What Comes Next (3)
A faint pain brushed across my shoulder, but it was little more than an itch. I ignored it with long practice and took the next step.
There was nothing convenient to use as a foothold, yet that did not mean I was without options.
My combat boot pressed against the underside of a vine above me; I launched my body downward again.
Black currents coiled around me as I closed the distance on Biryuho once more. She opened her jaws, aiming for me in turn.
Krrr-crack.
Our bodies crossed again, carving fresh wounds into each other.
Biryuho’s hide was shredded like a burst drum; a claw mark so deep it nearly showed the entrails scored my waist.
All the while the poison gauge climbed steadily, if not steeply.
I adjusted my grip on the sword amid the floral scent vibrating from every direction. They say a flower’s fragrance is strongest just before it wilts—seems the saying was true.
Fssshhh.
But this was no time to rest. I ran on, dodging the rotting footholds without fail.
The wound at my waist was nothing to worry about. Bandages and clothing would restore themselves soon enough—makeshift first aid at best, and that would have to do.
[Krrraaaaahhh!]
A single roar mended Biryuho’s wounds; she shot after me at once. Crrr-crack. The black fissures had already swallowed most of her upper body. Her murky crimson eyes seemed to sink deeper into madness with every breath.
Perhaps she was trading reason for power—the number of thrashing vines swelled, and their speed made them harder to dismiss by the moment.
Squeezing Survival Instinct only goes so far; if I kept hunting for escape routes like this, my head would split open first.
Thud.
After several more exchanges I made my choice.
The thinner stems could no longer serve as a path, so I planted my foot on a pillar thick enough that three grown men hanging on would not bend it.
[C-caught you…!]
Fsssssssh!
“……!”
In that very instant the canopy of vines collapsed as if it had been waiting for me. The way it scattered—like ash, or rather like thousands of butterflies—was almost beautiful.
Yet the stems gathering through that beauty were anything but. They poured into every gap as though intent on turning a man into a pirate’s roulette toy; if they closed in without openings I would be in real trouble.
I clamped my lips shut and spun through the air at every angle, sword flashing. I felt like a top, but it was the best I could manage.
My body, having split every branch that lunged for me, plummeted lower and lower until at last it reached the innermost heart of the vine thicket. The ground I had wanted all along.
Even if root walls sealed every side.
Splat!
And even if the earth had been overturned by the earlier upheaval—mud and standing water.
The landing shock was softened, yet the thought of fighting here left me only gloomier.
Boom!
Biryuho slammed down after me. Shhhrrrk. Roughly fifty meters up, the vines swarmed together to form a ceiling, as if determined to seal this pit completely.
The dense mass of tendrils left not even a crack for light. The world went black.
I could make out the faintest shapes, yet relying on that to map the surroundings would be less comfortable than simply fighting with my eyes shut.
[T-tremble in… fear…!]
Amid it all a thin presence circled near me. Her speech had grown strangely clumsy.
[D…ie……!]
Let’s see. She had definitely gulped down a Great Demon whole. Add the steadily widening black hole and this sudden slur—
Yeah. No matter how I looked at it, this was Demon Energy Invasion.
I entertained the idle thought while the floral reek thickened around me.
Should I be grateful my own madness gauge wasn’t climbing the way hers was? Or should I say it was no comfort at all because the poison was still rising?
After a brief deliberation I reached a decision.
[Krrrahh!]
Clang!
Ranking the various kinds of bullshit was pointless anyway.
I knocked aside the plunging claw and stepped back. Whoosh! Sure enough a follow-up strike carved through the space I had just vacated.
Counterattack? I decided to wait a little longer. No matter how keen my senses, a beast’s night vision still outclassed mine.
My eyes needed more time to adjust to the dark—or else I needed to find Biryuho by sound and a handful of other clues alone.
Either way, for now the wisest course was to advance carefully rather than move rashly.
Clash!
Still… just a little. Just a tiny bit… the opponent was getting on my nerves.
