Volume 9 Chapter 14 (2/2)

The moment I stepped foot in the room, I felt a change in the air.

The scent of blood was thick. There was also a chomp chomp sound, as though someone was chewing loudly on something juicy.

Right when an awful stench hit my nose, I felt an unpleasant power. A dark power.

…a dark power that I was familiar with. After all, I had been enthralled by it. By [Awakening].

So, this this how it feels, how awful it feels from an outsider's point of view.

As for the source of the chomping sound, it was in the center of the room.

There, where the red carpet was redder still, the [Pig] Demon Lord was busily munching on his ally.

Marcho had told me about his [Pig] ability, but we knew nothing of it after [Awakening] was activated.

It was dangerous, that much I knew though.

There might be exceptions, but typically, the greater the risks and tradeoffs, the stronger the ability was. Given that, there was no way that an ability that required the user to sacrifice and devour their allies to activate could ever be weak.

From this scene of carnage, I surmised something: the more monsters he ate, the stronger he got.

But for him to get this strong, how many has he eaten? Tens? Hundreds?

”…attack. Crush him.”

Thankfully, even though we had entered the room, he was so preoccupied with eating that he hasn't noticed us yet.

Killing him now would save us a lot of trouble.

There was nothing cowardly or underhanded about this. We were in a [War], after all.

The first ones to make a move were the three knights.

The red knight charged at him by setting its thrusters to max; the white knight flew and then fired at him using the rifle installed in its nose cone; while the black knight fired from a distance using its two heavy machineguns.

Per Rorono's instructions, the three knights activated [Burst Drive]. [Burst Drive] could only be initiated by the golems that were installed with twin-drive golem cores. By overloading the cores to the point that the overflowing magic power produced light, the golems could temporarily gain power that rivaled even S rank monsters.

One attack from any of the knights could kill most monsters. And all three knights were simultaneously attacking.

The red knight's metallic stake made a thunderous sound as it hit the [Pig] Demon Lord's chest.

The white knight's high caliber rifle made a direct hit on his temple.

The black knight's heavy machineguns were continuously showering him with bullets.

However…

The metallic stake broke into pieces upon contact, the high-caliber bullet wasn't even able to leave a scratch, and the barrage of the heavy machineguns' bullets did nothing more than tickle.

”Guoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo”

The [Pig] Demon Lord roared.

Right after, he grabbed the red knight's right arm, ripped it off, and then mightily threw it. The right arm easily and instantly accelerated to three times the speed of sound before colliding into the white knight, causing the latter to fall to the ground.

Meanwhile, the black knight approached and swung the swords it held. However, the magic-power-based blades that were supposed to be able to cut anything wasn't able to cut his skin.

Agares retaliated via a punch that had a big windup and was therefore obviously telegraphed. It was the kind of attack that the black knight, which possessed a learning brain, could easily avoid. However, the punch itself was just too fast. So, even though the black knight anticipated the punch and moved in advance, it was still caught.

The punch destroyed the black knight's armor, blew it far away until it hit a wall, and ultimately rendered it out of commission.

In an instant, the three knights were decimated.

Impossible, I wanted to cry out.

But then, the [Pig] Demon Lord looked at me. His eyes glowed red. He was just like a starved, wild beast.

”Proccceeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllllll! You! I kill youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!”

He declared so and then leapt toward me.

There were hundreds of meters between us, so I thought there was no way he was going to reach me right away. But his speed and momentum proved otherwise. In an instant, he was almost before me…

”Master!? Move, Avalon-Ritters! Protect him!”

Rorono hurriedly gave instructions to the Avalon-Ritters which then formed a wall.

However, the [Pig] Demon Lord just continued to charge through as though the Avalon-Ritters' defensive wall was nothing but a glass wall.

His muscles had swelled to twice its size before; his skin had become so much tougher and thicker to the point that it was almost like a suit of armor; and his face had become that of a demon's.

It was like seeing a nightmare.

And now, the fist that destroyed the Avalon-Ritters were coming for me. My death was imminent…

”You won't get to kill Oto-san, not while Kuina's here!”

A girl's hand caught and stopped the [Pig] Demon Lord's fist.

The girl was Kuina.

The size difference between her hand and his fist was almost surreal, and yet her little hand was tightly holding his fist without a twitch.

Kuina's whole body was currently wrapped in golden flames.

Moreover, she had changed into her adult form-into her real form.

She had grown taller, certain parts became developed, and her normally charming and fluffy tail became even more so. Also, any signs of childishness vanished from her face, turning her into an absolutely stunning beauty.

She was in her younger form only to conserve energy. But then again, even though it was called that, there weren't many monsters that could force her to fight seriously and assume her true form.

”Oto-san, Rorono-chan, Tiro, Kuina wants to go all out against him. The chance to fight seriously doesn't come a lot, so please don't get involved until one of us is dead, ok?”

Kuina said so after blasting away the [Pig] Demon Lord with a burst of her flames. The blast left behind a trail of fire, which Kuina followed to get to the enemy.

If the only concern was winning, making Kuina fight along with Rorono and Tiro was the way to go, but when considering the future, it would be more beneficial to make Kuina fight alone so that she could get more experience in fighting a strong enemy by herself.

”Alright, but if you lose, prepare to be punished, you hear?”

”'Kay ♪! An enemy aside from Fel-chan that won't go down easily even after Kuina gets serious, Kuina will enjoy this fully!”

Kuina was always suppressing her power, so I didn't really notice, but she was so strong now that even I, her ally, got a chill down my spine.

Afterwards, Kuina stylishly beckoned the [Pig] Demon Lord to come at her with all he got.

In response, the latter roared furiously.

The question now was which between the [Pig] Demon Lord—who obtained extraordinary power via [Awakening]—and Kuina—who was my strongest monster—was the real beast.