[W-what is this! Choeje has suddenly started melting... no way! He’s become a monster!! Or was he a monster from the very beginning?!]
“The red-scaled lizard monster... a... a ‘monster hunter’!!”
“No, it’s different! It’s not just a monster hunter! He looks a little more human than the one in the Hero Encyclopedia!!”
“Sh-shouldn’t we run?!”
“What do we do?! What about my ticket money?!”
“But... that’s Suiryu, right...? There’s no way Suiryu would lose, right?”
“R-right! It’s Suiryu!”
“What the hell... I got scared for nothing.”
“…………….”
I.
Held it in.
Really, really hard.
Honestly, I think I held back a lot.
To the point where I thought, Aren’t I amazing for putting up with this far?
I’d been restraining myself in my own way, calming the storm in my head.
Even from the moment Max and Suiryu started fighting, I’d already been in a foul mood.
I knew he’d go down in one hit.
But.
I didn’t like Suiryu’s attitude or the look in his eyes.
It was unmistakable.
The gaze of a strong man standing high above, looking down on the weak with arrogance.
The attitude of someone mocking heroes, as if to say, This is all you amount to?
It was only his attitude. He hadn’t said it out loud.
So if it had ended there, I would have swallowed it and let it go.
Him toying with Snack by deliberately dodging all his attacks was whatever.
That was a martial artist dealing with another martial artist. It wasn’t my place to complain.
But then.
What was it he said?
“I wanted to check your side’s skill level first~ A-Class heroes are few and far between... they’re the good ones, right? I thought if guys like Max and Snack were worth a lot of money, maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.”
This was wrong.
That was as far as I could let it go.
The idea that he saw pro heroes as nothing more than a way to make money.
It was hard to accept, but I understood it.
Yeah.
It probably wasn’t a complete lie.
There are probably one or two like that.
There are definitely people who become heroes just to make money.
But.
That is not the average.
Even so, I’d been holding back what was about to burst out of me.
“Why are you doing something like being a hero in the first place? At that level, no less.”
“...Ha.”
So what, if it pays well, it’s worth trying?
Don’t make me laugh.
You’re strong, but you can’t be a hero.
A hero doesn’t need strength alone.
They need the spirit and will to match it.
I had tasted a fragment of that, and that was why I affirmed the existence of heroes.
I affirmed heroes who fight monsters and burn themselves out to protect humans from disaster, not just to defeat calamity.
A civilian stronger than a hero? It might be stranger if there weren’t any.
Being a pro hero is a job that earns money, and I’d heard the Association was like a workplace.
How many capable people in the world have power but never join?
That bastard Suiryu is probably one of them.
I understand.
I definitely understand.
Just because you have strength doesn’t mean you have to step forward.
Humans are creatures with plenty to fear.
And even if it isn’t fear, there are people who don’t want to because it’s a hassle, because they have their own circumstances, because they’re selfish.
I understand.
That happens.
How many people in this world don’t want to get their hands dirty?
And heroes are the ones who dirty their hands anyway, protecting civilians and fulfilling their duty.
They aren’t heroes simply because they’re strong.
They stand up in situations where others can’t, never give up, and keep standing until the end.
Even if it means staining clean hands with blood, even if it means leaving scars on a handsome face.
Not for some grand reason like saving the world.
They endure with one resolve alone: to protect the civilians right in front of them.
They quietly do the things others avoid.
That is what a hero is.
You insulted that head-on.
You trampled the noble sense of justice that defines a hero.
And that means.
It’s a provocation aimed at me.
Good.
My mind went cold.
Right.
What else did he say?
Only the strong survive, was it?
Then I’ll show him.
Just how pathetic a ‘weakling’ he is.
I’ll gladly kill it.
The life you live as a martial artist.
“Hyaaah!”
Whoosh...!
“Suiryu!! Finish him off!!!”
“Fiiiight!!!”
“Blast that monster away!!”
A kick came flying for my head.
He must have knocked out plenty of martial artists with a single blow until now.
It had considerable force.
The speed was excellent, and the power was decent enough.
For most monsters, that might have been an instant kill.
It was on a completely different level from what he’d thrown at Max and Snack earlier.
His confident face came into view.
He didn’t seem to think I’d be able to take this hit.
Sure, if it had been Choeje, this one blow might have sent him to his knees.
But.
“...Ahaha. How cute.”
What should I do?
It’s absurdly slow.
As I began to speed up my body, the world felt like it had been put into slow motion.
I could see exactly where he was aiming, how he was moving, the path and process of it all.
He wasn’t trash.
He was pretty good, in his own way. More or less.
He was definitely faster than the A-Class heroes I’d met before.
No, was that all?
Except for one or two of the Demon-level monsters I’d hunted recently, he was faster than them too.
Maybe... in terms of speed alone, he was about on par with the Sea King.
In other words, he was so damn slow it made me want to yawn.
Instead of dodging the leg lashing out at me, I charged straight in.
No. “Charged” is a little wrong.
In the slowed-down world, I walked forward at a leisurely pace and stopped right beside the thigh that was swinging past in front of me.
“...What?!”
His eyes filled with shock. That was pretty amusing.
