Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 14 - Chapter 16

Chapter 16: The Counterattack ~Katou Mana’s POV~

Majima-senpai charged toward the horror. The tremendous hatred with which it faced him was obvious at a glance. It possessed enough power to break Caesar’s defenses. Its regenerative abilities had nullified all the cuts Dora had inflicted. Even without such abilities, its enormous body must’ve been extremely durable.

Just watching Majima-senpai’s back as he charged it drained the blood from my face and made me feel like I would collapse. I put my hand to my mouth and swallowed my scream—when a glyph took shape overhead.

“Friedrich, deploy.”

Listening to the boy’s voice, I opened my eyes wide as I looked up. Kudou, who was still floating in the air, spread the four colored wings behind him as they glowed. The magic he’d been building up during our flight from the horror was grade 3 magic—cast twofold. This was supposed to be a power only usable by the boy known as the Sturm und Drang of the exploration team.

“Burn to ash.”

A raging fire was amplified by wind and swooped down on the horror. He’d mentioned using his trump card. This was it. Compared to the Sturm und Drang, who was said to be able to cast grade 5 magic in triplex, it wasn’t much, but even so, it possessed dreadful power. The heat wave instantly raised the temperature in the corridor. And just as I thought maybe this could work, the swelling mass of meat broke through the flames.

“Thiiiis...iiiiis...nothiiiiing!”

“I didn’t think that’d be enough to defeat it,” Kudou said, clicking his tongue quietly.

The horror’s skin had been carbonized, but it hadn’t been enough to deal a fatal wound. It’d raised an arm to protect its face too. So long as the wound wasn’t fatal, its regenerative abilities would repair the damage.

“Aah...”

It was no good. Even though Kudou used one of his trump cards, it hadn’t even been enough to stop its charge. The horror’s tattered skin crumbled to the ground, revealing swelling pink meat that had already started regenerating. Its movements had also only dulled for a short moment. I stood in shock as I watched that terrifying spectacle—when I saw a vine coil around one of the horror’s limbs.

“Sssster!”

“Okay, let’s go!”

Majima-senpai accelerated. He kicked off the ground to speed himself up as Asarina reeled him in. Using the moment the horror’s attention was caught by the magic attack, he reached its feet in the blink of an eye.

“Haah!”

As he passed the horror, he slashed, his sword sinking deep into one of its arms.

“Oh? Oooh?”

The horror didn’t know what’d happened. Majima-senpai continued running to its other side and gave it another slash. Its body was definitely strong. It’d even withstood Kudou’s magic attack. Nevertheless, Majima-senpai’s sword dug deep into its meat, splattering fluids all over the place. His weapon’s make naturally played a role in this, but the rigorous training he’d imposed on himself also allowed his sword skills to exceed the tenacity of the horror’s flesh. However, the horror wasn’t going to remain on the receiving end forever.

“Ooooooh!”

It roared, its voice filled with dreadful delight. It now realized what had charged at it was Majima-senpai.

“Maaaaaaajimaaaaaa!”

It swiveled around and attacked.

“Eek!”

I unintentionally screamed. How much destructive force was behind that attack? I could feel the shaking from the blow, despite the immense distance. And there was more than one. As if putting the horror’s rage on full display, a storm of nonstop tremors shook the corridor. In the blink of an eye, I lost Majima-senpai’s figure in a cloud of debris and dust. The only thing I saw now was the enormous horror stomping on the ground. It looked like a repulsive and monstrous baby throwing a tantrum, sending chills down my spine. With this, he was... And just as I lost hope, a voice spoke to me from above.

“It’s all right.” It was Kudou, the edge of his lips curved into an amused smile. “Ha ha. Isn’t he amazing? Is that Majima-senpai’s true strength now?”

There was unmistakable admiration in his tone. Influenced by that, I once more focused on the fierce battle.

“Ah...”

