Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: In the Battle of Whales, the Shrimp's Back Remains Intact
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"Individual name: Niflheim has appeared! But the size of this one..."
"It's... nearly 20 meters! In terms of danger level, it's estimated to be a top-tier C-rank giant monster comparable to B-rank!"
"Damn it... Do we have any weapons left?"
"W-well, the missile we fired in support against the humanoid monster earlier is gone, and we've used up almost all our monster-grade ammo..."
"...I see."
A reptilian monster that should have been only about 10 meters long, now covered in bulging red eyes.
Individual name: Niflheim.
Whether it was a mutant or a special specimen didn't matter right now.
What mattered most was that we didn't have nearly enough firepower here to subdue it at this moment.
"Commander, what should we do...?"
"We'll retreat for now... Everyone here, follow me to Yeongdeungpo."
"...! Yeongdeungpo, where Hunter Headquarters is! You're planning to request reinforcements there, right, Commander?"
"No."
"...Pardon?"
"My 'armament' is there. That's why we're heading that way."
"...!"
"Come on, let's move!"
No matter what, there was nothing more we could do here.
Leading the team formed from the Korean military and hunters, the Commander Hunter tried to move as quietly as possible to avoid catching Niflheim's eye.
Of course, while we were gone, it would turn Jamsil into a wasteland.
That thought briefly held the Commander Hunter's ankle.
"Commander...?"
"It's nothing. Let's go."
If she were alone, she might have darted between buildings, luring the monster as bait.
But now, she was carrying far too many lives to pull off a stunt like that.
She bit her lip at her own incompetence, turning her back on the monster.
"Quickly, radio the helicopter too. Tell them we're retreating to Yeongdeungpo."
"Y-yes! Got it!"
The distance from Jamsil to Yeongdeungpo was about 15 kilometers.
Once they got out of Jamsil, the monster would be busy wrecking human territory and wouldn't pay them any mind.
So if everyone safely escaped Jamsil, she planned to race to Yeongdeungpo at speeds beyond human limits.
To use her armament.
Even as a Commander Hunter, with her gear, she could fight plenty well.
That was the plan—until it all fell apart.
"What is it? Eagle, respond..."
"C-Commander! The individual name Niflheim... It-it caught the helicopter with its tongue!"
Desperate screams crackled from the radio.
At the same time, her operations staffer—who'd been supporting her—suddenly turned, face pale with fear, pointing at the sky.
The hunters and soldiers stared in that direction and fell silent.
Even the Commander Hunter, who needed to stay cool, felt a bead of cold sweat trickle down her temple.
"Niflheim fights... like that?"
"H-headquarters just got intel! The target Niflheim is presumed to be a queen—the highest rank among individuals! It can grow up to 25 meters and, unlike normal ones, uses its developed tongue like a chameleon!"
"What's its danger rating?"
"Th-that's... uh...!"
The screams from the radio at her waist grew more frantic.
The propellers had already stopped. The helicopter, wrapped tightly in the long tongue, was crumpled but barely holding its shape.
And the monster was opening its massive maw to swallow her subordinate whole.
The danger rating her operations staffer-turned-secretary showed on her tablet.
"Niflheim Queen... Danger level: B+."
"Theoretically, it would take at least five hunter units mixing tanks, long-range, and close-range to even stand a chance..."
"......Damn it."
First, a humanoid monster shrugging off a direct missile hit, and now the strongest variant among Niflheim—the queen.
Was today truly the end of Jamsil?
Even throwing the entire military and hunter forces at those two would probably regress this area to the Stone Age.
At least hundreds of thousands of civilians would lose their homes in a single day.
No—worse was knowing she could do nothing for the subordinates begging for rescue from inside the helicopter.
"Th-the individual name Niflheim Queen...!"
"It's opening its mouth..."
Gulp.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
Ignoring the humans entirely, the Niflheim Queen swallowed the helicopter in one gulp.
The site went deathly quiet as her guttural roar echoed from her throat.
Everyone held their breath.
It was the first time seeing a person eaten alive by a monster.
Some stayed silent, some burst into tears.
"Kids..."
Some just sighed, and others...
'Time to get going.'
"M-monster Uncle!"
"Kruk?"
From an alley where buildings had crumbled like tofu, out stepped the humanoid monster carrying a grandmother on its back and holding a girl's hand, emerging onto the main road.
He gently set them down and looked up at the far larger monster just before leaping.
"Thank you for saving us..."
"Kruk!"
"Ah!"
Though his monster vocal cords couldn't form words, he gave the grateful girl a thumbs-up instead.
And jumped.
'It just swallowed it, so they shouldn't be digested yet.'
Individual name: Queen Niflheim.
The strongest among the lizard-like Niflheim with potent digestive juices—a tricky monster that hunted, unlike regular ones that just ate skyscrapers.
But a whole helicopter dropped in? Not just a person.
They might still be alive.
No—they had to be.
After all, they mobilized because of me and got caught in this mess.
I wanted to save them, no matter what.
As a gluttonous monster, Niflheim's stomach—the largest organ for digesting food—was huge.
So the helicopter had to be right there.
"Wooooaaaarrrghhh!!"
"Eek?!"
"H-humanoid monster?"
The Commander Hunter and her team, frozen mid-retreat after their comrade's "death," snapped their heads toward Queen Niflheim at the massive roar.
And witnessed it.
BOOM!
"C-Commmaaandeerrr!"
"Y-yeah! I saw..."
"O-oh..."
"Wooooaaahhh!!"
The humanoid monster leaped onto the B+ rank monster's body, bursting out from its gut in one strike.
By some miracle, its arms clutched the half-melted but still intact helicopter from its meal.
At the same time, the radio crackled back to life.
Cheers of joy followed.
"Woooaaahhhh!"
"What kind of luck is this?!"
"I-it seems like in the clash between monsters, the shockwave somehow rescued those two!"
"Hahaha! Not the shrimp's back bursting in a whale fight—this whale fight saved the shrimp!"
"How lucky are those guys?!"
The soldiers and hunters heading to Yeongdeungpo turned toward the collapsing, guts-spilling monster.
A perfect victory from sheer coincidence stacked on coincidence.
Everyone thought so. With joyful faces, they rushed toward the city center to rescue their comrades in the helicopter.
"Commander, let's go too!"
"Y-yeah... Go ahead... I need a moment to think..."
"...? Y-yes, got it."
All but one.
The Commander Hunter excepted.
Of course, she was happy too.
Her "dead" subordinates had come back alive.
But amid the joy, what was this nagging sense of dissonance?
Monster-on-monster clashes were extremely rare.
As a Commander Hunter, she'd seen a few, and even met people who'd barely survived by sheer luck.
But she'd never witnessed a rescue this blatant.
"That thing came out of the Queen Niflheim's gut 'holding' the helicopter. It didn't just spill out with the innards. It brought it out on purpose."
Why?
What business did a monster have with that helicopter?
The idea of it "saving" them was off the table, obviously.
It was a monster.
Humanoid just because its size and shape vaguely resembled humans.
A monster was a monster.
Undeniably a wicked enemy of humanity...
That was when it happened.
The Commander Hunter sighed in relief at her subordinates' survival, pushing stray thoughts aside.
Merchants rescued mid-sale from evacuation zones were a dime a dozen.
Feeling the situation wrap up, she stretched contentedly—
The operations staffer-turned-secretary hemmed and hawed mid-report.
Urged by the Commander Hunter—
Right beside the wrecked helicopter.
With Monsterization released, I'd reverted to elementary-school age and was being rescued by the people.