Chapter 14

Chapter 14: The Trap (2)

“For a snot-nosed brat, you catch on quick.”

Diodia was putting on airs even after he’d just been sent flying by a punch.

Anagin answered in a tone that said he couldn’t care less.

“Catching on? That’s not exactly a skill. You’re about the same level as that bastard Bander, so you probably pull the same kind of shit.”

Bander robbed people to earn God’s blessing. If Diodia was on the same level as a guy like that, it wasn’t surprising that he’d teamed up with the Monster Ruins.

In a way, they were a perfect match. Perfect.

“I’m nothing like him.”

“Is that so? From where I’m standing, you look exactly the same.”

“Oh, I’ll show you. What’s different.”

When Anagin denied it, Diodia pulled several pills from the pouch at his waist and chewed them all down in one go.

The medicine must have been potent, because the reaction came immediately.

Muscles bulging, skin hardening, veins rising savagely.

Diodia smiled in satisfaction, then kicked off the ground and closed the distance in an instant, pulling out an axe and swinging it.

WHAM—!

A crude axe with a short handle and a thick blade.

Anagin grabbed Bander’s sword from the floor and blocked with the blade still in its sheath.

“Wow, you got ugly.”

Midway through the contest of strength, axe against sword, Anagin looked at Diodia’s face and spoke. He meant it, too. Diodia hadn’t been much to look at to begin with, but after taking the pills, he’d gotten even worse.

“I’m scared I’ll see that face in my dreams. Did the pills make you ugly? Or were you always this ugly?”

“I’d love to see if you can still run your mouth after I cut you limb from limb!”

Diodia gripped the axe with both hands and bore down. Anagin was slowly pushed back, then began to give ground completely.

Using sheer force and weight, Diodia pressed Anagin down and seized the advantage. In that stance, he channeled power into one arm.

Not mere muscle—something deeper. It was the giant’s power, Gi (Γι).

He had used “Yul (εὐ)”—concentrating the Gi dwelling in his body into his arm and imbuing it into his weapon.

A faint light flowed along Diodia’s arm, then settled into the thick axe.

What happened next should have been obvious. Bander’s sword and Anagin would both be sliced in half.

But that didn’t happen.

The moment Anagin saw the signs of Yul (εὐ) being used, he shifted the sword’s center of gravity and let Diodia’s axe slide off him like water.

Anagin slipped free of Diodia’s pressure as if gliding, and Diodia’s axe carved uselessly through empty air.

Thanks to that, Diodia couldn’t cut Anagin to pieces—he couldn’t even break the sheath.

Anagin sheathed the sword at his waist, lightly clenched his fist, and drove it into Diodia, who had taken up position behind him.

His flank. His back. His temple.

Each time his fist landed, a sharp yet heavy sound rang out. But Diodia only staggered—he didn’t take any real damage.

‘Just hit him harder.’

Anagin arrived at the same solution he’d used for the past twenty years.

If you don’t have enough strength, add more strength.

He put more power into his arm and struck even harder.

Of course, Diodia wasn’t just going to stand there and take it.

He was a Giant too. With quick reflexes, he spun his body and swung the axe at Anagin.

Anagin dodged the axe even faster and drove his fist in even harder.

“Guh… Your punches aren’t bad, but you can’t handle a sword, can you?!”

Whether it was his toughness or the pills he’d taken, Diodia kept running his mouth even while getting pummeled. He meant to shake Anagin’s mental state with words. Unfortunately, it didn’t work.

“If that were true, there’s no way I wouldn’t use a sword! A punch like that a hundred times—”

—CRACK!

Mid-sentence, Anagin threw a punch into Diodia’s jaw and shut him up. He added one more thing.

“Don’t talk. Your breath stinks.”

Diodia staggered backward.

His face flushed red and blue in turns. Deciding he couldn’t keep going like this, he swung his axe wildly and pressed Anagin hard.

It wasn’t so much about landing hits as restricting Anagin’s movement.

Anagin moved into a corner just as Diodia wanted, and in that instant, Diodia thrust out his empty hand.

Since he was outmatched in speed and skill, he meant to grab Anagin and crush him with raw strength.

But Anagin deftly twisted his upper body and evaded Diodia’s reaching hand.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

With a shout, Diodia quickly redirected his outstretched hand from Anagin’s shoulder toward his waist. It was a move he’d anticipated Anagin would dodge.

