Chapter 8 "Madness"

　Why?

Even though I deliberately created an opening for him to make a desperate move...he didn't lunge at me.

Instead, his eyes are wary and he keeps his distance.

Why won't you come, damn it!

Why won't you come...oh?

　Something black welled up inside me.

　I'm more irritated than I should be.

　It's not a good tendency.

　I look at my opponent while holding my sword.

　The goblin is holding his sword in front of his body, as if he is wary of being blinded.

Should I change my approach?

I turn my attention to the ring.

It's chant-free + enhanced power... It's not taking too long, so I'm going to use it.

I think it could reach at this distance, but I should close the distance just to be safe.

Step in at once and cut at him all the way from the top.

I wondered if he would back down without receiving the cut. I thought so, but he took it.

　I turned my hand to him. Well, it wasn't very powerful to begin with, so it's okay if it does some damage.

　I'll use Fire I for magic.

　Oh. The magic circle is forming on its own in my brain.

　And it's fast. It starts up.

　Instantly, my vision was filled with flames.

　What?

Flames of incomparable size to that from the previous Fire I erupted with the force of a flamethrower seen in the movies.

The goblin who was at close range was unable to react and was engulfed by the flames.

For a few seconds, the area in front of me became a sea of fire, then vanished without a trace.

　The entire area of effect was charred and blackened. Incidentally, the goblin's ankle-like body barely remained on fire.

　It's no longer possible to eat it.

　When I tried to use it, the heat was tremendous. This one was also very hot...and the rag was burning.

　I put out the fire by hitting it.

Apparently, my body was also burned here and there, but it was starting to heal.

After that, the cost for using the ring....

　Look at the ring.

　According to the story, the finger will be lost....

　As I look at it, the finger with the ring on it is turning black.

　Oh, it's pretty painful at this point.

　After it turned completely black, it crumbled away from the base like sand.

　It's a tremendous, intense pain.

　Doesn't do much for me, though. Normally I would have gone insane.

　The wound is still blackened and sends incessant intense pain to my brain.

　Does it last for a while? That's why they return it after just one use.

　I don't care about the pain, but won't my fingers grow back?

　I'll just have to wait and see.

　It sounded pretty loud, so I'll take what I can get before the others arrive.

　I don't really care, but I've had a headache for a while now. Oh well.

I picked up the sword that was kicked away, put it in its scabbard, pushed the ring into another finger, and started walking toward the inner part of the room.

Passing through a narrow path at the back, I enter the next square.

　It is the same size as the previous square, but the back of the square, where iron bars are set at equal intervals on the walls, is...too far away to see.

　I don't remember this one either. It's full of inadequacies.

　I was curious, so I approached the bars.

Something smells like animals.

　As I was about to take a peek, I heard a heavy object fall from behind me, and when I turned around, I saw that the iron bars had blocked the way I had come.

　Oh, no. Was it a trap?

　The bars in front of me lifted up as if to replace them.

　Something jumped out of the gap.

　Before I could react, it bit me on the leg.

　Heaven and earth swapped places, and the scenery flowed by at a great speed.

　It seems that something has bitten me on the leg and is swinging me around.

　The feeling of my foot left my body. My body was blown away with the force of the swing.

　After rolling and kissing the ground a few times, I stopped around the middle of the square.

　When I got up and checked the situation, all the bars in the square were open except where I came from and at the back.

　Nearby, they seemed to have come out from inside... what are these guys?

　Claws reminiscent of birds of prey, long, slender limbs, crocodile-like faces...no matter how I looked at them, they were dinosaurs.

　That's the one I saw in the movie. Velociraptor. Or should I call it a Raptor, since it's long?

　It had sharp eyes. More good-looking than the one I saw in the movie.

　There are 12 Raptors in total.

And I'm completely surrounded.

　That's not good. My leg is starting to regenerate, but it's going to take a little longer. My fingers are still hurting.

　I might as well think it's useless now.

The two in front of me roared and attacked.

　I tried to pull out my sword, but was hit in the back. Apparently, I was hit by a claw blow from behind.

The two in front distracted me, and the one in the back was probably its real attacker.

　I stomped on the ground to hold myself back from falling forward.

　Two more came in hot on my heels. One of them opened its mouth. Was it biting?

　I pulled my sword out and plunged it into its mouth.

　The blade went into its throat and came out of its neck. It fell over, gobbling.

The other one stabbed a dagger into its eye and stirred it up. The one that was stirred was sprawled on the ground after falling.

　It bit me on the left shoulder from behind. The dagger I was holding fell out of my hand.

The sword was still stuck because there was no time to pull it out.

　I pulled out my spare dagger with my right hand and stabbed him in the neck and flipped him over.

The force removed the teeth that had bitten into me. Three. Nine more, oh, that's tough.

I pull off the head of the Raptor, which is now dead while still biting my shoulder.

　Okay, next...

I try to hunt the fourth one, but my rapid advance ends here.

I was hit from both sides by a tail attack with all its might. The breastplate I was wearing was shattered.

　I could see it, but my leg was not fully healed, and it hurt.

Now this is really bad. It looks like my spine is broken.

　The balance between my upper and lower body is not right.

　I probably won't be able to stand up from the waist up.

　"Kafu...kafu..."

The breath leaks out as I am stomped on.

　Nine gazes look down on me from above. They all look deadly and mocking.

　One of them laughs through its nose. It looked like it was laughing.

　Don't laugh at me!　Don't laugh at me!　Don't mock me....

　Laughing...oh, this...oh no....

A scene from my previous life reappears in my mind.

　A junior high school classroom. Uniforms covered in dust from being trampled on. A gaze looking down at me. Ridicule, ridicule, ridicule.

