Dark Fantasy’s Extra

Hilde blocked the Deep Sea Folk’s spear with her axe.

“Ugh…?!”

It was strong.

Though its form was grotesque, the Deep Sea Folk’s 2-meter-tall body was solid muscle.

The raw strength emanating from that body made Hilde’s magically enhanced arms tingle.

However, compared to the undead hunter they fought before, it felt somewhat weaker.

The Deep Sea Folk withdrew its spear and this time thrust it in short jabs.

Hilde calmly deflected the spear with Parry.

Though the Deep Sea Folk’s strength was great, its movements were too straightforward, making it simple to time the counter.

“…!!??”

The magical power disrupted its balance, causing the Deep Sea Folk to severely lose its stance.

Hilde didn’t miss that opening and buried her axe in its neck.

The sensation in her hands was different from ordinary Beasts.

The scales gave a strange elasticity and hardness.

But it wasn’t enough to deflect the axe blade.

When Hilde twisted and pulled out the axe blade, the Deep Sea Folk collapsed with blood spurting from its neck.

Glancing to the side, Eugene had already dealt with his Deep Sea Folk, and had shot down the one that was slowed by a knee injury.

All that remained was the bloated corpse slowly approaching.

“Watch what I do carefully.”

He stepped forward.

When the distance closed between Eugene and the Drowned One, it suddenly charged.

Then it threw its body forward, trying to collide with him.

Eugene held out his rifle like a fence to block it.

The Drowned One tried to embrace Eugene, and its stomach was visibly swelling unnaturally.

Black liquid began flowing from every orifice in its face.

Before Hilde could call out to Eugene in alarm, he naturally pushed away the Drowned One.

It was exactly like what she had been practicing these past few days.

The Drowned One stumbled backward and fell down.

Then it exploded.

“Ugh….”

Hilde unconsciously covered her mouth and grimaced.

Though she had seen blood and guts many times before, nothing had been this repulsive and disgusting.

The damp and nauseating smell spreading everywhere, scattered organ fragments and spurting bodily fluids.

All manner of filth soaking into the ground triggered an instinctive revulsion.

“See? Dealing with self-destructing ones like this is tricky.”

Eugene said, having stepped back to avoid the explosion and remains.

“Did you know about this already?”

“No, but it’s obvious. Something so full of stuff usually explodes.”

“Then we should shoot them from far away with guns.”

“Usually yes. But there will be times when we can’t. For example, they might hide against walls to ambush people passing by…. Anyway, close combat isn’t always about overwhelming with force. That’s what I wanted to teach you.”

Eugene was always like this.

Always teaching Hilde something.

And she would grow that much more.

She could feel it every time they went to battle.

“I really can’t do without you, Senior.”

Hilde said lightly.

Though it was half-jokingly said, Eugene’s expression was heavy.

“That won’t do. You need to graduate from me by next month… at latest within two months.”

“…”

Those words constricted Hilde’s chest.

Why talk of parting already when they hadn’t even spent that long together.

She knew it herself.

Everyone around her unanimously said she had extraordinary talent and would rise quickly.

She was tired of hearing it.

Eventually she would graduate from Eugene.

That unavoidable fact made her feel regretful.

*    *    *

We gathered the Deep Sea Folk corpses to burn them before walking toward the hidden dungeon.

“As you saw, there are ones that use tools even if they’re not undead. Even among Beasts, they’re not all just simple creatures.”

This tendency is especially strong among the Little Mermaid’s Beasts.

Even when they form groups, they have role divisions that make combat more difficult.

The ones we just met were simple because they were set as being stranded, but in a full-scale invasion they would have somewhat systematic organization.

“Be especially careful since there are regular reports of self-destructing ones.”

“Senior, you know so much.”

“I’ve been doing this a long time.”

That answer usually suffices for questions about how I know things.

And self-destructing specimens have indeed been frequently sighted and I’ve encountered them several times before.

After night deepened and hunting two more groups of Deep Sea Folk, we arrived beneath a cliff.

“Why did we come here?”

“Because this looked suspicious.”

I used my dagger to dig through a mass of moss and vines.

Though the texture wasn’t visibly different from surroundings like in the game, there were clear signs it had been artificially covered.

They did a decent job hiding it, but it wasn’t expert work.

Hilde didn’t seem to notice yet though.

Maybe I should teach her how to spot these things next time.

“As I thought.”

Clearing away the moss and vines revealed a cave entrance large enough for Deep Sea Folk to pass through.

“How did you know?!”

Hilde asked in genuine surprise.

“Like I said earlier. It looked suspicious. Anyway, this is likely the lair of those creatures from before.”

Of course I saw it in the game, but I can’t say that honestly so I gave a vague answer.

“Shall we go in?”

“Yes.”

This is what we came here for after all.

The item Zepetia will make using this place’s boss is an effective weapon against Deep Sea Folk.

It will be very useful.

We entered the dark cave.

Hilde was already used to a hunter’s night vision and could see well even in darkness.

After entering and just before turning the first corner, I stopped.

“There’s a trap. A trap on the floor.”

