Part Twenty-Four

That roar was accompanied by a surge of mana. I knew at once that it wasn’t anything good.

“Fred! I’m gonna go deal with that. You take command while I’m gone!”

“Got it kid!”

Even from a distance, I could tell that the mercenaries to our left were struggling. Their formation was already starting to fall apart and it wouldn’t be long before the monsters broke through.

Damnit, that’s definitely not good! It was all because of the beast that stood among them. A regular Minotaur was usually about eight feet tall, but this one easily eclipsed that. It stood at about twelve feet tall and probably weighed three or four times more than me.

“MRAGH!”

Half of the group was trying to kill the Minotaur, but they were having a hard time. I watched as its massive club utterly crushed one of the mercenaries, turning his body into paste. With its next swing, it sent two more of them flying off the wall. If it kept that up, they would all die before I could get there.

Humph, if you think I’ll just sit back and let you come to me, then you’re in for a world of hurt!

I triggered Beast of the Nightmare and closed the remaining distance in a few seconds. I weaved in-between the other mercenaries and pushed a guy out of the way of the Minotaur’s club before he could get squashed. Then, as I ran past it, I unleashed an enhanced Aura slash at its left leg, but I only cut halfway through.

Tch, I figured that wouldn’t work. Its too tough for a half-assed attack like that to sever it.

“Mrrrrrrrrr!”

It swiped at me with its club, but the injury to its leg kept it from utilizing all of its strength. I was able to duck, letting the club sail harmlessly over my head.

There’s step one done. Its sheer mass works against it here. Now how do I kill it?

This wasn’t the first time I’d seen one of these Minotaurs. I’d fought one before as the Boss of that E-Rank Dungeon I cleared on my own. They were far tougher than regular Minotaurs and far stupider. The one I’d fought before had practically killed all the Minotaurs that accompanied it in the Boss fight.

“MRAAAAAAAGH!!!!!”

Another burst of mana exploded from it, causing everyone around us to flinch. But to me, it was little more than a warm breeze. After being exposed to the mana of the Orc General, this one’s felt tepid.

“Hey, what are you doing!?”

“Trying to kill a Minotaur, what does it look like!? If ya want to do something, hold those other monsters back!”

Because the Minotaur had broken through them, other monsters were starting to rush past us. Others were trying to stop them, but there were so many that they couldn’t hold them back for much longer. With half of them preoccupied with something else, they simply didn’t have the numbers to stop the monsters. And that was ignoring that at least three people were incapacitated.

I could tell that the guy wanted to keep arguing, but since the Minotaur chose to swing its club at me again, I couldn’t really respond. I ducked under it again and slashed at its wrist, causing it to let go of the club. It went sailing over the wall and landed among the other monsters.

Oh, that guy went pale. Guess he decided not to argue with me anymore. Now I’ve got to deal with this thing. I wonder how it would like a little Grudge Magic?

Without its club, the Minotaur was forced to attack me with its bare hands. I quickly back-pedaled away from it before it could grab ahold of me. And with its injured leg, it couldn’t charge at me or jump towards me, giving me plenty of time to fire off a [Rot] at it.

Phew, that’s kinda disgusting to watch. All the fur on its leg is falling out and I can see the flesh turning black. And since I hit it where the cut was, its spreading even deeper throughout the leg. Now I see why the Archmage warned me about this stuff. If I hit Alicia or Cameron, they probably wouldn’t survive.

Maybe the rotting was causing it extreme pain, as the Minotaur fell to one knee. The part of its leg that had rotted was starting to bleed. This is a little extreme. I’ll just finish it off.

“MraaaaGGHHHHHHHhhhhhhh….”

My next [Rot] caught it right in the face. I’ll save you the gory details of what happened next, but I will say that I now knew that [Rot] didn’t work on bones.

Alright, looks like that’s taken care of. They’ve got the monsters back under control, so my job's done here. I better get back before something else happens.

[Sávos’s POV]

As I thought. He has already learned to use Dark Magic and Grudge Magic at that. Even Master Finnél would not be able to survive a direct hit from that.

Sávos had spent his whole life as an asset in service to House Valec. In his youth, he was considered to be a valuable future addition to the House’s combat forces. But when the time came for him to acquire his Class, he’d shot too high and failed spectacularly. It was honestly a miracle that he’d even survived.

Ever since then, he’d been designated to some of the worst tasks the house had to offer. Executing criminals, assassinating enemies of the House, and guarding unsavory research facilities were just a few of the jobs he’d done. It had only been a matter of time until he either died or was disposed of.

If he’s able to kill a Minotaur Soldier so easily, he will definitely be an obstacle to us. I don’t know his personality, but it’s likely he wouldn’t sit back and let us do as we please. I might have to devise a few back-up plans.

It was Finnél’s birth that changed things. He’d been assigned to be the boy’s tutor and bodyguard. Suddenly, all the danger and uncertainty in his life was gone. It had freed him up to retrain himself, to make up for the fact he had no Class. He even began to go through textbooks he hadn’t touched since childhood, all to help his future ward grow.

And as the boy grew, so too did his own worth. By the time Finnél was ten, he’d already imparted all of his sword techniques and taught him the intricacies of magic. And as Finnél kept on improving, new opportunities opened up.

There were talks of employing Sávos as a permanent tutor. They were even considering giving him elixirs to extend his lifespan, so that he could train several generations of Valec heirs. But if Finnél died here, it would all come apart.

I may have to sacrifice some of the pawns, but so be it. Their lives pale in comparison to Master Finnél’s. I will not fail again, I cannot.

He’d already lost one golden future, he wouldn’t lose another.

[Protag’s POV]

“How’s it going over here?”

“Rough. We’ve held them back, but Cameron had to deal with a couple really strong Goblins. They nearly killed Alonso before he got to them. Also, we lost Kevin when a couple large birds swooped in at him. They carried out over the monsters and then just dropped him. Poor bastard.”

Damn. We’ve only killed half of the monsters, but we already lost two people. At least the NPCs are still going strong. We’d already have fallen without them.

While we were in charge of the ramps, the NPCs had focused on keeping monsters from climbing up the walls. If we could keep this up we would soon break them, but there was no telling how many more casualties there would be before then.

Alright, time for a slightly risky plan. I couldn’t do what I did last time because there were too many, but now that we’ve thinned their numbers. Heheheheheh, I think one good push should break them.

“Hey Fred, wanna be a hero?”

“Er, I guess? By the way, my name’s not Fred.”

“Wait really!?”

“Yeah kid. That guy over there’s Fred, I’m Brad.”

So I’ve been calling him by the wrong name this whole time!? Eh, who cares? It’s not like I’ll remember that after this anyway. Let’s just get this done.

“Alright whatever. Just take these and follow me.”

I shoved the bag full of Combustion Bombs into his hands and took off towards the ramp.

“Move your butts outta my way!”

The two guys I yelled at jumped and shuffled to the side to let me through. Of course, a wolf tried to immediately dart through there, but I cut it down before it could.

“Start pushing them back! I’m tired of standing around letting them come to us.”

[Alicia’s POV]

And he’s doing it again, only now he’s roping others into his reckless plans. Though I guess it isn’t that reckless, not compared to fighting an unknown monster anyway.

She’d spent the entire battle back away from the others, raining arrows down onto the monsters below. Ever since Accuracy had reached C-Rank, she could zoom her vision in on a target, thus allowing her to more easily snipe monsters. This, combined with her new bow, also led to her having the highest kill count among all the mercenaries, but we won’t mention that.

He’s probably after those robe-wearing monsters at the bases of the ramps. They’ve been standing there throughout the whole battle, but every time I try to kill one, something blocks my arrow. It’s probably Magic, but I can’t tell what kind. I certainly hope Michael knows what he’s doing.

Those monsters had been present during the last battle, but had stayed out of the fighting. They’d been the ones to signal the retreat and had kept up whatever barriers they’d used to protect the ramps. That was probably Michael’s motive in trying to hunt them. It was his attempt to destroy as many ramps as possible.

