Seizing a Lifeline in a Moment of Crisis Was Also a Fine Ability
A cry. That was the word for the sound an animal made with its vocal organs to express itself.
From the familiar and intimate—humans, dogs, cats—to crickets, birds, even whales living in the sea. Living things raised their voices for all sorts of purposes, announcing their presence with everything they had.
Warning of a predator’s approach, courting the opposite sex, or paralyzing the movement of prey. The world held as many cries as there were living creatures, and the methods and meanings were just as varied.
Some produced sound by rapidly beating their wings instead of using a throat. In the place I once lived, there was even an animal whose cry sounded almost exactly like a woman’s scream. How could anyone simply lump together so many kinds of cries? I was no biologist.
But even with my shallow knowledge, there was one thing I could say with certainty.
The cry now echoing from the far side of the forest was far too grotesque to belong to any living thing.
If I had to compare it… it was like two pieces of rusted iron being ground together with mechanical force—a grating, stinging sound that set the nerves on edge.
Screeech… skreeeek!
Perhaps because I had unconsciously clenched the Scissors Blade so hard in my right hand, the back of that hand, visible at the edge of my vision, had gone startlingly white. Only after that visual information registered did I realize I had stopped breathing for a while.
“Hah…! Ugh, huff…. Haa, haa….”
My heart was thrashing around inside me like a car with a broken gear. Sweat had soaked my palms without my noticing, and my legs were trembling. All those physical reactions I so rarely experienced pointed to one simple truth.
Ah. I’m scared right now. So terrified I hadn’t even noticed I was feeling fear.
Realizing my own emotion this late should have been embarrassing, but in this situation it was incredibly useful. Knowing the name of the feeling that had been shaking my mind let me look at my own state the way an outsider would.
…That cry seems to have an effect that messes with the listener’s mind.
Like the infrasonic roar of a tiger or a lion. I didn’t understand the principle, but it clearly worked to bind the feet of fleeing prey. Even after I came back to myself, the tingling in my fingertips and toes made it clear this was nothing to shrug off.
Screeeee…
But the time I’d spent clawing my way out of that confusion had cost me. Just as I hurriedly steadied myself and prepared to get out of here, the Predator Species that had already closed the distance let out another ear-splitting roar.
Damn… too late.
The situation was extremely awkward. I had to leave this place immediately, yet with it this close, simply turning my back and running wasn’t a good choice either. For all I knew, it could have only shown its sound and presence over there while setting a trap in the direction I would flee. And even if I did spin around and sprint, I would only be running farther from the exit.
So rather than bolting deeper into this Abyss Forest I barely understood, I decided to trust the power of the Scissors Blade and look for even the briefest opening. Maybe facing it head-on while I still had some physical leeway was better than being slowly eaten after exhausting every last scrap of stamina.
If it really looks impossible, I’ll run right away. No real reason to fight it anyway.
I made that firm resolution, gripped the Scissors Blade, and settled into a stance. At last the Predator Species revealed itself through the gaps between the trees.
And the form it showed… was so bizarre it barely deserved to be called a living creature.
First, its size was absurdly enormous; I had to crane my neck all the way up just to see the top of it. Six legs of completely different shapes, as if a child had stuck them on at random, and two arms twisted into three-jointed shapes. Its head, as massive as the rest of its body, had a thick slab of metal bolted above the jaw, and the eyeballs crammed densely beneath it were enough to make any sense of aesthetics wither and die.
“Oh shit…!”
It was a monster grotesque enough that I would have believed it had just crawled out of hell. But even more terrifying was the sheer force of the presence it radiated.
There was nothing more to see. The single instant of facing it was enough to confirm one unchangeable fact. The intuition that always took my hand and offered choices close to the right answer spoke a very short opinion inside my head.
This is impossible.
It felt like a blade had been pressed right against my throat… no, more precisely, like the tip of the blade was already slowly sinking into my neck. So I immediately turned my back on the monster. My mind had already concluded that lingering here even a second longer was no different from suicide.
Skree… screeech!
But the Predator Species must already have locked onto me with those mold-like eyes. Its enormous mouth, big enough to swallow me in one bite, curved into a grin as it began to move its massive body on those grotesquely twisted legs.
Its target was unmistakably me.
I tore my gaze away from the Predator Species and ran forward without a moment’s hesitation. There wasn’t even the luxury of screaming. When a bomb is going off right in front of you, who has energy to waste on something like that?
All I could do was fling the bag from my back onto the ground, clutch the Scissors Blade I could not afford to lose and the Virtual Spirit I had promised to protect tightly against my chest, and run with my eyes fixed only ahead.
“Huff, huff…!”
