by Mamare Touno
Wiping her nose, Hua Diao looked up abruptly, then froze. Glittering rainbow light was climbing into the blue of the early-morning sky. The light was really pretty, but it seemed very sad somehow, and her heart ached.
It was the first time Hua Diao had ever seen that light.
Mount Lang Jun was the enormous rocky mountain whose peak housed the Bai Tao Shrine. However, in this new situation, it had become clear that the mountain’s interior was a veritable anthill of countless limestone caverns.
The bedrock was more than hard enough, and the caves had probably been created through erosion over tens of thousands of years. However, at this point, those limestone caverns were caving in everywhere, and either passage was impossible, or new connecting routes had appeared. Even as Hua Diao crawled across the mountain’s surface like this, here and there the scenery was different from what she remembered.
She descended the rubble-littered slope of a mortar-shaped depression where the rock—which ordinarily had a small path running across it—had collapsed. The footing was too unstable for her to walk upright, and sometimes she crawled down, facing backward. Even then, the rocks collapsed with a clatter, making her uneasy.
The scenery that spread before Hua Diao was a familiar underground cavern, but as she went down several differences in level, it changed. The natural rock, as black as if it was wet, became a floor with straight, geometric lines in a bright gray. The corridor Hua Diao was traveling down was shaped like a tube that would have been an octagon if you cut it into slices.
It was grimy and covered in dust, but it seemed as if it had probably been clean once. This was clear from the way the corridor stretched on and on, with no distortions in its angle or size. Fissures ran through the corridor in places, and through them, she could see metal pipes and structures with strange, threadlike things buried in them. This place might be an underground fortress or a ruin.
As was usual for fairylands, Mount Lang Jun had a mission to guard Mount Kunlun, and Hua Diao wondered if this was what that facility was for. That said, she had no knowledge of or interest in it, so she only thought, That could be it.
She sniffed the air, but she couldn’t find Master Immortal’s scent. Possibly because of that large-scale collapse, all she picked up was murky water, dust, and a smell like sparks. After she crossed a metal plate with TELEVISION STATION written on it, the corridor grew wider, and she emerged in an area where metal rails, those thread things from earlier, and a variety of metal magic items she’d never seen before had been discarded.
“Was this corridor the wrong way?”
When Hua Diao had gone far enough that she muttered those words, the corridor was abruptly ruptured by an enormous natural rock. She poked her head through a gap, looked around at the darkness, then crept into the big hall that lay beyond. As she did so, the scorched smell from earlier grew stronger.
“What could it be…?”
Hua Diao felt, dimly, that there might be danger here, and she murmured those words precisely because she was frightened. She looked around actively, but it was only because she was afraid of the darkness, not because she was on her guard.
“There’s nothing here, is there? I mean, it’s so far underground—”
Hua Diao was speaking quickly, trying to distract herself so that she wouldn’t cringe back, when she discovered sunlight. It shone in, slashing through the darkness, as white as if it had been bleached.
It was afternoon, and already the light wasn’t radiant enough to be vivid.
However, even so, it was sunlight. When she looked up, she saw that part of the high ceiling had collapsed, leaving a hole. From the fact that she could see blue sky far in the distance, it looked as though it would be possible to get out through there… Provided you could fly, of course.
Her eyes had been dazzled by the light, which made the shadows look even darker.
As a result, it was no wonder Hua Diao was a little late in noticing it.
Crouched on the other side of the veil of light, which streamed in like a waterfall, was an enormous beast. It was a leonine monster, with fur so smooth it looked wet. Its entire body was covered with a tough-looking pelt, and although that pelt was different colors, its face was covered in grotesque red flesh, as if the fur in that area had been plucked.
“Heegh!”
She’d covered her mouth hastily, so her scream came out sounding awkward, like a hiccup. However, naturally, Hua Diao didn’t have the leeway to regret that. She didn’t think, I’ll be careful not to let it notice me or I’ll turn back without making a sound. Not even the tiniest bit.
