“Whoever attacked these monsters was trying to hide their tracks?” Shimizu finished his sentence, and Nagayama nodded. Realizing what that meant, Kouki stretched out his Sense Presence as far as it would go, cautiously searching for enemies.
“It’s possible there’s monsters that intelligent down here, but... it seems more likely this was the work of a person. And the fact that the bloodstains here haven’t been wiped away means they didn’t manage to cover their tracks in time, or that—”
“This is the place we wanted to lure you to.” An unfamiliar woman’s voice echoed throughout the room. It was a husky, hoarse voice. Everyone drew their weapons and turned to face the voice at once.
Footsteps rang out on the stone floor as a young woman with fiery red hair walked into the room from the other side. Her skin was swarthy, and her ears tapered to fine points.
The students’ eyes opened wide in surprise. They recognized those particular characteristics, if not the person. They’d never seen one in person before, but they knew from Ishtar’s lectures what race she belonged to. According to the Holy Church, she was mankind’s greatest enemy. In other words...
“A demon...” One of the students muttered quietly. A cold smile formed on the demon lady’s face.
She looked over the shocked party of students. Her eyes were the same fiery crimson as her hair. She was dressed in something that resembled the biking suits that motorcyclists wore. The black suit hugged her body, emphasizing her ample curves, even in the dim light.
Kondou, Nakano, and Saitou all blushed, though they knew that now was neither the time nor the place for such thoughts.
“I take it you’re the hero? The one dressed up in that ridiculously sparkly armor?”
“I-It’s not ridiculous! Besides, a demon like you has no right to criticize me! What’re you even doing in this place!?” His somewhat overblown reaction could probably be chalked up to how shocked he’d been to see a demon here, but he managed to recompose himself and ask what everyone was wondering.
The demon lady ignored his question and shook her head in exasperation.
“Well, you certainly are straightforward. Really though, this is the ‘great hero’ they want me to win over to our side? Unbelievable. Well, I guess orders are orders.” With an annoyed sigh, she addressed Kouki once more.
“You, the one in the stupid shining armor. How about joining our side?”
“Wh-What? What do you mean... join your side!?”
“Slow on the uptake I see. Literally what I said. I’m inviting you to join us, the demons. I promise we’ll treat you better than the humans have.” The students were so stunned by the offer that it took them a second to comprehend it. Everyone turned to Kouki, waiting for his answer. He wiped the befuddled look off his face and glared angrily at the demon.
“I refuse! Do you honestly believe I would betray my comrades, and my fellow humans!? I see now that you demons are as evil as the stories say! You may have come here to persuade me, but it was foolish to come alone. You’re outnumbered here. Surrender quietly and come with us!” Kouki’s yells reverberated throughout the chamber, but the demon didn’t even flinch. Instead, she narrowed her eyes and carefully observed Kouki. She didn’t seem too perturbed by his refusal. In fact, she tried offering even more favorable conditions.
“What if I said you could bring your comrades with you? Do you still refuse?”
“My answer won’t change. No matter what you offer me, I won’t betray the humans!” There wasn’t even an ounce of hesitation in his reply. Offended that the demon had even offered, he raised his sword and started pouring mana into it. The holy sword began to glow with white light. His stance made it clear there would be no more talking. If she won’t surrender, then I’ll take her by force!
The demon didn’t react to Kouki’s response, but Shizuku and Nagayama did. They both clicked their tongues and carefully watched the demon and the area around her. Nagayama quietly mouthed instructions to Endou. A second later his presence vanished.
Both Nagayama and Shizuku had hoped Kouki would play along. Even if he’d had to lie, their priority had been to escape. But before they could tell him as much, he’d already antagonized the demon. Now they had no choice but to prepare for the worst.
No matter how reputed demons’ magic skills were, neither Nagayama nor Shizuku were naive enough to think she’d actually come alone. Especially as they didn’t think a single demon was capable of wiping out all of the monsters on a floor this deep, and then hiding all traces of it afterward too. If she was, then humanity would have long since been annihilated.
