A Demon-level monster, the jeans-horn ogre.
He wore black tights all over his body, with only his head covered by what looked like a pair of jeans, giving him a ridiculous appearance.
But those jeans were actually horns that merely looked like jeans.
No, that wasn’t all.
Their true form was a weapon stronger than steel, flexible enough to bend and endlessly extend.
That was why the horns had limitless uses.
He could stretch them out and slice everything around him to pieces, or bind an opponent tightly.
Their power was considerable, and so far he had killed more than five heroes who had come at him without knowing their place.
That ridiculous appearance made for an excellent lure.
It was perfect for reeling in heroes who chased after achievements and charged in without even distinguishing their target, like fish on a hook.
And aside from the jeans, his physical abilities were outstanding as well.
With a casually thrown strike, he could smash through walls like paper, and merely stomping his foot could make the surrounding area shake. That monstrous strength was one of his prides.
On top of that, he had excellent practical hand-to-hand combat skill.
That was why he was proud of himself.
He believed he was among the stronger members of the Monster Association.
No.
He had believed that.
Because that illusion had been shattered in a single day.
“Hey, jeans.”
“...Gouketsu.”
He had submitted.
Before overwhelming power.
One was Orochi, the monster king.
His overwhelming presence and aura made the jeans-horn ogre unable even to think of fighting back.
And the other was the giant standing before him now.
Gouketsu.
“There’s something I need you to do.”
Back then, on the day he had joined the Monster Association, ignorant of everything and eager to run wild, that man had ordered him around without warning.
That irritated him, so he had charged at him with great confidence.
And then.
He had been utterly defeated.
The instant their fists collided, he was sent flying back.
Every attack he had launched with his prized horns had been effortlessly deflected.
He was far slower, too.
And what was truly humiliating was this.
Even though he had attacked with nothing but killing intent from start to finish, Gouketsu had not shown the slightest hostility.
As if there was no need to feel malice toward something as insignificant as an ant in front of him.
His spirit broke, and his pride was badly scratched.
He had never imagined that someone he called a strong fighter would be beaten so thoroughly.
It was an absurd kind of strength.
If Orochi was a sky he could only look up at, then Gouketsu was a massive wall blocking the path right in front of him.
A wall too strong to break, move, or climb.
And the mission such a man gave the jeans-horn ogre was...
“Bring me the monster hunter. If he resists too much, killing him is fine.”
The monster hunter.
A presence that had recently made a name for himself among both monsters and humans.
He couldn’t refuse.
He couldn’t dare challenge that monster.
Right.
All he had to do was catch the monster hunter.
From what he’d heard, the guy was supposedly a Demon-level monster like him.
Right.
That meant their combat power was probably similar.
In that case, all he had to do was crush him with sheer ability.
There was no way he couldn’t beat someone like that.
This time for sure.
He found the monster hunter without much trouble.
As soon as he entered the back alley near the Super Fight venue, the smell of blood hit him full in the face.
However.
Inside, a scene beyond anything he could have imagined was unfolding.
“...What the hell is this...”
Earth Cat, Boxing-Leg Cricket, One-Bite Hippo, and Italian Devil Boss.
Every single one of them had been torn to pieces and piled up in a heap.
Earth Cat and the cricket’s arms and legs were already gone, and the hippo had lost its head.
As for Devil Boss... aside from the arm with its signature tattoo and the bone fragments attached to it, nothing remained.
“................”
They were all Demon-level monsters.
None of them were weak.
In particular, Earth Cat and One-Bite Hippo had operated as a kind of duo and had made a name for themselves within the Association.
And those guys had been wiped out.
By a single being.
Creak.
Crrrk.
Crunch.
Gulp.
He didn’t even think to wipe the cold sweat from the back of his neck as he looked up at the pile of corpses.
Under the indifferent moonlight, the already red scales glistened even redder, soaked in blood.
Standing proudly atop the brutally hunted monsters’ corpses was...
The hunter.
The predator.
The monster.
A figure somewhere between a lizard and a human.
The hunter, drenched in blood, was chewing and swallowing Earth Cat’s neatly severed arm.
In those coolly shining eyes, there was restrained killing intent, even though he wasn’t in the middle of a fight.
He wasn’t looking this way.
And yet, just seeing those eyes was enough to make the other’s seasoned capability reach him.
