Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 287: An Encircled Enemy Must Be Allowed a Way of Escape
“An encircled enemy must be allowed a way of escape” is one of the military strategies advocated by Sun Tzu.
Sun Tzu was a Chinese philosopher who systematized strategies for achieving victory in war.
Among the theories he proposed, one is called “When you surround an army, leave an outlet.” In other words, when surrounding the enemy, one must always leave a single escape route open.
If you completely seal off all means of escape, the enemy has no choice but to resolve themselves to fight desperately to the death—a psychological state akin to “a cornered rat will bite a cat.”
By intentionally leaving an opening, the enemy thinks, “If it comes down to it, I can run,” and their thinking turns defensive. As a result, they abandon the option to fight with their full might.
“GUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!”
“OOH-OOH! OOH-OOH!”
The plains were burning.
Bright red flames surged like a living creature, closing in on the large apes that lived there.
The apes burst out of their nests in a panic, fleeing toward the direction where the fire was weakest.
Many of their companions had already been swallowed by the flames, but they had no time to mourn.
“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!”
“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!”
The apes—Crazy Apes—understood that this fire was not natural.
They were intelligent, cunning beings. They knew about humans, and they knew about magic.
This was magic fire. Humans were attacking.
Even though they knew humans were behind the flames, the Crazy Apes didn’t fight—they ran.
They were aware that enemies lay beyond the fire, but in this situation, they couldn’t even consider resisting.
“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!”
Just a little farther.
Just a little more, and they could escape the flames.
Their thirst for life burned fiercely. They were starving. They wanted to eat—anything.
Plants, animals, monsters, humans—it didn’t matter. The Crazy Apes’ instincts screamed at them to devour anything and everything in sight.
“OOH-OOH! OOH-OHH!”
Once they escaped this hell, they would definitely eat humans.
They had eaten humans before, but they didn’t have much fat and weren’t particularly satisfying—but for revenge this time, it wouldn’t be bad to tear every last one to shreds.
With frenzied hunger, they would storm into human territory.
Driven by their obsession with survival and their uncontrollable appetite, the Crazy Apes ran with all their might toward the flame-free direction.
“This is the end of the line.”
“Ooh!?”
Suddenly, the ground gave way beneath them.
A massive hole opened without warning and swallowed the Crazy Apes.
At the bottom of the pit trap were countless sharp stakes that impaled their bodies.
“You acted exactly how we hoped. Sorry, but just die like that.”
“…!”
Looking up from the bottom of the pit with their bodies pierced, one Crazy Ape saw a human standing above.
A young man. Slim, and probably not even worth eating.
The Crazy Ape wondered if such a weak-looking human could really have created this trap.
“OOH!”
Another Crazy Ape leapt, trying to jump over the pit to attack the human.
But it was kicked midair by another human and sent tumbling into the pit.
“I won’t let you!”
This new figure was an even slimmer woman than the first man.
Despite the Crazy Ape weighing likely three times her body weight, she lashed out with a whip-like kick, smashing it down into the bottom of the trap.
“[Lightning Cannon: Lightning bolt]!”
Lightning shot from the man’s hand, piercing a Crazy Ape that had stopped just short of the pit.
The ones that had escaped the fire kept charging into the trap, unaware.
Some barely noticed and tried to stop or leap over it, but were dispatched by the woman’s kicks or the man’s magic.
“He… lp…”
“Hmm?”
“He… lp… me…”
From the bottom of the pit, one impaled Crazy Ape forced out a desperate plea for its life.
It looked up at the humans with pitiful eyes, begging for mercy.
“Help… me… please…”
“Human language… How did you learn that?”
But the man’s eyes grew even colder.
He stared down at the Crazy Ape with the hatred of one who sees a mortal enemy, brimming with murderous intent.
“You learned it from the humans you killed and ate, didn’t you? You murdered them even as they begged for their lives, didn’t you?”
“He… lp…”
“Enough. Disgusting.”
A blade of wind shot from the man’s hand.
The sharp wind sliced clean through the Crazy Ape’s neck, severing it completely and ending its life.