A strange sound that rang against the instincts and set them crawling.
When I turned my head toward where the sound had come from, an enormous living thing of some four to five metres was striding toward us.
Hide white as snow, fitted out as protective colouring.
Its head was like a snake's, and its body like a bird's.
But unlike a snake, which has no legs, it walked on four.
And unlike a bird, primitive yet powerful feet had settled in where wings had seemingly tried to evolve and stopped partway.
If my memory is right...
'Dermexus?'
That was the name of the monster.
Dermexus is a monster you can see only in the north, with a considerably savage temperament and a powerful body.
It was also one of the monsters I absolutely had to devour.
Only, it was a considerably strong specimen, so I had not been able to think about hunting one carelessly.
In a sense it was a higher predator than even the Ice Troll.
Perhaps that was why marked bewilderment surfaced on Kai's face.
In fact Dermexus is a monster that inhabits the Snowy Mountain.
There were occasional cases of them coming down the mountain in search of prey, but never a case of one coming this close to the county.
GRRRK!
The Dermexus's roar settled low.
It had recognised us as prey.
The Dermexus, savage by nature.
Once you have been marked as prey, there is no escaping.
We had to fight, but......
"Haah...! Haah...!"
...I was exhausted.
A full two days of running.
My stamina had gone past showing its bottom into being wrecked.
The entrail lunch boxes stored in the Inventory had shown their bottom as well.
A state in which I could use no more of the Regeneration ability.
Facing a Dermexus in this state is a distant prospect.
If I fought alone, I would certainly become the Dermexus's meal, but...
I turned my eyes slightly and looked at Kai.
Kai was not even looking my way.
His deep blue eyes were fixed on the Dermexus.
Watching the Dermexus's movements closely, Kai carefully brought his hand to the hilt of his sword.
Kai too knew he had to fight.
But.
"Haah...! Haah...!"
Kai was exhausted too.
Roughened breathing and long golden hair soaked with sweat.
Even for Kai, facing a Dermexus in his present state would be difficult.
It was not as though Kai did not know that, and yet—
Kai charged at the Dermexus without hesitation.
***
The monster that had suddenly shown itself, the Dermexus.
The moment he confirmed the Dermexus's form, the emotion that surfaced in Kai was 'doubt.'
And no wonder — a Dermexus is not a monster you see near the county.
A monster that mainly inhabits the Snowy Mountain.
Cases of one coming down as far as the county are almost non-existent.
'But how...?'
The doubt rose, but he shook it off quickly.
Now was not the time to weigh such things.
Drawing in rough breaths, Kai took the bitter cold air deep into his lungs.
A Dermexus is by no means a monster to be taken lightly.
A specimen that ten trained soldiers must coordinate against to face it capably.
Even for Kai, in a situation of considerable physical exhaustion, the outcome could not be guaranteed.
What's more, two straight days of running had depleted even the power of Aura.
It is difficult to face alone.
Even so, Kai has to do it alone.
That Adrian had changed to a degree, Kai acknowledged.
But as the words say, it was 'to a degree.'
Above all, what Adrian had done up to now amounted to conditioning and training, no more.
But a fight with a Dermexus is the real thing.
Training and the real thing are plainly different.
Training simply tests the body's limits.
But the real thing tests the body's limits, and pressure and tension, and emotional anguish besides.
The state of mental preparation demanded accordingly is of a different order.
That is not a kind that can be overcome with a mere few days of conditioning.
And in the real thing, unlike training, it is not only foreseeable things that happen.
A succession of situations that cannot be predicted.
Danger becomes real at any time and in any place.
Every decision and every action is a fork between life and death; a single mistake leads to a fatal result, and the price of it is death.
Therefore he must not expect anything of Adrian.
Adrian is a force worse than useless.
TAP!
The two feet kicking off the snowfield are heavy.
The Dermexus's great bulk and sharp teeth, seen through blurred vision.
The Dermexus's eyes, showing clearly as it drew nearer, are considerably threatening.
