A contradictory sensation, terror and exultation mixed together.
The two tangled into one and rang violently through my mind.
My breath came short at the terror surging up from deep in my instincts.
My heart hammered like mad.
The blood of my whole body began to run fast.
Every nerve in my body sharpened and every sense grew keen, and within that a strange pleasure bloomed.
I was unmistakably feeling the terror of life.
And yet my body was electric with an exultation I could not explain, as though a current had passed through it. Even inside the fear, satisfaction mixed in.
Even in that moment my instincts were sending warnings without pause, but the fierce desire to get past that crisis papered over all the terror and fear.
Excitement without restraint.
And that was when it happened.
◆Beginning sudden quest [You're That Strong?! Follow Me to the Snowy Mountain!].
==[You're That Strong?! Follow Me to the Snowy Mountain!]==
[OBJECTIVE] - Survive the Gelu Drake.
[REWARD] - <Title> unlocked
[ON FAILURE] - Death.
A translucent message surfaced abruptly before my eyes.
Its contents were a 'sudden' quest, following the tutorial, main, and affinity ones.
It seemed to be a quest that occurs suddenly, exactly as the name says.
A quest only presents a direction, and no more.
Whether I survive the Gelu Drake by 'running.'
Or survive by 'fighting.'
It does not decide how I will reach the goal.
The choice of how to achieve the goal is entirely mine.
And the responsibility for the result is entirely mine as well.
But this quest was a little different.
The options were semi-compulsory.
Because now that I had run into a Gelu Drake, the option 'run away' had been erased from the choices available to me.
That hunger it was baring at me.
There is absolutely no running from a Gelu Drake.
Now that it had come to this, I have to fight.
When I set my gaze straight, the Gelu Drake was watching me quietly.
Yellow eyes resembling a reptile's rolled once.
The Gelu Drake did not rush at me carelessly.
But that was not it taking my measure.
Nor was it judging whether I was prey worth hunting.
Befitting the name Master of the Snowy Mountain, on this Snowy Mountain the Gelu Drake has no natural enemy.
Therefore that was.
Merely amusement and interest, toying with its prey.
In an instant.
FWAP!
The Gelu Drake kicked off the snow of the Snowy Mountain.
Tremendous speed.
...My reaction was late.
It would be accurate to say I could not react.
CRUNCH!
With a grisly sound my right arm was bitten clean off.
The resistance of Hardened Skin [D] is useless.
This one cannot be saved.
I changed my thinking and immediately clenched my left fist.
At the price of giving up my right arm, I struck the Gelu Drake's torso.
CRASH—!
An impact and a roar burst out as though I had struck a thick steel plate.
The Gelu Drake staggered.
Using that gap I pulled my body back quickly.
The Gelu Drake did not come after me.
It seemed to have taken a fair shock from the blow a moment ago, because it kept staggering.
A Strength stat reaching a full 22.
Strength amounting to twenty-two adult men could land a sufficiently effective blow on a Gelu Drake.
But the damage I took was far too severe.
The bone of the left fist I had struck with was completely pulverised.
My bitten right arm had been torn away entirely.
My right arm, hanging empty now.
Enough to make me think of Ian.
...Though come to think of it, with Ian it was the left arm.
No — this is no time to be having trivial thoughts like that.
Blood was pouring from my torn right arm.
Maddening pain threw my mind into utter disarray.
"Krrgh...!!"
Just as I was swallowing the pain through sheer stubbornness, it happened.
◆Temporarily blocking the sensory nerves!
Along with a translucent message surfacing out of nowhere, the maddening pain vanished all at once.
Only then did my swimming head come back. I immediately activated the regeneration skill.
◆You may use the skill 'Regeneration [B-]' to regenerate the damaged body.
◆Required nutrients - Carbohydrates, protein, fats, vitamins, phosphorus, iron, sulphur, magnesium...
But the nutrients required for the regeneration spread out endlessly. Natural enough, given my whole right arm was gone.
But it's fine.
◆You may use the skill 'Nutrient Synthesis [C+]' to synthesise the required nutrients.
◆Surplus Kcal - 230Kcal
The strengthened Nutrient Synthesis [C+] ability.
Thanks to the strengthened ability I could synthesise every nutrient needed to reconstruct the body.
Only, the calories were nowhere near enough.
