Ch.100Chimera (7)

In the forest northeast of the village, about 10 minutes after encountering the chimeras.

“Hnngh─!”

[[■■■■■─!!!]]

-─KWAAANG!!!

The battle raging between three mid-level magical beasts—chimeras—and myself was proceeding without advantage to either side…. In other words, it was almost a complete stalemate.

Flames and sound waves cut through the air targeting me, and in response, I swung my Basilisk Bone Zweihander in various directions, maintaining an even exchange.

The attacks from their twelve heads might not be fatal individually, but when launched in succession, they became lethal. I maximized my concentration and actively utilized “Slash Extension” to counter them.

The basilisk shadow I had summoned earlier had already been consumed as a shield against flame attacks, leaving me completely alone in this battle.

As a result, this fight unusually alternated between mid-range and close-quarters combat for a swordsman versus magical beasts. In this situation, I… couldn’t hide my bewilderment at the stagnating battlefield conditions.

In truth, the cause of this stalemate was quite clear at this point.

‘I should have finished this at the beginning…!!’

When the battle first started, I approached cautiously as a probing tactic, but those chimeras, confident in their size, challenged me to a direct confrontation.

Of course, my “Factor” and the physical abilities gained from residue absorption had already exceeded human limitations, so I should have had a perfect advantage in close combat against opponents with seemingly inferior physical abilities.

The problem was that they realized their strength was inferior to mine and switched from direct close combat to a passive war of attrition focused on mid-range attacks.

Even I couldn’t maintain an advantage in a three-against-one war of attrition.

The one fortunate thing was that I had a means to turn the tide if I could just make it work once.

In the middle of the battlefield, protected and guarded by these three chimeras, stood a madman in clown-like gaudy attire, holding a staff with eyeballs rolling around in his hand.

If I could somehow deal with him—the one controlling the chimeras through some magical means—the situation would reverse, but the problem was that this guy was disgustingly persistent.

‘Why… won’t he die…?!!’

Despite his power being only low-level, he ignored attacks like my petrifying evil eye. Any probing stones or throwing knives I sent were blocked by the chimeras.

Even when I tried to finish him with extended slashes, he avoided them with bizarre movements, dodging by paper-thin margins.

Clearly recognizing that I couldn’t gain a decisive advantage in this engagement, I was about to try changing the situation when—

-….Crack!

With an ominous breaking sound, the situation did indeed change.

-Clatter….

‘Damn it…!!’

More specifically, it changed to my disadvantage.

What fell to the ground with that breaking sound was about half of my completely shattered Basilisk Bone Zweihander.

It had split flying cannonballs in half, withstood countless sonic projectiles, and deflected spraying venom and flames with its blade.

No matter how much aura I wrapped around the sword, if attacks of this magnitude continued to come, even the most durable weapon would reach its limit.

Particularly devastating were the powerful shock waves from sound attacks penetrating deep into the blade. No matter how hard it was, the zweihander was ultimately just bone, and had its limitations.

At least the main body of the sword remained intact, and I still had plenty of basilisk bone left, so repairing it wouldn’t be a problem….

‘….I’ll have to give up on it for now.’

After planting the zweihander—its blade precisely broken in half at the center—into the ground, I immediately drew a new sword.

It was the Unicorn Longsword, which I had never used in actual combat before and had thus been lower in priority, but now I had no choice but to use it.

-Shing….!

What I felt as it was drawn from its temporary scabbard was nothing but the sensation of cutting.

This longsword, which had sliced through its scabbard with just a light touch and slight movement, was so thin it appeared almost transparent….

It was a perfect weapon that fit my hand so well that I involuntarily shuddered at its slight vibration.

At first, seeing how light the weapon was, I thought I would need to put considerable force behind my swings, but that notion was disproven by myself the moment I actually wielded it.

-─Slash!

Light, it was incredibly light. Swinging the sword to cut something—slicing through an incoming chimera’s dragon claw—felt completely effortless.

It wasn’t even like cutting through butter. It was as if things simply parted smoothly upon contact, with not even the slightest resistance felt in my hand.

-Whoooosh─

-─Slash!

Even when I cleanly cut through the crimson flames flying toward me with an extended slash from the sword, I felt no heat or any sensation whatsoever traveling through the blade.

Despite having swung it only once, this perfect feel in my hand, the impeccably balanced center of gravity, and the sword’s performance were nothing short of perfect.

‘….Why have I been keeping this unused until now?’

As I wondered if I should have just used this from the beginning instead of worrying about instability, I raised the Unicorn Longsword and pointed it at them, determined to finish this battle first.

However…. the situation still couldn’t be called favorable.

The coordinated attacks of the three chimeras, seemingly reading each other’s minds, prevented me from making any reckless movements.

Fire, sound waves, poison. With these three attacks alternating toward me, would having a sharper sword really make much difference?

Moreover, since the power of my extended slashes consisted entirely of aura and wasn’t particularly dependent on the sword’s performance, I still couldn’t effectively attack the clown controller beyond them.

‘….Tch!’

After briefly assessing the situation, I came to a conclusion while cutting through incoming sound waves.

Now, only now was my chance. This drawn-out war of attrition would inevitably lead to my defeat, so if I was going to make a move, it had to be now while I still had strength left.

Of course, if I stalled a bit longer, there was a possibility that Hannah or Gretel might sense something wrong and come to my aid, but I couldn’t rely on such uncertainty right now.

After some deliberation, I decided on a bold move. After observing the situation while controlling my angles, I dove straight into the common gap between the three—precisely to the spot where they would be inclined to breathe fire.

-─WHOOOOSH!!!

Naturally, as soon as they saw me approach like this, they reflexively breathed fire at me in unison, but I had long prepared a way to counter this.

With a heat-resistant cloak prepared in advance and aura released to enhance my personal protection against fire, I charged through the flames that had never directly touched me before, aiming for a single target.

“──!!!”

The cloak, focused on heat resistance and fire protection, eventually failed to withstand and caught fire.

Despite wrapping aura around my custom armor and holding a fire resistance potion bottle in my mouth, the heat still stung my skin.

Nevertheless, I could still endure.

I had the muscles of a Titan wrapped in fragments of ancient mystery, albeit degraded. I had the tough, thick skin that protected flesh-eating ghouls. And I had armor that protected me to the end even as its surface melted away.

Thanks to this, I was able to emerge from the torrent of flames at some point, and after blowing away the molten metal and ash clinging to my skin with an aura release, I charged straight at the clown—

-─Slash!

The Unicorn’s blade, moving too fast for anyone present to react, cleanly severed the enemy’s neck and dropped it to the ground….

‘….I knew it. You people again?’

As I watched the clown’s corpse suddenly explode into hundreds of thousands of maggots and flies that vanished into the air, I frowned, then crushed the eyeball from the fallen staff under my boot.

“….”

“”…..?!!””

Suddenly, two of the chimeras without armor looked around as if waking from a deep sleep. But the third one still glared at me with hostility….

-─Slash!

Without a moment’s hesitation, before the chimeras could grasp the situation, I swung my sword to deal with the hostile one first.

Cutting, slicing, carving, and cutting again.

After instantly and cleanly severing its four heads, I thrust my sword into its heart like driving in a stake, then turned my attention to cutting down the remaining two….

“….Huh?”

Seeing me like this, the remaining magical beast chimeras suddenly lowered all four of their heads to the ground, a gesture that was enough to surprise me despite my murderous intent.

To put it somewhat incoherently, these two had essentially surrendered to me.