[Name: Stronger Lizard Monster]
[Alias: Monster Hunter]
[Disaster Level: Demon (not yet promoted)]
[HP:700/4000]
[ST:5000/5000]
[AP:200/2000]
[SP:6000/6000]
[MP:1751/2051]
[Allocatable Points:798]
[Skills (17/20): [Super Instinct] LV7, [Quiet Steps] LV6, [Sharp Claws] LV7, [Strong Teeth] LV6, [Tail Severing] LV4, [Hardened Body] LV7, [Super Regeneration] LV8, [Stealth] LV4, [Shock Absorption] LV2, [Might] LV5, [Instant Acceleration] LV3, [Body Transformation] LV3, [Tracking] LV1, [Warp] LV1, [Acid Immunity] LV3, [ㄱ탄], [Psychokinetic Crushing Fist] LV1 (NEW)]
I land another straight punch on its head and create some distance.
The numb, stinging sensation in my fist still hasn’t gotten any easier to bear.
Ever since I used [Combined Ten-Strike Shattering Burst Life-Fist], my attacks haven’t been landing properly.
That’s because the AP cost is too severe.
With only one-tenth of it left, using a big technique like that only raises the risk.
So even though I’ve been dealing small amounts of damage, I still can’t force a finishing blow.
It rushes in fast, closing the distance.
“You lowly life-form!!!”
“………….”
So now it’s just saying anything, huh.
I stare down the fist flying at me.
A fist grotesquely stretched long, thrusting straight toward me.
That fist, packed with tremendous force, is still dangerous if it lands.
I could defend against it with my newly gained power, but that would only keep me from dying instantly.
There would definitely be massive damage somewhere—something broken, something blown apart.
And blocking the follow-up attack after that would probably be impossible too.
Then I’d really die.
But.
I have no intention of letting it happen.
I step back and extend my right hand, palm facing inward toward my chest.
The fist, crazed by the loss of reason, has definitely gotten faster.
And yet.
To my eyes, it looks even slower.
That’s because.
It’s just.
A wild punch thrown without any thought.
The line is straight, and there’s no feint or technique behind it.
It no longer calls out the name of its move.
That must mean it’s completely lost its mind. Not that it has eyes to lose, anyway.
That works in my favor.
A fist like that, stripped of reason.
If it doesn’t land, it’s weaker than a cotton swab.
[Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist]
- [Water Current Formation]
My own mind grows clearer instead.
I let the force flow sideways, like running water.
With the fierce shockwave of destruction brushing past me, hot air from behind grazes my cheek.
I ignore it and charge in.
It loses its balance, missing the punch weighted with its full body and staggering.
Even so, with reflexes at a miraculous level, it spots me and immediately stretches out an arm to swing at me.
To avoid that strike, I slide backward with my back against the ground.
Through the thick gray cloud of dust, my back scrapes against sharp pebbles and jagged debris.
The friction burns hot, as if I’ve been scorched.
Clenching my teeth and ignoring the throbbing pain in my back, I roundhouse kick its leg.
“Ugh!!”
Thud-thud-thud!
I grab its leg as it crashes headfirst into the ground.
Then I lift it overhead at once and slam it down while still holding on.
Another thunderous impact and vibration roll through the ground, and in that gap it gets back up and bursts through the dust cloud toward me.
I let its body, charging in like a truck, slide past my hand.
At the same time, I twist my body, throw it over my back, and smash down with my tail.
Kwooooom!!!
It thrashes as its head is driven into the ground.
I sharpen my claws and coat them with power before skimming across its back.
With a splash, a thick spray of blood bursts up from its broad back.
I immediately follow up and aim for its short neck, but a cluster of spikes suddenly fires from its shoulder with deadly precision.
Using footwork, I spring backward and evade most of them.
But one small spike buries itself deep in my shoulder.
And because the distance opened too much, I lose the chance.
“……………….”
Compared to the other spikes on its body, it’s relatively small, but it’s still about the size of a finger.
While I pull it out of my shoulder, thick drops of blood falling from it, the thing yanks its head free from the ground and gets back up.
Facing the beast as it charges again, I rush in too.
If this turns into a war of attrition, it’s obvious I’ll be the one to lose.
What I need is a short battle.
I have to bring it down as fast as possible.
While doing that, I rapidly regenerate the claws corroded by its bodily fluids and thrust a straight punch toward its chest.
And then, at that moment.
“...This is?”
“………?!”
Kugugugugugugugugu...
The sudden sensation of buoyancy wrapping around my whole body feels unfamiliar.
I’m lifted into the air, flailing my arms and legs.
The sensation is like being submerged in water, and confusion floods my mind.
While I’m thrown off by a situation I’ve never experienced before, it doesn’t seem especially surprised.
Rather, it feels familiar... well, that makes sense.
It’s an alien, so zero gravity would probably be normal for it.
First, I need to understand the situation.
I quickly scan my surroundings and assess what’s happening.
“………I see.”
There was a reason I could accept.
Far away, I can see two figures.
One is the green-haired girl I saw before.
The other is... not a person, but a giant octopus?
A huge dark-blue octopus comes into view.
Judging by the situation, it’s probably another alien on that thing’s side.
Their powers are clashing wildly, twisting and warping the area around them.
