I’ll Kill That Thing.

Sweat streamed down. He could feel his body shrinking in on itself.

The orc’s roar was unmistakably making Kikori weaker.

“GAAAARGH!”

“U—gh…!”

GAAAN! Kikori barely managed to dodge a blow that smashed the ground apart.

Fast—and strong. If he took that head-on, his arms would snap like twigs.

But more than anything else—

‘Damn it, this is bad. I’m scared stiff—I can’t move… I have to recover!’

There was no other choice.

To recover from this, there was only one thing he could do.

War Cry.

Kikori gathered his scattered killing intent once more.

‘I’ll kill that thing.’

Drawing in a breath, he roared.

“Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”

He shouted. The air trembled as Kikori howled.

Killing intent flooded his body. Fear drained away.

His mindset shifted—from trembling prey to that of a warrior.

The difference in strength hadn’t changed. Not even a little.

But his heart—at least that much had.

“BUOOOOOOOO!”

The orc roared back. It wasn’t War Cry.

It probably meant nothing more than I’m going to kill you.

The massive cleaver-like sword came swinging down from overhead—

—and Kikori dodged it cleanly.

The torso was wide open. No armor, no protection.

Then this should be easy.

He swung his axe down with everything he had—

—but it hit nothing, burying itself uselessly into the ground.

THUD.

The sound that echoed was of landing.

The orc stood beyond the axe’s trajectory.

“Back… step…?”

BAM! With a deafening impact, Kikori was sent flying.

Leaving its sword behind, the orc slammed into him with a shoulder tackle.

An attack that abandoned the weapon entirely—so unexpected that Kikori couldn’t even react before being blown backward and smashed into a tree.

“Kh—hah…!”

His head spun. His entire body screamed in pain.

The killing intent he’d forced together with War Cry had long since been scattered.

Even so, he staggered to his feet.

The axe was still in his hand.

Facing the orc as it retrieved its sword and walked closer, Kikori raised the axe.

He could still fight.

He wasn’t dead yet.

“UAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

The orc laughed.

Sneered.

Mocked him, as if to say this was all Kikori could do.

And that was true.

This was all Kikori had.

So he raised his axe—

…but didn’t swing it down.

“!?”

He saw the orc’s shocked expression as it hopped backward.

And Kikori hurled the axe straight at its face.

“G—!”

The axe pierced it.

In the instant the orc’s body stiffened, Kikori drew a knife and drove it in.

THUD.

Watching the massive body collapse backward—

Kikori didn’t relax right away.

He hid for a while. Then he threw his remaining knife.

When the orc showed no reaction at all—

All the strength drained from Kikori’s body, and he collapsed to the ground.