I Obtained the Final Boss' Power

Chapter 34 : Stampede (6)

Stampede (6)

Silia had long forgotten how long she'd been fighting.

The time was so desperate, flirting with death, that there was no room left in her mind to remember such things.

In what felt like an eternity, Silia was forced to endure agony that fractured her mind.

Her body had already reached its limits, continuing to fight despite heavy blood loss.

Every swing of her sword made her muscles scream, and every step sent blood spurting from the wounds that pierced her legs.

All Silia could see were the corpses of her fallen squadmates.

For a soldier to die was natural. From the very moment she was dragged here, they were all simply expendable lives.

Silia had no real reason to blame herself.

And yet, every time another of her squad was killed, she lost her composure without even realizing it.

Each new body, with holes torn through them, burst open emotions that had long been dormant within her.

This wasn't the first time she'd felt this way.

It was the same feeling she'd had when she'd first seen her younger brother's corpse.

Maybe that's why, she was able to squeeze out strength she didn't know she had, to fight back against the monsters.

Even when she took lethal injuries, her arms and legs pierced again, she didn't hesitate to swing her sword.

Raging anger left her no time to feel pain.

Thanks to that, she succeeded in protecting five of her squadmates, but now, she had reached her limit.

'Is this the end?'

Drained of all strength, Silia collapsed to the floor. The blood streaming from her body stained the ground bright red.

In her increasingly blurry vision, she saw her fallen squadmates.

Five lay dead with holes through their bodies, and the other five had merely barely managed to cling to life.

Rio's condition was especially dire.

Though still alive, her bleeding was by far the worst and she clearly needed urgent care.

Unfortunately, Silia had no energy left to provide first aid.

― Crrrrrrrrrrrk!

Monsters still lingered around Silia, who managed to open her eyes only with great effort.

A monster that resembled a porcupine, covered in spines, began slowly walking toward her.

'So heartless.'

After all that effort cutting them down, there were still this many left.

It was merciless—cruel, even. It felt as if none of her struggle had been rewarded.

She didn't even have the strength left to swing her sword.

As the monsters charged in, showing ever-increasing murderous intent, Silia quietly closed her eyes.

As her vision faded to black, memories of how she came to be assigned to this fortress floated back to her.

All of it was her own doing, but she had no regrets. After her brother's death, her life had already crumbled.

'So heartless, really.'

She wondered what those noble brats she'd beat up until their faces were pulp were doing now.

With their faces in such a state, it wasn't like they could live a normal life—but they should at least still be alive.

They must be cursing her and blaming her by now.

'Congratulations.'

It was, at last, the moment when those bastards' wish would come true.

With a bitter smile, Silia realized one truth.

No amount of struggling brought reward, and evil seldom faced punishment. That was this damn world.

Slice!-

At the moment she accepted reality, the sound of flesh being torn filled her ears.

But Silia was unharmed, and the monsters charging at her were split clean in half.

"......?"

When she opened her eyes again, Silia couldn't believe what she saw.

Right in front of her stood Louis, who had just ripped the monsters apart with his bare hands.

"You look terrible."

Louis sighed as he spoke, having rescued Silia. In that instant, near death, Silia's eyes shot open wide.

"....... Louis?"

Was this a hallucination, because she was on the verge of dying? Louis wasn't supposed to be there.

Not here, where even firing a signal flare would produce no help.

It was a place where it was incredibly unlikely that another unit would come to their rescue.

"Is this a hallucination?"

Silia tried to convince herself that what she was seeing was just an illusion.

"What do you mean, a hallucination?"

"Mmgh...!"

Louis grabbed Silia's cheeks with both hands and tugged.

When pain shot through her cheeks, Silia realized it wasn't a hallucination after all.

"Louis... How did you get here?"

Discovering that this really was Louis, Silia wore an expression of disbelief.

This place didn't just dull the senses—it also cut off external communication.

The mist created by the Gigant Vulture was a kind of net to ensnare prey.

Silia was unable to imagine how Louis could have tracked her here, but Louis gave a simple answer.

"Easily."

"......"

Louis's terse answer left Silia speechless. She wanted to shout at him to answer properly, but no strength remained to do so.

Even as more monsters attacked from behind, Silia couldn't raise her sword.

But there was no need to worry.

Crash!-

Louis grabbed the head of a monster that lunged from behind, and smashed it into the ground, pulverizing it.

His ability to eliminate lurking threats in the blink of an eye left Silia briefly stunned.

"Just take a rest for a little while."

Louis sat Silia down in front of a tree and turned his back. He then walked steadily toward the horde of monsters.

Though enemies still swarmed everywhere and only one friendly had arrived, Silia couldn't consider the situation improved, and yet, immediately, she felt an enormous trust in Louis alone.

Silia watched Louis fight.

He was, in fact, a monster wearing the skin of a twelve-year-old boy.

She knew it well, especially remembering how he had shrugged off an entire bowl of poison without any problem.

It seemed only natural, then, that he could track her in this Forest of Death.

"Oh, by the way, can I ask you one favor?"

Suddenly, Louis turned his head toward Silia and spoke.

"If anything happens to me, please activate that spell for me."

"......"

And that wasn't the only reason Louis looked like a monster.

"You know I don't feel pain from spells. You're already aware of that, right?"

Thanks to going out with Louis, Silia had learned many things.

One of them was that there were soldiers at Paruzan Fortress who weren't affected by spells.

During one outing, Silia had tried torturing one such soldier.

The first time, he had pretended to be in pain, and she had fallen for it.

But the problem arose when the soldier was more than 50 meters away.

Any soldier more than that far from an officer was supposed to receive enough pain from the torture spell to faint immediately.

But that soldier seemed totally fine—even when far away.

