Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~

Madegarsh grimaced at the sight of the shivering mother and son as they hugged each other. Its face, like that of a mangy dog, showed its expression well. Blood was dripping from its mouth, which had turned red from eating the horse.

The mother and son in the carriage were too terrified to scream.

No Knights were going to their aid. Even the adventurers were staring with sighs escaping their mouths.

In the meantime, Allen took out an iron ball from his Inventory. Maybe someone had seen his Inventory skill, but it didn’t matter.

Perhaps to make it more frightening, Madegarsh’s creepy paws, which looked like human arms, slowly approached the mother and son.

(I can’t let them die!)

Allen threw the iron ball he was holding at Madegarsh with all his might. The iron ball stretched out in a straight line and hit one of Madegarsh’s eyes as if it was being sucked in.

The iron ball caved in its eyeball. One of the Madegarsh’s eyes was crushed.

“Aaaaaaahhh!”

Madegarsh squeaked eerily.

“Hey! Come here! Come here, I’ll kill you!”

Allen also threw a second ball with all his might. However, since Madegarsh’s attention was already on Allen, it easily flicked the iron ball with his paw.

“Hey, kid, what are you doing?”

“Get out of here now!”

Allen could hear the voices of Knights and adventurers behind him but he didn’t respond to any of those voices or advice.

He did his best to get Madegarsh’s attention. While attracting attention, Allen changed his standing position in an arc around the carriage and moved to the opposite side of the city. With his back to the White Dragon Mountains, he continues to further provoke the Madegarsh.

“What’s wrong? Not coming? You dog!”

Then he threw another iron ball. However, Madegarsh easily deflected the ball. One of its eyes was smashed, but it seemed difficult to do any more damage.

Just as Allen was about to throw another iron ball, Madegarsh, who had only been facing him, slowly raised its body.

“Aaaaaaah!”

Letting out a single loud howl, the Madegarsh slowly stood up on its hind legs alone, reaching 6 to 7 meters tall. It threw down the half-eaten horse it was holding in one hand.

Zuuuuuuuuuuun!

Then, its front feet also landed on the ground, and it turned its entire body toward Allen.

“Come on!”

With Allen’s voice, Madegarsh stepped forward, running faster and faster.

(Okay, I have got its attention now.)

“I’m taking Madegarsh in the direction of the White Dragon Mountains!”

Shouting out to the Knights and adventurers, Allen started running as fast as he could. He puts his Grimoire in the air and checks to see if his mana has recovered. No mana had been recovered, and he still had zero mana though.

(Not yet! I should be able to recover my mana by now.)

Even while thinking this, Allen ran as fast as he could. Madegarsh was chasing him

“Agh!”

The Madegarsh seemed to be faster. He caught up with Allen, who had [Agility] of about 600, and his paws closed in on Allen’s body. He ducked just in time to avoid Madegarsh’s paw. However, he lost his balance and fell to the ground.

Allen stood up as quickly as he could. He hurriedly put Madegarsh back into his view, who had been out of his sight for a moment.

Allen thought a follow-up attack would come immediately, but Madegarsh grinned and didn’t attack. It was apparently enjoyable watching Allen roll over. The fact that it was grinning without anger at having one of his eyes smashed out made it even creepier.

(Hmm, sometimes there are turns where the enemy is “smirking” and does nothing, but this is how it is?) 

When Allen was Kenichi in a previous life, he had seen a situation similar to the one we have now when he was playing a game where the battle was turn-based and you alternately attacked the enemy. When it was the enemy’s turn to attack, the enemy didn’t attack, it instead ‘Smirked,’ or otherwise did nothing. At that time, I thought I was just lucky that the enemy didn’t attack me.

Having been subjected to the same thing from a magical beast in real life, I could understand why the situation was the way it was. This Madegarsh seems to be playing with me.

(Well, I’m still feeling lucky! Okay, I’ve recovered my mana!)

Allen checked the status screen of his Grimoire. Finally, Allen’s mana was fully restored.

(I’m not fast enough. Should I summon Birds? No, I want defense here, too.)

Blessings given by summons:

Bird:   Increases [Agility] and [Intelligence]

Insect: Increases [Endurance] and [Agility]

Allen slowly retreated. His body trembling and his face contorted with fear. He tried to desperately create a sense of desperation in order to catch Madegarsh off guard.

“Aaaaaaah!

It seemed that Madegarsh was very amused by Allen’s behavior. It’s face, like that of a mangy dog, twisted with delight.

