Madness in the Eyes (10)
The mist rose in the cave with a long, hissing sound. Pushiiiiii─. It was fog created from my own mana.
─Thud!
I could practically feel the beast freezing mid-attack, thrown into confusion. I observed it from within the mist I had carefully adjusted in density.
─Crunch!
I rolled up my sleeve and bit down hard with my reinforced jaws. The sound drew the beast into another attack, but I easily dodged its blind strikes.
─Splash!
I scattered fresh blood across the cave floor to mask the scent coming from my body. As the dizzying smell of blood filled the air, the beast’s confusion accelerated.
Just as I thought.
What exactly was the principle this bastard used to pinpoint a person’s location? Smell? Hearing? Both were correct, but that alone wouldn’t earn a perfect score. Fortunately, I had already experienced the “hypothesis” that would give me full marks with my own body.
Remember. Back when I massacred those bandits in this very place. How did I detect the bandit leader’s attempt to flee?
My sense of smell and hearing had both been greatly enhanced. So was I focusing on my five senses at the time? Bullshit. I had been busy playing the Dirge of the Fallen Soul. Yet somehow I had still sensed the leader’s presence. With what?
──Mana.
That was the one and only correct answer. Smell and hearing were all well and good, but could a body mutated by transformation magic have adapted to them so quickly? The guy had been a perfectly normal human just minutes earlier. He hadn’t lived as a blind man for over a decade. Therefore, there was only one answer.
Mana.
It was the same kind of intuition Nefertiti had used during the ruin guard request, when she accurately pinpointed my location even though I had been perfectly still and hidden.
Pushiiiiiiiiii─!
The mist grew thick and heavy. It seemed even the beast could not distinguish me from within the fog saturated with my mana. It froze in place, claws raised.
I clicked my tongue at the sight.
This is bad! I can’t move without making any sound either!
The effects of Stepping on the Mountain Breeze were still active, but they couldn’t completely eliminate noise. Hadn’t this bastard noticed me charging at him even while he was still in human form?
How many steps is it from here to where my attack can reach?
Three meters? Four? And I was supposed to cover that distance in complete silence? Ridiculous! If I made even the slightest footstep, the beast would immediately prepare to counterattack!
This was terrible! At the very last moment, I was missing that final one move!
“……Ice Arrow.”
Someone began chanting a spell from inside the mist. I knew immediately who it was. It was Tirsi squeezing out the last of her strength.
─Kagagagagagak!!!
The spell was a complete mess. The ice arrow barely formed its tip before shattering uselessly.
No, that’s perfect!!
Well done. That was the best possible support, Tirsi!
─Kagagagagagak!!!
─Tudududududuk!
The arrowheads slammed into the ceiling, failing to turn into cold air and instead raining down like hail. The noise of shattering ice fragments filled the entire cave with sound.
Tirsi had understood my intention and reinforced that final missing piece!! It was like she had placed the last brick at the end of a crumbling bridge that I couldn’t cross. I was so glad I had brought her along. If I had been alone, I would have been completely stuck and died here.
─Kagagagagagak!!!
─Tudududududuk!
I counted in my head. Ten, nine, eight… The beast focused all its nerves on its hearing. Seven, six, five… Tirsi’s magic was gradually weakening. Four, three, two… And then──
One.
──Now.
─Tat!
I sprinted with every ounce of strength I had left. My footsteps were swallowed by the noise of shattering ice in a mere 0.1 seconds.
“──KryyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!”
Yet the beast still reacted. In a fraction of a fraction of a second, it caught the sound of my footstep and charged straight at me. Its claws, without the slightest hesitation, flew toward my torso to tear it apart──
─Whoosh!!!
──And sliced through empty air.
“────k.”
It missed. No, I made it miss.
Within the noise, the beast had pushed its enhanced hearing to the absolute limit. Even with Tirsi’s help, I had zero confidence I could cover that distance without making any sound. Hadn’t Tabula said it himself? I wasn’t an outstanding warrior─I was a scholar.
“──Thanks for coming at me.”
I pulled my fist back and whispered. The footstep I had just made wasn’t the sound of charging forward. It was the sound of jumping sideways to dodge.
I had believed the beast would charge at me the moment it heard my footstep in order to kill me first, so I had evaded from the very beginning. If the beast’s concentration had been disturbed and it had grown impatient because of the noise Tirsi created, it would surely rely on its senses rather than reason when attacking.