　Kick, kick, kick against the rounded back. More mockery.

　The dusky black stuff erupted from my mind.

　It instantly took control of my body.

　I'll kill you!　I'll kill you!　I'm going to kill you....

　Wait, wait, wait!

　I bit into the leg of the guy who was stomping on me.

　I bit him off. There was a bone, but I crushed it whole.

Naturally, my teeth were shattered, too.

　The guy who was stomping on me moved away from me. The teeth grew back at a great speed.

　No, that's too fast.

　I punched the guy who had been eaten in the leg and was unable to move.

The guy who was punched did not seem to endure it a bit, since my arm strength was not so different from a human's. I used my other arm to make more fists.

　I started to punch him again with my other arm. No, it didn't work.

The head I hit exploded.

　Die!　Die!　Die!

　What?　What?　How did that happen!?

　I turn my attention to my arms. My arms had become huge.

It was not the arm I had before, but an arm that was disproportionately large for a body with dark skin and veins showing through it.

　What is this arm?

　Wait a minute.

　It looks familiar. That's it. It's a troll's arm.

Did I rebuild it? How did I do that?

　That's when I suddenly realized. It's the regeneration I've been doing without even thinking about it.

　Wasn't that regeneration?　Perhaps it was "making"?

　If so, then what I had thought of as regeneration was the ability to compose a body.

　Along those lines, the next question is how it is being restored.

　The answer is probably memory.

I must have unconsciously composed my body based on Rothfeldt's memories.

So, this time, I had to reference the troll's memories to remake this arm.

　Ah, I see, that makes sense.

　But what concerns me more is this situation.

　My body is out of my control and is running amok on its own.

　To be precise, most of my thoughts were tinged with anger, and the rest were confused.

　I had unintentionally grabbed a guy who jumped in front of me with his mouth open, slammed him to the ground, and then smashed his head with a fist strike.

　I should describe this situation as a memory taking over....

　I can barely think in part, but the majority of my head is red with rage and hatred in my vision.

　The trigger must be the traumatic stimulus.

　In fact, the situation was really similar to that time. After that, the homeroom teacher showed up and the situation was resolved.

My classmates made a token apology and we called it off, but at the time I saw everyone around me as nothing more than enemies.

With the goblins, it was just a matter of being a stranger, so I could get away with that much, but this is what happens when I face it firsthand.

　I guess this situation was not all bad, because I discovered many things, but it was still a bad situation.

　I wanted to be able to destroy all the enemies by awakening new power with anger, but the learning ability of the enemies was also quite good.

　They seemed to have switched to a one-strike-and-you're-out strategy, taking advantage of their footwork.

　They repeatedly strike from a blind spot with their claws and move out of range.

　In contrast, I, in anger mode, had my physical attack power jumped up due to the giant size of my arms, but my movements were slowed down due to the size of my arms.

　Why don't I just replace my whole body with a troll? I wondered, but it seems I can't think of anything else to do with my body.

　Besides, this reconfiguration is not very fuel-efficient.

　My body is beginning to complain of hunger. It seems that the fast healing and reconstructing of my injuries used up all the calories I had stored up from eating goblins.

　I mean, I didn't realize it, but my spine was crushed and broken, but it's healed before I knew it.

The claw wounds I've been suffering from are also recovering at a rapid rate.

Or should I say it's healing? ...Either way, it doesn't matter.

　But the one on my finger is not healing. The wound is still black.

　I guess this one won't heal until that one disappears. Oh, I ate off the black part.

　Oh, it grew back. Oh, so I just cut off the black part. Oh, my gosh, the body's instincts are telling it to do it.

　But if I don't do anything, I'm going to lose.

　I have to somehow regain control of my body.

　But looking at myself objectively is an amazing experience for me.

　I'm so angry that I'm swinging my arms and legs around and trying to hold my body down, which has attacked nothing but empty space since a while ago.

　My thoughts are still filled with death and killing, but I manage to intervene to calm them down by thinking about something else.

　It's like some kind of dual personality.

　On second thought, it may be similar.

This one will have to be dealt with, but I'd keep it off for now.

I force myself to take several deep breaths while eating the claws.

　Hot breath like steam came out of my mouth.

　I did this a few times and calmed down a bit.

　Body control...seems doable.

　First, I had to deal with my arms, which had grown too big.

The muscles themselves were replaced with those of a troll to increase density while returning them to human form.

　The rest of the arms will be balanced and treated in the same way.

　The power would be slightly reduced, but the fists would be powerful enough to kill.

　I countered a guy who had gotten carried away and stepped in too deep by slamming my fist into his face.

　The guy didn't explode, but the place where I hit him caved in.

　The guy who was hit fell down and was convulsing.

　6 left.

　I grabbed the corpse of the guy I beat to death and threw him at the nearest guy.

When he ducked, I closed the gap with my enhanced leg strength and punched him in the jaw, shattering it, then struck another blow and crushed his skull.

　5 left.

He tried to bite me from behind, so I ducked and bit him on his long neck and ate him up.

　4 left.

Two of them came at the same time, so I grabbed the one that bit me and swung it around like a hammer toss to reave each other.

　They both rolled on the ground, so I stomped on their heads.

　2 left.

　I guessed he felt threatened because his friends had been killed, and he seemed to be looking for an opening at a distance.

So I snickered at them, making a mocking face.

　The animal seemed to understand the meaning of the provocation, and came at me head-on.

Naturally, I beat them to death.

　1 remaining.

　The last one ran off into the aisle they came out of, but where they came out was not an aisle but a narrow cul-de-sac, so I easily caught up with it.

　It started whimpering pitifully, but I ignored it and beat it to death.

　I managed to wipe them out...for the time being.

　"I'm hungry."

　Let's go eat.