The Dermexus's ferocious gaze flashed for an instant.
GWAAAH—!
Sharp claws came flying, aimed at Kai.
He twisted his body quickly and dodged, but the motion cost him his balance for a moment. Kai forced his staggering legs to hold so as not to fall.
Somehow he wrung out the strength that remained and drove his sword in.
But his stamina had reached its limit.
Not much force was carried in his two heavily sunken arms.
KRRK...!
Blood boiled from the Dermexus's neck where he had buried the sword.
Kai added strength, but with its Aura depleted the sword made no further progress.
The Dermexus's eyes opened wide as if in agony, and its great mouth gaped.
In that instant.
The Dermexus's eyes shone.
In that instant came a warning from instinct.
An alarm bell rang ceaselessly through his head.
Kai hurriedly pulled the sword out of the neck.
And at the same time he kicked off the ground—
The Dermexus's gaping maw crashed down on the spot Kai had left.
Had he not dodged on instinct, he would have been eaten whole.
...Gulp.
He swallowed once, without meaning to. He readjusted his grip on the sword.
The Dermexus was not dead yet.
A wounded monster.
A temperament savage to begin with turns still more vicious.
And that was when it happened.
While the Dermexus's attention was taken up with Kai.
Adrian sprang in like a thunderbolt and swung his sword at the Dermexus's neck.
But a Dermexus's tough hide cannot even be scratched with a plain blade.
You had to use the power of Aura.
And Adrian did not use the power of Aura.
It would be accurate to say he cannot.
Because Adrian's talent for mana converged on 0.
But.
The trajectory of the sword Adrian swung changed in an instant.
The wound that had opened a moment ago, where Kai had driven his sword in.
Adrian aimed precisely at the gap of that wound. And without a hair's width of deviation he drove his sword into the very same place, and—
"......!"
Kai's eyes opened wide.
KRRK—!
The Dermexus's blood boiled once again.
The Dermexus thrashed in agony.
But Adrian did not fall back.
With the sword gripped in both hands he pinned the thrashing Dermexus.
Adrian, driving the Dermexus back.
Movement the Count's wastrel could never possibly show.
"......"
Kai found himself at a loss for words.
That... is not a wastrel who lived sunk in nothing but gambling and pleasure.
Adrian, who had begun physical conditioning of late.
And even so.
Because it had been about ten days.
And even that amounted to nothing but physical conditioning.
In other words, he had never once held a sword.
He is a 'greenhorn' with no combat experience whatsoever.
But......
KRRRK—!!
Where in that was a greenhorn?
And who could think that was a greenhorn and a wastrel who had never once held a sword, with no combat experience at all?
The Dermexus began to rampage.
To shake Adrian off it thrashed in every direction like an enraged bull.
But Adrian did not fall back.
If anything he drove the sword buried in the Dermexus's neck in deeper.
Adrian, pressing the Dermexus without pause.
"......!!"
Kai's eyes opened wide once again.
Neither a knight who has crossed countless real fights and countless death lines, nor a mercenary who has ranged over innumerable battlefields, can do that much.
Kai himself has no confidence he could do that much right now.
SHUNK!
......The thought came to him unbidden that it made no sense.
The boldness was one thing, but his skill in handling a sword was no less than a knight's.
However he thought about it, he could not believe this was a man who had picked up a sword for the first time.
But he could somehow try to understand it.
That he had reached that level in a mere ten days made no sense, but on this continent there were quite a few 'geniuses' for whom such nonsensical things were possible.
In a sense Kai belonged to that class of genius himself.
But...
SLASH!
...it is not to that degree.
The timing and the exchange of bending the sword's path from instant to instant to match the Dermexus's movements.
Movement without a single flaw to fault.
KRAAK—!
......That was not a kind that could be explained with the simple word 'genius.'
They say knowledge you only know by doing is not knowledge but experience.
Movement like that is impossible through talent alone.
The experience of ranging over countless real fights and battlefields where lives are traded.
Unless such experiences back it up in combination, it can absolutely never be learned in the body.
