I Became a Raid Boss

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The sword slid in without much resistance.

It went in so easily, it felt like piercing soft pudding with a fork…

– which, to be honest, is a lie.

However, it was much easier than attacking the ankle.

As I plunged the sword into the shrunken eye along with its body, a violet energy burst out like a flood.

Swirl—

Crunch!

Spinning the sword as a service, the unpleasant sound of eyeballs squishing burst forth, intensifying the emerging energy.

“Yap.”

I jumped up nimbly to dodge the shadow looming behind me.

The giant reached out to grab me, but due to his misplaced timing, he posed little threat.

Thanks to that, parrying was easy.

I deliberately placed the sword next to the fist that brushed past me.

Clang!

At the moment the sword collided with the fist, I tilted the sword slightly to dissipate the force.

There was no transmitted shock, but the force contained in the fist caused my body, which was floating in midair, to be flung backward.

Successfully retreating to a point where he couldn’t reach even when he stretched out his arm, I gently landed on the ground while keeping an eye on him.

A giant in pain, holding his eye with one hand.

The other hand fumbled around trying to catch me, but with me already having retreated, he wouldn’t stand a chance.

Instead, he was only digging deep holes in the ground.

I wondered how many people it would take to fill that up, and how long it would take.

‘…Flattening?’

‘Yes, yes!’

‘But why do we have to do that.’

‘…Because we have no training grounds available and have to make a new one. It’s taking a long time due to a lack of manpower. So, we were asked to provide remaining manpower…’

‘…’

‘…Director? Where are you going?! Please stop for a moment! Director!!’

“…Hmm.”

For a moment, bad memories surfaced.

Bragging about increasing the personnel of the Royal Knights is one thing.

But asking us to relinquish the training grounds we had been using just fine, and even to create a new training ground ourselves?

It was a clear intention to break our spirit.

So, I thought, “Alright then, let’s see you try to break it,” and I invaded the Royal Knights’ base and turned it upside down.

As a result, I managed to protect the valuable training ground…

Valuable…?

Anyway, I could protect the training ground we had been using.

As a bonus, I thoroughly smashed the buildings and training grounds they were using, finding joy in watching the noble knights sweating while jumping into the construction site due to “lack of manpower.”

An unpleasant yet amusing memory.

“Oops.”

I didn’t realize I had been lost in thought.

Looking at the faded photo, I placed it back into the box of memories.

Maybe it’s because I had been in a place for a relatively long time, but I kept getting random thoughts.

Of course, you can’t find anything resembling the old times even if you wash your eyes, but just being in the same space brought a slight nostalgic feeling.

“If it were in the past, I would have cheered too…”

But to think that I could fool the Royal Knights, who boast of being holed up in the castle out of fear of fighting the enemy?

I wouldn’t merely want to interfere; I might be tempted to lend a hand. But, unfortunately, the Royal Knights have long since disappeared.

Right at the hands of that giant.

That means there’s no longer any reason for me to stand by while he runs amok.

“It’s time to exit now. If you leave gracefully now, I might let you live. What do you say?”

But the giant did not listen to my words.

I even doubted whether he could understand what I was saying.

Seeing the ruffian on stage showing no sign of wanting to come down, there’s nothing I could do but force him out.

Just as I thought and was about to aim my sword—

Gurururu—

The giant’s hand moved.

“…?”

The wary stance I held quickly became meaningless as the enormous hand didn’t come close to me.

Instead—

Smack—

Crunch!

He picked up a piece of debris lying around and shoved it into his mouth.

And then he began to chew away—

“…What?”

Was that debris actually a snack?

I thought he was chewing so vigorously that I was ready to believe it could be.

As I stood there dumbfounded watching him, his hand grabbed another piece of debris.

And once again, to his mouth.

Chomp chomp.

Crisp.

“Seriously, what is going on?”

There is so much food in the world; why would he eat that?

Could the building actually be delicious?

‘That can’t be right.’

I shook my head to correct the momentary urge of curiosity.

There was no reason for such behavior unless he was suddenly consumed by a craving.

Watching his actions intently, I soon found the reason.

“His wounds are healing.”

It wasn’t substantial recovery that could be seen properly, but bit by bit, as his throat gulped, the wounds were gradually healing.

As proof, the amount of violet energy pouring from the eye, which I had disrupted earlier, had decreased.

So this is what it meant to devour dimensions?

“I have never seen such a creature before.”

Maybe they’ve been killed before they even got a chance to act, or perhaps there are creatures with such abilities separate from him.

