Day 491-500/Day 491

Day 491 / 21st day
　Midnight, when the stars shine beautifully.
　It was the time of night when nocturnal monsters were active, and howls could be heard from afar.
　The Ant Boy, who is physically strong but mentally inexperienced, is tired from his daily work, but after eating his fill of roasted underground monster meat, he sleeps like mud and shows no signs of waking up.
　Maybe he doesn't have the energy to be wary of me, or maybe he just trusts me that I'm not an enemy. There may be other factors as well, but it seems that he has become somewhat relaxed.
　There were many beings approaching the simple base that the anthill boy had built. Since it was known that the Ant Boy was being targeted by an underworld organization, he was on various precautions so that he could be detected early. The first thing I noticed was the smell. The smell of the beast drifting in from upwind.
　The smell was so faint that it could barely be perceived by my 【Hyper Olfactory Sense】, which is more acute and accurate than a dog's. If it were only that, I might have judged it to be a monster that lives in this area.
　However, the difference from the wild is clear when it is accompanied by the thick smell of blood and metal, the pungent smell of spices used in cooking, and the sweet smell of perfume used by women.
　The fact that the source of the smell is getting closer and closer to you is one of the factors that make you think it is an enemy. However, just in case, I could hear even the slightest sound in the distance, so I activated my 【Super Hearing】and my 【Auditory Recognition】, which allows me to hear sounds and grasp the terrain, etc., to get even more detailed information.
　From the sound of their footsteps, the group that was probably the enemy was a quadrupedal creature. The sound of breathing indicates that there are ten of them. They were probably dog-like or wolf-like monsters. The footsteps sounded strange for that, but that was beside the point.
　I could hear a few snarls and drooling sounds, as if they were hungry. They were running in a "V" formation with a larger and more powerful one in the lead, stopping occasionally to sniff something. The place they are sniffing is near the area where the anthill boy's blood was attached.
　The smell of the man-made substance wafting through the air and the purposeful actions such as sniffing the antsy boy's scent convinced me that they were definitely the advance guard of our pursuers.
　And the group that I recognized as the enemy came even closer, entering the surveillance range of the countless surveillance golems that I had placed in place of patrols to supplement my vision in the deep darkness.
　The surveillance golems are small golems that look like a combination of a crystal ball as a camera and a walking mechanism like a hundred legs.
　It is about 30 centimeters long and is almost undetectable at night because it is made of "Dublark Metal" that can hide in the dark or create its own darkness.
　Although they have no combat capabilities, they have a variety of functions such as night vision and heat detection.
　I was able to see the enemy through the crystal plate that was projecting the scene that the surveillance golem had seen in the base.
　It had the body of a tight hound, about the size of my waist, and its hair was a dark green that blended in with the darkness and the forest. It had an unusual organ around its neck that looked like a collar of poisonous blue-purple thorns.
　Because of the color of the thorns and the fact that it wriggles with some degree of will, there is a high possibility that it will use poison and attack using the thorns as a whip or tentacles.
　However, what is more interesting to me is its distinctive head. With the faces of a middle-aged man, a young woman, a young boy, and an old woman, the enemy was truly a Human Dog.
　The only difference was that the Doberman-like leader of the pack looked like a normal person, but he was a strong, middle-aged man with a scar on his cheek who looked like he belonged in the underworld.
　From time to time, he would bark, "Over there!" or "We're close! It was obvious from his gestures and facial expressions that he was viewed as an object of fear by the other human-faced dogs. This one must be in a different situation than the others.
　He moved straight ahead as if he was convinced that the smell of us had thickened due to the fact that we had grilled him, and he was almost there.
　If they were going to ride into the base, I thought I would try to kill them before the antsy boy woke up, but the mangy dogs came to a place not more than a few hundred meters from the base and turned back without doing anything more.
　Apparently, this was the end of their reconnaissance. The enemy knew the location of the base.
　Now they would bring back the information, and the mangy dogs would tell their friends about this place, and the main force would surely come here tomorrow. That's why we decided to have one of the surveillance golems track them to find out more about the enemy.
