Within seconds, Yue’s spell burnt the remaining heads to cinders. They died screaming in agony, unable to do anything to resist.
Yue slumped onto the ground like she always did after casting a powerful spell. She was panting heavily and had returned to her usual deadpan expression, but her eyes glowed with satisfaction. She gave Hajime a thumbs-up. Smiling, he returned the gesture. He fixed his grip on Schlagen, then started walking over to Yue.
However, an instant later—
“Hajime!” He heard her panicked shout. Sensing the urgency in her voice, he turned around to see what she was looking at, and saw that a seventh head had grown out of the remnants of the Hydra’s body. It was glaring right at Hajime. He reflexively stiffened up.
The seventh head, which had a silver pattern carved into its forehead, shifted its gaze from Hajime to Yue, and without warning, fired an aurora of rainbow colored light at her. The aurora ate up the distance between it and Yue at an alarming rate. She had exhausted all her mana and wouldn’t be able to dodge in time.
Hajime shifted his gaze from the head to Yue, and chills ran down his spine. Without thinking, he leaped forward.
Just like when he had rushed to save her from the blue head. Hajime managed to reach her before the aurora could wipe her off the face of the earth.
However, things didn’t end as fortuitously as they had with the blue head. The light swallowed Hajime whole. Even after he absorbed most of the attack, the shockwaves were enough to bowl Yue backward.
After the light subsided, Yue forced her aching body to get up. She frantically looked around, searching for Hajime.
She saw him standing in the same spot he had been in before the attack hit. He stood there defiantly, smoke rising from his body. The burnt husk of Schlagen slipped from his fingers, and fell to the ground. The bottom part had already fused with the floor below.
“H-Hajime?”
“......”
There was no reply. Then suddenly, he pitched forward onto the ground.
“Hajime!” Ignoring her body’s protests, Yue desperately tried to run over to Hajime. However, her exhausted body couldn’t keep up, so she tripped. She curbed her impatience and forced herself to drink a vial of Ambrosia. The moment she felt an ounce of her strength return, she stood back up and rushed over to Hajime.
He was lying face-down on the ground, blood pooling beneath him. His Diamond Skin hadn’t been able to protect him completely. Had he not used Schlagen, which was made of the scorpion’s shell, as a shield, he most likely would have died instantly.
She gently rolled him over onto his back, then gasped when she saw his injuries. His fingers, shoulders, and armpit had all been burnt to a crisp, and white bone was peeking out from the charred remains of skin and muscle. The entire right side of his face had been scorched too, and blood was dripping from his burnt right eye socket. The only thing that had saved his legs from suffering the same fate was probably the angle of the attack.
Yue hurriedly tried to force some Ambrosia down his throat, but the Hydra was already readying its next attack. This time it fired off a barrage of ten centimeter wide balls of light. It was like some kind of rainbow-colored Gatling gun.
Yue picked up Hajime and, squeezing out every last ounce of her strength, managed to carry him to safety behind one of the pillars. Light balls slammed into the pillar one after another. It likely wouldn’t last even a minute longer. Each of the balls contained a frightening amount of force.
Yue quickly poured Ambrosia all over his wounds and pulled out a second vial, intending to feed it to him. However, he didn’t even have the strength left to swallow, so he weakly choked it back out. Yue filled her own mouth with Ambrosia, then plugged his mouth with her own, forcing it down his throat.
However, while the Ambrosia stopped any more blood from seeping out, it was unable to fully heal Hajime’s wounds. Normally it would start healing them right away, but it seemed something was obstructing it from working properly.
“Why!?” Yue was practically in a state of panic at that point. She began pulling out all the Ambrosia vials Hajime had on him.
The reason things were progressing slowly was because the Hydra’s light actually contained a poison that melted flesh as well. By all rights, it should have already finished melting Hajime’s body.
