Dark Fantasy’s Extra

“My lady! Get out of the carriage!”

I kicked open the carriage door and checked outside.

“What in the world…?!”

Hilde, who had come out, was shocked.

Beasts were emerging from the ground.

It looked like zombies rising from a graveyard.

Their numbers were several times greater than ours.

So this is why they couldn’t prepare for the ambush beforehand.

The Beasts appearing now weren’t ordinary Beasts, but truly no different from zombies.

In Blue Paper Moon, there was only one being capable of doing something like this.

But right now, there was no time to worry about such things.

“Fire!”

At the head guard’s shout, everyone fired their guns at the Beasts simultaneously.

But those were ordinary lead weapons meant for humans, not silver bullets.

Loud gunshots continued endlessly, and blood sprayed from the zombie Beasts’ heads, chests, and all over their bodies.

Yet not a single Beast fell, and they kept walking toward us.

Like rats in a trap, we were surrounded by a circle of zombie Beasts that was slowly closing in.

“Impossible! Why are creatures like these here…!”

“We need to break through the front!”

I said to the head guard.

“Those weapons won’t kill Beasts! Right now, breaking through to the Order is our best option!”

“Ah, yes!”

When it comes to dealing with Beasts, there’s no greater expert than a hunter from the Hunting Order.

The head guard knew this and agreed without argument.

“I’ll take point, follow me!”

“I-I’ll also…!”

Hilde said, holding up her pistol.

“No, my lady! You mustn’t…!”

The head guard startled and tried to stop her.

There’s no time.

In the tutorial, everyone except Hilde was wiped out by the slow zombie Beasts due to panicking at the sudden large-scale ambush.

Now we need to move quickly and decisively.

“No, staying right behind me is safest for the lady. I’m the only one here with proper weapons. You all follow too.”

I grabbed Hilde’s hand and moved forward.

While the zombie Beasts were certainly slow, they had created an encirclement with overwhelming numbers.

We needed to hurry while there were still gaps.

I had given my main weapons, the pistol and hand axe, to Hilde, but they weren’t suitable for use right now anyway.

I took out a pole and a long blade from the equipment at my waist.

After attaching the blade to the pole and infusing it with magical power, the device inside responded and the pole’s length increased several times, transforming into a glaive.

“Wow…”

Hilde was entranced by the sight of the mechanical weapon, the mithril glaive.

“Focus. We’re about to break through there.”

“Ah, yes!”

I ran holding the glaive.

The blade portion was made of true silver, making it slightly heavier than silver but harder than steel and effective against Beasts.

It wasn’t a simple supply item but something lower-ranked hunters shared in limited quantities, making it incomparably more powerful than something like a silver-coated hand axe.

But with the pole portion being metal, it was very heavy and large, making it difficult to handle.

Moreover, while it was made collapsible for portability, reassembling it consumed magical power, reducing the amount available for physical enhancement.

That’s why it’s a weapon that stays in storage with hardly anyone using it.

Back then, the seniors who used this looked so cool…

When I swung the glaive wide, there was a sound of air being torn.

And the zombie beast’s body was cleanly split.

“Amazing… The Beast with a single strike…!”

I could hear Hilde speaking from behind.

Even I think it’s an amazing weapon.

Even a lower-ranked hunter like me can easily slaughter Beast hordes like this.

But that’s because the opponents are too weak.

While the number of Beasts was shocking, facing them revealed they were just slowly walking corpses.

As expected of a tutorial, no particularly difficult opponents appeared.

Of course, if they had formed a perfect encirclement, and if I hadn’t prepared beforehand, there would have been a high chance of everyone except Hilde being wiped out like in Blue Paper Moon.

However, that grim possibility had now vanished.

I continued forward, swinging the glaive.

The guards were following the path I was clearing.

“Huaaah…!”

“…!”

A zombie beast made a deflating sound as it threw itself at me.

Having just made a wide swing with the glaive, my reaction was slightly slow.

But a single gunshot from behind me put a hole in that Beast’s forehead.

It seems Hilde provided covering fire from behind.

But there was no time to thank her now.

Even though they were insignificant opponents, there were too many of them.

“Aaaargh!?”

“Let go!”

From even further back, I could hear the guards starting to scream.

The zombie beasts’ encirclement was gradually tightening.

Their weapons couldn’t fell the Beasts.

“Don’t try to kill the Beasts, just push them away! If your weapon gets caught, just abandon it!”

I shouted loud enough for those in the back to hear.

In the end, for everyone to escape from here, I had to quickly break through the front.

The longer we took, the more people would die.

The Beasts’ encirclement wasn’t that thick anymore.

While their total numbers were high, they were spread out to completely surround us.

“…We’ll break through the front!”

I squeezed out my remaining magical power for physical enhancement.

While I didn’t have that much magical power, I still had some reserve for emergencies.

But now I had to use everything.

The heavy glaive felt light, and my movements became even faster.