　On the other hand, if we knew the enemy's base, we could surprise them. Time passed as we did this and that, and it was morning. The light shining through the trees illuminated the surroundings.
　The Ant Boy, who had slept soundly, seemed to be refreshed both physically and mentally, and his smile, which had not been there yesterday, was spilling out. I ate a simple breakfast with him, which filled him with energy, and we talked about the reconnaissance.
　There was a hint of fear on the boy's face, but he regained his composure when I told him that we already knew about the enemy's temporary base and its strength. The decision on what to do was made immediately.
　The Ant Man Boy chose to intercept. He wanted to eradicate them if possible. The Ant Boy's age was still young, in the single digits, but he was well brought up and not rough around the edges.
　I've only known him for a very short time, but I could tell that if he grew up normally, he would not commit crimes and would become a good person who tries to live a straightforward life, helping those in need. But still, it seems that this is why he has anger that won't go away.
　After being kidnapped and treated as a laboratory animal for illegal surgery, a child who had become a good friend of his said, "I want to live," and turned into a lump of flesh emitting a putrid smell.
　The kind older sister who shared what little food she could with me, saying, "I don't need it," had a mouth with countless fangs made on half of her body, and that mouth ate her in the end.
　The blind old man who failed to have both of his eyes altered said over and over again, "I want to see my grandchildren," and in the end he was used as live bait for the experimental monsters.
　A twin brother was literally joined together and became a two-headed, four-armed, four-legged mutant, who eventually died after suffering from the side effects, leaving behind the words, "Go to hell."
　Not only did he witness various other endings, but the Ant Boy himself, who had undergone a remodeling operation, was given an illegal magic potion that bound his self-consciousness and turned him into a mere weapon, and he once killed an old woman who had turned into an undefined deformity.
　He fought as a spectacle, took his share of lives, and survived. Finally, a young man triggered him to run away with others in the same situation, and they became separated.
　After such an exciting experience, it was inevitable that the Ant Boy's thinking would change. So, let's kill the bad guys, no mercy. After breakfast, with a good cause in mind, we were on a reverse invasion of the enemy's temporary base.
　We didn't want to be exposed by our body odor, so we smeared monster dung on our bodies to mask the smell. On the way, the main force of the enemy was approaching, heading towards the anteater boy's base, so we hid and passed them by, arriving at the enemy base a little while later.
　The enemies camped near the river were not expecting an attack, and there were only fifteen of them left at the enemy base, which had only a few tents.
They seemed to be backstabbers, accustomed to rough trade, but perhaps they were letting their guard down and had been drinking since morning.
　I smelled the liquor spirit that I had been craving since I woke up, and the desire to drink it arose. An enemy is drinking in front of me. That means I can drink it if I hunt them. The only way to drink it quickly was to hunt it down immediately.
　While thinking this, I decided to hunt the ones who showed an opening without rushing or panicking. I put the Ant Man Boy on standby and approached him alone, eliminating any sign of him.
　When he came up behind the four people sitting on the driftwood couch, I gathered their heads together with my vermillion spear and made a single cleave. The severed heads leapt up into the sky, and there was a dead face without knowing what had happened. The enemy is still unable to react to the surprise attack, and I take the opportunity to shoot them with the magic rifle in one hand.
　The magic bullets aimed at the heads and torsos of the remaining eleven people pierced the back of the heads of three people who were showing their defenseless backs and killed them, while the remaining eight people were either prevented by their arms, avoided, or avoided the vital points and were seriously wounded but not yet dead.
　The next target was the most lightly wounded of the nearby enemies that I hadn't managed to kill, so I leaped lightly, pinned his head between my legs, and turned my body around. The immobilized head spun with the momentum, and the sound of a broken cervical vertebrae echoed.
　It landed on the ground from the collapsing foothold, where the rest finally moved to intercept it. The fastest was the tiger-like beastman, who was probably the strongest of the remaining group. The tiger man was nearly three meters tall, with a muscular and sturdy body. His thick hands were armored with claws, and the sharp claws looked like they could easily cut through the flesh here.
