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The largest and easiest place to move around in the city. It was a gentle hill overlooking the city of Melwa. The reddish-orange light contrasted with the shadows and illuminated the city, impressing Eisuke and his companions with its quiet beauty.
“…Hey, Mr. Eisuke, is the Hero really in this city? Maybe those creatures came here by coincidence?”
“…Hey you. Hero… are you here?”
“…Huh?” Marielle couldn’t believe what she was hearing, at that moment…
“I’m talking to you!”
“Gufu!?”
…Eisuke slammed his fist backwards at Marc.
Marc stomped his foot and stepped back. All the women, except Yui, were stunned.
“Mi-Mister Eisuke! Can you explain to me why you did it…!?”
“You’re Hiroto, the Hero, aren’t you?”
“What…?”
Marielle and the others turned around in astonishment. Marc was clutching his stomach, with a frown on his face.
“Guh… Wha-What are you talking about…?”
“I became suspicious at Rukino’s explanation of the Killer Bats. Hey, Rukino, you said that Killer Bats are rare monsters, right? You said they are little known monsters that only exist in dangerous dungeons.”
“Oh, yes… Yes, but….”
Rukino nodded her head still hesitantly. Eisuke then spoke and then turned his doubtful eyes towards Marc.
“It was because of that. It’s hard to believe that the moment the horde of monsters entered the scene, he shouted “Killer Bats!” before anyone else.”
“Hah…”
Marielle and the others gasped in belated realization as well. How was it possible for a mere city youth to know of the existence of the Killer Bats that dwelled in the depths of the dungeons?
“It just happened! I just knew about them, and…!”
“So that was a coincidence too? I mean about you seeing the couples being attacked on their secret dates. That’s weird too if you think about it.”
“What…? And what’s so strange about that…!?”
“Why are you looking at me?”
“What?”
“I mean, why would you be watching a couple secretly dating so no one would find out? And you did it more than once.”
“…Tha-That’s…!”
“I-I see…!” Serika clapped her hands. Ever since the Hero threat appeared, no one had been able to act as a couple openly in this city. They should have kept their meetings a secret. …And why would he have seen them so many times?
“Isn’t it strange? Unless you’re a high school kid who spies on people’s dates, or… you’re the Hero who was watching them, right?”
Eisuke looked at him confidently. Marc gritted his teeth and replied.
“Kuh… so what with that! I just happened to see them!”
Eisuke stared at him with a steely gaze, then sighed and shrugged his shoulders.
“I’d take credit if you confessed here…. but, oh, well, I guess this time I’ll give the credit to Yui…”
“To Lady Yui?”
Eisuke looked at Yui, who was curled up next to him, and smiled.
“I always wondered how he controlled the monsters. We had already been attacked by them three times without warning. There were no suspicious noises or signs. So no one noticed until the monster suddenly appeared in front of us. …At least not any ordinary humans, right?” Eisuke put his hand on Yui’s side. Then he pointed his chin at her with coarse assurance. “But this girl here could hear you. It was a sound we couldn’t hear… it was a mosquito-toned sound[1] to call the monsters, emitted at a volume that normal humans couldn’t hear… that’s how you summoned them!”
Marc… no, Hiroto, was finally exposed.
Yui Koikase. She was a girl whose hearing and vision was better than that of the ordinary human. She had been able to hear him clearly all along. The strange sound that often emanated from the direction where Marc was. She had noticed the connection between the sound and the monsters flying out of nowhere right after. Yui narrowed her eyes and uttered in a low voice.
“…You were the first one to warn us. That’s why I thought you were a good person. I also wondered if I was just… hearing some nasty thing again. …But it was like that.”
Eisuke smirked and cracked his knuckles. He approached Hiroto… and started the fight.
“Well, I finally found you, Hero. The hide and seek game is over. The next game… will be a real tiebreaker with me.”
“Damn it…!”
Hiroto raised his hand, gritting his teeth. But nothing happened immediately. …No, they couldn’t sense it. The low sound to call the monsters.
“Eisuke, something’s coming…!” Yui shouted, almost at the same time.
…Something flew behind Eisuke and the others at speeds close to Mach, like a jet plane, and hijacked Marielle.
“Kyaa!?”
“I-It’s a wyvern!
A flying dragon, a wyvern. It was only the size of a horse, but it was a subspecies of dragon. Its streamlined body shape and knife-like triangular wings were the result of evolution to reduce air resistance as much as possible, and it was a powerful monster that could be called an intelligent fighter without exaggeration.
The wyvern kidnapped Marielle by grabbing her by the collar of her clothes with its mouth and then glided directly at Hiroto. The latter nimbly jumped on his back.
