Episode 15

The mutants descended from the branches, swinging around them like a pendulum and leaping once they gained enough momentum. They also emerged from the darkness of the forest depths in a single bound. And Yonah and Caim rushed forward to confront them, leaving Victoria behind. Naturally.

If they wanted to win the fight, they couldn't stay close to watch over her. They couldn't afford to be too cautious. One might decide that such a situation, surrounded by such swift enemies, would be sensible. But passivity was the same as defeat. If they lost ground instead of gaining it, they would only be inevitably crushed.

So they advanced. Even though the weakness of the mages was their attack speed. Even though that's why they needed the protection of gunmen and swordsmen, no matter how fantastic their magic was.

They had no choice but to trust each other and act without hesitation.

That's how they had overcome countless battles. This situation wouldn't be any different. It was too soon to fall, to bite the dust. They hadn't come this far to die now!

Caim slid along the ground, bending at the waist. Yonah climbed onto his back and used it as a springboard. Six of the mutants died even before she reached the ground. She threw dagger after dagger accurately. Whether between the eyes, in the heart, in the lungs, they suffered mortal wounds and succumbed to them quickly.

Then, that whirlwind landed in the midst of the mutants. Who could match her rhythm?

The daggers in her hands disappeared. They became a blurry flash of steel as she attacked. Not even Caim, accustomed to seeing her fight, could follow her movements with his eyes.

Caim felt something behind him. Not Victoria, of course. It was so obvious that there was no need to mention it. It was a hostile presence.

But he did nothing about it. It wasn't necessary.

Victoria grabbed the mutant's ankle with a tentacle. She dragged him screaming across the ground and smashed him to pieces against the ground in two or three blows. He heard the explosion. He heard the release of bones, flesh, blood, and other fluids. He didn't need to look back to know his condition. His mental image was almost perfect.

Victoria wasn't the only one who sometimes simply had to trust her companions. He did too. He had done it, and he had been rewarded for it.

If he had turned around to deal with the son of a bitch unnecessarily, three others would have attacked him from behind. They would have pounced on him with their claws and teeth, ready to tear him apart. And they would have done it or they would have failed. That wasn't the question. The question was that they would have had the chance.

It could be said to be a fragile balance, but thanks to being a team of three, they could compensate for such things and overcome the adversities that life put in their way.

It wasn't sentimentality, but pure logic. Humans weren't meant to live alone. They were social animals. And he, who had always been denied, had found a group in the end.

Sometimes he wondered... Why wasn't that enough for him? Why did he have to risk the concrete things he had gained for unknown answers?

Was he a naive and selfish child who thought he could have it all, or was his selfishness going in the other direction?

Well, regardless of the truth, he would be stuck with himself for the rest of his life. So he would have to settle.

His sword flew through the mountain of flesh once more. It was surrounded by thick blood that seemed as human as his, although they couldn't be more different. Anyone would see these things as abominations. But why? There was only a slight difference. His horns marked him as different, but they weren't even that big! So why did they insist on seeing him like those monsters?

He cleaved one of those bastards in half. And then...

"Don't fuck with me!"

He was the kind of person who only believed what his eyes saw. But this time, he didn't want to believe it.

The lower half fell to the ground cleanly, lifeless.

But the upper half flew in the opposite direction, propelled by the force of the blow. And something else. The animalistic rage that still burned in that chest.

Because the creature was alive, and its arms were outstretched toward him.

He let himself be caught, which was shameful, but it caught him off guard so he felt it was excusable. He gritted his teeth. And it wouldn't be so excusable if he ended up slashing its neck wide open.

"Damn... fucking mutant."

He and his friends. Because he didn't come alone.

Because they were a damn swarm of those bugs, more and more, coming out of nowhere. Almost like the armors, which kept coming no matter how many they took down. Maybe that was the concept of the first floor.

Maybe it didn't mean anything in particular.

Fuck it!

"Caim!" they both shouted, so in unison that for a moment he could have thought it was just one voice.

"I'm fine, I got this!"

The mutant's jaws were like a shark's teeth. That deadly trap opened and closed as it approached his neck, making unnatural sounds. Its arms were pressed so tightly against his body that he couldn't move them. More importantly, he couldn't move the sword.

But that didn't mean he was immobilized or defenseless. He would prove it. Here and now.

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Caim threw himself backward. It was like a suplex, even though the opponent was the one holding him. The impact caused the hateful mutant's head to burst. It stopped moving, and having died, Caim could easily remove it alive.

He let out a sigh of relief.

It was one thing to live even after being split in half, and another thing to survive having your head crushed. There couldn't exist a creature that could live without its brain, without the body's central command center. Even so, he had doubted for a few moments. He had feared. It was good to know that madness didn't go that far after all.

It would be overwhelming if they went that far. As things stood, it wasn't exactly a walk in the park, but they were managing.

Although the mutants had already eaten the knights, so they had no distractions, they were advancing relentlessly and mercilessly towards them.

More and more.

No, the flow was starting to slow down.

This was a battle they could win, unlike the battle against the army of living armors on those winding stairs. There, the goal was simply to reach the exit. But here they could win. And they would win!