　The tiger man was the only enemy that could perfectly avoid the oncoming gunfire, and the tiger man charged like the wind with a roar. So I chopped off its head with a vermillion spear without giving it time to react, and the tiger's head, with its confident, belligerent smile, flew through the air in a whirl with fresh blood.
　It's not surprising that the 【Doom Death Minotaur King】that I faced was much faster than him. The remaining enemies were stunned by the instantaneous death of the tiger man, and took advantage of the opportunity to fire more shots with their magic rifles.
　As a result, fifteen dead bodies were lying around in less than a minute. After the annihilation, it was time to collect the supplies. While eating the heads of the tigers, I worked with the antsy boy to collect the corpses of my prey, as well as tents, food, and armor.
　However, there was almost no use for the dirty underwear, so we put it in a hole we dug and burned it. After the processing was done, I went back to finish off the rest that I had passed by advancing to the Ant Boy's base. They were being monitored by the surveillance golems placed around the base, so we already knew where they were.
　However, it is a simple job to kill a group of people who haven't even arrived at the base yet in the forest area. In the forest, the Ant Boy had a certain amount of experience in fighting during his life-threatening survival, and now the two of us would take them by surprise.
　We jumped down from the tree tops, stunned and neutralized the leader and his entourage first, and quickly killed the rest. The Ant Boy wanted us to make him suffer a little before we killed him, so we cut off his arms and legs to make him immobile, then gave him a fatal wound and left him there for a while.
　The screams and cries were so loud that I had to kick his jaw, but I'll let it go as a sign of bad luck and daily conduct that he ended up like this.
　The only thing I did was to make sure that the Ant Boy didn't feel any pain before I killed the masked dogs. Only the leader of the dogs was a member of the group who had been operated on as a punishment for failing in his work, so he was crushed until his body was flat and died with a look of agony on his face.
　However, it seems that the other mangy dogs were victims of the experiment. Although the leader was strengthened, he was still based on his own body. The antsy boy, on the other hand, had his head and spinal cord replaced by a different creature.
　Their original bodies have already been wasted in other research, and they will never be the same. They will remain like this until they die. So they gave up and wished to be killed by someone who was in the same situation as them, and the Antsy boy accepted.
　Some of the faces among the masked dogs were familiar to him, and with a sad expression on his face, the antsy boy shot them with anesthetic poison so that they would not feel pain, broke their necks, and buried them one by one.
　I prayed to him, "Namu," and used the time to change my mind and slowly talk to the leader and his entourage who had taken me prisoner.
Because the biological structure of the beasts and so on will be useful later, I decided to investigate that area as well.
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PLACE TRANSLATIONS ABOVE THE BAR. THESE ARE THE RAWS, LEAVE THEM HERE. CLICK EXPAND TO VIEW THEM.
