Encounter

The third day out of Carnel City started once again with Allen shouldering Cecil and taking off at a run early in the morning.

He was hurrying with the aim of reaching Granvelle City within the next day.

At this time, there was a monster eyeing one Bird E from a distance away. The monster had learned that this bird's presence indicated that a certain playmate, whom it once had so much fun with, was close by.

Its half-human, half-doglike face with one squashed eye twisted into a sneer of sheer ecstasy before it set off at a bound.

The Bird E, which Allen was naturally Sharing with, eventually noticed the approaching monster. It was a monster he was very familiar with.

'Huh?! The murdergalsh from before! It's heading straight for me!'

The monster had managed to close the distance quite significantly before Allen caught sight of it. It was only several kilometers away by this point.

'What should I do..? Can I outrun it? My Agility's gone up a lot more since three years ago.'

Allen desperately racked his brains trying to work out what the best course of action would be. He had Cecil on his back and no idea where Dagrah would pop out from. If possible, he preferred to avoid getting into combat. However...

"What's wrong?"

As it turned out, Allen was not very good at maintaining a poker face.

Either that, or Cecil had an exceptionally sharp intuition. Either way, she picked up on the change in his demeanor almost immediately.

"Huh? Ah, well...we're now being chased by a murdergalsh too."

"What?!"

Allen candidly explained that the monster was several kilometers away and currently heading straight for their location.

"In this situation, being chased by two pursuers at the same time will make things very complicated, so I'm considering killing the murdergalsh first before going any farther."

'With my current abilities and stats, I should be able to kill the murdergalsh. The best way to handle this is to kill it first before continuing on.'

"You...can beat a murdergalsh?"

"I think so. After all, it wouldn't be my first time fighting it."

'I fully analyzed what it's capable of three years ago.'

"All right." Cecil believed in Allen's strength, so much so that when he said he could win, she did not question it.

***

Several minutes later, the murdergalsh had caught up to them.

Allen faced off against it, with Cecil already hidden safely a distance away.

'Okay, now that Cecil is safe, it's time to get rid of this pest.'

"AAAAAUUUUHHH!"

With a human-dog face, a humanlike upper torso and arms, and a wolflike lower torso, this one-eyed murdergalsh was the very one that had chased Allen for three days straight all those years ago.

The five-meter-tall monster was so excited about getting to fight him again that it was unable to wipe the smirk off its face.

"Look, mutt, I don't have much time. Let's get this done and over with."

After declaring that he would instant K.O. the murdergalsh, Allen Summoned twenty Beast Ds around the monster and sent them all charging in at once. It was the same simple strategy that had worked on both orc kings and armored queen ants: whittle the enemy down with sheer numbers.

'As expected, Spider Silk isn't very effective. It's not lowering the mudergalsh's speed by any noticeable degree. There's no point in using up card slots for them when I can have more Beast Ds instead. Ah, Brons, hold it down!'

Based on his experience fighting against other Rank B monsters, Allen came up with the idea to use four Stone Ds to hold the murdergalsh down from all four sides. This made it much easier for the Beast Ds to land their attacks, which meant the battle could finish faster and with fewer Beast D casualties.

Even so, Beast Ds kept getting killed one after the other. At the same time, Allen's grimoire flapped furiously overhead, Creating, Strengthening, and Summoning more as replacements.

The Teddys continued spamming Crush, drawing blood from all over the murdergalsh's body. As it writhed in pain, Allen kept throwing iron balls at its remaining left eye.

If possible, Allen wanted to completely rob the monster of its sight. Even if he himself got done in, there was a chance for Cecil to survive. However, Allen was having difficulty getting his throws to land, even with his stats being so much higher after all the level-ups and buffs from cards. Without the element of surprise on his side, the murdergalsh had no issue swatting all the iron balls down.

'An orc king would have already died by now. I guess this is an upper Rank B for you. But still, I think we're almost there.'

About ten minutes in, the murdergalsh was bleeding from all over and seemed on the verge of collapsing. That very moment, however, it flexed its back legs and leaped with every ounce of strength it had remaining.