The fact that it hadn’t, in and of itself, showed just how powerful the Ambrosia was. While not by much, it had managed to overcome the poison, and was slowly healing Hajime’s wounds. Though it was taking longer than usual, the Ambrosia’s effects coupled with Hajime’s naturally strong half-monster body meant he would eventually heal. However, his right eye had already dissolved beyond all repair, and even the Ambrosia wouldn’t be able to bring it back.
The pillar was on its last legs too, and would most likely be destroyed before Hajime recovered enough to move. Yue looked down at him, a determined expression on her face, and kissed him. Then, after taking Donner from its holster, she stood up.
“...It’s my turn to save you this time...” she whispered softly, before dashing out from behind the pillar.
She had very little mana remaining and no more Ambrosia. The only things she could rely on were her body strengthening magic, her natural abilities as a vampire, her unreliable self-regeneration, and Donner.
The Hydra reared its silver-crested head as Yue ran into its sight, and fired another barrage of light balls. Yue didn’t have the mana left to shoot them down with magic and, lacking Hajime’s skill with firearms, didn’t have the confidence to shoot them all down with Donner, so she opted to run. But physical strength had always been Yue’s one weakness. She was backed into a corner almost instantly.
Finally, one of them hit her on the shoulder.
“Aguu!?” Even as she screamed in pain, she used the impact of the attack to roll back on her feet and resume running. She knew the moment she stopped from the pain, it’d be all over for her.
Her automatic regeneration took longer than usual to kick in. The melting properties of the Hydra’s head were effective against her self-healing as well. And so, she lost even more mana by healing herself. At the rate things were going, she wouldn’t even have enough mana to keep her body strengthening up.
Every time she tried to get closer, a barrage of light balls drove her back. But she needed to close the gap somehow. She wasn’t confident she’d be able to hit the Hydra with Donner from so far back. She needed to create an opening somehow. However, she was unable to find any way to do so, and all too soon she was cornered again.
Desperate, she fired Donner in the hopes of forcing a way out of her predicament. Though she couldn’t use Lightning Field, she was proficient enough with thunder magic that she managed to accelerate the bullet. In a stroke of beginner’s luck, the bullet weaved neatly between the barrage of light balls and hit the Hydra right in the head.
Unfortunately, however...
“Huh?” Yue let out an involuntary mewl of surprise.
Even if she hadn’t gotten the hang of accelerating it yet, she’d still added quite a bit of force to the bullet. Despite that, the silver-crested head had only a tiny scratch on it.
Despair began coloring her expression. But if she let herself be defeated, Hajime would die. Yue gritted her teeth and continued dodging.
Still, she wouldn’t be able to keep it up forever. The silver-crested head reared back and fired a second aurora. The spread of bullets restricted her evasive routes until, finally, she was forced to let a ball blow her back to keep her from getting devoured entirely by the aurora’s light.
The ball she was forced to take as compensation for dodging the aurora hit her square in the stomach and sent her sprawling to the ground.
“Ugh... Ghh...” Her body refused to move. She knew if she didn’t get up she’d be devoured by a barrage of light balls. But no matter how she struggled, her muscles refused to listen. Her auto-regeneration was taking even longer than last time to kick in.
Before she knew it,
there were tears rolling down her face. They were tears of frustration. Frustration at her inability to protect Hajime even after he’d protected her so many times.
The Hydra took a moment to let out a victorious “Graaaaaaah!” before firing the next barrage of light balls.
Yue’s death drew closer in the form of rainbow colored light. She refused to close her eyes. If nothing else, she wasn’t going to be defeated in spirit. She glared right at the silver-crested head, determined to go down fighting.
Eventually, the balls filled her vision and she couldn’t even see the Hydra anymore. They were going to hit her. She would die. Inside her head she apologized to Hajime for dying before him. For not being able to protect him. But suddenly... a gust of wind flew by.
“Eh?” By the time she’d grasped what was going on, Yue was in someone’s arms and the light balls were passing by to her side. Her expression filled with utter disbelief, she looked up at the person holding her.
