Hell Mode: Volume 2, page 12
part #2 of Hell Mode Series
I mean, he’s eleven. He’s going through a growth spurt—all boys eat like that at that age. He has sword practice in the afternoons, so I doubt there’s any worry of him getting too chubby.
Allen actually felt a little sorry for the dispirited Thomas. The family had hired a sword instructor who had started giving Thomas lessons this year. The glimpses of them together in the garden that Allen caught every once in a while caused him to wonder if learning the sword was simply a part of the duties of being a noble, regardless of Talent.
“By the way, Allen, when will you be catching another white deer?” Thomas asked, interrupting Allen’s thoughts.
“I am waiting for the snow to pile a little higher first, young master.”
“I’m looking forward to it!”
After this exchange, lunch returned to normal. At least, for a short while.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The city bell began sounding incessantly, the sound reaching the mansion and showing no signs of letting up. Noon had been rung in just now, so there was no way this was the 3 p.m. bell.
“What is going on?!” Baron Granvelle roared, leaping to his feet, as the baroness and Thomas looked around anxiously. Everyone else who heard the bell shared their sentiments.
“I shall go confirm,” Sebas said, leaving the baron’s side and heading out of the dining hall.
Everyone else, including Allen, remained where they were, waiting for the butler’s return. He came back around fifteen minutes later with a knight.
“There you are. So, what’s happening?!” the baron demanded.
“Master, a murdergalsh is approaching the city,” the butler replied. The knight at his side, who was very out of breath, nodded vigorously.
Did he say murdergalsh?!
Allen recognized the name—it was the name of the monster that his younger brother, Mash, had been named after. He had been told that it was a Rank B monster that looked like a huge wolf.
“What?! Why did we not receive word of this sooner?! When will it arrive?!”
The knight got down on one knee before replying. To sum up what he said, a squad on patrol had first spotted the murdergalsh. It had been heading straight for Granvelle City, so the knights had attempted to attract its attention to draw it away elsewhere. However, despite multiple casualties, they had been unsuccessful. At this rate, the monster would reach the city’s south gate at around 3 p.m. There were less than two hours left.
“What are your orders, Master?” Sebas asked.
“Where’s Zenof? Is he not back yet?”
“Master, both the knight captain and vice-captain are currently out on a monster-slaying expedition. They will not be back until the day after.”
The baron knew full well that Zenof was not here, but he simply could not help but ask.
“In that case, issue an emergency quest with the Adventurer’s Guild. Most monsters are dormant at this time of the year, so there should be many adventurers in town. We can only hope Silver Fang of the Gale is here too.”
Ah, that’s the name of the only Rank A adventurer party based in Granvelle City, if I remember right.
A group of adventurers operating together was called a party. Raven, Rita, and Milci were in a party together, with Raven being the leader. According to what Allen had heard from him, the large majority of adventurers in Granvelle City were Rank C or lower, with there being only a handful of Rank B parties and a single Rank A one.
From December to when the snows melted in March, most adventurers would just hunker down behind city walls. Only those who were truly struggling to make ends meet would go outside during this time. Allen was pretty much the only person who continued to hunt with no regard for the weather.
“Understood, Master. What shall we do with the gate?”
Sebas had been asking Baron Granvelle for instructions on things one after the other while Allen had been occupied with recalling what Raven had told him about adventurers.
“Are you asking if we would close them?! How can we do that when there might be those heading to our city who do not yet know about the murdergalsh’s approach?!”
“However, would that not also allow the monster to enter?”
“The gate must be kept open! Order the knights and adventurers to head for the south gate immediately and chase the monster away!”
“As you wish, Master.”
Having received all the orders he needed, the butler hurried out of the dining hall with the knight. They now had to pass word on to the relevant chains of command.
This...is my job, isn’t it?
Allen, who had stayed quiet until the butler was done, now approached the baron. “My lord, may I have permission to join the fight?”
“What?”
Allen had sounded so matter-of-fact that the baron was entirely taken aback. Cecil immediately flared up.
“Huh?! What’re you saying?! You heard them! It’s a murdergalsh! Of course you can’t join in!”
“Milady.”
“Wh-What?!”
“Your father, Baron Granvelle, instated me as a huntsman. I consider it part of my duties to join this fight.”
“Huh?!”
Cecil looked very surprised, but it was true that one of the duties of a huntsman was to save citizens of the realm who were being attacked by monsters outside a settlement. Allen had done so multiple times already over the past year. Aside from culling monsters and bringing meat back, he had also headed over whenever Hawkins spotted anyone who was in trouble. If today had been one of Allen’s hunting days, he would have already rushed out by now. It was because today was not a hunting day that he was asking the baron for express permission.
Cecil had fallen silent, so Allen turned back to the baron, pleading with his eyes.
“I...see,” the baron managed in a voice lower and heavier than usual. He had realized that Allen’s argument was logical and irrefutable. “If you are fulfilling the duties that I assigned you, then I have no reason to stop you.”
