Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 5

by Ryo Shirakome

  “I guess that basically confirms the center island’s our goal. And if we want to make it there, then we’ll have to destroy all the serpents.”

  “But the one you destroyed is regenerating already. How are we going to get rid of them?”

  There were more than twenty of them now, and they had Hajime and the others surrounded. Just as Shea said, the first one Hajime shot holes through had already begun to regenerate. Back when they’d found the regenerating golems in the Reisen Gorge Shea had been in a panic, but now she had enough experience to calmly think the problem through. Her rabbit ears flopped back and forth as she considered their options. Hajime smiled, proud at how far Shea had come. Then, he offered a suggestion of his own.

  “I think they’re like that giant slime we fought. There should be a core somewhere that’s controlling the magma. But because there’s mana in everything, I can’t use my Demon Eye to search for it... We’ll probably have to smash everything and hope we get it.”

  Everyone nodded at the same time the twenty-plus snakes attacked.

  The magma serpents spat out fireballs that shone as brightly as a solar flare. The fireballs closed in on them from all sides, followed closely by the serpents themselves. Any normal party would have been swallowed by the flames and burnt to a crisp.

  “It’s been some time since I was able to go all out! Behold my power!” Jet black mana swirled around Tio’s outstretched hands. She compressed it into a single point and fired off a pitch black laser. She was using her prized dragonbreath.

  It was the very same ability that had managed to force Hajime on the defensive. The black stream cut through the fireballs and vaporized the magma serpents in front of her. She slowly turned, her breath cutting through everything like a massive black blade. Within seconds eight serpents lay dead.

  Hajime and the others used the opening she’d created to escape their encirclement.

  They had thought that if they vaporized the serpents in their entirety, then they’d be sure to destroy the mana crystal powering them too. Sadly, things were never that easy in a labyrinth.

  The remaining serpents crashed into the platform the party had been standing on seconds before, pulverizing it, and sank into the sea. When they emerged once more, their depleted numbers had been replenished.

  “You’ve gotta be kidding me. I saw their mana crystals shatter. Does that mean defeating them’s not the goal?”

  Hajime tilted his head as he thought. He’d used Riftwalk to watch the moment Tio’s breath ripped through the serpents in slow motion. He’d definitely seen a mana crystal inside each one, and he’d definitely seen her breath vaporize them.

  Shea pointed to the central island and shouted, breaking Hajime out of his musings.

  “Hajime-san, look at that! The boulder’s glowing!”

  “What?”

  Hajime turned to look and saw that part of the boulder was indeed glowing. He hadn’t noticed before, but there were some strange rocks buried within the island’s boulder, a few of which were now shining bright orange.

  Hajime used his Farsight to examine the island more closely. It seemed there were more of those rocks buried at regular intervals within the boulder. They were almost the same color as the island, so it was hard to make out the ones that weren’t glowing. The island was cylindrical in shape, and Hajime guessed based on its circumference and the distance between each rock that there were around one hundred in total. Of those hundred, eight were glowing right now. And Tio killed eight of them earlier.

  “I see... So we have to kill a hundred of these things to clear this trial.”

  “So it’s meant to be a battle of endurance in the heat. It seems I was correct about what this labyrinth’s theme is.”

  Anyone who made it this far would have been exhausted from the constant surprise attacks and the ever-present heat. And yet, this final trial required more concentration and focus than any up to this point. It was just like the Liberators to ramp up the difficulty at the very end.

  Even Hajime and the others, overpowered as they were, were beginning to grow weary. Still, they were all smiling. As long as they knew how to clear the trial, they were confident they could beat it.

  Knowing what the goal was had revitalized everyone. They readied themselves for the magma serpents’ next charge. The barrage of magma bullets began once more and the serpents began acting unpredictably, keeping the party on their toes.

  Hajime and the others split up again, deciding it would be easier if they all counterattacked individually.

  Tio sprouted dragon wings from her back and took to the skies. She then unleashed a tornado that shot out wind blades in a deadly barrage. She’d cast the intermediate-rank wind spell, Infinity Gust.

