Hunter and Trap
One dark night, dimly lit by the moonlight.
"Kraagh!!"
With an unpleasant squelching sound, a short, sharp cry echoed through the alley.
The body of a man, pierced by thorns made of shadows, went limp...
"Seriously, are they cockroaches or something..."
Rudell muttered, wiping the blood off his cheek.
No matter how many he killed, the Cult's forces persistently reappeared.
Like cockroaches where what you see isn't all there is, their numbers were impossible to estimate.
"So? You wanna have a go too?"
"H-Hiiik…!!"
He then approached a man who was cowering in the corner, fearfully scanning his surroundings.
With a terrified voice, the man made a frightened expression...
"Don't be so scared. I'm not going to kill you."
"I-If you spare me, I'll do anything!!"
"Yeah, yeah. Good to see you're cooperative."
Rudell's objective was solely the Cult's forces.
He had no intention of killing civilians involved with them unless they were deeply entangled.
Rather, intimidating them moderately like this to extract information was far more beneficial for Rudell.
"This drug. Where can I get it?"
"W-Well, I don't really..."
Rudell took out a small bead from his pocket and asked him, but the man shook his head.
And at that moment...
-Crack!!
A black thorn, emerging from the shadows, grazed the man's cheek and embedded itself in the wall behind him.
Red blood trickled down the man's cheek, and he stared at the shadow thorn stuck in the wall with trembling eyes.
"Last time I'm asking. Where can I get it?"
"F-Follow me, and I'll tell you!!"
Should've done that from the start... why try to play games...
Rudell smiled at the man and followed him as he hurriedly moved.
Passing through the incredibly complex alleyways, they navigated deserted passages, and after walking for a long time, Rudell arrived at...
"H-Here it is, sir."
"Hmm..."
It was none other than a dead end.
Of course, as with all the Cult hideouts he had dealt with so far, what you see isn't always what you get.
"You can go now. If I see you again next time... you know what happens, right?"
"Y-Yes, of course, sir!!"
The man bowed to Rudell and quickly left, and Rudell, watching him go, let out a short sigh.
"How long do I have to keep doing this..."
Anyway, it's about time for a reaction from that side...
Muttering with that thought, Rudell touched a protruding brick on the wall, and as always, with the sound of scraping brick, a large passageway revealed itself before him.
Concealing himself in the shadows, Rudell proceeded towards the dark passage.
-Thud. Thud.
As the sound of footsteps echoed, Rudell reached the end of the passage and observed the surroundings, hidden in the darkness.
Fortunately, there were no signs of ambushes or traps.
With a short sigh, Rudell cautiously emerged from the passage...
"It's empty...?"
A dumbfounded voice escaped Rudell's lips as he looked around.
The hideout was literally empty.
There wasn't a single shadow of a person to be seen, and the only thing visible was a blue flame burning in the middle of the empty space...
"This has never happened before..."
Feeling puzzled, Rudell took a step forward, and just as he was looking around to grasp the situation,
[Grrrr...]
"...?"
Startled by the sudden growl, Rudell turned his head with a puzzled look.
And what he saw were a pair of red eyes gleaming in the darkness.
"No way..."
As he saw it, an ominous premonition flashed through Rudell's mind, and something emerged from the darkness.
What stood before him could be described as a creature formed by the fusion of numerous monsters.
Just from what he could see, there was a Mad Lion, a Basilisk, a Griffin...
Each one was a formidable monster capable of reducing a small village to ashes in an instant.
"A Chimera!?"
Its identity was none other than a monster frequently appearing in the fantasy world.
At the same time, it was a monster that shouldn't be here, in front of Rudell.
[Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-!!]
Along with Rudell's exclamation, the Chimera, a synthetic beast, let out a deafening roar that shook the surroundings.
It immediately charged towards Rudell.
* * *
[Kyaaagh!!]
"Damn it...!!"
The Chimera swung its foreleg, its sharp claws glinting, towards him, and Rudell dodged it by hiding in the shadows.
If his opponent were an ordinary human, they wouldn't be able to locate him hidden in the shadows, but his opponent was a monster with heightened instincts.
The Chimera, chasing after him as he emerged from the shadows, swung its massive foreleg once again.
"Tsk!!"
