Chapter 72: Versus Demon Race II
"Limit Break," a skill that temporarily triples ones basic stats using magic power, however, it is literally breaking one's limit; so, it cannot be used for a long period and the user will be weakened proportionally to the time it was use afterwards. That is because of the severe fatigue and results in the inability to use even half of one's original power. Therefore, the time and place to use this last-resort skill should be thought out carefully.
Because of the demonic beast's strength and recovery, Kouki judged that the morale of his companions would plummet if this kept up, so he used "Limit Break" to immediately defeat the White Crow and the Demon race woman.
With Kouki's declaration of "Limit Break," pure white light wrapped around his body. At the same time, the Brutal-look-alike, whose mace attack was counter attacked again, didn't notice the change in Kouki.
"O' blade-like will, bear the light and tear my enemy, "Light Sword"!"
Kouki bent his body forward to dodge the Brutal-look-alike's mace. He then immediately slashed from below using the Holy Sword which was extended by the blade of light.
He had slashed the enemy before by using "Light Sword," and although it received a severe wound, it wasn't life-threatening. However, this time he was using "Limit Break," which tripled his stats, and with the effect of "Light Sword," the Brutal-look-alike was diagonally cut in two, as though it was made of butter.
One beat later, the Brutal-look-alike's body shifted diagonally and boom!, it crumbled with a raw sound. Kouki put strength into his legs and immediately accelerated fiercely towards the Demon race woman.
Nothing obstructed the space between Kouki and the Demon race woman. Although it was said that the Demon race was a superior race in terms of magic, but it was too late for her to do anything. With this, she would be slashed along with the white crow, the end. Everyone thought so.
At that moment,
"""""GUUURAAAAAARRRRRWW!!!"""""
"Wha—!?"
There were six blurred spaces, and they attacked Kouki while roaring loudly. Because the Chimeras were attacking simultaneously from all sides, Kouki instinctively raised an astonished voice and his eyes opened wide.
He immediately slammed the brake, dodging the attack from the front, and used Holy Sword to slash the Chimera attacking from his right. Next, he believed in the performance of the Holy Armor and endured the deadly attack he received on his back.
However, those were the only things he could do. The claws of the Chimera on his left hit his shoulder. He flew outside of the encirclement when the last Chimera suddenly jumped, dug its foreleg claws on Kouki's shoulders, and pinned him.
"Ack!!" A cry slipped through his grit his teeth.
He was barely able to stop the Chimera that was about to pierce its fangs in the scruff of his neck with Holy Sword. With claws digging into his shoulders, the power to block the jaws was reduced. Kouki who had already broken his limit was gradually cornered, and he could not bring forth enough power.
"O' light of grace, bring your healing and warning to this place, "Heavenly Burn"! "Binding Seal"!"
Seeing Kouki in such a pinch, Kaori promptly activated recovery magic spells. "Heavenly Burn" was a mid-ranked healing magic with a single target. Its effect was higher than the recovery magic, "Heavenly Time," she used earlier to heal several people. However, the Chimera's claws were digging in Kouki's shoulders, so it wouldn't be healed the way things were going.
Therefore, she activated mid-ranked restraining magic of the light element, "Binding Seal," at the same time she activated the healing magic. "Binding Seal" was a magic that produced a cage of light centering on the confined object — Kaori used that magic on Kouki. The cage of light instantaneously expanded around Kouki and pushed the Chimera away.
With the claws coming out of his shoulders, "Heavenly Burn" demonstrated its effect and Kouki's wounds were instantly healed.
At the same time, some people from the rear, such as Suzu and the rear guard group who were fighting against the Chimera and the six-legged turtle, released attack magics towards the Chimeras attacking Kouki. However the distance was too far and they could not get a good aim, even when they had had the effects of Kaori's "Heavenly Perimeter," they were still unable to deal great damages to the Chimeras.
Even so, they were able to buy time for Kouki to regain his balance. Next, he readied his Holy Sword, chanted, and charged to counter attack when he was fully healed.
""Soaring Four Wing Blades""
He swung the Holy Sword which drew a curve in the air, and four slashes of light appeared from the space where he swung at. The targeted Chimeras sensed the crisis beheld by Kouki's action strengthened by "Limit Break," and immediately jumped away to evade.