It looked like Cecil wanted to say something, but she swallowed her words back down.
“Thank you, my lord. I shall head over immediately. Due to the urgency of the situation, I will do so in my current attire.”
“Mm, prioritize evacuating the people rather than fighting the murdergalsh.”
“Yes, my lord.”
The moment Allen stepped out of the dining hall, he took off at a dash.
There’s no time. The city is in a panic right now, and it’d probably be hard to run through the crowds. I should leave from the north gate and circle around to the south gate.
The Granvelle mansion was located in the northern part of the city. It was a much shorter distance simply taking the large avenue that ran in a straight line down the middle of the city. However, Allen was worried that the city would be in a state of mayhem at the moment, especially in the center and south areas. As such, he determined that it would be faster to take the long way around.
Please, MP, recover quickly.
This situation had been entirely unexpected. On days when he did not plan on going hunting, Allen would convert all his MP into Skill XP. The last time he did this was three hours ago, meaning his tank was completely empty right now.
Allen passed through the north gate in his black servant uniform, then picked up the pace even more while running southward. Slightly over two hours later, he finally reached the south gate, finding it choked with a whole line of people desperately trying to get in. Adventurers and knights were protectively stationed around the overflowing crowds.
A huge figure over five meters tall towered a slight distance away. There was something in its hands; when Allen took a better look, he realized it was a horse that had already lost half of its body. The monster was in the middle of eating the rest of it, chewing loudly.
That’s a murdergalsh?!
Allen had heard the murdergalsh described as a large wolf, but what he was seeing could hardly be called such. At the end of front legs that looked like human arms, it had large fingers that also looked especially humanlike. Worst of all, its face was a revolting cross between human and canine. Between its two hind legs was a slowly swishing tail; the lower half of its body was the only part that looked like a wolf.
Right beside where the murdergalsh was eating the horse was a carriage with broken wheels that had fallen over. A trail of mangled horse and human corpses stretched into the distance from the direction that the murdergalsh had presumably come from, painting a literal road of blood. One only had to take a single look at this sight to understand why the word “murder” was part of this monster’s name.
“Young man! What’re you doing over there?! Hurry up and get inside the city!”
One of the knights had noticed Allen standing still and called out to him, but Allen ignored him and continued observing the murdergalsh. In all likelihood, the horse that the monster was currently eating had been the one pulling the carriage, and the dead man on the ground a slight distance away had served as its coachman. Suddenly, Allen noticed silhouettes moving within the carriage. There were people still inside.
That moment, the murdergalsh reached out with its free hand and tore off the canopy covering the carriage, revealing a mother and daughter trembling in each other’s arms, too frightened to even scream. The monster’s face twisted into an eerie smirk, its humanlike features making it look all the more terrifying. The blood that stained its teeth dripped down from its fangs, forming small puddles below.
Drip, drop, drip, drop.
The knights and adventurers stayed in their positions, bracing themselves to protect the merchants and travelers trying to get inside the city. They watched the scene with bated breath, but made no move to save the mother and daughter. However, Allen saw no need to follow what they were doing. He took out an iron ball from Storage, not caring who saw him do so.
The murdergalsh reached out toward the mother and daughter. It did so slowly as if purposely trying to evoke as much terror as possible from its prey.
Drop dead, you piece of shit!
That instant, Allen threw his iron ball with as much strength as he could muster. The projectile flew straight and true, squashing one of the monster’s eyeballs.
“AAAAAAAAUUUUUHHHHHHH!” the monster shrieked in a hair-raising cry.
“Hey, you want a piece of me? I’m right here! I’m gonna kill you!”
Allen had managed to destroy one of its eyes. He threw a second iron ball, but the murdergalsh, which was now aware of Allen’s existence, easily swatted it away with its front limb. He heard voices shouting things like, “What’re you doing, boy?!” and “Hurry, run away!” behind his back, but he paid them no mind, dashing off to position himself on the opposite side of the monster from the carriage and city with the White Dragon Mountains at his back. When he turned around briefly to provoke the monster again—“What’s wrong, you stupid mutt? You scared of me? What a coward!”—he saw adventurers, knights, and travelers all looking his way with unease in their eyes.
Allen threw another iron ball, but the murdergalsh easily deflected that one too. Although it had lost one eye, it clearly remained more than capable of protecting itself from taking any further damage from Allen’s iron balls. Even so, the boy was about to throw another one, simply for the sake of drawing the monster’s attention. But just then, the monster, which had only turned its head toward Allen’s direction so far, slowly stood up on its hind legs, reaching almost seven meters in height.
“AAAAAUUUHHHHHHHHH!”
It howled, then threw away the half-eaten horse, sending it flying through the air in an arc before slamming into the ground with a loud crash. The monster then got down on all fours and turned to face Allen.
“Come at me!”
In response to Allen’s goading, the murdergalsh started off at a trot, quickly accelerating into a full-speed charge.
All right, I succeeded in making it target me instead of the passengers of the carriage.
