Not a Cat Mom, But a Monster Mom
It was supposed to be just one. Yeah. The midterm was clearly about taking down a single boss monster. And right now, I was running like my life depended on it.
"GRRRAAAAAWWW!!!!"
"KIYAAAAA!!!!"
"TEEECHYAAAA!!!!"
"Stop with the last scream, you fuck!"
The moment I ran into the centipede, spider, and mosquito—the three sworn enemies of every solo liver—I chose to bolt. A chorus of nightmare sounds chased after me. The clicking of centipede and spider legs on the ground. The buzzing of mosquito wings slicing through the air. At least the Academy had the decency to set the monsters' speed so a person could actually have a chance to escape.
-CRAAAAAASH!!!!!
That decency clearly had limits. Trees right beside me were exploding into splinters. The culprit was a spider that had closed in and was snapping its fangs at my face. I swung my mace into its mouth with a vicious crack, then flooded my legs with mana and kept sprinting.
'Isn't charging straight at them the actual crazy option?'
I bounded off the side of one tree, then the next, using them like stepping stones to climb higher. The instant I reached the canopy, a mosquito-shaped monster materialized right in front of me. Its proboscis stabbed forward like a spear. Getting pierced by that thing definitely wouldn't end at a simple blood donation.
I twisted my torso just enough to let the stinger slide past, then stomped down hard on it with my left foot.
"KIYOYOYOYOOOO!!!"
"Pick one cry and stick with it, you pathetic bastard!"
Still pinning the stinger, I drove the short spear in my left hand straight into the side of the mosquito's head.
-SQUELCH!!!!
"KRREEEEEEEK!!!"
"I said pick one cry! Writing a new scream for every single monster is exhausting!"
I immediately brought the mace in my right hand crashing down on its skull.
-CRACK!!!!
A disgusting bursting sound echoed as the mosquito dropped without even a final shriek, tumbling pathetically to the ground. No time to celebrate, though. I snatched back my spear and mace and resumed leaping between trees. I'd taken out the most annoying one, but I couldn't relax. The number of boss monsters following the centipede's trail had grown since earlier.
Dozens of them, all fixated on me. It was all just fucking awful.
'We'll talk product codes later! I feel like I'm actually about to die!'
So I kept jumping from tree to tree through the forest, trying to put as much distance as possible between me and the horde of boss monsters. That's when Piece shouted urgently.
'Thanks, Lady Piece!'
I twisted reflexively at her warning, ready to counter. Nothing was there. Instead, a boss monster suddenly burst out from the side. A cow-headed beast even larger than the previous minotaur was already mid-jump, swinging a greatsword down at me.
'What the hell is behind me, you fucking asshole.'
I rolled quickly and planted my foot on the flat of the descending blade like it was a guillotine, then used the momentum to launch myself forward. I caught a branch mid-air, spun around it like a gymnast on a bar, and landed cleanly. It was honestly a ridiculously dangerous maneuver, but it bought me significant distance from the boss monsters.
At that moment, I caught a glimpse through the trees of a female student moving with purpose. She wasn't wandering—she was heading somewhere specific. Finding her was pure luck, mainly because her bright blonde hair stood out like a beacon against the forest.
She kept checking her phone while walking in a straight, determined line.
'I need at least one more person to fight alongside me.'
I changed direction to match hers and continued leaping silently through the treetops so she wouldn't notice. She was too focused on her phone to spot me. Suddenly she raised the phone to her ear as if answering a call and began speaking. I couldn't hear the other side clearly, but I was close enough to catch every word she said.
"How did it come to this?"
"I followed the professor's instructions and entered the gate like usual. But right after coming through, the situation was completely wrong. Boss monsters were fighting each other a short distance away."
"I thought I was just unlucky... until I saw a student get brutally killed the moment their gate opened right in front of the monsters."
"After they finished off the male student, the boss monsters started fighting among themselves again, then suddenly stopped and all rushed off in one direction."
"When I looked, I saw someone running desperately in the distance. Yeah... that bastard Kim Shinu."
I'd turned away immediately, thinking it served him right. Before the test started, I'd sent a message to the person who seemed to be at the center of our group when we entered the gate. They replied instantly, so they clearly hadn't been caught by a boss monster yet.
While heading there, my phone suddenly rang.
"Hey, you're not dragging monsters with you, right?"
"No! I saw them all chasing after Kim Shinu and ran the other way immediately!"
"Wow, that bastard's still alive? What a creepy fuck."
"They were chasing him in huge numbers. He'll die soon."
"I get the picture. Just hurry up and get over here."
"But what the hell is going on? There aren't just one or two monsters."
"From what I saw, it looks like some kind of accident merged the dungeons together."
"So you're saying all the boss monsters from every dungeon are now in one place?"
"Pretty much. Just get over here. Almost everyone else is already here."
"Got it! I'll head there and join up!"
"What about the people who aren't there yet?"
"Who cares about them? We need to hide ourselves first."
"...What about the rest of the students?"
"We abandon what we have to abandon. We're busy trying to survive. If they're lucky, maybe they'll take one down."
"Abandon them? Is that really okay?"
"Shouldn't you be grateful we're even letting you join us? If you feel that guilty, go die instead."
"No! Don't abandon me! Please let me join you!"
The call ended. Being the one who abandons is still better than being abandoned. I started running even more desperately toward the shared location.
The call must have ended, because the female student put her phone away and started running faster than before. She didn't seem to need to talk anymore.
'And those bastards decided only they deserved to live, offering everyone else up as sacrifices.'
'Who the hell do they think they are, trying to use me as bait? You're all dead.'
The boss monsters were still charging after me. Only now they weren't attacking separately—they'd formed one massive swarm in pursuit. We were locked in a three-way chase: the female student running toward a specific destination, me following her, and a horde of monsters following me.
A few minutes later, she reached her goal. It was a clearing dominated by one massive tree, surrounded by a dense cluster of slightly smaller ones. The formation resembled ropes extending from one corner and both sides of a square ring.
The moment she arrived, a male student crawled out from under the large tree's roots. They exchanged a few quick words, then he pulled her down into the hiding spot beneath the roots.
'But there's nowhere to run from there.'
The location itself wasn't bad. Hiding under the roots would provide some protection against the monsters' approach, and at first glance, no one would think to look there. However, I had seen it. To me, it looked less like a hiding spot and more like a net for trapping those bastards.
In the distance, I could hear the monsters closing in.
"Kids, time to eat!"
Without hesitation, I grabbed a Molotov cocktail and hurled it under the massive tree roots. Luck was on my side—the bottle sailed cleanly into the hollow. As smoke began to rise, the students hiding inside started scrambling out one by one.
Meal preparation complete. Today, I became a monster mom.