Nigoru Hitomi de Nani wo Negau

ir eyes and braced themselves was not their death, but a heavy yet dry roar.
The tip of the club was completely lost and flew off somewhere.

“Aren’t you having fun? Sorry, but I’ve some business with them.
And if you minced them, I won’t be able to ask them, y’know!?”

What appeared was a man carrying a massive battle axe.
He wasn’t that tall, but his limbs and chest were bursting with muscle.

A very unique man.
But what caught Kalim’s eye more than anything else was the battle wounds carved all over his body that made it difficult to find smooth skin.
His skin was filled with a wide range of scars, as if his whole body had been stripped of its skin and multiple skins with different pigments had been forcibly joined together.
His appearance was so extreme that if Kalim had seen him in the deserted darkness, Kalim might think that the man was a kind of undead.

“But, you’re still a brat, ain’t you? Still, you survived.
Good job.”

Said the man tapping Kalim’s shoulder with the handle of the giant battle-axe.

“ “That guy”, he was surprisingly good at taking care of others, perhaps, did he train you?”

On the side, the man talked to himself, entering his own world.

Being disturbed from the hunt and ignored, the Cyclops plunged its club into the ground, slamming the surrounding dirt and shrubs.

“F-front!!”　

Amidst Kuwen’s screams, the man looked at it with a bored eye.
Shortly, the wind blew through the forest.
Kalim didn’t realize what it was until he saw the battle-axe piercing the earth.
It was the wind pressure from the swing of his battle-axe.
Also, he managed to see the faintly luminous light on the blade and thus, spoke its name.

“《Strike》!?”

The nasty explosive projectiles fired by the club were canceled out by 《Strike》 and wind pressure.

“Oho, bragging about your tricks huh? As a Cyclops, you’re really pathetic.
Can you understand what I’m saying? Y’see, you’re just a blockhead.
That’s why you’ll die here.
Come! Let me have fun!!”

Something unbelievable happened.
A man who was supposed to be a human was about to fight head-on against the one-eyed giant.
Looking at the upper body that didn’t even consider evasion, also the waist that had been lowered, it was as if the man was inviting the monster.

However, what made Kalim doubt his eyes more, was the fact that the magical barrier, which should have been colorless, began to have color.

Perhaps the man’s words or demeanor conveyed it, the Cyclops opened its eyes to the limit, raised its club high in the sky, stepped on its huge legs, and swung its arms down.

“Good.
As a monster, you sure have a lot of guts huh? A’right, I’ll end this fast!!”

“Ua, uaaaaAAHHH!!!”

Kalim and Kuwen screamed in unison at the approaching and unavoidable blow, gasping while waiting for the result.

After a moment of equilibrium between the battle-axe and the club, the club was destroyed and the shattered pieces of wood obscured the sky.

The Cyclops slammed its fist through the piece of wood, but its fist to elbow exploded.
And, the man appeared from the explosion while laughing happily.

“Ahaha, Good.
You sure worth my slash!”

The man kicked up the ground and jumped into the bosom of the Cyclops.
The Cyclops tried to knock him down with its remaining arm, but it was quicker for the man to swing up his battle-axe from the bottom.
The axe head cut through the Cyclops’ fingers and was sucked into its neck without stopping, sending its head to dance in the air.

Having lost its head, its giant body continued to move slightly, that was its last resistance.
Fresh blood spouted from the neck, creating a pond of blood in the forest.
Among them, a man who had just finished the job appeared while wiping blood stuck on him.

“Hahaha, I got a little wet.”

The man took something out of his bag on his waist and chewed it up.
It was the notorious hard-baked biscuit.
The man who noticed the gazes of the two then said.

“What? Wanna eat these? Here, take it.
With that body, you won’t be able to be an excellent soldier, y’know?”

With a look reminiscent of a monster, the man handed hard-baked biscuits to Kalim and Kuwen, then patted them on the back.

“A’right, now, the main subject.
Where did the soldier with the name “Walm” go? Y’see, that guy is kind of an old friend, and I’ve got some business with him.
Course you can tell me, right?”

The face of the man with the bloody battle axe changed from a smiley face to a serious face, and just like that, the man slowly got closer.

Kalim looked at Kuwen, as he couldn’t answer, but Kuwen was as just as confused.
Both couldn’t process the situation they were in.
How did this happen to them? They didn’t know.
The only thing they knew for sure was that the man, who was approaching them, was the kind of unknown existence that they couldn’t be able to dodge even if they wanted to.