Chapter 32: This Time, I Won’t Retreat

The sound of breaking branches echoed repeatedly from the forest on the mountain side.

A villager bundling firewood looked up, and Dario, who stood near the fence, immediately reached for his bow.

“Something’s coming.”

I stood too.

There was more than one sound. Rather than a single heavy creature trampling everything, several animals seemed to be running frantically through the trees.

Soon, gray bodies burst from the forest.

“Rock Apes!”

At Dario’s shout, the humans near the fence all moved back.

Two Rock Apes ran with their long arms touching the ground. A third, one size smaller, tumbled out behind them.

Once, that sight alone would’ve made us suspect an attack on the village.

But none of the three looked our way.

They didn’t try to pick up stones.

They only kept glancing behind themselves as they fled the mountain.

“Are they being chased?”

Dario had noticed too.

One of the large Rock Apes looked at me.

“Gyah! Gyee!”

It cried sharply.

At that instant, something touched the depths of my chest.

They weren’t words.

I hadn’t suddenly understood the exact meaning of its cries as I did with 《Human Language Comprehension》.

Yet I could strangely and clearly sense what the Rock Ape felt.

Fear.

Impatience.

The urge to flee.

And intense vigilance toward something behind it.

I stared back involuntarily.

Another Rock Ape called in a low voice.

A similar sensation came from it.

I wasn’t merely guessing from their movements.

It was more direct.

Words appeared in my mind.

《Resonance with a magical beast detected.》

《Racial Trait (Magical Beast Empathy) acquired.》

The words quickly vanished.

Apparently, I’d gained something else.

“Val?”

Lina looked at me from inside the fence.

I turned my neck toward the mountain.

“…Coming.”

“Something’s coming?”

I nodded.

The hesitation disappeared from Dario’s face.

“Everyone inside the fence! Don’t approach the Rock Apes!”

The villagers moved.

The Rock Apes didn’t head toward the village. Keeping their distance from the fence, they tried to flee south.

I didn’t block them.

They had no intention of fighting us now.

I didn’t know how much I could trust this 《Magical Beast Empathy》, but at least I could sense the difference between hostility and fear.

A low growl sounded inside the forest.

The Rock Apes’ fear intensified.

I recognized the voice too.

Thick branches were forced aside, and a blackish-brown giant emerged.

A huge front half.

A hard-looking section from its shoulders across its back, like thick boards layered over its fur.

“…That thing.”

Dario murmured.

It closely resembled the bear-like magical beast that had pursued a Rock Ape before.

I didn’t know whether it was the same individual.

Back then, there had been no chance to examine it carefully enough to distinguish one from another.

“It looks like what they call an Armored Bear,” Dario said as he raised his bow. “We don’t know whether it really is one. Just don’t let it get close.”

The bear-like beast stopped at the forest’s edge.

It looked at me.

I remembered the oppressive presence I’d felt before.

When I was a juvenile dragon, it had looked larger and heavier than me. If I took one of its forelegs from below, the blow alone might have killed me.

Now things were different.

The bear hadn’t grown smaller. Up close, it was still enormous.

Even so, my gaze from all fours was much higher than before.

I didn’t have to look up at it.

“Grrrr…”

The bear-like beast rumbled in its throat.

《Magical Beast Empathy》 reacted.

Irritation.

Possessiveness toward prey it didn’t want taken.

Wariness of me.

And no intention of retreating.

I didn’t hear these as sentences.

Even so, the emotions flowed into me more directly than reading a human’s expression.

I stepped forward.

I placed myself between the Rock Apes and the bear.

The village was behind me.

It would go no farther.

“Grrrrr…”

I growled low as well.

Don’t come.

Go back.

That was what I intended to convey.

The bear’s ears twitched.

I didn’t know whether it completely understood.

But it didn’t immediately leap at me.

“Did you just do something?” Dario asked quietly.

“…Feelings.”

“Feelings?”

“…Understand a little.”

There was no time for an explanation.

The wariness I felt from the bear changed into aggression.

Its foreleg scraped the earth.

“It’s coming!”

The giant body charged the next instant.

Fast.

It closed the distance at a speed difficult to imagine from its build.

That much hadn’t changed.

But my body had.

Rather than meeting it head-on, I kicked off the ground.

I beat my wings once with force.

My enlarged body lifted sideways, carrying me clear of its charge.

The moment I landed, I moved around its flank.