Peeking around the corner, I saw a small pit about a hand’s width deep.

Though it was just a pit to make you trip and fall, there were many sharp spikes planted inside.

“So they do use their heads somewhat.”

In the game too, this dungeon had several crude traps.

Though primitive and not very damaging, they were quite painful in the early game when healing methods were limited.

And in reality, such healing methods don’t even exist.

In reality, eating bread or jerky doesn’t suddenly heal wounds.

While there are special potions with such magical effects, they haven’t appeared yet.

“A Beast using traps….”

“The truly dangerous ones aren’t just at this level. Some even disguise themselves as humans to infiltrate.”

We continued forward avoiding the trap.

Soon after, something crawled toward us from deeper in the cave.

“Giant… slugs?”

There were three slugs the size of wild dogs.

Though their bodies looked like ordinary slugs, they were covered in skin that appeared hard as stone.

In the game they were called Rock Slugs – low attack power but high defense, and occasionally spewing mucus that inflicted status effects like poison or slow.

I aimed precisely at the head of the Rock Slug approaching in front and hit it.

But its stone skin only peeled slightly, and after flinching briefly the slug kept coming.

Without panicking, I calmly reloaded and hit the exposed area again.

Only then did the Rock Slug writhe grotesquely while spewing fluids from its wound before going limp.

“I’ll leave one to you.”

I drew my hand axe and stepped forward.

“Yes!”

Hilde followed behind me.

When we got close, the slug raised its head and spewed something from its mouth.

Though I could easily dodge since I was prepared, it would have been troublesome if hit.

I quickly ran in and brought my hand axe down on the slug’s raised head, but the blade bounced off its stone skin.

The impact and vibration transmitted to my hand felt like truly striking rock.

This time I infused my arm with magical power and struck down with all my might, and with a crumbling sound the axe blade sank into its head.

When I twisted and pulled out the axe, the slug died thrashing violently like before.

Looking aside, Hilde had diagonally sliced off half the Rock Slug’s head.

But she too couldn’t cut through in one strike and needed two attacks.

“They’re tough. What they spew would be troublesome in melee.”

Hilde said while shaking fluids off her axe blade.

I pushed the corpses aside.

Like the creatures in the juniper forest, they were just creatures affected by curses, not enough to be called Beasts, so holy oil wasn’t necessary.

Best to move them aside since they could obstruct our escape later.

“Let’s keep going.”

We went deeper into the cave.

Far ahead we saw four Deep Sea Folk sitting on the ground eating something.

They hadn’t noticed us yet.

I signaled to Hilde that we would ambush them and aimed at the back of one Deep Sea Folk’s head as it exposed its defenseless back.

When I pulled the trigger, the silver bullet struck precisely at its cervical vertebrae.

The shot Deep Sea Folk fell forward and flopped like a fish on land.

Though the surrounding Deep Sea Folk immediately stood up with weapons, the ambushed one never got up again.

“That’s do-Kyaah!?”

But right at that moment, a Drowned One broke through the wall and pounced on Hilde.

“…!”

Though I hadn’t expected this situation either, the die was already cast.

In front, three Deep Sea Folk were charging at incredible speed with weapons raised.

“Do what you learned!”

I shouted to Hilde while reloading my rifle and aiming again.

Unlike the one outside, they didn’t cover their heads with their arms, perhaps due to poor visibility in the dark.

I shot precisely into the left eye of the one charging in front.

Right after, an explosion sounded from behind.

Since Drowned One fragments didn’t spray this far, Hilde must have successfully pushed it away.

The corners of my mouth lifted slightly in relief.

“I dealt with it!”

Hilde shouted from behind as she stood in front of me.

Thanks to having a vanguard now, I decided to reload my rifle instead of drawing my dagger.

A Deep Sea Folk threw its spear at me, but Hilde deflected it well with her axe handle.

Though she blocked one with a weapon, another without weapons tried to slip past her side toward me.

However, Hilde pushed away the Deep Sea Folk in front of her and managed to trip the passing one’s feet by a hair’s breadth.

As the Deep Sea Folk fell, I finished reloading and immediately shot its head.

The Deep Sea Folk’s head burst when shot in the crown at close range, spraying eyeballs, brain fragments and fluid.

Looking back toward Hilde’s direction, she was charging at the spear-wielding Deep Sea Folk.

She tried to dodge just by turning her head slightly to avoid the spear thrust at her neck while swinging her axe.

But her stance became unstable from dodging, and the widely swung axe caught on the cave wall.

“Ah!?”

The Deep Sea Folk tried to thrust its spear again seeing that opening.

I hurriedly enhanced my arm with magical power and threw my rifle.

The rifle hit the Deep Sea Folk’s arm and twisted its trajectory.

During that time Hilde regained her stance and deeply buried her axe blade in the Deep Sea Folk’s chest.

“Hah, hah…. Th-thank you, Senior….”

Hilde said while wiping cold sweat.

“I’m sorry. I should have warned you beforehand not to swing too widely in a cave.”

“No, it was my mistake…. But what about this?”

Hilde pointed at the rifle I had thrown.

It was completely smashed beyond repair.

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