Towards a Glory Not Worth Taking

by Ao Jyumonji

  I’ll give it some serious thought.

  Later, of course.

  If I make it out of this intact.

  “Haruhiro!” Tokimune rushed over to him. “Get away from there! Leave this to me!”

  “Okay!” Haruhiro ran off to the right. While he cut through the tents that the merchants had abandoned here, he kept an eye on Tokimune, who was about to reach the cliff’s edge.

  “Go, go, go!” The white giant pursued Tokimune.

  Tokimune came to a sudden stop, turning to face the white giant. The cliff was right behind him at this point. “Heeeey! Catch me if you caaaan!”

  “Go...” The white giant, however, came to a stop.

  Ah... is it on to us?

  “You moron, it’s way too obvious!” Ranta jeered at Haruhiro.

  He might have been able to take it from anyone else, but when that piece of trash said it, it hurt. Or rather, Haruhiro was in shock.

  But it’s not over yet.

  “Plan B!” someone shouted.

  Yes. He was there, too. The priest who had once been a warrior, who was still mostly a warrior. The man with the heavy warhammer. He who knew no fear, the Tokkis’ Mr. Destructive Ability.

  Tada.

  Tada charged at the white giant from behind and did a somersault. “Somersault Boooooooooomb!”

  His warhammer exploded into the white giant’s Achilles tendon—or where it would be if white giants had an Achilles tendon, that was—and sent chunks of its flesh, or whatever it was made of, flying everywhere.

  Plan B.

  Wait, what’s that? Haruhiro thought, stunned.

  If he were to guess, luring it over the edge of the cliff had been Plan A, and dragging or pushing it over the edge of the cliff was Plan B. Haruhiro had honestly only thought of Plan A. However, with Tada’s strength...

  “Go, go!” The white giant tried to do an about-face as it stumbled. That was when it happened.

  “Delm, hel, en, balk, zel, arve!” Mimorin called.

  “Jess, yeen, sark, kart, fram, dart!” Shihoru added.

  There was a flash of light and a blast of smoke on the white giant’s chest, while a number of streaks of lightning struck its face and shoulders. Blast and Thunderstorm. Had they signaled each other, or was it coincidence? Mimorin and Shihoru had launched their magical attacks simultaneously. Even the great six-meter class white giant had to bend backwards from that.

  Oh, right, Haruhiro realized. That makes sense. If one spell’s power isn’t enough, they can just combine them. That’s one way of doing it, huh.

  “Whoosh!” Yume called. She used Rapid Fire, loosing a number of arrows in quick succession, sniping the white giant’s one eye. In a remarkably rare occurrence, Inui followed suit and fired an arrow of his own.

  “Aieeeeeeee!” Anna-san squealed and jumped into the air. “Fuck off!”

  “Tokimune-san!” Haruhiro began.

  Without Haruhiro needing to say any more, Tokimune moved away from the edge of the cliff.

  “Delm, hel, en, balk, zel, arve!”

  “Jess, yeen, sark, kart, fram, dart!”

  One more shot. No, two shots. Mimorin’s and Shihoru’s Blast and Thunderstorm gave it the last push, forcing the white giant to bend back even farther. At this point, it could hold out no longer. It couldn’t stay on its feet.

  The white giant seemed aware of the cliff, but it had to move its left leg in that direction in order to support itself. However, there was no ground there. It was a cliff, after all.

  Falling. The white giant was falling.

  “Nice!” Kuzaku pumped his arm.

  Merry placed her hand over her chest, looked up to the heavens, and breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Yeah!” Yume was all smiles.

  “See, I told you so!” Ranta screamed. He was so excited, he was babbling nonsense.

  “Happy New Year! Wow!” Kikkawa made even less sense.

  Why is it suddenly New Year’s?

  Haruhiro didn’t want to rain on their parade, but this wasn’t the end of things. He took a short breath.

  “Next! Six Pansukes, two Tori-sans, one four-meter class giant! Incoming!”

  “Hahahahaha!” Tada laughed as he pushed up his glasses with his left index finger. “It’s nice having no shortage of enemies to crush.”

  “We can have at them with mirth and good cheer, huh!” Tokimune seemed to truly be enjoying himself. “Let’s do this, guys! Anna-san, we’re counting on you for some good cheering!”

