Episode 16 – Heart II
The insect moved with nimble speed.
Lowering its upper body, it folded its arm as if tucking it under its side, pointing the tip straight at the three of them.
And just like that, with the momentum of a lance charge, it dashed toward the trio with the horsepower of its horse-like lower body.
Fast.
A quadruped’s speed was incomparable to that of humans, and in the blink of an eye, it closed the distance.
The first target the insect aimed for was Amarelo, who stood at the front. It approached him as though passing by, and with the sheer force of its lower body, thrust straight at him. Its arm hardly moved at all, folded up like an ornament.
“Ghh—!!”
Twisting his face in pain, Amarelo rolled aside, slipping under the attack to avoid it. But he didn’t end it there—he swung for the creature’s leg as it passed by, attempting a shin-slice.
However, the insect leapt high into the air as if mocking him.
It cleared even Nada’s and Serena’s heads, landing calmly on the opposite side of the dragon’s heart. It raised its front legs and neighed. But the sound was nothing like a horse’s shrill cry—instead, from its upper body came an eerie noise like metal scraping against metal.
Serena twitched violently at that sound and took a step back. There was something terrifying in those casual movements.
“Shh—!!”
But Nada didn’t miss that opening.
He immediately closed the distance.
With both hands, he swung his Green Dragon Crescent Blade sideways with full strength at the creature, which was unstable due to raising its front legs.
The trajectory of the crescent blade was deflected almost immediately.
The insect defended with its shield-arm and, using the momentum of lowering its front legs, pressed down the blade from above with its lance.
Nada strained with all his might, but the crescent blade wouldn’t budge.
While staring at Nada, the insect gently lifted the lance away from the blade, then drew it back and delivered a thrust straight at Nada's chest.
Nada, now able to move his weapon, made a large backward leap and narrowly avoided it.
The lance stabbed shallowly into the dragon’s flesh floor, and red blood seeped out.
“That’s bad news, it is. The sharpness of that thing—”
Watching the insect casually yank the lance out of the meat, Amarelo spoke.
From how easily the weapon pierced the dragon’s flesh—something the three of them had struggled to cut—they could all guess just how deadly its cutting power was.
“If that hits us, we’re dead in one blow—”
Nada agreed, a chill running through him.
Unlike Serena, who at least wore minimal armor, Nada and Amarelo were practically unarmored.
Amarelo wore only a thin kimono-like outfit, and Nada was bare-chested with nothing but cloth trousers.
A clean hit from that thrust would almost certainly kill them.
“So, what do we do?”
Serena asked Nada.
As an adventurer, she was highly capable, but she fully understood she was second-rate as a combatant. Her weapon’s rank and her martial skill were far inferior to Nada’s and Amarelo’s.
Nada’s crescent blade might be ranked low by Academy standards, but in terms of raw sharpness and destructive power, it was top-class. Serena believed it was at least comparable to Corvo’s, an excellent adventurer within the Academy.
As for Amarelo, she also thought his weapon was likely on par with Corvo’s. Earlier, when he cut through the monster whose arm had transformed into a sickle, the blade suffered only minor chipping, which proved its strength.
By comparison, Serena’s sword was downright miserable.
Its blade was platinum-colored, made of steel, with only a modest amount of light orichalcum mixed in.
It was high-ranked within the Academy, but in absolute terms, only upper-middle tier. Inferior to both of their weapons.
“We fight—”
Nada replied immediately, cutting off her anxiety.
Then he tore his gaze from the insect and bolted straight toward the dragon’s heart—the Calvaon.
Since the three stood between the insect and the heart, the heart was far behind it.
To Nada, the insect wasn’t prey.
To Nada, the enemy was the dragon itself.
But the insect, seeing Nada’s intention, instantly dashed like the wind.
Leaping over Amarelo and Serena—mere obstacles—it landed before Nada, standing protectively before the heart as if guarding it.
Nada ignored all of that and took a firm step toward the insect, swinging his crescent blade in a rough, sideways, full-power sweep.
Of course, he aimed for the spot where the right arm—now a lance—was.
However, the insect didn’t even try to dodge the attack.
Instead, it pulled its lance back slightly and thrust straight toward Nada’s left chest.
He couldn’t avoid it.
Nada felt that instinctively.
So he was the one who first altered the trajectory of his weapon.
He shifted his aim from the carapace to the lance.