That thing...
How many hundreds of monsters had it killed?
How many had it slaughtered to be able to hold such precise, restrained killing intent so naturally in its gaze?
Was that really a Demon-level being like him?
It was quiet, and that made it even more chilling.
How terrifying would it be if all that tightly suppressed malice burst out at once?
He couldn’t even begin to guess.
Gulp!
“...Phew... that was delicious. The food that comes to me on its own lately has been really satisfying. The meat is tender, soft, and chewy. And...”
The creature turned its head.
Toward him.
Exactly.
Without the slightest margin of error.
Flinch.
“Ghk...!”
It had only turned its gaze this way.
And then their eyes met.
That was all.
And yet even that was enough to choke the breath from him.
Without realizing it, he took a step back.
Because the “indifferent” killing intent in those eyes was so horrifying it made his skin crawl.
“Sorry. Did I keep you waiting?”
He couldn’t answer the creature’s question, spoken in a friendly voice.
Waiting?
No.
He was just frozen in place.
Rather, he had hoped this situation would never come.
Because he was scared.
Because the instinct of a living creature was screaming so loudly that even the instinct of a battle-hungry monster had curled up its tail and hidden away.
The creature, having torn off a handful of hippo flesh and organs and swallowed them, began walking down toward him with the moon behind it.
Even while stepping through the blood puddles, it made not a single footstep sound. It was eerie.
With every step it took toward him, he took one step back.
Dangerous.
That thing was dangerous.
If he charged at it, he would die.
Gouketsu was a wall, but that made him safe.
A wall didn’t come walking toward him to eat him alive. It just stood there.
Cold sweat poured down his body.
And finally, the heel of the foot he had stepped back with touched the wall.
He gasped in shock.
He tried to find some way to retreat, but...
“Where do you think you’re going, food?”
“...!!!”
The hunter was already right in front of him.
It had not relaxed the killing intent it had been pressing down at all.
Right before his eyes, it gave him a cruel smile.
“Aaaagh, damn it!!!”
At last, the poor monster went mad.
The jeans-shaped horns stretched out several meters and lashed like a whip.
But all it hit was an afterimage.
With overwhelming mobility, the hunter was already behind him.
Normally he would have been too overwhelmed to move, but the ogre had already lost his reason to fear and was no longer sane.
Trying to shake it off, he kicked backward.
But all that happened was the wall shattering to pieces.
He threw a straight punch at the creature.
It only sliced helplessly through empty air.
“Kraaaahhh!!! Dieeeeee!!!”
He wildly swung his horns everywhere, threw punches at nothing, and kicked in every direction.
Streetlamps shattered, walls collapsed, and the ground split apart.
He rampaged wildly, trying to land even one hit.
“Kuaaaaaaaa!!!”
“...You’re loud.”
Unfortunately.
He couldn’t even graze it.
This...
This was Demon-level?
Damn it.
Don’t be ridiculous.
How in the world was this monster Demon-level?
Gouketsu had planned this from the start.
He had intended to dispose of the relatively useless ones.
“Damn it... damn iiiit!!!”
And then, at last.
His eyes miraculously managed to track the creature’s movement.
He immediately gathered the horns together and fired them.
With these horns, he had crushed and brought down countless heroes until now.
His greatest pride, and the only pride he had left.
I’ll win.
I absolutely will.
And this time, I’ll be acknowledged.
When he was young, he lost his parents early in an accident and was raised by stern grandparents.
The child had been desperate for recognition and praise.
And that was still true when he grew up.
For more than ten years, he had worn jeans over his head and acted like a clown, trying desperately to be acknowledged by people.
He became a laughingstock and a target of mockery.
But he couldn’t stop.
Even if it was only as a ridiculed joke, he was being acknowledged that way.
That was the life he had lived.
But one day, because he wore jeans too tightly, he became a monster.
In an instant, he became a killer, and his life was completely changed as heroes hunted him down.
And yet.
His wish had not changed.
This time, for sure.
Anyone will do.
I’ll bring you down and earn genuine recognition.
Putting his last hope on the line, he attacked with everything he had.
What he had thrust out with perfect precision was...
Slash!
It shot up into the sky like paper being cut apart.
The final emotion left in the eyes that rolled to the ground was...
Despair-filled emptiness.
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