Meeting the Boy as a Barbarian (5)
Betrayer.
In the game, those who killed explorers inside the dungeon were called that.
They chose murder because it was easier than killing monsters and they could earn more money.
And it seemed that El, who was aiming at me now, was one of those bastards.
Thwack—!!! No need for words, another bolt flew at me.
With the speed of lightning, I held the side of my axe to protect my heart.
Thud—!!!
“Tch…”
Crazy. Realizing the severity of the impact that cracked the axe, I immediately dashed.
Crossbows were powerful weapons with long reload times. I couldn’t miss this opening.
Pointing my axe at El, who was laughing at me from afar, and…
“Huuuup!!!”
Thwack!
Though not as fast as the bolt that had torn through the air earlier, the axe carried a fierce force as it sliced the air.
It was aimed to split El’s head while he reloaded, but
“You think it’ll hit?”
El simply dodged the axe I had thrown and aimed his crossbow at me.
Head? Heart?
Or maybe his legs!
As soon as I realized what the crossbow was targeting, I immediately flung my body sideways.
A bolt grazed my leg by a hair’s breadth.
Thinking that if I hadn’t dodged, it would have pierced my thigh, I let out a sigh of relief and stood back up.
Thud—!!
“Kruuup…!!!”
Fuck.
Looking up at the bolt that had pierced my thigh with a groan, the bastard was waving another crossbow in his other hand.
“Did you not think of having two?”
“Hey, you fucker.”
There’s a fool who bought two crossbows. Of course, his foolish move was pretty effective.
“Huu…”
Despite swallowing the pain, El was calmly reloading while breaking the bolt that had pierced my thigh.
Kkrik. The sound of drawing the string.
Kkak—. The sound of finishing the reload.
Phshhh—!! And then the shot.
El’s attack, which had finished reloading faster than before, sent me flying once more.
Startled by the bolt that grazed my hair, I rolled my eyes.
Ten meters ahead.
It was a distance I could cover in a few jumps, but it felt extremely far right now.
That damn crossbow.
Because of that fool carrying two of them, my shoulder and thigh were both pierced and aching, but
I didn’t have this prepared for, but I had a ranged option for me…!
“Hup—!”
Thwack—!!!
A handaxe flying at a different speed from the one I had thrown earlier.
Because the handaxe was much faster than expected, El hurriedly raised his crossbow.
Kwagaak!
“Aaaak!”
The handaxe, which wasn’t enough to shatter the crossbow, stuck straight into El’s shoulder.
“Haha! A face that would suit crying ‘Aaaang’ more!”
“Kruuuk…! Die, you barbarian bastard!”
“Die first, you human bastard!”
El desperately aimed his crossbow, but it was already too late.
“Hup—!!”
With a shout, I pulled out the handaxe and swung it. It struck the crossbow he had just pulled the trigger on.
Kwajak—!
The crossbow couldn’t withstand my strike. Shattered fragments flew and swept between El and me.
“Tsk!”
Just as I was about to finish him off, light burst from El’s body.
It was like he had detonated a flash bomb, blocking my vision with light.
Even while receiving that light,
I didn’t let go of the handaxe I was swinging.
Udak—!
“Aaaah!!!”
“Hah, nice scream.”
With more force in the handaxe gripped in my hand, the feeling of digging in with a crunching sound was felt.
The axe that had carved through El’s flesh to kill him was aiming for his bones and organs, digging deeper.
“Shit, shit…! Emergency Escape!”
The bastard who was moments from death at my hand suddenly disappeared.
As the resistance felt in my grip vanished, I was startled and let go of the handaxe. El vanished along with it.
“El! Aren’t you spending too much money!? At this rate, it’s already a loss!”
El had used the Emergency Escape Magic Tool exactly once, allowing a random blink.
The price was five gold coins.
Since it had been like that in the game, it might be even more expensive in this world?
Using such an item now, how much would it hurt to see the blood?
Not only had two crossbows been destroyed, but he had also used the Emergency Escape and a magic tool that emitted light.
Now, the bastard was beyond repair even if he caught me.
“Shit…! Shit! Shit!”
“Hahaha! You fool!”
“Shut up, you barbarian bastard! Because of you, because of you…!”
“If you hadn’t attacked me, we might have remained quite good allies.”
“Shut up, barbarian!”
Hearing El’s glowing voice, I waited for my eyesight to recover and caught my breath for a moment.
