I Can’t Use It Anymore.

“Gih!?”

The hammer hobgoblin, which had fully switched into a cautious watch-and-wait mode, moved like it was in shock.

But it was already too late.

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”

A war cry, wrung out with everything he had left, roused Kikori’s remaining strength and made the hammer hobgoblin freeze for just an instant.

He snatched the axe from the axe hobgoblin and brought it down on its body. He killed it. He felt it—certainly—and then Kikori dropped to his knees.

He couldn’t move. His body just… wouldn’t move anymore. Of course. It was a miracle he’d been able to move this much at all.

The hammer hobgoblin, wary of that magic from earlier, still crept closer to Kikori.

And the gauntleted hobgoblin, maybe recovering from the groin shot, glared at Kikori.

‘I have to move. If I don’t move, I die.’

He knew that, but his body wouldn’t move.

He was already past his limits, and there was no such thing as “beyond the limit” waiting for him again.

That was why Kikori resigned himself to death and reached for the approaching hammer hobgoblin’s leg.

And in that instant, the hammer hobgoblin’s face twisted in fear, and it kicked Kikori away with all its might.

Gank! His body slammed hard into a tree, and Kikori rolled across the ground.

Through his blurred vision, Kikori watched the hammer hobgoblin fleeing—and the gauntleted hobgoblin chasing after it.

“…Ha ha.”

Seeing that, Kikori laughed.

He understood what they feared. The magic he’d used earlier… Break. They’d been wary of it. Afraid of it.

The “destruction spell: Break” that Kikori had improvised in desperation, inspired by Sword Breaker.

They had seen it up close when it destroyed the axe hobgoblin’s leg. Of course they’d be on guard. Of course they’d be scared.

“I can’t use it anymore. My magic power’s been empty since that…”

Even so, that was all it was.

Against a higher-level opponent—or someone with more magic power than Kikori—it probably wouldn’t work in the slightest.

That was all it amounted to. And even that much bluff had been enough… for him to survive.

Kikori reached for the small pouch at his waist… and pinched up the cap of a shattered potion bottle.

It was the 1,000-yen potion he’d bought at the Adventurers’ Guild yesterday while he was there to cash in.

He hadn’t even used it, and it was gone.

When had it broken? He hadn’t noticed at all.

Kikori silently rolled the potion cap away, then collapsed limply on the ground.

Ah, what a mess. Right now, at this very moment, even a horned rabbit or a goblin could kill Kikori easily.

His last-resort potion was gone, and it was getting harder and harder to stay conscious.

“I thought I smelled blood… hey, are you alive?”

Just before Kikori passed out.

Staring at what came into view, Kikori thought—

‘…A cat?’

That question went unanswered, and Kikori’s consciousness snapped off.