And to top it all off, she wasn’t in the least worried about facing a group of humans capable of reaching the 90th floor. If they’d gone to the pains of covering their tracks, it made sense that they’d laid an ambush for them. In which case, fighting here was not to the students’ advantage.
This was no longer the Great Orcus Labyrinth. It was enemy territory! A second later, Shizuku’s worst fears were proven true.
“I see. Well then, I have no need of you. I’ll have you know, my orders weren’t to bring you over no matter what. They were simply to convert you if it seemed possible. If the situation calls for it, we’re allowed to eliminate you. Don’t think we’re soft enough to leave our opponents alive. Lutos, Habel, Enki. It’s time to hunt!” There was a loud bang, and Shizuku and Nagayama were suddenly blown backward. They grunted in pain as they slid across the ground.
“Ah!?”
“Gah!?”
They had no idea what had just hit them. At the woman’s command, the space to the left and right of Kouki began to bend and warp. Something tumbled out of that rift in space and headed to the dumbfounded rearguard at high speed.
Only Shizuku and Nagayama, who’d been on guard the whole time, managed to see the surprise attack coming.
Shizuku quickly held her sword and sheath in a cross formation in front of her to guard, while leaping backward to soften the impact of the blow. However, the strength of the attack was far beyond her expectations. Whatever it was that hit her broke through her guard, sliced open her stomach, and slammed her to the ground hard enough to knock the air out of her lungs.
Meanwhile, Nagayama used his Body Strengthening and Diamond Skin skills to raise his base defensive stats. The two skills combined made his body a far more reliable shield than any metal barrier. Most things would have found it difficult to break through that human fortress.
Still, that something managed to blow through his defenses and ravage his arms. Blood splattered the ground as he was blown backward. He only remained standing because Saitou, who’d been standing behind him, was able to catch him.
There was a sound of shattering glass as the makeshift barrier Suzu had put up the instant before the attack was obliterated.
The rearguard had been targeted too. Suzu hadn’t sensed the attack coming like Shizuku and Nagayama had, but she’d instinctively realized that she needed to erect a barrier the moment Shizuku and Nagayama had taken their stances. Or perhaps it had been the wealth of experience that had told her that, and not her instincts.
Either way, she’d clearly made the right decision. Without that barrier, Tsuji and Yoshino would have been ripped to shreds.
As it was, the shockwave from the barrier breaking flung Suzu further back into the rearguard.
Luckily for her, Eri was there to catch her. That helped Suzu avoid taking any direct damage, but her body was still temporarily paralyzed from the blow.
The three somethings instantly launched a follow-up attack. Shizuku, Nagayama, and Suzu were all down for the count, and the remaining party members were unable to mount any kind of defense in time. Just as it seemed all hope was lost—
“Holy light protect us! Holy Blessing, Divine Veil, Sacred Shields!” Kaori fired off three light spells at once with barely any incantation.
The first spell was an intermediate rank healing spell that she’d cast on Shizuku and Nagayama, Holy Blessing.
It was one of the few healing spells that could target multiple people from a distance.
Pale violet light rained down on the two figures groaning on the ground, healing their wounds at unnatural speeds.
Her next spell was targeted at the three invisible creatures. Like with Shimizu and Nagayama, pale violet light began to eclipse them. Thanks to the light, their outlines were visible to everyone for the first time.
This was her second spell, the intermediate rank healing spell Divine Veil. The amount of healing it provided was minimal, but so long as the spell was active it continued to passively regenerate the target’s health while enveloping them in the caster’s mana. She’d used the second of those effects to indirectly expose the three creatures’ true forms.
The monsters outlined in pale light had the heads of lions, the legs and claws of dragons, the tails of snakes, and the wings of eagles. In other words, they were Chimeras. Chances were the camouflage they used was their special magic. It not only hid them from sight, but it also erased any trace of their presence. It was quite the dangerous skill, but it seemed they couldn’t completely hide themselves while in motion. That was why the space around them looked warped when they had attacked.
