Extra in a Romance Fantasy

112 – Monster (3)

“An ambush!”

Time had passed, but the strategy remained unchanged.

When the creature appeared, the skilled fighters positioned around would seize its ankles, while others rushed in for a coordinated attack.

Once again, the plan worked beautifully, and Max faced the creature once more.

It was their second battle, yet the dynamics were largely the same.

From start to finish, Max dominated the creature.

—

But once again, they were unable to catch the creature.

It had slipped through their encirclement with its strange movements and escaped.

Max clicked his tongue in disappointment at that fact, but the disappointment itself was far from genuine.

Not catching the creature was certainly a regrettable matter, but that was never the original goal.

Arriving at the grave on time without any casualties.

That had been the initial objective, so the fact that they could buy time without incurring any damage was not a bad thing at all.

From then on, every time the creature appeared, things unfolded in a similar manner, allowing the group to continue their journey without any further casualties.

However.

After facing the creature a few times, Max began to feel a subtle sense of unease.

The shadow monster, which had previously been overwhelming, was now taking longer to confront.

At first, he thought it was an illusion, but as the encounters continued, the duration of each confrontation grew longer.

It wasn’t just that time was increasing; the sensation itself was changing.

Thus, Max reached a conclusion.

“…It’s growing.”

The creature was gradually becoming stronger.

It wasn’t merely a matter of increased strength and speed.

The very nature of its movements was changing.

When he first faced it, its movements had a certain sharpness, but they were raw, like those of a wild beast.

Yet now, that rawness had faded, revealing glimpses of more refined movements.

As if a human were moving.

As if it were martial arts.

The creature was learning.

Combat.

Human movements.

Martial arts.

“Does that even make sense? A monster learning martial arts?”

Johanna furrowed her brow in disbelief.

“What an absurd notion.”

Hector’s reaction was no different.

And it was understandable.

—

The behavior he had shown until now was undoubtedly alien, something that had never been seen before, yet it wasn’t entirely beyond comprehension.

Even among ordinary animals, there were occasionally individuals with such cunning intelligence.

But this was a different story.

Learning at this pace, and moreover, mimicking martial arts and mastering them, was behavior that truly surpassed the intellect of a monster.

“If that’s true, then an unbelievable creature has appeared…”

Perhaps feeling a headache, Hector rubbed his forehead.

“It’s still at a level we don’t need to worry about just yet. But… it’s true that it’s continuing to evolve. From the start, its strength, speed, and magical capacity were monstrous. If martial arts are added to that… it’s hard to predict just how much of a monster it will become.”

At Max’s added words, Johanna and Hector’s faces sank even heavier.

“It won’t be long before it’s a grave situation. At this rate, we might reach the grave safely. But… to be honest, I’m not sure if we can just let it go like that. That creature is too dangerous to simply ignore.”

Max continued speaking.

If they only considered the current objective, they just needed to reach the grave without any more casualties.

However, Max felt strongly that they couldn’t let it go like that.

It was already a sufficiently dangerous creature.

But if it were to grow even more from here, it might become an uncontrollable monster.

“…But that’s only if we can catch it. How are we supposed to catch something we can’t even catch now?”

“That’s the problem… It seems magic doesn’t work well on it either.”

Among the mercenaries, and among the clients heading to the hero’s grave, there were indeed mages.

And they had attempted to capture the creature with their help before.

But all had failed.

It was because magic didn’t properly affect the creature.

Simple attack spells were fine, but most spells that inflicted status ailments didn’t work at all.

Because of that, it had already been concluded that magic would be of little help.

“So in the end, there’s no sharp solution, is there?”

“…That’s true.”

Max nodded with difficulty.

“Well, we could seek cooperation from other groups on the way back, or we could return to Darville and form a hunting party. So we don’t have to rush into anything right now. I’m worried about the rear guard, but… we can’t just wait here indefinitely either.”

“……”

As Hector said, there was no certain means to catch the creature at the moment.

Max was well aware of this fact, and in the end, he could only nod in agreement with Hector’s words.

Thus, Max forcibly swallowed the thick anxiety that was rising within him.

Hoping that this anxiety would not become reality.

However, unfortunately, that anxiety approached as reality.

In the form of Hector’s injury.

*

‘It’ was born one day.

‘It’ did not know how it was born, or from what it came.

However, it did not wonder about that.

To think about such things, to ponder where its existence came from, to worry and agonize over it, was too complex for ‘its’ simple thoughts.

Before getting lost in such thoughts, the first thing ‘it’ felt was hunger.

I am hungry.

I need to eat something.

Driven by that simple instinct, ‘it’ moved its body.

Fortunately, food was scattered all around.

Though it could not see them, ‘it’ knew.

The place where there were things to eat.

The smell.

A scent that made saliva flow, stimulated ‘its’ nose.

Naturally, ‘its’ feet moved in the direction of the smell.

And before long, ‘it’ discovered something to eat.

