RUMBLE—!
The ground began to shake.
"Urgh—!"
Stagger—.
The person standing at the center lost her balance.
"Damn it!"
I immediately charged forward and gripped my sword hilt tightly.
SCRRAPE—!
Then I violently drew the blade, scraping it against the sheath as I swung.
BARK! BARK! BARK—!
The Starving Wild Dogs had already noticed me and began barking.
SLASH—.
But Black Flash cut through them.
"W-What the hell?!"
"Shut up and dodge!"
The unidentified woman.
Something small glittered on the right side of her chest.
'A Legend?'
Proof that someone had become a Legend.
A medal granted only to the handful of people officially recognized by Paradise.
There were countless requirements for becoming a Legend.
'Still, a Legend is a Legend.'
But this woman seemed far too weak to be called one.
'Did the standards for becoming a Legend get lower these days?'
Normally, you had to kill more than a thousand monsters.
Or render outstanding service in defending Paradise.
Or accomplish some special feat.
Whatever the case.
"Get a grip and raise your sword!"
At my words, she lifted her sword.
Then, after using another Combat Stimulant.
"Haaaaa......."
Her hair, which had somehow turned black, rapidly became red again.
"Who are you?"
Without even looking at the Wild Dogs around her, she cut them down while speaking to me.
'Her way of speaking changed.'
So she really had not used Combat Stimulants only once or twice.
If the side effect had progressed far enough to cause a split in personality, she had used them at least fifty times.
"I asked who you are."
SLASH—!
Still looking toward me, she split the head of a Wild Dog that lunged at her.
"What are you going to do if you know?"
I answered while continuing to kill the Wild Dogs.
YELP—!
JOLT—.
The ground began shaking even harder than before.
Now it was difficult even to remain standing.
We could run.
But the hunter chasing us was a Mole Cricket.
And judging by the scale of the tremors, it was an adult.
That meant the only way to escape would be to never touch the ground even once.
Which was obviously impossible nonsense.
'Running is out.'
SLASH—!
I cut off the neck of the last Wild Dog and looked back.
Dozens of Wild Dog corpses were already scattered around her.
"Who are you? Your movements feel strangely familiar."
"Just an ordinary Miner."
"Hm."
HISS—.
She dismissed my answer as unimportant and injected herself with another Combat Stimulant.
"If you keep using those, you'll die young."
The words slipped out before I knew it.
For some reason, she felt familiar.
"I'm going to keep using them."
"Suit yourself."
I answered flatly.
At that moment, a violent tremor hit us, making all the quakes until now feel like a joke.
'It's here.'
RUMBLE—!
A deafening roar began echoing so loudly that conversation became impossible.
'Well, if things go bad, I'll ditch her and run.'
An adult was still something I could kill in my current state.
My control could make up the difference.
But all I had was one sword and one revolver.
The Nanomachine.
The Neural Stimulation Device.
If more monsters joined the fight, my odds would plummet.
'Still, it's worth trying.'
I'd never seen or even heard of this Legend before.
But after watching her fight, she seemed reliable enough.
Someone watching might think I was playing the sucker and pretending to be kind.
'But an adult Mole Cricket is worth quite a lot.'
I could make a lot of money in a short time.
And I could put a Legend in my debt.
GRRRRRT—!
The moment I finished calculating.
SKREEEEEE—!
The Mole Cricket burst upward as though it intended to swallow the sky.
'Adult class.'
Half its body was exposed.
Judging roughly by its size, it had to be well over twenty meters long.
Gulp—.
If we killed a Mole Cricket that size, we would at least make some money.
"Let's go."
I spoke briefly and drew my sword.
SHING—.
The woman beside me raised her ink-black blade as well.
SKREEEEK—! SKREEK!
The monster sprayed its grotesque cries in every direction as it charged us.
WHOOSH—!
To it, the charge was nothing more than a casual rush.
Tingle—.
Yet the pressure was overwhelming.
The wind pressure alone was enough to make my body sway slightly.
'This is why I could never quit the game.'
FLASH—.
The woman and I moved in opposite directions and dodged its charge.