But I could also feel the wick of magical power inside me burning down.

The Beasts split apart like chunks of ham, spewing their entrails.

The horrible stench was enough to make my head spin.

No, it wasn’t just the stench but the dizziness from rapidly depleting magical power.

However, it was worth it.

We broke through the zombie Beasts’ encirclement.

Just as relief was starting to rise, suddenly the ground began to shake.

“Monster! It’s a monster!”

The guards following behind shouted.

“I-it’s an enormous Beast!”

Hilde shouted.

In front, a zombie beast that looked to be 3m tall was crawling out of the ground.

“That’s…!”

Much larger than an ordinary Beast, and above all, its left arm was massive enough to take up half its body.

This was definitely the tutorial boss.

“What should we do?!”

“…Damn!”

I ran forward, leaving even Hilde behind.

The Beast was still in the process of crawling out of the ground.

If not now, there would be no chance.

The Beast tried to plant its massive arm on the ground to stand up.

“Go back in!”

I jumped high, gripping the glaive with its blade pointing downward, and struck straight down at the Beast’s head.

As the glaive deeply penetrated its head, the Beast’s glowing red eyes lost their light.

I released the breath I had been holding.

I had used all my remaining magical power, and the recoil was causing severe dizziness.

That’s why I couldn’t resist the Beast’s counterattack.

My vision flipped.

Did I get hit somewhere…?

I can’t lose consciousness… yet…

*    *    *

The hunter was sent flying by the Beast’s strike and crashed into a tree.

And didn’t get up again.

“Mr. Eugene?!”

Hilde shouted.

The giant Beast in front was still disoriented from the massive glaive the hunter had planted in its head.

Behind Hilde, the surviving guards were escaping.

“My lady! We must escape while we have the chance!”

The head guard grabbed her shoulder and said.

“But…!”

“That hunter is done for! We mustn’t let his sacrifice be in vain!”

Objectively, his words were right.

They had only broken through the Beasts’ encirclement, not annihilated them.

The Beast horde was following from behind.

And the giant Beast in front had been neutralized by the hunter’s mutual destruction tactic.

If they hesitated here, his sacrifice would be for nothing.

But Hilde couldn’t take her eyes off the motionless hunter leaning against the tree.

Hilde gripped the pistol and hand axe tightly.

“Still, we need to save him…!”

“My lady! Please, before that monster regains consciousness!”

There was no time.

The Beast horde was approaching.

And the giant Beast thrashing in front wasn’t dead yet.

Hilde’s grip loosened.

“…I’m sorry.”

She turned away with tears in her eyes.

And fled with the guards.

Eugene remained still, leaning against the tree.

But Hilde felt as if Eugene was screaming for help from behind her.

Asking how she could betray him like this.

Hilde could only hurry her steps while crying.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”

The survivors safely escaped from this hell.

And Eugene, who was left behind, still remained unconscious against the tree.

The zombie beasts approached him following their dimly remaining instincts.

To tear apart his limbs and dig out his heart.

The giant Beast had also finally regained consciousness and stood up.

It would soon die completely due to the mithril glaive stuck in its head.

But before that, it approached Eugene, intending to crush him and die together.

“For a mere lower-ranked hunter…”

Someone spoke.

“You did quite a thing.”

A woman came down from the tree where Eugene was.

The Beasts stopped upon seeing her.

An instinct more powerful than their murderous intent held their feet in place.

“Let’s see that face.”

She grabbed Eugene’s collar and lifted him up, removing his hat and pulling down his mask.

“Ahah, not such a heroic face after all.”

“…Great Beast.”

Someone walked out from the Beast horde.

They completely covered their child-sized body in a black cloak, and their voice was like that of an elderly person who had lost their voice.

However, the presence emanating from that small body was at the level of a high-tier Beast.

“I didn’t know you were here.”

“Oh, yeah. Hello.”

She barely greeted him without properly looking.

Her gaze remained fixed on Eugene.

“If you intend to kill that human, I humbly request that you leave the head of the corpse… To send to that hateful Hunting Order that made us fail our mission…”

“Don’t want to.”

“…Pardon?”

“I’m not going to kill him.”

“…?”

“This one looks quite promising.”

“Promising? Surely not again…”

“I’m not certain. But I have a good feeling this time. This time for sure…”

“Great Beast. This hunter interfered with this mission, however. The orders from my master, Lord Charmol…”

“Hey.”

Finally, she turned her head toward him.

He felt the same sensation as when his master was enraged.

It was the overwhelming pressure that behemoths, far transcending ordinary Beasts, possessed.

“Tell Charmol to come complain to me directly.”

“Ah, understood, Great Beast…”

The high-tier Beast Yorick could only prostrate himself and bow his head while trembling.

At the same time, he felt a tiny bit of sympathy for that hunter.

Of all Beasts, to be caught by her.

Though this had happened several times before.

The behemoth turned back to Eugene.

Her eyes, darker than blood, rippled with sadistic anticipation.