The Demonstration Arena (3)
It went without saying, but the closer I got to the goblin side, the fewer chimera corpses I saw.
With the cover gone, I'd spent a full thirty minutes worming forward on my belly like a caterpillar, and at last I'd managed to take up a position behind the goblin formation.
The goblins had suffered heavy losses, caught up in their leader's clash with the Original Chimera — but even now, hundreds of them remained.
Save for the shamans, every single one was a Goblin Warrior.
The best I can do is take out the shamans.
Assassinating the elite unit that could tip the scales of the battlefield. That was the conclusion I'd reached.
Of course, there's a problem. The odds are low, but... if the Goblin Chief abandons his fight with the Original Chimera and comes after me, I'm completely screwed.
The worst-case wildcard. If the Chief decided to come back here personally to finish mopping up the rear, I might very well die.
But there was no such thing as a perfectly safe operation in this situation, so this much risk was simply the price of doing business. All I could do was pray he'd write me off as nothing more than a pesky fly.
I kept my eyes fixed on the shamans at the very rear of the formation, surrounded by their warrior bodyguards.
The ones who'd been vomiting blood after the Original Chimera tore apart their thorny vines had somehow recovered their strength and were once again murmuring in an unknown tongue, eyes shut tight.
They were clearly preparing a new spell to strike at the Original Chimera.
...So I actually made it here. But attacking is going to be tricky.
I hesitated for a moment, watching the shamans drone their incantations. There were simply too many Goblin Warriors around them.
If I moved now, I'd kill a shaman and be surrounded by warriors on the spot.
"@$!$!!"
"!"
Had I deliberated too long? The shaman's spell was complete.
A black aura erupted from the scrawny little body, flew forward, and slammed into the Original Chimera.
BOOM—!
CRACKLE—!
It must have been a weakening curse. The Original Chimera, which until now had fought the Chief on relatively even footing, was sent flying by the creature's strike and crashed violently into the outer wall.
The chimera staggered, then sank to one knee. In a single instant, the tide had turned.
"Karul-zan!"
The Chief's roar rang out, and the warriors behind him began to advance in slow, deliberate steps. He intended to cement his victory now.
His command is absolute.
The fact that he bothered to call his subordinates was plainly a strategy to drain every last ounce of strength from the cornered Original Chimera.
From the warriors' perspective, it amounted to an order to serve as meat shields. And yet they advanced without a flicker of hesitation.
"Grrrhl..."
In response, the chimeras too steeled themselves for death and stepped forward to protect their leader. They knew as well as anyone that without him, they were finished.
And the shamans — still sustaining their weakening curse — withdrew to the rear with only a handful of escorts.
There! That's my chance!
I crept slowly toward the goblin shamans, who were lost in deep concentration. They never imagined anyone could approach from behind, so they kept their gazes fixed straight ahead.
The distance to the goblins was now barely five meters. Absorbed as they were, any closer and I'd be spotted.
Arwen's here, sure, but who knows when she'll actually bother to help me. I'd better plan on fighting alone.
Tap... tap...
I raised the sword I'd carried out of its sheath from the very start. From all the crawling through chimera fluids, yellow droplets were dripping steadily from the tip of the blade.
Go!
Reinforcement — an art I was well used to by now. From zero to one hundred, I surged my body's performance to its limit in a single breath.
Closing five meters took one step. With no telling how tough a shaman's hide might be, I drove the blade in with everything I had!
SHLUCK!
My full-power thrust punched clean through the back of the shaman's skull. The blade slid in more easily than I'd expected — by the feel of it, its durability was only slightly less than a warrior's.
The sword had sunk in deep, but I kept my head, wrenched it free, and turned to the next one—
CLANG!
I parried a heavy axe that came whistling down at my head. One of the three escorting warriors had reacted instantly to my ambush, without so much as a flinch.
The other two sent the surviving shaman behind their backs. The warriors' reactions were disturbingly fast. By all rights, I should have gotten the second shaman too...
