Not enough.
Even if I eat and eat.
It’s still not enough. Never enough.
The craving for meat.
The thirst for blood.
It won’t die down.
“Kwahahahaha! Now that the old Grizzly is gone, I, the great Nightwatch Rat, will conquer this mountain! At long last, I’ll vent all the resentment I’ve built up from being bullied by my boss for so long—”
Crack!Crunch.Crack.Gulp.
“...Not enough. More.”
More.
More meat.
“Oh? You! You’re no ordinary fighter, are you? My name is Aluminum Boxer! I’ve never once entered a tournament because of corruption, but in exchange, I’ll smash you—”
Boom!Crunch!Munch, munch.Gulp!
“...Hah! ...Hoo... Hoo....
It was a pretty big chunk, so it was hard to swallow.
But still.
Still,
“...It’s nowhere near enough.”
More blood.
More bones.
“...So you’re the rumored monster hunter! We’re the Gangcheon Pangolin Brothers! We became monsters because we wanted to pet a pangolin so badly that we couldn’t stand it anymore! Youngest brother!”
“Grrrrr! One of you is enough for meeeeee!!”
“.........”
First.
One.
Snap.
“H-hngh, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts?! Let go—”
Slice.Crunch.Gulp.
“Youngest brother?! You bastard... how dare you touch the youngest brother! Guys!!!”
“Waaaaaaah!!!”
“Kill him!!”
“We’ll avenge the youngest brother!”
“...Heh.”
So the chunks of meat with arms and legs are running straight toward me.
Avenge him?
Ah, no.
You’re just delicious food.
Come on.
And die.
“Kyaaaaaaa!!!”
I charge straight into the middle of them.
The nearest one comes into view.
I stare down the claw he swings at me.
Too slow.
I dodge under his arm at once and slip behind him.
At the same time, as I pass, I concentrate my strength on the tip of my claw....
Slice.
“Kwooooh?! My arm! My arm!!!”
He should know better than to worry about that right now.
As he clutches his arm and hops in place, I slam my fist into the back of his head.
Boom!
“Kheh....”
I felt it clearly.
The sensation of shattering the skull and striking the brain beneath it.
That makes two.
As he drops....
“Yaaahhhhhh!!”
...If you’re going to scream like that, it ruins the whole point of a surprise attack.
I can’t be bothered to go easy on something that sloppy.
I smash the one rushing me from behind with my tail.
Crash!
“Kuhk....”
Using the moment he staggers from the impact, I immediately raise both front claws and drive them in.
One goes for the throat.
The other goes for....
Pshk.
The heart.
Right through the center.
“Ah....”
I rip out the heart of the one collapsing with a blank expression and chew it.
He falls apart starting from the legs.
I was already watching the one charging in behind this massive body as it toppled.
“You bastaaaard!!!”
Come to think of it.
Were you the leader?
That’s too bad.
Thinking that, I step one foot back.
The other goes forward.
The clawing rush closes in.
And when he comes within about a head’s distance....
Thud!
I swing the foot I’d planted forward and hook his leg.
Then I grab the collar of the bastard, who’s now about thirty centimeters off the ground, and leap upward.
“Bwehehgh?!“
Then I let him go.
Twisting my body, I slam a spinning kick loaded with my full weight into his abdomen.
BOOOOM!!!
“Hurk!!!”
I watch him slam into the ground at high speed.
...Still alive, huh.
With that thought, I land.
“Buh... eee....”
I meant to kill him outright with that kick.
He’s tougher than I expected.
Doesn’t matter.
I was just a little off.
I can kill him now.
I grab both of his shoulders.
Crack!
“Ghk! Y-you bastard. How in the world do you have this kind of strength...? W-wait, no! Stop! Stop! Please stop— Kyaaaaaaaa!!!”
I tear him in half.
SPLAAASH....
Under the fountain of blood, I start eating at once.
The one whose neck I blew off first.
The one whose head I crushed.
The one whose heart I ripped out.
Even the one I tore in half.
Not leaving behind a single scrap of flesh.
Chewing even the tiniest ear bone without missing it.
