Arc-7 Ch-37

Snakes, as a rule, are incredibly tenacious creatures.

To begin with, they slither across the ground almost without making a sound, which makes their movements unpredictable and extremely troublesome to deal with.

On top of that, their long, slender bodies present only a tiny surface area and volume, so landing a clean hit on them is ridiculously difficult. Fighting one is something you really want to avoid.

They also possess surprising strength. Once a snake coils around you, prying it off is no easy task.

Their hunting method is simple but brutal. They sneak up on their prey, wrap their bodies around it to crush the bones, and then tighten their grip until the victim suffocates.

Their entire body is essentially a mass of muscle, and they are flexible enough to swallow prey larger than themselves, which is something most people don't realize.

Some species have razor-sharp fangs capable of injecting lethal venom, and the nastier ones can even spit poison from their mouths.

Their senses are frighteningly sharp as well. While their vision and hearing are mediocre, their sense of smell, taste, and touch are extraordinary. Because of that, they often detect your presence before you even notice them, especially since humans rely so heavily on sight.

Above all else, their vitality is off the charts. It's no wonder some religions worship snakes as gods or associate them with dragons. Their sheer durability leaves that strong an impression.

So what am I getting at?

The monsters I saw at first glance gave me the impression of giant serpents far larger than any human, and they looked exactly like the kind of creature you never want to pick a fight with.

The fact that my wife managed to take down two of them made me think that she might simply be far too strong.

It honestly makes me feel pathetic that the smartest and strongest person in the Bartfort territory isn't me, the Earl, but my wife, the countess Angelica.

Right now, however, even the territory's strongest fighter, Ange, is just a small and adorable little girl with almost no physical strength. She isn't in any condition to be counted as combat capable.

That means it's up to me to step forward here.

I decided to start with the first shot.

I raised my rifle and aligned the sights.

The chamber was already loaded with magic bullets. A direct hit from one of them would drop most dungeon monsters in a single round.

However, I wasn't actually planning to land the opening shot. Anyone who's fired a gun knows that bullets don't travel in a perfectly straight line.

Air conditions, bullet weight, and countless other factors cause a shot to drift or drop. No human can hit every target with perfect accuracy every single time. That would require skill closer to a god's.

And no, this wasn't just an excuse for my mediocre marksmanship.

Bang!

I steadied my breathing and squeezed the trigger. The bullet cut through the darkness of the dim corridor like a knife. The round I thought would connect started drifting almost immediately and struck the floor just short of the monster, producing a harsh metallic screech.

That was slightly off. If I had adjusted the aim a little higher and to the left, it might have connected. Sights are precision instruments that should normally be fine tuned before combat begins, but there simply hadn't been time.

Even so, as a warning shot it served its purpose. If the monsters decided to back off now, that would be ideal.

“…You did mean to hit it, right?”

“I was aiming to hit it, yeah. But I also wanted it to miss a little so I could test a few things.”

“Test what?”

“In some dungeons like this one, magic gets completely suppressed or even blocked entirely. In those places, even high grade magic bullets end up with the same power as ordinary rounds. It's annoying, but quite a few monsters deliberately hole up in locations like that.”

“I see.”

“Also, if a warning shot makes them run away, we can avoid pointless fighting. Since we're exploring without any prior information, I want to conserve stamina and ammunition as much as possible.”

The twins might have thought I was making excuses, but both reasons were completely genuine.

All over the world, there are dungeons that suppress or even nullify magic based attacks. In the worst cases, it becomes impossible to cast spells at all.

According to Ball, this was one of the countermeasures the old humans developed during their long war against our ancestors, the new humans.

Their goal was to weaken us, since we rely heavily on magic as our primary means of attack, and then wipe us out all at once. The level of murderous intent behind that strategy was honestly terrifying.

As for the warning shot, avoiding unnecessary battles would shorten the time needed to reach the lower level core. Preserving stamina and ammunition was part of my calculation.

If the elves had already begun making a serious move to capture us, every second mattered. If they took Angie and the others we left in the village settlement as hostages, we would have no way to fight back.

