Blind Hatred

Blind Hatred: a monster that appeared in level-three dungeons—sometimes even at level four. Its name was actually the monster’s perfect description, as it was the manifestation of unjustified hate of other living beings that had taken physical form. While blind and deaf, the Blind Hatred could sense negative emotions, which was how it located its prey. The more intense the negative emotions—especially hate—the easier it was for it to smell you. And Tamashi was overflowing with all that, thanks to him being infected by the Hate Amplifier. That caused Tamashi’s negative emotions—hate being the main one—to spiral out of control, whilst simultaneously spreading the infection every time he lost control of those emotions. All the Blind Hatred had to do to infect someone was cause any amount of harm; the greater the wound, the worse the infection.

Tamashi, Uyumi, and Awayuki were currently surrounded by those dreadful abominations, with no other way out but through them.

“Alright, here’s the plan,” Tamashi began, speaking to Uyumi over his shoulder, not bothering to keep his voice down, since there was no point in doing so. “Awayuki and I will clear a path forward. They should be focused mainly on me, so all you have to do is not get hit by them at all costs. Understood? You get hit, you die. This time, I won’t be coming to save you, since I’ll be dead not so far away from you if you fail.”

Despite Tamashi’s speech not being very encouraging, Uyumi agreed with a simple “Right.”

After that, there was absolute chaos.

Both the buildings and the roads were collapsing from the extremely cold temperatures caused by Awayuki, who also created small chunks of ice, hurling them at the monsters rushing their way. Thanks to Awayuki’s precision in controlling which areas he froze, Tamashi and Uyumi could move freely, while the horde of Blind Hatreds’ movement slowed down to almost a crawl, their bodies even showing cracks from time to time, as if a single shove would make them crumble.

Tamashi was the main frontline, carving their path with uncanny precision and the confidence of a seasoned veteran.

Uyumi was right behind him, barely able to keep up. While Awayuki was careful, some of his power still seeped into the air around Tamashi and Uyumi, causing the petite girl to tremble and clatter her teeth. She also wasn’t used to having her sight, which was another factor that slowed her down greatly. Still, Uyumi managed to keep up with Tamashi’s pace; at least for now.

Somehow, they were surrounded by hundreds of these awful gray fiends, as if they had all decided to have a party on this very street.

Tamashi knew, of course, why there were so many; it was because of him and his infection, which amplified his hate, causing all the Blind Hatreds to smell him, rushing to consume his corrupted soul.

He should have definitely expected this outcome, but alas, the very thing that caused this situation prevented him from doing so.

As Tamashi pierced the chest of one of his adversaries, Awayuki finished the job by planting a sharp chunk of clear ice into its head, knocking it off his spear and killing the Blind Hatred.

Tamashi slashed, sliced, cut, stabbed, pierced, and even beheaded the monsters left and right, but it never seemed to be enough, with more abominations just replacing the ones he had slain. It was even more hopeless since Tamashi could only fight with one of his hands because of the infection; he had to make his polearm much shorter so he could even swing his weapon properly, thus massively limiting his attack range. On top of all that, Tamashi was also one eye short, causing his right side to become a huge blind spot for him.

With all of this combined, Tamashi was rapidly approaching his limit, while the battle’s end was nowhere in sight.

Eventually, while at his wit’s end, Tamashi had to make a decision.

“Awayuki, ice dome—now!” Tamashi instructed, coughing afterward from lack of breath.

Awayuki complied with his order, creating a thick dome of hard ice around Tamashi and Uyumi in a matter of seconds, keeping all the Blind Hatreds out, but also trapping the two humans in.

“Do it now!” Tamashi ordered Uyumi, shoving his polearm in her face.

She took it without thinking, but was a bit apprehensive.

“N-now? But I haven’t practiced yet. What if I miss—?”

“There’s no time!” Tamashi interrupted with an urgent tone. “I’ll lose my healing spell in less than two minutes. If I don’t have it after you cut my arm off, I’ll bleed to death. If you don’t cut it off, something far worse than death awaits me.”

Tamashi ripped his clothes at the right shoulder, right where the infection ended, showing Uyumi where to strike.

It was still trying to invade the rest of his body, before eventually consuming his soul, turning him into another mindless beast with nothing but hate and hunger in his heart—a Blind Hatred.