It was, of course, none other than Hajime. His body was still covered in wounds, he was panting heavily, and his right eyelid was tightly shut.
“Don’t cry, Yue. You won this fight.”
“Hajime!”
Overcome with emotion, she hugged him tight. His wounds had barely begun to heal. In reality, he was standing on willpower alone.
But he still glared angrily at the Hydra’s silver head. It was looking condescendingly down on the both of them as it fired yet another barrage of light balls. It looked as if it was saying something like “What can a half-dead ape like you do?”
“Too slow.” Hajime waited until the last minute before dodging with unsteady movements.
The silver head narrowed its eyes in anger and fired another salvo.
“Hajime, run!” Yue shouted frantically, but Hajime seemed utterly unconcerned. With Yue still held tight in his arm, he spun and danced around the Hydra’s attacks. Though at times he stumbled, he never failed to dodge. In fact, it looked more as if the balls were dodging him than the other way around. And Yue watched it all, her eyes full of wonder.
“Yue, drink my blood.” He spoke quietly, his silent gaze inviting her. For once, she hesitated. He had lost so much blood already. He dodged with tottering steps, but he still pushed Yue’s face closer to his neck.
“Your magic is our only hope, Yue... So do it. Hurry up, and win this for us!”
“...Okay!”
Yue acquiesced to Hajime’s powerful words, and nodded. She chose to trust in him and buried her face in his neck. Her body healed rapidly as his blood flowed into her. They danced a dance of death, the two of them, as they weaved their way through a storm of bullets.
For a moment, everything lost all sense of color for Hajime. He was whirling his way through a world of black and white, while everything around him moved in slow motion. Only his movements remained sharp.
He had seen it all. While he had been struggling to remain conscious, he had watched as Yue had fought all on her own. He watched as she desperately fought with his gun, until finally she was backed into a corner. He watched as she was thrown to the floor and bombarded with light.
It was at that moment that a seething anger had welled up. Anger at himself. What the hell are you doing!? How long do you plan to lie here sleeping!? Are you going to let your partner get killed right under your nose!? You’re going to give in to that shitty excuse of a monster!? No! No I won’t! Anything that threatens my—that threatens our survival is an enemy! And enemies are to be...
“Killed!” Hajime had felt a tingling run through his body, and suddenly he had awoken to a new skill. He had acquired the final derivative skill of Air Dance, Riftwalk. By focusing all five of his senses to the utmost limits, his other Air Dance derivatives grew that much stronger. The extremes of his situation had forced him to surpass his limits once more.
It was that ability that had allowed Hajime to instantly teleport to Yue’s side, and it was that ability that was currently allowing him to dodge the Hydra’s attacks.
Yue finished drinking his blood, her strength fully restored.
“Yue, hit him with Azure Blaze when I give the signal. Until I do, just focus on dodging.”
“Okay... But what about you, Hajime?”
“I’ll be laying the groundwork for your finisher.”
He let Yue down behind one of the pillars and then charged the Hydra.
He dodged each of the light balls by a hair’s breadth using Supersonic Step, and then fired Donner once he got close enough. Annoyed by the fact that the last shot had still managed to scratch him, the silver head dodged this one. The bullet passed harmlessly through the air and bored a small hole into the ceiling above. Unconcerned, Hajime continued firing as he ran. Sadly, each of his bullets only served to put more holes in the ceiling.
The silver head scoffed at Hajime as it effortlessly dodged. Yue was a little worried about Hajime’s uncharacteristically sloppy shooting, but she chose to believe in him and wait.
Once he exhausted a chamber’s worth of bullets, Hajime took to the air with Aerodynamic. His leaps had grown more precise and he freely flew through the air, sticking close to the ceiling.
Tired of being toyed with, the silver head began firing auroras off at random. Hajime grinned as he dodged them with ease. He was reading the Hydra like an open book. And he had noticed it had to stop moving to recharge every time it fired.
“This is for hurting Yue. I hope you like it.” He finished reloading Donner and fired all six bullets at once, each in a slightly different direction.
