“Shiyeon.”
“Yeah?”
“In the future, you’re going to fight monsters alone, right?”
“Yep!”
Since the promise made with that strange octopus monster whose name I can’t even remember, we hadn’t transformed much at all.
A suddenly appearing monster, with Shiyeon saying she’d follow it.
Though I thought it was too early for her to feel any responsibility, I still believed such feelings were better developed earlier rather than later.
It comes naturally with the title of magical girl.
Looking at Shiyeon, who answered cheerfully, I spoke in a slightly lowered voice that was different than usual.
“Today, you have to watch carefully how to eliminate a monster.”
“Okay!”
On a cloudy winter sky, we arrived at the empty downtown street, guided by two mascots.
With the start of the festival, the monster appeared unexpectedly; I didn’t know what was going on, but I gradually lowered my altitude to confirm its identity.
From my view in the high sky, it looked like a long dot.
At least, it wasn’t a face I had seen before.
“Wait a minute.”
“Why?”
I held my hand against Shiyeon’s stomach and chest while maintaining a distance in the sky, stopping her from descending completely.
The first quality of a magical girl, a process to teach ambush.
“Here, you shoot your magic and kill….”
I almost used an unrefined expression and trailed off, my brain churning to find a more refined term.
“No, you can eliminate it.”
“From here?”
“Yeah, here. Shall we practice together?”
Grabbing Shiyeon’s magic cane while hovering in place, I aimed at the monster on the ground.
No matter how small a stone is thrown, if it’s from a high apartment over 20 floors, it becomes a story where the person hit can’t laugh.
Height and gravity are the weapons of a magical girl.
Especially in the case of monsters crawling on the ground, they don’t often look up as they focus on the colorful objects in front of them.
In game terms, it’s like adding hit damage for stealth strike.
“Get a good aim….”
With my guidance, Shiyeon’s cane aimed at the monster on the ground.
A sharp icy spear with a bluish hue formed at the tip of the moon-shaped magic cane.
Curious about the name of the technique, I asked while helping Shiyeon maintain her posture.
“What’s the name of this technique?”
“Ice Pierce!”
And with her answer, the icy spear flew sharply from the tip of the cane.
“Oh.”
The name I had asked about casually caused the spear to fly and embed itself in the ground.
Naturally, before it targeted the monster’s head, it flew away, so it had no chance of hitting.
The monster that was wreaking havoc by breaking empty stalls where no people were.
It naturally turned its gaze toward us as the ice spear broke beside it.
“Damn…!! You…!”
The monster was angry looking at us floating in the sky.
Since the ambush failed, it would normally be the right move to descend and confront it directly.
That would be the common sense of the situation….
‘Why would we?’
After thinking deeply, I reached a logical conclusion.
From the looks of it, they had no ranged attacks while we did.
In such a situation, was there really a need for us to descend?
Calmly intrigued by the sudden news of a monster, I crossed my legs in the air and spoke.
“Shiyeon, let’s practice more.”
“Uh? Is that okay?”
“I think it will be fine. Let’s just hit it once.”
Thus began the sudden practice of dodging ice spears falling from the sky.
“Ice Pierce! Ice Pierce!”
The monster, naturally attempting to resist, threw various debris lying nearby.
But no matter how hard it threw trash scattered on the street, unless they were quite large, they wouldn’t reach our altitude.
The answer the monster found while looking around was a piece of paving stone.
As if it had found treasure, it clutched it tightly in its hands even at that height and threw it, but….
“Ah?!”
Of course, I caught the paving stone which had slowed down sufficiently before reaching Shiyeon.
The debris that hadn’t gone off course merely turned back into projectiles from my hands.
“It’s okay, keep going.”
While reassuring Shiyeon, I used the rotation of my shoulders and wrists to throw it hard near the monster.
With a sound like a bomb dropping, the paving stone shattered into pieces without a trace.
The ice spears from Shiyeon kept flying steadily, while the paving stones she had thrown rained back down upon her.