It was an utterly obvious straight-line rush, leaving its side completely exposed.
THUNK—!
I drove my sword into that opening and planted my feet.
"Hup—!"
I gripped the sword with both hands and held on with all my strength.
SPLURT—!
The monster's own momentum naturally dragged the blade through its outer shell.
Its hot bodily fluids sprayed everywhere.
SKREEEEEE—!
The Mole Cricket shook its body, trying to throw me off.
"Fuck!"
It was much stronger than I expected.
I felt like I was about to lose my grip on the sword.
I could force myself to hold on if I really wanted.
'But I have no intention of getting buried with you.'
The creature soon began burrowing underground again.
I had no choice but to pull my sword free and roll across the ground.
'What about that woman?'
Keeping the burrowed Mole Cricket in mind, I looked around for her.
'Whoa.'
She apparently had not become a Legend for nothing.
Maybe her weapon helped, but her basic physical specs seemed excellent too.
"Hahaha! Easy!"
Her entire body was soaked in Mole Cricket fluids, and chunks of its flesh were scattered all around her.
She had looked fairly exhausted earlier.
But the longer the fight continued, the more energetic she seemed to become.
'Let's keep this going.'
Its pattern was obvious, just like the other monsters around Paradise.
There was no way a final-boss-level monster would be roaming around the beginner hunting grounds near Paradise.
"Hey!"
I called out to her.
"What?"
She turned toward me and shouted.
"Don't get eaten!"
I still need you alive so I can collect what you owe me.
"Puhaha! Worry about yourself!"
GRRRRRT—!
The moment our brief exchange ended, the monster burst upward again from beneath her feet.
"Way too obvious!"
The patch of ground it was about to erupt from shook visibly.
She easily moved away and dodged.
SLASH—!
As its body fully leaped out, we kept leaving stab wounds across it.
After taking heavy damage, it quickly burrowed underground again.
Then it burst out once more.
The pattern repeated.
It emerged.
We swung our swords.
CRASH—!
By the time we dodged its thirteenth charge.
"Huff...... huff......."
We were both breathing heavily.
Of course we were.
It always had the initiative.
All we could do was keep moving, dodge, and counterattack.
'We don't have enough damage.......'
Neither of us had a decisive finishing blow.
So we had no choice but to keep fighting a war of attrition.
And that meant the battle was slowly turning against us.
This was the surface.
And we were standing on soil.
Its home ground.
'I don't know when this ground will collapse.'
There was no telling how long the earth could hold.
Every time the monster burst upward, a huge amount of soil disappeared.
RUMBLE—!
Then I felt another charge coming.
"It's coming!"
I shouted to her while staring at a mound of dirt that was trembling faintly.
SWISH—.
The instant part of its body poked out.
In that brief moment, I noticed something wrong.
'That's not its mouth.......?'
The part that emerged was not its maw packed densely with razor-sharp teeth.
Which meant.
'A fake!'
I immediately turned and threw myself backward.
She still had not noticed.
"Hey! Jump!"
Only after I shouted did she realize what was happening and try to roll away.
But it was too late.
CRASH—!
Because its maw erupted from the exact opposite direction from where its tail had appeared.
Straight in front of her.
"Damn it!"
After taking the Combat Stimulant, she should have been able to dodge.
SINK—.
But at that moment, the loose soil beneath her foot collapsed and trapped her leg.
It was checkmate.
'Neural Acceleration!'
[Neural Acceleration activated.]
I immediately activated Neural Acceleration.
Everything slowed dramatically.
'I can't let that woman die.'
The Mole Cricket had already taken heavy damage.
I could kill it alone.
'But the fight would take much longer.'
Our combined damage would be cut in half.
And this was the surface.
Monster territory.
There was no telling whether another monster might join this chaotic battle.
'I have to save her.'
But an ordinary sword strike from me could not change the monster's charging trajectory.
Tap—.
At that moment, something hanging from my waist touched my elbow.
'A flare?'
It was the emergency flare the masked owner had given me when I said I was going to the surface alone.
'......Can I do it?'
There was a trick using a flare when fighting a Mole Cricket.