The crescent blade struck the lance aside. But with only a slight change in its path, the lance still grazed Nada’s side.
At that moment, Nada leapt back, putting a large distance between himself and the insect.
He had already judged that continuing the clash any further would only put him at a disadvantage.
If he had armor, if he had better equipment, or if he were carrying a pouch of healing potions, he might have pushed himself a bit more.
But in the current situation, forcing it would genuinely risk death—so he quickly disengaged.
“It looks like that thing’s a ‘Guardian’ protecting the heart. Tch, this brings back bad memories…”
What Nada recalled when he saw it was a single stone statue.
A stray—one he had barely managed to defeat, fighting for his life.
That stray had guarded the path deeper inside, and its appearance overlapped with the insect now protecting the heart.
Was this insect also a stray?
That thought crossed Nada’s mind.
That said, the definition of a stray in a dungeon is simply a monster different from the usual monsters—one you wouldn’t encounter in a normal dive.
If that’s the case, then wouldn’t every insect living inside this dragon count as a stray?
After wasting a moment on that pointless question, he immediately switched his thoughts to how they should remove the “obstacle” in front of them.
“It seems we can’t destroy the heart unless we deal with that insect first. But… that thing looks like real trouble.”
“Would Amarelo’s sword techniques from earlier not work on it?”
Serena recalled the three similar insects Amarelo had taken down earlier.
With that level of strength, couldn’t he defeat this knight-like one, too?
“The size is completely different. The insects from before were only about human-sized—about as tall as Nada-dono… but this one is easily twice that. And on top of that armor, which is probably thicker as well… cutting through it won’t be easy.”
Amarelo spoke while trying to steady his nerves.
And above all—though he didn’t say it aloud—those earlier insects had sickle-shaped arms.
In Amarelo’s opinion, sickles weren’t suited for mounted combat.
Because of their nature, thrusting and clean slashing motions were difficult, and when swiping, you had to pull the weapon toward yourself first to apply force.
To put it plainly, he thought sickles didn’t match well with the forward momentum that was the strength of a horse.
That was why even three of those insects posed no problem for him alone.
But this one was different.
Its arm was a lance.
A lance is likely one of the weapons best suited for mounted combat. It is designed solely for thrusting, maximizing the momentum of the mount.
And for people standing on foot, like the three of them, the insect’s elevated, horse-like body was overwhelmingly tall.
“Well, anyway, it’s not like we’ve got another option. Don’t tell me you’re planning to run?”
Nada scoffed at Amarelo’s words.
All the while, he kept his distance but never took his eyes off the “enemy” before him.
“That’s true. I suppose it can’t be helped. For adventurers, the thought of facing an unknown monster makes the heart race, after all—”
Amarelo, standing slightly behind Nada, lowered his stance as well, both hands drifting away from his waist weapons.
It seemed he agreed with Nada.
The option of fleeing from this gatekeeper and searching for another escape route had already vanished completely from their minds.
“Honestly… there’s something wrong with you two. Have you gone insane?”
Serena let out a voice full of exasperation at the pair.
Even though her goal was to save Dan from inside this dragon’s stomach, she knew that if Nada and Amarelo weren’t here, she probably would’ve already fled.
But when she saw the two of them showing absolutely no intention of retreating, a strange sense of courage—no, recklessness—began to stir inside Serena as well.
However, they had no time to stand around talking.
The insect’s body began moving, making a grotesque grinding noise like unwaxed gears, its machine-like frame clattering stiffly.
Nada immediately exchanged a glance with Amarelo.
—And then, the insect charged toward the three of them.
A lance charge, of course.
Nada and Amarelo acted as though they had coordinated beforehand.
First, Nada stood directly in front of the insect, holding his crescent blade horizontally with both hands.
The insect fixed its aim on Nada.
He lowered his stance, as though he intended to meet the creature head-on.
And just before the insect could skewer Nada—Amarelo was already moving.
Using Nada’s back as cover, he activated his ability, Koher Libertad, and sprinted straight up toward the ceiling.
When the insect passed directly beneath him, Amarelo kicked off the ceiling and launched a surprise assault from above.
The insect still hadn’t noticed him—its target remained Nada.
As the insect closed in on Nada, he rolled out of the way to avoid the lance.
At the same moment, he aimed for the creature’s horse-like shin, unwilling to be outdone by Amarelo—
But the insect leapt, avoiding his strike.
“Hmph—!”
