Please Kill Me - Chapter 64
Opposite her, a monster as large as a house was sticking its tongue out towards her. Under normal circumstances, one would run or swing a sword, but Yekaterina, shrouded in her robe, just stared at the creature with a dazed expression.
As usual, her face looked calm, perhaps a bit sad.
Yekaterina said, her face almost on the verge of tears.
“I….have nowhere to go.”
Who was she speaking to?
“Can I really go back?”
It was unclear. All Leonid knew was that hearing those words somehow twisted his insides painfully. But there was no time to contemplate this.
Yekaterina was literally in front of the monster’s mouth. Without hesitation, Leonid charged at the monster, swinging his sword.
“Kieek!”
The monster screamed as Leonid’s sword slashed its face, and he quickly shifted his body, grabbing the dazed Yekaterina with his right arm. He then leapt with her beyond a tree, dodging the monster’s attack.
“Ugh!”
His shoulder cried out in pain from the effort, but the immediate priority was to wake Yekaterina from the illusion.
“Wake up! Yekaterina, snap out of it!”
As strong as Leonid might be, it was impossible to handle a monster this large without any injuries, not while using almost one arm. Waking Yekaterina was important to handle this difficulty.
Fortunately, Yekaterina’s black eyes were quickly regaining focus. While attacking the monster might not immediately break the illusion it had cast, the external stimuli and changes were bound to affect those entrapped in the illusion.
Yekaterina’s eyes, which had been vague, started to clear, and finally, they focused on Leonid.
“…Leonid?”
“Are you coming to your senses now?”
Leonid’s lips twisted into a lopsided grin, relieved by the sound of Yekaterina’s voice calling his name.
The complex anger he had felt on the way here seemed to vanish completely, satisfied simply by the fact that Yekaterina was alert and speaking his name.
However, Leonid had no time to notice his own emotional shifts.
Yekaterina, who had been alternating her gaze between him and the surroundings, opened her mouth with a confused expression.
“Was I, attacked by the monster?”
“You were about to be. I pulled you out just in time.”
“No, I was attacked. I completely fell for the illusion.”
“What kind of illusion was it?”
“…It was incredibly sophisticated. The most elaborate one I’ve ever experienced.”
Yekaterina still seemed to be shaken by the reality she had returned to, as she clenched and unclenched her empty hand.
The higher the grade of the monster, the more dramatic its powers. Lower-grade monsters might lure animals with mirages or mists, while mid-level ones start to induce auditory hallucinations to attract their prey.
A proper illusion, however, starts from at least a third-grade monster.
‘I could recognize the illusions of a second-grade monster.’
Yekaterina wondered. Did she fail to recognize it due to complacency? Or was it because the form of the illusion was so different from those she had encountered before?
The image of Leonid smiling still lingered in her mind, as did her own instinct to reach out and grasp his hand without hesitation.
But this was not the time to dwell on sentiments.
“Leonid. That monster seems to be at least second-grade, don’t you agree?”
“It’s certain neither of us can handle it alone.”
“I’d prefer to tell you to just stay put, but…”
Given his recent injuries, using a sword wouldn’t be ideal. But now was not the time for such considerations. Yekaterina pulled a dagger from her thigh and flipped it casually in her hand.
“I’ll draw its attention and figure out its attack range; you back me up.”
“Leave it to me.”
With a quick nod, Yekaterina agilely leapt towards the monster.
Her nimble body, capable of springing up into the air, was particularly effective against much larger monsters.
‘First, I’ll blind it.’
Physical-type monsters often looked as if the term ‘haphazard’ was coined just for them.
Fortunately, this one had only two eyes.
Yekaterina reached into her robe and drew out a throwing dagger, slicing through the air with a swift motion. The dagger flew straight and true, embedding itself deeply into one of the monster’s large eyes.
Given the creature’s massive size, its eyes were large and was an easy target. Like always, the eyes were a critical weak point.
“Kieek!!”
The monster howled in pain, thrashing wildly as it lost its vision. Its limbs flailed violently, toppling nearby trees with cracking sounds, but Yekaterina maintained a safe distance while calmly observing.
To an onlooker, it might seem like she was doing nothing, but Leonid knew exactly why she was behaving this way.
‘She’s draining its energy.’
With a creature of second grade or higher, a direct confrontation could risk falling back under its illusion. By disorienting it and keeping it from focusing, Yekaterina was effectively draining its strength. Simultaneously, she used this opportunity to analyze the monster’s range and style of attack.
As the monster’s movements began to slow, Yekaterina took her chance and leapt forward once more.
