GILF Hunter

Chapter 460: 460 The Final Room (2)

’Rotate torches!’

At Ian’s shout, the knights hurriedly swapped the torches they were holding.

The knight who took over the light felt a sense of doubt as he looked at the shape of the monster standing still in the middle of the room.

Was it... always that big?

It might have been his imagination, but he felt as if the monster’s size had grown slightly larger than when he first saw it.

A bone-chilling crying sound began to echo from somewhere.

The knight felt a sudden surge of anxiety washing over him. An obsessive urge told him he had to get the light away from his hands immediately. Otherwise, he felt a great misfortune would befall him.

Perhaps his anxious state was obvious, as the knight standing right next to him turned his head and asked.

’What’s wrong?’

’The... the monster...’

’Get a hold of yourself! I don’t know what kind of weird things you’re seeing, but... it’s not like it’s your first day seeing a monster, is it?’

...He was right.

The knight holding the torch managed to calm down. He gripped the torch a bit tighter so it wouldn’t fall from his hand.

It was probably due to his decreased mental power.

It felt as if it were the very first time he had ever seen a monster. A primal fear of unknown creatures and the darkness.

As mental power dropped, the threshold for enduring that fear also seemed to get lower and lower.

Although they had heard the explanation beforehand... knowing it in advance didn’t particularly help in actually enduring the fear.

The knights out in the front shouted.

’Shades are appearing!’

’Defend! Torch team, behind the shields!’

The room, which had been filled with a disturbingly quiet silence, became noisy.

Shades began to crawl out from the shadows of the room. It was the largest number they had fought so far.

The knights, who had been prepared, raised their shields, and the Shades immediately lunged toward the light.

The Knight Commander observed the monsters from the very front. Only Shades were approaching.

Is that at least a relief...?

He had heard that they couldn’t know for sure what kind of monsters would appear and that several types might be mixed together. While Shades weren’t his favorite enemies, it was a relief that there weren’t other, much more troublesome monsters.

While the Knight Commander controlled the knights at the front, Ian’s side also began to engage the monsters lunging nearby.

’Rin, don’t push too far forward.’

’Ah, yes. But there seem to be so many more than expected, would it be alright if we don’t help over there?’

Rin, who was cutting down a Shade approaching nearby, asked Ian.

The number of Shades seemed too high to leave entirely to the knights.

’No, stay nearby for now. If you aim for the right opening, we’ll be able to catch them quickly.’

’Will it... really work out that simply? They don’t seem like normal monsters...’

Rin said so while glancing at the shadow of the beast standing still in the center of the room.

The monster’s size was very small, but perhaps because Rin had become accustomed to erosion while wielding her magic sword, she could sense the ominous energy emanating from that monster more sensitively than others.

In Rin’s eyes, that monster looked like something dangerous had been tightly compressed into it, a state on the verge of exploding.

Ian replied with an expression that made it hard to guarantee anything.

’If everything goes according to plan, that is...’

Plans, after all, have a higher risk of going awry the more complex they are and the more people are involved.

It might be different in a small skirmish where Ian could observe and direct every situation at once... but in a place where so many people were fighting together, that was impossible.

Even so, they had no choice but to try for now.

As they were dealing with the swarm of Shades pouring out from all directions, a fracture finally began to occur within the expedition.

The one holding the torch now was the youngest rookie knight in the expedition.

The room was filled with a chilling cold as if a blizzard were blowing, and a gruesome bursting sound like a scream continued to echo from all sides.

The knight, who was constantly scanning the surroundings with an anxious face, accidentally made eye contact with the shadow.

That monster didn’t have anything like a face. Therefore, there was no way to actually make eye contact by looking at it, but the knight felt as if his eyes had met its.

Feeling terror at that gaze that seemed to be staring blankly at him, the knight did something that must never be done on a battlefield. He closed his eyes.

But even when he closed both eyes and turned his head, that image did not disappear.

Even though his eyes were closed, he could still see that pitch-black thing staring at him from the front.

...The light. It was because of the flame held in his hand.

From all directions, he heard the cries of the Shades swarming and targeting him.

