Madness Awakens (9)
“Die, you bastard!!!”
I swung the thief’s sword to meet the massive clawed hand. ──Clang!! Fist against steel. Logically I should have overpowered it, yet my blade shattered with a metallic screech.
‘Shit!!’
The raw strength was overwhelming. I threw my arm up to block the claws, but they tore through my forearm and sent blood spraying.
“Ghh……!!”
I clenched my teeth against the pain. The arrogant brute who had once relied on nothing but brute force was now shattering steel. Trading blows was impossible. The enhancement was far beyond anything a normal reinforcement spell could achieve.
‘──It really is transformation magic!’
A spell that rewrote the body’s very nature and granted monstrous power. Tabula’s grotesque frame and missing eye were the price of that magic. He had offered one eye to the Nine Gods and received the strength of a beast in return—jaws and fangs jutting like a wolf’s. Now that he had fully regressed into a monster, I couldn’t even imagine the level of superhuman power he possessed.
──Grab!!
Imagination proved unnecessary. The beast’s hand, now faster than mine, seized my head and lifted me effortlessly into the air.
“Kouoooooooooooooooooooooo!!!”
“Graaaah!!!”
The monster hurled me down like a rag doll, slamming my body into the cavern floor.
──Boom!!
“Kuhh!!”
The impact knocked the air from my lungs. Damage was bleeding through Beast Regression’s defenses again.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaoooooooo!!!”
──Bang!! Bang!! Bang!! Bang!! Bang!! Bang!!
The beast swung me by the neck, smashing me repeatedly against the ground. My hundred-kilogram frame, gear included, meant nothing to that monstrous strength. If this continued, my neck would snap long before my body gave out.
Through dizziness and agony I forced out an incantation.
“!!”
“──!!”
Tirsi and I chanted simultaneously. Scorching fingers seared the beast’s wrist while a spear of ice slammed into its unprotected back.
──Fwoooosh!!
──Thud!!
“KyaAAAA-Syaaaaa!!!!!”
Even while taking the spells head-on, the beast never stopped swinging me. Magic simply didn’t work.
“Even magic doesn’t work on this bastard—way over the line!!”
I screamed in fury. The world spun violently; nausea rose in my throat. I twisted the beast’s wrist, trying to break free. The flames of Burning Hand touched its hide and simply dissipated, as though the mana itself had been nullified.
‘This is──anti-magic sorcery!’
I had heard of it. The rune ᚦ (Thurs). Giant. Endurance and trial. The symbol of Thor, god of thunder, representing protection. An ancient Viking ward against magic, the very rune that gave birth to trolls……!!
‘Attack spells won’t work on this bastard!!’
The magic resistance contained within ᚦ (Thurs) shattered the structure of any rune-based spell. Over ninety percent of this world’s magic was built on rune language. That was why our spells failed—the mana dispersed the moment the runes collapsed. To overcome it, one needed far greater mana density than the caster of the rune itself. At my level, that was impossible.
“Kyaa!!!”
The beast lashed a single claw toward Tirsi. Black mana gathered and fired like a cannon shell.
──Kiiing!!
Clang!!
“Kyaaaaah!!!”
The shell shattered her shield and sent her small body flying. Tirsi tumbled across the floor like a car-crash victim. I seized the momentary opening and drove both fists into the beast’s wrist.
“Focus on me, you bastard!!”
Thud!!
“Krrrrrrrrrr……!!”
The blow connected, yet the beast showed no sign of pain. Its basic specs were simply on another plane; landing a hit meant nothing.
Huff!!!
The monster seized my head and legs with both hands and lifted me overhead. Its reeking maw split wide. It intended to devour me whole.
“Stop, you piece of shit!! I’m a carnivore— I’ll taste terrible!!!”
──Grab!!
I clamped both hands on its jaws, desperately trying to hold them apart like prying open a crocodile’s mouth.
“Nnghhhh……!!”
──Tremble. Tremble.
Its grip on my head and legs grew stronger. Claws sank into my shoulders and thighs. If this kept up, I really would be chewed, swallowed, and enjoyed.
“Ma…… mana toxin…… 200g. Loquat tree. Shoreline…… stake.”
At that moment, the fallen Tirsi pulled a small vial from her robes with shaking hands. Yellow liquid sloshed inside.
“An offering to the god of decay…. Warmth of the tidewind…. White-robed lamb…. Loquat tree….”
She was stammering because of the head wound. Blood streamed down her white hair, yet her eyes still burned with fighting spirit.
“I…… am the heir to the rite of the little bay…! With a single harpoon…… I shall raise the marker that binds the gods……!!”
Tirsi popped the cork and forced the incantation through gritted teeth.
“!!”
──Shrrrrrrk!!!
──Freeze!
The beast’s body locked up. A paralysis spell. I tore free from its rigid grip and drove a kick straight into its face.
“Quit flailing and get lost!!”
──Thud!
──Splash!!
The kick did nothing. I only succeeded in falling flat on my back like an idiot. Being thrown around so much had wrecked my sense of balance.
“Kuh, kuhh!”
Blood flecked my cough. At least my lungs and organs were intact—this was just blood pooled in my mouth from internal cuts.
“Cough, cough……!”
“Kmuuu……!!”
Tirsi coughed as well, pouring every ounce of strength into keeping the beast restrained. Its body twitched like a game character suffering lag. It was resisting the paralysis. I remembered the sewer. Even holding back those centipede insects had been difficult for her. No matter how different the situation, she couldn’t hold this monster for long.
“Ghh, ughhhhh!!!”