I swung a foreleg.

My claws struck the hard section of its shoulder.

A dull impact.

Hard.

Even so, my claws weren’t repelled. They carved deep lines across the surface.

The bear-like beast roared.

Through 《Magical Beast Empathy》, I felt surprise and pain.

It had worked.

Before, I hadn’t known how to harm that hard back at all.

The bear twisted.

A foreleg swept at me from the side.

I was an instant too slow.

The claws scraped the scales on my chest, and the heavy impact knocked my body aside.

I opened my wings and regained my balance.

My chest burned.

When I looked, the surface of the scales had been shaved away, and a little blood seeped between them.

I wouldn’t escape uninjured.

Becoming an Adult Dragon hadn’t reduced its attacks to toys.

Still, I remained standing.

There was strength in my legs.

I still had room to fight.

The bear faced me again.

I focused on the depths of my chest.

The heat I’d noticed ever since evolving.

I’d never tested it.

It wasn’t something I could breathe out carelessly near the village.

Now I had a target.

But I couldn’t aim in the wrong direction.

Watching the bear’s position, I gradually shifted my body.

I moved until neither the fence nor any human stood behind it.

Beyond the beast was an area of exposed rock and earth with few trees.

The bear followed.

Far enough.

I inhaled.

My chest expanded greatly.

Heat surged into my throat.

It felt different.

There was less sense that I had to force the flames out.

The accumulated heat itself rushed toward the exit.

The bear stepped in.

I opened my mouth.

Flames erupted.

The stream was thick enough to surprise even me.

The bear turned its face away by reflex.

Fire swept over its cheek, neck, and the root of one foreleg.

Its fur burned in an instant, sending up black smoke.

The hard section from its shoulders across its back didn’t burn through.

Even so, the breath didn’t merely scorch the fur on its snout and stop as it had before.

The exposed skin was clearly burned.

The bear-like beast roared.

I immediately stopped the flames.

A heaviness remained in my chest.

I had no desire to breathe fire repeatedly.

But a single breath hadn’t left me unable to move either.

The bear backed away.

Intense fear reached me through 《Magical Beast Empathy》.

I didn’t pursue it.

If it returned to the mountain, that was enough.

I growled low.

Go.

Go back.

The bear retreated several paces without taking its eyes off me.

I thought it was over.

Then its gaze shifted behind me.

The smallest Rock Ape, which had failed to escape, crouched at the base of a tree.

The bear’s fear weakened for an instant.

Its fixation on its prey returned instead.

Its body turned.

It was still going after the ape?

I kicked off the ground.

This time, I closed the distance myself.

The bear noticed and raised a foreleg.

I beat my wings, slipped inside the limb, and rammed my whole body into its burned shoulder.

A heavy shock came back.

Once, I would’ve been pushed away.

Now the bear’s paws slid through the soil.

Its giant body tilted sideways.

I hooked a foreleg around the base of its neck and placed my weight on it.

The beast thrashed.

It was powerful.

It wasn’t light enough for me to pin down completely.

Its forelegs gouged the ground, and its body began to rise.

I braced myself too.

This time, I wasn’t overpowered.

The instant its posture collapsed, I sank my teeth into the side of its neck.

They pierced the thick fur and entered the flesh beneath.

The bear-like beast struggled violently.

I didn’t release it.

I tightened my jaws.

Its rage changed to fear, and that fear gradually weakened.

Eventually, the strength left its giant body.

I didn’t let go immediately. I waited for a while.

Its forelegs didn’t move.

I couldn’t feel it breathing.

Only then did I remove my fangs.

My own breathing was rough.

The wound on my chest still burned.

But I stood.

Once, I’d had no choice but to flee into the sky and search for an opening against a similar opponent.

Now I’d defeated one on the ground.

“Val!”

Lina called from far away.

Dario seemed to be stopping her. The villagers still hadn’t approached.

That was good.

I looked around.

The Rock Ape that had failed to escape stared at me.

The other two had stopped a short distance away too.

Now I felt their fear directed at me.

Naturally.

I’d just killed the creature chasing them.

I wouldn’t pursue them.

I rumbled my throat once.

You may go.

That was what I tried to convey.

The largest Rock Ape stared at me with its body tense.

“Gyee…”

I couldn’t make out a clear meaning.

But I felt no hostility.

It was trying to leave while remaining cautious.

That was enough.

The three moved south along the forest’s edge, keeping the smallest between the other two.