Because of that, this place far away from them has...
“...Become weightless just from the aftereffects.”
...I’m not very good at swimming.
But that’s only my problem.
I’ll have to deal with it.
Even now, debris jutting up all around me is shaking and twisting wildly.
Meanwhile, the enemy...
“Graaahhh! Die!!!”
It kicks off floating debris and rushes toward me.
I, too, step onto a twisted chunk of building and leap upward.
I land an uppercut on its jaw as it swings down at me, then spin around and kick toward the ground.
The thing, pushed back toward the ground, steps on a small piece of debris and charges again.
I sprint across the overturned building too.
In this world turned upside down, fists come flying.
I warp straight behind it and smash the back of its head.
Using [Warp] again, I dodge the incoming attack and rise from below to hammer its solar plexus.
I predict the path of its body as it spins through the air and move to that spot.
I drive a heavy blow into its back.
I move again and hit its neck with a roundhouse kick.
I smash its head with my elbow.
I strike its joints.
I stab into its abdomen.
I hammer its vital points with a flurry of blows, stiffening its body.
Spinning in midair, I rush at it feet first and unleash a dropkick.
It’s blocked by its guard.
I try to use [Warp] again, but a strange wave of dizziness hits me and I fail.
The thing reaches me in an instant and throws a punch.
I throw one back.
Using body transformation to stretch my arm, I strike its cheek first and dodge the fist flying toward my head.
Then my extended arm is grabbed by its leg.
My teeth sink hard into its ankle, and as it shortens the length of its arm again, the distance closes fast.
Twisting my body, I use the leg I’ve thrown forward to heel-kick its solar plexus.
Crack!
“Graaahhh!!!”
Taking advantage of the stagger, I land several more hits.
A huge floating chunk of debris suddenly swings toward me.
I can’t block it and get knocked back.
Immediately, a barrage of attacks rains down.
It swings a large piece of debris that had slammed into its back and knocks me away too.
We both get pushed back at the same time.
Using the thick cloud of dust as cover, I approach by leaping across the debris.
But then.
Fwoooosh!!!
“………!!!!”
The saliva hidden in the dust instantly melts my arm away whole.
It cuts away the flesh around my arm, which has turned into a watery liquid in an instant.
While I grit my teeth through the searing pain, a fist comes at me.
With a thunderous blast, I manage to guard once with an invisible force around me, but the follow-up attack is already coming.
Kwooooom!!!
“Kh, huh...!”
Even after reducing the force as much as I could, my stomach is blown clean through in one hit.
I spit up blood and scatter it to obscure its vision while creating some distance.
My breathing is ragged.
My arms and legs are trembling.
My vision is blurry.
I land on top of a chunk of building with both feet and check my condition.
[HP:200/4000]
[AP:80/2000]
...One reduced-power hit took away 500 HP.
No wonder I’m so out of breath. My AP is down to one twenty-fifth too.
I can’t drag this out any longer.
I tried my best to break through its defenses, but I couldn’t create an opening that would let me finish it in one blow.
Either piercing through the gaps in its back to reach the heart, or punching through the abdomen.
Those are the only two possibilities that seem even remotely viable.
Regenerating my whole body, I make my judgment.
Drip, drip, drip...
...No.
There’s one more.
One thing.
Something vague and uncertain, but not impossible.
If I’m right, there’s a spot that could bring it down in a single strike.
There’s no way to confirm it right now.
But.
This is the only way.
“Graaahhhhhhh!!!!”
With a bestial roar, it kicks off every piece of debris around it and charges.
I, too, stagger forward.
With limbs that barely move properly, I climb up a building that has turned jagged and sharp.
The thing’s mouth, filled with saliva, stretches toward me on its elongated arm.
Its target is my abdomen.
I can let it slide past.
But.
I accept it.
The arm that should have dropped to block or deflect it, I raise instead.
Sharp.
Precise.
Bending like a snake swimming through running water.
Smoothly.
Flexibly.
Focused into one point.
Extended.
[Flowing Snake Bite Killing Fist]
I pierce through it.
“......Ah.”
...It’s pierced.
My abdomen.
The cross-section of the hole in my stomach is melting and flowing down like slime.
And then.
The thing’s head, which I struck with all my strength just moments ago, too.
It hadn’t broken through the skin, but the skull already had a crack at the point of impact.
So.
I drove into that gap.
And pierced through it.
“……….”
Blurred brain matter and blood block my vision.
I don’t even have enough strength left to speak properly.
I can’t move even one arm.
Because I poured everything out.
Still.
Even so.
I.
The disaster.
The dragon-level threat.
...The despair.
“...I, won...”
...Maybe from the middle on, I stopped feeling it as despair.
Still.
Clearly.
[HP:6.4/4000]
[AP:0/2000]
I won.
Repeating it to myself, I fall somewhere into the warped world, tangled together with it.
Feeling the wind rush past me after the weightless drift and the fall.
On the expression I wear with my eyes closed, there must surely be a smile of achievement.
The memory of disaster that had hardened deep in my heart is no longer branded as despair.
I’ve shaken it off.
So.
That moment was surely the first.
The first time a memory from the past could finally be called a memory.
It was the sweetness I had only ever dreamed of.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register