The monster I had been chasing suddenly vanished.
I wondered if it was some kind of movement ability, but I still activated [Super Instinct] to track it down.
“...So it was over there.”
I strongly contracted the muscles in my legs, sprang forward like a coil, and kicked off the ground.
Not long after, I sensed its presence.
“.........”
Very carefully, I approached from behind the bushes.
I drew my fingers together sharply, taking the shape of a spear hand.
Squelch!!
I pierced straight through it.
The monster had its head in the middle of its body, so it was probably dead on the spot.
After confirming that it had gone limp without even the stiffness of death, I dragged the corpse into the bushes.
And took a proper bite...
Ratatatatatatatatatata!!!
“...?!“
A sudden hail of bullets with unexpected force rained down like a storm.
For a brief moment, I was thrown off by it.
Then, in that split second, I focused on dodging what looked like a single mass of fire.
Charging forward? Impossible for now.
Sideways? Too late.
Even if I retreated, bullets wouldn’t care.
Then below it was.
As fast as I could.
I burrowed into the ground and evaded the attack.
“.........”
Whoever you are.
Forget about dying cleanly.
Now then...
Crack.
Gulp.
I burst back out of the ground, chewed and swallowed what was in my mouth, and looked around.
A human in a skintight costume holding a huge kendama.
A human with a scar running from the left eye all the way to the right cheek, and a rough appearance thanks to the gatling gun mounted on his left arm.
A human in snake-patterned clothes...
...Wait.
Human?
“...What are you people?”
Why were humans here?
And armed, too.
And then.
“...Why did you attack me?”
I didn’t know the details.
But that gatling gun looked like it would hurt if I got hit by its bullets.
...It would have hurt.
It would have hurt.
It would have hurt.
I hadn’t done anything to them.
I hadn’t harmed them at all.
They tried to hurt me.
So that was it.
They wanted to wound me.
Make me bleed.
Make me hurt.
Then...
Those are my “enemies,” right?
Enemies I’m supposed to kill, right?
Kill them.
Crush them.
Rip them apart and kill the-
“...Ugh, ngh.”
“That guy doesn’t look so good.”
“He didn’t come out of that earlier barrage completely unharmed, did he?”
“...This might be our chance. Both of you, get behind me.”
My head throbbed.
It hurt.
The world in my field of vision kept shaking.
And the walking, talking lumps of meat in front of me kept looking more and more delicious.
“The moment you move from there, I’ll turn you into a sieve.”
“...Ah, really.”
Move and I’ll kill you, huh.
So that’s what this is.
They’ve decided I’m an enemy.
I’m really, really trying to hold back-
“Surrender now.”
Right.
That’s how it is.
What a sad thing.
I don’t want to kill humans. I don’t want to hurt them.
I’m clearly holding back.
So why do you want to become my enemy?
Why are you volunteering to become food?
If that’s how it is...
“...I guess I have no choice but to kill you.”
No.
No, that’s not it.
Rather than that...
“...I’ll just kill you enough that you don’t die.”
“I told you not to move...”
Not move?
No thanks.
I accelerated my thoughts.
I concentrated all my focus on destroying the enemies in my field of vision.
I threw away the tangled, messy thoughts.
As always, every day.
Like when I hunt monsters.
Like when I kill food.
“...Come on, then!”
I lowered my body as much as possible and started leaping sideways.
In hunting multiple targets, you neutralize the most troublesome prey first.
“I’ll make you regret that decision!”
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...
Ratatatatatatatatatatatatata!!!
Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwa-BOOM!
I could hear the barrage of intense bullets grinding up everything behind me.
Literally grinding through rocks, trees, everything, like Styrofoam.
The power was greater than I expected.
If I took several direct hits, the damage would be no joke.
“This bastard...!”
Well.
That would only matter if I let myself get hit.
I kicked off a rock and moved right.
I grabbed a tree, spun around, and moved left again.
I kicked off the ground and surged forward.
Then back again.
I defended against the occasional bullet with partial hardening.
I’d already fought a gatling user before, so I wasn’t about to take that head-on.
He was probably the type who became a monster after nursing a grudge over gatling fire from his days as a human.
He was definitely strong... but once I closed the distance enough to make it hard for him to aim, he wasn’t that difficult to beat.
I also knew the weakness of gatling weapons very well.
Ratatatatatatatatata!!!
Ammo consumption is proportional to firing speed.
So if you have little ammo and need to keep firing for a long time at a low rate, it’s useless.
In other words, it’s best when you have plenty of ammo and can fire at a high rate for a short time.
That guy was already firing more cautiously than before, which meant he knew that too.
Once he found the right timing, he’d probably dump everything at once.
...Thinking about it that way, it was clear.
If I wanted to win head-on, the right move was to neutralize him first.
But the other two were annoying too.
“He’s fast...! He’s dodging the bullet trajectories with overwhelming mobility and charging in...”
“Is he a monster specialized in speed battles?”
...Still, the gatling user came first.
The intervals between shots were getting shorter, and he was becoming more cautious, which made it look like he was running low on ammo.
...Or maybe.
Maybe he was aiming for something else.
Looking at the other two... one of them was probably specialized in mid-range attacks.
It looked like he attacked by launching the huge ball on the kendama.
When I faked a move that made it look like I was closing in, sure enough, the skintight one prepared the kendama as if to intercept me at mid-range.
The last one... I didn’t know. Close-range?
...If so.
Then there was a way.
Kwaaaaaaang!!
It would be easier to finish these two first and check for myself, but for now I’d assume all three had different attack types depending on distance and predict accordingly.
I kicked off a rock and hurled myself into the thinning bullet storm from the gatling gun.
“Got you, die...!”
