A wild last boss appeare.., p.12
A Wild Last Boss Appeared! Volume 5, page 12
“You are rushing to a conclusion. It’s true that the centaurs are only listening to us right now because we are threatening them, but even so, they are still demihumans, just like us... Once Sagittarius truly becomes one of us, they will too. I cannot allow you to kill them recklessly and create grudges for the future.”
The dryad mulled it over for a moment. “You know, Sarge, you’re a real softie...”
The dryad gave the spiderman a glare, and a tense atmosphere spread. Eventually, it seemed like the dryad folded, as she averted her eyes and sighed. Seeing that, the spiderman also loosened up.
“Oh, fine. Whatever. I don’t wanna fight you, Sarge, so I’ll just let this one go,” the dryad said, picking up the centaur child in her branches and extending them all the way over to the other centaurs.
It looked as if she intended to return the child. Seeing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but the instant everyone relaxed, the dryad’s branches swung the child high up into the air.
“W-Waaaaaaahhhhhhhh?!”
“Just kidding! We’ve got so many hostages here. Having one less to manage would actually be a good thing! Sarge’s way of doing things is so soft it makes me wanna puke!”
The dryad laughed cruelly as she swung down. She was probably trying to slam the child down on the ground as hard as possible. Since it was sudden, no one could react in time, and their faces paled as they easily predicted the tragedy that was about to happen.
Sei and the others leapt forward hurriedly, but there was no way they were in a position to make it. The next moment, however, there was a bright flash, and the dryad’s branches were slashed apart. At the same time, a black shadow flew forward and caught the centaur boy. It was perfect timing, befitting of a savior or a hero, almost like the person had aimed for just such a moment.
The dryad fixed the interrupter with a harsh glare, while the centaurs looked upon their savior thankfully. And they both screamed at the same time.
“Wagghh! Monster?!”
There stood a mysterious creature.
It had a tiger beastfolk’s upper half, the lower half of a horse, horns, and moth wings. It was the Sword Saint Friedrich, sporting a form so horrific people doubted their senses even as they wondered what kind of couple could even make a creature like that. The one who’d caught the boy had an upper half that looked a lot like a gorilla—the female knight. Her lower half was that of a spider, and she too was an off the rails creature. The boy who’d been saved had fainted and was showing the whites of his eyes.
“Wai— What the hell is that?! Gross, gross, super gross! What the hell?! Ewwwwww!”
The female knight jumped at the dryad as it was busy being grossed out by their forms. With the sword that symbolized her pride as a knight in hand, she shuffled forward with her many spider legs.
“NOOOOOOO!”
The dryad, half in tears, ran away, but the female knight didn’t stop. The dryad had gone for the children first in order to force people to listen to her, and that went against the knight’s code. For that, she would not forgive the dryad.
The female knight swung her sword, her expression angry and breathing rough as she chased down the dryad. The dryad, almost in a frenzy, tried to ward off the female knight with vines, but they were all slashed apart. Then, the knight leapt. Jumping nimbly from tree to tree, she continued to draw closer to the dryad.
“GRROOOAAARRRR!” the tiger roared, as if to cheer on the efforts of the female knight as he slashed at the spiderman.
The spiderman blocked with one of his legs, and they entered into a contest of strength. But in the end, both the spiderman and the dryad were simply more powerful. While they had been momentarily surprised because of their opponent’s entrance and appearance, that wouldn’t last long. There was only one option for Sei and the others. They had to defeat the spiderman right here and now, and free the centaurs.
“We don’t have any other choice! Let’s go, everyone!”
“Yeah!”
“Awwwwriiiite! I’m gonna avenge Nick and the others right here!”
“And the guardian dragon too!” Sei shouted, trying to galvanize everyone to action.
