Chapter 13: Mighty Power

If I were to liken that creature to something, the first thing that came to mind was an elephant.
Four thick legs, a gigantic body, and long tusks jutting from its mouth.

But that was where the resemblance to an elephant ended: its big head on a thick neck was like a hippo’s or a rhino’s; the horns sprouting at its temples were bovine. Its long, long tail was lined with jagged protrusions like a crocodile’s.

Above all, what deserves special mention is its size.
Though it walked on four legs, its face was far above us—at a height that made you crane your neck.
Its shoulder height had to be around ten meters.
From head to tail-tip it was easily twice that.

It was so big it looked like it could stomp not just Gai-san and the others, but even me, flat without effort.

「Spear, throw. Sensei, fly. Bite.」
「Ah, so I’m the finisher after all…」

Gai-san’s explanation was concise.

Gai-san and the others would ring the prey in a semicircle and drive it by hurling spears, and I would take to the air, swing around to the direction it fled, and intercept.
We’d hunted game like this several times before.
The biggest success so far had been a boar, and even that hadn’t reached a tenth the size of the giant beast before us.

「Sensei, strong. Can win.」

I appreciated their confidence, but wasn’t this a bit of an overestimation?

「Well, I’ll do my best… bring the spears.」

I held my palm over the five spearheads thrust out before me and recited a spell.

「O long ones, sharp ones, piercers. Attend to my voice and, bathed in the light of my flame, shine. If you are peerless spears, miss not your mark, let nothing ward you, and become streaking stars that pierce even that giant beast.」

Then I breathed a light puff of flame over them, and the stone spears began to glow red.
I’d tailored a line of the spell to make that happen.

Magic tends to be rather unstable, and with spells like this where there’s no immediately visible result, it’s hard to tell how long the effect lasts. So I made them emit light for as long as the enchantment holds.

…In fiction—especially anime—things that have been enchanted glowing is something of a stock convention, but trying it for real, I never imagined it would be this practical.

「All right, get into position before the light goes out.」

I spread my wings and flew, circling so the giant beast wouldn’t spot me.
Come to think of it, I should give that beast a name.

And yet only one name came to mind.

Behemoth.

Also called Behemoth or Behemot, it’s a monster of the Old Testament: an immense beast said to be destined as food for the survivors once the final war is over.

I couldn’t think of a name for a monster larger than Behemoth, so I earnestly prayed there weren’t any creatures bigger than this.

Once I’d climbed high into the sky, Gai-san and the others ringed the Behemoth and hurled their spears. Just as I’d envisioned with the magic, the glowing spearheads tore through the air and sank into the Behemoth’s body.

「As I thought, it’s tough.」

Seeing the spears buried halfway up the shafts, I murmured.
What I’d envisioned was spears that would completely pass through the Behemoth and burst out the other side.
I’d really put my all into that long incantation, and the fact it still turned out like this could only mean the Behemoth was that sturdy.

I wondered whether my fangs would even get through.

Fortunately, the Behemoth didn’t wheel around—it bolted away from Gai-san and the others.
If it had meant to, it could’ve stomped them flat with ease, so for the moment things were going well, and I heaved a sigh of relief.

To him, what had stuck in must’ve been no more than a toothpick, but perhaps it was the first time he’d felt pain like that. If the me of my previous life got a toothpick stuck halfway in, I’d have raised a huge fuss too, so I couldn’t possibly call him pathetic.

As the Behemoth ran, fleeing the spears thrown one after another, I began a steep dive at it.

Even a poor hunter like me wouldn’t miss a target this big, charging straight ahead while glancing back as it was driven. Aiming to tear out its throat, I lunged hard and clamped down on the Behemoth.

「Gyu…」

With a strange sound, air and blood leaked from the Behemoth’s neck.

Hard!

The neck I’d bitten was frighteningly hard—like biting into an iron bar. If anything, it was remarkable that even stone spears, magic-enhanced though they were, had managed to stick in that hide at all.

