THE OGRE PURSUED
“Hff! Hff!”
The fierce winds force my white breath to trail behind me.
Without turning back to watch it disappear, I run with all my might.
I was naive.
Going in, I did not think myself too prideful or too careless.
In fact, it seemed to me that I was overpreparing due to needless anxiety.
And yet, I was naive.
The fact that I’m running away so shamefully is proof of that.
After I defeated one troop of adventurers, I started readying myself for the next battle.
To put it simply, that first battle was a massacre.
I made preparations in advance and intercepted them with my full power, and it went even more smoothly than I imagined.
However, I wouldn’t say that it was an easy win.
In fact, it was a close call.
I used up every one of the magic swords I’d prepared and had to run myself ragged before I managed to shake the enemy, so it wasn’t as one-sided a slaughter as it may have seemed to the attackers.
The adventurers I killed probably didn’t notice, but they’d actually driven me pretty close to the wall.
Without my special trait of fully recovering when I level up, I probably would have been killed.
It was only because there were so many of them, and of such high strength, that I was able to receive so many experience points and reliably level up.
It’s pretty ironic that their strength and numbers are what allowed me to win.
However, that worked only because they were still weaker than I am.
As long as I’m up against enemies I can defeat individually, one-on-one, there’s not too much to worry about, but if any of them were stronger than me, I wouldn’t be able to count on beating them and leveling up to recover.
Not if I can’t beat them.
And for all I know, there are plenty enemies out there who I can’t beat.
Even if there aren’t, a group of several strong contenders around my level of strength would also make it much harder for me to win.
That’s why I have to undertake all these preparations.
I continually make magic swords as long as I have the MP.
When my MP runs out, I practice with my katana.
Among the previous group of adventurers, there was actually one swordsman was able to match me.
If he hadn’t been injured in the process of closing in, I might’ve been in serious trouble.
See, I have magic-oriented stats.
Creating magic swords requires using a lot of MP, so my magic stats are higher than the rest.
My physical and defense stats are a lot lower than most would probably assume from my bulky physique.
After the battle with the adventurers, I evolved again and became an Ogre King.
This species seems to have a special trait that makes my physical stats rise much higher than before.
My magic stats are oriented toward making magic swords, so they’re not actually all that useful in battle.
All in all, I had little choice but to fight with my lower physical stats, but luckily I’d been able to scrape by so far.
Even my relatively low physical stats were still higher than those of the adventurers.
Besides, I can make up for that in a pinch with Battle Divinity, an advanced skill that greatly increases my physical stats.
If I activate that, I can defeat just about anyone.
But I think that adventurer who managed to get close to me had stats on par with my own, or maybe even higher.
If our stats are around the same, then the victor is determined by sheer skill in battle.
And I’m sure that adventurer was far better than me.
My swordsmanship, feints, and strategies couldn’t measure up to that man’s experience.
The only reason I was able to defeat him was that he was already injured, and I was lucky enough to level up and recover.
I’m sure that adventurer wasn’t anywhere near the strongest in the world, so I had to improve myself so that I could win even without my fortunate advantages.
If an even stronger human shows up, I might get killed.
I’d evolved and gotten stronger after that battle, but I couldn’t let my guard down.
I knew I would have to be prepared to take on my next enemy with everything I have.
But despite my best efforts, all my preparations fell apart so easily.
These new attackers must have used some kind of magic, a wide-range attack that destroyed the land mine swords and tore up the surrounding land.
They slipped past the lightning fence swords that I set up to slow them down with the dirty trick of teleporting, then had the nerve to topple them by moving the very ground itself.
And then there was the old knight who attacked me. He was even stronger than the adventurer from the previous battle.
His face under the helmet was clearly creased with wrinkles, yet the strength and sharpness of his swordsmanship showed no signs of being dulled by age.
It was a good call to practice with my swords after the previous battle against those adventurers.
Otherwise, I probably would have been cut to pieces.
The man was a master of swordsmanship.
And clearly, he was a veteran of countless battles.
In terms of brute strength, Battle Divinity gave me the advantage.
But he had enough experience and talent to make up for that with ease.