But even this posed no great problem.
◆Taking 'Alakron flesh' out of the Inventory.
I took the Alakron flesh I had cut in advance out of the Inventory and chewed it.
Over the past two weeks I had stored it steadily while hunting monsters.
Nutrients are sufficient.
Gulp.
When I swallowed the flesh down my throat, my bitten right arm regenerated in an instant.
My pulverised left fist regenerated too and returned to its original state.
With the regeneration ability strengthened to [B-], the efficiency and speed of regeneration had risen vastly.
Krrk?
The Gelu Drake shuddered in bewilderment.
The Gelu Drake, which had thought me a human.
But at regeneration on a par with an Ice Troll's, it had the look of suspecting I might be a 'troll?'
And then, at an appearance so utterly different from a troll's, it tilted its head.
Grrrk?!
As though looking at a specimen it was seeing for the first time in its life, the Gelu Drake's expression twisted into something grotesque.
With my fully regenerated right hand I drew my sword.
There are sufficient odds.
"Go on and keep biting."
Give up the bone, take the flesh.
***
BAM! CRASH!
The explosions kept bursting out and drew the attention of Kai and the soldiers.
The explosions, accompanied by roars, shook the Snowy Mountain greatly.
At the shock of the explosions the stillness of the Snowy Mountain shattered, and the mounds of snow piled on the peaks began to fall.
At first it was a quiet movement.
But soon it grew fast and heavy.
In an instant enormous masses of snow and ice came pouring down the mountain, and—
RRRRRUMBLE...!
A harsh roar shook the Snowy Mountain, and white snow covered the entire sky.
A wall of snow bearing down.
As though the sea had exploded, it charged downward, swallowing everything.
"Wh-whoa!"
"Everyone, look out!"
The soldiers were thrown into great confusion.
Unable to keep their balance against the tremor shaking the ground, they toppled one after another.
The pouring avalanche was smashing rocks and bearing down on the soldiers without restraint.
Stay like this and they all die.
Kai shouted like a thunderclap.
"All personnel! Gather behind me!!"
At Kai's shout, laden with Aura, the panicking soldiers' minds snapped clear. They moved as one and assembled behind Kai.
After confirming that all the soldiers had gathered, Kai drove his sword into the ground.
And when he expanded his Aura greatly, a translucent barrier formed centred on the sword driven into the ground.
At the same moment the avalanche struck.
The whole view was dyed white.
The air was covered in cold dust and snow.
Inside this, only the force of destruction could be felt.
How much time passed like that?
Only after the avalanche reached the flat ground below the mountain and formed an enormous white tomb did the stillness of the Snowy Mountain finally come.
"Mother of...!"
"W-we nearly died...!"
The strength gave out in the soldiers' legs and they dropped where they stood.
The place the avalanche had swept through.
Nothing at all remained there.
"Everyone...! Are you all... right?"
Kai checked the soldiers' condition.
White snow had piled on Kai's long golden hair. The hand gripping his sword and his voice were trembling faintly.
A natural result, having faced great nature head-on.
If anything, that such a thing was even possible was beyond imagining.
It would be no exaggeration to say a human had stood against great nature.
He had taken considerable injuries by it, and Kai had not fled.
He had fought against great nature and protected the soldiers.
Had Kai not stood in front and blocked the avalanche with Aura, what would have happened?
How many of the soldiers could have survived?
"We're all right!!"
"We are unhurt!!"
Deep respect and awe filled the soldiers' eyes as they turned toward Kai.
And at that moment.
BA-BOOM—!!
A great explosion burst out again on the Snowy Mountain.
It could not be called thanks to it, but the avalanche, having happened once, did not happen again.
And so, the place where the explosions were occurring.
Kai's instincts were warning him.
That he must absolutely never go there.
"The Gelu Drake...!!!"
Someone among the soldiers cried out.
"Wh-what did you say?!"
"Why would a Gelu Drake...!"
The soldiers' faces turned deathly pale in an instant.
Because there was not one among the soldiers who did not know what that name meant.
And not only the soldiers.
Every person in the White Wolf county knew.
Further, every living thing in the continent's north would know that name.
Because that was a great calamity, one that surpassed even the terror of great nature called an avalanche.
***
CLANG—!
The Gelu Drake's hide did not permit the blade to bite in. But that did not mean it absorbed the whole of the impact as well.
