[Combat Mode ON]
Combat Disabled 0
Status Abnormalities 0
Deaths 78
No matter how much stamina one had, being human ant inevitable exhaustion. Moreover, since it had been a long ti since actual combat, her body wasn't fully ward up. Her body was already aching.
The sun was already setting. Esperanza, who had quickly checked her stamina, let out a deep sigh. About a third of the gauge was empty. It was enough stamina to take down a C-grade dungeon boss imdiately without recovering, but the problem was that the boss was nowhere to be seen.
"Are you hiding?"
No, what am I supposed to do if the boss is hiding? Are you kidding ?
When the boss is alive, lower monsters receive buffs from the boss, and when lower monsters are alive, the boss receives buffs. Either way, it's faster to start by exterminating one side, but it's also uncommon for the boss not to appear until everything is killed.
Is it a cowardly one? Even so, for sothing that's a boss.......
[Dungeon boss, 'Hydra' has appeared!]
[The boss's location is marked on the map.]
[Lower monsters are affected by the boss. Attack power
30%. Resistance
10%.]
[The boss is affected by lower monsters. Defense
30%, Skill activation rate
10%]
Esperanza, who hastily opened the map, gritted her teeth. A red dot blinked on the beige map surrounded by black areas. Esperanza glared at the word "Boss" clearly written above the dot, then pulled her long riding hood close and pressed her hat down deep.
When she spun her body around, the white light under her feet rapidly consud magic power and spun frantically. There was no ti to find a gas mask, so she rummaged through her inventory with her hands while running.
Of all tis, of all tis.
'If it recognized , it should co looking for . Uselessly clever!'
The place where the dungeon boss Hydra appeared was at the entrance to the forest. Among those, it was a spot directly visible from the mansion's windows. Would it be faster for the Hydra to reach the mansion, or for Esperanza to find the Hydra?
For now, she had no choice but to make the latter faster. By any ans necessary.
Trees rushed backward. The wind hitting her cheeks was fierce. Affected by monsters, nature within dungeons becos even more violent. Esperanza pierced straight through the blade-like wind toward the forest's edge in one breath.
Eight heads of the Hydra poked up above the forest. Esperanza shot her gun toward them without hesitation. The Hydra naturally dodged the shot. But it definitely recognized Esperanza. It would be good if those heads lost interest in the mansion with this.
Hydra. It wasn't exactly the sa as that Hydra from mythology that even the mighty Heracles could barely defeat only by moving with a companion. But the point that heads grew back when cut was the sa. In other words, it was a type of monster that beca infinitely advantageous with allies. And Esperanza, no matter how much she did the work of several people, was alone.
It would have been much easier if she had brought even Cider.
'Why, am I not allowed to worry about you?'
It passed by clearly as if whispered right beside her. Her running feet stopped. Her lips pressed white. What should she have answered then? What should she have said to avoid rembering it again? But at that ti, really, nothing ca to mind.
She suddenly raised her head.
Now wasn't the ti to think such thoughts that were no help at all. When even concentrating wouldn't be enough.
Three pairs of the Hydra's red eyes looked at Esperanza. Behind it was prey. Before it was a powerful enemy. The poison the Hydra exhaled spread across the ground. Grass withered instantly. Esperanza, who had raised her gun, jumped down from the tree.
A long beam pierced the Hydra's head. However, two-pronged heads grew over the severed wound. It was instantaneous. Esperanza rolled her body to avoid the Hydra's poison and thought.
The heads growing back was certain, and the speed was not negligible, but it was nothing more or less than a C-grade boss. However, she had no intention of letting her guard down.
What is the thod to always win?
'Doing your best even in easy tasks.'
Reciting it in her mouth, she raised the gun's firepower. Esperanza had never forgotten that principle.
Nine mouths simultaneously opened wide and spewed black poison. It was cloudy enough to blur her vision. Esperanza didn't hesitate and released magic power.
The sound of gears shing inside the gun sounded like a heartbeat. Like when hearts faced each other, all senses sank and consciousness beca comfortably clear.
The mont the poison was about to touch the gun barrel, magic threads drawn thin as silk spread widely. The bright blue magic power that circled around the poison gradually pushed the poison away.
Black poison and blue light collided and intersected. When poison tried to devour light, Esperanza rcilessly input more magic power. When light tried to push away poison, the Hydra spewed more poison. A power struggle continued. During that ti, the sun tilted a little more.
The mont Esperanza, who had been pouring magic power into the gun without moving, made eye contact with the Hydra's nine pairs of red eyes.
