Did We Get Her?

Garon slammed his shield into the ground and bellowed.

"Damn it, we need to buy time! Everyone, get behind me!!"

"Mana Barrier!"

A low, resonant hum rolled out from where he stood, and a translucent blue film bloomed around him—a massive shield wrapping a radius of about fifteen feet.

"There are too many of them! The Mana Barrier can't hold them all! Minwoo, take out anything that slips through! Aria, Lin—pick off the ghouls outside the barrier!"

"Understood!"

A thunderous blast of magic and the sharp ping of a bowstring answered him. Aria and Lin started intercepting the ghouls closing on the barrier, dropping them one after another. But Garon was right. There were just too many.

"Kiki! You protect Celine!"

"Keruk!"

More and more of them piled onto the barrier, and one by one they started squeezing through the gaps.

"Kieeeeek!!!"

A ghoul finally forced its way inside, claws already swinging. I knocked the strike aside with my sword and followed through on a horizontal cut across its neck—a textbook piece of sword work, the kind I'd drilled until it lived in my hands.

It didn't matter.

"Kiek! Kieeeek!"

Even with its neck half-severed, the thing lunged to tear into my arm.

"Oh, fuck!"

I kicked it off me, closed the distance, and smashed its skull to pieces. I cut down everything that came after that, hacking them apart as fast as they appeared—but the numbers never let up. Kill one, and another took its place. Kill that one, and two more shoved through. This wasn't a volume that raw strength and swordsmanship could handle.

This isn't working. I have to use it.

I turned my focus inward, down to my core, and drew the power up. A burning heat spun in my gut and flooded out through my whole body. Yellow sparks snapped along the hand that held my sword and raced all the way to the edge of the blade.

"Hoo..."

I steadied my breath and swung into the pack of ghouls charging me.

The catch of bone against steel was gone. The blade slid through them as smoothly as a knife through tofu.

I was still slaughtering everything that had made it inside the barrier when Lin, loosing arrows right in front of me, stared with her eyes wide in total disbelief.

"Oppa! What's that yellow lightning? You've got yellow mana??"

"No—wait, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an Earthling using mana in the first place? What even are you? Why is everything about you impossible to figure out?!"

"I don't fucking know! Does that matter right now?! Focus on the fight!"

"Tch! You better not dodge this conversation later!!!"

The Primordial Power had roughened my mouth without me noticing. Whatever. She had to be more than a dozen years younger than me anyway. Lin went back to the ghouls and kept shooting.

We fought like animals after that, and when it was over, nothing out there was moving. Inside the red barrier, ghoul corpses had turned the place into an absolute wreck.

"Hah... hah..."

Garon dropped the barrier, dragging in rough breaths. He'd burned through a lot of mana—his face had gone pale.

"Celine! How much longer?!"

"Almost there!"

Her expression brightened. We were just starting to believe we might actually get out when a sharp, tearing whistle cut through the air—coming straight for Celine's back.

"Look out!!!!"

Garon's shout came too late. He was too far away. In the instant that something red was about to punch through her spine, Kiki threw himself into its path.

"Keruk!!"

A translucent blue film snapped into place across his tower shield.

The impact hit like a cannon shot. Kiki slid back a step, but he held. The red thing left a bloodstain on the face of the shield, as if he'd been splattered by a paintball.

"Keruk...!"

"What a waste... my blood... that... why... why did you block it...?"

A grotesque voice drifted from one side of the plaza. Every pair of eyes turned toward it at once.

"You... you guys... blood... give it... to me..."

Something in the shape of a woman was standing there. Her eyes were sunken pits, and her mouth was caked with blood. The body under that ruined face was nothing but skin and bone, a wasted frame that called to mind a patient in the grip of anorexia.

"Th-there...!"

Vargo pointed past her. Behind the emaciated woman, corpses had been stacked into a pile the size of a small hill—the people who had vanished from the village. Men, women, old, young. Every last one of them dead, heaped into a mountain of bodies.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!"

The scream that tore out of her felt like it would split my eardrums. I clapped my hands over my ears.

"Give it!! Give me the blood!! All of you dieeeeeee!!"

She ripped an arm off the pile behind her.

"Die!! Die!! Die!!"

And hurled it at us. The flying arm twisted in midair, deforming as it came, and in a heartbeat it had become a blade.

"Oh, damn it!!"

Garon threw the Mana Barrier up again. The hit landed with a force that made the whole shield shudder.

"Heeheeheeheehee!! More!! Even more!!"

She started ripping limbs off the corpses and throwing them at a speed that didn't belong on a human body. Legs became spears. Skulls became maces, slamming down on the barrier in a mindless, pounding rain.

Blood ran from the corner of Garon's mouth. He'd already spent himself against the ghouls. Holding off a bombardment like this looked close to impossible.

"Celine! Is the exit ready yet?!"

"Just a second! Almost done!"

Vargo, the canine beastfolk, spoke up through chattering teeth.

"That... I believe that's the Blood Demon Isra. A Lesser Demon!"

"Lesser Demon or not, we can't take that thing with what we've got! Everyone, prepare to fall back!!"

Blood Demon Isra. Just the name sounded like she'd be a complete nightmare.

"It's ready!"

I looked back at Celine's shout. A hole about half a person's height had opened in the barrier.

"Where are you going!! Don't go!! You can't!! You caaaaaan't!!!"

Isra started hurling corpses even faster, a frantic, pounding barrage that made the barrier scream under every hit.

"Kh! I'll... I'll hold it somehow, so all of you get out!"

"C-Captain, what about you?"

