Kai's tooth and sword, holding Aura.
It cut through the Gelu Drake's hide.
Had it been a true dragon's scales it would have been out of the question.
But the Gelu Drake's hide was not as hard as a dragon's scales.
KYEEEK—!!
The Gelu Drake let out a scream laced with agony. The predator's instinct that had held a glow bends downward.
The look in the Gelu Drake's eyes as it cried out in every direction.
The emotion held in that look was......
K-krrk!
Bewilderment. I force my way into that gap.
FWAP!
When I put strength into my thighs, my body shot forward like an arrow.
The distance closing fast.
And the Gelu Drake?
It still has not gathered itself from the bewilderment.
I set my stance and drove out my fist.
A roar of THUD!
A heavy sensation transmitted through my fingers.
KYEEEEEK—!!
From the Gelu Drake's maw, gaping wide with pain, a dreadful scream burst out.
I landed a fair blow, but unfortunately I could not pierce the hide.
Simple blows alone could not break through a Gelu Drake's hard hide.
But that does not mean there is no impact.
THUD! THUUD—! THUD-THUD!
Every time I struck the Gelu Drake's body my fist was wrecked. Bone crumbled and flesh was ground up, but...
I did not stop.
I blocked the sensory nerves and held the pain down. I went on hammering the Gelu Drake's body.
BOOOM—!!
At a shock like an explosion the drake staggered back. Blood poured from the mouth of the retreating drake.
Perhaps its organs had burst, because unidentifiable pieces of flesh were mixed into the blood pouring out of it.
The look in its eyes, which had held a yellow glow, had died right down at some point.
That was no longer a predator's.
Blood was pouring from the wound Kai had cut cleanly.
It was retching blood repeatedly from the blows it had taken from me.
It was not quite a fatal wound.
But it is a wound to match one.
Just how much of a winning edge can be drawn from that?
No — I must not think about such things.
I shook my head at once. Because I am not unaware.
Of the fact that a wounded monster rages all the more.
The moment you grow careless thinking you have taken the edge.
The Gelu Drake will tear Kai and me to shreds with a single blow.
Kai was not unaware of that fact either. He did not rush in carelessly but held his breath. Readjusting his grip on his sword, he watched the Gelu Drake's movements closely.
The Gelu Drake let out rough breaths and glared at Kai and me.
But before long the Gelu Drake withdrew the interest it had placed in me.
Having checked my ragged fists, it did not place much interest in me.
And no wonder — as things stand I cannot be supplied with nutrients.
Because I ate all of the monster meat stored in the Inventory.
Therefore I could no longer regenerate.
In this situation I posed no threat whatsoever to the Gelu Drake.
By which it recognised Kai as the more threatening being rather than me. The Gelu Drake changed its thinking: it had to kill Kai first, not me.
The me of now is not the allied forces' Predator but the Count's wastrel.
And Kai likewise is not the Legion Commander of Frost.
It was a situation with Kai joined to me, and honestly I could not tell.
I have no certainty that we can beat the Gelu Drake.
Which is why, in all likelihood, the one to become its meal will be this side.
Rather than let it come to that......
'No help for it, then.'
I pulled my body back and away.
***
Adrian, suddenly turning and fleeing.
From an Adrian like that, not a trace of hesitation or reluctance could be seen.
He had thrown Kai out as bait for the Gelu Drake, while he himself fled with everything he had.
And with that Adrian had already hidden himself and vanished.
Kai's teeth ground together of their own accord.
......So this had been the intent all along.
An intent to throw Kai out as bait and preserve his own single life.
He should have noticed something was wrong from the moment the man proposed the two of them face the Gelu Drake.
If there was anything fortunate, it was that he had thrown out Kai as the sacrifice rather than the soldiers.
The Gelu Drake did not pursue the fleeing Adrian.
The Gelu Drake had already recognised Kai as its most threatening target.
It had recognised someone like Adrian as a specimen it could hunt whenever it pleased.
Krrk!
The Gelu Drake sneered.
A flashing yellow glow.
The emotion held inside it was mockery.
Rather...... if only he had not pulled the soldiers back.
Such regret came rushing in, but regret is late however fast it arrives.
Had he not pulled the soldiers back to begin with, the ones sacrificed would have been the soldiers, not Kai.
That said, he had not the slightest intention of sitting still and becoming a meal.
Only, the odds are not high.
Kai's sword can capably cut and open the Gelu Drake's hide.
Just as Kai gripped his sword firmly, it happened.
CRASH!
The Gelu Drake kicked off the snow and shot forward.
The distance closes in an instant.
Claws bearing down to fill his whole view. When he hurriedly swung his sword to block them—
CLANG—! CLANG-CLANG!
Grisly sparks flew in every direction.
And the one being pushed back...... is this side.
The Gelu Drake had fully registered that Kai's sword was threatening.
Unlike its hide, the Gelu Drake's claws inherited everything of the dragon.
In other words, this was no different from a dragon's claws.
A simple Aura sword could not overcome a dragon's claws.