"AUUUUUUH!"

"Huh?!"

CRAAAAASH.

After running out of iron balls, Allen had retreated about twenty or so meters back to direct his Summons from a safe distance away. However, in the blink of an eye, the murdergalsh came crashing down at his location.

In a panic, Allen willed all the Beast Ds to rush back to his side, but they were too far away. He had kept four Stone Ds at his side just now as a precaution, but the monster swept them all away with a single blow, desperate adrenaline coursing through its body. Then it grabbed Allen with both its hands and started squeezing him like an iron vise.

'Uh-oh, am I in trouble now?'

"A-ALLEEEEEN!" Cecil screamed from her position at the far back from which she had been observing the fight.

Allen shouted back, "I-I'm fine, milady!" but Cecil very much doubted it.

While he braced himself against the murdergalsh's grip, his grimoire repeatedly Created and Synthesized cards in a frenzied fury. At the same time, he did his best to reassure Cecil and warn her not to approach.

Despite bleeding all over, the murdergalsh was back to smirking with its hair-raisingly disgusting grin. It stared closely at Allen as it gradually clenched harder and harder, fully intent on slowly torturing the boy instead of killing him off in one swift strike.

Allen was supposed to have died a while ago being crushed in this way.

Sure enough, his bones shattered and he spat up blood, but he managed to hold on by using Leaves of Life liberally.

Several minutes later, the murdergalsh suddenly loosened its grip, grabbed Allen by his head, then chomped on him with an affected air. Its fangs pierced his abdomen, sending blood exploding like a fountain. From her position in the distance, Cecil crumbled to her knees, mumbling Allen's name in a small voice filled with despair.

Just as it seemed like everything was over...

"So, mutt. Turns out you're the type who eats from the tail first instead of the head. I had you pegged wrong."

With a single utterance referencing the two ways of eating fish-shaped taiyaki, Allen got out his short sword from Storage and held it firmly in his hand.

'Since you ate me from the bottom first, I'll attack you...here!'

Allen used every last ounce of strength he could muster in his upper body and jabbed the short sword directly into the murdergalsh's left eye.

"AAAAAUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHH!"

The monster screamed in absolute agony and flailed around, scattering gelatinous vitreous humor everywhere.

'Perfect! Now both its eyes are gone. To follow up...'

Allen wiggled the short sword, pushing it deeper. Soon, his entire arm was buried within the gushing eyeball. Even so, he continued pushing with all his might.

"How's that for size, eh, mutt? If you don't bite down harder, I just might finish you off first!"

Despite the sword in its eye, the murdergalsh still refused to spit Allen back out. It tried biting harder to finish the boy off, but for some reason, its teeth could not clamp down any further.

"Tough, right? And I'm only going to get tougher. It's your loss, and the reason is because you took your sweet time instead of killing me straight off."

The instant he had gotten caught, Allen had started changing the cards in his holders to Stone D, which buffed his HP and Endurance by 20. As a result of him Creating forty-eight copies of it, his HP was closing in on 2,000 and his Endurance was almost 1,500.

When it figured out that it could not crush Allen with its teeth, the murdergalsh shifted to crushing him with its hands. Allen paid its efforts no mind, focusing solely on driving his sword in further.

"Listen up, you mutt. Stats never let you down."

There was no way to determine the murdergalsh's exact stats, but the fact that it could not kill Stone Ds with Defend activated meant that its Attack had to be under 2,000. Based on this fact, Allen figured that he was more than capable of finishing off this monster if he continued using Leaves of Life.

During the brief naps he had caught during this journey, he had created hundreds of them just in case Dagrah really did catch up.

'How long has it been since I felt such an adrenaline rush? This is what I'm talking about!'

The sword had already reached the bone behind the eye and was still going deeper. Although the bone stopped the sword, Allen continued pushing until cracks began to form.

Before long...

"AAAAAAUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHH!!!"

The socket shattered and gave way for the sword to reach the monster's brain. The murdergalsh screamed the loudest it ever had, then collapsed to the ground.

It spat Allen out and convulsed violently, but eventually stopped moving altogether.