The Hunter and the Prey
The expected value of a first attempt and a second attempt cannot even be compared. And once again, an opportunity had been granted to Solomon. The final chance with no next one after it.
The moment he realized it, the clock hands spun backward. Right at the instant he was about to kick off the ground. Like a video rewinding in reverse, their movements played backward, and at a certain point the rewind stopped.
Once more, the clock hands began to tick forward.
To the exact moment where the mistake could be corrected.
Solomon kicked off the ground again. More fairly and squarely than ever before.
Shaaaak!
Blood sprayed through the air. The paladin twisted his body in agony. A beat too late, his two-handed greatsword swung horizontally. Had Solomon not dodged, his waist would have been sliced clean in two.
That was why Solomon had lowered his stance, and what happened immediately after.
Spell Resistance Failed!
Like glass shattering, the overlay that had covered the area collapsed with a crystalline crash. The countless black spirit birds that had charged in unison to build up Bird Strike dissolved into mana particles without even leaving behind crow corpses.
What remained, therefore, was a golden radiance as painful as sunlight to a vampire.
‘Ugh…!’
It was no metaphor. In reality, he could feel the light burning him every passing second. Scorching his flesh, searing his bones. He couldn’t stay here long. But it wasn’t enough to force him out immediately. Above all, the opponent had also accumulated considerable damage. The subclass Reaper’s Excessive Bleeding Induction and Bloody Harvest should still be in effect. Even so, Solomon paid it no mind.
‘With the next strike, I’ll end this.’
That was why Solomon steeled his resolve. He would not dodge. He would face it head-on. Paradoxically, he gripped the hilt of his blade more fairly and squarely than ever before.
‘, ’ activated.
It wasn’t for the paladin’s sake. There was simply prey he could catch and a reward to be gained. That was all.
Right then.
A sharp whistle tore through the air.
The sound of a massive greatbow’s string being drawn, the sound of an arrow slicing through the sky. The sound of that greatbow piercing straight through the head of the paladin Solomon was supposed to finish off. It crumpled the helmet’s armor like paper.
In that instant, the head split open, the skull shattered, and brain matter and fragments scattered everywhere.
A sneak attack so cowardly it could never be called fair or square.
The arrow had pierced the paladin’s skull a fraction of a second before Solomon’s own strike. Utterly devoid of fairness.
—Aaaah, aaaaaaaaaah…!
A scream rang out. Even though the head had already exploded, it was the shriek of a soul condemned to suffer endlessly in unabsolved hellish torment.
“!”
“Well, well.”
A voice reached him. It was Barbatos, that demon’s voice. As if he had been waiting from the very beginning.
“Unfortunately, I cannot yet grant that prey the mercy of ending his suffering.”
“…You can’t end it?”
“Indeed. Because he must face death fairly and squarely… his sins run far too deep.”
Solomon asked again, dumbfounded.
“Didn’t you promise to let me harvest the prey in the forest as agreed?”
“That is exactly right. That is my repayment, after all. That said, it is not all that *uncommon* for a hunter in the forest to have his prey stolen from him.”
“Stealing someone else’s prey, you mean.”
“Isn’t that the true charm of the hunt?”
Barbatos mocked him in a leisurely, arrogant tone.
“After the hunt was over, didn’t you promise to let me leave this place safely?”
“A promise is a promise. And demons always keep their promises.”
The blood-red demon, gripping a greatbow of absurd size no human could wield and wearing a hunter’s hat with a fluttering blood-colored feather, answered.
“To be precise, the promise was to let you go after the hunt is finished.”
“……”
With those words, Barbatos adjusted his grip on the greatbow.
“By the way, look at this situation.”
As an unquestionably demonic hunter.
“What a skilled hunter might encounter in the unknown depths of the forest, and what he might end up hunting.”
Solomon had not yet harvested his prey. Far from harvesting, even his first hunt had ended in failure.
“—What an unskilled hunter might encounter in the unknown depths of the forest, and what might end up hunting him.”
“……”
“The difference between hunter and prey is quite literally no more than the flip of a hand. Isn’t that the true charm of the hunt?”
He was right. The hunt was not over.
No matter what Barbatos, the demon of the hunt, had hunted and claimed in his own hunting grounds, this place was ultimately still that very demon’s hunting ground.
“I’ll give you one minute. Until you start running.”
Barbatos said, nocking an arrow to his greatbow and revealing a more relaxed, leisurely demeanor than ever. Seeing that expression, Solomon understood. Even if he had aimed for the limbs from the very first encounter instead of the paladin, the result would not have changed.
Because from the start, the demon had never intended to let him leave alive.
“Did you sell the gratitude for saving you on the way here?”
“Oh, as I said…”
Barbatos answered the taunt.
“Just now, I repaid my debt. In truth, you were granted the *qualification* to enter my hunting grounds and harvest prey, were you not?”
In an utterly relaxed voice.
“You have already received your repayment, and with that, the debt between us is over.”
“You son of a bitch.”
“There is no longer any debt for either of us to owe or bear. Isn’t that right?”
“…I suppose so.”
Solomon answered coldly. There was no longer any debt he could demand from the being before him. At the same time, he understood.
Why a demon was only then called a demon.