slackened.
I immediately bent low and swung my sword, the energy slamming into the ground and detonating.
A blinding flash of light and a deafening roar erupted in an instant.
In the resulting shockwave, the beast's split hide flapped as it stumbled backward.
Through the newly opened gap, its massive heart was revealed.
The heart beat frantically, spraying blood everywhere.
And then, I felt a familiar heat.
Just as I sliced through the front half,
Gyal's blazing greatsword carved through the other half.
...Ah.
With a deflating hiss,
the two halves of the beast's body collapsed separately to the ground.
Gyal could not believe his eyes.
A greenhorn who couldn't even properly coat his body with energy was now projecting it from his sword.
Of course, it wasn't a perfect technique.
He couldn't retain the projected energy, and he lacked control over it.
He was literally throwing it away into the ground.
Yet, that energy was undeniably severing the beast's torso.
He couldn't let this moment slip by.
Though he had already expended a great deal of strength, Gyal drew upon his energy once more to heat his greatsword.
He thrust the blazing red flames deep into the beast and ripped upward.
A fierce wind rushed through the gaping tear in the flesh.
The beast collapsed, split in two, exposing the heart embedded in one side of its torso.
And with the wall of flesh gone, the view of the other side was revealed.
Kamil was barely standing, using his forward-thrust sword as a makeshift cane.
A long shadow stretched from the tip of his sword embedded in the ground, creeping into the crevices of the rocks.
"Ah..."
A faint sigh escaped his weakly parted lips.
Then, with a sudden gust of wind, Kamil's body slowly toppled forward.
It was expected.
In fact, it would have been stranger if he had managed to remain standing.
"I-is it... over?"
A trembling voice came from behind.
Rosia was stumbling forward, her eyes glued to the bisected beast.
She was covered in dirt from head to toe, her clothes drenched in some unidentified fluid.
"For now, yes."
"Ah..."
At his words, Rosia's legs gave out completely, and she collapsed to the ground.
With no one left standing properly, it was quite a bizarre sight.
Gyal stepped onto the muddy ground squelching with flesh and reached toward the beast's heart.
It was a mouth-watering Core, the likes of which he hadn't seen in a long time.
This was barely a passing grade.
"Ugh... Argh..."
Gyal swallowed the heart while watching Kamil curl up in pain.
A hot, heavy energy caught in his throat before slowly diffusing into his body.
Then, as if cleansing his palate, he tossed in the other Cores he had gathered in his pocket.
Now that he had achieved his goal, there was no need to carry them around anymore.
There wasn't a single uninjured spot on my body.
Because I had forced open the energy pathways, my internal energy was heavily disrupted.
The only thing intact was the massive reservoir of energy itself.
Sighing in relief that at least that was fine, I drew out a fresh batch of energy.
But then...
...Huh?
Along with the now-familiar sensation,
the energy, which should have cut off long ago, kept pouring out.
And once again, an energy that had doubled in size began to churn my stomach as if it had been waiting for this very moment.