Immediately afterward, the Ash Noble lunged forward to kill the blond bastard before him.
He did not know what method Zeke intended to use, but the danger he sensed had suddenly increased. From the looks of it, the man was trying to strengthen himself further, so he had to be killed before that could happen. The Ash Noble's extremely enhanced animal instincts reached that conclusion.
With the physical abilities enhanced by consuming magic stones, he slipped into Zeke's guard in an instant and swung a dagger he had picked up from an adventurer he had killed long ago—not for the heart... but to cut off a leg.
...But it was not going to be that easy.
Zeke might have been Level 1, but when it came to martial arts and close-quarters combat, his skill was great enough for him to claim to be Bell's teacher. At the very least, he was confident that up to Level 2, he could easily dismantle attacks that came blindly relying on strength alone.
And that confidence was accurate.
"[Here, I offer up my mind; in return, grant me the lightness of the wind.]"
As the chant rapidly spilled from his lips, Zeke avoided the low slash aimed at his left thigh with a single step backward. Using the right foot that naturally came forward, he spun counterclockwise and threw a spinning back kick.
Whoosh—
The Ash Noble was so small that the attack aimed at his head only grazed the edge of his hood when he hastily ducked. But had it landed, the Minotaur's immense strength contained within it would naturally have smashed the bastard's head apart.
Feeling the threat to his life directly, the Ash Noble retreated—but this time Bell and Welf closed in.
"Hyaaah!"
When the massive greatsword cut off his escape route and pressed him back—
"Hup!"
A dagger slipped like a snake into the opening created as he dodged, targeting the tendons in his limbs.
Their experience as a party in the Dungeon made their coordination seamless, and it looked as though the Ash Noble had no way out.
Yes, it only looked that way.
Cut off his retreat with a greatsword? He blocked it with skin the blade could not penetrate, then shoved it away with overwhelming strength.
A dagger slipping into an opening? He avoided it with overwhelming speed, then countered with a thrust of his own.
Even Welf, who was confident that no one could match his physical strength from his work as a blacksmith, and Bell, a Level 2 specialized in agility, were helplessly driven back after being countered in the areas where they were most confident. Stats overwhelming enough to push back even their tight coordination. Was he perhaps Level 3?
"Tch, what kind of ridiculous strength is that?!"
"I can't keep up with his speed!"
Thanks to their coordination, they were somehow making up for the overwhelming gap in stats, but that did not seem likely to last long. Dozens of exchanges passed in an instant, and the feeling that things were becoming dangerous grew stronger.
But they still had one companion left...
"Ahh, you held out well. Thanks to that, I was able to offer every last one of them as sacrifices."
Delighted by the somewhat frivolous yet dependable voice from behind them, the two retreated once more.
"Seriously, you took way too long. Look at this—I had it repaired today, and now it's damaged badly enough that I'll have to make a whole new one."
"Zeke, are you all right?"
"I'm fine. I hardened my body with Hard Armored's durability, so I'll be able to endure at least until the Minotaur's strength runs out."
The power of Kurikara, the magic sword Smith had made using Zeke's blood, was simple. It formed contracts by offering a price.
By paying a monster's magic stone as the price, the magic sword granted Zeke one of that monster's powers in return. Naturally, there was a time limit, so he could not use it carelessly, and excessive power might prove too much for his body to bear. However, experiments had revealed that this could be prevented by increasing his durability, so there was no need to worry.
The powers Zeke had offered to Kurikara and obtained now numbered four in total.
The Minotaur's strength.
Hard Armored's body.
War Shadow's speed.
Hellhound's magic power.
If he had not increased his durability through Hard Armored's body, the moment he offered more than two magic stones as sacrifices, he would have coughed blood and collapsed.
But ten minutes was the limit for which he could use all these powers.
Then he had to settle this within ten minutes!
"Come on. I'm the one who'll kill you!"
Contrary to his words, Zeke charged in first, swinging Kurikara—dyed such a deep blue that it was nearly black—down from above.
Drawing a clean diagonal line, the dark-blue blade descended toward the Ash Noble's shoulder. Its sharpness, strength, and speed were difficult even for the Ash Noble, who had gained physical abilities close to Level 3, to overcome easily. He urgently pulled back, intending to wait for another opportunity.
