No to Being the Suffering Heroine!

Lost in longing for my lost masculinity, or perhaps overwhelmed by the shock and suffering that pierced me from both sides.

“Kiiieeeek!”

The Vengeful Spirit Spider’s scream was utterly desperate.

“Giggeeeek-!”

It flailed its eight legs like a child throwing a tantrum, baring its fangs wide enough to tear them apart, as it fought like a wild thing that didn’t want to go home.

Ka-kwak! Ka-dak! Kwaaaang!

The claws like sickles slashed and tore the ground, sending dirt and debris flying like a fountain. It was pure chaotic destruction.

“Kugh…!”

Laute grimaced after getting hit in the chest by a rock shard, dropping her sword and stepping back.

Maybe it was because she had stuck her sword into a web-severing claw. It seemed she couldn’t pull it out with her strength.

“Gigeeek-!”

I too couldn’t escape the mayhem.

I had managed to ride on top of the Vengeful Spirit Spider and stab my sword into its eye socket, but as it thrashed around crazily, my foot slipped.

“Ugh!”

I let out an involuntary yell as I teetered and tumbled onto the dug-up ground.

“How dare you, how dare you—!”

Two claws came down like the blade of a guillotine.

I rolled quickly on the ground to avoid one claw and sprang up, grabbing the middle of the blade with my left hand and holding it in front of me like a shield.

Kaa-aan!

“Kugh…!”

The impact felt like my shoulder was dislocated. Deep grooves were carved into the blade blocking the claw. The pressure transmitted through the sword felt like my waist would bend like a bow.

“I can take this much…!”

I twirled to let the impact slide off to the side, instinctively. It was a defensive maneuver ingrained in Brunhilde’s body.

“Haaah!”

Then, I kicked off the ground and charged at it again.

Since I had seen that the blade could pierce its bald spot, I was planning to focus my attacks there for now.

“Is this attack effective…? Then…!”

Laute, having discarded her broken shield, gripped her mace with both hands and launched herself at the spider’s rear.

“I won’t forgive you!”

The Vengeful Spirit Spider, bleeding profusely from its left eye socket, screamed with a ferocity akin to a father catching a son running away with the family deed.

◆◆

The fight continued for several minutes.

“Haaah!”

“Kaaah!”

In the tense atmosphere that felt like it was cutting off my nerves, Laute and I were sprinting around, as if our breaths were about to reach our throats while engaged in fierce combat.

It was a battle of life and death, tearing flesh and cracking bones.
My arms and legs were creaking like a marionette, and it felt like my brain was boiling inside my helmet from extreme focus.

“Ugh…!”

The blood staining my clothes. The wounds from its claws were shouting out in sharp pain.

…It hurt.

I had tried my best to respond… but I still couldn’t perfectly dodge or block every attack.

My shoulder was half torn and the protective clothing was laid bare, revealing the quilted armor beneath it.

Facing off against the Vengeful Spirit Spider in close combat, both my body and armor were in tatters in just a few minutes.
Since falling into this world, I wondered when I had sustained such severe injuries.

It had been quite some time since the initial awkward phase of my reincarnation.

But….

Kwadeuk!

“Kiieeeek!”

As a result, I managed to leave scratches on its ugly face that matched the number of scars on my armor and limbs.

Ppak!

Also, I barely managed to slice off one of its claws and fangs.

Thanks to that, its already hideously deformed face was now reminiscent of a rotten corpse just pulled from a grave.

“Haaah!”

While I was struggling with my spirit, Laute wasn’t just sitting back.

“Just break already!”

Quazik!

“Kieeeek! My leg! My leg again!”

The spider’s leg was thoroughly crushed like a future fighter’s career, and the Vengeful Spirit Spider screamed like a soprano singer going berserk.

Laute had finally smashed one of its legs after repeatedly striking at it with a fervor.

It was a miracle-like achievement.

“Haa… haa….”

Whether she was completely exhausted from it or not, she leaned on her tattered leather armor, gasping for breath.

*”How about it? That should be…”

As she straightened her back from her bent position for a moment to catch her breath, the next moment—

“Kieeeeeeaaahhh!!”

The Vengeful Spirit Spider, going nutty, raised its head to glare at the ceiling and let out a horrifying scream.

It sounded like dozens of women screaming while burning alive.

It was literally the wail of the damned.

“Kugh?!”

“My body…!”

Laute and I, swallowing our cries, staggered backwards.

The moment its wail pierced our ears, all the muscles in our bodies stiffened like frogs encountering a snake.