Because she and the enormous beast were already looking each other in the eyes.
The beast had clearly noticed Hua Diao, and it was gazing at her as if licking her from head to toe with its eyes. The strength went out of Hua Diao’s legs, leaving them soft and uncertain, so that she didn’t even know whether she was standing up or lying down.
I’ll die. I’m going to die.
In the hall, with its shafts of light, the beast shambled forward. It looked even bigger.
It wasn’t an animal. It was a magical beast.
Not only that, it was a type she’d never seen on Mount Lang Jun, an evil beast that scattered miasma around.
When she smelled its breath, which had a wild stink to it, Hua Diao realized something.
That scorched smell hadn’t been because something was burning. The pale electricity that cloaked the beast’s four limbs and breath was burning the air itself.
There was a series of sharp snaps, as if the air had split. The difference in voltage made her skin prickle and tingle, and Hua Diao squeezed her eyes shut. She was finished. She was going to die here. She didn’t know the reason, but this magic beast, which had come from the outside, was definitely going to eat her.
Unlike Master Immortal, this creepy monster probably wouldn’t even give her a side of peach sauce. Hua Diao had given up all hope, and a raging torrent of electricity leapt at her.
She’d been flung into the air, and the floating sensation made her giddy. Then she realized she was clinging to solid shoulder armor made of blue steel.
“Fancy meeting you here.”
Krusty smiled, the corners of his lips curving slightly, and Hua Diao’s eyes widened until they were perfect circles. “Master Immortal!” she shouted, but even as she did so, Krusty was lightly evading, dodging left and right. Somewhere in there, the magical beast had gotten right up close to them, and he shoved his double-bladed bardiche into its gaping jaws, stopping them.
“It’s a Nue.”
“That’s a Nue, all right! Wow, that takes me back.”
Krusty’s frame was massive, but a female martial artist leapt lightly over his head, aiming for the beast, and slammed a fist into it with a metallic roar.
“At this size, it’s probably a half-raid-rank. It’s likely to be the same type as the one in the Sky Tower, or a similar strain. It’s weak against physical blows and has a tolerance for electricity.”
“This really is a big ol’ ruckus, isn’t it?! That’s Eured for you! Continent of adventure!
With that cheerful response from the new girl, a ferocious battle began.
3
A fierce exchange played out between Krusty’s group and the Nue, a beast that controlled electricity.
At first, Krusty held Hua Diao, but when she spotted her chance, she got down and fled into the shadow of the rocks. She hadn’t abandoned the Immortal; she’d done it so that she wouldn’t get in his way as he fought.
Master Immortal never let the pain show in his expression, but there was a wound in his side that never stopped bleeding.
No matter how often they changed his bandages, the red seeped through. He said the wound was probably cursed. Master Immortal had smiled coldly, and come to think of it, his face had always looked pale and transparent. Hua Diao was afraid to be a burden to him.
Of course, if Krusty was defeated, she was prepared to lose her own li
fe as well.
After all, there was really no way for her to oppose that monster with her own combat strength. With her short limbs, she didn’t even think she’d be able to run away.
She’d always thought he was strong, but the Immortal’s fight was overwhelming.
Every swing of his thick ax whipped up a tsunami of rubble, dirt, and sand that assailed the beast with the force of an angry roar. However, the Nue, a magical beast that was the color of darkness, was powerful, and even Krusty’s ferocious attacks didn’t seem to be doing much damage to it.
The black-haired woman who’d appeared along with the Immortal launched fearsome attacks as well. While Krusty seemed to sink his roots solidly into the earth, swinging both arms around, attacking and defending with a mass of iron, her movements had a feline agility about them. She flew in, paid out several jabs or unleashed kicks, then drew an arc in midair. The way she moved was a little too rough to call a dance, but it was very beautiful.
One more supporting member had joined the fight.
