White hair in an unusual style, jutting out to both sides like wolf ears.
Originally, he should have been wearing a compression T-shirt, but now his muscular upper body was wrapped tightly in bandages.
His lower body was in dojo pants.
At a glance, he was clearly no ordinary person.
And just a little of his consciousness began to rise to the surface.
Was it because the moonlight of dawn, fading carelessly in the quietest hours of morning, tickled the corner of his eyes?
“...Mm, mmm...”
He roughly rubbed his blurred eyes with his fingers.
After letting out a long, silent yawn, he twisted his uncomfortable body.
Just as he tried to roll over, a sharp stab of pain hit his side and his eyes flew open.
“Ghk?!”
His eyes, which hadn’t fully opened no matter how much he rubbed them, snapped wide open.
Only then did his mind fully wake up, and he recognized the dawn light seeping in from outside.
“How long was I asleep...?”
The man the world now called the Hero Hunter, Garou, slowly pushed himself up, his body feeling heavy.
The shock from what King had done still left his whole body aching, but contrary to his own prediction that he wouldn’t be able to move for two or three days, he could already get up.
The heat that had been boiling in his head and refusing to go down had mostly subsided.
It might rise again, but at least for now, it was like this.
So he wasn’t in perfect condition, but if he had to, he could still fight.
With that certainty, he raised the upper body he had been lying on the sofa.
He was inside a shabby house next to a park.
It was sparsely populated, making it the perfect hideout.
He didn’t plan to stay here for very long, but he had intended to rest until he was fully healed if possible.
But...
“...My body feels cramped.”
Apparently, after so much intense exercise, his body couldn’t properly accept rest it wasn’t used to.
Maybe he should sleep a little more.
But.
He lay back down on the sofa and closed his eyes, trying to count sheep, only to stop when his head started pounding instead.
If he had kept lying there, maybe it would have been different, but once his body had gotten up, it had no intention of accepting deep sleep right away.
Not only sleep, but even simple rest would be difficult like this.
What else could he do?
He got up again, stepped down from the sofa to the floor, and stood.
“...Maybe I should go for a short walk...”
Just as he was about to open the door and leave.
Rrrrriiiip...
Startle!
“.........Killing intent? I’m surrounded?!”
Had he been followed?
From where?
And who was it?
There were many of them.
If they were targeting him, then there was no doubt they had to be heroes.
His judgment and action were immediate.
He poked a small hole in the door with a finger and checked outside.
“...Four in front.”
A guy with a gatling gun, and another with a spear slung over his shoulder.
The one holding a kendama looked familiar.
The man wearing a battle file driver, listed in the Hero Encyclopedia as B-Class, was also familiar.
And two more in the back.
A guy in a frog mascot costume, and another with glasses who didn’t stand out at all.
Finally, two on the left and right.
One with a bow, and one with dual pistols.
Eight people... maybe.
There might even be an S-Class hero among them.
If not, then this would be an easy victory... no. Not even that.
Even if it was a group of A-Class heroes with no S-Class, his own condition was poor after all the consecutive battles.
Damn it. What should he do?
He had no information on them.
At best, he could roughly identify the techniques and weapons they had from their appearance.
What should he-
“...!.........!!!”
“...?......?......!”
“What are those guys saying?”
They were too far away to hear properly.
It was impossible to make out full sentences.
He focused as hard as he could on the few words that drifted over.
“...At a time like this... monster... appears...”
“No choice... split up...”
“But... the hunter...”
“...Enough... chance...”
“...split... like this...”
“...A monster appeared, huh.”
It looked like they were planning to split up and move in several groups.
The fact that they were doing that even with an A-Class hero definitely among them meant this wasn’t just some ordinary monster appearance.
At the very least, a Demon.
That would be terrible news for them, but for him, it was incredible luck.
Assuming there was no S-Class, if they were reduced to five people, he was certain he could crush them.
Sure enough.
The frog mascot, the bow user, and the file driver user peeled off.
So that meant one each for mid-range, long-range, and close-range had gone.
A pretty reasonable decision.
Looking at that, the opponent really was a Demon.
Seeing a lineup that could cover close, mid, and long range, they must have judged that they could take down that monster.
Good.
If this were any other time, he would have been furious that another monster was seen as more dangerous than himself, who was supposed to be pure evil, but given the situation, he was only grateful.
He would hunt the heroes.
With you, that makes 97.
Crack, crack-crack.
Kwaddeuk.
Gulp.
“Hoo... that was pretty good.”
He swallowed the last remaining flesh.
It tasted pretty good.
He hadn’t had time to pluck the feathers, so he’d just chewed through them, but it was still edible enough.
Especially the soft, chewy leg meat unique to birds—it was excellent.
Though there was only half of it. The other half had flown off somewhere.
Well, no helping it. Should he go look for it?
He brushed his knees off and stood up.
If he headed straight to Z City after eating, that should be enough.
Now then.
It had fallen roughly this way...
Sssshhhiiiiiiik!!!
...A chain sickle?
A blade sharpened to a blue edge flew toward his face.
It wasn’t all that fast, though.
Without moving his lower body, he tilted his upper body to the side and avoided the chain sickle’s trajectory.
Piyuung!
“Now arrows?”
No.
It wasn’t just one.
A rain of arrows, easily dozens of them, came pouring down.
...Was that glint on the arrowheads poison?
He lowered his body and kicked off the ground.
In an instant, he moved about three meters to the side, dodging the mass of arrows raining down from the sky in one go.
He immediately sensed someone charging from behind.
