Chapitre 30: A New Meeting
Dawn.
The glimmer of the moon was fading rapidly, its light being siphoned by the sun rising
to the east. Hajime, Yue, and Shea were already ready to depart. The three of them
were standing outside the Water Sprite Inn, their packs filled with riceballs for the
road.
Despite the extremely early hour, Foss had prepared breakfast for them without
complaint.
Truly a first-rate inn. Always one to give credit where credit was due, Hajime thanked
Foss profusely for the riceballs and the service.
They quickly left for the north gate, the morning mist still clinging to the ground. The
path beyond the gate stretched on toward the mountains. The foot of the mountains
was a hard day's ride on horseback, so on Steiff it would take them only a few hours.
Today would mark the fifth day since Will Cudeta's party disappeared in the
mountains. Chances were they were long dead. Hajime doubted he'd find anyone alive,
but there was always the possibility they'd survived against all odds. If he did bring
them back alive, that make Ilwa like Hajime all the more, so he wanted to start looking
as fast as possible. Fortunately, the weather was fair. The perfect day for a search.
The sounds of a town waking up could be heard as they headed down the main street.
After a few minutes, they reached the north gate.
As they approached, Hajime sensed a few people standing by the exit and narrowed
his eye. They weren't moving.
As the morning mist cleared… he saw Aiko, Yuka, and the other six students.
"I think I can guess what you're here for, but I'll ask just in case." Hajime glared at Aiko.
Aiko faltered under his withering gaze, but she stood her ground. A few feet away the
students were stroking their horses and talking about something. They noticed
Hajime and the others and walked over to Aiko.
"We're coming with you. You're looking for a missing person, right? It's better to have
more people looking, then."
"No thanks. If you want to come, you're welcome to, but we're not going together."
"Wh-Why not?"
"Because of the difference in our speed. I'm not going to match your slow place,
Sensei." Hajime stared pointedly at the horses standing behind Yuka. From the looks
of them he doubted they could even handle having people ride them, but he didn't say
anything. Even if they'd been the fastest horses in the realm, they couldn't hope to
match a motorcycle's speed.
At Hajime's words, Yuka looked around, then tilted her head in confusion. As far as she
could see, there wasn't any other means of transportation in sight.
"You're saying we're too slow, but… hey, Nagumo. You're not going to say something
crazy like you can run faster than these horses or anything, right? Just because you
don't care about us anymore doesn't give you the right to lie to us, you know? And if
you really can run faster that's even worse… Honestly, that crazy pressure you
released yesterday was like that too, it's like you've stopped being human."
Hajime was taken aback by Yuka's bluntness. Though he couldn't deny that he
probably could outrun a horse just by running. In a sense, he really had stopped being
human. Yuka hadn't actually intended to say that, but her annoyance had just boiled
over and she'd let it slip. However, her observations had been rather astute.
Hajime met Yuka's gaze. She was glaring at him, whether warily, antagonistically, or
something else altogether he couldn't tell, but he let out a very deliberate sigh.
Realizing explaining would be too much of a pain, Hajime wordlessly pulled Steiff out
of his Treasure Trove.
Everyone's jaw dropped open as they saw a motorcycle appear in thin air.
"Get it yet? Even if they sound like lies to you, they're not. Hell, I probably could run
faster than those horses. I'm not trying to bullshit you guys. There literally is that much
of a difference in our travel speed." Everyone was still too shocked by Steiff's sudden
appearance and its otherworldly, at least as far as this world was concerned, nature to
say anything.
Finally, the motorcycle enthusiast of the class, Noboru, spoke up, a quiver of
excitement in his voice.
"D-Did you make this yourself too Nagumo?"
"Yeah. Anyway, we're going so get out of the way." Hajime made to mount Steiff, but
Aiko, as always, stopped him. She was determined to join them by any means possible.
There were two reasons for her stubbornness.
First, she wanted to be sure what Hajime had told her last night was the truth. That a
classmate had tried to kill him was a serious allegation, and she had to be 100% sure
Hajime hadn't just been mistaken. And if he hadn't, she had to know who he thought
this would-be murderer was. She needed more information. If there was even the
slightest chance of preventing further misfortune, Aiko wanted to do everything in her
power to help. And since there was no guarantee she would ever see Hajime again
after their search was over, this was her only chance to catch him.
The second reason she wanted to tag along was to search for their own missing
student, Yukitoshi Shimizu. They'd been looking high and low for him, but no one in
the outlying villages had seen anyone matching his description.
The only place they hadn't been able to gather much information from was the
mountain region, where people normally didn't live anyway. Regardless of whether
he'd been caught up in some kind of incident or left of his own volition, it was unlikely
that he'd ended up in the mountains, so they'd avoided it until now. However, as the
opportunity had presented itself, Aiko was hoping to join up with Hajime in order to
search for clues about Shimizu's whereabouts.
Though it was half-coincidence that Yuka and the others were here too.
In order to ambush Hajime on his way out, Aiko had gotten up even before the crack
of dawn. Yuka, who'd slept very little because of the previous day's events had just
happened to spot Aiko leaving her room.
Dressed in traveling gear as she was, there was no way she could have fooled Yuka.
After learning that Aiko was going to try and join Hajime on his quest, Yuka had said
"Then I'll come too! Just give me 40 seconds to get ready!"
She insisted that if Aiko was going, the Ai-chan defense force would too, and she woke
up all the other students and got them to tag along.
They didn't wake the knights, though, as they figured they'd just get into another fight
with Hajime, so they just left a letter telling them to wait at the inn. Whether or not
they actually would was a different matter… Aiko sidled up to Hajime and whispered
to him quietly.
It was obvious she didn't want others hearing what she had to say. This close up,
Hajime could tell that she was hiding the dark circles under her eyes with makeup. Did
she not sleep at all last night?
"Nagumo-kun. As a teacher, I have to know more about what you told me last night, so
until you agree to sit down and have a proper talk I'll never let you out of my sight.
And if you do manage to escape, I'll chase you to the ends of the earth. I'm sure you'd
like to avoid that, right? It can be while we're traveling or searching even, but I need
you to make time to talk. If you do that, then I'll be willing to say our farewells once
your job here is done… for now." Seeing the determination in her eyes, Hajime
regretted telling her that last bit of information the previous night. Despite how much
she ended up running around aimlessly, Aiko was stubborn to a fault. Even if he
slipped away here, he could easily see her organizing the entire knight corps of the
kingdom to search for him.
He looked up at the sky, and saw it was quickly growing brighter. If he wanted to find
Will alive, he didn't have time to waste on a long question and answer session.
I guess you reap what you sow. Hajime sighed deeply, then met Aiko's gaze.
"Fine. You can come with us. Though I doubt we'll have any time to really talk."
"That's fine. There's just some things I want to confirm with you directly."
"Haah, you just don't give up, do you, Sensei? No matter what you do or where you are,
you're still our teacher."
"That's right!" Aiko proudly puffed out her chest. Seeing that negotiations had ended
favorably, Yuka and the others breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hajime, we're taking her with us?"
"Yep. Because no matter what happens, she'll never stop being my teacher. She never
compromises when it comes to her students. If we leave her here now, she'll just get
more annoying later."
"Hmm, she sounds like a really nice teacher."
Yue and Shea were surprised at how easily Hajime gave in. And when they heard his
grudging praise of her, their respect for Aiko rose considerably.
For his part, Hajime admired her dedication to her students, too. Even if he no longer
considered himself a regular human, or his former peers his classmates, he still
believed Aiko was one of the few adults who deserved his respect.
"But that motorcycle can't fit more than three people. What are you going to do?"
Yuka pointed out a fatal issue. The horses would be too slow and Hajime would never
dream of making Yue or Shea stay behind so Aiko could ride in their place. Hajime
casually put Steiff back into his Treasure Trove and instead pulled out the other
vehicle he'd made, Brise.
