"Pant, pant... damn it!! He got away!"
After a fierce battle, the monster let out a high-pitched scream that was unimaginable from its appearance, and collapsed.
Attacking Arnold had been its undoing. The reason Arnold and the others had been struggling until now was that the ogre had shown unusual caution. The moment it challenged Mighty Thunder Flash — who had the element of surprise and was in nearly perfect condition, perhaps even fighting beyond his usual ability out of fury — the outcome was already decided.
Arnold drove his sword into the head of the fallen green ogre for good measure, then dropped to one knee.
He'd taken it down. But it had taken too long. Thousand Transformations' carriage was already out of sight.
His body felt heavy as lead. He knew that even if he gave chase now, catching up would be difficult.
He tried to tell himself that, but his frustration showed no signs of subsiding.
Ei, who had been surrounding and hemming in the monsters that kept trying to flee while supporting Arnold's fight, rushed over. He was battered, but Ei was the second strongest member of the Thunder Dragon of the Mist. In every movement, compared to the other members, he showed a bit more composure.
"Are you alright, Arnold-san?"
"Damn it! Damn it! I'll never, ever forgive him!"
"Calm down, Arnold-san! There's no way we can chase him right now! Hey, you lot — secure the camp. We're staying here tonight."
In his head, the last words Thousand Transformations had left behind were swirling around.
This was the first time since becoming a Hunter that Arnold had been mocked so thoroughly. Even back when he'd just started out and his abilities hadn't caught up yet, he'd never been made a fool of to this extent.
Suppressing the rage that might explode if he let his guard down to the depths of his heart, Arnold headed toward the camp with Ei leading the way.
The traces of Thousand Transformations' preparations still remained at the camp. Beside an excessively large fire, several skewered pieces of meat and fish were being roasted, and there were no signs of monsters in the area.
A stroke of luck in their misfortune. This would be the perfect place to rest. The members of the Blazing Gale had already settled in, keeping watch and preparing the camp.
He took a deep breath, calming himself down.
"Well, we managed to get through that crisis."
"Yeah... you did well."
The moment Arnold had spotted Thousand Transformations and charged after him, it was Ei who had stepped up in his place, protecting the party while fending off monster attacks.
At the brief praise, Ei broke into a grin.
"Heh. That ogre — seems like it was targeting you, Arnold-san — was way easier than I thought."
"...Damn it, is everything in the palm of that man's hands...?"
Giving in to his anger, Arnold slammed his fist into the ground. The members of the Blazing Gale flinched at the thunderous impact and looked his way, but even so, Arnold's fury didn't subside one bit.
It was a ridiculous thought. Arnold was undoubtedly pursuing Thousand Transformations of his own free will.
He was no god — there was no way Thousand Transformations could control everything — but the timing had been far too perfect.
"...Maybe we need to sit down and think about this carefully. How was the encounter?"
"He's... like nothing I've ever faced! Damn it... he didn't even dodge. He took my strike completely unguarded, without so much as flinching. How is that even possible?"
Arnold's strike was the one that had slain a dragon. Moreover, the current Arnold possessed a weapon he hadn't had back then — Mighty Thunder Flash.
He knew that many high-level Hunters possessed monstrous durability. But for that strike not to be a fatal blow was one thing — to take it completely unharmed was something that should have been impossible.
When he'd seen the man shield the female Hunter beside him and leave himself wide open, Arnold had thought the guy was a fool. Even a top-class Hunter would die if they took Arnold's strike to a vital point.
But in the next instant, what greeted Arnold was yet another shock.
He opened his hand and looked down at it. The sensation of his blade bouncing off still lingered. The man was definitely harder than the Thunder Dragon Arnold had slain.
"I don't think he could take your strike on pure durability alone. Was it a barrier?"
"...He gave me no opening. You think he could set up a barrier that blocks my attacks in that split second?"
With enough grueling effort, perhaps a top-tier Mage could pull something like that off.
But there had been no sign of the man doing anything at all.
Ei said with a troubled expression.
"...Could it be a Treasure Weapon? The Barrier Ring, or something like that? A Hunter at that level wouldn't be out of place carrying one."
"Impossible. I landed several hits on him. The Barrier Ring can only block the first strike!"
The Barrier Ring was a famous Treasure Weapon, but its weakness was equally well-known. It was designed solely to protect against surprise attacks. That was why a Hunter of Arnold's caliber always kept the possibility that his opponent might carry one in mind.
"That man had composure to spare. He didn't even show the slightest intent to counterattack. Damn it — in front of me, he didn't even bother to take a stance!?"
Dodge, and Arnold could understand. Block with a weapon, and he could understand. But that man had received Arnold's attack without a trace of fear.
As if — flaunting the difference in their class.
Peerless Shadow, who had shown a fierce, blazing offense, was certainly strong. His speed was extraordinary and he was clearly seasoned in battle, but above all, that strike had carried weight far beyond what you'd expect from a Thief.
Even Ei, a fellow Thief, probably wouldn't have been a match. Arnold himself might have lost if he wasn't careful. That man was a Hunter who had been honed to perfection.
But at least with that one, Arnold understood how it worked. Thousand Transformations surpassed it by far on just that single point alone — being utterly alien.
He had no idea how to fight him. To think that even after reaching Level 7 and having one encounter already, he would still come away with such an impression.
"...Illusion magic, maybe? Given his build, he can't be a frontliner."
