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

by Ryo Shirakome

  Time slowed to a crawl. Tio couldn’t tell if ten seconds had passed, or a minute.

  After what seemed like an eternity, the barrage finally abated. Most of the boulders had been pulverized, and white smoke rose from the few that hadn’t.

  Yue and Tio were both panting heavily, their mana nearly spent. They used the respite they’d been given to drain their magic accessories’ reserves.

  As they were recovering, a man’s voice spoke to them from above. He sounded almost impressed.

  “Your strength is certainly formidable. Ambushing you here was the right choice. You four are too dangerous to let live. Especially that man over there...”

  The three girls looked up at the ceiling. Their eyes opened wide in surprise. A massive number of dragons filled the sky. One of them was far larger than the others, and was pure white from snout to tail. Riding atop it was a red-haired, dark-skinned, pointy-eared demon.

  “To think he could survive even a direct hit from my Uranos’ breath... Plus, those strange weapons of his that were mentioned in the report are even stronger than I imagined... You girls as well. It’s amazing you were able to withstand a concentrated barrage from fifty Ash Dragons. Who on earth are you people? How many ancient spells have you already acquired?”

  His eyes glowed golden, like Tio’s. He met the girls’s gaze and glared pointedly at them. He seemed to be under the misconception that Yue and the others’ strength came from the number of labyrinths they’d cleared.

  “How about you tell us your name first before asking questions? Or do all demons have no manners?”

  The person who replied was Hajime. The demon furrowed his eyebrows. Before he could answer, though, Yue shouted,

  “Hajime!”

  “Hajime-san!”

  “You’re alive, Master!”

  Hajime had managed to prop himself up, but it looked like he was ready to collapse at any second. Yue rushed to help him. Tio and Shea leaped over to what remained of the crumbling platform to get a closer look at his condition too.

  Hajime smiled to reassure everyone and rose to his feet. He was in no condition to fight, though. The effort it took to stand had left him sweating. But even so, he looked the demon in the eye and smiled fearlessly.

  “I have no reason to give my name to those who are about to die.”

  “I know what you mean. I just figured I’d play out the cliche. To be honest, I don’t care who you are. By the way, how’s your friend doing? I did him a favor if you ask me. It was a pretty ugly arm.”

  Hajime was only talking in order to buy time until he healed, which was why he purposely tried to goad the demon. From the demon’s mention of a report and the fact that he’d been waiting to ambush them here, Hajime had already guessed that the demon who’d barely escaped with his life back in Ur had told this one about Hajime and the others. He was the one who’d been sent to deal with them, presumably.

  The demon’s eyebrows twitched, and he growled in a low tone.

  “I’ve changed my mind. Carve this name into your memories, scum. I am Freid Bagwa. A faithful apostle of god, sworn to bring divine judgment to the heretics.”

  “An apostle of god, huh? Someone sure thinks highly of themselves. What, you think knowing some magic from the age of the gods makes you good enough to be their apostle? That magic doesn’t let you control monsters, does it? There aren’t enough monsters in the world that can shoot out those auroras. It must let you create them somehow. If you could create an unbeatable army with that, then maybe you’d be qualified to call yourself their apostle.”

  “You’re a sharp one. That’s right, it was when I obtained the ancient magic that god spoke to me. They told me I was their apostle. It was then that I decided to devote my all to them and work to see their wish granted. I denounce you, who dares to stand in my lord’s way.”

  He reminds me of that pope, Ishtar. Only a fanatic would denounce us for a reason like that.

  Hajime’s smile didn’t waver. The Ambrosia was still working slowly, but Hajime augmented it with one of Mana Conversion’s derivative skills, Healing Conversion. Thanks to that, he’d at least stopped the bleeding. His left arm was useless for now, but though his right arm had been burned to the bone, it hadn’t broken. He could use it if he really had to. I can still fight!

  “Stole the words right from my mouth. Anyone who stands in my way is an enemy. And... I kill all of my enemies!”

  Gritting his teeth against the pain, Hajime swung Donner up and fired at Freid.