  “That’s the ninth one! It looks like I’m in the lead, Master! If I destroy the most, will you please punish me? Of course it will have to be just the two of us, all night long!” Tio shredded her ninth serpent with a smile. Hajime tried to tell her he wasn’t going to do that even if she did destroy the most, but Shea cut him off.

  “Wha!? It’s no fair if only you get a reward, Tio-san! Let me join the contest too! Hajime-san, if I win you have to spend a whole night with me instead!”

  Shea leaped into the air as she said that and smashed Drucken down on the head of one of the serpents. Blue ripples spread out from the point of impact, creating shockwaves. The force of the blow was so great that even some of the magma sea below was blown away. Glimmering fragments of the serpent’s mana crystal floated in the air for a few seconds before falling into the sea below. Shea’s shockwaves had been enough to shatter it.

  A magma bullet hurtled toward Shea, who was still hanging in mid-air. However, she fired Drucken’s buckshot and used the recoil to dodge out of the way. Still, one of the magma serpents had predicted she would leap backward and was waiting with open jaws, putting her in danger.

  But Shea didn’t seem worried. She focused her mana into her boots. The metal plates inserted in her soles began to glow, and shockwaves of pale blue light spread out from under her feet. Shea leaped off the mana platform she’d created and soared through the air.

  Since Shea was the only one who couldn’t fly through the air naturally, Hajime had created boots enchanted with Aerodynamic for her. And because she could render herself weightless with her gravity magic, she could utilize it to even more effect than Hajime.

  The magma serpent passed harmlessly by. As it did so, Shea took aim with Drucken and pulled the trigger. It wasn’t her usual buckshot that came out, but instead a high-caliber shotgun slug.

  It wasn’t just any shotgun slug, either. Hajime had crafted it out of a special material and enchanted it with Shock Conversion. It unleashed powerful shockwaves on impact. In terms of pure power, it was more destructive than his grenade launcher.

  The slug round slammed into the serpent, blowing off both its head and body in a massive explosion. Fragments of another shattered mana crystal flew through the air.

  “Hey, you two. Don’t just go deciding that on your—”

  “Then if I win, you have to go on a date with me.” Yue interrupted him before he could finish, stating her desire to participate in the competition as well. With how many comrades they had now, Yue rarely had the chance to spend time alone with Hajime. She had him all to herself at night, but she wanted to spend a day with him too.

  Smiling faintly, Yue once again proved that she was a mage to be feared. She pulled out her favorite spell, Draconic Thunder. But instead of just one dragon, she summoned seven. Her practice was finally beginning to pay off. Each dragon picked a target and flew off. Their howls shook the walls. The hunter became the hunted as the magma serpents heading toward Yue all found themselves swallowed up by dragons larger than them. Their mana crystals were all burnt to a crisp.

  “I knew Yue-san was the one I should have been watching out for!”

  “Now that’s hardly fair! Yue is far too strong to compete against!”

  Grumbling
to themselves, Shea and Tio began launching even more ferocious attacks. They were not going to let themselves fall behind.

  “I guess it’s fine. Everyone looks like they’re having fun at least.” Hajime shrugged his shoulders and sighed. He shot down the magma serpent closing in from behind without even turning around.

  The bullets all landed at once, their shockwaves blowing away the serpent’s magma body. Its mana crystal flew through the air, exposed. Hajime nimbly dodged its head as he shot the falling mana crystal with Donner.

  He had loaded shockwave shells similar to the ones he’d given Shea into Schlag. These ones lacked Drucken’s power though, as he’d had to make them small enough to fit into Schlag’s chambers. If he’d wanted power, he could have always pulled out Schlagen. However, he’d wanted to see how well these new bullets worked with his handguns first.

  His revolvers didn’t have enough force to blow away the serpent’s magma body and destroy their mana crystal at the same time, so he’d adopted a two-shot strategy. He used Schlag to get rid of the magma, then he sniped the mana crystal with Donner. Schlagen would have been able the pierce both the magma coating and the mana crystal in one shot, but it had too much piercing power, which made it hard to do pinpoint shots.

