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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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‘This sound…’
Karina, who was cleaning the messy house filled with various objects, instinctively curled up at the sudden monstrous scream.
A monstrous scream she had never heard before in her life. And a faintly felt unpleasant aura.
Without realizing it, Karina ran out of the house and looked in the direction the sound was coming from. Coming out into the open air, not the brick-enclosed house, the aura felt even more distinct. Karina looked in the direction where the aura was felt with a worried expression.
‘Will they be okay…?’
She was anxious.
But she couldn’t go. Karina knew well that she had no combat ability. If she went into the forest out of worry, she would quickly become exhausted and turn into a burden, and in the first place, she didn’t even know the way, so there was no way she could find Renny and Johann. Karina looked at the forest that had begun to stir with an anxious heart.
‘Please be safe…’
“Lady Karina!”
“…Renny?”
Why could she hear Renny’s voice?
Her eyes, filled with question, turned to the person wearing strange armor.
Who on earth was that? Karina, who had unknowingly formed a wary expression at the unfamiliar appearance, belatedly realized that Renny’s voice had come from inside the armor. Karina relaxed her expression and called her name.
“Renny?”
A slightly doubtful voice reached Renny’s ears. Renny immediately took off the grotesque helmet and revealed her face. Her hair was sticking to her forehead from how much sweat she had shed.
“Yes, it’s me, Lady Karina.”
“What happened? That armor… And Johann…”
“It’s an emergency. We need your power, Lady Karina!”
An urgent voice. Karina recalled the moment just before getting into the oak barrel.
The water that had risen up to her ankles. The screams of people. The oak barrel. Her own powerlessness.
She returned to the present.
Johann was nowhere to be seen.
Karina understood the situation without any explanation.
“…Please lead the way. To where Johann is.”
“There’s no time, so I’ll carry you… Wait a moment.”
Renny took off the armor covered in acidic poison and threw it away. As the tattered armor fell to the ground, Renny’s sweat-soaked body was revealed. Karina looked at her with worried eyes, and at Renny’s words to hurry and climb on, she carefully entrusted her body.
Renny held her in a familiar motion and kicked the ground.
The destination was the place where Johann was.
‘He should be all right…’
Renny didn’t realize that she was worrying about someone other than Karina for the first time.
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I swung the shovel from top to bottom. My shovel blade, sharper than any decent famous sword, mercilessly sliced through the tadpole’s, no, the mini-hydra’s skin and roughly struck its spine.
Judging from the intense hand feel, had I caused significant damage to the spine?
I could feel the snake’s movements becoming sluggish. No matter how insane its regenerative ability was, if the spine was damaged, it wouldn’t be able to move right away.
“Squeak!”
…Crazy bastard.
Is it a lizard? Are you a lizard? Where the hell is the bastard that detaches its own body and runs away! I grabbed the back of my neck as I looked at the mini-hydra that had detached the part I had damaged and regenerated while running away. Ah, that damn… no, that snake bastard.
It’s annoyingly good at running away. As if its birthplace wasn’t a deserted island but some canyon, the way it was kiting with poison needles was really pissing me off. When I tried to trap it, it escaped like a ghost, and when I erected walls, it melted them with poison needles. I couldn’t possibly trap that thing with walls made of wood or dirt.
“The tadpole bastard is so damn tenacious…”
I had already cut off its tail countless times. I shifted my gaze from the wriggling tails and sighed.
“Can’t you just die already?”
As if protesting against my monologue, an unpleasant monstrous scream struck my eardrums. But right now, it couldn’t do anything other than scream. It was only natural. It had been a whole hour since that thing and I started fighting. That hour was a time of tedious, dragged-out battle. Although I was just a fragile human compared to the hydra, I could sufficiently gain the upper hand against a mini-hydra like that.
The problem was that the thing was unnecessarily agile for its size.
Thanks to that, I couldn’t even crush its head. When its head was smashed, it seemed to know it would die, so it swiftly retracted one head, which was enough to raise my blood pressure.
“Ha, this bastard is only good at running away.”
This strange confrontation. The mini-hydra and I were facing each other at a distance. I didn’t know about anything else, but it seemed to know that it was faithful to its survival instincts. If you’ve become a zombie, throw away your survival instincts!
Ugh, I’m stiff.
I want to go home and rest right away.
It’s hard.
I’m tired.
My body is creaking.
…Phew, let’s focus on the battle. After doing this nonsense for an hour, my concentration was wavering.
