Chapter 46. Hidden Choice (1)
Special-grade Magical Beast.
Everyone quickly turned their gaze towards the direction from which the sudden shout came.
It wasn't a location far from here.
Enoch’s team happened to be on high ground, the rooftop of a ruined building. Visibility extended to where the shout originated.
Bianca, hastily approaching the crumbling rooftop railing, stared towards the source of the sound and muttered.
“Wait a moment. Could that sound be real? What, a Special-grade right from the start of the exam…?”
Rumble rumble rumble.
As soon as her words ended.
Far away.
A huge hand crushed the outer wall of a ruined building, revealing a massive figure.
Seeing that form, the presences of the three members, excluding Enoch, froze solid.
Everyone already knew the appearance of the Special-grade from the photo specified in the examination guide.
Although it was a distant figure from here, its unique grotesqueness made them certain.
“…Seems like it.”
Looking at the revealed creature, Enoch replied monotonously.
‘Above all, that creature also appeared unchanged in the original work's examination 5 years later, being a named Magical Beast.’
「Special-grade Magical Beast: Baphomet」
A black beast reaching approximately 5 meters tall.
Its form somewhat resembled a human.
A pitch-black human-like body stood on two legs, but it possessed the head of a goat with huge horns pointing towards the sky.
Perhaps having lived for too long, red gleams flickered from between the skull, its half-whitened bones exposed within rotten skin.
However, the creature's eyes weren't only on its face.
Twitch.
Numerous eyes, wide open on various parts of its skin, squirmed and watched in all directions.
Each one seemed to writhe like a human eyeball, clearly visible even from afar.
“Ugh, gross!”
Just as Ticke said, shuddering slightly.
The ominousness felt just from its appearance warned that it was not an easy opponent.
But despite that, some teams facing the creature seemed unwilling to give up hunting it.
“…D-Don’t be scared! Catching that means passing the exam!”
Under the command given by the leaders of the teams confronting the creature, the mages facing Baphomet each nervously readjusted their grip on their magic gears.
- A Special-grade Magical Beast worth 50 points, guaranteeing an immediate pass, no less.
Besides, the mages here who survived the selection test were also skilled individuals averaging close to Rank 12.
If teams worked together, they could probably catch such a Magical Beast somehow, provided they were prepared for hardship…
‘Roughly those calculations, I suppose.’
But Enoch shook his head slightly.
In this Nemesis 1st examination, there were several hidden facts that they currently didn't know.
‘That Special-grade Magical Beast is one of them.’
In fact, the reason it was worth 50 points was…
“Let’s move over there too!”
Just then, Bianca turned her body to move.
“Everyone, we can’t just stand by and watch other teams catch the Special-grade, can we!”
“No.”
But Enoch raised his arm, stopping her.
Bianca asked back, seemingly unable to understand.
“Huh? Why?”
It was obvious that if they let the Special-grade be taken, it would be their loss. She quickly asked again.
“Instead of just standing here watching, shouldn’t we join forces with that team to hunt the Special-grade together, or snatch the final blow…!”
But Enoch answered simply.
“You’ll know when you see.”
The next moment, as if swallowing the end of Enoch’s words.
Dozens of magic circles rotated and deployed, surrounding the airspace around the huge Magical Beast. Magic began pouring onto the creature from all directions.
Kuuuuung!
A focused barrage from four Rank 12 mages.
Giant trees near the Magical Beast, struck by the magic, fell with simultaneous roars, and the resulting clouds of dirt rising heavily from the ground blurred the vision.
No matter how powerful a defensive magic one selected, there would be no way to fully withstand such a level of concentrated attack.
But the next moment.
Amidst the clouds of dirt rising, obscuring everything, the heavy footsteps of the Special-grade Magical Beast echoed.
Thump, thump.
Instantly, the faces of all the mages in the team pouring concentrated fire onto the Special-grade Magical Beast turned pale.
The Special-grade Magical Beast was slowly approaching the mages, taking all the magic hits nonchalantly.
At the unbelievable sight unfolding before her eyes, Bianca muttered, looking horrified.
“M-Magic has no effect…?”
A common characteristic of the numerous Magical Beasts existing in Atlas was high magic resistance.
But that creature, for some reason, seemed completely immune to magic attacks altogether.
Clang!
Even the chains of ice constructed to bind its legs were shattered by the strength of its thick legs, and the monster endured even the spear of lightning striking it head-on with its bare body.
As if invincible. Baphomet advanced, taking the magic hits with its entire body.
Seeing that, Bianca’s eyes widened.
“What is that…”
The next moment, the creature began to roar towards the mages before it with a metallic shriek that seemed to scrape every nerve ending.
-Kieeeeeeeeeek!
And Baphomet, with agility completely unfitting its massive frame, instantly dashed towards the mages, closing the distance in the blink of an eye.
-Whoosh!
The Special-grade Magical Beast grabbed one mage who couldn't react in time, threw him against the outer wall of a building, neutralizing him with ridiculous ease.
“Keoheok!”
A sharp scream echoed as the building wall shattered.
Undoubtedly a fatal blow.
Immediately, a spatial transition magic circle formed beneath the fallen mage, transporting him out of bounds.
“Wh-What kind of physical ability…”
Beside him, Ina muttered as if shocked.
“I-It can’t be possible to catch such a Magical Beast…”
“No, it’s probably impossible.”
But in contrast to Bianca, Ticke, who had been watching the situation calmly beside them, opened her mouth.
“The Special-grade isn’t the hunting target for this examination, is it?”
“Correct.”
Enoch nodded.
“It’s a target that must be avoided.”
Not hunted for points, but a target that must be avoided to prevent losses.
That was the reason why that beast, assigned 50 points, was freely released into the examination grounds.
-Kieeeeeeek!