The food saw ‘it’ and immediately attacked.

But.

‘It’ was too fast to be caught by that attack.

And, too strong.

Soon, the food found itself being torn apart by ‘its’ teeth.

It was delicious.

It felt good.

Filling the belly was truly a satisfying sensation.

Having devoured a few prey, ‘it’ felt a sense of fullness, but that fullness did not last long.

Soon, hunger returned, and ‘it’ began to search for prey once more.

In the midst of repeating that process several times, ‘it’ noticed.

—

That its legs were getting faster.

That its claws were becoming sharper.

That it was growing stronger.

With its faster, stronger body, ‘it’ pursued its prey with even greater vigor.

At some point, the prey began to flee far away from ‘it.’

However, that was a futile struggle.

‘It’ was simply too fast to let the prey escape.

In the end, ‘it’ kept feeding and grew stronger.

Yet, even that flow had an end.

It was because there were no more prey around.

No matter how strong ‘it’ became, there was no way to track in a direction where the scent did not reach.

Ultimately, ‘it’ began to move to a new territory in search of its next prey.

It was during this repetitive existence that it caught a unique scent.

It was a smell unlike anything it had ever encountered.

It even felt intensely pungent.

Yet, ‘it’ found that scent intriguing.

Thus, it approached closer.

The new prey discovered while chasing that scent looked just as unfamiliar as the smell itself.

It had almost no fur and was adorned with shiny things on its body.

Its claws also had strange shapes, unlike anything seen before.

One could easily be frightened by that unfamiliar appearance, but ‘it’ charged at the new prey without hesitation.

And for the first time, it tasted defeat.

The new prey fought in ways that were as strange as their unique appearance.

Suddenly, they became stronger, faster, and even breathed fire.

In the face of that unfamiliar power and fighting style, ‘it’ was utterly defeated and fled.

From then on, ‘it’ did not approach those strange prey.

Instead, it pursued and devoured the prey it had always hunted with even more ferocity.

And it grew even stronger.

As time passed, ‘it’ once again caught the scent of a strange prey.

This time, it did not shy away from the smell.

Rather, it walked towards the source of the scent on its own.

There, it found special prey, different in appearance from what it had seen before.

‘It’ pounced on them.

And this time, it emerged victorious.

Its body was pierced, cut, and even burned by their strange claws, but in the end, it was ‘it’ that triumphed.

As the price of that victory, ‘it’ could finally feast on the special prey.

Soon, ‘it’ felt a great shock.

It was a taste unlike anything it had ever experienced.

A taste that was almost ecstasy.

Moreover, ‘it’ realized.

By consuming the special prey, it had undeniably grown stronger.

From that moment on, ‘it’ only hunted the special prey.

Whenever a scent wafted through the air, it dashed straight towards it, pounced, and devoured.

As a result, ‘it’ grew stronger at a rapid pace.

Now, nothing around could threaten ‘it’ anymore.

Then came the moment.

‘It’ caught a whiff of an incredibly rich scent.

The aroma of special prey was more intense than ever before.

Following that scent, ‘it’ could see.

A number of special prey, too many to count, gathered in a group.

Watching that sight, ‘it’ drooled.

It truly felt that a satisfying meal was finally within reach.

However, the hunt was not as easy as it had anticipated.

At first, it could easily hunt prey that had strayed from the group, but at some point, such prey became scarce.

Thus, ‘it’ devised a plan.

To make other prey attack them, and take advantage of the chaos to hunt.

That strategy was successful.

‘It’ once again succeeded in the hunt.

However, that too did not last long.

Special prey changed their strategy once again.

Prey that could not be easily dealt with began to target “it.”

Caught in that strategy, “it” had to taste defeat for the first time in a long while and flee.

And “it” fell into deep contemplation.

What should it do?

How could it hunt those prey and consume them?

There was too little time to hunt ordinary prey and grow stronger.

If it did that, it would surely miss the chance to catch those prey.

As it continued to hunt and feast, “its” intelligence had already surpassed that of an ordinary monster.

With that intelligence, “it” continued to ponder.

Why could it not defeat the prey with the orange fur?

In strength and speed, it was clearly ahead.

Why did it have to face defeat?

The answer came more quickly than expected.

Movement.

The movement was different.

The movements of the special prey were unlike those of ordinary prey.

It was hard to explain specifically, but they were undeniably different.

“It” concluded that it had lost because of the difference in movement.

If that was the case, the solution was simple.

If it lost due to the difference in movement, then it too could follow that movement.

With that conclusion, “it” sought out the special prey once more.

Instead of recklessly hunting, it observed and memorized their movements.

Though the hunt failed again, it gained something.

It gradually became able to mimic those movements.

At first, it was clumsy, but even that improved over time.

Eventually, “it” gained confidence.

It was growing stronger.

If it continued like this, it would surely succeed in hunting once more.

Thus, “it” began to evolve again.