(An e-eight-ring crest?)
On the exposed skin of the woman’s waist was an eight-ring crest — eight sun circles combined into a pattern that looked like a tattoo. Kazui had seen photographs of eight-ring crests during his guild training, and this was identical.
(This woman is the Brigadier-class! So she really is a monster!)
Kazui realized that the woman standing before him was a Brigadier-class monster. At the same time, he roughly understood what had happened to him earlier.
(That magic attack shot down this Brigadier-class, and she fell right on top of me.)
The tremendous impact he had received while fighting the skeletons had been caused by the Brigadier-class monster crashing down on him after being hit by magic. She had been protected by powerful aura while falling, so it was essentially the same as being body-slammed by a Brigadier-class monster wrapped in strong defensive aura. That was why even Kazui’s Aura Mail hadn’t been able to fully protect him.
Incidentally, the one who had shot her down was Monty. That was why the monster woman was so angry at the "red-haired old man."
The Brigadier-class monster still hadn’t noticed Kazui’s presence. Before she turned her back, Kazui had been at the edge of her vision, but the dust made him hard to see.
(I-I have to run... or I’ll be killed.)
Terrified and panicked, Kazui tried to get up and back away from the spot. Enduring the pain in his left leg, he began putting distance between himself and the woman.
But his left foot, which wouldn’t move the way he wanted, bumped into something and produced a not-so-small metallic sound.
(What was that?)
Kazui immediately checked around his left foot and realized he had touched a longsword.
A longsword and a round shield were lying on the ground. His left foot had moved the longsword, causing it to strike the nearby shield and create the metallic noise.
Near the weapons lay the skeleton he had been fighting just moments earlier, face-down. Like Kazui, it had taken damage from the Brigadier-class’s impact. Its head was intact, but most of the rest of its body had been shattered, so regeneration hadn’t finished yet and it couldn’t move. Since it hadn’t been fully defeated, the longsword and shield hadn’t disappeared and remained on the ground.
Even on the noisy battlefield, the woman didn’t miss the metallic sound of weapons coming from nearby. She turned toward the source of the sound — toward Kazui.
She noticed Kazui, who was still trying to back away, and glared at him.
(Ah... so I’m going to die.)
Meeting the eyes of the Brigadier-class monster woman, Kazui felt a chill run down his spine as he became aware of the death that now seemed unavoidable. He had been noticed by an overwhelmingly powerful enemy he had no chance of defeating — or even escaping from.
Even so, although he muttered "I’m going to die" in his heart and was conscious of death, Kazui had not given up. Just as Yuri had said, he was "the type who is bad at giving up and desperately struggles to survive until the very end."
(What should I do? Is there any way I can survive?)
He desperately tried to think of a plan that might let him live.
(Scatter smoke and run?)
Kazui reached for the black case about the size of his palm attached to the right side of his belt.
(She’s not the kind of opponent magic cards will work on, but it’s better than just getting killed without trying anything.)
Magic cards were card-shaped magic tools that allowed anyone to use magic. However, only a limited number of magic skills had been turned into cards, and they couldn’t produce high-output mana.
Inside Kazui’s black card case were about twenty magic cards he had bought with what little money he had. Five of them were smoke-screen cards.
Against slow, low-detection monsters, scattering smoke could give him a chance to escape. That was why Kazui always carried several smoke-screen cards.
Of course, the chance of smoke working against a top-tier Brigadier-class monster was extremely low. But Kazui was the stubborn type who refused to go down without a fight.
(If I use all five, maybe I can buy a little time to run.)
Kazui opened the card case and was about to pull out the cards. But before he could, the woman’s tail stretched out like a tentacle and wrapped around the case.
With powerful force, the tail yanked the card case. The part connecting the case to his belt tore free.
In an instant, the card case was pulled over to the woman along with her tail. She had snatched it away with the same ease as using a tentacle.
The woman took the stack of cards out of the case, gave them a quick look, then tore them up and discarded both the cards and the case.
"If they were rare ones it might be different, but did you really think you could do anything to me with junk magic cards like these?"
She looked down at Kazui with a mocking tone. As she examined him with an appraising gaze, her expression suddenly changed.
Her mocking smile turned into a delighted one.
"Oh... this one looks quite delicious."
She licked her lips like a female cat eyeing its prey.
"Instead of that old man... maybe I’ll eat this boy instead."
The monster woman’s target shifted from Monty, the one who had shot her down, to the boy right in front of her — Kazui.