Ch.90Cannibalism (11)

“Is that your choice?”

She approaches one step at a time. Only now did I notice that Selma was barefoot.

Her snow-white feet trampled over the corpses on the floor like insignificant trash as they propelled their owner forward.

Without any fear or hesitation. I could glimpse her strength in her confidence.

I glared at the woman who would become my enemy.

Blue-gray eyes, hair tied high, a fluttering tail, and twitching ears.

And beneath her clothes, a well-toned body and muscles.

Selma had exceptional physical abilities. She would be exceptional.

We had exchanged only one bout, but that much was certain. The memory of her first kick, when she wore mourning clothes and kicked my face, was vivid.

It hadn’t felt like a kick. A dagger had been stuck in my ankle. Clear evidence that her agility surpassed mine.

But what about strength?

In terms of strength, I had the advantage. Beings stronger than me were rare.

So if I wanted a favorable fight, I needed to fight with my strengths.

Our regenerative abilities would be similar, and her reflexes would be superior.

The nature of the fight would be…

“Really, is this your choice?”

Selma deliberately asked. Though she didn’t speak with her mouth, I could understand.

That was mercy.

“Once you choose, there’s no turning ba—”

Selma stopped mid-sentence, and her eyes met mine.

“You’ve already decided, haven’t you?”

That ended the conversation. For a moment, I lost track of Selma’s movements.

She seemed to vanish from my sight. In an instant, her snow-white form closed in.

Only afterward did I notice the trick. She had lowered her posture. Using her knees—the part of the human body capable of the most sudden movement with minimal warning—she lowered her stance and closed the distance.

That’s why she appeared to vanish. With Selma’s agility being higher than mine, it was inevitable.

I couldn’t dodge. My reflexes weren’t as fast as Selma’s. The second-best option, then.

As a tingling pain spread across my crossed arms—

CRASH!

My body was thrown through the laboratory wall and outside.

In the brief sensation of floating, there was a faint weight and a pleasant scent.

It was Selma. Mounted on top of me, she raised her leg high and brought it down like a guillotine.

Crack! The world distorted with a sound that resonated to the bone.

My falling gaze approached the ground.

THUD!

The ground pounded my back. Blood welled up in my mouth, but I swallowed it without concern and flipped over to stand.

SWISH!

Waiting for me as I rose was a knee aimed straight at my head.

The exposed skin beneath her torn leather pants was already covered in the distinctive pattern of a snow leopard.

Partial transformation. The moment I realized it, blood gushed from my neck.

When was I cut? How?

Only after glaring at Selma while standing upright did I understand.

What had clearly been a knee kick had somehow transformed into an extended kick. I grabbed my neck as I watched her retract her leg and plant it firmly.

Regeneration didn’t take long. It must have been shallower than I thought, as my regenerative ability hadn’t diminished.

But it had been a situation where I could have died if I’d been careless.

If only I had armor.

Clicking my tongue, I took a stance as murmuring sounds echoed around me.

“…Shit.”

The area was filled with people.

The sudden commotion in an already unsettled city was drawing people in.

This wasn’t good. If Selma was presumed to have the power to drain life force, fewer people would be better.

But there was nothing I could do in this situation. If I shouted for them to run away, Selma would seize that opening to attack.

I couldn’t let my guard down. I glared at Selma while analyzing why her attack had been able to exceed my perception.

The reason was simple. Leaping power.

The exceptional leaping ability unique to snow leopards. Selma was a snow leopard shapeshifter like Isla, and they all possessed remarkable jumping power.

If she suppressed her presence and suddenly used a leap to close the distance, it would look like teleportation.

Even then, only I, a homunculus, could barely react; most wouldn’t be able to respond at all.

Moreover, she possessed regenerative abilities equal to mine.

Selma smiled brightly as she absorbed the impact of the punch I had reflexively thrown.

She pulled out her loosened tooth, dropped it, and showed off a fully grown replacement.

Our regenerative abilities were equal. It was Mother’s blessing.

Strength was in my favor. But agility was on her side.

The same went for leaping power. Unlike my once-every-six-seconds, Selma’s every leap was tremendous.

There was a clear difference in mobility from the start. Escape was impossible.

If only I had a weapon.

“What are you thinking about?”

At that moment, Selma leaped again, cutting through my train of thought.

Without leaving a single footprint or sound, Selma was suddenly right in front of me. She swung her right leg.

Beyond her torn leather pants fluttering in the air, a springy snow leopard leg sliced through the void. A sound like “kwak” made my hair stand on end.