  “You can super-duper leave it to me, yeah!” Anna-san puffed her chest out with pride and thrust her fist forward. “For as long as sun is in sky and Anna-san is on ground, victory will be yours! Everybody, fight for Anna-san!”

  What, this is all for Anna-san now? Haruhiro wasn’t sure he was down with that, but the others were erupting in cheers, and it seemed to be raising their morale, so he decided to let it slide.

  “Ranta, take one of the Tori-sans!” he called. “Kuzaku, take as many Pansukes as you think you can handle!”

  “I’ll do it, so you better pay me the proper respect, Parupiro!” Ranta hollered.

  “’Kay!” Kuzaku called.

  “Merry, Yume, Shihoru, you stay bunched together for now!”

  “Got it!”

  “Meow!”

  “...Okay!”

  “Tada!” Tokimune took off running. “We’re gonna take out the white giant!”

  “I could do it myself,” Tada bragged.

  “Count me in to help, too! Peace, peace! Yay, yay, yay!” Kikkawa yelled.

  Tada and Kikkawa followed Tokimune. It looked like Mimorin would be guarding Anna-san. Inui, meanwhile, was wandering around aimlessly near Shihoru.

  No, seriously, what is with that guy?

  Kuzaku could manage three of the Pansukes, while Haruhiro, Merry, Yume, and Shihoru would quickly take care of the rest. One of the Tori-sans would go to Ranta, but what about the other?

  Haruhiro could probably count on Tokimune, Tada, and Kikkawa to handle the white giant. He glanced towards the valley. They hadn’t exactly finished off the six-meter class, so it was sure to climb back up here eventually. They needed to wipe out the reinforcements before that, and then high-tail it out of here.

  Hurry. But don’t be hasty.

  Tada lunged towards the white giant.

  Man, I’m amazed he can do that without being afraid.

  Kuzaku bravely used Bash on the Pansukes’ spears, sweeping them aside with his long sword. Their party paladin wasn’t a nutcase like Tada. Because of that, it made Haruhiro think, Damn, Kuzaku’s incredible. He’s awesome, seriously. Maybe I have Merry to thank for that. Yeah, I figure he wouldn’t want to look lame in front of the person he loves.

  Whatever the case, he wouldn’t let Kuzaku’s hard work go to waste.

  He could see that line.

  That dimly shining line.

  It wasn’t straight. It bent and twisted many times. It was a proposal being offered to him by his situational awareness that arose from his observations, combined with his predictions based on experience.

  Hey, if I do this right now, wouldn’t it work out? it said. If he delayed even a tenth of a second, it would be of no use anymore. In Haruhiro’s case, fortunately, whether by habit or some other force, he never hesitated when he saw the line—or rather, by the time he saw it, he was already on the move.

  With smooth steps, he rushed past one of the Pansukes, burying his dagger in the cultist’s one eye as he did.

  While pulling it free, he performed a Shatter on the Pansuke next to him, then followed up by using the sap in his left hand to perform Hitter on the other Pansuke’s jaw.

  To top it all off, he landed a Shatter on yet another Pansuke. Then, he pulled back.

  “Ohhhhhhhh!” Kuzaku scattered the Pansukes with his longsword and shield. One Pansuke was dead, and three had been thrown into disorder when Haruhiro had caught them by surprise, so they couldn’t stop Kuzaku.

  Do
we all pile on them now? No, Haruhiro thought.

  “Ah!” Kuzaku backed away. When someone took a swing at him with a Thunder Sword Dolphin, all he could do was avoid it.

  It was a Tori-san. Two of them, at that. What was Ranta doing?

  “Exhaust!”

  There he was. About damn time.

  Ranta leapt in and attacked one of the Tori-sans from the side. There was a loud clash as Thunder Sword Dolphin met Thunder Sword Dolphin. Ranta won the pushing contest and threw the Tori-san off-balance. But there were two Tori-sans. The other one took a thrust at Ranta.

  “Exhaust!” Ranta shot straight backwards at an incredible speed.

  If the Tori-sans went after him, they would be playing right into Ranta’s hands. Sadly, they didn’t. The Tori-sans both focused their attacks on Kuzaku.

  “Oh, crap! I can’t take two of them!” Kuzaku was forced to run around.

  The Pansukes were using that opening to attempt to regroup.

  “Rantaaaa!” Haruhiro shouted despite himself.

  “I’m just getting started, okay?” Ranta contorted his entire body and took up a strange pose with his Thunder Sword Dolphin turned sideways. “O Darkness! O Lord of Vice! Dread Wave!”