However, even with that it was obvious to Kaori that her classmates couldn’t compete with those monsters. Shizuku and Nagayama, two of the party’s best fighters, had been incapacitated in a single blow. Their strength was on a completely different level from the monsters they’d been fighting on the last floor.
“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” The three Chimeras roared angrily and struck once more with their lethal claws. It seemed being revealed hadn’t bothered them in the slightest.
The Chimeras’ claws closed in on Shimizu, Nagayama, and Suzu like death’s scythe itself. However, just before reaching their targets, they found their attacks redirected. Shining shields of light had diverted the trajectory of their swipes.
This was Kaori’s third spell, Sacred Shields. It was the advanced version of the basic light spell, Holy Shield. Sacred Shields allowed the caster to deploy multiple Holy Shields at once.
Barrier Masters like Suzu used this spell to supplement their usual barriers. As each individual shield was weak, they generally stacked them on top of each other to create layered defenses.
Kaori, despite her proficiency in light magic, was no Barrier Master, and so couldn’t use the spell in the same way. Instead, she’d positioned the shields at the perfect angles to deflect the Chimeras attacks, rather than block them outright. The way she’d masterfully used the enemies’ strength against them felt more like an advanced martial arts move than a magic spell.
This was the result of all the training she’d done. She’d sworn never to lose anyone precious to her again, and she wasn’t about to break that promise now. Thanks to Kaori’s herculean efforts, she managed to keep all of her party safe.
Enraged at having their attacks deflected, the Chimeras made to strike again. Kaori had only managed to buy her teammates a second. In the end, her efforts were still nothing more than the futile struggling of a weakling.
But that one second she’d gained made all the difference. Kouki had no intention of letting her efforts be in vain.
“Get off of Shizuku!” With the one second she’d bought, Kouki used his Supersonic Step to interpose himself between Shizuku and the Chimera. He’d moved fast enough that he’d left afterimages in his wake. His holy sword shimmered in the air as he swung at the Chimera’s neck, aiming to decapitate it.
At the same time, the other students made their move.
“Like I’ll let you!” Ryutarou thrust his hand toward the Chimera targeting Nagayama. Figuring he didn’t have time to rush all the way over, he’d instead opted to use his gauntlet artifacts’ special ability, and fire off a shockwave. He gathered his mana into his gauntlets. Still, Ryutarou wasn’t the only one to strike.
“Swallow them whole, O crimson mother— Flame Tide!” Eri stuck out a hand and cast her spell with barely an incantation. This was the first time she’d cast a spell this powerful, and the first time she’d redacted an incantation. As the name suggested, Flame Tide was an intermediate rank fire spell that summoned a wave of fire the caster could freely control. Even agile enemies had a hard time dodging this spell.
Kouki’s sword swung down at the Chimera faster than human eyes could follow, all the force of gravity behind the swing. Ryutarou’s shockwave shot out of his hand with the force of a cannonball, aftershocks trailing in its wake. Eri’s crimson wave of death surged forward, reducing everything it touched to ash.
However—
“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” There’d been more enemies waiting in the wings. Just before their attacks landed home, two new shadows suddenly appeared and charged at Kouki and Ryutarou.
“Ah!?”
“What the!?” Chills ran down their spines.
The two shadows reached their targets and swung down their heavy metal maces.
Kouki nimbly twisted his body out of the way, using the centrifugal force of his swing to accelerate his dodge. Meanwhile, Ryutarou brought up his left fist and blocked the mace outright.
Kouki lost his balance and tumbled to the ground, while Ryutarou was blown away by the shadow’s follow-up punch. The monsters that had caught Kouki and Ryutarou by surprise were two two-meter tall giants that looked like Bulltaurs. But Bulltaurs, like Orcs and Ogres, tended to have pig-like, disgusting faces. These two giants that had attacked Ryutarou and Kouki had much more intelligent features. They looked like what one might get if they took a Bulltaur and refined its face into something more pleasant. And both their strength and their speed was far greater than that of any Bulltaur’s.