By using a plan that employed reason, I had seized the upper hand. The beast had chosen to strike first instead of counterattacking in response to the deliberate footstep I made──and in doing so, it had presented its own heart right in front of me.
─Boom!
For one second, the beast froze in shock and confusion. I used that time to stomp forward for my attack. As I stepped in and pulled my fist back, I considered how I could kill it with a punch.
I was not a warrior but a scholar. I was an Earthling from a world where science had advanced. Recall the properties of air. Chew over the knowledge of convection currents. Air moves from warm places to cold ones, from upper to lower regions, from areas of high density to low density. The same principle applies to clouds. Compressed gas that is suddenly released creates pressure as it bursts forth. That is the power that allows a steam engine to move tons of steel along railroad tracks.
“──Summon Cloud.”
Shwaaaaaaaaah!!
I overlapped all the steam created by Summon Cloud at the point behind my elbow. The steam, compressed in one spot, broke free of the magic’s control like a wild colt and went into a rampage!
Don’t try to control this pressure! I would simply guide the generated air pressure with my hand!! If my strength and my companion’s strength weren’t enough──then borrow the laws of nature itself to create a lethal technique!!
Combine the spells! Overlay Beast Regression onto Summon Cloud!! Control the steam bursting out with enhanced output!!! Give it direction and push it backward!!!! Add propulsion to the punch!!!!! Turn this fist into a bullet and fire it──!!!!!!
Please lend me your strength, Mr. Watt.
“Mungemunge──!!!!!!!”
Praying to the founder of the steam engine, I thrust my fist forward.
“──Cannon!!!!!!!!”
─Thwock!
My fist, now carrying explosive propulsion, smashed straight through the beast’s heart. Thudududuk─. A massive hole big enough to fit a watermelon was punched through where my fist had struck. Behind the beast’s chest, a spray of blood painted the wall bright red, as if a giant had used a spray can. Blood graffiti. Was this what they called international?
“Kuhuk……”
The recoil from that reckless technique made my arm go limp as I dropped to one knee. I tried to stay standing, but it was impossible.
“Mana… completely drained… ugh……”
The words that came out of my mouth didn’t even sound human. I couldn’t even tell what I was saying. It was far more exhausting and painful than the first time I had used Beast Regression. Well, of course it would be─I had been running around like a madman while overdosing on a stamina potion in a body that was already beaten to a pulp.
“Ptoo.”
I spat out a mixture of blood and saliva and looked at the beast. But why the hell wasn’t this bastard falling over? If that fake werewolf got its chest meat refilled, I really wouldn’t have any answers left.
Sliiide─.
When I stared at it, the beast finally collapsed─wait, why the fuck is it falling toward me!!
“It’s rolling!!”
I desperately tried to roll sideways. The only one allowed to climb on top of me is Franc!!
─Thump!
The beast collapsed forward. An enormous amount of blood poured from the hole in its chest. It felt like a bright red carpet was being laid out. Wait a second. Was this bastard’s blood originally red? Wasn’t it black? More importantly, this wasn’t the main issue.
I was worried about Tirsi’s condition, so I crawled over to her.
“Ash. Are you alright?”
“……Ah, Sir.”
Tirsi looked up at me from where she lay, apparently still conscious. Even though my face was completely exposed, she still called me Sir. Or perhaps the name Nord had already been erased from her memory. What a pitiful little bookworm. Anyway, thank goodness. If Tirsi had died, the guilt would have kept me from sleeping for half a year.
“Do you have any potions?”
“In the… bag……”
“Excuse me for a moment.”
I took out a red wound-recovery potion from the bag. I sat Tirsi on my lap, lifted her head, and helped her drink it. After taking a few sips from the potion I held to her lips, Tirsi smiled.
“Somehow… cough. It feels like I’ve become a baby. It’s embarrassing… cough, cough.”
“It’s cute, so don’t worry about it.”
“I said it’s embarrassing……”
I brushed the hair away from the weakly smiling Tirsi’s mouth. Ah, but damn it, I wanted to drink a potion too. The only remaining potion in the bag was this one.
“Is this all the wound-recovery potions you brought?”
“I brought one more… did it break?”
“Looks like it.”
The inside of the bag was filled with the smell of medicine. Even though potion bottles were supposed to be sturdy, they had been completely smashed. Fuck. That beast really had been absurdly strong.
“Cough, cough. Anyway… we won, right?”
