Kamasse's Struggle

“‘Wind, become a blade and shred my foe! 【Wind Cutter】!’”

As the silver-haired boy adventurer Kamasse chanted, a transparent blade shot from his fingertips and flew toward one of the giant Togodo birds circling overhead.

However.

“Hogaaaa!!”

With a single cry from the Togodo, a translucent membrane of air formed to cover its body, blocking the wind blade Kamasse had launched.

It was a defensive spell that humans called 【Air Protect】.

Togodos were giant birds, every one of them easily bigger than an ordinary passenger car.

Beneath their feathers they were packed with sturdy muscle, which made them quite heavy.

They could fly freely through the open sky despite their huge bodies because they instinctively understood how to use wind magic, and that was exactly why Togodos, with their low intelligence, could wield wind-attribute defensive magic.

“Hogaa! Hogaaaa!!”

The one the blade hit took no damage, but it was enraged at this unexpected counterattack from a tiny creature crawling along the ground, and, flinging thick drool, it dove from the sky with tremendous force!

If that huge body slammed into him at this speed, 【Body Strengthening】 magic or not, Kamasse wouldn't stand a chance.

But Kamasse didn't panic.

He inhaled, then exhaled.

He shifted his center of gravity to his toes and leaned forward slightly so he could move immediately.

Never taking his eyes off the charging Togodo, he glared at it hard.

It was all according to plan.

【Wind Cutter】 was merely a provocation.

He never expected it to work.

For this was the very moment Kamasse had been lying in wait for, the Togodo coming close to the ground.

“‘Earth, become countless pebbles and pierce my foe! 【Mini Soil Bullets】!’”

What Kamasse unleashed at the oncoming Togodo was a beginner's earth spell, modified to spray its bullets over a wide area.

Countless clumps of earth generated from beneath Kamasse's feet floated up and flew toward the approaching giant bird.

Unlike Emi's 【Infinite Pebbles】, these were just fragile clumps of earth, without any strengthening or anything of the sort.

They were hardly enough to hurt a Togodo, but of course Kamasse knew that perfectly well.

“Hogaa!?”

The clumps of earth Kamasse launched flew straight for the Togodo's face.

It was protected by wind-attribute defensive magic, but the Togodo shut its eyes on reflex. It had left an opening.

......This was precisely the opportunity Kamasse had been trying to create.

“Demon sword ‘Blaze’, activate.”

Bobobo!

As Kamasse spoke the activation phrase, a vivid red flame ignited on the sword he held horizontal to the ground.

Yes, Kamasse's beloved sword ‘Blaze’ was a demon sword imbued with magical power!

“Sword Saint Style...... 【Radiant Severing Strike】”

And then Kamasse dashed forward, slashing the Togodo horizontally as they passed each other.

“Hogaaaa!?”

Flinching at the pain, the Togodo crashed to the ground before it could stop itself.

Zugagaga!!

Still carried by the momentum of its charge, it scraped along the ground thick with low grass, rolling on and smashing several rocks that jutted from the grassy patches.

But the Togodo's tough body, made sturdier by 【Body Strengthening】, wouldn't take a fatal wound from this much.

The Togodo immediately scrambled up, attempting to counterattack Kamasse, but......

“Hogaa!? Hogaa!?”

That plan failed.

Suddenly, fierce flames erupted from the cut Kamasse had inflicted!

The power of Kamasse's demon sword ‘Blaze’...... was a simple but terrifying one: to ‘burn whatever it cuts’.

The flames fed on the magic power of whoever was cut, blazing up and spreading over their whole body.

Until the target's magic power ran dry, those flames would not, go out.

“Ho...... ga......”

And then the charred Togodo stopped moving.

Around him lay giant birds that had died the same way, 6 in all.

Normally, he'd have headed straight back to town by now and called people out to haul the meat.

“......Tch.”

But there was no joy on Kamasse's face.

He looked up at the sky irritably and clicked his tongue.