Gantz, Jean, and Petto all ran forward at the same time. Behind them, Virgo threw a slash of light with her sword, and Kross sent out a magic bullet, though he was a little slow on the uptake. The two attacks flew towards the lamia and the merman who were standing by, and though they dodged the attacks, Virgo and Kross succeeded in separating them. At the same time, Virgo flew, charging at the lamia. The merman tried to support the lamia, but Castor stood before him and blocked the way.
“Sorry, but I’m your opponent. Feel free to all come at me at the same time.”
“Y-You’re really pissing me off here, pal. Don’t get so full of yourself just ’cuz you’re a little good lookin’!”
“No, doesn’t that change depending on the race...? I’m sure you’re pretty up there as a merfolk...”
“J-Just a little while ago my crush told me that she liked pretty human faces and turned me down!”
The merman confessed something really sad as he slashed at Castor, who just defended against it silently. Sometimes, anything you said ended up hurting the other person. This was one of those times. In times like these, the greatest kindness was to be quiet and keep the person company.
Castor silently swung wide with his anchor, mowing down the merman as well as the bug-men soldiers that were with him. Then, he continued to knock people out of the fight one after the other with ease.
Virgo flew right past him, followed by several magic bullets.
“So we meet again, girlie! Did you come just so we could continue from last time?”
“Why are you people doing this?!”
“You wouldn’t understand how we feel, being treated like monsters day in and day out!”
The lamia continuously fired magic at Virgo while chasing her down, but unlike before, it was a one-on-one fight.
Virgo flew through the air, dodging the lamia’s magic and returning slashes of light. The lamia also quickly dodged Virgo’s attacks though, and the fight devolved into a long-distance shoot-out. Virgo flew around in the air to evade, and the lamia slithered nimbly along the ground like a snake. The fight was completely even.
“Didn’t I meet you in Draupnir...? Oh, right, so you came to kill us demihumans, didn’t you?”
“Actually... Well, I guess I can’t exactly deny it...”
Sei, Gantz, Jean, and Petto were taking on the spiderman at the same time, and all four of them just barely made the fight even. By utilizing their numbers and taking advantage of combos, Sei and the others boldly attacked from all sides, but everything was blocked by the spiderman’s legs. In fact, he even managed to counterattack, slamming Jean back into a tree.
“Hey, you, spider asshole! It looks like you’re at least a little different from your friends over there, so I’ll tell you, just in case. Stop doing stupid things like siding with Leon! If you keep doing that, all the demihumans will be killed along with him!”
“Just when I was wondering what you would say... We have no other path than this!”
“I see. Looks like you made a bad choice in leaders then!”
Gantz’s war ax clashed with the spiderman’s leg and sparks flew, but the difference in level was a real pain for Gantz. Even without any special bug traits, opposing an ax with one’s bare hands was ridiculous.
“GRRROOAAARRR!”
“Hiyaaaahhh!”
“Why am I the one who has to deal with these monsteerrrsss?!”
Meanwhile, the dryad had ended up with Friedrich and the female knight, and she was running around with a desperate look on her face. In terms of pure power, she was on top, but because of the duo’s awful appearances, she had completely lost the will to fight. On top of that, she noticed magic flying at her for some reason. When she looked behind her, she saw a grasshopper monster had joined as well, and the dryad grew even more teary-eyed.
“NOOOOOOOOO!”
The dryad was almost full-on bawling as she ran away, and chasing after her were a tiger-moth-centaur, a gorilla-arachne, and a grasshopper monster. As things stood, it was impossible to tell which side was the hero’s party. The comical, exasperated sweat of Sei and the others, who were watching from the side, was surely just a trick of the imagination.
“A-Anyway, we’re going to stop you!”
“You’re welcome to try, human child!”
Sei regrouped and took a stance with his sword, ready to intercept the spiderman. Then, Sei’s sword and the spiderman’s leg clashed.