Come on—if you’re a spirit beast that swallowed a Great Demon, at least charge in head-on like you mean it. Stop playing games with darkness, rotten footing, and slow-acting poison.
[Kheee-heek!]
Ah! The poison gauge and that laughing sound were both genuinely infuriating!!
I tightened my grip on the hilt while wondering whether Biryuho had always been this kind of character. Screeeech. The sword that had endured even the Great Demon hunt was beginning to scream.
I’d put off replacing it for the sake of my wallet—looked like that had been a small mistake. Money isn’t more important than my life, after all.
Clash!
But what was I supposed to do when I had no money? The repair bill for my legs had already been enormous.
And I could hardly go begging the Archmage or the others and lose face.
I hurriedly checked the durability and blocked yet another strike. From experience, a blade this worn would shatter before long.
Slash!
“……!”
[D…ie……!]
Well, odds were good I’d bleed out from the wounds before the sword broke.
I took stock of the number of cuts carved across my body.
None were as deep as the one at my side, but quantity was quantity. I was fine for now; later was another question. Given my track record there was still a chance I sat inside the safe zone…
Rumble-rumble-rumble.
Yet she seemed determined to use the darkness for at least one prepared blow.
Air began to move in a space where no wind should exist, and a tremendous surge of power gathered in answer.
Whether my eyes could see or not, missing this would be pure stupidity.
“There you are!”
I had already condensed mana into the blade in anticipation. Screeech. With a metallic cry I launched three Chamgyeok.
With nothing else to distract me, I poured every scrap of focus into the edge; the resulting sword-ki was narrower and finer than anything before.
Shhk!
“……!”
I felt the cut travel up through my fingertips. Not the usual heavy resistance—something light, as if it might scatter, the vague sensation of slicing cotton candy.
[Kha-haat!]
It’s a trap!
The instant I realized it I tried to move. But Biryuho’s eyes were already right in front of me. A beast’s reflective plates made them blaze like twin lanterns.
Whoosh!
“……!”
In the next heartbeat Biryuho’s body “passed through” me, and a cold, wet sensation slammed into my entire frame from behind. Shhhhhh! The cool, clear roar of a wave filled the cavern.
Blub-blub-blub.
Air bubbles burst from my mouth before I could even prepare a breath.
If I hadn’t driven the sword into the ground on pure reflex, the currents battering my limbs would have swept me away already.
Separately—why the hell was this tiger cub suddenly using water-attribute skills? Had gulping a sky-whale added Water-type? What kind of Mega Evolution was this?
Thwack!
Meanwhile her ability to grow plants remained intact. The poison gauge had already passed the halfway mark and was climbing steeply.
I’d thought it since the moment she ate a demon raw, but this thing really had no conscience.
I barely swallowed a curse as I sensed a wooden tendril that had nearly punched through my shoulder.
I also ran a quick calculation: would being swept by the current hurt less than taking her hits, or the other way around? A wrong call would put me in immediate crisis.
Crack!
But the chance for deliberation did not last long.
I felt a branch that had grown at terrifying speed graze the other side of my neck. My ankles were already bound by stems.
Better to throw myself into the water. I decided in a flash, yanked the sword free, and moved my legs. Crunch. My body was instantly seized by the current.
Yet as if she had been waiting for exactly that moment, a presence flared from the far side. My arm moved against my will.
Shhk!
Once again what I cut felt like little more than a clone. The feedback was weak.
Blub.
I kicked hard, reading the presences pressing in from every direction.
Harassment was harassment and response was response, but at my core I was still human. If I did not breathe, I died.
[D…ie!]
The moment my hand touched the ceiling, however, I understood. The place had filled completely with water; there was no air left to breathe.
This is getting dangerous.
A chill ran down my spine.
“Hraaaaaah!”
KRAAAAAAASH!
The instant my instincts screamed their loudest alarm, a brilliant golden radiance and a colossal shockwave shook heaven and earth.