“So,” Tamashi pressed, “take a deep breath, and slash. It’s now or never. Awayuki can’t hold the barrier for long.”

Tamashi knelt and abducted his right arm outward—with a great amount of effort—making it easier for Uyumi to hit her target, and hopefully not kill Tamashi in the process.

Crack!

The first crevice appeared on the ice dome, indicating their time was running out. New splits were forming every second, which made Tamashi give Uyumi a dirty look, indicating that she really should hurry.

That only made her even more nervous, though. Her hands started shaking and her palms sweating despite the freezing temperatures surrounding them.

Barely suppressing the curse that was about to slip from his tongue, Tamashi made eye contact with Uyumi once again. When he was sure he had her attention, he breathed in loudly through his nose and held the icy air in his lungs for about two seconds. Then, Tamashi exhaled slowly through his mouth, letting chilly vapor flow from it.

He tried to relax his face muscles as much as he could and closed his eyes, tilting his head to the left slightly.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight...

Whoosh!

Nine!

Once Tamashi counted to nine, the blade came, along with the pain.

The first thing cut was his collarbone, which, though not cleanly, broke apart with minimal resistance. Second was his trapeze, with his uppermost rib following soon after. Lastly, Tamashi’s pectoralis major muscle, along with a few more ribs, were slashed open with the razor-sharp edge of his own polearm, severing Tamashi’s right arm—along with a small chunk of his chest—from the rest of his body.

“AAAAGHH!!!”

Tamashi’s agonized scream was so loud it drowned out the sounds of the ice dome as it almost collapsed.

“Uyumi!” Tamashi grunted, crawling over to Uyumi while simultaneously bleeding to death from his grievous wound. “Repeat everything I say, no questions!”

While Uyumi nodded with tears in her eye, he dismissed his polearm and spouted: “System menu. Create personal coin account. Name: Uyumi Amane.”

He then waited half a second to let her finish, whispered something under his breath, then continued.

“Identification number: 161616. Password: 161616human. Create account. Agree.”

Small chunks of ice started falling from the ice dome, the barrier gradually starting to crumble.

During the brief moment it took for Uyumi’s account to be created, Tamashi sent a mental message to Awayuki: Drop the wall and make contact exactly six seconds after you feel her presence disappear.

At the same time, he transferred five million coins into Uyumi’s newly created account—the exact amount needed to buy the Fast travel spell.

“System store. Buy Fast travel spell. Agree,” Tamashi continued instructing Uyumi, who repeated all his words perfectly under her breath.

“Use Fast travel.”

For the next few words, Tamashi slowed down a bit, not wanting to risk Uyumi getting it wrong.

“Thirty-five. Thirty-four. Thirteen. Zero. North.”

He was dictating the exact coordinates for where they needed to teleport from memory.

“One hundred thirty-eight. Forty-nine. Fifty-three. Five. East.”

When Tamashi finished dictating the coordinates, he made sure to utter the barely audible word “Cancel”, making sure he himself wouldn’t be teleported. Then, he uttered the last word.

“Teleport.”

“Teleport,” Uyumi repeated, then vanished immediately afterward.

Then, Tamashi blurted out the exact same thing as fast as possible, almost forgetting that if he mispronounced just one word or number, the teleportation would cancel, leaving him and Awayuki to be devoured by the monsters bashing their whole bodies against the wall of ice separating them from Tamashi.

“Use Fast travel,” One second.

“Thirty-five. Thirty-four. Thirteen. Zero. North,” Three seconds.

“One hundred thirty-eight. Forty-nine. Fifty-three. Five. East,” Six seconds.

Crash!

Right at the six-second mark, Awayuki’s barrier shattered—unknown even to him whether it had been by his choice or not.

Then, Awayuki himself dove down at maximum speed, without any regard for his own safety. Not bothering to dodge the crumbling pieces of ice around him, he simply blew them out of the way using cold wind, exhausting the last bits of his mana reserves.

At the same time, the horde of Blind Hatreds swarmed the two of them, ravenously trying to devour their already half-dead prey.

Awayuki, however, was faster.

The very moment Tamashi felt his flying companion’s beak try to drill into his skull and fracture from the impact, he finished the incantation.

“Teleport.”

Tamashi had successfully escaped, and Tokyo’s streets grew still once again, only this time, it was snowing, despite it being summer.