Chapter 64
“Drop dead, you bastard!!!”
I swung the bandit's sword in time with the hand tipped with enormous claws.
──Clang!!
A bare hand against a steel sword. By all rights, I should have had the advantage, but my sword shattered with a metallic clang.
‘Fuck!!’
I was completely outmatched in strength!!
I hurriedly raised my arm to block the claws, but they tore open my forearm and blood sprayed out.
“Ghk……!!”
I gritted my teeth and endured the pain. That bastard had always been ridiculously strong, but now he could even smash steel. There was no way I could match him head-on. His body had been enhanced to an explosive degree, far beyond what I could imagine from an ordinary enhancement spell.
‘──So it really is a mutation spell!’
A spell that changed the body's constitution and strengthened it. Tabula's hideous mug and mismatched eyes had been effects of the mutation spell.
Had he sacrificed one eye to gain power, paying for it with a wolf-like jaw and fangs? If so, I couldn't even imagine how superhumanly strong he'd become now that he'd completely transformed into a beast.
─Grab!!
Well, even if I couldn't imagine it, I could see it for myself.
The beast's hand, now faster than me, roughly grabbed my head and lifted me up.
“Kouoooooooooooooooooooooo!!!"
“Kraaaaaaagh!!!”
The beast gripped my head like a baseball and effortlessly lifted me before slamming me into the floor.
─KWAANG!!
“Guhk!!”
The impact of my back hitting the floor forced all the air out of my lungs. Its attacks had been breaking through Beast Regression's defense and hurting me this whole time!!
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaoooooooo!!!"
─Bang!! Bang!! Bang!! Bang!! Bang!! Bang!!
The beast kept swinging me around by the neck and slamming me down. It didn't care that I weighed over 100 kilograms with my gear on!! At this rate, even if my body held out, my neck would snap and kill me!!
Through the dizziness and pain, I chanted a spell like a groan.
“<Burning Hand>!!”
“──<Freezing Spear>!!”
Tirsi and I chanted at the same time. My burning hand scorched the beast's wrist, while a spear of ice struck its defenseless back.
─Fwoooosh!!
─Thwack!!
“KyaAAAA-Syaaaaa!!!!!"
Even as it took the spells head-on, the beast kept swinging me around. The magic wasn't working.
“Magic not working on it, too? That's crossing the fucking line!!”
I shouted in frustration. The world was spinning wildly before my eyes, and I felt like I was about to throw up. I twisted the beast's wrist, trying to get out of this situation.
The flames from <Burning Hand> were losing their effect against its hide, vanishing like smoke.
‘This is── an anti-magic technique!’
I'd heard of it before.
ᚦ (Thurs) rune.
Giant. Patience and trials. The symbol of Thor, the god of thunder and protector.
An ancient Viking rune with anti-magic power, and the rune of the Jötnar who gave birth to trolls……!!
‘That bastard is probably immune to offensive magic!’
The magic resistance inherent in the ᚦ (Thurs) rune negates the effects of runes. And more than 90% of the magic in this world is based on runic language.
That's why our magic wasn't taking effect. The runes that made up the spell formula were collapsing, causing the mana to dissipate.
To overcome that, I'd need mana cohesion far greater than that of the caster wielding the ᚦ (Thurs) rune!!
It was obvious that was completely out of my league!!
“Kyaa!!!"
The beast swung its claws once at Tirsi. Black mana surged forward and shot out like a cannonball!!
─Keening!! Crash!!
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
The projectile smashed through her shield and knocked Tirsi's small body away. She rolled across the ground like someone who'd been hit by a car. While the beast's hand was still for a moment, I slammed both fists into its wrist!!
“You bastard!! Focus on me!!”
Thwack!!
“Krrrrrrrrrr……!!”
My attack hit cleanly, but the beast didn't even seem to feel pain. Its base stats were on a completely different level, so landing an attack meant nothing!!
Whoosh!!!
The beast grabbed my head and legs with both hands and lifted me above its head. Its mouth, reeking of beast, gaped open. Was this bastard planning to eat me?!
“Knock it off, asshole!! I'm a carnivore, so I taste terrible!!!”
─Chomp!!