It was just as Kudou said. Inside the cloud of dust, I saw Majima-senpai safe and sound. The repeated attacks couldn’t keep up with his nimble movements. He was fast. I was captivated by the sight of him running around and evading the horror’s strikes.

Ever since we were teleported here, he’d been carrying me around. The speed at which he’d evaded enemies during that time had been unbelievable. However, now he was even faster. Part of this was likely because he hadn’t been free to move while covering me. This was the true speed he could achieve in battle. He wasn’t just fast either.

“Ooooh?! Maaajimaaaaa?! Aaaah?!”

Cursed by its enormous frame, the horror couldn’t make tight turns. Its ghastly body rotated awkwardly. In contrast, Majima-senpai was always moving into its blind spots. He did this while continuously dodging attacks, all of which would spell his end if they were to find their mark. It was as if he had a full grasp of everything his enemy was doing.

No, not as if... I couldn’t see it with my eyesight at this distance, but there must’ve been a mist surrounding the horror. This was the Misty Lodge, the magic Majima-senpai had gained by forming a contract with Salvia. Its perception surely allowed him to fully grasp every move the horror was making. As such, he was capable of skipping the step of having to read the situation based on sight or hearing.

Naturally, it wasn’t so simple to be able to make full use of that information. He needed athleticism to match, obviously, along with the willpower and concentration to continuously make decisions in the heat of the moment. Above all else, in a situation where a single mistake would lead to death, it was essential for him to have the courage not to falter for even an instant.

This very spectacle, one that looked like a miracle in my eyes, was the crystallization of Majima-senpai’s efforts, of everything he’d done so that he could survive in this world by his companions’ side without being a hindrance to them.

“Maaaaajiiimaaaaa! Aaaah! Aaaaaah!”

As a result, the horror was unable to accurately locate him, forced to stomp on the ground randomly. It was like the Japanese fairy tale of the inch-high samurai and the ogre. The sight of the horror destroying the corridor was overwhelming, but in truth, Majima-senpai remained untouched.

“Amazing...”

My blood had frozen from fear and anxiety, but now it felt as if it had melted and was pumping through my whole body. My heart pounded in my chest, the excitement filling me with a numbing heat. I thought I’d already known this, but I hadn’t known anything. This was what Majima-senpai had gained through his continuous hard work.

“Didn’t I tell you?” Kudou said.

That was when I first realized I’d been engrossed in Majima-senpai’s fight. Kudou looked at me with emotionless eyes. These were the same eyes he made when he’d told me I was similar to him and when he’d predicted something horrible would happen. At the time, I’d felt inconcealable fear, but mysteriously enough, I didn’t any longer.

“Majima-senpai is strong,” Kudou said. “There’s no need for you to do something you can never come back from. You don’t need to think of anything unnecessary. You can just sit there quietly.”

Kudou’s attitude hadn’t changed. Much like when he last spoke to me, his tone clearly conveyed his displeasure. As such, the main difference was my mental state. Until this point, I’d been so focused on the possibility of Majima-senpai dying that I hadn’t paid any attention. I’d been driven to the wall. But now it was different. Watching his fight with my heart pumping in excitement, I’d regained my composure. That was why I caught onto a detail I hadn’t noticed before.

“Kudou, you can’t mean...”

I was a little surprised, staring at the classmate I just couldn’t get along with. Why had I misinterpreted what he’d said?

“At the very least, as you are now, all that awaits you is ruin. If your ability isn’t manifesting because you fear that future, then you’re better off not thinking about any stupid ideas.”

I’d been under the impression that he was just being mean.

“Was that really just a warning for me?” I asked.

Kudou held his tongue. Uncharacteristically, a sour expression highlighted his slender face.

“It wasn’t for you,” he said. “I simply had Majima-senpai in mind.”

“Is that so...?”

I smiled a little, not sensing any lies behind his words. That was because I realized, in all likelihood, when it came to Majima-senpai, we simply shared the same opinion. Perhaps he sensed this too. Kudou knitted his brow slightly. After that, he turned his focus once more to Majima-senpai’s fight. His preparations were complete.