“What the hell are these things!?”
“Damn it, where do they keep popping up from!?”
Kouki and Ryutarou were confused and overwhelmed by the powerful monsters that had appeared out of seemingly nowhere. Just then—
“Gah!?” Endou cried out in pain as he slammed into the ground between the two of them.
“Endou!?”
“Ngh, be careful everyone! There’s more we can’t see! They’re everywhere!” Endou held a hand over his stomach as he shouted out his warning. He’d been hurt pretty bad.
At Nagayama’s command, Endou had gone invisible using his Assassin skills and tried to launch a sneak attack on the demon. However, the situation had progressed faster than he’d expected. He’d been so surprised by the monsters’ attacks that his concentration had slipped and his invisibility had been dispelled for a moment. Because of that one of the monsters had managed to spot him and ram into him from the side. When he’d been hit, he’d noticed that the monster who’d struck him was the same kind of Chimera as the ones that had attacked Kouki seconds before. Furthermore, he’d realized there were Chimeras next to the Super Bulltaurs, and that they could go invisible too by touching the Chimeras’ manes.
In other words, all of the monsters could, and had, borrowed the Chimeras’ power of invisibility. There was no telling how many enemies were hidden from them. That was how the demon had been able to wipe out all the monsters on the 90th floor.
As if to prove Endou’s statement, monsters suddenly appeared next to Eri as well.
There was a massive whoosh of air, and her Flame Tide suddenly collapsed in on itself before being completely snuffed out. It was as if someone had made a hole in the atmosphere itself, and it was sucking everything inside it.
“No way...” The shock of having a massive spell like that wiped out in the blink of an eye was too much for Eri. She stared blankly at the spot her flames had been in.
The monster who’d destroyed her flames appeared in that same spot, seemingly as if from thin air. It resembled a massive, six-legged turtle. The shell on its back was glowing bright red, as if it had absorbed all of Eri’s flames.
The turtle then opened its mouth, and its shell glowed even brighter. Shimmering red light started gathering in its mouth. It looked like a laser r
eady to fire.
“N-Not good.” Eri’s face paled. She’d just cast a spell, so she didn’t have time to cast another. However, her best friend had recovered enough to help out once more.
“I’m not done yet! Undying holy light, be my shield forevermore— Sacred Shields!” Twenty barriers of light instantly sprung up in front of the pair of them just as the turtle released its red-hot laser beam. The shields were all angled at 45 degrees, so as the beam punched through each one, more and more of its volume was directed upward.
However, this attack was even more powerful than the Chimera’s swipes had been, so Suzu’s barriers were all pulverized.
Biting her lip, Suzu continued chanting. For every shield that was destroyed, she raised a new one. Living up to her name of Barrier Master, Suzu just barely managed to keep the turtle’s ray of death at bay.
The entire floor shook as the turtle’s beam slammed into the ceiling, sending chunks of molten rock raining down below.
“Dammit! What the hell are these things!?”
“They’re so freaking strong!”
“Fuck! It’s do or die, guys!”
Hiyama and his party had recovered their wits as well, and they too leaped into the fray.
“Nagayama-kun! I’ll cut them down, you protect the rearguard!”
“Just leave it to me! Take them down, Yaegashi!”
Both of them had been fully healed now, and they were ready to launch a counterattack.
Shizuku charged at the Chimera closest to her. She moved so fast that even her afterimages left afterimages. There was a loud whoosh, and in less than a second Shizuku was behind her quarry. She drew her katana with superhuman speed, slashing at the Chimera’s rear.
Her No Tempo skill made it impossible to read her movements. It wasn’t just her speed that made her hard to follow, but also the lack of any sort of pattern to her actions. On top of that, her sword-related skills had made her slashing and drawing speeds even faster. Most creatures would be cut down by a slash like that without even knowing what hit them.
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 4 Page 9