On top of that, our main offensive methods rely on guns and explosives. The more we use them in combat, the weaker we become, which would make reaching our objective even harder.

And to make matters worse, this was the twins' very first real combat experience. Our circumstances were far from ideal.

Magic bullets are expensive, but if a single shot can avoid a battle entirely, it's a bargain.

Unfortunately, the monsters reacted in the exact opposite way from what I had hoped. Perhaps they interpreted the warning shot as a clear act of hostility.

Normally, when animals are targeted and attacked by another creature, their first instinct is to evade or flee.

Only after realizing that the failed ambush came from something weaker do they attempt to counterattack.

Gunfire is obviously a long range attack that can't be reached easily. Any normal animal would judge the situation unwinnable and run away.

However, these monsters that inhabited the ruins were different. They directed their hostility straight at us without hesitation.

Of course, I had fired first, so it was fair to say they had every reason to view us as enemies.

Even so, living creatures usually possess an instinct for self preservation that pushes them to avoid danger and protect their own lives. These monsters completely lacked that fundamental biological drive.

They had clearly been trained by their master to exist solely for the purpose of killing humans. They had forgotten pain and fear, like hunting dogs bred only for slaughter. That was the second strong impression these monsters left on me.

「ＧＵＲＵＬＵ……」

「ООＨＨＨ……」

“Wait, they're mad now, aren't they?”

“Yeah… they're definitely pissed.”

“What do we do, Father?!”

“What else can we do? If it's come to this, we have to take them down.”

“Can't you just throw a bomb and blow them up all at once?!”

“They're too far away, and if they throw it back, we'll be the ones in trouble. Besides, never underestimate the destructive power of an explosion.”

Using a hand grenade to eliminate multiple enemies at once is actually an advanced technique.

If you throw it too close, you put yourself in danger. There is also the possibility that the enemy could throw it back during the few seconds before the fuse detonates.

With these monsters in particular, that risk is even higher. They are clearly larger and stronger than me, with thicker arms. They would be able to throw it farther and faster than I could.

And in a confined space like this narrow corridor, the shockwave from an explosion is not something to take lightly.

Blast waves and shockwaves kept reverberating off the corridor's ceiling, walls, and floor, striking us from every direction. In the end it would leave a corpse with its brain and internal organs completely pulped, blood and various fluids leaking from every orifice.

In this place, only firearms, bladed weapons, and hand-to-hand combat were viable. The size difference made grappling useless, and neither I nor the twins were particularly skilled in magic.

In other words, when I calmly assessed the situation, the only way for us to survive was to skillfully use our firearms and our brains to kill the monsters before they killed us.

"Both of you, raise your guns. You know how to use them, right?"

"Yes."

"Yeah."

I prompted the twins to ready their weapons, and they started preparing the shotguns slung over their shoulders.

"Fire the moment I give the order. Aim roughly. It doesn't have to be perfect. The goal is to intimidate them and stop their movement. Understood?"

"Got it."

"Let's do this."

The two of them raised their shotguns and pointed the muzzles toward the monsters.

The basic plan was simple. We would use the twins' shotguns to halt the monsters' advance, then finish them off with my rifle loaded with magic bullets.

It was an extremely straightforward tactic. But compared to armies of dozens or hundreds moving in coordinated units, our options were painfully limited. Especially since this was the twins' first real combat.

「ＡＡＨＨＨ……」

「ＧＵＧＡＡＨ……」

Oh boy. Oh boy.

These monster bastards were clearly out for blood. Damn it.

Even if it was to protect ourselves from creatures trained to attack humans, taking a life still filled me with resistance.

This wasn't killing livestock or wild animals for food, nor exterminating pests that threatened human life and coexistence.

It was purely killing because we could not advance otherwise. A hollow, sorrowful conflict.

Still, we couldn't afford to die here. We had family and subordinates waiting for us to return.

Sorry, but we're pushing through.

「ＧＹＡ！」

「ＵＧＩＩ！」

Almost the moment I steeled myself, the monsters began moving.