It resembled the Hummers the American military once used. Not only did it have a
thick armor plating, but there were numerous deadly weapons installed onto its
frame. The entire thing was painted matte black, too. Minus the rear turret, it was
modeled after those pick-up trucks, and looked like it could easily run over anything
in its path.
The students had already figured out Hajime must be using some type of artifact to
materialize and dematerialize these massive objects at will, but they were still
impressed. Seeing him now it was hard to imagine anyone had once called him
incompetent.
"Those of you who can't fit inside go sit in the trunk or something," Hajime said as he
got into the driver's seat.
Brise tore its way down the straight path, the mountains growing closer every minute.
It was nowhere nearly as well maintained as an actual highway, but Brise had built-in
suspensions. On top of that, its wheels were enchanted with the same ground leveling
skill that Steiff had, so even the guys sitting in the metallic trunk attached to the back
didn't feel any real discomfort.
The reason he'd bothered adding a trunk when he had the Treasure Trove was because
he really wanted an opportunity to sit in the back and fire a gatling gun while on a high
speed chase like in movies. His hobbies showed through a little in his creations.
The seats inside the car were all bench seats. Hajime was in the driver seat, with Aiko
next to him, and Yue next to her. The reason she was next to him was so they could
talk. She hadn't wanted any of the other students to hear just yet, so she'd insisted that
she sit next to him.
Normally, the seat next to Hajime was reserved for Yue, but he'd explained the
situation to her and she'd reluctantly agreed to let Aiko sit there for now. Aiko and Yue
were both quite tiny, so there was a lot of leftover space.
Meanwhile, the back where Shea was sitting was a bit cramped. Shea, Yuka, and Taeko
all possessed relatively… stacked assets, so they took up a decent amount of room.
Among them it was only Nana who was flat. She glared enviously at the other three
girls before looking down at her own modest chest. She gave them a forlorn pat, but
they were nowhere near as bouncy as the others.
However, it was Shea who felt the most uncomfortable. She was sandwiched between
Nana, who kept shooting jealous glances at her breasts, and Taeko, who kept pestering
her with questions about her relationship with Hajime. A forbidden love between
different races got every young high school girl's heart racing, after all.
Shea did her best to answer all the questions, despite being overwhelmed by Taeko's
enthusiasm. Meanwhile, Yuka was resting her chin in her arms and looking out the
window. She tried to look uninterested, but it was obvious she was curious too. She
kept stealing glances at Shea, as she was the one most curious about how they had
met.
Meanwhile, Hajime and Aiko's conversation was heading in an interesting direction.
Aiko had gleaned as much information as she could from Hajime. The more she
learned, the more she was convinced someone had tried to kill him, but she still didn't
want to believe it. When she'd asked him if anyone seemed particularly suspicious,
Hajime had just snorted and said that everyone did.
Hajime had floated the possibility that it might have been Hiyama. He was, of course,
right on the mark, but at present he only saw Hiyama as one of the possible suspects.
With the limited information she had, Aiko couldn't come to a definitive conclusion
either. Even if she could, Aiko wasn't sure how to bring a potential murderer back on
the right path, nor did she know how to make them atone for their crime.
She continued agonizing over it for a while longer, but the gentle rolling of the truck
and the soft sheet she'd wrapped herself in beckoned her to the land of dreams.
Finally, her head drooped forward, and she fell fast asleep onto Hajime's lap.
Had it been anyone else, Hajime would have flung them off him. However, he couldn't
bring himself to do that to Aiko, so after debating with himself for a few seconds, he
decided to just leave her be.
Besides, it was his fault she hadn't slept last night. After all, it was the overload of
information he'd dumped on her that had kept her up.
"I guess it's fine," he said in a rare display of tolerance.
"Hajime, you're nice to Aiko."
"Well, she has done a lot for me."
"Hmmm."
"Yue?"
"...…"
"Come on, Yue, don't ignore me. Please?"
"Let me sleep on your lap next time."
"Sure…"
The two were soon flirting openly with each other, despite the fact that Aiko was still
in his lap. In the back were two girls watching the spectacle up front with great
interest, one girl staring out the window pretending not to care, but still stealing
glances every now and again, and one sulking bunny girl. Behind them, three jealous
pairs of eyes were burning a hole through the back window.
It was hard to believe this group was headed into dangerous territory where one
highly skilled adventurer party had already gone missing.
The Northern Mountain Range. Mountains ranging from 1000 meters above sea level
to 8000 meters above sea level existed within the range, and the flora and even
environment varied drastically from mountain to mountain. One mountain might be
covered in trees with leaves the vibrant color of fall, but the next mountain over would
be a dense green jungle. And then there were mountains that resembled desolate
wastelands.
Moreover, no matter how many mountains one scaled, they would only see a sea of
mountains extending infinitely northward. The first four rows of mountains had been
somewhat explored, but past that was unknown territory.
A number of ambitious adventurers had tried mapping the entire range, but as the
strength of the monsters grew with each progressive mountain, no one had yet
managed to scale the fifth row.
The highest mountain in the first row was the so-called Sacred Mountain where the
Holy Church's headquarters were.
The section of the range Hajime was approaching was about 600 kilometers east of
that point. Directly in front of them was a towering slab of rock covered in the blazing
red and yellow hues of fall. Those well versed in botany would notice various spices
and herbs dotting the landscape as well. The mountain's vast bounty was one of the
main reasons for Ur's prosperity.
Hajime stopped Brise at the foot of the mountain, and the students spent a moment
enjoying the breathtaking view.
A few of the girls let out murmurs of appreciation. Meanwhile, Aiko had finally woken
up, and was as red as the leaves behind her as she apologized profusely to Hajime.
Fortunately, everyone else was too focused on the scenery to notice.
Suppressing his desire to enjoy the view for a little while longer, Hajime put Brise back
in his Treasure Trove and pulled something else out.
A thirty centimeter long model bird and a ring with a tiny stone embedded inside it.
The body of the bird was gray, but it had a crystal affixed to its head.
Hajime put the ring on, pulled another four model birds from his Treasure Trove, and
threw them into the air. Contrary to expectations, the model birds did not fall to the
ground. Instead, they floated freely in the sky. Aiko and the others gasped in surprise.
The four birds circled in place for a few seconds before gliding toward the mountain.
"Umm, what exactly…" Aiko trailed off as she watched the artificial birds glide away
without making a single sound.
Hajime's reply was "Scouting drones." In a sense, these objects were even more unfit
for a fantasy world than his guns or cars.
Hajime had crafted them with the same remotely controllable ore that Miledi had used
to make the golems they'd fought in the Reisen Labyrinth. He'd stolen… or rather been
gifted a large quantity of them before they had been unceremoniously thrown out.
While he had no aptitude for gravity magic, he had succeeded in using his creation
magic to enchant ore with gravity neutralizing magic, effectively creating floatstone.
By infusing a spirit stone with gravity control magic, he had successfully created what
he had dubbed esperrock. That was the nature of the crystals embedded into his
drones.
Like the golems' eyes, by pouring mana into the esperrock he could reflect what it was
seeing to another esperrock. This was how Miledi had kept track of Hajime's
movements in the labyrinth.
Hajime had added a fragment of esperrock to his devil eye, so he could check what the
drones were seeing whenever he pleased.
However, the brain's processing power was finite, and having four drones circle far
overhead already brought him close to the limits of his brain's ability. Hajime couldn't
figure out how Miledi had managed to control 50 golems at once.
Though, ever since he had learned Riftwalk, he had been able to train his brain's
processing power like any other stat, and he had grown to the point where he could
control a single drone with absolute precision without any noticeable drop in his own
movements. Furthermore, when he activated Riftwalk, he could accurately control up
to seven drones. Though that came with a time limit.
