2-3.  「Ruckus inside the forest 1」

「Onii-chan was going too easy on her, weren’t you?」

Walking through the trees, we entered a bit deeper into the forest to look for the monsters we needed to subjugate. After that quarrel, I didn’t feel the need to stay for any further trouble, so I walked away, ignoring the dumbfounded faces of my schoolmates.

The bitch named Shinomiya took a bit of time to get back on her feet, so by the time she stood back up again, I’ve already left. I wanted absolutely nothing to do with those people at the moment so I didn’t stay. It’s a pain in the ass.

To Yui’s question, I simply smiled wryly:

「You see, I intended to use a sword technique there without a sword. But in the end she was too weak I didn’t really use it…」

I intended to use my hand to chop on her neck, imitating the blade cutting her head. But her posture was destroyed so badly when I made that 90 degree turn that I could’ve inflicted some serious injuries on her even if it was just my hand. As a matter of fact, attracting more hostility from those Heroes is the last thing I want right now.

「But they actually became quite strong didn’t they…」

「Yeah, they can pretty much smash a human country right now」

Judging from how that bitch Shinomiya from class 2-A could aim for my head twice like that, it’s no laughing matter when a monster with low intelligence or a common human fights against her. They’ll definitely be killed within seconds.

Even if other people aren’t as high level as her, their equipment and levels are still cuts above commoners, or any other normal soldiers a human kingdom can afford. Solely because of the Level system where it would take years for a person to level up to 40, much less 80 or 90.

But that is none of my business right now, simply because I’m already leaving them too far behind, in terms of level and strength. And I’m sure as hell that I would’ve progressed even further by the time they caught up to the current me.

「Hm? What was that noise just now?」

「Yeah…I heard something too…」

Still walking towards where we needed to go, some strange noises from afar raised our awareness and we slowed down our pace for the sake of being careful. It wasn’t the familiar rustling sounds of leaves on the trees, but it was the sounds of footsteps and heavy breathing.

「Onii-chan…there’s more than just one…」

「That’s right, but…」

One of them wasn’t human. Though I could only vaguely sense their presences, they were still too far away for me to fully identify them. But by the sound of those footsteps, one of them was an animal, if not a wild monster.

As the footsteps got closer, I was able to identify the source more clearly. It was definitely an animal-like monster and a human, or at least a humanoid being. The reason why I said that was because, though the footsteps were that of how a human runs, the presence that being gave off didn’t contain humanity. Maybe some kind of demi-human like ogres?

「Onii-chan!!」

「Got it!!」

I pulled out my sword and kicked the ground, separating from Yui to spread out a simple but effective combat formation. The footsteps got louder and louder as it got closer by every passing minute. A drop of sweat rolled down my back because the presences approaching us felt different than anything we ever encountered before.

We could’ve run, but that also carried the risk of being pursued. The opponent was an animal, it could’ve changed its path towards us if we ran and made noises, so the best solution I could think of right now, is to hide ourselves temporarily and prepare for battle.

Then at the peak of tension, something burst out from behind a bush.

(Uwaaa they’re bouncing!!!)

It was a young woman, a beautiful one with long, violet hair, running with all her might. Her face was beautiful but blood already ran from it as she’s been running for quite a while already. Her choice of clothing was something…tribal? Yeah, that kind of clothing is clearly tribal. Could it be that she’s from a tribe from deep within the forest? There are actually humans living inside Es’anore Forest?

Anyway, as the beauty ran frantically with heavy panting, her legs reached their limits and gave out. She stumbled over a big rock and fell, rolling on the ground.

「Kyaa!!」

Sprawling on the ground without any strength left to pick herself up, the girl had a face that literally said 「this is it」 and put on a desperate smile. The bizarre scene was exactly like those survival movies I saw on TV. No, it looks more like a shounen anime where the protagonist ran into a dead end before a buff came out from nowhere.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Wait a minute, should I really be reminiscing about anime right now? Because I’m pretty sure a fucking huge black wolf just jumped out from that same bush, rushing straight towards the woman.

「Tsk!!」

That could’ve been some kind of 「sweet trap」 set up by the enemies to lure me into fighting that wolf and surround me when I was busy fighting it. But, I can’t just stay behind and watch her going into the wolf’s stomach, either. The hopeless creature called 「man」 inside me didn’t allow my legs to rest at where I was hiding.

Thinking so, I kicked the ground and dashed out of the bush, running with all I got towards the monster approaching with high speed from the opposite direction.

「*Sigh*…I don’t care anymore!!」

I think I heard Yui’s complaint, but I went anyway. Noticing me, the black wolf, three times the size of a big German shepherd, sped up and bared its fangs, trying to kill the girl before I could reach her. However, my level was high, I was fast enough to take one step sooner, landing a half-ass upper cut-slash with my sword in point blank range.

My posture wasn’t right, so the blow didn’t deal full damage. Instead, it just knocked the wolf up a bit and sent it rolling a few meters away. The monster soon regained its vigor and stood up, staggering from the impact.

「Yui…」

「Yes, I can’t appraise its level either…」

「Must be a high-leveled monster」

The young woman I just saved was dumbfounded. She was staring at me intensely with her mouth opened. I noticed her gaze, but ignored it for the moment and focused on the wolf, letting Yui, who already ran to her side, protect the woman with her flame barrier.

Readying my sword, I got into a stance and prepared to deal with the monster in front of me. I knew for sure that my chances of winning weren’t that high anymore, since the monster probably has higher level than me. Due to that fact, my Appraise skill, which was still low-leveled, couldn’t identify it fully. The only thing I knew about the monster is that it was an Elder Shadow Wolf, and it’s strong.

Before the wolf fully recovered from my previous hit, I closed up the distance between us immediately, this didn’t take even 3 seconds.

Surprised by my sudden attack, the wolf tried to dodge my sword. It was certainly a smart move to dodge to the side but not stepping back, because I could’ve pressed it into further retreat if it took a step backwards.

However, my sword wasn’t that simple.

Within a second, the path of how my sword drew an arc changed smoothly but not abruptly. At the end of that change in sword-path, I landed a clean slash on the wolf’s left shoulder. I knew I had an abysmal sense of skill-naming, so I didn’t even bother to yell out some random skill names.

「Gruuuuhhhhhh!!!!!」

The monster let out an agony shriek, shedding blood from the huge wound on its shoulder. The cut in its flesh was caused by one of my sword techniques, brought to me by the skill Sword Master that I possessed.

Not missing the big opportunity of my opponent losing its composure, I immediately ran forward and raised my sword over my head. I had a feeling a normal finisher skill just won’t cut it against this thing, so I went over the top and used one of my strongest one hit kill techniques at the moment.

「Perfect Crescent」

It was a name provided by default when I got the skill Sword Master. Yup, I didn’t name it, I can never name a skill that well, for your information.

As the name suggested, my sword drew a perfect arc, just like a moon crescent, from above my head as I swung it down with all my might. The blade moved in a speed that human’s perception just cannot catch up at all even if they had boosting skills. Except for high-level boosting skills, that is.

Not being able to utter a single groan, the monster was bisected in half, perfectly symmetry. The Elder Shadow Wolf collapsed as its forehead split, blood and brains could be seen falling apart.

Taking out a cheap handkerchief from my pocket, I wiped the blood from my sword and my leather armor. I bought these armor with money earned from being an adventurer. Then I wiped the drops of blood on my face and turned back to the girls.