-37- Stopping Point
The cave is glowing red.
The fire shot by the monster, combined with the illumination of the lantern, lights the reddish brown world. The four-legged beasts are hunting in a pack of eight.
Fighting in a quite open s.p.a.ce, flames fly around glaringly sometimes. The three girls jumping around in the middle of the battlefield are giving off each of their charms in different aspects.
The movement of my girlfriend using the naginata, that makes her black hair flutter, is extremely refined. Accurately attacking their limbs with strength and speed that are unimaginably coming from her pet.i.te and cute appearance, she reduced them to a weakened state then pierced through their entrails.
Elegantly makes use of her long limbs and shouts with a voice that does not lose to the monster"s roars. The foreigner with blue eyes and blond hair fights like releasing the overflowing brutality inside her body. Her wild and powerful swings crush bones, break their legs and smash their heads.
With a fixed disgusting smile on her face and artificially colored light brown hair that strangely suits her. Her attractive and warped character and the air of danger floating around her give off a strange charm. Her drawn blade sharply and precisely attacks their weak points and cuts off their heads.
One beast runs through the side and faces me who was standing at the back It roared to intimidate and shot a blazing fireball.
I also shot mana towards the fire the size of a basketball. The flames made from mana weakened like it canceled each other after it hits another mana. As a result of its balance collapsing, its trajectory changes and veers away greatly to the other side.
The monster leaps without hesitation and rushes towards me.
I swing the cypress pole that I wield to the face of the beast. Widely opening its mouth where sharp fangs stick out from, it tightly caught it between its teeth.
With its remaining strength, it doesn"t let go even after I strike it to the ground and let out a growl. With jaw and neck strength, injuring the prey caught in its teeth, weakening, and then eating them is their technique. Originally, multiple beasts would bite at the limbs, pull their prey down, and feast on their intestines. However, its pack is suppressed by the girls so they can"t come towards this way.
Mana gathers around the monster. I already know that it"s their usual means of pouring flames on the prey that have bitten and restrained.
I enhance my strength using mana. To kill the beast before it shoots fire, I kick it up with a foot. Its bones break and the feeling of destroying its innards is transmitted to me. Still, the beast with strong vitality stubbornly holds on and does not open its mouth. So I lifted the cypress pole with its body and then threw it down on the ground.
Coming in contact with the hard rocky ground, its skull was pulverized and its eyeb.a.l.l.s and brains scattered around. Bathing in the warm spray of blood, I know that the beast had died. After the mana scatters and the monster"s corpse disappeared, even the smell of blood disappeared somewhere.
When I turned my gaze towards the girls, only one was remaining. It seems that this fight will end soon.
◆
We fought many times and finally reached the target point on the map.
「It"s strange. Why is the door still open?」
Heidi said so with a pondering expression.
「Isn"t it because Wazuka"s group defeated the boss that was inside? That"s often the case in games. When the boss is defeated, the locked door is opened.」
Hiiragi-san tilted her head in puzzlement to Maizuru"s words. She probably doesn"t play games regularly. She can"t think of mechanics like those in RPGs.
「When the boss is defeated, it often develops into some event happening, right? For the time being, let"s go ahead without being careless so we"ll be fine whatever happens.」
I upgrade my status using my PP that I saved just to make sure. There"s no point if I die so I should use it properly when necessary.
We walked all day long and fought. Even though we are taking small breaks, we can"t hide our fatigue. While thinking that it"s good if nothing happens, we walk towards the door visible deep inside the cave.
As we got closer, our heartbeats were rising in antic.i.p.ation. When we reached the distance where what"s inside the door is visible, that changed into conviction.
It is filled with the nostalgic vortex of white sparkling particles. Dazzling lights were shooting out from the middle of the circular room.
「Do you think we can escape outside the dungeon from here?」
「I don"t know, but I think the possibility of that is high. I can tell by looking at the room, but it seems that we have still a long way to go in the dungeon.」
Receiving my words, the girls who were paying attention to the vortex changed their line of sights around the room.
There are doors. There are twelve metal doors that look tough and heavy. While eight of them were open, the remaining four are tightly closed.
The seven open paths, which are just like the place where we entered from, extend toward the upper levels. I can confirm that it is true after I checked it with detection. I was not able to probe the remaining four paths using detection probably because it is closed.
「Looking closely, there are gouges on the walls and the ground.」
「Look, it resembles that. It looks like traces of an enlarged wind blade that the bat monsters shoot out.」
「Aren"t these evidence that Wazuka"s group fought here?」
There were a lot of deep gouges.
They were sharply cleaved in straight lines.
If these are cuts made by wind blades, its scale is much larger than the magic used by bat monsters. It will easily cut a human body if it hits directly.
「Hey hey, is it all right if you can return to that room through this vortex? Won"t the monsters come out in that room from here?」
Tension ran through us because of Maizuru"s statement. There"s nothing to deny her words. Perhaps there was a possibility that there is no place safe anymore.
Without a way to dispel our anxiety, n.o.body was able to say the next words.
「Then why don"t we test it? There were also monsters in the entrance of the dungeon, but they did not enter that room, right? Possibly, there might be a mechanism that excludes monsters. I think it"s worth checking.」
「I agree. Let"s capture a monster that is still alive nearby and put it through here. We also need to check if it really leads to an exit.」
「Well then, Hibarin, tell us where the monster is, p-l-e-s-e.」
I found the target monster with detection and guided them.
◇
We returned to the room of swirling black particles.
Our bodies lose strength, relieved that our safety is secured. The string of tension was broken and felt that our shoulder became light.
「It appears that there was no need to worry, right?」
「Yeah.」
「I"m glad knowing that this place is safe for the time being.」
Saying that, Heidi stretched out her muscles to relax her body that became stiff.
I repeatedly opened and closed my hand while looking at it to confirm. Nothing is there. The figure of the monster that I was supposed to be holding disappeared.
「I"m tired today. Hibarin, we can take a break in exploring the dungeon tomorrow, right?」
I replied with a nod to Maizuru"s question.
「I see. Fushimin, about the promise we talked about, can it be tomorrow?」
「It"s okay.」
「Thanks. Since we"re just talking about that, should I also hand this over to you?」
Maizuru handed her tantou that she uses a weapon to Hiiragi-san.
「Maizuru will keep her promise, right? I already have enough evidence to trust you so there"s no need for that.」
「Thanks. Then, visit my room at a convenient time tomorrow, okay? Bye-bye.」
After Maizuru finished her conversation with Hiiragi-san, she opened the door and left. Not knowing what the two are talking about, I and Heidi tilted our head in puzzlement together.
After Hiiragi-san refused to take her Tantou, she watched Maizuru as she left for a while.
「Haah. It"s regrettable, but I used my points to upgrade my status so I can"t have s.e.x with Hibari. We were worried about a boss but it didn"t appear. I"m also tired for today so I"ll return to my room. See you two later.」
Heidi made a disappointed expression and left. I guess she wanted to have a.n.a.l s.e.x, but this is also what she agreed to so it can"t be helped.
「Shall we return as well?」
Together with Hiiragi-san who is smiling, we also pa.s.sed through the door.