This time, though, he'd just brought his Ornises out to scout. They had a wide area to
search, so he figured they would be useful.
As they watched Hajime's Ornises fly off into the distance, Aiko and the students swore
to stop getting surprised at every little thing Hajime did. Unfortunately, they wouldn't
be able to make good on that oath for a while.
Meanwhile, the party continued down the path Will had supposedly gone up.
According to the reports, the more dangerous monsters only started showing up a
little over halfway up the mountain. In which case, it stood to reason that Will's party
had been investigating that area. Hajime sent his Ornises out ahead to scout the area
while he set a grueling pace.
After a little over an hour of walking, they finally reached their destination. They
stopped there in order to investigate more thoroughly, and because…
"Haah… Haaah… F-Finally, we can take a break… Ugh… Haah… Haah…"
"Haah… Haaah… Are you alright… Ai-chan-sensei?"
"Ack… Urgh… Can we rest now? Haah… Haah… We can, right? I'm sitting down, okay?"
"Ahhhhhh…"
"Haaah… Haaah… You and your friends are monsters, Nagumo…" Aiko and the
students had even less stamina than Hajime had expected.
Of course Aiko and the others had far greater stats than most people in this world, so
climbing this far wouldn't normally tire them out so. However, Hajime had been going
so fast that they'd had to sprint all out just to keep up. And sprinting nonstop up an
unfamiliar mountain path was more draining than they had expected.
Aiko was kneeling on the ground, panting for breath. Noboru and Akito were lying on
their backs, gulping in huge lungfuls of air. Meanwhile, Nana looked like she was about
to puke.
Surprisingly, Yuka and Taeko weren't on the ground. They were leaning tiredly against
a tree, but they didn't look ready to collapse just yet. Probably because both of them
had more frontline-centric jobs.
Yuka's job was Acrobat, while Taeko's was Whip Master. The former was a job that
specialized in throwing weapons such as knives or darts, while the latter, as the name
suggested, was proficient in whips, though they were also skilled in using all rope-like
objects.
The sight of the delinquent-looking Yuka juggling knives, while the flashy Taeko swung
a whip around was… depending on who you asked, either extremely surreal or
extremely fitting. The class was split fifty-fifty on it.
Atsushi and Noboru were frontliners as well, but… their stamina was clearly lacking
in comparison. Had anyone pointed it out, their hearts would probably have broken
right then and there.
Hajime sighed as he looked over at the other students. Though in the end he was
planning on searching the area anyway, so he supposed it was fine to let them take a
break in the meantime. He decided to investigate a nearby river while they rested.
Thanks to the view from his Ornises, he had a pretty good idea of the overall
geography. He told Aiko where the river was and left the students there. It was likely
Will's party had stopped there to rest, too.
Hajime headed deeper into the mountains, with Yue and Shea in tow. The dried leaves
littering the forest floor let out a satisfying crunching noise as they marched through
the forested mountainside. Soon enough, they heard the sound of rushing water,
indicating the river was nearby. The sounds of nature were pleasing to the ears. Shea
especially was enjoying the walk, her rabbit ears flopping about happily.
The river was just a little too large to be classified as a stream. Shea, who had the best
senses of the three, started scouting the area. Just to be safe, Hajime also swept their
surroundings with his Ornis, but there didn't seem to be any monsters nearby. Sure
that there wouldn't be any unpleasant surprises, the three of them sat down on a
nearby boulder to discuss their strategy.
Halfway through, Yue kicked her shoes off so she could dip her toes in the river and
relax for a bit. Hajime didn't want to waste time, but as it was unlikely Aiko and the
others had recovered sufficiently yet anyway, he let it slide. It was obvious he spoiled
Yue. Shea ended up taking advantage of his magnanimity as well.
Thinking they might have gone upstream, Hajime sent one of his Ornises further up to
scout while he watched Yue splash about in the shallows. Shea was barefoot as well,
but she'd chosen to just dip her feet in. It seemed she was just enjoying the ticklish
sensation of water rushing past.
Finally, Aiko and the others recovered enough to catch up to Hajime. They weren't very
happy about being left behind, so they glared testily at the trio when they arrived.
However, the guys' expressions changed instantly when they saw Yue and Shea playing
in the river, barefoot.
"This is heaven," they exclaimed, and the girls' cold stares turned toward them. The
guys trembled under the weight of their collective glares. Upon noticing everyone's
arrival, Yue and Shea got out of the river.
Aiko and the others collapsed near the riverbank, and busied themselves with the task
of replenishing lost fluids. Atsushi and the guys' leering gazes had bothered Yue and
Shea a little, so they also glared at the boys on their way out, causing them to avert
their gazes in fear. Aiko and the girls all turned to look at Hajime. They'd all heard a
lot from Shea about his relationship with the two girls, so they were glaring at him in
mild annoyance.
"Fufu, you seem to treasure Yue-san and Shea-san a lot, Nagumo-kun," Aiko spoke with
a smile.
No matter what he said, he doubted they'd like the answer, so Hajime just shrugged
his shoulders. Still, Yue's next action provided enough of an answer. She walked up to
Hajime and plopped into his lap. Then, she wriggled her butt until she found a
comfortable position.
"…Good." After that, with a satisfied expression on her face, she leaned back. All but
stating that she trusted Hajime completely. Feeling left out, Shea hopped up behind
Hajime and hugged him. Hajime's back was enveloped in twin mounds of pleasure.
Aiko and Yuka blushed, while Nana and Taeko started squealing. The guys, meanwhile,
were gritting their teeth in frustration.
Hajime didn't bother trying to peel them off. Instead, he turned away, clearly
embarrassed.
However, a second later his expression turned serious.
"This is…"
"Hm… did you find something?" Hajime stared off into the distance, muttering to
himself. Aiko and the students all gazed at him intently.
"Further upstream there's a… shield, I think? And a bag… They both look new. This
might be what we're looking for. Yue, Shea, let's go."
"Okay."
"Roger!"
The three of them stood up at the same time, then started packing up.
Honestly, Aiko and the other students were hoping to rest for a while longer, but they
were the ones who had insisted they come along. Plus, it seemed Hajime had found
some kind of clue. They roused their exhausted bodies and pushed themselves
forward, struggling to keep up with the hellish pace Hajime set.
When they arrived, Hajime found a small metallic shield and a bag, just as he'd seen
from his Ornis. However, what the Ornis had not been able to show him were the
details. The round shield was dented in the center, and one of the bag's straps was
ripped.
They cautiously examined their surroundings. Upon doing so, they discovered that
one of the nearby trees had had its bark ripped. Furthermore, it was stripped a full
two meters up the tree's trunk. It looked like someone had meticulously scraped off
all the bark, but judging from the height, no human could have done that.
Hajime asked Shea to scout the area with her ears, while he activated his own
perception skills. Cautiously, he walked past the scraped tree.
The further he went, the more he found evidence of a fierce struggle. A tree snapped
in half. A broken sword lying in the grass. Traces of blood. The more they found, the
grimmer the students' expressions grew.
They'd already had their spirits broken once by the imminent fear of death, back in
the Great Orcus Labyrinth. It was obvious from their pale faces that the scene had
brought back memories of that time. Hajime could tell they were struggling to keep
their composure.
He kept an eye on them as they progressed through the forest, absorbing each piece
of evidence as he passed by it. Suddenly, Shea found something sparkling up ahead.
"Hajime-san, this is a pendant, isn't it?"
"Hm? Yeah… looks like it might have belonged to one of them. Let's find out."
Hajime took the pendant from Shea and brushed the dirt off. As he did, he realized it
wasn't just a pendant, but a locket. He opened it to see a portrait of a woman. She must
have been someone's lover, or maybe their wife. Wasn't that helpful as far as clues
went, but considering how new it looked, it most likely belonged to one of the
adventurers they were searching for. Hajime decided to keep it just in case.