Elites, are they?
But they were no match for me. I hadn't unlocked any profound secrets of swordsmanship, but the gap in raw physical ability was beyond comparison.
"HYAAH!"
I flung the axe that was pressing down on my head aside with a powerful twist. The warrior was disarmed in one smooth motion. I stepped in and took off its head.
"Grrghk!"
Ignoring the warrior as it clutched its spurting neck, I pushed forward. The shaman hadn't even managed ten steps. The remaining escorts were staring at me, wound tight as bowstrings.
SWISH!
The height difference between a Goblin Warrior and me was roughly thirty centimeters. Being built so much bigger than me, their low-line defense was sloppy. I dropped low, nearly skimming the floor, and carved through their ankles.
"KYAAAAGH!"
I stepped over the writhing warriors without so much as a glance. Those two could wait.
"GRAK?"
The fleeing shaman finally sensed something was wrong and whipped its head around. The moment it saw me already at close range, its eyes blew wide as saucers.
"Die!"
"Kururu... tano-an!"
The shaman spat out another meaningless word and flung its hand toward me. A slender wooden stalk erupted from the ground between us and shot at me like a bullet.
KRRRGH!
"Ugh..."
I swung my sword and batted the onrushing branch away. But the weight behind it was hard to believe — a bare, scraggly twig. It hit far harder than a warrior's axe, and I couldn't recover my stance as easily as before.
EEE-KRREEE!
The branch kept pressing, driving its force into me. Even my reinforced body was struggling to hold it back. An ominous sound was rising from my blade.
SSHAAK—!
In the end I pulled my sword back and twisted my upper body aside, and the branch whipped past my face with a terrifying hiss of wind.
What kind of destructive force is that...?
Along the cheek it had grazed, blood trickled down amid a stinging burn. I'd let my guard down after an easy first kill — these things were stronger than I'd thought.
SPLASH—!
I snapped my right leg up in a hard kick. It was far too distant for my foot to actually reach. The shaman wore a bewildered expression at first — until its face promptly contorted.
SPLASH—!
"KYAAAAK!"
The chimera blood soaking the floor sprayed up in a fierce arc, following the wake of my kick. By some stroke of luck, it flew dead center into the shaman's enormous eyes.
The moment the shaman clutched its eyes and howled, the branch it controlled went limp and sagged to the ground.
CRUNCH!
I hurled my whole body forward and drove the blade into the shaman's chest. I felt it shatter bone and then touch something quivering at the tip of the sword.
Got it! All the shamans are down!
Objective, magnificently accomplished. But I could already see a handful of warriors who'd noticed the trouble in their rear rushing my way.
The Goblin Chief was locked in combat with the Original Chimera, now free of its weakening curse. It showed no sign of intending to come this way.
Lucky, but... I'm in no shape to take on dozens of warriors yet.
I waited calmly until they drew near, then nimbly turned tail and bolted.
"Huff... huff..."
I ran along the rim of the round arena, angling back toward the chimeras. It meant sacrificing distance — no way around it — but my speed was far superior, and because I'd waited for the warriors to close in before breaking away, the escape itself wasn't difficult.
◇◇◇
A short while later.
"Grrrhl..."
I made it this far... now all I can do is hope Arwen's guess was right.
I tightened my grip on my sword, back pressed against the outer wall. Enemies on every side. Goblins to my left, chimeras to my right, surrounding me and growling low.
Too busy eyeing each other to lunge, for the moment.
The chimeras reacted faster than I expected.
By the original plan, I would've reached the entrance we'd first come through into the arena. That would have made an emergency escape far easier. But when the goblins chasing me showed up, the chimeras got curious and drifted toward me — and that was my undoing. Now I was stuck wedged between goblins and chimeras in a terrible position, playing the filling of a sandwich.
Worst case, I can climb the wall and get out. Just watch and wait. The Original Chimera should have caught on to me by now, too.