Both attacked simultaneously from different directions. It was a simple, straightforward tactic.

Against a lone opponent with inferior physical ability, it would undoubtedly have been the optimal, guaranteed-victory approach.

Yet Angie had faced three openly hostile monsters like these, killed two, and driven off the third. How incredible was that? I genuinely didn't understand how such a formidable woman was content being married to me.

For now though, I would try to avoid marital fights. I still didn't want to die.

"Father! The enemies are coming!"

"Can we shoot yet?!"

"Not yet! Draw them in more!"

Shotgun pellets were difficult to tune for power. Because the shot spreads, the farther the target, the wider the pattern becomes, making hits easier but reducing killing power.

Conversely, at extremely close range the power increases, but the spread doesn't happen. In that case, you'd be better off using solid slugs from the start to preserve penetration.

Against monsters larger than humans, I was skeptical about how effective shot even was. It might inflict wounds, but killing them outright seemed difficult.

That's why the twins' shooting should focus on stopping the monsters' movement with area coverage. Their lack of skill and experience could be offset by sheer volume of fire.

「ＳＹＡＡＨＨ！」

"Still not yet?!"

"Hold on! Wait for my command!"

Ariel let out something close to a scream. Her finger trembled on the trigger as she desperately held back.

I understood the urge to just unload the gun to suppress the terror. When I was first thrown onto the battlefield as a rookie, I had felt the same impulse. To kill before being killed.

This bad habit of spraying bullets is something almost every soldier experiences at some point. That's exactly why it has to be corrected.

In severe cases, troops burn through ammo too quickly or lose the ability to distinguish friend from foe and start shooting at anything that moves, rendering them useless as soldiers.

That's why the first real battle is so crucial. One actual experience teaches more seriously than a hundred explanations.

"Still?!"

"Just a little longer!"

The monsters closed to within twenty paces. That was the maximum effective range for shotguns. By that point, the one that had surged ahead was now protruding farther than the other, making a simultaneous attack difficult.

I held them until the last possible moment not only for shotgun range and power considerations, but also to disrupt their coordination.

This corridor was wide enough for several humans to pass without issue, but it wasn't ideal for massive monsters to advance side by side.

Moreover, since they slithered forward with snake-like lower bodies, their movements inevitably interfered with each other and slowed their coordination. My judgment was correct.

According to Angie's account, they sometimes climbed walls or ceilings to attack. If that happened, I would reliably shoot them down with the magic bullets loaded in my rifle.

"Hurry! Hurry up!"

"Calm down! Aim properly!"

The monsters closed to ten paces. We still had some distance, but having them rush us wasn't exactly pleasant.

I had expected the fiery Ariel to get worked up, but what surprised me was that Lionel remained completely silent the entire time.

I wasn't underestimating my own son, but the usually timid and unreliable eldest boy was showing remarkable composure in his first real combat. Something rare even among seasoned recruits.

At least from what Angie and I had seen of Lionel so far, maybe the surface calm was a mask hiding his true nature. Now I was starting to worry. Could he actually be exceptionally talented as a soldier?

That wasn't really a talent I wanted him to inherit.

My battle-honed senses kept wandering through stray thoughts. Right at that moment, the leading monster entered effective range.

"Now! Fire!!"

Bang! Bang!!

The instant the order left my mouth, both twins' shotguns erupted.

It was the perfect distance for maximum shotgun effect, fired almost simultaneously from different angles. There was nowhere for the monsters to escape.

Countless tiny black spots appeared across the protruding monster's body surface. Within less than a second, blood began to flow.

「ＧＩＹＡＡＡＡＡＨＨ！？」

"Even monsters bleed red, huh."

Bang!!

While muttering something carefree, I calmly squeezed the rifle's trigger, aiming at the grotesque head that looked like a human face forcibly twisted out of shape.

The bullet fired from the muzzle, infused with lightning magic, possessed terrifying penetration power. A particularly large hole opened in the monster's forehead, and in the blink of an eye its head burst open, scattering its contents.

