The one-week period promised to the village head. We had come to a nearby forest to see the culmination of the week’s work, and in front of me and Tia, who had accepted a request to take down a beast, Eleas was engaged in battle with a single demonic beast.
Eleas, who was about 150 centimeters small, was confronted by a huge red-haired bear that must have been about three meters long. A stranger looking at it would be tempted to yell out, “Run now!”…. but predator and non-predator are, in fact, complete opposites.
“Gahhhh!”
“Hahhh!”
With a yell, the giant bear …. Darlton Bear swung its thick arm down toward Eleas. But he stepped forward and slashed the palm of the Bear’s hand that was coming toward him with his right sword, with a sputtering slash.
“Gahhh?!”
If his opponent was someone who knew how to fight, he would have continued to swing his arm without worrying about injuries. If he had done so, Eleas’ small body would have been blown away by the bear’s powerful arm, and he would have been at a disadvantage.
But even a demonic beast was still a beast. The sharp pain in the palm of its hand caused the Bear to pull back, and as a result, Elease successfully slipped into the Bear’s pocket and stabbed him deeply in the stomach with his left sword.
“Guahhhhhh!”
“Oops!”
The furious Darlton Bear swung its arm at him again, but the small Eleas slipped under him and, taking advantage of the opportunity, stabbed his right sword into the back of Darlton Bear’s right thigh and kicked the hilt to escape.
“Gah! Guaaaah!”
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“Uwa, Scary…Fufu”
He had already lost both of his swords, while the bear was flailing irs arms recklessly in pain from the deep stabs of the sword. But Eleas was in no hurry. His twin swords, which were only long till his elbow, were highly portable, and the specially made sheath on his back was designed to hold three pairs of six swords. That meant he still had four swords.
“If it’s on the rampage, there’s no need to approach him.”
Nevertheless, his weapons were by no means limited to twin swords. He picked up a nearby fallen branch and turned it into an arrow with spirit magic. It would be difficult even for a skilled archer to hit an arrow that had no feathers or arrowheads, just a straight wooden stick with a pointed tip, but he had spirit magic.
“Go!”
With a hissing sound, three arrows, each clad in green wind, were shot out at the Bear in rapid succession. Two of them were easily broken off by the swinging arms, but the last one pierced its right eye.
“GUAHHHHH!!!!!!!”
Deprived of sight along with pain, the bear, completely out of reason, rushed toward him with its huge body. However, the sword that was still stuck in its stomach and thighs was causing it pain just by moving, and its body was slightly slumped and its thrusts were not fully powered.
Then, Eleas tossed his bow nearby and, undaunted by the approaching giant, pulled out two swords from his back and wrapped them with the spirit magic he had prepared to put on the arrows and hurled them at the Bear. The weight of the light wooden arrows and the short iron sword was completely different, so the swords were not fast enough to pierce the thick fur of the Bear, but when they flew in front of its face, the Darlton Bear reflexively turned its face away from them.
And Eleas did not miss that opportunity.
“This is… THE END!”
Drawing his last two swords, Eleas slid under the bear and stabbed it in the throat with his right sword, and without a moment’s pause, he thrust his left sword into the bear’s shoulder, forcing it to break free with the force of his arm, and spinning in midair, he dropped his heel onto the Bear’s head.
“Ggagh!? Gooooo…………”
The weight of its own body and the impact of the kick drove the dagger deep into its throat, causing the Bear to squirm in agony. After taking up the distance again, Eleas picked up the bow that had fallen to the ground and held it at the ready, but when Bear eventually stopped moving, he finally released his stance after a count of thirty.
“Fufufu… So, How was it, Ed-san!?”
“Yeah, it was fine”
I emerged from the grass and told him, who reported his victory, with a smile. Tia, who was also hiding and watching the situation, approached the dead Darlton Bear and closely observed where and what kind of wounds it had.
“Fine, huh…. I thought I was getting stronger”
“But, you are really getting stronger, you know? It’s a hell of a thing to be able to beat this thing in a week. But that’s not the problem. ….”
A Darlton Bear was a demonic beast that took a party of three or four adventurers to defeat. But Eleas, who had only been an adventurer for a week, had single-handedly defeated this beast, so his growth was nothing short of amazing. I knew he had talent, but I didn’t expect him to grow at such a rate.
But the all-too-easy increase in ability had also brought with it its own downsides.
“I know you’re getting stronger, but you could have fought a little more carefully.”
“Tia-san. Carefully…?”
“Yes. For example, now that you’ve used up your entire stock of twin swords, what are you going to do if another demonic beast attacks you before you can retrieve them? It’s good that you remained vigilant but that’s a minus.”
“Eh, but I did it because I thought it was necessary?”
“Did you have to throw your sword when Darlton Bear came at you? You could have dodged to the side, or you could have mixed the stones with the wind and sent them flying. Did you really have to throw the sword?”
“Ugh, well, that’s ……”
“You didn’t fight this wildly when you were helping to hunt in the village, did you? I know you’ve gotten stronger, but don’t let your strength get in the way.”
“Ugh …… yes ……”
Tia scolded him, and his face became very gloomy. The growth of his mind had not caught up with his rapidly increasing ability, and he had become careless and conceited, which he should not have been. …. In other words, he was “getting on a roll,” which was the problem that he must overcome now.
But these mental things are hard to notice if you are on your own, and even if you do notice them, you can’t fix them. He didn’t realize it before because he never left his village, but now he understands better.
(If we hadn’t come, this would have probably killed him.)
If the spirit tree had remained in that state, Elease would have had to leave the village not too far in the future even if we hadn’t come. In that case, I didn’t know whether he would go solo or in a party with someone else, but at some point he would realize that he had a talent for twin swords, and he would grow up to be conceited and leave his friends behind… and die easily when he let his guard down.
Thus, the story of the Hero ended without him even realizing that he was a Hero, leaving only a glimpse of his rapid growth as a Hero. …. It somehow makes sense to think that we were sent to prevent this from happening.
“……I guess that’s enough from me for now. How about you, Ed?”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah. …… Hey Eleas. This is the end of the promised week, so what do you want to do?”
While I was thinking about something unimportant, Tia’s sermon seemed to have ended. She asked me to talk again, and I asked Eleas.
“Me?”
“Yes. In the past week, Your ability has increased to a level far beyond what it was when you were in the village. There is no doubt about that, but on the other hand, you lack the discretion and prudence that you used to have. In short, the stronger you are, the more likely you are to die. This may sound contradictory at first glance, but do you realize it?”
“…… Well, yes.”
“Hahaha, don’t you understand? Well, I get it. The bigger you get, the smaller we must seem to you, right?”
“……………………”
His slumped gaze slightly slipped away from mine. I couldn’t help but chuckle at his very obvious reaction.
“It’s easy to understand, Eleas. Then I’ll show you the reality in a more easy-to-understand way.”
With that, I drew my sword from my waist, not the [Dawnbreaker] but the steel sword I bought as a spare.
“Come at me. The Peak of swordsmanship… I won’t say that, but I’ll show you a little bit higher.”