However,
"Capture them, "Restrain"!"
With a chantless-like short chant, Kaori activated mid-ranked restraining magic of the light element, "Restrain." Numerous chains of light jumped out from the evading Chimeras' feet and twined around their neck and feet. Though it was not difficult to get out of it with the strength the Chimeras possessed, they were stopped for a moment and could not evade.
As a result, the four Chimeras were directly hit by Kouki's "Soaring Blade"s and died as their blood splattered around.
Kouki glared and pointed his Holy Sword towards the Demon race woman.
"How regrettable; your last resort was ineffective against us. Now there's nothing else to protect you!"
Upon hearing Kouki's words, the Demon race woman looked dubiously, no, looked at Kouki with amazement. In her mind, she thought, "Why was it necessary for him to declare that now? Wouldn't it be better for him to immediately slash me?"
Even though the Demon race woman should have been cornered, her composed attitude irritated Kouki. First she let out Chimeras, next Brutal-look-alikes, and now Chimeras again. Those surprise attacks were also the source of his irritation. "You only used surprise attacks and didn't fight fairly. Moreover, you're just spectating. What a coward!" Kouki shouted.
"… Well, that's not my last resort."
"What a bluff!"
"Anyway, forget about whether or not it's a bluff, but what will you do after you repel those? I have confirmed your power as the "Heretic Apostles," so I have no more business with you."
"What ar—"
"KYAAA!"
"— Kh!?"
The Demon race woman said while going through the trouble of flipping her hair, when a scream rang out from behind him the same time Kouki was questioning her.
Kouki reflexively looked back, and what greeted his eyes were five Brutal-look-alikes and Chimeras. Furthermore, there was a black, four-eyed wolf he had never seen before who was ridden by a 60 centimeter black cat with four tentacles. They simultaneously attacked his comrades and Kouki could see the spectacle where the black cat's tentacle pierced through the flank of one of his best friends in Nagayama's party, Nomura Kentarou. The one who screamed was Yoshino Mao, also from Nagayama's party.
"Kentarou! Damn you, don't you get carried away!"
"Mao, calm down! I will heal him!"
A member from their party, Endou Kousuke, slashed the tentacle that pierced Nomura and he glared at the black cat with eyes blazing in anger.
Nomura fell and raised an anguished voice, which made Yoshino dumbfounded, but only to be scolded by Tsuji Ayako who immediately activated healing magic. It was a blessing that she completed her chant completed before the tentacle cut by Endou healed up.
"Wh—, there are still more—!"
As he looked back, Kouki made a surprised sound because there were new reinforcements that appeared unbeknownst to him.
"The effect of Chimera's peculiar magic, "Camouflage," activates on whoever it touched. Or have you not thought of such a thing? Looks, there's more of them."
"Kh!?"
The large amount of demonic beasts that suddenly appeared had reversed the situation, and Kouki and his comrades were now the ones who were inferior in terms of numbers. Seeing that, Kouki hurriedly turned back. To Kouki, the Demon race woman gave away the secret of the Chimera's "Camouflage" effect and further revealed more demonic beasts. Ten four-eyed wolves and black cats appeared from behind her and rushed towards Kouki.
"Kuh— oOO!"
The black cats' tentacles extended at extraordinary speed and attacked Kouki from all directions. Kouki made a pinwheel rotation to cut the incoming tentacles using the Holy Sword, but one of the black cats had gotten close to his side and tried to hit him. It was aiming at Kouki's face, so the jumping black cat shouldn't have been able avoid his attack mid-air. Kouki said, "One down!," when he was convinced of the demonic beast's death.
However, his conviction was easily overturned in the next moment. Somehow, the black cat did a somersault in mid-air and avoided Kouki's attack. Next, sharp claws that didn't suit the cat's physique targeted Kouki's neck.
Kouki was barely able to move his head and avoided the attack, but he was unable to respond to a four-eyed wolf's attack that came from behind him, due to the collapse of his balance. It didn't result in a serious injury thanks to his defense of his armor and the strength from exceeding his limit. He then mightily jumped away and returned to his comrades.
With that, the obviously abnormally strong demonic beasts surrounded Kouki's party. Everyone tried to fight back desperately, but what was even more troublesome was that the enemies had suddenly increased in numbers and were cooperating. In addition, the white crow would immediately heal the demonic beasts if they didn't die in one hit.