The ceiling shattered; light poured in. Water surged outward from the center in concentric rings, and the water level inverted.
Luckily I had been near the edge; my body rose with the climbing water. As an extra precaution I grabbed a broken fragment and tried to hang on so I would not fall again.
“Demon Knight!”
There was no real need. Pale-blue chains shot out and wound around my wrist.
Goosebumps prickled and every sense stood on end, yet my mind did not stop analyzing.
I clamped down harder on the chains coiled around my forearm.
Clank-clank-clank!
My body was reeled upward like a fish on a line.
“Hmph!”
In short order I saw the Archmage mid-incantation and Berserk wearing a thoroughly sullen expression. I had no idea how they had known to come, but their timing was perfect.
“Two sparring matches—no, three!”
One person, though, was missing from the group. Which meant the one who had smashed through the wooden ceiling was, of course, the Inquisitor.
I shook the chains from my arm while thinking that.
“Protect us!”
At the same time the Archmage formed a small-scale barrier—one that covered only me.
Fwoooom!
The instant I started to wonder about that detail, a colossal golden wave flooded my vision.
It was the power that purified every impurity in the world and annihilated evil.
Damn it.
Even though the mana barrier clearly blocked the brunt of the Holy Power, my knees buckled of their own accord. Gush. Blood poured from my mouth.
“Are you all right, young man?”
I did not look like someone whose condition needed to be asked about.
I threw out a half-hearted jab just to lighten the mood. My vision had gone a little red; a blood vessel in my eye must have burst as well.
“You have many wounds.”
“Pathetic. From now on Berserk will fight.”
No—this isn’t because I’m weak…
I denied it inwardly, then stopped. A true master fights perfectly well even in the dark. Perhaps this really was a lack of skill.
“As I said before—if you can do it, then do it.”
But the concept would never allow me to concede the point. Besides, Biryuho had taken that Holy Power head-on; she could not possibly be in one piece.
Moreover that power was still pouring from the center. Even the aftershock was enough to turn the plants from violet back to healthy green. Could a Biryuho who had swallowed a demon still be alive?
With that thought I primly wiped away the bloody tears and nosebleed that had run down my face.
HP was now dangling by a thread at the bottom. Without the Archmage’s mana barrier I might have died on the spot.
“Tsk.”
Ah—right. White Wind had told me not to fall into a near-death state.
I instinctively patted the area near my right shoulder. Layers of gauntlet and clothing made it hard to feel the sealing tool, but the absence of any rattling sensation inside the clothes suggested it had not shattered yet.
“You think Berserk cannot do it?! Berserk can!”
Ah, fine. Do it if you can. Who said otherwise?
As long as Holy Power kept flooding outward I could not step beyond this barrier anyway. The poison gauge had stopped climbing, yet the rate at which it fell was painfully slow.
“Now, now, calm yourselves.”
Before the pride contest between Berserk and me could drag on longer, the Archmage soothed her. That was when the surging waves of Holy Power finally stilled.
As the Demon Energy was purified, a world restored to spotless clarity filled my sight.
In some places purification had taken the form of burning rather than cleansing, creating gaps through which the water could drain. Whooosh. Water leaked away between the roots and laid the pit bare.
The Inquisitor, still wreathed in radiance, was just rising to her feet in the very center of the hollow.
Biryuho was nowhere to be seen; even her corpse must have been incinerated.
“What, did she already finish the tiger?”
Ah—those words…!
Rumble-rumble-rumble.
The moment Berserk muttered them, the earth began to quake. Then the ground directly in front of the Inquisitor erupted with a bang! What burst forth was Biryuho, her entire body still burning.
[How… how…]
Crrr-crack. Crrr-crack.
The fissures across her chest widened further.
[How……!]
Wider. Wider still.
[Ah!]
Until they threatened to swallow her body whole.
Behind the tiger’s back, a translucent whale’s fin—reminiscent of a blood-streaked sail—fluttered into view.