But This One’s On Credit, You Know.

Kill. Kill. He filled his mind with that intent.

‘Come here. Come here so I can kill you.’

With nothing but that filling his thoughts… Kikori shouted.

“Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo‼”

The air trembled slightly.

It still didn’t measure up to Aria’s, but the rending force of his fighting spirit echoed through the forest.

Before long, three goblins burst out from the trees and charged at him.

“U—aaaaaaaah!”

Shouting, Kikori rushed straight at the goblins.

He leapt at the sword-wielding goblin first, without hesitation, and smashed its head in with his axe.

“Gik!”

“Giiiiii!”

Before the knife-wielding goblin could do anything, he drove an elbow into its face, then smashed it away with his buckler.

The next instant, the club-wielding goblin struck him on the head, but he slammed his buckler back into its face in return.

“Guh…”

“Gabua…!”

“Giiiiii!”

“U—guah!”

The moment he reflexively deflected the knife thrown by the knife-wielding goblin with his buckler, the club-wielding goblin thrust hard into his wide-open stomach.

He hadn’t been stabbed. But intense pain surged through his abdomen, and even so, he didn’t let go of his axe.

Before he realized it, while the club-wielding goblin was keeping him in check, the goblin that had thrown the knife was stripping a sword from another corpse.

After all that effort to take down the sword-user first, this made it pointless.

What should he do… Thinking while they kept each other in check, Kikori remembered.

Right—War Cry.

“Ooooooooooooooooooooooooo‼”

“Gik…”

Kill. The War Cry, packed with killing intent, made the goblin flinch for an instant and sent heat coursing through Kikori’s body.

It was only the slightest margin—something so small it would be snuffed out in the face of true strength.

But Kikori’s axe strike split the club-wielding goblin apart.

Just like that, he seized the club and hurled it at the other goblin.

“Gi—gii!”

As if by instinct, the goblin knocked it aside with its sword—and in that moment, Kikori smashed his buckler straight into its wide-open face.

Again and again he slammed it down… then, on the fallen goblin, he finished it off with the sword he picked up.

And that was the end.

“…Haaah…”

“Good work.”

As Kikori felt all the strength drain from his body, Aria spoke to him.

“It looks like War Cry has more or less become yours. All that’s left is taking responsibility, and it’ll be perfect.”

“Responsibility?”

Following Aria’s gaze… there lay three corpses of horned rabbits.

“…Ah.”

“Well, it’s not like this much trouble really matters, though?”

“S-sorry.”

“It’s fine. But this one’s on credit, you know.”

Faced with Aria’s smile… Kikori could do nothing but feel deeply apologetic.