Although the frontline somehow managed to avoid collapsing, thanks to the continuous healing of Kaori and the other "Healer," Tsuji Ayako, they still could not do anything to break the situation.
Kouki dealt damage to the enemies using the power he gained from "Limit Break," but it had become impossible for him to attack the demonic beasts with "hit and run" tactic while cooperating with the others.
With high-speed movement comparable to Shizuku's "No Beat," the black cat and the four-eyed wolf that possessed a skill called "Prediction," had excellent teamwork which resulted in the evasion of what should have been a mortal wound.
They desperately fought back, but shadows of despair gradually began to loom over the expression of the classmates. That feeling grew larger thanks to the participation of the Demon race woman in the battle.
"The golden eyed lizard sleeping in the depth of the ground, the magic-eyed king born in this world, the one who brought the curse of darkness within his view. What I seek is the eternal and everlasting prison of darkness. Neither terror, nor despair, nor sorrow, to lock out my enemies with those eyes, and what remains would be demise, only cold sanction sculptures. Crush everything and return them to the ground! "Final Prison"!"
Immediately after the chant was finished, a gray orb appeared from the woman of the Demon race's outstretched hand and flew towards Kouki's party drawing a parabola. Although it could not be called fast, there's no one currently in Kouki's party who could not evade it. At a glance, it was truly not a marvelous magic, but the one whose abdomen pierced by the tentacle, Nomura Kentarou, was already pale faced because of the blood loss, and became paler. He shouted,
"Kh!? Fuck! Taniguchi—!! Stop that thing! Use your barrier!"
"Eh!? R-Roger! Bring a sanctuary that won't let the God's enemy pass here! "Holy Interruption"!"
Nomura, who was at his wit's end ordered, and Suzu used shortened chants to invoke high-ranked defense magic of the light element. The shining barrier created a dome-like state and surrounded Kouki's party. Because "Holy Interruption" didn't have a function to detect friend or foe, there were lots of demonic beasts wrapped inside the dome-like barrier. Not only was it a strong magic, it also had high magic power consumption rate. It was the reason why it was often not used in meaningless fights. However, Nomura's shout told her the danger of the magic activated by the Demon race woman, so at the very least, she wanted to use a strong barrier magic and immediately chose "Holy Interruption."
The gray-colored swirling orb immediately collided with the barrier right after Suzu expanded the "Holy Interruption." The gray orb had tremendous pressure and strength belied by its appearance to break through the barrier. To not let it break through, Suzu gritted her teeth and desperately endured the feeling of her magic power being consumed.
Then, as if they received an order from the Demon race woman, the demonic beasts' movements changed. Several all of them began to aim at Suzu simultaneously.
"Suzu!"
"Protect Taniguchi!"
Eri fired her magic to obstruct the approaching Brutal-look-alike as she called Suzu's name. With Suzu in the center, there was Eri with Saitou Yoshiki and Kondou Reiichi fighting against a Chimera, and a four-eyed wolf in opposite of her. Nomura came to Suzu's side.
However, a black cat suddenly appeared from the crack of their defense towards the unmoving Suzu who could not move while maintaining "Holy Interruption." Nomura immediately activated "Stone Spear" and skew it to the ground. However, the black cat was zigzagging mid-air, bent its body to avoid the stone spear, and thrust out all of its tentacles.
"Taniguchii!"
"Agh!?"
Nomura called Suzu's name to warn her, but it was too late. The tentacles had instantly pierced the Suzu's stomach, thigh, and right arm while she tried to dodge. Her small body was caught and was thrown to the side with a strong force.
With splattered blood, Suzu's back struck the ground and her breath hung. Then, she screamed due to the incapability to endure the severe pain the same time she regained her breath.
"AaAaAUGH!!"
"Suzu-chan!"
"Suzu!"
Hearing her agonized voice, Kaori and Eri instantly screamed Suzu's name. Although Kaori tried to focus her mind to activate healing magic, but the shining barrier Suzu made had disappeared first.
"Everyone, get away from that orb!"
Nomura warned the others with a voice filled with frustration. However, up till now, no magic could rival Suzu's impregnable defense, "Holy Interruption." That was why his warning came too slow.