“I’ll slam you into the ground!”

As if talking to a fish he’d already caught, Diodia twisted his body and grabbed Anagin’s belt, preparing to hurl him.

Heavy—!

But he couldn’t.

The moment he put his strength into the throw, a heavy sensation spread from his fingertips through his entire body, and he couldn’t slam Anagin down.

Why?

The answer lay in the bag strapped to Anagin’s belt.

A half-finished subspace bag that reflected the full weight of the cargo loaded inside.

It wasn’t heavy enough that he couldn’t lift it, but the unexpected weight made Diodia hesitate for a moment—and Anagin didn’t miss it.

Rat-tat-tat—!

He drove his fist straight into the opening Diodia had left when he leaned back to throw him.

One blow to the arm. Three to the flank. Two to the neck.

Of course, those punches carried more force than the ones before, just like all the others.

“…!”

Whether they’d landed properly or not, Diodia let out a soundless scream and tried to pull away from Anagin, but Anagin followed.

Panicked, Diodia reflexively swung his Gi-imbued axe.

The attack was powerful enough to leave gashes in the floor, walls, and ceiling. But Anagin quickly dodged to the side and closed the distance.

Diodia reached out again, and this time Anagin didn’t dodge. He caught the hand in a finger-lock, grabbed the elbow of Diodia’s other arm with his free hand, and—

—snapped it.

“GRAAAH—!! You son of a—!”

Diodia screamed and tried to spit out a curse.

Before he could finish, Anagin swung his fist.

[Face Smash]

CRACK!

The same fist that had taken down Bander.

The sound of splintering wood rang out as Diodia’s neck twisted violently and he flew.

“Guh….”

Diodia collapsed. Whether it was thanks to his size or the pills, Diodia—unlike Bander—crawled along the ground, trying to get away from Anagin.

He’d been right.

He was different from Bander.

‘Well, not that different, really.’

Anagin approached Diodia to finish him off.

That was when it happened.

Diodia, his jaw shattered and hanging loose, whipped his head around and hurled something at Anagin.

A small bead-like object.

As Anagin wondered what it was, blinding white light burst out and struck his eyes.

‘A magic tool?! It paralyzes your eyes with light?’

Anagin identified the object even with his eyes closed, and in that gap, Diodia fled.

Tap-tap-tap!

His eyes were paralyzed, but his ears were fine. Anagin immediately ran in the direction Diodia had fled, and shortly after, his vision recovered as well.

“Guh! Guhh!”

Having recovered somewhat thanks to the pills he’d taken in advance, Diodia ran desperately to put as much distance between himself and Anagin as possible.

But because Anagin had launched into pursuit the moment he heard the footsteps, Diodia hadn’t gotten far.

“Cough! Cough!”

Even so, Diodia didn’t stop running. He kept going, as if he had somewhere to run to.

He kept throwing the flash-bang beads from inside his clothes to hold off Anagin as he closed in, and Anagin kept running while protecting his eyes and ears. It wasn’t a problem. The first one had been disorienting because he hadn’t known what it was—now that he did, it wasn’t much of a threat.

Still, the chase was inevitably slowed.

Just as Anagin put a bit more strength into his legs to catch up, Diodia threw himself into a massive hole.

‘A secret passage?’

Anagin guessed at the nature of the hole, but before he could settle on an answer, he threw himself in after him.

Catching Diodia was the priority.

The secret passage was wide, fitting for a hole Diodia had dived into, and the slope was steep. Once he picked up speed, he hurtled downward endlessly.

When he finally reached the bottom—

“Hm?”

Anagin saw something strange.

At the end of the hole, something bright red was flickering, darting in and out.

It was none other than—

“A monster?”

Anagin said as he came out of the hole. Just as he said, right in front of the hole, a massive monster Serpent waited with its jaws wide open.

A giant snake—one he hadn’t seen the likes of even back in his hometown, let alone on the way to Disis Polis.

The Serpent swallowed Anagin in one gulp.

“Hahah…! Serves you right!!”

Seeing Anagin swallowed by the snake, Diodia—who had come down ahead of him—laughed and shouted. He had taken more pills and fully healed his injuries.

“Seems you’ve built up quite a grudge in that short amount of time.”

Said the person standing behind Diodia.

With an odd voice that made it impossible to tell whether they were male or female, and a thick robe wrapped around their entire body, even their appearance made it hard to distinguish.

