Boundary Labyrinth and the Foreign Magician

“Now then.”

After Grace’s smile vanished, she casually walked towards the Sword Boar, with her axe held in both hands.
As for the Boar in question, maybe because it felt disrespected by the slender Grace who had suddenly appeared, since only one person was facing it, it let out an irritated roar, spread its arms, and rushed her.
Grace slowly bent over. Just as she was about to close the distance in a single leap–

“Defense Field!”

I completed my Barrier Spell as I ran behind the Boar. While it was distracted by my presence behind it, Grace kicked off the floor and charged towards it.
The Sword Boar was completely caught off guard. Grace’s axe, loaded with power, struck the Boar’s side, and it let out a growl.

The sounds of clashing metal, something unimaginable, rang out as the axe struck the creature’s body.
Grace didn’t pay it any mind and, leaving it up to her power, followed up with her arm.
As her power was driven into the Boar’s giant figure, it moved against its will. Both of its legs, which were firmly on the ground, were impacted, and it was enough to force it to retreat, while hollowing the earth at the same time.

Grace’s attack bore into the Sword Boar’s side, cutting into its flesh. However, it wasn’t enough for it to be a fatal wound. After it looked at its own stomach leaking blood, it paused momentarily, before glaring at Grace and letting out an angry yell. Maybe this meant that it had received an unexpected wound. It vigorously closed in and charged at Grace while swinging its arms downward.

Grace, who was facing it, didn’t retreat a single step, and decided to make a head-on counterattack instead.
Its arms versus her axe. She grasped it, perhaps planning to completely knock the Sword Boar down in one attack by smashing its giant body. Sounds of clashing metal resounded as the two collided against each other, and every time their weapons repelled one another, sparks flew out. Seriously…its fur wasn’t a joke.

The Sword Boar, which was randomly swinging its arms and legs around, and Grace, who held her axe in both hands, struck each other. Although Monsters had gathered around them, the ones that tried to carelessly interfere were tossed into the air and blown away, like a small ship that had been engulfed by a typhoon.

…Still, Grace seemed to have decided on fighting like that. She had been fighting the angry Sword Boar while intentionally leading it towards the group of Monsters. Although her plan was easily understood as ‘Monster vs Monster, raw force vs raw force’, it wouldn’t end by just overpowering it that way. The obstacles in their line of attack might as well have not been there. Every time their power collided with each other, the surrounding Monsters vanished.

I didn’t know whether the Monsters that were trying to interfere with the fight between Grace and the Sword Boar had given up or not, but they decided to come towards me. However, their movements faltered as they were blocked by the Defense Field, and then they were diced into fine pieces by Sheila. Caduceus also pierced them as it pleased, and then they were blown away by Ashley’s carefully aimed Mace.

“Theodore-sama! Go help out the Adventurers, as they are still unable to flee!”

“Understood!”

The Adventurers on the tree seemed to be hurt, and they would be able to join the battle if their wounds were healed by Ashley’s Healing Magic.
After taking a side glance at them, I kept on dealing with the Monsters with my weapon and magic. Regardless, these Adventurers were able to come all the way to the 20th Floor, huh?
There was no reason to retreat if we were capable of maintaining the frontline with Defense Field. I decided to follow everyone as I lowered the number of Monsters.
I grabbed their heads and sent them flying into the air. I struck down the Monsters that were approaching the barrier with Ouroboros and activated a Spell.

“Rock Press!”

Rock Press was a Rank 5 Earth Spell that summoned a large rock from the sky, which went around and beat up the group of Monsters. Everyone’s burden would drop if I decreased the number of Monsters.

Grace was able to suppress the Sword Boar by herself.

“Fufufu.”

She squinted her eyes, which were dyed the color of blood, and smiled sweetly.
Although their battle of physical strength continued, a change started to occur as I decreased the number of Monsters.
In other words, the focus of the battle began to concentrate solely on the fight between Grace and the Sword Boar. The battle wouldn’t change from her continuing to counterattack the Sword Boar by swinging her axe around. However, slowly but surely, the Sword Boar was being forced to retreat as she nearly sent it flying. Grace herself maintained a fixed distance, without retreating a step, so it would naturally turn out like this.

“Goooah!”

As the Sword Boar was continually forced back, it let out an irritated yell.
Although it was a Guardian cla.s.s Monster, blood seemed to be flowing from various parts of its body after it had been hit by Grace’s axe quite a few times.
The Boar’s movement didn’t appear to be slowing from this, and the wounds it received on its side started to close up. Whether or not the Sword Boar had decided that its wounds from Grace’s attacks weren’t serious, its movements gradually became sloppy.
Her aim was to simultaneously unleash attacks on its body with her axe, without letting it evade.

