Chapter 162. There Are No Bad Dogs(?) in the World
Chapter 162. There Are No Bad Dogs(?) in the World
The gate was called the 'Witch's Forest'.
Most guilds had already attempted it, but none had managed to capture the witch who lived inside the giant old tree.
The lesser monsters were manageable enough.
The real problem was the witch herself.
'According to the documents I read...'
More than a physical threat, her abilities lay in breaking minds and summoning endless swarms of monsters.
For a guild limited in deployable personnel, clearing it was no easy task.
'The one saving grace was... her mental attacks haven't affected Max and Emir yet.'
The deepest part of that forest.
"Ugh... what kind of thing looks like that...?"
"Just looking at it makes me want to throw up..."
"Urp..."
I fiddled with my earring, planning to end this immediately.
But it required extremely precise control of my strength.
If I accidentally destroyed the ornaments the witch was wearing, none of this would mean anything.
"Alright, then..."
As I approached the witch, Max spoke up casually from beside me.
"Mind if I give it a try?"
At his words, Emir, who stood nearby, nodded as well.
"Boss, I'd like to give it a shot too!"
I narrowed my eyes and stared at the witch's blurry silhouette.
Even though Max and Emir were S-rank, the witch was also S-rank.
"Hm... Her mental attacks could be quite a nuisance... You don't mind?"
Both men's gazes turned toward Laila simultaneously.
My own eyes followed theirs naturally.
"Laila, if they get into danger, can you help them out?"
Laila smiled gently and rested her hand lightly on her chin.
"Of course~ I'll keep watch and step in if I think it's getting too dangerous."
Once permission was given, Max and Emir didn't hesitate any longer.
They turned their bodies at once and took up combat stances.
'This might take a bit.'
With that thought, I glanced over at the streamers.
Golden particles were floating around them—Laila's protection was clearly solid.
And they were watching this side with visible interest, smartphones clutched in their hands.
[Wow, I mean we've seen Hero fight, but this is my first time seeing those guys fight?]
[Actually, there are videos of Max... from that Grand Canyon incident a while back...]
[There's two of them, so obviously they'll win, right?]
Emir swiftly drew his twin spears, narrowed his eyes, and took a low breath.
Max slammed his two fists together with a resounding boom, making the ground itself tremble.
That moment.
— Aaaaaaahhh......!!!
The witch's grotesque wail spread through the air.
As she stretched her hand forward, a violet mist began to creep and slither across the ground.
'What the...?'
The earth touched by the mist split apart with a squelch, and monsters made entirely of bone clawed their way up through the soil.
— Crunch... Crunch...
Along with the grinding of bone joints, faint violet flames flickered to life in their empty eye sockets.
"Hoo... It looked like we won't be able to take them down easily."
Unlike the tense Emir, a deep fighting spirit burned in Max's eyes.
"Keuhuh... That's exactly why no one's managed to catch the witch until now."
The moment their words ended, the two hurled themselves into the wave of skeletons.
— Smack! Crack!
Emir's twin spears smashed through bone with a satisfying crunch, while Max grabbed a skeleton's head, lifted it clean off, and hurled it aside.
But amidst all that, my gaze remained fixed far ahead, locked onto the witch herself.
'Just standing there watching? No. She's preparing something.'
In an instant, the ring on the witch's finger flashed with a blinding violet light.
"Get out of the way!"
I shouted at them reflexively.
Max and Emir flinched and rolled their bodies to the side.
— Fwoooosh!!!
A violet beam shot from that ring and seared through the space where they had been standing.
— Hiiissss...
The ground where the beam passed sizzled and boiled, emitting smoke.
As if a corrosive substance had been sprayed, the earth was melting away in chunks.
"That... looks like what Laila uses..."
A golden sphere.
It wasn't exactly the same, but there was something similar about it.
Laila shook her head.
"Similar... but different. That's just a terribly inefficient technique—simply compressing and firing superheated flames."
"..."
Max and Emir turned their heads to look at the ground where they'd been standing.
"Ahem... getting hit by that would've been a disaster."
"Y-yeah, if I'd been hit..."
"So we just have to be careful when that ring flashes..."
Another horde of skeletons surged toward them, and though irritation flashed across their faces, they threw themselves back into the fight.
Skeletons smashed apart, their bone fragments raining down like a shower.
They steadily destroyed skeletons, carving a path closer to the witch.
But something kept nagging at me.
"This doesn't add up..."
The witch's skeletal soldiers were meaningless.
That horde of skeletons couldn't pose a real threat to Max and Emir. In truth, the skeletons were nothing but numbers—completely insignificant.
"Her mental attacks don't work anymore either..."
That powerful mental attack of the witch.
When Max and Emir had first been exposed to it, blood had streamed from their ears, noses, and eyes, and they'd collapsed on the spot.