With the disappearance of the barrier, the swirling grey orb flew mightily, crashed into the ground and exploded soundlessly, and scattered grey smoke to the surroundings tremendously.
Saitou, Kondou, and Nomura, ran towards Suzu who had collapsed in agony nearby. The grey smoke immediately wrapped around them. There were no shadows of demonic beasts. All of them had simultaneously distanced themselves at once.
The grey smoke continued to extend and tried to engulfed Kouki and the others.
"Come, O' wind! "Wind Bomb"!"
Kouki immediately used wind magic to create a squall, which pushed the grey smoke outside the room.
Maybe because it was created with magic, the smoke didn't easily get blown out of the room unlike ordinary smoke, but because Kouki's magic was strengthened thanks to the "Limit Break," he successfully blew the smoke away after some struggle, into the dungeon passageway.
However, what was left by the smoke was…
"That can't be, Suzu!"
"Nomura-kun"
"Saitou! Kondou!"
Saitou and Kondou had completely petrified and became unable to speak, while Suzu had her lower half of her body petrified, and Nomura who covered Suzu had the left side of his body petrified.
Saitou and Kondou were petrified with dumbfounded expressions because they didn't understand what had happened. Suzu whose lower half petrified, coupled with severe pain, had lost her consciousness with a truly pained expression.
On the other hand, the one who protected Suzu, Nomura, had the most negligible damage, but he still let out a pained groan while gritting his teeth looking like he seemed to be enduring an acute pain. Nomura's damage was slight because he was an "Earth Magic-user." Carrying the highest aptitude to earth attribute, it was natural he had high resistance against magic from Earth element.
In addition, Nomura instantaneously saw through the Demon race woman's magic because it was of the Earth element, which he had studied — high-ranked offensive magic, "Final Prison." It was a troublesome magic scattering petrifying grey smoke. Even if it was only a slight touch, the magic would gradually invade the body until one was completely petrified, and the only action to prevent it was to create barrier that'd hold up until the effect has worn off, or use strong magic to blow the smoke away. Moreover, the barrier would also be petrified unless it was a high-ranked one, and the smoke could also only be blown away using a high-ranked magic.
"Bastard! How dare you!"
Kouki raised an enraged expression because of the disaster that fell upon his comrades. Kouki, who was wrapped in a shining light due to the effect of "Limit Break," began to shine in a brighter dazzling light. He looked like he would charge towards the Demon race woman at any moment.
However, Shizuku acted as a stopper to Kouki when she yelled with an admonishing voice, followed by telling him to withdraw with all of their might.
"Stop! Kouki! Let's withdraw! The path of retreat is clear now!"
"Wh—!? After what had happened, how can I run away?!"
However, with his fury from seeing his comrades getting hurt, Kouki glared and objected to Shizuku's plan of retreating. The pressure Kouki released rushed towards Shizuku, but she received it as though it was nothing, and pressured him instead with a stern expression.
"Listen! Kaori will surely cure them. However, it'll take time. There's also the possibility of it being too late if we are too slow to treat them. So it is necessary to withdraw now and recover! Besides, we lack three people now, so if you rush out, everyone won't be able to endure the next attack! We'll truly be annihilated!"
"Ugh, but…"
"In addition, isn't it about time your "Limit Break" reached dangerous time? In this situation, it'll be truly the end if Kouki is weakened! Please calm down! Everyone also feels the same as you!"
Hearing the logical words of his childhood friend, Kouki hesitated as he bit his lip when he noticed the bleeding at the edge of Shizuku's lips, and he felt his boiling head go cold. Shizuku was also mortified. Before she knew it, she had cut her lip. Her important comrades had been done in, and if possible she wanted to immediately beat up her enemy.
"Okay! Everyone, time to retreat! Shizuku, Ryuutarou! Please endure it for a little longer!"
"Leave it to me!"
"Right on!"
Kouki thrusted up the Holy Sword and began a long chant. Until now, he didn't use any long chant because it would not have defused their earlier situation. However, it was now the perfect magic to clear a path for their retreat. But, it became necessary for him to entrust his defense to Shizuku and Ryuutarou because he was completely defenseless when he's chanting. In other words, they must face the demonic beasts aiming for Kouki. Naturally, even if Shizuku and Ryuutarou could not cope with it, they would still desperately fight back with considerable vigor even with injuries.
