Fighting For Survival!

After confirming the situation, Meld curtly barked out orders. "Everyone, get up and head for the stairs! Now!"

His voice boomed louder than thunder, and the students hurried to follow his orders. However, the labyrinth's traps were not so easy to escape.

New magic circles suddenly appeared on either side of the bridge, accompanied by a swirling torrent of dark red mana. The magic circle on the passage side of the bridge was ten meters wide. The ones on the side of the stairs were only one meter each, but there were many.

The dark red magic circles resembled pools of blood and gave off an ominous feel. They pulsed once, and waves of monsters began pouring forth.

From the countless magic circles near the stairs, a horde of skeletons wielding swords, Traum Soldiers, came out. Their empty eye sockets gleamed with the same blood-red light as the circles they came from, and they rolled around like real eyes too.

Within seconds, the stairs were teeming with nearly a hundred of the Traum Soldiers, and more were still pouring out. Despite their numbers, what was coming out on the passage-side of the bridge was far more of a threat.

From within the ten-meter-wide magic circle emerged a monster as big as the circle that summoned it. It stood on four legs and had some kind of helmet on its head.

To Rob's eyes, the closest thing it resembled was a triceratops. However, unlike a triceratops, its eyes glowed bright red, and as it clacked its wicked sharp claws and fangs together, flames sprouted from the horn on its helmeted forehead.

Everyone stared at it in slack-jawed horror, and Meld's terrified whisper resounded surprisingly clearly throughout the room.

"Oh my god... It's... a Behemoth..."

A wave of unease washed over the students when they saw Meld, the reliable knight captain who'd always been their reassuring pillar of support, break out in a cold sweat. Kouki realized he was up against a truly fearsome opponent, so he turned to ask Meld about its properties.

However, the Behemoth, a monster that had even the kingdom's strongest knight quaking in his boots, refused to grant Kouki the luxury of time. It sucked in a huge breath, then let out a guttural roar, signaling the start of the battle.

"Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!"

"Ah!?" The roar brought Meld back to his senses, and he quickly began barking orders. "Alan, take the kids and break through the line of Traum Soldiers! Kyle, Ivan, Bael, create a barrier! We have to stop that thing, no matter what! Kouki, head to the stairs with the rest of the students!"

"Please wait, Meld-san! We'll help too! That dinosaur thing is really bad news! We'll also—"

"Idiot! If that thing really is a Behemoth, you kids don't stand a chance! It's a monster that shows up on the sixty-fifth floor! Even the legendary adventurer, who everyone called the strongest in the world, couldn't stand against it! Now get out of here! I definitely won't let you kids die!"

Kouki faltered momentarily at the intensity in Meld's gaze, but he refused to leave. The idiot was overestimating himself and underestimating the Behemoth too much!

Meld opened his mouth to yell at Kouki, but before he could say anything, the Behemoth roared again and charged... straight toward the retreating students.

To protect their summoned heroes, Heiligh's strongest warriors chanted together in an attempt to form a barrier.

"Grant thine protection to your beloved children, O God! Reject all malice and let this be a holy ground that denies thine enemies passage! Hallowed Ground!"

The spell was four verses long, inscribed on a magic circle two meters long, and drawn on the highest class magical paper. Moreover, it had been invoked by three people in tandem.

Although it had only one use and lasted for only one minute, it created an impenetrable barrier that could not be broken. A glowing dome of light materialized, stopping the Behemoth in its tracks.

A huge shockwave spread out as it crashed into the barrier, pulverizing the ground near the impact. Despite being made of stone, the entire bridge shook precariously.

The retreating students screamed. Some of them fell.

Traum Soldiers were powerful monsters that appeared on the thirty-eighth floor and deeper. They were far stronger than anything the students had faced so far.

With their path forward blocked by a horde of ghastly skeletons, and a lumbering beast at their backs, the students fell into a panic. All semblance of formation crumbled as everyone scrambled for the stairs, trying their best to escape.

The lone knight that stayed with the group, Alan, tried to calm everyone down. However, the students were all far too terrified to listen.

Amidst the panic, someone shoved one of the female students from behind, and she fell forward. She groaned in pain and looked up, only to see a Traum Soldier brandishing its sword right in front of her.

"Ah!" At the same time she let out that gasp, the Traum Soldier swung its sword down at her head.

However, someone suddenly appeared in front of the girl. That someone, a boy, deflected the Traum Soldier's sword aside before cutting its limbs and beheading it.

The girl watched in speechless surprise. Everything was too fast for her to process.

"Are you okay?" Offering his free hand, the boy asked with a faint smile to ease the girl's fear. Though his long bangs covered the upper half of his face, the girl could sense his gaze on her, waiting for her answer.