  His arm screamed in pain at the recoil, but he ignored it, focusing his energy only on killing the enemy before him. He activated Riftwalk as well, and sent out his Cross Bits. Yue, Tio, and Shea all attacked at the same time as him. Yue sent out her Draconic Thunder, while Tio fired her breath and Shea shot another one of her shotgun slugs.

  A number of the things Freid had called Ash Dragons flew in front of him and created multiple layers of triangular, dark-red barriers to defend against the attack.

  The barriers shattered one after another in the face of Hajime and the others powerful barrage, but more Ash Dragons flew in and supplemented the defense with their own barriers. With so many shields to break through, even their best attacks began to peter out. Hajime noticed that there were turtle-shaped monsters riding atop the Ash Dragons. Their shells were glowing dark red, which led Hajime to assume they were the ones casting the barriers.

  “Did you think I only brought dragons with me? You won’t be able to break my defenses that easily. Now let me show you the other power I’ve obtained. This is the true might of magic from the age of the gods!”

  Freid began chanting a spell, falling into an almost trance-like state. If it’s something he just recently got, that means it’s probably whatever magic you get for clearing the Grand Gruen Volcano. Hajime and the others knew firsthand just how dangerous magic from the age of the gods was. They focused their attacks, determined to stop Freid before he could finish chanting.

  But every time they destroyed a barrier a new turtle appeared to craft one in its place. Normally, Hajime would have charged forward to attack Freid directly, but he still wasn’t fully recovered, so he limited himself to ranged attacks. He ground his teeth, frustrated that he couldn’t do more.

  He holstered Donner and pulled out Orkan instead. Then, he unleashed all four of its rockets, but all they managed to do was kill a few of the dragons. None of the explosions reached Freid. His Cross Bits were too weak to even penetrate the barriers.

  Before he could set up any other attacks, Freid finished chanting his spell. Their time was up.

  “Cosmic Rift!”

  “Behind you, Hajime-san!”

  Freid and the white dragon he was riding on disappeared. Specifically, they vanished inside a veil of blinding light that had appeared.

  Hajime whirled around, reacting to Shea’s warning.

  Directly in front of him was the white dragon, its gaping jaws inches from his face. Freid was glaring coldly down at him from atop it. There was a massive amount of heat and mana radiating from the dragon’s mouth.

  Hajime instantly held Orkan in front of him, shielding himself from the point-blank aurora blast.

  “Gwaaaaaaaaah!”

  The force of the light sent Hajime flying backward. Injured as he was, his body wouldn’t be able to take much more of this. He screamed in pain as the aurora’s shockwaves buffeted him.

  “Hajime!”

  Yue and the others tried to attack the white dragon, hoping to distract it from Hajime. But before they could, the Ash Dragons up above fired a barrage of light at them, forcing them to defend.

  Though he hadn’t taken a direct hit, the force of the blast had reopened Hajime’s wounds. Blood soaked the ground beneath his feet.

  Fuck, that hurts. At this rate we’re done for.

  Hajime came to a decision. There was no point in holding anything back since things were this bad. It was time to use Limit Break.

  Dark red mana swirle
d around Hajime’s body and he could feel his strength multiply exponentially.

  “Raaaaaaaaah!” Hajime wrenched Orkan upward, deflecting the aurora burst toward the ceiling. He was unable to deflect it all though, and a few traces of the aurora slammed into him, gouging into his wounds.

  The white dragon followed up with a barrage of mini-aurora balls. Its attack patterns were almost identical to the Hydra’s. But the dragon’s aurora was more powerful than the Hydra’s had been, which meant its mini-auroras would be as well. Hajime couldn’t afford to take any more hits.

  “Cross Bits!” Hajime’s concentration was so intense that the world around him passed by in slow-motion. He weaved through the aurora balls with expert precision, sometimes dodging them by only a hair’s breadth. He felt some of them scrape past his clothes, but he didn’t let himself get distracted for even a moment. He knew he needed to stay focused if he wanted any hope of mounting a counterattack.