“Hyaaaaaaah!!!”
“What was this called again? A file bunker?”
“It’s a file driver!!”
He bent three fingers and, like flowing water, pushed along the cross-section of the file driver stabbing toward him.
Right after that, the empty abdomen came into view with no guard at all, but he simply sprang backward to create distance.
Strange costumes and decent combat ability.
Probably heroes.
While thinking that, he faced the arrow being fired at him and raised his knee to alter its trajectory, then let it flow toward the chain sickle flying straight at him.
The redirected arrowhead collided with the chain sickle, sparks flew, and both were knocked away.
Ting!
Chwarararar...
“Tch... so it really is a suspected Demon monster. Its skill is no joke. It easily broke through the chain sickle’s fast attack after seeing it.”
“We came because we detected a high-energy reaction suspected to be a monster hunter... but this isn’t even red to begin with. Isn’t this a completely different guy?”
“He dodged and deflected all my arrows. He’s insanely fast, be careful!”
Close. Long. Mid.
Was this a combination that covered all three ranges?
...Somehow it felt familiar.
Not the same thing exactly, but in shape and form, it was just like the A-Class heroes he had fought in the mountains back when he was still a Wolf.
The difference was that these guys had a slightly more organic combination.
Back then, their teamwork hadn’t been flexible, so it had been relatively easy.
If I had still been a Wolf back then, they definitely would have beaten me.
“........Hmm.”
No. Maybe not beaten me?
Still, I’m sure I would have struggled more comparatively.
Thinking about the power of that gatling gun back then only made him more certain.
But.
What about now?
“Hyaaaah!”
He stared at the flying chain sickle.
Come to think of it, it was a pretty good weapon. Should he try using it once?
He had already learned how it worked by watching the movement of the hero wearing the animal mascot suit—no, was it a toad? Anyway, the one in the animal costume.
It was a movement close to technique, but still well within his ability.
He snatched the chain sickle’s blade with his left hand and yanked it toward him.
Of course, it didn’t cut him at all.
Because he didn’t let go of the chain, the guy was pulled up into the air instead.
With this, the arrow rain was sealed off. Not that the arrowheads would have pierced him even if they hit.
“Whaaaaat?!?”
“Tch! Chain sickle Toad!”
So it was a toad.
What a shame. He’d been thinking of it as a frog.
He started spinning the chain sickle toad, now lifted into the air, around and around.
In the meantime, while appreciating the rather straightforward name, he caught the file driver flying at him with his empty right hand.
Tukwaaaaaang!!!
“Ghk...?! You blocked... no, you caught my 'File Bison' with your bare hands?! The one that can smash trees and rocks in a single hit?!”
“Get away from him now! I can’t use the arrow rain like this!!”
“I’m... trying...! Ghaaaah...! What kind of strength is this...!!”
“Urrrrrrrghhhhhhh—”
They were definitely skilled.
They seemed to have experience fighting stronger opponents at least once, and they looked well-seasoned too.
Excellent.
A superb combination.
It was just that I was a Dragon, so that was the problem.
He put strength into his legs and kicked off the ground.
For a moment the world seemed to blur, then returned to normal and slowed down.
First, he separated the chain sickle toad from the chain sickle in midair and set him back on the ground.
Then he put a little force into his right hand and shattered the file driver into pieces.
He set that one down too.
He also moved over the hero who had been aiming arrows from farther away and set him down.
He lined the three of them up in a row and passed by them.
“Wha... wha?! W-why am I on the ground?”
“My file driver... shattered? What the...?”
“Wait. Why am I next to you guys...?”
Thud!
“Ghaaaah?! I-it hurts, it hurts, it hurts...”
“I can’t move my body... am I paralyzed...!”
“Damn it...! Did he hit a pressure point in the back of my neck?! When did he...!”
He confirmed that all three were twitching as if electrocuted and collapsing helplessly to the ground.
He had struck the pressure point at the back of the neck that paralyzed the whole body.
It was a task that required a high degree of precision, but for him now, it wasn’t a problem.
“Udadadadadadadadada...”
“......Mm.”
One of them really did look like he’d been electrocuted. Had he poked the pressure point a little too deep?
...Anyway, that was done.
Good.
That finished the incapacitation.
He’d struck pressure points that wouldn’t affect their lives at all, so there shouldn’t be any major problem. Probably.
“So this is the end...”
“Don’t give up! If you give up, it’s over right there!!”
“U... uuuuu... I’m gooooiiiing to dieeeeee...”
“...I’m not killing you! What do you take me for!”
They were monsters, yes, but he still approved of heroes.
There was no way he’d kill them.
...Even if he said that, they wouldn’t believe him or listen.
He knew that, but it was a bitter reality.
...Should he go?
In about twenty minutes, the paralysis would wear off and they’d be able to stand.
In the meantime, he should hurry and go find the corpse of the new monster that had fallen somewhere.
He wrapped the chain sickle he’d obtained around his body and quickly turned to leave.
Just then.
Tududududududududududu...
“......What is that?”
It was a familiar sound and sensation.
His instincts told him that what he was thinking was right.
“...That gatling guy?”
He remembered the wave of bullets that had poured down like surf.
Even after swinging hard enough that his head and the kendama had collided head-on, he seemed to have been fine, thankfully.
“................”
But what was this feeling?
For some reason, he had a strong intuition that he needed to go that way.
Why?
It wasn’t because of the gatling guy.
No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t figure out a single reason, but he just felt like he had to.
As if possessed by something, he headed toward the direction where the sound was echoing.
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