“Let’s settle this,” Kudou said, readying another glyph. That was the signal for the counterattack. “Friedrich, deploy. Burn it to ash.”

Facing Majima-senpai with all its bloodlust, the horror still noticed the danger and protected its cranium. That was exactly where the wind-boosted flames rushed in. It was like a rehash of last time. After the horror’s inherent endurance overcame the flames, it turned its face to Kudou.

“Doooon’t...get iiiin...iiin?”

In the middle of spitting curses, the cranium stopped talking. It realized its focus was turned elsewhere. It looked directly underneath its cursing head—where Majima-senpai was about to launch an attack. If it noticed just a few seconds later, he would’ve been able to take its head. The horror had keen perception, however. Just maybe, Travis Mortimer’s tenacity was still at work inside it.

“Hee hyah!”

The horror let out a mad laugh. Having tried to launch an attack on it, Majima-senpai had carelessly jumped out right in front of it. With its grudge finally in reach, the horror wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass.

“Majimaaaaaa!”

It immediately slammed every arm it had in reach. The space in front of it was a death field. There was nowhere to escape. The horror was sure that it had achieved its revenge. Its face twisted in an expression of ecstasy. It probably hadn’t realized that, this whole time, its hated enemy hadn’t once used the grotesque claw on his left arm.

“Ooooh!”

Majima-senpai roared with fighting spirit. His left arm, which had been prepared and ready from the very start, was his trump card. The large claws replicating Lily’s Devil Hand collided with one of the horror’s arms. The brief equilibrium crumbled, and Majima-senpai was the one pushing the horror back.

The power of the Great White Spider’s Tyranny gave him the explosive strength to overcome the horror’s strength for but an instant. His sharp claws tore through flesh, broke its bones, and twisted its strike trajectory. By breaking its attack head-on, he’d gained the perfect opportunity to attack.

“Right there!”

He leaped up high, closing in on the one remaining human portion of its monstrous figure.

“Hyah hah!”

But this horror was sly. A wall of meat blocked his path. It’d kept one arm in reserve to defend itself. Flesh split open, fluids splattered, bones cracked, and the arm was torn off. However, Majima-senpai had lost the momentum of his jump. His attack would no longer reach. The cranium, the one and only place Travis’s features remained, made a triumphant smile. And then, it immediately froze. That was because a shadowy girl had leaped right in front of its eyes.

“The rest is up to you!”

“Leave it to me!”

Having served his role, Majima-senpai yelled out to Dora, who returned a brief yet reassuring reply. She swung her shadowy blades.

“Aaaaaah...!”

The horror screamed. Was it out of resentment toward its enemy? Was it a plea for mercy toward the one about to finish it off? In either case, Dora didn’t forgive it. She had a reason not to.

“Pay with your life for the sin of wounding my king.”

Fueled by her rage, her blades came down, sending the horror’s head flying high up into the air.

◆ ◆ ◆

The mass of meat collapsed with a tremendous thud. Once I was sure of this, I immediately started running. It was best to be as close as possible to everyone...so a logical part of me said. However, before all else, I simply wanted to be by his side.

“Senpai!”

“Hang on a sec, Katou. The ground here is broken and dangerous. I’ll head your way.”

As he noticed me approaching, Majima-senpai called me to a stop. Due to all the debris and broken ground, it wasn’t possible to walk properly down this path. He jumped over it with Salvia trailing behind him and came my way. I immediately ran and closed the remaining distance.

“Senpai! Are you all right?!”

I checked him from head to toe. He didn’t have any serious injuries, though he was covered in lacerations and bruises. He’d been inside such a ferocious storm of attacks. The flying debris had likely crashed into him. An unbearable impulse throbbed in my chest, and I didn’t even try to defy it.

“I’ll heal you right away.”