Grace evaded with her upper body, letting the attacks go past her. Its log-like arms slashed the front of her bangs, making it flutter in the wind. Maybe the Sword Boar felt some type of effect from this method of battling, and the tip of its mouth distorted as it laughed.
Grace furrowed her brows momentarily.
After the Sword Boar’s arm, which attempted to grasp her head like it was going to smash it, bent down and flew past her, she dug up a stone that was buried in the ground with her axe and tossed it up to her eyes. She aimed at the Sword Boar’s solar plexus and kicked the stone, as if it had been pushed out by the tips of her toes.

“Gah!”

The stone broke, causing the Sword Boar to retreat backwards and forcibly draw a breath. From slashing in a line, to striking a specific point, it was unable to deal with the change in the pattern of her attacks. Even if it had been thinking of figuring out her attack method, the Sword Boar, which was forced backwards, bared its fangs and quickly flew into a rage.

“Even I’m not interested in imitating its Regeneration ability. Rather than that, I have something I want to test out.”

As she widened the distance, Grace let out a sigh.
Then she headed towards the Sword Boar, which was squealing and charging at her, and threw her axe, which was in her right hand, at it with an intense force. The Boar crossed its arms and received her attack, which flew as fast as a bombsh.e.l.l. The impact of the collision stopped its charge. The Boar recovered its stance and tried to rush at Grace once again, but she wasn’t there anymore. The Monsters roamed about, trying to find her.

At that time, Grace was in mid-air. Her axe, held high above her head, was wrapped in a violet light. She was planning to use the impact of her descent and her physical strength. That light was different from the usual color and was, without a doubt, her Aura.

“Haaah!”

Together with a spirited yell, her axe, cloaked in her Aura, crashed down directly onto the Sword Boar’s head. A tremendous, deafening roar rang out.
Its arms, which had tried to receive the attack, and its tusks, which were sticking out from its mouth, were split apart, and the remaining force carved a deep crevice into the ground of the Twilight Forest.
In front of the Sword Boar, Grace shook off the blood on her blade. After some time pa.s.sed, the Boar’s body split cleanly into two pieces down the middle and collapsed.

“…I’m sorry. I also want to accompany Theo, so I have no choice but to stop at the same place.”

Her way of learning was probably by watching others…and what she had used just now was a Skill. Even if it was martial arts, it appeared that she had some Skills. Perhaps she had thought of something like this after seeing the Skill of the Knight Commander. The Skill’s level of proficiency wasn’t at the same level as the Knight Commander’s, but in Grace’s case, her stats were originally different. Even if her concentration and handling of her Aura was still poor, she could display its power.

After clearing away the remaining Monsters, I transferred any possible loot and the Sword Boar’s giant body before returning to the Shrine, together with the people we rescued, via a Red Dimension Stone.
Maybe they felt relieved from being saved, but the Adventurers who returned with us fell down on the spot. I also asked Grace to not draw any attention, so I activated the seal on her ring.

Grace pressed her hand against a pillar and let out a long sigh. Her complexion didn’t look good, and her condition didn’t seem to be great.

“Are you ok?”

“Umm…What should I say?”

Grace mumbled to herself.

“Grace-sama, is Healing Magic necessary?”

“Are you injured?”

Although Ashley and Sheila, who both looked at her with worry, called out to her, Grace waved her hands in denial after making a surprised expression.

“O-Oh, you’re wrong. I’m sorry for making you worry…about this. I’m just a little bit hungry.”

Aah, she had THAT type of impulse?
Perhaps Grace was feeling embarra.s.sed, or a sense of guilt? Her body ended up shrinking from embarra.s.sment.

Even if we had the same blood type, perhaps she was saying that the vampiric impulses she felt from my blood was fundamentally different.

For example, was her power dependant on the smell of a person’s blood, or destruction and devastation? Thanks to these things, Grace ended up being dragged down by her vampiric side, and even if she was released, because of her mixed blood, more or less, she couldn’t get drunk on madness, while at the same time being enhanced by it. She felt a sense of anger, hatred, shame, and the like.
Perhaps this was the reason she wanted the Boar to be left up to her?

“…It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this impulse. Even though my condition always turned out fine thanks to Theo, it appeared again. I’m very sorry for Theo, and for those Adventurers…”

“Well, that’s fine. I’ll go cook something today, after we go back. Still…a large portion of it might turn out to be mushrooms.”

We had collected enough Whispermush to make a mountain. After informing them of this, Grace smiled and nodded lightly.

“…Yes, thank you very much.”