Without a trace of fatigue, I leap over a cliff and keep running.
For nearly three hours now, I’ve been sprinting at full speed without stopping, but aside from my legs hurting, I don’t feel all that tired.
Pain is just something I can endure and bear.
The dramatic increase in stamina is one of the clearest changes from before my rank-up.
And if I were to list a few other things I can feel strongly...
First, I figured out my direction by instinct.
I just had a vague feeling that if I ran this way, it would probably be fine, so I started running blindly.
It looked sloppy as hell, but somehow, stupidly, it was right.
Whenever I spotted a map or a sign along the way, it confirmed that I was heading in the right direction.
In that sense, my instinct has become far more accurate than before.
Thanks to that, I’m covering ground in almost a straight line.
I can also clearly feel the difference when dealing with obstacles that get in my way.
Branches in front of me mostly shatter and fly apart just from me rushing past them.
The trees in my path... if this had been before, I would have gone around them.
But now, it doesn’t matter.
I charge straight through, smashing the trees in my path as I run.
Even without using hardening, my skin itself has become tougher than wood.
No. Maybe it’s even harder than stone now.
I doubt claws or knives would even sink in properly anymore.
That alone is a dramatic leap forward, but there’s another major thing I can feel.
Speed.
My current speed... while running at full tilt, is close to the speed of sound.
Probably. I’m not completely sure.
I used to be a little faster than the Sea King, but now that my speed has increased by roughly one and a half to two times, there’s no comparison.
It feels like I’ve ripped off a heavy weight I’d always worn around my body, like I’m about to fly away.
When I run at full speed, the world seems to slow down a little.
I’ve become that fast.
...Well.
Even so.
“...I don’t know how much this will matter against a dragon-level.”
Without exaggeration, if it were me now, even the Sea King, who had been the toughest opponent I’d hunted so far, might be easy.
...No. Maybe not easy, exactly.
Still, I’m sure it would be a lot smoother than before.
Before, I had only barely won by relying on intelligence, technique, special abilities, and sheer luck... but now, I feel like I could just crush them with raw stats.
But.
Even so.
“Hah, look at that pathetic sight, trembling in fear!”
“Trash not even worth killing...”
I still can’t picture myself defeating a dragon-level monster.
Even if I calculate countless possibilities, the result always comes out as an overwhelming defeat.
There is such a thing as an absolute strongest.
I know that because I saw it with my own eyes.
And yet even Vaccine Man, who was blown apart in a single hit by that strongest being, still seems impossibly far away to me.
No.
Maybe.
Just maybe.
If I’m now a hundred times stronger than when I first started...
Then, objectively speaking, I think I might be able to leave a scratch on Vaccine Man.
Just maybe, though.
Of course, I’d probably blow up right after that.
The gap is absurd.
And more than anything, what’s truly terrifying is that I still don’t know where Vaccine Man stands among dragon-level monsters.
I doubt he’s at the lower end, but if he’s around the middle.
Then just how monstrous are the upper-tier dragon-level monsters above him?
...I can’t even imagine it. I can only hope Vaccine Man was on the upper end.
“Kuhuhu. It’s been a while since I’ve raided a city, so I’ll just-”
Crunch!
Rrrrip!
Chomp!
Gulp!
“...Phew...”
Was that a wolf?
I saw an insect monster, so I cut it down and swallowed it as I passed.
The taste...
“...Ugh. What is this?”
After tasting the faint flavor that remained in my mouth, I immediately regretted it.
It was dry, bitter, fishy... ugh.
It feels like I just ruined my appetite for nothing.
Still...
“...Is this... City A?”
The sign that came into view right after I ate the insect monster.
The place where I was born.
The place where I first, and last, ate a human.
The place where I won my first battle against a monster and ate it.
The place where I vomited.
The place where I needlessly agonized.
The place where I spent the night.
The place where I encountered Vaccine Man...
“........”
What the hell.
Why is everything here, except for my birth, just a pile of black history and suffering?
Did I commit some kind of crime against City A itself or what? What the hell is this...
“...Haa.”
...Let’s just get through here quickly.
No matter how I think about it, I’ve never once seen anything good in this place.
Aside from being born, everything else...
...Wait a second.
Come to think of it, even when I was born, I fell out of the sky out of nowhere and almost got killed by a hero right away.
“........”
What a damned unlucky city.
Leaving quickly really is the best option.
If I stay here any longer, I’ll probably end up in some horrible situation again-
The stench of acrid smoke.
The heat of a raging inferno, scorching even the scales that never touched it.
Sticky blood.
Agonizing pain all over my body.
It hurts.
My body has been completely wrecked in places.
Where am I right now?
Light.
I can see a little bit of light.
Following that light, I move my arm.
I claw through the things piled on top of me, digging and digging until at last, not fresh air, but a rather foul air thick with carbon monoxide seeps into my nose.
“...Cough! Cough!”
What the hell is this all of a sudden?
I recall what happened just a moment ago.
My vision suddenly flashed white, and then I ended up like this...
“...Huh?”
...What?
My memory’s cut off somewhere.
I remember eating the insect monster and entering City A.
But everything after that is gone.
...What happened to turn the city into this mess?
The surroundings in my field of vision are completely turned into ruins, just like back when Vaccine Man appeared.
Far off in the distance, there’s a single black building standing there.
Everything else has either vanished or collapsed completely... maybe even worse destruction than back then.
And above all else.
Even though it should still be daytime, it’s dark.
With a sudden bad feeling, I look up at the sky.
“...What is that?”
Something enormous that has blocked out the sky over the city.
That thing floating up there... how should I even describe it?
I can’t believe it was made by human technology.
How should I define it?
A structure?
A flying object?
If not that...
A spaceship?
“...........”
My completely wrecked body regenerates rapidly.
I have a bad feeling about this.
Have I ever seen anything this massive before?
No. Absolutely not.
The scale is so huge that Vaccine Man’s rampage feels like child’s play, something capable of erasing an entire city in an instant.
Dangerous.
My instincts are sounding the alarm.
They’re telling me that if I stay here like this, I’m in danger.
To get out fast.
To run.
To flee.
From the spaceship.
No.
From the attack flying in from behind.
Sshhhhk!
A sharp slash suddenly flies in from behind.
In an instant, I react and counter.
I kick off the ground and retreat several meters backward to evade it.
Luckily, I moved fast enough on instinct and avoided it before it was too late...
...No, it grazed me.
Pshaaah!!
“Ghk?!”
It only grazed me.
And yet blood bursts out, and one of my forearms is almost cut in half.
If I hadn’t blocked it for a split second... that was close.
I didn’t fail to harden my body either.
I definitely used hardening on the predicted point of impact.
That still broke apart from nothing more than a grazing hit.
What? How?
My mind is in chaos when I hear footsteps right in front of me.
Step.
“...........!!!!”
...A familiar sensation.
A sensation so familiar that I hate it.
It pierces through my entire body all at once.
The pressure felt through the gaps between my scales.
My teeth going cold with a chill.
My heart beginning to pound.
My pulse quickening.
The skin beneath my scales stinging.
My pupils contracting.
My breathing growing rough.
This is definitely...
“Kukuku... To think you managed to avoid my [Cold-Blooded Sure-Hit Slash]. You really aren’t just some ordinary small fry!”
A presence of strength that feels outrageously unreasonable.
An aura of despair pours out from him.
He is absolutely not some Demon.
Not at that level.
This is...
“But give it up! There is no way you can survive me, Gloribus!”
Dragon-level.
Yet another living disaster has appeared again without warning.
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