With a sizzling sound, the leather hood lted in the poison. Esperanza didn't care and dove into the Hydra's embrace full of poison. The magic power that had spread widely in a radial pattern aid at one point and bored through.
Sharp magic bullets exploded on the leather covering the beating heart. The mont both cheeks were stained with ecstasy, the Hydra's tail struck Esperanza's waist.
"Ugh!"
Her body that flew high spun in the air and landed. Thanks to the equipnt's defense, no bones were broken, but the part that touched the tail dripping with poison throbbed.
Right, this is how it should be fun.
The gun barrel spewed magic power with a clattering sound. One of the nine heads showing poison fangs exploded. Esperanza rushed in like lightning and seared the cut surface with flas wrapped around her hands. As poison seeped in like smoke, she raised her hood wide to cover her body.
Esperanza didn't care even as poison touching the fluttering hood hem spewed smoke, standing on the severed head's surface and aiming at the next head.
The gun barrel poured light again. Throwing her body backward to avoid poison fangs, she shot once more in midair. And simultaneously, she leaped using the flying tail as a foothold and seared it. Tearing muscles to the limit, consuming magic power without restraint. Seeing the remains of the exploded head and the weakening enemy, ecstasy boiled up from her stomach.
The Hydra twisted its entire body and scread. Even at the earth-shaking noise, Esperanza only pulled up the corner of her mouth.
This is combat.
The Hydra with eight heads again plus a tail and the human with only four limbs combined endlessly tangled and separated. The human body, small and seemingly infinitely fragile compared to the giant monster, shouldered a gun large even compared to her own body and cut off the Hydra's heads and seared wounds.
Acrid smoke of burning flesh. In the thick smoke, a woman standing with military boots on a neck wildly swaying in pain. The Hydra continuously scread and twisted its body, and only four heads remained intact.
Her breath ca fast and her heart rattled. She felt fiercely alive. Excited as if drunk.
It seems about ti to stab the heart? About four heads should be able to dodge sohow.
Esperanza kicked the teeth of the Hydra rushing with fangs bared and used that recoil to launch her body far away. When she stood outside the Hydra's range, all the grass at their feet had withered, soaked in poison.
A poisonous monster and a magic-wielding human on withered grassland. A red burning sky and black poison. In the middle of it all, blue and clean, and above all sharp magic power gathered at the gun barrel.
The Hydra spewed poison and charged forward. Four long necks avoiding the direction the gun barrel pointed cast shadows as if to devour the small human.
Even when the mouth pooled with poison approached as if to swallow her head whole, Esperanza didn't move. There was no effort to properly aim the gun barrel that had missed. Only the hood hem fluttering in the wind proved that ti was passing for Esperanza too.
And at the very mont when the Hydra's fangs receiving the sunset glead as if they had already finished their al.
Bang. Bang.
Gunshots that might be heard in aristocrats' toy hunting grounds rang out. Just two shots.
Four heads looked down blankly at the heart that had been blown through. It was so quick they didn't even know they'd been hit. The mont one of the Hydra's heads forgot vigilance for feeding, the gun barrel shot up through that faint gap and aid precisely at the heart. All of this happened in the short ti before the Hydra bared its teeth and pierced Esperanza's head with those fangs.
The corner of her mouth rose diagonally. The battle was over.
[You have defeated the dungeon boss, 'Hydra'! Rewards are being accumulated.]
She didn't look below that. Numbers busily climbed up and up in one corner of her vision. Esperanza leaned against her upright gun and looked at the sky burning with crimson sunset. The tingling pleasure at her fingertips didn't easily fade. She was dreamily excited. All the complex problems that had been troubling her mind also felt simple.
In the middle of the battlefield with no remaining life forms, the sole victor burst into laughter to her heart's content. Truly long-awaited laughter, long-awaited freedom.
??????°??☆????°??????
The first-floor reception room. It was quiet except for the regular sound of Cordelia tapping her shoe heels. It had been only 30 minutes since Esperanza left.
The owner of the sound couldn't endure it and suddenly spoke up.
"Esperanza said she'd finish it within a day, but can she really do that? How can Lord Avondale not even follow her?"
"It will be fine."
"I should have offered a horse. How could I let her run that distance alone?"
"If you had offered a horse, it would have beco monster food. Lady Cordelia, you made a wise choice."
"Lord Sterling, can't you give a more sincere answer?"
Alastair flinched and raised his head.
"What mistake did I make again......?"
"Never mind. I'm just being petty. But if Esperanza cos back injured, I really won't be able to forgive myself."
No matter how excellent she was, they had pushed a single lady with no connections into a place crawling with monsters of unknown identity. How could they not feel guilty?
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