15
Every time Castor swung his favorite weapon, the anchor lance, he scattered demihumans away. As a combatant of the Conquering Twelve Heavenly Stars, Castor wasn’t especially strong. In pure combat ability, he fell short of Aries, and he didn’t have especially strong skills either. Even so, he was strong enough to be one of the Conquering Twelve Heavenly Stars. Even the Twelve Stars’ non-combatants, like Parthenos, were outside the norm, so just by qualifying to be in the group, Castor had the strength of a thousand men.
In sheer numbers, the demihumans came in at a couple hundred. Opposing them was Castor by his lonesome, but the demihumans were the ones at an insurmountable disadvantage in this fight. Castor’s strength equaled a thousand men, after all, which meant that this fight was between a few hundred and a few thousand. The outcome had been decided before the fight had even started; this would just become a simple war of attrition.
The entire reason this was still able to be considered a fight was that Castor had the most moral fiber of anyone in the Twelve Stars, and he was holding back so as not to kill anyone. If it’d been someone like Libra, Aigokeros, or Scorpius fighting here, they wouldn’t have bothered thinking about their enemy at all; they’d have just turned the entire group into corpses in a couple seconds.
“Storm Circle!”
Violent winds radiated out from Castor in all directions. That alone knocked out all the demihumans in front of him, intimidating the ones that were left. If Castor had been going all out, then getting the back line would have been possible too. However, those in front might have died if he’d increased his power that much. The demihumans understood that, and they realized that they had no chance of victory.
“Wh-What’re you all doing? Hurry and kick that handsome bastard’s ass!”
“B-But...”
“I-If you won’t go, then I’ll just kill you all! If you don’t want to die, fight him!”
“W-WAAARRGGGHH!”
Threatened by the merman who was their commander, the arachne who was in front raised a cry as she charged.
An arachne’s upper half was that of a human woman, so if you only paid attention to that part, she was still young and could be considered adorable. But her bottom half was that of a repulsive spider, and the mismatched feeling that gave off only strengthened the repulsive effect.
Castor casually stole the spear the arachne thrust in front of her as she charged, easily rendering her powerless. With her weapon stolen, the young arachne firmly shut her eyes, preparing herself for death. Castor simply patted the frightened girl on the head kindly, though. Mystified, the arachne opened her eyes again and exposed herself to Castor’s sparkling hot-guy smile.
“Stop this. A weapon like this doesn’t fit a lovely girl like you.”
“Ah... Y-Yeah...”
Castor smiled in an attempt to reassure her, and his teeth glittered in the light. When he smiled, the young arachne’s cheeks flushed, and she froze. If this were a manga, her eyes would have been replaced by hearts at this point. Seeing that clearly incensed the merman, as he started to grind his teeth. If Lufas were here, she would surely have sympathized with him and made fun of the moment, saying, “What is this? A love at first sight rom-com trope?!”
The merman might have just become one of Lufas’s comrades in cursing normies to explode. Having had Castor’s hot-guy power shoved in his face, the merman was full of resentment, and his hatred was only increasing. On the other hand, the young arachne had completely fallen for Castor, and she was looking up at him with both hands clasped in front of her like she was praying.
“It seems like you just don’t understand how to treat a lady. Men must always treat ladies with kindness. Dragging them out onto the battlefield like this is out of the question.”
A minor point, but Castor said this while his lord and master went out on the front lines all the time, could move faster than sound, was in general the strongest woman in the world, and tended to make bloodbaths out of her enemies. If anyone had pointed that out to him, they might have been able to stop him mid-sentence, but the merman wasn’t that smart, so Castor just kept on speaking.
“I heard that you have a one-sided affection for someone, but as you are now, it’s only natural that she doesn’t return your feelings. Listen here. I’ll tell you one of the world’s truths. Men aren’t just their faces! What’s inside is what’s important!”
“YOU DON’T GET TO SAY THAAAAAT!!”
The merman snapped. His face reddened in anger, and he charged harpoon-first. An ant soldier and a mantis warrior followed after him, as well as all the other men who weren’t blessed with good looks.