I put a hand to his cheek and deployed a healing glyph. I could feel the lingering heat of battle on his skin. Perhaps because he’d been carrying me for the last few hours, being able to touch him brought me relief from the bottom of my heart. It was as if my body had gotten completely accustomed to his warmth.

As I treated him, Dora ran over to Kudou. It was a little late, but she was apparently intending to treat his left arm. She’d taken out a bandage. Kudou’s arm had been seriously damaged, yet he wasn’t even bleeding. He’d called it a side effect of his ability. It must’ve been in pretty horrible shape to begin with. It wasn’t clear how much point there was in treating it. Majima-senpai also watched him anxiously as Dora treated him.

“I never thought Travis would show up. Especially like that,” Majima-senpai said.

“Yes, it surprised me too,” I agreed. “But we finally managed to sever our fate from his.”

“That we did...”

We’d suffered injuries. Still, we’d managed to overcome a major predicament. I was glad they’d managed to coordinate splendidly to defeat a powerful enemy. However, Majima-senpai’s reaction was dull. It was as if his attention was caught on something else entirely.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“Aah. Just something Salvia said...”

“Salvia? Oh, now that you mention it, she had something to talk about?”

We’d been in the middle of running away from the empty shell that had once been Travis at the time. I turned to look at her.

“Yes. I figured something out regarding this place,” she said, nodding back to me.

“You did...?” Listening to her, I suddenly remembered something too. I’d realized it immediately before the horror attacked us. “Salvia, is it maybe related to how we haven’t seen any corpses of the monsters who inhabit this place?”

I had come to this realization when we saw the collapsed figure in the hallway. Kudou had theorized that it could’ve been someone who’d wandered in here in the past. In truth, it was Okazaki Takuma’s corpse, but after hearing his statement, I realized something strange.

We hadn’t seen any old monster corpses in here, let alone residents of this world. If this place was like the Woodlands, it would be hard to see corpses hiding in all the greenery, and there were times they would rot and return to the earth without being seen at all. This place was different, though.

“It’s a little unnatural for there to be no traces whatsoever,” I said. “I feel like this place is too clean.”

That said, I didn’t know what that implied. Salvia had been analyzing the place so that she could figure out why the Misty Lodge wasn’t working. When I heard that she’d realized something, I figured it might be related to the strangeness I’d taken notice of. I wasn’t able to hear about this in more detail, as Majima-senpai suddenly tensed up.

“Katou!”

He suddenly pushed me away.

“Huh?”

As I tumbled backward, I saw his arm stretched my way from pushing me. I saw a freshly severed head making a ghastly expression and approaching his now exposed flank.

“Travis?!”

It twisted its long neck like a snake, burning the last of its life to lunge at Majima-senpai. Travis was like an incarnation of deep-seated hatred. The whole of his being was committed to killing the abominable man who’d brought him to ruin. He never considered this resentment unjust, and if told that, he wouldn’t have listened. Majima-senpai, Kudou, and Dora couldn’t react in time.

As I fell backward, all I could do was watch things unfold. The head’s drooling mouth opened wide, rows of teeth closing in on Majima-senpai’s defenseless throat.

“Let’s cut the stubborn behavior out there, yeah?”

And then, a flying spear slammed into the soaring head.

“Huh?”

The well-worn spearpoint stabbed deep into Travis’s skull and came out the other side, altering the head’s trajectory and crashing into the ground. I fell on my butt and closed my eyes. By the time I opened them again, it was all over. This time, Travis’s severed head fell completely silent. Even the incarnation of hatred could do nothing with its brain destroyed. Having barely been saved, Majima-senpai whipped around as someone walked our way.

“Oh man, that was close. I couldn’t sit back and watch.”

“You’re...”

He was somewhat short for a man and gave off a stout impression. His ruffled hair sat atop impish eyes, and he had a combat knife gripped in each hand.

“Yo, Takahiro. Glad to see you’re okay.”

“Mikihiko!”

Surprised by the arrival of his best friend, Majima-senpai’s voice was filled with joy.