Otoko Nara Ikkokuichijou no Aruji o Mezasa Nakya, ne?

Just before entering the 2 km in diameter large room where the guardian of the 10th floor is believed to be waiting for challengers we decided to have a meeting along with lunch. In the end we brought along both the rifle and the net shooter. Since we"re fighting against the guardian of the 10th floor for the first time I thought it was necessary to be as careful as possible. We"ve even predicted that the guardian this time might be a lot more of those absurdly strong minos. Therefore, including Miduchi not a single person was against bringing along the guns.

"I wonder if it"ll be Minotaurs again.."

Gwine said while burying a bone from the chicken leg she just ate in the ground.

"Won"t that be the case?"

Toris replied while licking the oil off his fingers.
It sure seems convenient when the end of your tongue is forked.

"The 8th and 9th floors are fine since we know them but I wonder if there were really Minotaurs on the 5th, 6th, and 7th floors?"

And then said as if confirming with me.

"Yeah, that"s what I heard from the King. Though supposedly there"s no records remaining of the 1st to the 4th floors but I think it"s most likely fine to think they were Minotaurs."

I sip at the dried meat soup that was made in my flask while replying.

"What method are we going to use when going in?"

Zenom asked while wiping his dirty beard with a towel.

"What method? Isn"t the same as usual fine? Bel entangles them with the net. Then Maruso shoots the ones that aren"t caught up in the net. Isn"t that fine?"

Ralpha replied as if wanting to say what other methods are there? while already peeling the skin off the dessert orange. Though that"s fine as the procedure for charging into battle. But, what Zenom is asking about is the details of the formation, the distance between each person, the order for Angela to shoot in and simultaneously the order for Miduchi to provide backup fire, he wants to discuss things like that ahead of time.

"Isn"t the same basic line we used against the Minotaurs on the 9th floor fine?"

Bel said that but there"s no way of coming up with any other strategy than that.
The things we should be discussing right now are re-confirming our tactical patterns when up against the group of Minotaurs on the 9th floor and how to deal with unexpected circ.u.mstances.

In other words, first off is the problem of whether or not there"s another {Anti-Skill Area}. We should a.s.sume there "is" I"m sure. I"m sure we"ll be able to figure it out immediately if Miduchi"s {Party-ization} gets cut off and in the case it remains in effect then it"s just a lucky situation because I can freeze them or use attack spells to finish things up.

Next up is problems in regards to the terrain where the battle takes place. Just from a glance and this ridiculously large room doesn"t seem any different from the room in the center of the 8th and 9th floors. If we were a.s.sume that it"s the same sort of room then in the center would be a large pillar with the teleport crystal room in it and the Minotaurs should be guarding the entrance to there. Roughly 50 meters surrounding the pillar there"s no rocks that can be used to hide behind, it"s believed to be a dull and dry area with just dirt ground spread out.

The problem is in the case that there"s rocks which could act as obstructions or to hide behind and depending on the case maybe even trees and bushes like on the 7th floor. Depending on the size and density of those it might even be difficult to use effectively use the net shooter. We needed to discuss what to in a case like that.

"..I guess it"s about time to go."

We finished up our discussion and after burying the the chicken bones and other food in a hole we did a final check of our equipment.

Bayonet, good.
Knife, good.
Survival kit, good.
The various bands including the tie for my helmet, good.

Everyone else is checking their equipment as well.
Along with the usual equipment Bel has one of the net shooters on her. Furthermore she brought along 1 of the Arrows of Blindness just in case.
Miduchi has the spare net shooter and 3 Arrows of Blindness.
And then Angela is using the rifle. This time Angela isn"t carrying a shield.
Basutoral and Zulu who carried the nets up to here have finally gotten lighter.

"We"ll go with {Hammer Head.Three} with 5 meter intervals."

Zenom stands in the center of the formation with Toris on his right, then Ralpha to the right of that. Zulu is on Zenom"s left and further to the left from Zulu is me. Basutoral is standing at the head of the handle portion of the hammer and behind him is Gwine followed by Angela, Bel, and Miduchi who are in formation in the shape of a T.

And then we charged into the room and just as expected roughly 500 meters into the room the sensation of the 5 at the lead almost simultaneously disappeared from {Party-ization}. Since we were already used to it on the 8th and 9th floors and had predicted it ahead of time there"s not a single person in a panic over it. Everyone is calm.

Immediately after Toris hid behind a nearby rock before activating the flames of {Flame.Tongue} for just a moment. It seems there"s no problem with the usage of {Magic.Items}.

Just as planned the members acting as the handle of the hammer continue advancing while we switch over to the formation {Echelon.Two}. The moment we enter sight of the guardian the room will get bright and the moment Bel fires the net this time we"ll change formation to {Balance.Two} as Miduchi takes command over the whole.