An attack so strong it could render even S-rank hunters combat-incapacitated instantly.
At that moment, Laila had reacted immediately. She whispered something and placed a protective barrier over both of them. After that, no mental attack got through.
Since then, strangely enough, the witch had done nothing at all.
'She realized her attacks wouldn't work and just... gave up immediately?'
"...Laila."
Laila narrowed her eyes and nodded.
"I also felt... something was strange."
Every last skeleton was destroyed.
Max and Emir chuckled and stepped forward.
"Finally time to smash that filthy face of hers?"
"Hoo... I should repay her for that mental attack earlier."
At that, the witch tilted her head, and her shoulders shook as though she were sneering.
— Kakak, kakak, kakak, kakak...
A repulsive, bone-scraping laugh echoed out.
And then, abruptly, she slowly raised both hands.
— Shhhhaaaaaah...
From the bracelet the witch wore, thick black mana began to pour out.
The bracelet shattered into pieces, and from within it surged a grotesque, malevolent mana that seemed ready to overflow.
That mana seeped into the floor just as before.
"Oh, shit...!"
"We have to stop that...!"
Panicked, the two of them immediately lunged toward the witch.
— Boooom!!!
But the mana became a wave that denied their approach.
Right after, a tremendous tremor engulfed the ground. The earth split apart and a gigantic hand burst through.
A hand made entirely of bone—absurdly, impossibly huge.
"...What the hell is that."
"A h-hand?"
"...!!!"
The streamers watching from behind, the S-rank hunters facing it ahead.
All of them held their breath and prepared for what came next.
With the rumbling, the entity below surged out of the ground, shaking off shards of bone.
— Krwooooooooooar!!!
A dragon.
It was unmistakably the form of a dragon.
But there was no flesh, no scales.
The most bizarre thing was something embedded in the center of that dragon's chest.
"Laila, did she... actually make a dragon heart?"
"If that were... possible, the Magic Towers would already have..."
Laila and I had seen a real dragon heart before.
Unlike that one—which had radiated pure mana and gleamed like a transparent jewel—
The device before our eyes now looked to be made of metal and glass. It was spewing out a filthy, sticky, and disgustingly dark crimson mana.
"Is that a metallic device?"
Like a stench wafting from a rusted pipe, that mana felt as though it contaminated the very air around it.
— Kakak, kakak, kakak, kakak, kakak, kakak.
The witch relished the situation as if watching a toy play out, spilling that grotesque laughter.
The sound, like nails scraping a throat, was nauseating just to hear.
[Holy shit... sounds like nails on a chalkboard, goddamn]
[I'm listening with it muted right now, ffs]
Her finger, slowly and yet unmistakably, pointed at Max and Emir.
The colossal dragon of bone let out a monstrous roar and charged straight at them.
"...!!!"
— Kwang!
The dragon's jaw lunged at them ferociously, maw agape—and Max blocked it with both arms.
A collision loaded with mass, speed, and even mana.
"This bastard... is seriously, monstrously strong...!!!"
Thick veins bulged over Max's forearms, and the pressure bore down on him as if his skin were about to split open.
Judging he could hold it no longer, Max clenched his teeth and twisted the dragon's head.
— Crunch!!!
The dragon's teeth tore into Max's left arm.
Along with the sound of bone being crushed, his forearm was ripped away. The dragon slammed its head straight into the ground.
"Hut...!"
Blood sprayed, but Max didn't so much as let out a single scream.
But Emir soon collapsed as well.
As he nimbly slipped into the dragon's flank, a sharp claw rent the air.
— Ssmeack...!
His abdomen was deeply gashed, and Emir's body was flung into the air.
Red blood scattered, and he was hurled straight to the ground.
Both had reached their limit.
The dragon lunged again, maw gaping wide, as if to deliver the final blow.
Bone joints creaked and the air itself felt like it was being torn apart, thick and viscous.
"Hoo... Trying to take it down with just the two of them—not the whole guild—really makes it tough..."
"Hah... This is my first time facing something like this too..."
— Krwararararara!!!
The dragon's body, racing toward them, jerked to a sudden halt mid-charge.
Strangely, its massive form could no longer push forward.
No—to be precise—something had seized its lower jaw.
"Now you're dealing with me."
— Kkeurrrrrk?!
"Laila, take care of these two for me. Their faces have gone completely pale."
Laila understood the situation at once and nodded.
"When an owner lets their son of a bitch run around without a muzzle..."
I fiddled with my earring. Light burst forth, and a massive club appeared in my hand.
I hoisted it over my shoulder and beckoned with my fingers.
"They say there are no bad dogs in the world, but..."
— Kakak, kakak, kakak, kakak...
The witch's scornful laugh seemed to ask: You think you're any different?
"A dog that bites people still needs to get beaten senseless."