The one silver lining was that the presence of this Predator Species had made most of the Virtual Beasts I’d been sensing all around vanish. They probably knew that catching its eye would turn them into a simple meal, so they were doing their best to hide their presence. Not particularly helpful information, but still.
With no Virtual Beasts blocking the path, my sprint through the Abyss Forest felt no different from running across open ground. My sharp dynamic vision let me dodge roots thrusting up from the soil, twist my body through gaps between branches, and occasionally kick aside small Virtual Beasts that were too slow to get out of the way.
Thanks to my strengthened body, my running speed after overcoming the forest’s terrain was enough to outclass most track athletes… but unfortunately, even that earnest effort was nothing compared to a Predator Species standing at the apex of the Abyss.
Thud, thud, thooom!
Is it just ramming straight through the trees in its way? What a brutish method!
The sound of something smashing trees hard, followed by the vibration of massive trunks toppling and shaking the ground. The Predator Species’s body was so huge it was practically building-sized, so it couldn’t weave through the trees the way I did. Instead its strength and stamina were so ridiculous that even while simply demolishing trees to come after me, the distance was steadily closing.
If this had been open ground instead of forest, I was certain I wouldn’t have been able to run at all. The difference in power was that clear.
Should I have fled the moment I sensed a Predator Species? No, the result would have been the same either way. Then should I have left the forest the moment the data chunk fell? Or never entered the Abyss Forest in the first place?
My body wasn’t supposed to feel fatigue, yet my breath was growing short. Well… of course I would tire. The Abyss Forest had no human-made paths, so everything was an obstacle. To keep running without stopping I had to pour concentration into reading the terrain, and forcing that concentration while my heart was racing inevitably wore me down mentally. And this body was especially susceptible to mental strain, so of course it felt overwhelming.
“Wait, ugh…!”
But I couldn’t just bite my lip and wallow in regret. The moment the distance to the Predator Species narrowed a little, something came flying at me from behind at tremendous speed!
It was clearly some kind of attack the Predator Species had launched. I spun halfway around and raised the Scissors Blade like a shield in front of my body. Almost the instant that motion finished, a massive impact like being hit by a car slammed through my entire frame.
“Kyah…!”
My body couldn’t withstand the force and went flying into the air. My internal organs felt the weightlessness of a free-fall ride.
“Guh!”
Before my dazed mind could fully return, a second impact hit me square in the back. That hard jolt seemed to yank my consciousness back into place, and my head finally caught up enough to grasp what had just happened.
I… got launched by the Predator Species’s attack… and slammed into the ground on my back.
The moment I understood that, I forced my still-trembling body up, clenched my teeth, and started running again in the direction that would take me away from the Predator Species.
Without the slightest exaggeration, the impact had been so absurd I could have sworn I’d been hit by a car. What kind of monstrous strength was that? Thankfully nothing was seriously broken, but the distance I’d managed to create had closed in an instant.
Just blocking a single attack had done this much damage. Crude as the method was, it laid bare the gulf between me and the Predator Species. I never imagined I was this weak. The merciless reality made me bite my lip hard.
At this rate… I’ll just get caught…! Is there any way…
No matter how hard I thought while enduring the pain in my back from the proper collision with the ground, no clear answer appeared. Just as an ant can thrash all it wants and still never beat an elephant, there was simply no way for me to break this situation. In short: nothing.
It was hopeless. So this was why Noise had repeatedly warned me never to get involved with a Predator Species.
But what could I do? The deed was already done, and I had no options left. All that remained was regret.
…Hm? What’s this…
Just then, a small change I felt I must not miss occurred. In this desperate moment when I had only a few dozen seconds left before the Predator Species caught me, a faint light suddenly flickered in front of my eyes as if showing me the way.
When I slowly lowered my gaze to follow that light… I realized the cluster of light was spilling out from the gap at my chest.
“This is…. Could it be you?”
More precisely, it was coming from the inner pocket of my chest where I kept the orb that held the Virtual Beast I had collected earlier. That meant only one being could be scattering this light: the Virtual Spirit that existed as a kind of mental entity. It was trying to tell me something.
Following the trail of light with my eyes, I saw it settle on a certain tree not far away. Looking carefully at that tree, I realized something.
…Wait. That tree. Something’s different about it.
I threw myself toward the tree the light was guiding me to almost as if sliding, and the source of the unease I’d felt became clear.
This… is a door!
That tree… just like the door I had first used to enter this Abyss Forest, was formed of massive roots tangled and interwoven in every direction!
So right in the middle of the dangerous Abyss Forest, where the sounds of things collapsing and shattering could be heard, I raised the Scissors Blade without the slightest hesitation.