episode_0053

000

Two hunters run on top of the trees.

From branch to branch, from low to high places.

Inside the magic-contaminated forest that almost blocks sunlight.

Relying only on their eyesight, they always confirm where they can step and the location of the enemy.

On the man’s side, Mikasia borrows the power of the seal manifested in his eyes.

Not only sight, but also other senses react sensitively.

He checks Sasha’s location in real time.

On the other hand, Sasha relies solely on her own skills.

She tries to figure out Mikasia’s location, who runs through the trees like a winged animal.

But for Sasha, who does not borrow the power of the seal.

All the sounds in the forest were materials that interfered with her judgment.

Rustle

As soon as she hears the sound of a branch shaking from the other side, she immediately puts an arrow on the bowstring and fires it.

The arrow flies, tearing through the darkness.

But it just penetrates between the leaves and branches.

Rather, the firing position is identified by the previous one.

An arrow flies from a different direction, aiming for Sasha’s arm.

Sasha dodges Mikasia’s arrow by bending her body.

As if the opponent does not care about Sasha’s situation.

He continued to fire subsequent arrows.

`If I stay still, he will keep attacking…. Thanks to the trees, the line of fire doesn’t go through well, so he’s not sniping at vital points…!`

Sasha sweats and runs to the next tree to get out of the place where she was standing by somehow moving her feet.

Thanks to the wind assistance magic she received from Luti, her body has become lighter.

Every time she moves a tree, she sees the branches of where she used to be falling off.

`He’s gradually narrowing the siege. He’s reducing the places where I can stand.`

“Hey. If you don’t use the seal, it won’t be a match from the start.”

Mikasia watches Sasha sweating in the dark.

He speaks mockingly.

“Of course, I don’t really care if your wish is to lose.”

Announcing his location by making such a sound was also a kind of provocation.

Even if Sasha shoots an arrow in the direction he wants.

He leisurely swings a dagger to knock the arrow away.

“You’ve gotten weaker than when we fought last time…. Is this all you are without the power of the seal?”

The voice was filled with a feeling of “that’s right,” rather than disappointment.

Sasha bites her lower lip, holds her breath, and crouches down to avoid revealing where she has moved.

What she has is.

A magic potion brought to deliver to Layla.

Ordinary iron-tipped arrows.

And a bow that has been used for a long time.

Two daggers.

Strength goes into the hand holding the bow.

Compared to Mikasia, who uses arrows made of magic.

Sasha uses physical arrows.

In other words, it is necessary to fight while paying attention to the remaining amount of arrows.

Overwhelmingly disadvantageous.

The faces of Kleon and Layla, who are fighting beyond the forest, come to mind.

“I have to get to that place no matter what…!”

To do that, I need to defeat the man in front of me.

This fight is personal.

I can’t drag the two of them in.

In order to escape the bonds of the village.

I have to overcome it with my own strength.

Kleon’s advice flashes through my head once again.

The hunter’s seal is Sasha’s own power.

Certainly, if I use the seal, I will be able to fight on an equal footing, if not advantageously.

I don’t know how to use magic arrows, but at least I can reduce the waste of arrows.

But.

If I rely on the power of the seal forever.

I might be swallowed up by that power and become a beast.

A beast that bites humans.

If that happens, I can no longer be with everyone.

I might even have to fight them.

Sasha’s mind flashes back to the day she left the village.

Herself in the river washing away Marang’s blood.

And far away, the huge wolf watching her from the cliff under the moonlight.

The incarnation of the god of hunting, `Ruben`.

The blessing of free adventure, unbound by anything.

The curse of unintentionally betraying precious companions.

Perhaps, she might become a beast.

Wouldn’t she end up hurting them?

The moment she thought that far.

An arrow flies towards where she is.

Sasha urgently leans back to avoid it.

The next moment, she feels the ground collapsing with a thud.

She falls from the tree.

What happened?

Thinking the same thing, when she looks at where she fell.

The arrow was aiming not for her from the beginning, but for the branch she was standing on.

This is what happens when you take your eyes off the enemy and start thinking.

“Ugh…!”

Somehow she manages to land without hurting her leg this time, as she did last time.

Looking at the direction from which the arrow came….

This time again, Mikasia has come down to the ground as well.

“It’s boring. If it were a normal animal, it would run away as soon as it knew it was at a disadvantage, so there would be the fun of chasing it.”

He looks at Sasha with a truly bored expression.

The seal that emerged in his eyes was emitting a bright magic light of golden color and was constantly observing Sasha.

“I want to take you away without hurting you as much as possible. Won’t you just surrender obediently? That way, there won’t be any problems with giving birth to a child.”

A disgusting gaze that judges women based on the standards of the tribe.

Excellent women are, after all, matrices for giving birth to excellent children.

She doesn’t want to go back to such a hellish place anymore.