For any normal living creature, that would have been instant death. At least every human corpse I had seen on the battlefield and every dungeon monster I had encountered would have been finished by that.

Yet the monster was still trying to attack us, wriggling several of its arms.

Seriously? Even after having most of its brain blown away, it still won't die? That's way too monstrous.

"Father!?"

"It's fine! You two focus on the other one!"

I called out to Lionel, suppressing my own agitation. One of the worst mistakes a commander can make on the battlefield is letting panic cloud their judgment.

One monster remained completely unharmed. If I got shaken by the enemy right in front of me and overlooked the one behind, history books are full of wars lost that way.

First, I calmly observed the monster. The one missing its head was now just flailing several arms aimlessly on the spot.

It seemed to have completely lost the ability to think. As long as we stayed out of reach, its simple physical reactions shouldn't be a problem.

Even so, letting my guard down would be foolish. It was better to destroy anything that could still be a threat while I had the chance.

Bang!! Bang!!

I fired one magic bullet each into its chest and abdomen. Using three magic bullets to finish off a single monster was a huge waste, but I couldn't afford to complain.

Surely that finished it off completely. While I'd been focused on the one in front of me, the twins hadn't fired their shotguns at all. That bothered me.

I reloaded another magic bullet just in case and turned my attention to the remaining monster.

When I shifted my gaze, the reason I hadn't heard gunfire became clear. There it was: the monster skillfully using its abnormally thick arms to cling to the wall.

Its insect-like, bizarre movements were nauseating just to watch, and its unnatural motion made it incredibly hard to aim at, even for me.

That was probably why the twins were struggling to land hits. We'd never encountered monsters this tenacious even in the dungeons Ange and I had explored together.

"Both of you, calm down! Fire alternately to cut off its escape routes! It doesn't have to be precise. Just keep it pinned!"

"O-Okay!"

"Yes!"

Bang!! Bang!!

Following my instructions, the twins began shooting. When the enemy moves quickly, the standard tactic is to overwhelm it with area-of-effect attacks.

From what I could see, the monster relied almost entirely on its snake-like lower body for movement, so jumping or leaping seemed difficult for it.

Its arms were much thicker than a human's, but not thick enough to support its elongated giant body. That's probably why it had so many of them, to cling to walls and ceilings.

In other words, if enough arms were damaged, it wouldn't be able to stick to surfaces anymore.

And the more arms it had, the larger its hitbox became. That made it a perfect target for wide-spread shotgun pellets. Worst possible matchup.

Bang!!

"GYAAAH!?"

The gunshot rang out, and at the same moment the monster fell from its perch high on the wall.

Apparently one of the twins had landed a hit. One of its arms was now drenched in blood.

It desperately struggled to regain its grip, but it wasn't working. Of course not.

Bullets are nasty. They stay lodged in the body, worsening the wound, and the impact transfers through muscles and organs far from the entry point.

I'd been knocked clean off my feet by gunfire on the battlefield before. The pain and shock from the hit alone made it hard to even stand.

Sorry to do this while you're down and weakened from falling off the wall after being shot, but I'm going to finish you off properly now.

I quickly and carefully aligned the muzzle and squeezed the trigger. My aim: chest and abdomen, two shots.

Bang!! Bang!!

Two deep, resonant gunshots echoed through the corridor. The monster convulsed, but after a moment the trembling stopped.

Taking a life is depressing no matter the circumstances, doubly so when your children are watching.

I steadied my breathing, then turned to face them. I'd just shown them a side of myself I never wanted my family to see, and I was honestly a little afraid of what they'd say.

Lionel and Ariel stood frozen, still holding their guns at the ready, staring blankly at the monsters' corpses sprawled across the corridor.

Anyone would be shaken by the terror of taking a life after witnessing it firsthand.

But even between the twins, there was a clear difference in their reactions after their first real combat. Whether that came from gender, or from the difference between being raised as the heir and not, I couldn't tell.

Ariel was breathing heavily through her shoulders, repeatedly glancing between the shotgun in her hands and the monsters. Normally so bold, her reaction was exactly like any other new recruit's.