I couldn’t let my guard down for a second, but I couldn’t focus solely on the old knight, either.
Because the mage who teleported the knight over to me was attacking me from a distance.
The two elderly men had me pinned down, and when a spell blew a hole through my head, I knew I was on death’s doorstep.
But luck was on my side: a sword that I threw half reflexively managed to hit one of the soldiers and kill him, and even more luckily, that caused me to level up and fully recover, which was the only thing that could have saved my life.
It was a truly one-in-a-million stroke of luck.
If anything had gone even slightly differently…
The thought alone makes me shudder.
The only reason I’m alive now is because I got lucky.
And that’s the only reason I was able to get away, too.
My vision was swimming with red, my consciousness fading.
But I somehow managed to hold on to my senses and get through it.
If I’d lost control, I have a feeling I would never have been able to get it back.
I’m hanging on to my sanity by a thread.
I had to string together all the reasons I needed to leave and run away, or I would have given in to my violent fury and lost myself to a reckless rampage.
In that situation, I’m sure I could have beaten the old knight and the old mage.
However, that victory would only lead to my own destruction.
It’s all right.
I’m fine.
I can still think rationally like this.
I haven’t lost my mind yet…
“Hff! Hff!”
It gets harder to breathe, so I stop running.
Since I’ve been dashing at full speed, I’m completely breathless and worn out.
But I’ve probably gotten far away by now.
I covered a significant distance, so I doubt my attackers could have kept up with me all this way.
Just as I breathe a sigh of relief, a beam of light grazes my cheek.
“?!”
A tiny trickle of blood beads on the shallow cut across my cheek.
Before I even feel any pain, I whirl toward the source of the beam.
There, I see the same elderly mage who shot my head with magic before.
“Wh…ah!”
I’m shocked for only a moment, until I realize how he’s gotten here.
That’s right.
This old mage can use a dirty trick that should be against the rules: teleporting!
No matter how far I run, he can disregard the distance and simply use Teleport to catch up.
As I stand, dumbfounded, the old mage glares at me and raises his wand.
“Aaaargh!”
Unable to suppress the chill creeping up my spine, I bellow as I start to run.
Instead of the usual anger that threatens to set my body aflame, this time I feel raw terror that nearly freezes me in place.
Rationally, I know that fleeing on foot is pointless against a mage who can teleport, but my fear overpowers all reason.
Unable to collect my thoughts, I let my instincts take over and I break into a run.
Forcing my exhausted legs to keep moving, my breath completely ragged, I push on.
Wheeze…pant… As I gulp down the cold air, pain seizes my chest.
My sides ache, and I can barely lift my feet.
But still, I keep running.
Another beam of light shoots at me from behind.
It hits the ground some distance away, barely missing me.
Remembering the blow that obliterated my head before, I feel my feet grow heavy.
But if I stop moving now, it’ll be the end, so I force myself to go on with my last reserves of strength.
<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Fear Resistance LV 3] has become [Fear Resistance LV 4].>
<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Heresy Resistance LV 5] has become [Heresy Resistance LV 6].>
I hear a voice in my head, but I don’t have time to stop and think about what it means.
How far have I run?
I’ve lost all sense of time. I don’t know if it’s been minutes, hours, or even days.
I just keep running, without any destination in mind.
Propelled forward by panic, I keep moving as far as my body will carry me.
And just as I stop, thinking that I can’t run anymore, another light beam comes toward me.
Then the cycle repeats itself.
That elderly mage won’t let me be.
Terrible fear washes over me, dragging my feet forward.
No matter where I run or how fast, that mage is always one step ahead, waiting for me.
Gradually, the exhaustion wears on my mind, until my thoughts are too hazy to come together properly.
<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Fear Resistance LV 4] has become [Fear Resistance LV 5].>
<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Heresy Resistance LV 6] has become [Heresy Resistance LV 7].>
At some point, the fear of not knowing how long I have to run starts to give way to a bubbling rage.
Why am I running away?
It’s only one person.
The old knight isn’t here.
I can kill him, can’t I?
Exhausted by all the running, resentful of the way I’ve been driven into a corner, I feel my fear turn to anger.
