[V8C21] The Fast, Precarious Bird Falls Out of the Sky
Translated by Jodas 8: The Witch of the BoundaryA few minutes earlier, Frederik Lange spotted a giant centipede Monster.
Its length was hard to fathom. He figured it might be able to wrap itself all the way around a small house if it wanted to.
And there were two of them.
(So we’ve reached the point where even Monsters this big have left the Crystal Territory now…)
The Lange Hamlet was one of the closest human settlements to the Crystal Territory, but even then they had never dealt with a Monster of this scale.
The larger and more powerful a Monster was, the harder it was for it to survive in an area with low mana density.
Frederik observed the centipedes’ bodies from above with flight magic.
According to Hütter from the Guidance Office, he’d posited that the Monsters might have been able to expand their range of activity by embedding crystals from the Crystal Territory into their bodies. As suggested, most of the Monsters they’ve spotted recently have had something crystal-like in their bodies.
Assuming these centipedes were similar, then by ripping out that crystal shard, Frederik supposed he could weaken it significantly, even if that alone probably wouldn’t kill it outright.
That said, he couldn’t see any crystals from where he was.
(If it’s stabbed into its underbelly, then I guess it would be hard to see, huh?)
Mantis and centipede Monsters didn’t have human levels of intelligence. They would never think to place their crystal shards somewhere hidden.
(There must be an intelligent Monster somewhere that put those in for them.)
He put off looking for the centipede’s crystal until later. First, he focused on getting this thing to stop breathing.
A Monster of that size would be too large for Helena’s ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam’ to handle. He had to take care of them himself.
Frederik assessed the location of both Monsters. He dove at an angle that kept him out of the range of the other one as he brought his spear down on one of the centipedes.
The spear pierced its back, but it didn’t go in as deep as he expected.
While Frederik lacking the body weight was one reason, the centipede’s body was simply too tough.
(…I think Rikard would be a better match against enemies like these.)
With the spear still impaled, Frederik chanted. A wind swirled around the tip of the spear, cutting in to the Monster’s body.
But before he could finish his incantation, something came flying at him from the right.
Frederik immediately twisted his body to evade. Stuck to the centipede’s body was a white thread.
The blood drained from his face in fear. He felt like his fingers were about to go numb. At times like this, Frederik focused in on his anger.
He continued his interrupted incantation, folding his mana into a meaningful shape. A swirling wind emerged at the end of Frederik’s spear. That sliced through the centipede’s body.
“Long time no see, boy.”
He heard a sticky, woven woman’s voice. As if he could ever forget that voice.
(I’ll kill you.)
That Monster had been hidden in the centipede’s shadow.
Her upper half was that of a beautiful woman with silver hair. Her lower half, meanwhile, was that of a giant spider Monster. That lower half was twice the size of the Arachnes he’d defeated a little bit earlier.
—It was that Arachne. The one who killed Frederik’s father.
Frederik lunged at the Arachne with his spear wreathed in wind.
When he did, the Arachne spewed a huge volume of threads. The highly-adhesive silk blunted the force of the wind, while the centipede swung its tail to interrupt his attack.
In that time, the other centipede had moved off somewhere else.
(…Damn! I can’t handle all of this at once!)
Should he prioritize eliminating the fleeing centipede or the centipede that was working together with the Arachne? Frederik couldn’t decide.
‘So the fear doesn’t swallow you, let your rage burn. But at the same time, don’t let the rage swallow you either. Keep your cool.’
Telling himself that, Frederik made his decision.
(The number one threat is this Arachne. I absolutely have to put a stop to her.)
If he did run after the fleeing one, the Arachne would surely come at him from behind. Frederik decided he could leave that fleeing centipede to the others.
In the centipede’s immense shadow, the Arachne smirked.
“You’ve killed my little sisters, haven’t you?”
Those Arachne sisters who attacked Tia and Wren. They were this one’s little sisters?
Those sisters were reasonably intelligent and powerful for Lesser Monsters, but not quite enough to match a Greater Monster.
This silver-haired Arachne in front of him, however, was an aberration among Lesser Monsters — An existence that some may call a ‘Queen.’
That something this powerful still wasn’t enough to count as a Greater Monster made him sick to his stomach.
“I’m impressed. That tiny little boy from back then grew powerful enough to kill my little sisters. Even though, when I killed your father before your eyes, you were so…”
Before the Arachne could finish her sentence, Frederik swung his spear.
He had no desire to converse with this Arachne any more than he had to. Much less reminiscing about the past.