Clicking his tongue, Rudell waved his hand in the air, and the shadows beneath his feet wriggled and enveloped his body in the form of a sphere.
The Chimera's claws struck the sphere that appeared before it, and sparks flew from the scratched shadows with a sound like scraping metal.
[Kyaaaaa-!!]
As if excited that its attack had been blocked, the Chimera began to strike the sphere with tremendous speed.
-Crack!
With an ominous sound, cracks appeared on the sphere, and Rudell, observing the scene from within, shot the shadows beneath his feet towards the Chimera.
As the sphere crumbled, a sharp blade, seizing the opportunity, pierced into the Chimera's chest, but...
[Kuhung!!]
The Chimera swiftly twisted its body, dodged it, and leaped backward, creating distance between them.
[Grrrr...]
Did it instinctively realize that its opponent was formidable?
The Chimera began to circle around Rudell, growling.
"Tsk..."
Watching its movements, Rudell clicked his tongue and contemplated his next move.
But, at that moment...
[Kyaaaaaaaaaa-!!]
"...!!"
Along with the Chimera's cry, the Basilisk's eyes flashed, and Rudell quickly closed his eyes and concealed himself in the shadows.
Simultaneously, a blinding flash erupted from the Basilisk's eyes, illuminating the spot where Rudell had been.
As sharp, icicle-like rocks sprouted where the beam had passed, Rudell, rising from the shadows, briefly gasped at the sight.
"This is insane..."
If he hadn't known about the Basilisk's existence or if he had been even slightly late in dodging, he would probably be a cold statue rolling on the floor by now.
The reason why the Chimera was tricky wasn't just its monstrous physical abilities and near-precognitive instincts, but also the fact that it could utilize all the abilities of its original components to their fullest extent.
[Piiiik!!]
This time, with the Griffin's cry, the wings on its back unfolded, and as the Chimera flapped its wings violently, countless feathers flew towards him.
Each of the Griffin's feathers boasted a hardness comparable to steel, making them all deadly weapons.
With a wave of Rudell's hand, a shadow barrier, created once again, blocked the feathers...
"Why the hell did that thing pop out here..."
Rudell, dismantling the barrier, growled, feeling a sense of injustice.
The Chimera was a mid-boss level monster that appeared at least in the mid-to-late stages of the story.
Even in the protagonist's party, it was a monster that only someone like Leje could handle alone.
"Did I go too wild..."
He had been mercilessly wiping out the Cult's organizations, so it was entirely predictable that the Cult would take some action.
However, deploying a mid-boss like the Chimera this early was beyond Rudell's expectations.
"This is a bit troublesome..."
If the fight dragged on like this, Rudell would be the first to fall.
No matter how long Rudell had trained in magic, his mana was ultimately finite.
In the end, what he needed to break through this situation was a powerful, decisive blow.
"Can I do it..."
But that was no easy task either.
The monster presumed to be the base of the Chimera before him, the Mad Lion.
The hide of that creature, which could be described as a giant lion, possessed a level of toughness that rendered it nearly immune to physical attacks.
In other words, it had poor compatibility with Shadow magic, which primarily relied on piercing and slashing physical attacks.
Furthermore, the Chimera was fundamentally a creature created through magic, so it had high resistance to conventional magic.
In short, it was a typical overpowered monster with high physical and magical defense.
"No choice then..."
However, Rudell had no other options.
Taking a deep breath, Rudell gathered his mana, and his shadow formed a curtain, enveloping his body.
[Kuhuhuhung-!!]
The Chimera, watching this, charged towards Rudell.
With a roar, the Chimera swung its foreleg, and the shadow curtain, colliding with the Chimera's foreleg, started to crack with a metallic scraping sound.
"Not enough yet."
Looking at the gradually cracking shadow curtain, Rudell said so.
To penetrate the Chimera's defenses, he needed a very powerful spell.
He needed all of Rudell's mana poured into a single spell.
-Crack... Crack...
[Kuhung!!]
Meanwhile, more cracks appeared on the shadow curtain.
The curtain, reaching its limit, emitted an ominous sound, and as if sensing that it was the end, the Chimera roared and raised its massive foreleg.
Watching this scene, Rudell chanted the spell.
"Shadow King's Crucifixion."
Simultaneously, all light in the surroundings vanished.
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