Chapter 338: The Great Karla (Karura) Canyon Siege, Part Three

「Uoooooooo!」

As I saw the skies of the demon world which is dark even in the daytime.

I swung my battleaxe and plunged into the swarm of monster(Mamono) that approached me like a wave.

「Gyakk!!?」

I slammed my battleaxe into the goblin in front of me from high above, cracking its head open.

Then, without slowing down, I stomped on the corpse of the fallen goblin and swung my battle axe, keeping the surrounding monster away from me as I stayed in the middle of the enemy line.

「Come at me if you want to die!」

The words didn’t have much meaning. Just a threat. No matter what I say, in the end, the winner is the one who survives to the end.

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StiIl, I’m continuing to slice and slash the monster that jump at me out of sheer numbers, and I’m going to show them the difference between bravery and recklessness.

I grab the Minotaur’s horn, break it off with a Calf Branding, and thrust the broken horn into its face.

I kicked the jumping Orthrus in the nose with my knee and cut it in half with my battle axe when it fell back.

And when the monsters showed signs of trepidation at the sight of their comrades being chopped down one after another, I ran through the surrounding area, swinging my battleaxe with an even stronger swing.

（Where is it!?）

Since it has the appearance of an army, there must be someone in command somewhere. If I kill it, the situation will change drastically.

As I thought that, I raises my battle axe and slashes the Minotaur in front of me. Then, I kicked down the staggering Minotaur, and attacked the next one behind it, without regard to the returning blood.

The Minotaur falls on its butt in fear. But I show no mercy.

I smash its head with my battle-axe and then when the goblins come at me from both sides with their clubs, I catch them with my battle-axe and my left hand.

The impact is really heavy on my shoulder.

「That hurts! You! Bastardddddd!」

With a battle cry, I spun around and chopped off the heads of the goblins on either side of me.

In an instant, I turn the two goblins into a lump of flesh, and I leap at once to break the encirclement and run to the other side.

（I should be able to run faster than this!）

I scream, clawing desperately at the depths of my consciousness, at the door of my memory.

The ground in the evening darkness. A long shadow stretches across the track. How was I running?

Desperately picking up the pieces of my memory, I straighten my back and focus my attention on the soles of my feet.

And as gravity pulls me down, I push off my feet without a fight. Then, just as my foot leaves the ground, I step out with the other leg.

Yes, this is how it should look.

Goblins run for cover at the sight of me. But one brave goblin manages to hold his ground and raises his stone hammer.

But I duck into its bosom and strike its throat with the bottom of my palm, breaking its neck by force.

The goblin’s eyeballs bulged out of its sockets, and it fell back with the stone hammer it had raised. At the same time, another goblin slipped through its side, carrying a short spear.

However, I swung up my upraised arm, knocked the spear down to the ground, and with the force of my momentum, I slashed up the one that had fallen forward with my battle-axe and leapt, rotating in the air.

In the midst of a two-dimensional battle, it is difficult to respond to three-dimensional movements from above. Especially when it is a monster.

One Cerberus looked up at me, stunned, as I flew through the air. As I landed on the ground, knocking it down with the side of my battle axe, I shouted, “Come at me! Koraaa!” and threatened the monster around me.

Immediately, the goblins and other monster are stripped to the bone and begin to flee, throwing away their weapons one by one.

Aaaaaaagh!

One of the ogres screams angrily at the fleeing pack of monster. But it’s too late. Once it breaks down, there’s no way to rebuild it.

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（I can do it! If I catch the enemy’s head like this, I can win!）

I’ve been moving without stopping, and I’m a little breathless.

My body is covered with blood, and my underwear is exposed from my torn outfit.

And looking towards the enemy’s castle wall, I see that there is only one hydra left.

（What is it? It’s not a big deal）

Just as I thought that, the ground beneath my feet swelled up like a pound cake at the moment of baking.

「Tsk!」

Almost at the same time as I jumped away with a cluck of my tongue, something else suddenly popped up with a roar.

The vibration is tremendous. And its heaven-shattering body surged up through the earth.

「What… is that..?」

As I repeatedly backstepped and jumped away, I’m rendered speechless by the huge size of it.

What had crawled out from the bottom of the earth is a gigantic clay figure.

Its arms are long and its legs are abnormally short, making it look like an ape. It looked as if it had been made by piling up thousands of clay blocks, a distorted human form.

「Go… golem?」

It’s too huge.