They found a few other articles scattered about, and kept the ones that looked like
they had been significant to their owners.
Searching the area took quite a bit of time, and the sun was beginning to set as they
finished. They'd probably have to make camp for the night soon.
So far the only other living creatures they'd seen on the mountain had been animals.
They'd been on alert for the monsters that had attacked Will, but they hadn't even
seen a single hostile creature.
They were relatively close to the summit at that point. And, while they hadn't passed
over the first mountain yet, they should still have encountered a few weak monsters
so high up. It was unsettling how quiet their journey had been.
A short while later, Hajime sent out his Ornises to scout the area the previous
adventurers had supposedly been requested to examine. About three hundred meters
to the east, he found signs of large-scale destruction. Hajime hurried over, forcing
everyone to go even faster to keep up.
They found a river larger than the almost-stream they'd stopped at earlier. There was
even a small waterfall further upstream. Normally, said river would flow all the way
down to the foot of the mountain, but something had gouged huge furrows into the
earth, diverting its flow. The furrows were so precise that it looked like they'd been
cut by a laser.
Not only that, but the earth and trees around the gouged earth had been scorched
black. Some of the trees had been snapped clean in half, the upper halves of their
trunks sometimes tens of meters away. Thirty-centimeter long footprints remained in
the muddy riverbank.
"So this is where the fight really picked up… Judging by the footprints, we're dealing
with some huge monster that walks on two legs… Supposedly, Bulltaurs roam around
the area two mountains over, but the way the ground was cut clean through…"
The Bulltaurs Hajime was referring to were a kind of cross between the Orcs and Ogres
usually found in RPGs. They weren't very intelligent, but they always roamed in packs,
and their special magic was an inferior version of Diamond Skin, Steel Skin. They were
a powerful race known for their high defensive capabilities. However, adventurers had
only ever encountered them after cresting the second set of mountains, and even then
they never crossed the peak to the village side of the second mountain range. More
importantly, they didn't have any magic that would let them make such precise cuts
into the ground like that.
Hajime squatted down and examined the footprints. He wasn't sure if they should
head downstream or upstream next.
So far the traces of battle they'd found had suggested Will and the others had fled
upstream, but he found it hard to imagine they'd continue heading in that direction
after such a fierce fight. Considering their physical and mental exhaustion, it would
have made little sense for them to flee away from town.
Having come to that conclusion, Hajime sent his Ornises upstream, electing to take the
downstream path himself. Since the footprints were all near the riverbank, it was
possible Will and the others had escaped into the river. Exhausted by the fighting as
they must have been, they'd probably opted to let the current carry them away.
The others agreed with Hajime's hypothesis, and they began trekking down the
mountain.
Eventually, they came across another waterfall. This one was far larger than the tiny
drop they'd seen earlier. Hajime, Yue, and Shea all jumped off the cliff and landed
nimbly on the rocks below. The misty breeze characteristic to all waterfalls blew past
them. It was a refreshing reprieve, tired as they were from searching all day.
It was at that moment that Hajime's Sense Presence detected something.
"Wha…! No way…"
"Hajime?" Yue was the first to react to Hajime's outburst. Hajime closed his eyes and
concentrated. A few seconds later he opened them again, the surprise evident in his
voice.
"Man, you've gotta be kidding me. My Sense Presence detected something, but it feels
human. And it's… coming from behind the waterfall."
"There's a living person down there!?"
Hajime nodded in response to Shea's question.
"Just one?" Yue asked, to which Hajime's response was a simple confirmation.
Aiko and the others looked shocked as well. It was only natural, as while it was still
theoretically possible someone had survived, Hajime hadn't actually expected to find
anyone alive. Five days had passed since Will's party had gone missing. If the survivor
was one of them, it'd be a miracle.
"Yue, I'm counting on you."
"…Okay."
Hajime didn't take his eyes off the pool of water surrounding the waterfall. Guessing
what Hajime wanted, Yue raised her right hand and activated her magic.
"Liquid Rampart. Wind Wall."
The water around the waterfall was pushed to either side, the wind wall keeping the
resulting spray from soaking them. Yue looked like Moses parting the Red Sea with
her hand outstretched like that. The spell Liquid Rampart made barriers of water, and
Yue had used the existing river water to create hers.
Aiko and the students' jaws dropped open in shock yet again as they watched Yue cast
two different elemental spells without an incantation or even a magic circle. The
ancient Jews had probably been just as surprised when Moses had performed his
miracle.
Yue's mana supply wasn't infinite, so Hajime ushered everyone along. They walked
past the waterfall into the cavern behind it.
The cavern angled upward, and it opened up into a rather spacious room after they
got through a narrow passage. Water and light poured into the room from above, the
water creating a large puddle in the center. Seeing as the puddle didn't overflow, it
stood to reason that it connected to the river somehow.
They found a man in the furthest corner of the room. As they approached, they could
make out his features better. He was young, probably no more than twenty, with
graceful features. At the moment, though, that graceful face was pale as a sheet,
ruining the effect. However, he didn't seem to be injured, and his bag still had a little
food left in it. From the looks of it, he was just asleep. His pale features were probably
due to the terror of hiding out alone.
Aiko looked at him, clearly worried, but Hajime was in a hurry to find out who he was.
He flicked the sleeping man on the forehead with his artificial arm.
"Guwah!" He awoke with a scream and covered his forehead with both hands. Aiko
shuddered at Hajime's callousness.
Hajime ignored Aiko and crouched down in front of the crying man. He didn't bother
mincing words.
"Are you Will Cudeta? The third son of the Cudeta family?"
"I, uhh… Who are you guys? What are you doing here?" The man's eyes darted about
wildly. Hajime got his hand ready for another flick and rested it against the man's
forehead.
"Answer the question. Every time you tell me something other than an answer, I'm
going to flick you twice as hard as the last time."
"Huh!?"
"Are you Will Cudeta?"
"Umm… Uwaah, yes! I am! I'm Will Cudeta! That's me!" The man stammered for a
moment, but Hajime's sharp glare silenced any protests he might have, and he
answered with more vigor than his pale face would suggest.
So he really is Will Cudeta. By some miracle, he had actually survived.
"I see. I'm Hajime. Hajime Nagumo. I've come looking for you at Chief Ilwa Chang's
request. I'm glad you're alive." That'll make life much easier.
"Ilwa-san sent you!? I see. I guess… I owe him another debt for this. Umm, thank you
for coming here. If Ilwa-san sent you, you must be pretty strong."
There was a mixture of gratitude and respect in his gaze. It seemed he wasn't too
bothered by that earlier flick to his forehead. He seemed like a surprisingly nice fellow.
Completely unlike that other pig-faced noble Hajime had encountered.
Glad he didn't have to beat an answer out of Will, Hajime motioned for Yue and Shea
to introduce themselves before asking what had happened.
In short, this was what happened to them:
Will and his party were climbing up the same mountain path Hajime had taken when
they were set upon by ten Bulltaurs.
Unwilling to take on such a force, the party began to retreat. However, more and more
Bulltaurs kept on coming and, before long, they had been driven up to the river a little
over halfway up the mountain.
Surrounded and driven into a corner, the party's paladin and swordsman gave their
lives to let the others escape. Forced further upward by the advancing horde of
Bulltaurs, the party arrived at the second river, only to meet their doom.
A black dragon was waiting for them.
The moment they burst out on the riverbank, it had fired its searing breath at them,
sending Will flying into the river. As he was being washed downstream the last thing
he'd seen was one member of the party get completely incinerated, while the
remaining two were trapped between a dragon and a horde of Bulltaurs.
After falling down the waterfall he'd stumbled into this cavern, and had been hiding
inside ever since.
His tale sounded pretty similar to a certain someone's.