The shock of being struck with iron.
At it, the Gelu Drake staggered.
I quickly opened the distance.
The sword I was currently using was one the soldiers of the county castle use.
It had no particular distinction, but it was a steel sword more than sufficient for practical use.
It was not a slender sword made purely for show, as last time.
And even so it could not cut.
Never mind cutting — it could not make a single scratch.
'The hide is too hard.'
Not at the level of tough — 'hard.'
Because the Gelu Drake's hide too is inherited from the dragon.
Of course it is nothing to compare with true dragon scales.
Even so, hide with a dragon's genetic factors engraved into it.
Unless it is an Aura sword, a Gelu Drake's hide cannot be cut.
And I cannot handle Aura, never mind mana.
'A sword won't do it.'
I have to settle this with blows. I made the judgement fast. I threw the sword. The Gelu Drake did not dodge.
CLANG—!
The Gelu Drake's hide collided with the thrown sword and sparks flew.
I had been feeling it for a while, but that could fairly be called metal rather than hide.
In other words, I could not win if you beat me to death.
But.
The me of now is not the Count's wastrel.
Attached to the special task force under the allied forces' operations command.
Covert Operations Captain of the Special Warfare Corps.
If a dragon's genetic factors are engraved into the Gelu Drake.
Then every memory and experience of my time as the allied forces' Predator is engraved intact in my head.
◆Using the skill 'Promote Metabolism [E+].'
◆Strength decreases by [-25%].
◆Agility and Stamina increase by [+10%].
Thump!
Every ability that runs through the nervous system is temporarily amplified.
The sword I threw dealt no damage at all.
But it was able to give the Gelu Drake a brief hesitation.
And that brief hesitation.
TAP-TAP!
I forced my way into that hesitation. My suddenly quickened movement. For a moment the Gelu Drake lost me.
By which its flank was left perfectly open.
I clench my fist tight.
Promote Metabolism [E+] was a skill that raised stamina and agility at the price of [-25%] Strength.
That is, a Strength stat of 22 drops to 16.5.
Strength amounting to 5.5 adult men decreases, and the blow landed on the Gelu Drake weakens accordingly.
But Promote Metabolism [E+] is an [On/Off] skill.
Immediately before the blow I deactivated Promote Metabolism [E+].
At which the decreased strength returned in an instant.
A complete blow at a Strength of 22.
And when that struck the Gelu Drake's ribs directly—
CRASH—!!
A great roar. The Gelu Drake's body shook hard, and—
CRUNCH!
The sound of bone breaking came.
But that had not come from the Gelu Drake.
◆Temporarily blocking the sensory nerves!
Because of the message surfacing before my eyes, no pain was felt.
When I lowered my gaze, my ruined fist came into view.
The Gelu Drake, meanwhile, only staggered a few times. It shook its head a few times and quickly gathered itself.
At this rate it was not that I had struck the Gelu Drake's ribs with my fist.
It was that the Gelu Drake's ribs had struck my fist.
A strategy of giving up the bone and taking the flesh.
What kind of nonsense strategy is that, you'd think.
But for the me of now it is a strategy more effective than any other.
◆You may use the skill 'Regeneration [B-]' to regenerate the damaged body.
◆You may use the skill 'Nutrient Synthesis [C+]' to synthesise the required nutrients.
I activated Regeneration [B-] and Nutrient Synthesis [C+] at the same time.
From the Inventory I took out monster meat and chewed and swallowed it.
My wrecked fist regenerates in an instant.
Grrrk...!
At that, the look in the Gelu Drake's eyes as it watched me changed.
Until a moment ago the Gelu Drake had seen me as nothing but prey and quarry.
But now it was not so.
A predator of equal standing.
A competitor that could, if it slipped, eat it in turn.
My eyes and the Gelu Drake's met.
Neither of us rushed in carelessly.
A standoff that felt as though it would go on forever.
I crooked a finger as if to provoke the Gelu Drake.
"I told you to keep biting, didn't I?"
Even so the Gelu Drake did not rush in carelessly.
It was not quite fear, but it was now unmistakably 'wary' of me.
But that too was brief.
"Don't tell me you're scared?"
At that one remark the Gelu Drake rolled its eyes back and kicked off the snow of the Snowy Mountain.