episode_0034

Whether it was due to the longing for lost masculinity or the shock and pain of being pierced front and back.

“Keeeeeek!”

The wail of the spirit spider was utterly desperate.

“Kigeeeeeng-!”

With its fangs spread apart, tearing left and right, the creature writhed like a child throwing a tantrum, wildly flailing its eight legs, refusing to go home.

Squack! Thud! Kwaaaang!

Claw-like nails pummeled the ground, tearing and shattering it, sending up a fountain of earth-mixed fragments. It was truly a devastating rampage.

“Kuk…!”

Rauter, struck in the chest by rock shards, grimaced, dropped her sword, and stepped back.

Perhaps it was because she had thrust her sword into the spider’s spinneret. It seemed impossible for her to pull out the embedded sword with her strength alone.

“Kieeeek-!”

I too couldn’t escape the chaos.

While I managed to drive my sword into the spider spirit’s eye sockets, before I could land an additional blow, I slipped as the creature thrashed wildly.

“Ugh!”

I tumbled helplessly, spilling blood, and rolled on the shattered ground.

“How dare you, how daaaare you—!”

Two claws descended like guillotine blades.

I hastily rolled away from the ground, narrowly avoiding one claw, then swiftly rose, grabbing the middle of the blade with my left hand, pushing it forward like a shield.

Kaaaang!

“Tsk…!”

The impact felt like my shoulder bone was dislocating. The blade bore a deep mark from the claw. The pressure transmitted through the sword made my waist feel like it would snap like a bowstring.

“This… is enough…!”

Twisting my body as if dancing a waltz, I deflected the impact to the side. It was an instinctive move, a defense technique ingrained in Brünhilde’s physique.

“Haaaah!”

Then, with a kick off the ground, I rushed at the creature again.

Since the bald spot was the only part I knew the blade had penetrated, I decided to focus my attention there for the time being.

“Do attacks work…? If so…!”

Rauter, having discarded her broken shield, gripped her mace with both hands and flew towards the spirit spider’s abdomen.

“I won’t forgive youuuu!”

The ghost spider, blood trickling from its left eye socket, howled fiercely like a father catching a runaway child with a stolen cookie.

◆◆

The intense battle continued for several minutes.

“Haahh!”

“Kyaah!”

In the nerve-wracking tension that felt like it was cutting through our nerves, Raut and I continued our fierce combat, running back and forth until our breaths were on the edge.

It was a battle that seemed to tear flesh and bone.

With each accumulating impact, our limbs creaked almost like poorly made jointed dolls, and maintaining an extreme state of focus felt like my brain was boiling inside my helmet.

And that wasn’t all.

“Ugh…!”

Blood staining my clothes dark. The stinging pain of the wounds inflicted by its claws.

…It hurts.

I tried to respond, but as expected, I couldn’t perfectly evade or block every attack.

A gaping hole in my dented breastplate.

Having faced the ghost spider head-on, both my body and armor had become a mess in just a few minutes.

Since arriving in this world, it was perhaps the largest damage I had suffered.

It felt like the first time since the clumsy early days of my possession.

Still…

Clang!

“Kiiiyaaah!”

As a result, I managed to leave marks on its face equivalent to the scratches on my armor and limbs.

Thud!

I even managed to slice off a front leg and a fang.

Thanks to that, its already hideous face now resembled a rotting corpse pulled straight from a grave.

“Haahhh!”

While I displayed such a struggle, Raut wasn’t idle.

“For once, just break apart!”

Crack!

“Aaargh! My leg! My leg again!”

The spider’s leg crumpled and twitched like a future sculpture of a wrestler, causing the ghost spider to convulse, emitting a soprano-like scream.

After relentlessly striking at one of its hind legs, Raut finally managed to sever one, a miraculous achievement.

“Haah… haah…”

Despite being completely exhausted, she leaned on her tattered leather breastplate, gasping for breath.

“How is it? This much at least…”

As Lautte straightened his back, taking a deep breath.

“Kiiiiiaaaahh!!”

The glowing spirit spider raised its head, glaring at the ceiling and let out a horrifying scream.

It was like the wailing of a dozen women burning on a mountain, a literal auditory torment.

“Huh?!”

“My body…!”

Lautte and I groaned, struggling to move as the spirit’s howl stiffened our muscles like a frog meeting a snake.

Though the paralysis caused by the spirit’s roar was temporary, lasting no more than a second, in the current situation, that second felt like an eternity.

