Monster Hunting

"Lieutenant!"

I parried a slash accompanied by howling wind with the short sword on my

left hand and tried to cut the rocky arm off with the longsword on my right

hand, but the counter ended up shallow. It looked like the blade would

break if I continued clashing with the armored arm, so I hurriedly pulled my

sword back.

"What! Is it!?"

Lt. Col. Serena just managed to duck down in order to avoid a backhand

blow from one of the enemy's four arms. Sword blows from two arms on

one side of the enemy's body immediately chased after Lt. Col. Serena.

However, Lt. Col. Serena rolled to one side and avoided one blow while

parrying the other. It looks like she was being pushed quite hard.

"In this situation! You won't suddenly tell me! We need to take this guy

back with all limbs intact! You won't, right!?"

I started reconsidering our battle plan as I fended off a storm-like series of

thrusts from the arms on the monster's right-hand side, as the arms on its

left continued to assail Lt. Col. Serena.

Although it still retained some human features, it would be virtually

impossible to capture this four-armed creature which appears to be Geritz

without a scratch now. The swords on his four arms seem to have integrated

with his flesh and were lodged on top of his fists instead of him holding

them.

[DIEEEEEEEEEEE!]

"–Kh!"

Maybe he decided to leave Lt. Col. Serena for later. He started focusing on

me instead, and his four arms unleashed multiple slashes toward me. But I

managed to hold my breath at this point and returned to that world of

extreme slow motion.

I side-stepped one of the now-slowed but undoubtedly powerful slashes,

moved forward, and bent over to avoid the second sword that was trying to

mow down my flank. The third sword that was thrusting at me diagonally

from above was fended off by the short sword I held in my left hand. And

finally, I altered the trajectory of the fourth sword before it reached me. Tsk.

I would have loved to cut off a wrist or two while I was at it. However, after

I managed to dodge all his attacks, I was now right before him.

He must have moved instinctively. A knee strike comparable to a huge

battering ram was now heading straight for me.

[GYAAAAAAAAA!?]

But that was a poor move. The longsword held in my right hand matched

the timing and dug deeply into the knee of the four-armed monstrosity that

was used to attack me. A fountain of black blood spurted out of it. I jumped

sideways in order to avoid being drenched by the blood and finally heard

the sound of the giant collapsing on the ground.

No matter how mutated the body gets, as long as the form was still

humanoid and used muscles to move, it won't be able to stand up when its

thigh gets cut right to the tendon and bone. It was unavoidable as long as

the opponent was a bipedal creature made of flesh, muscles, and blood.

And with me right now was a warrior who wouldn't miss such an opening.

"Raaaaah!"

Lt. Col. Serena deftly wielded her sword and cut off some of the opponent's

four arms. Of course, I also used my swords to cut off his other arms.

"With this, it's over. So what's next? I think this guy will die from bleeding

out if we leave him like this for long."

"It looks like that won't be the case."

When I followed Lt. Col. Serena's line of sight, I saw that the stumps of the

creature's arms had actually begun to stop bleeding already. Eh…

Seriously? The wounds have completely stopped bleeding you know.

"…And we're supposed to bring this thing back alive? For some reason, I

can only imagine a horror scenario inside a lone military transport ship

though."

"…We're under orders after all."

Lt. Col. Serena seems to be scowling behind her transparent full-face

helmet. Well, the imperial military probably has a gadget or two used to

transport dangerous creatures, right? I'm not sure though. I ain't never

gonna transport such a thing, and I won't help with this one either. I will

firmly refuse such a request.

"Uh, this just hit me right now. Wouldn't these swords serve as proof as

well?"

"Yes, you're right. We might be able to trace the owner of the swords if we

check their inscriptions, manufacturer, and serial numbers."

Lt. Col. Serena nodded as she ordered the marines around. They were

probably gonna prepare to transport this creature that's presumed to be

Geritz back.

However, there were four swords with the creature. Even if Geritz was

originally a dual wielder, just where did the extra two swords come from

then? Or rather, just how many people were actually on board that

suppression ship?

"Do you really think this guy is Geritz?"

"We can't test his DNA pattern here, so I'm not sure. However, it's possible

that the real one is actually hiding and using this guy as a cover."

It looks like Lt. Col. Serena also had misgivings about whether or not this

big guy was actually Geritz. At least, judging from the four swords, this

thing was probably a composite creature made up of a noble (or nobles) and

a Twisted.

"Let's look at the time frame of this incident as well. Even if they didn't

suffer attacks from the Twisted when they arrived here, there was definitely

no space inside the suppression ship to cram transport vehicles to traverse

the planet's terrain quickly after getting off, and it's also doubtful if they

had the equipment to function normally in Comatt IV's extreme

environment in the first place. It would have taken them quite some time to

reach this structure and even further time to go all the way to this secret

underground facility. But if they truly possessed a way to completely

control the Twisted, then the possibility of them making use of Grapplers

and Bulls in order to travel rapidly can't be dismissed as well."

"Physical and time constraints huh… If you factor them in, it certainly

seems possible that Geritz is still lurking about freely."

"Perhaps. Of course, if that's the case, then we have to plan on continuing

to explore further as well."

Well, of course, that would be the logical next step. The moment I reached

this conclusion, I had a really bad premonition come over me. No, it can't

be. Ugh. I have to confirm it, at least.

"…It's okay for me to return to my original post, right?"

"No. There's a possibility Geritz is still out there after all."

After saying so, Lt. Col. Serena flashed me an angelic smile. In other

words, that means I won't be released from this hell anytime soon huh? It

would have been better if I didn't ask.

Afterward, we performed a thorough sweep of the secret underground

facility and confirmed that Geritz wasn't hiding anywhere inside it. Well,

we did manage to find the Twisted production plant behind the place we

fought the four-armed abomination earlier. We also discovered data

regarding how to gain control over them. We're still in the middle of

analyzing the data, but if it all goes well, it might be possible to forcibly

'shut down' all Twisteds present on this planet. In other words, we can

order them to self-terminate.

If that four-armed monster wasn't Geritz, then we need to consider the

possibility of him escaping into other facilities, but the ones that would be

responsible for searching for the guy would be the combat bots. Lt. Col.

Serena said that, depending on the circumstances, I might get called in once

again to help deal with Geritz. Honestly, I didn't wanna come back to the

surface of a planet that's under terraforming anymore.

We spent a total of three days on Comatt IV until the investigation of all

hidden facilities was completed. After that, I was finally released from the

clutches of Lt. Col. Serena and returned to my original post – Krishna.