Raid Failed?

Every time a Wind Arrow punched into the bony spur jutting from its crown, Kutlanka convulsed.

"Heh heh heh heh. That's the price for killing me, you goddamn monster."

Just because we couldn't hold a conversation didn't mean nothing got through. Kutlanka and I were never going to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sit down and chat — it was a monster, I was a man — but I could feel it just fine. This bastard was in pain.

Does it hurt? I was in fucking agony when you killed me, you piece of shit.

Every spasm that wracked its body sent my own excitement climbing, punching through the sky. I wanted this thing — this monster so much stronger than me — to hurt even more.

Fuck. If I'd known about this sooner, I could've farmed the hell out of it.

Kutlanka ranked among the ten most miserable raid bosses Fairy Masters had ever spat out. At level 100 it shrugged off seventy percent of all physical damage. The strongest version, the level 300 Kutlanka, went even further — complete physical immunity, on top of a fifty percent cut to magic. Building a raid party around that kind of kit was a logistical nightmare.

Ah. Even if I'd known, I couldn't have used it anyway.

Landing a clean hit on that little protrusion on its crown was easier said than done. I wasn't the only Fairy Masters veteran who'd tried to cheese the fight by aiming exclusively at the head. Every last one of us had failed. The skull was simply too massive, too thick. You couldn't put a shot on the weak point with any real precision.

A deep shudder rolled through the giant's frame.

Anyway. Kutlanka was hurting, and that felt fucking amazing. Goddamn.

"Kyahahaha..."

"...Master?"

"Hm?"

I was still feeding Wind Arrows into the weak point when Aquaril's voice reached me, thick with unshed tears. I glanced back. She was staring at me and trembling every bit as hard as Kutlanka.

"What are you doing climbing up here? It's dangerous. What if you get hurt? Ah — never mind that. Since you're already up here, you can help me hit th—"

"Master!"

"Huh?"

She couldn't hold it in. Aquaril rushed me and threw her arms around my waist, and the face pressed against my chest was a wreck of tears.

"Hhk... I... I thought... I thought you were gone, Master... hhk... Master... thank goodness you're all right. I'm so, so glad... hhk..."

"Ah, hell."

I managed a crooked smile as she clung to me and wept. Aquaril knew I could come back from the dead. I'd shown her the resurrection with her own eyes. I'd figured that meant she wouldn't fall apart if I died.

I'd been wrong. And looking at it now, of course I had.

She looked human enough, but Aquaril wasn't human. She was a fairy — the kind of being that would offer absolute, unswerving loyalty to the master who summoned her even if that master were the worst bastard alive. How was a fairy supposed to watch her master die in front of her and walk away fine? Knowing I could come back didn't change the shock of seeing it happen.

"There, there. Was my Aquaril scared her Master had kicked the bucket?"

"Master... Masterrr..."

I'd meant it as a tease, something to jolt her out of it, but she just bawled like a child — nothing like her usual self. I patted her shoulder and let her get it out.

"Right. This isn't the time."

If Kutlanka hadn't made a sound, I would have stood there and held her until the tears ran dry. A noise like that meant it was shaking off the stun. I was not about to let a chance this good slip away.

"Aquaril. Dry it up for now and help me hit this thing."

"Hhk... what? Hit what, exactly...?"

"This. This is Kutlanka's weak point."

Wind Arrow.

I snapped off another shot before the giant could start moving again. The body that had just begun to settle started shuddering all over again.

"...Understood, Master."

She looked like she had a great deal more to say, but the fight wasn't over. Aquaril drew her sword and fell ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in beside me, and together we started working the weak point.

"Can't you use sword aura?"

"I'm sorry, Master. My mana is completely drained."

"Tsk. Can't be helped, then."

"I-I'm sorry..."

"Hm? No, no. It's fine. That happens."

She was apologizing like she'd committed a capital crime, so I waved her off in a hurry. I didn't need to ask why her mana was gone. She'd seen me die and then unloaded on this thing like a woman possessed. Strictly speaking, that was on me.

"The rest of the party's gone quiet, though. What are they doing? Did they burn out their mana too?"

"Ah. About that... they all withdrew from the battlefield."

"...What?"

I stopped mid-cast and stared at her. Aquaril fidgeted as if the whole mess were somehow her fault, then walked me through everything that had happened the moment I went down.

"Nngh... so they all ran."

"Yes."

"Hold on. Then Kanisia saw me die?"

"Yes, Master."

"Tsk... that's going to be a pain."

Just thinking about the explanation I'd owe Kanisia later was enough to make my head throb. But the bigger headache was simpler than that. The Kutlanka raid had failed. Objectively — hell, even subjectively — my party alone could not kill this thing. Not even after everything we'd already carved out of it.

"Aquaril."

"Yes, Master."

"We're running too."

"What?"

"We're the only ones left. What choice do we have? The raid's a bust."

And that was how my first monster raid ended. In failure.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

"Hah... thank god."

I let out a long breath as Kutlanka's silhouette shrank into the distance. I'd been half-convinced the thing would come after me out of sheer spite for how thoroughly I'd been jabbing its weak point. Instead of chasing the man who'd just climbed down off its back, it turned toward the cliff we'd originally descended from.

Plasma was up there, along with the subjugation force ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and the Snake Bandits. Just as I'd figured from the start: the resurrected Kutlanka's first target was Plasma.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

How is that even possible?

Forcing a monster to fixate on a single person — a single fairy — was a trick even I, a Fairy Masters veteran, had never figured out. I guess reality had all kinds of surprises the game never bothered with.

"Haaah..."