Allen shouted loudly at the knights and adventurers, “I’m going to draw the murdergalsh toward the White Dragon Mountains!” before turning and running off at full speed. He called out his grimoire to check his MP and found it still at zero.
Still?! It should be back anytime now!
The distance between Allen and the murdergalsh gradually shrunk as the two continued racing on.
“Holy cra—!”
Soon enough, the monster had caught up, despite Allen’s Agility being over 600. It took a swing with one of its front arms. Allen barely managed to dodge the attack, but doing so caused him to lose his balance and fall over. After rolling several times on the ground, he quickly got back up and whirled around to regain a visual on the monster, fully expecting a follow-up attack. However, it simply stared down at him with a smirk, showing no indication of attacking. Apparently it had enjoyed the sight of Allen falling. The way it no longer seemed bothered about losing an eye only added to its eeriness.
Ah, this is what games are referring to when monsters skip their turn and the text says, “The monster smirks at you.”
Allen had, in his past life as Kenichi, played computer games with turn-based combat systems where the player’s and the game monster’s sides took turns attacking each other. Sometimes, however, the monsters did nothing during their turn—instead, there was only a pop-up that read something like, “The monster smirks at you.” Back then, Kenichi only counted it as a lucky break and did not give it any further thought. Now that a monster was actually doing it to him in real life, he finally understood why it happened. In the murdergalsh’s single remaining eye, Allen was nothing more than a toy.
Well, I’ll still count this as a lucky break ’cause my MP just came back!
Allen cast a quick glance at his grimoire and confirmed that the MP field in his Status was no longer zero.
I need more Agility. The two types of cards that buff Agility are Bird, which also buffs Intelligence, and Insect, which also buffs Endurance. Okay, Agility and Endurance are exactly what I need right now.
While slowly backing up, Allen did his best to act like he was in despair so as to make the murdergalsh lower its guard. He even shivered and pulled a look of absolute terror.
“AAAAUUUHHHHH!”
The murdergalsh’s human-dog face twisted into a look of ecstasy and delight.
Talk about having a shit personality. I can never tell Mash about this. Father, you have the worst naming sense ever!
This monster had been the inspiration for “Mash,” the name of Allen’s younger brother. Now that he knew its personality, however, he realized that it was not exactly the best thing to name a child after. He dearly wished that if Theresia had another child, it would be a girl so that she would be the one to decide on a name.
Allen kept up the act of being frightened as he quickly used his grimoire to change up the distribution of the cards he had in stock. Because the necessary magic stones were already inside Storage, he simply had to will the process and the book would take care of the rest by itself. All twenty of the Grass E cards that he had been keeping to raise his max MP were now changed to Insect E instead. The grimoire’s pages flipped furiously as cards were Deleted and Created in quick succession. While he was at it, Allen converted the Beast E and Beast F cards he had relied on for Attack to Insect E too. In the end, that left him with four Bird E cards and thirty-six Insect E cards.
The reason Allen had basically gone full Agility was because the murdergalsh had clearly been faster than him just now. He had yet to find out just how strong it was, but he had no interest in finding out by letting himself get caught.
Allen backed off a little more. Seeing that the monster was not going to immediately pounce, he turned tail and dashed off. A loud boom sounded at his back, followed by the pounding of footfalls. Allen attempted to determine his relative distance to the monster through the sound and pushed himself to maintain his lead.
This isn’t enough. I’ve got to go farther away.
Drawing the murdergalsh away from Granvelle City was a given, but considering this opportunity, Allen wanted to attempt killing it outright. Currently, he was only several hundred meters away from the collapsed carriage. The figures of the knights and adventurers in the distance were no more than mere specks by now, but he wanted to gain more distance so that he could freely use his Summons to fight.
The deadly game of tag continued until the hunter and prey reached an area sparsely populated with trees almost two kilometers away from Granvelle City. This was far enough that they were entirely beyond the sight of everyone in the city.
All right. Ageha, use your Ability!
Allen called out three Insect Es behind himself without stopping. As the murdergalsh was a Rank B monster, three Insect Es were needed in order for their Ability, Scale Powder, to be effective.
Yellow powder fell on the murdergalsh’s head. It stopped in its tracks, so Allen also stopped running and turned around, hopeful.
“AAAAAUUUHHHH!”
With a cry, the beast swung its front arm and swept away all three Insect Es in one blow, reducing them to glowing bubbles that faded into the air.
What?! It didn’t work?! Does it have resistances? Or did I just get unlucky?
The debuffs cast through the Abilities of the Insect cards were not a hundred percent guaranteed to work. After trying only once, there was no way to tell whether Scale Powder only happened to fail this time or it simply would not work, period.
Crap, it’s after me again.
With the Insect E Summons gone, the game of tag resumed. Allen Created more Insect Es to replace the ones he had just lost and continued running in desperation.
Three long, long hours later, Allen was hiding behind a tree. The murdergalsh was nowhere in sight.