Because there, against the cloudy sky, dozens of Togodos without a single scratch on them were still flapping along at their leisure.

(This has turned into a real pain in the ass.)

Kamasse cursed inwardly.

The request he had accepted for the day was a ‘Togodo hunting request’.

Ever since the day he lost to Emi, Kamasse had thrown himself into his work, mostly taking subjugation requests.

All of this was for the sake of training. To become stronger.

For all his flaws, Kamasse was a fighter overflowing with talent, one who had once even been called a “genius.”

He had only faced Emi once, but that alone was enough for Kamasse to understand the overwhelming difference in their abilities.

......And that had lit a fire under his competitive personality.

So from then on, every day was training from morning to night.

Developing basic physical strength and magic power, polishing his technique, and cultivating his combat instincts.

Accepting the ‘Togodo hunting request’ this time was, naturally, part of that training.

Of course, he was also after the reward.

Togodo meat was an indispensable main dish in Yoshanka cuisine, and with visitors from outside town on the rise for some reason, the reward kept going up; for training, for pay, on both counts, it was an attractive request for Kamasse.

To fulfill that request, Kamasse had come to the northern cliffs where Togodos lived.

There, he had encountered a pair of people being attacked by Togodos and saved them, but......

(Still, I didn't think I'd end up facing a swarm like this.)

Togodos, as a rule, didn't flock.

Even if a member of their own kind was fighting nearby, other individuals were basically indifferent.

That was why Kamasse, too, had planned to head back to Yoshanka once he'd hunted 1 or 2.

But that plan fell apart, thanks to that red Togodo flapping its wings at the very back of the flock.

(I can't believe a special individual drifted in here......)

The red Togodo.

There had been several sightings of it so far, and it was listed in the guild's monster encyclopedia as the Togodo Commander, a special individual.

Its body was several times larger than a normal Togodo.

And a gift for command that pulled together comrades who normally never acted as a group and used them like its own arms and legs.

It was said that whenever a Togodo Commander appeared, the Togodos would suddenly expand their habitat, and as a result, several villages and towns had been destroyed in the past.

“HOHOHOGGAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”

The Togodo Commander let out an unpleasant shriek.

At that, the Togodos that had been circling as they pleased formed up into ranks and began flying in an orderly way.

Apparently, they were done sizing him up.

He'd wanted to thin their numbers as much as he could before it came to this, but taking down a mere 6 was a drop in the bucket.

And his enemies were flying monsters under a single command.

He didn't think he could outrun them.

(......Hah! Don't you go losing your nerve, Kamasse! I'm a future special-grade adventurer! I'm not the type to croak in a place like this!!)

Kamasse braced his sword again, psyching himself up.

All he could do was buy time and hunt as many Togodos as possible.

Before long, the pair who'd gotten away would report the situation to the Adventurers' Guild, and reinforcements should come.

“Come at me, YOU DAMN BIRDS, AAAAAAAAAH!!!”

“HOHOHOHOHOGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

Kamasse and the Togodo Commander shouted almost simultaneously.

Under the Togodo Commander's command, Togodo after Togodo began charging at Kamasse!

“Sei! Ha!”

Throwing in 【Mini Soil Bullets】 to blind them, Kamasse slipped lightly past one attack after another.

Every single Togodo boasted a massive body.

So, to keep the Togodos from colliding with each other, they charged one at a time, and for someone as skilled as Kamasse, dodging those attacks was easy.

But there were just so many of them!

Dozens of Togodos were charging relentlessly from every direction!

He wasn't given any room to counterattack like he had before!

Little by little, his stamina, his willpower and his concentration were whittled away, fatigue piled up, and his movements grew sluggish.

“!!”

And then, before he knew it, he tripped on a rock at his feet and landed on his backside.

“Hogaaaa!!”

Naturally, the Togodos wouldn't wait for him to get up.

Triumphant, they charged in, roaring.