"An illusion with a physical body? That's ridiculous. I'd find it more believable if he simply endured it with his bare body!"
Hunters were supposed to always account for the unknown, but there had to be limits. If you assumed your opponent was omniscient and omnipotent, you could never be a Hunter.
Consider every possibility, then rule them out yourself.
But if he couldn't even make the man draw his sword, he couldn't even begin to figure out how to approach the fight.
If there was one path to victory, it was this — to throw everything he had into a single blow. Mighty Thunder Flash was Arnold's epithet, the name of the weapon he had claimed for himself, and the name of his ultimate technique.
Whether it was a barrier or bare skin, all he had to do was deliver a strike powerful enough to overpower it. A simple answer — the kind Arnold liked.
But Thousand Transformations would surely dodge an attack he couldn't withstand on his own. A Level 8 Hunter's evasion ability couldn't possibly be low. There was no way such a telegraphed technique would land.
As Arnold calmed his anger and fell into thought, a voice called to him from behind.
It was the voice of someone who didn't know his place and had no fear of death.
"Old man! Is your target, by any chance, Thousand Transformations too?"
"..."
Arnold raised his face and glared daggers, but Gilbert showed no particular reaction and simply nodded, looking oddly moved.
Behind him, the party members wore stunned expressions. But Gilbert, who couldn't read the room, continued speaking.
"I get it, I really do. I'm after him too. If I want to become the strongest Hunter, there's no getting around him. I need to get my Purgatory Sword back, after all. ...Well, I definitely don't feel like I can win yet, though."
"..."
The words were absurdly arrogant. Gilbert had decent talent, and even taking just his current abilities, he was mid-tier at best. But to Arnold, he still fell far short. If Arnold's attacks hadn't worked on Thousand Transformations at all, there was no way this young man's attacks would either.
Gilbert plopped himself down in front of Arnold and gnawed on a skewer of unidentifiable meat, then said while chewing.
"I looked into him. Well, like I said before, I couldn't find much in the way of detailed information. But I did figure something out."
"...What is it?"
Arnold asked back without much hope, and Gilbert crossed his arms, furrowed his brows, and said: "Thousand Transformations isn't a Thief, Swordsman, Guardian Knight, Mage, or Alchemist. It seems that before becoming a Hunter, he was careful not to have his own class overlap with his companions'."
Most of the classes Gilbert had listed were common ones.
The vast majority of Hunters fell into one of those categories. Excluding them, the number of possible classes was few and far between.
"...So what is he, then? Don't tell me you're going to say he's a healer."
"No, he was using a Treasure Weapon for recovery... so that's probably not it. And for a Warrior, he doesn't even carry a weapon — I just couldn't figure it out. I thought maybe you'd have an idea, old man."
Gilbert said weakly. Useless man.
But there had been no information to begin with. If what he said was true, it was at least worth considering.
As Arnold fell into deep thought once more, Ei spoke.
"For now, let's rest today. We can resume the chase tomorrow. The carriage took some damage, but we can find a replacement in a town along the way."
"...You know where Thousand Transformations is?"
He couldn't imagine the carriage tracks lasting forever. At Arnold's question, Ei twisted his lips into a smile.
His pupils, wide with tension, reflected Arnold's image.
"Yeah. They're — I don't know what exactly — but they're waiting for us to come after them. It was a quiet voice, but I heard them by the lakeside. Their next destination is — the City of Ten Thousand Demons."
"What...?"
The City of Ten Thousand Demons. Arnold recognized that name.
It was a Treasure Hall that boasted one of the highest difficulty ratings among all the Treasure Halls in the Zebuldia Empire. And it was also the Treasure Hall that the Mourning Specter was currently tackling.
The recommended clearance Level was 8 — an ultra-high-difficulty Treasure Hall that didn't even exist in the Nebulnes where Arnold and his group had been based.
His body shivered. It was a warrior's thrill.
The members of the Blazing Gale exchanged tense glances.
"So he's saying, 'Come and try. If you want to chase me, at least bring that much.'"
The members who had been riding in Thousand Transformations' carriage were weak. Setting aside the fact that Thousand Transformations himself looked like the weakest among them, their fighting force was woefully inadequate for attempting a Level 8 Treasure Hall.
No matter how strong Peerless Shadow or Thousand Transformations were, that alone wouldn't be enough to clear a Treasure Hall. In terms of fighting strength — even accounting for fatigue — Arnold's party, with all members present, seemed to have the upper hand.
"They might be planning to regroup with someone."
"Hmph... if I were that afraid of it, I wouldn't have chased them in the first place."
To face the strong — that too was a Hunter's instinct.
He'd been planning to take on the Treasure Hall eventually. This could be seen as a good opportunity.
At the savage, beast-like grin that spread across Arnold's face, Ei shrugged and turned to look at his companions.
The party was in this together. The time for a decisive battle was approaching.
§ § § In the middle of a torrential downpour, Citry — who had been peering through binoculars toward the City of Ten Thousand Demons — looked at me and said with a troubled expression.
"Ah... they're not here anymore. Looks like we just missed them. There's no carriage."
"Seriously...? Oh well. Guess we'll just stop at the hot springs and head back."
Despite having spent days dodging chaos, thunder, and Arnold to get here, reality was cruel.
I shrugged and stood up to go talk to Kuro-san and the others, who had been serving as our drivers.