GILF Hunter

Chapter 464: 464 A beast’s roar. A scream. A curse.

All the darkness that had covered the labyrinth vanished.

It is only natural for darkness to retreat when the time of night passes and dawn rises. At the emergence of a light like the sun, all darkness had no choice but to hide as if melting away.

As the darkness obscuring the vision disappeared, the forms of the monsters hidden within were naturally revealed.

Even the form of the Desecrator, which had been surrounded by the thick darkness it had emitted itself.

Ian felt as though the Desecrator had turned its gaze toward him.

Of course, it was clearly not just a feeling. From the beginning, the monsters here had a tendency to obsess over targets possessing light, and this was such a powerful light. It would have been stranger if it didn’t look.

The problem was... the current situation was not a normal way of breaking the pattern.

The shadow of the suddenly revealed Desecrator began to flicker as if it were burning.

It was a kind of berserk pattern that triggers when one uses an ’exploit’—in other words, invalidating all darkness with excessively bright light like this instead of performing the intended patterns.

While randomly resetting potential might luckily grant traits helpful to the current situation... conversely, it was also unavoidable that traits of little help or even detrimental ones might appear.

Once he decided to use this item with the effect of total randomness, he had to let go and accept the consequences.

This was also the reason why one should avoid acquiring such auto-activating traits where the activation cannot be controlled personally.

The Desecrator lifted its head and roared as if enraged. The target of that attack... was naturally Ian.

Everyone who had been blankly staring at the light filling the surroundings snapped back to their senses late. It was a sight shocking enough to make them momentarily forget they were in the middle of a battle, but it wasn’t enough to make them miss what they had to do right now.

The knights didn’t know the patterns of this monster in advance, nor could they read its psyche to know what it was thinking, but...

At least they could easily predict why it was angry now and who it was targeting.

’Everyone into guard formation! As fast as possible!’

The knights naturally built a shield wall in front of Ian.

Their stamina had dropped due to the long battle, but their concentration was higher than ever. The formation was created faster than during any training they had ever done.

And at the same time, Rin and Lia also lifted their heads.

When the darkness obscuring their vision vanished, the form of the Desecrator nearby became clearly visible.

’...This is where we were at the start.’

’I thought we had walked incredibly far... but it was just the same place.’

It was the exact spot where they had been fighting this monster just before the surroundings were covered in darkness. They thought they had wandered through the darkness for a long time, but it seemed they had been circling the same spot endlessly.

If they had simply taken the wrong direction, they would have reached the opposite end, but for some reason, no matter how much they walked, nothing appeared.

Still, it was actually for the better now.

’Let’s go, Lia!’

’...Don’t go ahead, keep pace at my side.’

Rin and Lia immediately gripped their weapons and lunged in.

Meanwhile, the remaining monsters in the room began to swarm all at once as if they had received a signal.

Unlike their movements until now, it was an indiscriminate offensive that didn’t look ahead or behind, like true wild monsters.

The knights, who were prepared in advance, blocked that offensive.

─!

The roar of the Desecrator was heard once more from a distance.

Ian felt his mental power dropping bit by bit every time he heard that sound, but there was no way to block it in the current situation.

To escape the target of that roar, one had to eliminate all possessed light sources, but right now Ian himself had become the light source. There was no means to control it.

...Things had gotten a bit tangled, but anyway, it was true that this became an opportunity for a miracle. He had no choice but to settle the match as quickly as possible before his mental power hit rock bottom.

Fortunately, the battle had already reached its final stages long ago, so it wasn’t a bad timing to stake the match.

However... the situation was the same for both sides. It seemed that side’s decision was slightly faster.

Rin and Lia, who had retreated far away to avoid a continuous attack sweeping the surroundings, noticed the opponent’s slightly strange movement.

’Watch out! I think it’s trying to go that way!’

Rin’s urgent shouting voice was heard from afar.

No sooner had those words ended than the Desecrator ignored Rin and Lia lunging at it from the front and charged directly toward Ian.

That massive body trampled all monsters in its path and approached in an instant.

’Blo...’

The Knight Commander, perhaps unable to bring himself to tell the knights to block that, eventually became speechless in the middle of giving instructions.

