23. The Nine-Headed Snake (2)
23. The Nine-Headed Snake (2)
'That sound...'
Karina, who had been cleaning the cluttered house, flinched involuntarily at the sudden shriek.
A monstrous cry she had never heard before, accompanied by a faint but unpleasant aura.
Before she knew it, Karina had rushed out of the house and was staring in the direction of the sound. Out in the open, no longer surrounded by brick walls, the aura felt far more distinct. Karina gazed toward it with a worried face.
'Would they be all right...?'
She was uneasy.
But she couldn't go. Karina knew perfectly well that she had no combat ability. Heading into the forest out of mere worry would only result in her quickly tiring and becoming dead weight, and since she didn't even know the way to begin with, there was no hope of finding Reni and Yohan. Karina watched the forest, which had begun to stir restlessly, with an anxious heart.
'Please, let them be safe...'
"Karina!"
"...Reni?"
Why was Reni's voice reaching her?
Her questioning eyes turned toward a figure clad in bizarre armor.
Who in the world was that? Karina, who had instinctively put on a guarded expression at the unfamiliar sight, belatedly realized that Reni's voice had come from inside the armor. Karina relaxed her expression and called the girl's name.
"Reni?"
The slightly dubious voice reached Reni's ears. Reni immediately took off the hideous helmet and revealed her face. She'd sweat so much that her hair was plastered to her forehead.
"Yes, it's me, Karina."
"What happened? That armor... And Yohan..."
"It's an emergency. We need your power, Karina!"
An urgent voice. Karina recalled what had happened just before she'd been put into the barrel.
Water rising to her ankles. People's screams. The barrel. Her own helplessness.
She returned to the present.
Yohan was nowhere to be seen.
Karina grasped the situation without needing any explanation.
"...Please take me to Yohan."
"We're short on time, so I'll carry you on my back... hold on a moment."
Reni threw off the armor drenched in acidic poison. When the frayed armor hit the ground, her sweat-soaked body was revealed. Karina watched her worriedly, then carefully let Reni take her into her arms when told to hurry.
Reni scooped her up with practiced ease and kicked off the ground.
Her destination was where Yohan was.
'Please let him be all right...'
Reni didn't realize that for the first time, she was worrying about someone other than Karina.
---------------
I swung the shovel down. Sharper than most famed swords, its blade mercilessly cut through the tadpole's—no, the Mini Hydra's—hide and struck its spine hard.
Judging by the violent feedback in my grip, had I dealt it heavy spinal damage?
I could feel the serpent's movements growing sluggish. Even if it boasted a deranged regenerative ability, damaging its spine would mean it couldn't move for a bit.
"Kee-eek!"
...You crazy little fucker.
Was it a lizard? Seriously, was it a lizard? What kind of fucking bastard tore off a piece of its own body and ran away?! I clutched the back of my neck as the Mini Hydra shed the damaged section, escaped, and regenerated again. That son of a bitch... no, that snake bastard.
It was disgustingly good at running. Judging by the way it kited me with poison darts, it might as well have come from some canyon instead of an uninhabited island. Had the shock of losing its head restored its intelligence? Whenever I tried to trap it, it slipped away like a ghost, and whenever I raised a wall, it melted the wall with poison darts. Wood and dirt simply couldn't contain it.
"That tadpole bastard is disgustingly tenacious..."
I'd already lost count of how many times I'd cut its tail off. I tore my gaze from the wriggling tails and sighed.
"Couldn't you just die for me?"
An unpleasant shriek battered my eardrums as though protesting my muttering. For the moment, however, screaming was all it could do. That made sense. The bastard and I had already been fighting for a full hour, a tedious battle dragged out far too long. Compared with a true Hydra, I was only one fragile human, but against this Mini Hydra I held a clear advantage.
The problem was that the bastard was needlessly quick for its size.
Because of that, I couldn't smash its head. It apparently knew that destroying its head would kill it, and the way that one head darted away whenever I went for it was enough to send my blood pressure soaring.
"Ha, little prick's got running away down to an art."
It was a bizarre standoff. The Mini Hydra and I kept our distance from each other. I knew little else, but its survival instincts were certainly intact. If it had become a zombie, it should have thrown those instincts away too.
Ugh, my body ached.
I wanted to go home and rest immediately.