“Ha! So you saw right through me! That’s right, I’m Hiroto, the Hero!”
“What do you mean, “You saw through me”! Don’t act so interesting!”
“But that’s too bad, because I’m better than you!”
Hiroto activated his skill again. He summoned and attacked from the sky with a horde of Killer Bats. While Eisuke and the others were stunned by the sudden appearance, Hiroto used his wyvern to fly high in the sky.
“Kyaaaaah!”
“Marielle! Tsk, you won’t escape!
“Wait, Eisuke!”
Rukino stopped Eisuke from waving his arm and trying to ward off the Killer Bats with another blast. He turned to her with an angry expression.
“What’s the matter now?”
“Calm down! Can’t you see that My Lady is in the sky too? You’re going to blow them both away!”
“S̲h̲i̲t̲, it’s true…!”
Eisuke suddenly realized. Beyond the Killer Bats, there was the wyvern with Marielle in its mouth. If he were to send the Killer Bats flying with another gale, it would be inevitable that the wyvern and Marielle would be caught in it. Hiroto anticipated this and took Marielle hostage. Eisuke’s expression showed the rage he felt, right after that.
“I’ll do it.” It was Yui who said with a cold tone of voice, pulling out her guns from her hood.
“Eisuke, you take care of the Hero. I’ll take care of the Killer Bats.”
Eisuke’s eyes widened. Yui’s indifferent eyes met his gaze.
“…Okay, I’m counting on you!” As soon as he said that, Eisuke jumped up. He went in a straight line towards the wyvern that was passing the Killer Bats. The horde of monsters approached him to block his path…
…Yui raised both guns as she watched Eisuke’s back.
…Eisuke said he believes in me. He said he wouldn’t doubt me.
Recalling the words he said to her when she became a freak who had taken her abilities to a superhuman level.
…So I will respond. I will fight. With all my strength, I will use this power. For you…
“For Eisuke’s sake…!”
In her indifferent eyes, she carried the fire of her fighting spirit. Her feelings burned, but her thoughts were cold. She shot through the target with a precise gaze and put all of herself into the finger that pulled the trigger.
Dadadadadadadadadadadadan!
A series of shots.
She fired one gun, and as she kept firing, she fired the other. She iterated this action over and over again. A divine feat that would be possible only through extreme concentration. At no time did she take his eyes off any of the Killer Bats. Her bullets were surely finishing them off in one hit.
…The total number of bullets was twelve, adding the bullets from both guns. All of them… they must have hit and killed the Killer Bats that stood in the way of Eisuke’s jump.
“Come on, Eisuke…!!!” Yui muttered as if saying a prayer.
“I’m coming…!”
Thanks to Yui’s exquisite technique, Eisuke was able to escape from the swarm without being caught by the Killer Bats. Hiroto, who had kidnapped Marielle with his wyvern, was already only a couple of meters away from him. Eisuke pulled on his own arm as hard as he could in response to his astonishment.
“Here goeeeees!”
“Gah!”
Eisuke reached his fist to Hiroto’s jaw. The latter lost consciousness, so he took the opportunity to hit the wyvern as well, delivering a blow even faster.
“There you go!”
…The wyvern’s head fell as if it had been cut off with a knife.
“Huh…?” Marielle gasped as she suddenly lost the sensation of being lifted. “Kyaaaaaahhhh…!” She fell headfirst, following gravity. Just before she hit the ground…
“Oops, just in time!” Eisuke grabbed Marielle by the collar of her clothes and just in time kept her from crashing to the ground.
“Wasn’t there any other way to save me?!”
“I don’t want to listen to orders from the one who let herself be captured!”
Eisuke retorted to Marielle, who took it out on him after receiving the spectacular sensation of floating. On the hill they returned to, Rukino was finishing off the remaining Killer Bats with her rapier, and Serika managed to keep them at bay with her kicks. Thanks to Yui, there were hardly any Killer Bats left, and they were almost under control.
“Eisuke…!”
Eisuke raised his hand towards Yui, who rushed towards him. Yui immediately understood what that meant. She tucked the gun inside her sweatshirt and… Pang! They gave each other a high-five.
Yui’s cheeks melted into tears at Eisuke’s smile. His innocent smile, filled with a familiar innocence befitting his age. The two seventeen-year-old students had truly connected with each other through battle.
“Uwaaaaaaa…!”
Right next to him, with a thud, Hiroto crashed down next to his wyvern who had lost his head.
“Gah…!”
However, since his physical abilities had been enhanced when he became a Hero, it seemed that he was still safe despite having fallen from a great height. Eisuke glared at him as he crawled over and threw him a challenge again.