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“二十一日目”　／　“四■九■一■目”
　星々が美しく輝く深夜。
　夜行性のモンスターが活発に動いているのか、遠吠えなどが遠くから聞こえてくる時間帯。
　改造手術された肉体面は強靱でも、精神的にはまだ未熟な蟻人少年は日々の疲れもあるのか腹一杯まで地下モンスターの焼き肉を食べると泥のように眠り、滅多な事では目覚める気配は無い。
　会ったばかりの俺を警戒する余力も無いのか、あるいはとりあえず敵では無いと信用でもしてくれたのか。
　それ以外にも要因があるかもしれないが、多少は気を抜けるようになったらしい。
　そんな蟻人少年が作った簡素な拠点に、近付いてくる多数の存在がいた。
　蟻人少年が裏組織に狙われていると判明していたので、色々と警戒していたので早期発見が可能だったのだ。
　最初に気が付いたのは、臭いが切っ掛けだった。
　風上から漂ってくる獣の臭い。
　犬の嗅覚よりも鋭敏で正確な【超嗅覚】によってようやく知覚できる程度の僅かな臭いは、それだけならこの辺りに生息するモンスターだと判断したかもしれない。
　しかし濃厚な血や金属の臭いを始め、料理に使う香辛料のような刺激臭や女性が使う香水のような甘い匂いなどと一緒であれば野生との違いは明確だ。
　臭いの元が段々と近付いてくる事も敵かと思う要因の一つになる。
　しかし万が一もあるので遠方の僅かな音も聞こえる【超聴覚】と、音を聞き分け地形などを把握できる【聴覚認識】の重複発動により更に詳細な情報を得た。
　恐らくは敵だろう集団は僅かな足音などから、四足歩行の生物。呼吸音から数は十頭。
　犬系か狼系のモンスターだろうか。それにしては足音が妙なのだが、それはさて置き。
　腹を空かせているのか、唸り声や涎の零れる音が僅かに聞こえる。
　一回り大きく力強い個体を先頭にして『Ｖ』の字に陣形を組んで樹海の中を疾走し、時折立ち止まって何かを嗅いでいる。
　嗅いでいる場所は蟻人少年の血液が付着した付近だ。
　漂ってくる人工物の臭いと、蟻人少年の臭いを嗅ぐなどの目的を持った行動から、追っ手の先兵である事は間違いないと確信した。
　そして敵と認識した集団は更に近付いてきて、深い闇の中でも視界を補う哨戒機代わりに配置した無数の監視ゴーレム達の監視範囲に入ってきた。
　監視ゴーレムとは、カメラ代わりの水晶球と百足のような歩行機構を組み合わせたような形状をした小型ゴーレムの事だ。
　長さは三十センチ程で、闇に潜り込んだり自ら闇を生み出す“ダブラークメタル”製により夜ではほぼ発見されない。
　戦闘能力は皆無だが暗視機能や熱源感知など視る機能は多彩で、かつ悪路だけでなく樹上まで軽快に移動する機動力の高さが特徴の監視ゴーレムは拠点を中心にして百体以上散らばっている。
　死角無く配置された監視範囲内に入った敵の姿も当然明瞭に捉えているので、俺は拠点の中で監視ゴーレムが見た光景が投影されている水晶板を見て敵を視認した。
　俺の腰ほどの大きさがある猟犬のような引き締まった身体で、体毛は闇や森に紛れる黒緑色。
　首元には青紫色の毒々しい茨がまるで首輪のように絡まったような変わった器官がある。
　茨の色とある程度意思を持って蠢く事から、毒を使う可能性と、茨を鞭か触手のように使って攻撃してくる可能性が高い。
　しかしそんな部分よりも気になるのは、やはり特徴的な頭部だろう。
　中年男性や年若い女性、年端もいかない少年や年老いた老婆などの顔を持つ、敵はまさに“人面犬”だった。
　ただ先頭を走るドーベルマンのような肉体を持つリーダー格の人面犬だけは一般人に見える他とは違い、見るからに裏世界の住人だろう頬に傷のある強面の中年男性である。
　時折『あっちだ』『近いぞ、早くしろ愚図共が』などと吠え、集団を率いてコチラに迫る。
　他の人面犬からは恐怖の対象として見られているのが仕草や表情で一目瞭然だった。こいつだけは他とは事情が異なるのだろう。