Surprisingly, it was the usually timid Lionel who remained calm. Or perhaps the intensity of his first real battle had simply overwhelmed his emotions, leaving him numb.

Either way, the first thing to do was comfort them both. I'd have to keep a close eye on them the rest of the way down to the lower levels.

"You two okay?"

"No injuries anywhere…"

"…No problems."

"Good. There's a high chance of more fighting once we reach the lower levels, so calm your minds for now."

"…Got it."

"…Yes."

『Well done. Minimal casualties to the unit is something to be pleased about.』

"…You just watched the whole time, huh?"

『Quite rude of you to say. If I hadn't been providing illumination in this corridor, you would have been fighting in near darkness.』

"Then at least give me some useful intel, like the monsters' weak points."

『Precisely what I was about to suggest. Leon Fou Bartfort, let us examine the corpses in detail.』

"…Fine."

"Ew… seriously?"

"Father, shouldn't we move quickly?"

"There are things you only notice after the fight. These things aren't ordinary creatures. Going in blind to their weaknesses could get us cornered."

『Then please proceed.』

Urged by Ball, I began examining the monster corpses. They were massive, though, so even the three of us together could barely move them.

The first one was too badly damaged from shotgun pellets and head trauma, so we excluded it. We focused the examination on the second.

I pressed my favorite large knife against the monster's neck and severed the head. Freshly killed, blood continued to gush from the severed neck as the head rolled to the ground, filling the air with the thick stench of blood.

Even after death, the heart keeps beating for a while. Same principle as bleeding out livestock or fish. Nothing too unpleasant if you know what you're doing.

The monster's face had two eyes and ears like a human or elf, plus one nose and mouth. But the eyes were clearly different from human, the ears larger and more pointed than an elf's, and the tongue too long to fit inside the mouth.

"Well, it does resemble a human somewhat. Though most creatures' heads are pretty similar anyway."

『The eyeballs show significant degeneration compared to humans. Conversely, the pronounced enlargement of the nasal cavity, ear pinnae, and tongue suggests adaptation for detecting targets even in darkness.』

"So bad eyesight, but excellent sense of smell, hearing, and taste."

『Enlarged ear pinnae are common in certain mammals, while developed olfaction and taste are typical of reptiles.』

"There are creatures like that?"

『From my perspective, the fact that dungeon monsters inside leave no corpses and simply dissipate raises far more questions about whether they can even be called living organisms.』

"Get used to it. Monsters are just that kind of creature. So these things have ridiculously good noses and ears?"

『While the eyeballs are degenerated, they are still capable of distinguishing prey. However, they likely have difficulty tolerating light beyond a certain threshold.』

"……What are you plotting, Father? Your face is grinning like crazy."

"No one who discovers an enemy's weak point could keep from smiling."

『Let us proceed to examine the internal organs. Please continue.』

"Got it."

Prompted by Ball, I drove the knife into the abdomen and worked the blade up and down to widen the incision.

Back when I was a poor kid, I often helped butcher the livestock we raised or the wild animals we hunted in exactly this way.

Careful not to damage the organs too badly, I continued cutting upward toward the chest. Then I noticed something strange.

There was no hardness like the ribs or sternum you would expect in a human body. It felt as if I were slicing through nothing but dense, high-density muscle the entire time.

"Why are you so good at this, Father…?"

"Blame my upbringing. When I was little, I had to help slaughter cows, pigs, chickens, you name it. Later, when I joined the army, they taught me exactly where and how to kill a human as efficiently as possible."

"Ugh. I wish I hadn't asked."

"Do you know which animal has internal organs most similar to a human's? The pig."

"Stop! I said I didn't want to know! Now I won't be able to eat meat for weeks!"

Ariel desperately tried to cover her ears. It looked like her energy was finally coming back.

Kids really do recover quickly. On the other hand, Lionel simply continued watching me dissect in silence without saying a word. That was honestly a little unsettling.