Six small explosions dotted the ceiling, and after a moment of silence, a section of it came crumbling down. Ten tons of rock hurtled toward the Hydra. And the Hydra was unable to escape in time as it rained down on its head.
“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!?” The beast screamed in both surprise and pain. Hajime’s timing had been perfect. He had aimed for the moment it stiffened up after firing an aurora to make sure it wouldn’t be able to escape.
He had missed originally on purpose, and then had run around the ceiling transmuting it to weaken the foundations while also setting up grenades in various locations. His six shots had been to set off the grenades.
But he didn’t stop there. He hadn’t done all that just to drop a giant rock on it. He closed the distance to the trapped Hydra in a single Supersonic Step, then began transmuting the rubble around it to make a perfect prison. He transmuted the area around its head specifically to make something like a blast furnace.
He then threw his whole pouch of grenades into the blast furnace and shouted the following:
“Now, Yue!”
“Okay! Azure Blaze!”
A burning blue sun appeared within the blast furnace, consigning the trapped Hydra to hell. His grenades all exploded at once when the blast hit, dealing a considerable amount of damage to the silver head.
“Graaaaaaaaaaaaah!” The silver head screamed in pain. It started firing light balls everywhere, desperately looking to free itself. But whenever it managed to break one of the walls, Hajime simply transmuted it back in place. It had just fired an aurora too, so it wasn’t able to pull out another right away. Slowly but surely, the blue sun sank deeper into the furnace, purging the monster with a fire hotter than hell.
Sense Presence told him the Hydra was now well and truly dead. Once he was sure it was gone for good, Hajime collapsed on the spot.
“Hajime!” Yue tried to rush over to him, but her body was exhausted too, so she was forced to crawl instead.
“You pushed yourself... too hard...” Yue somehow managed to crawl over to Hajime. He could feel her hugging him as he slipped into unconsciousness.
Meanwhile, as Hajime and Yue were fighting with the Hydra, the party of heroes was taking a short break from their dungeon expedition and were resting in the capital.
The increased strength of the monsters they faced combined with the strain of scouting out an unmapped floor had of course taken its toll on the students, but that wasn’t the
only reason they had chosen to take a break. There was apparently also someone waiting at the palace to meet them. The Hoelscher Empire, which had shown no interest in the heroes thus far, had suddenly sent an envoy to greet them.
Kouki and the others were naturally wondering why they would send someone after all this time.
The reason there hadn’t been any representative from the Hoelscher Empire, which was allied with the Heiligh Kingdom, when the heroes were first summoned was that there had been very little time since the oracle’s message from Ehit and the summoning itself. That being said, the king had assumed even if they had managed to get a message to the Empire in time they wouldn’t have bothered to send an envoy. The main reason being that ever since its founding at the hands of a famous mercenary 300 years ago, the Empire has been a strength-based meritocracy. Adventurers and mercenaries of all kinds called that holy land their home precisely because they could make a name for themselves with the strength of their sword arm alone.
People like them wouldn’t accept some summoned humans as their new leaders just like that. While the Holy Church did have a presence there, and most of its citizens were technically believers, they weren’t nearly as devout as the citizens of the Kingdom. Since even the merchants and officials generally came from a mercenary or adventurer background, almost all of the citizens valued coin over religion. That having been said, they were still believers even if they weren’t as devout.
However, it was quite likely that they would’ve spurned the heroes had they met them when they were first summoned. That was why it was fortunate that Hoelscher’s emperor had seemingly shown no interest in the heroes until now.
Their sudden change of heart had come about when they had heard the reports that Kouki’s party had cleared the sixty-fifth floor of the Great Orcus Labyrinth, something no one else had managed to do before. When news of the historic breakthrough had reached the Empire’s ears, they had immediately dispatched a messenger to the kingdom informing them that they wished to meet these new heroes. Both the king and the Holy Church agreed that it was probably the best time to let them meet the heroes.
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 1 (Premium) Page 25
