Chapter 355: Dragons, O Dragons! Part Twenty

A philosophical zombie, was it? An entity that shows reactions entirely indistinguishable from a human on the surface, yet harbors no emotion whatsoever within... Perhaps the Great Red Devourer is exactly that kind of being. But even so, the situation of being buried alive by earth crashing down from above seems to warrant... impatience.

With the source fallen below, the red tornado naturally follows the main body. And in the brief reprieve before the lid closes on this massive hole and everything is crushed, the option the Great Red Devourer chose was an exceedingly simple brute-force play.

Arm Cyclops: "Ooiii"

The red tornado shows a fluctuation clearly different from when it was spawning copies before. As if kneading clay, it gathers the majority of itself into a single point and gives birth to it.

Sunraku: "What the hell is that...?"

Setting aside the fact that it's solid red, if I had to describe the thing it spawned in a single phrase... what, a one-eyed giant cyclops with completely messed-up part sizes? A corpse of one, maybe? The "oi oi" sound seems to be its cry—not that it matters. From a mouth arranged similarly to a human's, blade-like teeth clearly specialized for killing glint at regular intervals. There's no nose or brow, just a single absurdly huge eyeball planted there. But those are features you could still accept if someone called it a "cyclops." The problem is that its body is damaged from the start, and the other issue... is that "arm."

Sunraku: "Gh... anyway, up...!"

I probably shouldn't take my eyes off the immediate problem. If I just wait here quietly, I'll be buried alive. If so, I have no choice but to find a way out in the tiny gaps left. While scrambling up the wall of the collapsed hole faster than my approaching skill durations can expire, I turn over thoughts about the glimpse I caught of the mystery cyclops. That cyclops, created using most of the red tornado, had already lost both legs and its left arm the moment it was born. Meaning it only has one right arm—a pitiful existence on the verge of death from birth... or so it should be. But its arm, as if all the power of its lost limbs had been concentrated into that single right arm, shows an abnormal swelling that screams "BAD NEWS" at a glance. It's bigger than the 75%-Daruma-state torso, after all. Or rather, wouldn't it be more accurate to say the torso is attached to the arm?

Sunraku: "Nn, ooooh!!"

Dammit! I got too distracted by the Great Red Devourer's desperate struggles to avoid being buried alive. The mass of soil, stone, and rock is already so close to the ground that it's about to seal the hole shut. Even at full speed, I don't have enough time to leap through the moonlight slipping through the narrowing gap. Curse you, Deep Throater. That bastard is absolutely getting divine punishment...!!

Sunraku: "Not gonna make it..."

Arm. Situation. Escape. Trump card. Suddenly, a premonition hits me. It's just a hunch, a single hypothesis I arrived at through analysis. And sure enough, in this checkmate scenario, it leads me to deliberately choose to go... downward.

Sunraku: "Gh... the effect time...!"

But the skill duration can't last that long... I'm running back down the wall I came from. It's still over a dozen meters high. If I fall from here, I'll just die... to hell with it, die!!

Sunraku: "Meteor Fall!"

I have to secure the height myself, but I slam a flying kick that converts fall damage directly into attack damage straight into the Great Red Devourer's main body. It reacts like, "Huh, you're hitting me NOW!? I'm about to use my big move!?" Quit your whining, bastard. Hitting someone mid-windup to stop them is basic gamer skill. Ah, stop, no counterattack lasers! Help me, "Scarred"!!

Sunraku: "But now we're in the same boat... I'm counting on you, Great Red Devourer-san...!"

Escape is already impossible. We, who until just minutes ago used killing as a communication tool, are now in the same boat under these circumstances. Why is it that I can trust you more than Deep Throater, who's the same species and in the same party...? Man, why is that...

Arm Cyclops: "OooOOoooooo......!!"

The arm cyclops spawned by the Great Red Devourer begins to pour tension into its single remaining, grotesquely swollen right arm. Because it's solid red, I couldn't tell before, but as the arm swells further from the kinetic energy building within it, I realize for the first time that it's exposed muscle with no skin. But the exposure isn't from damage. It's as if that state is the default. With a straining, creaking sensation—the only way to describe it is like wringing a rag while its mass somehow continues to increase—something is about to happen.

Sunraku: "Wait, no... no way."

By some principle, the arm cyclops's right arm, now swollen to nearly twice the size of its torso, finally begins to crackle with electrical charge. And the moment its hand forms a fist, I realize what this dying giant... what the Great Red Devourer is about to do. Wait, wait. I'm not remotely knowledgeable about physics or anything, and I don't understand the physics engine programmatically either, but... if you unleash enough energy to counter that in a place like this...!! Whether it's possible or impossible doesn't matter. This is a game world, so it wouldn't be strange for heaven and earth to flip over. But even so, to think it would literally punch away a landmass weighing tens of thousands of tons or more... Still, I'm not so dull as to stand around in a daze. Standing still is only allowed in event scenes and endings.

