Dark Fantasy’s Extra

A massive caravan of carriages entered the trading city of Cranion.

The carriages that came from a distant coastal city carried the heavy scent of the sea.

The city’s people came out to see this unusual large-scale caravan and its overwhelming smell that couldn’t be ignored.

There were dozens of carriages forming a long line still entering through the gate.

The city’s bribed guards let most carriages through, claiming the scale was too large to check each one thoroughly.

Before long, the massive main road that served as the city’s spine was packed full of sea-scented carriages without any gaps.

Then monsters emerged from the carriages all at once.

The residents froze, unable to comprehend the situation itself.

A Deep Sea Folk mage pointed their staff at the stunned crowd of onlookers.

When black smoke spewed from the staff decorated with a massive fish skull, the people who inhaled it immediately collapsed while vomiting blood.

And everyone returned to reality.

“Kyaaaah!”

“Monsters!”

Screams.

Pandemonium.

The gathered people turned and ran.

People fell into confusion amid the sudden chaos.

Some fell down, others trampled over them.

And spears flew toward all of them.

“Save me!”

“Mother…!”

Those hit in the head or heart died, but those hit in the back or legs wailed in pain and the premonition of death.

Then nets flew toward the people who couldn’t move.

The nets had sharp thorns scattered throughout, and those caught were helplessly dragged toward the Deep Sea Folk.

The Deep Sea Folk swiftly killed the humans dragged before them by stabbing vital points with spears and threw them into the carriages.

All these actions flowed naturally.

They had clearly come prepared.

They systematically caught their prey, killed them, and stored them away.

Just as humans do to creatures, the Deep Sea Folk did the same to humans.

“…It begins.”

Said ‘Dara’, the Deep Sea Folk at the head of the carriages.

Unlike the others who wore no clothing, he wore rusty armor and a large mask made from a seashell on his face.

Dara had received orders to raid this city closely connected to the Hunting Order to announce to the land dwellers that the Little Mermaid had returned.

The number of Deep Sea Folk soldiers brought on this expedition was 300.

Far too few to occupy the city.

And once humans who escaped the city informed the Hunting Order of this situation, powerful hunters would soon rush in.

Dara had no options to escape or hide.

The Little Mermaid’s orders were not occupation but to widely announce her return.

It would be enough to inflict maximum damage on this city.

Dara well understood that he would die here with his comrades.

But he thought that would come much later at the hands of hunters.

Not from a bullet to the back of his head right as the raid began.

“…!?!?”

Dara’s vision momentarily went blank.

*    *    *

“…Seems this much isn’t enough to kill it after all.”

From the rooftop of a building, I sensed that the Deep Sea Folk commander hadn’t died instantly.

In Blue Paper Moon, ‘Land Expedition Commander Dara’, the boss of the Cranion invasion event, was a somewhat weak mid-tier Beast.

Being a commander type, he was weaker than the direct combat types, but he couldn’t be taken down easily since he periodically summoned subordinates.

But this isn’t a game.

As soon as I confirmed the carriages entering the city, I climbed to a building good for sniping and waited.

And luck was on my side as I managed a headshot from a perfect angle.

But the rifle adjusted to fire special silver bullets lacked killing power for long-range sniping after all.

Even with a double critical hit of back attack and headshot on a mid-tier Beast that was weaker than average, it still didn’t kill instantly.

Still, this should have weakened their command structure.

“Listen well, Hilde.”

Fully armed with Zepetia’s new spear strapped to my back, I spoke to Hilde.

“Yes.”

Hilde nodded with a tense expression.

I hadn’t explained about this invasion to her beforehand either.

She wouldn’t have believed me even if I told her, and I couldn’t explain my reasons anyway.

She just followed along well with my crude excuse about training near the city.

“This situation must be bewildering. But we are hunters. If there are Beasts before us, we hunt them. That’s all there is to it.”

“Yes.”

“But there are too many. Don’t rush – reduce their numbers one by one, steadily.”

“Yes.”

According to the setting, Deep Sea Folk groups maintained discipline through their commander’s telepathy.

Though my sniper shot just now caused great confusion in the group, since I failed to kill him instantly, they still maintained organization.

If we could finish off Dara for certain, the Deep Sea Folk’s system for hunting humans would collapse and we could minimize damage to the city.

But we couldn’t recklessly target the commander first.

The active Deep Sea Folk units consisted of ‘hunting squads’ that moved in groups of four actively tracking humans, and ‘guard squads’ protecting the stronghold with commander Dara and the carriages storing humans.

What Hilde and I needed to handle first were the nearby hunting squads.

If we got held up by the guard squads, the hunting squads that went ahead could return and surround us from both sides.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes.”

What Hilde and I needed to do first was reduce the number of hunting squads before taking on the guard squads.

When I checked from the rooftop earlier, the armed guards on the city outskirts were still quiet as if unaware of the situation, but the guards inside the city had already engaged in combat.

Though calling it combat was generous – it was more like one-sided slaughter.

The properly armed ones were the outskirt guards, while those inside the city only had batons for maintaining order, at best guns with lead bullets.

It’s almost impossible for normal humans with normal weapons to kill Beasts.

Moreover, the enemy wasn’t mere wild creatures but a properly organized group.

We couldn’t know how long it would take for the chaos inside the city to reach the outskirts and notify the Order for subjugation forces to arrive.