　そして焼き肉をした事もあり、俺達の臭いが濃くなったのか確信したように真っ直ぐ動き、もうすぐそこまで迫っていた。
　拠点まで乗り込んでくるつもりなら蟻人少年が起きる前に仕留めようと思ったが、人面犬達は拠点から数百メートルも離れていない場所まで来て、それ以上は何もせずに引き返していった。
　どうやら偵察はここまでらしい。
　拠点の位置は敵にバレた。
　これから情報を持ち帰り、人面犬達はこの場所を仲間に伝えて、明日にも本隊がこちらにやってくるに違いない。
　だから監視ゴーレムの一体を追跡させて敵の情報を探らせる事にした。
　逆に敵の拠点が分かれば、奇襲も出来るだろう。
　それからあれこれしていると時間は過ぎ、朝になる。
　樹木の間から差し込む光が周囲を照らす。
　グッスリと眠った蟻人少年は心身ともにスッキリとしたらしく、昨日はあまりなかった笑みが零れている。
　そんな蟻人少年と簡単な朝飯を喰って活力を漲らせ、偵察された事について話す。
　蟻人少年の顔には怯えも浮かんだが、既に敵の仮拠点や戦力について判明している事を伝えると落ち着きを取り戻した。
　それからどうするかの方針は直ぐに決まった。
　蟻人少年は迎撃を選んだ。できれば殲滅したいとも。
　蟻人少年の年齢は一桁代とまだ幼いが、育ちが良いのか粗暴な性格ではない。
　非常に短い付き合いでしかないが、普通に育てば犯罪もせず、困っている人を助けたりしながら真っ直ぐ生きようとする善人になるだろうと思える性根をしていた。
　しかしそれでも、だからこそ収まらない怒りがあるらしい。
　拉致され、違法な手術を施す実験動物扱いされた先で仲良くなった子が、『生きたい』と言い残して腐臭を放つ肉塊になった。
　与えられる僅かな食事を『私には必要ないから』と分けてくれた優しいお姉さんの身体の半分には無数の牙の生えた口が作られ、最後はその口が自分を喰った。
　両眼を改造されて失敗した盲目の老人は『孫に会いたい』と何度も言い、最後には実験モンスターの生き餌にされた。
　双子の兄弟は文字通り一緒に接合され、二頭四腕四脚の異形となり、結局副作用によってもだえ苦しんだ末に『地獄に堕ちろ』と言い残して死んだ。
　その他にも様々な終わりを目の当たりにしただけでなく、改造手術を施された蟻人少年自身も違法な魔法薬を投与されて自意識を縛られてただの兵器となり、不定形の異形と化した老婆を殺した事もある。
　見世物として戦い、その分だけ命を奪って生きながらえ、最後にはとある青年を切っ掛けにして同じ境遇の者と逃げ出して離散して現在に至る。
　そんな中々に刺激的な経験をしたのだから、蟻人少年の思考が変るのはある意味必然だったのだろう。
　という事で、悪党討つべし、慈悲はない。
　朝食後、大義名分を掲げて俺達は敵の仮拠点へと逆侵攻していた。
　体臭でバレると困るのでモンスターの糞を身体に塗り、臭いを紛らわせる。道中では蟻人少年の拠点へと向かっていく敵の本隊が近づいてきていたので隠れてやり過ごし、少しして敵拠点に到着した。
　川の近くで野営していた敵は襲撃を予想しておらず、幾つかのテントを張った程度の敵拠点に残るのは十五名。
　裏稼業者なのか荒事に慣れた雰囲気だが、油断しているのか朝から酒を飲んでいる。
　目覚めてから欲した酒精の匂いを嗅いで、それを飲みたいという欲求が湧き出した。
　目の前で敵が酒を飲んでいる。という事は、狩れば飲める。早く飲むには即座に狩るしかない。
　ただそう思いつつも、焦らず慌てず隙を見せた者から狩っていく事にした。
　蟻人少年を待機させ、単独で気配を消して接近。
　流木の長椅子に腰かけていた四名の背後に来ると、その首を朱槍で纏めて一薙ぎ。刎ねた首は上空に跳ね上がり、何が起きたのかも分からないままの死に顔がそこにある。
　奇襲に敵はまだ反応できず、その隙に片手に持つマジックライフルで銃撃する。
　残る十一名の頭部と胴体を狙った魔弾は無防備な背中を見せていた三名の後頭部を穿って仕留めたが、残り八名は腕で防ぐかあるいは避けるか、もしくは急所を避けて重傷を負ったがまだ死んでいない。
