Chapter 44 : Weapons (5) Part-1

When I fell from the rooftop, I tried to control my weight, but the impact on the monster was still significant.

After all, it was a rooftop of a building.

Even a steel ball the size of a fist could split a human skull just by falling.

It wasn’t like I had jumped from a particularly great height.

But it wasn’t something I could have done purely with my own strength, either.

The “propulsion device” was exactly that—a propulsion device.

Even James, who created it, seemed surprised, but its “propulsion function” worked flawlessly.

I leaped to a height that would ordinarily be impossible for a human to achieve alone, hovering momentarily in mid-air.

I saw the gazes directed at me—the police surrounding the scene, watching the fight; the monster standing among them; and Ji-hye, who was in its grasp.

I focused on the monster.

I wanted to kill it.

Crush its head right now.

But I knew I couldn’t do that immediately.

Ji-hye’s safety was the priority.

First, I had to move her somewhere safe before making any decisions.

The best method was to break its arm.

The claws were large, and the arms were fairly long to control them.

But I didn’t just focus on the arms.

What if I missed the elbow?

The monster wouldn’t just stand there and take the hit.

It would move, probably using Ji-hye to shield itself.

In that case, it would be better to sever the arm at its base.

Considering it would move… the neck area seemed like the best target.

The time it took me to reach this conclusion was likely just a split second.

The moment of hovering in mid-air was also fleeting.

Does magic affect my thinking too?

It felt like either I was moving faster, or the world around me was slowing down.

Suspended in the sky, I leaned forward slightly, sliding my hand down the long handle of the hammer near its head.

Then, I placed my other hand firmly on the edge of the hammer.

I swung it down.

With the propulsion device roaring behind me,

I must have looked like I was drawing a circular arc in the air.

When the flat, solid part of the hammerhead faced downward, I released more energy.

The blue flames at the back of the hammer blazed fiercely.

Leaving behind a long, straight blue trail, the hammer “fired.”

I plummeted at high speed.

The sound of air slicing sharply past my ears filled the air.

James, perched on my shoulder, was yelling something, but I couldn’t make out his words.

He was holding on surprisingly well.

I must have been moving too fast, as the monster’s movements below seemed oddly slow.

As I predicted, the monster moved its arm.

It pulled Ji-hye, whom it had been holding out, back toward itself.

Did it think that would stop me?

If I could stop mid-descent, I wouldn’t have chosen this method.

I gritted my teeth and focused.

I adjusted the hammer’s trajectory to follow the monster’s arm.

Perhaps driven by desperation, the magic worked exactly as I intended this time.

The fleeting moment passed.

I heard the sound of something hard colliding with something equally hard.

It sounded like two impacts occurring simultaneously:

The “thud” of something heavy falling with a dull weight,

And the “crack” of something thin and hard shattering against something solid.

Naturally, the heavier “thud” was the dominant sound.

Crack.

The carapace covering the shoulder shattered.

Through the cracks, a blue fluid began to flow, and the center of the carapace caved inward.

Boom!

The hammer, powered by the propulsion device, didn’t stop there—it smashed into the ground.

The ground cracked deeply, and a crater formed in the center.

Amid the rubble was the crushed remains of the carapace.

“Aaaargh!”

The monster screamed.

It staggered backward, retreating while glancing at its arm.

The problem wasn’t just its left claw.

Its shoulder—or more accurately, the part just beside its head—had its carapace entirely shattered.

Beneath the jagged, broken edges, white flesh was visible.

…It looked like the flesh of crustaceans you’d see at a seafood restaurant.

As the monster stumbled away from me, I turned my gaze to Ji-hye.

She had fallen to the ground.

Her legs seemed to have given out; she couldn’t stand properly.

No, it looked like she still couldn’t breathe properly.

The massive claw had been pressing on her waist.

I started toward her, pressing the hammer down with one hand—

Bang!

I was struck by the monster’s swinging arm.