Growing suspicious, Silia confronted the soldier after returning from the outing.

― Are you not hurt by this?

The soldier explained the reason obediently, and also explained why he had to be subjected to the torture spell at all.

Thanks to that, Louis didn't need to explain things at length now.

"Then I'll trust you. You always have good instincts, squad leader."

Louis jumped straight into the horde of monsters. Like a moth diving into a fire, yet somehow, Silia didn't feel at all any worry for him.

Louis was abnormal to an absurd degree. Silia felt it was foolish to apply ordinary logic to someone like Louis.

And now, her feeling was being proven right.

All the monsters Silia had struggled to fight, suffering wounds herself, were being swept away by Louis's hands.

KA-BOOM!!-

With every punch Louis landed, an explosion rang out, and the monsters' bodies burst apart.

Even the knights, pouring aura into their attacks, couldn't easily fell these monsters, yet Louis shattered them as if they were just candy.

Monstrous bird-like creatures fired volleys of feathers like arrows, but Louis dodged them with ease, then leapt toward the monsters.

Grabbing their wings, he tore them apart like paper.

― Kyaaaaak!!

Wingless, the monster screamed and was annihilated. Landing back on the ground, Louis picked up a nearby boulder and hurled it at other monsters.

The ones caught by the flying rock were obliterated without even a trace left behind.

"......"

Watching Louis's monstrous strength in real time, Silia found herself lost in deep thought.

She'd seen him fight before, but seeing it again, it left her at a loss for words.

What was more astonishing was not just his monstrous strength.

When the porcupine monsters' spines stabbed Louis's skin, the spines broke instead.

The same spines that had pierced through Silia and her squadmates' bodies couldn't even threaten Louis.

After that, the porcupine monsters' bodies were burst by Louis's fists.

"Huh?"

Silia was watching Louis's fight as she rested.

In the middle of things, noticing a change in Louis's appearance, she felt a strange sense of unease.

His previously normal arm began to sprout things like scales, then covered over with beast-like fur.

His pupils split vertically, resembling a reptile.

As Louis transformed into something inhuman, Silia felt a strange sensation.

Meanwhile, Louis finished off all the monsters. Smiling with bared fangs, drenched in the monsters' blood, he grinned.

"......!!"

A massive shadow fell over her feet, making Silia's blood run cold.

Looking up, she locked eyes with the enormous beast-bird, the Gigant Vulture.

She could feel unmistakable hostility from its gaze.

"Keeheeheeheeheehee......."

While Silia was frozen stiff, Louis burst into laughter the moment he met the monster's gaze.

"Kihahahahahahaha!!!"

That laughter soon shifted into a beast's screech.

Even Louis, whose eyes had lost all traces of humanity, exuded the same chilling aura as the Gigant Vulture.

― Kiiiiiiiiiiik...!

With a screech, the Gigant Vulture spread its wings—wide enough to blot out the sky.

As it swept its wings, Louis leapt forward. At the same time, holes were torn into the moving wings.

― Kwooooooo!!

The wounded monster howled in pain. Louis, now clinging to the creature's body, bit into its wing.

But the Gigant Vulture didn't simply take it—it snatched up Louis in its beak and slammed him into the ground.

The impact made the earth shudder and split the forest in two.

The canyon that suddenly opened before her left Silia's heart pounding in fear.

Worried for Louis, though, it was all unnecessary. The monster's beak, which had slammed into the ground, was missing.

"Looking for this?"

Louis climbed out from within the canyon, holding the monster's huge beak up defiantly.

Despite such an impact, not a single mark marred Louis's scales.

"Are you really a higher-rank monster? Frankly, you seem weaker than the lizard I fought before."

― Kiyaaak!

Red-eyed with rage, the beast-bird spread its wings again. As it tried to take flight, Louis leapt once more and seized its wing.

With a bizarre grin, he tore the wing off.

"How is this supposed to be a higher-level specimen?"

Louis mocked the monster, then slammed it to the ground.

He followed by tearing off the other wing, then biting into it.

Ignoring the monster's desperate screams for mercy, Louis began to dissect its body with his jaws.

Louis could instinctively tell this was a higher-rank monster. He'd fought a similar one before, so he could tell the difference.

Yet, even when facing such a powerful foe, he didn't appear to use any special techniques.

No valiant strategies. No powerful magic. He simply tore and bit. That was it.

When even the monster's vital organs were torn out, at some point, the beast fell silent.

The body, once thrashing wildly, now lay limp.

The monstrous bird, capable of inducing terror with just a look, had become nothing more than a corpse in an instant.

Atop it stood a far greater monster, using its body as a mere platform.

"......"

Silia watched all this silently. It was a scene completely unbelievable, even when witnessing it with her own two eyes.

She had known Louis was extraordinary—but she'd never imagined he was this kind of existence. In that instant, their eyes met.

"Grrrrrr..."

Louis looked at Silia with the same monstrous grin he'd worn while tearing the wings, and as he approached her one step at a time, Silia instinctively sensed danger.

Having experienced the wild once before, Silia could distinguish between a human's instincts and an animal's.

But what she felt from Louis now was neither. He seemed to be something utterly unknown—a bizarre existence beyond comprehension.

"Kwooooo!!"

With a beastly screech, Louis charged at her, and Silia thrust out her hand, engraved with the spell.

From their earlier conversation, she knew that spells didn't work on Louis—and that they also served to restrain his outbursts, as Louis himself had once told her.

"Ugh!!"

Just as Louis, having lost his senses, could no longer distinguish friend from foe, he suddenly stopped with a groan.

The spell engraved by a 7th Legion officer on Silia's hand was glowing.

Thanks to that, Silia was able to stop the rampaging soldier.

Louis, whose reason had been eclipsed, had returned to being a person once more.