Since I don"t have any projectile weapons it"s best for me to act as a p.a.w.n on the front line.
It would be fine for me to use the rifle as well but if it comes to that then the combat strength of our front line would decrease considerably.

Up until now there"s been no major difference between the center rooms on the 8th and 9th floors.

We should enter the sight of the guardian if we proceed another 400 meters and I"m sure the cage of lightning bolts will activate.

We continued advancing carefully.

...............................

Long before the point we were expecting the room suddenly got bright and following that the cage of lightning bolts activated. There"s still rugged rocks all around us. Though the size of the rocks are smaller and only about the height of a person we still can"t confirm the appearance of the guardian that should be below the pillar ahead of us.

Everyone including myself suddenly tense up.
Our plans weren"t set until another 50 meters ahead.

This, isn"t a mino!
Even if it is a mino it"s one that"s even more powerful!

"{Arrowhead.Six}! Our field of vision is bad here, advance forward! Bel, the moment you see the opponent fire!!"

I immediately gave the order to put Bel at the lead with Miduchi and Angela behind her on both sides as the {Saviors} quickly switched into formation following my orders and started advancing at a fast pace. The fact that the room brightened up means that the guardian knows we"re here so there"s no point in trying to hide our footsteps at this point.

Also, the fact that it was able to detect us at this distance means the opponent has sharp detection senses on the level of ogre mages otherwise it might have a skill like {Vibration.Sensing} similar to the Sand Sharks and Lesser Yowie. Even if it does have such a skill, I don"t know whether it"s using that or not.

After dashing about 20 meters ahead Bel jumped on top of a 1 meter high rock and prepared to fire the net shooter. Following behind her Miduchi and Angela both deployed to the sides before preparing their weapons. What I saw in the direction they were looking were 2 large humanoid monsters that seemed to be over 3 meters tall running over here.

Their legs look thick and st.u.r.dy and their tiptoes are split into two as if they only have two toes, then at the end of those are sharp claws.
It seems there"s also a large sharp finger at the back of their heel as well.
Their arms are thick and they appear to have four fingers but all of those have similar sharp claws just like their feet.
They have wide bodies almost like they"re covered in chitin and the color is a dark brown {Amber} close to black.
On top of their bodies there"s a large horizontally flat head almost as if it was embedded into their necks.
The width of it is almost the same as their body and probably close to 1 meter in size.
Below the front of their wide flat heads is a large mouth that seems like it reaches from one side to the other and I can see countless fangs inside of it.
On both sides of it"s mouth there"s a large curved fang that"s at least 10 cm long going towards the interior.
1 of the 2 has another pair of fangs on both the inside and outside that seems to be 10 times the length and has edged teeth along it almost like a stag beetle with a st.u.r.dy looking curved upper jaw.
The other 1 has an upper jaw with fangs that curve towards the outside but this ones just look slightly larger than the fangs on the inside.
Above their mouths there"s a pair of eyes almost like an animal that aren"t spread apart at very wide intervals but even further on the outside of their large flat heads there"s a pair of compound eyes almost like an insect giving off an emerald green light.

What in the world are those? Giant stag beetles!?

The giant stag beetles seem to be letting out a roar as they gradually accelerate running towards us.
The heavy thud sounds from their footsteps echo around the area allowing us to recognize once again just how big they are.

Since there"s 2 of them it would be ideal if Bel can capture both of them at once but I won"t say anything too extravagant.
It"s fine even if it"s just one of them.
They seem like troublesome monsters but if Miduchi can entangle the remaining one then I"m sure it"s over for them.

"!"

After seeing the appearance of the monsters Miduchi took a breath for just a moment but soon after that fired the net shooter. She fired it at almost the same time as Bel. After firing the net shooter Miduchi drew the sword at her waist and yelled.

"It"s an {Amber.Goliath}! {Spread}!"

Just from a glance it"s an opponent that looks dangerous.
All over the surface of it"s body it reflects dull light almost like a stag beetle.
I feel like, I"ve previously heard of the name {Amber.Goliath} itself from Miduchi.
Supposedly they encountered it when they were in the middle of expansion work for her hometown, the underground city Erurehei.
I remember it as being something that specializes in digging tunnels.
That"s right, supposedly it"s status comes up as {Underground.Vodyanoy} I think it was?

It seems that the nets Bel and Miduchi launched entangled the individual on the left side with the smaller jaw.

"Everyone, open up as wide of intervals as possible! The front line should try not to look at the opponent as much as possible!! Arrows won"t be able to pierce it!!"

That"s absurd!
But, there"s not a single person who said any complaints and let it dull their actions.

"Just watch their footsteps! If you look at both of the {Amber.Goliaths} outer eyes from nearby you"ll be confused! Maruso, you should retreat and put some distance between them before calmly aiming."

