Chapter 51: [Host has died.]
As Eiros had said before. Being prey in the first round was genuinely a disadvantage in more ways than one, since it meant surviving against hunters who were all still at full strength.
Meanwhile, once they became hunters in the second round, both sides—hunter and prey alike—would probably already be exhausted. Two exhausted sides would genuinely struggle, but running was still easier than fighting while worn out and out of Soul Essence.
That was exactly why all of this had happened.
Surviving for a full one hundred eighty minutes while conserving their Soul Essence was basically impossible. The number of captured prey would only keep climbing, until, once prey numbers thinned out, the hunters would resort to some genuinely unfair hunting tactics.
But with Valkas able to fly, and the terrain itself being a maze-like tangle of cave tunnels, the two of them had managed to hold out for nearly the full one hundred eighty minutes.
That was a remarkable feat, considering the whole point of being a hunter was to rack up as many points as possible, while being prey was really just meant for a bit of extra scoring.
Eiros and Valkas, on the other hand, had turned being prey into their main source of points, with hunting only meant to pad their score a little further.
Who on earth actually thought to pull off something like that?
"...Hey."
"What?"
Having successfully baited a whole crowd of students into fighting a swarm of Awakened-tier monsters back there, only a handful had actually managed to slip through and keep chasing them.
Right then, Valkas’s expression turned a little grim.
"So... honestly, I really do appreciate this. We’ve genuinely racked up a ton of points together, but my soul essence is running dangerously low, and... I want first place."
Eiros blinked.
That confession sounded pretty grim, almost like a hint that their partnership might be about to come to an end.
"W-wait... wait, you’re not planning to just drop me, are you?"
But seeing the grin spread across Valkas’s face, dripping with a very specific kind of mischief, made Eiros’s entire body go rigid.
"So... I still haven’t forgotten what you did earlier."
Right then, Eiros’s body was sent plummeting straight down from the tunnel ceiling, with Valkas keeping that grin plastered on his face, waving cheerfully.
"Farewell, my friend! This was genuinely fun, hahaha."
"Oh. Wow, you absolute bastard...!"
Eiros’s lips twitched. Glancing behind him mid-fall, a forced smile crossed his face.
"...Nearly thirty hunters, and about twenty minutes left before the role switch."
Could he survive until then...?
No, that wasn’t even the real question. Even if Eiros somehow made it through alive, he’d definitely be running on empty by the second round.
So, what was he supposed to do at this point?
"YOU’RE DEAD! CATCH THAT BASTARD! HE GOT BETRAYED!"
"LETSSGOOO!!"
"I’m making sure I stab him right in the ass!"
The smile on his face went stiff the moment he saw a flaming rope shooting toward him—several of them, actually.
Craaack—!
His arm shot up, slashing every single rope into pieces without mercy. But that hardly meant anything, since more attacks were already closing in.
A tree root shot up out of nowhere, snaring his ankle. Eiros winced when he realized those roots came with edges sharp enough to cut.
"Ugh...!"
Watching the roots creep up toward his thigh, he swung his sword. Red lightning trailed in its wake, the wind howling violently before shredding the roots apart.
"Die already!!"
Eiros heard one of the students yell out, brimming with energy. Then, glancing upward, he saw an arrow shooting mercilessly straight for his head.
"....!"
Worth remembering—even though he’d been playing a game of tag with these students, that didn’t mean Eiros had actually gotten through their attacks entirely unscathed.
His body was already torn up in several places, a proper gash right at his elbow. His academy uniform was burnt and torn to shreds, and if that arrow actually hit him, that would be it—his barrier would shatter.
But that only applied if Eiros were an ordinary stigmata holder. Well, he did have his own ace up his sleeve, but he wasn’t about to play it just yet.
Instead of using his trump card, he simply tilted his head to the side, which wasn’t nearly enough to fully dodge the attack.
Whoosh—!!
Bam—!
But as long as he was still alive, none of it really mattered. Blood sprayed out, the arrow tearing straight through his left ear and vanishing without a trace.
The students, who’d been smirking with triumph, suddenly froze.
"W-what? W-wait...! Why didn’t the barrier shatter?"
"....His ear... did that actually get torn off?"
"Eeek—!? Is something wrong with the barrier?! Doesn’t that mean we nearly killed him just now?"
Watching their faces fill with panic, Eiros landed calmly on the ground, his face rather pale, ignoring the pain from his shredded ear.
A smile crossed his face.
It hurt, sure, but nowhere near enough to actually overwhelm or scare him.
Cold sweat dripped down his face as he let out a slow breath.
"Is this really all you’ve got? That’s nowhere near enough to break my barrier, you idiots."
Their faces all tensed at once. Their panic and worry faded away, replaced with flushed cheeks full of anger instead.
"R-right...! This bastard! The barrier obviously hasn’t broken yet, which means that attack clearly wasn’t enough! We need to hit him again!"