I barely dodged it. I saw her lowering her posture by bending her knee and imitated it, barely avoiding the attack.

But there was no respite. As she retracted her swinging leg, she switched legs and delivered an upward kick.

I saw that leg and forcibly raised my own to press it down.

It was all or nothing.

[Explosive Leap]

CRACK!

Fortunately, my gamble paid off. Selma’s leg crumpled explosively under my foot, and her form was driven into the ground before bouncing back up.

Indeed, the Explosive Leap, which was merely a means of movement in the game, had potential for application as an attack.

The principle was a leg strength that literally accelerated my body explosively, so it could be applied to kicks.

It was a technique I realized by watching Selma.

Though it could only be used once every six seconds, its power was undeniable. Selma bounced off the ground twice before flipping in mid-air and landing. She came to a stop with a scraping sound.

Only then did people scatter, and Selma lowered her posture with a seductive smile before accelerating.

A white blurring trajectory. I tried to swing my fist in anticipation of that trajectory, but—

“Kyaaaah!”

What flew toward my fist wasn’t Selma. Hearing the scream, I unclenched my fist and caught it.

It was a person. Selma had leaped and thrown a person at me. The moment I caught them created an opening.

I’d been tricked. In the instant I realized this, a leg came rushing through, splitting the face of an ordinary woman.

What was once a human head burst like a watermelon. When our eyes met, what I saw in those pupils wasn’t fear.

As the lens of her eye was crushed, I saw a foot aimed at my head.

It was a beast’s foot. A leg with pads and claws.

The moment it struck my reflexively raised arm, there was a cracking sound as my arm broke.

BANG!

I rolled on the ground, covered in the blood of a life I hadn’t taken.

There was no time to dwell on what had happened to me. Selma approached rapidly and swung her leg.

A barrage of kicks—rising from below, thrusting forward, falling from above—in succession.

Watching the dizzying intertwining trajectories, I clenched my fists and swung.

Parrying could be activated without holding a weapon, thanks to my martial arts.

I gritted my teeth and used martial arts to the best of my ability to parry the kicks.

But why?

Even as the air cracked and trembled, and the speed of the kicks gradually increased…

I couldn’t take my eyes off the human who already lay dead.

The blood was warm.

And yet chilling. A tingling sensation ran down my spine.

My breathing became rough. My mind froze.

Why am I like this?

Why am I…

“Are you distracted?”

Suddenly my arm was grabbed. I flinched and tried to pull it away, but her knee rising was faster.

CRACK!

A point-blank flying knee kick delivered by grabbing both my arms and planting her knee before jumping.

The snow leopard’s bent knee struck my chin, and my brain shook.

Blood and nausea welled up from within, and my shaken brain induced a sense of powerlessness, but—

[Recurring Mourning]

[Time Remaining: 151 seconds]

The mourning pulled me back to reality.

At the same time, something like a dark impulse raised its head.

Grr…!

I gritted my teeth, trying not to be controlled by the impulse.

“Oh my.”

I grabbed the wrist that held my arm and swung it with force.

BANG!

I swung Selma down and slammed her into the ground. But I didn’t stop there. I needed to wear her down as much as possible now.

I swung her in the opposite direction, using my core strength.

BANG, BANG!

Blood splattered, and Selma’s crushed arm was torn off.

But one arm remained.

BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG!

I swung her toward the ground, toward a building, drove her into the ground and dragged her along.

With a grinding sound, the road was overturned.

The sensation in my hand disappeared, and a feeling of liberation came over me.

When I turned my head, I saw five fingers flying through the air.

They were my fingers.

Turning my head further, I saw Selma.

A snow leopard who flipped in mid-air to land, holding two axes in her hands.

[Recurring Mourning]

[Time Remaining: 207 seconds]

My breathing became rough, and I ran while trying to suppress the surging impulse.

My bleeding hand felt good. Even the sensation of my fist colliding with the axe.

*

“Haa, haa, huu…”

Isla ran.

Even after the two had crashed through the laboratory wall and fallen, she continued to run.

The underground city was vast. It was natural for a place that had once been teeming with notorious criminal organizations from the Old Continent, assassin groups, bounty hunters, and black magicians.

Insufficient space had been expanded, and the distorted spaces from expansion were adjusted by adding even more space.

As a result, it was larger than most cities. It reminded her of the tribal alliance festivals she had seen as a child.

But finding the two wasn’t difficult.

They left a trail.

A path made of blood, destruction, pain, and screams. Isla bit her lip as she scanned the traces left everywhere.