The sigh came out on its own.

"Alan."

"Y-yeah. Kanisia."

"....."

I'd just climbed one mountain named Kutlanka. Waiting on the other side was another one, and its name was Kanisia Lora.

"You... how the hell did you..."

She was staring at me like she couldn't believe I was standing there. Abraham wore the same look from beside her, but he wasn't the one I needed to worry about. Convince Kanisia and Abraham would come along as a matching set.

"Well, you see."

I'd worked the story out while we were hiding in the Snake Bandits' village after climbing down off Kutlanka's back. I fed it to her now.

"I told you before, right? Palos's Bird killed my parents."

"Yeah. You did."

"Before my father died, he left me an item. That's what saved me."

"An item?"

"Yeah. A one-use item that lets me unconditionally evade any attack that hits me."

"An item like that exists? Look, Alan, I'm not saying I don't believe you, but... could I see it?"

"Sorry. Single-use. It broke."

"Oh. Right."

She couldn't find a hole in it. Kanisia nodded — and then her eyes welled up and she pulled me into her arms.

"Thank god you're all right. If you'd actually died, I... I'm just glad. Glad you didn't die. Thank you for being okay."

"I'm the one who should be thanking you for worrying, Kanisia."

Did that work? That worked, right?

I held her while she sniffled against me and let a quiet breath of relief slip out where she couldn't hear it.

Maybe I should just quit all this and become an actor. Do they even have actors in this world?

My brain, for whatever reason, always seemed to run hottest when I was lying.

"So what do we do now?"

Once our touching reunion — if you could call it that — was over, we sat down to figure out what came next. The subjugation force that had marched out to crush the Snake Bandits had been annihilated in spectacular fashion.

Plasma, their ace, had never shown up for the Kutlanka raid. That meant only one thing: Plasma had lost. Whether he was dead or had cut and run on his own, I had no idea.

What I did know was that from this moment on, we had to find our own way to stay alive.

Were the enemies really that strong?

The Snake Bandits had clearly prepared more than what I'd seen. No matter how I turned it over, I couldn't make myself believe a fighter of Plasma's caliber had gone down.

Ah, fuck. The real mistake was trusting that useless bastard in the first place.

The single biggest blunder I'd made in this fight was putting my faith in someone else. I'd gotten dazzled by a rank I'd never even seen before and leaned on Plasma far too hard. I'd told myself that if Plasma was there, the enemy would be cleaned up for me.

Complacent. And then complacent again.

The only people I should have trusted were myself and the party standing here with me. Overlooking that fact had bought us this: stranded in the heart of enemy territory, cut off from everything.

"First things first. Let's loot the village."

"What? You want to loot the village?"

Kanisia's face twisted. We barely had time to run as it was, and here I was talking about shaking the place down.

The Snake Bandits' village looked like a typhoon had torn through it — buildings collapsed, whole stretches reduced to rubble — but the settlement was enormous, and plenty of structures were still standing.

"We've got nothing to eat and we're dead on our feet. How far do you really think we'd get if we ran right now? Better to use this place, catch our breath, get some strength back, and slip out under cover of night."

"But... this is the middle of enemy territory. Are you sure? They'll find us in no time."

"We don't have a choice. And we might actually be safer here than anywhere else."

"Huh? Why would we be safer here?"

"They just went toe-to-toe with the subjugation force. The bandits took heavy losses too. And a village this size means a lot of people used to live here. There aren't enough intact houses left to sleep in — you think they're going to drag that many people back tonight? They're as wrecked as we are. If they rebuild, they'll do it tomorrow."

"Hrm..."

Kanisia turned it over.

"Yeah. That's better. You're right — even if we ran now, we wouldn't get far."

She nodded and fell in with the plan. There hadn't been much to debate, honestly.

What we needed most right now was water. Trying to cross the desert back to Baidu with no food and no water wasn't a retreat. It was suicide. Even if the bandits never lifted a finger to chase us, we'd dry up and die out there.

"All right. Split up and search the village. Pairs, just in case."

"Got it. Let's go, Abraham."

"Yes, Master."

We broke into two teams — Aquaril with me, Abraham with Kanisia — and started working through the village.

Should I have told them to rest?

Thanks to Molt (Lv. 3 / Mythic), I was fresh as if I'd just woken up. The other three were running on fumes. It might have been smarter to let them sleep and search the place myself.

Whatever.

I'd already given the order, so we searched. I could take the night watch alone later and call it even.

We were picking our way through the ruins when Aquaril called out from inside one of the buildings.

"Master. Please take a look at this."

"What is it?"

I followed her in.

"Huh. A statue?"

Standing in the middle of the room was a divine statue — the kind you needed to raise your star rank. I caught myself thinking even bandits had religion, then realized that wasn't it at all.

Right. They can't set foot in a city, so they needed their own way to rank up.

Raising your rank meant visiting a temple, laying an offering before the statue of the god, and praying. Bandits couldn't walk into a city, so they'd procured a statue of their own and used it here.

"Perfect timing."

I'd been planning to hit a temple the moment we got back to Baidu anyway. I pulled twenty gold bars from my inventory, set them at the foot of the statue, and offered a devout prayer to the Nameless God.

God, I want to have sex.

A wash of light wrapped around my body. The gold bars vanished from the base of the statue, and a window unfolded in front of my eyes.

I was finally four-star.

And then—

"Huh?"

"Master, that's...!"

From far off, in the direction Kutlanka had vanished while chasing Plasma, a scream ripped through the air. At the same instant, a fresh window bloomed in front of me.

"....."

I stared, blank-faced, at the windows that just kept coming.