Amarelo reached the space above the insect the moment its feet left the ground.
Using his falling weight, the force of his ceiling kick, and an iaijutsu slash unleashed the instant the blade left its sheath—he delivered one of the attacks he was most confident in.
Amarelo’s ability, like Serena’s, wasn’t one that directly increased the power of his weapon.
This technique was one of his personal innovations to compensate for that, and its destructive force was well-proven.
His target was the insect’s head.
Its helmet resembled that of the scythe-armed insect he had defeated earlier, but this one possessed a single large horn and two tentacle-like appendages.
Amarelo aimed precisely between that singular horn and the brow where its six eyes were arranged.
The insect’s violet eyes met Amarelo’s.
Still suspended in midair, the insect slightly shifted its head—and countered Amarelo’s blade with its frontal horn.
“You think—! That something like that—! Can stop my sword—! Seriously!?”
Amarelo shouted, forcing his voice up from deep within his core and pressing even more strength into his blade—but even airborne, the insect’s posture didn’t falter.
Locked together—Amarelo’s sword and the insect’s horn—the creature’s hooves finally struck the ground.
Amarelo refused to let go.
Using the air itself as footing, he pressed down harder than before, gripping the hilt with his right hand and pushing the spine with his left—yet the insect’s powerful neck didn’t move in the slightest.
“Haah!”
The voice filled with fighting spirit didn’t come from Nada, but from Serena.
She had silently circled around behind the insect, drew her longsword, and slashed.
Naturally, the insect hadn’t noticed her at all.
But the moment she attacked, it began thrashing violently in an effort to shake Amarelo off. Its forelegs and hindlegs stomped the ground with enormous force.
Serena’s blade reached the creature—but all she managed was a shallow scratch on its armor.
A moment later, she was struck in the stomach by a powerful horse-like back kick.
She was thrown across the area, slammed into a nearby wall, and collapsed where she landed, clutching her abdomen.
Her head must’ve hit the wall too—thin blood trickled down from her forehead.
“—!”
Amarelo, too, in the end, was shaken off and sent crashing down.
The rampaging insect thrashed about, and Amarelo kicked off the air again and again, twisting directions midair as he tried to slash the insect’s face—but every attempt was blocked by its lance, its shield, or even its single horn.
After repeating this several times, Amarelo’s ability finally ran out.
To begin with, his ability wasn’t something that let him kick off the air indefinitely.
It had limits.
And that limit had come.
Amarelo spun in the air, landing safely on the floor—only to have the insect immediately target him with its lance.
He tried to leap backward at once, but the thrust was faster than he expected.
He wouldn’t make it in time.
—A sharp clang rang out.
The sound came from the torso of the insect’s lower body.
The cause was Nada.
He had slashed down on the insect with a powerful overhead strike.
Whether because the insect didn’t defend itself or simply couldn’t, its armor was cut shallowly, and a green fluid, acidic, began to seep out. Fortunately, Nada’s crescent blade was completely unharmed, though a single droplet splashed onto his cheek, burning and rotting the skin. Nada didn’t so much as flinch.
The insect immediately abandoned its thrust at Amarelo and snapped its legs around, lashing out with a rear kick aimed at Nada. Nada dodged by taking a large step back, but this time the insect shifted targets from Amarelo to Nada and fired another lance thrust. As expected, that reach was faster than Nada’s backstep.
—Again, a clang rang out.
This time, it was Amarelo who saved Nada’s life.
The strike was shallow—far shallower than Nada’s blow—but once more a faint trickle of acid dripped from the insect’s body. Confirming that, Amarelo didn’t get greedy and immediately retreated to a safe distance.
The insect was now caught between Nada and Amarelo.
It shifted only its neck to check both of them, and then immediately bolted toward Nada.
Nada shifted his weight forward, ready to evade at any moment, measuring the distance down to the last second—but the insect’s move exceeded his expectations.
—It jumped.
Right over Nada’s head.
Nada was not its target.
“Not good—!”
Nada's view was blocked, but Amarelo saw clearly who the insect was aiming for.
—Serena.
She was slumped helplessly against the wall, completely exposed.
Amarelo shouted, but his voice didn’t reach her. Serena was still doubled over, clutching her stomach in agony.
And then—The insect’s lance pierced Serena’s ample chest—along with her armor.
Author Note:
A completely trivial aside for anyone reading this, but in terms of bust size, Nada actually surpasses the big-busted Serena.
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