I made incisions across the chest and abdomen, then pulled the sides apart to expose what should have been the monster's internal organs.

"What the hell is this?"

Inside the chest cavity, there was only bone, nerves, and muscle connected to those thick arms. There was nothing that resembled internal organs.

Down in the abdomen, however, sat one enormous red organ. It was probably the heart.

There were no lungs, no stomach, and no liver. I couldn't understand how these monsters had been alive at all.

『The chest contains only the structures required to operate the multiple arms. A large nerve cluster is also visible.』

"Nerve cluster?"

"It is an organ commonly found in insects. It is mainly used to control the six limbs that grow from the thorax."

Lionel answered Ariel's question. That made sense. He had always been the type who devoured books on every subject.

He never fixated on a single topic, but between heir education and the books Angie gave him, which covered more than just politics and history, he had read widely.

Thinking about it, among the children Angie and I had, the biggest bookworm was Melanie. Even so, Lionel actually got along best with Roxanne because their tastes in reading were similar.

Because of his heir training and his enrollment in the Royal Academy, his studies had gradually become more focused. I had completely forgotten that before.

"It is sometimes called a second brain because it controls limb movement. That is why insects can keep moving their legs even after losing their heads."

『Considering that the monster continued moving even after its head was destroyed, that inference appears correct. Lionel Fou Bartfort, you are clearly more knowledgeable than Ariel Fou Bartfort.』

"Hey! What kind of tone is that supposed to be?!"

"No, no. You should actually listen to him. Remember how bad your test scores were? Angie got angry at you."

"Is this really the time to bring that up?!"

"There really are forms of knowledge and skills that turn out to be useful. My experience with butchering and Lionel's knowledge from books are helping us right now, aren't they?"

"Well… yeah, I guess…"

"So don't ever think school studies are useless. There are plenty of people out there who want to learn but never get the chance."

My own life had been almost entirely self-taught. After marrying Angie, I received some noble education, but no one understands the pain of lacking formal learning more than I do.

That is exactly why I want to give my children as much education as possible. It is the bare minimum of a parent's duty. However, with Ariel's personality, it probably just feels like pressure to her.

Educating children has always been a difficult problem, no matter the era.

While watching Ariel and Ball bicker and Lionel attempt to mediate between them, I continued the dissection with my knife.

Next, I moved on to the snake-like lower body. Unlike the upper half, cutting through flesh covered in scales was far more difficult.

Even so, after finally managing to slice it open, several organs that looked familiar appeared. It seemed that the monster's vital organs were concentrated in the lower half.

"So, Ball?"

『Examination complete. These monsters possess internal structures that closely resemble those of reptilian snakes.』

"A head like a human, a thorax like an insect, and a lower body like a snake."

"…Can something like that occur naturally?"

『It is impossible. Clear signs of artificial genetic modification are present.』

"So this is why the elves decided to start a rebellion."

"Hey… are there a lot more of these things down below?"

Ariel asked in a trembling voice. I felt exactly the same.

But retreating now was not an option. If the lower levels were swarming with these monsters, it would not only put Angie and the others in danger. Everyone on this floating island would be at risk.

The scale of the situation was beginning to make me dizzy. Even so, we had to keep going.

Why does trouble always manage to find me?

I cursed whatever malicious god of fate had decided that the rescue I had hoped would arrive as late as possible now needed to happen immediately.

┳⁠━━━━⁠━⁠⁠━⁠━⁠━━━⁠┳

Author's Note

┻━⁠━━━━⁠━━⁠━━━⁠┻

The dungeon in the elves' village was actually a bio-engineering facility run by a radical faction! (Whaaat?!)

Readers familiar with the original work already know this, but most characters in the story are unaware of it. Compared to the monsters that appear in the ruins in the original work, the monsters in this story are stronger. They were created using an improved version of Claire's prototype management system combined with the elves' advanced modification techniques.

Will Leon and the others make it safely through the dungeon?

The next chapter will shift to Angie's perspective.

I would greatly appreciate any opinions or impressions. They would be a huge encouragement for future writing.