"A-Ah, yeah! I'm okay! Thanks, Endou!" The girl thanked her savior who was no other than our protagonist. She accepted his hand and let him help her get up.

As the girl, who was no other than Yuka Sonobe, got up, Rob glanced at a certain spot not far from them. There he saw Hajime was about to use Transmute to save Yuka, but he'd saved Yuka first.

'Sorry Mister Demon Lord, but it looks like you're a little bit late to trigger your mistress's flag here,' Rob thought with a smirk of amusement.

When Hajime saw the girl who almost got attacked by a Traum Soldier had been saved by someone else, he immediately focused on sending many skeleton monsters into the abyss by transmuting the minerals in the bridge.

Seeing Hajime focused on dealing with the Traum Soldiers, Rob stopped paying attention to him. He turned his attention back to Yuka who had finished getting up.

"Alright," Rob said and pretended to be unsure about her identity. "Sonobe Yuka, isn't it?"

"Yeah? What's up?"

"We've gotta hurry to calm down everyone else.

If we stay calm, this pile of bones is nothing! Come on, help me rally the others!"

Yuka stared at Rob for a few moments before saying "Yeah! You're right! Let me do it!" cheerfully and running off to do what he asked.

After that, Rob rallied his group before helping the other students. Those kids might be strangers to him, but he didn't want to see some kids die in front of him when he could do something about it.

Rob might be a pervert with a low moral. However, his heart wasn't made out of stone.

Rob and his group's effort, combined with Yuka's effort, bore fruit. The chaos slowly but surely subsided, and the students slowly began fighting back.

"Everyone! Don't give up! I'll carve open a path for us!"

Suddenly, Rob and the students heard Kouki's shouts. Then, the heroes used his second Celestial Flash to mow down yet another group of Traum Soldiers. His overwhelming charisma bolstered the students' flagging morale.

"You morons! Did all your training just fly out the window!? What the hell has gotten into you! Get back in formation this instant!"

The ever-reliable Meld unleashed an attack that was arguably even more powerful than Kouki's Celestial Flash, annihilating another line of Traum Soldiers. The students' depression was blown away as their pillar of support returned to assist them.

The haze of panic was lifted from their eyes, and strength returned to their limbs. Though, part of that was due to Kaori's magic.

Kaori had cast a mental focus spell. Normally it would do no more than help someone relax a little, but its effect multiplied exponentially when combined with Kouki's morale-boosting speech.

The healers began healing the injured, while the mages fell back and started chanting their most powerful spells. The vanguard got into a proper line and focused on defending the backline.

Once healed, the knights returned to the fray as well, and the counterattack began in earnest. Everyone's overpowered skills and weapons hit the Traum Soldiers in waves, drowning them in a sea of attacks. They began destroying the monsters faster than the magic circles could pour new ones out.

Finally, a path to the stairs was secured.

"Forward, men! We need to secure the landing!" Kouki ran forward, leading the way.

Ryutarou and Shizuku followed close behind him. Together, they cut through their enemies like a hot knife through butter.

In moments, everyone had escaped the encirclement. The soldiers attempted to make a meat wall or rather bone wall, and close off the path to the bridge again, but Kouki unleashed another spell to blow a hole open in their lines.

The students all stared at Kouki in confusion. That was only natural. After all, the stairs were in front of them, not behind. All of them were only thinking of escape at this point.

"Everyone, wait! We still have to save Nagumo-kun! Nagumo-kun is still out there stopping that monster all by himself!" Her classmates all then stared at Kaori in confusion.

That too was only natural. After all, Hajime was supposedly "incompetent," and other students didn't really care about him. However, when the students looked past the thinned crowd of Traum Soldiers toward the bridge, they saw Hajime there, pressing his hands on the floor.

"What on earth? What is he doing?"

"Is that monster buried in the bridge?"

As more and more students began crying out in surprise, Meld spoke up.

"That's right! That kid's stopping that monster all by himself. He's the only reason your sorry asses aren't skeleton fodder right now! Vanguard, advance! Don't let a single soldier past you! Rearguard, start preparing long-range spells! His magic won't last much longer! Once the kid's clear, start blasting away to keep it busy!"

Meld's deep voice resonated through the room, and the students all refocused their attention. A few of their gazes lingered longingly on the stairs still. And who could blame them? They had been on the verge of death but moments ago.

It was only natural they would wish for the safety of the floor above. However, Meld's "Hurry up!" got even the most reluctant students to finally turn around and return to the battlefield.

However, one student who was forgotten by the others headed in the opposite direction. Instead of heading towards the stairs, he headed towards Hajime.

The other students weren't aware of his presence, so no one rebuked him. That student was none other than our protagonist, Rob Freeman the Unintentional Body Snatcher.