"Do you think I'll let you escape?" When she said this, the Demon race woman ordered the demonic beasts to block the passage behind Kouki's party. Then, she began to chant magic, with the chanting Kouki as her target.
However, that's when something abnormal began to happen to the Demon race woman.
"""""ROOOOAR!!"""""
"Kh!? Why!"
Somehow, five of the Chimeras that should be her allies were attacking the woman. While being surprised with widely opened eyes, she immediately resumed and used a shortened chant to activate her magic. High density of dust clouds became swirling blades with the woman in the center, cutting two of the attacking Chimeras. The attacks from the remaining Chimeras were somehow avoided by blowing herself away using the dust clouds.
The Demon race woman yelled, "Why am I being attacked!?" She was agitated while staring at the Chimeras that attacked her. Then, she noticed something — all of the Chimeras had parts of their bodies destroyed. There's one that was headless, and one with a deep scar in its body which still had blood dripping from it even now.
"These…"
Just as the Demon race woman noticed, the five Chimeras that attacked her were the ones defeated by Kouki. The should-be-dead Chimeras stood up and attacked her. The situation was unreal until the Demon race woman recalled a certain magic and muttered, "Don't tell me…"
"I won't let you disturb Kouki-kun!"
As she shouted so, Eri swung her hand like a baton and made the corpses of the Chimeras surround the Demon race woman.
"Tch! Necromancer, huh! I didn't get such information!"
The Demon race woman had prior investigations before she waited in ambush for Kouki's party. From the information, there's no mention of someone capable using super difficult magic such as Necromancy, so this situation was completely unexpected. That was because, even though Eri had "Necromancer" as her class, she was bad at it and never use Necromancy in actual combat, but now this fact worked in their favor.
Even if I am bad at it, I'll just overcome it! Eri thought while she glared at the Demon race woman with a powerful gaze, and skillfully manipulated the Chimeras as though it wasn't her first time doing it in actual combat. However, she was just going to buy time rather than defeating the Demon race woman.
In the meantime, Kaori used "Focus" and "Ten Thousand Heavens" on Suzu. Among the party members, Suzu was the one in the direst situation, which was why she decided on focusing healing Suzu first. "Ten Thousand Heavens" was a mid-ranked healing magic of the light element capable of curing abnormal statuses. However, the petrification magic was a considerably strong magic, and she couldn't cured it all. Though the holes in her abdomen and arm were immediately recovered, she had lost a considerable amount of blood. She was in such a critical situation where needed immediate rest. It was also necessary to heal the hole in her leg the moment her petrification is undone.
Nomura, with a petrified left side of his body, had been diligently worked on to be released from his abnormal state by Tsuji Ayako. Tsuji Ayako had a high aptitude for healing magic, but the fact that Nomura had high resistance against earth magic, made his recovery rate considerably faster. His petrified leg had already been cured.
However, even with that, Tsuji Ayako could only grit her teeth when she sneaked a peek at Kaori swinging her white wand. Although their class was the same, "Healer," Kaori was obviously above her in terms of capability. Kaori was using magic to simultaneously heal Suzu who had far more serious injuries than Nomura. In addition, she sometimes used healing magic on Shizuku and Ryuutarou who were in battle to defend Kouki. It was a feat impossible to be mimicked by Ayako. She was mortified and felt miserable because she couldn't heal all of her allies while being in a dire situation.
Although Nomura seemed to want to say something to Ayako in regards to what she was feeling, he thought it was not the right time, so he bore the pain and muttered an incantation.
With their fighting force deceased and Kouki out of the fight, Hiyama and Nakano were covered in wounds as they confronted many demonic beasts. On the other side, Nagayama's party and Eri, who were protecting the two healers, noticed they had almost reached their limits. With the current flow, it would only be several minutes before they completely exhaust themselves.
Light gathered in Kouki's Holy Sword, but Nakano, who was about to cry at any moment, panicked when she thought of this as a suicidal action. The party members anxiously waited for the time… which finally came.
"Here I go! "Heavenly Downpour"!"
One flashing line fired from the thrusted up Holy Sword. The light exploded and scattered before the ceiling, pouring down towards the surrounding demonic beasts like meteors.
