The Demonstration Arena (2)
"What are you doing?"
"Hmm... sleeping on bare floor looked uncomfortable, so I thought I'd help. You need a pillow, don't you?"
"It'd be nice to have one. Problem is, there's nothing around that qualifies."
"Then this will do just fine."
Yap!
Arwen simply lifted my head and settled it onto her lap.
Beneath the softness of her synthetic skin, I could feel the hard muscle underneath. It was cold at first, but my body heat quickly warmed it.
"I don't need sleep, so my legs won't fall asleep either. I can stay like this for hours. Is it too hard for your taste?"
"...No. I'll just think of it as a stone pillow."
With one last flutter of Arwen's eyes, I sank into the world of sleep.
BOOOOOM—!
"Whoa! What the—!"
The deafening roar and shockwave jolted me upright.
Arwen's outstretched legs curled in as she opened her eyes too.
"How long was I out?"
"About two hours."
"Didn't sleep long, but I feel great. So what's all that noise?"
I rolled over toward the window.
The Demonstration Arena below was filled with yellow blood and corpses. Both the goblins and the chimeras had visibly thinned in number since before.
And... massive, thick vines were slaughtering the chimeras.
Kuuuung!
Two vines had erupted from the center of the front line, whipping around like mad things, tearing into the chimeras. With that kind of mass and power behind them, wherever a vine slammed down, all that remained was the flattened wreckage of a chimera.
"Hss... are those things the culprits?"
I tore my eyes from the chimeras being pounded into fish cakes and studied the goblin formation. That was when I spotted it—a goblin at the very rear, green energy radiating from its body.
Scraps of old cloth draped over it like some kind of fashion statement. Every time it swept its hand through the air, a vine lashed out. Given that it was being escorted by other Goblin Warriors, it clearly held an important position.
Some kind of shaman?
"Kyeee..."
By now the chimeras were being cut down helplessly by the vines. It was obvious that at this rate, they'd be wiped out entirely.
But then a black shape shot out from the chimera side and hammered the vine with a single punch.
CRACK!
The enormous vine, one that no human-sized creature could have hoped to match, snapped clean in half.
GRRAAAAAA—!
The vine let out a grotesque scream as blood sprayed from the broken stump. It thrashed and sputtered for a long moment before dissolving into powder, just like the Phantasms did.
GRRRROOOOAR!
The chimera that had crushed the vine threw back its head and roared long and loud.
Only then could I take a proper look at the creature. Unlike ordinary chimeras with their crude, patchy carapaces, this one wore armor-like chitin as flawless as a knight of the medieval era.
An inexplicable sense of menace radiated from it.
"An Original Chimera...!"
Arwen's gasp came from behind me.
"That's it? The strain that never degraded?"
"Without a doubt. Its appearance matches the records over ninety percent. Apparently a lineage that inherited uncorrupted blood survived after all."
While we talked, the black Original Chimera plunged straight into the goblin lines, as if determined to pay them back for every blow its kin had suffered. It carved through goblins in every direction. Even the Goblin Warriors couldn't withstand a single exchange—they were simply swept aside.
"Terrifyingly strong."
I could see it with my own eyes: every swing of its fists generated a powerful shockwave. One punch took out three or four Goblin Warriors at a time. It was practically a ranged attack. Wherever the Original Chimera passed, only powder remained.
"The situation has changed. It seems we'll have to help the chimeras after all."
"Hm?"
Arwen, who'd been watching the Original Chimera's rampage, came out with this out of nowhere.
No, of course I understood the logic. If only one of the two factions made it out of here intact, it would threaten our plan to escape the facility.
But why did we have to help the chimeras, of all sides?
When I raised the question, Arwen answered calmly.
"Like I said before—even if the Administrator has completely lost their mind, they still wouldn't have simply released the chimeras without conditions."
"So?"
"They must have released them deliberately. Which means they almost certainly installed a prohibition order against attacking humans."
"What? The chimeras attacked me, though."
I thought back to the battle on B2F, in the greenhouse. Those things had bared their hostility at me without a hint of hesitation. They had absolutely tried to kill me.
"Their genetic code probably faded too thin for the order to hold. But a chimera that close to the original stock... the prohibition might still be active."
"Hmm... that's just a possibility, though."
I stroked my chin as I looked down at the arena. I could see goblins being slaughtered by the chimeras. Left alone like this, the goblins looked likely to be wiped out.
But it won't end that way... will it.
If it had, the war between these two factions wouldn't have dragged on this long. There had to be a counterweight capable of matching the Original Chimera.
And as if to prove my guess right—
Heheheh—
An ominous laughter slithered through the air, low and quiet.
Between the goblins—now only a few hundred remaining—appeared a goblin of remarkably tiny build.
The moment the Original Chimera laid eyes on it, it assumed a defensive stance for the very first time. It was clearly on guard.
"What is that thing... don't tell me it's the boss?"
"The atmosphere says yes. It's awfully small, though. For convenience, I'll designate it the Goblin Chief."
The Goblin Chief facing off against the Original Chimera was incredibly small—smaller, in fact, than an ordinary goblin. It looked completely powerless.
Which couldn't possibly be true.
"This isn't the first time those two have fought. And judging by how far the chimeras have been pushed back, the Goblin Chief has to be the stronger of the two."
Arwen was right. If we helped, the chimeras were the correct side to back, for any number of reasons.
But it's too dangerous. There's no guarantee the Original Chimera won't attack me. For all I know, there's no prohibition order at all... the odds of this plan failing are way too high.
Should I abandon Arwen?
