Ch.173173. Old Hero

The werewolf monster she encountered began glaring at her with ferocious eyes from the moment they met.

While ordinary monsters would immediately pounce upon seeing a human, this one—perhaps due to its high intelligence—maintained the cautious stance typical of highly intelligent specimens and merely glared at her.

*Click!*

Having immediately aimed her gun at the werewolf monster and entered a standoff, she tried to maintain the calmest state of mind possible while coolly analyzing the creature.

‘Height approximately 2 meters 20 to 30 centimeters, appearance almost identical to existing wolf-type monsters. Body shape shows no differences… except for those blue eyes, no distinguishing features. Though there’s some blood on it, the absence of old wounds suggests—

—it has little combat experience!’

*BRRRRRRRRRRT!!!!!*

The moment her analysis concluded, she pulled the trigger, unleashing dozens of laser beams from her machine gun in rapid succession.

“GRRRAAAAAAA!!!”

Naturally, the creature didn’t just stand there taking laser beams piercing its body but lunged forward. However, in a fight between equals, the one who strikes first has the absolute advantage.

*Whirrrr—PING!*

After adequately peppering its body with lasers, she switched to high-output firing mode and shot off the monster’s head, then finished by piercing its heart before feeling safe enough to move… or rather, before moving without worrying about being attacked from behind.

She had heard repeatedly from her instructor about monsters’ tenacious vitality—how they could continue moving for several seconds even with their heads separated from their bodies.

*Thud!*

After dispatching the charging wolf monster, she immediately prepared to leave this blood-scented scene, intending to regroup with other survivors.

‘…Damn, not again?’

That would have been the plan, if a bull-headed monster resembling a Minotaur hadn’t appeared, drawn by the smell of blood just as the wolf had been earlier.

However, there was one clear difference from the previous wolf encounter.

‘…Shit, am I just going to die here?’

No matter what she did in this situation, defeating that massive bull-headed monster would be impossible.

That monster was classified as a mid-level threat, comparable to armored weapons like tanks. To put it bluntly, could she even scratch it using every method at her disposal?

It was like facing an Abrams tank with nothing but a single M60 machine gun, but…

“Haa, if I’d known it would come to this, I should’ve at least gotten laid before dying…”

Recalling the squad leader who had been the original owner of her current weapon, she uttered this meaningless remark before charging toward the creature, prepared to die.

“Come on then! I’m right here!”

■■■■■■■!!!

*Whirrrr—PING! Whirrrr—PING! Whirrrr—PING!*

Shouting to ensure she’d have no regrets in death, she fired her machine gun in high-power mode at the charging bull-headed monster—when suddenly…

*TAAAAAAANG!!!*

A golden flash of light suddenly flew from behind her and struck the bull-headed monster’s head directly, completely obliterating its upper body. Thoroughly startled, she turned around and—

“…I never thought I’d actually see one with my own eyes.”

The one who had fired that golden energy beam was one of the great warriors made of light.

An ancient hero resurrected by humanity’s god—an Old Hero.

This Old Hero, who appeared to be a rather large man, wore what looked like an ancient powered suit similar to those ancient Earth heavy infantry suits she had seen in museums.

He held a crude-looking laser machine gun in his hands, and truthfully, judging purely by appearance, he didn’t look particularly reliable.

But even so. The moment she saw this great ancient hero, Rey felt a surge of emotion—a mixture of joy and exhilaration—bubbling up inside her.

It was what people commonly called happiness or hope.

“An Old Hero is here! An Old Hero is here!”

Filled with the emotion welling up from her heart, she shouted loudly in all directions while circling around the Old Hero.

Such behavior in a forest—a deep, midnight forest crawling with monsters—was essentially suicidal, but Rey didn’t consider that at all.

Though her behavior might seem foolish, it could simultaneously give hope to those in crisis who heard her voice.

As monsters continued to gather, drawn by her voice, the Old Hero dispatched them while they wandered the area. Then—

“Th-that’s…! That’s him!”

Beginning with the arrival of a dazed battle android company sergeant with a four-legged transport robot, survivors from various locations began to gather, gradually forming a single group.

“Kill them! Kill the monsters!”

The combination of grief over lost comrades, rage toward the monsters, group psychology, and the presence of an Old Hero resulted in this group attacking every monster in sight as they gradually moved through the area.

Perhaps due to the psychic waves emitted by the Old Hero that elevated their mental state, they exhibited the bizarre behavior of dozens of people swarming and mutilating any monster corpse they encountered.

“For humanity!”

Regardless of what ideologies they might have held in the past, they had all become fervent human supremacists while marching near the Old Hero.

And so, as this group of stragglers followed behind an Old Hero, wandering through the forest…

*BOOM! RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE…!!!*

With a sound like someone beating an extremely powerful drum, the ground began to shake, and dust suddenly rose from directly in front of them—

*BUOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!*

With a roar like that of an extremely excited bull, at least several hundred Minotaur-like monsters, all well-armed, began charging toward them.

They wore armor made from processed monster carapaces that resembled full-body armor or powered suits, and carried weapons similarly crafted from carapaces.

There were 589 such monsters in total.

Upon seeing these monsters charging with the momentum of dump trucks, the humans—their judgment impaired and reason dimmed by the aura emanating from the Old Hero—engaged in chaotic battle.

Naturally, in terms of absolute combat power, ordinary soldiers couldn’t defeat mid-level monsters comparable to armored weapons like tanks, but these soldiers were accompanied by an Old Hero.

Even civilian-type Old Heroes, considered relatively weaker in combat power, could tear apart mid-level monsters with one hand—this military-form Old Hero would certainly be no less powerful.

Whenever a soldier recklessly fighting found themselves in danger, the Old Hero would pull the trigger on his ancient laser machine gun. Each time he pulled that trigger, the golden energy that flew forth would kill a Minotaur in a single shot, creating a virtuous cycle that further boosted morale.

Suddenly, all the monsters in the vicinity, hearing the noise from the battle, rushed in from all directions, and true chaos ensued.

※ ※ ※

Dying, killing, shooting, throwing.

Severed and exploded flesh of living beings flew through the air, and the ground had already become a mess of blood and corpses of unidentifiable beings.

In this chaotic situation where both sides had fallen into madness, killing each other…

“…Has he disappeared?”

Rey, who had somehow regained her senses at some point, wondered why the intense presence of the Old Hero had vanished.

Having never seen a monster as powerful as that Old Hero, she couldn’t understand the situation.

But only for a moment.

“Ha, hahaha… there. There it is.”

Upon accidentally spotting “that being” approaching, Rey finally understood why the Old Hero’s presence had disappeared.

Wearing heavy black armor, with a cape and platinum hair flowing, it approached while scattering powder that emitted the light of an Old Hero from the archaic bio-weapon in its hand.

As if announcing that it had just killed the Old Hero, it had a golden helmet and head hanging side by side at its waist.

A monster so infamous that now there was hardly anyone who didn’t know of it.

Directly in front of her, heading precisely toward Rey—the “Knight” was approaching.