Still, he did seem to have some improvisation in him, because the leg that had been fully extended bent at once and a knee came flying toward my side.
At the same time, a fist from below aimed for my solar plexus.
I could see it all.
Once again, I casually stepped aside and stood with both feet planted behind him.
As Suiryu’s fist and leg cut through empty air, I finally tapped his broad shoulder twice.
“........!!!!”
His expression twisted as if he’d just seen something that should never exist.
I could feel goosebumps rising all over his muscular body.
He immediately spun around with a fierce back kick, but no chance.
I let it flow away with [Snake Bite Fist], then drove his leg into the floor with that momentum.
KWAAAANG!!!
“Kgh...!”
He yanked his leg back quickly, retreating while smashing the floor.
His improvisation might actually be decent.
That was all, though.
Well then.
“My turn now, right?”
The guy flinched and tried to widen the distance, but he was only pitifully slow.
Come to think of it. You’d recognize this movement, wouldn’t you?
After all.
[Snake Bite Fist]
The movement of the opponent you just mocked and knocked down.
Step one foot back, raise one hand at the same time, and charge in.
Of course, nonlethally.
Arrange.
I pictured the flat, level top of a snake’s head.
Not as a strike, but as a push.
Even so, I figured that for an ordinary person the impact point might burst open, but I discarded even the slightest doubt that this guy might not endure it.
He’d endure it.
There’s no way someone who calls himself strong would go down from one hit, right?
[Snake Head Strike]
I killed the force just enough and drove a heavy blow into his solar plexus.
KWAANG!!!
“Ghk...?!“
It landed cleanly.
Unable to resist the violent impact, he was shoved straight back.
Still... oh?
Not bad.
Even while being pushed back and scraping the arena floor with his feet, he somehow didn’t fall over.
He staggered on the ground he’d gouged up, then barely managed to steady himself.
“W-what just happened? Did anyone actually see that?!”
“It was so fast I couldn’t see anything... Suiryu got pushed back?”
“What the hell happened... they seemed to blur together, and then all I saw was Suiryu getting blown away....”
“Ah! Look over there! Part of Suiryu’s clothes ripped!”
“It’s red and swollen... did he get hit by something?”
[W-what on earth is going on? This situation is....]
...Humans are noisy.
Annoying.
...More importantly, why isn’t this guy attacking?
I glared at him with a little irritation.
“...No way. I couldn’t see a thing... at all....”
“...What, did you lose your fighting spirit after taking one hit? Come on, attack.”
“What... how....”
...Well, I expected as much.
So this guy... had he never fought someone stronger than himself before?
Whatever.
What I had to do didn’t change.
I used [Warp] to move behind him.
The familiar sensation of the world turning upside down passed over my body once.
When my blurred vision returned to normal, I saw the back of Suiryu’s head, still unaware of anything.
“Where are you looking?”
“........!!!”
Before he could do anything, I threw a punch.
He tried to block by bringing both arms together and spinning with his quick reflexes, but he couldn’t hold it and was blown into the air.
“Kuh! What kind of power is this...!”
I didn’t miss the opening created by his being launched upward.
I jumped as well and struck his abdomen once from below.
BAM!
“Hhk...!”
Before the pained groan could even escape, I planted my knee firmly.
I immediately grabbed his shoulder tightly, pulled his body in, and drove my knee into his stomach.
THWOOM!!!
“Ghk...!”
A shockwave carrying transparent destructive force burst out behind Suiryu.
Without stopping, a third strike.
Twisting my body smoothly, I turned behind him while keeping hold of his shoulder and smashed down on his back with my elbow.
BANG!!!
“Kek...!”
He reflexively swung a fist at me.
At the same time, he twisted his body and sent a back kick too.
Ah.
I was almost laughing at how ridiculous it was.
I gently placed my right hand against the fist cutting through the air and twisted, letting it flow off into empty space.
Likewise, I used my left leg to deflect the heel charging in at me.
I lost my balance, but it didn’t matter.
I’d already experienced zero gravity, so I was used to it.
Twisting my body again, I swung my tail around my waist and landed a direct hit.
THWOOM!!!
“Kuhk...!”
He crashed toward the arena.
I fell with him, driving a kick into his abdomen.
Then, with a cloud of dust, I dropped straight down as well.
KWAAAAAAAANG!!!
[Name: Stronger Lizard Monster]
[Alias: Monster Hunter]
[Disaster Level: Demon (promotion conditions not met)]
[HP: 10000/10000]
[ST: 12000/12000]
[AP: 7000/7000]
[SP: 13000/13000]
[MP: 7041/7051]
[Allocatable Points: 8]
[Skills (19/20): [Super Instinct] LV9, [Quiet Steps] LV7, [Sharp Claws] LV8, [Strong Teeth] LV8, [Tail Severing] LV4, [Hardened Body] LV7, [Super Regeneration] LV8, [Stealth] LV6, [Shock Absorption] LV3, [Might] LV6, [Instant Acceleration] LV5, [Body Transformation] LV8, [Tracking] LV3, [Warp] LV4, [Strong Acidic Body Fluids] LV2, [ㄱ탄], [Psychokinesis] LV4, [Stronger Detection] LV1, [Density Control] LV1]]
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