Will's emotions got the better of him halfway through his story, and by the time he
finished he was in tears. He'd basically forced his way into their party, and yet the
adventurers he'd traveled with hadn't so much as looked annoyed when he asked
them to teach him their skills or share stories about their adventures.
And yet he hadn't even tried to save them. He'd just hidden down here in this cave like
a coward, praying for someone to come save him.
He hated himself even more for feeling relieved when help had finally arrived, even
though his comrades had all died.
Those feelings had all come to a head when he recounted his tale, which was why he
was a sobbing mess.
"I-I'm the worsht. Everyone died, but even though I wash usheless, I survived… and
then… I even felt happy when I learned I wash shaved!" Will's sobs echoed through
the cavern. No one said anything. No one knew what to say to the sobbing young man
who blamed himself for his comrades' deaths. Yuka and the others especially so,
because they understood exactly what he was feeling.
Aiko gently patted Will on the back, her expression pained.
Yue was as expressionless as always, while Shea was at a loss for words.
But when Will finally paused to take breath, the person everyone had least expected
to say anything comforted him.
Hajime.
He walked over, grabbed Will by the collar, and hoisted him up into the air. When he
spoke, his tone was surprisingly gentle.
"What's so wrong about wanting to live? What's so bad about being happy that you
survived? Those feelings are the most natural thing in the world. For a human, wanting
to survive is a praiseworthy trait."
"B-But… I…"
"If you feel bad for your dead comrades… then live on. Even if you have to crawl on the
ground dredging for scraps, survive. As long as you keep struggling… eventually, the
day will come when you realize there was meaning in you surviving this day."
"Live… on." Tears still in his eyes, Will blankly repeated Hajime's words.
Hajime thrust Will back to the ground and mumbled some words.
"What the hell's wrong with me?" His speech had been half-directed at himself. When
he'd heard Will lamenting his own survival, it had somehow felt like he was saying it
was a mistake for Hajime to have survived. That was what had gotten Hajime so
worked up.
Of course, that was just his persecution complex rearing its ugly head. What he'd done
wasn't much different from a kid throwing a temper tantrum. Despite how mature he
tried to act, Hajime was still a seventeen year old boy. He still had a lot of growing up
to do.
Having realized his mistake, Hajime was stewing in a rare moment of self-loathing.
Seeing his expression, Yue walked over and gently took him his hand in hers.
"It's okay. You said the right thing, Hajime."
"…Yue."
"Live, with everything you've got. We're going to survive together, right?"
"Haha, you're right. No matter what comes our way, we'll make it through alive. I
promise I won't leave you alone."
"…Good."
Before long, Hajime and Yue were lost in their own little world, Will's existence
completely forgotten. I'm really no match for her, Hajime thought as he gently stroked
Yue's cheek. She nuzzled happily against his hand. Shea was, of course, glaring at them
reproachfully. Her ears were twitching angrily, as if to say "How dare you leave me out
again!"
Meanwhile, Hajime's words had really hit home to Aiko and the others. They were the
words of someone who'd had to change his appearance and even the very core of his
being to crawl out of the abyss alive. Ever since their reunion he'd always been cold
and aloof, but for the first time they'd seen him get heated up.
His passion resonated just a little in the hearts of Yuka and the others, who were still
trapped by the fear of death. His words felt like the first rays of spring after a long and
cold winter.
For a while, the students all stared at each other, lost in their thoughts. Will was still
in a daze after being unfairly yelled at and then unceremoniously thrown away. Shea
was still desperately trying to get Hajime and Yue's attention, while the latter were
still lost in each other's eyes. The mood was so sickeningly sweet that one would think
Hajime had transmuted the air to sugar.
Finally, Will managed to get everyone's attention, and the party began preparing to
descend. There was still an hour until darkness fell, so if they hurried they could reach
the foot of the mountain before the day was up.
True, the sudden appearance of a Bulltaur herd and a black dragon were worrying
developments, but they weren't part of Hajime's mission. Besides, it was unreasonable
of anyone to expect Hajime to investigate those incidents while protecting such a weak
group.
Will realized he'd just be a burden too, so he agreed that they should withdraw.
Atsushi's sense of justice compelled him to argue that they should investigate further
and save the townspeople from their plight, but with such dangerous monsters as
Bulltaurs and black dragons roaming about, Aiko was having none of it. So, in the end,
it was decided they would leave the mountain.
But of course, it was too much to hope everything would go according to plan. The
moment the group exited the waterfall cavern using Yue's magic, they were greeted by
a fearsome sight.
"Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" A dragon, its scales jet black and its eyes glinting a cruel gold,
glared down at them from the sky.
It was easily seven meters long. Claws as big and sharp as swords jutted from its
forelegs. The wings sprouting from its back were glimmering faintly, covered in a
sheen of mana.
That explains it. Every time the dragon flapped its wings, an unbelievably powerful
gust of wind blew past them. Still, what stood out most of all were the two eyes that
glowed as gold as the moon amidst a sea of pitch black. Its pupils were slitted, giving
them a reptilian appearance, while its eyes were narrowed in a dangerous glare,
making the light they emitted all the more beautiful.
It let out another low roar. The overwhelming pressure it exuded was far greater than
the wyverns Hajime had fought at the bottom of the Reisen Gorge, the Hyverias. Most
people considered Hyverias among the most dangerous monsters that roamed the
surface, but this black dragon made them feel like nothing more than little birds. Truly,
its majesty made it fit to be called the ruler of the skies.
Aiko and the others froze in place, deer caught in headlights. Will was trembling so
fiercely that he looked ready to collapse on the spot. He was probably having
flashbacks to the last time he'd been attacked.
He had expected a suitably powerful monster when he saw the furrows in the ground,
but he hadn't expected something as deadly as the black dragon currently in front of
him. This was at least three times more powerful than what he'd anticipated.
He was sure its strength couldn't compare to the Hydra he'd fought at the bottom of
the abyss, but it was at least as powerful as the monsters he'd found 90 floors down.
Upon spotting Will, the dragon's gaze focused on him. Then, it suddenly reared its
head back and opened its jaw, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth. It began focusing a
tremendous amount of mana into its mouth.
Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaa! A strange keening sound echoed throughout the sunset orange
mountains. Hajime suddenly remembered Will describing the breath that had gouged
out part of the river and incinerated an adventurer on the spot.
"Everyone, run!" Hajime leaped to the side as he screamed. Yue and Shea followed suit.
However, most people… No, everyone else didn't react to Hajime's warning.
They couldn't. Aiko, Yuka, the other students, and even Will were still frozen in place.
Aiko and the others were too surprised to react properly, but Will was frozen in fear.
He couldn't even summon the presence of mind to look away.
"Tch!"
"Hajime!"
"Hajime-san!"
Hajime used Telepathy to relay orders to Yue and Shea, then used Supersonic Step to
return to the spot he'd been in seconds ago, putting him directly between the dragon
and the students.
Normally, he would have just left them to fend for themselves, but he didn't hate Aiko
and the others enough that he'd be comfortable just watching them die. And if he let
Will, who by some miracle had survived, die, then what was the point of him accepting
this mission in the first place? He'd taken on a contract to bring Will back if he found
him alive, and he wasn't one to renege on his promises.
Hajime pulled a two-meter tall coffin-shaped shield out of his Treasure Trove and
connected it to his prosthetic left arm. He started pouring mana into it, and a giant
spike popped out of the bottom half with a pneumatic hiss. He thrust it into the ground
as hard as he could.
A second later, the dragon's black breath cut through the air with the precision of a
laser. It traveled faster than sound, smashing into Hajime's shield with a thunderous
roar not even a second after it had been fired. The waves of heat radiating off the black
laser were so great that they melted the ground around him.