"Get out of here! That's an order!! The investigation's done—run for the starting point! You can escape from there!"

"Captain... damn it!"

On Garon's order, we started slipping out through the gap one by one. Vargo and Celine kept looking back, shouting for him to fall back with us, but he was barely holding the attacks as it was. Moving his feet looked close to impossible. At this rate, Garon was going to die. And the gap in the barrier was slowly, steadily closing.

I sent Aria through last. Then I stopped.

Garon really was a good man. He was trying to save every one of us, even if it meant throwing himself away.

But I don't run. I never give up.

And for some reason, I wanted to kill that Isra bitch right here.

"Minwoo!! What are you doing!!"

"Oppa! Are you insane? Get over here! The barrier's about to close!!"

I dropped that cool-as-hell line, turned around, and started walking toward the center of the barrier.

"Minwoo, no!! Then I'm going with you!! I want to go back in too!! You said we were the Soul Trio!!"

"Keruk!! Keruk!!!"

Aria and Kiki were already trying to squeeze back through a gap that was nearly shut.

"Lin. Take care of those two."

"Unni, Kiki. I get how you feel, but we have to get out of here. For now, we trust Minwoo-oppa."

"No!!! You can't!!!!"

"Keruk!! Keruk!!!!"

The gap sealed shut. The moment I was sure of it, I dragged the Primordial Power up to the absolute limit.

It came on incomparably stronger than before. Fog poured into my head. Everything went hazy. An overwhelming high started lifting me, and I could feel the testosterone spiking like a fever. The feeling of becoming someone else.

Not bad.

"Wh-what?! You stayed behind? Are you in your right mind?"

Garon looked at me, baffled.

"Don't you dare talk down to me, Garon."

"Huh? Wh-what did you just...?"

Honestly, girls these days are way too provocative. I'm a lot older, so why do they keep trying to get familiar with me? They probably figure that just because they're pretty, they can get away with anything anywhere.

"A-and that yellow mana of yours...?"

So many questions. Always going on about how I brought things from Earth. About how my mana is yellow. Why do they keep putting me on the spot?

"Stop swaying that sexy ass around trying to seduce me. It's hard to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hold back."

"Wh-what? What on earth are you talking about? Are you... into men? No, even so, in this situation—"

"Focus on the fight, Garon. Cute face, but you talk too much."

"......"

Broads never shut up, even at a moment like this. It's exhausting. Come to think of it, was there a girl in the group who used a shield? Didn't she shoot a bow? No—wait, was it daggers?

Doesn't matter. That's not important. Anyway, my head is clearer and fresher than it's ever been.

I walked slowly toward Isra. She was still ripping arms and legs off the corpses and throwing them, like she never got tired.

"Th-that's dangerous! If you go outside the barrier...!!"

I left the noise behind me and stepped through the barrier. Isra's attacks paused.

"You, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you... gonna give me blood...? Y-you will? Heehee! Come here!! Hurry uuuuup!!!"

"You're too ugly. I'm not getting a reaction."

"Euk? What?"

"Insufficient muscle mass. No curves. No verbal intelligence. And on top of all that, your face is just ugly."

"What? You!! You!! You don't even know your place, how dare you!! KYAAAAAAK!!"

I had given her some very careful, constructive feedback. Why was she having a complete meltdown over it? Couldn't even take healthy criticism. Truly pathetic.

"Even your voice is hideous."

"You bastard! Die!! Die!!! Dieeeee!!!!"

Isra shrieked and swept both hands through the air. At the demon bitch's gestures, the corpses behind her started moving, clumping together with wet, heavy slaps. The mass gathered in midair, rippled into a single blob of blood, and became a giant sphere that shot straight at me.

"Hup!"

I put power into my whole body and swung to meet it. The rebound was enormous. It shoved me backward in a straight line.

Fuck. It was way heavier than I'd expected. The mass itself was so huge that a hundred and sixty-five pounds of me had no business trying to stop it.

I dragged the Primordial Power up as far as it would go and barely managed to bat the thing aside. It slammed into the barrier and sprayed an enormous sheet of blood.

The problem was the sound my sword made. A long, ugly crack ran down the blade.

"Heeheehee! What, you were all talk, weren't youuu—eugh!!? Shall I kindly match you at your own leeeeeeevel!!!!!"

She went from mocking me to screaming in the same breath, a complete lunatic. Then that crazy bitch dragged the corpse pile over and packed it together again. This time it took the shape of a giant greatsword. Isra came after me with it like a madwoman, bringing it down in wild, crushing arcs.

What she was doing couldn't even be called swordsmanship. She was just slamming it down with everything she had. I had no choice but to keep stepping, keep slipping the blade, because sword work or not, you don't block a greatsword with that kind of mass and speed. Every time it hit, the ground shook hard enough to numb the soles of my feet.

"Kyahahaha!! How long are you gonna keep running awaaaaay!!!!"

I needed an opening. The second I saw even a small gap, I was going to close in and end it. But that crazy bitch never tired. She just kept bringing the greatsword down.

Then a roar cut across the plaza.

"KRAAAAAAH!"

Garon appeared on Isra's flank out of nowhere and rammed her with his shield fully extended. The hit blew her center of gravity apart.

"KYAAAAAAK!! You!! Youuuuuu!!"

An opening. That tiny collapse of balance from the shield bash. I didn't think. I just ran.

And I took her head off.

Her eyes were still on me, wide with disbelief, as they fell. Then her body started crumbling, coming apart, vanishing into nothing—and my sword shattered with her.

"Hah... hah... We got her!"

No ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠we didn't, Garon—you crazy bitch!