Before Lautte and I could move again, the spirit spider spun around, sweeping in all directions with its remaining six legs, shooting out webs with such force that it dislodged Lautte’s sword from its sheath like a bullet.

“Ah.”

I gasped weakly as I watched the razor-sharp claw hurtling towards me.

There was no way to evade it. Neither for me nor for Lautte.

Whack!

“Gah…!”

Lautte, struck in the abdomen by the spirit’s leg, doubled over and staggered backward, much like a baseball hit by a bat.

I fared no better, feeling a dizzying impact shaking my upper body as the spider’s leg ruthlessly raked across my breastplate.

“Argh!”

The spider’s leg mercilessly lashed across my chest armor, sending me flying and crashing into the fortress wall.

Crash!

“Ugh!”

Amidst the pressure, my broken ribs mixed with my labored breath, creating a ghastly sound.

◆◆

“Urgh… ughhh….”

I twisted against the wall, moaning through clenched teeth.

“This… this is…”

Paralyzing enemies with the spirit’s roar, spinning to shoot webs and subdue all nearby foes—a tactic we hadn’t anticipated.

“What kind of… trickery is this…!”

The spirit spider in the novel had never displayed such techniques, not once.

Thus, we were caught off guard, unable to prepare for the onslaught.

Feeling as if something vile and hostile was refluxing through my esophagus.

Nothing was visible before me, and the pain from hitting the wall was excruciating.

It was a severe blow, wiping out all the achievements gained in the battle.

“Damn it…! If that guy had this kind of skill, he should have mentioned it…!”

I was good at fighting, so what on earth was this?

In my frustration, just as I was about to unleash a torrent of raw curses at a novelist I had never even seen—

“Ah… no.”

A small realization fleetingly crossed my dizzy mind.

“Well, damn. It’s possible.”

Come to think of it, there might not have been an explanation.

If it was a game from the original novel setting, that would be one thing. But for a novel based on a game, it wouldn’t make sense for every monster pattern to be meticulously recorded.

Moreover, Kim Seungwoo, who inhabited Frit’s body, was never meant to engage in a fierce battle against a ghost spider in the first place.

Even in the novel’s depiction of battles, the only content was “Frit easily avoided the thorn wave and cleaved Nivelung in half.”

So, there wouldn’t have been such a pattern to see. It was a technique the protagonist had never witnessed, and thus wouldn’t have been described in the novel.

What a ridiculous situation.

“Kekekekeek…! Finally! Finally caught youuu!”

Instead of eyes that couldn’t see, it was my ringing eardrums that signaled the joyous laughter emanating from the ghost spider, drawing closer and closer.

“Caught? Who did you catch…!”

I withdrew my numb left hand from the wall and lightly touched the helmet.

A sticky sensation clung to it. It was the creature’s web.

Was the reason I couldn’t see because of this after all…

It seemed difficult to remove. Trying to force it off would probably just make my left hand stick to the helmet.

That’s why,

Clack.

I shifted my hand to the back of my head and unlocked the helmet’s latch.

Lemon-colored hair, dirtied with blood and dust, cascaded down my neck.

The helmet fell to the ground. My obstructed vision suddenly became clear and bright.

As I forced my blurry eyes open, before me—

“Ugh, I’m so hungry!”

With a face that resembled a mop left untouched for a hundred years, he chuckled while clutching his remaining front paw.

Ah, damn it.

An imminent crisis as soon as I opened my eyes. Curses slipped out involuntarily.

“Kahh… I have to get up…! Grraaah…!”

Rautte was struggling to rise from the gangway floor, blood gushing as he twisted his body.

Seeing him spewing blood while trying to lift his upper body made it clear to anyone that he was in no condition to continue fighting.

“Heal! Stop the bleeding!”

Kikel, having dealt with several giant spiders by now, was urgently sprinting towards us.

But no matter how fast he was, there was no way he could be quicker than the spider’s claw descending upon us.

He wasn’t particularly fast to begin with. He was a Lizardman.

In other words, at this moment, there was no one who could help me.

“Kyaaaah!”

The spirit spider swung its foreleg at me.

A scythe-like claw coming down vertically. It had enough force to split a human body like firewood and still have some left over.

“Ugh…!”

I desperately groaned as I swung my longsword to block its claw.

…No, I tried to block it.

Thunk.

However, my right arm didn’t move an inch.

The longsword, which should have been swung with all my might, only made a sound as it hit the wall, unable to budge.

“What…?!”

I turned my head in astonishment.

Covered in a white web, my right arm was stuck to the gangway wall.