Sunraku: "Defend... no good. No, wait, Inventoria!!"

The power is about to be released. Even from the outside, the grotesque arm packed with energy to its critical point looks as if it's sucking something up from the depths of the gouged-out earth. Lines of light run across the crimson muscle, like watching a machine from some sci-fi story (not SLF) being run at 120%. A one-shot cannon of destruction with no thought whatsoever for what comes after, what lies ahead, or the future.

Arm Cyclops: "iiiiiiIIIIII......!!"

Its cry, which could even be called a little goofy, is the last thing on my mind—because right next to me, a nuclear warhead is about to detonate. My body's gonna get vaporized.

Sunraku: "[Transfer: Storage Space (Enter Travel)]!!"

An ultimate violence so extreme that even measuring it by any standard is absurd is unleashed. A fragile human has no choice but to flee. And that's exactly why— In the instant before the scenery in my vision changes, the figure of a "strong one" who still believes in his own power and lunges at the Great Red Devourer is seared into my eyes with terrible clarity.

About three minutes. Just enough time for a cup of instant noodles to finish or not. That's the time that passed at the bottom of this hole while I was gone.

Sunraku: "...Maybe I should've just died and seen the actual scene."

There's no sign of the Great Red Devourer. It probably crawled up from this "path" to the surface. Click, clack. The sound of heels echoes in the underground space vitrified by the sheer heat. When I look up, there's a colossal glass tunnel punched diagonally through to the surface. If things had gone wrong, could this have been aimed at a player? I give a wry smile at this game's balance tuning and walk across the glass floor until I find what I was looking for.

???: "......"

Sunraku: "...Charcoal, huh."

Or rather, what was once "Scarred." If I had to put it a certain way, this guy—who had been about to bite into ground zero—took that colossal energy that vitrified the surroundings at point-blank range. Just how much heat and destructive force was slammed into his body...? His crumbling form was so wretched you'd never believe it was the same monster that had kept dealing death and defeat to players.

Sunraku: "Even so, it's still hanging on..."

In this game, whether player, NPC, or monster... anything that meets its death uniformly "vanishes" alongside an effect. In other words... should I call it extreme tenacity, or should I ask how the hell you're supposed to kill something if this doesn't kill it... He's still alive.

Sunraku: "......"

At this point, I have two choices. To put it bluntly: let him live, or kill him. A simple power over life and death, but... I've heard that not just "Scarred," but his entire species reigns over this vast jungle as a kind of area boss. A theory circulates among players that advancing far enough into the jungle almost guarantees an encounter with his species, Dracule Dinosauberus. Among them, this "Scarred" is said to be a special executioner monster dispatched to kill large parties who push through by sheer numbers without fail. And now, that very monster is on the verge of death right before my eyes. The merits of finishing him off are huge. Materials, of course. At my current level, even the EXP wouldn't go to waste. And above all, a troublesome obstacle to pioneering the New Land would be removed.

Sunraku: "......"

It's simple. He's basically a lump of charcoal now, so I could finish him off with a bare-handed punch. Most of the damage was shaved off by the Great Red Devourer, but if I deal the killing blow, I'm sure the returns will be substantial. Plus, having acquired skills as an Avenger, I understand: by defeating him, I can build up my achievements as an Avenger. If I play my cards right, I might even get words of praise from Loli-sensei. Another piece of material for the "Make Survival Die of Rage" plan... though honestly, just the screenshot of "Loli-sensei eating a parfait in a school swimsuit" might be enough to deal fatal damage.

Sunraku: "Well, what I gotta do doesn't change."

What I pull out is Mystic Soma, a percentage-based recovery item unlike other potions. I received it from Saint-chan as part of an advance payment. Without a moment's hesitation, I scatter it over "Scarred."

Sunraku: "Stop dozing off and get up already. That one's on me. Not like I need it right now anyway."

Maybe Tottori's vibe rubbed off on me. Well, either way, just swooping in for the last hit without contributing any firepower probably isn't great for my Vorpal score. The Crystal Scorpions? Finishing those off is a life-or-death endeavor in itself. Just fighting them is the epitome of Vorpal.

Sunraku: "If I lose you, our firepower plummets. I can't have you dying in a ditch in a place like this."

Watching the charcoal lump slowly regain the color of flesh, I can't help but crack a smile. Alright then. How should I taunt that pervert who caused this massive catastrophe yet failed to kill "Scarred," the Great Red Devourer, or even me?

If I had to say, Black-san isn't just muscle-brained—even his bones are made of muscle.