Manowa

It was too abrupt.

The six-armed Skeleton that appeared before her eyes suddenly straddled the girl and attacked her, cutting up her body. The girl panicked and struggled at the sudden situation, but she couldn"t break free. The best friend to her side had already died in an instant from a severed throat without being able to make a single noise.

It was a too sudden parting. The girl screamed when she saw the ghastly appearance of her friend. Her best friend had been mercilessly cut to pieces; that bloodstained lovable friend had turned into a tragic corpse before the girl"s eyes. Those eyes no longer possessed the glitter of life; those stagnant, empty eyes unseeingly gazed at the slightly dirty ceiling.

The girl howled. It was a cry mixed with anger, grief, and sorrow. The sudden death of her companion evoked the Asura in the girl"s heart.

However, the Skeleton before her didn"t flinch at the girl"s cry. Red light leaking from its eyeless sockets, it held no fear towards the girl and stabbed her abdomen like it was simply doing a job. The girl felt her abdomen become hot, but right now, her anger surpa.s.sed that heat. Then the skeleton raised the weapon in its hand and swung downward. The girl screamed over, and over, and over, and over again as she struck, but her blows had no effect, and her body was pierced by one of the six-armed Skeleton"s weapons each time she screamed. And after being sliced countless times, the girl somehow managed to roll away and escape her pinned position. But the Skeleton didn"t stop. The girl"s back was pierced by two spears, and the remaining four weapons further gouged, slashed, and smashed the still moving girl.

But the girl stood up. It was painful. It was difficult. However, the only thing inside the girl was the regret-filled death of the partner who was killed earlier. The girl continued screaming while thinking of her friend"s death.

「Guririn"s killerrrrr!!!!」

The girl took out a bomb and ran towards the six-armed Skeleton while holding it for a suicide attack. A Banzai attack with preparedness for an honorable death. At that moment, the girl became Kamikaze.

Then the sound of an explosion resounded behind Kazane"s fleeing group. It seemed Heroic Spirit Arch had used her suicide bomb attack.

It was all due to Yumika"s quick wittedness. With instant judgement, Yumika in the rear used her Heroic Spirit Summoning Ring when Kazane was attacked by the Adamant Skull Ashura to summon Arch between Kazane and the Adamant Skull Ashura.

After that, Kazane was pushed away, and Arch was straddled by the Adamant Skull Ashura. Incidentally, the bear Guririn happened to be in the trajectory of the Adamant Skull Ashura"s weapon at the time of summoning and died from a severed throat. Leaping out is dangerous.

And with the opportunity created by Arch distracting the Adamant Skull Ashura, Kazane and the others had escaped from the scene.

「Ah, is that so? She still had bombs.」

To oppose the Adamant Skull Ashuras in the Vordo Ruins, she had purchased a large amount of the powerful consumable magic tool called Extreme Flame Bombs with Arch and made it a shortcut b.u.t.ton item. Since Adamant Skull Ashuras didn"t have a Core, the connection between their bones was weak, so they were weak to being blown away by explosives. Arch forcibly captured the Vordo Ruins by using those bombs.

It seemed that stock was still there. By the way, it seemed she didn"t use them against the Black Rock Dragon because Fire attribute attacks weren"t effective. There were games where NPCs sometimes used attributes that weren"t effective, or even worse, where they were treacherous allies that tried to heal when Reflect was active and healed the enemy, but Zexiaharts was excellent in that respect.

「My Heroic Spirit was useful!!」

「Yeah. That"s right.」

Her best friend said with a smug expression, and since Kazane was in the position of being saved this time, she simply agreed. But that didn"t mean she didn"t feel bothered by using someone as a decoy to escape, even if it was a summoned companion. However, it was an emergency measure. It couldn"t be helped. Thinking that way, Kazane shook off the feelings of guilt in her heart. However, the figure of Arch becoming smaller in the distance as they ran away, straddled by the Adamant Skull Ashura the entire time, was seared into her mind, and she didn"t think she would be able to forget it any time soon.

As Kazane was thinking that, the sound of several more explosions reached her ears. Contrary to her appearance, Yumika"s Heroic Spirit Arch"s Health was raised almost as high as possible, so she was difficult to kill. The repeated suicide bomb attacks were probably being used against Adamant Skull Ashuras that were gathering there due to hearing the commotion. There was surely a h.e.l.lish scene unfolding there.

「Staying to fight together would have also been good...」

「No, we don"t want to get involved with that.」

Another explosion sound was heard after Jinrai"s words, and Kazane so replied. Jinrai went silent. As might be expected, it seemed he didn"t want to fight alongside a suicide bomber.

At any rate, they had escaped the crisis. Arch couldn"t be summoned again for ten days, but that was fine. Rather, it was a miracle that she had been useful. No, she was more or less useful the last two times she was summoned as well, but...

「Well, anyway, it seems『Dog"s Sense of Smell』and『Intuition』don"t work against these opponents.」

After gaining distance for a while, the formation changed. Since probing with her Skills was difficult, the sharp-sighted Jinrai moved to the front, and Kazane walked next to Yuuko-nee.

「Nyaa」

Yuuko-nee was in a good mood due to being able to walk alongside Kazane, which was different from usual. She was lightly nuzzling her. And the ugly flames of jealousy burned in Jinrai"s heart when he saw that.

(But that was dangerous just now)

Without minding Jinrai"s gaze, Kazane shivered while thinking back to what had happened earlier.