One of the tragedies that came with being a demihuman was a person’s sense of beauty. Sure, they had the traits of fish, snakes, and bugs as their names implied, but they held human traits as well. What did that mean? Well, that was the tragedy as well as the comedy. Part of their sense of beauty was inherited from humans. As a race, they juggled not only a standard of beauty particular to their race, but a human’s beauty standards as well.
Take, for example, a dragonfly-type bug person. While those outside of the race would only see them as having monstrous looks, they were able to tell who was beautiful and who was not among themselves. Even if no one else could understand it, the ones who were handsome were popular. This applied for females as well. At the same time, they could discern faces from a human perspective as well. For example, they wouldn’t look at a beautiful woman and think they were ugly because they didn’t have a face like a dragonfly’s. They would think of her as beautiful, just like other humans.
This was where sad misunderstandings happened, because even if a person was earth shatteringly beautiful among dragonfly people, among regular humans, they’d just be monsters. If a dragonfly man confessed to a regular human girl, they’d just run for the hills. In other words, even to them, Castor was an annoyingly handsome guy! Not only could he attract human beauties who would never look at them, but he was beautiful enough to make demihumans fall for him too.
What absurdity! What unfairness!
In a sense, this was only natural. After all, the one who stood at the peak of this world was Alovenus, the Goddess of love and beauty. She couldn’t very well be called that if she looked ugly to other races, which meant that all races saw Alovenus as beautiful. All races were born with that aesthetic sense imprinted on them. The basis for all beauty in this world was centered around Alovenus, and humans were close in appearance to Alovenus, so they also naturally stood at the center of the entire world’s beauty standards. That was why human faces always looked beautiful, no matter the race.
“DIIIEEEEEEEEEE!”
Right now, all the men’s hearts were as one. There was an amazing, unprecedented feeling of unity that seemed to somehow generate a strong, primordial heat. It was the winds of jealousy, and it was surely and steadily blowing towards them.
Let’s stop half-assing this. We’re taking this all the way to the end. So many of us who weren’t blessed with good looks are here. We aren’t alone. Let’s believe and fight together. With love, bravery, and hope in our hearts, we will take this evil handsome bastard down. Stand up, warriors!
“All hot guys must die!”
The war cry symbolized all the unpopular men’s sadness and lamentation, and as they charged Castor, their sad, lonely lives flashed before their eyes.
There was a village girl I always thought was cute. She’d come out to the forest to pick herbs. Once she was lost, and I tried to help her, but she just called me a monster and ran away.
I tried to return something a woman dropped once, but all I did was scare her. There was nothing I could do about that, so I put it back where I’d found it. But a bear beastfolk found it and gave it to her, and for some reason, they started skipping and dancing together. In the end, she started spouting shit about how the road she met the bear on was full of flowers or something, and they married. Now she’s the fourth queen of Draupnir, dammit.
Damn you, beastfolk, getting all uppity just because humans think you’re cute.
Letting hatred, grief, and jealousy drive them, the men surpassed their own limits. They displayed a level of skill never seen before, becoming a single malign force aimed towards Castor.
In response to that, Castor turned his back on the men and raised his hand.
“Gemini Meteor Fist!”
His fist pierced the heavens, and the men all became meteors. Nothing special happened; it was just an uppercut. Castor had just applied some wind magic to his fist to blow them all away, no skill named Gemini Meteor Fist actually existed.
The men, defeated in a single blow, all fell to the ground face-first. Each and every one of them was knocked out. The moment before they’d passed out, they had a thought. All hot guys...must die...
＊ ＊
The fight between Virgo and the lamia had devolved into a long-range shooting match. This hadn’t happened on purpose. It had just turned out this way before either of them had noticed.
Virgo flew through the air, but the lamia had no way of getting that high. She weaved her way between the trees, which meant Virgo couldn’t get close either, since the trees were in the way. As a result, they had resorted to long-ranged attacks, but none of them could do any significant damage. It eventually devolved into repeated patterns of using the same attacks again and again, and dodging them over and over.