  Hajime tossed Orkan, which had been mostly destroyed by the aurora, back into his Treasure Trove and pulled out Donner. Then, he fired a short burst while summoning his Cross Bits to him. They also fired at Freid, supplementing the barrage.

  “Such persistence! To think you can keep barely dodging for so long!” Freid retreated behind the safety of his turtles’ barriers once more. He hadn’t expected Hajime, wounded as he was, to put up such a tough fight. He continued flying backward while he started chanting another spell.

  “Not this time!” Freid had been so focused on keeping his distance from Hajime that he’d forgotten about the rest of Hajime’s party. He turned in surprise as a deep voice roared next to him. Before he could see what was happening, something crashed into his side.

  He clung to his dragon, barely keeping himself from falling off. The shock was enough to break him out of his chant. When he saw what had hit him, his jaw dropped open.

  “Impossible. A black dragon, here!?”

  “Don’t be so proud of those mock dragons of yours! I will not allow you to hurt Master any longer!”

  Tio had transformed into her dragon form. She knew it was dangerous to expose her existence to a demon, but she’d taken the risk anyway. Tio was smaller than Freid’s white dragon, but the pressure she exuded was far greater.

  Tio had joined Hajime’s party because she liked him, but she’d also done it to get a better idea of what these people who were summoned from another world were like. In order to do that, she had needed to hide the fact that she was a dragonman.

  If the world found out dragonmen still lived, her village would be in danger. Though each dragonman was strong individually, they were helpless against humans’ sheer numbers. Tio had learned that lesson the hard way, five hundred years ago.

  But Hajime, the one person she’d believed utterly invincible, had almost died. Seeing him crippled from the aurora’s light had shaken Tio.

  She’d been a fool. Strong as Hajime was, he wasn’t invincible. A moment’s carelessness could get him killed too.

  How could she have forgotten something so obvious? It was only now that she realized what her oath had really meant to her. She’d sworn to serve Hajime. Not just because she found him interesting, and not just because he was her Master.

  No, it was because Tio didn’t want to lose him. He was an irreplaceable friend, and the man she loved.

  That was why she’d thrown caution to the winds, choosing to reveal her dragon form. If she prioritized her mission over the lives of her friends, then she had no right to travel with them. Nor did she have any right to call herself a Guardian. Even if this decision led to her clan being persecuted, she had to do it. More than anything though, Tio Klarus would never put her own safety before the lives of her friends.

  “Behold, boy. This is what a true dragon’s breath looks like!” Deadly black light gathered in Tio’s mouth.

  She unleashed it with a roar. The black light closed in on Freid with unbelievable speed.

  The white dragon turned to face Tio and countered with its own breath. White and black clashed, sending massive shockwaves across the room. Waves of magma spread out from beneath the point of impact.

  At first the two beams of light seemed evenly matched, but eventually Tio’s started pushing the white dragon’s back.

  “Gah, to think I would run into the remnants of the dragonman clan here... It seems I have no choice. It’s somewhat dangerous, but I’ll have to blow this entire—”

  “You won’t be doing anything.”

  “Ah!?”

  Freid was genuinely surprised that Tio was a dragon. That hadn’t been mentioned in his reports. He began chanting a new spell, hoping to create an opportunity to retreat, but was stopped once more.

  He felt something hit his back, and stumbled forward.

  He turned around to see Hajime, who was bleeding from multiple wounds, leveling Donner at him. In a short few seconds, Hajime had gotten behind him. Hajime fired another six rounds. They all landed at once, each with pinpoint accuracy.

  The turtles surrounding Freid put up a barrier, but it was no match for six bullets fired at point blank range. The barrier shattered, leaving him defenseless. Hajime leaped forward, closing the distance between the two of them.

  He wreathed Donner with a Gale Claw and swiped at Freid.

  “Gwaaaaaah!?” Freid stumbled backward, narrowly avoiding being cut in half. Hajime’s claw still gouged deep into his chest though, leaving him severely injured. Hajime didn’t let up his attack, and followed up with a Shock Conversion-enhanced roundhouse kick.