Screams echoed from all around.

There was a man dying, trapped under a collapsed building, and many corpses with severed necks from something sharp.

Wounds too precise to be merely caught in the crossfire. Isla thought of her younger sister.

Though skilled with swords, spears, axes, bows, slings, crossbows, pistols, and rifles…

What she was especially proficient with were two hand axes, so…

‘This isn’t what I wanted.’

Isla secretly wished for something else.

That Selma would ultimately fail to defeat Luvellin and give up.

And that, just like Lorian, they would end up together.

Of course, it might result in having another rival in love, but she had secretly hoped for a future with her sister.

This was definitely not what she had wanted.

“If only…”

If only I had decided.

If only I had eaten.

Or, if only I had been eaten.

Even as she regretted, she searched for what she needed to do.

She saw the corpse of a dead thug.

He was a man who carried a sling to effectively throw the countless stones in this underground city, and Isla picked up that sling.

There was no crossbow. She hadn’t brought it, finding it cumbersome to carry.

This was the best weapon she could use.

So Isla moved forward without hesitation. She picked up some stones, placed them in the sling, and leaped from rooftop to rooftop.

Her transformed legs propelled her body.

Toward where the sounds of fierce battle were still ongoing.

Selma was the best hunter Isla knew, and if such a Selma had gained new power, it would surely be a difficult fight.

Her help would definitely be needed.

However, the scene that greeted her upon arrival was far from what she had expected.

“…Luvellin?”

With a thunderous boom, Selma, with her arm severed, was pushed back. Though Selma was smiling brightly, her entire body was covered in blood, broken bones, and flesh.

Luvellin pursued such a Selma. He charged headfirst, disregarding defense. A mistake. But what happened next exceeded expectations.

CRUNCH!

He blocked the swinging axe with his elbow. Naturally, his arm was severed and dangled, but Luvellin swung that nearly detached arm to beat Selma’s head.

Selma staggered back, and Luvellin rushed at her. Selma seemed to stumble but then extended her leg straight out.

CRUNCH!

The extended snow leopard leg crushed Luvellin’s solid bones and muscles, pulverizing his lower jaw.

In the moment the crushed lower jaw fell, Luvellin grabbed it and swung.

An unexpected sight flashed in the wide blue-gray eyes.

Luvellin striking Selma’s crown with his lower jaw, and Selma’s scalp being torn off, bleeding from Luvellin’s jaw.

Selma’s fist aimed, and her axe hacked.

Her leg pierced the stomach and dug into the flesh.

Even more so, Luvellin’s fists and legs, knees and grip tore Selma’s flesh and skin apart. Blood splattered and pooled on the ground.

Isla couldn’t intervene rashly.

Two monsters were fighting.

Amidst laughter that genuinely seemed joyful, two monsters were entangled, tearing each other apart.

‘I need to stop them.’

Watching the scene, Isla instinctively had such a thought.

She felt as if Luvellin was heading to a place from which he could never return.

And Isla’s intuition was correct.

That was Selma’s aim all along.

To consecrate a vessel with her blood, blessed and baptized by Mother, and willingly become an offering herself.

To completely erode Luvellin’s mind.

When she couldn’t eat Isla nor be eaten by her, this was the best option she could choose.

Even if she won and ate him, that would be fine too.

Either way, she could fulfill her plan.

After all, wasn’t he the “best vessel” to appear in thousands of years?

So Selma fought with all her heart.

She regenerated her severed arm, kicked up the axe that had fallen to the ground, grabbed it, and swung.

Her target was the neck. A vital point that, even for a homunculus or one blessed by Mother, couldn’t be recovered from if struck.

Luvellin, having lost his reason, wouldn’t be able to block it. That’s what Selma thought.

Even Isla couldn’t block it, she thought, as she prepared to shoot with her sling.

However, something crossed the void faster than both of them.

SWISH, CLANG!

What intervened, passing by Isla and Selma, was a dark red metal.

The axe was deflected. The pushed-back axe trembled lightly.

Such metal pieces were gathering. They enveloped Luvellin, adorning his entire body.

It was something that shouldn’t have been here at this moment.

At the same time, it signified the will of a certain being.

“Ah…!”

Seeing it, Selma laughed with ecstasy.

Trembling with joy, she let out a cry of exultation.

For it was truly the birth of a warrior beloved by Mother.

“Magnificent!”

Luvellin was now clad in a full-body armor of dark red.

From within, gray eyes flashed with killing intent.