“Guwuuuuuuh!!”
A bizarre scream rang out from behind me.
A sticky wail, as if forced out through a strangled throat, stabbed at my ears.
Beneath its gaping jaw, something that looked like a tongue dangled loose.
The sight of that figure charging on all fours was enough to put strength back into my legs.
“Why the hell is a monster like that in the forest?!”
I’d expected some beasts, maybe, but not a ghoul with a human jaw to come leaping out.
Come to think of it, those strange-leaved trees had already been weird. I should’ve realized it then.
Of course, blindly running away wasn’t the answer either.
The ghoul’s speed was beyond imagination.
Only a few seconds after I started fleeing, it had already caught up right behind me, and in the end I had no choice but to pull out my backup plan.
[Water Bomb]
I pulled out the staff I’d hung at my waist.
I detonated the mana I’d gathered while running.
A blue sphere rose from my canteen and was sucked straight into the ghoul’s wide-open jaw.
Boom!
With a small explosion, droplets of water burst outward, scattering fragments of flesh in every direction.
The impact sent the creature’s upper body tilting backward.
‘…Did I get it?’
The words almost left my mouth, but stopped in my throat.
But maybe even thinking that much had been enough.
“Grrrrrrraaaaaah!”
Its shattered jaw began to wriggle, giving off pale smoke.
The burst pieces of flesh stuck back together, and in the end, it regained its original form.
Soon after, the fully recovered ghoul began twitching again.
“Oh, you’ve gotta be sh—”
As the ghoul lunged, I hurriedly converted the mana I had been gathering into a Water Current Barrier.
Crunch! Skrrrk!
The ghoul’s nails dug deep into the newly completed blue barrier.
Those nails weren’t merely long.
They were practically awls.
The barrier that had deflected most attacks up to now had been pierced this time.
Looking at the nails buried in it, I could guess just how monstrous the creature’s strength was.
And with that hand stuck in the barrier, it began shaking violently.
“Whoa—!”
I was swung around like a doll hanging from a wall.
My body lifted, and my vision lurched. For a moment, I lost my balance and nearly threw up.
From the other side of the barrier, its unstuck hand shot toward me.
Reflexively, I pulled out my mace and swung it as if to defend myself.
Kwaang—!
A dull impact rang out, impossible to believe it came from iron striking flesh.
The shock ran up my wrist and tingled all the way to my elbow.
My fingertips went numb, and tears pricked at my eyes.
“Urgh…!”
At that moment, the creature’s body tilted back slightly.
Far from trying to pull out its embedded hand, it dug it in even deeper.
Beyond the barrier, I could see gray skin, and black saliva dripping from its gaping mouth.
“Guwuuuu—”
Our eyes met.
“You really are… fucking disgusting.”
Rustle.
If there was one thing the creature had overlooked, it was that I wasn’t alone.
I sensed movement behind it.
Aileen. She darted nimbly toward the creature’s scrawny flank.
Her trajectory drove straight toward its lower back.
The tip of her blade aimed without hesitation for the creature’s gray skin—
Clang!
“…What?”
It sounded like metal striking rock.
The dagger failed to pierce its skin and bounced off.
It hadn’t felt like stabbing flesh, but a hard shell.
Perhaps because of the faint impact from behind,
the ghoul raised its opposite arm high and swung it straight backward.
Its indiscriminate swipe came sweeping down like it was tearing through tree branches, and Aileen instinctively sensed it, rolling away and barely retreating.
The moment I confirmed that, I didn’t hesitate to release the Water Current Barrier and step back.
“Ugh, my blade won’t work!”
“Fall back!”
Was its skin made of steel?
Unless we aimed for its exposed jaw, there seemed to be no answer at all.
I focused mana at the tip of my staff.
Along with a chill spreading through my fingertips, a bluish sphere formed.
If I could shove this into its mouth, there might still be a bit of hope.
But there was no way the creature would stay still.
“Kruok…!”
The ghoul glared at me with bloodshot red eyes, then kicked off the ground and flew at me.
It was much faster than I’d expected.
It must have felt the power of the Water Bomb and was trying to keep me in check.
“Damn it…!”
Reflexively, I twisted my body and pulled the mace from my waist with one hand.
If I couldn’t find the timing to fire the Water Bomb, I had no choice but to face it head-on.
Crunch!