(Seriously, it’s evil. I’m not going to tell Mash about this guy. Father, you have the worst taste in names.)

The magical beast that Mash was named after was not a very good magical beast for someone to be named after. 

Allen pretended to be frightened and used his Grimoire to change the composition of the Summoner’s cards all at once.

If the magic stone is stored in the Inventory, it can be used in <Create> and <Synthesis> just by being aware of it, without Allen having to use his hands every time.

He had 20 E-rank Grass cards to increase his maximum mana storage, but changed them all to E-rank Insects. The Grimoire moved around at a great pace, deleting and creating repeatedly. He also changed all the E-rank and F-rank summons that he had been using to increase his [Attack Power] to E-rank summons.

I currently have 36 E-rank Insects and 4E-rank Birds.

I changed all my cards to ones that increase my [Agility], as I thought Madegarsh was fast. Also, I don’t know the [Attack Power] of the Madegarsh. I can’t afford to get caught.

Allen slowly backed away. He decided that Madegarsh won’t come at him right away. And sudden;y when the Madegarsh was totally off guard, he started running away again at once.

I could hear the earth shaking behind me. The Madegarsh produced a tremendously loud sound each time it took a step. I frantically measured the distance between me and the Madegarsh from this sound.

(I am almost there. I just need to get a little further away from the city.)

I have to draw the Madergarsh away from the city. That’s what I’ll do, of course, but I’d like to defeat it if possible. I am still only a few hundred meters away from the carriage. It’s very small, but I can still see the Knights and adventurers. I want to be further away before summoning.

The frantic game of tag continued until I was over a kilometer away from the city and the trees were sprouting up. After another few hundred meters, Allen and Madegarsh completely disappeared from the city.

(Okay, let’s put it to sleep.) 

Allen summoned three E-rank Insects behind him. Since Madegarsh is a B-rank magical beast, the effects of E-rank Insect’s special skill [Scales] would only work if there are three of them.

The yellow scales of E-rank Insect rained down on Madegarsh’s face.

As Madegarsh stopped chasing, Allen also stopped running and turned around to check the effect.

“Aaaaaaah!”

However, Madegarsh screamed and with a single swipe of its arm striked all three E-rank Insects. All three E-rank Insects disappeared after turning into glowing bubbles.

(What? It didn’t work! Is it immune to it? Did it not work by chance?)

The debuff effect, which is the special feature of Insect-based summons, does not have 100% accuracy. You can’t tell if it works or not  in just one try.

(Oh no! It’s after me again.)

E-rank Insects disappeared, and the frantic game of tag resumed. Allen re-summoned 3 E-rank Insects while frantically running away.

Three hours had passed since then, and Allen was hiding behind a tree.

(Damn, I finally lost it. But still, the [Scales] don’t work at all, or rather, none of the debuffs do.)

Allen took a cloak from Inventory and threw it over his manservant uniform.

I tried all of the special skills of the GFE-rank Insects over and over again, but none of them worked. Since the debuff didn’t work, I gave up trying to defeat it and decided to run away. I don’t think I can defeat it without debuffs.

)Well, that’s it. Let’s go back to the city. Damn! I’ve spent a lot of magic stones.)

When I was berating myself for wasting so many magic stones…

Blink

Suddenly, the five-meter tall tree that Allen was resting his back on shook. Then, a strong stench like that of animals hit his nose.

“Huh?”

Allen looked behind him in surprise. There was Madegarsh who had a smile on its face. It pulled the tree out of the ground as easily as if it were pulling a weed with his human-like hands.

Allen started to run away in a hurry, and Madegarsh chased after him with a grin on its face. The frantic game of tag resumed.

Three days had passed since then.

A boy dressed in all black and wearing a cloak appears at the north gate of the city.

(I am back at last.)

“Hey! boy.”

“Hello…”

Allen came back to the city after three days. His black-colored clothes were covered in mud from three days of frantic game of tag.

Allen couldn’t finish his usual greeting to the gatekeeper and let go of his consciousness and fell to the ground.

“What? Are you okay, boy?”

As soon as he called out to him, Allen let go of his consciousness and the gatekeeper rushed over to him in surprise. The gatekeeper confirmed that Allen was alive. He closed his eyes and said, “Goo-“. Allen fell asleep as if his strings were cut.

For the first time in three days, Allen was able to get some sleep. This was the first encounter between Allen and Madegarsh.