I grabbed its upper and lower jaws and held them apart. I strained with all my might, as if I were prying open a crocodile's mouth.
“Grrrrrrrr……!!”
─Tremble, tremble.
As it pulled my head and legs in opposite directions, my arms gradually lost their strength. Its claws dug into my shoulders and legs. At this rate, I really was going to get chewed up and die!!
“Ma… poison… 200 g. Loquat tree. A stake on the… coastline.”
That was when Tirsi, lying on the ground, pulled out a small bottle with a trembling hand. It contained a yellow liquid.
“An offering to the God of Corruption…. Warmth of the sea breeze…. White-robed lamb…. Loquat tree….”
Tirsi was stumbling over her words because she'd injured her head. Blood poured from her head and stained her white hair, but her eyes still glittered with fighting spirit.
“I, inheritor of the rites of the little bay…! With a single harpoon…!! I shall raise a gravestone to bind a god…!!”
Tirsi uncorked the bottle and chanted, squeezing the words out.
“<Chain of Sharp Harpoon>!!”
─Rattle-rattle-rattle!!!
─Stiff!
As the spell took effect, the beast's body stiffened. It was a paralysis spell. I escaped from the beast's grasp, frozen like a plaster statue, and kicked that bastard in the face.
“Quit clinging to me and get lost!!”
─Thwack!
─Flop!!
The kick didn't work at all. Instead, my body hit the floor like a worthless sack. Maybe it was from being thrown around so much, but my sense of balance wasn't working properly.
“Guhk, cough!”
Blood came up with my cough. Thankfully, my lungs and organs were fine. The blood had pooled in my mouth because it was cut.
“Cough, cough…!”
“Kmuuu……!!"
Tirsi was coughing, too, as she desperately restrained the beast. Its body kept jolting like a lagging game character. It was resisting the paralysis spell.
I remembered the sewer. Tirsi had struggled just to hold back the katydid insects. Even though things were different now, she wouldn't be able to keep that beast restrained for long.
“Kh, grrrrgh!!!”
I forced strength into my fallen body. My battered body screamed as if it had given up.
Tremble─.
I stopped my trembling jaw by gritting my teeth. Who gave a damn about pain? Fuck that. I don't have the right to die and leave Fran behind. Come up with a plan while Tirsi is holding it back!
Squelch─.
Just then, something lukewarm smeared onto the hand pressed to my chest. Blood? No, that wasn't it. I felt something hard inside my clothes.
A broken…… glass bottle?
‘──A potion.’
The mana potion I'd tucked into my clothes had shattered from the impact of the fight.
‘That's it!’
An idea flashed through my mind, and I searched for a certain box: the box of potions I'd gotten after taking down the bandits.
─Tat-tat!!
I ran toward the box. The beast's movements grew more violent, and Tirsi's face twisted.
Was the paralysis spell about to wear off? I pulled a weapon from inside my clothes, acting on a sudden inspiration.
The sword I swung couldn't pierce that bastard's hide. My fists didn't have enough power, either. I needed a weapon with a small striking surface that could ignore its hide and smash its bones and flesh.
─Slide.
Luckily, I had the perfect weapon in hand.
Fran's weapon. A conical iron hammer. I gripped it tightly and smashed it into the beast's paralyzed leg.
─Thwack!!
When I struck its reversed-jointed leg with the hammer, I felt flesh give way. I didn't manage to break the bone. But this was enough. No need to get greedy.
“K……!!”
The beast couldn't scream with its body paralyzed. I shoved the hammer back inside my clothes and ran to grab the box.
─Rattle-rattle.
I opened the box and lifted its lid. The envelope of papers I'd put inside was in the way, so I tossed it aside and pulled out a mana potion. My hands moved quickly, but I carried out every step without a single mistake.
─Pop!
─Stab!
I uncorked the potion, fitted it with a cap that had a syringe attached, and plunged it into my abdomen. I couldn't inject it into my leg because I was wearing Rock Turtle leather pants.
─Trickle.
As soon as I inserted the syringe, the blue potion was drawn into my body.
Normally, you were supposed to drink potions like this so they could be filtered through your stomach and liver, but this was an emergency. If I needed it to work immediately, I'd just have to deal with the consequences later.