[Death Shower]
A dense black curtain of bullets, looking like a single mass, came rushing in to erase the enemy from the world.
Just as I thought.
He had plenty of bullets.
He’d been aiming for this from the start, hadn’t he?
And yet.
Even as I stared at the dense bullet rain pouring down like a single stream, I smiled.
[Hardening]
Tiddiddiddiddiddiddiddidi...
In the middle of the barrage, I pushed forward while bouncing bullets off my entire body.
Tiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddidi...
Crack!
Crack-crack!
“.........!”
...So it’s breaking.
With a popping sound, the hardening on my right arm shattered.
And in an instant, my right arm was shredded away by the barrage and disappeared.
Little by little, holes started opening all over my body too.
It hurt.
It hurt like hell.
My arm was gone, my insides had burst a little, and it felt like my liver had been pierced too.
But.
I’d closed the distance.
I burst out of the wave of bullets in an instant and thrust out my clawed forepaw.
Thud!
“Ghk?! That’s impossible-”
No, it isn’t.
I shoved him over with my shoulder and grabbed the gatling user by the throat.
“Kgh...!”
A knife with a striking blue blade came at my head, but it wasn’t worth blocking.
For one thing, my hardening hadn’t worn off.
No matter how hard he stabbed, the blade couldn’t pierce my skin, and only then did his expression go blank.
“Where do you think you’re looking...!”
I tightened my grip on his throat and immediately stared down the kendama flying toward me.
...Right.
That’s how it should be.
I grabbed the gatling user’s leg instead of his throat, slung his body over my shoulder, and then.
At the right moment, I swung.
Kwooooaang!!!
“Kuh?!“
Home run.
I sent the kendama ball flying back, aiming it at the skintight one’s head.
It looked like I missed, unfortunately. Still, maybe it did some damage.
Leaving the unconscious gatling user where he was, I immediately rushed the skintight one in a surprise attack.
“Tch, take this...!”
“...Stuff like that won’t work.”
Too slow.
His movements were obvious and simple.
He was rattled.
And besides.
Five seconds had passed.
I could see the snake-patterned human rushing toward me, but I ignored him.
He was too late.
The holes all over my body began to regenerate.
At the same time, my shredded right arm regenerated too-
-and I struck with that right arm.
Kwooooaang!!!
The skintight one flew like a kendama from the force of the blow.
He slammed into a rock with a heavy thud and went limp.
...One left.
“Damn it. Disaster level... demon, huh.”
The snake-patterned human.
This guy was definitely specialized in close combat.
If he’d had a chance to interfere, he would have been a pain, but I made sure he never got one.
That’s why I deliberately charged in through the gatling barrage.
They’d been forced to stay back because they risked getting caught in the gatling fire.
That must have made it hard for them to respond quickly.
If the skintight one and the snake-patterned one had attacked together instead of the gatling user, they’d definitely have been harder to deal with.
Though that’s only if.
“Don’t look down on me.”
Left foot back.
Right foot bent forward.
Left hand spread open in front of my face like a snake’s gaping mouth.
Right hand pointed forward, sharp like a snake’s closed mouth.
“...What’s that stance?”
“[Snake Bite Fist]. The name of the martial art that will bring you down...!”
...Well.
For now, I’d throw a punch at his face.
Weighted down, enough to knock him out...
[Snake Bite Fist]
Kwak!!
“.........?”
For a moment, it looked like his right hand was spinning.
Then, by some unknown principle, the direction of the arm I’d thrown my punch with twisted, and I was firmly grabbed.
“...Oh.”
No, almost grabbed.
With quick reflexes, I pulled my arm free and stepped back, so he didn’t catch me.
That was a pretty terrifying movement.
If my arm had been caught there, he might have hammered me with rapid strikes from his free left hand.
“Tch, too fast...!”
...But now that I think about it.
I’ve got something like that too.
It wouldn’t have worked before...
“For some reason, seeing that stance...”
...Now that I know I need to take a stance.
I can think of one movement.
“...I think I can do it like this.”
“.........?”
I clenched my fist with my left forepaw and pulled it back to an excessive degree.
I lowered my body.
I drew one leg back and bent it.
I shaped my right forepaw into a spear hand.
And at the same time, I imagined the flow of water.
Softly.
“...A movement I’ve seen before... wait. That stance, don’t tell me...?!“
...But how could a monster use [Flowing Water Crushing Rock Fist]?!
“...So this is called [Flowing Water Crushing Rock Fist].”
Yes.
Then... I should try it, right?
I charged like a fast-flowing river, with a footwork I would never have used before.
[Flowing Water Crushing Rock Fist]
[Instant Body Movement]
So this is footwork, huh.
“Kuh...!”
A pair of open palms, like a snake’s gaping mouth, came flying at me.
I rotated my right hand and left hand.
I placed my left hand against the right, and my right hand against the left.
[Flowing Water Crushing Rock Fist]
[Flowing Water Formation]
Like ripples on a calm lake, I dispersed it.
“...Kgh...!”
Even so, he didn’t give up.
Immediately, an open palm like a snake’s mouth thrust in.
I didn’t block it.
I accepted it and let it flow away.
I twisted the direction of the open palm, gently turning it aside.
Then I added force, multiplying its power several times over.
[Flowing Water Crushing Rock Fist]
[Flowing Water Formation]
I sent it back toward his abdomen.
“...! Guh...?!“
When it landed, I saw blood spurt from his mouth.
Then.
It’s my turn now, right?
I shaped my hand into a spear hand.
I rushed forward with a motion like flowing water, tilting my upper body.
Aiming for the solar plexus.
[Flowing Water Crushing Rock Fist]
[Fang Piercing Finger]
I thrust.
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