The Demonstration Arena (1)
As obvious as it sounded, the remaining goblins were simply no match for Arwen.
Even a Goblin Warrior hurling a javelin with everything it had could barely leave a scratch on her skin—so the puny strength of ordinary goblins would have accomplished nothing, even if she'd stood perfectly still.
"You fight better than I expected."
But for all her staggering defense, Arwen's movements were more than worthy of praise.
Facing opponents far smaller than herself, her balance never wavered, and she crushed enemies with attacks that made full use of her own body weight. There were even glimpses of martial discipline in her movements—hardly what you'd expect from someone fighting for the first time.
But she's still slow. Against an opponent with serious cutting power, she'd have a rough time. Maybe I should have her handle ranged attacks.
Even as I praised her, I coolly ran through her strengths and weaknesses.
"You did spend lavishly on expensive components, after all—this body was built nearly combat-ready to begin with. Besides, I had reference data to work from. It's nothing special."
Arwen said this flatly, doing her best to keep her face expressionless.
But with the corners of her mouth curling up ever so slightly, she was clearly in a good mood.
And then—
...She's rubbing her thumb against her index finger. That's Nova's habit when she's pleased with herself. No doubt about it—part of Nova really is mixed into her.
"Here are the [Stones]. You need these, don't you, Ha Jun?"
While I'd been lost in thought, Arwen had rummaged through the spots where the goblins had vanished and handed me the [Stones].
Nineteen tiny pebbles, and one slightly larger one. Absorbing them all netted me exactly one point.
Infuriating, honestly.
By a stroke of luck, the northern staircase was still standing. Cracks webbed across it everywhere, though, so I couldn't promise it would survive another use.
"Finally—B1F!"
Thud!
Thud!
Shffff...
My monumental triumphal entry into the basement's first floor was promptly sullied by dust raining down from the ceiling.
The intermittent tremors were growing stronger and stronger.
"Let's hurry to the elevator."
"How far is it from here?"
"Unfortunately, it's toward the center... so we'll have to retrace roughly the same distance we just came."
"Ugh... let's just be careful and go."
We picked up the pace again without a moment's rest, pushing through cramped corridors and occasionally passing facilities whose purpose I couldn't begin to guess.
With the constant need to stay on high alert against ambushes like the ones downstairs, I was honestly at my mental limit and wanted nothing more than a short break.
But then—
"This one's blocked too."
"The ceiling came down entirely. And this material isn't supposed to collapse that easily."
The moment I saw the ceiling reduced to hopeless rubble, any desire to rest evaporated on the spot.
I touched the dirt and debris that had poured down from above and filled the corridor. The inside had apparently caved in completely as well—a wall of earth, packed absolutely solid.
Forcing our way through risked triggering yet another collapse, so I didn't even want to try.
"Another detour, then. I've lost count of how many that makes."
"Hmm... this isn't good."
Something like anxiety had crept into Arwen's voice. Pressing a finger to her chin, she went on.
"At this rate... we're left with only one route we can take, and we'll have to go through it."
"Through where? What place?"
"The Demonstration Arena."
Arwen's expression was distinctly uneasy as she said it.
"Demonstration? You mean where they tested the Chimeras?"
"Mostly, yes. You could call it a kind of Colosseum. Being on B1F made it relatively easy for outside visitors to get in, so a great deal of testing went on there."
"I see. So it's a place that's soaked in a lot of blood. That's what's bothering you?"
"No?"
Arwen shot me an incredulous look, as if to ask what on earth I was talking about.
Ahem. Well, that's embarrassing.
"Let's keep moving while we talk. If another ceiling comes down and cuts off the corridor, it's game over."
Urged on by Arwen, I simply kept walking. There was no point in disputing her judgment at this stage, so we committed to the route that ran through the Demonstration Arena.
"So... what's actually wrong with the place?"
The lighting grew strangely brighter as we went, which cut the risk of ambush considerably. I used the opening to circle back to the conversation we'd left unfinished.
"The arena has a shield to protect the spectators... and maintaining it required a fairly powerful, independent power source. That's what's nagging at me."