Sasha was sincerely thinking that it would be better to die than that.

“I refuse.”

“Did you like that master so much? Does he satisfy you that much?”

Mikasia grins bitterly.

Sasha can’t stand it and shoots an arrow.

Stringing, aiming, and firing are done in an instant.

Before, she was on top of a tree with almost no visibility.

Now that she’s down from the tree, the line of fire is clear and her vision is secured.

Therefore, it is advantageous for the one who shoots first and dodges first.

If the opponent is looking down on her and is off guard.

She just needs to show him a painful taste.

“Haa….”

But Mikasia doesn’t dodge and swings a dagger at the flying arrow.

Then, the arrow splits and falls to the ground.

“Did you see? I’m much stronger than you. This is the correct form of Ruben’s descendant. You’re foolishly sealing the seal, so your excellent skills are all dying.”

Improved dynamic visual acuity. Sharpened senses.

The ability to grasp what the opponent will do by looking at the expansion of the pupils or the movement of muscles, a short-term predictive power close to intuition.

Certainly. This man may be much stronger than her.

Aside from the seal or not.

But.

`If it were Kleon, he wouldn’t give up even against a stronger opponent than himself.`

Analyzing the opponent in any crisis and overturning that expectation is Kleon’s method.

What she lacks is the same imagination as what he has.

“You still have a face that says you haven’t given up. Then there’s no choice.”

The man puts a magic arrow on the bow.

And the end of the bowstring is aimed at her.

In the silence between the two, their eyes move to predict each other’s movements.

The direction of dodging and the direction of firing.

Subtle movements including feints.

After a short time of checking each other.

Sasha moved first.

What she lacks is imagination, of course, but in times like this, what she needs is the boldness to overturn the opponent’s expectations.

As a result of that judgment, what she took was.

Holding a dagger in her hand, she rushes head-on at Mikasia.

“Hmph. Foolish.”

Mikasia looks at Sasha and releases the hand holding the bowstring.

Then, the magic arrow rushes towards Sasha, cutting through the wind.

At that moment, Sasha quickly bends her body.

“What…!”

If she tries to `dodge`, the opponent will read it and fire the arrow on an unavoidable trajectory.

But if she rushes straight in head-on.

The place where the opponent has to shoot is also determined in a straight line.

In other words. By deliberately exposing her weakness, she forces him to attack that place.

That was Sasha’s new strategy learned from Kleon.

Then she can predict the opponent’s movements to some extent.

As an excellent hunter, excluding the seal or not.

The opponent will take actions close to what she thought.

He will definitely attack the place where she showed a gap.

Sasha predicts that attack and takes the next action.

“Haa!”

As a result, Sasha, who slid on the ground, dodged the arrow, and approached him.

She succeeds in stabbing the dagger into his abdomen.

“Keugh!”

`I did it…!`

Sasha’s eyes widen as she succeeds in landing a first hit.

But Mikasia also kicked Sasha away with his foot, making a groan of pain.

“Agh…!”

Sasha rolls on the ground and flies backwards.

Mikasia pulls out the dagger stuck in his abdomen and throws it to the ground.

The flowing blood could be stopped by drinking a potion.

But if he does such a thing head-on.

He will be pierced by that woman who is flickering and rising from her seat with a glint in her eyes…!

Mikasia sweats for the first time and slowly steps back.

Was it a mistake to show myself head-on….

“Tch…. I don’t want to stay here for long because it’s already full of magic.”

“…!”

Sasha heard Mikasia’s complaint and didn’t miss it.

As he said, this place is an area eroded by interdimensional magic.

It doesn’t matter to her, who doesn’t use the seal.

The seal is also sensitive to magic.

In other words, by increasing the magic concentration around her, she can prevent the seal from functioning properly.

Just like herself who was hit by the magic of the Evil Eye that day.

Unfortunately, Sasha herself was unable to control magic in a way that releases magic around her.

At best, it’s about strengthening the body or using the seal.

But. There was something full of magic.

At the same time as Mikasia goes up the tree, Sasha also goes up another tree.

It was a foolish act for her to be below alone when the opponent was hiding.

Instead, she doesn’t grab the bow this time either.

Not even a dagger.

`I’m sorry, Layla…!`

What she has in her hand is a magic potion that she brought just in case.

The magic potion is the essence of magic refined in liquid form.

Mikasia, who became a little more cautious, learning from the previous failure.

The smell of blood tells Sasha where he is.

Even so, judging that he can find her first due to the difference in the seal, he fires an arrow at her, chasing the afterimage of magic that is coming this way, even though he cannot be seen directly.

Then-

Something breaks with a clang! sound.

“What…!”

The surge of magic that spreads around in an instant.

It stimulates the seal and momentarily paralyzes its senses.

The next moment, Sasha, who jumped high and moved right above where Mikasia is, aims at Mikasia from above.

“Fall!!”

