“Yuria-kun, I’ll handle the small fry. I’ll leave the big one to you.”
“Understood.”
I took my knife out and activated [Invisible Blade] as well as [Twilight Sight].
“…How long can you keep that thing active?”
“Around three hours, at max strength. But I could maintain it for the whole day sometimes back when I was in the Twilight.”
“Perfect. Let’s do this!”
“Got it!”
Together, we took off into battle. We each strengthened our bodies and jumped into the group of Huge Spiders. Now, how exactly should I handle this… I’ve been tasked with taking care of that giant monster, who seems to be the leader of this group of monsters. But she’s surrounded by Huge Spiders. I guess I’ll start by taking care of her guards… I thought.
Suddenly, the Huge Spider right in front of me split in two diagonally, spraying me with green blood as it died. When I looked over at Cyrus-san, he signalled for me to get going. No wonder he’s the Rank #1 Exorcist, I thought. He’s not even fighting at full strength, and he’s overwhelming these monsters.
By the way, Cyrus-san doesn’t use a sword. He uses wires. He wears thin gloves on his hands and generates wires from them. Those wires, strengthened with magic, are incredibly sharp. He was tearing Huge Spiders into pieces, one after another.
“…That must be the leader…”
I threaded my way through the monsters and finally reached the leader. Woah, it’s huge. Almost 7 metres long, I think? The size alone is pretty intimidating. But I can’t afford to hesitate. I’ve fought one of these before. Remember what it was like. And… flip the switch! I imagined a gear beginning to turn deep inside my body, putting me into the zone. Then, I swung [Invisible Blade].
A flash of light shot through the air. I cut off all four of the monster’s right legs at once in order to force it to lose its balance and fall. Huge Spiders are nasty opponents, but they’re not that difficult as long as you keep an eye on their thread. If you remove their legs, you can beat them quite quickly. However, despite having four of its legs removed, this one didn’t fall over.
“What… It can regenerate??”
Not even a second after I removed its legs, it regenerated them. It almost seemed as if the legs put themselves back together the minute I cut them off.
“…What the hell is going on…” Words of disbelief unintentionally fell from my mouth. I’d run into lots of different kinds of monsters and demons in the Twilight. However, I’d never seen one like this. There are monsters that can regenerate body parts, but I’d never seen a Huge Spider do it.
Damn it, looks like I underestimated this thing… Out here, the law of the jungle rules supreme. The weak become food for the strong, who grow even stronger. Is this the effect of evolution at play? Did this monster adapt the ability to regenerate its legs since that was a weak point?
Suddenly, the spider roared. Is it trying to intimidate me, or is it giving commands to the others? Cyrus-san is taking care of the other Huge Spiders left and right, but there are still a lot of them. It’ll take him a little while longer to finish up, so I absolutely need to take care of this thing by myself. How should I handle its regeneration?
I decided on a course of action: I’d cut it into pieces so small that they could no longer be put together again. I can do this.
“…[Invisible]”
I decided to use [Invisible] for this fight. I created invisible walls around the two of us. Perfect. Alright, time to get started.
I activated [Invisible Blade] in both of my hands and charged in. I cut the spider’s legs, the same as before. At this rate, it’s just gonna regenerate again, I thought. I dodged the spider’s thread, flying through the air, and kicked off an invisible wall, gaining momentum. I cut again, striking the head. It popped open, but quickly regenerated. Destroying the brain isn’t good enough, I guess.
I kept going. Using the walls I created with [Invisible], I was able to move in all three dimensions and repeatedly, mercilessly cut the spider into pieces. I used [Twilight Sight] to predict the enemy’s attacks and dodged them. When most of the body had been shredded into tiny pieces, I could see a strange red light emanating from the spider’s body.
“What is that thing…?”
It was a bright red crystal, the same burning, scarlet colour as the Twilight. It was hidden deep in the spider’s abdomen, so I hadn’t been able to see it until I cut the spider open. Despite my efforts, though, the spider already started regenerating. Curious about the red crystal, I decided to destroy it. There was a popping sound, and the crystal shattered.
Suddenly, the spider stopped regenerating. With a thump, the Huge Spider fell to the ground. I thought the fight was probably over, but just to be safe, I decided to cut the spider’s head off.
“Yuria-kun, are you done?”
“Yes. It was a bit tougher than I expected.”
“Regeneration… Interesting. Have you ever seen a Huge Spider like this?”
“No, this was the first time.”
“Me too. I’ve never seen one like this before… and the regeneration is incredibly fast, too. Even you couldn’t exceed its regeneration speed.”
“Wait, you were watching?”
“Mhm. For a quite a while, actually,” Cyrus-san said. Behind him, an incredible number of sliced-up Huge Spider carcasses rolled around on the ground.
There… had to have been hundreds of those things… And he took care of them that easily… So that’s the power of the #1 Special Rank Exorcist. I can’t even properly gauge just how powerful he is. He may smile a lot and seem to be a nice person in general, but he’s definitely the strongest human alive, I thought.
“Did your Demon Eyes see anything special about this one?”
“No. But, it had something that looked like a core in its abdomen. When I destroyed that, it immediately stopped regenerating.”
”
”
“Ah… I didn’t get a good view of it, but was it that red thing?”
“Yes. That red thing might be related to its regeneration ability. Shall we take a closer look at it?”
We walked up to the spider’s body, but… all that was left were the carcass and its blood and guts. The red crystal was gone. “It’s not here, is it?”
“Mhm. It’s gone. But it’s possible that core was what allowed it to regenerate so fast.”
“That makes sense. But, I wonder, did that core develop naturally… or did someone put it in there?”
“Do you think a third party caused this?”
“It’s a possibility…”
“Hmm. Let’s discuss it further when we get to the First Barriered City. There’s actually going to be a meeting of all the Special Rank Exorcists. You included, of course.”
“Huh?! I didn’t hear about that!”
“There’s also going to be a party hosted by the royal family.”
“I haven’t heard about that, either!”
“Mhm. That’s why I just told you.”
”
”
“S-seriously…”
“Seriously. There will be talented Exorcists from the other cities and high-ranking military personnel at the party as well.”
“Haa… Understood. I’ll be there.”
As I tottered back over to the carriage, the other Rank 1 Exorcists watched me in awe. But they weren’t afraid – if anything, their gazes seemed almost envious. I felt relieved. With that many Huge Spiders, the Rank 1 Exorcists alone wouldn’t have been able to handle it.
“You really are quite tremendously powerful, Yuria.”
“Sherry, you were watching?”
“I was taking care of the ones that slipped through.”
“That’s right, I was impressed, too, Yuria! You were as amazing as always!”
“Thanks, Sherry, Sophia. But…”
“Did something happen?”
“No, nevermind.”
I had a sense that something was wrong, but I decided to ignore it. However, my instincts are often right… as I would soon find out.