We quietly left the building and circled around.

Before long, we encountered one hunting squad.

At the front as expected was a massive Deep Sea Folk with a shield.

He was a head taller than the spear-wielding Deep Sea Folk and thicker bodied too.

Moreover, with a large shield covering half his body, he was like a walking wall.

Behind the Deep Sea Folk shield bearer were two spearmen, and at the very back was a Drowned One.

They immediately threw spears as soon as they saw us.

Hilde deflected the thrown spears with her axe while I aimed my rifle at the shield bearer’s knee as he covered his head.

“…!!”

When the shield bearer let out something like a cry of pain, the two spearmen behind him charged in.

Hilde stepped forward and engaged in close combat with one, while I reloaded my rifle and shot the head of the Deep Sea Folk who was now unarmed after throwing his spear.

Though the Deep Sea Folk covered his head with his arms, he couldn’t cover it completely and at this distance I could hit easily.

As he collapsed to the ground, I immediately drew the harpoon from my back and stabbed it into his exposed nape.

The Deep Sea Folk died instantly.

Then I pulled out the harpoon and threw it at the shield bearer who was getting up.

The shield bearer hurriedly raised his shield, but the harpoon pierced through the shield and impaled his neck.

“The performance is certainly reliable.”

Zepetia’s new weapon, the ‘Mermaid Hunter’.

A harpoon made from the finger of Kenken, who fought bare-handed against the Sea Tyrant and the Little Mermaid’s forces.

In Blue Paper Moon, it had an effect of dealing additional damage to the Little Mermaid and her Beasts.

Though the damage varied based on level difference between user and monster, if upgraded to final stage it could reliably take down even the Little Mermaid.

Unfortunately in the game you could only fully upgrade one piece of equipment, so weapons effective only against specific enemies like the Mermaid Slayer were rarely upgraded.

But for fodder enemies like these, even the base state was plenty powerful.

Looking toward Hilde’s side, she was already pulling her axe blade out of a Deep Sea Folk’s head.

“Senior, what should we do with the corpses?”

“Leave them – we don’t have time.”

I took out the Raven Dagger last and threw it between the eyes of the approaching Drowned One.

Thanks to its effect of dealing additional damage to undead, the Drowned One died instantly.

I retrieved the harpoon and dagger before starting another patrol of the area with Hilde.

The next group we met had an even mix of shield bearers and spearmen.

I first threw the Mermaid Hunter to kill one shield bearer and then shot the spearman behind him in succession.

Hilde skillfully knocked aside the shield of the shield bearer in front as trained, then killed the defenseless Deep Sea Folk by striking his neck.

In an instant three were down and the remaining one tried to charge at an opening in Hilde’s defense, but she simply pushed him away before striking his head.

The next hunting squad was all spearmen, and we could easily take them out with the rifle from range.

Still, I made sure to leave at least one for Hilde to handle.

Her speed in taking down opponents was gradually increasing.

She was only slightly slower than me who could handle Deep Sea Folk in almost one hit thanks to the Mermaid Hunter.

As Prophet Ryu said back in Cranion’s alley, Hilde was rapidly growing through actual combat.

At first I thought even surviving this invasion would be difficult.

That was certainly true by the standards when I first planned this battle, but for her now it seemed like just an ordinary growth event.

Just how quickly was she getting stronger…

I slapped my own cheek.

Here I was focusing only on Hilde’s growth while people were dying at this very moment.

While it’s true that she’s this world’s protagonist and key to salvation.

Even I who needs to view everything objectively seem to be losing touch with reality.

“Senior? Are you alright?”

“Sorry. Just had something to think about… Anyway, this should be enough cleanup of the area, we should hit their main force soon.”

Just then several gunshots rang out and armed guards came rushing in.

“Ah, hunters!”

The guard captain at the front spotted us and approached.

“Thank goodness. We found hunters!”

“You are…”

“We were originally guarding the outskirts, but when we heard Beast groups had appeared inside the city we rushed over. We encountered some strange-looking Beasts on the way, but since we’re all armed with silver bullets we could handle them.”

I see, so the outer guards have finally arrived.

In the original there was also an event where you joined up with the guard force after handling a certain number of hunting squads.

“The fastest messenger on horseback is heading to headquarters now. If we just maintain this standoff and buy time, we can completely wipe out the ones in the city!”

“…No, we can’t buy time.”

I shook my head.

“What?”

“Among them are Beasts that use magic and are mid-tier or higher. If we give them too much time, who knows what they’ll do.”

“M-mid-tier Beast…?!”

“I managed to seriously wound him but couldn’t finish him off. Better to strike while we have the chance.”

“Umm… but citizens are still getting hurt and dying even now. We should maintain the standoff while catching the ones spread through the city…”

“If the wounded mid-tier Beast recovers and becomes active, even more people will die. We’re going to cut off the leader’s neck, and it would be much easier if at least half of you helped.”

Actually it might be better to fight with just me and Hilde.

That would help Hilde’s growth more.

But to save even a few more people, we needed to take down commander Dara quickly.

“Ngh… you’re right, we should follow the hunter’s advice here.”

The guard captain split his forces in half, sending one group to handle hunting squads while the rest came with us to take down the commander.

“So we’re attacking the enemy commander right now?”

“No, first we make a plan.”

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