"Guoooooooh!" Hajime let out a bestial roar as he pushed back against the breath's
force. Hajime's body, along with the shield, began to glow a deep crimson. He was
using his Diamond Skin. His magic held out for a while, and even pushed the breath
back a short distance, but finally the breath broke through and slammed into the
shield once more.
And yet, his shield withstood the impact. Heat powerful enough to break through his
Diamond Skin assailed the shield, slowly melting through it. However, every time it
looked like the breath would break through, Hajime mended his shield with his
transmutation.
Though he'd driven the spiked bottom of the shield into the ground, the force was still
enough to slowly push him back. Hajime transmuted spikes into the bottom of his
shoes as well, then cast Diamond Skin once more. He pushed his left arm a little further
out, while supporting the shield with his right as well.
Hajime's shield was made with a mixture of taur and shtar ore, and layered with an
outer coating of azantium.
Since he was a Synergist, he could withstand an attack powerful enough to melt even
azantium. So long as the ore bought him a few seconds, he could always transmute it
back to perfect condition. And even if someone did manage to somehow break past
the azantium layer, they'd then have to contend with the shtar layer underneath. As
shtar's hardness was proportional to the amount of mana poured into it, so long as
Hajime had mana left to spare, it would never be broken.
Since it took the breath more than a few seconds to melt through the azantium layer,
the dragon had no hope of piercing Hajime's shield. However, it did possess enough
strength to blow him away along with his shield.
Even Hajime, with his superhuman strength, was slowly getting pushed back. There
were deep divots in the ground made by the spikes he'd transmuted into the shield
and his boots as he'd been forced back.
Hajime, with his inhuman stamina, his shield, and his Diamond Skin ability wasn't in
any real danger of taking damage, but the people behind him would be incinerated by
the dragon's breath, leaving not even ashes behind, if he was blown away.
As he was fretting over what to do, he suddenly felt something soft at his back.
"Nagumo!"
"Nagumo-kun!"
He glanced back in surprise. To his utter amazement, Yuka and Aiko were trying to
support him by pushing his back with all their might. It looked like they'd finally
returned to their senses, saw Hajime being pushed back, and had come to help.
Aiko simply looked desperate, but Yuka's face, illuminated by the red and black
fireworks display that was Hajime's mana colliding with the breath weapon, was
deathly pale. She was trembling, not because of the force crashing into them, but
because the trauma of what had happened in the labyrinth was still haunting her. The
fact that she was still trying despite that was proof of her courage.
Seeing those two brought Atsushi back to his senses as well. With a spirited yell, he
ran up to Hajime, and a second later Taeko, Nana, and even Will followed suit.
The barrage showed no signs of stopping. The heat had long since evaporated the river
water, so the force of the impact kept sending half-melted stones flying out of the
riverbed.
Hajime could no longer tell how much time had passed. It felt like an eternity to him,
but in reality scarcely 10 seconds had gone by. He grit his teeth in determination, and
at the same time, he heard the long awaited voice of his salvation.
"Heavensfall." A whirling black sphere that was about four meters in diameter
appeared above the black dragon's head. Its darkness was so absolute that it felt as if
one would be sucked into it if they just stole a glance at it. That ominous black sphere
fell to the earth, crushing the dragon beneath it.
"Graaaaaaaaaah!?" The stream was interrupted as the dragon roared in pain,
grounded by Yue's sphere, but her spell was far from done. It pressed down on the
dragon with even greater force, enough to create a dragon-sized depression in the
ground.
This was the gravity spell Heavensfall. One of Yue's newly acquired spells. That
whirling black sphere increased its gravitational force in proportion to the amount of
mana poured into it. It could also change the gravitational orientation of its target,
making it a very versatile spell.
When used on oneself, gravity magic required surprisingly little mana. However, when
used on other objects, the air, or other people, it required exponentially more. Even
Yue had needed ten seconds to cast it. Plus, it drained an alarming amount of her
mana. Though she still hadn't completely mastered the skill, so it was likely she'd be
able to cut down the cast time and mana cost the more she trained.
The ruler of the skies had been forced to the ground, and it didn't take kindly to that.
It mustered all of its strength and rose to its feet. However, before it could do anything
else, Shea came hurtling down toward it, Drucken at the ready.
"Here's the finisher!" Shea yelled, rabbit ears flapping wildly in the wind. She used
numerous shotgun blasts to accelerate her fall, swinging her hammer down at the
dragon's head.
There was a thunderous impact as she landed.
The force of her blow created a crater so large that it looked like the area had just been
bombed. Her smash had been a magnitude more powerful than the one she'd used on
the Miledi Golem.
The reason being that of all the improvements Hajime had added to Drucken, chief
among them was enchanting the compressed azantium that made up her hammer
with gravity magic. However, instead of neutralizing Drucken's weight, he'd multiplied
it, so it could grow even heavier depending on how much mana was poured into it. As
it was, Drucken resembled the hundred ton hammer from a certain famous manga.
Anyone or anything that took that head on would likely be annihilated. If they took it
head-on, anyway…
"Graaaaaaah!" A fireball hurtled toward Yue from amid the dust surrounding the
dragon. Yue adjusted her gravity so that she "fell" to the right and avoided it. However,
she had to cancel Heavensfall in order to do so.
As the dust settled, Hajime could see that the dragon had managed to avoid Drucken
by a hair's breadth. It had pulled out every last ounce of its strength in order to do so.
The dragon circled in place, swinging its tail angrily at Shea.
"Wawawa!?" Shea managed to just pull Drucken out in time, and use it as a shield. At
the same time, she leaped into the air, deadening the impact, but sending her flying
backward through the trees.
Having regained its footing, the dragon rest its golden-eyed gaze on Hajime… or rather
right past Hajime and at Will.
Hajime quickly returned the shield to his Treasure Trove and pulled out Donner and
Schlag, firing them as fast as he could.
A barrage of bullets slammed into the dragon, leaving a trail of red streaks in their
wake. Unable to dodge such a fast attack, the dragon was blown backward into the
river. A massive spray of water rose into the air as it fell.
Realizing it was dangerous to keep the fighting near Will, Hajime charged after it. He
reloaded Donner and Schlag as he ran, firing a second barrage soon after.
The dragon rose from the river with a roar, sending another wave of water splashing
everywhere. It ignored Hajime entirely and fired another fireball at Will.
"Ah!" Hajime had launched this series of fierce attacks to draw the dragon's attention
to him, but it appeared that it had eyes only for Will.
"Yue!"
"Okay— Liquid Barricade!"
Will let out a very unmanly shriek and shrunk back. However, before the fireball could
hit him, a giant wall of water rose up to protect him. The fireball dissipated as it
slammed into Yue's Liquid Barricade.
"W-We've gotta help them!"
"Y-Yeah!"
Barely able to keep up with lightning pace of the battle, Yuka pulled out her artifacts,
a collection of legendary throwing knives. There were twelve of them and they had the
unique ability to attract each other, so as long as Yuka kept one in her hand, she could
recall all the others. She wrapped her knives in a wreath of flame and threw them at
the dragon.
At the same time, Atsushi pulled out his twin shamshirs and swung them down. His
job was "Arabian Kirito" and his artifacts let loose razor sharp blades of wind every
time he swung them.
However, Yuka's flaming knives and Atsushi's wind blades didn't even so much as
scratch the dragon's jet-black scales.
Dismayed, Yuka and Atsushi nevertheless dutifully readied their knives and shamshirs
once more. Seeing them struggle so desperately, Noboru, Akito, Nana, and Taeko all
found their courage and started firing long-range attacks from behind the safety of
Yue's water barrier.
"Gwaaaaaaah!" This time their attacks didn't even reach the dragon, as its roar blew
all the projectiles away. The ferocity of the roar and the intensity of its glare left them
trembling in fear once more, and Taeko and Nana even fell over.
"Tch! Sensei, take those fools and get out of here!"