Perhaps because I was holding the propulsion-powered hammer, I was briefly flung into the air.

Barely regaining my senses, I grabbed the hammer’s handle.

I managed to bring the hammerhead down, aligning it horizontally with the ground, and my body spun once in the air.

Once I stabilized my trajectory, I prepared to attack again.

I didn’t know how to deactivate the propulsion device anyway.

Until my rage subsided, I had no choice but to keep fighting.

I adjusted the hammer and launched myself toward the monster.

The monster was heading toward Ji-hye again.

She had finally managed to free herself from the claw’s grip and was crawling away.

Some police officers rushed toward her.

The monster, however, followed her, stomping furiously.

Maybe it wanted revenge, even if it meant killing Ji-hye—after all, I had destroyed its arm.

Bullets flew toward the monster.

Some bounced off its thick carapace, but a few seemed to find their mark in its wounds.

The monster staggered but didn’t fall.

As I’d heard over the radio, ordinary bullets weren’t enough to bring it down.

Instead, it seemed enraged.

The monster roared and raised its arm.

“Huh!?”

I cried out involuntarily.

Something was boiling up from the cracks in its broken carapace.

It looked like flesh was bubbling and rising.

From the gaps in the monster’s carapace, white, gelatinous flesh began to grow again.

It resembled the claw I had just destroyed.

It looked soft and fragile, as if it would crumble at any moment.

But it was clearly functional, or it wouldn’t be doing this.

I immediately raised the hammer vertically again.

I prepared to strike down hard once more—

Bang!

This time, the monster quickly dodged to the side.

Had it anticipated the attack?

There’s no way it could avoid it with just anticipation.

If that were possible, it would have dodged when I smashed its shell earlier.

I glanced at the fallen shell on the ground.

Thick.

It was certainly sturdy enough to withstand the weight of me leaping down and slamming it from the rooftop.

I couldn’t be sure how it compared to actual minerals in strength, but it could deflect bullets fired from the anti-terrorist sniper rifles used by the police.

Unless it was made of some special alloy, it must be incredibly heavy.

My eyes caught sight of something white.

It was flesh growing out from within the shell.

It shot towards me with even greater speed and agility than before, like a whip.

I twisted the hammer and forced it upward.

As the white flesh touched the flames erupting from the open section at the back, the monster screamed,
but I couldn’t dodge it completely.

Thankfully, the impact wasn’t as severe as when I was struck by the thick shell earlier, though the blow still rattled my brain painfully.

I heard Ji-hye’s scream.

She may have called out my name, though the sound felt distant.

I leapt sideways, blocking the monster from getting closer to Ji-hye.

More precisely, I raised the hammer to the side.

Crunch!

My feet ground into the asphalt as I skidded to a halt.

So, this is a game of speed, is it?

I bared my teeth at the monster.

If I don’t completely neutralize you, Ji-hye won’t be safe.

Gripping the hammer, ready to spring forward at any moment, I stared at it and thought:

Where should I start breaking you—

But before I could finish the thought, a steel wire shot out overhead towards me and the monster.

*
It was too late.

It wasn’t until they arrived at the scene that the magical girls realized how dire the situation had become.

The reason they had gathered, despite being under what was essentially house arrest for a while, was simple:

The police couldn’t control the monster and had called on them to deal with it.

Although Hayoon’s magical power had significantly weakened, it wasn’t to the point where she couldn’t fight at all.

Even though her output was lower than that of other magical girls, she wasn’t so weak as to risk being killed by the monster.

Besides, the other girls could still use their powers, and while Hayoon’s strength might not directly support them, they could manage to handle one monster.

But the Federation had taken far too long to make that judgment.

It seemed they had debated until the very last moment whether it was worth deploying them, especially Hayoon.

After finally getting the green light, she took off.

While she couldn’t carry another person, she could at least manage to fly alone.

One monster.

One hostage.