That’s right.
I don’t need to run.
If he intends to chase me wherever I go, I’ll just have to kill him.
I stop dead in my tracks.
A beam of light hurtles toward me.
It grazes my body, but I don’t feel the same kind of fear as before.
Instead, I’m overcome with rage, strong enough to drive my body forward.
“GRAAAAAH!”
Howling, I charge right toward the elderly mage.
“?!”
The old mage’s expression doesn’t change, but I can tell that he gasps slightly.
Setting my flame katana ablaze, I swing it at the old man.
The mage is unable to dodge my attack, and it cuts right through his body.
“Huh?”
However, even though the blow definitely connected, it feels as if my sword is cutting through air.
It’s so unexpected that I nearly lose my balance and fall forward.
Instead, I stumble two or three steps before regaining my balance.
My body passed right through the old mage.
“Wha—?”
For a moment, I’m not sure what’s happening.
It’s almost as if the old mage is just an illusion, and my sword and my body both went right through him.
No, wait a second.
Not almost. Is that actually what’s happening?
An illusion?
I spin around immediately, but the old mage is no longer there.
Checking my surroundings frantically, I see a black-clad person standing not far from where the old mage appeared to be moments before.
The person is dressed from head to toe in all black, like a ninja.
There’s not a hint of skin, so I can’t even tell if this person is human, never mind what their gender might be.
“Fear dispelled. Illusion partially dispelled.”
The black-clad person murmurs emotionlessly, and I finally have some idea of what just happened to me.
Illusion and fear.
Someone created the illusion that the old mage was still chasing me and used some kind of skill to inflict fear on me so that I wouldn’t realize what was going on.
In video game terms, they used multiple status condition changes on me.
If you’re aware what’s going on, then it’s nothing too major, but having it done to you in real life is a terrifying combination.
I never knew people could fight like that in this world.
But more than being impressed, I feel the rage growing inside me.
Anger at myself, that I was fooled so easily into running away from nothing.
But most of all, anger at the person in front of me, who’s responsible.
“Graaaaah!”
In a fit of rage, I charge toward the black-clad person.
But the person dodges easily, with movements so light and nimble that they appear virtually weightless.
“Withdraw.”
With a simple word, the black-clad person turns around and flees.
“You’re not getting away!”
I chase after them as they run.
Another chase scene, but this time the roles are reversed.
As I pursue the person in black, we seem to be moving at around the same speed: I’m not getting any closer or farther away.
The person in black just keeps running, never once looking back.
Eventually, we reach a place that seems somehow familiar.
Then the black-clad figure stops abruptly.
Without hesitation, I slice into their back with my sword.
But my attack goes straight through the person’s body, jabbing into the ground.
It’s the same feeling as before.
Another illusion?!
I’ve been had!
They must have switched out with an illusion sometime during the chase.
Or maybe I was chasing an illusion from the very beginning.
Realizing that I’ve been playing into their hands the entire time, I grind my teeth.
The anger is so strong that it threatens to turn my vision red.
Looking up, I see several people staring at me in shock.
Then, when I look more closely, I realize that I know this place.
It’s that awful village where I was once held captive.
But I killed everyone who lived here already.
Where did these people come from, then?
With a snap, the rage inside me starts to overflow.
“Aaaaargh!”
Unable to hold it back any longer, I cut the nearest person down with my sword.
Sliced in half by my flame katana, the two pieces of the corpse catch flame.
Seeing that, the other people all start shouting something.
What are they saying?
I can hear the noises they’re making, but I can’t seem to process them as words.
It must be a different human language from the one I learned.
Well, whatever.
That doesn’t matter right now.
If they’re in this village, then I don’t care who they might be.
I’m going to kill all of them.
I start to cut down the next person.
At the same time, a small girl runs over to me, shouting.
“Sasajima!”
It’s a familiar name. My name. But not one that anyone in this world should know.
Are the illusions so strong that they even affect my hearing?
Don’t call me by that name!
I have no right to answer to that name anymore.
Kyouya Sasajima is the name of a human who died long ago.
As if to dispel the illusions, I swing my flame katana at the screaming girl.
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