Chapter 50: An Ant Against an Elephant

Once Raive decided to do a cleanup, he didn’t hold back an ounce of effort.

With his boosted speed, he closed on the nearest villain, a man about to slash down a woman shielding her little girl, and severed the hand holding the weapon.

"A-Aaaagh!"

Just as the man cried out in pain and shock, his head slid to the ground, and he went completely still.

One by one, those acting "unjustly" met their punishment.

Blood spilled like a fountain.

Everyone, bystanders and targets alike, tried to catch sight of whoever was doing this. But all they could make out were his afterimages.

Even mid-cleanup, Raive found himself genuinely shocked.

About half the men he cut down wore military uniforms. That realization brought a frown to his face and no small amount of anger.

’The ones meant to protect civilians are the ones oppressing them... how ironic.’ He thought.

Still, it was nothing more than a passing thought.

He didn’t stop after realizing it. If anything, he sped up.

"W-Wait, I’ll give you money, just don’t kill me—!"

"I was... I was only following orders! No! AAAAGH!"

"FUCKER! SHOW YOURSELF! FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN—!"

Realizing they stood no chance, the evildoers cycled through every response—some begged, some wept, a few even demanded a proper duel. He sent all their heads flying regardless.

In under five minutes, roughly 300 heads lay scattered across the ground.

Those who’d been under attack found themselves staring at the man standing in the middle of the intersection, bloody wooden sword in hand, gazing up at the sky.

After a moment basking in the aftermath of taking down all those "monsters," he took a deep breath and addressed everyone watching.

"Remember—try anything unfair or evil, and I’ll be right behind you to take your head. Evildoers, beware."

A warning.

And, at the same time, a beacon of hope for the weak.

A hero had appeared, fighting on their behalf!

He didn’t stick around to hear the cheering start, though. He kept moving, running without pause.

Wherever he spotted someone oppressing another, he sent their head flying without a second thought.

What if the one he killed turned out to be the oppressed who’d just gained the upper hand?

That was easy enough to tell apart.

The ones he killed wore twisted smiles and unmarked bodies, clearly untouched by the violence around them. Not the ones covered in wounds and bruises.

One hour.

That’s how long it took him to cover the 200 kilometers to C City.

Along the way, he tallied at least a thousand evildoers killed, and it drew a faint smile from him. A drop in the bucket, maybe even pointless in the end, but at least he’d done something for the greater good.

His conscience felt a little lighter.

"Now, how do I even find Shymine from here...?"

His plan had been to ask passersby, hoping someone knew her or her parents. But there wasn’t a single soul in sight.

Even with his senses stretched wide, he couldn’t feel a single living presence nearby.

Not even a stray animal or insect.

Which meant no one left to ask.

"What a pain..." Raive scratched his cheek, thinking it over.

BOOM!

"...!"

Just then, a massive explosion rang out a few blocks away.

Raive felt a strange pressure pulling from that direction and made his way there at once—a decision he’d come to regret.

At an intersection ringed by tall buildings stood a single creature. It looked like an armadillo forced upright onto two legs, arms as long as an orangutan’s, its body bristling with black spikes that made it look both fierce and lethal.

It wasn’t just standing there—it was tearing the place apart.

Cars crumpled under its blows, one after another.

Several went up in flames outright, the fire spreading to everything nearby.

Even the buildings weren’t spared.

Wrecked cars jutted from windows here and there, flung in like garbage stuck to the walls. The flames and smoke made it hard for Raive to even breathe, let alone take in the full scene.

But among the wreckage, a familiar color caught his eye.

Blue.

"That’s...!"

There was no mistaking it. Shymine!

She stood behind a barrier of ice, holding off the monster’s attacks. Faint as they were, he could sense a few presences sheltering behind her, and the situation clicked into place at once.

She was protecting someone. Desperately.

"Shymine!"

Raive called out, then immediately realized his mistake.

WHOOSH!

The monster’s red eyes shifted from Shymine to him, sizing him up, weighing whether he was a threat. Then—

"GRAAAGH!"

It charged, a car door gripped in each hand like a club, swinging for Raive. He tried to dodge, or at least meant to. But the thing was faster than he was.

Faster than him, easily.

It closed the distance and swung.

Desperate, he swung the Tree Knight’s sword and triggered Sword Flash at the same time, hoping to cut even a fraction of the force behind the blow.

BAM!

"GUHHH!"

Instead, he was sent flying like a tennis ball off a racket, straight into the building behind him. He punched clean through the wall, tumbled across the floor, and slammed into the far wall.

"GAHA!"

The impact was brutal enough to make him spit blood.

He couldn’t help but marvel at his own luck in surviving it at all.

And with a monster that powerful, one truth became clear: there was no way Shymine should’ve lasted this long against it. The gap in strength was simply too vast.

In other words, this thing—

’It’s toying with us. Like we’re nothing but playthings...!’

Aside from feeling pain all over his body, Raive burned with anger at being treated like a joke.

But underneath all that, he felt embarrassment too.

He’d thought himself strong, thought he could be some kind of hero for this world. Against this monster, though, he was no better than an ant challenging an elephant.

’No...’

Right then, he forced himself calm.

He assessed the situation and landed on one conclusion.

’That monster’s too strong. There’s no way anybody’s beating it.’

Normally there was a cap of 100 stat-up candies per person. Raive wasn’t bound by that limit, and even with over 500 points in stats, he’d still been knocked down in a single hit.

In other words—

’That monster was never meant to be defeated. It’s something to fear, and run from!’

Once again, he was reminded just how cruel this game of the gods truly was.