"But… Nagumo-kun…"
Their spirited display of courage had ended in vain, leaving the students shivering in
terror. Hajime could tell they'd be of no use, so he urged Aiko to take them somewhere
safe.
However, Aiko hesitated. No matter how he acted, Hajime was still one of her students,
and she was loathe to leave him behind to fight such a powerful monster alone.
Meanwhile, the dragon had finally risen out of the river and flown back into the sky. It
unleashed a torrent of fireballs at the ground below. As always, its target was Will.
Hajime was bombarding it with bullets, but he wasn't able to attract its attention in
the slightest. The dragon's scales were as hard as the scorpion Hajime had fought in
the past, and even his full-power railgun shells did little more than dent them.
Its focus was completely on Will. It was almost as if it was being controlled by
something. A robot obediently following out its orders. Only attacks powerful enough
to interfere with its efforts to kill Will could grab its attention, and even then only
temporarily.
Hajime had no idea why whoever was controlling this dragon wanted Will dead, but it
made his job easier. He shouted out his plan to Yue.
"Yue, focus on protecting Will! I'll get the dragon!"
"Okay, got it!" Yue instantly swapped her gravitational orientation to Will, zoomed
toward him, and righted herself just before colliding with him. She was mildly annoyed
at the fact that Aiko and the others couldn't even get out of the line of fire, but
considering their level of skill, she realized it was to be expected.
"If you don't want to die, get behind me…" Yue had zero interest in the students, but as
Aiko was someone Hajime seemed to respect, she at least made a token effort to
protect her. Besides, it would just make her life harder if they started moving around,
so it was easier on her to keep them quiet.
Taeko, Nana, Noboru, and Akito all scuttled about in a helpless panic, but Yuka,
Atsushi, and Aiko at least had the presence of mind to retreat behind Yue's ice barrier,
cursing their helplessness all the while.
In truth, they were at least a little stronger than this. However, even after learning
Hajime had survived, even after finding the strength to stand up once more, the
trauma they'd experienced that day wouldn't disappear so easily. The day they'd
nearly been slaughtered by the Behemoth and the Traum Soldiers, the day they'd seen
Hajime "die" had been imprinted firmly onto their minds and hearts.
And even if they could fight at their full potential, the dragon's strength was on a
completely different level. They wouldn't even be able to scratch its scales. All they
could do was watch the battle unfold as they hid behind Yue's beautifully crafted ice
wall.
Knowing that Will was safely under Yue's protection, Hajime was finally able to go all
out.
The dragon was still wholeheartedly focused on tearing down Yue's barrier. Realizing
fireballs wouldn't be enough, it once again arched its head back and began
concentrating its mana.
"Hah, this is the first time I've been ignored even after shooting at something… Well,
I'll just have to make sure you won't be able to ignore me any longer!" Hajime holstered
Donner and Schlag, then pulled Schlagen, his anti-materiel rifle, out of his Treasure
Trove. After that, he activated his Lightning Field. Red sparks started shooting down
Schlagen's barrel.
Realizing whatever Hajime had up his sleeve might be fatal, the dragon finally turned
its gaze to him. As expected, it couldn't ignore something so dangerous.
Hajime fired the same instant the dragon unleashed its breath. A single red streak and
a cloud of black death collided with each other, creating an explosion of crimson and
black.
The resulting shockwave was so ferocious that it uprooted nearby trees and sent them
hurtling through the air. In terms of power, Hajime's bullet and the dragon's breath
were about equal.
However, there was a fundamental difference in the composition of the two attacks,
which was the decisive difference. The dragon's breath weapon was a continual attack,
while a Schlagen was designed to pierce through a single point. That was why the
bullet was able to come out the victor.
The bullet slammed into the dragon's head from below, making it snap backward. The
full metal jacket bullet had packed quite a punch even after making it through the
cloud of death.
However, it was nowhere near a fatal wound. That being said, with the breath's
trajectory so abruptly changed, the dragon didn't have time to stop the outpouring of
mana in time to prevent it from losing a few teeth and one of its wings.
"Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Roaring in pain, the dragon fell to the ground in a
spectacular tailspin.
Hajime quickly used Aerodynamic to avoid the breath, and then used it again in the
air, along with Supersonic Step. His foot slammed into the dragon's unprotected
stomach, powered by both the accelerated speed of his fall and the strength of his Steel
Legs skill.
The dragon's body doubled over as his kick collided. The force of the impact sent
cracks running through the ground. It let out another agonized roar, but clearly hadn't
actually taken that much damage. After all, its scales were tough enough to fend off a
railgun.
Still, fact was that Hajime hadn't expected his kick to do much to begin with, so he
swiftly raised his left arm. It let out a high pitched metallic whine. Then, he activated
one of the gimmicks he'd installed into it, the high frequency oscillator, before bringing
it down on the dragon.
"Ever feel what it's like to get sucker punched?" There was a dangerous gleam in
Hajime's eyes and feral grin on his face. He mercilessly brought his fist down on the
dragon, something that had pulverized a boulder in one blow.
There was a loud boom, which made cracks start appearing on the dragon's scales, but
with the way the impact had been transferred, Hajime was certain there must have
been some damage to its internal organs as well.
"Graaaah!?" Blood spurted from the dragon's mouth along with a roar this time. This
was more pain than it had ever felt before. Its eyes were still glazed over with
confusion, but it already realized it'd be dangerous to let Hajime remain near it. It
poured an enormous amount of mana into its remaining wing and unleashed a gale of
epic proportions to blow him off it before quickly returning to a standing position.
Hajime once again used Aerodynamic to leap out of harm's way, but not before leaving
a few presents for the dragon.
The dragon warily eyed Hajime, but was suddenly rocked by an explosion originating
from its stomach. The blast was powerful enough to send the dragon hurtling through
the air. Hajime had stuffed some grenades in the cracks in its scales before flying to
safety.
"Kraaaaaaaaah!" The dragon doubled over in pain, letting out more of a whimper than
a roar. Its head drooped over and blood dripped from its mouth. This time it had been
grievously wounded.
Its attention was now fully on Hajime and not Will. It opened its jaws once more and
let loose a torrent of fireballs.
They exploded at random, like a burst of anti-aircraft fire, but none of them even came
close to touching Hajime. Using a combination of Aerodynamic and Supersonic Step,
he nimbly wove through the barrage of explosions, leaving afterimages in his wake.
He continued using hit-and-run tactics to whittle down the dragon's strength.
He used Donner and Schlag to target its claws, gums, eyes, tail, basically any spot that
seemed even mildly unguarded. Then, whenever he saw an opening, he'd close in and
use his oscillator arm to pound the dragon's head, flank, and any other vital areas he
could reach.
"Graaaah! Gwaaaah!" The dragon was clearly in agony at this point. Its scales were
cracked everywhere, and blood was pouring from its mouth in great gouts.
"Holy shit…" Atsushi muttered in awe as he watched the battle behind the safety of
Yue's ice wall. Yuka, Aiko, and the others all silently nodded in agreement. Everyone's
eyes were glued to the spectacle unfolding before them. Even Will was watching with
such unabashed excitement that it was hard to believe he'd been shuddering in terror
mere minutes ago.
Halfway through the fight Shea had returned and had been about to join in, when she'd
been stopped by Yue, who had guessed Hajime's true purpose for fighting so savagely,
so she was standing next to her as a spectator. She'd been blown away without a
chance to strut her stuff, which left her a little dispirited, though. Her bunny ears were
drooping over too.
The reason he didn't finish the dragon off with Schlagen, Orkan, or any of his other
heavy duty weapons was to show just how powerful he was to Aiko and the others.
He was using the dragon to show off different combat strategies. After all, while the
dragon's attacks were powerful, its huge frame made it an easy target, and its
telegraphed attacks showed that as long as it was easy to dodge, a powerful attack
meant nothing. The fact that he was practically using this fight as a lesson showed that
he wasn't even breaking a sweat fighting such a weak opponent.