It was Gumon, the wolf dog who’d always waited at Krusty’s feet.
Certainly, the wolf had a splendid physique, and Hua Diao had thought that it would be terrible to get chewed on by her, but now that she saw her fighting this way, her strength was overwhelming. Her large frame didn’t even compare unfavorably to Krusty’s, and she slammed it against the enemy, moving as if she was creeping across the ground in that way unique to quadrupeds. She looked brutal, and even so, she was elegant, too. The fur on her back—a back Hua Diao had ridden on occasion—reflected the light, shining wetly; it looked like flowing mercury.
“It went bwonnng! It seriously did! Bwonnng!”
“Did it really, Miss Kanami? That’s a good noise.”
Her punch seemed to have brought some kickback with it; the woman was shaking her hand and looking upset.
“You’re kinda casually mean, aren’t you, Krus-Krus?! Are you discriminating against me because I’m me?”
“You’re wearing gauntlets, so you should be fine.”
“You just tacked that on like you thought it was a pain!”
To her, it looked as though the two of them and the wolf dog were working together perfectly. Apparently, the woman was an old acquaintance, and from what the Immortal said, her name seemed to be Kanami. Unlike him, she wore an extremely thin ethnic costume, and she danced up to the magical beast like a whirlwind, then attacked.
Could she be another Immortal? Hua Diao wondered. She felt an odd emotion, something between loss and disappointment. Since she was fighting alongside Krusty, there was a good possibility the woman was another Ancient. One of the few comrades who’d survived in this broken world.
If she was, she would be someone Hua Diao was meant to serve, like Krusty. That struck her as a bit unfortunate. Although, if the woman was like Master Immortal, she might be good at making sweets—
The thought made Hua Diao wonder if she was really that much of a glutton, and her cheeks flushed.
“Tiger Echo Fist!!”
Contrary to the sound of the attack’s name, Kanami unleashed a contact attack that was almost like a shoulder-centered body blow. As if it had taken damage from it, the beast—which must have weighed several hundred kilos—rose into the air for a moment and was knocked away, staggering.
Gumon the wolf dog was waiting for it. Crouching low, she aimed for its vulnerable back legs, sinking her sharp fangs into its iron pelt. The Nue lost its balance entirely, and she dragged it another half step to inflict more pain, then adjusted her angle, correcting her attitude.
Then, scattering the crimson light of mana around, Krusty attacked its defenseless neck. The bardiche, whose blade was more than fifty centimeters wide, fell like the blade of a guillotine. At that attack, even the beast set up a groaning wail.
Master Immortal is so strong!
Hua Diao did a little dance.
However, she couldn’t state categorically that the fight would be a sweeping victory for them.
True, from what she was seeing, it seemed to be trending in their favor. However, the Nue was no common beast. There was no telling where it had been hiding it, but with a flood of energy, it turned the tables in a rush, and several spheres of electricity surfaced, releasing a scorched stench into their surroundings.
The two Adventurers shifted to evading, and no sooner had their attacks begun to have trouble connecting than its thick front paws, which had claws like forked spears, switched from jabbing to sweeping. The female martial artist was forced to dodge dramatically to avoid its sharp hooked claws.
And more than anything, its neck—which had taken that unequaled attack from Master Immortal—was a problem.
If it had taken an attack like that, even a big boulder would probably have been pulverized. There was no need to even think about what would have happened if Hua Diao had been its target (even if there had been a hundred of her, they would all have been laid out), but on the neck that had actually been the target, the fur around the wound was very lightly bloodied, and that was all.
Hua Diao had no idea what sort of abilities this monster had, but even so, it was clear that one of its weapons was its absurd physical strength. And if that was the case, wouldn’t the Immortals’ group run through their strength soon and collapse? There were only three of them. The unease made Hua Diao quake.
As it turned out, her guess wasn’t that far off the mark.
To Hua Diao, the two Adventurers had looked as if they were fighting their battle with composure, but they didn’t actually have as much leeway as it seemed.
