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Public Safety’s tactic was simple, but effective. Smash everything into the building, whether it was you or me.
It was such a crazy tactic that no one would have blamed them for asking if the person who ordered it had lost their mind, but somehow it was producing unexpected results.
"Kyahahahaha! I’m gonna eat as much as I want!"
"Yeah. Eat as much as you want. Just don’t eat me."
"...."
Maybe it was because five of the eight heads were fiends. Whatever the case, if it worked, there was no reason to complain.
"This is insane."
"You three go up first. Looks like we can handle things here just fine on our own~"
Himeno said that while looping her arm around Aki’s neck as he sighed.
After hearing her, I, Denji, and Power casually knocked the heads off the zombies blocking the hallway, then headed down the corridor and took the elevator up.
"Bro, what did you say we should do again?"
Denji said, loosening up his neck as we rode.
"You already forgot that? Hya-ha-ha!"
Power mocked Denji while chewing on a zombie’s arm. What the hell was she eating?
"Then you say it!"
"We grab Samurai Sword! We don’t eat him! Simple, is it not!"
"No, the thing Gongja said earlier!"
"... D-don’t steal it from me!"
"Stop dodging the question!"
"Quit fighting and come over here and listen. I’ll say it again."
I said it while stomping on a zombie’s arm and crushing it.
Ding!
The elevator announced its arrival.
"Got it?"
"Yeah!"
"My name is Power!!! Denji, hurry up and follow me! Now I’ll prove that Power is the strongest! Pahahaha!!!"
"You’re drawing aggro! Just kill the zombies quietly!"
"Power is the strongest!!!"
After hearing that, and seeing Power drive a weapon into the head of a tall zombie, and Denji cheerfully carve through zombies’ heads with the two axes in his hands, I hit the close button and went up.
Ding!
The elevator signaled again.
Clunk, the doors opened.
"... Hm. You are... yes. You’re that one. How did you come back alive? Were you a fiend too? Well, whatever."
At last, Samurai Sword came into view.
"I have only one proposal. Hand Denji over. Then I’ll disappear cleanly. Of course, you’ll live too."
The moment he finished speaking, the lackeys beside him pointed their guns at me.
He went on.
"If you refuse, you die here."
I rested my chin on my hand and pretended to think about it.
Then, once my fingers had gone white from gripping too hard and I was starting to feel a little gross about it, I smiled as brightly as I could and said,
"You three. Have you killed people?"
The guys looked briefly thrown off by my question. Then, deciding my words were just innocent curiosity, or maybe thinking I was easy prey, they smiled back and answered.
"I lost count. Too many."
"Ten? Twenty?"
"I’d be around that too."
At their answer, I burst out laughing, deliberately overdoing it like a voice actor who was terrible at acting.
"I’ve got two."
Bang! I kicked the elevator door open, leaped up to the ceiling, then came down and split the guy on my right in half.
"W-what the hell... you bastard!!!!"
The one who finally realized what was happening fired his gun, but I swept in a wide arc and dodged the bullets, then pushed off with my toes and shot toward him.
And then I cut off his head.
I took a couple of bullets, but the pain of having my arm sliced was way worse, so it wasn’t a meaningful hit.
In less than a minute, it had become a one-on-one between Samurai Sword and me.
"All right, rematch, you piece of shit."
"...Kuh, die!"
He pulled out his arm, revealed his blade, and transformed into the Sword Fiend.
So what?
"Try it, you moron~!"
Either way, I was going to win.
He lowered his stance and prepared to attack.
I ran straight at him instead.
Shock. It was so obvious on his expressionless face that even he couldn’t hide it. Well, what kind of lunatic would run into that thing just to die?
But I had a plan.
He vanished from view.
The instant I confirmed that, I ran even faster, then deliberately fell forward.
Sshhk!
The sound of something being cut rang out.
The place he cut was my back. Compared to my arm, it was nothing.
I quickly got back up and steadied myself. Then I looked at him.
His face was showing even more shock than before.
"Why the hell is it the back...? I definitely aimed for the neck."
While he was still reeling, I rushed him. There was no need to explain it to him.
Heart Slash. It was a technique from the webtoon 4-Panel Hero, a sword style that let you cut only the exact place you wanted. ... Nothing unusual so far. But the reason it stuck in my head was the way to counter it.
You deliberately move into its path and get cut somewhere ahead of the spot your opponent originally intended.
In other words, instead of letting the slash graze your defense and go for the neck or heart, you force it to hit your defense. That was the counter.
He crouched again. Thanks to that, my attack missed.
I quickly regained my balance and used the Future Devil’s power.
Heart. I saw a future where my heart was sliced horizontally and my body was split in two.
He vanished.
I twisted my body and spun around once, moving far outside the path he had set.
Sshhk!
Instead of my heart, only my side was lightly grazed.
"Damn. Looks like you came in with some weird devil contract."
He shook his blade and said that.
After suffering two failures, he no longer crouched or tried any strange tricks. Instead, he took his stance and waited for me, as if he wanted a fair fight. Like he was telling me to attack first.