　仕留め切れていない近くにいる敵で一番軽傷だった男に次なる狙いを定め、軽く跳躍して頭を足で挟んで固定し、身体を一回転。固定された頭は勢いに負けて回り、頸椎が折れた音が響く。
　崩れ落ちる足場から地面に着地すると、そこでようやく残りも迎撃行動に移った。
　一番早かったのは、残留組で最も強いだろう虎のような獣人だ。
　虎人は三メートル近くある巨躯で、筋骨隆々の頑健な肉体をしている。太い手には鉤爪のついた手甲が装着され、鋭い鉤爪はコチラの肉を容易に切り裂けそうだった。
　距離もあったが、そもそも反射神経や俊敏性などが種族的に優れているのだろう虎人は迫る銃撃を完璧に避けたただ一人の敵であり、その虎人は咆哮と共に風のように突撃してきた。
　だからその首を朱槍で反応する間も与えずに刎ね飛ばし、自信に満ちた好戦的な笑みを浮かべる虎頭が鮮血と共にクルクルと宙を舞う。
　【断冥の地下宮殿】で対峙した“”の方が遥かに速いのだから、当然の結末だろう。
　ただ残る敵は虎人が瞬殺された事で茫然とし、その隙に更にマジックライフルで銃撃を重ねる。
　奇襲で出鼻を挫き、最大戦力を瞬殺した現状では敵は既に獲物でしかなく、結果として一分とせずに十五名の死体が転がる事になった。
　殲滅した後は物資の回収である。
　ボリボリと虎人の頭部を喰いつつ、獲物の死体を始め、テントや食料品や武具などを蟻人少年と協力しながら回収していった。
　ただ薄汚れた下着などは使い道がほぼないので、適当に掘った穴に入れて燃やして埋めた。
　処理が済んだ後は、蟻人少年の拠点に進んだ事ですれ違った残りを仕留めに戻った。
　拠点周辺に配置された監視ゴーレムによって監視しているので、何処にいるのかは把握済みだ。
　もっとも、まだ拠点にすら到着していない集団を樹海の中で仕留める簡単なお仕事である。
　樹海の中だと蟻人少年もここしばらくの命がけのサバイバルでそれなりに戦う心得があった事もあり、今度は二人で奇襲する。
　樹上から飛び降り、真っ先にリーダー格とその側近を気絶させて無力化し、残りはさっさと仕留めていった。
　ただ少しでも苦しませてから殺してほしい、という蟻人少年の要望もあり、手足を切断して動けなくしてから致命傷を与えてからしばらく放置する事にした。
　悲鳴や断末魔が五月蠅いので顎は蹴り砕いたが、こんな最後になったのも日頃の行いと運が悪かったという事で諦めてもらう事にしよう。
　ただ、人面犬達だけは蟻人少年が痛みを感じないようにしてから仕留めている。
　人面犬達を率いたリーダー格だけは仕事で失敗した罰として改造手術された構成員だったので、身体が平たくなるまで叩き潰されて苦悶の表情を浮かべたまま死んだ。
　しかし、他の人面犬達は実験の被害者だったらしい。
　改造手術にも幾つかパターンがあり、蟻人少年は強化されたとはいえ、ベースは自身の肉体だ。
　対して、人面犬達は頭部と脊髄を別の生物に付け替えられてしまった。
　元々の肉体は既に他の研究で浪費され、彼・彼女達は元には戻らない。死ぬまでこのままだ。
　だからもうここまでで良いと諦め、せめて同じ境遇だった者に殺されたいと蟻人少年に願い、蟻人少年はそれを受けた。
　人面犬の中には見知った顔もあったのか、蟻人少年は悲痛な表情を浮かべつつ、痛みを感じないように麻酔毒を撃ち込み、首を折って一人一人埋葬していった。
　南無、と祈りつつ、気持ちを切り替えるまでの間を利用して、捕虜にしたリーダー格とその側近達にはゆっくりと話を聞く事にしよう。
　獣人などの生体構造なども後々役に立つだろうから、その辺りもジックリと調べる事にした。
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Category:Novel
Category:Articles that needs cleaning
Category:Re:Monster ~ The Dark Continent ~ Vol. 2