Could I reproduce something I'd done in the game with my ordinary body here in reality?
'If I fail, I die.'
But I could not use Separation.
This was not a fight where I could freely show off what Separation could do.
Its duration was too short.
If it ended and I had to keep fighting through the Rebound afterward, it would only put me at a disadvantage.
[Neural Acceleration ends in 5...... 4......]
Time mercilessly kept moving and forced me to choose.
[3...... 2...... 1......]
'I'll do it.'
GRIP—.
I grabbed the flare hanging from my waist.
[Neural Acceleration ended.]
SKREEEEEE—!
Time returned to normal speed.
"Urgh—!"
She was seconds away from being swallowed by the charging monster.
Toss—.
Steeling myself, I lightly tossed the flare up in front of my face.
[Increasing Combat Assist Neural Stimulation Device output.]
[20% -> 60%]
WHOOSH—!
Then I swung my sheathed sword like a baseball bat and struck the flare.
CRACK—.
A fracture ran across it.
The flare flew toward the Mole Cricket in a smooth arc.
'Please!'
The monster had neither sight nor hearing.
Its only sense was the ability to detect vibrations.
In other words, a flare should have been completely useless against it.
But I was focused on another effect of the flare.
Heat.
WHOOSH—.
The distance between the woman and the monster had already shrunk to around ten meters.
"Damn it."
She muttered what sounded like a brief final word and furrowed her brow.
"Wake up!"
I ran after the flying flare.
And the flare, following its smooth trajectory.
Slip—.
Dropped neatly into the Mole Cricket's open mouth.
Flinch—.
The creature seemed startled by the sudden foreign object entering its mouth.
But it immediately focused on the prey in front of it again.
'Got it!'
At that moment.
FWOOSH—!
The flare erupted in brilliant light.
Inside the monster's body.
SKRIIIIII—!
It screamed grotesquely and thrashed in pain.
Of course it hurt.
Its insides were far weaker than its outer shell.
And more importantly.
'It's ridiculously weak to heat!'
SKREEK! SKREEK!
The monster thrashed wildly, spraying bodily fluids everywhere.
It collided with the woman as she tried to escape.
THUD—!
The impact sent her flying far away.
"Just die already."
Skriiii.......
The Mole Cricket no longer had even enough strength left to thrash.
It crawled along the ground.
Step......
I slowly approached it.
Then.
SCRRAPE—.
I violently drew my sword and unleashed Black Flash, striking what passed for its neck.
'Hm...... can you even call that its neck?'
Either way.
That was how it died.
***
SCRAPE— SCRAPE—.
The sound of something being dragged along the ground reached her ears.
"Mm......."
She slowly cracked her eyes open.
She was tied up with something resembling rope and being dragged somewhere.
It was the first time she had experienced something like this since barely reaching the fringes of Legend and receiving the epithet Madwoman.
'Why does this feel...... so familiar......?'
The last time she'd been dragged around like this was when she was a child.
She fought through the sunlight stabbing painfully into her eyes and carefully opened them.
"You're...... damn heavy......."
She saw the back of a man dragging her.
Under the blazing sun, sweat poured off him as he panted continuously.
"Huff...... huff...... this is fucking exhausting......."
The glare of the hot sun hid his identity from her.
But.
'Familiar.......'
When she had been only eight years old.
There was a man she had stubbornly followed around because she wanted to become strong enough to avenge her parents.
Whenever she passed out, he always dragged her around just like this.
That man was the Surface Liberator.
The strongest Legend since Paradise was founded.
The man known as P.
"What? You're awake, so why aren't you saying anything?"
His shadow blocked the dazzling sunlight.
Only then could she look at him properly.
"Different...... person......."
"What are you talking about? Just get up."
He dropped to the ground in exhaustion.
"We're almost at Paradise. Walk on your own from here."
His tone was firm and cold.
But she could feel the concern beneath it.
"What? Why are you staring at me? I'm not dragging you any farther."
Even that prickly personality.
Yuno knew.
Even if his appearance had changed.
The man standing before her was P, who had died.
'P...... you were alive......!'