While Miduchi was in the middle of saying that Angela"s rifle let out a thunderous roar.
The bullet certainly hit the leg of the one with a large upper jaw.
It"s a sure thing if you first aim to injure it"s legs and steal it"s mobility so aiming for the legs was the right choice.

However, of all things!

The surface of the sh.e.l.l that covers it"s knees almost like armor let off some sparks!

The fact that it gave off sparks means that the bullet was deflected!?
No way!?

However, there"s one more shot.
After the thunderous roar echoed out once more a bullet was fired from the rifle and hit it"s large abdomen.
This time it didn"t give off any sparks and seems to have properly done some damage.
There"s a yellow liquid almost like pus spraying out from the hole in it"s abdomen.
I felt a bit relieved.

"Fall back, Maruso!! Just make sure you properly maintain your distance!"

At the same time as Miduchi"s strict voice sounded out, Zenom put some fighting spirit into it with a "Hmph!!" as he threw his axe.
The axe spun around in circles as it flew before stabbing into the right arm of the giant stag beetle as it tried to defend.
Nice diversion!

"Gimo~~~!!!"

The giant stag beetle with injuries to it"s right arm and stomach let out a scream in agony but even then continued running while swinging it"s large claws without lowering speed.
By the way, I wonder if being confused from looking at it"s eyes is a special skill?
Then wouldn"t it not be able to use it here?
Just in case I guess.

"Ku!!"

Bin~ and I heard the sound of bowstrings being released from Bel"s bow.
It seems she was aiming for the eyes on it"s head but the giant stag beetle shifted it"s posture slightly and took the arrow in an unexpected place.
The arrow was deflected.

"Arrows will bounce off! Bel you join in the front line! Zulu {Cover.3}!"

I listen to Miduchi shout towards Bel while dashing ahead with my bayonet at the ready.
Bullets can pa.s.s through it"s stomach and chest.
Then I should be able to manage with my bayonet as well.

"5! 3! 10! Ooooohh~!!"

I simply convey my plan while ducking under the claws of it"s left arm and stab into the place believed to be it"s abdomen.
Good resistance!

"Geeee~!!"

Don"t scream in my ear. You"re too loud~
I twist around my bayonet trying to expand the damage.

"Saji! Cover for Al!! Ral you go from {Right.2}, Toris and Zulu go {Left.11}!"

After receiving my orders I listen to Miduchi as she gives out commands at a fast pace and evade the attack from it"s arm as it pulls it back.

"Ta~rya!"

A spear is thrust over the top of my head.
Basutoral huh?

"Eeei!!"

Gakun~ and the posture of the giant collapsed.
It seems that Ralpha"s axe hit it"s injured right arm.
In the corner of my sight Zenom"s axe pulled itself out automatically and returned while rotating.

"Emeron!"

Toris stabbed into it"s left side with his sword covered in flames and then ran past while slicing it.
A sizzling sound came out from it"s wound and in a moment an unpleasant smell started to appear.

"Gogyaaaaa!!!"

A high-pitched shriek started surging out from right above me.

"Hmph!!"

After Toris ran by it seems Zulu dealt a blow to it"s left arm with his b.a.s.t.a.r.d sword.
What a magnificent combo.
It must be the results of their usual training.
Miduchi yelled, "Maruso! Restrain the other one!" while entering position to cover for me.

"Gabubado!"

It seems Bel"s finally drawn her sword and started charging.
Ralpha is still holding it in check to my left.

"To the right!!"

Hearing Gwine"s shout I shifted my position to the right of the giant while pulling out my bayonet.
The stance of the giant collapsed and it fell with it"s left knee to the ground.
A magic spear was suddenly thrust through the area that my body was in up until now.
However, the giant suddenly opened it"s upper jaw and towards me..!

"Quickly!!"

At the last minute Miduchi entered to cover for me and cut off one of it"s upper jaws.
Almost simultaneously Angela fired a bullet to hold back the other enemy.
Once again Basutoral and Gwine thrust their spears and helped avert the giants only remaining upper jaw away from me.

It"s the beat-it-from-all-sides mode the same as last time.

"Uaaaaaa!!?"

That"s Ralpha"s voice!
Fear, anxiety, excitement, confusion, chaos, there"s a lot of emotions mixed into it.
I spontaneously looked in her direction.
Obviously during that time the giant was still on one knee...

It flexed the inner fangs of it"s remaining upper jaw and fixed it"s aim towards me.
Both of it"s large compound eyes at the base of it"s upper jaw entered my sight.
Each of it"s small individual compound eyes are flashing giving off a minute light.

What? Is this?
I can"t take my eyes off it.
Even though there wasn"t anything at all when I saw it from the distance...

Suddenly I felt like throwing up and my vision started twisting together.