After a short time, only about a dozen mutants remained standing. They weren't charging with the same fervor anymore. Although they were emptied beings, without anything, Caim and the rest had instilled fear in them.

Fear was the first and strongest of emotions.

After all, all humans came into this world crying at the top of their lungs. In a twisted way like all the existence of those beasts, this, their doubt, their fear, the fact that they fell behind, that they were measured with a glance... it was like their version of a newborn's cry.

They had no escape. If they had had a few dozen more, maybe the outcome would have changed.

But their only advantage had been numerical superiority from the start, and that was over.

They could only be crushed now.

They didn't stand a chance... yet, just as Caim was about to finish off the last mutant, the tables had to turn as usual. Nothing good could last.

In this case, the evil that came to compensate for the little good fortune they had earned by hard work was the ground bursting open.

It was like the eruption of a geyser.

However, no water came out of the hole.

Dozens of tentacles emerged, grabbing the scattered corpses and the only remaining living creatures. The bastard who had been about to be executed like the wild dog he was... He and his friends too, of course.

"Damn it."

That creature... had it been following them since then to here? At least, it was true that it was the same creature that had emerged from the collapsed ground when they were trapped in a room against living armors.

They had barely escaped. Like then, only the tentacles were visible.

Caim was hanging upside down. Blood flow reversed, and all the blood ended up going to his head. It was humiliating to be held in the air upside down by his ankle, like a child's toy.

It was the worst possible situation. They had been caught like flies, and there didn't seem to be a way to escape. As soon as Victoria grabbed it, she had unleashed a water spell strong enough to disperse a real army (without exaggerating like she had referred to the living armors then as an army).

Not even that had had any effect on the gigantic creature.

Well, it had lost some tentacles, but it had plenty.

Then, Caim remembered something important.

Virgil had given him a black crystal. All he needed to do was concentrate and break it. They could escape the inescapable situation using its miraculous teleportation power.

Of course, that would only be if Virgil had told them the truth about the artifact. But it would be quite impossible for him to get recurring customers if such a thing didn't exist. What would people who wanted to buy something from him do once they reached a different floor?

Go back, waste even more resources, risk a miserable death? And only to have to retrace their steps and waste everything they had bought before returning to the beginning.

Yes. The black crystal... probably worked exactly as he said it did. Virgil hadn't mentioned it, but he assumed it could also take them back to where they had been last.

However...

"I'm not running away," he declared as if the tentacle creature could stop him.

He was tired of retreating to lick his wounds. Just as he had told them at the beginning of this, he had no intention of backing down.

Caim was here to win.

He still didn't know how, but that had never stopped him before.

He would win.

He would win no matter what.

The tentacles began to descend into the depths of darkness. Of course, since they were tied, they descended with them as well. Once there, they would contemplate the true appearance of the creature, even if it was through the veil of darkness. He didn't know what kind of appearance it would have. In any case, he knew they would be swallowed up without a trace.

There was a famous story about a man who was swallowed by a whale.

Alive, not dead.

And somehow, he managed to survive for a month in that stinky flesh prison. The whale died at some point.

The fishermen pulled it out of the sea and him out of its guts with a knife.

Like a newborn.

With his clothes torn and covered from head to toe in its stomach fluids, they pulled him out into something that was like a different world after so long down there.

But unfortunately, they had arrived too late.

He had been saved and given a second chance, but he was too crazy to enjoy it at that point. His body had been saved, but his soul had died in the unfathomable depths of that darkness.

He doubted the story was true, but he thought of it for some reason as they descended into hell.

It's not like he was so stupid to believe they would have a chance to "survive" in the darkness when it swallowed them, or that someone would come to save them.

Just...

He couldn't say.

In any case, if he didn't counterattack now, he never would. So he shot a web into the darkness. He shot blindly, simply hoping to hit the target.

He heard the impact against something wet and slimy.

When the web caught fire, the flames illuminated... enough to stop anyone's heart out of pure horror. Endless rows of teeth. Since he had only been in a church once and had almost not lived to tell it, it made him think of the rows of pews on either side of the altar. Rows and rows of penitents. Of the congregants. All gathered to...

Watch him burn.

Each of its burning white eyes from corner to corner seemed to be a person watching him, judging him, anticipating the same thing as everyone else.

Caim howled as the wall of fire rose. He thrust his sword into the tentacle holding his leg. And it barely moved. The sword notched its skin, but that was it.

"Shit. I need more... I need more power!"

His screams increased in intensity.

They sounded like the howls of a wild beast.

They sounded like a person dying in agony.

Quickly, without even having to touch anything, the boxes appeared and the points were distributed according to his will. His Strength increased a couple of times. It hadn't been long since he had used the Experience Points earned in previous battles. However, it was enough.

This time... the tentacle didn't just move!

He cut it in half!

It collapsed before his strength!

You are nothing, he triumphantly howled in his mind. Nothing!

Although he had only cut one tentacle out of dozens or even hundreds and started a small fire, he felt like the damn king of the fucking world.

Episode 15: END