| Author: Resn | Original Source: Kakuyomu |
| Translator: Nomad | English Source: Re:Library |
| Editor(s): Silva | |
All AI in the game was highly developed. That also applied to the young boy watching the fight between that young girl and a beastly bear.
He was watching that girl facing off completely alone against the terrifying monster. Seeing how he was being protected while he did nothing, the boy began to feel restless.
Soon after, the monster finally managed to land an attack, grazing the girl’s arm just as she lost her footing for an instant. The wound was shallow, but that attack was enough to stop the girl from being able to use that arm.
I have to do something!
Without bothering to stand up, the boy reached for the nearest stone and threw it in desperation.
He did that purely as a distraction, he did not even imagine the stone would actually land on the monster. But as coincidence would have it, and maybe due to a bit of bad luck, that stone flew straight into the monster’s eye.
Crim was still walking a precarious line of offense and defense against the monster. But then she stepped on one of the bones strewn around the ground, tipping her feet to one side and throwing her off-balance.
“Oh…no?!”
She tried to tumble away as fast as she could, but the monster’s claws still managed to graze her upper right arm. An instant later a display of a human figure appeared in her vision, the right arm glowing red. At the same time, she felt her right arm hang limp.
That was barely a scratch, why is this happening?!
She cursed in her mind. Her Health Regeneration Skill had already kicked in, and even though it was just a scratch, her arm would remain immobile for around half a minute until it recovered enough.
Still, she tried to remain calm.
Her opponent was resilient, powerful, and swift, making it an overall strong opponent, but it retained its animalistic tendencies as well, so it did not have any especially annoying attacks.
It was easy enough to maintain some distance to buy time for her arm to heal. She still had a chance of fighting. But if she took just one wrong step, everything would crumble instantly.
The realization of that made her shudder, and then…
‘Graaaawwwwrrrrrrr?!!’
The monster became incredibly enraged all of a sudden. A stone had hit its eye, the pain of which drove it berserk.
At the same time, the monster’s target switched from Crim onto George, who was frozen in shock and fear, his hand still outstretched after his throw.
“You dumbass, run away..!”
As the enraged monster charged at George, Crim rushed to step between them, supporting her shadow dagger with one hand1, desperately trying to redirect the monster’s claws.
CLINK!
Trying to stop the claws was too much for the dagger to handle, shattering in Crim’s hands. Now that she had lost her weapon, the monster raised its arm again, ready to tear through both her and the young boy.
Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion now, and Crim felt like the monster’s face was contorting with glee, assured of its victory.
“Ah…I guess it didn’t work. I’m sorry, George.”
Giving up, Crim’s body toppled down, no longer having the willpower to remain standing.
Why am I getting so desperate? Even if I die here I’ll just respawn at the last checkpoint. I tried my best, but I’m fighting a boss. It’s not like I could realistically beat it alone. I should just give up, I’ve tried hard enough. But…if an NPC or two die…then they’ll be erased from this world.
“…No, I’m the one who should be apologizing.”
Crim’s face snapped up, her thoughts cleared hearing that voice behind her. Her eyes regained their spark in an instant.
“—Blaze…Blood!!”
After an extremely shortened chant, she cast that spell. Crossing her arms, she readied to block the monster’s enormous arms approaching from above. Soon after her body shook from the impact.
“Gh…uhhhh…!!”
Even though the system recreated pain at half intensity, she still could feel the hit clearly, including the blunt pain of her bones shattering. Her entire body began to creak as she was pushed back, and she even began to fear her spine was being broken as well. But she grit her teeth and endured. The large monster’s attack had been stopped by a small young girl.
Her view was bathed in red. Even her HP bar looked red and largely empty. But Crim did not stop resisting.
Her heart was beating violently, and she could feel like a large amount of blood was circulating rapidly through her body. The blood she kept in reserve felt hot, granting power to her body.
Her clear white skin turned red, bright patterns of blood appeared on it. Even her white hair turned crimson and all the blood she spent appeared like a mist surrounding her body. Then her hands began to shake and wriggle eerily, growing menacing and long claws.
That was Blaze Blood, the starting Hemomancy Skill, an ability only Noble Red could manifest.
Activating it spent all the reserve blood, boosting her physical abilities and Health Regeneration in proportion to her Skill Points for a set time. That was Crim’s only trump card, even if it was a starting Skill.
The effect lasted for thirty seconds. Once that time was over, her body would instantly weaken as she would no longer have enough blood to move properly.
It’s a race against time!!
Reinvigorated with that power, she ran up along the arm of the monster, who was still attempting to crush the young boy and girl. In an instant, Crim was on the back of the monster, where she once again straddled the beast around its neck.
There she raised her arms that had just barely recovered enough to move and angled her sharp claws, which were not dissimilar to a monster’s, into the cut she made earlier before thrusting in.
“Uooooohhhhhhhhh!!”
She screamed so loudly her vocal cords nearly snapped as her hands dug into flesh, soon enough feeling hard bone on her fingertips. Taking hold of that bone, she twisted it with all her might before pulling on it.
She felt something clearly snapping, and then the monster’s body shook violently. But somehow that was still not the final blow, as the monster began trying to shake Crim off its back.
“I…am…not…doneeee yeeeeetttt!!”
She clamped her legs harder onto the monster’s neck to not fall off as she raised her hands sharpened like blades again. If she fell, everything would end. Crim, George who had just gotten on his feet and could run away, and his sister Juna who had fallen badly ill, they all would die.
I won’t let that happen!
Those strong desires shocked even her, pushing her arms to move with more determination.
“AaaaaaAAAahhhh!!!”
She continued cutting, tearing, and snapping. Her most violent instincts took over as she repeated those actions again, and again, and again, and again…
…
……
………
After thirty seconds, which felt like many minutes to Crim, her crimson hair turned back to white.
[The boss ‘Strongest Monster’ of the area ‘Schwarzwald’ has been defeated for the first time.][You obtained the title ‘Hunter of the Strongest Monster’]
Those system messages flooded Crim’s peripheral vision.
“Hahh…huff…cough… It’s…over?”
Crim muttered in a daze, taking deep breaths in a raspy voice.
The monster’s body was still beneath her, but no longer moved. After a short while, the body turned into many specks of light and vanished. Crim only faintly registered that happening, her consciousness reaching its limit before everything went dark and she fell over.
…hey, wake up! …are you alright?!
The boy’s faint voice was the last thing she heard through the haze shrouding her mind.
