Isekai Kansha - Chapter 19

Chapter 19: The End of Battle

The ant-beasts clicked their massive jaws — gichi gichi — more than ten of them at least. Forcing a smile, Jin refused to be cowed by the pressure.

Perhaps wary after losing two of their kin, the swarm held back, watching him. That hesitation was Jin’s only chance — he had to shift things to his advantage now, or he was done for. His thoughts raced.

This many monsters in a forest where strong foes shouldn’t even exist — it was clearly abnormal. The shortage of Pam Flowers was likely these creatures’ doing. Normally, he should be thinking only of retreat, but if these things were eating the flowers, running wasn’t an option. He had to either wipe them out or drive them off.

Individually, they weren’t too strong, but in numbers, they were a threat. He needed to break the swarm apart — turn it into one-on-one fights whenever possible.

First, thin their numbers with strong magic. Jin quietly began to chant, ready to unleash it at a moment’s notice. As if sensing the danger, three in the front suddenly lunged at him.

"Mana, gather and strike my foe — Mana Rifle!"

He finished the chant the instant they moved, and the keyword ignited the spell. A bullet of pure mana pierced through one beast and hurled it backward with explosive force.

Without pause, Jin dashed straight at the remaining two. He shoved into the gap left by the fallen monster, swinging his sword in a wide arc as he passed, then sprinted on to create distance. Behind him, he could already feel the rest of the swarm moving.

The hit had landed, but he didn’t look back. Running, he muttered another spell under his breath and, sensing the closest presence right behind him, spun and fired.

"...Mana Bullet!"

The shot struck true, but it didn’t kill. The beast staggered, but another was already upon him, pincers raised.

"Kuh!"

He twisted aside, barely dodging — but even a grazing blow sent pain lancing through him. For the first time since coming to this world, he felt true pain. And yet… this was what he had wished for.

The swarm closed in. Gritting his teeth, Jin threw himself into the fight, swinging his sword with reckless determination. Each time he cut one down, another leapt in to take its place. Each time he swung at a new foe, yet another attacked him from the side. He parried, he dodged, he endured — but he could not evade everything.

Strikes began to land more often, each one accompanied by searing pain. His body bore no wounds, yet his nerves screamed as though torn apart. This pain was unlike anything in his former life — crushing, bludgeoning, slashing pain, so vivid it threatened to shatter his spirit.

Then a beast slipped behind him, and its strike landed full-force.

"Guuuhh!"

The shock and pain nearly stole his breath. But pain was only natural when one was attacked.

"KATSU!"

With a roar, Jin forced his faltering spirit upright, glaring at the swarm. The shout startled them, their movements freezing for an instant. He seized the chance, using an HP potion with a flicker of will, then hurled himself back into the fray.

Again and again, he swung, dodged, endured, healed, and fought on. He fired off spells to buy moments to breathe, refilled his strength with potions, and pressed forward.

Gradually, his movements sharpened. His sword strikes hit harder, and some foes fall in a single blow. He began deflecting attacks with clever angles, even meeting strikes head-on and batting them aside. His actions grew efficient, refined.

His magic, too, changed.

The chant "Mana, gather and strike my foe" shortened to a single word: "Prepare." Without realizing, Jin had packed three meanings — mana, gather, strike — into that single word. Repeating it over and over, he eventually condensed even further. Now, the single keyword "Bullet" was enough to call forth his spell.

Lost in the frenzy of combat, Jin no longer knew how many he had slain. His body screamed with pain, but his spirit remained unbroken. With grim resolve, he raised his sword again — and then it snapped in half with a sharp crack as it bit into a carapace.

"—!?"

The sudden break left him open, and another beast lunged. Jin barely parried with the broken blade, then lashed out with a fierce kick.

Doga!

The creature flew backward with a thunderous crash, bowling over the ones behind it. Surprised at his own power, Jin dropped the shattered steel sword and swiftly drew his wooden training sword with his left hand, settling back into stance. Then he plunged back into the slaughter.

"Haa… haa… haa…"

Panting, Jin stood amid a carpet of corpses. He scanned the surroundings warily, broken breaths rattling in his chest.

At first glance, it seemed the battle was over. But it wasn’t.

Appearing with a handful of the ant-beasts was one far larger than the rest — not the size of a big dog, but bigger even than a cow. Its overall form resembled the others, but its swollen body and sheer scale marked it clearly. Jin judged it to be the queen.

The queen and her drones crept toward him, and then, without warning, she spewed liquid straight from her maw. It was her first ranged attack. Jin leapt back just in time, and the ground where he had stood hissed and sizzled, grass and soil dissolving into sludge.

The queen’s strike was the signal. The remaining drones surged in at once. With the queen spitting acid to cover them, Jin was forced to fight while wary of attacks from afar, and the battle quickly turned against him.

Still, after a drawn-out struggle, he seized an opening right after one of her sprays and managed to cut down the last of the drones. All that remained was the queen herself.

Keeping his distance, Jin glared at her and willed a display into being — HP and MP bars, his own and the queen’s.

Her bars, red and blue, were both full. His own HP hovered at half, his MP at barely one-fifth.

This was the decisive battle.

From his inventory, he pulled one last HP potion and one MP potion, drinking them both. That left only a single healing draught in reserve. His HP and MP climbed back to near full.

Preparations for the final showdown were complete.

Then Jin began chanting—not just to gather magic, but also to provoke the enemy.

"Mana, gather here, take form, and strike down my foe—!"

He had barely finished the incantation when the queen ant spat acid toward him. But this was exactly what Jin had been waiting for.

Without panic, he lunged diagonally forward, dodging the spray, then dashed in close. With the solid image of his spell firm in his mind, he unleashed it.

"...Mana Rifle!"

At point-blank range, the magic struck true, slamming into the unarmored section of the queen’s abdomen.

"Gi-giiiii!"

The queen writhed, spraying white fluids and entrails from her ruptured body. Unlike his frenzied clash with the drones, Jin was calm now, making the gruesome sight all the more shocking. For a moment, he froze.

That instant was all it took. The queen spewed acid at point-blank range, and Jin, his reaction a hair too slow, took the full spray from his right arm across his chest.

"Gaaahhhhhh!!"

Agony, unlike anything before, tore through him. His flesh wasn’t truly melting, yet the pain was real—searing, continuous, clinging wherever the acid touched. His HP bar plummeted.

"Water!"

In desperation, Jin cast Water, conjuring a torrent to wash away the acid. But distracted by the pain, he gave no proper thought to volume or position. The result was a massive surge of water that crashed down from above.

It washed the acid away—only to slam Jin into the ground with brutal force.

"Gah!"

Freed from the acid’s torment, but now struggling to breathe, Jin staggered on the ground. The queen advanced, body reared back, mandibles gaping as she gathered more acid for the finishing blow.

His wooden sword, swept away by the flood, was gone. All that remained to him was magic.

Grinding his teeth, Jin focused all he had left, gathered mana, aimed—

"Mana Rifle!"

The spell roared forth at the very last instant, flying straight into the queen’s open maw. It detonated, blasting her head apart.

The massive body swayed, then toppled with a thunderous crash. Her HP bar, now empty, faded to gray.

After confirming that there were no signs of enemies around, Jin, still soaked, took a deep breath and dropped to one knee.

"Man… that was rough…"

The words slipped out. A phrase from his hometown dialect—usually meaning harsh, grueling, but here carrying the weight of simple exhaustion as well.

He had disabled the limiter on pain reproduction of his own will. A selfish act, he admitted, but he did not regret it. Still, the pain had been merciless. And freezing at the sight of the queen’s wounds had nearly cost him his life. If not for the potions from the tutorial, or the recovery ring Chris had given him… he might have been finished.

His way of facing this world was still far too naive. That, he realized bitterly, had to change.

After a brief rest, Jin moved to collect the monsters’ drop items. Touching the corpses was all it took, and the process was quick. Even the queen’s remains yielded their loot.

"Namu Amida Butsu..."

Pressing his hands together, Jin chanted a Buddhist prayer. Regret weighed heavily on him. Back when he still thought this world was just a game, he had slain a slime—and left it behind without even retrieving its drop. That slime had died for nothing, its power vanishing unused. These ant-beasts, at least, would have their parts returned through the guild, their sacrifice serving others. But the slime… had simply disappeared.

The thought filled Jin with guilt. He truly had much to reflect on.

Cutting himself off before sinking deeper into regret, he shifted focus. It was time to collect the Pam Flowers.

Thanks to having moved the battle earlier, the flowers were unharmed. Carefully, he harvested them one by one, storing them in his container. Together with the three he had gathered before, he now had twelve in total.

And then, Jin summoned the Gate and tried to store the flowers in his Item Bag. Unlike the last time, since they weren’t pulled out whole with their roots still attached, this time they slipped inside without any issue.

When he looked back at the mock-ants one more time, he saw their bodies melting away into nothing, dissolving bit by bit. Monsters that were slain would gradually vanish like this after some time. Earlier, when he collected the drop items, he had obtained magic stones and pieces of carapace, but once that magic stone—the very core of a monster’s power—was gone, their bodies could no longer hold together. If the stones weren’t harvested, the corpses would still disappear eventually, only taking much longer.

Placing his hands together in prayer once more, Jin gave a respectful bow, then turned toward the road leading back to town.

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