Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

"What negotiation is more important than the monster destroying the mine and hurting the workers?" Lina wanted to say something, but Daigo pulled her back and stopped her. The latter smiled apologetically at the foreman, who responded with a bitter face that every worker understands.

The group was first led to the infirmary. The surviving workers were crammed into the small space, a dark cloud hanging over them. The doctor was squatting in front of a worker who was crying miserably.

"You didn't lose your dashcam, did you?" the foreman asked.

Before the person being asked could answer, his coworker, who was sitting next to him comforting him, took out his backpack and said, "It's with me. I'm afraid he won't be able to hold it and will drop it when he comes back."

The recorder was turned on, but the view it captured wasn't very good. The mine was very oppressive, and they could only see a small area illuminated by the lights.

Because there was a slight leak in the tunnel, the workers needed to find out where the problem was, as a leak turning into a seepage accident would cause serious trouble. So, a team of five people carefully went down into the well, each carrying their equipment.

The last person to leave was carrying a recording device, and in the end, only he and two other companions escaped.

The image freezes on a living creature resembling an ancient tree, which Horii identifies as possibly the horn of some large animal. Suddenly, the horn rises, breaking a support pillar in the mine.

Stones crashed down, and the workers turned to run. Suddenly, the screen went black, leaving only the loud crash of the collapsing passage and a few gasps.

“I slipped and fell into a muddy puddle, and Jian’er threw himself on top of me, but he got hit by a rock,” the worker who was crying kept wiping his face. “I didn’t think about anything at the time, I just wanted to run out… I pulled Jian’er to run out, but as we ran, I couldn’t pull him anymore.”

He didn't say anything more. The Victory Team saw everything through the recorder: the opening leading outside was lit up, but the view suddenly turned back, starting from the two people's clenched hands, forearms, elbows, upper arms, until a gray face.

In the true sense of gray and white, Jian Er turned into stone. A claw pierced through him, and the stone shattered into pieces, mixing into the other collapsed piles of stones in the mine tunnel.

The owner of the recorder was dragged away by other workers. He was wiping away tears as he spoke. Even though he didn't see the footage again, he was still sobbing when he heard Jian Er's voice: "If I die, I'll die, but he has a wife and children. I don't know how to explain this to his family... If he hadn't been hit like that, he would have been able to escape."

He was taken to the mine's medical clinic for examination as soon as he emerged from the mine. Although he was found to be unharmed, the doctor did not let him go easily, insisting that he go to a large hospital in the city for further examination and confirmation. Monsters that could turn people to stone were unheard of, except in myths and legends.

But he felt tormented staying in the infirmary, always thinking that he shouldn't be there—but he didn't dare to go out, afraid that if he opened the door, the monster would appear in front of him, or that Jian Er's wife and children would be standing at the door... That was more frightening than the monster.

"Where's the map of your mine? We need to know where to find it." Horii raised his most pressing question; pinpointing the location directly is much more efficient than searching a wide area.

The foreman patted his pockets and stammered, "I left in such a hurry... Ah, the owner's rest room is nearby. He has a very detailed blueprint there. Please wait a moment."

The foreman rushed out of the infirmary in a panic. Lina watched him run out, and the surviving workers were sobbing softly in her ears. She couldn't help but say, "That farm owner, when something happens, he runs away faster than anyone else!"

"Stop complaining. We need to organize their evacuation too," Zongfang said to the doctor who was holding out there. "If you need help, come and move the workers to a safe place. Since it's an underground monster, nobody knows where it will come out from. The whole mine is in danger."

"I understand." The doctor opened the drawer, took out a handful of tooth-splittingly sweet candies from his own stock, peeled one off, and stuffed it into the mouth of the worker who was crying and wincing.

"Don't spit it out. You haven't eaten a single bite of food since you came here. If you don't want to be force-fed glucose, eat the sugar," the doctor said.

He wiped the other person's dirty face and pulled them up: "Follow the GUTS team. What's the use of crying? Will crying kill the monster?"

After wiping her face clean, Lina could see that the worker was actually very young—probably just out of school. Perhaps the people at the mine took good care of him? The doctor showed no impatience whatsoever; Jian Er, now turned to stone, only yelled at him to run.

The young worker's voice was still a little choked up, but he didn't burst into tears. Perhaps the candy had awakened the hunger in his stomach. He obediently followed the Victory Team, mumbling, "I know, I know... I won't hold them back this time."

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Family Affection

TPC1 had just landed when the Victory Team sent back their first-hand investigation briefing.

The "Special Life Form Management Regulations (Trial)" has not yet been officially announced, but Director Sawai still decided to rush to the scene. If the information obtained by TPC is correct, then this monster will be the first special life form to be included in the trial regulations.

Also arriving at the airport was a small plane, a helicopter belonging to tourists on the adjacent island that has been developed for sightseeing.