It was a trash thought, but honestly speaking, I had no sense of loyalty that would make me risk my life for her. The entire reason for pushing through this arena was to retrieve the Research Director's card and solve her power problem—it had nothing to do with my own goal of escaping the facility. I could just leave the chimera-goblin war behind me and find another route.
And yet...
"Why on earth are the goblins attacking the chimeras this hard?"
One possibility was slowly taking shape in my mind, and it wouldn't let me make that choice.
These things couldn't exactly be called wild animals, but in the natural world, animals almost never fought one another in life-or-death battles like this. Getting injured meant losing, plain and simple. In other words, an entire species waging war on this scale, ready to face extinction, meant there was a clear objective behind it.
"My guess is they're trying to secure a foothold to the surface. The research facility is well suited for defense, so they'd make it their main base—which means clearing out the chimeras in their way. If their goal were merely to reach the surface, they'd have had no reason to pass through the arena at all."
It was close to the conclusion I'd already reached. If things went that way and the goblins seized the ground floor and B1F, then Arwen and I alone would never punch through a force that mighty. We'd be trapped in the facility forever.
"It's possible the force here isn't everything they have, either. Some of the goblins may have already slipped up to the surface."
The passages leading to the surface were vanishingly few, and with the ceiling caved in, the routes available to me were limited. Even if I started searching for a new path right now, the odds of running into goblins at the end of it were extremely high.
In the end, only one option lay before me.
Risk the danger—and annihilate the goblins' main force, right here and now.
KWAAAAAANG—!
The final showdown between goblin and chimera had begun at last.
The Original Chimera and the Goblin Chief clashed at speeds too fast for the eye to follow. Each time they traded blows, the shockwaves rippling outward sent the fluids pooling across the floor churning in violent waves.
At a glance, the two seemed evenly matched.
"As I thought—the Goblin Chief is stronger."
"Exactly as predicted."
SHAAAK—
Every time the Goblin Chief swung its glowing green claws, everything around it was severed, as if invisible blades were dancing through the air. Unlucky chimeras caught in the wake lost pieces of their bodies, and even the fortress-hard walls of the arena were left with deep scars.
Good lord. Is it some kind of sword aura?
The Original Chimera fought back valiantly, swinging its fists, but the razor claws proved impossible to block—it began taking wounds, little by little, and being driven back.
Even if things held for now, it was clear that with time, the Original Chimera would lose ground.
"Let's get ready. We can't just sit here."
After watching the fight a while longer, we left the viewing box and descended into the corridor leading down to the arena itself.
It was about time we crashed the party.
◇◇◇
"You hide and provide covering fire."
At the door leading into the arena, I stopped Arwen from following me in.
She had a ranged weapon—primitive, but powerful—and it would be put to far better use that way. Besides, given the Goblin Chief's speed and offensive power, Arwen wouldn't stand a chance as a direct opponent.
"...Understood. Be careful."
Arwen had apparently reached the same conclusion herself; she saw me off with a stiff expression.
Everything hinged on how the Original Chimera reacted once it registered my presence. A friendly reception would be ideal, but...
If it bared its hostility like the other chimeras, my only option would be to keep my distance and make sure I never got caught in the crossfire.
That was exactly why we'd waited for the chimeras' strength to be whittled down to a reasonable degree.
"Here we go."
I muttered to myself, carefully pushed the door open, and slipped into the arena.
By luck, I'd emerged close to the goblin lines.
PWHOOOOSH!
"GRAAAGH!"
Good. It's even more chaotic than I expected.
The atmosphere of the battlefield—something I could never have grasped just watching from above—pressed against my skin. The aftermath of the two champions' duel was immense. The shockwaves from the chimera's fists and the invisible blades of the chief's claws showed no consideration whatsoever for the weak.
CRUNCH!
Wild, stray attacks would occasionally come crashing down on the goblins and chimeras surrounding the duelists. Friendly fire was far from rare.
And yet even in the middle of all that, the underlings were desperately trying to help their respective leaders, pouring everything into the champions' struggle. Enough so that a lone human skulking around the outskirts was beneath their notice.
Squelch...
Damn it. These body fluids make it impossible to move quietly.
So many chimeras had died that their blood flowed like rivers. No matter how carefully I moved, I couldn't hide the sound of every splashing step.
"Krek?"
Sensing something off, a nearby Goblin Warrior whipped its head around.
Danger!
I dropped flat against the ground, out of the goblin's line of sight. With corpses piled everywhere, my body was completely hidden. The feeling of fluid seeping into my ear was disgusting.
SPLAT!
The creature, which had been letting out puzzled cries, paid dearly for turning its head. It had taken a stray shockwave from the Original Chimera—and its head was simply deleted on the spot.
Whoa. Brutal.
Something that could send my head flying just as easily. I activated my senses to the fullest and started moving again.
My destination: the very rear of the goblin formation.
If I hit them head-on, how many goblins could I actually handle?
Ordinary goblins were no problem, no matter how many swarmed me. But against a large number of Goblin Warriors? I had no confidence in pulling off a one-man war.
Sure, I'd killed them easily so far thanks to the gap in weapons and physical ability—but that had been against three or four at most. Gambling on a frontal assault against hundreds clustered together like this was suicide.
And going up against the Goblin Chief is even more out of the question.
KWA-KWANG—!
I stole a glance at the Goblin Chief and the Original Chimera, still trading blows with wild abandon. A fair amount of time had passed since the fight began, yet they both still looked like they had plenty left in the tank.
Butting into that uninvited was far too dangerous.
So how was I supposed to help the chimeras?
The answer was simple.
Stir the pot!