In the meantime, the figure of the beast staring blankly at him seemed to have moved a little closer than before.

All of them were targeting the light.

So, if only this wasn’t here, wouldn’t he be safe?

Must... put out... the light...

The knight, who had fallen into a state of [Fear] due to stress reaching its limit, eventually let the torch he was holding drop from his hand.

’What... get a hold of yourself! What are you doing!’

’Next turn! Who is it?’

At least a situation like this had been included in the plan beforehand.

A battlefield where someone is bound to fall into a status abnormality as stress rises and mental power continues to decrease. They had also determined the countermeasures for when such an unexpected situation occurred to some extent.

However, the knight whose turn was next was currently momentarily tied up by the suddenly increased attack of the Shades.

In a chaotic battlefield surrounded and fighting monsters, that short gap of checking the situation beyond several people and exchanging opinions was a fatal delay.

The Knight Commander hurriedly designated a new person to take over the next fire and called their name, but before the next torch could be prepared, the flame that had fallen to the floor was instantly extinguished as if swallowed by the darkness.

As the light weakened, the Shades’ offensive suddenly grew stronger, and eventually, the shield formation collapsed.

And the entire room was instantly covered in pitch blackness.

It was a complete darkness that came in a situation where they had never let the light go out until now. A sudden sense of anxiety washed over everyone.

A bone-chilling terror.

As the fire that lit the darkness vanished, their mental power began to be shaved away rapidly.

’Light...!’

’Wait, it’s dangerous right now!’

Several knights belatedly tried to start a fire, but right now, it had the opposite effect.

They were already in a state of being surrounded by the Shades covering the area. The knights who tried to light the fire again were immediately attacked from all sides.

In a situation where they couldn’t prepare their defense in advance, the attempt to light the fire only made them defenseless targets for attack.

─!

At that moment, a massive roar echoed in everyone’s head. A noise that sounded like both a beast’s cry and a scream. This time, everyone could hear that sound.

Like the unpleasant feeling of hearing a steel plate being ground, that sound vibrating in their heads shaved away their mental power as if a blade were carving out flesh.

The shadow, which had been small in size, had grown so large that they now had to lift their heads to look up at it.

That form, with a color darker than the darkness itself, was clearly visible even in the dark, looking down upon the knights.

’Stick to this side!’

Mika hurriedly grabbed Ian and Tanya, who were nearby, and pulled them toward her. Then, she immediately cast a small barrier surrounding her vicinity.

In this place covered in darkness where the front could not be seen, it was difficult to accurately cast barriers on people, and casting a large-scale barrier was useless in a situation where allies and enemies were already mixed together.

For now, this was the only way to protect herself and those around her.

Mika hurriedly looked around to see if there were more people to help, but in the pitch-black darkness, it was hard to even distinguish who the person right next to her was.

’Mika! Deploy the barrier and block that front!’

’I can’t see anything! Right now the Shades are too close so it won’t be of any use...’

’The Shades don’t matter, from now on we have to block that thing in front!’

Mika understood what Ian was pointing at.

The black shadow that was clearly visible even in this darkness. Thanks to that, even in this situation where nothing else could be seen, the position of that monster could be identified for certain.

Ian’s gaze turned toward the monster that had grown massive.

The Desecrator.

If a light source is lit, it performs a mental power reduction attack toward the target possessing the light source at set intervals.

If there is no light source, it performs a mental power reduction attack toward all targets.

And it grows stronger in proportion to the mental power reduction value it has inflicted.

Once combat begins, it repeats mental power reduction attacks along with general monsters, and after a set time... that is, from Phase 2, the wraith-like state where attacks do not land is lifted, and it begins direct attacks.

Following these rules strictly, it was an easy opponent to the point where the name ’boss’ felt meaningless if the party’s mental power reduction could be suppressed to a minimum, but...

Conversely, that meant it became an opponent that was utterly impossible to deal with in a situation where the rules could not be followed.

The direction in which the battle would flow from now on depended on how quickly this sudden chaos could be brought under control.

’That thing is moving!’

The shadow, which had been standing still until now, suddenly jerked its head up. It was the first attack.