That guy was freakishly fast. Even with his abilities restricted, if he moved like that inside a dense forest, catching him would be impossible. If so, our best bet was an open area.
That was why I had deliberately chosen the meadow spreading before the cave. Since we had no idea which route he would take to attack, carelessly leaving the cave was dangerous. We decided the women and children would stay inside, and once fighting broke out, they would head deeper into the cave to escape through the rear exit.
Though, with his speed, even if they ran, they would be caught in no time if we were wiped out.
In other words, everything hinged on whether we could defeat them in this battle.
"Our opponent is an absolute lunatic. Tama, whatever you do, don't push yourself."
Having finished setting the stakes in the open space, I approached Tama, who was still standing resolute with her hands on her hips, to make sure.
"Push myself? He's so fast you can't even perceive him, right? Then whatever I do or wherever I am, it'll make no difference."
"Well, that might be true, but..."
"We don't even know when this enemy is coming. Hurry up and go! Shoo, shoo!"
Tama waved her hands as if brushing off an annoying fly. I shrugged.
"Listen, under no circumstances are you to resist. Leave the rest to us."
Repeating the warning once more, I turned my back to her and ran to hide in the designated thicket.
"Thank you."
I thought I faintly heard her murmur those words.
Right now, I was concealed behind the trees. The foe heading our way was a genuine monster. Let your guard down for a second, and you were dead. That was the kind of opponent we were up against.
I could feel the tips of my fingers trembling slightly. There was something I had come to realize about myself, if only a little. I was a hopelessly timid coward. By nature, I was never the type to play the Hero. So why was I risking my life for something so unrewarding? I didn't have the faintest clue. And yet, for some reason, abandoning Char was unthinkable. Something deep within me was screaming that truth so loudly it bordered on annoying.
(Come to think of it...)
If you ever face an opponent you can never defeat, turn tail and run. But if the moment comes when you must fight for your convictions, envision an overwhelmingly powerful entity. Then, become that mighty being and act. I felt like someone had told me that long ago.
(Idiot... As if I could even remember who said that...)
Still, it was the perfect method to banish fear.
(The strongest being to me, huh...)
The figure that abruptly surfaced in my mind was, surprisingly, an ordinary black-haired boy.
(Why would someone who doesn't even look that strong be the pinnacle of power to me?)
A dry chuckle slipped past my lips.
At a glance, he looked weak enough to lose to any common monster roaming around. And yet, no matter how hard I tried, I simply could not picture that black-haired boy suffering defeat.
(All right, then. Let's try becoming him.)
A certain someone I didn't even know.
I pictured the boy. A scorching heat welled up in the center of my chest, rapidly spreading outward. If I had to describe it, it felt as though the inside of my body was bubbling and boiling over. Under normal circumstances, it should have been a deeply unsettling sensation, yet for some reason, I found it strangely comforting at that moment.
I immersed myself in the image...
After focusing on the image of the black-haired boy for a while, I noticed a vile, repulsive presence approaching from deep within the forest. It was best described as a foul-smelling mass drawing near. In the precognitive dream, I hadn't felt a single thing to begin with, but... Well, it was just a dream. Expecting total accuracy was probably asking too much.
Regardless, there was no doubt this was the blue-haired man from that dream. Slay him with a single strike immediately after activating the ability-suppressing stakes. That was the ideal scenario, but... would things really go so smoothly?
The disgusting aura drew closer. Yet something was off. In the dream, we were slaughtered in the blink of an eye. It would have made sense for me to feel sheer terror, but for some reason, I didn't perceive him as much of a threat. While I felt intense revulsion, I felt almost no sense of danger.
Amidst my conflicted feelings, as I remained hidden, a slender man with blue hair—long on the left and short on the right—finally emerged from the depths of the forest.
Just as I had foreseen, it was the slender man from the dream. He licked his lips at the firmly planted Tama and closed in.
"Hmm, this has gotta be a trap, hasn't it? But that might be fun too~."
The blue-haired man cast a casual glance around the surroundings and muttered his thoughts.