Regardless, seeing the creature pick debris to consume and regain strength felt like a fresh experience for someone like me, who had witnessed and experienced numerous things.

“Keeping him at home would mean no worries about trash.”

Though the problem would be if he accidentally devoured the whole house.

And this was just my assumption, but I suspected he wouldn’t only stick to eating debris.

Animals, monsters, marauding beasts…

Humans.

A fervent instinct told me that living beings would not be exceptions to his prey.

Now that such a creature had fallen right in the middle of bustling capital city, wasn’t it almost like a banquet laid out before his eyes?

No matter what injuries he suffered, if he could simply shove anything within reach into his mouth and recover.

“That must have been quite the predicament.”

Had there been fewer people, it might have been easier to kill him.

Out of all the vast Ardina Continent, to think he landed here.

If intentional, it was quite the clever move; if accidental, then just unfortunate.

Anyway, I felt like I had seen enough.

At first, the giant had been cautious and occasionally defensive, but as I didn’t get closer, he seemed to have dropped his guard and fully dedicated himself to his meal.

He glanced at me occasionally, rolling his eyes, but it couldn’t be called genuine vigilance.

‘How careless.’

And foolish.

Did he forget that it was I who had cut his ankle and plucked out his eye?

Even if he had momentarily halted his attacks, he could have pounced at any time, yet there he was, utterly relaxed and just eating—how pathetic.

Since Edel had advised me to become accustomed to their methods, I tried to treat him with due sincerity…

But the anticipation that had tickled my insides rapidly deflated.

“Boring.”

I had wondered if there was another hidden move, but maybe this was it.

As my interest waned, so did my motivation.

But there were still things to do.

Whoosh!

I raised my long, hanging arm.

As the sword in my hand followed my arm up toward the sky.

Flinch!

At my sudden movement, the giant flinched, as he had turned to look at me just in time.

His busy chewing came to a brief halt.

Seeing that I didn’t move after raising my arm, he relaxed and resumed his chewing.

“Now you really are a pig. Go on, squeal.”

Who knows? He might just get spared.

The giant didn’t react at all.

“You make all that racket and create havoc, yet couldn’t even perform a single trick while wasting food.”

Yes. I made up my mind.

“Goodbye.”

I made my words smooth, pretending to contemplate, but my sword had already reached him.

A simplified technique of ‘Cutting Wind’ that I had used to slay Krumo’s shadow.

However, the power had not been simplified.

As the sword swung downward, two lines were drawn across the giant’s body.

He didn’t even realize what was happening to him, lost in the food.

Since the technique was simplified, the power holding him in place was weak, so had he fled late, he might have had a chance to survive.

But even as his body was being cleaved into three parts, the giant did not cease chewing.

Clank!

The sword, which emanated a subtle red light, vanished into its sheath.

The sound of the massive body hitting the ground was unheard.

At the moment it was split into three, his body turned to dust and scattered.

Thud.

The sound of the core dropping, now ownerless, echoed lonely.

For a being that had destroyed a nation, it was a remarkably anticlimactic end.

“Hmm….”

It was not only empty but now felt somewhat unsettling.

Scratching my mask, I muttered a word.

“Did I defeat him?”

Then I waited briefly, but the giant, who had turned to dust, did not reappear.

Even after reciting the resurrection spell I found on the internet, since there was no change, it appeared this truly was the end.

How anticlimactic.

“Ugh.”

Sighing softly, I surveyed the disarrayed surroundings.

There were no longer any people living here anyway.

If someone were to wish to live here someday, they would surely struggle to smooth the ground.

I approached the core while avoiding the various holes.

“What did Edel say again?”

Besides that it played the heart role for them, there seemed to be other things I had heard.

Since I only half-listened back then, I struggled to think but couldn’t recall anything.

“I don’t know.”

I could always ask later.

Putting the hazy memories that were close to vanishing aside, I brought my foot down.

Then I slammed the core with it.

Splat!

The core, larger than an average adult head, split apart without resistance.

At the same time, the ominous glow swirling around its surface faded away.

With that, the task Edel assigned me was done.

The dimensional wall isolating the giant would be handled by Edel herself, so there was nothing left for me to do here.

“…No, that’s not right.”

There was still one thing left.

I turned my head.

After having wounded an enemy far above me, amidst the quake as if a meteor had fallen, Yuki was making her way toward me from a distance, managing to survive.

‘What should I do?’

As she approached, I deliberated for a brief moment, and just like that, I made up my mind.