The ghoul’s claws tore through the undergrowth as they came for my neck, and I barely knocked its hand aside with my mace.
Along with the sound of heavy metal striking the monster’s bone, the recoil traveled into me.
My fingertips went numb, and I nearly dropped the mace.
“Kuh…!”
The creature staggered, but the threat didn’t end with one strike.
Its other hand rose again, and this time it came down diagonally.
I was about to block with the mace again, but decided on a barrier instead.
[Water Current Barrier]
I brought the mace down, used the recoil to raise my staff, and solidified mana in an instant.
A blue film blocked the space in front of me.
This was a wall meant to last only a short time.
At this distance, it should hold. I believed that.
Bang!
The ghoul’s nails struck the barrier.
A fierce impact surged from my fingertips to my shoulder like a wave.
My wrist jolted with a thud.
Creak, creeeeak!
The hastily made barrier was struck by its claws and began cracking in an instant.
I tried to force mana into it to maintain its form, but that was nothing more than a stopgap.
Boom! Shwaaaaa—
With the sound of the Water Current Barrier breaking apart, shattered streams of water scattered everywhere like fragments.
And beyond them, the monster pushed its body in like a shadow.
“Guwuuuuuaaaaah—!”
For an instant, my body froze.
But my body moved faster than I thought.
Reflexively, I lifted the mace in my left hand.
I had no choice but to block what was in front of me.
Crunch!
The mace caught the monster’s arm.
Along with the sensation of flesh tearing, a dull impact that reached bone traveled up through my hand.
Crack.
At the same time, a sound that should never have come from the wrist holding the mace reached my ears.
It was the kind of breaking sound you’d never forget for the rest of your life after hearing it just once.
My mind flashed white, and a short scream burst from my mouth.
“Ghhh…!”
Drool leaked through my clenched teeth.
Taking advantage of that brief opening, the monster turned its head toward me again.
Its torn mouth split as wide as it could, and something like a sticky laugh dripped out.
The monster’s hand reached out.
It thrust its hideous face forward and came striding closer.
“Krgh!”
I sucked in a short breath and twisted my body.
It wasn’t an intentional dodge, but an instinctive reaction to survive.
The blade of the monster’s hand brushed past my shoulder and cut through empty air.
The wind grazed my cheek, and that force alone made my body stagger.
I threw myself into a roll in that opening.
Once, twice.
After rolling across the ground, scattering fallen leaves and mud, I opened my hand toward the approaching monster while gasping for breath.
I still had one shot left.
Mana was gathering above my palm, trembling faintly.
A final strike I might never be able to make again.
It had to be now or never.
“Liv!”
Aileen’s voice rang out from behind me.
That meant she had an opening to move.
I rolled aside to avoid the monster’s hand, and at that instant, Aileen brushed past me and dove straight in front of the monster.
“Haaaaah!”
Her dagger shot forward in a straight line.
It drove directly into the skinless throat, the part exposed with sticky mucus.
Puuuk.
The blade sank all the way in.
The monster’s movements froze for that instant.
“Back!”
I couldn’t miss the chance.
I concentrated the mana in my hand at the tip of the dagger.
[Water Bomb]
The moment Aileen pulled away, the blue condensed sphere burst into the monster’s mouth.
Boooom!
With a massive impact, the monster’s head snapped backward as if twisted.
Scattered water and smoke shot up into the sky, and the belated vibration of the air echoed down to my bones.
I clearly saw the dagger that had been lodged in its throat get driven by the shock until it protruded between its shoulder blades.
“……”
For a moment, there was silence.
The monster looked as though it was kneeling.
Its throat had been torn open, and black liquid poured from its hideous face.
But then—
Squish.
“…!”
The skin on the back of my neck stood on end.
Still on its knees, the monster’s body was writhing.
It slowly lifted its head.
Half of its shattered face was wriggling as it regenerated.
Even the dagger buried deep inside was slowly being pushed out.
“M-Monster…”
Aileen held her breath.
Even this wasn’t enough?
The creature slowly began to stand again.
There was no opening to leap in, and no time to create another barrier.
“Ghk, run!!”
I grabbed Aileen by the wrist and started running in the opposite direction.
Behind us came the sound of the monster turning, the horrible noise of bones knocking together and joints twisting.
We cut through the forest, running with every last bit of strength we had.
There wasn’t even time to look back.