He wanted to make an example of his power on the off chance that Aiko told the Holy
Church, the king, or Kouki about his blasphemous remarks after they parted ways. He
wanted to show her that there was nothing even an entire nation could to do stop him.
It might've looked like Hajime was just using the dragon as his punching bag, which
he was, but its tenacity still impressed him. He had managed to crack its scales, but he
still hadn't been able to shatter a single one. Its stamina and defensive power were
truly admirable. Out of curiosity, he had used Ore Appraisal on the scales, but there'd
been no reaction, which meant that if the scales weren't organic matter, they weren't
any kind of material Hajime could transmute.
After a while, Hajime decided he'd put on enough of a show. Deciding to finish it off,
he quickly stepped into the dragon's blind spot, then kicked it onto its back once more.
Taking advantage of its sluggish movements, he pulled his pile bunker out of his
Treasure Trove.
Atsushi and the other guys began murmuring to each other, but Hajime ignored them
and fixed the anchors in place. Once that was done, he activated his Lighting Field.
He'd picked the pile bunker because he hadn't tested it out at full power yet, so wanted
to see what it could accomplish.
He set the azantium-coated stake spinning, making sparks fly off the bunker. He had
no doubt his four ton stake would instantly kill the dragon.
However, as the saying went, even a cornered mouse would bite a cat. It was when a
beast was wounded that it was at its most dangerous. It seemed black dragons were
no exception.
"Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" With an ear-splitting roar, the dragon let
loose a monstrous shockwave. It was no more than a haphazard explosion of mana,
but it was powerful enough to shake loose Hajime, who'd not only strengthened his
already ridiculously powerful body to the limit with body strengthening, but had also
had the pile bunker's anchors to keep him in place. The force nearly wrenched his
artificial arm out of its socket. The dragon then rolled over in an attempt to send
Hajime flying.
"Uoooh!?" He stumbled back a few steps. That was enough to foul his aim, and his pile
bunker fired harmlessly up toward the sky. Hajime spared only a glance to the stake
that had vanished into the horizon before turning his attention back to the dragon. He
correctly predicted that it would attempt to take Will with it in a final futile act of
resistance.
"Tch, Shea!"
"R-Roger!"
Hajime chided himself for letting his guard down before calling out to Shea. Using the
ice wall as a foothold, Shea leaped into the air, then hurtled toward the dragon like a
meteorite, using her shotgun blasts to propel her forward. She was determined not to
miss this time.
In perfect condition the dragon might have stood a chance at dodging, but weakened
as it was, it had no hope of escaping Shea's wrath.
Shea poured as much mana as she could into Drucken, turning an already heavy
warhammer into a dense force of destruction. It slammed into the dragon's head with
a resounding crash.
The force of the blow had Shea doing a near handstand as her body flew into the air,
and the dragon's head slammed into the ground with earth-shattering force. After the
shockwaves died down, silence reigned on the mountainside.
"Phew. That should make up for my mess up earlier. But man, this thing's tough…" Shea
exclaimed in surprise as she put Drucken away.
Her surprise was to be expected, as while many of the scales on its head had cracked,
and some had shattered, it was in surprisingly good shape. Its defensive power was
truly fearsome.
"Hmm? Yeah, looks like it's at least as tough as the monsters in the abyss. Wonder how
many mountain ranges it had to pass to get here." Half-amazed, half just annoyed,
Hajime walked up to the collapsed dragon. His Sense Presence told Hajime the dragon
was still alive, so he moved in to finish it off.
The giant spike Hajime's pile bunker had fired into the sky smashed into the ground
between them.
What perfect timing. Hajime was suddenly reminded of the idiom More had told him.
"Only a fool kicks a dragon's arse."
Hajime activated his Steel Arms and pulled the stake out of the ground. He carried it
on his shoulder as he circled around to the dragon's rear. Then, he held the spike like
a javelin, and prepared to toss it into the dragon's ass. The massive black spike would
be more than enough to finish the job.
Everyone grimaced as they realized what Hajime was planning on doing. True,
shattering the dragon's scales seemed like a daunting task, but this was still too much.
Everyone except Yue and Shea shuddered at his merciless decision, but Hajime paid
them no mind.
"Let's see how you like this being shoved up your ass, you stupid dragon." Without a
moment's hesitation, he plunged black the spike as far into the dragon's butt as he
could.
A second later—
"Aaaaaaaaah! How dare youuu!" The dragon let out an anguished scream as it opened
its eyes.
As the spike had only gone in halfway, Hajime had been planning on punching it in
further, but the dragon's screams, which sounded very much like words, surprised him
so much that he unclenched his fist.
"My backside~ My poor backside~" Its pained, agonized, and oddly impassioned
scream was so unexpected that it shocked everyone stiff.
It would seem that this dragon… was no ordinary monster.
"Take it out~ Please take it out~" The voice that echoed through the riverbed sounded
pitiful. And decidedly feminine. The dragon's jaws weren't moving, so she was clearly
using some kind of wide-area telepathy to broadcast her voice. That made sense, as it
was unlikely a dragon's mouth and vocal cords would be able to produce anything
resembling human speech.
However, it was impossible for monsters to understand or use human speech. The only
exception being a strange fish with a human-shaped face. Leaving that aside, no other
monsters had been seen using language of any sort.
Though the presence of a black dragon here itself was out of the ordinary. It made
absolutely no sense for a monster on par with the creatures Hajime had faced off in
the labyrinth to be wandering the surface like this. And if by some chance there was a
dragon's nest nearby, there's no way it would have remained hidden.
That left only two possibilities. First, that it was an undocumented kind of monster
that had come from beyond the fifth layer of mountains, where no one had ever
explored. Or second…
"Are you… one of the dragonmen?" The dragon stiffened up upon hearing Hajime's
question. However a second later it let out a defeated sigh. It appeared that it hadn't
wanted the fact that it was a dragonman to be found out. Still, at this point, she could
no longer hide it. It would be pointless to try and deny it now.
"How could I make such a blunder…" she muttered regretfully. She wasn't sure if the
boy before her had found out because of how odd her movements had been while she
was controlled, or because she'd accidentally spoke after being nailed in the ass…
Chances were it was both.
"…Indeed. I am a proud member of the dragonman race. There are a number of reasons
why I ended up here. I will explain all, so may I please ask that you remove that object
from my anus? I am nearly out of mana. And if I was to return to my original form as
is… suffice to say my backside would end up in a most… unsightly state."
Hajime'd still been unsure when he asked, but it looked like his guess had been on the
money.
Hajime was quite frankly amazed by this strange "luck" of his. Ever since he'd arrived
in this world, he'd had a penchant of running into rare or unique existences. Yue was
a vampire, a race thought to have gone extinct three hundred years ago. On top of that,
she was royalty. Meanwhile Shea also exhibited traits of atavism, or at least that was
the prevailing theory, and now he was face to face with a dragonman, a race thought
to have gone extinct five hundred years ago. Fate seemed to enjoy matching him up
with extraordinary people.
"…What are you doing here?" As Hajime was still pondering over his strange karma,
Yue took over the questioning. Even for a vampire the dragonmen were a legendary
race. And just like Yue, this dragon was quite possibly the last survivor of her race.
Naturally, Yue was interested. Curiosity sparkled in her eyes.
"Like I said, I will explain so please take that thing out of me… My mana is nearly
depleted… Hey, stop that! Don't keep pounding it in! The stimulation— The
stimulation will—"
"Yue's the one asking questions here, you punk!" Hajime said, acting like a common
thug, and started pounding on the spike with his fist.
The black dragon writhed and screamed. The solemn dignity she'd radiated upon their
first meeting was nowhere to be found.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone