Chapter 155 – Sammosa (2)
When people express the realm of ‘instinct’, they often portray it as a carnivorous beast like a wolf. Large carnivores that prey on herbivores, rather than being rational and altruistic, rather savage and honest about their desires, are the representative perceptions people have about instinct. But just like wolves are smarter hunters than you think.
“Grrrr…!!”
The people here understood that the monster was not a stupid beast that simply acted according to its own desires. And that, only after that beast targeted me exactly three times.
Haha…! You monster bastard, you’ve only been aiming for the teacher since before…!”
Bain and Aine, who didn’t follow me, took over as my escort, and Esk was already feeling nervous as his attacks missed three times. The monster figured out that I was the leader of this group of human beings, and concluded that the rest of the group would panic and scatter if I dealt with the leader, since they were far inferior in physical ability anyway. Without doing so, it is inexplicable that out of many, many people, he only persistently targets me.
“Keep your composure, Esk. Your attacks didn’t miss three times, you saved me from that monster’s attack three times.”
Esk’s ability is to pierce a hole without the action of any force on the surface in contact with the tip of the hand or weapon. And even if the target is a living thing, it is no exception. In other words, the moment Esk’s sharp sword stabs any part of the monster’s body properly, it can pierce the thick skin of that disgusting beast and pierce the filthy intestines that ate human remains at once.
But as if the monster knew it, every time Esk’s blade tried to touch him, he hurriedly pulled back, giving up all attacks. It seems that his instincts as a beast are quite sensitive, and he instinctively noticed that he must not allow Esk’s attacks aside from the attacks of others. Thanks to that, the battle was going through difficulties.
“Rurrrr…!”
With an annoying cry as if something was caught in the throat, the monster’s neck muscles contracted and the folded wings unfolded wide. In terms of games, it was a preliminary action before the raid boss launched a large-scale attack.
“…! Cover your ears everyone!”
Esk, noticing something, hurriedly issued an order, but unfortunately, less than half of the people here immediately followed his order.
“———!!”
Audible but inaudible noise. Judging from the absence of eyes and the presence of membrane wings on the back, it seems to be a type of ultrasonic waves emitted by bats. What on earth can be done to generate physical power enough to rupture a person’s eardrums with ultrasonic waves emitted simply to determine the location of an object? Doubtful. Those who couldn’t plug their ears in time rolled on the floor complaining of pain, and even those who had their ears plugged didn’t look very good.
“Esque.”
“Yes, teacher!”
“Right here, you are one of the few combatants who can properly deal damage to that monster. So, prioritize killing that monster over protecting me.”
“Yes? Ha, but isn’t that monster targeting you first? It’s too dangerous!”
“Don’t worry. I have the ability to protect myself. And the best defense is attack. If you really care about my safety, you can take care of that monster that threatens my safety with your own hands.”
“…All right.”
Esk ran towards the monster. When the most difficult being to deal with left me, the monster leaped towards me, perhaps seeing it as an opportunity. His short legs make it difficult to move around, but the bizarre way of rushing with his long arms on the floor as if he were shooting a slingshot was an attack that was easy to be conscious of, but difficult to deal with.
“Damn it!”
The monster flapped its unused wings and leaped higher than before. It was so high that it barely touched the ceiling, and that Esk couldn’t pierce it with the blade while charging. The huge body of the monster shot in a parabolic arc flew toward me, and the monster swung its grotesquely long arms toward me.
“Did you consider it an opportunity?”
Turong.
“Karyuk…?!”
And the monster expressed bewilderment that the arm it swung hit an invisible wall before it reached me and bounced off.
“You seem like a beast that can use your brain a bit, but you are a beast anyway.”
At the same time as I blocked the monster’s attack, Esk kicked the floor and sent his body flying. With that, he threw out the sword in his hand, the point of the sharp blade aimed squarely at the monster’s flank.
“Kishyaaaaa!!”