We were hit squarely by the Vengeful’s roar, which overpowered and immobilized us.

Of course, its roar only incapacitated us temporarily, for hardly more than a second…

But in a situation like this, that one second felt like an eternity.

Before Laute and I even managed to move again, the Vengeful Spirit Spider spun around like a top, sweeping in all directions with its six remaining legs.

Joined with the centrifugal force, it shot Laute’s sword embedded in a web like a bullet.

“Ah.”

I found myself staring wide-eyed at the sickle-like claws headed straight for me and couldn’t help but let out a weak whimper.

There was no way to evade it.
Neither I nor Laute.

Puhh!

“Cough…!”

Laute got slammed in the abdomen by the spider’s leg and bent in half, flying back like a baseball hit by a bat.

I couldn’t escape the same fate.

Ka-a-aang!

“Aaaack!”

The spider’s leg ruthlessly ripped into my armor. I felt a dizzying shock that jolted my whole upper body as I flew, crashing into the tunnel wall.

Kwaaan!

“Cough!”

The pressure crumpled my lungs, forcing a groan out of my breath.

Debris splattered like blood, spraying all around.

◆◆

“Kuh… uugh….”

I writhed against the wall, gasping through my clenched jaws.

“This… is…?”

The Vengeful’s roar had left the enemy incapacitated, and while it spun around in a frenzy, it bombarded everyone with webs.

It was an unexpected tactic.

“What the hell…!”

The Vengeful Spirit Spider in the novel never displayed such a technique. Not once.

So I had been completely unprepared and got hit straight on.

An unpleasant sensation flooded my throat, as if something vile was rising.

I couldn’t see anything in front of me, and my back throbbed painfully against the wall.

It was crippling damage that could wipe out all the gains from this brutal battle.

Damn it! If it had such a technique, it should have been explained…!

What the hell was with such well-fought battles turning into this mess?

I was biting my teeth in resentment, about to spew raw curses at an author whose face I had never seen when—

…Ah. No.

A small realization passed through my dizzy mind.

Ah, damn. I guess that’s possible.

Upon further consideration, it was understandable that there might not be any explanations.

If it was a monster appearing only as a setting in the original game from the novel, that was one thing.
It wasn’t a strategy guide, nor was it a monster pattern listed one by one in a reincarnation story based on a game.

Besides, Kim Seung-woo, who occupied Friet’s body, was someone who would never have to confront something like a Vengeful Spirit Spider.

In the novel, there was nothing but descriptions of “Friet lightly dodging thorn waves and slashing the Nibelung in half.”

So there was no reason for him to have encountered such patterns. Since it was a technique the protagonist had never seen, it couldn’t have been described in the novel.

What a troublesome matter.

“Kihihihick…! Finally! Finally got you!”

Instead of my vision clouded with despair, the resounding, glee-filled laughter of the Vengeful Spirit Spider approached closer.

“Who are you capturing…!”

I pulled my trembling left hand from the wall and brushed against my helmet.

That sticky sensation clinging to my fingers. It was the spider’s web.

Was this the reason I couldn’t see?

It didn’t seem easy to tear off. If I tried to force it, my left hand would only get stuck further.

So,

Click.

I moved my hand to the back of my head and undid the helmet latch.

Lemon-colored hair, stained with blood and dirt, cascaded down my neck.

As the helmet dropped to the ground, my blocked vision cleared up.

What I saw before me—

“My stomach is sooo hungry!”

A face that looked like a rag drenched for a hundred years, grinned, raising its last remaining leg high.

Ah, damn.

I abruptly found myself in an urgent situation as soon as I opened my eyes. Curses involuntarily tumbled out of my mouth.

“Cough… I need to… get up! Ugh…!”

Laute was propped up on the cave floor, struggling to rise.

From the way she was half sitting up, only to spit blood, it was clear she was in no condition to fight.

“Hilde! Run away, do it!”

Kikel, having dispatched a dozen giant spiders, rushed over towards us in a hurry.

However fast he was, he wouldn’t be able to beat the speed of the claws aiming to smash me.

It wasn’t that fast to begin with. He was a Lizardman.

In other words, at this moment, I had no one who could help me.

“Kiaaaaaah!”

The Vengeful Spirit Spider swung its claw towards me.

Those sickle-like claws were descending vertically, capable of splitting a human’s body apart like firewood.

“Kugh…!”

I heard myself let out a desperate sound as I raised my sword to block its claws.

…No, I tried to block.

Thud.

But my right arm wouldn’t budge.

The sword, which should have been swinging with all my might, only let out a muffled noise as it got stuck against the wall.