Well I can at least do my part. I’ll keep an eye out and if I see an opportunity, I’ll take those monsters down.

[Ouka's POV]

“So that’s the monster?”

“Yes captain. It might appear to be rather inactive, but when we approached it, it attacked us with extreme aggression.”

“Hmm.”

A few days ago, a messenger had come by with a request. The squad sent to investigate the recent disturbances had been attacked by a powerful monster. She’d been asked to find and eliminate it.

They had observed the monster for a few days and came away with one conclusion: it would attack anything it saw. Animals, monsters, it didn’t matter. It would jump on them and kill them. The worst part was that from a distance it would appear human. It was only when you got closer that you’d notice the abnormality of it.

It just keeps eating. Even the bones aren’t left, just blood and scraps of flesh. How horrible.

“I’m going in. Cover me.”

“Y-yes captain!”

The man who came with her wasn’t a member of the encampment, but a survivor of the scouting unit. He’d volunteered to identify the monster. The man, who hadn’t told her his name, pulled out a sniper rifle and set it up. He’d already explained that the monster’s skin was so tough that small caliber bullets couldn’t penetrate it.

She set off at a brisk pace, heading into town. The stench of rot and death was much stronger here, as the monster’s messy eating had left many scraps behind.

*Chew chew chew chew chew chew chew chew*

The creature was currently occupied with eating the corpse of a large wolf monster. It was ripping chunks off of it and stuffing them into the mouths all over its body. The scene was something straight out of a horror movie.

Gluttonist

Rank: D

Description: A Mutated monster filled with insatiable hunger. Because it has little in the way of special abilities or intellect, its combat ability is rather high.

So this is the beast? A Gluttonist. But for it to only be D-Rank. I have a bad feeling about this.

*Click? Clack Clack Clack!*

As she got closer, it paused in its feeding and looked around. Once it had seen her, the mouths all over it began to click rapidly as it stood up. It lunged for her, swinging its clawed hands.

*Clank Clank*

She caught each claw with one of her swords, parrying the attacks. She then immediately countered, slicing one of its arms off. She followed through into a dance of slashes, each one cutting into its body. Within moments, it was bleeding profusely.

Even in such a wounded state, the creature kept going. She thought she’d killed it after she severed its head, but it simply kept coming after her. The monster’s hunger was palpable. Even with both of its arms severed and its head cut off, it still tried to eat her.

*Click?*

The fight only ended when she cut the beast in two. She’d felt some kind of resistance, as if there’d been something inside of it. Regardless, the monster was undoubtedly dead, so she was done here.

Mission accomplished.

***

“I can’t believe you won so easily! What was that?”

The scout was flabbergasted. He’d seen that thing rip through his friends’ defenses and completely ignore their attacks. But she’d completely overwhelmed it by herself.

“Hm, something seems off. It was certainly strong, but not enough to cause so much destruction by itself. We’re missing something.”

The two were walking back to where they’d parked the vehicle they used to get here, when a ominously familiar sound reached their ears.

*Clack Clack Clack Clack Clack*

*Clack Clack Clack Clack Clack*

*Clack Clack Clack Clack Clack*

“What? But how?”

Three more Gluttonists had emerged from the foliage, each one making the same sound as the other one. The second she saw them, Ouka immediately grabbed the scout, threw him over her shoulder and started running. If it had been a single one, she was confident in killing it, but with three she had no other choice but to escape.

“Captain, they’re still following us!”

The three creatures had broken into a run and started to pursue them. The beasts were extremely fast, so much so that Ouka had to use her Unique Skill to evade them. She hadn’t wanted to use it, as the Skill's blowback was worse the longer she did, but she had no choice. If there were three more of them, then there were undoubtedly more. Someone had to warn the Committee.

They continued to play tag with the monsters until they finally came across a group of goblins. The Gluttonists immediately stopped in order to eat them. So they’re dangerous, but extremely stupid. Good to know.

“Could you set me down now?”

She kept running, ignoring the screams of both the scout and the Goblins.