***
“Haaah… haaah, haaah……”
How long had it been since we’d torn blindly through the forest?
My breath rose all the way to my throat, and in the end, my strength gave out. I collapsed onto the dirt.
Thud.
Beside me, Aileen also fell, gasping for breath.
As I sank to my knees and lowered myself as if collapsing forward, the cool sensation of the dirt seeped through my clothes.
A feeling of chill spreading from my back.
It felt like a sensation confirming that I was alive.
“…Is it not following us?”
I strained my ears.
Only the rustling of grass and the sound of leaves brushing in the wind…
There were no more footsteps, no breathing, no monstrous screams.
I swallowed, soothing my throat, which felt dry and raw enough to split.
The reason we’d been able to escape was because it had been regenerating.
We hadn’t killed it, but running during that brief opening had definitely been the best choice.
In the end, we survived.
For now, that alone was enough.
“Uuugh…”
As the tension drained away, the pain in my wrist grew even worse.
On the outside, it didn’t look grotesquely bent or anything, but the pain I felt made it clear that it was far from fine.
“Are you all right?”
Aileen carefully asked beside me while catching her breath.
“…No, it hurts like hell…”
The sensation that my wrist had been crushed was too strong to try bluffing.
I tried hard to keep my expression calm, but inside, the thought, ‘Isn’t this really bad…?’ was already creeping up on me.
Since there was no immediate clever solution, I roughly wrapped my wrist in a bandage to immobilize it.
In my current state, I had to give up on fighting for a while.
“By the way, where… are we…?”
“Good question…”
The darkness had grown thick, so I couldn’t properly see our surroundings, but this definitely wasn’t where we had originally been headed.
We must have fled blindly and ended up deep in an unfamiliar part of the forest.
…Wasn’t this completely screwed?
Caw, caw.
From afar came an eerie sound like a crow crying.
Hearing even that sound made my heart grow heavy.
Still, the fortunate thing was that while we were running, we hadn’t seen any monsters besides the ghoul.
Honestly, though, that one ghoul had already been more than enough.
“First, let’s find somewhere to hide.”
“Yes.”
We were in a dark forest where it was hard to tell whether it was day or night. I couldn’t know the time, but at the very least, I thought it had probably passed noon.
According to our original plan, we had intended to stop moving and rest around evening, but with the situation being what it was, it seemed we’d have to stop a bit earlier.
“Which way is north?”
I tried to use some random knowledge I’d heard before, but the forest was so dark that even sunlight didn’t reach in.
Every method of finding direction I knew involved the sun, so none of them worked right now.
The only method that seemed even remotely possible was guessing direction from the growth rings of a tree… but since that also had to do with the sun, I couldn’t trust it.
Since we had no decent method anyway, I decided to roughly guess by looking at a broken tree stump.
“Then let’s try going this way.”
We slowly began walking in the direction we had chosen.
The forest was still eerie, and a windless silence settled heavily over it.
Only the occasional crunch of fallen leaves and small branches breaking beneath our feet rang out.
Neither Aileen nor I spoke as we walked, but impatience slowly seeped into a corner of my heart.
‘If we get lost in this forest, where the hell will we end up next?’
In the darkness, our two shadows stretched long, then vanished, over and over.
After we had walked for quite a while, light suddenly seeped through the dense trees.
“That’s…!”
All at once, an unfamiliar structure entered one corner of my vision.
A crumbled wall, broken pillars, and vines climbing over them.
It was an abandoned building, one that seemed to have been deserted long ago.
As we approached the abandoned building, we let out sighs of relief.
“Phew… Finally, we’ve got a place to rest.”
Relief spread across Aileen’s face as well for the first time in a while.
Enduring the pain in my wrist, I moved toward the entrance of the ruins.
It looked old and decayed on the outside, but walls and a roof that hadn’t collapsed still greeted us.
When we stepped inside, the air felt somewhat calmer than outside.
I carefully sat down on the dusty floor and lowered myself.
“Ugh, now I can finally catch my breath.”
At my words, Aileen quietly nodded.
“Liv! There’s something strange here!”
While examining the inside of the building, Aileen seemed to find something and called me over.
On the floor she pointed to, an old pattern had been carved.
The shape of a giant bird’s wings entwined with a staff.
It was the very symbol Priest Kaltsheim had mentioned earlier.