She releases the drawn bowstring.

Then, an arrow falling at a high speed from above.

It pierces straight into Mikasia’s shoulder blade.

“Keugh…!”

Mikasia’s body stops momentarily due to the pain.

And Sasha doesn’t stop there.

She kicks him in the face.

She knocks him off the tree.

Mikasia falls, making a thud! sound, without even doing a fall break.

Sasha lands where Mikasia was standing a moment ago.

She looks down at him who fell.

And she clenches her fist tightly.

She won without using the seal…!

But the pleasure of victory is only temporary.

She had to join everyone quickly.

Before that, Sasha had to decide what to do with the fallen Mikasia.

In her honest feelings, finishing off an opponent who had already lost his fighting power was an act that she was reluctant to do.

But if she sends him away like this….

Her existence may be known to the village, and other hunters may come after her.

Sasha steels her heart and comes down to the bottom of the tree.

In her hand was another dagger that was a pair with the one she used earlier.

It’s to finish off the hunted animal.

Sasha tries to persuade herself, but her trembling hand doesn’t stop.

And the moment she tries to strike the dagger down from above-.

Thud! Her wrist is grabbed.

Surprised, she looks at him.

Mikasia’s face, with the seal completely melted into his eyes and lost his reason.

It was slowly twisting like a beast.

“Keugh…!?”

His snout gets longer, and the muscles all over his body twist and his skeleton changes.

The clothes covering his body are torn off by the expanding muscles.

Hair slowly grows as the joints bend.

Sasha, feeling the strength of the hand holding her wrist gradually increasing.

She quickly stabs that hand with a dagger.

Then, with a scream full of pain, no, a roar.

Mikasia…. What was Mikasia staggers back, releasing Sasha.

“I…. Me, to a female like you…! To a weak woman who didn’t even use a seal…!”

Mikasia’s body and personality are gradually transforming.

The word `reason` had completely disappeared from his eyes.

This is the true meaning of turning into a beast.

It wasn’t just a metaphor.

Literally, the hunter changes himself according to his desires.

He was falling into a beast.

“Hi, ik…!”

Eventually, Mikasia’s completely transformed appearance.

A wolf, no, a figure that mixed Marang and a human.

A so-called `werewolf`.

[KURRRRRRRRRAAAAA!]

As he completely loses his reason and starts rampaging, Sasha quickly steps back and fires an arrow.

But the arrow stuck in its thick skin did not cause any damage.

Rather, it was only enraging the beast.

`No…. This isn’t a hunter anymore. Just a beast…! It’s also close to a demonic beast…!`

If she even grazes that forefoot, that place will fall off greatly and it will be fatal as it is.

On top of that, if she thinks about running freely through the trees with durability as well as sensitive senses and enhanced strength closer to a beast.

Just dealing with it was close to suicide.

She has to get out of here when she can’t move due to the aftereffects of the transformation….

“… …”

But Sasha immediately recognized her own perception.

If the opponent is a demonic beast, it should be her who hunts it.

She couldn’t just rely on Kleon or everyone forever.

Because.

Kleon and Layla are her precious companions.

She also has to be able to protect them.

So Sasha closed her eyes for a moment.

No matter how much it is her, it is impossible to hunt this monster normally.

And she seemed to be able to vaguely understand something about beastification.

In her eyes that opened again, the hunter’s seal emerged.

When the suppressed magic of the seal is released.

Sensitive senses that quickly envelop her entire body, and the afterimage of magic.

She can even hear the sound of Kleon fighting someone in the distance.

A sharp shock that seems to penetrate her entire body.

“Keugh…!”

Her head and tailbone area are tickling.

The seal was quickly encroaching on her body.

But she put an arrow on the bow and aimed at the demonic beast.

“Sasha is… a hunter… I will not fall into a beast that is prey!”

While reciting the oath for hunting.

She released the bowstring.

001

[Ku…A…U…]

A werewolf with arrows stuck all over its body like a hedgehog.

Eventually, as the fire of life goes out.

It closes its eyes and collapses.

Standing in front of it was a small girl on the verge of collapsing with wounds all over her body.

She had used up all her arrows, and her dagger was broken.

It wasn’t just the dagger that was broken, but also several ribs and one leg.

And a little finger for the final blow.

And in addition to human ears, the ears of a beast were protruding on her head.

The tail growing under her back is wagging.

The other changed parts didn’t seem to be significantly different.

It could be seen that the seal was half-melted completely into her eyes.

“Kleon…ssi….”

While calling out the name of her loved one for the last time.

Sasha also fell asleep on the spot.

There is bleeding or fractures.

But she manages to stop it to some extent with the regenerative power like the beastmen.

While blaming her weakness for not being able to go to help Kleon.

The hunter finishes hunting and rests.

Hoping that the first face she sees when she wakes up.

Will be the face of her loved one, not an ugly beast.