I was exhausted.
I was tired.
My body felt as though it was creaking.
...Hoo. I had to focus on the fight. An hour of this bullshit had scattered my concentration.
I adjusted my grip on the shovel. It was a ready stance for battle. I pointed the blade at the Mini Hydra, prepared to block its attack at any moment.
Who would attack first?
Until then, the snake bastard had held the initiative. I was melee DPS, while that little shit was filthy ranged DPS.
After an hour in the miserable melee-character simulator, my rage had built beyond description. If only to vent it, I was going to crush that snake bastard.
"Let's finish this, snake bastard."
I had no more time to waste on you.
To end this tedious fight—
—I turned my back and ran away at full speed.
"What can you do if I run?! What can you do besides crawl after me?!"
The refreshing taunt was a bonus, even if it probably couldn't understand me.
I sprinted through the forest and looked back. Naturally, the Mini Hydra was chasing me. Our mutual desire to finish each other off was obvious, and my legs had begun to ache. They had been working hard since morning and were begging for a vacation, but this was the time to shut up and run.
I stomped the ground hard and brought my body to a sudden halt.
The sudden stop made the Mini Hydra and me close the distance rapidly. Its repulsive eyes met mine for an instant. It was a wild clash as we charged straight at each other. A purple venom gland writhed inside its gaping maw. I kicked off the ground and thrust myself into its mouth.
Normally, this would have been suicide, but I was wearing armor. The bark provided almost no physical protection, but I trusted the armor made from the Alpha Bear's bones and hide. Surely it could stop the fangs of a mere Mini Hydra.
And my prediction proved correct when I plunged into its mouth. Insane pressure closed in from above and below, and something sharp scraped my shoulder. Like Atlas from Greek myth, I braced with my legs and shoulders to keep it from swallowing me. My whole body felt ready to break as I forced myself deeper. The grotesque interior churned incessantly, as though eager to swallow me.
I clenched my teeth and forced myself farther in, hard enough to feel as though my shoulder would break, then drove the shovel into its venom gland. Thick, deep-violet blood, as if mixed with venom, splattered over my armor.
"Now die already, you snake bastard..."
I plunged the shovel stabbed into the venom gland deeper, preventing the snake from closing its mouth. Its greatest weapon was neutralized in an instant. With its venom gland ruined, it surely couldn't shoot poison darts from afar anymore. Even feeling no pain, the creature seemed to sense something was wrong—instead of trying to swallow me, it writhed, trying to spit me out.
But it was already too late.
I went in the opposite direction, further into its mouth. The shovel was forcibly prying its mouth open, so it couldn't close easily. I ripped a sharp bone off my armor and started stabbing wildly at the roof of its mouth.
Die! Fucking die, you piece of shit!
One, two, three, four... Blood poured from more holes than I could count, running in sticky streams over my armor.
It felt fucking awful. A shower in snake blood.
But it would feel even worse if the bastard survived.
Die.
Die.
Die.
Die.
I was dizzy.
A snake thrashing madly to spit me out from its mouth, and me, stubbornly holding on and aiming for the brain above its palate. At this very moment, I couldn't be sure which side would win.
Before my already exhausted body collapsed, I had to finish this bastard.
That was all that mattered.
"Just die already..."
I pushed my exhausted arm through the palate riddled with holes. Beyond it, I felt something soft and yielding.
Yeah, a squishy sensation. What else could feel that squishy besides a brain? With all my remaining strength, I shoved my hand into the soft mass and yanked. It felt like something tore.
My ears were wet. I couldn't hear anything. Maybe it was because I'd heard that shriek right in front of my face.
I couldn't make an accurate judgment.
But one thing was certain.
I won.
You son of a bitch.
"Ah, damn, my ears..."
I crawled out of the motionless snake's mouth and collapsed on the ground. Fighting a Hydra truly was fucking awful. It was fast, used poison, and regenerated rapidly. If fighting a Mini Hydra was this fucking awful, the Hydra itself would be even worse.
Still, I would not be fighting it alone, so that was fine.
I was not alone anymore.
If I had been alone, I would never have taken a gamble like that.
My eyes closed on their own.
Surely I could rest for a little while.
Just a little...
I closed my eyes, at ease.
A faint voice reached me from afar.
It was an angel's voice, soothing my heart.