  Maybe his moronic pose caught their attention, because it wasn’t just Haruhiro—the Pansukes and Tori-sans were staring at Ranta, too.

  Well, not like anything will happen, though.

  That much was obvious. It wasn’t only the God of Light, Lumiaris, whose power didn’t reach the Dusk Realm. The Dark God, Skullhell’s, didn’t either.

  “Huh?” Haruhiro looked on with surprise and dismay. “What? Huh? Why?”

  “Hmph...” Ranta looked down at the ground. “Totally forgot I can’t use magic here.”

  “Stupid Rantaaaa!” Yume shouted.

  Ranta really was an idiot, and a piece of trash, and he was beyond all help, but the enemy had stopped moving. Even if this was an unexpected side effect of his idiocy, as volunteer soldiers, they ought to exploit it to its fullest.

  “Ohm, rel, ect, el, nemun, darsh!”

  Shadow Pond. Shihoru affixed a shadow elemental to the ground where the two Tori-sans were standing. They wouldn’t be moving from that spot for a while.

  “Get the Pansukes!” Haruhiro immediately ordered, and Kuzaku lunged at them.

  “Zeeah! Rahhh! Oryahhhhh!” he yelled.

  Haruhiro circled around behind the Pansukes. Yume drew her machete and came at them swinging. Merry didn’t leave Shihoru’s side.

  Suddenly, though Haruhiro didn’t see the line, he got the feeling he could take one of them down. Gotta kill them when I can, he reasoned. Okay, now’s the time...

  But when he went in for a Backstab, someone suddenly stole his kill.

  “Heh!” It was Inui. That deviant Inui landed a jump-kick on the Pansuke’s back, knocking him down, then stomped hard on the cultist’s jaw.

  Crack. There was an unpleasant sound, and his neck bent in a direction it was never meant to.

  “I am Inui! He who brings destruction from the heavens!”

  Man, that was impressive and all. But it came out of nowhere. You spooked me.

  Inui turned to Shihoru with a mysterious glint in the one eye that wasn’t covered by his eyepatch. “Oh, my fated bride, walk the path of carnage with me!”

  “No way.” It was an immediate response, and in a rather strong tone for Shihoru. Well, of course it would be.

  “Heh...” Inui turned and went the other way. “For now, I bid you farewell...”

  —Wait, huh? You’re going? Where the hell to?

  That wasn’t clear, but Inui dashed off.

  Well... Maybe we’ll just let him do what he wants? I mean, he doesn’t have to come back if he doesn’t want to. We’re busy enough taking care of ourselves.

  Tokimune, Tada, and Kikkawa were circling the white giant as they attacked it. It looked like Tokimune and Kikkawa were harassing it and acting as decoys, while Tada was the one putting in the heavy blows. The white giant already had damage to both of its legs. The way things were going, it looked like those three could take it out, but it wasn’t going to be quick.

  There’s still time before the Tori-sans break free from Shadow Pond or its effect expires. In that time, if we can just get the four Pansukes—

  But while Haruhiro was thinking that...

  “Delm, hel, en, balk, zel, arve!”

  ...the Tori-sans got blown away. It was the Blast spell.

  They were pounded into the ground, then rolled a bit—but they were getting up. It didn’t look like they were completely unharmed, but they didn’t seem to have taken serious injuries from it, either.

  Miiiimoriiiin, Haruhiro moaned silently. Damn, their ponchos really are durable.

  “Oh, well.” Muttering to himself a little, Haruhiro decided to change gears. He couldn’t change what had already happened. Kuzaku, Haruhiro, Ranta, Yume, Merry, Shihoru, and Mimorin would have to take out the two Tori-sans and four Pansukes.

  We’ve even got Anna-san cheering us on, so we do have the numerical advantage, you know. We can do it. We should be able to. I’m sure of it. Probably.

  Kuzaku kept three of the Pansukes under control, while Yume dealt with the other. Ranta looked like he was aiming for a Tori-san. If he didn’t do so, they’d be in trouble.

  While keeping an eye on the Tori-sans, first they would have to quickly reduce the number of Pansukes, and then—

  Haruhiro glanced towards the valley. Just to be on the safe side.

  He looked again to check what he was seeing.

  “...Already?”

  This is terrible.

  Wasn’t that the six-meter class white giant trying to climb up out of the valley?