Unfortunately, however, the monster swung its tail at Esk, who attacked from behind. The three strands of the tail lashed out like whips, and Esk clicked his tongue and twisted his wrists, severing the tail flying toward him instead of the monster’s body. Then, while Esk’s blade cut off one of the monster’s tails, the monster jumped high, spurring the floor, then extended its long arms and grabbed the ceiling to anchor itself.
Is that a bat or a monkey? The monster clung to the ceiling and looked down at us in an upside-down position, displaying its teeth with a low growl.
“He’s smarter than I thought. It’s a headache.”
I thought it would be slow moving because it would have lived comfortably in a confined space without predators stronger than itself, but it was unexpectedly fast. Besides, those wings. I didn’t pay attention to this pupil’s ceiling because I thought it wouldn’t be of much use because it wasn’t that high, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. Showed usability.
The most troublesome thing is those two arms. Overwhelming range, range, and destructive power. The presence of those long, thick arms was so menacing that all the sharp teeth and the ultrasonic waves that pierced the eardrum seemed ridiculous.
Three or four members of the organization were still unable to keep themselves under the influence of the ultrasound, and those standing on the ground with both feet were also quite tired. Hey, I think I’ll have to do this.
“Esque.”
“Yes, teacher…”
“I’m going to go back, and I’m going to have my gang members do some hard combat training.”
The monster must have caught the tired breathing of the people on this side with its keen hearing, and confidently descended from the ceiling again, as if certain of Marcy’s victory. Originally, I stayed still to give the members some combat experience, but it seems that the monster was too much to deal with with the members here. It is said that there are only three people with special combat skills, including Esk, but I thought that all of them were good enough… I guess I set my standards too high.
“Hey, you bastard. Shall I show you a trick?”
“Grrr…?”
“Come on. Three, two, one.”
As soon as the countdown was over, I threw out the invisible blade. The monster, noticing the sound of blades flying menacingly through the air, hurriedly threw itself aside to avoid it, but unfortunately this attack is not the kind that can be escaped by just dodging it once.
Stand-suck.
“Keeck…?!”
Disregarding the laws of motion, the transparent blade twisted its path in a physically impossible direction, drawing an irregular trajectory and cutting both arms of the beast at once.
“Jjajan. A magic that cuts off a monster’s arm in an instant!”
The monster let out a bewildered moan as if it did not understand the situation that had happened to it. His mobility came from his handsome arm, but with the arm in question cut off, he can no longer display his grotesque and nimble movements…
“Krahiah!”
Pushaaaaagh!
“No, such a madman.”
Even when the monster turned his body backwards, I wondered if he was afraid of me and tried to run away. Until suddenly, a large amount of poisonous gas erupted vigorously from the guy’s back.
“Sir! It’s dangerous!”
“Sigh…!”
Urgently, Knox, Oxide, and Leto used their detoxifying powers to stop the toxic gas before it spread to others, but in the meantime, that damned beast pounced on one of the gang members who had been hit by an ultrasonic wave and was lying on the floor, killing the rats. Two seemingly segmented tails were wrapped around his neck.
“Damn it…”
Esk takes his sword and steps forward to prevent his own men from dying.
“Keyaaaaagh!”
Kwaaaaagh
“Cheer, heck, heck…!”
The monster let out a ferocious scream and strangled the captive member with its tail. And when Esk clicked his tongue and took another step back, to his amazement, he loosened his tail again. Huh, oh… That damn bastard, holding people hostage?
They saw us as prey and attacked us so far, eating the corpses that fell from above, so even if we assume that their appetite has changed, they have enough intelligence to take hostages against humans? Even if you don’t, you should kill him, but there’s even less reason to keep him alive. Once he gets out of this mineshaft, it will be very difficult to track down.
Oh yeah. I’ll kill you here
*
Creepy.
“Kreuk…?!”
The beast had no name.
He had no memory of when, where, or to whom he was born.
The oldest memory is the memory of instinctively biting off unknown meat in this narrow and dark place. There was meat all over the place, so there was no need to get hungry. By the time the space in which they lived was gradually filled with gas from their bodies, the food remaining in the cavity also showed the bottom, but instead, new food fell through holes in the ceiling of the cavity that were a bit small for animals to pass through.