Every hunter present agreed all at once. Eiros drew his sword, while a few more students who’d managed to slip free of the earlier chaos joined in, their numbers swelling further.
’Haaah... I’m definitely getting Valkas back for this once this is all over.’
But it was fine, really.
Hadn’t Valkas basically handed over the core reward of the whole plan they’d built together right now?
Eiros’s lips twitched.
’I already figured there was a decent chance he’d betray me like this. Good thing I kept his final gambit all to myself.’
Watching all of them start charging at him with their stigmata, Eiros did his best to dodge—yes, purely dodge, he didn’t strike back at all.
A bamboo stalk, absolutely gigantic in size, suddenly dropped from above. Eiros backed up a few steps, but a second one followed, then a third, and finally a fourth kept crashing down, smashing the floor apart.
The air around him trembled, and then, suddenly, the wind surrounding him began behaving strangely.
Slash—!
Eiros flinched as he felt the wind itself slicing across his body like razor-sharp blades.
At first it was just one cut, but soon he was sliced in several places at once—though still not enough to finish him off.
’Fifteen minutes left.’
He just had to hold out.
A white thread with a fishhook attached came flying toward him. It was a strange stigmata—Eiros dodged sideways as a student rushed at him with a spear crackling with blue lightning energy. Then, he drew his sword, bending the hook aside.
Clang—!!
The sound of the clash rang out like two pieces of metal colliding, startling Eiros when the fishhook suddenly ballooned into a full-sized scythe, spinning around in an attempt to cut his body clean in two.
"Uowaah... damn it!"
Startled, he immediately created distance, backing away and dodging by the barest margin. But right then, his body collided with something massive. Eiros felt a shadow fall over him, and looking up, he found a giant woman staring down at him, snorting through her nose with a dark expression.
Then...
"Keugh...!"
He got caught in an incredibly crushing embrace. Eiros bit down on his own lip, feeling like his entire body was about to be crushed to pieces from the sheer pain.
Luckily, though it was difficult, he managed to twist the sword resting near his own thigh, aiming its blade toward the woman’s leg and plunging it in.
"Arghh...!"
The woman screamed, nearly dropping to her knees. Eiros took advantage of that loosening death-grip and immediately broke free.
He didn’t even have time to catch his breath before a student suddenly leapt out of the shadows, a wicked grin plastered across his face. With a dagger in each hand, he spun his whole body in one motion, slashing out a strike that left a trail of red behind it.
Eiros raised his sword, blocking the attack, then put distance between them by stepping back. By that point, the students were genuinely stunned by just how long Eiros had managed to hold out.
Of course, if all of them attacked at once, Eiros probably would never have been able to survive. But not everyone charged in together—they’d been taking turns instead, helping each other out, figuring that would be more than enough.
Strangely enough, though, Eiros only seemed to get stronger the more of them managed to wound him.
By then, they’d started to wonder why his barrier still hadn’t shattered at all. It was common knowledge that a person’s barrier would break the moment they were genuinely in danger. But seeing Eiros’s barrier still intact meant he wasn’t in any real danger at all.
"Heh... What’s with that look? You all seem pretty shocked."
Less than ten minutes left.
Eiros was covered in blood, gasping for breath with cold sweat pouring down him. And yet, at the same time, he felt no pain or exhaustion whatsoever—if anything, the longer this dragged on, the better he felt, almost as if peak condition itself were coming to greet him.
"...Let’s hit him again! Harder this time! Aim somewhere fatal. Don’t hold back, the supervisors are watching over us."
"Exactly! He’s way too arrogant! He’s clearly cornered, so why’s he still acting so smug and looking down on us?"
Listening to them ramble on, Eiros let out a long sigh.
’Guess it’s going to get harder to hold on from here.’
Watching their next wave of attacks come rushing at him, Eiros froze in place. Why, honestly, was this world so full of powers this impossible to predict?
The stone beneath his feet softened, turning into something like sludge. Hands emerged from the dark shadows, trying to pin his body down.
His legs might’ve gotten stuck in that sludge-like rock, but he could still hold his ground, swinging his sword against the hands trying to restrain him.
Right then, a student with a spear came rushing straight at him.
"Let’s see it, there’s no way you’re surviving this one."
Something like that. Eiros kept his smile, swinging his sword to block the spear aimed straight for his heart.
He’d expected to block that strike cleanly. But the spear suddenly writhed like a snake, bending and slipping beneath the edge of Eiros’s blade, and finally...
Spurt—!!
A sharp, searing pain froze Eiros in place, his expression suddenly going dark—and not just him, every student watching tensed up right where they stood.
"Ah."
Eiros let out a small groan, his vision darkening as he glanced weakly downward. There he found the spear, having torn straight through his heart, leaving him unable to breathe.
He coughed, a mouthful of blood spilling out.
Then...
Everything went dark.
[Host has died.]
***