It might have been more than ten meters tall. I couldn’t help but stare at it, as if it were as huge as the robot I had seen in Odaiba (gundam) during my trip to Tokyo.

「No way…」

In my dumbfounded vision, the giant golem raised its fists, and making stomach-churning footsteps, and begins to walk towards me.

When walking, the giant golem scatters pebbles all over its body, carving cracks in the earth and crushing my allies as it approaches me step by step.

「Ah… haha! It’s amazing! It’s amazing! Hahahahaha!」

My body trembles. My heart trembles.

I can’t stop the smile from falling on my face.

Reality is boring, and hard work keeps betraying me, and yet it’s the only way I can live, and so I try so hard, but I keep getting disappointed in myself.

I may have lost my temper, my mind may have been corrupted. And as a result, I am here now.

I’m alive. I never knew being alive could be so dramatic, so thrilling.

Even if I’m cut up, fed to monsters, crushed into a lump of flesh, I’ll say it again and again.

I’m happy now!

「Uoooooooooooooo!」

I raise my battle axe and charge at the giant golem. And the golem, looking at me with its hollow eyes, swung its huge fist down.

Then, *Boom* like an explosion, the ground is gouged out. Stones and rubble scatter around it.

But I sidestepped, dodged, and ran up the golem’s arm.

「Doraaaaaaaaaaaa!」

I ran up to the shoulder and leaped, slashing up the golem’s jaw with my battle axe with all my strength.

And with a thunderous sound similar to that of a meteorite falling, the body of the giant golem fell back.

Guuoooooo!

The golem roared and its massive body fell, crushing the monster swarming behind it.

Then, a huge cloud of dust rose up with a loud noise.

When I saw it again, the demons ran for cover, and the earth cracked like a spider’s web.

（…How is it!）

As I fell to the ground, I regained my position and looked back at the golem.

However, the golem slowly raised its body in a cloud of dust.

（It’s unharmed, huh…）

A flesh-and-blood battle with a golem that can’t feel pain is a disadvantage no matter how I think about it. The longer this goes on, the worse the situation will get.

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（Still… my gauge isn’t full…）

But the next moment, a blue flame flickered in my mouth.

Its heat is so high that it could melt iron. And then I spewed out a breath of flame to engulf the rising giant golem.

Of course, there’s no way for the heavy lump of earth to dodge it.

So, the golem crosses its arms in front of its face and catches the approaching scorching fire.

The earth around it is boiling. The landscape itself is shaken by the tremendous heat, and black smoke rises in the red sky of the demon world.

Beyond the black smoke, the sound of the giant golem retreating one step or two echoed. But there is no sound of it falling.

And after a while, the black smoke gradually dissipates into the wind.

And beyond the black smoke that was dissipating, I caught a glimpse of a giant golem. The front of its body is charred black, and here and there molten stone burned bright red.

（…Did I make it?）

But the next moment, the scorched surface peels off in tatters, and the body of the giant golem begins to regenerate.

（Seriously… doesn’t it have any weaknesses or something?）

Now that I think about it, I have an idea.

When I released my breath, this golem was protecting its head. That means its weakness must be there.

If I look closely, I can see an emerald sphere in the golem’s forehead.

（That’s it!）

As soon as I made that decision, I jumped on the golem’s body again and ran up its body.

And just as I was about to raise my battle axe and smash the golem’s forehead, my eyes widened involuntarily.

Because in an emerald sphere, in the depths of that murky sphere, I saw the figure of a naked girl, curled up like a fetus.

「What!?」

I hesitated for a moment. But that moment turned out to be fatal.

The golem’s huge arm crushed my right leg.

「Gaaaaaaaah!」

My voice came out of my throat from the pain. Tears spilled from my eyes, and the pain almost made me lose consciousness.

But this isn’t the first time I’ve lost a limb.

I grit my teeth and swing my battle axe to cut my thighs off.

The pain is so great I can’t even speak. Every part of me broke out in a sweat.

And, throwing away my battle-axe, I cling to the golem’s body with both hands and one leg, and struggle to climb up its huge body.

Somehow, I managed to climb up the golem’s nose, and with the last of my strength, I kicked its eyelids with my remaining left leg, sending it flying into the air.

Because of that, I float up to the front of its forehead, and slam my fist on it.

「Don’t underestimate a maidddddddd!」

Immediately, the emerald green sphere cracked open, and the liquid inside overflowed, like fish eggs hatching.

（This time… did I make it?）

I don’t know.

Because as I was thrown into the air, I felt my consciousness being swallowed into darkness.