'How in the world......'
When Adrian put strength into the sword, RIP!
The Dermexus was cut cleanly from neck to jaw.
That alone was a fatal wound that would lead to death.
But Adrian did not stop.
Adrian swiftly withdrew the sword and clenched his fist. And when he drove it with all his strength at the Dermexus's head—
A roar burst out with a CRACK!
Its skull seemed to shatter, and the Dermexus's head caved in.
"......!!!"
Kai's eyes opened wider still.
The fist with which Adrian had just shattered a Dermexus's skull.
The power of Aura was not in it.
Meaning it was force that came out of a purely human body.
But what had just happened was by no means force and destructive power a human could produce...... it was not.
With a small tremor — THUD! — the Dermexus collapsed to the ground.
There was no further movement.
The snow of the snowfield was stained red with the Dermexus's blood.
"Hoo-ah...!!"
Adrian let out a deep breath and dropped where he stood.
Past dropping, Adrian sprawled out on the ground.
His stamina had run completely dry.
The same was true for Kai.
The only stamina he had left was what kept him standing on his two legs like this.
In other words, without Adrian he would have been in serious trouble.
That was how powerful a specimen a Dermexus was.
Of course, had his stamina been sufficient, a Dermexus would not have been particularly threatening to Kai.
But in a situation where not only stamina but Aura had run dry, a Dermexus was a considerably threatening specimen.
'Why would a Dermexus come as far as the county...'
He still did not know why a monster that mainly dwells on the Snowy Mountain had come down near the county.
But he could only feel relief that the first prey the Dermexus encountered was Kai.
Because otherwise the county's residents would have been the sacrifice.
And Kai too would have been in danger 'had Adrian not been there.'
'Hm.'
Kai chewed over Adrian's fight once again.
Adrian's skill in handling a sword was of a high standard.
But the swordsmanship he used was not systematic.
Adrian's blade, aimed solely at killing.
In truth it could not be called swordsmanship.
Put kindly it was practical; put unkindly it was crude.
Only, thorough calculation and outstanding combat instinct were covering those shortcomings.
In that sense Adrian could be seen as closer to a 'knight.'
And yet his actual fighting style was like a 'mercenary's.'
But the efficient movement aimed solely at killing was like a 'beast's.'
Knight, mercenary, and beast.
......He could not begin to gauge what sort of person the man was.
The one thing he could tell was—
Only that Adrian was no longer 'the Count's wastrel.'
Adrian, who had suddenly changed after running away from home.
He did not know what had happened during that one week.
But Adrian had changed completely.
The way Kai looked at Adrian had unmistakably changed.
In that moment.
Adrian, who had been sprawled on the ground, sprang up.
Adrian too seemed to have recovered his stamina to a degree, because there was no hesitation in his movements.
Adrian picked up the sword that had fallen to the ground. He climbed onto the Dermexus's corpse and drove the sword in without hesitation.
'What...?'
Before Kai's question could even complete itself.
Adrian drew something about 30cm across out of the Dermexus's corpse.
'A heart?'
It was the Dermexus's heart.
The Dermexus's heart held in Adrian's hand was showing faint movement.
But that did not mean the Dermexus was alive.
It was merely that the heart's nerves had not yet died.
Which is to say that the blow with which Adrian drove the Dermexus to death had been that fast and that certain.
The heat of blood not yet cooled.
Meeting the chill of the snowfield, it gave off hot steam.
The crimson blood remaining in the heart fell to the ground and stained the white snow of the snowfield redder still.
Adrian looked at the Dermexus's heart and showed a 'satisfied smile.'
...Is he insane?
To Kai's eyes he looked like the most insane man in the world.
If pulling out a monster's heart and smiling is not insane, what is?
Whether he did or not.
Adrian brought the Dermexus's heart to his mouth.
'Why would he suddenly, with the heart—'
Crunch.
"Are you in your right mind?!"
The face and expression of Kai, crying out without meaning to, were no longer those of a man facing a fellow human.