"I don't follow. Are you worried it'll malfunction and blow up?"
"No. Hmm... to put it simply, I'm worried because the arena is suspected of being a Chimera nest."
"??"
Even with the explanation, I couldn't quite wrap my head around it. Seeing my baffled expression, Arwen elaborated.
"Oh, of course—you wouldn't know, Ha Jun. Some Chimeras are special individuals capable of absorbing electrical power and converting it into nutrients. Think of them as a supply corps."
"...Is there any kind of creature you people didn't make weird?"
They weren't even proper Phantasms like goblins, and yet they were loaded with bizarre functions. Nothing about them seemed like an ordinary lifeform.
"Their caloric consumption is enormous, so they needed a way to secure emergency nutrients on-site. And as a bonus, it disables the enemy's power plant too."
"So what you're saying is, the Chimeras probably absorbed the energy from that power source and multiplied."
"Most likely. By my rough calculation... they'd be able to sustain a population of about three thousand."
...
I had my doubts that a research facility with not a scrap of food could support that many Chimeras—but the closer we got to the arena, the more the evidence piled up in favor of Arwen's theory.
Squelch.
"...Looks like you were right. There are more and more corpses. It's especially bad here."
I picked up a shoe that had been ruined beyond function by the Chimeras' bodily fluids and tossed it aside.
Yellow liquid had pooled high enough to nearly submerge my ankles, worming between my toes and clinging slickly with every step.
We could thank our lucky stars the stuff wasn't acid like an Alien's blood.
"At least three hundred must have died in this spot alone."
"That's a staggering number... it's hard just to move."
Even though the corridor hadn't originally been that narrow, every single step forward was a struggle—because the Chimeras' corpses, the remains of some colossal battle, had literally formed mountains of the slain and rivers of blood.
The goblins had needed to pass through here too, which was the only reason a very thin path existed at all. I picked my way forward carefully, wary of getting slashed by the Chimeras' razor-sharp carapaces.
If Arwen hadn't been clearing the way ahead with her durable body, I'd certainly have picked up wounds in several places.
Clack!
"Ugh, this is getting really annoying."
"Give me the atlatl and the javelins."
"Thank you."
The atlatl and spears slung across Arwen's back kept knocking against the corpses as she pushed ahead, making an irritating clatter. I took them from her and cradled them against my chest.
They were made of wood, after all, so they weren't particularly heavy.
An Atlatl—the primitive spear-thrower we'd looted from a goblin. She only had three javelins to serve as ammunition, but Arwen had grabbed the set after some practice. With her strength, she'd deliver far more destructive power than the Goblin Warrior ever had.
Then again, if I searched this place thoroughly, there'd probably be plenty of [Stones] lying around... what a waste.
I kept my eyes locked on the ground as I moved slowly, thinking it over.
With a battle of that scale, a considerable number of goblins must have met their end here too. If we were talking four hundred or so dead—how many points would that be?
But the fluids staining the floor weren't transparent either, so searching for stones one by one was next to impossible.
"This way."
Just as the slick, clinging sensation of fluid against my bare feet was starting to numb, Arwen abruptly changed course and opened the door to one of the rooms. The fluids that filled the corridor came trickling in after us.
"What's this room?"
"A waiting room, most likely. There should be a secret passage in here somewhere..."
Beep—
The moment Arwen operated a device on the wall, a door materialized where there had been nothing but an ordinary wall, and slid open. Thanks to a modest raised threshold, the yellow fluid pooling on the floor couldn't seep through.
"Beyond here, we can go straight up to the spectator seats of the arena."
"Oho. So we can watch the fight from somewhere safe."
"Well, the shield won't be working anymore, so it won't be all that safe... but at least we should stay out of sight."
"Either way, as long as I can escape this cursed fluid, I'll take it. My feet look like they're about to be dyed yellow."
Beyond the door—pristine from years without a single footstep—lay a clean corridor. I hurried across the threshold and wiped my feet with a spare cloth.