  Hajime flipped through the air, dodging two more magma serpents that tried to attack him. Then, he took aim with Schlag while upside-down, and fired.

  There was only a single bang, but Hajime had fired four times. The serpents didn’t even have time to notice Hajime wasn’t there before Hajime’s bullets scattered their bodies.

  Hajime fired Donner twice, accurately destroying both of their exposed mana crystals.

  He glanced down at the central island and was surprised to see that they only had eight more serpents to kill. Barely ten minutes had passed since they’d begun fighting.

  If, as Tio had suspected, the theme of this labyrinth was to see how well challengers could handle a prolonged battle requiring intense concentration under strenuous conditions, then Hajime and the others must have completely surpassed the creator’s expectations.

  Tio’s breath mowed down another pair of magma serpents.

  Six more to go.

  Shea’s shotgun slug took out two serpents at once.

  Four more to go.

  Another team of serpents tried to pincer Yue. One came up from below, while the other bore down from above. They found themselves stopped short by another one of Yue’s thunder dragons, which had coiled itself around her. Then, they found themselves surrounded by four more of Yue’s dragons and were summarily destroyed.

  Two more to go.

  A magma serpent rushed up to Hajime and fired a barrage of fireballs at him. Hajime danced through the air like a leaf riding the wind, dodging the fireballs. He fired on it with Schlag as it opened its maw to swallow him. The serpent was blown back, and Hajime shot down its mana crystal without even looking.

  The last remaining serpent tried to launch a sneak attack from beneath the magma sea. Hajime leaped up with Aerodynamic and fired Schlag into its open mouth.

  Red shockwaves spread out from the point of impact, pushing the magma serpent back. Its mana crystal glinted in the red light.

  Hajime took careful aim with Donner. Yue and the others watched with satisfaction as Hajime finished off the trial.

  “And now it’s over.” Hajime glanced over at the others before pulling the trigger that signaled the end of the Grand Gruen Volcano’s trial.

  A second later, an aurora of light poured down from above.

  What the!? Crap, I won’t be able to dodge in time— Hajime’s eyes were glued to the light. It looked just like the rainbow-colored light that had nearly killed him back in the Great Orcus Labyrinth.

  Judging by how bright this is, it might be even more dangerous... It felt as if the very air was being torn apart by the light. The labyrinth’s creator had purposely timed this trap to activate when everyone was at their most defenseless... right when they thought they’d won.

  The light of destruction swallowed Hajime whole, and he vanished without a trace.

  “H-Hajimeeee!”

  Yue let out a bloodcurdling scream.

  Shea and Tio had just been standing in place, stunned. It was Yue’s scream that had brought them back to their senses. They’d never heard her so much as raise her voice before.

  The giant wall of light swallowed up the remnants of the magma serpent Hajime had just killed and crashed into the sea below. The impact sent magma flying everywhere, and for a second, the base of the volcano was visible.

  The light grew fainter as it bore through the rock. Eventually, it faded entirely, vanishing without a trace, leaving not a speck behind.

  Yue flew through the air, rushing to see what had become of Hajime. As the light faded, she saw him, still floating in the air. His clothes were a tattered mess. He’d used his arms to protect his face and torso, keeping his vitals intact. However, he no longer had the strength to remain airborne, so he plummeted toward the magma.

  “Updraft!” Yue used her magic to keep his limp frame afloat. From the looks of it, he’d lost consciousness. Once she got close, she grabbed him and carried him over to a nearby platform.

  “Hajime! Hajime!”

  Shea and Tio had never seen her so panicked. Yue fumbled through her pockets and pulled out a vial of Ambrosia that she quickly fed to Hajime.

  He was in pretty bad shape. So much of his right arm had been burned off that bone was showing. Plus, his artificial left arm had melted together. His eyepatch had been ripped off, and the right side of his face was bleeding profusely. Worst of all, though, his stomach had been burnt black. The fact that his organs were intact was a testament to how much he’d grown since fighting the Hydra.