“What…?!”

I turned my head in astonishment.
My right arm was stuck, covered by some white webbing, clinging to the cave wall.

Not just my helmet was impacted.

“Ah.”

A sound escaped me that couldn’t even be described as a groan.

No. I can’t stop it like this…!

Despairing fear surged over me like a tsunami.

My right arm was immobilized.
An unstoppable attack.

The image of my corpse succumbing to spider webs flashed through my mind like a projector.

I’m going to die…?! Me?

All my nerves screamed in agony.
My life was hanging by a thread.
Death was right in front of me.

…No.

“Aaaaah!”

I shut my eyes tightly and let out a scream born of desperation.
I twisted with all my might, willing, even if it meant breaking every bone in my body.

Then—

Fwoosh!

With a heartbeat pounding in tune with the urgency, something invisible burst forth from within me.

It was something so cold it could be compared to an icy lake in winter… No, it was something even colder than that.

A freezing chill spread throughout my body like the Antarctic, flowing through my veins. It felt as if my hands and feet had turned into ice cubes.

What is this?
Is this the fear of death?
No, it felt different…..

Regrettably, there was no time for further thought.

Thud!

The sound that rang in my ears was like the cracking of solid bone.

I was convinced. The claws must have finally reached my skull and split my head in two.

This was the end.

◆◆

…And so, I met my demise.
Surprisingly, there was no sense of agony.
Had I died instantly without feeling any pain? Thank goodness.
Not that it was a good thing, but…

Still, it was better than slowly dying while screaming in agony.

…Right?
Right…?

…Silence.

But… to die so unexpectedly, so absurdly easily?
A sigh.

Had I known I would die like this, I might as well have just worked as a barmaid.

Regret.

No, no matter how I looked at it, that wasn’t the answer. Can you call that living?

Stubbornness.

…Damn it. What the hell was I supposed to do!

Frustration.

No, why was I even in this ridiculous situation…!

Bitterness.

…I didn’t want to die.

Lingering emotions flooded my already smashed mind, swirling chaotically, flashing and dissipating.

…Silence.

…Silence.

…….

Then.

“Kieeerrggh…”

An otherworldly sound, unlike anything I’d ever heard, wiped away the remnants of my thoughts.

“Kigeereee…!”

It was truly a strange noise.
My dizzy mind suddenly cleared up.

What is this sound?

I cautiously opened my tightly shut eyelids.
I could open them. I shouldn’t have been able to, having died.

“…Huh?”

And then I saw.

“Keggh, griiiee…!”

An old man’s head split open horizontally, spilling its contents as if it had been cleaved by a troll’s blade.

◆◆

“Keeerrgh…”

Inside the Vengeful Spirit Spider’s eye socket, the green flames flickered weakly before extinguishing along with its last breath.
The spider’s legs lost strength and bent down, its massive body flopping sideways.

Fwoosh!

Dust exploded into the air. Blood and fluids gushed forth like a stream, with the remains of its skull floating like dumpling filling.

“No… this is….”

I stared in shock, mouth agape, at the massive corpse laid before me.
What awaited me upon opening my eyes was an unexpected sight.

The Vengeful Spirit Spider, cut down in a single strike.
A greatsword that looked as if it could crumble with just a tap.
My right arm, having torn through its web.

“Hagh…!”

And the overwhelming lethargy flooding over me.

“Haaah…”

With an enormous sense of slackness washing over me, I sank to one knee as if a mountain weighed down on me.
The moment I even slightly relaxed, I felt like I would collapse right there. There was no strength left in my body.

“Haaah! Haaah! This is…!”

I could comprehend what was happening to my body. I understood why that old man suddenly dropped dead.
It was a phenomenon I recognized.

A destructive sensation as if overwhelming strength had been unleashed. A heaviness that felt like my vitality was drained. It was precisely as stated in the novel.

〈 強腕 〉

A natural talent to exert strength several times greater than usual at the cost of tremendous stamina.
The blessing within Brunhilde’s blood had manifested.

Slick.

“Ah.”

…In exchange for slightly dampened pants.

“Ugh…”

The lower part was a bit wet.

It wasn’t from blood. It wasn’t from sweat either.

…Well, considering I was on the brink of death, I suppose that could happen.

Right? Of course, right…?

Damn it.

I lay there for a while, blushing deeply, not saying a word.

“Hilde! Is there life? You are the victor!”

Until Kikel, who had been dumbfounded by the Vengeful Spirit Spider’s demise, snapped out of it and dashed over to me.

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