  It was a shock, but Haruhiro didn’t lose his head over it. He couldn’t claim this had been within his range of expectations. He’d been focused on other things, after all. But they just had to cope with it.

  The volunteer soldiers were pulling back.

  They’re retreating?

  Where’re they gonna run to?

  And why?

  “That, huh...” he realized. This time, he couldn’t help but lose his head.

  From the south.

  There’s something coming.

  It’s big, white, and writhing.

  Well, yeah, of course. Of course they’d run. I want to run, too. There’s no choice but to run from that thing.

  Its height wasn’t that enormous, although it did look bigger than the six-meter class giant. The problem was its length. It was twenty meters long, maybe twenty-five. It might have even reached thirty meters long. Possibly even more.

  The hydra.

  It was an unsettling, giant creature that looked like nine snakes of two to three meters in diameter had all been balled up together. If it attacked them, what would they do?

  Haruhiro, of course, would flee to the ends of the earth. That would be the normal response.

  It seemed Iron Knuckle, the Berserkers, and Orion all agreed with Haruhiro’s view. They were human, too. Thank goodness. Was that good? No? It wasn’t particularly good.

  Haruhiro didn’t take any time to think about what to do. “Tokimune, it’s the hydra! We’ve gotta run!”

  “Whoa...!” Tokimune made his decision quickly. “Okay, everyone run! Protect Anna-san!”

  “Just when we were almost done here. Dammit.” Though he complained while he did it, Tada shouldered his warhammer and took off at a run.

  “Run, run, ruuuun! Yep! Run!” Kikkawa was cheery even at time like this.

  Even though Anna-san was supposed to be the group’s cheerleader, she was grinding her teeth in audible frustration. “It time for strategic retreat, yeah, damn it! No choice, yeah?!”

  “Let’s go.” Mimorin grabbed Anna-san by the scruff of the neck and dragged her away.

  “Meow...!” Yume turned and fled.

  “Just when I was about to show you all how great I am!” Ranta went, too.

&nbs
p; Merry hesitated.

  “I’ll be fine, so go!” Kuzaku didn’t back away. Or rather, he couldn’t. If he tried to, the Pansukes would gang up on him and beat him to a pulp.

  “Haruhiro-kun...?!” Shihoru looked to Haruhiro.

  “Go, Shihoru! You, too, Merry!” Haruhiro ran as fast as he could, trying to will himself to See it, see it! —That line. It was times like this when he really wanted to see it.

  But, of course, it wasn’t anything so convenient.

  Haruhiro was no hero. He was just a leader. That’s why he had no choice to do what he should, and what he could, as a leader.

  “Kuzaku, give ’em hell!” he called.

  “Roger that! Ruahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Kuzaku used his longsword to sweep a number of spears away, then used Bash on the Pansuke in front of him. “Dahhhhh! Gahhseahhh! Rahh! Nwahhhhhhhh!”

  Without stopping, Kuzaku swung his sword around while protecting himself with his shield, and advanced. Even when the Pansukes’ spears reached his armor, he ignored them and advanced.

  Kuzaku was wearing sturdy plate armor. That said, when he took a good hard hit to his armor, it still had to hurt. He’d get bruised, at least.

  Hang in there. Hang in there, please, Kuzaku.

  “There!” Haruhiro grappled one of the Pansukes, not from behind, but from the side, and strangled him using his left arm while he stabbed his dagger into the cultist’s single eye.

  That was pretty forced just now, wasn’t it? If I’d messed up my timing even a little, I’d have been in danger. Scary...!

  He could feel a cold mass of fear cling to the inside of his stomach. But so what? What difference did it make?

  Haruhiro got in close to another Pansuke, pulling off a combo with Shatter and Hitter. Yet another Pansuke reached out to get him with his spear, but he jumped to avoid it. Even as he cried out, Oh, crap, oh, crap, this is seriously dangerous, in his heart, he Swatted the spear twice.

  While screaming, Seriously, I’ve had enough, give me a break, augh! in his head, he stepped in and used Arrest to seize the Pansuke’s arm, followed by a leg sweep to trip him.

  “Assuh!” Kuzaku let out a mysterious shout to psyche himself up, then used Bash to knock one Pansuke flying.

  Now, let’s run, Haruhiro thought.

  He didn’t have to say anything to get that message across. Haruhiro and Kuzaku took off running at the same time.