"Did this guy park in the wrong place?" Fujisawa Sousuke thought it was a careless pilot who had dropped people off at the wrong island. Looking out through the windshield, he saw that as soon as the helicopter came to a stop, the cabin door opened impatiently, and a small shadow jumped out, causing him to stumble. Immediately afterward, a larger shadow also jumped out recklessly.

They were clearly not athletes; the children were more agile, and the adult who jumped out from behind fell flat on his face, giving the driver quite a fright.

"What's going on here..." Fujisawa Sousuke was a little confused about this world. A woman with a child got off the helicopter. The woman was wearing cotton loungewear, and her hair was just tied back with a rubber band. If it weren't for the fact that her movements when she got up were relatively normal, Fujisawa Sousuke would have almost thought she was a mental patient.

Director Sawai was being escorted to the mine by the ground crew, while the air force was on standby at the airport. Fujisawa Sousuke watched as the woman and child stumbled and ran, the pilot unable to keep up with them. He wondered if they were too strong or if the pilot hadn't exercised in a long time.

Before they could run for long, the earthquake struck.

Two horns peeked out from the ground, and the three of them lost their balance and fell to the ground again.

Fujisawa Sousuke jumped up from his chair and headed for the door, but Aiba Yu pushed him back into the cabin, speaking with an unusual solemnity: "You stay here and wait, I'll go meet the director."

"But that's a monster!"

“So someone has to stay here,” Aiba Yu said. “If the director arrives first, I’ll allow you to fly it back as the captain.”

"Huh?" Fujisawa Sousuke was dumbfounded when permission to go solo was suddenly granted.

Before he could react, the cockpit door slammed shut, and when he saw Aiba Yu again, he was already heading towards the mine. Fujisawa Sousuke watched as the two horns grew higher and higher, finally revealing a lizard-like head—it turned out to be something on the top of a monster's head.

It lay across the distance, and even though it wasn't very close, the people running around the airport looked like ants in comparison.

When Fujisawa Sousuke saw it open its eyes, those eyes overlapping with the sharp, orange-yellow ones, his heart suddenly began to pound, cold sweat poured down his back, and his palms became sticky.

He suddenly thought of defeating Melba and driving away the giants of Golza. Although they were all terrifyingly large creatures, perhaps the giants were better?

The excitement of seeing the monster for the first time vanished without a trace. He was originally disappointed that he had missed the chance to see Melba in person, but now he felt that this opportunity was simply proof of his bad luck—he was even somewhat hoping that the giant would appear again.

"I don't want this solo permit," he said, pulling out a teru teru bozu doll from his pocket and muttering, "Please bless the captain and director to come back together. If it doesn't work, throw it away and get the next one!"

It's unclear whether his prayers worked or if the doll he bought from the ten-dollar store on the street was actually effective.

As soon as he finished speaking, the giant he had been hoping for appeared in the radiance.

He stared in disbelief at the pillar of light that stretched from the sky to the ground, as if all the sunlight had gathered there, so bright it almost blinded him. Because of the distance and angle, he couldn't see the top of the pillar, and when the giant appeared, he couldn't help but think of the phrase: "standing tall and firm."

It's as if even if the sky were to fall, he could hold it up.

He didn't know how the people in the mine felt, but when he saw the giant in person, all he wanted to do was cheer... like the crowds in the movies who shout and whistle when they see Superman's red cape.

Sōsuke Fujisawa's thought process was always peculiar. At the time, he was only thinking about how the actors would cheer in front of an empty screen, and the thought of such a scene made him laugh out loud. When the girl he was watching the movie with asked him why, he told her, and he never received another invitation from her to watch a movie after that.

He once suspected that the actors were too handsome, making him look like a country bumpkin. It was all because the big screen in the theater was so clear when showing close-ups that he could always hear the girl who invited him moaning softly, like a cat lover seeing a shameless cat that only shows its belly to humans.

Now he's become just as foolish, waving at the giant through the windshield, not caring whether the giant can see him or not.

……

Tiga naturally didn't notice the ants waving at him from the airport in the distance.

In fact, he was being jostled around by two rolling lizards that were rushing around—why would something that seemed to be living in the age of dinosaurs appear in this era?

Daigo regretted reading "An Introduction to Human Biomechanics" first instead of "An Illustrated Guide to Ancient Creatures" or "An Introduction to Anatomy".

The two monsters in the story not only have horns on their heads, but their backs are also covered in bone spikes, making them look like hedgehogs and you don't know where to start attacking them.

The softest part is probably the belly, right? But when they come at you, they're fast and fierce. He tried to block them once, but he almost fell over himself. He doesn't know if he'll ever find a chance to flip them over and beat them up.