This "Heavenly Downpour" was an attack magic from light element where it flew above enemies, could pinpoint several enemies, and attacked them simultaneously. Its power wasn't that high since its power was distributed among the scattered lights, and was originally used to clean up a lot of small fries. But in "Limit Break" state, this bombing-like magic was enough to clean up demonic beasts in 50th floor.
However, the abnormally strong demonic beasts brought by the demon race woman didn't receive that much damage as expected, and at most, it only blew them away from his comrades as far as possible. But it was enough for Kouki. By creating a gap, his comrades would be able to retreat while the demon race woman was still occupied by the Chimera controlled by Eri.
Having confirmed so, Kouki demonstrated the characteristic of the magic which had a stupidly long chanting.
""Converge"!"
As it pour down from the heaven, the rain of light that made the demonic beasts retreat temporarily, once again converged into the Holy Sword. The spectacle where the meteors converged as they left trails was quite a fantastic scene. Kouki thrusted the Holy Sword straight, and it shone as it cladded in light towards the demonic beasts that positioned themselves before the passage the retreat path of him and his comrades. With a war cry, he pulled the last trigger from the a series of magic.
""Heavenly Claws Downpour"!"
Immediately, numerous meteors shot like a bombardment when his thrusted the Holy Sword forward. Even though it looked the same as previous attack, it had far stronger power since Kouki used his trump card, "Heaven Might," and naturally it swept away the demonic beasts that closed their retreat path.
Normally, even if he wanted to use "Heaven Might," the chant was long and he didn't want Shizuku and Ryuutarou to protect him any longer than needed.
Even so, "Heavenly Claws Downpour" was the best technique he had in the current situation. The meteor-like torrent of lights went straight towards the demonic beasts blocking their retreat path, and caused numerous explosions simultaneously at the moment of impact. The bombardment that consisted of numerous light bullets exploded like the cluster bomb. The consecutive impacts resulted in the broken balance of the demonic beasts as they were being blown away.
"""ROOOOAR!!"""
The demonic beasts screamed as they closed their eyes. "Heavenly Claws Downpour" had an additional effect, blindness, caused by looking at the flash. The strong light generated in close proximity burnt their sights. Rubbing their eyes with their backhands, the demonic beasts blindly rampaged.
These demonic beasts were already out of Kouki's party's path of retreat. A way had opened straight to the passage.
"Now! Let's retreat!"
With Kouki's order, everyone simultaneously moved. Nagayama had carried the petrified Kondou and Saitou on his shoulders while Endou shouldered the fainted Suzu. Even though his left arm was still petrified, Nomura stood up by himself, endured the acute pain, and began to run towards the passage.
"Tch! Don't let them escape! Capture them!"
While fighting the last two Chimeras, the demon race woman ordered the unharmed demonic beasts. The demonic beasts moved as instructed and began their pursuit at once. Chimeras, four-eyed wolves, and black cats, they were all swift-footed demonic beasts, and the distance between them and Kouki's party was shortened in less than no time.
It was at that time Nomura turned around. With pained face, he thrusted out his right hand and revealed a fearless smile.
"Don't ever think I'll be defeated in earth magic! It's my payback! "Final Prison"!"
The same swirling grey orb just like the demon race woman's magic shot out from Nomura's hand. The magic orb transmitting petrification smoke collided with the incoming demonic beasts. When the demon race woman activated "Final Prison" a while ago, even without her saying anything, the demonic beasts immediately distanced themselves. That's why Nomura the demonic beasts could sense the danger that lies within the spell, and chanted it in preparation to use on the pursuer as he was retreating.
What Nomura concluded turned out to be true. The moment the grey orb shot out, the charging demonic beasts immediately slammed on their brakes and began to jumped back to distance themselves and return to their previous location. At the same time, the smoke became a smokescreen concealing the appearances of Kouki and his comrade as they were retreating.
In addition, Endou used magic to erase the remains of magic power and traces of their smells. Endou's class was an "Assassin," so he had natural talent in covert magic, and the demonic beasts were likely unable to pursue them.
The entrance of the previous room already looked smaller behind them, and maybe it was just their imagination, but mortified howls of demonic beasts seemed like it was resounding.
Kouki's party felt mortified because of their ragged bodies and their comrades who could not open their eyes. However, they also feel glad they survived, and continued to run away without saying anything.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone