Episode 14 – The Gargoyle
Nada was diving into Podie alone at daybreak.
He had forcibly woken the usual drowsy brown-haired receptionist to process his dungeon entry, earning a small scolding: “Honestly, are you some kind of rooster? Please come back when I’m actually awake.” With her lips puffed out in mild annoyance, she looked displeased, but Nada didn’t mind and simply answered, “Yeah, I’ll do that,” before heading inside the dungeon.
Monsters in the dungeon have cycles.
There are times when they act aggressively and times when they don't.
Nada was diving during dawn.
That early-morning period where night and day mix.
Dawn is said to be dangerous for adventurers.
This is because during this time, monsters’ spirits flare up, making them far more ferocious and increasing their detection range.
At dawn, monsters’ eyes turn blue.
The reason is unknown. The cause is unknown.
For countless ages, researchers and adventurers tried to uncover it, but no answer was ever found.
According to one hypothesis, the dungeon’s dark matter density increases at dawn and dusk. As proof, Abilities used during these times often show greater effect than normal. Therefore, some claim that monsters become agitated because of dark matter as well. But since many scholars consider dark matter itself dubious, the theory isn’t widely accepted.
—Those who stake their lives as adventurers always avoid exploring during this time.
Yet sometimes, a foreigner who breaks that rule appears.
Nada was—one of them.
For Nada, dawn is drastically disadvantageous.
Because he has no Ability.
Unlike ordinary adventurers, he has no boosted ability effects, so he must fight monsters in their enraged state with his usual strength.
But that was only something that mattered on deeper floors.
“Hah!”
A boar-shaped monster—Javary—charged at him from the front. The sharp horn growing from its nose was deadly; if it struck the thick artery in his thigh, death was hardly rare.
But Nada brought his Green Dragon Crescent Blade down on the monster, crushing it into the ground.
After five years at Larva Academy, even dawn-time monsters on the first and second floors could not be considered formidable foes.
Besides, their Calvaon was small, so he didn’t even bother dismantling them.
“Alright.”
To him, this enemy was nothing more than a warm-up.
He was loosening his muscles with light exercise, intending to unleash his peak condition on the gargoyle.
However, he also wanted to conserve stamina, avoiding unnecessary fights whenever possible.
So he decided to use a shortcut to the lower floors. Nada knew several, so he could make use of them. Normally, he wouldn’t take slopes, jumps, or rope-descents—too risky—but this time he chose the return over the risk.
He slipped through the dungeon quickly, heading for the floor with the gargoyle.
Yesterday, Dan had told him that the gargoyle had stayed in the same place.
If so, it should still be there now.
Within only a few hours, Nada reached the gargoyle’s floor and arrived at a narrow passageway where a calm wind swept through.
—Beyond this point was the gargoyle.
Thinking that made his legs tremble. Nada decided it had to be battle excitement.
◆◆◆
Not long after that, Nada arrived.
Along the path leading there, symbols and markings carved into the walls—left by several parties said to have passed through—confirmed for Nada that he was on the right track. Among them was the symbol of a party that had been defeated by the gargoyle and was, for all practical purposes, forced to disband.
And then—Nada found himself facing a room whose entire interior was adorned with natural crystal.
An overwhelming light poured out from it.
And inside, of course, stood the guardian in question.
The gargoyle.
The gargoyle was still seated squarely at the center of the room.
With its red eyes, it glared fixedly at the entrance where Nada stood.
Nada looked down.
Between this narrow path and that room, he felt a boundary—an unmistakable line.
A boundary separating the gargoyle from himself. He thought that once he crossed it, the gong marking the start of battle would sound. Even now, he felt he could still escape. Turn his back on the gargoyle, flee the scene in disgrace, and return to his usual adventurer life—that option still remained.
But he had no intention of choosing that kind of escape.
After drinking a potion for fatigue recovery, Nada stepped forward.
The gargoyle let out a grand, echoing roar.
The trembling in Nada’s body had already vanished.
“—I’ll kill you.”
What came out instead was a curse.
The battle began with the gargoyle. Like a guard rejecting an intruder, it skimmed low through the air and swung the spear it held toward the approaching Nada.
Naturally, Nada didn’t take the hit; he rolled aside, thinking that fighting in the narrow passage would put him at a disadvantage. He created distance, reset his stance, and immediately threw two throwing knives.
The gargoyle raised both arms to block them. They sank only shallowly and caused no fatal damage.
However, Nada had intended them only as a distraction. Using the opening, he closed the distance. Holding his polearm as close to the base as possible, he used centrifugal force and swung his Green Dragon Crescent Blade. At the same time, the gargoyle swung its glaive. The weapons clashed, and whether due to their difference in raw strength, only Nada’s blade was knocked aside.
“Tch—”
Nada clicked his tongue, but he actually had no time for such a reaction.
The gargoyle stepped forward and, finding his chest exposed after his weapon was deflected, drove a tightly clenched fist toward Nada’s torso.
Nada reacted instantly, jumping backward—but he was wearing heavy armor. His reaction was too slow. The gargoyle’s fist smashed into his chest over the armor. His ribs weren’t broken. They weren’t—but the impact struck close to his heart and lungs, causing his breath to stop for a moment. His movement also stopped.
The gargoyle followed up immediately, swinging its glaive in a returning horizontal slash.
Prepared to take the hit, Nada raised his left shoulder and tensed his muscles. The attack came at once. The glaive slammed into his shoulder, and Nada was flung sideways.
Though his armor had protected him, his left arm went numb. Still, he drew another throwing knife and hurled it at the gargoyle. His aim was worse this time—it merely grazed the creature’s wing.
The gargoyle closed the distance again.
A relentless barrage followed.
Of course, Nada wasn’t the type to back down.
He leaned forward and charged toward the gargoyle.
At the same moment the gargoyle swung its glaive, Nada abruptly shifted to the side and stabbed at it from the flank with his crescent blade.
However, with a single strong beat of its wings, the gargoyle escaped in the opposite direction from Nada. The blade only grazed it, and the black blood of the gargoyle licked the edge of Nada’s weapon.
Nada tried to run after the gargoyle as it fled into the distance, but once again the gargoyle beat its wings and took to the air.
Clicking his tongue in irritation, Nada hurled throwing knives at the creature. For someone bound to the ground like him, throwing knives were the only anti-air option he had. He could throw the crescent blade as well, but that was strictly a last resort.
Hovering in place, the gargoyle let out a deep, eerie cry and then began swinging its glaive around near the ceiling.
“That bastard…!”
Nada grimaced and quickly moved out of the way.
Because the gargoyle had started smashing the bases of the crystal clusters growing from the ceiling—crystals that served as light sources—and sending them crashing down. It was, of course, deliberately aiming them at Nada. If they were just ordinary stones, it wouldn’t have been that bad, but the crystals hanging from this ceiling were shaped like icicles, their tips long and razor-sharp. If one of those dropped on him from above, the result would hardly need describing.
With a glare at the gargoyle above, Nada swung his crescent blade to destroy the first falling crystal, but quickly realized he couldn’t keep up. He shifted right, left, swaying his body to evade as one crystal after another drove into the ground around him.
After several had fallen, the gargoyle itself dropped.
—A strike from directly above.
Nada rolled desperately out of the way. The glaive slammed into the floor, sending fragments flying, and one shard grazed his cheek.
Putting distance between them, Nada swung his crescent blade again—this time aiming at a crystal. Using the momentum of his blade, he knocked the crystal toward the gargoyle.
The gargoyle immediately swung its glaive, smashing the crystal apart. One, two, three—each burst into glittering fragments, scattering like particles of light.
Nada used that curtain of sparkling debris as cover and reached into the pouch at his waist, biting down on one of the pills inside.
—Its name: Ferocious Tiger Pill.
A drug that temporarily grants the user the brute strength of a tiger. It was expensive, so Nada only owned two, and he had intended to use them only at decisive moments.
The moment he swallowed it, he felt power surging from deep within his chest, like molten magma rising.
He could do this. In this state, he was sure he could match the gargoyle blow for blow.
With that conviction, Nada charged in from the side.
The gargoyle was slowly sweeping its gaze left and right, searching for its prey. Suddenly, Nada burst out of the sparkling light and, with both hands, swung his crescent blade diagonally with full force.
The gargoyle reacted instantly, thrusting out its glaive one-handed in an attempt to block—but against Nada’s enhanced strength, such a half-hearted defense meant nothing. Nada batted the gargoyle’s spear aside this time. Its chest opened up, just as Nada’s had earlier.
—A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Raising the crescent blade high, Nada swung down at the gargoyle’s head.
A sharp metallic clang rang out.
Nada’s blade had been stopped by the gargoyle’s horn, which had shifted angle just slightly.
Nada grit his teeth and tried to force through, but the gargoyle’s head, supported by its thick neck and massive horn, didn’t budge. A moment later, he sensed the gargoyle readying a counterattack with its glaive, and he sprang back, putting distance between them.
Just from that brief exchange, Nada’s breathing had turned ragged. He sucked in a deep breath to steady himself.
The gargoyle, however, showed no such signs of fatigue.
Now using both legs like a beast, it advanced on him. Its stance resembled a four-legged creature, so its speed wasn’t incredible, but the sight of that massive body charging forward with a long spear held ready carried overwhelming pressure.
Not to be outdone, Nada hurled two throwing knives as a feint.
They were swatted aside.
In that instant, the gargoyle erased the distance and swung its glaive in a thrusting charge.
Nada caught the blow on the blade of his crescent blade, pushing the glaive downward into the floor. Using the opposite end of his weapon skillfully, he brought the butt end around and slammed it into the gargoyle’s face.
The strike hit its cheek, knocking dust off its stony skin.
“Heh—”
Nada allowed himself a crooked grin after landing the hit.
But the gargoyle’s front kick exploded into his stomach, sending him sliding backward again.
From there, the gargoyle launched into a furious assault.
It swung its glaive left and right, over and over. It looked as if several enormous crescents were blooming in front of it. Its movements were one-handed, leaving large openings, but each blow, driven by inhuman strength, carried more than enough force to rip a human head clean off.
Nada caught the blow with his crescent blade. With every strike, a thunderous crash rang out, and his arms went numb—despite the fact that he was wielding the blade with both hands. The potion’s effects were still active, yet the gargoyle’s attacks were heavier than anything he had ever faced from any other monster. As Nada staggered backward, step by step, he was gradually, inevitably being driven toward the wall.
Again and again.
The gargoyle unleashed a barrage of brutal strikes.
Then, on the fifth blow, it changed its rhythm.
Dropping low in an instant, planting its hands against the ground, it threw its body forward and charged straight at Nada.
The horns.
The gargoyle attacked with its horns.
Nada wedged the crescent blade between himself and the horns, managing to stop them mere centimeters before they skewered him.
Because of the difference in weight, Nada was pushed backward in that position.
A cry close to a scream escaped him as he shook the polearm desperately, but since the shaft was locked between the gargoyle’s twin horns, the situation refused to change.
Then Nada’s back hit the wall.
The gargoyle, having driven him into the corner, extended its glaive in an upward-gouging thrust.
At that instant, Nada abandoned the crescent blade.
He rolled away to evade.
Weaponless, he was immediately targeted by the gargoyle’s next attack. A downward diagonal strike with the glaive. Nada quickly drew his kukri with his left hand and caught the blow in a reverse grip. A thin crack ran down the kukri with a sharp creak.
Both weapons were knocked apart, and the two leapt back at the same moment.
By now, the potion’s effects had already worn off.
Nada flipped the kukri into a normal grip, threw his final throwing knife with his right hand, then immediately pulled a fatigue-recovery potion from his pouch and downed it in one gulp.
The gargoyle seized that moment and closed the distance.
It brought its glaive down toward Nada.
Nada deflected it so it struck the ground, then stepped in.
Another crack crawled across the kukri’s surface.
At close range, Nada slashed at the gargoyle repeatedly with the damaged kukri.
Several red streaks ran across the gargoyle’s body—and then its fist came swinging in.
Nada tried to block with his right hand, but the monster’s brute strength shattered his guard with ease, pummeling his abdomen. He was sent flying nearly two meters before hitting the ground and rolling.
The gargoyle immediately took to the air, then dove at Nada, who was clutching his chest in pain as he tried to get up.
During that moment, Nada opened the pouch at his waist, crushed the bottle of Dan’s blessed potion in one hand, and doused himself with its contents.
The pain in his chest eased just a bit.
He rose and narrowly avoided the gargoyle’s attack.
Its glaive smashed the floor, shards of stone grazing Nada’s cheek and drawing a streak of blood.
The gargoyle beat its wings and rushed at him just above ground level.
It brought its glaive down.
He blocked it with the kukri.
The impact deepened the cracks, and a piece of the blade crumbled and fell.
The gargoyle landed and immediately swung again.
Nada blocked once more, closed the distance, and struck back with the kukri that had only moments of life left—but the cuts were shallow.
He tried to disengage, but the gargoyle’s hoofed front kick came next. He blocked it with the kukri—
and the blade snapped halfway up its length.
Silver fragments fluttered down between them like falling snow.
The gargoyle did not miss that opening.
With its right arm, it swept its glaive in a massive horizontal arc.
Nada planted his feet, gripped the kukri’s broken handle with both hands, and braced it vertically against the glaive’s blade. The glaive chewed through what remained of the kukri, advancing all the way to the guard—but stopped there. Even so, the impact launched Nada like a piece of pumice. He grinned as he was flung backward, using the momentum to slam against the opposite wall.
Then he discarded the ruined kukri and picked up the crescent blade lying at his feet.
To defeat a monster, a small knife wasn’t enough.
To kill a monster, you needed a proper weapon.
Nada forced down his fatigue and searing pain with more potion, then gripped the crescent blade with both hands.
He decided that he would win in the next exchange.
—That academy trash. He should just die already.
But then a murkiness clouded his thoughts.
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