Episode 103: Traces of Battle
“Damn it! I’m all sticky with blood!”
Yuma, in his “Metal Armor” form, grumbled as he looked at his hands and body. Turning around, he saw the dog staggering to its feet.
–No way! I attacked from the inside, tearing it open to its belly!
The dog’s wounds seemed to be healing. If so, it had the same Regeneration ability as the Chimera.
“Can I even beat something like this?”
The dog glared at Yuma, pawed at the ground with its front legs, and pounced in one swift motion.
–I have no choice but to do it!
Yuma used the power of the Bloodstained Ore (Bloody Ore). It was the third time today, but he could use it about twenty more times, so it wasn’t a problem.
Red veins pulsed through his metallic body.
First, he’d observe with five times his strength and the limiter released. Yuma stepped forward with his right foot and slammed a left straight into the head of the oncoming dog.
The dog couldn’t react to Yuma’s speed, and the fist crushed its skull.
He crushed its brain, burying its head into its torso. As Yuma pulled his fist away, the dog was slammed into the parking lot’s concrete and rolled away.
The response was more than he expected. Yuma couldn’t help but look at his own fist.
“What… it’s much softer than the Monsters in the Black Dungeon. Simple attacks seem to be effective.”
He was relieved that his power worked, but his blood ran cold as he saw the dog get up. The dog was regenerating, its crushed head making creaking noises.
The scene was straight out of a zombie movie, grotesque.
“Come on, give me a break! Can you really do that outside the Dungeon!?”
Once its head was completely back to normal, the dog attacked again.
Clicking his tongue, Yuma extended a retractable Longsword from the back of his left hand. As long as he used the Bloodstained Ore (Bloody Ore), the dog’s movements didn’t feel that fast.
He dodged the Monster’s fangs and slashed off its two front legs with a counterattack.
He then kicked the dog in the chest with his right foot. The dog’s chest was crushed by the kick from Yuma’s Bloodstained Ore (Bloody Ore)-enhanced leg, and it flew away with terrifying force.
It crashed into a utility pole behind it, snapping it in the middle, and the pole fell, scattering sparks as it severed the power lines.
“Aaaaaaaah!? This is bad, bad, bad!”
Yuma frantically tried to support the utility pole, but it was too late. The pole collapsed completely with a loud crash.
Yuma held his head.
–Is this going to be my fault!? Property damage? How much will it cost if I’m told to pay for it?
As he was panicking, not knowing what to do, the dog, having regenerated its body, got up behind him.
As Yuma turned around, the dog took a deep breath and spewed out scorching flames.
“Whoa!”
He instinctively guarded his face with his arms. His whole body was engulfed in flames, and the concrete under his feet melted from the heat.
“It’s… not hot?”
No matter how much he was bathed in flames, he didn’t feel any heat at all.
“That’s right. I had resistance.”
His relief was short-lived as the dog, having finished spewing flames, approached him, fire leaking from its mouth and drool dripping. The moment it pounced, Yuma struck it away with a backhand blow.
The dog’s face, where the fist hit, had bones broken and flesh torn, and one eye fell out.
The dog somehow landed, but it was bleeding profusely from its mouth and head. Still, it regenerated its wounds and glared at Yuma.
“This guy… it has Regeneration, but it’s not that strong.”
Yuma shook his right hand, flicking off the dog’s blood that was stuck to it.
He had been quite wary, but it didn’t have the power of a Chimera. Nevertheless, he had even broken a utility pole.
Yuma was getting angrier and angrier at the dog for dragging him into unnecessary trouble.
“It’s your fault I might get arrested by the police! What are you going to do, you idiot!!”
The dog, its wounds regenerated, attacked again. Yuma decided to beat the dog down without destroying the surrounding buildings.
“Bloodstained Ore (Bloody Ore), full power!!”
He unleashed a furious barrage of punches on the face and body of the dog that was approaching. The dog, unable to do anything, was crushed, and finally kicked up with all his might.
It flew more than twenty meters straight up, scattering blood as it fell.
Yuma extended two Longswords from both hands and stood ready.
“Can you regenerate from this?”
Yuma’s swung swords became a flurry of slashes that tore the dog’s body apart.
He severed its head, chopped its torso and legs into small pieces. Fragments of the body turned into chunks of meat, scattering around. The dog’s head rolled to his feet.
Yuma sheathed his swords and stomped on the dog’s head.
“It’s over.”
He put strength into his foot. A crushing sound was heard, and the head was crushed along with the concrete.
The next moment, the dog’s head turned into sand, and all the fragments of its body and blood also turned into sand and disappeared.
It seemed that it couldn’t regenerate if it was destroyed to this extent.
The Bloodstained Ore (Bloody Ore) and “Metallization” abilities were released, and Yuma, back to normal, looked around. Although it was a parking lot, it was broken and scorched everywhere.
“T-This is bad… if this is found, it’ll be a disaster.”
Yuma hurriedly left the scene.
And as Yuma predicted, this incident would spread ripples in various places.
◇◇◇
The next day, the quiet residential area was enveloped in an ominous atmosphere from the morning.
The construction company’s parking lot was sealed off by police tape, and many police officers and Self-Defense Forces personnel surrounded the area.
Private detectives were also conducting door-to-door inquiries in the neighborhood.
“Yes, I certainly heard some loud noises…”
“About what time was that?”
The housewife, suddenly asked about the previous night, couldn’t hide her confusion. Such inquiries were being conducted in all the surrounding houses.
And in the parking lot, two men who were neither police officers nor Self-Defense Forces personnel were talking.
A slender, short-haired man squatted down and traced the blackened part where the concrete had melted with his finger.
A burly man watching him put his hand to his chin and asked the slender man.
“What do you think, Tennoji? Did Hell Garm die here?”
“Probably… yes.”
The two who had come to the scene were from Elceed Corporation. The “Raijuu” Tennoji and the Red Dungeon’s chief supervisor, Ishikawa.
Tennoji had been in the middle of a long-term conquest of the White Dungeon in Hokkaido, but had been called back due to an emergency.
Tennoji rubbed his fingertips together, thinking about something, then stood up and looked around.
“Why did Hell Garm come to a place like this?”
“I don’t know. We traced the security camera footage from various locations, but I never thought we’d end up in the suburbs of Tokyo, far from Ibaraki… Did he run out of strength and die here?”
Tennoji pondered at Ishikawa’s words. After a while, he opened his mouth.
“No, these are traces of battle. It seems he was fighting someone.”
“Fighting? Who with? Was there a Seeker (探索者) here by chance?”
Tennoji shook his head.
“Even if there was a Seeker (探索者), this is outside the Dungeon. Since magic can’t be used, there’s no way they could fight Hell Garm.”
“Then, a police officer?”
“That’s not it either. Even using a Gun wouldn’t be effective against Hell Garm. More than that, there’s no such report anywhere.”
“Then who did he fight!? Tennoji, can’t you tell something from the fluctuation of Mana?”
As Ishikawa said, if it was a high-ranking Seeker (探索者) like Tennoji, he could sense the Mana remaining in the area. Tennoji looked around again.
Asphalt melted by heat, a broken utility pole, cracks scattered in the parking lot.
Traces of “Red Mana” remained in places. But more than that, Tennoji felt the presence of another “strange Mana.”
“I can’t say for sure. But there’s no doubt that something with Mana was here.”