But Zeke had no intention of giving him a chance to regain his footing.
The instant he realized his diagonal slash had missed, he pulled Kurikara back, planted his foot hard, and drove forward with his shoulder. It was a clean shoulder tackle, and the Ash Noble, who was already hastily retreating, had no way to evade it. The blow struck him head-on and sent him flying.
Yet for some reason, Zeke's expression was not bright.
The impact was shallow. He was moving backward when it hit, so the shock was dispersed.
Because the blow had landed while the Ash Noble was retreating, the direction of his movement had been the same, and it had not delivered the satisfying impact Zeke wanted.
The Ash Noble, thrown backward, landed awkwardly on both feet and tilted his head. The impact had not been as great as he had braced himself for. In any case, perhaps he had been lucky.
As the Ash Noble tried to continue that thought, another slash came at him. This time, it was a horizontal cut from right to left. He tried to block it with his dagger, but the Minotaur's strength was no joke. He managed to stop it, but the impact lifted him slightly off the ground, and Zeke did not miss that opening as he closed in and slashed again.
A black semicircle drawn from above to below—but once again, it merely grazed the Ash Noble's hood, causing no direct damage.
The Ash Noble's counterattack followed immediately.
He spun to the left, hiding within his hood and its shadow, then stabbed in from the right with the dagger held in a reverse grip. The strike, vanishing from sight for an instant before suddenly appearing, was fierce, and even Zeke had no choice but to dodge.
Riding that momentum, the Ash Noble thrust out a straight punch with his unarmed right hand, aiming for Zeke's abdomen. The fist, carrying Level 3's immense strength, shot forward at high speed—but Zeke was not about to take it helplessly.
Instead, he drove his left elbow into the path of the fist. Then they collided.
Crack!
The victor was Zeke's elbow.
Having gained Hard Armored's durability, he possessed durability at the upper end of Level 2, and he had met the punch with the even harder point of his elbow. No matter how strong a Level 3 body might be, the fingers could not help but break.
[■■■■!]
With a scream closer to that of a monster than a human, the Ash Noble curled up.
And Zeke was not the kind of foolish adventurer to miss that chance. Taking advantage of the opening as the Ash Noble hunched over, he swung his sword once more. As though he absolutely would not let this one go, the dark-blue blade whistled through the air as it targeted one arm.
This time, the Ash Noble was too dazed by the pain of his broken fist to evade in time, and as a result...
Slice.
His right arm was severed.
[----!]
The Ash Noble screamed again, now at a pitch beyond the range of human hearing.
Zeke tried to swing again and cut off the other arm as well, but the resistance was too fierce, and the attempt failed.
The Ash Noble urgently made a motion as if rummaging through the pouch behind him.
"You think I'm going to let you eat one?!"
It looked like he was trying to pull a potion from the pouch, and in truth, it was a similar act.
Crunch.
"What...?"
It was a shocking sight, enough to make even Zeke, who had been filled with rage and about to cut off his head in one stroke, stop moving.
The Ash Noble was chewing and eating magic stones.
Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch.
That was not the appearance of a human.
How could anyone call something human when it chewed raw magic stones and its arm was visibly growing back in real time?
And then, as the ceaselessly moving jaw worked away, the hood that had never once been removed finally slipped from the Ash Noble's head.
First came brown hair and dog ears. Farther down, streaks of hair that had gradually turned white could be seen here and there.
But his eyes were no longer human. One was an ordinary human eye, but on the other side, exposed bone revealed an empty hollow.
Half his face still had ordinary flesh, but the other half was bare bone. Yet strangely, despite the empty eye socket, a gaze could be felt from there. A vague certainty came over Zeke that attacks aimed at blind spots would probably not work on him easily.
Finally, his jaw, with lips attached to only half of it, moved ceaselessly as it chewed and swallowed magic stones. The Ash Noble's severed arm had already returned to its original place, as though it had never been cut off.
If not for the arm lying on the ground before him, Zeke might even have doubted that he had succeeded in severing it at all.
[Then... does the second round... begin?]
"You're not just monster-like—you really are a monster. Good. I don't have to feel even the slightest guilt about killing a human now."