Unable to flip over, Tiga could only try to cut its short, thick neck from behind, which didn't seem to exist. He dodged the impact, leaped onto the back of the monster with two horns, and bent down to attack from both sides.

Fighting monsters is different from fighting people. When Daigo deals with Shinjo, Shinjo will nimbly flip over and kick him back, while Gakuma chooses to twist his body and hit his leg.

Tiga lost his balance and, in desperation, grabbed its two horns. Little did he know that this creature was an electric lizard; electricity suddenly surged from its horns, and as a stinging pain swept through his body, the one-horned Gakuma crashed into his side with a thunderous roar, knocking him to the ground.

Tiga shook his head and got up. The soreness and numbness in his hands had not yet subsided. He thought to himself that it would be troublesome if the monster charged at him again, so he assumed a defensive stance before looking at the other side.

But the monster didn't come over; the one-horned creature blocked the way of the two-horned creatures. One was Gakuma α, and the other was Gakuma β. α turned its head to stare at β's horn, which had been broken off by the giant, while β nuzzled its neck, looking quite affectionate.

When Tiga's gaze fell upon them, α clearly took a few steps forward and stood in front of β, growling threateningly and pawing at the ground with its hind legs, as if it were about to launch an attack at any moment.

Inside the mine, Horii, having obtained the blueprints, jogged to catch up with Munakata and Director Sawai, who was hiding with them.

“Well,” Horii pointed to the edge of the map, “this is illegal mining. They’ve actually excavated an area that exceeds the approved area by nearly four kilometers… They’re really reckless. Even without monsters, seawater would have flooded in and destroyed the mine sooner or later. No wonder the hostage-taker ran away. It’s something that could be easily discovered with a simple investigation.”

This kind of man-made disaster is beyond the scope of the Victory Team's ability to handle, and the group looked at the director.

Sawai, having lived half his life, had seen the same things quite often. He simply ordered, "Continue to move the workers. You all go too. What are you all doing staying here with me?"

The information department member, who was being stared at, froze for a moment: "But..."

"But what? Can one more person stop the monster?" His gaze went over the shoulder of the member, and a familiar figure was running towards him.

He didn't know what to say, so he just kept chasing away the people gathered around him and sighed, "Here comes someone I can't get rid of."

Chapter Twenty-Eight: A Double-Edged Sword

"Director." Aiba Yu ran all the way from the airport and only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that everyone was alright.

Before Director Sawai could finish sending the people away, someone else spoke up loudly before him.

"Go, Giants!" came the children's voices.

Why would a child sneak into such a dangerous place? Without Sawai's order, Munakata had already stepped forward, grabbed him, and tried to move him out.

A woman stumbled up and, while urging the child to go back to the driver, thanked him repeatedly.

The child was no match for the strength of two adults, so he could only struggle almost like a child, dragging himself on the ground and rolling around like a dangling piece of chewing gum.

Niu Pi Tang shouted at Tiga, "Giant, hurry up and kill that monster that killed Dad!"

Perhaps the noise of the crowd made the monster irritable, but Gakuma Alpha raised its head and roared, then charged at Tiga, the most threatening monster.

Gakuma β let out a screech, releasing electricity again as its brother was grabbed by the head of the pincers by Tiga. The monster ultimately lacked sufficient intelligence; while β was trying to escape, the electricity also injured α.

Tiga was not someone to be trifled with. Just as Daigo's fierceness during training frightened Fujisawa Sosuke, the second wave of β's electric current swept through, but Tiga did not let go. In the struggle, α's horn made a loud "crack" and was broken off, which Tiga casually threw aside.

α visibly shrank back, while β used all its strength to shove Tiga away, blue light condensing in its mouth, and a petrifying beam suddenly shot out.

It turned the enemy to stone from the ground up, but instead of rushing in to finish him off, it turned around and gently rubbed against its brother, who was trembling on the ground in pain, after confirming that the enemy's legs were petrified and he could not take a step.

If they had soft downy feathers, beta's comfort might be somewhat helpful. But they are monsters with hard shells and bony spurs on their backs, and even the gentlest scratch will only produce a sharp, metallic clang.

"Well done, giant!" The crowd below was clearly delighted. A child, already being held by his mother, poked his head out from her arms and cried, "Avenge my father!"

Monsters killing people and being beaten up by giants should have been a satisfying scene, but Horii always felt uncomfortable, especially when β stretched his head to α's neck, acting like small animals that can be seen everywhere comforting relatives.

“A general language translator.” Aiba Yu didn’t look at the giants and monsters; instead, he focused his gaze on the mother and child next to Munakata.

Horii suddenly realized: "How could I forget this! Right, right, if it is the first special life form to implement the Regulations, a file should be established first."

Tiga had been petrified up to his waist. He struggled in vain, and his legs had completely lost sensation, feeling like real stone—a feeling completely different from when he was revived from the stone statue state.