Fuck, I figured out his ridiculous technique by grinding my brain against it, and now he wants a fair fight?
Watching that absurd bastard act like some noble warrior made me snort. There was no time to waste.
I just poured my blade to the right and sprinted.
He crossed both hands to block, preparing to defend against my sword.
That was his mistake.
With brute force, I changed the sword’s path from right-to-left into an upward slash.
Then, when I reached right in front of him...
Bang!! I drove it up under his jaw with all my strength and landed a solid hit.
"W-what!"
His tone made it sound like I’d committed some outrageous foul. That voice was on a level beyond anything I knew, so I let out a hollow laugh.
Of course, laughing didn’t make me stop swinging my arm.
I kept pressing him with my blade.
Right to left. Blocked. But I managed to kick the stomach he’d left open to defend his sword.
Left to right, downward. It landed. But I had to take a sword strike to the shoulder in return.
Fuck. He was already adapting.
If this kept up, the tide would turn on me. I forced the tempo higher, even holding my breath.
Thud! My blade sank in near his neck.
Thwack! His kick slammed into my stomach.
Swoosh! My abdomen was pierced.
Sshhk! His body was split in two.
He reattached.
Before I knew it, the hotel hallway itself was soaked in blood.
I hurriedly cut off one of his arms and jammed it back onto the seam of his body.
I didn’t care about the scream he let out, "Aaaagh!"
Tap-tap-tap!
I stepped on the wall and climbed upward, then drove my sword into the top of his head with a wet thunk.
Still gripping the hilt, I dropped down behind him and kicked his spine as hard as I could, folding him up like a shrimp.
Of course, he got back up right away. ... Fuck, at this point, just die already.
I stumbled back and panted. The dizziness I’d been holding down started clawing at my head.
I didn’t forget to keep using the Future Devil’s power to watch his movements.
But it was useless. By the time I barely recovered, I couldn’t deal with the way he was charging at me.
In my left eye, I could see him coming in a twisted line, not fast enough to be a straight rush, not slow enough to ignore. I should’ve countered that movement or backed off.
But right now, my body was only focused on breathing. It couldn’t do anything else.
Shit. I should’ve finished this earlier.
I ground my teeth and threw everything I had into backing away.
He started moving.
Luckily, my hand still moved and I corrected my grip on the sword. My vision came back too. But my legs, the most important part, wouldn’t move.
He started accelerating like a madman. He’d reach me any second now.
My legs... moved. Just a little. But that little was so pathetic it was almost insulting to call it movement at all, and it only ruined my balance. On top of that, the blood made my body slip...
He swung his blade.
I fell over.
"....?"
His sword strike cut through nothing but air.
"What the fuck."
Where I’d fallen was directly under his balls.
That’s right. I’d fallen over, and by pure accident, I’d dodged his attack and slipped into the opening.
I made the call faster than he did.
I drove my sword into his crotch, set the blade, and stood up in one motion.
Sshhhhrk! His body was split in two.
"W-well... did that... work out?"
He started reviving again. Damn it, this bastard’s mouth was the problem.
The instant I saw that, I dropped to one knee and pressed my hand against the blood-soaked floor. I was out of juice now.
He could revive like this, but I couldn’t. Blood kept pouring from my stomach, and my stamina was leaking away.
So running dry was inevitable.
"Heh... yeah... now you can’t do anything."
After spacing out for a moment, he looked at me and sneered.
"Haa... yeah. I guess there’s no helping it."
"Die now."
He raised his sword high like a condemned man about to be executed.
I took the deepest breath I could and...
"Heeeeeelp meeeeeee!!!!!!!!"
"...?"
His sword stopped. Surprised, huh? You shouldn’t be, idiot.
"Chainsaaaaaw Maaaaaaan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
I exhaled.
-After you kill all the zombies, put your ear to the ceiling. Then when I call, come up on your own and tear him apart. Okay?
-Okay!
-Denji forgot something this easy? Hah! As expected of Denji!
A chain shot up and embedded itself in the window. Then it clung to the glass in a rapid patter before smashing it apart.
Having done its job splendidly, the chain sank to the floor. Then, like a tape measure retracting, it returned to its body as...
"You bastard! You damn bastard! Last time you kidnapped me so easily!"
Denji shouted as he climbed up.
The guy tried to bring his sword down in a hurry, but...
Bang!
I still had enough strength left to stop that.
"Kya-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!"
Denji came flying in and...
Fwa-kakakakakak!
ground the bastard to pieces.
I got up and moved to the side of his body. ... What the hell, this guy’s drinking the blood off the floor?
Only then did I understand how he’d been getting back up.
"Power! Drain all the blood in here!"
Denji, who had seized the initiative, called to Power before I could. Guess it was worth teaching him after all.
Using Power’s strength, all the blood started getting sucked out.
I watched the scene and gave a short smile. Then I leaned toward his ear and said,
"If you’re going to do something, see it through to the end. Do it stubbornly. Otherwise you end up in a miserable state like this."
Words of wisdom from Gongja.
"Take it to heart."
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