  In the moment he’d had before the aurora struck, Hajime had twisted his body away from it while simultaneously activating Diamond Skin’s derivative skills, Focused Hardening and Diamond Protection. Thanks to that he’d been able to protect his head with his hardened left arm, while at the same time he saved his lungs and heart with his right. His stomach had been protected with monster leather that he’d enchanted with Diamond Protection. Most importantly, his ridiculously high Magic Defense stat kept the aurora from melting right through him. His wounds were certainly terrible, but not fatal.

  “Mmm... It’s taking too long to heal.” Yue’s impatience showed on her face. The Ambrosia was barely healing Hajime.

  Back when they’d been fighting the Hydra, Hajime had been demolished by this same light when he was protecting Yue. She’d sworn to herself on that day that she’d never let something that terrible happen to Hajime ever again. And yet, it had happened again. This was the exact same situation. Her mouth twisted in grief, her frustration at being unable to save Hajime spilling over into her expression. Unfortunately, their enemy wasn’t going to give her time to grieve.

  “Fool! Above you!”

  “Ah. Oh no—”

  Just as Tio shouted out her warning, countless beams of light rained down on Yue. They were all miniaturized versions of the first blast that had hit Hajime. Most of them had hardly a tenth of the strength the first one had, but even that was enough to kill most people.

  Yue had been too caught up in feeding Hajime Ambrosia to notice the attack. It was only when Tio screamed out her warning that she looked up. There wasn’t any time to cast a spell, as the light would have hit her far too quickly. If only I had three... No, one more second... Yue desperately tried to cast a defensive spell anyway.

  “I won’t let you! Cloudburst!” Fortunately, Tio managed to buy the time Yue needed. Cloudburst was an intermediate-rank wind spell. It created a compressed wall of air, which Tio used to hold back the deadly light. The wall of wind bent inward as the light hit it. Normally, it would rebound whatever attack struck it, but when faced against an attack this powerful it was all Tio could do to keep the wall from shattering. Even then, she could only hold the wall for a few seconds.

 
Still, few seconds was more than enough.

  “Hallowed Ground!” Yue cast the strongest barrier spell she knew. If she’d had the time she would have used Spatial Severance instead, but forming the image she needed for gravity magic still took her longer than all the other elements. Practice had shortened that time, but casting Hallowed Ground was still faster. That was why it was the best option for Yue.

  A bright barrier of light appeared in front of her outstretched hands. It spread out into a dome, protecting Yue and Hajime. A split second later, Tio’s Cloudburst shattered, unable to hold back the barrage of mini auroras. Their fury unabated, the beams of light slammed into Yue’s barrier.

  Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! A hailstorm of light pounded against Yue’s Hallowed Ground, making it crack.

  “Gwaaaaaah!” Realizing the barrier wouldn’t last at this rate, Yue transformed it from a dome into a shield that only covered the area above them. The less area her barrier had to cover, the stronger it would be.

  No longer protected by Yue’s shield, the ground around them was pelted by rainbow-colored light. The auroras destroyed all of the boulder they were on except for the spot where Hajime and Yue stayed.

  The light attacks seemed to be focused on Hajime. A few beams fell toward Shea and Tio as well, but only enough to keep them busy while the bulk attacked Hajime and Yue. That being said, it took a lot to keep Shea and Tio busy. Being able to keep Tio, Shea, and Yue on the defensive simultaneously was no small feat.

  “Hajime-san! Hajime-saaan!”

  “Calm yourself, Shea! If you leave my barrier, then you’ll just end up killing yourself!”

  “But Hajime-san’s in trouble!”

  Tio tried to hold Shea back while simultaneously maintaining her Cloudburst so that they wouldn’t be drowned in deadly rainbow light.

  Tio was just as worried about Hajime as Shea was. She understood her feelings of wanting to run over and help him, but she also knew that jumping out in the middle of a barrage of light powerful enough to nearly kill even Hajime wouldn’t do anyone any good. Tio grabbed Shea by the collar and pulled her back to the safety of her Cloudburst barrier.