─Pssht!
I emptied the first bottle—a potion that could fill half my mana pool with a third of its contents—and pulled the syringe out of my stomach.
By any reasonable standard, this was a foolish thing to do. Injecting this much mana potion wouldn't increase my mana; it would only make it harder to concentrate on magic as a side effect.
─Whoooosh!!!
“Cough, kh!”
The overdosed mana potion swirled through my body, overflowing my mana pool. It was exactly the side effect I knew about.
I'd been waiting for this to happen. I gritted my teeth and focused my hazy consciousness.
‘Pour this mana into Beast Regression!!’
─Clench─!
I clenched my fist as if I could crush it.
Earlier, I'd gone up against Tabula while he was still human, gotten sent flying, and hit the wall hard enough to pass out. It had only been for about a second. I was able to move again right away, so it wasn't much of a problem.
What mattered was that I'd passed out.
Even when my consciousness cut out, Beast Regression continued to stay active.
The way Beast Regression worked was unrelated to my consciousness. That meant it could handle mana separately from my control.
In other words, it was a kind of external hard drive──no, an external CPU.
─Whoooooosh!!!
Mana that couldn't fit in my mana pool churned through my body and made me want to throw up. It felt like air was being pumped into a rubber tube inside my body and inflating it!!
Suppress it. Endure it. Grit your teeth and hold on!
“Krrrrrr!!! KyaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAA!!!!"
The beast roared as it broke free of the paralysis. Regaining its freedom, it spewed black mana at Tirsi without even looking back. It wanted to kill the one interfering with its movements first.
Even consumed by madness, did it still retain some reason? I whipped my battered body into action and charged toward Tirsi. I caught up to the projectile of mana it had fired and struck it!
“Get lost!!”
KWAANG!!
The mana lost its cohesion and dispersed when it collided with my fist. It was nowhere near as powerful as the brute force I'd experienced earlier.
‘I can do this!’
I grabbed Fran's hammer and charged at the beast.
Beast Regression's output hadn't noticeably increased. Based on the Adventurers' Guild pressure stone scale, maybe it had gone up by about a stage and a half. I still hadn't reached Gold Class.
The reason I'd been able to knock its attack aside was that the beast didn't know how to condense or release mana.
Just spewing mana without any skill wasn't threatening. It was obvious that even a cannon wouldn't be dangerous if its cannonballs were water balloons!
─Whoooosh!!
Its claws came flying as I approached. I lowered my stance and dodged, almost crawling along the floor. My enhanced body reacted to the speed of its attack. I slipped under its arm and smashed Fran's hammer into its leg!!
─Crack!!
─Crunch!!
“KyaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”
A sharp jolt ran through my hands. Fran's hammer had broken the beast's leg bone.
─Creak.
The iron hammer, overworked by the excessive force, bent into an L shape. I'd apologize to Fran later. I threw the hammer away and rolled across the floor.
How many minutes did I have left on Breeze Walk? I couldn't expect any more support from Tirsi. Just buying me time to regroup meant she'd done her part.
Now I had to finish this with my own hands!
“<Cloud Summoning>!!!”
By the time I thought that, the incantation had already left my mouth.
<Cloud Summoning> set points for magical creation on the cave floor and sprayed water vapor. There was no point in blocking its vision. The beast had been blind from the start.
──That's why this spell.
“KyuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuUUUU!!!”
The beast attacked. It was trying to go after Tirsi without turning its back on me. Maybe the pain and rage had made it abandon what little reason it had left, too.
─Whooooom!!
If I failed to dodge, the attack would be fatal even with my enhanced defense. Its body, strengthened by the mutation spell and black mana, seemed like a creature unnaturally specialized for killing.
─Whoom!! Whoom!!
I dodged the first strike. Then the second. The third and fourth, too.
─Whoom!! Whoom!! Whoom!! Whoom!!
Five, six, seven, eight, nine──after missing me that many times in a row, even the beast noticed.
Why wasn't it hitting me?
It was targeting my presence, so why?
The answer was simple.
The ‘presence’ it sensed wasn't sound or smell.
─Pssshhhhh─.
Fog rose in the cave.
Fog made from my mana.