Minutes passed, yet Shiyeon’s attacks showed no sign of hitting.
Rather, her accuracy decreased as time passed.
Since she missed the opportunity to ambush, she truly had no chance at that point.
“That’s enough, let’s go down.”
“Uh? But I haven’t hit it even once….”
“It’s okay. If you hit it right from the start, you’d be a genius.”
I had thought she wouldn’t hit at all to begin with.
Perhaps she hadn’t realized that, as she followed me down with a sulky expression.
The monster hadn’t even considered hiding inside a building.
Whether due to the continuous barrage of spears and paving stones, the monster, having fled with all its strength, was already panting from exhaustion.
“Cough, huff… cowardly, brats….”
Upon getting closer and taking a look, aside from walking on two legs and wearing clothes, it was almost exactly like a crocodile.
Hmm, isn’t crocodile skin quite expensive?
Anyway, it seemed drained of energy, so subduing it seemed even easier.
I pressed down on my tightly clenched fist with my other hand, then boldly walked toward the crocodile monster as it opened its mouth wide.
“Mun, watch carefully.”
“Prepare yourself-!”
I don’t know why those damn brats came down to the ground on their own, but Ebl Croaker was sure of victory until that moment when it dashed toward the masked kid.
All the effort to dodge the attacks had been in vain, as the lowly beings could not even make it to the stage of the universe.
Could they really be stronger than the captain of a spaceship, no matter how impressive they were?
A certainty bred from decades of arrogance and unfounded confidence.
But that certainty broke, accompanied by an absurdity that was far too sudden for the time accumulated.
His jaw clenched around what could not possibly be the skin of a living being.
Most battles with living creatures ended just like that.
That’s right.
That’s why Ebl Croaker had never imagined that ‘most’ cases wouldn’t apply here.
“Grrk?!”
The toughness that was unimaginable for a living being.
It felt like biting down on unbreakable metal; a solid impact resonated in his mouth.
Ebl Croaker immediately detached his jaw from the kid’s skin, the vibration still lingering.
He brought his hand, which could never cover to the tip of his jaw, to his mouth in a futile attempt to ease the pain.
Overwhelming foreboding washed over him, and Ebl Croaker remembered.
“Don’t underestimate them.”
The voice of the tentacled higher-up who had left the most serious warning.
However, with no time to linger in the past, Ebl Croaker was thrust back into the harsh reality.
“Hey, is it over?”
What returned to him was a childish voice radiating an almost frightening presence.
“Gaaah…!”
From the moment the first attack didn’t land, he had already lost heart.
What good does speaking achieve? His most useful and strongest method of attack had completely missed.
At that point, victory and defeat had already been determined.
Ebl Croaker let out a pathetic scream as his jaw was forcibly opened.
Engraved with fear, he crawled on the ground as he sought mercy despite his mouth being open.
“W-wait!”
He felt fear from the unknown of what might happen next.
Ebl Croaker was not a monster accustomed to fear and pain.
Conflicts were resolved by his biological father, and in battles, his proud strong jaw had solved them for him.
Though he was accustomed to being the one causing pain, he had no experience on receiving it.
Sun had seen the attitude of the monster changing; it was not her first time.
Often, on days she was busy or annoyed, she had given monsters a peaceful death.
“I don’t know who you are, but you were supposed to not come at the 20-setre or 20-set.”
“…!”
“Plus that festival bonus….”
The last escape route had turned into two mines he had boldly stepped on.
For him, there could be no mercy.
Sun remembered the monster that had fled back to the spaceship due to weakness and had not returned to her territory.
With that experience in hand, she vowed to show Ebl Croaker what hell was.
“P-please, mercy…!”
“Impossible.”
The cane flame burned brighter than ever and slowly moved toward his mouth.
The bright sun on a cloudy winter day was, for that moment, within Ebl Croaker’s mouth, rather than somewhere in the universe.