I readjusted my grip on the shovel. It was a kind of ready stance for battle. I pointed the shovel at the hydra, ready to block its attack at any moment.
Who would attack first?
Until now, the initiative had been with the snake bastard. I had endurance, but that thing was a dirty dealer.
My anger, accumulated from experiencing the crap show for an hour, was indescribable. To vent that anger, I would crush that snake bastard.
“Let’s end this soon. You snake bastard.”
Because I have no more time to waste on you.
To end this tedious fight, I-
turned my back and ran away with all my might.
“What can you do if I run away! What can you do other than crawling after me!”
A refreshing provocation as a bonus. Although it probably wouldn’t understand.
I looked back while sprinting through the forest with all my strength. As expected, I saw the mini-hydra chasing after me. We were engaged in a chase where we both clearly wanted to crush each other, so my legs started to ache. My legs, which had been busy playing since the morning, were pleading for a break, but now was the time to shut up and run.
I stomped the ground hard and abruptly stopped my body.
The sudden brake brought me and the mini-hydra rapidly closer. For a moment, my eyes met the unpleasantly shaped snake’s eyes. A bloody battle of the wild, where we both opened our mouths and charged at each other. I could see the purple-wriggling poison gland inside the mini-hydra’s wide-open mouth. I kicked the ground and thrust my body into the mini-hydra’s mouth.
Normally, it would be a suicidal act, but right now, I was wearing armor. Although the tree bark with almost no protective ability was used, anyway, I trusted the armor made of the bear leader’s bones and hide. Surely it could block the fangs of a mini-hydra, not a real hydra, right?
And- my prediction of charging into its mouth was correct. The insane pressure felt from above and below. I felt something sharp scraping against my shoulder. Like the Greek mythological Atlas, I put strength into my legs and shoulders and endured to prevent it from swallowing me. It felt like my whole body would shatter. I slowly pushed my body inward. The grotesque inside of its mouth wriggled incessantly as if expecting me to be swallowed.
I gritted my teeth, pushed my body in with my shoulders threatening to shatter, and stabbed the poison gland with my shovel. A dark purple liquid, seemingly mixed with poison and blood, splashed onto my armor.
“It’s about time you die, you snake bastard…”
I deeply embedded the shovel into the poison gland, making it unable to close its mouth. Its greatest weapon had vanished in an instant. With the poison gland destroyed, it wouldn’t be able to shoot poison needles at me from a distance. As if realizing something was wrong even though it couldn’t feel pain, it tried to spit me out by twisting its body instead of trying to swallow me.
But it was already too late.
I rather went deeper into its mouth. With the shovel forcibly keeping its mouth open, it couldn’t easily close it. I detached the sharp bones stuck to my armor and started frantically stabbing the roof of its mouth.
Die! Die, you fucking bastard!
One, two, three, four… Blood gushed out from countless holes. Sticky blood flowed down the armor.
It felt really shitty. Taking a shower in snake blood.
But if that bastard survived, it would feel even shittier.
Die.
Die.
Die.
Die.
I’m dizzy.
The snake, rolling like crazy to spit me out of its mouth, and me, persistently enduring and aiming for the brain above the roof of its mouth. At this moment, it was impossible to be certain which side would win.
Before my body, already exhausted to the limit, collapsed, I had to finish off this bastard.
That was the only thing.
“Just die already…”
I pushed my tired arm into the roof of the mouth, full of holes. The squishy sensation felt beyond the roof of the mouth.
Yes, the squishy sensation. What else could feel this squishy other than the brain? I shoved my hand into the squishy part with all my might and pulled. I felt the sensation of it being torn out.
My ears were damp. I couldn’t hear any sound. Was it because I heard a monstrous scream right in front of me?
I couldn’t make an accurate judgment.
But one thing I was certain of.
I had won.
You fucking bastard.
“Ah, my ears…”
I crawled out of the motionless snake’s mouth and lay down on the ground. Realizing it anew, fighting the hydra was really shitty. It was good at running away, used poison, and had great regenerative ability. Even the mini-hydra was this shitty, so the main body of the hydra would be even harder to deal with.
Well, I wouldn’t be facing it alone, so it’s fine.
I’m not alone anymore, right?
If I had been alone, I wouldn’t have taken such a gamble.
My eyes closed on their own.
It should be okay to rest for a bit.
Just a little…
I closed my eyes with a peaceful mind.
I heard a faint voice from afar.
It was the voice of an angel, making my heart feel at ease.
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