Of course, the new food that fell smelled worse than the existing food and tasted tougher, but it was not a reason for the beast not to eat it. It eats prey that falls from above, emits gas, and wraps magic stones. That was the life the beast lived in this cramped underworld.
Until one day, they show up.
Even that day, the beast was filling its stomach with food that had fallen from above. However, the food that fell this time had few parts to eat, probably from starvation, so they appeared while looking around to see if there was anything else to eat out of unsatisfied hunger.
They look just like the prey the monster used to eat. If there is a difference, they are not just lying around, they are walking and moving on two feet, and they are much fresher and fatter than the food they ate before.
As he was still hungry, the beast decided to fill his stomach.
However, it was more difficult to eat living prey than non-dead prey. It was not easy to catch, and I felt pain when I hit or stabbed myself with strange things in my hand. As a result, the beast gradually began to get feverish. I was annoyed at things that would work for me as usual, things that bothered me for no reason.
As I watched them, I realized that when the central prey made a noise, the other prey around it moved accordingly.
Like that. The food in the middle is the problem.
Then, if you eat that first, you can easily eat the others.
The beast pounced on the prey in the center. However, the prey constantly attached to it interfered with it. A prey with something as sharp as its own teeth. Feeling that the attack of the prey, unlike other prey, should not be hit, the beast continued to hunt the prey, avoiding only the attack of the prey.
He spews gas, shoots ultrasound waves, and wields his long front paws or whip-like tail.
However, the moment the food in the center came out, both arms were suddenly cut off.
The pain felt for the first time by a beast that had never fought or been hurt by anyone was… Very unpleasant.
But the beast did not run away. This cramped world is a world where beasts lived. There was nothing here that was not at the will of the beast. Because it has always been, and always will be.
It exhales gas to intimidate dangerous prey, and captures the most easy prey. First of all, it immobilized the prey it caught and tried to eat it, but when it strangled it with its tail, it saw that other prey was walking backwards and relaxed its tail again. And the beast realized.
Aha, if you do this, those prey will be stuck.
Learned something new
Now it’s enough to make those prey unable to move on their own, just like the ones they’ve been eating. The beast, who thought so and felt pleasure, met eyes with the prey that threatened him.
For the first time in his life, the beast, who felt only displeasure and anger, let alone fear at his first pain, felt fear. Obviously, that prey is much smaller and weaker than itself. It is just a small prey with soft flesh that will be torn apart if you take a bite. But the fact that he was briefly frightened by such prey was unacceptable to the beast.
This is my world There was nothing that didn’t work for me here.
Yes, I will eat you all and get rid of you. Then everything will be on my own again.
The childish logic, which is hard to even call logic, determined his actions.
The menacing prey raises its arms again. When the prey did that a little while ago, something suddenly flew in and cut off both arms. I must have avoided it, but I would have avoided it, but the attack flew again. A beast that remembered it couldn’t let its prey do the same.
Fear, pain, anger, displeasure.
The excited beast pounced on its dangerous prey, foolishly letting go of the hostage it was holding by its tail. Throwing away the only advantage he had, the beast was about to dispose of its most dangerous prey right away. At that time, the dangerous prey made an incomprehensible noise as a beast. But the beast snorted. It’s too late to do anything now. His teeth had already touched that delicate flesh…
“Cut in half and die.”
Squeak.
It was the last memory of the monster that his vision was split in half with that sound.
*
“…Sir, sir. Are you okay?”
As for Esk, the huge monster bit the teacher with the last ferocity. And when a person is bitten by an animal larger than himself, he usually dies or, if he is lucky, survives only with a cripple.
“Yes, it’s fine.”
So, that’s not a person.
The flesh that was bitten off by the powerful jaws of the monster instantly regenerates and heals the wound, and he speaks calmly without showing any signs of pain, but he is not human.
And Esk was sure that his intuition was correct for another half, saying that it was really fortunate that he was a subordinate rather than an enemy of that non-human being, and that accepting his offer at that time was the correct answer.