The spider silk stopped the momentum of his spear. The centipede’s tail interrupted his attack.
The Arachne laughed as she crawled around the centipede’s long body.
“Boy, how about I plant some more fear and despair into you?”
(Is that how you ate Oliver’s fear?)
Frederik opened the distance and chanted, letting loose a blade of wind.
But the Arachne hid behind the giant centipede. The centipede’s back was extremely tough, so the wind blades were unable to do any significant damage.
As expected, if he wanted to deal the finishing blow, he had to use his mana-imbued spear.
(But even the wind blades are enough to keep the spider webs at bay… As long as I use them right.)
Mages could only use two spells at a time.
In Frederik’s case, his flight magic always accounted for one of those, so he couldn’t use both the wind blades and the swirling wind at the same time.
First, he should maintain his altitude with flight magic, use the wind blades as suppressing fire, then wait for an opening. If this became a battle of attrition, Frederik would be the one at a disadvantage. Monsters had overwhelmingly more mana and endurance compared to humans.
(Then I’ll first need to move to somewhere it would be hard for the centipede to move around.)
With that giant centipede’s immense body, it should have difficulties moving around somewhere with denser tree cover.
With that in mind, Frederik used his flight magic to lead the giant centipede in the right direciton.
Maneuverability was the greatest strength of Frederik’s flight magic. He should be able to fly around just fine even among dense tree cover to a certain extent.
Fortunately, there was just such a spot right in front of him. The moment Frederik slipped through the space between the trees, he noticed something was off.
An almost unnoticably thin spider web was stuck to his skin.
“Boy, spiders like to set up webs and wait for prey to fall into them, you know?”
(Dammit…!)
No longer able to move like he wanted, Frederik couldn’t get out of the way as the giant centipede rushed into him.
The giant centipede mercilessly tore down the surrounding trees and barreled into Frederik’s body.
He blacked out briefly from the shock of the impact. His lungs were under so much pressure he couldn’t breathe. Yet, just barely able to maintain his flight magic, Frederik ascended into the sky through the dust cloud.
—Then he could feel his spear being pulled downwards.
(…Ah.)
A spider web had wrapped itself around his spear. The spider’s thread pulled with a strong force.
Frederik could not win against a Monster in a simple contest of strength. At this rate, he would be thrown to the ground along with his spear.
With no better options, Frederik let go of the spear.
Even without his spear, he still had attack options. When he opened his mouth to make the chant for his wind blades, Frederik coughed.
His lungs had just been under immense pressure, then he’d inhaled some of that cloud of dust on top of that. He could hardly even breathe. There was no way he could chant at this moment.
Huffing out wheezing breaths, Frederik felt something pull on his leg. Another spider web. She could reach him all the way at this height?
Frederik’s thin body was pulled towards the ground with great force.
For a second, he lost consciousness.
With haggard breaths, Frederik lifted his heavy eyelids.
He could see the ground just below him. He was hanging in the air, suspended by a web of spider webs weaved between the trees.
If he slid down a hill on his stomach, then suddenly stopped halfway down, he might have made a similar pose to what he was in right now. If anyone saw him like this they would think he was a fool.
Pain struck from all over his body, and he found it difficult to breathe. He must have cut something on his face as he fell, because blood was pooling and getting into his eyes. He wanted to wipe off the blood, but his whole body was trapped in these threads, unable to move.
His arms and legs were wrapped especially tightly, and everything from his wrists and ankles on out was completely covered in silk.
“Maybe I should leave you here until you shrivel up… If you’re thirsty, I’ll give you something to drink. If you’re hungry, I’ll give you something to eat… Just like I did back then.”
‘Stop it! Shut up! He wanted to shout, but Frederik only erupted into a coughing fit.
A mix of blood and saliva dripped from the corners of his mouth. Disgusting.
“Oh, right. I bet that brother of yours who ran away that day has grown quite large, hasn’t he? How about I tear him apart in front of you, and let you hear his sobbing and screaming right next to your ears?”
Rage, hatred, and malice boiled within Frederik. At the same time, a tiny question floated up in his mind.
His brother’s sobbing and screaming — That was a strange thing to say.
After all, since Oliver had his fear eaten, there’s no way he would ever sob or scream.
(You were the one who ate Oliver’s fear, weren’t you?)
At that moment, Frederik’s ears picked up a valiant voice that was as far removed from fear as it could be.
“BROTHERR!! ARE YOU OKAY!!?”
‘What bad timing, you foolish brother of mine.’ Frederik felt the urge to pull out his hair.