“That’s what you get for trying to run away, you piece of trash. I really want to fight you. Summon the most powerful monster you can call right now. I’m going to crush it head on.”
“Don’t, guh…! Don’t get carried away…!”
Hiroto raised his hand in a half-hearted attempt to restrain him. In the same way he also summoned the monsters. A few seconds later…
“What the…! It’s the biggest one so far…!”
Yui’s low voice trembled. No one answered. The reason was that, even without her saying it, everyone heard the mighty roar approaching from afar. That huge black silhouette, beating its wings against the setting sun, was….
“Groaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!!”
It let out a roar that shook the atmosphere violently. Majestic wings stretched out from his massive crimson body, wicked eyes so twisted that snakes would look almost cute, and jaws lined with sharp fangs. Everything about it was terrifying to behold.
…The strongest monster of all… a dragon was towering over Eisuke and his friends.
“Hahaha! Did you see that? This is a Hero for you! It’s easy for me to call the strongest creature a dragon!”
Seeing Marielle and the others trembling, Hiroto regained the will to fight and shouted triumphantly. However, Eisuke’s resounding laughter roared as if to drown out his shout.
“Yes, yes, I love it! This world is full of romance, I’ll be able to fight dragons!”
The word fear didn’t seem to exist in his dictionary. Eisuke laughed fiercely and jumped towards the dragon hovering in the air. Just one of the dragon’s claws was as big as all of Eisuke. It was like facing a battleship. But he was undeterred…
“Let’s go!”
Dogo!
…He gave the dragon a powerful blow on the nose. The tremendous impact shook the atmosphere with the sound of an explosion. The dragon’s head jerked up from its neck… but….
“Groaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!”
“Whoa!”
The dragon, which was the strongest monster of all, did not fall, but spat extremely hot flames towards Eisuke. Eisuke twisted in the air, but the flames engulfed the right half of his body. Eisuke was blown away by the torrent of flames and fell to the ground.
“It burns, it burns, you b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲! Are you going to burn my jacket, too?
Eisuke said in frustration as he punched his jacket to put out the fire. Although his clothes were burned, the bare skin underneath was mostly intact. There was only black soot and a faint red scar.
“¡Groaaaahhhhh!”
The dragon again shot a blast of fire from the air. The flames were so intense that they engulfed the entire hill where Eisuke and the others were standing. Everyone was stunned.
“Hey, we’re going to be nothing but ashes!”
“Mr. Eisuke!”
“I got it!”
Rushed by Serika and Marielle, Eisuke threw a forehand with all his might on the spot. Then, he nullified the flames with a blast. It wasn’t an exaggeration. I say it again, it was a deplorable spectacle.
“Don’t fly over me, you damn lizard!”
Eisuke shouted, and jumped at the dragon again. This time, he delivered a strong punch to its abdomen. As the dragon staggered, Eisuke climbed onto the dragon’s back with the grace of an acrobat.
And then…
“Take thiiiiiiis!”
Eisuke brandished his arms crosswise toward the dragon’s back. His sword-hands split the atmosphere and created a vacuum rupture, violently slicing through space.
…And slashed the dragon’s huge wings from their bases.
“Ah, he cut its wings…”
Serika muttered in astonishment. Eisuke’s sword-hands, sharper and more violent than any blade, had cut the dragon’s wings in one blow, as if they were butter.
“Gryaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!”
The dragon screamed so loudly that it vibrated the atmosphere. Eisuke, who jumped from its back to throw it, somersaulted in the air. He let out a fierce breath.
“I was hoping for a bit more, but I guess I have no choice but to keep fighting humans! Just go!!!”
Eisuke, in position for a somersault, launched a kick over the dragon, which had lost its wings. The dragon flew off almost at the speed of sound and disappeared into the distance. Soon the battle was resolved as the sky twinkled with stars that were still very early in the night.
Hiroto was horrified to see the whole ridiculous battle.
“It was a dragon, and you used nothing but your body?! Wha-what the hell are you!? Are you a monster!?”
“I’m not a monster. I’m just a high school student who got too strong.”
“There’s no way you’re a normal high school student!”
He’s right… Marielle silently agreed with Hiroto, who was ranting as much as he could.
Eisuke laughed flippantly and clenched his fists.
“That means you don’t have anyone else to call anymore? …Then grit your teeth.”
Eisuke’s fist, without holding back, slammed into Hiroto’s brain. With that blow, he was knocked out and fell to the ground like a rock.
[1] The “mosquito tone” has a frequency of 17.000 kilohertz, which usually, in humans, only younger people are able to hear.