Tirsi asked while coughing up potion-mixed phlegm. I glanced at the fallen beast.
“I’m not sure. I don’t have any strength left to confirm the kill.”
“I’m ashamed to say I’m in the same state.”
“I’ll go check if it’s still alive. Wait here.”
“What? W-wait! It might be dangerous… keuk, cough!”
I laid down Tirsi, who didn’t even have the strength to stand, and poured the few remaining drops at the bottom of the potion bottle into her mouth.
“Cough, khng, keheung?!”
Perhaps because it was an indirect kiss, Tirsi became flustered. Still, this was an emergency, so I hoped she would understand. After drinking the potion, I felt slightly recovered─or maybe not. Even if it was just a placebo effect, my legs regained a bit of strength, so I stood up on both feet and approached the beast that had collapsed and was spilling blood.
This bastard. The magic has been undone.
Was that why its blood had returned from black to red? The bloody tears flowing from its eyes had also turned red. Since that black mana had vanished without a trace, my reasoning was probably correct. Even so, the half-werewolf appearance that was a side effect of the transformation magic remained.
“──Cough.”
At that moment, the beast coughed up blood. It seemed to have regained consciousness.
“This… place……”
The dying beast spoke. It was Tabula’s voice. The bastard moved his empty eye sockets as if trying to see something, then noticed my presence.
“Did I… lose?”
“Yeah, you fucker. So do me a favor and just die quietly like that.”
I didn’t have the strength left to confirm the kill. If this bastard gave up, the match would end, but if he stood up and hit me, I would die on the spot. Beast Regression was still active, but only a faint light remained, like fluorescent paint that had been left untouched for a year.
“Kuh, kuhuhu. Even after degenerating into a beast, I still lost. Then there is no more lingering attachment.”
Tabula had regained his reason, but he had not been revived. Well, of course. A boss with magic resistance using a recovery skill would be cheating. It wasn’t even a raid boss.
As I felt inwardly relieved while still keeping my guard up, Tabula spoke in a heavy voice.
“You are the second one who has made me use this technique……”
“I can tell just by looking, you idiot.”
A person only has two eyeballs. Who doesn’t know that, you moron? Or are you some kind of Chun Jin-ban or something? Making me use the eye-gouging skill three times? What absolute nonsense. It’s pissing me off. The famous general Xiahou Dun is said to have eaten the arrow that pierced his eye because “the body, hair, and skin are gifts from one’s parents,” yet this bastard had ripped out his own eyeball and crushed it.
“You son of a bitch with no parents or ancestors. You’re worse than Lü Bu.”
“Lü Bu…? Hehe. I suppose I never knew my parents’ faces.”
This bastard had maximum resistance to parental insults. While I was running my brain at three thousand percent to come up with a fresh diss, the bastard laughed.
“Kuhahaha. You… even after receiving that much of the Nine Gods’ mana into your body, you still retain your reason?”
“No, fuck. How many times do I have to tell you I’m non-religious?”
The Nine Gods, the Nine-tailed Fox─I had no idea what any of that meant. Even after I snapped at him, Tabula displayed the species trait of otherworlders and only said what he wanted to say.
“It is said: a berserker who does not degenerate into a beast. One who is not devoured by wildness and rage, yet becomes the king who grants rest to a fallen beast. Then indeed you are the one of the prophecy……”
“Hey, grandma. Are your ears going bad?”
Why the hell does it feel like I’m throwing normal attacks during a boss cutscene? Are this bastard and I even speaking the same language?
“Ooooooh…! This radiance…! O heavenly Valkyrie…! Have you come to take this Tabula away……!!”
This idiot finally reached the realm of muttering to himself while spreading his hands toward the ceiling. Apparently the bioelectric sparks that appear in the brain when a person dies looked like angels to him.
“O great madness dwelling in the heavens…… your Einherjar, one more…… to the great Valhalla……”
─Thud.
With an expression that somehow suited those grandiose words, Tabula died. His two heavy arms fell with a loud sound, and his breathing stopped completely.
“Aigo, this son of a bitch.”
He died without even explaining what the hell he was, just proselytizing about his religion until the end. There were so many things I wanted to ask this guy. I got so angry that I almost kicked his head, but stopped. Teabagging a corpse would probably violate the Geneva Conventions. Maybe.
Just as I gave up and turned my back, a sound rang out.
Shwaaaaaaaaah─!
“What?”
Something was leaking out from Tabula’s corpse.