The area hit by the spider silk wasn’t just my armor.

“Oh.”

An inarticulate moan escaped me.

‘No. Like this, I can’t… stop it…!’

A sense of despair-filled terror surged like a tidal wave.

My motionless right arm.

An unstoppable attack.

The image of a fallen corpse trapped in a spider’s web haunted my mind like a nightmare.

‘Dying…?! Me…?’

Every nerve in my body screamed as if pleading.

That my life was in grave danger.

That death was imminent.

…I don’t want to.

“Aaargh!”

I clenched my eyes shut and let out a scream that felt like a burst of rage.

Even if every bone in my body were to shatter, I twisted with all my might.

And then,

“Aaaargh!”

My heart pounded as if struck by lightning.

From within, something unseen burst forth sharply.

Something as chilling as an icy winter lake… no, even more frigid than that.

It was as if the cold of Antarctica flowed through my veins, spreading throughout my entire body. It felt like my limbs had turned into blocks of ice.

What is this?

Is this the terror of death?

No, it’s something different…

…Unfortunately, there was no time to think further.

Crack!

A sound like bones being crushed echoed in my ears.

I was certain. The creature’s claw had finally reached my skull, splitting it in half.

It was over.

◆◆

…And so, I met death.

Surprisingly, there was no agony.

Did I die instantly without feeling any pain? Lucky me.

Well, maybe not lucky, but…

Still, it was a better end than slowly dying in agony.

…Right?

……

Silence.

But… could it be that I would die so abruptly, so senselessly?

Sigh.

If I knew I would die like this, I should have just worked at a tavern.

Regret.

No, even so, that’s not it. Can that be called living?

Anger.

…Goodness. What should I have done differently?

Frustration.

No, why did I end up in such a place in the first place…!

Injustice.

…I didn’t want to die.

Regret.

All sorts of emotions filled my already shattered mind, swirling and flashing repeatedly.

……

And again, silence.

……

………

And then,

“Grrrghhh….”

An unheard-of, eerie groan erased all the swirling thoughts.

“Grgeeeeh…!”

Truly bizarre groans.

My muddled mind cleared for a moment.

“What’s that sound, what is this…?”

I cautiously opened my tightly shut eyelids.

I could open them, even though I was supposed to be dead.

“……Huh?”

And then I saw.

“Grrr, greeeh… guuuu…!”

From beneath the eyes down to near the torso, the old man’s head was split horizontally, with its contents spilling out as if it had been struck by a troll’s blade.

It was a gruesome sight, akin to being struck by a troll’s blade.

◆◆

“Groooooan….”

Within the eye sockets of the spirit spider, the bluish flame that had been burning fiercely faded away along with the spirit and the body.

The spider’s legs lost their strength and buckled, and its body collapsed heavily, falling to the side.

Kwoong!

A cloud of dust burst forth. Amidst the flowing blood and bodily fluids, the contents of the skull floated like dumplings on a stream.

“No… this is…”

I gazed in astonishment at the giant corpse, my mouth agape.

What awaited me when I opened my eyes was an unexpected sight.

The spirit spider, vanquished in a single blow.

The greatsword shattered as if it would crumble into pieces at a touch.

And the right arm torn from its body with sheer force.

“Gah…!”

And the overwhelming sense of power that engulfed my entire being.

“Ugh…!”

Under the pressure, like a thousand-pound mountain bearing down on me, I groaned as my knees buckled.

The slightest relaxation would have caused my body to collapse immediately. There was no strength left in my entire being.

“Aaargh…! Ugh…! Th-this…!”

I understood. What had happened to my body. Why that old man suddenly died.

It was a phenomenon I was familiar with.

A destructive aftermath that seemed to be the result of superhuman force. A sensation of having my vitality drained entirely. It was exactly as described in novels.

〈 Kang Wan 〉

An innate trait that exhibits extraordinary strength at the cost of immense physical expenditure, a characteristic inherent in exceptional individuals, far surpassing normal capabilities.

The blessing imbued in Brünhill’s blood had manifested.

Splat.

“Ah.”

…In exchange for slightly dampened trousers.

“Ugh….”

The lower part felt slightly moist.

It wasn’t blood. Nor was it sweat.

…Well, what can you expect when you’re about to die?

Right? That’s how it should be…?

…Damn it.

I lay there for quite some time, face flushed, without saying a word.

“Hilde! Are you alive?! You’ve won!”

Until Kikel, who had been dazed by the sight of the spirit spider vanquished in a single blow, suddenly snapped out of it and rushed towards me.