◇

“It’s dead.”

After some time, Dario approached and carefully checked the bear-like beast.

“It looks a lot like the one we saw before.”

“…Yes.”

“Is it the same one?”

“…Don’t know.”

“Right.”

Dario didn’t make assumptions either.

He touched the hard area from its shoulders to its back and examined the scorched neck.

“It looks very much like the Armored Bear we heard about at the manor, but I’ve never seen a confirmed one.”

The chief came near the body as well.

“The name can wait. The question is what we do with it.”

That was very like him.

Dario looked down at the beast.

“First, whether the meat is edible.”

Several people’s gazes changed at those words.

The bear-like beast was enormous.

If this much flesh could be used, the quantity would be impossible for the village to ignore.

But no one began butchering it at once.

“We don’t know whether it’s safe,” Dario warned them first. “Tusk Boar was edible. That doesn’t mean this is.”

“Can you tell by looking?” the chief asked.

“I can tell whether it’s rotten. Beyond that, we’ll have to try a little.”

“Then no feeding it to everyone.”

“Obviously.”

They decided first to move the body a short distance away from the village.

It was too heavy for humans to drag.

When I bit near its neck and pulled, the giant body moved slightly.

“…You can move it?”

Dario murmured.

I was a little surprised too.

It was heavy.

Still, I could drag it with my current body.

With the villagers watching its position so it wouldn’t catch on trees, I moved it little by little.

Only after lowering it in a safe place did the butchering begin.

They cut away only a small portion of meat.

They checked its smell and color, then cooked it thoroughly.

Only adults would eat first.

Food was scarce, but everyone becoming ill at once would create even more trouble.

I ate a little raw meat as my portion.

It was fatty.

It tasted quite different from Tusk Boar, but wasn’t inedible.

“Val seems fine,” Dario said.

“Don’t use him as the standard,” the chief replied at once.

What a terrible way to put it.

But he was right.

My body differed from a human’s.

They ate only a small amount that day and waited to see what happened.

No one showed immediate symptoms.

Even the next day, at least no one was bedridden clutching his stomach.

Only after confirming that did they gradually use the rest of the meat.

Some would be sliced thin and dried.

Some would be smoked.

Salt was precious, so they couldn’t preserve everything with large amounts of it.

They didn’t throw away the fat, but tested whether it could be used.

The hard hide couldn’t be processed immediately, so they first secured the sections they could remove.

“We’ll have meat for a while,” a villager said.

“Meat,” the chief replied. “Don’t think every food problem has vanished. We have more mouths now.”

Then he looked at me.

“And one of us has grown larger.”

Me?

It was difficult to deny.

Now that my adult body was larger, I doubted the same quantity as before would satisfy me.

Lina compared the cut meat with me.

“If Val ate seriously, would it disappear right away?”

“…Won’t eat.”

“All of it?”

“…Everyone.”

When I turned my face toward the village, Lina seemed to understand at once.

“We’ll all eat it.”

I nodded.

“Then we’ll make sure they leave your share too.”

Please do.

◇

Defeating the bear-like magical beast didn’t mean work on the mountain side immediately resumed.

“One beast doesn’t mean everything is safe,” the chief said.

He didn’t change his decision.

Rock Apes still remained.

There might be other similar bear-like magical beasts.

They would only send people back toward the spring and the terraced ground after observing the area a little longer.

I didn’t object.

Still, one thing was different.

Even if another large magical beast appeared on the mountain side, I was no longer forced to retreat without doing anything.

That evening, I rested outside the fence.

The shallow wound on my chest remained, but didn’t interfere with movement.

Lina sat nearby.

“Val.”

“…What?”

“You understood how the Rock Apes felt, right?”

“…A little.”

“The bear too?”

I nodded.

“What was it saying?”

I tilted my head.

“…Not words.”

“So it wasn’t talking?”

“…Yes.”

“Then you felt that it was afraid or angry?”

“…Yes.”

Lina thought for a moment, then pointed at herself.

“What am I feeling?”

《Magical Beast Empathy》 didn’t react.

But I could tell by looking at her face.

She was expectant.

I thought briefly.

“…Want meat.”

“Wrong!”

Apparently, I’d missed.

Laughter came from the village.

I rested my chin on my foreleg.

A little heat from my breath still remained deep in my chest.

Beyond it, smoke rose as the villagers preserved the meat taken from the bear-like beast.