As my eyesight returned, I scanned my surroundings and saw El, who was struggling with the axe stuck far away.
“Disappointing, El. You thought you could kill me with just this?”
“…T, monster-like thing…!”
“Haha! You tried to kill a person and now spout that nonsense.”
“You! If it weren’t for you…!!”
“Oh, what’s this? Do you have a grudge against me? But I haven’t done anything to a little runt like you.”
“Shut up…!”
El, panting as if he would die soon, reached his hand toward his bag with hazy eyes, but
Thud.
It didn’t reach.
Watching his distorted face fill with despair, I raised the handaxe.
“Mom…”
Kwuduk!
El, in his final moments, recalled his mother and ended his life as his head split by the handaxe.
After a moment of looking down at the lifeless El hanging limply, I turned my body.
“Well, then, shall I finish you too.”
Kerak? Keraak?
Hobgoblin.
This guy, perhaps finding the fight between me and El entertaining, just watched without doing anything.
Probably trying to finish off a fallen comrade, but… El had been too weak.
Realizing he would soon follow El, the Hobgoblin roared and shouted.
“Kerak! Keraak!”
“If you spare me, I’ll do anything?”
“Kerak!”
“Ooh…”
I had never heard a boss monster speak like this. As expected, with high intelligence and facing reality, they spout such words.
If it were a game, I might have gained a monster taming skill like this.
“But I don’t trust monsters.”
Kwuduk!
Ker, keraaaak?
The Hobgoblin looked at me with eyes that didn’t believe it.
But these guys were under the dungeon’s magic power, so proper domination was impossible.
In the past, there was an event where I lost my human character I had raised with effort because I was trying to tame monsters to traverse the dungeon and got robbed by the dungeon at floor 15.
Recalling the past, I tore off some parts of the Hobgoblin’s body, which had the handaxe stuck in its head.
After exploring the dungeon for over a week, I learned that Monster Predation only required eating some parts of the corpse.
Of course, eating it raw was still unpleasant.
“Huuu…”
With the pungent smell of the nose and the bitter taste of blood, the Hobgoblin’s trait passed through my head.
“Huu…”
Since it was an evolved goblin and a boss monster, it was quite usable.
It was a shame it could only be used once, but it would still be a lifesaver in a crisis.
Moreover,
“Ooh, look at this gorgeous item!”
The Hobgoblin, as befitting a boss monster, spat out excellent equipment.
Immediately, a greatsword.
A national weapon for characters who used two-handed weapons.
“Goodbye to the axe.”
Recalling the distant axe, I thought it was time to switch.
It was fine that the blade wasn’t sharpened and was dull, but there was a crack where it had hit something bad when blocking the bolt.
Instead of repairing it, it would be better to sell it as scrap.
Thinking there was no choice, I headed to where El’s corpse was.
“Tsk.”
The corpse with its head split and an axe stuck in its shoulder was quite unpleasant.
I didn’t feel like vomiting or sad, but perhaps it was that I myself, who didn’t care about killing people or looking at corpses, felt uncomfortable.
Putting aside the sick feeling, I rummaged through El’s bag.
“Tsk, this guy only put crossbows in the bag.”
Even after rummaging, nothing valuable came out.
At best, one potion?
“Wait a minute. Did this guy use a paralysis potion?”
It was stuck in my body right now?
But it had been in there for a while without effect.
Perhaps it was weak, or this guy was lying.
Anyway, thinking it was fine for now, I pulled out the bolt stuck in my body and applied the potion.
“Aah, fuck.”
Perhaps because it was the lowest grade potion, the effect was slow.
The potion I received from Netia was too precious to use now, but I should have used it anyway.
Kugugugung…!
“Ah, it’s almost timeout.”
Because I killed the Hobgoblin, the floor was shaking as if to tell me to get out.
Well, I had gotten everything I wanted.
I roughly stuffed the loot into my bag and threw my body into the shaking dungeon portal.
“…”
Eh?
As soon as I arrived at floor 6, it was noisy outside.
Did a fight break out?
After the aftereffects of the portal faded, I was able to check the situation on floor 6.
Two parties, weapons in hand, exuding a fierce aura.
They didn’t hide their fierce aura when they saw me.
Among them, one man was smiling at me with a leering smile.
“Hey, Barca. You killed my cute porter?”
…Who the hell is this guy?
To the man with a strange, effeminate appearance I had never seen before, I frowned.