Diodia looked at them and scowled.

It felt like they were mocking him for getting beaten one-sidedly earlier….

No, not “like”—they were definitely mocking him.

They dealt in rare goods like ‘monsters’ and ‘pills,’ but they were also as cunning and vile as a snake.

If it were up to his temper, he’d have split their skull open with his axe, but Diodia didn’t.

He was currently in the middle of a deal with them. Until he received payment, he had to cooperate whether he liked it or not. More than anything, this place was a nest of the monsters they raised—he couldn’t afford to fight here.

Shaaahhh….

There were seven of the massive monster Serpents like the one that had just swallowed Anagin, and fifty medium-sized snakes. He couldn’t see them, but there had to be at least several hundred smaller snakes below that.

How did he know?

Because he’d met with them regularly and seen them in passing.

“You’ll understand once you deal with that one yourself. Monster Merchant.”

Diodia called them by their name. It wasn’t their real name, but everyone who knew them called them that. “Monster Merchant.”

“They’re a real pain in the ass…. Well, it doesn’t matter now anyway. What matters is something else.”

“You mean the additional payment?”

The Monster Merchant spoke from between the shadowed folds of their robe. A voice that gave you chills every time you heard it.

“Yeah, you remember the contract, right? You said you’d give me a bonus if I brought you a Giant?”

Just as monster bones, flesh, and organs became medicine, to monsters, Giants and Ascetics were medicine too. Nothing like ordinary humans.

That was why the Monster Merchant had built the fake Ruins and hired Diodia.

With a local celebrity like Diodia holding the position, it looked more convincing, and more Ascetics would flock in.

And indeed, a fair number of Ascetics had come. They’d eaten almost all of them by now, though.

“That one just now is worth three times the others.”

“That much?”

Shaaahhh—! Shah! Ssssss—

At Diodia’s demand, the monster snakes around them all hissed sharply at once. The chilling, razor-sharp sound unique to snakes echoed through the underground.

But Diodia didn’t back down either.

“Forget about trying to rip me off! You saw it too, didn’t you? That one’s no ordinary fighter! Different from all the rabble we’ve eaten so far! He can’t use Gi properly, but his fundamentals are solid—he’s been properly trained by someone…. And more than anything, he’s the one who took down Bander too.”

“I know that.”

“You know? How?”

The Monster Merchant didn’t answer.

They simply gave off that uniquely unpleasant air and let silence pool beneath their robe.

The silence stretched on for a moment. Finally, the Monster Merchant spoke.

“Fine. I’ll allow it.”

“That’s what I like to hear.”

Once their demand was accepted, Diodia smiled.

After a long stretch without results, he was satisfied to have landed a big catch.

“Oh, while we’re on the subject—how long are you planning to keep this place running?”

“Why, tired of it now?”

“Not exactly. It’s just that there’s not much profit in it anymore.”

“So it’s true you’ve made connections with Erysichthon’s side?”

The Monster Merchant asked as if they’d guessed something. Perhaps it struck a nerve, because Diodia said nothing.

“…….”

“I thought it was just a rumor you spread to look impressive. But you really do have a connection with them? Do you think bringing them pills will earn you their support?”

A mocking tone.

Perhaps it hit too close to home, because Diodia shut his mouth tight.

The Monster Merchant spoke as if coaxing him.

“Don’t worry. I’ve been feeling like it’s about time to close up shop myself. We’ve gathered about as much as we can anyway…. Still, it really is a shame—”

“—a shame, isn’t it.”

Not two voices—the Monster Merchant’s and Diodia’s—but a third voice echoed through the underground.

Diodia recognized whose voice it was and turned his head.

Toward the snake that had swallowed Anagin earlier.

As if he’d misheard, Anagin’s voice rang out from inside the snake’s belly.

“Bander was the same way. Why is it that every Ascetic refuses to do any training and just begs instead?”

The eyes of the snake that had swallowed Anagin suddenly flew wide open.

Stab!

A sword burst out from inside the snake’s belly and moved from top to bottom, slicing the stomach wide open.

Fwoooosh—!!

Between the split flesh, the black-and-red blood unique to monsters poured out, cascading down.

A sticky, dark-red rain.

Descending to the ground with that rain, Anagin shouldered his sword and spoke.

“But then again, that’s exactly like you.”