I forced my fangs, sunk in only halfway, deeper by clenching my jaws. It was an unpleasant sensation—like biting aluminum foil. My fangs had to be exceedingly hard to collide with skin like this and not snap, yet even so this hide was harder still.

As I tried to at least tear off part of its neck, the Behemoth started thrashing, whipping its head back and forth. I couldn’t afford to be shaken off. I dug in with the claws of all four limbs and braced myself to cling on somehow.

Then there was a nasty rip, and suddenly the strength went out of the neck. In the jerking, I’d torn away a chunk of the flesh I’d been biting.
The timing couldn’t have been worse.
The force of my jaws coming free pried loose my claws as well, and with a mouthful of Behemoth meat I tumbled away.

I hastily spread my wings to catch the air—when a colossal shadow swept over my head.

「Oooooooooooooo!」

With a deep, masculine roar, a thunderous crash resounded.
I stared at the scene in disbelief.

The Behemoth’s neck—so thick and hard that even I had struggled to bite through—had been lopped off in a single blow.

Headless, the Behemoth’s body lost its balance and toppled with a booming thud. Beating my wings a few times, I settled to the ground and stared at the thing.

…Huge.
Of course, compared to the Behemoth he was much smaller, but he stood about as tall as I was at the shoulder.
Both arms and legs were as thick as logs, and the developed muscles looked like living rock.
His unruly, wavy hair reached his waist, calling to mind a lion’s mane.

In sheer size, he was smaller than not only the Behemoth but even the armored bear.

But—

But that creature, as if someone had just mashed together a gorilla, a lion, and a bear—

『Tch, missed the lizard.』

…was, apparently, human.

『Elvish. You can speak Elvish?』
『You can talk, even though you’re a lizard?』

It seemed we’d both found the same thing surprising.

『Don’t know about this “Elvish,” but… you learned from the long‑ears too?』
『Yeah. I may look like this, but I won’t attack people—so please don’t worry.』

At my words, the man gave a noncommittal “Hmm.”
Even if we could communicate, I couldn’t relax.

What had lopped off the Behemoth’s head was a weapon carved from a gigantic boulder.
Call it an axe or call it a sword—at any rate a massive, crudely made blade.
To think something like that could send the head of a Behemoth flying when even a dragon’s fangs barely got through.

No—before that, the very fact he’d leapt ten meters brandishing that weapon was abnormal. Even with a blessed physique, it should’ve been impossible.

Doing what should be impossible.
In other words, he too was a magician.
—And a terrifyingly powerful one at that.

Honestly, if we ended up enemies, I had no confidence I could win.

『Oi, lads. Haul it off.』

When the man raised his arm and let out a voice like a gong, a dozen-odd men came over and began butchering the Behemoth.

『Wait. We attacked that prey first. Just a portion is fine—could you split some with us?』

I hurried to speak up. After spending this long on a hunt, having the whole thing snatched away would be a problem.

『What was that?』

The big man voiced his displeasure and shot me a glare.
The pressure of it put even the armored bear to shame.
It was honestly terrifying enough to make me tremble, but I met his eyes with a firm stare.

…All while ready to take wing and flee at any moment.

『…Fine. Thanks to you lot, this one was easy to bring down.』

With that, the big man ordered what looked to be his underlings to cut off a hind leg and hand it over to us.

I breathed a sigh of relief. For our settlement, that much would be plenty—enough to feed everyone for several days with room to spare. We couldn’t have carried the whole thing back with our numbers anyway, so this was more than satisfactory.

『Thank you. That helps.』

I signaled to Gai-san and the others, and hefted the severed Behemoth leg.

『Hey, you.』

As I started to head off with the meat, the big man called after me.
Don’t tell me he’d changed his mind at the last second.

『How about coming to my village?』

Worried that might be the case, I turned around—only to have that invitation thrown my way instead.