Keeping my composure among creatures a full head taller than me was no small feat. They glared at me with the eyes of beasts, and the rolling waves of killing intent made my skin prickle.
But these were creatures that would pounce the instant I showed weakness, so I forced my back ramrod straight and glared right back.
"KYOOO—!"
Just as the silent tension reached its peak, the whistle-like cry of the Original Chimera finally rang out across the arena.
So... what's the order?
"GRAAAAAH!"
CRUNCH!
The chimeras dropped their hostility toward me without a second's hesitation and threw themselves at the goblins. Given where I was standing, some of them passed so close I could have reached out and touched them.
My hand twitched for a split second, but I forced the instinct down. The chimeras brushed right past me, barely sparing me a glance.
It worked!
The Original Chimera had clearly ordered them not to attack me. Just as Arwen had guessed — the prohibition against hostility toward humans was still in effect.
All that remained was to help the chimeras annihilate the goblins. Gripping my sword tight, I hurled myself into the fray.
◇◇◇
"HAH! Fall!"
SWISH!
Every flash of the silver blade sent another goblin head bobbing into the air. I was unmistakably the standout presence on this battlefield.
I'd planned to fight conservatively, in case the chimeras turned on me the moment the battle ended. But the sturdy chimeras were holding the front line so reliably that the fighting came far too easily. Before I knew it, I was swept up in the momentum, cleaving goblin necks in a relentless streak.
Once I finish off the grunts, I go after the Chief, and then...
SHAAAK—
Right as my happy little daydream reached full speed, a chilling sound of steel cutting through flesh smothered the battlefield's roar.
Every hair on my head stood on end.
I threw myself backward, dignity be damned. The chimera fluid pooling from the corpses was strangely warm.
"..."
The surroundings fell silent. Everyone around me — everyone but me — had frozen in place like statues.
And then.
Sshhhh...
SPLAT.
Both chimeras and goblins were bisected clean in two, as if carved apart by a razor-sharp scythe. The goblins scattered into powder, but the chimeras were left proudly displaying their own internal organs.
That was the Chief's attack! The maniac didn't spare his own troops—
PAT...
"Damn it all..."
The very instant I tried to push myself up, with an absurdly light sound effect, a tiny, tiny goblin landed in front of me.
A stunted frame, smaller even than an ordinary goblin. Yet face to face with it, some uncanny pressure made it hard to even breathe.
The Chief's black eyes were glistening with rage.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
My heart pounded like a drum.
How is this thing HERE? What is the Original Chimera doing?!
My mind went numb at the unexpected development. But as if my thoughts were irrelevant, the Goblin Chief's claws began to glow an ominous green. The prelude to an attack.
EEEeeee—
With a shrill ring in my ears, the world slowed to an extreme crawl. Aura seemed to sense its master's peril and roared through my entire body, granting me strength more potent than ever before.
But only now, with the Goblin Chief before me, did I finally understand. This thing wielded psychic energy too.
The staggering density of the energy coiled around its claws flooded me with a sense of helplessness.
"Gr...aa...aa..."
Dodge!
The Chief's guttural snarl stretched long and warped, like a broken tape, as I watched the tendons stand out along its scrawny forearm, visibly tightening.
Death given form came flying at me.
SSHIP—
"NNGH!"
Before the Chief's arm even moved, I threw myself sideways on pure instinct alone. The nightmarish blade of death skimmed through my overgrown hair.
But I'd been just a fraction too slow — a stinging pain, and warm blood spattered free.
SPLASH.
Behind me, I heard something spill wetly to the ground. Probably the chimeras caught in the attack, dying. There was no time to turn and look.
MOVE!
SHAAAK—
I was still half-prone, struggling to rise, when the second strike came without giving me a breath. My balance was thoroughly wrecked — dodging was impossible. Out of desperate options, I raised my sword vertically to shield my body.
Can I even block this?