For Kamasse, time suddenly slowed to a crawl.

The port town where he was born and raised, his boisterous father, his kind mother, his crybaby little sister, all the people he had met on his travels, and that cursed child, Emi.

The faces of the people he had encountered so far came to mind one after another.

(Don't screw with me! Don't screw with me, don't screw with me, don't screw with me!!)

But Kamasse forced away his life flashing before his eyes, hauled himself up by sheer grit, and readied his sword!

The mechanism of the demon sword ‘Blaze’ activated, and flames erupted from the blade!!

“DARYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”

He screamed and leaped!

Spinning head over heels with the blazing demon sword held above his head, Kamasse dodged the charge and, riding that same momentum as he dodged, slashed a Togodo's wing!

“Hogaa!? Hogaa!?”

The slashed Togodo was enveloped in the flames of Blaze, which burned using its own magic power as fuel, and stopped moving.

But it was only one.

He had only defeated one.

The Togodos' attacks kept coming.

“Hogaaaa!!”

“Gaha!!”

Aiming for the opening as he landed, the next Togodo charged in from his blind spot and sent him flying, and Kamasse rolled across the ground, coughing up blood.

“Gu...... ah......”

Kamasse tried to get up somehow, but there was no strength in his body.

Trembling, he managed to push his upper body up, and in his eyes was a giant bird charging straight at him.

“D...... damn it......!”

A massive body covered in black plumage.

A sharp beak.

Cloudy green eyes.

That was the form of the Grim Reaper about to carry Kamasse off to the Underworld.

“DAMN IIIIIIIIIIIIT!!”

He couldn't help screaming.

(Damn it! Damn it, damn it! I'm going to die here, in a place like this!)

Tears flowed.

(I hate this! Damn it, a pathetic end like this...... no way, not ever!!)

But no matter how he felt, his body wouldn't move.

(......I don't want, to die!!!)

Despair at his own pathetic weakness, a craving for life.

The regrets of the dying, so commonplace.

......That was the final thought held in the heart of the silver-haired boy adventurer, Kamasse.

And so the child prodigy Kamasse Kaisetz lost his life, full of bitter regret.

............Or so it should have been.

DOPAN!!!

But Kamasse's life was saved.

Something the size of a fist flew in from his right and blew off the head of the giant bird bearing down on him!

“!?”

The body of the giant bird, having lost its head, flew over Kamasse, who was lying on his back on the ground.

“What on earth......”

Dopan! Dopan! Dopan!

The same sound rang out again and again, drowning out his mutter.

Looking up, he saw that several Togodos had just lost their heads and were beginning to fall to the ground.

“Hohoho-hoga! Hogaa!!”

The Togodo Commander cried out as if in a panic, and the giant birds broke off their attack for the moment and began circling the sky again.

Kasa, kasasa.

Parting the low, withered autumn grass, someone approached Kamasse.

Kamasse turned that way without thinking, and his eyes went wide.

It was a person he knew well.

A girl younger than Kamasse and smaller in body, yet overwhelmingly stronger than him.

The black-haired, black-eyed cursed child, Emi.

Tossing a fist-sized stone in her palm, Emi slowly walked up to Kamasse.

Then, after glancing at him to confirm he was safe, she stood with her back to him as if to shield him, turned toward the flock of Togodos, and braced herself.

She activated 【Intimidation】.

Killing intent gushed out, so intense that even Kamasse, who wasn't its target, found it hard to breathe.

The Togodos instinctively stopped their unpleasant cries and held their breath.

The surroundings fell silent, making the sound of the blowing sea breeze seem even louder.

But she screamed, at a volume that drowned out even that wind.

“BIRDS!!!”

Her killing intent climbing even higher.

Bringing out the will she usually kept hidden deep in her heart.

Fierce, dark, and hideous.

Laying bare the depths of a heart soaked in murderous intent, and putting it into simple words.

She declared!

“......You're all dead!!!”