I forced strength into my battered body. Every broken part screamed in protest. My limbs trembled violently. I bit down hard, stopping the shaking. Pain? Who cared. To hell with it. I had no right to die and leave Franc behind.
While Tirsi bought me time, I had to find a way out. Think!
Slosh─.
Something lukewarm soaked the hand clutching my chest. Blood? No. The sensation inside my clothes was wrong. Shattered…… glass?
‘──Potion.’
The mana potion I had tucked away had broken during the fight.
‘That’s it!’
An idea flashed through my mind. I searched for the box—the potion crate I had taken from the thief.
──Dash!!
I sprinted toward the box. The beast’s movements grew more violent; Tirsi’s face twisted in pain. The paralysis was about to break. In that split second I drew the weapon from my belt. My sword couldn’t pierce its hide. Fists lacked enough force. I needed something that ignored the skin, crushed bone and flesh, and had a small striking surface.
──Slide.
The perfect tool was already in my hand. Franc’s weapon. The conical steel hammer. I gripped it tightly and swung at the beast’s paralyzed leg.
──Crunch!!
The impact of the hammer against the reversed joint sent a sickening sensation up my arm. The bone didn’t break, but that was fine. Greed would only get me killed.
“k……!!”
The paralyzed beast couldn’t even scream. I shoved the hammer back into my belt and dashed for the box.
──Shrrrrk.
I flipped the lid open, tossed aside the research paper envelope that would only get in the way, and grabbed a mana potion. My hands moved with perfect precision despite the chaos.
──Pop!
──Thud!
I uncorked the vial, attached the syringe cap, and drove it into my stomach. The loquat-turtle leather pants made my legs impossible to use.
──Glug.
Blue liquid rushed into my body. Normally one drank potions so the stomach and liver could filter them, but this was no normal situation. For immediate effect, I would simply endure the consequences.
──Fwoosh!
I emptied one-third of a bottle that could refill half my mana capacity, then yanked the needle free. From any rational standpoint this was idiotic. Flooding the body with mana potions wouldn’t increase total mana capacity; it would only destroy concentration. That was exactly what I wanted.
──Whooooosh!!!
“Kuhk, kgh!”
The overdose rampaged through my mana channels, exactly as I had read. I welcomed the backlash. Gritting my teeth, I focused my clouded mind.
‘Pour this mana into Beast Regression!!’
Crack──!
I clenched my fists until they creaked. Earlier, when I had fought the still-human Tabula, I had been sent flying into a wall and blacked out for roughly a second. I had recovered quickly enough that it hadn’t mattered. The important part was that I had lost consciousness—yet Beast Regression had remained active. Its effect operated independently of my awareness. In other words, it could handle mana without my direct control. Like an external hard drive──no, an external CPU.
──Shwaaaaaaaaah!!!
Mana that couldn’t fit inside my channels churned through my body, triggering violent nausea. It felt as though someone were inflating a rubber tube inside me. Suppress it. Endure. Bite down and bear it!
“Krrrrrr!!! KyaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAA!!!!”
The beast, freed from paralysis, roared. It immediately launched another blast of black mana at Tirsi without even glancing back—eliminating the obstacle to its movement first. Even consumed by madness, some shred of reason remained.
I whipped my ruined body forward and intercepted the cannon shell aimed at Tirsi.
“Get lost!!”
Boom!!
The mana lost cohesion on impact with my fist. Compared to the raw strength I had tasted earlier, this attack was far weaker.
‘I can do this!’
Snatching up Franc’s hammer, I charged the beast. Beast Regression’s output hadn’t increased dramatically—perhaps one and a half ranks higher on the Pressure Stone scale. Still nowhere near Gold Class. The only reason I could even parry its attacks was because the monster had no technique for condensing or projecting mana. Raw power without skill was nothing more than a water balloon fired from a cannon.
──Whoosh!!
Claws came screaming toward me the moment I closed in. I dropped low, skimming the floor, and slipped beneath the strike. My enhanced body reacted to the speed. I slid past its arm and smashed the hammer into its leg.
──Crack!!
──Crunch!!
“KyaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”
A satisfying, electric sensation. Franc’s hammer had shattered the bone.
──Creak.
The iron hammer, pushed beyond its limit, bent into an L-shape. I would apologize to Franc later. I discarded the ruined weapon and rolled across the floor. How many minutes of Sylph’s Step did I have left? Tirsi could give no further support. She had already done more than her share by buying me this moment. From here, I had to finish it myself.
“!!!”
By the time the thought formed, the incantation had already left my lips. The spell set a generation point on the cavern floor and released water vapor. Blinding the beast’s vision was pointless—it had been blind from the start.
──Therefore, this spell.
“KyuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuUUUU!!!”
The beast attacked. It had tried to target Tirsi, then turned on me to avoid exposing its back. Perhaps pain and rage had finally stripped away the last of its reason.
──Whoosh!!
If I failed to dodge, even my reinforced defenses would suffer a fatal wound. Its body, enhanced by transformation magic and black mana, seemed grotesquely specialized for killing.
──Whoosh!! Whoosh!!
First strike dodged. Second dodged. Third, fourth──
──Whoosh!! Whoosh!! Whoosh!! Whoosh!!
Fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth──
Even the beast, which had missed me nine times in succession, finally noticed something was wrong. Why couldn’t it land a single hit? It was aiming for my presence, so why……?
The answer was simple. The “presence” it tracked was neither sound nor scent.
Hisssssss─.
Mist began to rise inside the cavern. Mist born from my own mana.