Finally, I felt like I could breathe again. My soles were cold against the bare floor, but that beat sticky any day.
Thud-thud-thud...
The closer we came to the arena through the passage, the stronger the tremors grew. They weren't as violent as when the Central Staircase had collapsed, but the small quakes just kept coming.
It felt like standing in the basement of a concert hall packed with an audience.
Is this place about to cave in?
"An audience, hm... you're not wrong."
"Oh?"
"According to the blueprints, we're directly beneath the arena right now. With tremors like these, a full-scale war must be raging up above."
Arwen said this with her palm pressed flat against the shuddering wall.
"Let's pick up the pace, just in case. If this place comes down, we're finished."
"Understood. There shouldn't be any goblins or Chimeras down here anyway..."
Tat-tat!
We sprinted at full power, maintaining only the bare minimum of vigilance. Once I layered Body Reinforcement on top, we were moving so fast Arwen could barely keep up.
And yet—since everything in this research facility was built on a monstrous scale, the arena was evidently enormous too, and it took us quite a while to find the stairs leading up.
...
"@%$@!#@$!!!!"
"!@!@!!!!!"
"God, it's loud in here."
The moment we slipped into one of the smaller viewing boxes, a deafening roar slammed into my eardrums. The front of the compact box—designed to hold three or four people, sealed off individually—had a transparent window, but it did precious little to block out the noise.
"Let's see..."
I approached the window cautiously. Peering out over the sill from a crouch, I got a clear view of the arena's interior.
The vast floor of the arena, easily several times the size of a soccer field, was packed solid with goblins and Chimeras.
And that wasn't a figure of speech—the creatures were literally jammed together without an inch of room to move. Goblins were still pouring in from the surface exit without pause.
"What kind of numbers are these...? This is practically an army. Everything we've seen so far was nothing."
They were packed as dangerously tight as Black Friday shoppers hunting a doorbuster deal. There was no way any real strategy could function in that environment.
Why would anyone cram troops in so mindlessly?
I subtly reinforced only my eyesight, and the fine details came into focus.
"Kyaaahk!"
The overall front line between the two monster armies had settled around the middle of the arena—but the ones actually in contact with the enemy couldn't fight properly at all.
And why would they? What could anyone do when they were packed so tight they couldn't even lift an arm?
For a brief moment, some squirmed and wriggled, desperate to free themselves—only to be shoved endlessly forward by the allies pressing in from behind, unable even to retreat.
Crunch!
Unable to use hands, feet, or anything else, there was exactly one act available to a creature seething with bloodlust: biting, with those powerful jaws.
Sound effects that could never actually carry that far seemed to crack across the distance anyway.
It's like a zombie movie...
Goblin teeth snapped and shattered against the carapace shielding a Chimera's vitals. Blood streamed naturally from its torn gums—but without a moment's care, the thing kept snapping and tearing at its neighbor in a frenzied barrage. It was deeply unsettling to watch.
And from a distance, it looked like nothing more than a seething ant colony, which somehow made it worse.
"If you push in troops to the point where formations become meaningless, the goblins have the advantage."
"True. It actually seems like a pretty strategic choice."
"We should rest for now. From the looks of it, this won't be decided anytime soon."
The security card belonging to the research director lay on the opposite side of the arena from where we now stood. Unfortunately, the stairway connecting to that side had been destroyed, leaving us no choice but to cross the arena itself.
In other words, that was only possible once the war raging down below came to an end.
This place might be the epicenter of the tremors, but... since it was built to host combat demonstrations, it's probably solidly constructed. A short rest should be fine.
I moved away from the window and headed for a corner. When I lay down on the floor, a chill rose up to meet me, but with a thin cloth spread beneath me it was bearable enough.
"Sleepy..."
The environment was deafening, like a concert hall in the depths of hell.
And yet, remarkably, the moment I closed my eyes and stretched out, sleep began to wash over me. It seemed to be the rebound of muscles that had been locked tight with tension finally letting go.
Just as I was drifting off, nodding drowsily in and out—
A cold hand touched my head, quite suddenly.