  “Gaaah!” Freid blocked it with his left arm, but he wasn’t able to kill the force of the attack. Hajime’s kick shattered Freid’s arm, damaged his internal organs, and sent him flying off his dragon.

  Distracted by what was happening to its master, the white dragon let up its aurora attack. That allowed Tio’s breath to punch through.

  It slammed into the dragon a second after Hajime jumped off its back, sending it flying.

  “Graaaaaaaaaaaah!” Though it had been injured heavily, the dragon managed to straighten itself and fly up toward the ceiling. Freid was waiting there for it, riding one of his Ash Dragons. Once the two were level with each other, Freid hopped off the Ash Dragon and onto the white one.

  Hajime tried to chase after him with Aerodynamic, but—

  “Ngh!? Gah!”

  The red mana swirling around him vanished, and he coughed up blood. His Limit Break was up. His injuries had made it last shorter than usual, and there was also more recoil as well. Unable to keep his Aerodynamic going, Hajime plummeted toward the magma sea below.

  “Master, get ahold of yourself!”

  “Guh T-Tio...”

  Tio soared down and caught Hajime on her back. Hajime was barely conscious, but he managed to struggle to his knees. His eyes still burning with determination, he glared up at Freid.

  The Ash Dragons that had been attacking Yue and Shea clumped around him.

  “Hajime!”

  “Hajime-san!”

  Free from the barrage, they rushed over toward Hajime. Tio landed on a nearby platform and let Hajime down. Considering the state he was in, she couldn’t fight with him on her back. He’d likely fall. Shea and Yue arrived at the platform Tio had landed on and helped him stand.

  “Your combat prowess truly is impressive. And the women you have with you are quite strong themselves. The dragonmen should have died out, and yet one travels with you. Furthermore, you have a mage who can cast spells without incantations and a rabbitman that has some strange precognitive powers. I didn’t think anything could press me this hard now that I have ancient magic at my disposal. Had my surprise attack not succeeded, I likely wouldn’t have stood a chance.” Freid spoke quietly, but there was a fire in his eyes. His breathing was ragged, and he covered his wounded chest with his good hand.

  “You say that like you’ve already won. I’m nowhere near done yet.” Hajime frowned and glared at Freid. Though he could barely stand, his bloodlust remained
undiminished.

  “So it seems. No matter how badly I injure you, your determination doesn’t waver. What’s truly frightening about you isn’t your physical strength, but the inexorable persistence you show in killing your enemies... No, perhaps it would be more apt to call it your will to survive.”

  Freid looked down for a moment, steeled himself, then turned back to Hajime.

  “I didn’t want to have to use this. But if that’s what it takes to get rid of someone as dangerous as you, it’s a price I’m willing to pay.”

  “What are you going on about?”

  Freid didn’t respond. Instead, he whispered something to the bird-shaped monster sitting on his shoulder.

  A series of loud noises followed. Dundundundundun! Thud! Crash! The entire volcano shook, and the magma sea began to seethe.

  “Whoa!?”

  “Hm!?”

  “Kyaaa!?”

  “Nuoooh!?”

  The impact knocked all four of them off-balance, and they struggled to regain their footing. The rumbling increased, rising to an earthquake of at least 7 in magnitude. Pillars of magma rose up from the sea.

  “Hajime-san, the magma’s rising!”

  Hajime looked down. The magma was indeed rising, and the amount of rock left for them to stand on was rapidly shrinking.

  “What did you do?” Hajime yelled at Freid. It was obvious he was behind this. Freid flew over to the center of the room, directly above the main island.

  “I just destroyed the keystone.”

  “The... keystone?”

  “Didn’t you ever find it strange, looking at all this magma? The Grand Gruen Volcano is clearly an active one. And yet, it’s never erupted. That can only mean something in the volcano is controlling the magma’s flow.”

  “And that was the keystone... Wait, don’t tell me—!?”

  “It is as you suspect. Now that I’ve destroyed the keystone, the labyrinth will be submerged in magma. It’s a shame I cannot share this ancient magic with my comrades... but this is the only way to destroy you. Sink into the depths along with this labyrinth!”