Just then, the Special-grade Magical Beast let out a guttural roar.
This time, it spotted another Low-grade Magical Beast wandering nearby, dashed towards it, and snatched the Low-grade Magical Beast in an instant.
Immediately, the muscles in its arms tensed.
Riiip!
The body of the Low-grade Magical Beast caught by it was torn vertically apart, dark red bodily fluids splattering everywhere.
At the sight of the creature, like a beast losing its reason and going berserk, Ina trembled beside him and muttered.
“D-Does the Special-grade attack other Magical Beasts too? I heard Magical Beasts don’t attack each other…!”
“Who knows.”
Enoch replied vaguely, watching the retreating back of the Special-grade Magical Beast running off somewhere, seemingly having spotted another team.
“It must be different somehow to be Special-grade.”
Although he said this, even he, thoroughly knowledgeable about the original work, was actually puzzled about that part.
-Originally, Magical Beasts do not attack each other.
Magical Beasts don't harm each other. That was common knowledge applicable even in the original work.
But Baphomet, the ‘Special-grade Magical Beast’, was an exception.
For some reason, the creature attacked everything in sight, regardless of whether it was a Magical Beast or a human.
‘No, rather, it feels like it attacks even more aggressively when it sees Magical Beasts.’
Having thought that far, Enoch stopped his stray thoughts.
He had questions, but that wasn't important right now.
Ultimately, whatever the case, that creature was part of the test to see if each team could efficiently carry out their objectives while avoiding it as much as possible.
‘…Strictly speaking, there is one hidden way to defeat even that seemingly invincible Special-grade, but…’
Enoch looked at the creature for a moment, then shook his head.
‘Realistically, no team would be capable of it.’
Above all, to catch Baphomet, one ‘must know the method separately’.
Besides, even if one knew the method, it wasn't easy to execute at all.
So there was no reason to bother catching it.
‘The goal this time is just passing the Nemesis examination anyway. There’s no need to hunt that creature.’
Besides, there was a separate way to pass the examination.
He had no intention of creating troublesome work by abandoning the standard solution.
Moreover, in the original work, catching the creature only allowed passing the examination; there were no special additional benefits.
Thus, there was no reason anywhere to undertake such a difficult and high-risk action with little reward.
“Wow…”
Meanwhile, Ticke looked around and pointed far away.
“Look, other teams were already watching too.”
Where her fingertip pointed were the rooftops of high-rise ruined buildings far from here.
Silhouettes of several other teams watching the situation were faintly visible there.
‘By now, everyone must have realized.’
That the Special-grade Magical Beast Baphomet wasn't prey.
Since it indiscriminately attacked not only humans but also Magical Beasts, even regular-grade Magical Beasts near Baphomet were fleeing without exception.
Therefore, if one unfortunately encountered the creature nearby, even hunting ordinary Magical Beasts became impossible.
In many ways, a creature no different from a disaster in the examination grounds.
“My thoughts were shallow.”
Meanwhile, Bianca looked up at Enoch and said.
“…Certainly, Lord Enoch, you know much more about this examination than we do.”
“That’s right!”
Ina and Ticke also seemed to agree with Bianca’s words, staring intently at Enoch with sparkling eyes.
From the moment Enoch stopped Bianca from rashly trying to engage the Special-grade Magical Beast earlier, she and the other teammates seemed to have already acknowledged him as the leader.
“May we please hear the plan?”
Enoch calmly replied to Bianca’s request.
“Simple.”
He slowly picked up a sharp glass shard lying among the ruins of the city.
Then, rolling up his sleeve, he brought it to his forearm and said.
“Just do this.”
Slice
The sharp glass shard pierced Enoch’s arm.
Small drops of blood formed on his arm.
At Enoch's sudden action, the eyes of the remaining three mages widened.
Bianca, seemingly the most startled among them, urgently shouted as if trying to stop Enoch.
“Th-That! If, if you get injured… the Magical Beasts will!”
The examiner Teleos had warned them.
[Remember this. If you don’t want to be torn apart and killed by a horde of Magical Beasts drawn together by the smell of blood.]
Magical Beasts go berserk at the smell of blood. That’s why there was a warning to be careful even of minor injuries.
Bianca, her face pale, urgently grabbed Enoch’s sleeve and said.
“No! A huge number of Magical Beasts will rush this way! You should stop immediately…!”
But Ticke stopped the flustered Bianca.
“No. It’s fine.”
She turned to Enoch with a calm expression.
“Perhaps you’re aiming for that. Is that right?”
“Yes.”
Enoch nodded briefly.
Ticke seemed to understand.
He looked at the blood on the glass shard and added.
“Gather them, and wipe them out at once.”
Magical Beasts are definitely drawn to the smell of blood.
‘And Ticke knows how to handle amplification magic.’
Though a bit screw-loose… appropriately using her Unique Magic to amplify wind-type magic.
If she could control strong winds like that, she could strongly spread the scent of blood through the air.
If by doing so, she could draw the aggro of the Magical Beasts existing in the examination grounds and gather them in one place?
‘Naturally, it becomes a mob hunt.’
Enoch looked at the three female mages awaiting his instructions, their expressions gradually becoming uneasy.
‘We can do it.’
Practically, direct combat with Magical Beasts was impossible for this team.
Clearly, disadvantageous conditions compared to other teams.
However, that didn't necessarily mean failure.
‘There’s always a way to find a path.’
Even with such an extreme combination, the possibility of success always exists, anytime, anywhere.
Because that was the basic quality a seasoned player who had cleared the original work countless times must possess.
Swish.
Enoch slashed his arm wide with the glass shard.
Red droplets of blood bloomed on his forearm.
Seeing that, Enoch smiled faintly.
And the task that needed to be done now, too,
Was merely the repetition of something he had done countless times.