’Fall back!’

The Knight Commander eventually shouted toward Ian in the back and stepped forward himself.

A shining sword wrapped in holy attribute mana attacked one leg. It was an attack containing the maximum power he could urgently pull out.

Even the Desecrator, which was charging while ignoring everything, had to falter slightly at that.

And immediately, the attacks of Lia and Rin, who had chased after it, followed.

Eventually, having completely lost its charging momentum, the Desecrator, surrounded in the middle of the knights, shook its body irritably. The attacks flying from here and there were not all at a threatening level, but they were attacks that could not be ignored either.

’It’s ready...!’

Mika’s shout was heard from behind.

Mika had exhausted most of her mana maintaining barriers in the previous fight, but she had recovered some mana during the brief pause in combat.

Of course... it was difficult to exert a major influence with that much. At most, a single barrier... a state where she wondered if she could barely block an attack once.

That’s why, rather than preparing a barrier for a ’just in case’ moment, Mika decided to hand over her remaining mana to someone else who could use it more usefully.

It was the person who could exert the most decisive ability in the current situation.

’Thank you.’

Frenda muttered softly and nodded.

Through mana infusion, Frenda, who had received all of Mika’s remaining mana, finished her magic preparations.

Mika said it was ’a little’... but since barrier magic consumes so much mana, from Frenda’s perspective, it was a substantial amount beyond what she had thought.

Combined with Frenda’s remaining mana, it was a level where she could sufficiently prepare the necessary magic.

Frenda, having finished preparations, immediately activated her holy magic.

Shining mana spread out instantly along the walls and floor of the labyrinth.

-Thump!

Soon, with a loud sound of metal clashing, shining chains burst out from the walls and floor.

If such magic had been used openly when the opponent was fine, it probably wouldn’t have worked properly, but right now the opponent’s vision was greatly narrowed as it was running wild.

Without any time to react to the activation of the magic and dodge, the Desecrator was entangled by numerous chain strands made of light.

It twisted its body to break them immediately, but the chains woven from light did not budge at all even under the pulling force of that massive frame.

’Miss Rin! Now!’

Aiming for that huge opening, Rin leaped up.

The Desecrator’s size was even larger than before... but Rin could feel that its energy was far more haggard compared to the beginning.

Rin’s sword, shining like obsidian, pierced through the burning shadow and sank into its chest.

Rin felt a small crack starting from that tip spreading uncontrollably everywhere.

─!

With a sound that shook the entire surroundings, the Desecrator’s body, made of burning shadows, began to collapse.

A beast’s roar. A scream. A curse. Or a mutter...

The entire labyrinth seemed to vibrate with that sound, which was like many voices mixed at once.

Soon, that giant body shattered into pieces like a glass artwork dropped on the floor, and even the remaining monsters melted and disappeared in an instant.

In the place where the Desecrator’s dark shadow melted away, only the bones of a massive beast remained.

...Seeing that there are bones, it seems it was a living creature after all.

Rin came up with such a silly thought while looking up at those large bones.

...That was the end of it.

There was no separate source here. Since the Desecrator just now was the boss of this place and the source itself.

All monsters melted away, and soon only a quiet silence remained in the room.

’This... is really the end, right?’

Even Rin, who had delivered the final blow, could only truly realize it after confirming Ian’s nod.

The inside of the room was suffocatingly quiet. It was to the point where the exhausted breathing of the people nearby could be heard.

Perhaps because it was an excessively grueling battle, there were no cheers or anything of the sort.

Only gazes that seemed unable to believe if what was happening now was real were busily exchanged.

It was only after a long time had passed that everyone finally lowered their weapons.

Walking slowly... they only accepted that everything was truly over after looking up at the heap of massive beast bones.

And including Rin, all the members of the Ian Mercenary Group glanced at each other, gauging the mood.

’Leader...!’

Shouting that and running to Ian would have been the typical reaction, but...

Thud, and...

It was because the knights began to prostrate themselves toward Ian, lowering their heads one by one while leaving their weapons on the floor.

Ian was still shining with immense momentum.

It was a slightly minor side effect of an auto-activating trait where one cannot control the activation personally.