Free Iriya the Berserker by Hideyuki Kikuchi Page A

distance to make his escape. However, as he got to his feet again, his body was racked by a huge—and final—tremor. When he thudded to the ground, the arrow that’d diagonally pierced his throat from above gleamed faintly and deeply silver in the moonlight.

    “Don’t move,” D told her, but as soon as he’d got up and left, Iriya heard the voice of a woman in the distance. At first she tensed at the thought that it was Lorelei, but she quickly remembered that the sorceress was dead. Besides, this sounded like shouting. She didn’t think to call out for D. Her warrior’s blood raced through her.
    Making sure that Meeker was asleep, she concentrated her gaze in the direction of the voice, and there something like a white mist hovered in the depths of the darkness. On realizing that it was drawing closer, Iriya went for the hilt of her longsword.
    In less than two seconds’ time, a woman in a long white robe took shape. She had a countenance so lovely it made even Iriya sigh in spite of herself, and it seemed as if the moonlight illuminated her face alone.
    Come.
    The sweet, sad voice that echoed in the Huntress’s ears was indeed that of a woman.
    Come to me, and I shall make you forget all the pains of this world.
    Sight and sound—her brain must’ve been devastated by the alluring beauty that crept in through those two of her senses, because Iriya rose unsteadily to her feet.
    The woman was right before her. Her arms were spread, the sleeves of her robe flowing down like the Milky Way.
    Come to me, and I shall make you forget everything and anything. Like so.
    Looping her arm around Iriya’s back, the beautiful woman smiled. It was at that very instant that the lovely countenance split in a cross shape. The rent portion was a noxious hue and had patterns that called to mind a nose and eyes. They were unquestionably the petals of a flower. But the petals had the luster of steel. And then the bud that’d been her head reared back, preparing to assail the blank-faced Iriya.
    Though it probably intended to swallow not only the Huntress’s head but also her entire body, it was unable to do so. When the woman put her arm around Iriya, the Huntress’s hand had never left her weapon’s hilt. And the instant the demonic blossom reared back its deadly head, a horizontal slash mowed through its torso, cleaving it in two.
    Falling to the ground without a word was the upper half of the gorgeous woman, which quickly became a bizarre tangle of roots, and the lower half—spurting something that could’ve been either blood or liquid nutrients—also quickly transformed into a weird stalk and several ambulatory roots.
    Leaping ten feet away to avoid a fountain of digestive fluid, Iriya landed and let out a deep breath. That was all it took to return her breathing to normal. A second later, Iriya was gazing down at the bisected remains of the monstrous plant as she returned her blade to its scabbard.
    No sooner had she turned her back than there was a cry of “Look out—behind you!” Even before Iriya caught Meeker’s words, she was swinging her blade behind her. It was instinct. Before the sword had stopped moving, she leapt off to one side.
    Slashing down through the spot she’d occupied and slicing a stone on the ground in two was a whip-like filament that stretched back to the wound in the stock-still lower half of the creature. As its severed portion writhed on the ground, Iriya made a bound for the gravely wounded creature pulling back its deadly whip, this time splitting it lengthwise. The lower half of the creature collapsed in a heap, transforming into the beautiful woman as if that were its swan song, then immediately resuming its true form as it ceased moving.
    “Are you okay?” her savior asked, racing toward her, yet the warrior woman seemed ungrateful as she shouted at him to stay back, continuing to glare down at her foe.
    “It’s dead. You cut its roots off,” she heard Meeker say.
    “You’re