Lying on the snow, I looked up at the sky and saw the Mutans above the ravine, their large muzzles hanging open as they stared down at me blankly.
"Take your time coming... let me get some healing done."
*Drip... drip.*
Red liquid was dripping from the gaps in the roughly tied bandage on my arm, where the dagger had stabbed me earlier. Carefully unwrapping the bandage, I saw the dark red liquid that had soaked through it, along with a warm, damp sensation.
I took out some dried herbs from my bag and began to crush them forcefully on a rough, flat stone. Little by little, the herbs turned into damp residue, and green sap flowed out. I carefully applied the sap to the wound.
There was no need to re-bandage it tightly now. Thanks to the bitter cold, the blood that had flowed out had already congealed stickily, stopping the bleeding.
Barely catching my breath, I closed my eyes for a moment. Just then,
*Po-deu-deu-deuk*
"Huh? Ah."
Far away, several black shadows were faintly seen rising up from under the white snowfield. The accumulated snow flowed down, unevenly following the curves of the huge bodies hidden beneath, like a waterfall breaking against rocks.
Soon, Mutans with gleaming eyes emerged from under the snowfield.
"I'm screwed..."
Again, I threw myself forward with the white snow scattering in the wind.
How much time had passed since then? I had climbed up and down the mountain relentlessly, repeatedly trying to shake them off. But the Mutans were terribly persistent.
No matter how far I got away, they would inevitably reappear, drawn by the increasingly strong scent of my blood, and relentlessly pursue me.
Finally, I reached a certain point and stopped fleeing, standing still like a rooted tree.
"Hoo... hoo... hoo... hoo... hoo... hoo..."
The Mutans, panting like hungry beasts, surrounded me from all sides as I gasped for breath. Behind me was a dizzyingly steep slope, where a misstep would send me plummeting off a cliff.
No, it was practically a sheer cliff face. The creatures seemed intoxicated by the victory of finally catching up to me.
Of course, that might have been my subjective thought, colored by exhaustion. But it certainly felt that way.
The Mutans shuffled closer, step by silent step.
Perhaps afraid that a hasty charge would lead to them being pushed off the cliff by me, they approached slowly, very slowly, drooling sticky saliva.
They wouldn't understand, but there was something I really wanted to say. Barely catching my rough breath, I straightened my back and clenched both fists tightly.
"I'm not running anymore. You'll just keep following anyway. So let's end it here."
Far in the distance, the red sun was hotly illuminating my back. Standing at the very edge of the precipice, further out than the Mutans, my long shadow stretched out, appearing much larger than them.
As I slowly took a step backward towards the cliff, a large Mutans, seemingly impatient, charged at me with ferocious momentum. I took one last deep breath and shouted with all my might.
"Come on!!!!!"
"Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!"
The Mutans that had been leading the charge reached the very edge of the cliff at an irreversible speed. Without hesitation, I threw myself over the precipice.
Falling together with the creature, our eyes met for a fleeting instant. Perhaps due to the intense impression of that brief moment, time felt like it stretched on forever. The Mutans' pupils were wide with fear, greatly constricted.
'Farewell.'
I quickly pulled the rope with the hook from my bag and threw it towards the corner of the cliff.
*Whir! Whoosh! Thwack!*
Thankfully, I felt the heavy sensation of the rough fibers catching firmly in my hand. My body, hanging from the sturdy rope, swung across the air in an inverted parabola, like a giant pendulum.
"Got it!"
I pressed my entire body as close as possible to the rough surface of the cliff, firmly securing myself. Meanwhile, the Mutans that had fallen straight down the cliff became a palm-sized smear in my vision.
The remaining Mutans on the cliff cautiously poked their heads over the edge, looking down at me dangling below.
"Come on! Come on down! Come if you can! Kkahahaha!"
After a little time passed, I saw a few Mutans finally give up, moving sideways along the cliff face and away.
'I'm alive! I survived! Now, now it's really over!'
However, the remaining Mutans, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, fearlessly began to climb straight down the cliff.
Even the ones that had moved away sideways were now visible, taking a long detour to climb down the cliff face.
"Ha."
The face that had been brighter than any other time since entering the mountain hardened. But that hardened expression held not fear, but rather a coolly gleaming fighting spirit that filled the empty space.