『Don"t overestimate your own power.』

And before she knew it, she recalled the words of Tsuvara Kingdom"s Royal Knight Captain Reigel. Nowadays, Kazane also took part in early morning training to improve her abilities. However, if she had been checking with her own eyes some time ago instead of completely relying on her Skills, she might have been able to deal with what happened. So thinking, Kazane retightened her focus.

In any case, as long as they weren"t negligent, dealing with solo Adamant Skull Ashuras wasn"t difficult. Their true value came from their group rush h.e.l.l.

「Jinrai-san, remove its jaw first to keep it from calling for companions.」

「Got it.」

In accordance with Kazane"s instructions, Jinrai thrust at the jaw joint of the Adamant Skull Ashura and dexterously removed it. Adamant Skull Ashuras called companions by rattling their jaws. Once their jaw was removed, companions wouldn"t be called unless a pa.s.sing by comrade did it.

The parts to detach after that were the lower back, elbows, and knees. If the shoulder or hip joints were detached, the limbs would jump at them by themselves. Kazane used Material Shield to break their posture, and Jinrai and Yumika broke them apart. The separated parts would still chase them, but their movement speed wasn"t very high, so they ignored them and ran away... that repet.i.tion was the basic strategy for Vordo Ruins.

Since it was a decided battle pattern in a field that only had one enemy, the repet.i.tive battles were monotonous. However, they couldn"t be negligent. The dreadfulness of Vordo Ruins was getting tired due to its monotonous nature, piling up mistakes, then succ.u.mbing to the swarm of foes that wouldn"t abate no matter how many were killed. Negligence was the greatest enemy in these ruins.

After that, they continued searching, and the Map was filled to some extent. They hadn"t found the stairs to ascend yet, but they did find two treasure chests. Or perhaps they should be called boxes rather than treasure chests. A box would be the only thing in a room and would have an item inside.

It seemed there was a device that created items with substance from magical power. Instead of random items like a dungeon, they were fixed items, but some of them were reasonably powerful. And those powerful items would come back after a fixed time. For that reason, players came to this place many times, and many people died due to negligence.

The items Kazane obtained were『Crimson Lotus Cloak』and『Wardance Battlesuit』. Since they were wearing Indestructible Cloaks, the『Crimson Lotus Cloak』went into her Item Box for now, but the『Wardance Battlesuit』was equipped by Jinrai. It was light, had moderate defensive power, and a.s.sisted body movements, making Jinrai"s movements even more agile. From the start, Jinrai always dressed light to avoid attacks, so as long as it was easy to move in, the equipment he wore wasn"t very important to Jinrai. However, this『Wardance Battlesuit』was armor made for warriors like Jinrai, so it seemed he found it very comfortable.

Then Jinrai merrily walked with his new equipment. His earlier jealousy towards the closeness of Kazane and Yuuko-nee was blown away, and skips were mixed into his restarted advance into the ruins.

Name: Yuihama Kazane

Occupation: Summoning Fighter

t.i.tle: Ogre Killer, Dragon Slayer, High Beast Summoner, Rea King

Equipment: Staff 『White Blaze』, Two Handed Sword『Black Fang』, Draghorn Tonfa x2, Dragonscale Breastplate, Drake Gauntlets, Silver Sheep Clothes, Sylphyn Skirt, Plasma Pants, Dragon Eating Ogre King"s Greaves, Indestructible Cloak, Mysterious Pouch, Crimson Saint Coffin, Heroic Spirit Summoning Ring, Circlet of Wisdom, Aim Bracelet, Magic Acc.u.mulator, White Magic Acc.u.mulator, Rainbow Necklace, Rainbow Dragon Ring

Level : 36

Health: 145

Magic Power: 304+420

Strength: 67+20

Agility: 71+14

Endurance: 38

Wisdom : 72

Dexterity : 47

Spell : 『Fly』『Torch』『Fire』『Heal』『Firestorm』『Healer Ray』『High Heal』『Golden Dusk「Dragon Exclusive」』『Mirror Shield』

Skill : 『Kick Devil』『Warrior"s Memory: Lv2』『Night Vision』『Crushing Blow』『Dog"s Sense of Smell: Lv2』『Golem Maker: Lv3』『Rush』『Fire Principle: Third Chapter』『Healing Principle: Fourth Chapter』『Air Jump: Lv2』『Killing Leg: Lv3』『Fear Voice』『Invisible』『Tiger Eye』『Wall Walking』『Intuition』『Cheat Death』『Nimble』『Charge』『Material Shield: Lv2』『Information Link: Lv2』『Optical Camouflage』『High Dash』『Bloodsucking Blade』『Dragonization: Lv2「Dragon」』『Regenerate』『Soul Breaking Blade』『Stealthy Hand Placement』『Thunder Chariot: Lv2』『St.u.r.dier Teeth: Lv2「Dragon」』『Crystallization: Lv2「Dragon」』『Devil King"s Intimidation』『Stone Minotaur: Lv2』『Mega Beam: Lv2』『s.p.a.ce Expansion』『Pseudo-Silver Creation』『Poison Claw』『Fireball「Dragon」』『Cuticle「Dragon」』『Arms Creation: Black Flame』『Ingredient Connoisseur』『Dragon Pheromone「Dragon」』『Boost』『Monkey"s Strong Arm』『Two-sword Style』『b.o.o.bies Plus』『Living Armor』『Alarm』

Yumika:「Ninja Art・Subst.i.tution Technique!」

Kazane:「So awful...」