Not even a knight who has reached the stage of Aura Master could stand against them.
And what's more, Kai is not a Master.
BOOOM—!
The Aura wrapped around the sword burst. Kai's body was flung far backward.
When he hurriedly set his vision straight, the Gelu Drake's body had drawn near enough to touch the ground.
A wounded monster.
A glow more ferocious and more savage than before flashes.
The Gelu Drake shot toward Kai at a terrifying speed.
'Fast!'
There is a reason it is called the Master of the Snowy Mountain.
This cannot be blocked. It cannot be dodged either.
If it comes to this there is no help for it.
Give up the bone, and take at least the flesh.
At the shock about to land, Kai bit down hard.
...He has to endure.
CRASH—!
A great blast burst out.
But something is strange.
That just now had not come from Kai.
No shock whatsoever had been transmitted to Kai.
All at once.
Before Kai's eyes the Gelu Drake flew through the air.
The Gelu Drake, flung through the air, plunged head first into the snow of the Snowy Mountain in an ungainly sprawl. And then the Gelu Drake could not readily raise its body.
Just as the question of who on earth...? surfaced, it happened.
"Don't get the wrong idea."
A voice heard faintly.
Kai's mind snapped wide awake.
And when he hurriedly looked to his side.
At some point.
"This alliance is a one-time thing."
Adrian was chewing and swallowing monster flesh from who knew where.
***
Since the Inventory has a storage weight limit, most of the monster corpses I hunted had to be discarded.
And two weeks is more than enough time to rot.
But the Snowy Mountain's brutal cold slowed the time of decay markedly.
Not merely slowed — you could take it that decay does not occur.
'Though it wouldn't have mattered if it had rotted.'
I chewed and ate the secretions mixed into entrails, so what is a little spoilage?
As long as I can obtain calories, it made no difference whatsoever.
And so, while Kai bought time against the Gelu Drake, I used Promote Metabolism [E+] and moved fast.
I remembered the areas where I had hunted.
Finding the discarded corpses was not difficult.
I swept two or three spots quickly and packed the Inventory's maximum storage weight of 880kg full.
The monster corpses had not decayed, but in exchange they were frozen solid.
The ones I had put in the Inventory were fine.
But the corpses left exposed to the cold were not.
CRUNCH! CRACK!
Perhaps because of it, it felt like chewing rocks rather than flesh.
Fortunately a bite force amounting to a Strength of 22 pulverised even that.
In exchange my teeth shattered.
But I did not much mind.
CRUNCH! CRRRUNCH!
Shattered teeth can simply be regenerated.
What matters right now is calories alone.
Gulp.
I barely managed to swallow whatever it was, flesh or rock.
And when I turned my gaze, the expression on Kai's face as he watched me from right beside me was a sight.
A face and expression that went past a curious animal to looking at some outlandish life-form.
In a sense he seemed to treat me as more bizarre than the Gelu Drake.
"You had not fled?"
Kai's question came all at once.
It seemed he had thought I had run away.
"But why on earth......?"
And he seemed to feel considerable puzzlement at my having helped him.
Setting aside the fleeing, this had in fact been an opportunity to kill Kai, if you wanted one.
But if Kai dies now it would be considerably awkward for me too.
'Hunting the Gelu Drake gets harder.'
Because hunting the Gelu Drake alone was a distant prospect for me.
And I cannot give up the Gelu Drake's genetic factors.
Naturally, there was no explaining these circumstances.
There was neither reason nor time for it, so—
"Don't get the wrong idea. This alliance is a one-time thing."
I simply glossed over it roughly like that.
But that remark just now.
'Wasn't that Kai's affinity quest?'
It seemed it probably was.
Well, either way.
"Get your head straight, Kai."
Having finished regenerating, I drew both fists to my chest.
Kai too snapped to himself and readjusted his grip on his sword.
And at the same moment the Gelu Drake was slowly raising its body.
The Gelu Drake, growling.
No further amusement is visible.
From here it is a desperate struggle for survival.
Kill or be killed.
"It's coming."
Almost before my words were out, the Gelu Drake charged.
***
The Gelu Drake leaping in almost before Adrian's words were out.
Its enormous frame split the air, and its sharply raised claws tore the snowfield.
Movement that made it impossible to think it had been wounded.
The blast of wind whipped up a flurry that blocked his view for a moment, but—
Adrian took the Gelu Drake's flank in an instant.
Adrian's fist, gripped firm.
It scatters like driving snow.
CRACK—!
The Gelu Drake's body, struck directly by Adrian's fist, staggered.
Had the shock been considerable?
The Gelu Drake could not readily keep its balance, and—
"Kai!!"
Adrian's shout came like a thunderbolt.
Kai's sword shone in that instant.
His silver armour glittered receiving the Snowy Mountain's chill, and Kai's sword, holding Aura, gave off a blue light even within the snow.
'It is entirely possible.'
Together with Adrian—
'We can win.'
Kai had come, at some point, to hold that certainty.