"Alright, let's die together!"
I firmly embedded the sturdy hook into a deep crevice in the cliff and carefully tied the rope around my body, securing the minimum safety measures. Meanwhile, the Mutans began to climb down the cliff in various directions.
The Mutans, those beings called monsters, possessed inherently different levels of strength and sharp senses compared to humans. They moved skillfully and fearlessly across the cliff face, like experienced climbers who had scaled cliffs hundreds of times.
'Even with those heavy bodies, they climb so well. Their movements are quite fluid too.'
I focused all my senses on the Mutans' movements, observing the distance they covered with each extension of their forelimbs and the seemingly unstable parts of their bodies as they clung to the cliff.
It was clear that the Mutans descending rapidly straight down would reach me before those circling down from the side.
While hanging from the cliff, I constantly moved to avoid being completely surrounded and decided that my only chance of winning was to deal with the approaching Mutans one by one, starting with the closest.
First, I carefully moved upwards along the cliff as far as the rope wrapped around my body would allow.
'I'll precisely strike the moment a sliver of an opening appears!'
Engraving the conditions for victory deep within my mind, I sharpened all my nerves like the tip of a needle. Soon, a Mutans reached the point directly above my head.
The approaching Mutans firmly secured its leading right foreleg on a sharp corner of the cliff, shifting the center of its heavy body. Immediately, a sharp claw swung down menacingly.
However, having confirmed that it was relying on its right foreleg, I naturally predicted it would swing its left and lightly turned my head, leisurely evading the first attack.
'As expected, they can only properly use one foreleg to attack on a cliff. With that heavy body, it wouldn't be able to support itself on just its two hind legs and wildly swing both forelegs.'
Having its claws evaded so easily, the Mutans seemed flustered. It retracted its left foreleg, intending to use it not for attack, but as a support to move closer to me, and briefly extended it downwards.
I didn't miss that fleeting small opening.
Just before the Mutans' thick left foreleg reached the corner of the cliff, I forcefully pushed its right leg sideways with all my might.
"Fall!"
Instantly losing its balance, the Mutans brushed its rough fur hide against my face as it powerlessly disappeared down the cliff.
Having dealt with one so quickly, two other Mutans swiftly filled the empty space to my left and right, above me, as if they had been waiting.
I quickly grabbed the cold snow piled up in a corner of the cliff with my hands, gathered it, and threw it rapidly at the face of the Mutans above and to my right.
Its movements momentarily slowed, and in that gap, the sharp foreleg of the Mutans above and to my left swiftly approached, coming close enough to touch my shoulder.
The very instant its thick foreleg was raised menacingly, I gripped the corner of the cliff right in front of my chest with both hands with all my might and swiftly twisted my waist to the left.
At the same time, I used the force of powerfully kicking off the cliff with both feet.
*Ta-da-da-dak!*
My body then rotated exactly 180 degrees around my chest as an axis, accurately kicking the sharp foreleg of the Mutans above and to my left.
*Thwack!*
But perhaps because my strength was insufficient, it only managed to make its heavy body stagger. Nevertheless, without the slightest bit of flinching, in this precarious, upside-down handstand-like posture, I quickly thrust my foot under its chin. Then, I exerted all my strength in the direction opposite the cliff.
"Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!"
The Mutans, unable to properly maintain its balance, desperately clung on in an unstable position. Meanwhile, the Mutans above and to my right quickly approached, but
Since I was closely attached to the chin of the other Mutans, the one on the cliff dared not attack my defenseless state.
As I poured all my strength into my toes, the end of the corner the Mutans was precariously gripping with its claws gradually began to grind away.
Meanwhile, the Mutans above and to my right was gradually descending.
"Kuh-uh-uh-uck!"
Despite the Mutans' unstable posture, unable to exert its full strength, the power I felt through my toes was immense, and the fight was not easily decided. And now, the Mutans above and to my right had completely descended,
It stared at my face with a chilling gaze from the side and tried to bring its sharp claws down on my chest.
*Ka.. ga.. kack!!*
After a precarious tug-of-war with the Mutans whose chin I had wedged my foot under, the sharp sound of the corner finally breaking clearly echoed, and soon, the Mutans' claws completely slipped from the corner, and it plummeted down the cliff.