After all, their opponent was a half-raid-rank monster.
That meant that, properly speaking, twelve Adventurers with appropriate levels would have gathered and fought it together. The beast’s level was 84. The two of them had levels around 90, so it was slightly below their rank.
Adventurers who had the help of phantasmals could fight monsters that were on their level, or a maximum of seven levels higher. For that reason, if Krusty’s subjugation team had been a regular group with twelve members, a level of 84 should have been fairly easy. It was precisely because of this level difference that Krusty’s group had been able to evade the monster’s attacks, parry them, and hold out this long.
However, on the other hand, the fact that they only had a quarter of that regular number was critical.
No matter how many combatants there were, defensive and evasive strengths didn’t change very much. However, attack power and endurance varied greatly depending on the number of people. Attacks were proportionate to the number of strikes, and endurance—in other words, MP—was proportionate to the number of team members. The result would be a future where Krusty and the others ran out of strength before they could finish off the Nue. Even if they kept successfully avoiding lethal attacks, fatigue and drained MP would cut down on the ways they could respond, and they’d be crushed like grains of wheat in a mortar.
“I think I just remembered something, sort of!”
“You’re late.”
“Sorry for living on vague memories.”
Even so, Kanami smiled merrily as she fought, and while Krusty grumbled, he left no openings. It wasn’t possible to sense that sort of despair from either of them. Hua Diao only watched them, fretting.
“I guess all countries reuse raid bosses, huh?”
“—I wonder about that. According to Hua Diao, this was a wolf-type dungeon set.”
“So it’s not the boss for this place?”
“I really couldn’t say. Well, it wouldn’t be odd.”
Their laidback conversation was interrupted by a wide-range attack from the beast.
The range of the flood of electricity had a radius of several dozen meters. The female Monk, operating on unfathomable logic, dodged that aggressive torrent, parrying it. It was Phantom Step, one of the Monk class’s abilities, but Hua Diao didn’t know that.
Krusty—who had shrewdly slipped into the opening Kanami had created by
disrupting the current, then negated the damage—whipped up dirt and sand with his bardiche, creating an impromptu defensive mound of soil. Gumon the wolf dog made use of it.
Hua Diao wasn’t able to join their conversation, but she wanted to tell them, No, no, this is wrong; I don’t know anything about a monster like this. From what Hua Diao knew, Mount Lang Jun was connected to Mount Kunlun, a sacred place; it was a fairyland that existed to spread distant voices. It was said to be protected by an enormous wolf (just like Gumon) called Lang Jun, the wolf lord, not by this hideous monster with its raw red face.
“I don’t know anything about this one.”
When she shouted the words, Krusty, who’d heard, responded without turning around, raising his ax over his head as he did so: “Is that right?” She never could tell what Master Immortal was thinking, but he’d accepted that remark very easily.
“Then where do you suppose it came from?”
“There’s no way I could know— Eeeeeeeeep?!”
The irritated Nue brought its front leg down hard, and rubble flew, scattering.
The attacks were trivial, probably no more than the Nue venting its annoyance, and they couldn’t even scratch Krusty’s blue steel armor. However, this wasn’t true for Hua Diao, who’d leaned out from the shadow of the boulders to protest. A rock the size of her head came flying toward her at high speed.
When she jumped back, startled, her excess momentum sent her rolling over and over.
The topography was probably to blame, too: The soil that had fallen from the shadows of the rocks where she’d been hiding had piled up, forming a slope, and there was nothing to stop her. In a dizzying series of motions, Hua Diao rolled a good five meters out.
To the martenfolk, that was quite a distance.
She would have liked to sprint back into the cover of the rocks, but she was so frightened that she couldn’t even stand, and all she could do was crawl on all fours, panicking. Her fingertips found the edge of some silken fabric, but her knees were quaking too badly to let her cling to it and get to her feet.