(This guy's an idiot...)
With that kind of complacency, you're going to lose to weaklings like us.
The moment he stepped right under Tama's nose, I channeled every last drop of magic power into the stakes.
(Whoa!)
A soft gasp of astonishment escaped me at the sheer density and raging torrent of magic power erupting from my right hand.
A triangular magic circle manifested on the ground, perfectly enclosing the blue-haired man.
"Oh~? So it's some sort of binding formula. And definitely not one from my homeland~. I take it you dug it up from some ruins~?"
The man rubbed his chin, nodding with keen interest, but...
"Too~ bad."
The moment he snapped the fingers of his right hand, the triangular magic circle dissolved into mist.
Damn it! Did he forcibly dispel the artifact mid-activation?! No, I didn't feel much danger coming from him right now. But then again, I hadn't felt it before the activation either...
(Don't overthink it now!)
Either way, in the dream, he had felt like an insurmountable monster. Compared to that memory, he didn't feel like that at all anymore. Looking at him closely now, it seemed... as if he had become weaker than before the activation. I had to assume the stakes had produced some effect.
"This sort of formula has no effect on m—"
Leaving him mid-sentence while he smugly boasted with total composure, I kicked off the ground with all my strength. The surrounding scenery blurred into a streak behind me, closing the distance between us in an instant.
"Wha—?!"
Grabbing the abdomen of the man whose face twisted in shock, I roared.
"Flame Bullet!"
I unleashed my signature spell—Flame Bullet. Jet-black flames erupted from my fingertips, blasting straight through the blue-haired man's body. And that wasn't all.
"Gwaaaaah?!"
From the sheer force of the impact, the blue-haired man spun wildly through the air, plowing through trees as he was sent flying into the distance.
"What in the world...?"
There was no way I had ever possessed magic of this caliber. For that matter, the flames themselves had shifted from crimson to black. Perhaps the stakes granted strength to the caster in addition to weakening the target.
At any rate, unlike in the dream, his movements had become sluggish. The stakes must have done their job and then some.
"G-Gil?"
Tama's bewildered voice called out from behind me.
"I'm fine! He's not as fast as he looks. Get into the cave!"
"..."
Seeing Tama still frozen, unable to mask her confusion, I shouted.
"Hurry!"
At my roar, she snapped out of it and bolted into the cave.
The blue-haired man staggered to his feet. Glaring daggers at me with bloodshot eyes, he muttered under his breath.
"I'll kill you..."
Even if he was weakened, he was clearly a superior combatant. There was no telling when the suppression would wear off. If so, I had to overwhelm him right here without giving him an inch of breathing room.
"I'm gonna f*cking kill—"
Kicking hard off the earth, I closed the distance to the screaming man once again.
Without giving him a chance to flinch, I slammed my right fist into his face with everything I had. As the blue-haired man flew backward, mowing down trees in his path, I closed in and unleashed a right roundhouse kick.
My shin struck his head with a solid impact, accompanied by the distinct crack of shattering bone. I followed through with the kick, sending him hurtling back toward the cave at terrifying speed.
Dashing toward him once more, I easily caught up and overtook him. I kicked him up into the air, rebounded off the cave wall, and launched myself straight above him.
"Wait— hold—"
He tried to plead, but I brought my heel down with all my might.
Crack!
With the sickening sound of his skull fracturing into pieces, his entire body plummeted to the earth before the cave.
He collided with the ground, a thunderous boom rattling my eardrums.
As the cloud of dust settled, a massive crater was revealed. In the center lay the splayed, motionless form of the blue-haired man.
Did I get him? He wasn't twitching at all, but letting my guard down was out of the question. If the ability suppression wore off, even on the brink of death, he could likely slaughter someone like me in an instant.
I had better incinerate him thoroughly.
Aiming both palms downward, I shouted.
"Flame Bullet!"
I fired volley after volley of Flame Bullet.
To ensure not a single trace of his flesh remained, I kept unleashing an endless barrage of black flames.