Drinking the blood that spills out too.
And yet.
Still.
“...Not enough.”
...Not yet, not yet.
There’s still plenty to eat.
Plenty to enjoy.
There are still more monsters... no.
There are still more foods left.
...
......
.........What.
Where are they?
The ones that were showing up every few steps.
Where did they go?
An hour has passed.
Come out....
“It’s the monster hunter!!”
“Damn it, run! I’ll hold him here—”
...Found you.
Crunch.
Crack.
Riiip.
Snap.
Gulp.
“...More....”
More. Give me more.
It’s nowhere near enough.
Your blood.
Your hearts.
Your guts.
Your brains.
Your bones.
Give me your desperate screams.
“Kyaaaah! Kyaaaaaaaa!!!”
“......I won’t... let you escape.”
Food like you.
Don’t try to run—
“...Did you hear that?”
“.........Was that a scream? No way, a civilian?”
“...It sounded to me like something roaring.”
It was the first sound they’d heard in three hours and thirty minutes since entering this mountain.
The problem was that it wasn’t what they had been expecting.
“In the first place, there’s no way a civilian could be here. At least until we arrived, the area was completely sealed off.”
“...I see. My mistake. There’s no way it was a civilian.”
After all, no civilian could possibly have entered here.
Snack, chiding himself, took a stance.
The unidentified sound grew louder and louder.
“...Is it coming this way?”
“Be careful. Don’t let your guard down. We don’t know exactly where it’ll burst out from.”
And so the sound kept growing.
When the heroes had all finished preparing to intercept it, the brush in front of them rustled—
“...Kyaaaaaaaa!!!”
The source of the scream revealed itself.
A small yellow monster burst out from the bushes.
Its shape was like a round ball with arms and legs attached, and a face stuck in the middle.
Covered in cold sweat, it turned its gaze toward the heroes.
Its already huge pupils widened even further.
“H-heroes...!?”
“A monster!”
“Engage immediately—”
They couldn’t.
The reason was that something began dropping to the ground with soft, wet taps.
The monster, eyes brimming with tears, dropped to its knees.
Even after encountering the heroes, its face was filled with relief and hope.
“P-please... save me!!!”
“...What?”
“It’s fine if you capture me and use me for experiments, or even lock me up somewhere, so please, just protect me....”
“.........”
It was afraid of something other than them.
What could a monster possibly fear?
What could make a monster beg a hero—someone who should clearly be its enemy—to protect it?
“...What do we do? For now....”
“...For now, we’ll take that one alive. Though I don’t know if we’ll have room to carry it.”
“That’s probably right... but something feels off.”
Just as he said, the silence of the forest, which had been still until moments ago, suddenly began to reverse.
The insects screamed all at once.
Birds shrieked as they circled overhead.
And the monster’s eyes began to tremble with despair again.
“I-it’s no good staying here... soon the ‘hunter’ will....”
“...Hunter?”
“Y-yes, he’ll be here soon...! No matter how hard we hide, he finds us like a ghost, tears us apart, kills us....”
...And eats us.
Before it could finish, a sharp pain struck.
It couldn’t go on.
“......What?”
A hole had been blown clean through the middle.
Its face had burst apart, and in its place was a large, sharp front claw.
The claw, extended without a sound, immediately dragged the monster into the bushes.
No one noticed.
Not its approach, not its presence.
“...Damn it!”
Ratatatatatatatatatata!!!
As Death Gatling took aim and thrust out his arm, the Gatling mounted on his left arm immediately spat fire.
Each round was a bullet with tremendous destructive power.
There was no way a patch of brush could withstand that kind of barrage.
Raked by the bullets, the brush was blown away in an instant.
Then the Gatling fire stopped, but....
“...It’s gone!”
“To the right!”
Everyone’s gaze swung toward the direction Smile Man pointed.
A monster standing on two legs came into view.
A red-scaled lizard monster chewing on the monster it had just ‘hunted’.
“.........”
Without a word, everyone took battle stances.
The lizard monster was dripping blood.
The blood of someone else, smeared all over its body.
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